IMMA celebrates its 30th Birthday,  with the IMMA Outdoors programme This playlist offers a selection of material that reflects on the resonance of the IMMA / RHK  site and history, ecology and engagement with diverse set of communities The emphasis for the programme lies in ideas of civic agency, self-determination, global interconnections, environmental concerns and what it means to be radically public by creating an inclusive meaningful space for all ages to relax, contemplate and enjoy. 
Image Caption: Forerunner, Y O U N G F O S S I L, 2021. Seating Structures - wood, steel, sawdust, dragon's blood, resin, paper, fabric. Commissioned by IMMA for IMMA Outdoors 2021. Supported by Public Service Innovation Fund. Presented with the kind support of OPW. Photography Ros Kavanagh.

IMMA OUTDOORS 2021/22/23

In association with IMMA Outdoors + Common Ground, IMMA is delighted to host a talk by Professor Gerald Mills as part of the IMMA Outdoors evening programme.  the Mapping Green Dublin partners published its research, to find out more join Professor Mills who presents some fascinating findings and recommendations on the matter of trees and greening issues across Dublin 8.

Track Details:  Lecture + Discussion, Mapping Green Dublin with Gerald Mills and Common Ground,  IMMA Outdoors People's Pavilion June 2021
Mapping Green Dublin is an interdisciplinary research project that combined citizen science, community knowledge and experience, socially engaged arts practice and academia. Professor Gerald Mills will present its research findings and how communities can be provided with and use scientific data to develop local and strategic recommendations and projects and engage more equally with policymakers. Mapping Green Dublin partners focused its research on an area of Dublin that corresponds loosely with the postcode area of Dublin 8, an east-west area extending along the Liffey from the Liberties in the city centre to Inchicore. While the Dublin 8 neighbourhood was the immediate focus of the study, the methodologies adopted can be applied in any neighbourhood looking to develop alternative and inclusive approaches to urban greening.

About Speakers
PROFESSOR GERALD MILLS holds a BA in Geography and History at University College Dublin and completed a research Master’s degree at UCD between 1981 and 1983. This research examined the synoptic origins of precipitation in Ireland during the period 1970 to 1980 and was supervised by Stuart Daultrey. He moved to the USA in 1984 to pursue a PhD and attended The Ohio State University as a PhD student concentrating on the areas of climatology and cartography where he completed a PhD dissertation on the energy budget of urban streets (or canyons) using modelling and field observations. From 1989 to 1997 Gerald taught in the USA, first in Bowling Green State University, Ohio (1989-1990) and then at University of California at Los Angeles (1991-1997). Since 1997 Gerald has lectured in the Dept. of Geography at UCD.

Q+A PANELISTS
SEOIDIN O’SULLIVAN is a contemporary artist and educator. Her art projects are collaborative and focus on people joining together in action to protect and develop an aspect of their local commons. Her practice supports sustainable models within various ecological contexts and addresses issues of land use, lost knowledge, social justice and biodiversity. 

NIAMH MOORE CHERRY is an Associate Professor of Urban Governance and Development in the School of Geography, University College Dublin, Vice-Principal for Teaching and Learning in the UCD College of Social Sciences and Law, and an Honorary Professor at the Bartlett School of Planning,

Gerald Mills and Common Ground discuss Mapping Green Dublin

In association with IMMA Outdoors - Collaborative arts practice Forerunner, with founding members Tanad Aaron, Andreas Kindler von Knobloch and Tom Watt, in conversation with Nathalie Weadick.

Track Details: Young Fossil Artists-in-Conversation  with Forerunner on  
1 October 2021,  IMMA Outdoors  People's Pavilion
Collaborative arts practice Forerunner founding members Tanad Aaron, Andreas Kindler von Knobloch and Tom Watt, discuss their project Y O U N G F O S S I L commissioned by IMMA. A conversation with the artists is led by Nathalie Weadick curator of architecture and spatial practice based in Dublin, and director of the Irish Architecture Foundation. Hear directly from the artists who share their ideas and thinking behind Y O U N G F O S S I L; the inspiration behind the materiality and making-process that is so specific to Forerunner’s ongoing practice, and the ways their timely project prompts us to reflect on for wider issues on the politics of housing, ecology, consumption, the environment and indeed challenges of public art commissioning for historical sites such as IMMA / RHK.

