PROGRAMME NOTES
All our wonderful artists, makers & thinkers are listed below.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Kaua'i 'o'o - The Last Song (Transcribed & Performed)
The last known sound recording of the Kaua'i 'o'o (1987). Tragically, the last song is a mating call that, in vain, tries to attract a female that no longer exists.This following transcription aims to prevent this jewel from falling into oblivion by making it accessible to musicians. Download the score below.
Special thanks to Kalas Liebfried for commissioning this transcription as part of his project "Fragments of Sonic Extinction" (https://www.sonicextinction.net/) and to @rldavisiv for sharing the original recording on YouTube.
BIOGRAPHY
Alexander Liebermann is a German-French composer of classical music, whose acclaimed works are characterized by an eclectic blend of diverse topics such as philosophy, biology, astronomy, and other fields. Among his most recent commissions are a climate-change-reflecting monodrama written for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a birdsong-inspired wind quintet for the Brazilian Winds Ensemble, and a soundtrack for the documentary film ‘Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures.’
As a passionate nature enthusiast, Liebermann spends much of his time studying the sounds of wildlife. He is known for his original and accurate transcriptions of animal vocalizations, which have gone viral on social media and been featured in the world-renowned magazine National Geographic. These transcriptions have also earned him invitations to international congresses in Colombia and Brazil, as well as a feature on CBS Sunday Morning. Liebermann is the author of Birdsong: A Musical Field Guide, a book that offers a unique perspective on the musicality of birds and their relationship to human music-making.
Liebermann holds degrees from the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music. For his thesis on Erwin Schulhoff, Liebermann was awarded the Saul Braverman Award in Music Theory. Liebermann currently resides in New York and serves as a faculty member for music theory and ear training at Juilliard’s preparatory division Music Advancement Program. -
PROGRAMME NOTES
Shifting Soundscapes, live in Warsaw (Supporting Yann Tiersen)
BIOGRAPHY
Alice Boyd is a South London-based musician, sound artist and audio producer whose work explores our relationship with the natural world through song, field recording and immersive listening.
Blending folk-inspired harmonies with ambient electronics and environmental sound, she creates work that reveals the hidden textures of everyday places - from endangered birdsong and underwater life to urban spaces and sounds lost to time.
Her work spans music, spatial audio installations and broadcast, with features on BBC Radio 3, 4 and 6 Music, and presentations at venues including the Barbican Conservatory, Kings Place, Kew’s Wakehurst and the Eden Project, where she was artist-in-residence.
She is the creator of the BBC Radio 4 documentary Shifting Soundscapes and produces Found Sounds for Ffern’s podcast As the Season Turns, with other recent collaborations including the RSPB, EarthPercent, Knepp Rewilding and TOAST. In 2025-26, she supported Yann Tiersen on his European tour, with a performance combining voice, synths, live looping and field recordings.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Alicia will be talking about her latest book, Burnout Recovery.
BIOGRAPHY
Alicia King Anderson has a Ph.D. in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her dissertation on The Storyteller Archetype explores the responsibilities of storytellers. She was particularly struck by the healing functions of storytelling that were made very clear in her research. Her areas of interest include career pivot and transition, trauma, burnout, fairy tales (particularly fairy tale retellings), mythology retellings, as well as archetypal symbols such as the tarot and unicorns.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Meeting the Wind was created during a one week residency on Ynys Enlli, a small island off the coast of North West Wales. Whilst there, a fierce storm blew in and we were cut off for the week with only what we had brought with us and what the island offered. I abandoned my original plans and decided to work with the energy that the wind and waves brought.
Exploring the beach for storm debris, I first met a little strand of seaweed bobbing upwards out of a larger pile, dancing by itself in the wind – a performance of more than human bodies in relation with one another. Further along, the beach offered me a rare five-stranded bladderwrack holdfast that suggested the form of a cloak. Wearing it around my shoulders, the heavy wet strands flapped and cracked in the wind and offered the possibility of being brought back to life through movement, inspired by the little dancing strand I had seen earlier.
Spreading the cloak out to dry, it became a bird, an eagle from the sea waiting to be set free in the wind again. I plaited and wove thongweed from the piles washing up daily on the harbour beach, binding the strands into a wearable form, until I was ready to venture to the most Westerly edge of the island to greet the gale as it arrived on land. Together, the seaweed and I danced according to the whims of the wind, creating a performance that celebrated our combined energy and highlighted the precarity of both human and more than human amid the force of the elements.
BIOGRAPHY
Alison is an award winning multi-disciplinary artist, working across performance, installation and social engagement.
Alison’s work seeks to invite re-enchantment with the natural world. She creates ritual moments; immersive journeys; interactive installations and sculptures; and spaces for performance and social engagement. The embodied sensory relationship between audience, place, and story is at the heart of her practice; and sustainability and permaculture thinking underpin the process. Alison mostly works in public spaces, inviting accidental encounters and offering the unexpected within the everyday.
Alison’s recent work includes participatory performances and installations created with National Trust, Creative Folkestone; and as part of the Kent National Landscape & Pas de Calais UNESCO Geopark. She was recently one of 8 Future Wales Fellows, supported by Arts Council Wales, Natural Resources Wales & Peak Cymru.
Teaching and facilitation are core parts of Alison’s practice, and she runs workshops in scenography, sustainable creative practice, and bespoke co-creation activities for people from tiny to elder and from all walks of life. She is an Associate Lecturer at Central St Martins on BA Performance: Design & Practice; a regular tutor at Rose Bruford College, and a certified Carbon Literacy Facilitator, leading on the development and delivery of Carbon Literacy training course for creatives.
Upcoming: Nids Terrestres - L'école au Channel, Le Channel, Calais June 2026
Earth Nest / Nyth Daear, part of Coed Coexist, Plas Glyn Y Weddw,
17th May-12th July 2026
Leading on delivery of Carbon Literacy Training for Theatre Designers and their associates with Society of British Theatre Designers.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Audax is discussing their work in our panel discussion ‘Healing & Resilience through nature’s wisdom’
BIOGRAPHY
Audax M. Gawler (nee Luna Mrozik Gawler)is a multigenre Symbiopunk worldbuilder working to start the Symbiocene, a symbiotic, compassionate, reverent, post-anthropocentric planetary future.
Their experiential, research-driven inquiry fuses participatory and speculative design with media, performance, text and scenography to investigate the cultural, political, and ecological entanglements of interspecies relations and the possible futures to emerge from them. Informed by queer and trans ecologies, natural sciences, ritual and posthuman methodologies, this work operates as speculative fieldwork for postnormal worlds, generating new/old ways of knowing that abandon anthropocentric legacies in favour of emergent, multispecies imaginaries.
Beyond exhibition, Audax uses their research on multispecies thinking, ecologic stewardship and hope-full futures to publish fiction, non-fiction, academic scholarship as well as designing and facilitating educational programs, artist labs and industry panels. Their work is internationally recognised, and has been commissioned, programmed, exhibited, and published by institutions including Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, The Australian Network of Art & Technology, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Multicultural Arts Victoria, The Sydney Institute for the Environment, The Interspecies Library, The Center for Projection Art, NIDA, The University of Utrecht, The University of Melbourne Center for Visual Art, The University of Sydney, and Konfstack University of Art, Craft and Design, The International Digital Media & Art Association, Art + Australia, The International Journal of Practice-based Humanities and Dark Mountain Journal.
