Ecosystem Member

Ecosystem Member

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NATURE
UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Ecosystem Member

Ecosystem Member explores the relationship people have with nature and the more-than-human world. www.ecosystemmember.com

JAN 8

The Sound of Nature with Madame Gandhi, Musical Artist & Activist

Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to the first episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast for 2025 with the incredible award-winning musician, producer and activist Madame Gandhi. Madame Gandhi is the stage name of Kiran Gandhi who uses her music and voice to support personal expression, female empowerment and most recently - nature. She began producing music in 2015 after her story of free-bleeding while running the London Marathon went viral. Since then, she’s been named a TED Fellow and to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for music and the BBC 100 Women list. And in 2023 she was awarded the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Abe Olman award for excellence in songwriting and leadership. As we discuss in the episode, after connecting with nature more deeply during the COVID-19 lockdown when it was seen as a safe space for activity, Kiran pursued a Masters in Music, Science and Technology from Stanford. In this program, she learned how to build a hydrophone and had the opportunity to travel to Antarctica where she recorded the sound of glaciers melting that make up her song ‘In Purpose’. That song - ‘In Purpose’ is unique in that it is made completely of recordings Kiran captured in nature - which is credited on the track - and is part of EarthPercent’s Sounds Right initiative with a portion of streaming royalties going to conversation efforts and projects to mitigate the effects of climate change. I think you’ll be able to tell from the episode that I was pretty excited to get to chat with Kiran and as excited for you to get to listen to this conversation we recorded about a month ago. We talk about her background growing up in metropolitan cities around the world, how the pandemic shifted her relationship with nature and how she actually goes about capturing and creating music from nature sounds. She has an amazing aim to combine her already empowering lyrics with music that is 100% sourced from nature, while considering how she can be a positive addition to the soundscape. Kiran’s work is a great example of how our relationship with nature can become a source of artistic and creative expression. Links Madame Gandhi Website Madame Gandhi Instagram ‘In Purpose’ on Spotify ‘In Purpose’ on Apple Music EarthPercent Sounds Right

35 min
12/18/2024

Showing Another Way with Maja K Mikkelsen, "The Last Observers"

Episode Page Our guest for this episode is the filmmaker and artist, Maja K. Mikkelsen. And the occasion of our conversation is her latest film - ‘The Last Observers’ - which comes out December 18 in the United States and has already been out in Europe. It’s a brilliant portrayal of a Swedish couple’s 36 year commitment to record the weather, every three hours, every day for 36 years. And for you bird nerds listening, they are based in Falsterbo one of the top destinations for observing the autumn bird migration in Europe, where they initially started their life together ringing birds. And the couple - Karin and Lennart - also happen to be Maja’s parents. I really love this film because it is shows another way. The way I see Karin and Lennart is as a different sort of activist. They have a deep contentment and gratitude for what they have in a Western society where the prevailing attitude is for faster, more and better. They also show deep commitment - to each other and to the more-than-human world. Every day, every third hour for 36 years they recorded the weather. And before they took over the weather station, they worked so they could volunteer to ring birds in Falsterbo. Yes, we need the Greta’s of the world and Extinction Rebellion. But we also need people like Karin and Lennart who push against harmful cultural norms in a much more quiet fashion. Not everyone can or wants to lead a march or get arrested through civil disobedience or free solo El Capitan in Yosemite. They show through Maja’s film that there is more than one way to live and have a relationship with nature and the more than human world. We’ve talked to some amazing artists this year and I’m glad we are ending the year with one of the most thoughtful. Maja’s film is top notch in my book and many other seem to agree as it earned Best Short Film at Mounatainfilm and Best Cinematography and Best Director at the Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival in South Korea, apologies for what I am sure is not the correct pronunciation. If you go to patagonia.com/stories, you can find the film or visit majakmikkelsen.com. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to post a comment to this episode if you’re watching on YouTube or Spotify. Links Maja K Mikkelsen Website Patagonia “The Last Observers”