About Artists 
After graduating together in 2011/12 and supporting one another in different projects over several years, Forerunner began to work together officially in 2016. Their collaborations include architecturally interrogating Fine Art and specific objects built for, or against a function. In their separate practices, they are interested in the history of art practices and the fabrication and creation process used or deemed usable as an artist. Combined, their practice presents an ambitious interrogation of objects, environments and uses. Working with everyday or commonplace materials lends the works a familiarity while allowing them the freedom to be re-examined in a new and unfamiliar context. This methodology often ends in work whose emphasis is on its production values, be they self-made or factory finished, and a focus on the work’s overall coherent composition.

Over the past two years Forerunner’s work has begun to encompass an interest in Arte Util and a desire to quietly upgrade or criticise by fixing. The artists commonly refer to their exhibitions as tests; tests for the real world, tests for a future context and opportunities to try a different material or technique.

Recent projects include the Future and stuff, TULCA 2020; Architecture of Change, VOID, Derry, 2018; Museum of Mythological Waterbeasts, Ormston House, Limerick, 2018; Misplaced Concreteness, 2018, Grizedale Arts, 2018; Brute Clues, Project Arts Centre, 2016. Permanent commissions exist in Dublin, Belfast, The Lake District, Paris and Japan.

IMMA Outdoors Forerunner in conversation with Nathalie Weadick

In association with Club Chroma Chlorologia by Niall Sweeney, commissioned as part of the IMMA Outdoors programme IMMA invites ShoutOut and Queer Culture Ireland to facilitate a series of workshops that draws on their commitment and ethos to improve life for LGBTQ+ people. 

Track Details: Shoutout & Queer Culture Ireland, Workshop, Then and Now, Know Your Queer History,  IMMA Outdoors People's Pavilion, 07 August 2021. This workshop looks at cross-generational queer experiences in Ireland – to consider how things have changed since the earliest days of the movement, the role of archivists in documenting those changes, and how we might better build intergenerational links. Join a panel of guests who draw parallels between LGBTQ+ lives then and now, what has improved and what has deteriorated for the community as Ireland has changed. This offers us an opportunity to consider queer intersectional spaces today, who they serve, and what a truly inclusive space might look like for the community: one which is intergenerational and accessible to all.
This workshop is presented by Queer Culture Ireland and ShoutOut with invited guests that includes researcher, writer and visual artist Hannah Tiernan, Trans activist and chair of TENI Sara Phillips; Gay activist, and co-founder of the small ‘80s lobby group Gays Against Imperialism Cathal Kerrigan and others.

About Workshop Speakers
ShoutOut is a registered charity working to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion through education. Since 2012, we have delivered nearly 2,000 workshops to some 60,000 young people in secondary schools across the island of Ireland, to combat homophobic and transphobic bullying. We use our on-the-ground experience of speaking with young people to inform all of our training modules. 

Queer Culture Ireland : LGBTQ+ culture, history, and art group Queer Culture Ireland is a group for anyone interested in, working in or studying Irish queer culture, history, art, heritage founded by Judith Finlay and Kate Drinane. Queer Culture Ireland (QCI), in collaboration with Dublin LGBT Pride have also presented the HIV/AIDS exhibition titled ‘The Quilt: Echoes of Memories’ on World AIDS Day, previously collaborating with Dublin Pride in making the exhibition come to life in 2020 and since have hosted the exhibition at several venues. This was co-curated with Dr Patrick McDonagh

Shoutout & Queer Culture Ireland: Workshop, Then and Now, Know Your Queer History

In association with IMMA Outdoors and  Chroma Chlorologia, this bespoke workshop series draws on themes addressed by CHROMA in which to consider how artistic expression in Irish queer history and culture can tell us more about our identity and place in society today as LGBTQ+ people. This art based workshop looks at how art, design, and visual symbols have been used as tools for social change, and their ongoing importance in LGBTQ+ activism.

