Arts & Ecology

This week's podcast is a conversation between guest interviewer Dr. Mike Edwards, co-founder of environmental organisation Sound Matters, and scientist and journalist Anna Turns who is the Senior environment editor of Conservation UK.

Anna writes: 

I specialise in crafting features and radio documentaries about sustainability, from climate change and renewable energy to marine issues, food and farming. My first book, Go Toxic Free: Easy and Sustainable Ways to Reduce Chemical Pollution, was published in 2022, and I enjoy presenting episodes of BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth series. As a freelance journalist and Oxford University biology graduate, I combine my passion for storytelling and my curiosity about the natural world to write inspiring, intelligent content for many national publications including The Guardian, BBC Future, Positive News and Riverford’s Wicked Leeks. I’ve never missed a deadline. With rigorous reporting skills and a keen eye for imagery, my work focuses on progress, innovation and solutions. Constructive journalism is a thread that runs through all of my work. I’m an assessor for the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable Leadership on the Communicating for Impact and Influence online course. I have taught journalism undergraduates at Plymouth Marjon University. I’m an active member of the Guild of Food Writers, Women in Journalism and National Union of Journalists and also mentor early career journalists. I also sit on the integrity council for Provenance which aims to combat greenwashing and create standards that better enable transparency. I’m passionate about environmental education and the importance of a strong connection to the landscape and coast.

Chantal Bilodeau is a Montreal-born, New York-based playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of storytelling and the climate crisis. She is the founding artistic director of the Arts & Climate Initiative, where she has spearheaded initiatives for nearly two decades, getting theatre and educational communities, as well as audiences in the U.S. and abroad, to engage in climate conversation and climate action through programming that includes live events, talks, publications, workshops, artist convenings, and an award-winning distributed theatre festival.

Playwriting awards include the Woodward International Playwriting Prize as well as First Prize in the Earth Matters on Stage Ecodrama Festival and First Prize in the Uprising National Playwriting Competition.  Her plays have been shown in a dozen countries and translated into Greek, Italian, Norwegian, and Portuguese. 

She curates the HowlRound Theatre Commons’ essay series Theatre in the Age of Climate Change, has written for American Theatre Magazine and Canadian Theatre Review, and contributed to several academic volumes including Decentered Playwriting: Alternative Techniques for the Stage (Routledge, 2023). She is the editor of four anthologies of short plays, one of which earned her an Honorable Mention from the Patrick O'Neill Award for Best Edited Collection given by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research. 

She is currently writing a series of eight plays – the Arctic Cycle – that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight Arctic states. She is a Creative Core Member of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics, and in 2019 was named one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation” by Audubon Magazine.

Show notes

Mentioned in the episode The Book of Trespass By Nick Hayes https://astridardagh.com https://www.evabakkeslett.com www.thecoferenceofthebirds.net

Biographies

Eva

Eva Bakkeslett is an artist, filmmaker, curator and gentle activist, exploring the potential for social change through gentle actions and subtle mind-shifts. Her socially engaged practice often combines film, participatory events and workshops; She frequently collaborates with other artist, activists, scientist and engaged people in her work. Eva creates spaces and experiences that challenge our thinking and unravel new narratives that inspire and engage us to make sense of and embody sustainable and thriving ways. By revealing and reclaiming forgotten or rejected practices, concepts and cultures her work directs our attention to the patterns that connect us to the earth as a living organism. Eva is particularly inspired by the process of fermentation and explores how this can be a method for re-imagining sustainable human cultures. She looks at how microbes can inspire creative problem solving, collaboration and transformation to find new ways to deal with the many challenges we are now facing in the world. Eva shows, lectures, curates and performs her work worldwide. She has an MA in Art & Ecology from Dartington College of Art in England and lives on the beautiful island of Engeløya in North Norway. Here she tries to walk the talk, grow and harvest her own food and learn as much as possible about life and sustainability from old folks, animals, birds, trees and the earth whilst enjoying the beauty of every day.

Astrid

Astrid Ardagh is an artist and filmmaker from Engeløya in Northern Norway, with a Bachelor's in Moving Image from Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. Her site-specific work delves into the interconnected relationship between people and their environment in a rapidly changing world. By merging her interest in anthropology and aesthetic storytelling, her films become immersive and sensory experiences that transcend traditional human-centred perspectives. Ardagh's short films have been screened at acclaimed festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand and Kortfilmfestivalen in Grimstad, as well as galleries and art museums such as Kristiansand Kunsthall, the Eye Film Museum and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Arts & Ecology is a new podcast all about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future.  Each season we ask artists, authors, and curators one question. This season we ask, how can we tell better stories?

