BIOLEFT

Almendra is an agronomist and co-founder of Bioleft, a community laboratory that works with collective intelligence and open knowledge on seed sustainability in Argentina.

Almendra leads the Bioleft open seed initiative and her work focuses on sustainability, family farming, and participatory methodologies for the co-production of knowledge. She is particularly interested in the new commons and designing strategies that contribute to growing fair and open spaces for creativity and collaborative innovation.

Almendra works at the Research Center for Transformation (CENIT) of the National University of San Martín, Argentina, where she is completing her doctorate and lectures on Sustainable Development. She is the recipient of a visiting scholarship from Canning House and King’s College London and is investigating the relationship between the open seed and fair trade movements, working with both Latin American and British movements.

THE SPHERE

Erik Bordeleau is a philosopher, curator, fugitive planner and media theorist based between Berlin and Lisbon. In collaboration with Saloranta & De Vylder, he is developing The Sphere, a research-creation project experimenting with Web 3.0 technology to explore new ecologies of funding for the performing arts.

Eric is a researcher at NOVA university and has published books and articles in different languages at the intersection of political philosophy, contemporary art, world cinema, blockchain cultures, finance and media theory, including Proof of Withdrawal: Finance in the Undercommons (2020) and After the Attention Economy:  Notes toward a Cosmo-financial New Serenity (2021). He has co-edited a collective book on the Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Nocturnal Fabulations Ecology OHP Press, 2017), and another one on the work of Peter Sloterdijk (Aux limites de l’empire : Mesures de Sloterdijk, Éditions Dehors, forthcoming).

Schumacher College

Mona leads the Ecological Design Thinking (MA) programme at Schumacher College and specialises in the field of co-design. Her  research in Tanzania, with colleagues from University of Plymouth involves co-designing strategies with the Maasai communities to improve their social resilience in response to the impacts of climate change on their regions.

Mona’s approach to learning is collaborative and holistic, and her design practice centres ecosystems rather than humans. Since joining Schumacher College in 2014, Mona has developed, taught and facilitated the interdisciplinary postgraduate Ecological Design Thinking programme dedicated to radical transformations and tending healthy creative conditions in which humans and non-humans can thrive together and futures that are socially and ecologically just and regenerative.

Living Symphonies

Daniel John Jones is an artist and creative technologist working with sound and systems, exploring new ways in which sound can illuminate our understanding of the world.

As one-half of Jones/Bulley, this involves creating large-scale sculptural sound installations that translate invisible systems into living musical forms, ranging from weather patterns (Variable 4, 2010-) to FM radio broadcasts (Radio Reconstructions, 2012-) to forest ecosystems (Living Symphonies, 2014-).

Daniel is an advocate of open-source software, and releases the technologies underpinning his work under a free license.

Beeyali

Leah Barclay is an Australian sound artist, composer and researcher working at the intersection of art, science and technology. Leah composes complex sonic environments that draw attention to changing climates and fragile ecosystems.

Leah is the President of the Australia Forum for Acoustic Ecology, the Vice President of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology and is a lecturer in design at USC Sunshine Coast, leading a portfolio of research in acoustic ecology and climate action. Her work has been exhibited across Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada, USA, Peru, Colombia, Europe, India, South Africa, China and Korea by organisations including UNESCO, Ear to the Earth, the Smithsonian, Streaming Museum, Al Gore’s Climate Reality and the IUCN.

Leah leads several ecoacoustic research projects including Biosphere Soundscapes and River Listening.

Āhau

Mix is a 1st generation New Zealander, programmer and community organiser. He works on on resilient, people-run software for communities.

His main commitment is Āhau - a tool for recording histories which puts data sovereignty first, and is built to work offline, and survive disasters. Part time contributor to SMAT (a tool for researching misinformation online), part time dad.

Loves reading sci-fi and can cook decent crepes.

THE SPHERE

Lene is a london-based artist, filmmaker, choreographer and bodyworker, as well as member of the Sphere, a digital common and crypto economic gift-interface.

Her practice often being oriented on ritual, she seeks new modes of sensing, connecting, and valuing, often in connection with other-than-human languages.

She recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Art London, and is a recipient of the Scholarship of Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the Hong Kong Arthouse Filmprize, and the Fokus Film Award.

CO-CURATOR & CONTENT

Becky is a writer, editor and content designer in Todmorden, UK. She explores how art and culture intersect with the politics of sustainability.

Until 2021, Becky worked at the STEPS Centre at the University of Sussex, producing events like the Politics of Uncertainty symposium, the STEPS Summer School and POLLEN 2020 for the Political Ecology Network. She serves on the board of Transition Network and works on creative content and accessibility for ecological and commons-focused projects.

PROGRAMME LEAD

Kate is an artist, researcher and educator working on seachange and ecologies of communication. Born by the Thames in London, she lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara / Wellington and has directed the studio chroma.space for the last 12 years.

Kate is a trustee at Intercreate, connecting arts and technologies across cultures. Currently, she produces the radio series ecologies fm, and is co-editing a collective book on dreaming, activism and the image with Meeting Oceania (Dreaming Oceania, 2023).

COMMUNICATIONS

Simone is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher and cultural worker based in New York City, and is currently spending time in the southwest of the US.

Simone’s focus is water. She is developing Water School: an emerging learning space focused on water and other Earth Education.

CO-CURATOR

Persephone is an artist and producer in Brighton UK. She believes in the use of accessible creative approaches for big, difficult questions. She is committed to the role of creativity and the arts in social and ecological regeneration. Collaboration is at the heart of her practice.

Persephone is a co-director at ONCA, programming and running inclusive interdisciplinary projects. She co-founded Feral Theatre and Remembrance Day for Lost Species.

COLLECTIVE IMAGINATIONS

Cassie is a visionary strategic designer and a Nesta Creative Pioneer “working in the entanglement of what-is and what-might-be.” She works with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, EarthPercent, Partners for a New Economy and many others.

She recently became the Co-director of a new Care & Climate cultural space which is also the home of the Centre for Collective Imagination. Cassie founded Stewarding Loss and co-founded the Point People. She was the Deputy Director of Funding Strategy at The National Lottery Community Fund until 2021 and sits on the Board of Organise HQ and the Real Farming Trust.