30 min
12/11/2024

Generating Empathy with the More than Human with Jenny Kendler, Artist and Environmental Activist

Episode Page The latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast is with the amazing interdisciplinary artist and environmental activist, Jenny Kendler. Many of you listening are probably familiar with Kendler's work thanks to her most recent solo project on Governors Island being reviewed and featured on the front page of The New York Times. The exhibition included nine sculptures that used materials from the ocean itself to raise awareness about endangered marine ecosystems. In the episode we talk about the piece “Other of Pearl”, which is made up of 12 oyster half shells where the oyster shell was grown around a bio-based figures of Greek and Roman antiquities. The exhibition is a perfect example of Kendler's work, which aims decenter the human to make space for the full biodiversity of Earth. Some of the other pieces we discuss include 'Birds Watching', which inverts the gaze of birdwatching using the eyes of endangered and/or threatened birds due to climate change, and 'Music for Elephants', which uses a player piano with ivory keys playing music created from data on elephant poaching that is driven by the ivory trade. As a podcast that aims to examine the relationship humans have with nature and the more-than-human world, her work is an incredible example of how art can ask big questions about that relationship. While the conversation focuses on her artistic work - which has been shown around the world at London’s Hayward Gallery, Storm King Art Center, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the MCA Chicago and public locations as diverse as urban riverwalks, remote deserts and tropical forests - we also talk about her own relationship with nature and the more-than-human world. The topic being particularly relevant as she was just named an Artistic Fellow for the Center for Humans and Nature after spending 10 years as the artist-in-residence with the environmental non-profit NRDC, the Natural Resources Defense Council. She also sits on boards for 350.org and artist residency ACRE, and is a co-founder of Artists Commit, an artist-led effort to raise climate-consciousness in the art world. We talk a lot about specific pieces in this episode, so make sure to visit the podcast episode page at ecosystemmember.com/podcast, or watch the episode on Spotify or YouTube to see the work we're discussing. Thanks to Jenny for taking time to chat openly about her work and background, and thanks to you for listening. If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform and if you are so inclined leave us a five star review. These are signals to the platform that the podcast has value and increases its visibility to potential listeners. Links Jenny Kendler's Website Jenny Kendler's Instagram Jenny Kendler in The New York Times Thomas Nagel / What is it like to be a bat? Billion Oyster Project Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson's Climate Action Venn

39 min
11/27/2024

Collaborating with Nightingales with Musician Sam Lee

Hey folks, welcome to the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. We’ve got a really great episode for you today with musician, writer and nature campaigner, Sam Lee. If you aren’t familiar with Sam, he is a Mercury Prize-nominated folk musician who has broken through to the mainstream. His latest album ‘songdreaming’ earned a five-star review from The Guardian and was named Mojo’s Album of the Month. When I set out to explore the relationships humans have with nature and the more-than-human world, I wasn’t sure what I’d find. Many of these relationships are based on taking resources or inspiration from nature, but Sam’s relationship with the nightingale is one of collaboration - across several mediums. In addition to collaborating with the nightingale on songs like ‘Bushes & Briars & Birds’, which is part of the EarthPercent and Sounds Right initiative to credit and financially recognize through royalties the more-than-human world as a musical contributor, Sam runs immersive events every spring called ‘Singing With Nightingales', where seekers can join Sam and a guest musician to delve into the forest at night and sing with the nightingales. It sounds like a truly magical experience that we discuss in more depth in the podcast. Sam also wrote the book ‘The Nightingale: Notes on a Songbird’ that was called the nature book of the year when it was released in 2021 and has collaborated with organizations like Emergence Magazine, Huck and On the Edge to create films around his connection with the nightingale. What's worrying is that the UK is on track to lose the nightingale entirely within the next 40 years. Future generations may not even have the chance to connect and collaborate with the nightingale, making it all the more important that we connect people with it now so we can understand what we might be losing. Make sure to visit Sam's website at samleesong.co.uk and follow him on Instagram at samleesong. He's got some amazing events coming up. Tickets are on sale today - November 27 - at for Signing with the Nightingales 2025, and he'll be performing in the coming months at venues including Edinburgh Castle and Royal Albert Hall. Huge thanks to Sam for taking time to chat. I got a bit rambly in my questions as I am a big fan of Sam's music and was just a little nervous to say the least, but I really hope you enjoy the outcome. And if you are intrigued by the idea of Earthpercent and Sounds Right, make sure to stay tuned as we'll have more artists on who have participated in this effort. You can find about more about EarthPercent at earthpercent.org and on Instagram at @earthpercent. It is really the music industry's climate foundation was was founded by the legendary musician and creative catalyst Brian Eno. And what's really cool is that anyone in music - not just the musician, so think promoters and venue artists - can work with EarthPercent to include Earth as a stakeholder in their activities. All of the money raised is distributed to fund climate solutions by an Expert Advisory panel of leading climate scientists, researchers and advisors. Links Sam Lee Website Signing with Nightingales Website Sam Lee on Instagram Sam Lee on Spotify Sam Lee X On the Edge X Huck Sam Lee X Emergence Magazine

35 min
11/20/2024

Putting the Human Back in Nature with Eyes as Big as Plates

Hey folks, welcome to the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. We’re now into our second episode of season two exploring our relationship with nature and the more-than-human world through the medium of the arts. Our guests for this episode is the Norweigan-Finnish duo behind the project ‘Eyes as Big as Plates’. If you haven’t seen their work before, Karoline and Riitta collaborate with a person - they started out focusing on elders but now engage people who have something to say about the climate crisis or are engaged in it in some way - and really a place to create an image. The human is fitted with a wearable sculpture featuring organic materials such as sticks or shells or fungi that match the setting so that the composition integrates the person into a place they have a connection to. They’ve created more than 150 of these images - and released two books of the images - since the project started in 2011. In the episode, we talk about how the project was initially influenced by Nordic folklore, working with serendipity as a project manager, how the word ‘nature’ in and of itself can create artificial separations and a new school program the duo is working on with students in Eastern Finland to create their own Eyes as Big as Plates-style images and display them alongside the duo’s work. I am a really big fan of Karoline and Riitta’s work and their curiosity about people and the more-than-human world really radiates in our conversation. They consider the project an Adventure Club now combining landscape work, sculpture, photography, storytelling and anthropology as well. It was a real treat to get to chat with them and I hope you enjoy the episode. On the Eyes as Big as Plates website you can see more of their work and - most importantly - buy your own copy of their book ‘Eyes as Big as Plates 2’, with the proceeds going to create book number three, which will feature works created with mycologists, biologists, soil scientists and operate singers. As you’ll hear in the episode, seeing the final images is great, but getting to read the story along with each piece adds new layers and depth to the image. Links Eyes as Big as Plates Website Buy Book 2 from EyesAsBigAsPlates.com Behind the Scenes of Eyes as Big as Plates Details for Work Shown:Eyes as Big as Plates # Giuliana (Colorado 2024) Giuliana is the founder of the Fungi Foundation (Chile), a Harvard University associate, National Geographic Explorer, Dame of the Order of the Star of Italy, deputy chair of the IUCN Fungal Conservation Committee and an essayist for upcoming Eyes as Big as Plates exhibitions and book. Giuliana’s portrait is part of a new commission for the ‘Anthropogenic Soils’ project with University of Oslo, created during the Telluride Mushroom Festival Festival, with support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation artist grant as well as the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York. 120 x 100 cm, digital C-type.