Audax is; Co-creator and convener of the Trans* Ecology Club, A steward of Queer x Futures, guest co-curator of the Forum of Sensory Motion Giant Cuttlefish Residency, co-founder and facilitator of award winning Community Transmissions Futures Residency, one half of queer-time lab GEOFADE alongside Devika Bilimoria, founding member of ecological live-art collective L&NDLESS and a resident at School House Studios.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
The Sound of Air
The Sound of Air as a sonic piece is a work in progress inspired by Natural Resonance Festival 2026 'Visions of Tomorrow'.
Calling in the element of air, breath and the liminal space between imagination and creativity.
A collaboration of sound, poetry and music with visuals of an auspicious sky.
The title and words in the piece are part of a collection of poems written by Kay Elizabeth planned to be self published later this year.
The final draft of The Sound Air will surely be aligned with the next Black Orchids release.
Kay Elizabeth: voice, sound poetry, music
Magnus Box: sonic alchemy
Roland Denning: film
Produced by: Iron Chicken Recordings
BIOGRAPHY
‘Black Orchids is powerful, raw and lives within liminality…
Soulful vocals soaked in a heavy provocative soundscape…’
Black Orchids is a four piece psych, alt, stoner rock band based in London, UK.
Bio: Kay Elizabeth
Kay Elizabeth is an interdisciplinary artist and songwriter working in London.
Currently studying and practicing Sound Healing.
Alongside her solo musical work she is vocalist and guitarist in Black Orchids.
@kaysoundpoetry
@blackorchidsofficial
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
UN JARDIN LA NUIT
Visual poem on nocturnal plant and animal life
2024–2025
Co-directed with interdisciplinary artist D. Kimm, UN JARDIN LA NUIT is a video installation for four multiple screens carried by the dreamlike music of Guido Del Fabbro. In its presentation at the Cinémathèque québécoise, the corpus presented in the Norman-McLaren Room is accompanied by a series of photographs exhibited in the Luce-Guilbeault Foyer.
Night falls and the garden, usually so peaceful and welcoming, is transformed into a mysterious place. Vegetation caressed by the wind, impromptu appearances of wild animals in the surrounding area. At night, the fauna and flora become active, have their own life, they take precedence over human presence.
A visual poem in black and white, UN JARDIN LA NUIT offers privileged access to a secret world, a world unknown to most of us. Deer, raccoons, cats, a fox and a rabbit appear in their natural intimacy while the vegetation continues its life cycle. Animals of various sizes, one will not forget this animated firefly – created by Claude Cloutier – and a few mischievous spirits. Suddenly, through this fully free menagerie, unexpected ghostly characters appear. They subtly disrupt the expectations of exhibition visitors. From documentary, UN JARDIN LA NUIT suddenly becomes a fable full of mischief.
Each viewer's experience is unique in their approach to the "cube." Each unfolds their own path, from a view at the entrance of the exhibition room, choosing to walk around the "cube" then, curiously, to immerse themselves inside the very "cube."
To conceive this installation, the artists filmed at night with infrared trail cameras over a five-year period, accumulating a hundred hours of photo and video data. The infrared camera allows capturing fauna and flora over long periods. It is programmed via an intervalometer that takes a photo every 30 seconds. The device is equipped with a motion detector that can trigger a burst series of images or short video sequences. Two other cameras are used for the staging of characters and object animations. The cameras were installed in the countryside near the village of Montcerf in the Outaouais and in a garden in Montreal.
BIOGRAPHY
CAROLINE HAYEUR. The ever-optimistic artist Caroline Hayeur focuses on themes of humanity, emotion and connections between people through a practice deeply rooted in the present moment. Drawing on her experience of field photography since in the early 1990s, she is interested in concepts of place and home in various forms of relationship: friendship, families and broader communities. In the spirit of documentary story telling and humanistic portrait, her work illuminates surprising connections between subjects through juxtaposition and proximity. Many of her projects began as artist residencies either in Quebec or internationally.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Danny will be sharing his work & ethos in our panel discussion ‘Youth Activism for Climate Justice’
BIOGRAPHY
https://www.dannyenglish.co.uk/
Danny is an acclaimed author & storyteller who uses the magic of narrative to reconnect people with the natural world. Inspired by landscapes, wildlife, and the quiet details of everyday life, he delivers captivating tales around a campfire, at events or within a classroom, that spark curiosity, empathy, and environmental awareness. More than entertainment, his stories build emotional intelligence, ease conflict, support values‑based learning, and strengthen community ties. Danny partners with schools, charities, community groups and outdoor organisations to enrich their programmes and events through storytelling, offering everything from one‑off sessions to full narrative‑driven curricula. Danny also hosts 'The Story Tribe' a gathering of storytellers and story lovers who gather together to share in their love for stories.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
David has his work Dawn Chorus feautured in our mainstage, and will also share a talk + Q&A on Fri 17th called Interspecies Music: On the Nature of Music and the Music of Nature
BIOGRAPHY
https://davidrothenberg.wordpress.com
David Rothenberg, a musician, composer, author, naturalist, philosopher, and independent publisher, has been a unique and fascinating explorer of humanity’s connections to the natural world for more than four decades, widely recognized, among other accomplishments, as a groundbreaking figure in “the joys and mysteries of interspecies music-making.”
He has released some 40 albums under his own name and collaborated with many prominent musicians on countless projects, including such luminaries as Paul Winter, Pauline Oliveros, Marilyn Crispell, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore, Scanner, DJ Spooky, and Jaron Lanier, to name only a few. One of his unique forms of experimentation in his extensive travels over the decades has been not only his recordings of bird and whale and other animal songs but his highly original attempts to engage with other species in musical exchanges, quite a few of which have been captured on film and/or discussed in his many books. Someone recently said of him: “He’s played with everyone from Peter Gabriel to Pauline Oliveros, Suzanne Vega, Scanner, cicadas, humpbacks, frogs, Estonian pond organisms, et al.”
Rothenberg is the author or editor of some 20 books, several of which are accompanied by audio or audio-visual components.
Rothenberg, who has been a professor of philosophy for nearly 35 years, also, among his other contributions, helped make better known in the English-speaking world the work of the important Norwegian philosopher and eco-activist Arne Næss, who coined the term “deep ecology.”
You can find more comprehensive information about David Rothenberg’s extensive and multi-faceted life and work on his website.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Deborah takes inspiration from the natural world and approaches creativity as an on-going experimentation, including acts of 'spontaneous painting', holding onto fleeting moments and expressing a love of nature.
“Fragile Life I” - Ink on Handmade Paper
“Fragile Life II” - Ink & Charcoal on Handmade Paper
The title of this artwork alludes to both the fragility of the materials used, life and the ecosystem. The artworks were created by pressing seaweed, collected from the Warren in Folkestone, into damp handmade paper to create embossed shapes; with some transference of colour onto the paper. Later these areas were painted into with walnut and gold inks, plus the addition of charcoal brushed over to reveal the texture of the paper in II. The paper itself was made by the artist in an earlier project using recycled and unwanted computer printouts.
“Golden Seaweed” - Watercolour, Gouache & Handmade Paper on Canvas
“Seaweed Tree" - Watercolour, Gouache & Handmade Paper on Canvas
In acts of 'spontaneous painting' (unplanned and experimental), both these artworks used selected seaweeds from the Warren in Folkestone as tools to print onto handmade paper with watercolours and gouache paints. The marks created are truly organic shapes that are recognisable as seaweed but at the same time seem reminiscent of other organic life-forms. Gold gouache paint was added to one to accentuate its shapes whilst the other left with a plain background; the suggestion of a tree was unintentional but the viewer may well see other shapes or forms within these artworks.
