Tapped In: Statements & Team Bios
VR Tour in Kuula
Welcome! Here you'll find biographies and artist statements for the artist and scientist collaborations of Tapped In, on view at The Umbrella Arts Center. For those on-site at The Umbrella using mobile, feel free to click through our VR guide. Or, read all the bios and statements on this page below the VR gallery!
Connection, Curiosity, Hope
Adria Arch with Sara Seager, Deputy Science Director of the MIT-led NASA mission, TESS
Our search for other life forms grows out of our human-ness: We seek connection, we are curious, and we have hope. In the pursuit of exoplanets, we glimpse potential reflections of ourselves and perhaps, profound lessons about our planet's future amidst the climate crisis.
Drawing inspiration from the pioneering work of Concord-based astrophysicist Sara Seager, whose seeks to discover earth-like planets that may sustain life, we are prompted to consider the parallels between atmospheric dynamics on distant exoplanets and our own Earth's climate challenges. Dr. Seager's exploration delves into the intricate interplay between atmospheric carbon levels and the sustenance of life—an inquiry that calls us to look at our relationship with our environment.
As we consider life on other thriving planets, we are reminded of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler, who prompted us to engage in 'backcasting'—imagining our desired future and charting a path backward from it.
Inspired by Dr. Seager’s research, my installation features a grouping of celestial-inspired, all-white sculptures made with Styrofoam and acrylic paint, including a piece that is suspended overhead from a pole. A tower made of lattice-like bars stands pointing upwards. It is fragile- yet it stands, inviting reflection on our stability and place in the cosmos. Tiny shards of mirror placed within the sculptures stand in for the rarest glimpses of a planet like our own. Telescopes depend on mirrors, and human beings seek our own faces in the overwhelming scale of the universe. Through this interplay of form and reflection, my installation seeks to ignite dialogue and introspection, inviting viewers to consider our shared journey with the larger cosmos towards a life-sustaining future.
“Do I believe in other life in the universe? Yes, I believe. The better question: What does our search for it say about us? It says we're curious. It says we're hopeful. It says we're capable of wonder and of wonderful things." – Sara Seager
ADRIA ARCH
I am a mixed media artist living and working in Boston interested in creating immersive experiences with sculpture and paint. I use cardboard, foam plastic and paper mache to create sculptural forms that populate my large scale colorful installations. My work references the things that I see everyday- from neighborhood flower gardens to the ever-growing skyline of Boston. I often return to a vocabulary of shapes that includes ladders, grids, and spirals. The installations I make with my painted sculptures are whimsical, playful spaces. By conjuring a fantastical world, I provide a space to experience both delight and surprise.
Arch has been awarded residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Sanskriti Foundation in Delhi, and in Auvillar, France. Her work is included in many private and public collections including the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Danforth Art Museum, Simmons University, Fidelity Corporation, the Boston Public Library and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
In 2019 her work was featured at the Fitchburg Art Museum, curated by Lisa Crossman. In 2020, Arch presented Interference, an installation designed for the Cahoon Museum of American Art. Arch was commissioned by Chief Curator Mara Williams at the Brattleboro Art Museum in Vermont to create On Reflection. Recent exhibitions include Better Angels at Evanston Art Center and Sirens and Sentinels at Boston Sculptors Gallery. She was recently commissioned by Google for a site specific room installation.
Arch is a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery.
SARA SEAGER
Professor Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and a Professor of Physics, Professor of Planetary Science, and a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she holds the Class of 1941 Professor Chair. She has been a pioneer in the vast and unknown world of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun. Her ground-breaking research ranges from the detection of exoplanet atmospheres to innovative theories about life on other worlds to development of novel space mission concepts.
In space missions for planetary discovery and exploration, she was the Deputy Science Director of the MIT-led NASA Explorer-class mission TESS; she was PI of the JPL-MIT CubeSat ASTERIA; is a lead of the Starshade Rendezvous Mission (a space-based direct imaging exoplanet discovery concept under technology development) to find a true Earth analog orbiting a Sun-like star; and most recently has directed a mission concept study to find signs of life or life itself in the Venus atmosphere and is PI of a small mission to Venus targeted for launch in 2023.
