Author: Christopher

No War on Plants

Glyphosate is one of the most common herbicides used across the US and world, first developed by chemist Henry Martin in the 1950s for the company Cilag. It was not widely used until 1974 when Monsanto (acquired by Bayer in 2018) brought it to market under the brand name “Roundup”. Although celebrated for its ability […]

Nomadic Field Station

A collaborative project with designers Janette Kim and Josh Draper to develop a Nomadic Field Station and Library prototype that can be deployed in dense urban areas . Re-imagining the idea of a reference desk and of what we classically consider the function of a library, the Field Station allows participants to exchange their local […]

City Skins: A Survey of Transient Urban Surfaces

City Skins documents urban streetscapes and surfaces in transition, making visible alterations to human habitats and public spaces. The Survey includes photographic documentation, surface rubbings, and movement-research that document evidence of neighborhood change, gentrification, and the disturbance of urban environments. In collaboration with Ellie Irons. City Skins documents urban streetscapes and surfaces in transition, making […]

hiway/hiway

hiway/hiway is a site-specific investigation of the Flushing Creek at the intersection of the Long Island and Van Wyck Expressway in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The project explores the value of unmediated weedy landscapes that surround highway interchanges and on-ramps, and considers how transit systems act as habitat, repository, and conveyance for seeds, pollutants, water and […]

Perennials

A series of sculptures and installation developed for the exhibition Perennials at the King Street Gallery, Montgomery College in Washington DC, curated by Suzy Kopf. Ruderal Street Bundles No. 1 – 9 2017, Variable sizes (~5x4x18 in) Spontaneous urban plants, street debris, twine and string Curatorial Statement: A perennial is broadly defined as a plant […]

Environmental Empathies

A silkscreen poster designed in collaboration with Kimberly Reinhardt for the exhibition Environmental Empathies at the Callahan Center Art Gallery at St. Francis College. They Tried to Eradicate Us, They Didn’t Know We Were Weeds On every continent and in every bioregion, weedy species find a way to survive. Their resilience is at once inspiring while also […]

Department of Weedy Affairs

The Department of Weedy Affairs is an artwork and speculative proposition by the artist collective the Environmental Performance Agency (EPA) which imagines a governmental agency that is beyond human. Installed in May 2018 at Transformer, the exhibition offered visitors an opportunity to engage with and learn from spontaneous urban plants (aka weeds) through a toolkit […]

Mycoramblings

A collaboration with Ben KinselyUsing mushrooms as a material and metaphor, Myco-Ramblings explores the intersection of mycology, folk knowledge, and storytelling. We invited participants to join us on a ramble through Central Park to forage for mushrooms, to cultivate collective knowledge related to fungi, and to create a chance-based field recording. We walked, we noticed, […]

OnBehalfOf.Life

OnBehalfof.Life is a platform for submitting public comments on environmental justice issues to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of another species. It was developed by the Environmental Performance Agency in collaboration with Dan Phiffer and input from Kimberly Reinhardt, Karolina Sobecka, and Tara Daino. Previous campaigns include: “We Demand a Strategic Plan”, “It’s Time to Ban Neonic Pesticides” and “DWA Climate […]

Embodied Scientist Parkour

Embodied Scientist Parkour is a training for interspecies communication and deepened relationships with the in-between landscapes of the Schuylkill River. Reimagining a conventional fitness course, the project invites participants to engage in a series of site-specific movement scores situated along the Grays Ferry Crescent Trail to expand the possibility of how we collect and co-generate […]

Emergent Plantocene

Suit Up: Join the Emergent Plantocene Clean-Up A project and installation for the exhibition The Department of Human and Natural Services, curated by Mariel Villeré at NURTUREart. EPA Embodied Scientist Training is a call to participate in a multispecies coalition of embodied scientists, activists, and spontaneous plants who are re-imagining federal policy and agency in […]

Fruiting Bodies

Fruiting Bodies is an experiment in fungal sociality, exploring the possibilities of mushroom cloning, remediation and social exchange through collaborative experience and community science. The project launched with a workshop at GenSpace in Brooklyn, NY where participants created agar-based sculptures modeled from chosen body parts. The sculptures were inoculated via oyster fungi with the intention […]

Multispecies Care Survey

The Multispecies Care Survey is an Environmental Performance Agency public engagement and data gathering initiative meant to provoke and articulate forms of environmental agency that de-center human supremacy and facilitate the co-generation of embodied, localized plant-human care practices. This continues the EPA’s work in response to the dismantling of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under […]

Urban Systems Lab Dataviz Platform

Location: New York, NY Collaborator: Urban Systems Lab, The New School The USL Data Visualization Platform is an interactive web application that visualizes Social, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETS) data designed and implemented initially for nine different cities within the Urban Resilience to Weather-related Extremes (UREx) Sustainability Research Network. It was conceived as a tool […]

