A Place in the Woods

Woods Worksheet designed by Paul Wagenblast

The Collaborative Center for Storm, Space, and Seismic Research: 2021 Calendar: BEAST

Research assistant

FREAKER UNLTD...6

Interview with IFIAAR

In, From, & With: Exploring Collaborative Survival Edited by Grace Denis

Contributor

THE NEW NOW Newspaper

Animal Love essay

IFIAAR hosted a day at Sunspot, an artist cooperative shop located within the Sky Village Outdoor Marketplace (aka the Swap) in Yucca Valley, CA.

Julius Smack performed Hummingbird Music live and cassettes were available to the public for the first time.

Local artist Elena Yu engaged visitors to try on her hand made lichen sleeves, crafted from various fabrics to resemble lichen texture and color. Once embodying the symbiotic organisms, visitors were asked to participate in a drawing exercise to think about their relationship to their physical and material surroundings.

<lichen art work by Dana Christmas, Julius Smack performing live>

A special exhibition and residency in September at Heavy Manners Libray in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The residency includes a group show and workshop series.

The group exhibition Hummingbird Water featured work by Mita Mahato, Erin Jane Nelson, Ali Paydar, Walker, Kendra Yee, and Elena Yu.

Events included raptor life drawing with Adam Baz of Hawk on Hand, Kangaroo rat comics with Thea Wang PhD and Aidan Koch, a conversation on artistic dog-collaborations featuring artists Andy Bennett, Sarah M. Rodriguez, and Nina Sarnelle moderated by Zachary Korol Gold, and life drawing in Echo Park.

<Raptor life drawing models brought by falconer Adam Baz>

IFIAAR was going to host a spring bird house building workshop in Southern California but due to Covid-19 this was cancelled. Instead, an instructional video was produced for youtube. The original PDF instructions for the nesting box can be found here.

IFIAAR director Aidan Koch led a multi-day workshop titled Funny Animals regarding the use of non-human animals as characters in narratives. Examining historic depictions from animist to Disney, participants discussed the affects these can create on human-animal relations. They also theorized how story-tellers can be sensitive and aware without the ability to directly translate or bestow full agency of the material by looking at behavior and physiological perspective. Outcomes for this seminar asked participants to create short narratives in the form of fiction, poetry, or comic that would bring awareness and thought to under-looked at or villianized species.

The seminar also included lectures by comics historian Pedro Moura and microbiologist Daniela Pinto. It was thoughtfully and passionately facilitated by Ana Mathilde Sousa and Hugo Almeida.

<work by Stephanie Geihs, Nuno Direitinho, and Daniel Rourke>

This event was a video premier and screening. Titled after the 1977 essay by John Berger, WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS is a contributor based video series documenting the lives of animals. It explores the gaze as a way of appreciating, supporting, and acknowledging non-human animals. Special thanks to all the humans who sent in videos.

Artists Lala Albert, Aidan Koch, and Suki Sekula led over 20 participants on a walk around NY's Marine Park Salt Marsh doing various drawing exercises and learning to look and draw in the wild.

<attendees collaborating on a continuous landscape scroll drawing>

IFIAAR Hosted a special evening with a presenation by field biologist Duke Brady on survival and adaptation strategies and a screening of Flatwing by artist and choreographer Madeline Hollander on the chirpless crickets of Kauai, Hawai'i.

<Duke Brady presenting>

Donated over $1000 to the North Valley Animal Disaster Group and Los Angeles County Animal Care Foundation

Consider a direct donation to these groups! They aid in prepardness and calculated reaction to disaster relief for animal victims.

<tattoo by Johann Mun>

IFIAAR hosted work by Mixed Needs, Shawn Creeden, and Lisa Schonberg

<prompt by Lisa Schonberg>

design by Somnath Bhat

IFIAAR hosted its first in person event with a week long series of talks, workshops, and an art show. This was hosted by Entrance gallery in Chinatown, NYC. Guests included Molly Adams of Feminist Bird Club, Matthew Combs of the Munshi-South Lab, Silica Magazine, Pat McCarthy, and Lisa Schonberg. Artists included Lala Albert, Archival Feedback, Elizabeth Jaeger, Brook Hsu, and Sydney Shen.