Her research earned her a MacArthur “genius” grant and other accolades including: membership in the US National Academy of Sciences; the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences, the Magellanic Premium Medal; and has been awarded one of Canada’s highest civilian honors, appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada. Professor Seager is the author of, “The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir”.
http://morningstarmissions.space/
Till
Freedom Baird with Daniella Malin, Senior Program Director, Agriculture & Climate, Sustainable Food Lab
Till is where we keep the money. Till is how we work the soil. Till marks time as we anticipate change. Dip in the Till and take a single piece of money. Follow the money clue to be incentivized to promote regenerative agricultural practices. These yield lower farming costs, less tilling, and more carbon retained in the soil.
An incentive seeks to create value where it previously didn’t exist (in awareness). We hand over the cash to reify your understanding and change your behavior.
The incentive offered to you by Till is mirrored on a global scale when science-led non-profits like the Cool Farm Alliance work with multinational companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Danone, Campbells, and Pepsico. The Alliance teaches agri-business leaders a type of carbon accounting which prompts them to incentivize farmers to change the way they farm. This saves money for the company, the farmers, and consumers. And it retains carbon in the soil, which makes everyone look good and helps the planet.
"What needs highlighting, elevation, is the concept that climate change can be mitigated through agricultural decisions brought about by incentives". – Daniella Malin
FREEDOM BAIRD
As an artist, Freedom Baird explores the intersection of humans and nature as agents, objects, and constructs. This includes examining systems by creating spaces in which to explore, reflect and act. Baird works in multiple disciplines, including installation, performance, and writing, drawing from her background in the visual, performing, and media arts.
Originally from New York City, she received master’s degrees from M.I.T. and from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Baird is a member of the FeministFuturist artists collective whose recent exhibitions include Liminal Lab at the Hess Gallery, Boston, MA, and CURRENCY at Boston Cyberarts. She has exhibited at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, ME, and the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA. Baird is the author of Shore Line Recall: Boston Harbor Islands, about her 2018 artist residency exploring visitors’ memories of places which vanish. Her work is included in the Getty Museum’s 2020 book Off the Walls: Inspired Re-Creations of Iconic Artworks. Baird has received awards, grants and commissions including from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and the New York Film Festival, and often presents about her work. She works out of her studio in Cambridge, MA.
DANIELLA MALIN
While serving as Senior Program Director for Agriculture and Climate at the Sustainable Food Lab, Daniella co-founded the Cool Farm Tool and its home, the Cool Farm Alliance, a leading industry platform for quantifying agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration, and other sustainability metrics. The Cool Farm Tool is an online calculator for on-farm GHG emissions, soil carbon sequestration, biodiversity and water quantity. It is well-established and highly respected, with thousands of registered users, in 17 languages supported by over 150 members and used in 150 countries supplying global markets. The Tool has API and aggregate data export capabilities, provides scientifically robust quantification methods that are sensitive to farm and field scale management choices. The tool works by providing growers with the ability to plug in their farm details and practices to get instant feedback on the impact of different farming management options using “what-if” scenarios.
Daniella saw early on that if society was to realize the climate change mitigation potential available through agriculture, the world was going to need a standardized tool that would engage actors all along the supply chain, help build action plans, motivate, encourage, and reward good practice, and build bridges of communication and learning across sectors – from the board room to the farmer’s field, from the ivory tower to the halls of government. The Cool Farm Alliance is now its own legal entity, a not-for-profit membership organization (community interest company) that owns, manages, and improves the Cool Farm Tool and cultivates the leadership network to advance regenerative agriculture at scale.
The Plastic Wave
Lisa Barthelson with Juliana Birnbaum, Senior Editor and Program Director, Project Regeneration
From the TAPPED IN artist/scientist team: Lisa Barthelson and Juliana Birnbaum, Barthelson is creating an outdoor community sculpture. The Plastic Wave is constructed from cast off plastic collected by Concord residents during a 2 week period, and gathered at The Umbrella Arts Center for use as the artist’s primary building materials.
The purpose of the wave form of repurposed plastic is to raise awareness of the overwhelming ever-growing tide of plastic that threatens our world’s climate, ecosystems and health. Climate changing Greenhouse gasses (GHG) are emitted throughout plastic’s life cycle. Extraction, refining and manufacture of plastics are all carbon intensive activities. In addition, plastic never disappears. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. By considering the development of a ‘circular economy’, a sustainable model centered on material reuse and regeneration, we can all take action to break the wave and ensure a long term future for all.
