Tag: natureculture

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The Return to Nature and Culture – A Lecture and Discussion with Tim Ingold

On February 26, 2026, I had the opportunity to host Tim Ingold at the Collegium Helveticum, Swiss Institute for Advanced Study, within my project Caring for Naturecultures.

One of the most engaging social anthropologists of our time, Tim Ingold argues in his lecture for a renewed humanism oriented toward the flourishing of life rather than the pursuit of progress. In response to contemporary ecological and social crises, he rethinks humanity’s place in the world and the responsibilities that come with it. For the past three centuries, the Western world has been guided by a doctrine of progress, first articulated by philosophers of the European Enlightenment, according to which the destiny of humanity is to exercise dominion over the rest of creation. This doctrine has underwritten developments in science and technology that have improved the lives of millions, yet it has also entailed mounting social injustice and environmental degradation. Far from delivering humanity to a promised land of peace and plenty, three hundred years of progress leave us instead looking into an abyss. In hindsight, it is clear that Enlightenment humanism took a wrong turn when it declared that the proper vocation of human beings lay not in following in the footsteps of their ancestors-aligning their lives with the manifold other beings with whom they once coexisted-but in turning their backs on these creaturely ways to face resolutely in the opposite direction. This lecture makes the case for undoing that fatal turn. Rather than joining posthumanist critics in rejecting the concepts of nature and culture-and even of humanity itself-as inventions of modernity, it seeks to restore these concepts in their premodern senses. Nature is understood here as a power, distributed throughout the cosmos, to give birth to new life, while culture refers to the burden of nurture: the work of creating conditions in which newly born life can flourish. Thanks to the gift of language, humans, Tim Ingold argues, bear a responsibility for life’s flourishing that is wholly exceptional. Recognizing this responsibility, rather than pretending to deny it, is essential if it is to be exercised wisely.

The recording of this lecture is freely available here:

Tim Ingold has carried out fieldwork among Saami and Finnish people in Lapland, and has written on environment, technology and social organization in the circumpolar North, on animals in human society, and on human ecology and evolutionary theory. His more recent work explores environmental perception and skilled practice. Ingold’s current interests lie at the interface between anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. To learn more about Tim’s publications and past and current projects, follow this link.

The invitation of Tim Ingold to Switzerland has been made possible thanks to the funding of the Swiss National Science Foundation for the project Activating Fluxus and with the support of the Collegium Helveticum. Many thanks to Mario Wimmer, Sebastian Bonhoffer, and the entire team of the Collegium Helveticum for making my invitation of Ingold to Zurich and Bern possible. Ingold’s contribution to the symposium Activations at HKB Bern can be accessed here.

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Natureculture Lab, a global think tank


January 27-29, 2025 | Institute of Materiality in Art and Culture | HKB Bern Academy of the Arts

We are calling for participation in this Lab from individuals from the Global South, especially those who belong to underrepresented groups and are in the early phases of their careers (e.g., PhD candidates or recent postdocs). See below for the description and specifics of the call.

This international workshop aims to bring together in a hybrid format experts and practitioners of conservation in two domains: on the one hand, art and cultural heritage conservation; and on the other hand, nature conservation. Except for singular activities, these two communities have rarely if at all communicated. This is highly remarkable especially considering recent developments both in art conservation and nature conservation. In both domains the “things”, “items”, “objects” or “sites” conservators and conservationists care for are increasingly recognized as natureculture hybrids. While art conservation, especially in its earlier guise of restoration, primarily considered artworks as the outcome of human—and especially the artist’s—intentions, the field of art conservation has increasingly recognized that the materials of artworks undergo unintentional, and sometimes unexpected, changes and are subject to loss and decay well outside human control. At the other end, while inspired by ideas of pristine wilderness, nature conservation in its earliest instances was primarily geared towards the establishment of national parks and nature reserves fortified against human intervention, conservationists have come to value humans as inherent to the ecosystems they care for. Given that the “things” and “sites” for which (art) conservators and (nature) conservationists hold responsibility are interplays of human and non-human agencies and thus nature-culture hybrids, both fields and communities consider ontologically similar objects, and should exchange views.

The workshop will explore questions such as, How should conservation practices in both nature and art be redefined in light of the inevitable and sometimes desirable changes to the material make-up of objects, landscapes and environments? How can new conservation theories that embrace change and transformation, particularly those emerging from contemporary art, inform and reshape traditional conservation approaches that prioritize permanence and stability? Who gets to decide where and how conservation occurs, considering the historical silencing and displacement of human voices in both ecological restoration and cultural heritage conservation? How can the field of conservation expand beyond top-down expert models to embrace decolonizing community engagement, thereby raising questions about the future role of experts?

The current global challenges of the climate, environmental and, in parts of the globe, humanitarian crisis create a strong urgency to intensify the exchange between the fields of art and nature conservation. To cope with these challenges, nature and culture heritage conservation requires alternative ontologies and distinct epistemologies. Ontologically, both fields require approaches that can deal with change and the dynamics accelerated by the climate crisis. Epistemologically, both fields need to develop more inclusive models of decision-making, in their turn, questioning the role of experts in conservation. This workshop will bring these two communities together not because we are under the assumption that one field has the solutions to the problems the other field is confronted with, but because both fields confront similar problems. Rather than transferring ready-made solutions from the domain of art and culture to nature, or vice versa, and simply having one community learn from the other, the workshop will offer a platform for both communities to learn together and progress facing the global challenges mentioned above. 

The confirmed contributors for this workshop are Lotte Arndt, Jackob Badcock, Marjolijn Bol, Josephine Ellis, Noémie Étienne, Sven Dupré, Rodney Harrison, Hanna B. Hölling, Laura J. Martin, Maeva Pimo, Christian Rosset, Friederike Schäfer, Anna Schäffler, Peter Schneemann, Yvonne Schmidt and Glenn Wharton.

We also invite applications from individuals in the Global South, particularly those from underrepresented groups and at early career stages (PhD candidates or early postdocs), to participate in our workshop. Participants may contribute by delivering a short presentation and/or joining discussion groups focused on the aforementioned themes. A subsidy of CHF 1,000 is available to support travel and accommodation for four in-person participants. The workshop and application process will be conducted in English.

Please apply by November 3, 2024, by submitting the following: 1. A motivation letter (maximum 2 pages) detailing your interest in participating in the workshop and a brief research statement explaining how the workshop would benefit your current research 2. A CV (maximum 5 pages), including a list of publications.

Natureculture Lab has been organized by Hanna B. Hölling (HKB Bern Academy of the Arts) and Sven Dupré (Utrecht University/University van Amsterdam) with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation Scientific Exchanges Grant, the Bern University of Applied Science Network Grant and the Institute Materiality in Art and Culture at HKB Bern Academy of the Arts.

Access the full call for participation here.