my events

Dictionary of the Possible - Animal

2015 Nov 21 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm

On Saturday, November 21st, Terike Haapoja and Oliver Kellhammer will lead a discussion on the keyword, “Animal.” The question of the place and status of non-human beings has become increasingly politicized over the past few years. The discussion will focus on the concept of the animal as a boundary-making tool, asking what kind of reality this boundary creates for humans and non-humans alike. Furthermore, we will consider how altering that boundary would change our world. Who are the “animals”? What defines them? Is there a universal category of the “animal”, or do different cultures have diverse conceptions of animality? Finally, how can we see beyond the normalized boundary between us and them and establish more ethical ways of co-existence?

 

Parsons, University Center, Room U-312, 63 5th Avenue, New York

Seeing The Forest Through The Trees / Group Show

2015 Sep 18 - 3:00am - 2015 Dec 7 - 2:59am

 

 

I am very excited to be in this group show and have submitted a piece 'Nos habebit humus', in collaboration with my dear friend Kathy High.

Our work is a video meditation on how we will all one day likely be subsumed by plants, which will gradually consume our bodies and our architectural and technological legacies. 

This exhibition was organized by the amazing people at Abandon Normal Devices

 

Seeing the Forest through the Trees link.

 

Here is the curator, Monika Baake's introduction to the show:

 

The lifestyles of plants are a source of inspiration for this unconventional exhibition at Grizedale Forest.

Seeing the Forest through the Trees comes at a critical time when we are struggling evermore to devise fair ways of living alongside other ‘nonhumans’  (animals and plants). This exhibition will focus on plants and their relationship to other species by featuring works by artists who examine plants’ complexity through experiments, performances, design and action.

Plants are no less sophisticated than animals and over the course of evolution they have developed their own peculiar body shapes, lifestyles, and modes of reproduction. They are active and autonomous beings perceiving the world in ways both alien and familiar to us.  The art works, featured in the exhibition reveal ways in which artists are contributing to our efforts to understand plants. Celebrating plants lives and stressing the necessity to deal with them in their own terms and for their own sake. The artists invite the audience to inquire into the plant behaviours, their cognitive abilities, their strategies to avoid and attract others and to fantasize and to dream.

Our future is tightly connected with plants there is so much we can learn as they harvest solar energy and minerals, produce oxygen and food for animals and their bodies are organized as systems and networks which are decentralized, modular, and able to feed on light.

We hope this exhibition will create the space to give plants sufficient recognition for what they are hence, as a philosopher Michael Marder claims, “an encounter with plants awaits us!”

Featuring world class artists Brandon Ballengee, Karl Heinz Jeron, Chiara Esposito, Spela Petric, Dimitris Stamatis and Jasmina Weiss, Pei- Ying Lin, Allison Kudla, Kathy High and Oliver Kellhammer.

Curated by Monika Bakke.

 

Science of Soil

2015 May 16 - 4:00pm - 7:00pm

 

 

 

Sponsored by Sanctuary for Independent Media:

workshop happenening at the L-Lot, 3303 6th Ave. North Troy, NY

 

As part of my ongoing research into remediating contaminated soils, I am co-presenting a hands-on workshop with my NY state colleagues: permaculturalist Scott Kellogg (of Radix Sustainability Center), farmer and food activist Rebeka Rice and scientist Kate Meierdiercks of Siena College , who will be collecting soil samples to test in the college's X-Ray Fluorescence analyzer. This instrument is very sensitive and can be used to detect heavy metal contamination in both soils and plant tissue.

  • 1:00-2:15 Session 1: How to test your soil, with Scott Kellogg, Oliver Kellhammer, Rebeka Rice and Kate Meierdiercks

    *Bring a soil sample from your garden!

  • 2:45-4:00 Session 2: Bio-remediation, with Scott Kellogg, Oliver Kellhammer, Rebeka Rice and Kate Meierdiercks

No Free Lunch

2015 Apr 17 - 7:00pm - 2015 Apr 18 - 10:00pm

 

 

I'm attending this event organized by my dear friends Marina Zurkow and Stefani Bardin of ITP

http://www.nofreelunchitp.net/

ITP at NYU.  721 Broadway - 4th Floor

Mapping the Food System

We’re going to collectively build a working and workable map connecting issues around the food system, and new interventions to not only mitigate for climate change but also offer new ways of thinking about eating and distribution.

 

Berlin Research Trip 2015

2015 Feb 25 - 3:00am - 2015 Mar 25 - 3:00am

 

Another stint in old Berlin to research landscape design using ruderal ecologies and to catch up on some writing projects.

