Tending Tomorrow: conversations on the future of living well‪.‬ Coe Douglas & Trudy Watt

In this episode of Tending Tomorrow, Coe and I welcome our very first guest, artist - educator - and, as he puts it, multi-hyphenate identifying Milwaukeean, Jeff Zimpel. We talk about the role that ritual plays in making art and practical reverence. Our conversation ranges from art and architecture, to education and ecology, an old-timey bellows as an act of performance art, and much more.

Please note: The Saint Kate Arts Hotel has extended Jeff's Studio Ecology into a yearlong residency that will culminate in August of 2023, with The Living Studio Conference. Keep an eye out for more on this event.


Places we talk about in this episode

Arts at Large in Milwaukee, WI

Forest Beach Migratory Preserve in Port Washington, WI

Artservancy in Port Washington, WI

St. Kate Arts Hotel in Milwaukee, WI

References we discuss in this episode

Garrison Institute, dir. 2021. The More than Human World with David Abram. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_2B5lyNt_o.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. 2015. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. First Paperback edition. Minneapolis, Minn: Milkweed Editions.

“On Slowness – Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects.” https://twbta.com/and-also/on-slowness/.

In this episode, we dig into the origins of our name, the many perils of yes, and, trickster thinking and more-than-human design. We try and figure out what Milwaukee really means and how it figures into potential climate futures. Trudy and I discuss the good life, how our work is like gardening, liminal cookies, and oblique strategies. Yes, my friends, You’ll find all that and more on this very first episode of Tending Tomorrow.

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Notes:

[This title was misattributed in the episode to Eben Rexford. While you should check out his books, the correct creators are listed here.] Barnas, Marieke, René de Kam, Patricia de Vries, Liesbeth Helmus, Erik de Jong, Alhena Katsof, Jamaica Kincaid, and Catriona Sandilands. 2021. On the Necessity of Gardening: An ABC of Art, Botany and Cultivation. Edited by Laurie Cluitmans. Amsterdam: Valiz.

Eno, Brian. 1979. Oblique Strategies: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas.

Odell, Jenny. 2019. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House.

Graeber, David, and David Wengrow. 2021. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. First Edition. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[On “Yes, and….] Poynton, Robert. 2014. Do Improvise: Less Push. More Pause. Better Results. The Do Book Company: The Do Book Company.

[Are marshmallows disgusting? We say, yes. Discuss.]

[On the idea of “exo-disciplines] Garfield, Michael. August 16, 2020. “A Unifying Meta-Theory of UFOs & The Weird.” With Sean Esbjörn-Hargens.

Future Fossils. https://shows.acast.com/futurefossils/episodes/150.

Thompson Fullilove, Mindy. October 26, 2020. “The Social and Ecological Aspects of the Psychology of Place.” Yale Architecture Symposium. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M13iF69yEj8.

Spheeris, Penelope. 1992. Wayne’s World. Comedy, Music. Paramount Pictures.

Wikipedia entry on Milwaukee

Harris, Sam. July 14, 2022. “The End of Global Order.” WIth Ian Bremmer and Peter Zeihan. Making Sense. https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/288-the-end-of-global-order.

Raworth, Kate. 2017. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.

[Short video with Bruce Mau defining “life centered design] ]bodw+. 2022. Life Centered Design by Bruce Mau | BODW 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcLH5Cucmvg.

This is Tending Tomorrow: conversations on the future of living well

Our show explores how we live, age, and find happiness in uncertain times. We’ll explore the “good life,” well-being, ecology, the built environment, the commons, mutual care, community engagement, art and activism, applied compassion, well-being, and much more.

We’re more interested in good questions than firm answers and we take the long view - creating a new mythology in collaboration with each other, our community, and our guests.

This podcast is a Living Well Initiative project and is recorded at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, and is a collaboration between the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP), the Peck School of the Arts, and made possible by a collaboratory grant from the Center for 21st Century Studies. 

Learn more at the Living Well Initiative website.