Panel Discussion: Symbiosis: Artist/Scientist Dialogue Across Sectors

Moderator: Genevieve Robertson 

Panelists: Iraleigh Anderson, Astrida Neimanis, Carol Wallace 

Join this panel of artists and scientists as they explore knowledge-creation, looking through both scientific and artistic lenses to find commonality. In the context of climate crisis and the increasing need for ecological conservation, we will explore burgeoning symbiotic relationships between artists and environmental scientists, and the values of finding synergy across traditionally separate sectors.

Iraleigh Anderson Autobio: I am a recovering photographer turned biologist. My career is sensory seeking. Hunting images of DIY hall shows in my youth gradually morphed into hunting rare wildflowers as a middle aged public servant. I have a daughter. Music soothes her, like it does me. I should probably lean into this and foster an appreciation for arts and music—vital (though not untroubled) as they are. Instead of music classes we visit landscapes in decline. Bedrock meadows. Subalpine grasslands. Small places with big trees. Seeking rare hues and unusual textures – tiny living sculptures that we must crawl through the undergrowth to see. Looking and listening for stories almost forgotten or not yet spoken. I hope that we can keep some of these places – as refuge for other sensory seeking beings. 

 Astrida Neimanis is Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities and Associate Professor at UBC Okanagan, on the unceded lands of the syilx people. As a practice-led feminist theorist, Astrida writes about water, weather and bodies, often in collaboration with artists, scientists, writers and other community members. They are author of Bodies of Water: Posthuman Feminist Phenomenology (2017), and co-author (with Jennifer Mae Hamilton) of How to Weather Together: Feminist Practice for Climate Change (2026). Astrida is also Director of The FEELed Lab – a feminist environmental humanities creative research lab in Kelowna, BC.

Carol Wallace is a visual artist of Scottish ancestry, privileged to be living and working on the tum xula7xw/traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/Sinixt, otherwise known as Nelson, BC. Her art practice includes drawing, painting, textile and sculptural installation informed by Earth’s ongoing processes, unimaginable timescales, and the agency of stone. Carol holds a degree in Geology from the University of Calgary (1992) and worked as a geologist for twenty years locally, and in the Yukon Territory and Ellesmere Island. Since 2014 Carol has focused exclusively on her art practice and has been active in arts culture in her community, including six years as a board member with Oxygen Art Centre. She has received financial support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Columbia Basin Trust – Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.

FREE EVENT—Langham Theatre