Track Details: LGBTQ+ Artistic and Activist Tools for Social Change, Online Workshop, Wed 27 October 2021
Revised for an  online workshop, our guests explores representation, education, and where LGBTQ+ stories can feature in curricula and media. Drawing on themes addressed by CHROMA, and to consider how artistic expression in Irish queer history and culture can tell us more about our identity and place in society today as LGBTQ+ people. This art based discussion looks at how art, design, and visual symbols have been used as tools for social change, and their ongoing importance in LGBTQ+ activism.

This discursive workshop is presented by Aifric Ní Chríodáin who will be joined by special guests Hannah Tiernan – visual artist, researcher and writer, Dónal Talbot – photographer and artist, whose works predominantly in portraiture, to showcase and empower the LGBTQ+ community, through representation in art; Alber Saborío – a trans nonbinary artist and sex educator from Honduras and co-founder and co-director of the trans-led art collective gender.RIP.

Explore the rich visual culture of LGBTQ+ communities and activism in Ireland, and join guests who focus on LGBTQ+ inclusion, encompassing an exploration of terminology, theory, fluidity of identity, and social and legal inequalities for LGBTQ+ people in Ireland, as they reflect on a wide variety of queer practices across Ireland that promote and celebrate equality and diversity.
About Speakers
ShoutOut is a registered charity working to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion through education. Since 2012, we have delivered nearly 2,000 workshops to some 60,000 young people in secondary schools across the island of Ireland, to combat homophobic and transphobic bullying. We use our on-the-ground experience of speaking with young people to inform all of our training modules. In addition to our workshops for students, we also offer capacity building training to teachers, youth workers, and any organisations working with young people, e.g. charities, public bodies, or educational institutions. This work is primarily supported by our workplace training and inclusion programmes, aimed at building supportive working environments for LGBTQ+ employees. ShoutOut’s core values are education, inclusion, and allyship. From year to year, the staff and volunteers actively review and refine workshop materials, to deliver the highest quality of LGBTQ+ inclusive education in Ireland.

Queer Culture Ireland : LGBTQ+ culture, history, and art group Queer Culture Ireland is a group for anyone interested in, working in or studying Irish queer culture, history, art, heritage founded by Judith Finlay and Kate Drinane. Queer Culture Ireland (QCI), in collaboration with Dublin LGBT Pride have also presented the HIV/AIDS exhibition titled ‘The Quilt: Echoes of Memories’ on World AIDS Day, previously collaborating with Dublin Pride in making the exhibition come to life in 2020 and since have hosted the exhibition at several venues. This was co-curated with Dr Patrick McDonagh.

Shout Out + Queer Culture Ireland, LGBTQ+ Artistic and Activist Tools for Social Change

This series of talks, convened by NCAD and IMMA, offer a reflection and discussion on archives and material documents, as a way to renegotiate the past and as a blueprint for future action. Participating speakers include Emily Jacir and Bik Van der Pol who will share the ways their work and methodologies overlap with archive-based practices.

Track Details: Creative Futures Academy (CFA) Time, Travel & Re-imagining the Past in Place, Online, Thursday 09 September 2021 
#2: In Conversation with Bik Van der Pol and Sarah Pierce
IMMA is delighted to partner on a series Public Talks with international guests, Bik Van der Pol and Emily Jacir, hosted by the Creative Futures Academy, the National College of Art and Design and IMMA.

Both Talks offer an opportunity to reflect on the entangled role that material documents play across different regions and times, both as a way to renegotiate the past and as a blueprint for future action. International guest artists and researchers Bik Van der Pol and Emily Jacir will offer their insight and experience into the way their work and methodologies overlap with archive-based practices. Each online talk comprises an artist’s presentation, followed by a moderated discussion to further explores themes and ideas related to Time – Travel – Past – Place.

