Brandon Ballengée - Biodiversity, muscular hope, and the persistence of life

Brandon Ballengée has a unique quality of attention, one that is not constrained by traditional distinctions between art & science and working & living. He wants to share that capacity to witness to liberate everyone's imagination of what this world can be, a world we are of rather than just in. This ecological consciousness informs his work as a visual artist, biologist and environmental educator.

Show Notes:

biodiversity (07:00)trophic networks (13:10)ethnography and buffer zones (15:00)citizens getting involved to help biodiversityparticipatory and co-creative nature of his workcommons spaces (16:00)Garret Hardin Tragedy of the Commons (16:20)antiform and antidisciplinary (17:00)complexity (17:10)Malamp project (19:50)evince empathy not fear (21:30)consilience (23:15)the myth of either/or (24:00)the complexity in ushow do you do both art and science? (24:30)how we might approach conservation - connection (27:30)Ghosts of the Gulf exhibit (28:40)Stan Sessions (29:00)Taylor Energy Spill (32:30)What adaptation looks like (33:45)how we persist (35:00)giving yourself over to culture (38:30)Atelier de la Nature(39:00)Newton Harrison and ecological art (44:30)Project about cajun prairiethe impact of our actions (47:30)Rebecca Solnit - Hope in the DarkPoetry Unbound: Yusef Komunyakaa Praising Dark Placeslong view of time, the long arc of change (47:45)muscular hope (48:00)superorganisms and cooperation (50:00)civic engagement (50:30)Lightning round (55:00)Book: Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (and EO Wilson's the Future of Life)Passion: food as a way to educateHeart sing: learning about gardeningScrewed up: process to make crude oil paintingsFind Brandon online:WebsiteTwitter: @bballengeeAtelier de la Nature'Five-Cut Fridays’ five-song music playlist series  Brandon's playlist