This week's guests are ecologist Dr. Rich Blundell and artist Rita Leduc.

Guest Bios:

Rich

My lived-experience is a deeply reciprocal relationship of continuity with nature. Over a lifetime this has provided access to an inexhaustible source of natural knowledge. 

But when the science I "know" is coupled to first-hand participation in the story of the cosmos, it affords much more than knowledge. Living in a relational mode with nature cultivates a forgotten form of human wisdom that's aligned with nature itself. Not only does this have profound ameliorative effects on one's body and mind, I believe it has become an essential aspect of the future (if there is to be one for humans).

Every human has access to the intelligence of nature through the long and intimate histories of our ancestor's relationships with the habitats of Earth. However, very few of us have the time or opportunity to live in sustained touch with this intelligence. I believe remembering our ancient endowment has the power to heal our injuries, restore justice, detoxify our culture, and put us on a path towards a more realistic, healthy, and hopeful technological future. One way I propose and teach this idea is Earthling Theory.

In addition to founding Oika, I am currently the Scientist-in-Residence at the Maria Mitchell Association on Nantucket Island. In both capacities, I collaborate with ecosystems, artists, and other creatives on cultural transformation projects. You can learn more through my podcast and talks. 

I also manifest Oika philosophy artistically by co-creating wooden surfboards (yes, surfboards) through a deeply participatory design process that I developed. Learn more about this and how it fits into my Oika worldview through the narrative bio below.

"If we are to thrive into the future, we must re-invent what it means to be humane by re-aligning our selves and our culture with nature." 

Rita

Originally from New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, Rita Leduc is an interdisciplinary artist now living in New York’s Hudson Valley. In her creative practice, she absorbs insights from nature-grounded relationships and applies them to novel endeavors on human and societal scales. 

Current examples of these endeavors include multifaceted projects with Oika, a living philosophy that merges creativity, natural science, deep time, cognition, and spirituality. One such project is Extending Ecology, a collaboration with ecologist Dr. Rich Blundell and the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Additional ongoing engagements include GROUNDWORK (process-oriented creative direction), and The Place Collective (using art to enrich community research).

Leduc’s work has been shown throughout the greater New York City area and beyond, including exhibitions at the Museum of the White Mountains (NH), Stand4 Gallery (NY), Maria Mitchell Gallery (MA), Mount Saint Mary College (NY), Glasshouse Project (NY), Terrain Biennial (NY), Wells College (NY), Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Art (Russia), Governors Island (NYC), RAW (Miami), and Ortega y Gasset Projects (NYC). Past residencies include i-Park Foundation, PLAYA, Tofte Lake, and Vermont Studio Center. She has received support from NYFA, the Jerome Foundation, Atlas Obscura, Oika, Broto, Wells College, and Rutgers University, among others. She has published and presented her work widely including on the cover of Signal House Edition as well as in unpsychology magazine, Artis Natura, and at Art.Earth’s conference, “Sentient Performativities: Thinking Alongside the Human” at Dartington Hall. 

Leduc received her MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, BA from the University of Pennsylvania and is certified in Oika, an applied philosophy of natural, ecological intelligence. She currently teaches at Rutgers University within their new, interdisciplinary program, Creative Expression and the Environment.

Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her highly acclaimed books, courses, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination, and on the relevance of myths, fairy tales and folk traditions to the personal, cultural and environmental problems we face today.

As well as writing five books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted and her latest, Hagitude, her writing has appeared in anthologies, collections and in several international media outlets – among them the Guardian, the Irish Times, and the Scotsman. Her books have been translated into several languages, and she has been interviewed by the BBC, US public radio and other broadcasters on her areas of expertise. Her awards include the Roger Deakin Award, and a Creative Scotland Writer’s Award. Her next book, Wise Women: Myths and folklore in celebration of older women will be published by Virago in 2024.

Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has taught and lectured at several academic institutions, Jungian organisations, retreat centres and cultural festivals around the world. Find out more at www.sharonblackie.net.

Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey (b. 1959/1959 England) are internationally acclaimed for creating works that intersect art, activism, architecture, biology, ecology and history.  Referencing memory and time, nature and culture, urban political ecologies, the climate emergency and degradation of the living planet, their time-based practice reveals an intrinsic bias towards process and event.  Processes of germination, growth and decay (organic and inorganic) feature in artworks that often evolve through extended research in response to people and place, interfacing their profound interest in local ecologies and global planetary concerns.

They give high profile keynotes and public presentations and contribute writings and photographs to books and journals.  In 2019, the artists co-founded Culture Declares Emergency in response to the climate and ecological emergency.