About Artists
Bik Van der Pol : Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol live and work in Rotterdam. Working collectively since 1995 as Bik Van der Pol they aim to articulate and understand how art can produce a public sphere and space for imagination, and how publics are formed and come together. Their mode of working consists of setting up the conditions for encounter to develop a process that allows for continuous reconfigurations of places, histories and publics. Their practice is site-specific and collaborative with dialogue as a mode of transfer; a “passing through”, understood in its etymological meaning of “a speech across or between two or more people, out of which may emerge new understandings”. In fact, they consider “passing through” as vital. It is temporal, and implies action and the development of new forms of discourse. Their practice is both instigator and result of this method.

About The Creative Futures Academy (CFA)
The Creative Futures Academy (CFA) aims to support the development of sustainable careers for early and mid-career cultural and creative professionals through a mix of upskilling and reskilling. Through a range of flexible course offerings, the CFA will equip learners with the attributes that they require to thrive and to shape the future of Ireland’s cultural and creative sector.

(CFA)#2:  Time, Travel & Re-imagining the Past in Place with Bik Van der Pol and Sarah Pierce

This series of talks, convened by NCAD and IMMA, offer a reflection and discussion on archives and material documents, as a way to renegotiate the past and as a blueprint for future action. Participating speakers include Emily Jacir and Bik Van der Pol who will share the ways their work and methodologies overlap with archive-based practices.

Track Details: Creative Futures Academy (CFA) Time, Travel & Re-imagining the Past in Place, Online,  Weds 08 September 2021.
#1: In Conversation with Emily Jacir + Declan  Long
IMMA is delighted to partner on a series Public Talks with international guests, Bik Van der Pol and Emily Jacir, hosted by the Creative Futures Academy, the National College of Art and Design and IMMA.

Both Talks offer an opportunity to reflect on the entangled role that material documents play across different regions and times, both as a way to renegotiate the past and as a blueprint for future action. International guest artists and researchers Bik Van der Pol and Emily Jacir will offer their insight and experience into the way their work and methodologies overlap with archive-based practices. Each online talk comprises an artist’s presentation, followed by a moderated discussion to further explores themes and ideas related to Time – Travel – Past – Place.

About Artist 
Emily Jacir lives in the Mediterranean and is an artist and filmmaker who is primarily concerned with transformation, translation, resistance and silenced historical narratives. Jacir has built a complex and compelling oeuvre through a diverse range of media and methodologies that include unearthing historical material, performative gestures, and in-depth research. Jacir is the recipient of several awards, including a Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007); a Prince Claus Award from the Prince Claus Fund in The Hague (2007); the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum (2008); the Alpert Award (2011) from the Herb Alpert Foundation; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Rome Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome (2015). Select solo exhibitions include the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2016-17); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015); Darat il Funun, Amman (2014-2015); Beirut Art Center (2010); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2009).

About The Creative Futures Academy (CFA)
The Creative Futures Academy (CFA) aims to support the development of sustainable careers for early and mid-career cultural and creative professionals through a mix of upskilling and reskilling. Through a range of flexible course offerings, the CFA will equip learners with the attributes that they require to thrive and to shape the future of Ireland’s cultural and creative sector.

CFA #1: Emily Jacir & Declan Long, Time, Travel & Re-imagining the Past in Place

In association with the Visual Voices & Bok Gwai Project 2021,  Dr Veronica Crosbie to present a talk on the University of Sanctuary Model and network in Ireland. This sets the contexts for a broader discussion on the DCU/IMMA collaboration with guests Julie Daniel, the DCU University of Sanctuary Mellie programme and Janice Hough, Residency and Artists' Programmes. This pilot programme informs ideas of how the IMMA Museum and site can also employ the University of Sanctuary Model. 

Track Details: Lecture + Discussion, Visual Voices, Online, Friday 21 July 2021 Lecture: Dr Veronica Crosbie presents a talk on the University of Sanctuary Model and network in Ireland (UoSI) initiated by DCU as the first University of Sanctuary in Ireland in 2016. The University of Sanctuary model advocates and promotes a culture of hospitality and inclusion in higher education for refugees and those seeking asylum, that is based on the concept of welcoming strangers. As more universities nationwide sign up and the network continues to grow, Dr Crosbie reflects on the timely importance of the University of Sanctuary Model in Ireland, and the ways this offers a valuable framework for essential work in supporting and developing socially just institutes of higher education – migrant and refugee studies – strategies for integration – critical pedagogies – participatory research and concepts of cosmopolitan citizenship within the higher education and cultural sector.

