Transdisciplinary artist and ecologist Brandon Ballengée at WWU Oct. 9-13

Artist and biologist Brandon Ballengée will conduct a week-long series of lectures, demonstrations, and programs Oct. 9-13 at Western Washington University and the Whatcom Museum.

The series, organized as part of Professor Cynthia Camlin’s Art & Ecology course, is supported by the WWU Sustainable Action Fund, the Department of Art & Art History, the Biology Department, and Huxley College of the Environment. Ballengée’s work currently appears in the Whatcom Museum exhibition, Endangered Species: Artists on the Front Line of Biodiversity.

Ballengée creates transdisciplinary artworks inspired by his ecological field and laboratory research into amphibians, birds, fish and insect species found in today’s preternatural environments. Underlying his practice is a systemic methodology, which posits art practice as a means of realizing research science, and vice-versa. Inherent to this working method is an impetus for “ecosystem activism” implemented through participatory biology field investigations and laboratory programs that stress public involvement. He will conduct classes at WWU covering “Wetland Eco-Action: Art & Ecology and Vertebrate Zoology” and “Specimen Preservation Workshop: Art & Ecology and Vertebrate Zoology.”

The following events are free and open to the public:

Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. -  Praeter Naturam: Ecology Beyond Nature, Keynote Talk, Frasier 101        

Saturday, Oct. 13 from 2 – 3 p.m. - Monstres Sacrés: Bearing Witness to the Anthropocene, Whatcom Museum, Old City Hall

A related exhibition at Western Gallery, Modest Forms of Biocultural Hope, features creative efforts to address ecological concerns. Modest Forms is on display through Dec. 8.