For more info, visit: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/perspective-on-breaking-the-plastic-wave-study
“The planet is drowning in plastic, and the solution starts at the source: plastic production must peak and go down rapidly. Such a turnaround will take a global, society-wide effort that combines policy change, political pressure, and private-sector innovation to reimagine how we live in a world without plastics.” - Juliana Birnbaum
LISA BARTHELSON
Lisa Barthelson grew up in a family of artists and has been making art since childhood. She works in multiple mediums, looking at everything as a potential art making material, always welcoming the challenge of transforming and re-composing household objects, personal cast offs or nature’s detritus in combination with traditional materials and methods.
Barthelson’s work has been exhibited throughout New England and in NY, including in Newport Art Museum’s Winter 2018 Exhibition and Fitchburg Art Museum’s Fall 2016 Exhibition. Barthelson’s site specific sculpture: ’hangling’ was purchased in 2018, by the Newport Art Museum for their Permanent Collection. Commissions included site specific wall sculptures for Kronos. Inc. and for Worcester State University. Barthelson has been awarded artist-in-residence fellowships at Vermont Studio Center, VT, Playa, OR, and The Kimmel Harding Nelson Arts Center, NE. Barthelson works from her studio in Worcester MA, and is an active member of the Worcester based Blackstone Print Studio Cooperative. She earned a BS in Environmental Design from the University Connecticut and an MLA, Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a Registered Landscape Architect in Massachusetts. Barthelson has received awards for her mixed media print work, sculpture and public art.
https://www.lisabarthelson.com/home
JULIANA BIRNBAUM
Juliana Birnbaum is a multilingual cultural anthropologist who has lived and worked in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Nepal, Costa Rica and Brazil. She has been an independent writer, researcher and editor since 1996, focusing on permaculture communities, indigenous rights, holistic health, and addressing the ecological crisis. Juliana contributed to several climate-focused publications in recent years including Regeneration (Penguin, 2021), Cities Without Capitalism (Routledge, 2021) and Drawdown (Penguin, 2017). Juliana is co-author of Sustainable [R]evolution: Permaculture in Ecovillages, Urban Farms and Communities Worldwide (2014), and CBD: A Patient’s Guide to Medicinal Cannabis (2017), which has sold over 60,000 copies worldwide and been translated into seven languages. She is the mother of two daughters and has supported over 100 births as a doula and assistant midwife.
Regenerate
Raquel Fornasaro with John Sterman, Director MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative
For this project, I had the privilege of collaborating with John Sterman, a professor of System Dynamics at MIT and the originator of the “Carbon Bathtub”, an analog for understanding climate change dynamics. His impactful contributions are evident in his ability to illuminate the intricacies of climate change dynamics inspiring conscious action.
The resulting work is an installation, titled Regenerate, showcasing a “Climate Bathtub Simulation” crafted from tree branches, used plastic gloves, and recycled paper embedded with seeds. Activated by nature, this work embodies Earth's systems and its capability of regenerative transformation once the “tap” is closed. Viewers are invited to witness the potential for regrowth and restoration within Earth's system when sustainable practices and emissions reduction efforts are in place. The piece emphasizes the significance of shared responsibility but also underscores the importance of collective action in maintaining a balanced climate system.
“Unfortunately, the moment we’re living in requires us to take action now – not just from an environmental perspective, but from economic and societal ones as well…You can’t have a healthy economy without a healthy environment or society – and vice versa.” – John Sterman
RAQUEL FORNASARO
Raquel Fornasaro is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, oil paintings, sculpture, installation, digital art, and land art. Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, her artistic practice is rooted in the examination of the relationship between urban development and the environment, with a critical focus on the implications of our colonial capitalist economic system.
Currently based in Boston, her work has been exhibited in galleries, universities, and museums, including the Brazilian Consulate in Boston, Harvard's Crossings Gallery, the FSU Museum of Fine Arts, MIT's Media Lab, the Tioga Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fornasaro is a passionate supporter of STEAM education, frequently collaborating with scientists to seamlessly weave scientific elements into her artistic expression. This harmonious blend of science and art serves as a powerful lens through which she reflects on our values and the urgent ecological challenges we face in the present day. Rooted in symbolism, mythology, and allegory, her work explores themes of beauty, decay, and the intricate interplay between urban and natural elements. Her overarching goal is to not only inform but also to inspire and empower viewers, encouraging them to become catalysts for positive change.
