Anna Scime spoke as part of the virtual Ruderal Ecologies 2 conference on October 23, 2021 presented by the NATURE Lab initiative at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY.
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Anna Scime is an internationally exhibited media artist whose latest project, Lake Sturgeons’ Guide for Surviving the Anthropocene, is an experimental work created from nine years of research and fieldwork collaborations with scientists working in biology, geology and ecology. It consists of a feature length nonfiction film, a series of short video essays and a multimedia installation comprised of interrelated pieces. The project examines history, art, culture, and language through an ecological lens pointed at a single species and zooms outward from there. Though varied in material, style and genre, Scime most often experiments with moving-image-based work at the intersection of art, technology and science-addressing topics including the Anthropocene, eco-histories, and the archive.
The Ruderal Ecologies 2 virtual conference builds upon the 2018 Ruderal Ecologies: Grounds for Change conference, which brought together thought leaders in art, science, and environmental justice to explore the history and future of urban environments shaped by stress. “Ruderal,” from the Latin rudus (rubble), refers to plant species that are first to repopulate disturbed lands, an apt analogy for the state of our post-industrial neighborhoods. It is through this lens that we will envision our futures. Ruderal Ecologies 2 conference is a collaboration between the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Science, ARTS and STS departments, NATURE Lab and The Sanctuary for Independent Media, and the iEAR Presents series, supported by in part by a Humanities New York SHARP Grant with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the federal American Rescue Plan Act, and the Vollmer Fries Lecture Series at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Media Alliance programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Ruderal Ecologies 2 again brings together cutting-edge artists, social scientists, scholars, and activists learning and working beyond the barriers of any one discipline, and this time our work will be all-virtual, making it possible to present thinkers and host virtual audiences from all over the globe. Reflecting our commitment to curating a feminist framework into this conference, the majority of our presenters are women or gender non-conforming. We have also invited Indigenous authors, artists, and speakers, with the intention of embedding a variety of Indigenous ways of thinking, storytelling, and expression into conversations about our urban futures.
NATURE Lab, a project of The Sanctuary for Independent Media, is one block from the Hudson River at the beginning of the Erie Canal. Our Environmental education campus, including Collard City Growers’ garden, the L-Lot sustainable forest, the NATURE Lab Residency Space, and Freedom Square commons offer programming including community workshops, public art installations, artist residencies, research activities, and after school programs. NATURE Lab’s biosafety level 1 community bio laboratory focuses on issues around urban environmental justice and social justice. Upstairs from the laboratory the People’s Health Sanctuary space is being constructed to share health skills, provide basic integrative care and explore ways to build networks of community health.
17 сен 2024