In 2021, one hundred Beuys’ Acorns trees were exhibited at Tate Modern to commemorate Beuys’s centennial and Tate’s declaration of climate emergency.

Currently Beuys’ Acorns is residing in London on Global Generation’s Paper Garden and Story Garden.  Each tree is contained in a specialist Air-pot that has enabled both portability of the trees and ensured their on-going welfare through healthy root development.

Public exchanges, keynotes, conversations and live open-ended research are integral to their approach and practice, and Ackroyd & Harvey give many high-profile keynote lectures and presentations, notably Declaring Emergency: Museums and the Climate Crisis, Courtauld Institute of Art, London; Big Botany, Spencer Museum, Kansas; How to be a COPtomist, Kings College, London; On Energy, Banff Centre, Canada; Environmental Funders Network, Cambridge, UK; COCE/Conference on Communication and Environment,University of Colorada, Boulder; ‘Nobel Laureate Symposium’ on Creativity, Leadership and Climate Change at London’s Science Museum; ‘Art + Alchemy’Trinity College, Cambridge; EARTH: Art of  a Changing World, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Smith School, Oxford; London School of Economics, UK; the Royal Society, London; Royal Institute of British Architects, London; Tate Britain, London; Royal National Theatre, London; Manchester International Festival, UK; Courtauld Institute, London; Harvard University, Boston, USA; San Francisco Institute of Arts, USA; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA.

Arts & Ecology is a new podcast all about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future. This season we ask authors, artists and curators one question, “How can we tell better stories?” Not just about the many crises we face but about the regenerative future so many of us are working hard to build.

This week, we speak with author Katherine May. Katherine is an internationally bestselling author and podcaster living in Whitstable, UK. Her most recent book, Enchantment became an instant New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. Her internationally bestselling hybrid memoir Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times was adapted as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week, and was shortlisted for the Porchlight and Barnes and Noble Book of the Year. The Electricity of Every Living Thing, her memoir of a midlife autism diagnosis, was adapted as an audio drama by Audible. Other titles include novels such as The Whitstable High Tide Swimming Club, and The Best, Most Awful Job, an anthology of essays about motherhood which she edited. Her journalism and essays have appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Observer and Aeon.

Katherine’s podcast, How We Live Now, ranks in the top 1% worldwide, and she has been a guest presenter for On Being’s The Future of Hope series. Her next book, Enchantment, will be published in 2023. Katherine lives with her husband, son, two cats and a dog. She loves walking, sea-swimming and pickling slightly unappealing things.

Arts and Ecology is a podcast about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future. This season we ask one question, “How can we tell better stories?” And not just about the many crises we face but about the regenerative future so many of us are working hard to build. Join your host, Natasha Rivett-Carnac, for these in-depth conversations with artists, curators, and authors across a range of subjects and discover how you might bring a fresh perspective on story telling into your own practice

Arts & Ecology is a brand new podcast about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future.

This week, we speak with writer Liz Jensen. Liz is the author of eight novels including the eco-thrillers The Rapture and The Uninvited. She is a founder member of Extinction Rebellion’s Writers Rebel, a literary movement using words and actions to highlight the climate and ecological emergency. Her work has been short-listed for the Guardian Fiction Award, nominated three times for the Women’s Fiction prize, adapted for film, theatre and radio, and translated into twenty languages.

We talk to Liz about how our attitudes to climate change has changed since she wrote The Rapture, her conflicts and ideas around hope, what writers can do to respond to the ecological crisis, and her latest book about grief

If you’d like to contact us with ideas about how we can take this podcast forward in the next season, you can DM Natasha on Instagram @natasharivettcarnac or email her at [email protected] 

Students you hear at the end of the episode, in order of appearance:

Darren Bender

Flick Ferdinando

Ibby Lanfear

Rachel Wright

Peter Wells

Philippe Blanchard

Katie Marshall

Margherita Muriti

Arts and Ecology is a brand new podcast about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future.

This season we ask authors, curators, and artists one question: What is the artists’ role during an ecological crisis?

In this episode, we interview Jay Griffiths. Jay is the award-winning author of six critically acclaimed books, including her latest book, Nemesis: My Friend. In this interview Jay and Natasha discuss her book Wild. Wild took seven years to research and write. It is an evocation of the songlines of the earth, the result of long journeys among indigenous cultures, including staying with Amazonian shamans and Inuit people, visiting sea gypsies and staying with the freedom fighters of West Papua. It explores the words and meanings which shape ideas of wildness, arguing that wildness is intrinsic to the health of the human spirit.

