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Art of Interference explores creative responses to climate change. We feature artists whose images, sounds, and performances encourage us to retune the relations of nature and technology, the human and the non-human. We ask climate scientists about their research and how it chimes with the interventions of contemporary artists. Additionally, we speak to activists, cultural critics, and policymakers about the need to develop a new ethics appropriate to our twenty-first century of planetary cr ...
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Smoke is a beautiful—yet sometimes strange, or even terrifying—phenomenon. In today’s episode, we explore how the mysterious qualities of smoke open up possibilities for exploration and better understanding of human relationships with the earth and air. First, we get to know the multi-colored, pyrotechnic smoke sculptures of esteemed artist Judy Ch…
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“Wind, wind, wind. If you repeat the word wind often enough, then it will blow by itself.” These are the poetic words of this episode’s featured artist, Theo Jansen, who has spent the last three decades creating and evolving his strandbeests—massive PVC creatures that walk down the Dutch coast powered by the wind alone. Wind propels sail boats, kit…
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Our air and atmosphere require 21% oxygen to sustain life as we know it. Human-induced climate change has put this ratio under pressure. In this episode of Art of Interference, we feature Santiago Sierra’s work 52 Canvases and Ted Chiang’s short story Exhalation as two recent interventions that draw our attention to the precarity of the air around …
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Temperature regulation has become a deeply political issue in our boiling world. In this episode, we speak with London-based artist Susan Schuppli about her work on the violence of temperature and the inequities of climate control, and with architectural historian Joseph Siry about the role of air conditioning in twentieth- and twenty-first century…
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“I am working very hard, although this morning... I was terrified to see that there was no fog, not even a wisp of mist: I was prostrate, and could see all my paintings done for, but gradually the fires were lit and the smoke and haze came back.” When Monet wrote this in a letter to his wife in 1900, the term “smog” had not yet been coined. But the…
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In this episode, we turn our attention to the carbon footprint of the contemporary art world. What can galleries and museums do to reduce their CO2 emissions? How do curators and museum directors rethink their exhibition and conversation practices to reduce their institutions’ environmental footprint. Our guests are Amanda Hellman, the director of …
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In this episode of Art of Interference, we turn our attention to the larger-than-life cloud creations of Tomás Saraceno, an artist who creates cities in the clouds and flyable cloud sculptures as a way of imagining more ecological futures. We also hear from media philosopher John Durham Peters whose book The Marvelous Clouds revolutionizes the way …
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In this episode, we talk with Grammy-award winning fluteplayer Molly Barth about the relation of breath, contemporary flute music, and climate change. We also hear from pulmonologist Dr. Priya Balakrishnan about the impact of increased air pollution on the work of our lungs. And we explore the connections between good breathing and good listening, …
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In this first episode of our second season, we speak with three artists and scientists who reach out beyond the atmosphere of our planet in distress: astrophotographer Gerhard Huedepohl, photography historian Katerina Korola, and astrophysicist Erika Grundstrom. Dedicated to the idea of marvelous transparency and luminosity, they remind us to be be…
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Amie Esslinger’s site-specific installation Holding Impact is currently on display in Cohen Memorial Hall on the campus of Vanderbilt University. In this program we hear from Amie and from Amanda Hellman, the director of Vanderbilt’s Art Gallery, about Amie’s artistic process, the probing questions Amie’s work asks about the relation of contemporar…
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This special edition of Art of Interference explores echoes between ancient rock and cave art and our contemporary moment. We feature the work of photographer Stephen Alvarez and visual artist Dustin Mater and discuss the role of non-profit organizations such as the Ancient Art Archive in preserving and educating the public about the oldest art on …
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In the final installment of Art of Interference’s first season, we feature a contemplative conversation with Cannupa Hanska Luger, an artist of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota heritage, who speaks with us about the practice of water protection. We also hear from curator Patricia Norby, who recently organized the Water Memories exhibit at the Me…
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“Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon,” wrote poet Edward Thomas in the trenches of the first World War. Today’s episode deals with two different sorts of grief: climate grief, as inspired by composer Jamie Perera’s Anthropocene in C Major, and pandemic grief, which he tackled in his follow-up project, Sonification. Today’s episode explore…
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In this week’s episode, the Art of Interference team explores the magic and allure of snow as a creative medium. We speak with international snow artist Simon Beck, whose large-scale snow-shoe drawings transform winter landscapes into geometric wonders. Environmental scientist George Duffy helps us to break down the science of snow and the various …
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“If one looks at a glacier long enough,” the Icelandic author Halldor Laxness once wrote, “words cease to have any meaning on this earth.” In this episode of Art of Interference, we put Laxness’s observation to the test. We meet Montreal-based artist Jessica Houston and climate scientist Bruno Tremblay to discuss Letter to the Future, a 1,000-year …
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For this episode musicologist Joy Calico joins Lutz Koepnick as co-host to discuss contemporary projects dedicated to the planet’s oceans in distress. We speak with Juliana Snapper and her collaborator Andrew Infanti about their unique opera,You Who Will Emerge from the Flood. A soprano who combines radical vocal techniques and improvisation, Snapp…
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In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of rivers as we talk to artist Carolina Caycedo, whose work contemplates human and river relationships by breaking down boundaries between activism and artmaking. Additionally, we discuss the destructive effects of damming with geomorphologist Frank Magilligan (Dartmouth), before further discussi…
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Our fourth episode takes a look under the hood of what we understand as interference. We feature the work of German artist and experimental musician Carsten Nicolai to discuss analogies between water and sound, acoustical and aquatic waves. We hear from Hawaiian scholar and surfer Karin Amimoto Ingersoll about the art of attuning one’s body to the …
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This third episode of Art of Interference features artist Eve Mosher whose project High Water Line reflects on the ever-more common experience of living in flood-prone areas. In our conversation, we talk about: the importance of engaging communities in complex climate issues, understanding storm predictions, and the importance of the imagination in…
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Join us for Art of Interference’s second episode, which takes a closer look at the fascinating phenomenon of fog. In this episode, we delve into the work of Fujiko Nakaya, a Japanese artist whose unique fog sculptures have been exhibited around the world. In this episode, we talk about: The ephemeral and evocative nature of fog, Nakaya’s unique fog…
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In this first episode of Art of Interference, we speak with Vietnamese visual artist Thao Nguyen Phan about her video installation Becoming Alluvium. The work centers on a parable on dew and the human follies of controlling nature. It first showed in 2021 and New York Times critic Holland Cotter called it “a beauty.” In this episode, we talk about:…
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