Dear Climate Opening @ Sanctuary for Independent Media

2014 Nov 11 - 8:00pm - 2014 Nov 12 - 12:00am

Marina Zurkow and I are hosting a reading/exhibition/discussion of a selection of texts from our 'Dear Climate' project, done in collaboration with our dear pals Fritz Ertl and Una Chaudhuri.

This should be an amazing and fun event and we so look forward to hanging out with our friend Kathy High and the rest of the gang from the Sanctuary for Independent Media.

 

Here is a link to the event:

 

http://www.mediasanctuary.org/DearClimateUndergroundGalleryOpening

Renga for the Fifth Season

2014 Sep 22 - 12:00pm - 2014 Sep 28 - 2:00am

 

 

 

Thanks Ann Chen and Davey Field of the Nomadic Department of the Interior,  I was invited to a residency at Phats Valley on Cape Cod Massachusetts in collaboration with my dear friends Liz Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse of Smudge Studio on the topic of 'Disturbance Ecologies.' 

In the spirit of Thoreau and Basho, we spent our time soujourning and microvisioning across the landscape of the Cape, over dunes, along beaches, tidal marshes, jetties, parking lots and coffee shops, investigating and reflecting on changes in vegetation, climate and culture and writing collaborative renga poetry. Our stay at the picturesque Phats Valley house culiminated in a public renga party, in which a number of guests wrote renga together on large scrolls of paper pinned to the side of the building.

Smudge's wonderful posting on the event can be found here: http://smudgestudio.org/smudge/renga.html

I wrote a short essay on some of our discoveries, discursions and experiences here:  http://www.oliverk.org/weblog/?p=2025

 

Floating Studio for Dark Ecologies

2014 Jul 30 - 12:00pm - 2014 Aug 4 - 1:00am

 

Will be collaborating with my pal Marina Zurkow on her Floating Studio for Dark Ecologies project in old PDX, exploring biosemiotics, ruderal ecologies and potential strategies for remediation... It turned out  guaranteed to be a wild and fun time.

Also instrumental in making this happen was The Last Attempt at Greatness and The Nomadic Department of the Interior as well as Carol Stakenas of Bennington College. 

Blog Posting on this and my previous investigations into the brownfields of North Troy, NY.

'BROWNFIELDLANDIA'

2014 Jul 22 - 1:00pm - 2014 Jul 25 - 7:00pm

 

 

 

'BROWNFIELDLANDIA'

As part of an ongoing collaboration, artists Kathy High and Oliver Kellhammer will embark on an investigation of Troy New York's former industrial lands - areas often referred to as brownfields or ruderal ecologies (from the Latin ‘rudus’ meaning ‘ruin’.)

Far from being abject places defined only by their abandonment, these zones are sites of novel ecological processes and vibrant new assemblages, adaptations and agencies, where nature is rapidly evolving to colonize the debris and disturbance our species has left behind.

Using methodologies of field research and the bio-lab, industrial archeology, documentary filmmaking and permaculture, the artists will delve into the fascinating world of ruderal Troy, observing and cataloging as well as developing locally appropriate strategies for its decontamination and reintegration into the human life of the city.

(Some Details)

We will tour 'emergent forests' where native and exotic trees co-mingle as they break up pavement and concrete, observe birds and insects for whom ruined factories and overgrown parking lots stand in for cliffs and savannah habitats and go bio-prospecting for 'hyperaccumulators' - plants and other organisms that absorb toxins such as heavy metals and hydrocarbons from their environment. Back at the 'L' lot, our plan is to uncover and record layers of deposition and disturbance to further our understanding of the history of the land as well as experiment with cover crops and mycelial mulches as potential strategies for detoxifying polluted soil.

This work is made possible by the NatureLab initiative of the Sanctuary for Independent Media in North Troy, New York. Stay tuned for more detailed information on dates for public workshops and guided field explorations.

More info HERE

 

BLOG POSTING on this and my subsequent excursions to the brownfield habitats along Portland's Williamette River.

Sanctuary for Independent Media

2014 Mar 19 - 9:00pm - 10:00pm

 

Some of the images from my 'botanical interventions' projects are in a show at the
Sanctuary for Independent Media in North Troy, New York.
 
Wednesday, March 19, 2014 -  6 - 7pm
 
"Ecological Interventions” features two internationally renowned environmental artists who care deeply about out ecology and our future, Brandon Ballengée (US) and Oliver Kellhammer (Canada). Their projects explore how we as citizens of the world can change our environmental impact. 
 
Curated by Kathy High.
 
Here is a link to the Sanctuary's page: