Arts of noticing unloved others: reflections on the importance of methods, meetings, and affect in cannabis policy

A growing body of scholarly work acknowledges the importance of attending to the entanglements of human and more-than-human lives, including the importance of affect for how we come to understand other organisms. However, to date, little work has been done on the affective aspects of how more-than-human beings come to be understood in policy. Environmental humanities approaches including expert engagement with affective storytelling, attention to ‘unloved others’ and the material aspects of coming to care for other beings, are in a prime position to think about creative modes of policy engagement in which other ways of making unloved – even illicit unloved – organisms present in policy discussions. Using Jamie Lorimer’s three-part typology of charisma as a lens, we reflect on our own experiences of coming to know cannabis the plant differently by learning new ‘arts of noticing’ during photo-elicitation interviews with people growing cannabis in Canberra, Australia. This paper explores the ways the ecological, aesthetic, and corporeal charisma of the cannabis plant emerged in our explorations of plant care through the stories and pictures of our research participants. Reflecting on our own experiences and shifting understandings of and care for cannabis, we explore the idea that making better representations of more-than-human lives in policy requires consideration of how we come to be affected by, and know, other organisms – approaches that we argue invite the environmental humanities to play a stronger role in policy.