ARTISTic Symposium: Re-Normalising Interspecies Communication

Join us for the much-awaited ARTISTic Symposium!

The event will be held on Zoom and a link will be sent to ticketholders beforehand.

Have you ever wondered about communicating with nonhuman-animals, plants and even landscapes? It happens daily in people’s lives the world over, but has been marginalised and pushed to the edges of acceptability in many places.
ARTISTic, ( ARTIST interspecies communicators), invites you to join us exploring co-creation of artworks which suprise and offer multispecies viewpoints and living in a more connected, sustainable way.*

WHAT TO EXPECT: This gathering is about re-normalising interspecies communication in societies who have abandoned or excluded it.

• Meet artists and musicians sharing sculpture, installation, performance, activism and art-jewellery.
• Join us and explore the creative steps that can repair broken relationships with all species and landscapes.
• Discover interspecies communication as a vital element of creativity to be re-embraced.

SPEAKERS: The symposium is held by ARTISTic, a group of artists, creatives and arts-based-researchers from around the world**.

• opening remarks, Dr. M.J. Barrett , whose ‘goal is to nurture ways of knowing and being where the more-than-human (natural) world is respected as intentional, intelligent and communicative’.
• highlighted guest artist, Cheryl L’Hirondelle (she/her), whose work investigates and attempts to articulate the dynamism of nehiyawin (Cree worldview) in contemporary time-place with a practice that incorporates Indigenous language(s), audio, video, virtual reality, the olfactory, music and audience/user participation to create immersive environments towards ‘radical inclusion.’
• Inga Hamilton (she/her), Autistic and PhD Researcher co-creating performative art-jewellery with other species
• Ute Hörner (she/her), artist and Professor of Multispecies Storytelling;
• Franziska Lauber (she/her), MA, a specialist in animal ethics in art practice and multi-species communicator
• Dr Annie Morrad (she/her), musician and multimedia artist working with avian co-creators
• Carollyne Yardley (she/her), MFA, multimedia artist communicating with Garry Oaks.
• Brigid Mary Prain (she/her), filmmaker and musician co-creating with the Amazon Rainforest and Cloud Forests of the Andes.

BREAKS: Attendees are encouraged to practice self care and take breaks when they need them. The symposium is neurodivergent friendly. Talks are short and there will be 3 minute moments of reflection between each speaker, featuring other species. There will be a 10 minute comfort break at 15:50 GMT and a 1hr nourishment break 17:25 GMT. Please look after yourself.

TICKETS: Tickets are £10. Some free tickets have been created for those experiencing financial hardship. If this is you, please contact the organiser through Eventbrite. We won’t turn anyone away due to lack of funds.
The event will be held on Zoom and a link will be sent to ticketholders beforehand.

*None of the interspecies communication methods used are new, neither are these artists the first to use them. Some are being shared by Indigenous and marginalised peoples. Others stem from neurodivergent being. Others still are linked to personal energetic practices, or to the practices of professional animal communicators around the world

**We presenters from the Global North, recognise our privilege in the form of access to education, technology and healthcare built on the oppression of others that support us in creating our art practices.