JOHN STERMAN
John Sterman is a professor of System Dynamics at MIT and the originator of the bathtub as an analog for understanding climate change dynamics. He believes in using GAMING to help people both understand and take action on climate change and was one of the co-creators of EN-ROADS, a group simulation that we will be using a demo from as part an educational component inside the Umbrella.
https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/john-d-sterman
Plastiglyphs
Casey Figueroa with Terrius Harris, Obama Scholar, Artist, Advocate, Educator and Strategist on Indigenous, Climate and Economic Issues
"Plastiglyphs” are a series of large-scale installations created of PVC pipe and painted Vinyl sheets attached with zip ties and other fixtures.
Speaking to the history of Indigenous populations and their impacts on place, Plastiglyphs draws on the fundamental expression of humanity through art.
Utilizing ancient symbols found local to the place, Plastiglyphs makes clear:
the connection of the past to the present day and boldly illustrates the deep connection of Indigenous Communities to place;
the role of art in communicating principles of humanity and relationships;
and evolution of artistic response to audience and material.
Part of a series of works examining the idea of semiotic saturation of Indigenous iconography in urban and suburban communities, visual activation of Land Back principles and Decolonial praxis, Plastiglyphs presents an engaging and dynamic vision of applied Indigenous Research Methodologies that centers indigenous knowledge and agency.
"Our location may be something new, but the inspiration for what grows in us is not.” - Terrius Harris
CASEY FIGUEROA
Casey Figueroa is a Mixed-Race American Contemporary Artist who acknowledges his Indigenous, Irish, and Mexican ancestry, and is engaged in examining questions of identity and cross-cultural communication through an interdisciplinary artistic process.
A recent graduate of Montana State University with an MFA in Fine Arts and an MA in Native American Studies, Casey has been active in creating and showing new works in Massachusetts and Rhode Island since returning to the area in 2021. Most recently, in 2023, "Hybrid Objects" was installed at the Four Corners Sculpture Park in Tiverton, Rhode Island.
Working with commercial and traditional materials, Casey creates bold and evocative pieces that speak to environmental, cultural, and social issues that confront us today.
Presenting works that ask questions about our responsibilities and relationships, Casey embraces the use of applying Indigenous Research Methodologies that center Indigenous knowledge and agency in his artistic process.
Seeking understanding beyond division, and how we can communicate effectively across systems.
Casey is the owner and lead artist of Stone Bear Studio located in Plymouth, MA. He designs and produces multi-disciplinary artwork; public, digital, analog, light-based installations, and multimedia A/V presentations. He also teaches contemporary art and theory in the local area.
As part of his professional mission, Casey works to create opportunities and space for Indigenous Artists of the Northeast in the Fine Art World, through curating shows of Contemporary Indigenous artists and providing opportunities for professional development and discourse.
To see what Casey is busy creating, you can follow him on Instagram @stone_bear_studio
TERRIUS HARRIS
Terrius Harris (He/Him) is an Afro-Indigenous, LatinX poet and aspiring humanitarian who has dedicated his life to leveraging global and domestic systems and frameworks to alleviate the disparities in international indigenous communities. He is a Master’s of Public Policy student at the University of Chicago where he is an Obama Scholar and works to empower Indigenous-led, community-based economic development, entrepreneurship, and environmental conservation through a community-driven approach. Prior to his academic tenure at the University you Chicago, Terrius obtained a Master’s of Legal Studies in Indigenous People’s Law from the University of Oklahoma and three bachelor’s degrees in International Business, French, and General Studies from the University of Mississippi.
