SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS
talks and workshops
during Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms
by Ami Clarke
Lucy Sollitt (Creative Director of FutureEverything)
in conversation with Ami Clarke.
21st May
7-9pm at Banner Repeater
rsvp here
What does it mean to “meet the lough on its own terms”?
And what role do art and technology play in this?
Join Lucy Rose Sollit and Ami Clarke for a conversation exploring this question in context of Ami’s artwork that emphasises a more than human, symbiotic approach and Nature Directed an initiative devised and implemented by Lucy while Creative Director of FutureEverything, which rethinks creative and organisational workflows so that the Web of Life is an active participant and decision-maker.
The conversation will look at how art and curatorial practices can be adapted to support the urgent work of reconnection and repair with our more-than-human kin, and the questions that emerge along the way - from who speaks for Nature and how, to how we interpret the myriad ways in which Nature “speaks” itself, and how we find a balance between human and more-than-human interests.
We explore: how this pathfinding work both intersects with, and departs from, the growing Rights of Nature movement; the increasing role technologies play in mediating ecological relations and the need for deep relational and justice oriented frameworks to guide technological development; and how art and artists can navigate these questions.
This event draws a long running conversation between Ami and Lucy on the entangling of art and ecology in the context of the postnatural and, and how ecological understanding informs new ways of practising art today.
speakers:
Lucy Sollitt (MPhil, BA Hons) is an experienced researcher and cultural programmer, specialising in innovatively merging art, technology, and ecosystemic change - for organisations including Serpentine Galleries, Goethe Institut, Arts Council England. Until April 2026, Lucy was Creative Director of pioneering art-tech organisation, FutureEverything, the first cultural institution to bring Nature onto its Board. She is Co-Chair of Furtherfield.
More details about Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms exhibition open until 7th June:
Ami Clarke was asked to join Friends of the Earth during the first algae bloom outbreak at Lough Neagh (2023). Many conversations later it became useful for FotE to adopt her emphasis of meeting the lough on its own terms as an important step in establishing the Rights Of Nature. The work draws upon a collective writing project and conversations over 2.5 years with Friends of the Earth NI and associates, druids, herbalists, campaigners, and eco-lawyers engaging with ancient Irish Brehon Law, to tell of the multiple stories running through the Lough from a decolonial, more-than-human, microbial perspective. The Sonic Ritual live jam, with John D’Arcy, HIVE choir, artists and musicians from the Sonic Arts Research Centre, QUB, expands upon these ideas to build a new technological interface to recalibrate human and nature relations.
The talk is part of the Systems Collapse: Symbiotic Relations talks and workshops that emphasise ‘thinking through together’ how art can provide and support alternative visions and methodologies to germinate, that encourage a de-centring of the human (not de-valuing), decolonial, eco-feminist, and posthuman/more-than-human position to flourish, whilst nurturing radical new ways for rethinking sustainability.