Presentations

2022

  • Most of my presentations and workshops are, from now on, listed here.

2021

  • 12-8-2021: As opening keynote of the ClimateExistence conference in Sigtuna, Sweden, I presented the lecture ‘Mindful schizophrenia – Keeping one’s sanity in face of the ecological emergency’ In this presentation, Boeckel I tried to reflect from different angles on what it means to feel alive today. Whereas Greta Thunberg once said that ‘there are no grey areas when it comes to survival’, another approach would suggest that grey, black and white – and indeed even complementary pairs such as purple and yellow, or orange and blue – can coexist. Perhaps one could be able to see that things are quite hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. We are not only faced with the grimness of climate grief and eco-anxiety, but there is a parallel suffering of living at a distance from beauty. Mindful schizophrenia suggests that there might be survival value in embracing paradoxes and ambiguity: trying to uphold one’s dignity and integrity with a split mind amidst the unfolding of the ecological emergency.
  • 22-1-2021: As part of the Climate Adaptation Week (19-25 January 2021) in Groningen, the Netherlands: A Q & A session with me on art, climate fear, finding inspiration and facing uncertainty. Viewable online.
  • 18-1-2021: ‘Actueel  Discours’.18:00-20:00pm. First in the philosophy of deep ecology, and later also in so-called posthumanist thinking, the relationship between we as humans, on the one hand, and the “more-than-human-world” has become increasingly prominent. The insight is increasingly gaining ground that humanity, as a species, is intimately – but also inevitably – entwined with the rest of nature. In this Actueel Discours we delve deeper into the poetic idea that it is the earth that breathes us. Viewing and appreciating our existence as part of a greater whole in this way requires imagination. Where do artists stand in this regard and how can teachers in visual and artistic education  welcome the “more-than-human world” more actively in their educational practices?

    Art work Jon Mallo

2020

  • 3-12-2020: Lecture ‘The earth breathes us; People of all species, also humans’. As part of the Media Art Festival, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Viewable online.
  • 28-11-2020: Labdag Master Art Education (lecture and workshop) at Academie Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands. Theme: ‘Comparing the Incomparable’.
  • 18-11-2020: Lecture and workshop for Artistic Research Community (ARC) and Master ‘Inter-Relational Art Practices’ (IRAP). Academie Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands. Theme: ‘Artistic probing of the world in an age of uncertainty and climate fear.’
  • 21-9-2020: Workshop Metamorphoses of organic forms in the park Noorderplantsoen, in Groningen, The Netherlands, as part of the OffCourse offered by the Research Centre Art and Society (Hanze University of Applied Sciences): “Agility in the Face of Climate Change.”

    Clay workshop in Noorderplantsoen, Groningen, 2020

  • 14-9-2020: Lecture on  the theme of ‘Deep Adaptation’ for students of IWP – Innovation Lab on Climate Adaptation, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, The Netherlands.
  • 20-5-2020: Lecture (and workshop) on art and environmental education as part of the course ‘Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability’ at Wageningen University, Netherlands. The session was online due to the coronavirus. Students participated in a lines of the hand workshop. Later, they selected the place where they felt rooted most strongly on an online world map and uploaded their lines of the hand drawing and haiku poem.
  • May: Keynote presentation at the ClimateExistence conference in Sigtuna, Sweden, hosted by CEMUS. Title: “Mindful schizophrenia – Keeping one’s sanity in face of the ecological emergency.” (Postponed due to the coronavirus until August 2021.)
  • February: Lecture and hands-on workshop with clay at Utrecht University College, The Netherlands, as part of the course Creating Societal Impact.
  • January: Podcast on the Open Air Philosophy project on three Norwegian ecophilosophers – Arne Naess, Sigmund Kvaløy Setreng and Peter Wessel Zapffe. Accessible via Rewilding Earth.

2019

  • November: Webinar presentation, entitled Urban Environmental Education: Urban Nature and Aesthetics for the Urban Environmental Education online course, offered by Cornell University’s Civic Ecology Lab (USA), with hundreds of participants from over 50 countries.
  • October: Open Lecture: Art and Sustainability Education in an Age of Uncertainty and Climate Fear, Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn. Viewable online.
  • May: Keynote and workshop at the network meeting of art teachers at HDK Gothenburg, Sweden, on Art education in a time of climate strikes and fear for the future.
  • March: Keynote and workshop: Being present in the present to what presents itself. At Symposium Global Challenges – Rethinking Education? of the Nordic Summer University (study circle Learning and Bildung in time of Globalisation), 19-21 March 2019, University of Bergen, Norway.
  • January: CEMUS Opening Lecture: “A pedagogy of the light in the eyes” Being present in the present to what presents itself. An address on fostering attention through arts-based open-ended approaches in an age of ecological emergency, social unravelling and radical uncertainty.
    Hambergsalen, Geocentrum, Uppsala, Sweden. Viewable online

2018

  • April: Presentation of paper “Fostering Agility Through Art,” together with Jeroen Lutters (ArtEZ, Netherlands), at the Radical Relevances conference at Aalto University, Finland (25-27 April, 2018).
  • May: Presentation at Climate Existence conference in Sigtuna, Sweden (7-9 May, 2018). Viewable online
  • May: Lecture and hands-on workshop at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, as part of the course Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability. This course enables students to actively engage with critical issues in designing an appropriate environmental and sustainability education programme using a variety of learning and community engagement approaches.

    Hands-on workshop on processes of change in nature

2017

  • May: About forty students and professionals working in sustainability and education participated in a Meet Up organized by the Friends of the Earth Charter and Wageningen University.  There is a blog report and there is a series of images of my workshop in the Arboretum during the event. My lecture title: “The relevance of arts-based practice and connecting to nature in an age of climate fear.”

    Workshop in the Arboretum

  • Aug.: Presentation “Art & awareness, making sense in an age of climate fear,” and clay workshop “the gesture of the receiving hand.” At Art & Design Practice programme of University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, Netherlands.
  • Nov.: Workshop Wildpainting at conference on “Green pedagogy” at Groeneveld Castle, Baarn, The Netherlands. The conference highlighted the importance of nature in education and health care.
  • Nov.: Presentation “Art & awareness, making sense in an age of climate fear,”  University College of Southeast Norway (HSN), Notodden, Norway. Workshops with 36 students in art education & design.

    Workshop at HSN Notodden

  • Nov.: Lecture and workshops in Bø, Norway, at invitation of Bærekraftige liv i Bø (Transition Town Bø).

    Workshop in Bø, Norway

  • Nov.: Lecture “The relevance of arts-based practice and connecting to nature in an age of climate fear” at NMBU, Ås, Norway, at the Teacher Education in Natural Sciences program.

    Poster lecture at NMBU

2016

  • Jan.: Presentation on arts-based autoethnography and interpretative phenomenological analysis (as part of my doctoral research) at ArtEZ International Research School of Arts and Cultural Education (AIR), in Arnhem, Netherlands.
  • Feb.: Facilitation of workshops and participation in seminar of the BERA Research Commission Project “Reviewing the potential and challenges of developing STEAM education through creative pedagogies for 21st century learning”, in Aberdeen, Scotland.
  • April: Keynote address at the Climate Existence conference in Sigtuna, Sweden, entitled “Being able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise: Artistic engagement in an age of Climate fear.” I asked the people in the audience to “make notes in clay” during my lecture, rather than with a pen on paper (see image).  The PDF of the lecture can be downloaded here. Part of my contribution to the conference was also a dialogue with David Abram on “Animism and Technology.”

    notes in clay

    Making notes in clay

  • May: Facilitation of art workshop as part of the seminar “Knowing from the Inside Kitchen,” of which the theme was: “An Epistemology of Attention – Exploring the Curriculum.”The KFI Kitchen is a ERC Research project led by anthropologist Tim Ingold at the University of Aberdeen.  In this week-long workshop at Comrie Croft in Perthshire we investigated what it means to teach.  A number of approaches and perspectives emerged from a broad range of disciplines, with formal presentations alongside hands-on activities designed to shed light on and demonstrate what might be possible for a university considered otherwise.
  • May: Lecture and workshop facilitation on the theme of art and environmental education at Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands, as part of the course Environmental Education and Learning for Sustainability.
  • June: Presentation at conference Language, Landscape and the Sublime, in Dartington and Sharpham House, in Devon, United Kingdom. I gave a lecture entitled “The landscape thinks itself in me.”
  • Sept.: Facilitation of a break-out session on imagination and storied sensorial memory of landscape and place at Green Grounds for Health and Learning (5th International School Grounds Conference), in Lund, Sweden.
  • Oct.: Open Lecture at Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn: “Perspectives on art education in today’s global economy.” Together withTomaž Zupančič, Professor at the Faculty of Education, University in Maribor, Slovenia. Conversation about the interfaces of art, art education and economy.
  • Nov.: Lecture with the theme Researching self-facilitated practices in arts-based environmental education: A report on challenges in performing arts-based autoethnographic explorations at the  conference Refl(a)cting on Arts, Design and Art Education at ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands. In response, one of the co-presenters, Jochem Naafs, wrote a touching poem, in which he very keenly expressed what my presentation was about – while simultaneously adding new layers of meaning.in-and-out-of-river