“Fungi Troop Line” - Ink on and Gum Arabic Canvas
The theme of a fungi and tree network within forests or the Wood Wide Web i.e. where fungi and trees communicate with each other, has been of ongoing fascination to Deborah for the last three years. In this painting watercolour was mixed with gum arabic to create an expressive idea of mycorrhizal fungi reaching below ground to receptive tree roots. The title alluding to the battles that nature undergoes in the inherent desire to prosper.
“Tree from Below” - Watercolour, Ink & Collage on Paper
Another unplanned artwork with the only decision at the outset to use collaged tissue paper with watercolour paint and to create some sort of imagined tree. As the work progressed the branches were added using a pipette to paint with and layers of colour applied over the tissue that became more wood-like as the piece developed.
“Meditation on Seaweed” - Ink on Canvas
Acts of 'spontaneous painting' (unplanned and experimental) artworks where the shapes and forms were created whilst taking inspiration from seaweeds. The painting was revisited more than once after it had dried with extra layers and gum arabic added later.
“Tree with Gold”- Watercolour, Ink, Gouache & Handmade Paper on Canvas
An imagined tree form using watercolour, waterproof ink and gouache over handmade paper on canvas. Later gold ink was added to the background and then varnished to both protect its surface but also to bring out the colours and lines on the trunk of the tree.
BIOGRAPHY
Facebook: @deborahcroftsartist
Instagram: @deborahcroftsart
-
BIOGRAPHY
Emily Doolittle, is a composer, researcher and textile artist based in Glasgow, Scotland. She finds crochet to be a perfect medium for exploring the varied textures and often-symmetrical forms of marine life. Her work has been displayed at the The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow and at The Crichton Campus in Dumfries. This is her second short film for Natural Resonance.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
TANIWHA (3’ 00”)
Samika’s Poem (1’ 50”)
BIOGRAPHY
Founded in 2004, Global Generation is an educational charity, which works together with local children and young people, businesses, residents and families in Camden, Islington and Southwark. We co-create gardens with the local community and currently have 3 active sites in King’s Cross and Southwark. We aim to showcase how disused urban spaces can become an oasis for plants and people to grow. Our generator programme is our flagship programme for young people aged 10 - 18 to engage in social action in their local area and we focus on skills building and empowering them to find their path. At present, seven former generators work in Global Generation as researchers, event assistants, artists, designers, facilitators and in climate focused groups.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
As a city dweller, I would walk out, seeking nature, responding to a collective memory of a time when there was a more direct collaboration between human settlement and the immediate natural surroundings, I would walk out to gather leaves and bark that had fallen to the park or wood floor. Cutting, sticking, sewing and piling, these harvest were fashioned into objects that reflected a domestic narrative. Piles of bark and leaves balance, layer upon layer, like the towers of linens ordered into the airing cup board waiting to live out their history.
A tender leaf was cut and stitched into a coat, a symbol of nurture and protection. A leaf, a vegetative organ whose function is to turn sunlight into glucose is strongly evocative to humans. The very language of its parts is familiar, cuticle, vein, epidermis. There is a connection.
I have a strong desire to see the stuff of the earth. In a city, this stuff struggles to show itself under the mass of architecture and street furniture, but it is, holding up the sprawling conurbation.
On walks to doctor’s appointments, hairdressers, shopping trips I would collect earth bringing it back to the studio to be carefully sieved. This fine delicate soil would be used to make drawings.
Now I reside in the countryside, I am enveloped by nature. I am currently focused on the heavily managed field adjacent to my studio, cut and shaped by growing crops and the use of heavy machinery.
A settlement in the middle ages, it is haunted by previous rituals of the land.
With deep and slow observation, I can feel the marks and traces of these actions, silently witnessing the passing of time and the human engagement with this land.
In these observations and interventions, I am slowly becoming a part of the landscape, realising that we do not ‘go out’ into nature, we are nature. Returning to the material source, I attune to the past and present of this ancient place whilst acknowledging its future.
The Veil Giclee print 84cm x59cm
The Veil Wheat leaves 400cmx 90cm
Earth Slippers Stitched Cotinus 31cmx29cm
Wheat Blanket Giclee print 84cmx59cm
Wheat Blanket Stitched Wheat Stalks 91cmx79cm
The Sixth Maiden Giclee print 84cmx59cm
The Sixth Maiden Giclee print 84cmx59cm
Wheat Sleeves Giclee print 84cmx59cm
Wheat Sleeves Woven ears of wheat 56cmx51cm
Clods and Clouds Earth and sheep’s wool 40cmx24cm
Falling Rhytidome Stitched chestnut bark 186cmx200cm
Root Ball Moulded nettle roots 28cmx30cm
Root Ball Moulded nettle roots 28cmx30cm
Root Ball Drawing Earth, graphite and ink 84cmx59cm
BIOGRAPHY
Jackie Brown is an environmental artist based near Folkestone Kent.
With an innate connection to the materiality of the earth she makes works that actively engage the landscape.
Brown exhibits extensively in the UK, France and the USA as well as facilitating education projects and community engagement. Her work is held in private and public collections including Brighton University, The British Heart Foundation and Cambridge County Council.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Foresta-Inclusive is research-creation infrastructure that proposes to make perceptible to the human senses, the slow and subtle movements of trees and surrounding ecology of the forest in the creation of a number of interactive art installations designed to ask questions such as: What does it mean to be alive and have agency?; How can we re-train ourselves to slow down and listen to voices that have been marginalized for millennia?; What does it mean to be in dialogue with something that does not share the same language nor temporal reality?; and once we acknowledge the ‘aliveness’ of something, what are the ethical implications of that recognition? This project is geared towards listening and learning from these voices and finding ways to engage with the public with the intention of rethinking and re-situating our relationship with the natural world.
The Foresta-Inclusive infrastructure is comprised of three sculptural sensor pods or ecosensors, that link the ecosystem of a forest to different in-gallery installations. The sculptural sensor pods can be installed in different forests, unobtrusively onto the trunk of (a) tree(s). These pods are WIFI enabled and sense phenomenon such as: soil temperature, soil humidity, particulate matter in the air (.1 μm – 10 μm), light level, air temperature/humidity, wind, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), C02, and rain. These ecosensors send live data to an Internet of Things platform (IoT), which can be harvested and materialized in any location in the world.
As impetus for the sculptural form of this work, I am inspired by the mutualistic relationship between protozoa that lives in the stomach of the termite. The termite is not capable of digesting cellulose, and the protozoa, in exchange for a safe place to live, breaks down the cellulose for easy digestion. Similar to the protozoa, we need the forest to sustain our lives – but what does the forest need from us? Perhaps it requires recognition of its ‘aliveness’ and a place in society that sees trees as individuals and affords them protection and rights recognised by law. This work recognises that different cultures (specifically Indigenous cultures worldwide) do not share the Western humancentric position of the inferiority of plants and nature as a lifeless resource for exploitation, but rather see nature as possessing more-than-human intelligence, consider plants and trees as individuals, and understand that plant, animal and human realms interpenetrate and share both heritage and substance. Foresta-Inclusive is deeply inspired by the wisdom of this perspective and strives to offer experiences that use technology as a tool to place human and non-human into a dialogical relationship, where both voices are equal despite perceived differences (temporal reality, im/mobility, non/verbal).