WHAT’S ON AT DARTINGTON

Dartington Summer School and Festival, 23/07/22

Over 60 concerts and events. One glorious summer of music.

In the Barn Cinema, 

Elvis, 19/07/22 to 28/07/22

NT Live: Prima Facie, 21/07/2022 to 18/08/2022

Brian and Charles, 22/07/2022 to 03/08/2022

Lightyear, 23/07/2022 to 11/08/2022

Minions: The Rise of Gru, 30/07/22 to 10/08/22

Gongs in the Garden, 21/07/22 to 29/09/22

Throughout the summer, gong musician Roger Hall will be sending the atmospheric and ancient sound of gongs into our beautiful Gardens.

In the Gallery Land:Scapes, presented as part of Jason Singh’s year-long residency here, is a series of field recordings which explore the hidden sound worlds of the Dartington estate.

Family Garden Sessions, 28/07/22-02/08/2022

Join us in our beautiful community gardens for a series of family gardening and craft workshops this summer.

Family Song, Thu 28th Jul 2022

A sing-along for the whole family, with folksongs and harmonies from around the world. Led by Tara Franks. Ages 8+

Gavin Bryar and Friends, Thu 28th Jul 2022

An intimate evening revealing composer Gavin Bryars’ love for early music, with John Potter (tenor), Jacob Herringman (lute), Jane Chapman (harpsichord), and members of Stile Antico and Fretwork.

Tots Tunes, Fri 29th Jul 2022

Sing, dance and shake in this fun, interactive parent and baby class led by cellist Tara Franks. Ages 0-5

Monteverdi Vespers, Fri 29th Jul 2022

A sumptuous performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, with Summer School artists and participants directed by Andrew Griffiths. This promises to be a musical extravaganza in inimitable Dartington style!

Enseble Moliere, Sat 30th of July

Recently selected as BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Baroque Ensemble, Ensemble Moliere perform an enticing programme of 17th and 18th-century French music.

Saturday market

Come along to our weekly market showcasing the best in local food, crafts, music and more!

To find out about all these events go to the Dartington website To learn more about the ecological crisis and the vital role art and culture plays in creating a regenerative future, subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify

Welcome to another episode of Arts & Ecology. This is our third episode and we're so glad you are joining us. 

Arts & Ecology is a brand new podcast about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future.

In this episode, we talk to Dartington Arts & Ecology artist-in-residence, Jason Singh. Jason is a sound artist, nature beatboxer, producer, DJ, facilitator and performer. His work is inspired by the natural world and includes: live performance, sound installations, live film accompaniment, radio broadcasts, sound design and creating music derived from biodata of plants and trees. Jason’s collaborations and commissions include a diverse range of organisations and artists including Sir David Attenborough, BBC, V&A Museum, and Kew Gardens. Jason is currently an Arts & Ecology artist-in-residence at Dartington.

Jason and Mike discuss the importance of sound and listening for creating kinship with, and between, the human and the more-than-human worlds. Jason shares powerful personal stories from his past which were formative in his journey into a world where deep listening underpins all aspects of his work. Jason also discusses a new piece of work he is co-creating with an ancient yew tree in the grounds of Dartington Trust – using equipment that translates biodata from plants into music and soundscapes from the surrounding area, Jason takes the listener on a sonic journey into a world that can only be apprehended through sound.

WHAT'S ON AT DARTINGTON THIS WEEK

In the Gallery  Land:Scapes, presented as part of Jason Singh’s year-long residency here, is a series of field recordings which explore the hidden sound worlds of the Dartington estate.

Dartington Summer School and Festival, 23/07/22

Over 60 concerts and events. One glorious summer of music.

In the Barn Cinema:

Top Gun Maverick, 19/07/22 to 20/07/22 Elvis, 19/07/22 to 28/07/22 NT Live: Prima Facie, 21/07/2022 to 18/08/2022 Brian and Charles, 22/07/2022 to 03/08/2022 Lightyear, 23/07/2022 to 11/08/2022

Gongs in the Garden, 21/07/22 to 29/09/22

Throughout the summer, gong musician Roger Hall will be sending the atmospheric and ancient sound of gongs into our beautiful Gardens.

The City Musick, 23/07/22

Dartington’s favourite early wind ensemble gets our month-long music festival off to a joyous start with a programme of dances and polyphony written for 16th-century German court and town bands.

As always, Come along to our weekly Saturday market showcasing the best in local food, crafts, music and more!

To find out about all these events go to the Dartington website   To learn more about the ecological crisis and the vital role art and culture plays in creating a regenerative future, subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify

Welcome to another episode of Arts & Ecology. This is our second episode and we're so glad you are joining us. 

