For the past decade, Kang and Lydon have worked internationally to produce ecological art and media projects that inspire insightful, empathic relationships between people and the living world around us. Their 2016 art documentary Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness has been translated into seven languages, screened thousands of times, and is part of the Buchanan Prize-winning Global Environmental Justice Collection. In 2017 they moved to Osaka, Japan, where they opened The Branch ecological art lab and pocket farm.

Their talk takes us on a journey spanning several nomadic years in East Asia and Europe, while filming a documentary, producing community-engaged arts projects, and exploring a world where the borders between ways of seeing, thinking, and acting, become permeable and flexible. Their work suggests that art is inherently a way of knowing ourselves as ecological beings, and shows how we can apply this mindset to anything we choose to do in life.

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Patrick M. Lydon is an American ecological writer and transdisciplinary artist. He is founder of City as Nature, and arts editor at The Nature of Cities (New York). In addition to his nomadic studies with farmers, forests, and monks, he studied at San Jose State University (BA), Aichi University of Art, and The University of Edinburgh (MFA).

Suhee Kang (강수희) is a Korean herbalist and editor. She traveled throughout the Middle-East and Asia to engage traditional ways of living, winning the Istanbul Cultural Center travel photography grand prize. She studied journalism at Sungkyunkwan University (BA) and is a certified herbalist.

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An acclaimed weekly lecture series brings in artists, designers, and critical theorists from around the world, broadening the students’ experiential base and complementing local offerings. All lectures and exhibitions are open to the general public free of charge.  Unless otherwise indicated, all events are hosted by the Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery, and take place on Tuesday evenings from 5-6pm PST.