The data collected by these sensing pods forms the foundation of a number of artworks that materialize this data both independently and with collaborators. The goal of the Foresta-Inclusive infrastructure is to translate the different types of natural, physical, and chemical phenomena experienced (wind, atmospheric pressure), produced (VOC), and consumed (CO2, Rain, light) by trees, into interactive immersive installations and networked sculptures. The artworks generated by the infrastructure will simultaneously express the complexity and liveliness of the ecosystem of the forest, while at times allowing the public to engage and co-create experience. This work is not designed to replace real life experiences within the forest, but rather to create the context for perceiving, intellectualizing, materializing and understanding the liveliness and intelligence embedded within the naturalized Other, as a way of initiating a deeper sense of empathy and understanding of the workings of more-than-human minds.
BIOGRAPHY
Jane Tingley is an artist, curator, and Assistant Professor atYork University in Toronto (CA). She is interested in how interactivity combined with art objects and installation can be used to explore contemporary experience. She received the Kenneth Finkelstein Prize in Sculpture and the first prize in the iNTERFACES – Interactive Art Competition in Porto (PT). She has participated in exhibitions and festivals in the Americas, Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Ocean Gaia
Location: Tokunoshima, Japan
Depth: 5m
Installation Date: 2025Installed on the 14th of October 2025, Ocean Gaia is a monumental underwater sculpture resting 5 metres beneath the surface off the island of Tokunoshima, Japan. Weighing over 45 tons and spanning 5.5 metres in width, the work features a serene large-scale portrait of the renowned Japanese model It is the first underwater sculpture ever installed in Japan.
Set close to shore and embedded within the fringing reef, the sculpture is perforated with openings around its edges to invite marine life inside, transforming it into both artwork and habitat. Its gently swirling contours echo the intricate sand circles crafted by the Japanese white-spotted pufferfish (Torquigener albomaculosus), native to these waters and the rising peaks and valleys of the nearby mountain range.
Tokunoshima, known for its healthy lifestyle, high birthrate, and remarkable number of centenarians, forms a fitting setting. Along its spine, a mountain range rises in the silhouette of a pregnant woman. Ocean Gaia stands as both a symbol of renewal and a gesture toward reconnection between people, the sea, and the continuity of life itself.
In recent years, many of Japan’s younger generations have left the islands for larger cities. This new work seeks to inspire renewed cultural interest and deeper connection among local youth — a new gateway to the sea.
Ocean Gaia envisions the sea as a vast maternal force that breathes, renews, and heals. Drawing from the myth of Gaia, the primordial mother, the work reflects on the ocean as origin and consciousness, the source from which all life emerged. It speaks to interconnection and reverence, a reminder that the ocean is not apart from us, but an entity on which we are entirely dependent.
It is hoped that when visited, the piece evokes a deep, instinctive memory of being held within water — a quiet meditation on creation, fertility, and the ocean as the original womb of life.
Commissioned and Funded by: Tokunoshima Fisheries Cooperative Association
Materials: pH neutral cement, marine-grade stainless steelBIOGRAPHY
https://underwatersculpture.com/
Jason deCaires Taylor FRSS, born in 1974 to an English father and a Guyanese mother, is a sculptor, environmentalist, professional underwater photographer. After graduating from the London Institute of Arts in 1998 with a BA Honours in Sculpture, Taylor became the first of a new generation of artists to shift the concepts of the Land Art Movement into the realm of the marine environment and is best known as the founder of the concept of underwater museums and sculpture parks.
In 2006, Taylor gained international recognition as the founder of the underwater museum concept with the creation of the world’s first large scale underwater art installation, situated off the coast of Grenada in the West Indies. Molinere Bay Underwater Sculpture Park is now listed by National Geographic as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World. The park was instrumental in the government declaring the site a national Marine Protected Area.
Over the past 20 years, Taylor has gone on to produce over 1,200 public terrestrial, tidal and fully submerged sculptures worldwide, which are visited by thousands of visitors each week. His permanent, site-specific sculptural works are predominately exhibited in submerged and tidal marine environments, exploring modern themes of conservation and environmental activism.
The works are constructed using pH neutral, environmentally sensitive materials to instigate natural growth. The subsequent natural changes are intended to explore the aesthetics of decay, rebirth and metamorphosis. Taylor’s pioneering projects are not only examples of successful marine conservation, but artworks that seek to encourage environmental awareness and lead us to appreciate the breathtaking natural beauty of the underwater world.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Jessie is taking part in our discussion panel ‘rights of nature’. Her organisation ‘Lawyers for Nature’ is also our chosen non-profit for proceeds of this year’s festival.
BIOGRAPHY
https://www.lawyersfornature.com/
Jessie is a director at Lawyers for Nature. Jessie graduated from Sussex University with a first class degree and then qualified as a barrister. She has practiced criminal, family, and regulatory law from 2 Dr Johnson's Buildings, where she remains a tenant. Jessie recently completed masters in Environmental Law at SOAS University and wrote her dissertation on Rights of Nature and Indigenous rights. One of Jessie’s contributions was her involvement in the 'We Are Nature' campaign, which successfully persuaded the Oxford English Dictionary to revise its wider definition of "Nature" to include humans and made the entry freely accessible to the public. This campaign was a vital step in challenging the pervasive notion that humans are separate from the natural world; instead emphasising the importance of viewing ourselves as an integral part of Nature.
Jessie advocates for the recognition of Nature’s rights within legal and governance systems. Her work encourages a fundamental shift in how people and organisations approach decision-making, urging them to act as though Nature has rights and deserves a seat at the table. Jessie is also interested in the intersection of Indigenous rights, seeking to integrate Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into legal frameworks. Jessie is dedicated to fostering a deeper awareness of our interconnectedness with the environment, aiming to move society away from an anthropocentric worldview towards a more biocentric model that acknowledges the intrinsic value of all living beings and ecosystems.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Jim will be sharing his work in our Community Spotlight session - interactive, embodied exploration of the most recent scientific advances of our understanding of inner self-awareness
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Title: untitled interspecies Umwelten (2021- )
Untitled interspecies umwelten is made up of 2 video installations - one showcasing 3D models of speculative organisms that extend our survivability into the future, and the other - this video - speculating on ways towards “understanding” other species through phenomena like color and movement. Here text is generated from subjective responses to the abstracted images of the moving Euglena gracilis and reference a semi – fictional archive of my past, perhaps attempting to make sense of what we see in nature through the lens of our memories. Further on, simple random word substitution creates a series of generative text that obfuscates this archive showing an interplay between computational and biological, human and machine interpretation.
This interplay between computational and biological, human and machine interpretation will be further explored.
BIOGRAPHY
My research connects scientific and artistic approaches to the environment, particularly with respect to sound and physical space. I have been interested in the way objects and spaces can function as repositories of ‘frozen sound’, and in elucidating these, I am interested in creating what systems theorist Jack Burnham (1968) refers to as “art (that) does not reside in material entities, but in relations between people and between people and the components of their environment”.
What constitutes this exploration is varied, and I have been invested in projects involving bodies and stethoscopes, nanotechnology, site-specific sound installations, collective (multi-media) improvisations, physical computing, environmental sensing, and spatial sound devices. I am most recently interested in the creative use of environmental databases to create aesthetic, mediated, experiences of natural phenomenon, stemming from a long interest in the history and poetics of Aeolian devices. As well as creating aesthetic experiences, i am also working on projects that explore the way memory, nostalgia, intimacy and distance can be narrated through physical and digital/networked geographies.
