Unfolding Aliveness

Sharing a podcast I recently participated in with the lovely team of researchers from Oulu University where I discuss my research with "multispecies moments" in international schools. The mosscast team have conversations with those who research with multispecies (justice) education, art, research and practice. They are inspired by the resilience, renewal and interconnectedness of flourishing moss. That you for having me and creating space for me to discuss some of my PhD research! Coconut Thinking Unfolding Aliveness Benjamin Freud, Ph.D.

??Published today Becoming-Wild with Chalk and Paintbrush: Material-Multispecies Moments for Re-imagining Environmental Education Pedagogies. ??Such a joy to co-author another #AJEE article with Hannah Hogarth. This special issue focuses on wild pedagogies. I have been in such an intense writing period these last 6 months that I have not been able to focus on much else than my research. I found myself waking at 4am, hungry to write continuously for 6/7/8 hours at a time! This has been a fascinating, exhilarating and quite frankly, tiring process at times! And it feels wonderful to shake off some of this with today’s publication. With our two other co-authors, Chalk and Paintbrush, we are compelled to question (environmental) educational in the following ways: ??What power imbalances emerge through the materials we hold in our hands? ??How are we noticing the intra-acting forces that materials produce and attending to the ways in which they co-create our world/s? ??How open are our educational systems to provide for deeper states of flow? ??How might we co-create friction as both a courageous resistant force and a generative possibility? For those who are interested in environmental education, check out the other articles in the special issue as they are all open access. Coconut Thinking Benjamin Freud, Ph.D. Emma Nolan FRSA Andy Middleton Maria Helena Saari, PhD Pauliina Rautio Peta White Michael Paulsen Lisa Goddard Silke Schmid Matthew Bejtlich

One of my favorite all-time talks was Teju Cole's lecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2019. He spoke about freedom, doors, seeking openings, and putting feeling to form that doesn’t do violence to what is human in you. In other words, doing work that allows you to "live." I could take that one step further, and say doing work that allows all beings to "live" (both human and more-than-human). https://lnkd.in/e6reTad5 “Expertise is not a destination. The destination is freedom.” "How do we become a door for others to pass through, an egoless portal, to help them get from here to there? [ . . . ] It is about seeking openings, it is about you yourself being the opening.” “This is not a grab bag candy game.” — Teju Cole Matthew Bejtlich #projectbasedlearning #mentorship #storytelling #regenerativedesign #education #sustainability #impact #equity

??For those living with/in the Gregorian calendar, it’s a whole New Year! ??That means we have 365 days of new opportunities ahead of us! ??At Unfolding Aliveness, we are committed to deepening, expanding, furthering our calls for multispecies justice. ??And 365 days to read beautiful and life-giving material! There is so much more to learn and explore, and so much quality literature on offer! ??Reading is one critical way to consistently stretch and maintain our capacities to notice and attend-to more-than-human world/s. ??What are you intending to read this year and how might it contribute towards #justice for #multispecies ? ??Choose carefully and share any recommendations with friends! Here is one that we just started ??

??"I listen to what’s around me with so much more attention and curiosity now." ??"I am listening in a way I never did before." ??"I learned how to be better listener through listening to the listening experiences of others in the group." ??"This has really opened a whole new world for me." ??Don't just take our words for it - these are just some of the comments from our Unfolding Aliveness alumni! ??When we attend-to the living experiences of Others and create-with their vocalisations, we expand the capacities of all life. ??"Sound Stories for Multispecies Justice" might just change the way/s you experience the world/s around you! ???Join us and experience for yourself: 20th January - 24th March, 2025 https://lnkd.in/eyJEvxjG Matthew Bejtlich Charlotte Hankin #unfoldingaliveness #regenerative #education #soundecology #sustainability #multispecies #thriving #flourishing #regenerativeeducation #soundstories #planetaryhealth #ecologicaljustice #aliveness #unfolding #soundart #climatechange #justice?

??That's a wrap! ??Certificates have been sent out to our participants who just completed their 10 week studio-style course with us, Unfolding Aliveness. What an amazing cohort and what stunning sound stories they all created! ???If you would like to join us to co-create a sound story for multispecies justice, here is the link: https://lnkd.in/eyJEvxjG ??If you scroll down our website, you will notice past participants' sound stories - take a listen, enjoy, and start to consider: What could you create with the sounds in your place? Who might you create with? Why should this story matter? ??"Sound Stories for Mulitspecies Justice" is an ethical, reciprocal, creative and relational exploration of whose 'voice/s' matter, how, and why. ??Join us - January 20th is when we set off on our next voyage! Matthew Bejtlich Charlotte Hankin #unfoldingaliveness #regenerative #education #soundecology #sustainability #multispecies #thriving #flourishing #regenerativeeducation #soundstories #planetaryhealth #ecologicaljustice #aliveness #unfolding #soundart #climatechange #justice