He also serves as the Indigenous Business and Partnerships Coordinator at the American Sustainable Business Network where he works to address economic and social inequality in Indigenous communities. In this role, he helped negotiate an agreement with the Department of the Interior to support tribally-led community-based economic development, entrepreneurship, and conservation initiatives. Additionally, he is leading an “Indigenous Youth Climate Resiliency Through Policy” program, that is centered around empowering Indigenous communities in advocating for climate resilience with their policymakers. The program will bring together a select cohort of 20 young individuals, aged 18-30, hailing from diverse U.S. Indigenous communities who will engage in a multi-week virtual workshop centered around the different layers of policy from Tribal-Level to Federal-Level, and end with a week long summit in Washington, D.C.
https://www.obama.org/programs/scholars/university-of-chicago/2023-2024/terrius-harris/
Under Our Feet
Mags Harries with Nadia Szeinbaum, Senior Scientist, Beyond Meat
Having read Suzanne Simard’s book “How Trees Talk to Each Other”, “Entangled Lives” by Merlin Sheldrake and Peter Wohllenben’s “The Hidden Life of Trees” about the crucial role of mycelium in the natural world, I was excited to be paired with Beyond Meat. Based in El Segundo, California. Beyond Meat turns mycelium into meat products, avoiding the costly environmental impact of animal production in the US. I got a tour of the facilities with Kelly Chrystal and had a long conversation with the chief scientist, Nadia Szeinbaum who is in the process of developing an ersatz steak with mycelium. She introduced me to their process of growing, shaping, and tasting the steak they are developing and was excited to introduce me to what else mycelium can do. She gave me resources to research and introduced me to Ecovative a company in NY state, which is using mycelium to create everything from architectural bricks, insulation, packaging to leather to furniture, all of which can be recycled back into the earth. Mycelium is an infinite resource.
"If we found a planet that looks like our Earth used to look like when it formed, would we see the same natural history unfold? Could we transform it by understanding how microbial communities work together?” -- Nadia Szeinabaum
Under Our Feet (Outdoors)
Victrola Speaker, steel and paint
Listen to the sound of the mycelium, actively distributing water and/or chemical substances to the surrounding plant community, breaking down matter to create the physical earth we exist. Hidden under our feet is probably one of our greatest solutions to so many of our environmental problems.
Over Our Heads (Indoors)
Buckets, mycelium, hay, mushrooms
The bucket is a common way to propagate mushrooms, the fruit of mycelium. This 8ft bucket totem, bigger than a human, is filled with hay and mycelium. The tower will be sprayed and tended to each day, and will produce mushrooms within 11 days. The mushrooms will live 3-4 days and can be harvested or left to spread their spores. If harvested, the tower will have a second cycle of growth and death. After the length of the show, the buckets will be emptied into the ground and the mycelium will continue its growth.
The prints on the wall were created by placing mushrooms on paper and letting the spores make these remarkable prints. The only variable was how long I left them on the paper. The mushrooms make the drawing.
The photographs are images of mushrooms already fruited. Mycelium is not on my agenda, it is in control.
Mags Harries wishes to thank Chaz Hing for his wisdom and direction in mushroom growing!
MAGS HARRIES
Harries observes small things that, like DNA, reveal what is important to know about a place. She uses surprise and sometimes humor to energize public places and communities. Her projects Asaroton and Glove Cycle have become icons of the Boston area. Many of her temporary projects involve community participation and social action, including: Winding Down the Charles, where community members helped to physically wind the length of the Charles River into a ball of string; Speed of Light, for which she organized with her students a twenty-mile bicycle ride to bring attention to a planned transportation 'Urban Ring' around Boston; and One Legged Table, an artwork that catalyzed social dialogue on climate change.
Mags Harries was born in Barry, Wales. After receiving her undergraduate degree from the Leicester College of Art & Design, UK, she attained her MFA at the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL. After graduation she came to teach at the Rhode Island School of Design and settled in the New England area. She served on the board of First Night Boston from 2003 to 2009 and is chair of the Cambridge Public Art Commission. Harries formed Harries/Héder Collaborative, a public art design team with her husband Lajos Héder in 1990, since then they have worked together on over 25 major public commissions.
NADIA SZEINBAUM
Dr. Nadia Szeinbaum is a Senior Scientist at Beyond Meat focusing on research and development of new, innovative plant-based products. She completed a Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Microbiology from Georgia Institute of Technology. Following post-doctoral research at Georgia Tech, Nadia was a NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Program Fellow. During this time she specialized in understanding the physiology and genetics of microorganisms in the environment and the impact they have at a global scale.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-szeinbaum/
Proforestation - Why One Equals Many
Michelle Lougee with William Moomaw, Emeritus Professor of International Environmental Policy, Tufts University
Essential components of any climate solutions, forests have already saved us from climate disaster by annually removing an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to nearly 30% of annual fossil fuel emissions. Jake Swamp, a 160-year-old white pine named for a Mohawk chief and the tallest tree in New England at 174 feet, is the epitome of what a single tree can accomplish. This single, very large white pine holds as much wood and carbon as 251 pines that are 30 feet tall and around 15 years old. An entire old growth forest of large trees is carbon in the bank that is still earning interest by continuing to remove additional carbon. Proforestation- Why One Equals Many represents the relationship between the carbon capture of a mature tree and the number (and space) of young trees it would take to replenish that loss from deforestation. A large central cylinder represents a hewn mature tree. Pine cones, as representations of planted younger trees, are arranged in concentric rings around this core. Solar lights serve to emphasize the carbon contrast in the evenings.