I am invested in the broader scope of Art-Science collaborations and am engaged constantly in the discourses and processes that facilitate viewing these two polemical disciplines on similar ground. My graduate interdisciplinary work in nanotechnology and sound was conducted at SymbioticA, the Center of Excellence for Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia and supervised by BioArt pioneers and TCA (The Tissue Culture and Art Project) artists Dr Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts. My current work in the atmospheric microbiome and modes of alternative biotechnological experimentations builds on many inspiring conversations, classes and discussions that happened with the SymbioticA family.
During my doctoral research at DXARTS in the University of Washington, i was supervised by artists Juan Pampin, James Coupe and Richard Karpen. I was also mentored by Dr Edward Shanken, author of the canonical “Art and Electronic Media” published by Phaidon Press in 2009, and was his Research Assistant in the “Systems” publication in the Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art series. I am a visiting artist at the UCLA ArtSci Center and worked on a large interdisciplinary project on bird communication from 2015-18, where we explored the poetics of interspecies communication and interaction through site-specific installation and spatial sound with ultrasonic and ambisonic technologies. I have also been a resident artist at the Atmospheres of Sound project there, as well as with the Biofrictions project hosted by Marta De Menezes at Cultivamos Cultura in Portugal. With my long time collaborator Mick Lorusso, i have also been a resident artist at the Coalesce Centre for Biological Arts hosted by Paul Vanouse and Solon Morse.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
John-Paul is taking part in our discussion on the ‘rights of nature’
BIOGRAPHY
JP has had a diverse career in environmental advocacy. He has launched impactful social environmental enterprises such as The Natural Trust and Stanmer Organics, lectured on environmental architecture, and taught ecological engineering at Schumacher College. With experience in Production Design for theatre and film, combined with a wide array of practical arts skills, John-Paul is driven by a profound passion for Life.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Meeting Trees
These ink drawings are part of my ongoing ‘Meeting Trees’ series, in which I travel the country making portraits of heritage trees from a little book called ‘50 Great British Trees’. Between them, the trees tell a sprawling array of events and stories, from historical fact to legends and folklore, that have trickled through the generations. With the possibility to exist for hundreds or even thousands of years, trees are exceptional living witnesses to our histories. Rooted, steadfast presences in collective consciousness, they breathe life into our stories and connect people across the ages.
The Selborne Yew
Selborne, Hampshire
The Original Bramley
Southwell, Nottinghamshire
The Tortworth Chestnut
Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire
Spanish Chestnut at Croft
Croft, Herefordshire
The Borrowdale Yew(s)
Borrowdale, Cumbria
Westonbirt Lime Tree
Westonbirt, The National Arboretum, Gloucestershire
The Major Oak
Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire
Umbrella Tree at Levens Hall
Kendal, Cumbria
BIOGRAPHY
I am an animator and illustrator telling stories through digital / analogue drawing, film and projection installation. My work brings together observational documentary with subject research, peeling through layers of time I draw inspiration; a gentle humour often present. Drawing is integral at the root of my practice, reflecting an interest in traditional crafts and the handmade. I continue to develop my practice into the realm of non-linear, creative collaborations with sound artists and musicians; for audiences to experience beyond single screen cinema, be that in the gallery, XR, or performance space.
An RCA MA Animation graduate, I work independently and with a range of collaborators and breadth of subject matter. Clients include Kings College, The Migration Museum, Ensemble Molière and UCL. My short films have screened at the BFI London and in festivals worldwide. I have been a jury member for the British Animation Awards and Anifest in Czech Republic, and participated in the panel discussions ‘Music Loves Video’ at Birds Eye View Festival and ‘Giving Life to Stills’ at Underwire.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
The static, the steam, the smoke
In the static, the steam, the smoke, I weave together imagery, audio and text related to bull kelp of California, wildfire atmospheres, memory loss, and airborne atmospheric communication from plants through volatile organic compounds. Bull kelp, common on the west coast, contain a small bulb of carbon monoxide to keep them afloat; too much carbon monoxide in the air can cause memory loss. I use this as a starting point to consider the cultural amnesia required to continue the harmful practices of settler colonialism. The piece grows from previous works related to airborne communication, the materiality of communication, a focus on the receiver, and the shared communicative and political airspace of plants and humans.
BIOGRAPHY
Lindsey french (they/she) is an artist whose research-based practice draws from media studies, olfactory art, and plant studies and takes form as multi-sensory video installations, radio and scent transmissions, and collaborative socially-engaged art projects. They have shared their work in venues including SixtyEight Art Institute (Copenhagen, Denmark), Pratt Manhattan Gallery (New York), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (Gimpo, South Korea). Recent publications include chapters for Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape, and the Postnatural (Actar, 2022) and Olfactory Art and the Political in an Age of Resistance (Routledge, 2021), and an Open Educational Resource book, Listening as a Shared and Social Practice, co-edited with Kate Joranson (University of Regina, 2024). Lindsey’s multi-year socially-engaged art project, Olfactory Media Library, a collaboration with Alex Young, was supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Lindsey earned an interdisciplinary BA in Environment, Interaction, and Design from Hampshire College (2010) and an MFA in Art and Technology Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2013). They are currently Libra Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Maine.
Website: https://lindseyfrench.com/index.html
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellemeff
Olfactory Media Library: https://olfactorymedialibrary.net/
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
The lyrics for Octopus were written after binge-reading James Bridle's book, 'Ways of Being'.
Video is created by artist, designer & animator Suze Lawrence. https://suzelawrence.myportfolio.com/
BIOGRAPHY
Longfall are a Kent (UK)-based alt-rock band creating music with powerful melodies and provocative storytelling, influenced by Muse, Radiohead, Kate Bush and Tool amongst many others.
We were formed by singer & pianist Alise Kirtley under the name "The Bearing," with our sound slowly developing through the diverse musical influences of guitarist Dan Watts, bass player Dave Sharp and drummer Richard Thompson.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
This piece ‘Ascoltaci – Listen to us’ was inspired by her attendance at the International Symposium on Soundscape in Lugano, October 2023. The theme that year was how sound creations and listening practices can help us shape better futures for human and more-than-human life. The electronic music was produced by Squiff Eye, photographer, graphic designer and sound producer: squiffeye.bandcamp.com/.
BIOGRAPHY
Louise Romain is a French-born UK-based, anthropologist, sound artist, documentarist and imagination activist, who produces the podcast ‘Circle of Voices’. She crafts immersive audio documentaries, short stories and ecological sound art, as invitations to dream deeper into thriving futures where humans remember their place and responsibility in the circle of life. She
covers UN Biodiversity and Ocean conferences as an independent grassroots reporter, where she also advocates for the protection of Indigenous rights and the flourishing of multi-species justice.
Lou/ise is passionate about bringing the sounds of the living world (through eco- and bio-acoustics) to more ears and hearts, and uplifting stories of Earth resilience in times of collapse, crisis and renewal. She sits on the advisory board of the International Society of Ecoacoustics and one of her long-term dreams is to support ecosystem regeneration by bridging together acoustic innovations with ancestral knowledge and localised community-led actions.
Find out more about Lou/ise’s work on her website https://tuneintotheworld.com/ or Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/tune-intotheworld and follow her on social media @lou_romain_ and @circleofvoices.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Megan will explore her work & ethos in our Community Spotlight session
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Title: Impossibilities: An Eco-Poem
About: This eco-poem is an invitation to create possibilities in the face of the impossibilities of this time of polycrisis for people and our shared planet—to dream an impossible dream of a regenerative future that insists on saying, "I am possible."