?? Last Monday, we launched our first community sound showcase featuring work from participants in our August cohort. Over the course of 10 weeks, these creators have immersed themselves in a dynamic studio-style class exploring posthumanist theory, deep listening, field recording, sound editing, composing, and more. Here is the full recording of the community listening showcase for Unfolding Aliveness. Headphones recommended! https://lnkd.in/erhcdZiU We would like to invite you to experience the stories they’ve co-created with multispecies participants from diverse places across the globe. ??? Welcome and Introductions ?? Sound Story 1: Nick Lane presents Slowing Down to Seek Kin: A Sound Story from Indomalaya ?? Sound Story 2: D.J. Schrale presents Growing Ears ?? Sound Story 3: Ma'raj Sheikh presents Yuga ?? Sound Story 4: Arianna Smaron presents NON HUMANS: Concerts Interfered by Human Activities ?? Sound Story 5: Jen Swett presents Awakening ?? Discover how Unfolding Aliveness can guide you in creating your own Sound Stories for Multispecies Justice. ?? Our next course starts in January 20th! Ready to join us? Register here: https://lnkd.in/eyJEvxjG Unfolding Aliveness Matthew Bejtlich Charlotte Hankin Coconut Thinking Ma'raj Sheikh Douwe-Jan Schrale Arianna Smaron Nick Lane Silke Schmid Lisa Goddard Leonie Joubert #unfoldingaliveness?#regenerative?#education #soundecology? #sustainability?#multispecies?#thriving?#flourishing? #regenerativeeducation?#soundstories? #planetaryhealth?#ecologicaljustice?#aliveness?#unfolding? #soundart?#climatechange?#justice

??This week, Unfolding Aliveness held its final 'showcase' session for our 10 week studio-style class. We created sound stories for multispecies justice. ??Matthew Bejtlich Charlotte Hankin were spellbound by participants' creations! ???This time, our sound story assemblage/s, intermingled with flooding, car journeying, composting, violin-playing, researching, tent-erecting, air bnb-ing, conferencing, intense heat, limited wifi, desert sands, cats, birds, dogs, and and and... 3 participants shared sound stories that all lasted under 10 minutes. Highlights: 1. An entangled exploration of sounds with/without rain, a provocative challenge to the binaries and dualities that have been created to privilege some and deprivilege others. This artist explores relationships with rain, recording sounds with just her mobile phone from her balcony terrace in Italy. She asks, What does this washing-away make room for? In the presence of destruction, what might be created? Who now makes themselves heard? And, how universal relationships with rain reveal uneven and often unfair living experiences in our shared worlds. 2. An other-worldly compost-ition with Lise Lotte, a compost bin that is full of thrumming, popping, clicking life forms, inaudible to a human's sonic range but nevertheless, very much alive. Soil microphones reveal microscopic biographies with/in Lise Lotte's organism. This artist asks, Who is Lise Lotte? Will I listen? How will I respond? This is an innovative provocation to challenge the humanistic hubris that dominates our world/s. This artist plays her violin with the vocalisations of Lisa Lotte to consider how "creating world/s is not limited to humans" and that "it's time we take notice" of multispecies. 3. An adventure of a lifetime through South Africa's desert to explore the living conditions of the quiver tree or tree aloe, that reigns in the Richtersveld and Namaqualand on the dry western edge of South Africa and Namibia. These beautiful and fascinating trees are perishing in the hotter parts of their home and this sound story raises awareness of how our human relationships with more-than-human shared worlds creates changes in climate. Fraught with challenge, the journey pushed our artist to edges of her resilience as she battled with weather conditions to record, mix, compose. ??♀?We all held tensions for how this artistic journey brought us together, expanded our thinking-feeling-doing, transformed our worldly experiences. ??But we can't help but ask: Who will these stories influence? What could these stories change? How does artistic creation help to pay our living expenses? What differences could we make? None of these are easy to answer. ??All we can say is that we will continue to make art for multispecies justice, to resist, hope and attend-to experiences that we share with those who are different to ourselves. ??Online public showcase will happen very soon - details forthcoming! Please join us!

Desert Reign: a sound-story from Southern Africa's western desert Two decades ago, as a rookie science writer, one of the first stories Leonie Joubert got to tell was of the quiver tree, or tree aloe, that reigns in the Richtersveld and Namaqualand on the dry western edge of South Africa and Namibia. Back then, researchers were counting the headstones of dead tree aloes that were perishing in the hotter parts of their home. Story Ark revisits the tree, and the updated science, to discover that the deaths are only increasing. At the same time, Story Ark's writer Leonie Joubert had a rare opportunity to experiment with a new form of storytelling: sound stories for multi-species justice. Desert Reign is a recognition of the personhood of the quiver tree. This sound story was created with the guidance and support of two visionary storytellers, Charlotte Hankin and Matthew Bejtlich. Together, they make up the Unfolding Aliveness team, whose vision is to 'create art with more-than-humans for planetary thriving'. Follow them and the many artists they're working with, as this form of storytelling spreads its wings far and wide. #soundstories #multispeciesjustice #morethanhuman #climate #storytelling Offgrid power supplied by?EcoFlow?#ecoflowriverpro https://lnkd.in/gX8iCqZf