Response: To follow, we hear from Julie Daniel, coordinator of the DCU University of Sanctuary Mellie programme, who discusses the process of photovoice methodology and working with participants of the Mellie programme at DCU/ Visual Voices, exploring how the themes of hospitality and hope evoke the shared experiences of Direct Provision residents and DCU staff and student volunteers as captured in image and texts currently on display in the Project Spaces at IMMA.

Closing Discussion: with Dr Veronica Crosbie, Julie Daniels and Janice Hough, Residency programmer and curator of Visual Voices & Bok Gwai, and moderated by Helen 0’Donoghue, Head of Engagement and Learning, IMMA who come together to reflect on DCU/IMMA collaboration and related programming at IMMA.

VISUAL VOICES WITH DR VERONICA CROSBIE & JULIE DANIEL

As part of IMMA Nights, we are delighted to present a keynote talk by internationally renowned writer, artist and technologist James Bridle, who discusses key tenets of their exciting new book, Ways of Being, that looks at the entangled relationship of technology, ecology, and more-than-human intelligence. 

Track: Ways of Being Talk + Discussion with James Bridle, 2022
Talk: Thurs 14th July 2022 at 6:30pm, The People's Pavilion.

What does it mean to be intelligent and how can we change ourselves, our technologies, our societies, and our politics, to live better and more equitably with one another and the non-human world?

Join artist, technologist, and philosopher James Bridle’s who introduces their new book Ways of Being, a brilliant, searching exploration of different kinds of intelligence, plant, animal, human, artificial and how they transform our understanding of humans’ place in the cosmos.

The last few years have seen rapid advances in “artificial” intelligence. But as it approaches, it also gets weirder: rather than a friend or helpmate, AI increasingly appears as something stranger than we ever imagined, an alien invention that threatens to decentre and supplant us. In this talk Bridle draws attention to how the animals, plants, and natural systems that surround us are slowly revealing their complexity, agency, and knowledge. From biology and physics, to computation, literature, art, and philosophy, Bridle invites us to reflect on some of most urgent questions for our survival, as we are taking on a journey through Ways of Being, Animals, Plants, Machines: The Search for a Planetary Intelligence.

Note: Due to the outside nature of the talk - this track contains some ambient sound, and is for research purposes only.

Ways of Being: Talk + Discussion with James Bridle, 2022

Coinciding with the presentation of Em’kal Eyongakpa's immersive sensory installation in the Formal Garden, this discussion introduces Encounters, an EVA International and IMMA Partnership featuring the work of Eyongakpa. Rachael Gilbourne is joined by guests Matt Packer and Sandra Joyce.

Track Details: IMMA + EVA Curators' Discussion: Encounters by Em'Kal Eyongakpal, 23 July 2022 IMMA Outdoors - People's Pavilion  

This exploratory conversation introduces the themes, processes and collaborative nature of Em’kal Eyongakpa’s practice within the context of the wider EVA International programme. Alternative processes of commissioning, ideas around the exhibitionary moment, and the unfolding of associated poetry and song event More than the reverb are amongst topics to be addressed.

The discussion features contributions by Matt Packer (EVA) co-curator Rachael Gilbourne and features a response by Dr Sandra Joyce, Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. The talk marked partnership Encounters with EVA International + IMMA and launched the EVA International publication.

Please note: This talk recording is for research and archive purposes. Due to the outdoor setting of the People's Pavilion, some ambient noise may partially disrupt the audibility of this track.

About Artist
Em'kal Eyongakpa (b. 1981, Mamfe) is an artist whose work draws from a range of sources including indigenous knowledge systems, ethnobotany, applied mycology and technology. He is also known for his involvement in self-organised community research spaces, such as KHaL!SHRINE in Yaoundée (2007-2012) and the research platform/ Boh- Bɛtok/ ɛfukuyu.

