A discussion exploring the intersection of creativity, biological sciences, and anthropological perspectives.
Facilitated by Kieran Monaghan, Dr Julie Deslippe, Dr Eli Elinoff
1pm – 2pm, Saturday 14 June
Toi Pōneke Gallery
Free
Kieran Monaghan, Dr Eli Elinoff and Dr Julie Deslippe (L- R)
Join us for this talk facilitated by K Monaghan, Assoc. Prof. Dr Julie Deslippe - from Victoria University School of Biological Sciences and Dr Eli Elinoff - from Victoria University School of Social and Cultural Studies. This discussion will touch on interesting studies around human and non human life patterns, interspecies connections, living with plant and fungi rather than alongside.
Artist’s Biographies
Kieran Monaghan (he/him) is predominantly, and persistently, a drummer and percussionist of found sounds. He calls Te Whanganui-a-Tara /Wellington home. His first crude musical steps were in the late 80’s, playing drums in southern punk rock bands. Heading north in the 90's opened new musical domains such as theatre with Red Mole, and it’s little sister Roadworks, and the diverse arrangements of ‘free-jazz’ that tumbled from venues such as The Space. While continuing to play assertive music, alongside developing confidence in improvisational arenas, necessity also dictated that income be made by playing multiple pub circuits in working bands.
His project, vegetable.machine.animal, is the newest iteration of ongoing musical expression. It explores the intersections between spontaneous playing, electronic music, and science-informed inter-species collaboration. He co-runs the Skirted Records label with domestic and performative partner Chrissie Butler. Together they were the core of the outsider punk group Mr Sterile Assembly, and Nick Bollinger named them as one of the 10 great rhythm sections of New Zealand. Monaghan has toured internationally many times with the Assembly, and more recently with VMA. He has a long catalogue of solo, band, and collaborative recordings. He is a semi-regular DJ on Radioactive.FM. He remains happily hitched, and is a father to three daughters and one mokopuna.
Assoc. Prof. Dr Julie Deslippe - I grew up in Canada’s high Boreal forest. I spent my childhood fishing, canoeing and helping my father in his organic vegetable garden. I loved plants and animals and was fascinated by how they coped with the harsh Northern winter. I did an undergraduate degree in Plant Biology at the University of Victoria, Canada. I became enthralled by the role of soil organisms in plant nutrition and ecosystem processes.
I completed my PhD in Forest Science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. My research focused on the role of ectomycorrhizal fungi in the spread of woody shrubs onto Arctic tundra with climatic warming. Concerned by the global issues of land use and climate change, I came to New Zealand in 2011 to take up a post doc at Landcare Research on the microbial ecology of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. I moved to a Lectureship at Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington in 2014. I live in Strathmore with my partner, our two boys and a very wiggly dog.
Dr Eli Elinoff - I am a political and environmental anthropologist with research projects centered in Thailand and Southeast Asia. My work is engaged with questions about citizenship, space, urbanization, aesthetics, infrastructures, architecture, the built environment, and environmental change.
My book, Citizen Designs: City-Making and Democracy in Northeastern Thailand (University of Hawaii Press, 2021), describes how residents in the northeastern Thai city of Khon Kaen’s railway squatter communities used Thailand’s experiment in participatory urban planning as a means of reimagining their citizenship, remaking their communities, and acting upon their aspirations for political equality and the good life. Articles based on this research have been published in Anthropological Theory, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Contemporary Southeast Asia, and South East Asia Research.
My second ethnographic project investigates political ecologies of concrete in Bangkok. Taking place in the wake of Thailand's 2011 floods, this research engages with landscape architects, city officials, material engineers, activists, citizens, and artists to explore the ways in which concrete has transformed Southeast Asia's ecologies both within concentrated urban spaces and beyond. Based on this research, I have published articles in CITY, International Development and Planning Review, and Cultural Anthropology Online.
My co-edited book, Disastrous Times: Beyond Environmental Crisis in Urban Asia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021), explores the intersection between post-disaster politics and environmental transformation. It develops the concept of the "Quotidian Anthropocene" to demonstrate how planetary environmental change is navigated, contested, and experienced at the level of the everyday.
GUEST
Saturday 7 June - 4th July
Sonic artist Kieran Monaghan presents GUEST, an interdisciplinary exhibition of sound, image and organic matter, which offers up a sonic practice for the Anthropocene.
GUEST was developed during the 2024 Sonic Artist residency supported by Creative New Zealand, the New Zealand School of Music and Toi Pōneke Arts Centre.