31 min
11/06/2024

What makes an ecological artist? with Lucia Pietroiusti, Head of Ecologies at the Serpentine

Lucia Pietroiusti is the Head of Ecologies at the Serpentine in London and the first guest of Season Two of the Ecosystem Member podcast. If you aren’t familiar with the Serpentine, it is a contemporary art gallery in Kensington Gardens. And better yet, admission to the galleries is free for all visitors making it incredibly accessible. Lucia is one of the driving forces behind the Serpentine’s work as a curator, programmer and organizational strategist. As the Head of Ecologies, she works at the intersection of art, ecology and systems. Her role is to embed environmental responsibility throughout the Serpentine’s infrastructure, operations, networks and programming. She also happened to create this role out of the General Ecology project we discuss in the episode that she started in 2018. However, her influence stretches beyond the bounds of Kensington Gardens. She was the curator for the Golden Lion-winning opera performance ‘Sun & Sea’ at the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale and the ‘Songs for the Changing Seasons’ exhibition at Vienna’s first Climate Biennale earlier this year. After you listen to the episode, make sure to check out her website that is linked in the show notes because this is just the tip of the iceberg of her work. If you aren’t subscribed to our Substack, you can also visit ecosystemmember.com to check out a post with photos and videos of many of the projects we talk about in the episode. We’re going to try to do a bit more with the Substack this Season to help you learn more about our guests and amazing art around the world, so make sure to subscribe. Huge thanks for everyone who is tuning in and if you enjoy this episode, please make sure to leave us a five-star review of Spotify, Apple Podcasts or give this episode a thumbs up on YouTube. Those a key signals to the platforms that this content is interesting and valuable and helps it become more discoverable to other potential listeners. And it helps us keep attracting great guests like Lucia. Links Lucia Pietroiusti Website Lucia Pietroiusti on Instagram ‘Sun & Sea’ ‘Songs for the Changing Seasons' Infinite Ecologies Marathon at Serpentine General Ecology at Serpentine

36 min
SEASON 2 TRAILER

Season Two Trailer

Asking Big Questions About Our Relationship with Nature through Art Just like in nature, everything has a season. We're getting ready for Season Two of Ecosystem Member and we're hoping to figure out how to tell a better story as we explore the relationship between humans and the more than human world through the lens of artistic work.

5 min
10/29/2024

Listening to the Rest of the Gang with Jeff Perry, Angel City Lumber

This is our last episode of season one and I don’t think we could end on a better episode. Our guest is Jeff Perry, founder of ⁠Angel City Lumber⁠, a really unique place-based lumberyard in Los Angeles that sources only from fallen trees, trees removed in construction and trees removed due to things like disease in Los Angeles County. And the thoughtfulness in Jeff’s approach to lumber is only part of Jeff’s thoughtfulness as a person. In this episode, we discuss what it means to not think about our role as humans as stewards or saviors but just one of the gang. We also talk about how industrialized lumber has created separation between us and the trees that for so many of us are fixtures in our lives. And in this way, Angel City Lumber’s approach is helping maintain those connections using technology like QR codes to reconnect a piece of flooring or a board with the tree it came from, and where that tree itself is from. But this conversation stretches far beyond lumber. Jeff shares his perspective about how - as one of the gang - we need to do more listening and less pontificating, adjusting for our human impulse to fix. His connection with trees goes deeper than lumber, taking time to listen and connect with trees often. This one is a little bit longer but well worth your time. Angel City Lumber - https://www.angelcitylumber.com Would Works - https://www.wouldworks.com

45 min

TRAILER

Season Two Trailer

Asking Big Questions About Our Relationship with Nature through Art Just like in nature, everything has a season. We're getting ready for Season Two of Ecosystem Member and we're hoping to figure out how to tell a better story as we explore the relationship between humans and the more than human world through the lens of artistic work.

S2

•

5 min

5

out of 5

3 Ratings

Ecosystem Member explores the relationship people have with nature and the more-than-human world. www.ecosystemmember.com

Creator

Ecosystem Member
Years Active

2023 - 2025
Episodes

33
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Ecosystem Member
Show Website

Ecosystem Member