Recording of Nature Nerd Chat "Flames of Change: Dystopias, Utopias and Fiery Social Movements"
2nd in the Nature Nerd Chat + Nature, Art & Habitat Residency collaborative Salon Series on FIRE
On Sunday, March 24th we had our second Nature Nerd Chat + Nature, Art & Habitat Residency collaborative Salon on FIRE.
Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR) is a think tank laboratory of multidisciplinary research located in Northern Italy, Val Taleggio, with an outpost in Santa Ynez, California (just north of Santa Barbara). NAHR’s aim is to unfold and display a culture that relates to nature as a source of inspiration.
This year’s theme is FIRE, so I wanted to have a collaborative Nature Nerd Chat series with NAHR that brings together nature nerds with knowledge and experience about fire.
Joining myself (Anne LaForti) and Asli Suner (a fellow NAHR ambassador), Dr. Sezai Ozan Zeybeck opened the conversation to embark on a thought-provoking journey where we explored fiery social movements, dystopias, and utopias —all woven into the fabric of our cultural landscape. These narratives transport us to alternate realms, where the boundaries of possibility blur and the future hangs in delicate balance. Dystopias, those shadowy reflections of our fears, reveal the cracks in our societal foundations. They beckon us to confront uncomfortable truths: oppressive regimes, environmental decay, and technological overreach. Yet, within their bleakness lies a call to action—a plea to prevent their realization. Utopias, on the other hand, are the whispered dreams of a better world. They shimmer with hope, envisioning societies where equity, compassion, and harmony reign supreme. But utopias are not mere fantasies; they inspire us to shape our reality. They remind us that change begins with small steps, taken today.
If you like this type of event and want to make sure you see the invitation for future events, please subscribe (it’s free) to my substack or my eventbrite profile.
If you missed the chat, you’ll find the recording at the bottom of this post.
Some notes and links for context and deeper dives on projects and topics are listed below.
Links from Nature, Art & Habitat Residency:
Nature, Art, & Habitat Residency — 2024 Fellowship is around FIRE. Rolling application deadline for Summer residency in Taleggio, Italy (in the Italian Alps) and the Fall residency in Santa Ynez, California (just north of Santa Barbara).
Book suggestion from Dr. S. Ozan Zeybek:
See for further discussions: Gordin, Michael D., Gyan Prakash, and Helen Tilley, eds. 2010. Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility. Princeton University Press.
Guest and Co-Host Bios:
Dr. S. Ozan Zeybek, PhD (he/him) works on more-than-human collectives and ecologies, state violence, militarism, and post-colonial formations of modernity. His book, Animals in the Recent History of Turkey: Opening Social Sciences to non-Humans has come out in Turkish in 2020. In his PhD, "Silencing Provincial Geographies", he carried out an ethnography in a small town in Turkey, and is now a professor of Geographies of Global Inequalities at Freie Universität Berlin. He has five children’s books and another book on story telling for grown-ups, titled "Talking With Tales". He co-hosts two separate radio programs/podcasts, one on food in movies and the other on ecological movements.
Anne LaForti, MSc (she/her) is a soil nerd, myco enthusiast, and all-around biophile (nature lover). She has a master's degree in Biomimicry and is a project manager supporting nature-based innovation in the built environment and beyond at Biomimicry 3.8. She is deeply interested in ITEK (Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge), regenerative agriculture and landscapes, and growing nutrient-dense foods. Anne was the 2022 Spring Nature, Art & Habitat Residency (NAHR) Fellow in Santa Ynez, working on "Soil as Pattern Language: Emulating Healthy Soil Communities" and is currently a NAHR Ambassador.
Asli Suner, MArch (she/her) is an architect and an educator. Her passion for design is informed by a constant dialogue between her design practice and her academic role bridging interests like the ecologies of building, urban nature, and the relationality of design across time and space. Before founding Designcase, she worked at international architectural firms like Cannon Design and Foster + Partners. Suner teaches interdisciplinary design classes, architecture studios, sustainable building technologies, and biomimicry at Kadir Has University, Istanbul. Asli has been a NAHR ambassador since 2020.