BIOGRAPHY
Neha Misra is an award-winning eco-poet, visual artist, and climate justice advocate. Her Mother Earth wisdom-centered interdisciplinary studio builds bridges between private, collective, and planetary healing. Neha’s poems are featured in the Washington Writers’ Publishing House’s anthology, America’s Future, and the Community Literature Initiative’s anthology, Dimepiece. Neha is a Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis—an initiative of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the OpEd Project to change who writes history—and a Regenerative Artivist with the Design Science Studio, a partnership between the Buckminster Fuller Institute and habRitual for leading planet-conscious creatives. She is the recipient of the North Carolina Climate Justice Collective’s TapRoot Artist Residency, the Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship, and Nootana’s Preronadayini Distinguished Creative Leadership Award. Neha currently serves on the board of Intersectional Environmentalist, and is the Global Ambassador for Remote Energy, a nonprofit improving access to solar skills and livelihoods. Learn more at nehamisrastudio.com.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Nicole is taking part in our ‘youth activism’ panel discussion, representing Global Generation, whose creative works are also shown in our mainstage
BIOGRAPHY
I have always been inspired by the energy and creativity of children and young people, and their potential to create positive change in the world. With that in mind mixed with my love of travelling and learning from others, I worked on community development and children's participation projects in Latin America. I then came and settled in London to do a MA in Education and International Development at the Institute of Education researching Latin America's working children's movement and young people’s participation.
Since then I have spent the last 20 years running local, national and international youth and community programmes. My work has focused on training and supporting young people to bring about social and environmental change in organisations such as We Are What We Do, Changemakers and Voices for Change.
Having always loved being in nature and experiencing the benefits of having my own hands in the soil, I became increasingly interested in involving people in wild nature and food growing in the middle of the city, as well as working at a more local level and developing deeper relationships with the community. This is how I found Global Generation where I have been happily working since 2010.I have always been inspired by the energy and creativity of children and young people, and their potential to create positive change in the world. With that in mind mixed with my love of travelling and learning from others, I worked on community development and children's participation projects in Latin America. I then came and settled in London to do a MA in Education and International Development at the Institute of Education researching Latin America's working children's movement and young people’s participation.
Since then I have spent the last 20 years running local, national and international youth and community programmes. My work has focused on training and supporting young people to bring about social and environmental change in organisations such as We Are What We Do, Changemakers and Voices for Change.
Having always loved being in nature and experiencing the benefits of having my own hands in the soil, I became increasingly interested in involving people in wild nature and food growing in the middle of the city, as well as working at a more local level and developing deeper relationships with the community. This is how I found Global Generation where I have been happily working since 2010. -
PROGRAMME NOTES
Arco Iris
Traveling down the highway — caught in a monster storm — greeted by the single greatest rainbow I have ever seen.
It was an ordinary day running errands with my son. Suddenly the radio began buzzing with public service storm warnings. “Tornadoes in the area.” We looked at each other because… tornadoes in the Pacific Northwest? Suddenly the skies went pitch black, the rains poured down… even the windshield wipers at full capacity could not stop the blur of the pounding rains. Everyone turned headlights on… the road disappeared and it looked like we were driving in stormy dark waves.
We dashed into a building, totally soaked, to ride out the storm.
When we looked out again we were greeted by the single greatest double rainbow we had ever seen. It was a great RESET moment.
At a certain point you’ve lived enough life that you think you’ve tasted all the significant tastes, seen all the significant colors— this was different. I have never seen greens like that in the natural world— searing glorious greens. Reds that were a million cardinals red. So on and so forth… It was a reminder that we live in POSSIBILITY. It was a vision of possibility.
I knew then that I had to somehow translate the experience into music. A possibility window — a meditative moment — a vision of tomorrow. ARCO IRIS is what transpired. In this piece I am playing the piano and running the sound through tape machines and modular electronics to simulate the ragged skies and stunning iridescence. Several ambassadors of iridescence appear in the video — hummingbirds (who have been nesting outside our window the last several weeks) — butterflies, and more. Here’s to a glorious vision of tomorrow — where the wonder switch is set to ON for all us in ways that are truly authentic to our lives.
BIOGRAPHY
Planetudes is an instrumental avant-pop music project based in Portland, Oregon.
Planetudes aims to awaken wonder by exploring new creative worlds, and entering into new musical conversations.
The Planetudes sound is crafted from a fusion of analog electronica, experimental rock, and soaring orchestration, interwoven with an abundance of samples recorded directly from nature, offering relief from the chaos in our lives.
In response to the ever-growing climate crisis, Planetudes is passionately dedicated to raising ecological awareness and inspiring engagement with the natural world through music.
Planetudes Is
Duncan Neilson, composer
Andrew Canulette, engineer
Elise Blatchford, Flute
Leander Star, French Horn
T.J. Arko, Vibraphone
Joe Janiga, Vibraphone and Trap Set
Israel Annoh, Hand Percussion (bongos, conga, udu)
Reinhardt Melz, Trap Set
Leroy Critcher, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Banjo, and Guitar Looping
Damian Erskine, Electric Bass and Upright Acoustic Bass
Duncan Neilson, Piano and Keyboards (Moog synthesizers, Farfisa organ, Andromeda A6 synthesizer, Sequential Prophet 6, Steinway piano)
Courtney von Drehle, Accordion
Peter Frajola, Violin
Bela Balogh, Violin
Katherine Schultz, Cello
Recorded by Andrew Canulette at Dogfish Sound, Portland, OR. www.dogfishsound.com
Mixed by Andrew Canulette and Duncan Neilson
Mastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Mastering, 640 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, CA
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Pooja is taking part in our ‘youth activism’ panel discussion
BIOGRAPHY
Climate Community Building | AI & Tech for Good | Mental Health | Workforce Development | Access | Intergenerational Action
The Youth Climate Collaborative envisions a world where young people have the relationships, resources, and resilience they need to sustain leadership and co-create a liveable future for people and planet. We build the conditions for young people to create, sustain, and scale climate action by nurturing wellbeing, building capacity, expanding access to resources and decision-making spaces, and fostering intergenerational collaboration.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Beauté de la nature (the beauty of nature)
Poète en Liberté (a Poet wild & free)
BIOGRAPHY
Rita Mestokosho is the first Innu poet to have published a collection in Quebec, Eshi uapataman Nukum. Comment je perçois la vie, Grand-Mère (1995). She was born in the Ekuanitshit community (Mingan) in 1966, and still lives there today After collegiate studies in Quebec City and Montreal, she undertook political science studies at Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. Returning to her home village, she has worked in the educational field. A mother of two children, she sees work with youth as the basis for the future. For some years now she has been working on the creation of an Innu mitshuap uteitun, a cultural centre in her community. Upon request from the women in her village, she became a counsellor on the Ekuanitshit Band Council and continues to work (passionately) on cultural and educational projects. Rita Mestokosho has written since she was a teenager. It was not long before she wondered how she could remain Innu while taking a path so different from her parents and grandparents. Writing also allowed her to find herself. Publication of her first work caused a great deal of interest among the Innu, in Quebec and throughout the French-speaking world. Her poems have appeared in several international journals. She regularly takes part in writers in indigenous languages, international literary and poetry festivals and book fairs. In 2002, she published her second volume in her community La Mer navigue/La Terre marche/Le Ciel vole/et moi, je rampe pour humer la vie…
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Sarah is taking part in our panel discussion ‘Healing & resilience through nature’s wisdom’
BIOGRAPHY
Founded in 2017 by Sarah Spencer, Think like a Tree came out of Sarah’s extensive studies and experience in permaculture, systems-thinking, regenerative business and other nature-inspired disciplines.
Recognizing that regenerative ways of thinking, being and doing, represented the future, Sarah set about designing training, programmes and books to bring nature-inspired solutions to the mainstream.
Joined by talented Think like a Tree facilitators from a diverse range of disciplines, the network has expanded and now offers training, coaching and consultancy to a wide range of audiences – individuals, organisations and families.
One such partnership lead to the creation of Think like a Forest, for organisations and businesses.
From the start, Sarah and the team have been guided by natural principles, patterns and a design process that has kept momentum even when times have been tough.
These natural principles provide a strong set of ethics and values that runs throughout their work, and provide frameworks for the work with and for clients.
Through her determination and guided by nature’s wisdom, Sarah has overcome chronic illness to build a strong and resilient network with a diversity of choices to address the struggles that people face in their personal and business lives.
In 2023 Think like a Tree was shortlisted for the International Lush Spring Prize for their work in the regenerative sphere.
The network is modelled on the mycelial network of beneficial fungi in relationship with trees, making it adaptable, agile, resilient, healthy and capable of evolving in response to the changing circumstances of our times. It is this type of nature-inspired wisdom that we share with our clients.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Rock, Tree, Machine
This work derives its harmonies from saxophone multiphonics played by Pisol Manatchinapisit. Multiphonics are sometimes thought of as ‘chords’, but are really far more organic! They have a kind of fragile life, evolving depending on how they are played. Later in the piece, epigenetic data on ‘tree memory’ from the University of Birmingham’s MEMBRA project is sonified using the ‘scales' of these unique sounds, leading to a more ‘rocky’ and mechanistic music. The piece thus brings together ideas from two pieces, an earlier MEMBRA-based project On the memory of trees… composed for the Ligeti Quartet, and my multiphonic-based Bass Clarinet Concerto for Jack McNeil, Wild. I’m grateful for the chance to explore combining these with the ever-amazing Taceti Ensemble, to which the piece is dedicated.
Performance recorded at IntAct 2024: Machine Labor Rock
Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)
Tacet(I) Ensemble
Patumwan Piensub - Flute
Christhatai Paksamai - Clarinet
Pisol Manatchinapisit - Saxophone
Siravith Kongbandalsuk - Trombone
Saksilpa Srisukson - Violin
Tapanatt Kiatpaibulkit - Viola
Kantika Comenaphatt - Cello
Piyawat Louilarpprasert - Conductor
Video recording and editing:
Chatchai Tatong
Chupong Sutarot
Worakon Phuaphan
Tuchawong Sirisawat
Sound recording:
SB SOUNDSYSTEM & G.MEDIA
Sound mixing:
Khwanpol Muangmud
BIOGRAPHY
For the past three decades, Scott Wilson's music and sound art has explored the intersection of a variety of different and sometimes contradictory practices. Combining aspects of instrumental/vocal composition, field recording, immersive multichannel electroacoustic sound and visuals, cross-cultural collaboration, live coding and improvisation in works that are each a bespoke solution to a unique artistic problem, his output holds few firm allegiances to schools, styles or genres, and regularly transgresses the boundaries of the 'acceptable' to be found in even the most supposedly experimental fields of practice. A particular interest in collaboration has led to a rich range of output, including cross-cultural and interdisciplinary works. These and other pieces including hyperreal soundscapes using sound from the natural world, a collaborative musical palimpsest on classic Qawwali recordings, and music created by sonifying the particle collisions of CERN's Large Hadron Collider have been presented around the world. Also active as an educator and mentor for young artists, he is co-director of Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre and teaches at the University of Birmingham in the U.K.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Tom is sharing his latest book - The Nature Delusion - with us through a talk + Q&A
BIOGRAPHY
https://research.reading.ac.uk/social-and-applied-ecology/tom-oliver/
om Oliver is a Professor in Ecology and Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research (Environment) at the University of Reading. He regularly advises the UK government and the European Environment Agency on environmental topics. Tom is a frequent contributor to broadcast media, including BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Channel 4 and ITV News, and the mainstream press such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Hindu Times, New Scientist, Guardian, The Times, Independent and Telegraph. In addition he regularly gives talks on environmental science to general audiences.
Tom has published more than 100 scientific papers in world-leading interdisciplinary journals and won two first-place prizes for essays communicating science to a broader audience. He won the Marsh Award for Entomology in 2014 for outstanding contributions to Entomology. He currently lives in Oxfordshire, UK. His first book The Self Delusion was published in January 2020, and The Nature Delusion will be published in Mar 2026.
Tom has advised the UK government through secondments with Defra (designing a ‘systems research programme’) and the Government Office for Science. He currently sits on the Food Standards Authority science council and expert college for the Office for Environmental Protection. He has advised the European Commission through membership of the EEA scientific committee and bespoke presentations.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Connecting Worlds: Acoustic Ocean & Forest Mind Film Screenings with Ursula Biemann
Presenting two captivating works by director Ursula Biemann, explore the profound connections of Indigenous communities to their natural environments.
In the enthralling oceanic journey titled "Acoustic Ocean," we are transported to the Arctic Islands of Lofoten. Here, a scientist delves into the realm of acoustic ecology, probing the mysteries of the oceans and forging connections across species. The film's poetic portrayal invites us to contemplate the ocean's hidden symphony—replete with nascent life forms, imaginative interconnections, and the evolution of the planetary ecosystem. Through this science-fictional lens, Ursula Biemann unveils the intricate tapestry that binds life beneath the waves.
[Director: Ursula Biemann | Norway | 2018 | 18 mins | English]
Continuing our voyage, "Forest Mind" unveils an intricate narrative woven in collaboration with the Indigenous Inga community of the Amazonian forests in southern Colombia. Ursula Biemann's enduring partnership with this community gives rise to an Indigenous university, emerging as a testament to Indigenous wisdom. From the profound intelligence of plants to the sentient consciousness of the territory, the film deftly entwines diverse research strands. Rooted in both scientific and shamanic perspectives, "Forest Mind" champions an eco-centric worldview, bridging the realms of empirical knowledge and ancient wisdom. Through this cinematic creation, the NRF bridges disparate ways of comprehending our Earth.
[Director: Ursula Biemann | Switzerland | 2021 | 31 mins | English]
BIOGRAPHY
Ursula Biemann is a Swiss artist and video essayist whose practice centres on fieldwork, often in Indigenous territories, and the creation of networks between different fields of knowledge. Her work explores the political ecologies of forests, oil, and water.
Her most recent fieldwork took her to southern Colombia, where she was engaged in the co-creation of an Indigenous university for biocultural knowledge. Within this context, she produced video archives, exhibitions, and the online platform deveniruniversidad.org. Her latest video work, Forest Mind, emerges from this sustained process of bridging Western and Indigenous knowledge systems.