“You can plant a tree, but you can’t plant a forest.” - Bill Moomaw
MICHELLE LOUGEE
Michelle Lougee is a fiber artist, sculptor, and ceramist who explores material confusion by expressing observed parallels between plastic and our environment in artwork that addresses the impact of our consumerist society on nature. Often produced from post-consumer plastic that would otherwise find its way to a landfill, Lougee’s woven knotted forms and striking juxtapositions illustrate a framework of tension between material and concept, while contemplating profound problems in our culture and environment.
Michelle Lougee received a BFA and an MFA in Sculpture from Boston University College of Fine Arts. Her artwork has been recognized by numerous exhibitions, public art commissions, reviews, residencies, and grants. Recently her practice has expanded to include community based collaborative public art projects for Arlington, MA and MassAudubon with public art curator and activist Cecily Miller.
Lougee’s artwork has been shown locally at the Peabody Essex Museum, Heritage Museum and Gardens, and the Wilson Museum in Manchester, VT. She is represented by Boston Sculptors Gallery and also exhibits in national and international venues. Her work is in the collections of Google, Framingham State University, MassAudubon Magazine Beach Nature Center, MediTech and AbiLabs. She teaches sculpture at Lesley University College of Art and Design.
Bill Moomaw is Emeritus Professor of International Environmental Policy at Tufts and Founding Director of the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy. In 2007 the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC and Vice President Al Gore. Bill was a lead author for chapters of several IPCC reports, including the 2007 report. Bill is currently working on natural solutions to climate change with a focus on increasing carbon dioxide removal and sequestration by forests, wetlands, and soils to complement emission reductions from land use changes and fossil fuels with zero carbon renewable energy. His other research interests include energy technology and policies that address climate change, water and climate change, economics and geochemistry of the nitrogen cycle, sustainable development, and negotiation strategies for environmental agreements. He is a co-author of a paper declaring a Climate Emergency that was endorsed by over 11,000 scientists. Bill lives in a zero net energy home in Williamstown, MA in 2007 that produces sufficient solar electricity to meet all of its heating, lighting, and appliance requirements while exporting surplus power to the grid. They also use solar panels for a battery powered electric vehicle.
https://www.woodwellclimate.org/staff/william-moomaw/
Operating Systems: Nature as Mentor
Ilana Manolson with Janine Benyus, Co-Founder, Biomimicry Institute
As an artist whose work draws its inspiration from natural systems and cycles, I have been so grateful to work with Janine Benyus, the co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute. Benyus has described biomimicry as “the bridge between biology and design, advancing the adoption of nature-inspired strategies to help solve the most pressing problems of our time.” My paintings and Janine’s research look to nature with awe and questions, allowing a multitude of non-human actors including milkweed, mangrove, and fungi, to provide answers. These paintings examine plants found in our environment, whose unique capabilities can help us design a better world. These hanging tributes invite viewers to come closer and learn.
“We’re awake now, and the question is how do we stay awake to the living world? How do we make the act of asking nature’s advice a normal part of everyday inventing?” – Janine Benyus
ILANA MANOLSON
My art is an elegiac response to natural phenomena: water, earth, and plant life. I move between the edge of representation and abstraction, capturing the essence of landscape in a mark. The paintings refer to both the seen and imagined; the marks and pools of paint transform the landscape into metaphors for tenacious life in which some species thrive and others disappear. Swaths of pure fluid color appear wave-like, close up, and then fall into perspective at a distance, confounding and surprising the viewer. I paint and edit simultaneously. I capture the growing and the dying with the fluidity of the medium. This work celebrates the natural world and its ineffable mysteries, as we are aware of the possibility of potential disaster. Even in the coming apart, there is great beauty.
