This Culture Declares Emergency partnered session will explore our relationships to the underground/underworld. Question - what do we believe is underneath us, what is this network? For that to happen, during the session on 15th of April (2024), five session coordinators have set up a programme for the participants to join.
Session opening will take place with Jamie Jackson (with a video and reflection), followed by Justin Stewart, who will organise an exchange with the participants to co-share thoughts on what fungus is. After the round of intros, we will hear from Christopher Elmerick, who will bring his experience working in the field of underworld/underwater. We will then move on to Poppy Flint, who will present an exercise together with Baiba Pruse, where we will co-create Little Elfchen (Little Poems).
We hope to explore the opportunity, together with the participants, of bringing these poems into the field session in Berlin (7th of June, 2024 TNOC). We are inspired by the previous work of making a blog post together with the participants after the session, and will try to do this again.
Culture Declares Emergency – Culture declares a climate and ecological emergency Speakers:
Jaime Jackson.
Jaime is a biophilic (love of nature) socially engaged and studio-based artist. Currently working on the Arts Council England funded The Sign of the Underground, a visual art program creating symbols to navigate underground and underwater tendrils connecting people and species, the rural and urban.
Baiba Pruse
Baiba's work as an ethnobotanist is linked to local ecological knowledge regarding wild plant uses and citizen engagement in environmental change observation. She is strongly supporting the research strategy of transdisciplinary and collaborative work with artists.
Poppy Flint
Poppy is currently working on ‘Underfoot’, a perception-shifting installation that quite literally shines a light on the humble root system and creates a poignant setting to encounter stories and questions about human’s relationship with nature. She is an educator, artist, and a stubborn optimist.
poppyflint.com/underfoot/
Justin Stewart
Justin is an evolutionary ecologist investigating plant-microbial symbiosis. Currently, their work focuses on using mapping mycorrhizal fungal symbiosis from individual root systems up to global biodiversity maps. They are a PhD Candidate Data Ecologist at VU Amsterdam and SPUN. http://www.thecrobe.com
Christopher Elmerick
Director and cultural curator at Greenhill gallery kulturschoepfer Berlin, Christopher has a passion to see all of culture holistically in all of its diversity by engaging, creating, and inspiring one another in community towards positive change.
