Recorded Art and Environment Tree Seminar Available to Watch Online

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On November 2nd, 2023, IHOPE (the Integrated History and future Of People on Earth) held it’s first online Art and Environment seminar. Each Art and Environment seminar features two researchers from different disciplines who come together to discuss their work and methods in relation to specific environmental actors. November’s seminar was the Tree Seminar. A dendrochronologist and an artist were invited to each speak about their work with trees.

Igor Drobyshev, Docent of the Swedish Agricultural University’s dendrochronology lab, discussed the work of the lab over the last 25 years. One of its main focuses has been using dendrochronology as a means to map out forest fire history patterns in North America and Europe, with the potential to gain insight for predicting future wildfires. The lab keeps the leading position in the area of dendrochronological reconstruction of fire histories in Europe.

recorded seminar
Image: Artist Mia Mulvey discusses her visit to the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona.

Artist Mia Mulvey is Professor of Ceramics at the University of Denver and has been incorporating environmental research on trees into her work for the last 8 years. She presented her working methods which combine field research with 3d scanning and 3d printing of ancient trees in order to produce sculptural replicas in materials like porcelain, salt, and charcoal. The audience gained an understanding of her experiences working with specific trees in Scandinavia and the United States, including Old Tjikko, “the world’s oldest tree.” She also gave insight into her visit to the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona.

The seminar demonstrated how a variety of approaches can be used to understand the history embedded in material environmental actors. If you missed this interesting event, the recorded seminars are now available to watch online.

Art and Environment Tree Seminar Part 1 – Igor Drobyshev

Art and Environment Tree Seminar Part 2 – Mia Mulvey

The next Art and Environment seminar – the Ice Seminar – will be held on
Thursday, December 7th from 16.00 – 18.00 CET (10.00 – 12.00 EST) The speakers at the ice seminar will be:

Bjarki Bragason, Artist, Head of Fine Art Department and Associate Professor, Iceland University of the Arts
Isabelle Gapp, Interdisciplinary Research Fellow, Centre for Environment & Biodiversity and Department of Art History, University of Aberdeen


This virtual event is open to the public and anyone interested is invited to attend.
To receive the Zoom link, register your interest using the below button.

Register Interest in the Seminars

IHOPE (Integrated History and Future of People on Earth) is an international and interdisciplinary community of researchers and research projects that integrate the past of the Earth system and the history of human presence with the goal of a just and sustainable future. IHOPE’s members are located around the world working in a wide range of fields including archaeology, environmental history, and anthropology. In addition to publishing papers IHOPE regularly organizes seminars and events.

The featured image for this post is the 2018 artwork Pando by Mia Mulvey.
The work is a 3d scanned forest 3d printed in porcelain.
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Nicole Miller

Nicole Miller is an artist and visual anthropologist based in Sweden working at the intersection of art, philosophy, and environmental history. Her research interests include: the interplay of photography and archives with environmental engagement, collecting as a process that encourages new perceptions of one’s environment, and new possibilities for multi-sensory historical, environmental research. She is Project Assistant for the ESEH 2025 Conference.

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