Ilana Manolson is a painter, printmaker and naturalist. She is represented by the Jason McCoy Gallery in New York, Qualia Contemporary Art in Palo Alto and Nicola Rukaj Gallery in Toronto. Her work has been exhibited at many galleries and museums including the Jason McCoy Gallery, the Danforth Museum of Art, the De Cordova Museum, Fuller Museum, Boston Public Library, Endicott College, Ballin Castle Museum, Regis College, and Gordon College.
Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), the Berkeley Museum, the Danforth Museum, the DeCordova Museum, The RISD museum, the Boston Public Library, the Ballin Castle Museum and numerous corporate collections.
She is a two-time winner of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship for Painting (2008-11 and 2018-21) and received the St. Botolph Artist Grant, Boston. Her residencies include the Banff Centre for the Arts residency where she was a Leighton Fellow, the Mass MOCA residency, the Ballinglen Arts Foundation residency (three times), Yaddo Artist Colony, and Banff School of Fine Arts. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. https://www.manolson.com/
JANINE BENYUS
Janine is a biologist, author, innovation consultant, and self proclaimed “nature nerd.” She may not have coined the term biomimicry, but she certainly popularized it in her 1997 book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature.
In Biomimicry, she names an emerging discipline that emulates nature’s designs and processes (e.g., solar cells that mimic leaves) to create a healthier, more sustainable planet. Since the book’s release, Janine has evolved the practice of biomimicry, speaking around the world about what we can learn from the genius that surrounds us.
In 1998, Janine co-founded the world’s first bio-inspired consultancy, Biomimicry 3.8 (formerly the Biomimicry Guild), bringing nature’s sustainable designs to 250+ clients including Boeing, Colgate-Palmolive, Nike, General Electric, Herman Miller, HOK architects, IDEO, Interface, Natura, Procter and Gamble, Levi’s, Kohler, and General Mills.
She has received several awards including The Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development 2013, The Heinz Award 2011, TIME magazine’s Hero of the Environment award 2008, United Nations Environment Programme’s Champion of the Earth for Science and Technology 2009, the Rachel Carson Environmental Ethics Award, the Lud Browman Award for Science Writing in Society, and the Barrows and Heinz Distinguished Lectureships. In 2022, Janine was awarded the annual RSA Bicentenary Medal for her remarkable contribution to regenerative design.
Her work in biomimicry has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, Esquire, The Economist, Time, Wired, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Nature, and more. In 2010, BusinessWeek named Janine one of the World’s Most Influential Designers. In 2012, she received the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Mind Award, given in recognition of a visionary who has had a profound impact on design theory, practice, or public awareness.
An educator at heart, Janine believes that the more people learn from nature’s mentors, the more they’ll want to protect them. This is why she writes, speaks, and revels in describing the wild teachers in our midst.
https://biomimicry.org/janine-benyus/
Temperature Check!
Victor Pacheco with Paul Kirshen, Professor, School for the Environment Research Director, Stone Living Lab, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Scientist Paul Kirshen and artist Victor Pacheco collaborate to share the urgency to think about adaptation to climate change. Acknowledging that the planet is quickly changing due to human impact is not only alarming but will force us to start adapting to temperature changes across the globe in the near future. What are the effects of such changes? Temperature Check! is an instrument that measures the real time temperature in its location and alerts us through a light display if the temperature is above the average, average or below the average. The instrument provides a series of scenarios for temperature changes. How can we adapt? What can we do as individuals to help improve our environment? What can we do as a society?
(Thanks to Vishal Verma for Temperature Data analysis and Kevin Walsh for chip programming.)
“It’s very real. Climate change is already happening. There’s ample evidence of it. Since all human and natural systems are impacted by climate change, including services from these systems that impact marginalized and underserved communities, we must take actions to equitably adjust to the changes – the process of adaptation.” – Paul Kirshen
VICTOR PACHECO
Pacheco’s work is an introspection of identity formation. Multiple viewpoints of identity are engaged, including societal facts, environmental references, cultural identity and community relations. Methods of research include: archival data, informal interviewing, and observations of past and present environments. Analyzing information is part of the process leading to inform, repel or attract a viewer of art. He promotes viewer participation, involvement, and interaction in the creative process as crucial in shaping, organizing and addressing the realities and identities of Latino and African American communities. The work serves as a portal to discussion and communication about issues relating to the environment, health and culture.