Biemann’s video installations are exhibited internationally in museums and major art Biennials. She has presented numerous solo exhibitions, including at MAMAC in Nice, at the Art Museum at UNAL in Bogota, MUAC in Mexico City and at the MQ Freiraum in Vienna. She has published several books and an online monograph Becoming Earth, which surveys a decade of her ecological video works. Her recent book Forest Mind – On the Interconnection of All Life was published with Spector Books (2022) Biemann has received a Doctor Honoris Causa in Humanities from Umeå University, Sweden, as well as the Swiss Grand Award for Art (Prix Meret Oppenheim). www.geobodies.org
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Text and narration
© Yadvinder Malhi 2026 Excerpt from forthcoming work. All rights reserved. Used with permission
Works: Dawn & Globe
Music:
Free Music Archive
https://freemusicarchive.org/home
Music: “Morning” by Onedaneira
Source: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/onedaneira/followers
Licensed under: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Music: “Calmness” by Onedaneira
Source: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/onedaneira/followers
Licensed under: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Music: “Background”by Vibedepot
Licensed under: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Music: “Atmospherics” by Vibedepot
Licensed under: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Music: “Ambient Dream” by Malictus Music
Licensed under: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Video and Images
Pexels (various creators) – https://www.pexels.com
Video by Matthias Groeneveld: https://www.pexels.com/video/golden-hour-in-the-green-field-6056829/
Video by Kelly from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/burning-fire-woods-for-grill-cooking-4042728/
Video by Matthias Groeneveld from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/an-uprooted-tree-lying-down-on-the-ground-3171929/
Video by Matthias Groeneveld from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/beautiful-scenery-of-golden-hour-5098044/
Video by Sasmita Sinha from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/a-black-bird-sitting-on-tree-branch-4899815/
Video by Peter Fowler from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/leaves-of-evergreen-plants-in-the-forest-3161307/
Video by Oak & Rumble from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/deer-eating-leaves-852338/
Video by Matthias Groeneveld from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/scenic-view-of-a-forest-5365208/
Video by Matthias Groeneveld from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/landscape-shot-of-sun-ray-in-the-forest-5692315/
Video by Colin Jones from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/earth-rotating-5921369/
Video by Sébastien Vincon from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/sea-against-tropical-island-10620497/
Video by German Korb from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/the-forest-ground-covered-in-fall-leaves-5644241/
Video by Nick C from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/drone-footage-of-calm-sea-waters-under-a-cloudy-sky-12872487/
Video by Dmitry Varennikov from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/breathtaking-time-lapse-view-of-meteor-shower-5167233/
Video by Dmitry Varennikov from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/star-gazing-on-a-clear-starry-night-5382333/
Video by Bil Hinton from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/blue-tit-flying-off-a-branch-18016084/
Video by James Cheney from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/drone-footage-of-a-dense-forest-3177845/
Video by James Cover from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/fungus-growing-on-a-tree-branch-6983067/
Video by Tom Fisk from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/video/drone-footage-of-indonesia-s-countryside-3110387/
Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/videos/wave-breaking-sea-ocean-water-283533/
https://pixabay.com/videos/vine-grow-plant-spiral-89536/
Thanks to Blender Timer
https://pixabay.com/videos/beech-leaves-leaf-formation-spring-115162/
https://pixabay.com/videos/mushroom-small-mushroom-138429/
Thanks to adege
https://pixabay.com/videos/leaf-branch-tree-foliage-autumn-135049/ Thanks to MabelAmber
https://pixabay.com/videos/leaf-cherry-cherries-summer-garden-3910/ Thanks to Azmid
https://pixabay.com/videos/beach-ocean-waves-cannonbeach-163525/ Thank to Pasuny
Other Sources
Mixkit – https://mixkit.co
Vecteezy (free licence assets) – https://www.vecteezy.com
Freepik (free licence assets) – https://www.freepik.com
Open Planet – https://www.openplanet.org
NOAA Ocean Exploration (public domain) – https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov
Sound effects: Pixabay Audio Library – https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/
Additional footage, images, and audio used under free or Creative Commons licences, or are original works by the creator.
BIOGRAPHY
I am an ecosystem scientist who explores the functioning of the biosphere and its interactions with global change, including climate change. I have a particular fascination with and love for tropical forests, and also in nature recovery worldwide.
I am Professor of Ecosystem Science at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Programme Leader of the Ecosystems Group at the Environmental Change Institute , Jackson Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford. I am Director of the the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery, which seeks to understand and what it tales to deliver effective and socially inclusive nature recovery.
I lead the Ecosystems Programme of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, which encompasses a broad spectrum of research on ecosystems ranging form the natural sciences through to social sciences, policy and governance.
I am current President of the British Ecological Society, a Trustee of the London Natural History Museum, and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
Willow is offering a partner exhibition space to Natural Resonance called All We Can Save.
BIOGRAPHY
Willow is an environmental scientist, interdisciplinary artist, musician, and storyteller from endless hills and secluded forests of rural Virginia. Grounded in research, their practice includes recycled and bio-based installation art, words, music, and biosonification (turning processes within living organisms into music and sound). Willow routinely merges visual, literary, and sonic mediums to create ethereal performances across the East Coast. They often weave themes of ecology, gender, and social issues with an autobiographical exploration of nature, and feel driven to use intersections of art, science, and technology to tackle environmental and social issues. Willow loves finding objects and introducing chaos and regeneration in ways that invite us to question what we are seeing, with hopes to spark conversation around critical issues of our time and of our future.
-
PROGRAMME NOTES
The Ocean Within
The Ocean Within explores the hidden roles of fish as biological timekeepers and storytellers, embodying a collective memory of the water world. As climate change intensifies and the seas become increasingly desolate, how can these creatures continue to share
knowledge across generations through cultural webs that trace back millions of years?
Otoliths, or ear stones, and salmon scales serve as living records of their lives, much like tree rings. Each layer encodes the fish’s journey, revealing the duration of their existence and the experiences that
have shaped them. These remarkable structures hold a biochronology,
a map of life experiences embedded and made visible within their physical forms. Their bodies carry a shared memory, telling a collective story.
Fish, with their incredible ability to create and follow maps within their very beings, forge a profound connection between their biology and the
forces of the planet. This living archive is not simply a static record; it continuously evolves, inviting us to participate in an ongoing narrative of life and survival, reminding us that we are part of a much larger system of impossible magnificence and complexity
The Ocean Within delves into the rich and diverse dimensions of fish senses, bringing to light what often remains hidden: lived experience and how nature captures truths beyond human perception.
Fish are not just creatures of the water; they are living beings deserving of our understanding in a world without human contours. To contemplate these other ways of being is to begin to understand our
place in the world, to be reminded that we are not
separate or different but entangled with those from the watery world. The water embodies the fluidity that connects us to the planet’s systems and
lives, carrying our collective story. The future of the oceans story rests gently in our hands.
BIOGRAPHY
Yvette is an Irish photographer and artist known for her research-driven approach to her work. Her practice intricately explores the intangible qualities of both external and internal landscapes, weaving together elements of myth and geography. She seeks to uncover the deeper narratives beneath the surface of the physical world, using photography to evoke a sense of place and connection. Her projects often delve into cultural stories and natural environments, inviting viewers to engage with the complexities of identity, memory, and the intricate relationships between individuals and their surroundings.
In her practice, Yvette examines how external and internal landscapes can embody intangible concepts such as memory, mythology, resonance, transcendence, and trauma. Her approach is driven by an intuitive process. She employs various photographic techniques, including film and digital photography, as well as alternative methods like lumen printing, negative drawing, and print intervention.
Since earning her MFA in Photography from Ulster University, Yvette has exhibited her work in widely, including Belfast Exposed, PhotoIreland, The Royal Photographic Society in Bristol, TULCA, Unseen in Amsterdam, Fotohof in Salzburg, and the Lishui Festival in China. Additionally, she has been nominated three times for the Prix Pictet Sustainability and Environment prize, underscoring her commitment to meaningful storytelling.
Yvette holds an MFA in Photography (2013) from the Ulster University, Belfast, and an MA in Geography and Economics (1999) from Trinity College Dublin. In 2020, she completed a diploma in Art and Design at National College of Art and Design.