Chance Ecologies

Location: Queens, NY Collaborator: Amplifier Inc., Catherine Grau, Stephen Zacks, and Nathan Kensinger Chance Ecologies is a framework for artistic gestures and research projects exploring the un-designed landscapes and wilderness found in abandoned spaces, post-industrial sites, and landfills. The main trajectories of the project are to create research and discourse around the value of wild […]

The Collaboratory

Location: Greensboro, NC Collaborator: Elsewhere Museum The Collaboratory at Elsewhere is a gathering space for public and educational programs exploring a range of art, design, cultural and historical disciplines. Situated inside Elsewhere’s living museum in downtown Greensboro, NC. In 2010, I began to develop programming and funding to support the expansion of the platform, reimagined […]

Weedy Nomad: Ruderal Ecologies of LIC

Location: Queens, NY Collaborator: Thomas Choinacky, Flux Factory Weedy Nomad is a movement-based storytelling project that explores neighborhoods in transition through plant-body encounters. We invite activists, artists and publics to share their experiences of development and gentrification through guided walks and movement scores that look particularly at marginalized urban ecosystems and spontaneous plants (aka weeds) […]

Ecotopian Fellowship

Location: Philadelphia, PA Collaborator: Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, EPA Tool-making is a signature trait of the human species. What tools can we make, and might we require, in the age of the human, the anthropocene: a name for the present geological epoch when humans are the most potent force shaping earth’s systems? Global warming […]

South Elm Projects

Location: Greensboro, NC Site: Elsewhere Museum South Elm Projects is a series of site specific activations with artists and neighborhood partners reforming overlooked alleys and green spaces to enhance downtown walkability, community investment, and grassroots creativity. These activations will further encourage naturally occurring development in the neighborhoods adjacent to South Elm. As a curator and […]

Radical Teacher

RADICAL TEACHER, founded in 1975, is a socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal dedicated to the theory and practice of teaching. It serves the community of educators who are working for democratic process, peace, and justice. The magazine examines the root causes of inequality and promotes progressive social change. RADICAL TEACHER publishes articles on classroom practices […]

Cole, My Sooner Love

Cole, My Sooner Love is an installation exploring the shifting politics of climate change, urbanization, and queer identity in the American South. The piece draws inspiration from a close relative’s collection of writings, digital ephemera, and photographs that survey his life as a closeted gay man and former minister in Oklahoma. Three months of daily […]

The Almost Island

The Almost Island is a coloring book exploring the forgotten histories of Hunter’s Point South in Queens, NY from the perspective of the land itself; a transformation from salt marsh to bustling transportation hub, from rewilded forest to luxury housing development. In an 1882 historical account of Queens County*, Hunter’s Point is described as “almost […]

An Atlas of Endangered Surfaces

Location: Queens, NY Collaborator: Ellie Irons An Atlas of Endangered Surfaces identifies and categorizes a range anthropogenic, naturally occurring, and hybrid surfaces in the area known as Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City, Queens. In collaboration with artist Ellie Irons, the project is a part of Chance Ecologies, a platform for documenting, learning from, […]

Rooderal Lab

Location: Red Hook, New York Collaborators: Eva Perrotta and Corinne Cappelletti, and DE-CONSTRUKT [projeckts] A movement-research collaboration with Eva Perrotta and Corinne Cappelletti, and DE-CONSTRUKT [projeckts]. As the first in a three part laboratory dedicated to understanding the life, function and characteristics of the wild plants in Red Hook Brooklyn, we explored the detoxification capacities […]

Above Middle Below

Above Middle and Below is a three-part laboratory dedicated to formulating ideas for an Open Movement score through collaboration facilitated by Leila Mougoui Bakhitiari (urban ecologist), Christopher Kennedy (teaching artist), Athena Kokoronis (choreographer), and Jan Mun (artist-scientist). Part One is dedicated to presenting and mapping Fort Greene Park’s social and ecological relationships. Part Two focuses […]

Generalist Archive

A collection of zines, books and ephemera gathered from artists and teachers exploring a wide range of issues from education and ecology, to storytelling, art, politics and more. The archive is an open source tool for those interested in everything and nothing in particular.

StoryBank

Location: Charlotte, NC Collaborator: Levine Museum of the New South StoryBank is a platform for sharing and collecting stories. StoryBank was originally created at Elsewhere museum in Greensboro, NC alongside a residency with Nick Szuberla of Appalshop, a Kentucky-based arts and education center in the heart of Appalachia. The storyteller machine (pictured below) was collaboratively […]

Then & Now: Sharing LGBTQ stories across generations

Then & Now is a documentary storytelling project inviting LGBTQ-identifying elders and teens to share stories and oral histories. A collaboration with Elsewhere and the Creative Aging Network of North Carolina. What was it like living in the south and identifying as LGBTQ? What is that experience like now? The project is inviting youth and […]

Solar Energy Commons

A collaborative project with designer Elliott P. Montgomery to connect a 4.8 kW rooftop solar array on the roof of Elsewhere museum with the streets of downtown Greensboro. The final design is a public charging station called the Solar Energy Commons, which also doubles as and solar karaoke kiosk after dusk. The project also included […]