Arts & Ecology is a brand new podcast about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future.

In this episode, we talk to the historic Dartington Summer School Artistic Director, Sara Mohr-Pietsch. Sara is a music broadcaster, curator and writer. She is one of the best-known voices on BBC Radio 3, where she hosts the experimental late-night show, Night Tracks, and has presented Breakfast, Music Matters and Hear and Now.

Sara and Natasha discuss how the power of listening is a transformative act for anyone interested in mitigating the ecological crisis. She shares with listeners her curatorial approach and how she creates events and experiences that are more democratic and bring people together for a unique experience. Sara also discusses with Natasha her own journey with nature and how she is raising her daughter in this new era of climate emergency. Listen to find out more about Sara’s extraordinary experience and insightful ideas. 

WHAT'S ON AT DARTINGTON THIS WEEK

Ways With Words, 12/07/2022 to 17/07/2022

This annual festival, which takes place in the Dartington Trust grounds, exists to celebrate and promote the power and potential of the written and spoken word.

In the gallery, Marianne de Trey, 12/07/2022 to 15/07/2022

A retrospective of the work of Marianne de Trey, showing the breadth of her talent and skill as a potter and artist - from unique one off pieces to sets of tableware; stoneware to porcelain.

Short Course, Finding Your Voice, 15/07/22

Discover who you are through song: this is a chance to find your own authentic voice with the support of a community of like-minded people 

In the Barn Cinema, a terrifically entertaining biopic of the iconic singer, played with verve, wild physicality and burn-the-screen-down charisma by Austin Butler

Come along to our weekly Saturday market showcasing the best in local food, crafts, music, and more!

To find out about all these events go to the Dartington website

To learn more about the ecological crisis and the vital role art and culture plays in creating a regenerative future, subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify. 

In this inaugural episode, Arts and Ecology co-host Natasha Rivett-Carnac and O + O Executive Producer Sarah Thomas discuss “Our Time on Earth,” a major multimedia exhibition currently running at the Barbican in London with co-curator Caroline Till. Till is the co-founder of FRANKLINTILL, a research agency exploring design, colour, and material innovation for a sustainable future. 

You’ll also hear from two teams who collaborated on exhibition pieces. Jonathan Chippindale, CEO of the award-winning digital retail agency, Holition, and George Monbiot, writer, Guardian columnist and environmental activist bring us The World Beneath Our Feet. The piece was inspired by “The Wonders of Soil,” the first chapter in Monbiot’s latest book, Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet.

Next, we hear from Anab Jain and Jon Ardern, the co-founders of Superflux, an award-winning experimental design agency creating visceral experiences that bring future possibilities into the present. Their exhibition piece, a lavish multi-species banquet, is entitled, Refuge for Resurgence.

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Notes and Resources 

To explore more about the interconnection between art, ecology, and culture, subscribe to the  Dartington Arts School’s podcast Arts and Ecology.

Natasha Rivett-Carnac, curator, Arts and Ecology, Dartington School of Arts 

The exhibit Our Time on Earth, created by Caroline Till and Kate Franklin, will be at the Barbican in London from Thursday, 5 May to Monday, 29 Aug 2022. 

Caroline Till is Co-Founder of FRANKLINTILL. Her book, co-written with business partner and co-curator, Kate Franklin, is Radical Matter: Rethinking Materials for a Sustainable Future and can be purchased here or in the US, here.

Jonathan Chippindale, is CEO of Holition. 

You can get George Monbiot’s latest book, Regenisis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet, here. Or in the US, here.

Anab Jain and John Arden are co-founders of Superflux.

You can listen to Jain and Arden’s full sound piece accompanying their exhibition piece, Refuge for Resurgence, here.

This week at Dartington

July 6th - 9th: Dartington Playgoers will be giving an open air performance of Shakespeare's as you like it.

July 9th: Mbira player Millicent Chopin performs storytelling through music and dance.

Make sure to come along to our Saturday market on 9th July, showcasing the best local food and more.

July 8th - 17th: Ways with Words, a festival of words and ideas will be on the Dartington estate.

In the gallery we have a retrospective of potter Marianne de Trey.

Arts and Ecology is a brand new podcast about the vital role art and culture play in creating a regenerative future. This season we ask one question, "What is the artists' role during an ecological emergency?" We interview authors, curators, and artists. It's hosted by Natasha Rivett-Carnac, Curator of Arts & Ecology at Dartington Trust, and Mike Edwards, Senior Lecturer at Dartington Arts School and Chief Listening Officer at Sound Matters.