About  Spreakers:
Dr Sandra Joyce is Director of the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick. She is also currently Course Director of the MA Irish Music Studies at the Academy. Her research interests include the Irish harp and song traditions, historical ethnomusicology and, most recently, environmental humanities. Together with Helen Lawlor, she is editor of Harp Studies: Perspectives on the Irish Harp (Four Courts Press, 2016), with a second volume focusing on international harp practices to be published shortly. Sandra is also a member of the Irish Humanities Alliance Environmental Humanities Working Group. A traditional singer and bodhrán player, she has performed all over the world, most recently in Boston, Washington DC, Beijing and Shanghai (pre-pandemic!). She also performed in recent live-streamed and pre-recorded events for the Blas Summer School/North Atlantic Fiddle Convention 2021, as well as for the Dock Arts Centre, Carrick-on-Shannon in November 2021.

Matt Packer is the Director/CEO of EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art. Previous roles include Director, CCA Centre For Contemporary Art Derry-Londonderry (2014 – 2017); Associate Director, Treignac Projet (2013-2016); Curator of Exhibitions & Projects, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, University College Cork (2008 – 2013). In an independent capacity, he curated numerous exhibitions and projects, including: They Call Us The Screamers, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway (2017); and Disappearing Acts, Lofoten International Art Festival, Norway (2015) (with Arne Skaug Olsen). He was part of the selection committee for the British representation at the Venice Biennale 2017 and is an advisor on the What Could / Should Curating Do? educational programme in Belgrade. He is co-founder of Occasional Groundworks – a network partnership of EVA International, GIBCA (Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art ), and LIAF (Lofoten International Art Festival) – that is rethinking the smaller-scale biennial model within the regional European context.

IMMA + EVA: Curators' Discussion, Encounters by Em'Kal Eyongakpal, 2022

Earth Rising is a vibrant new Eco Art Festival celebrating people, place and planet which took place across the IMMA Campus. Presenting over 70 contributors, artist commissions, talks and workshops, Seed STUDIO, and showcasing a stunning built to disappear eco pavilion, alongside an eclectic live music line-up and food stalls, this promises to be an engaging and enjoyable free day out for everyone.

Track Details: An introduction to Earth Rising, Eco Fest, with Annie Flecther (Director at IMMA) and Lioncor and Reddy Architecture + Urbanism, IMMA Courtyard, Friday the 21st of October, 2022.

This Track is an Introduction into the Earth Rising, Eco Fest which took place in IMMA from Friday October 21st till Sunday October 23rd. Within this track we hear from IMMA's Director Annie Fletcher, and the Creators involved in the making of the site-specific ‘Built to Disappear’ eco pavilion, titled Éirigh, which was built specifically for the Earth Rising Festival at IMMA.


About the Artwork:
Éirigh is the result of a dynamic partnership between Lioncor and Reddy Architecture + Urbanism to create a unique gathering space that uses environmentally conscious approaches to materials and assembly that highlight the relationship between the environment, art, architecture and construction. The bespoke Built to Disappear site specific pavilion considers the theme of Earth Rising within the context of energy and how it is generated, used and valued. Constructed using willow stems, which is seen in indigenous woven architecture around the globe, can be locally grown and biodegrades back into the environment.

Launch: Earth Rising with Annie Fletcher, Lioncor and Reddy Architecture + Urbanism.

Presented as part IMMA’s new Eco Art Festival, Earth Rising, IMMA Talks brings together the festivals thought leadership platform, exploring the big issues and challenges of the day. 

Track Details:
Earth Rising Talks With Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Lucy Bowen, People's Pavilion, Saturday October 22nd, 2022.