Victor Pacheco was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico and raised in Hartford, Connecticut. Victor attended the University of Hartford Art School in Hartford, Connecticut where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture. He worked several years for not-for-profit organizations teaching youth in the greater Hartford area in Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Video, Mural painting and design as well as ceramics. Victor was awarded a Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and Tourism as well as a Citation from the state of Connecticut for his dedication to the arts and his community. He has received awards and fellowships in Art, including: The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship, Rhode Island School of Design Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Challenge Grant and a grant from the Art Matters Foundation. Victor graduated from The Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island with a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture. Victor Pacheco is currently living and working in Worcester, MA.
PAUL KIRSHEN
Paul Kirshen is Professor of Climate Adaptation in the School for the Environment at University of Massachusetts Boston. He has been conducting research on climate change since 1988. He is an internationally recognized expert in integrated water resources management. He has developed detailed models mapping the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities in New England, Florida, and California. What is integrated water resource management? An example:
By considering all elements of the urban water cycle, our valuable water resources go further to create more sustainable and liveable communities. For example, we can reuse stormwater to irrigate green spaces, instead of using drinking water. THINK WORKING WITH, NOT AGAINST THE WATER CYCLE.
https://stonelivinglab.org/team-member/paul-kirshen-2/
Step-Up
Nancy Selvage with Josh Goldman, Project Leader, Greener Grazing
Josh Goldman works towards eliminating the potent and abundant greenhouse gas created by cows as they digest their food. If a specific type of seaweed is added to their diet, the copious amounts of methane that cows normally burp can be reduced by as much as 95%. Currently very little of this seaweed is commercially available. Josh is the project leader for Greener Grazing with the mission to develop the knowledge and tools needed for scalable, ocean-based Asparagopsis farming and support producers in rapidly building supply. If cows can change their diet to reduce greenhouse gasses, so can we. In response to Josh Goldman’s mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by changing the diet of cows, I plan to engage the public in pledging to reduce their own carbon footprints by altering their diet. STEP-UP is a footprint-shaped perforated metal sculpture that will gradually become greener as partIcipants attach carbon reduction pledges to the surface. Written on a green translucent footprint-shaped material, the pledges will be placed along curving lines to suggest growing foliage and to echo Greener Grazing’s vertical farming techniques.
"We hope to have a transformational impact in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of beef and dairy production while helping restore ocean ecosystems and empowering coastal communities to find more sustainable paths to achieving prosperity from the sea." – Josh Goldman
NANCY SELVAGE
Nancy Selvage engages herself and others in an exploratory process by altering and concentrating the experience of space and substance in her sculptural installations. This artwork is often created in response to environmental concerns.
Nancy Selvage received a BA in Art History from Wellesley College and an MFA in Sculpture from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University. Her artwork has been recognized and supported by numerous exhibitions, public art commissions, reviews, residencies, and awards (including two Artist Fellowships and New Works Commissions from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a National Endowment for the Arts Projects grant, a New England Foundation for the Arts Public Art grant).
She is represented by Boston Sculptors Gallery and also exhibits in national and international venues. Clients for large public art commissions include Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, Google, City of Lowell, MA; Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA; City of Cambridge, MA; Keene State College, NH; National Park Service, Grand Canyon, AZ; and North Carolina Zoo, Ashboro, NC.
Nancy Selvage's educational career includes a long tenure as Director at the Ceramics Program at Harvard University and guest teaching at Massachusetts College of Art, Ewha University in Seoul, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; and Rhode Island School of Design. As an honorary professor at Tohoku University, Japan, she contributed an art/science perspective to a variety of interdisciplinary, international conferences.
JOSH GOLDMAN
A project leader in Massachusetts and Vietnam Josh and his colleagues at Greener Grazing work to address Agriculture’s methane problem (cattle production is responsible for fully two-thirds of agriculture’s global warming footprint). A solution? Feeding cows and sheep (ruminant animals) a diet incorporating small amounts of red seaweed reduced their methane enteric emissions by as much as 99 percent. Greener grazing farms Asparagopsis Seaweed to feed the worlds 1.5 billion cattle and 1.2 billion sheep (eventually). https://www.greenergrazing.org/team