2015

  • Feb.: Lecture as part of the Hugarflug conference in Reykjavik, “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience.”
  • May: Paper presentation, “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience,” at NORDIK conference (Art History) in Reykjavik, Iceland.
  • May: Paper presentation, “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience,” at conference “Culture(s) in Sustainable Futures”, in Helsinki, Finland.
  • Sept.: Presentation as part of Symposium panel “Creativity in Science Education for Sustainability” at European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) conference in Helsinki, Finland. Title: “Making meaning through art in an age of climate fear: Between opening the senses and psychic numbing.”
  • Sept.: Presentation in Estonian House of Parliament at the Eesti Kunstiakadeemia visioonikonverentsilt (“Estonian Academy of Arts Vision Conference”). Title of presentation: “With Art to the Heart of Nature.” Viewable online
  • Nov.: Presentation of lecture at Telemark University College, Notodden, Norway: “With Art to the Heart of Nature.”

2014

  • May: Lecture and workshop as part of MA study program “Applied Environmental Education,” at Life Sciences Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
  • Oct.: Lecture at Listaháskóli Íslands (Iceland Academy of the Arts) with the title: “Looking Into the Abyss.” In this lecture, I explored what contribution artistic practice can provide when searching for strategies to cope with the unsettling news of impending catastrophic climate change and other manifestations of the current ecological crisis. Viewable online

2013

  • Nov.: Lecture on my research in arts-based environmental education, at conference Jubileum & Visioner. Høgskolen i Telemark, Notodden, Norway.
  • Nov.: Open lecture: “From education for sustainable development to sustainable education – what is the role of art?” At Section for Learning and Teacher Education, IMT, NMBU, Ås, Norway.
  • Nov.: Lecture on my doctorate research at Metodsymposiet, Gävle University College, Gävle, Sweden.

2012

  • Feb.: Presentation on arts-based environmental education practices in Europe at NAEA Pre-conference: “Earth Education: Art Education as if the Environment Matters,” Education Center at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York.
  • March: Presentation at the annual convention of National Art Education Association, with the theme: “Emerging Perspectives – Connecting Teaching, Learning, and Research,” in New York. Special Speak out session: “Environmentally Aware and Ecologically Activist Art Education.”
  • June: Lecture and paper presentation on research findings as part of PhD study “At the Heart of Art and Earth,” at Conference Onderzoek in Cultuureducatie at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
  • Aug.: Lecture and workshops at Wij Trädgårdar, Ockelbo, Sweden. Augustiträff – om att hitta nya vägar. Seminar: “Hur kan vi hantera våra brännande existentiella frågor om miljö, klimat och resursförbrukning?”
  • Dec.: Lecture and panel discussion participation at Intensivdagarna 2012, in Visby, Sweden, organized by Riksutställningar (Swedish Exhibition Agency). Theme: “Do We Have to Go In in Order to Come Out? On the Relationship Between Exhibitions and Nature.”

2011

  • Feb.: Presentation of several workshops at “2011 Freiburg Forum on Environmental Governance: Inspiring Change Towards a Green Economy,” in Freiburg, Germany.
  • Feb.: Lecture and workshop presentation at Art and Ecology Seminar at Oslo National Academy of the Arts, in Norway.
  • April: Lecture on Konst och omställning (“Art and transition”) at Gävle Konstcentrum in Gävle, and workshops with art students of Högskolan i Gävle, in Sweden.
  • Nov.: Lecture “Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and intentionality in nature experience,” presented at the “Shorelines International Symposium on Creativity, Place and Wellbeing” in Maclaurin Galleries, Ayr, Scotland.

2010

  • Febr.: Lecture at Seminar Konst för ett ekologiskt hållbart samhälle (“Art for an ecologically sustainable society”), Wij Trädgårdar, Ockelbo, Sweden.
  • May: Lecture at transdisciplinary workshop “Aesth/Ethics in Environmental Change”, Hiddensee, Germany.
  • June: Lecture at Falmouth University College, United Kingdom, as part of the lectures series “Comprehending Nature.” Title: “The point of no return: Artistic vulnerability and the more-than-human world.”
  • June: Lecture at “TRACES: Sustainable Art Education,” the InSEA conference in Rovaniemi, Finland.
  • Oct.: Facilitation of five-hour long session “A Dialogue on Beauty,” with 15 participants, amongst others: F. David Peat, Alan Boldon, Pirkko Pohjakallio, and Henrik Tschudi. As part of the three week long program “Gentle Actions” in Oslo, Norway.
  • Oct.: Presentation of the opening seminar “The Art of Looking Sideways: Reflections on the Art of Actions.” As part of “Gentle Actions,” Oslo, Norway.
  • Nov.: Facilitation of a two hour workshop at Norsk Taiji Senter in Oslo, Norway: “Clay and the art and ecology of the human body.” In this workshop participants were guided in making a mini-version of their own seated body with their eyes closed.

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