Tag Archives: Ecology

Lying on a Daily Basis

Cornelia Hesse-Honegger works at the interface between art and science. Describing herself as a ‘science artist,’ she worked for 25 years, as a scientific illustrator for the Natural History Museum at the University of Zurich. From 1969 onwards, she collected and painted True bugs, Heteroptera.

Inspired by the effects witnessed by the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and a mutated Drosophila experiment in 1967, she has devoted her life to depicting the effects of radiation and fallout by radioactivity throughout the world.

Her work stands as both a testament to the harmful effects of high radiation levels and the harmful effects mankind has on nature and our environment.

Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway – Foghorn Requiem

Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway have worked together since the early 1990’s, developing large scale performances, multimedia installations and site-specific work, usually in collaboration with organizations and experts across many specialized fields. In 2013 they developed ‘Foghorn Requiem’, a requiem for disappearing sound, performed by the Souter Lighthouse foghorn, three brass bands and fifty ships out in the North Sea. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, they discuss this work as well as their other projects.

Six amazing facts you need to know about ants

Charlie Durant is a PhD Candidate, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester.
“I study the microbial ecology of these ant-phage-bacteria communities by studying their entire genetic content, or metagenome. I hope to find out whether bacteriophage are important in shaping the communities of bacteria that live with ants.”

Max John is a PhD Candidate, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, University of Leicester.
“I am studying the genomics of social organisation, focusing on the genomic basis of polymorphic social organisation in ants. Specifically, I am investigating the evolution of “social chromosomes”, which function similarly to sex chromosomes but control the number of reproductive queens in ant colonies.”

Rob Hammond is a Lecturer, Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester.
“My research focuses on the evolution of complex traits. I am interested in the organization of social insect societies with projects on the genetic changes underlying differences in social organisation, how social traits influence the genome, and the diversity and role of bacteriophages in social insect nests.

If animals could speak, would we understand them?

Jennifer Ann McDonell is Associate Professor, University of New England.
“The ‘NonHuman turn’ in the Humanities, which emerged in the final decades of the twentieth century, addresses some the most urgent and difficult conceptual issues in Humanities scholarship: the politics and material practices of species difference, the functions of animals in nature/cultures, and the fragile status of the ‘human’ in an era of accelerated environmental crisis. Supported by both textual analysis and archival work, my research in this area aims to identify and analyse intersections between species and discourses of gender, class, race, ethnicity in Victorian literature and culture.”

On a Multispecies Studio

Julie Andreyev is an artist-activist, researcher and educator in Vancouver, located on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish people, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations, as well as the unceded traditional territories of nonhuman animals and plantlife. Her multispecies studio practice, called Animal Lover, explores more-than-human creativity and ways of knowing.

Aquaforming

Robertina Šebjanič is an artist whose work explores the biological, chemical, political and cultural realities of aquatic environments and the impact of humanity on other organisms. Her projects call for the development of empathetic strategies aimed at recognising the rights of other (non-human) species.

Extract from ‘Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps’

Seirian Sumner is a Professor of Behavioural Ecology at University College London, where she studies the ecology and evolution of social insects. she passionately fights for the wasp to be rightly reframed in the public’s consciousness. From their extraordinary evolutionary story and ecological significance to their sophisticated social worlds, unique hunting methods and cultural inspiration she unravels all their mysteries, challenges our perceptions, and gives reasons to value them, stirring new heraldry for these undiscovered gems of nature. This is an extract from her debut book, ‘Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps’ (William Collins, 2022).

On ‘Nature Fast and Nature Slow’

Nicholas P. Money (Nik Money) is a gentleman of letters, mycologist, and professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of popular science books that celebrate the diversity of the microbial world. His latest book, ‘Nature Fast and Nature Slow: How Life Works, from Fractions of a Second to Billions of Years’, is a vision of biology set within the entire timescale of the universe. It is about the timing of life, from microsecond movements to evolutionary changes over millions of years.

Buster Simpson – Proto-Habitat Design Sculpture

Seattle artist Buster Simpson is a pioneer in the field of urban environmentalism and art in public spaces. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, Simpson has been dedicated to working in the public realm; his method is grounded in a farsighted contract between the artist and where he lives. His career parallels the rise of public art in the Pacific Northwest and he has played a crucial role in establishing Seattle as a significant center for community-minded artistic practice. In this interview with art and ecology author, John K. Grande, he discusses his ideas and work.