To Reenchant the World’s Matter: Foundations for Scientific-Ecological Mediation

The persistence of an apocalyptic tone in contemporary sensibility keeps the myth of the end of the world alive as a shared existential ground, transcending cultural and ideological differences. Yet in the context of the climate and ecological crisis, this horizon of collapse appears not only as a threat, but also as a possible space for articulating agreements and links between science, ethics, and cultural work in the pursuit of overcoming this crisis. This text explores, in a philosophical-aesthetic register, the need to move beyond catastrophe through a profound transformation of our vision of reality and of our scientific-ecological praxis. From this framework, wonder is proposed as a primordial affect and methodological principle for a situated scientific-ecological mediation. More than a mere emotion, wonder is understood here for its potential to generate a perceptual and cognitive opening, capable of reconnecting subjects with the non-human forces and sensitivities that compose their environment. To this end, it draws on Gilbert Simondon’s notions of magical unity and transduction, as well as Timothy Morton’s concept of hyperobjects, in order to rethink the relation between technics, affect, and territory in a time marked by eco-anxiety. Thus, through situated scientific-ecological practices, the planetary crisis could come to signify a collective space for developing a sense—here called magical meaning—of belonging, in relation to the ecological units and geological processes of which we are a part, and which have historically fascinated humanity in different epochs. Finally, concrete cases are analyzed from scientific mediation workshops held at the Museo Interactivo Mirador (MIM) in Santiago de Chile, where wonder operates as a methodological tool that interweaves knowledge, body, and territory within a situated ecopedagogy.