Art of Interference
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About This Podcast
Art of Interference explores creative responses to climate change. We feature artists whose images, sounds, and performances encourage us to retune the relations of nature and technology, the human and the nonhuman. We ask climate scientists about their research and how it chimes with the interventions of contemporary artists. Additionally, we speak to activists, cultural critics, and policymakers about the need to develop a new ethics appropriate to our twenty-first century of planetary crises. In each episode, we discuss timely and untimely perspectives on how we, amid our human-made emergencies, may act in the world and allow this changing world to act on us.
Our third season investigates different Earth materials--metals, minerals, rocks, soil, moss, or wood. How, we ask our guests, does organic and inorganic matter in all its elemental states and shapes inspire their artistic creativity? And in what way does their work challenge prevalent notions of agency and entanglement, care and co-dependency, control and disturbance? By pursuing these questions, we present contemporary art as a unique laboratory to reevaluate common notions of interference and what it means to be alive amid the ecological crises of our present.
Our first two seasons featured artists whose work collaborated with water and air, or fourth and final season will discuss artistic practices that use fire as a medium to address the challenges of our over-heating planet.
In our AoI Special Editions, we present thought-provoking conversations about the arts as transformative media of inquiry, the role of art within the landscapes of higher education, and the interplay between artistic research, climate studies, and technology development.
Art of Interference is produced at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. It has been made possible with the financial support of “The Science Communication Media Collaborative “ of the College of Arts & Science.
For more information, visit us at https://artofinterference.com.
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Recent Episodes
S3E5 Earth 5: Salt
Hosts: Tori Hoover and Emma VendettaSalt: Homer called it “a divine substance.” Plato considered it as the element most dear to the gods, a distinction awarded for its central role in human life.…
S3E4 Earth 4: Forests
Host: Lutz KoepnickIn today’s episode of Art of Interference we speak with Ursula Biemann, a Swiss artist based in Zurich. Her work over the last decades has explored forests in the Amazon and the…
S3E3 Earth 3: Soil
Soil is the foundation of life, but how often do we recognize it as such? On this episode of the Art of Interference, we speak with visual artist Allie Horick about her soil quilts—works that stitch…
S3E2 Earth 2: Wood
In this episode of Art of Interference, we explore the medium of wood as a means of rethinking traditional ideas of human and nonhuman being amid a world of planetary emergencies. “People are really…
S3E1 Earth 1: Lithium
Lithium plays a key role in the green energy transition. Its extraction, however, comes at considerable costs for the environment and for local communities, particularly in the so-called lithium…
Special Edition 3 | Connecting the Dots
Diné artist and photographer Will Wilson has been photographing hundreds of abandoned uranium mines and remediation site on the Navajo Nation over the last few years. In this episode, we speak with…
S2E10 Air 10: In the Air
In this final episode of season 2, we talk with dancer and dance scholar Mariama Diagne about the art of “heavy hovering”—the ability of modern ballet and dance to teach us a different way of moving…
S2E9 Air 9: Smoke
Smoke is a beautiful—yet sometimes strange, or even terrifying—phenomenon. In today’s episode, we explore how the mysterious qualities of smoke open up possibilities for exploration and better…
S2E8 Air 8: Wind
“Wind, wind, wind. If you repeat the word wind often enough, then it will blow by itself.” These are the poetic words of this episode’s featured artist, Theo Jansen, who has spent the last three…
S2E7 Air 7: Oxygen
Our air and atmosphere require 21% oxygen to sustain life as we know it. Human-induced climate change has put this ratio under pressure. In this episode of Art of Interference, we feature Santiago…
S2E6 Air 6: Air Conditioning
Temperature regulation has become a deeply political issue in our boiling world. In this episode, we speak with London-based artist Susan Schuppli about her work on the violence of temperature and…
S2E5 Air 5: Smog
“I am working very hard, although this morning... I was terrified to see that there was no fog, not even a wisp of mist: I was prostrate, and could see all my paintings done for, but gradually the…
S2E4 Air 4: Carbon Dioxide
In this episode, we turn our attention to the carbon footprint of the contemporary art world. What can galleries and museums do to reduce their CO2 emissions? How do curators and museum directors…
S2E3 Air 3: Clouds
In this episode of Art of Interference, we turn our attention to the larger-than-life cloud creations of Tomás Saraceno, an artist who creates cities in the clouds and flyable cloud sculptures as a…
S2E2 Air 2: Breath
In this episode, we talk with Grammy-award winning fluteplayer Molly Barth about the relation of breath, contemporary flute music, and climate change. We also hear from pulmonologist Dr. Priya…
S2E1 Air 1: Ether
In this first episode of our second season, we speak with three artists and scientists who reach out beyond the atmosphere of our planet in distress: astrophotographer Gerhard Huedepohl, photography…
Special Edition 2 | Holding Impact: Art, Science, and the Tasks of Contemporary Museums
Amie Esslinger’s site-specific installation Holding Impact is currently on display in Cohen Memorial Hall on the campus of Vanderbilt University. In this program we hear from Amie and from Amanda…
Special Edition 1 | Reverberations: Ancient Rock Art Today
This special edition of Art of Interference explores echoes between ancient rock and cave art and our contemporary moment. We feature the work of photographer Stephen Alvarez and visual artist Dustin…
S1E10 Water 10: Water Protectors
In the final installment of Art of Interference’s first season, we feature a contemplative conversation with Cannupa Hanska Luger, an artist of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota heritage, who…
S1E9 Water 9: Rain
“Blessed are the dead that the rain rains upon,” wrote poet Edward Thomas in the trenches of the first World War. Today’s episode deals with two different sorts of grief: climate grief, as inspired…
Frequently Asked Questions
Art of Interference has published 28 episodes since May 2023, covering topics in Arts, Nature.
Art of Interference is currently highly active with new episodes monthly. Average episode length is 49m.
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