Back in 2013 I had a chance to speak with sound recordist and soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause about his work and outlook on the Earth’s changing soundscapes – a conversation we called Repairing the silent spring. The notion of a … Continued
I close my eyes and really listen. Some of the sounds I can readily identify, the drone of chicadas, birdsong, monkey howls and flies zooming past the microphone. Then there is another layer of, to me, unidentifiable forest sounds where … Continued
I first met Charlotte Du Cann at a Transition meeting in Norwich years before I bumped into her again at the Uncivilisation festival in 2011. And living in the same end of the country we have been meeting with the … Continued
Vinay Gupta is one of those hard-to-pin-down, hyper-productive people that seems to be everywhere once you start looking. The Hexayurt, a low-cost shelter made from plywood, is perhaps one of his best known projects – having found use in places … Continued
Steve Wheeler is one of the people I’ve met who has been thinking about collapse for the longest and probably the deepest – I highly recommend his blog Steelweaver which contains some real gems of insight for anyone thinking about … Continued
Taking time out from busy organising at the last Uncivilisation festival, Dougie Strang shared some of his reflections on the Dark Mountain Project with me over a cup of coffee and breakfast. We delved into the role of art and … Continued
Having thought about improvisation as a central theme in my research, I was excited to find myself in conversation with Alex Fradera at last year’s Uncivilisation festival. Alex is an improvisational performer and psychologist who uses play and creativity as … Continued
I first encountered writer and storyteller Sharon Blackie at the Uncivilisation festival back in 2011. She was telling about her experience of moving to the Hebrides, becoming a crofter and connecting with her new home. I’ve since found a trove … Continued
Last year around this time, I found myself responding to an invitation by Cat Lupton to contribute a piece to her new blog The Place Between Stories. That was the beginning of a longer conversation that has unwound itself into … Continued
This is the third and final instalment of a longer dialogue with Tony Dias in which we develop some of the themes that emerged in the first and second parts. TD: One of the things I have been realising … Continued
This is the second of a three-part conversation with writer & thinker-maker, Tony Dias, where we delve further into some of the issues that opened up in the first conversation. We share this conversation here in the spirit of gift … Continued
Last February I approached Tony Dias for an interview about his involvement in and thoughts about the Dark Mountain Project. This turned into a series of dialogues about his work and my own, a process of mutual sense-making. In this … Continued
I bumped into Jay Griffiths at the Dark Mountain festival and had an improvised chat about wild time, progress and narrative. A cross-post from the blog on time-culture.net: The otherness of time – A conversation with Jay griffiths. This is part … Continued
My old friend Morten Svenstrup and I am launching the website time-culture.net as a place for dialogue about how we experience time and how this affects our lives individually and collectively. Over the next couple of months we are trying … Continued
When I came across Steve Thorp’s blog Psycho-Bubble last winter I found a style of writing that was both sincere and explorative, the kind of words that take you along with them and suggest new directions without telling you where … Continued
“This is like a movement of people who have seen the promises broken. You come through the other side of the development process and suddenly you’re facing being poorer than your parents. Environmental degradation, overcrowding, decline. It is just what … Continued
In early February I called up the American philosopher Andrew Taggart in New York for the first of a series of interviews with people involved in or affiliated with the Dark Mountain Project. Having just started my fieldwork I didn’t … Continued
Having had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend at the Dark Mountain Festival 2011 in Hampshire, I started thinking seriously about researching the Dark Mountain Project as part of my PhD. I spent much of the festival chatting to people about the … Continued
As I am currently reading up on Gaia (or Earth System Science), I felt struck by serendipity when I saw that philosopher Mary Midgley was coming to the University of East Anglia to give a lecture on humanism as part … Continued