Performative (re)Presentation: Collective Research for Environmental Knowledge Transmission
This research proposes performative (re)presentation as a practice-based methodology to support intergenerational environmental knowledge transmission at the community scale. Drawing on participatory and community-based action research methodologies, performative (re)presentation positions research as a collective process grounded in long-term engagement with local communities. Informed by indigenous research frameworks, the methodology emphasises local ethics, lived experience and everyday practices as sites of knowledge production and transmission. Rather than pre-designing research interventions, performative (re)presentation allows environmental practices to emerge and evolve through continuous engagement in community life, enabling research to become part of the socio-environmental relations through which environmental knowledge is formed.
The research is situated in the Zoige Plateau, at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, home to the world’s largest alpine peat wetland and the second largest grassland in China. Over the past three decades, Zoige has undergone significant socio-environmental transformations under national development schemes informed by scientific research and representational methods. Implicit to these plans is the implementation of reductive environmental concepts that abstract relations between land, inhabitants, and ecological systems. In this respect, Zoige exemplifies a broader global problem faced by pastoral communities: the loss of local environmental knowledge due to development processes.
Performative (re)presentation responds to this condition by embedding research within community life and collective environmental practices. Through everyday collective activities such as cooking, herding or grass seeding, environmental issues are co-identified with community members. Based on extensive fieldwork, this research aims to enable communities to respond to environmental challenges and support knowledge transmission across generations. One example is the collective practice of grass seeding, which simultaneously functions as ecological restoration and repairs relationships between humans and more-than-humans, including grasslands, water, livestock, and spiritual landscapes. Ultimately, the research demonstrates how performative (re)presentation supports the continuation and re-creation of local environmental knowledge while cultivating community solidarity in responding to ongoing socio-ecological transformations.
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More about Mingxin
Biography
Mingxin Li is an activist researcher working on intergenerational knowledge transmission with local and indigenous communities, aiming to form resilience for emerging socio-ecological problems. He holds a BA in Environmental Design from Jiangnan University and an MA in Environmental Architecture from the Royal College of Art.
In 2025, he received the Alumni UK Climate Action Grant funded by the British Council for his participatory and community-based grass seeding actions and pedagogical sessions tackling current land degradation through local nomadic knowledge. In 2024, he received the Food Action Award (Emerging Practice) funded by CLIMAVORE x Jameel at RCA for his work on addressing the shrinkage of yak-herding wetlands in Zoige, located at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Currently, he works as an architectural researcher with INTERPRT and the G.I.T. (Territorial Research Group). His collective and individual works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Bergen Assembly 2025, Helsinki Biennial 2023, Galeria Municipal do Porto, and Het Nieuwe Instituut.
Degrees
MA Environmental Architecture, Royal College of Art, 2020
BA Environmental Design, Jiangnan University, 2018
Exhibitions
(2025) Bergen Assembly 2025 (INTRPRT and CLIMATE RIGHTS). Bergen Assembly 2025, Norway.
(2025) 'ØYFJELLET: From the Frontline of Land Rights in Sápmi' (INTERPRT and CLIMATE RIGHTS). FUTURELAND IN 15 AND 1/2 CHAPTERS. Havremagasinet Länskonsthall Boden, Sweden.
(2024) 'ØYFJELLET: From the Frontline of Land Rights in Sápmi' (INTERPRT and CLIMATE RIGHTS). Stormen kunst/dájdda.
(2024) 'Cyclone Pam Stories' (INTERPRT). Climate Crisis and Cultural Loss. TBA21-Ocean Space & NTU ADM Gallery.
(2023) ‘Colonial Present: Counter-mapping the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions in Sápmi’ (INTERPRT). Helsinki Biennial 2023. HAM Helsinki Art Museum, Helsinki.
(2023) ‘Montanha Invertida’ (G.I.T.). Desejos Compulsivos. Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto.
(2023) ‘The Ends of The World’ (Lithium Triangle Research Studio). Desejos Compulsivos. Galeria Municipal do Porto, Porto.
(2022) 'Towards a Symbiotic Mode of Development'. Design Chongqing Biennale 2022. Chongqing.
(2020) ‘The Ends of The World’ (Lithium Triangle Research Studio). Lithium. Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam.
Publications
'MICRO-ORGANISMOS NO DESERTO' in Lítio-Estados de Exaustão (Eds.) Francisco Diaz, Anastasia Kubrak and Marina Otero Verzier. Dafne Editora / Galeria Municipal do Porto, 2023.
'Microorganisms in the Desert' in Lithium: States of Exhaustion (Eds.) Francisco Diaz, Anastasia Kubrak and Marina Otero Verzier. Het Nieuwe Instituut / Ediciones ARQ, 2021.