A keynote talk is presented by Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino – London-based author and designer who has worked on issues of climate change for technology companies, energy retailers, banks, social enterprises and more, advocating how design has a critical role to play, in tackling the biggest challenge of our lifetime – the climate crisis. Design shapes the world. From the places we live to the products we buy, it creates environmental, social and economic impact and so has the power to change things for the better. Deschamps-Sonsino discusses her motives for building the Low Carbon Design Institute, exploring how creative and design professionals can integrate climate change knowledge in their practice. We will also learn more about the guiding principles for advocating sustainable design that informs the award-winning Design for Planet Festival 2022, that Deschamps-Sonsino is heading up as Chief Design Officer with the Design Council, UK. A closing conversation and Q+A will be moderated by Lucy Bowen, Lecturer, NCAD.

About Speakers: 
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is a London-based author, consultant and entrepreneur with a background in design and is recently appointed Chief Design Officer at the Design Council UK. She is now building the Low Carbon Design Institute, exploring how creative professionals integrate climate change knowledge in their practice.
She wrote ‘Smarter Homes: how technology will change your home life’ and ‘Creating a Culture of Innovation’, was the first UK distributor of the Arduino and founder of the Good Night Lamp which is in the permanent collection of the London Design Museum. She curated the London Internet of Things Meetup between 2011-2020 and helped the community create BetterIoT, a free checklist to help founders and product managers make more ethical decisions.

She was named 1st in a list of 100 Internet of Things Influencers (Postscapes, 2016), 2nd in Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders (Onalytica, 2014) and in the Top 100 Influencial Tech Women on Twitter (Business Insider, 2014). She’s been included in the longlist of Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Women in Tech in the UK (2017, 2018 & 2019). Her clients have included ING Labs, Bulb Energy, British Telecom, British Gas, the BBC. She studied industrial design at the University of Montréal and interaction design at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea.

Lucy Bowen has spent eight years working as a designer and sustainability consultant in the Irish fashion & textile industry. Across high-street, artisan and luxury markets, she works to empower brands in applying circular & sustainable principles to their design, development & production processes. As part of the Creative Futures Academy at NCAD, she is currently developing Circular by Design: a set of professional training programmes for Irish brands & manufacturers to enable their transition to circularity, as well as a Community of Practice to empower the wider Irish textile design community. Lucy also works as a Production & Costume Designer for commercial and creative film, applying sustainable sourcing practices to every stage of production.

Earth Rising Keynote Talk:  Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsin, Lucy Bowen, 2022

Presented as part IMMA’s new Eco Art Festival, Earth Rising, IMMA Talks brings together the festivals thought leadership platform, exploring the big issues and challenges of the day. 

Track Details:
Earth Rising Keynote Talk: Losing Eden, with Author Lucy Jones,  Artist Clodagh Emoe, and Chair Cathy Fitzgerald, People's Pavilion, Sunday October 23rd, 2022.

A keynote talk by Lucy Jones, author of LOSING EDEN, Why Our Minds Need the Wild presents on new scientific research that shows why forging a bond with nature is critical for our health and wellness, while also raising awareness about the alarming effects of its absence. Jones asks – could finding asylum in the soil and joy in the trees help us to save the living planet, as well as ourselves? Today many of us live indoor lives, disconnected from the natural world as never before. And yet the living world remains deeply ingrained in our language, culture and consciousness. So what happens, asks journalist and author Lucy Jones, as we lose our bond with the natural world – do we also be losing part of ourselves? What kind of ecological connections and relationships – in this great forgetting – are we missing out on? How do we reimagine what it means to be respectful co-tenants on earth?

Travelling from forest schools in East London to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault via primeval woodlands, Californian laboratories and ecotherapists’ couches, Jones has studied the cutting edge of human biology, neuroscience and psychology, and suggests new ways of understanding our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with the earth.

To follow Jones’ keynote talk a panel discussion with artist Clodagh Emoe will be moderated by Cathy Fitzgerald, that explores the connection between Jone’s work and some of the ideas motivating Emoe’s recent projects that includes The Classroom in the Sun,(2021-22) and SEED Studio(2022) an ecological studio space for artistic practice and research that and addresses an overwhelming need to explore new ways of deepening and celebrating our connection with the natural world.

