Hello everyone! Lovely to see so many familiar faces from the workshops

I now have a meeting later, but my main interest is in the museums session. Will the recordings be available to those registered to see later?

“Please also note that we will be recording these sessions up until, but not including, the public Q&A.”

That was beautiful!! Feeling a bit emotional now, very proud to have been part of this

Hugely powerful film - congratulations to everyone who contributed to and shaped it.

Agree with Eline. Such a wonderful experience to have been part of and a beautiful outcome! Congratulations.

Everyone: there will be opportunity to ask questions to the panel, but if you prefer you can type them here and I will collate and read out.

I really enjoyed the film and music, but I love immersing myself in multi-media art like this. How accessible/engaging do you think this is for the general public?

Hi. I'm a science communicator at a museum and I'm really interested in including art in the work that I do, as I agree with what it's been said that art can actually help send a strong message. One of the most important parts of my role is really tailoring what I do to the audience I want to engage with. What sort of audience you have in mind when you create this video? Do you think it will engage with audiences outside the artistic circles?

Hi everyone, I am an artist and researcher based in Berlin. I was wondering how you envision the process of coming from grieving to action / activism? Is acknowledging the loss and relating emotionally (through witnessing the art work) the first step of many? Or do you feel grieving has an activist potential in itself?

How much has this project engaged with movements where cultural workers have formed community and amplified their practice around extinction & emergency? Do you see a role for involvement in initiatives such as Lost Species Day (annual, 30 Nov, since 2011 https://www.lostspeciesday.org/ ) and Culture Declares Emergency (culturedeclares.org )? (I’m Bridget McKenzie, Climate Museum UK, and - full disclosure - involved in both those initiatives)

Thank you for your questions. We will answer them!

I will be collating / summarising and reading this out in the second half…

I would also love to know more about the concept / manifestations of empathy (which I think Scott just mentioned) and what role it played in the workshops! :)

I would love to know more about the process of creation of the video, through workshops with the general public. It sounds like a really meaningful process. Could you tell us more about it? How was the engagement? How did people's stories translated into the final product?

Anna Souter and Daisy Hildyard, have contributed to a special edition of the contemporary art and writing platform, Corridor8. Titled facing Extinction, this book asks "What does it actually mean to people from different backgrounds, experiences and stages of life, to face extinction?”Copies of facing Extinction are available, for free, on a first come, first served basis, while supplies last. To register your interest, please complete this short form.

The form is here:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeltqqaNmseEcD4JMiXK-_GvVKRYaxV9eJReW2evUmL2YTUrQ/viewform

Is the book co-authored by other authors?

The three writers are Dominic, Daisy and Anna

Can I ask how/when this book was commissioned?

Behind the scene and workshops documentation: http://www.laurencepayot.com/category/voicing-silence/

Hi Ruth, Corridor8 was one of the original project partners and have been commissioning texts since the early summer. It is also AHRC funded. We selected writers through an open call.

There is also a foreword by myself (Lara Eggleton) and Stefan Skrimshire and an Intro by Dominic O’Key

Thanks very much Lara. Was it always intended that the publication would ask “"What does it actually mean to people from different backgrounds, experiences and stages of life, to face extinction?”

Yes, we were always committed to diversity and inclusion, hence our open call approach. As a commissioning organisation C8 regularly offers ring fenced opportunities to POCs and writers with disabilities, and ensure our selection panels also reflect that diversity.

yes i got that little bit romanticism, acceptance of, melancholy wistfulness in it.

How helpful is it to frame/respond to “extinction” as a single homogenous phenomenon? Scientific & policy agendas on the subject are preoccupied by relativities, eg what’s more important to keep than what (eg extinction is natural; but it’s anthropogenic accelerated extinction we’re bothered about; extinction of un-named micro-organisms might be more serious than charismatic apex predators; why is extinction of the human species assumed to be unthinkable? etc). Is your programme picking apart these shades of difference at all…?

Hi Dave! I completely agree. I’m applying the short-hand “extinction” here, perhaps too unthinkingly, but our work has been definitely engaged in picking this apart and retaining specificity of focus

good question which I’ll put to the panel but from a project point of view, this was specifically about the anthropogenic sixth mass extinction event

Thanks for this clarification, Lara. I’m just reflecting on whether a publication that seeks to ask “What does it actually mean to people from different backgrounds, experiences and stages of life, to face extinction?” might have been better served if there had been more diversity than seems to be apparent from the three writers that were commissioned (with the greatest respect to those writers)?

