seed setNEW PROJECTS

 

writing water magic - poems @ placestories

Every night I practice writing a short poem about the magic of water. I aim to do so for all the 366 dayz of 2012. You can find them on the Placestories project 2012 In Practice

 

tree fuel - now online!

Tree Fuel is my Masters Research project! The Tree Fuel project intersects gatherings  or ‘nodes’ where I have the opportunity to cross-pollinate skills with great people who are working for a healthy & diverse future. The Tree Fuel website documents those intersections and opens more connection points. This is a collective story – so please add yours if you feel inspired - visit www.treefuel.net for sounds, pics & words!

Or visit the PlaceStories project site by clicking here Tree Fuel

 

 

murray river slow flow - 2012

We're planning a 2012 slow flow trip down the Murray to bring together cross-cultural, cross-discipline and ecological conversations about future flows for the cultural and biological ecosystems interconnected with this incredible water system of Australia. Watch this space as the idea has just germinated! Or if you are interested please get in contact for a chat.

 

waterlab - 2011

The WaterLab interactive symposium is presented in close association with the Floating Land Festival. It presents a highly engaging laboratory-style symposium. Over two days (4-5 June) the Water Lab brings together leading thinkers, scientists, artists, designers, sociologists and participants to deeply consider a spectrum of water issues. The Lab will collectively explore the development of new creative-cultural-ecological hybrids and initiatives to flow into the future. The Water Lab keynote speakers include UN scientist Ramon Guardans, academic Dr Claudia Baldwin and interdisciplinary artist Dr Ros Bandt. The event is facilitated by The Last Tree's Ilka Nelson in collaboration with Tega Brain and assistance from Leah Barclay.

For further details see here.    Symposium pdf.     Program pdf.

 

floating land - 2011

This year at Floating Land Ilka Blue wore a number of creative hats (and her own signature one). Installation Artist, Deep Ecology workshop facilitator and co-designer of the WaterLab symposium. For more detail visit the website link above. A new blog is in development to house the documentation from the workshops - check it out Tree Fuel.

flwshop

flart

 

WAM! - ongoing

The Last Tree writes a regular column for Wildlife Australia Magazine on human ecology and the patterns between cultural and biological systems and scales. Subscriptions and back issues can be ordered at this weblink.

wam

 

ecosapiens - 2011

"The complexity and urgency of the global ecological crises of today calls for us to engage together in new ways. Deep shifts in our consciousness may be required for long-term cultural changes to occur. In what ways might we encourage a kind of ‘reboot’ and re-imagining of our narratives about ourselves as a species, so to inspire ourselves towards more co-beneficial relationships with the biosphere?" Ecosapiens 2011

The Last Tree sent a storybox over to the Ecosapiens event to record ecological stories. It was a prototype project, exploring being absent in place - how to connect from a distance - the challenges of practicing globally and minimising emissions. Click here to see the poster that accompanied the storybox.

 

bat/human project - 2010

This Lab was conducted in Sydney in partnership with the UTS Participatory Design Conference and UTS. The lab examined the Bat-Human interface/relationship – in light of the forthcoming relocation of 22,000 vulnerable flying foxes from the Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney.

The flying fox is an Australian ‘keystone’ species whose ‘critical services’ to our ecosystems include the long-range dispersal of seeds and the cross-pollination of numerous Australian native trees, thereby genetically re-linking habitats fragmented by clearing and fostering the adaptation required by changing climate.

The broad aim of the Australia Council ‘Art lab’ initiative is to promote research and development projects (with an artistic process) that pursue “radical creative processes” and that are “flexible to outcomes that cannot be predicted in advance”.

Our core team in Sydney (pictured below) included media artist Keith Armstrong, artist/designer Natalie Jeremijenko, filmmaker James Muller, design theorist Tony Fry, sound artist Leah Barclay, The Last Tree transdisciplinary artist Ilka Nelson, roboticist/puppeteer Kirsty Boyle and Environmental Engineer/Media Artist Tega Brain. This second of five ‘labs’ had a particular focus on Natalie Jeremijenko’s ‘X-Clinic’ methods. It was conducted between the 17th-30th November 2010 in Sydney with outcomes presented both at the UTS Gallery in Ultimo and at PDC (Participatory Design Conference) 2010 on 30th November.

During our ‘Artlab’ in Sydney we actively involved a range of stakeholders (e.g. the gardens staff, bat conservation groups, artists, architects, academics, designers and anyone from the public expressing their interest/concern). Our particular focus was on those too impatient to wait for others to tackle this ‘bat-human problem’. We worked with these citizens to creatively ‘discuss’ these pressing ‘ecological health’ concerns.

This ‘community health’ building process was supported through a range of social networking strategies, blogs and mobile formats as well as live, projected and sonic elements. Click here to see the video and the mock Barangaroo website which was created as a 'new narrative' and future vision of urban ecological spaces.

team

ArtLab - 2010 to 2012

The REMNANT/EMERGENCY ArtLab is a two-year long project (2010-12), supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council (Inter Arts), in collaboration with QUT Creative Industries, the UTS Research Centres for Contemporary Design Practices and Human-Centred Technology Design & Embodiedmedia. Other partners include, (or have previously included) UTS Gallery, The Edge, NYU Environmental Health Clinic, the Participatory Design Conference (PDC 2010),Scanz 2011 EcoSapienz, Art Center Nabi (Korea) and Earthbase Productions.

The REMNANT/EMERGENCY ArtLab pivots on a series of site specific Labs in the Australian neighbouring regions of South-East Asia & the Pacific between 2010 and 2012. The labs involves rigorous research and experimentation offering the team an opportunity to understand and engage with ideas of remnant self, culture and environments, assisted through an examination of the complexity of cultures and inter-cultural exchange.

The Artlab team understands itself to be a new ‘change community’ in that we share a commonality of belief (that also respects our differences) – that we must apply our work towards envisaging an environmentally/culturally sustainable future.

As a group we are therefore investigating new modes of creative thinking/action together that confront the roots of today’s ecological crisis. By naming the root of this crisis as cultural (rather than scientific) we clearly understand the problem we face as a being a ‘problem of us’. Towards that end we are seeking to develop new imaginaries that question deeply-ingrained, unsustainable ways of thinking and acting.

By conducting a series of labs in different geographical locations the project gives us an unparalleled opportunity to learn from other cultures whose practices are both different and potentially more sustainable than our own – and to then re-think and re-apply those sustaining knowledges to our own ‘change-politics’ activities.

The discoveries made through these labs also translate into each member’s discipline/practice evolving into a methodology that is both increasingly sensitive to intangible cultural heritage and that forges new processes that seek to target the roots of our collective ecological crisis.

The core team includes media artist Keith Armstrong, design theorist Tony Fry and sound artist Leah Barclay and we are working actively with other collaborators when local opportunities arise. QUT put forward 3 full Masters Scholarships to support the program and these were awarded to: creative environmentalist Ilka Nelson from The Last Tree, roboticist/puppeteer Kirsty Boyle and Environmental Engineer/Media Artist Tega Brain.

.artlab

 

blog - growing now

Check out The Last Tree blog for ongoing musings on this magical and turning world.