INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES
IN THE VISUAL ARTS
Four figures and their guests sit down for conversations about climate. About necessary actions and about the results of mindless inaction; about food sovereignty and about revolutionary gestures; about extinction and about practical dreams of the times ahead. All of these “abouts” point to a certain delirium that permeates contemporary society, which is anxiously looking forward to its own (un)future. On every scale, we find ourselves in a climatological delirium. What brought us here? Hyper-rational choices and precision of techno-science or irrational gestures of ignorance and carelessness? We will discuss and confabulate these issues through insights from indigenous food epistemologies, activist practices, artistic rites, and scientific observations. Perhaps we will even come to a philosophically positive definition of delirium (etymologically, “deviation from a furrow”): from a state of confusion and agitation to an unwavering pursuit of irregular preferences.
Register here
Friday, April 18, 2025
12pm ET: “The Scientist” Gail Bradbrook & Bruce Glavovic
3pm ET: “The Cook” Chris Rodriguez & Nephi Craig
Saturday, April 19, 2025
12pm ET: “The Artist & The Philosopher” Ursula Biemann & Howard Caygill
Contributors
Gail Bradbrook is a British environmental activist with a PhD in molecular biophysics. She co-founded the environmental social movement Extinction Rebellion. Her focus on civil disobedience activism aims to raise awareness of the dangers of anthropogenic climate change and the problems inherent to economic growth.
Bruce Glavovic is a professor in the School of People, Environment, and Planning at Massey University. His focus encompasses critical applied scholarship on natural hazard planning, post-disaster recovery, and coastal governance. His research generally centers on how governance shapes societal choices in the Anthropocene.
Chris Rodriguez grew up in Southern California. As a father and mutual aid chef organizing community-based access to the ecological stewardship of the land, he is actively engaged in developing local institutions such as a land trust, community gardens, mutual aid kitchens, a homeschool, and grassroots community health projects.
Nephi Craig has 24 years of culinary experience in America and worldwide. He is a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe and half Navajo. He is the founder of the Native American Culinary Association (NACA). This organization is dedicated to the research, refinement, and development of Native American Cuisine, and a pioneer in the development of “Restorative Indigenous Food Practices.”
Ursula Biemann is an artist, author, and video essayist. Her research-oriented work involves fieldwork in remote locations from Greenland to Amazonia, where she investigates climate change and the ecologies of oil, ice, forests, and water. Her pluralistic practice spans a range of media, including experimental video, interviews, text, performance, photography, cartography, props, and materials, which converge in formalized spatial installations.
Howard Caygill is a philosopher and cultural historian. Most recently, he has served on the faculties of Goldsmiths, Kingston, and Paris VIII, and is a core faculty member at IDSVA. He is currently working on the philosophy and aesthetics of the Anthropocene and the role of philosophy in curating and interpreting the art produced by inmates of mental hospitals during the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Dejan Lukić (moderator) is a core faculty member at IDSVA. He is currently immersed in creating a multi-volume manuscript titled “Deranged Vivarium,” promising new insights into the coexistence of diverse elements in our complex world, so as to understand the intricate relationships between art, nature, and science.
IDSVA is pleased to present the third and final series of the International Climate Action webinars, which started in 2021.
IDSVA is a low-residency PhD program in philosophy, aesthetics, and art theory for artists and creative thinkers. Founded in 2006 in Portland, ME, the Institute fuses interactive online education with immersive residencies, aiming to foster a global sense of community and generate new visions for a changing world.
We are accepting applications for September 2025 enrollment. Inquire today or email info@idsva.edu for more information.