The film was evocative and multi-layered—but it’s meanings are so much richer with the understanding of various components in it/ around it. Is it presented with accessible information for viewers about these aspects?

Fair point Ruth. We did not weight this particular set of commissions and the writers were chosen based on the strength of their proposals and passion for the subject (and they’ve done and excellent job!). As I’m sure you know, the intention to bring diversity to a project does not always make it so. The artist residency and other elements of the project have been more overtly diverse in their outreach and involvement of participants from underrepresented groups, but even this proved challenging under lockdown. I am happy o discuss this further if you want to email me offline - don’t want to hog the chat box!

I will open up to audience questions next

What’s at the real root of our worry? Is it about the practical functioning of the biosphere? Or guilt at immoral human footprint? Or nostalgic unease at the pace of change? It would be interesting to delve deeper into why we’re saying this all matters…

Here is the call for participants for Lost Species Day 2020 https://www.facebook.com/events/294912678256000 if you go to the discussion you can find specific calls for artists

Thanks Persephone!

I asked the question about the movements e.g. Lost Species Day not so much to ask how much they influenced you, but how much taking part in movements is a way to achieve more, in terms of personal, social and environmental change

Great question Bridget.

Will the film be placed on a website so it can be seen by a larger public? If so, where? (Laurence’s website? Manchester Museum? The Thinking thru Extinction project?)

Yes we will make it public, www.laurencepayot.com after today.

w

WONDERFUL! Thanks, Laurence.

Dolly we are also working on a microsite that can host the video and other audio/video elements. It will go live in December

Thanks for posting about Lost Species day- I appreciate this note for it to be “an opportunity to explore the ways in which white supremacy has shaped their organising spaces and thinking, and to consider how their work can or does contribute to and strengthen the growth of the intersectional environmental movement.” Would wonder if any of the speakers would want to comment on this with respect to the work presented here.

(we’ll be promoting it closer to the time)

Question for the panel: what might it mean for their art to shift the emphasis from extinction toward the urgency of protecting the many millions of species we still have?

If it is really the process that is more important the product (heard this more than one time) the process should be part of the display in some way should it not? It’s not the distinction between documentary and art that we’re talking about. There could be some creative way to engage new viewers in seeing beyond the object to its creative process. That would be very powerful for viewers.

I completely agree with Karen.

Yup Karen

That would've been a fascinating discussion

I agree that there are many ways of communicating, but you do need to get people to connect with the piece you have created. Not managing that connection can alienate people, make them feel they are not "good enough" for it, and, eventually, disengaged with the message. I think including the process in the product could help overcome this barrier.

I’m also curious about thoughts from the speakers regarding Sangu’s question above

Likewise, Lisa.

If I dare to be honest I really felt alienated by this workshop.

Re seaweed - you could explore work that gives some kind of "agency" in the process to the non-human elements in the equation..?

Hi not quite the topic- but here's a guide to the many, many ways museum collections contribute to biodiversity conservation, from a project I had funding for from the British Ecological Society, started when I was still at Manchester Museum. It's free. https://bit.ly/34ZTL6S

Pretty fair conclusion Helen

Hi Sangu, my essay attempts to strengthen the growth of the intersectional environmental movement by telling some specific stories through which consider how the destruction of indigenous languages and cultures is enmeshed with extinction via extractive economies

delete ‘through’!

I understand of course that the issue of representation and my personal identity stands.

And here's the link to the IPBES Global Assessment on the state of nature, 5 main causes (habitat change, over-exploitation, climate change, pollution, invasive species), the impact that has on people everywhere, and some steps on what needs to be done about it. https://bit.ly/344aaYD

Really agree and sympathise Anna

Thanks Dave - Re seaweed, that's always something I'm trying to explore and achieve in my work! Would love to hear further thoughts on that

eference for grief/ anger as caring?

Do you have a r

I recently read it in the RA publication 'Conversations on a planet in a state of emergency' - there's an interview with Timothy Morton

thank u!

Yes! Can you please tell us a bit more about how was it to work with the different groups in the workshop? And what those groups were? It sounds really interesting.

Thanks everybody

Thankyou