About Speakers:
Lucy Jones is an author and writer based in Hampshire, England. Her first book, Foxes Unearthed, was celebrated for its ‘brave, bold and honest’ (Chris Packham) account of our relationship with the fox, winning the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award. Her second book, the bestselling Losing Eden: Why Our Minds Need the Wild, was a Times and Telegraph book of the year. Her third book The Nature Seed is about sharing the natural world with children. She previously worked at NME and the Daily Telegraph, and her writing on culture, science and nature has been published in BBC Earth, BBC Wildlife, The Sunday Times, the Guardian and the New Statesman. Jones is invited to discuss Losing Eden, within the context of the Clodagh Emoe’s Seed STUDIO project and IMMA’s residency.

Clodagh Emoe
Clodagh Emoe is an artist that initiates collaborative projects and creates works that explore how meaning is formed through our connection with each other and the natural world. Drawing on ritual, her works foregrounds experience and perception, creating spaces that invite thought.

Earth Rising Keynote Talk: Losing Eden', Lucy Jones, Clodagh Emoe, Cathy Fitzgerald, 2022

As part of IMMA Outdoors – we are delighted to invite Katie Holten to discuss her new book The Language of Trees, events comprise a Conversation and Book Launch with guest Anja Murray. 

Track Details:
Book Launch | The Language of Trees by Katie Holten with guest Anja Murray | June 15th, 2023 | The Peoples Pavilion, IMMA

NOTE**
This talk took place outside within the Peoples Pavilion on the grounds of the RHK. Due to this, there may be external noises and cuts in audio.

Join artist, activist and newly published author Katie Holten for a conversation with the Anja Murray, renowned ecologist, environmental policy analyst and broadcaster. Our special guests come together to discuss key tenets of research that informs Holten’s new book – The Language of Trees How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild Our Lives, 2023, published by Elliott & Thompson.

The Language of Trees is an astonishing fusion of storytelling, knowledge and art. In this deeply thoughtful collection, artist Katie Holten gifts readers her visual Tree Alphabet – made of the trees themselves – and uses it to masterfully translate and illustrate these pieces from some of the world’s most exciting writers and artists, activists and ecologists.

This in conversation is followed by book launch, and drinks reception. Books will be available for purchase on the evening.

IMMA is delighted to partner on this world book tour of The Languages of Trees by Katie Holten, presented in partnership with Elliott & Thompson.

Speaker Details:

Katie Holten

Katie Holten is an artist and activist, born in Ireland and living in New York City and Ardee, Ireland. In 2003, she represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale. She has had solo exhibitions at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and Dublin City Gallery: The Hugh Lane. Her drawings investigate the tangled relationships between humans and the natural world. She has created Tree Alphabets, a Stone Alphabet, and a Wildflower Alphabet to share the joy she finds in her love of the more-than-human world. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Artforum, and frieze. She is a visiting lecturer at the New School of the Anthropocene. If she could be a tree, she would be an Oak.


Anja Murray

Anja Murray is an ecologist, environmental policy analyst and broadcaster. She is familiar to many as a presenter on ‘Eco Eye’ on RTÉ 1 where she explores the challenges facing the natural environment in Ireland though the perspective of what can be or is being done to effect positive solutions. She has an award-winning radio slot on RTÉ Lyric FM and creates nature themed radio documentaries. For more than 20 years, Anja has pioneered many innovative and collaborative approaches to environmental conservation in Ireland.As an expert on Ireland’s natural environment, Anja has also worked in the NGO sector; as an advisor to both the state and corporate sectors; and with local communities, and youth groups. She is author of Wild Embrace, 2023.

Book Launch | The Language of Trees by Katie Holten with guest Anja Murray

IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. IMMA TALKS is an activated live programme of talks and events that opens up conversations around the core themes of our exhibition programme, and permanent IMMA Collection, bringing you deeper into the thinking and making of contemporary art.

For further information on IMMA TALKS please contact Sophie Byrne, Assistant Curator, Talks & Public Programmes, IMMA. Email sophie.byrne@imma.ie

IMMA OUTDOORS 2021/22/23

IMMA Ireland