M12 Black Forest Institute: Fall 2021 Dialogues
M12 Black Forest Institute: Fall 2021 Dialogues
FIRESIDE DIALOGUES
M12 STUDIO in collaboration with curator Daisy McGowan have programmed discussions through the Black Forest Institute at the UCCS Ent Center for the Arts Sculpture Green. Each Fireside Dialogue is an opportunity for sharing knowledge, stories and wisdom about our regional forests, trees and woodlands. The Black Forest Institute is interested in providing space for constructively addressing the complexities of forest fire and related subjects such as fire impact, rural futures, and global climate awareness. Part of The Space(s) Between exhibition, curated by Donald Fodness, Daisy McGowan and Geoffrey Shamos, and GOCA’s Art WithOut Limits program.
Fall 2021 Dialogues Speakers
Christine Biermann is Assistant Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at University of Colorado Colorado Springs, where is she is the Director of the Tree Ring Lab. With UCCS students and colleagues, Christine studies how climate change is affecting Colorado's ecosystems, and particularly its forests.
Artist and researcher Nina Elder creates projects that reveal humanity’s dependence on and interruption of the natural world. With a focus on changing cultures and ecologies, Nina advocates for collaboration, fostering relationships between institutions, artists, scientists and diverse communities. Her work takes many forms, including drawings, performative lectures, pedagogy and critical writing, long term community-based projects, and public art.
Erika Osborne’s artwork deals with cultural connections to place and environment. For the past 15 years, Erika has taught painting and drawing alongside environmental field courses such as Land Arts of the American West, Wilderness Studio, Place: Appalachia, Art and Environment and Cultural Extraction: Energy in the Humanities at Colorado State University, where she is on the faculty.
Dylan M. Harris is an assistant professor of Geography & Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. His work is on the stories we tell (and don't tell) about climate change, focusing specifically on intersections of climate justice, energy, and ideologies of empire. More specifically, he has done extensive work in communities in Appalachia and Alaska, listening to and telling stories to communities often at the front lines of climate change where it is sometimes difficult to talk about it.
Erin Elder is an artist, writer, and curator guided by interests in land use, experimental collaboration, and non-traditional modes of expression. Her research-driven projects take highly participatory forms, working with a broad definition of art to bring audiences into a direct experience of particular places.
About M12 Studio’s Black Forest Institute
Over the last several years, over 600,000 acres of land has burned in Colorado wildfires, while other parts of the Americas and Australia have also experienced dramatic increases in forest fire activity. The dry climate coupled with other erratic climatological conditions and human error have produced an unrelenting anxiety that is now commonplace among those living in rural parts of the American West. The Black Forest Institute (BFI) has a focus on opening up a space for community discussion around these topics. The institute and campus is an artwork focused on inviting visitors to develop a deeper understanding of our collective shifting climates and rural futures.
PEDAGOGY
The Black Forest Institute is an outdoor public artwork that operates as an experimental art and forestry school. The institute is conceived as an active knowledge-sharing platform of fireside dialogues and skill sharing events around topics as diverse as: forest fire prevention, personal stories, revegetating in the forest, axe sharpening, the forest as pantry, and skills such as tree felling, tree planting and two-person saw techniques.
MICRO CAMPUS
The campus consists of three primary elements; the woodshed, a rural inspired structure made from rough cut timber, a work bench, and an outdoor fireplace. This space is unique in that it is constructed out of wood harvested from regional burn scar areas. Already burned once by wildfire, the pieces of wood used during the fireside events are odiferous, charred, drip with sap, and resonate as fuel for igniting generative conversations and new intentions for this unprecedented moment.
FIRESIDE DIALOGUES
M12 STUDIO in collaboration with curator Daisy McGowan have programmed a year's worth of discussions through the Black Forest Institute at the Ent Center for the Arts Sculpture Green. Each Fireside Dialogue is an opportunity for sharing knowledge, stories and wisdom about our regional forests, trees and woodlands. The Black Forest Institute is interested in providing space for constructively addressing the complexities of forest fire and related subjects such as fire impact, rural futures, and global climate awareness.
BACKGROUND AND SUPPORT
The Black Forest Institute project is part of the wide-ranging project The Space(s) Between curated by Donald Fodness, Daisy McGowan and Geoffrey Shamos, and is part of UCCS GOCA's curated Art WithOut Limits Public Sculpture Series. Additional support for this project has been provided by the UCCS Green Action Fund and the CU President's Fund for the Humanities. The project is sited at the Sculpture Lawn at the Ent Center for the Arts, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. The Black Forest Institute is not affiliated with any university and is an auxiliary unit of M12 STUDIO. Project team: Richard Saxton, Trent Segura, George P. Perez, Aaron Treher.
Black Forest, Section 16 June, 13 2013. Material for this artwork was harvested from burn scars near Black Forest and Granby, Colorado.
Black Forest, Section 16 | August 17, 2020. The Black Forest Fire of 2013 burned nearly 15,000 acres and destroyed over 500 homes.
