Shahara Benson is an educator who has recently officially abandoned the system of education in search of greener (read: more equitable) pastures for children of color. She is incurably curious about all things race and class on an historic, local-to-global scale. Shahara is a reader, writer, and singer who enjoys nature, yoga, and anything sweet. She currently lives in Philadelphia, and likes to travel in her black Converses.
Devika Bilimoria is a multidisciplinary artist whose image making, performance and live participatory work contribute to the shifting convolutions of bodies, sociocultural territories, and technology. Trained in photography, film and Bharata Natyam in Narrm/Melbourne, their practice sensorially approaches the charged body/earth nexus, engaging with ecological and post-human discourses to frame the intricacies of human and non-human reciprocity.
Nyssa Frank explores numerous mediums as she dissects the beautiful questions our world gives birth to. She hopes to be forever in a state of learning and growth, diving into the unknown with eyes open wide.
Nyssa is also the Owner of The Living Gallery, founded in 2012, which is a venue dedicated to supporting emerging artists.
Website: nyssafrank.net
Instagram: Nyssa_Art_Tattoos
Gary M. Mawe, PhD is the Samuel W. Thayer Professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont. He and his colleagues conduct research on how the nervous system regulates gastrointestinal function in health and disease, and he teaches a number of courses, including Human Gross Anatomy and Comparative Neurobiology.
Ever since he moved to Vermont in 1988, and learned about the fascinating life of Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, Mawe has been eager to follow in Bentley’s footsteps and master the art of snow crystal photography. Since December of 2013, he has been welcoming each winter storm as he attempts to capture and photograph pristine snow crystals at his home near the Hinesburg-Huntington border.
Motion is a common theme in Mawe’s artistic endeavors. Two of his favorite photographic subjects (in addition to snow crystals) are waterfalls and fireflies, and he has designed and built a weathervane and a series of mobiles, which he refers to as Mawebiles.
Heidi Lorenz has done a number of commissioned sound pieces and longform ambient compositions in addition to her sound design, songwriting, & DJ work as Octonomy. Based out of her Brooklyn studio, she writes for experiential spaces, performances, films, and immersive installations. All of her work is composed with a legion of analogue and digital synthesizers, as well as layered samples and field recordings. Her current projects center on soundtrack work for independent horror movies.
Kelli McGuire is an analog photographer based in New York City. Kelli makes work depicting women, aiming to portray a surreal yet cinematic setting.
SPACEPANTS. While performing at a music festival in Vermont, we met, realized we shared a life-long dream of wearing as many sparkles as possible, and ran joyfully out into a field to celebrate. Our enthusiasm attracted the attention of some rad aliens who invited us to party and jam with them. As luck would have it, they were having a full-on sparkle party. When we woke up the next day, groggy and disoriented, the Rad Aliens had left us three parting gifts: a 25-foot long TUBE, a mission, and several pairs of SpacePants. The TUBE is a central driver of our music-making. The mission, which we accepted, is to wear SpacePants while bringing both our own and other earth-bound beings’ works of music, poetry, multimedia, storytelling, and art to life.
TUBE is Life. All hail TUBE.
SpacePants is:
Diana Wade - viola, voice, composition, tube
Jennifer Beattie - voice, text, composition, tube
Our Contributors
first edition - Second Edition
Kjersti Alm Eriksen and María Arnardóttir: A multi-disciplinary duo working across performance, design and art. They teamed up in 2012 to undertake a single collaborative project, but have since created an assortment of spaces, in which they’ve both made things and made things happen. They aim to provoke connection and tempt others to touch, to care, to feel.
From beginning to end, all work is done on site. They start by reading the space; meticulous research. Each element is taken into consideration; the history, the people, what lives there, who lives there, the location, what lies underneath, above, the shapes, the materials, the weather. What does this place tell them? Do they need to use fiction in order to tell the truth?
For the Seers’ Catalogue they have teamed up with Jeff Lombard to help with building a digital representation of U STAAT HIER.
Sultan Barodawala is an immersive artist, designer and filmmaker currently based in Brooklyn, New York. His work explores our relationship to space and time through immersive technologies.
Alap Parikh is an artist, director, and developer focusing on immersive experiences. He is fascinated by the creation of stories that explore the peculiarities of reality and human perception, and the re-interpretation of narrative in participatory mediums of art.
Bob Bresnahan is one of the co-founders of Renewable Taos. He is also a member of the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, Inc. Board of Trustees. Bob designs custom furniture. He had a career as a business planner and consultant and, as a young man in the 1960s and 70s, he worked for the peace movement. “My daughter taught me that we need to learn how to live without spoiling our planet for future generations.”
Malina Gillies-Doherty is an educator and lover of nature and fire who lives in Sacramento, CA on unceded Nisenan land. Malina worked in fire ecology and fire archeology for the National Park Service previously, and experienced first-hand the impact of wildfire when her family was evacuated from their home for two weeks during the Carr Fire in 2018. Malina currently works in higher education and enjoys backpacking, taking photos, sharing music, and reading books from the library.
Juice is Arii Ken, a musician based in Brooklyn, NY.
Embalming Lately is a tape label based in Brooklyn, NY.
Lillian Tong, creator of Feeling of the Month Club, is a hybrid strategist and service designer. She creates poetic rituals that support self-inquiry, inspire meaningful connections and foster organizational change.
Lillian is also a Cofounder at Matter-Mind Studio, a research collective that practices Emotion-Centered Design. By working with people to articulate their inner needs, Matter-Mind helps organizations, institutions, and companies to take better care.
Lillian earned her master’s degree in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons School of Design, and was a member at NEW INC, the New Museum’s incubator. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Thom Ulmer is an artist, writer, musician and graphic designer from the rough underbelly of the Florida panhandle. He’s spent the last decade making art, mistakes, amends, and friends in NYC, PDX, and Seattle. He recently bought a car on a whim and drove it across the country where you can find him finding himself in his native swamp of Pensacola. Where next is anyone’s guess.
Utnapishtim: Turn your attention within, and glance into the infinity of time and space! The song of the stars, the speech of numbers, and the harmony of the spheres all have their origins there. Every sun is a thought of God, and every planet the thought’s expression. Ascend and descend, oh souls, the path of the seven planets, and in the seven skies of these seven planets shall ye recognize the divine thoughts. What do the stars sing? What do numbers talk about? What do the spheres reveal? Oh, ye lost or redeemed souls; these stars, numbers and spheres are revealing your fate.
Emily visits with a hummingbird