The tactile and immaterial qualities of woodland habitats as part of Mutable EcologiesDiscussion 1:There is still time to register for the first lunchtime discussion for Mutable Ecologies, TODAY at 1pm AEDT. The tactile and immaterial qualities of woodland habitats invites you to a conversation between esteemed Japanese artist Takashi Kuribayashi and renowned environmentalist Bob Brown following an introduction by Dr Yuki Matsuoka, Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The session will reflect on concepts related
to thresholds and Kuribayashi’s statement; "The truth resides in places that are invisible. Once you are aware of that there is a different world out of sight, you will be living in a different way." The discussion will include simultaneous audio translation in English and Japanese.
Date: TODAY – Wednesday, 20 October 2021
Time: 1.00pm – 2.30pm AEDT / 11.00am – 12.30pm JST/Tokyo time
Location: Online
Discussion 2:
Experiencing Woodlands through Science in 1913Design luminary and social historian, Sarah Teasley will present on 'Experiencing Woodlands through Science in 1913' followed by a discussion with forest ecologist Rodney Keenan and earth science and disaster resilience researcher Kikuko Shoyama. In this talk, Sarah Teasley will explore what happened when one local forest in Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan – with its particular and unique
climate, species populations, soil, orientation and location, all with their own material affordances – encountered ideas, technologies and materials from further afield. Working from period experimental reports, contemporary plant biology research and fieldwork, Sarah will suggest that attending to the micro-interactions of wood, water and microbes can illuminate both human power relations and – perhaps as importantly – suggest more ethical and accurate ways to live in the world. The discussion will include simultaneous audio translation in English and Japanese.
Date: Monday, 25 October 2021
Time: 1.00pm – 2.00pm AEDT / 11.00am – 12.00pm JST/Tokyo time
Location: Online
Discussion 3:
Elegy for an Occupied Forest Filmmaker and artist Polly Stanton presents 'Elegy for an Occupied Forest’ discussing how pine plantations present eerie life worlds profoundly shaped and recomposed by the productions of capital. They are vibrant sites that remake the forest into a strange and occupied landscape of human-made modification and disturbance. Following her short talk is a discussion with Ainu artist Kohei Fujito and Song Woman and Story Teller, Yorta Yorta woman Ruth Langford. Polly Stanton
explores these complex forest assemblages through the moving image work Indefinite Terrains (2019), which traces the delicate ecologies and entanglements of the Moonlight Flat Pine Plantation in Dja Dja Wurrung country (Central Victoria, Australia). By recounting the process of working with these spaces, as well as thinking alongside a number of writers and theorists, Polly considers the plantation as an ecotone of submerged histories and indeterminate futures. The discussion will include simultaneous audio translation in English and Japanese. Date: Wednesday, 3 November 2021
Time: 1.00pm – 2.00pm AEDT / 11.00am – 12.00pm JST/Tokyo time
Location: Online
Inhabiting Extremes SAVE THE DATE for the final public forum for Mutable Ecologies. Date: Wednesday, 24 November 2021
Time: Commencing 1.00pm AEDT / 11.00am JST/Tokyo time
Location: Online Speakers include: Miranda Nieboer, Affiliated researcher at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) – University of Tasmania (UTAS); Fumitaka Nishino; Motoko Okumoko, Hokkaido University Communicators in Science and Technology Education Program (CoSTEP); Yoshihiro Nakayama, Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University; and Malte Wagenfeld, School of Design, RMIT University. Stay tuned for more information to be announced.
The tactile and immaterial qualities of woodland habitats series forms a part of Mutable Ecologies. The program is presented by Asialink Arts and RMIT University, supported by CAST Research Group, RMIT University and the Australian Government through the Australia-Japan Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Asialink Arts elevates the agency and capability of the Australian arts sector to engage with Asia, through insight, connections, and enhanced capability. Stay connected for all our upcoming initiatives and be part of our creative journey unfolding across the region.
Asialink Arts programs have been supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments and by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria. Visit asialink.unimelb.edu.au
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Level 4, Sidney Myer Asia Centre
The University of Melbourne
Wurundjeri Country
Parkville VIC 3010, Australia Asialink Arts acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Land and recognises their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past and present on whose lands we work across Australia.
Header image 1: Takashi Kuribayashi, GENKI-RO / No.0, Toyama, Japan, 2020. Photo by Rai Shizuno.
Header image 2: Sarah Teasley, Forested hills at the edge of Tendō City, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, 2012.
Header image 3: Polly Stanton, Skulls, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.
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