Oct 20-22 : FEVERISH WORLD at University of Vermont

FEVERISH WORLD (2018-2068): Arts and Sciences of Collective Survival will be a three-day symposium and convergence intended to catalyze the building of bridges between the arts and the sciences, and between academe and the broader community, to help prepare UVM and the Burlington region for the next 50 years of anticipated “feverishness.” (Fill in your own blanks about the likely sources of that feverishness–climate and ecological changes, resource wars, movements of refugee populations, clashing political paradigms, and so on.)

FEVERISH WORLD will include panels and roundtables, keynote talks and conversations, as well as public art and music performances, a “tent city” encampment of TentWorks installations, a parade, and more. Among the featured speakers and artists will be
– anthropologist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour, whose Burack Lecture on “The Politics of Gaia” will take place on Monday October 22 at 4 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel;
– Brazilian sculptor Nele Azevedo, whose Minimal Monument ice sculpture will be installed on the back steps of City Hall Park on Sunday October 23;
– painter, sculptor, and installation artist Torkwase Dyson, whose art works will be exhibited at Williams Hall (and potentially the new Cohen Building) and whose Molly Ruprecht Talk will take place on Monday October 22 at 7 p.m. in Ira Allen Chapel;
– environmental philosopher and jazz musician (known for his recordings with animals) David Rothenberg, whose keynote talk will take place on Sunday October 21, with a musical performance on Saturday evening;
– Burlington City Arts artist-in-residence Pauline Jennings, who will lead a performative urban wilderness walk/game on Saturday October 20;
– eco-artist and engineer Natalie Jeremijenko, director of the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at New York University, who will be in residence at the Green House Residential Community for the week leading up to and including Feverish World;
– UVM composer David Neiweem, whose church bell compositions will be heard at various sites and times over the three “feverish” days;
– Abenaki historian and archaeologist Frederick Wiseman, who will speak on the history of this land on Sunday October 21;
– Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, co-hosts of the award-winning public radio program “To the Best of Our Knowledge”;
– Vermont poet laureate Chard deNiord, artist and eco-arts theorist Linda Weintraub, ecology and religion scholar Bron Taylor, musicians including cellist Anne Bourne, Rural Noise Ensemble, Metamorph, Pantet, and others.

The event is being organized by a group of UVM faculty and Burlington and area activists working under the auspices of the EcoCulture Lab, with generous support from the Gund Institute for Environment, the UVM Humanities Center, the Rubenstein School and the Steven Rubenstein Professorship, the Dan and Carole Burack Lecture Fund, the Molly Ruprecht Fund for Visual Arts, and from UVM departments and programs including Environmental Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Global and Regional Studies, Art and Art History, as well as the Fleming Museum, Champlain College, Burlington City Arts, the McCarthy Art Gallery at St. Michael’s College, and the Shelburne Institute.

A partial list of speakers and guests can be found here (others are still being confirmed):
https://ecoculturelab.net/speakers/

A tentative schedule of events (to be updated with more detail in the coming weeks) can be found here:
https://ecoculturelab.net/program/

Feverish World will be free and open to the public, though select events, as well as roundtable paper access, will require pre-registration

If you are interested in volunteering or in coordinating classes with any of the visiting artists or programs, please contact us at ecoculture@uvm.edu.