Art & Science at the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve
About this Event
The Long Now Foundation welcomes
Anne Heggli, Jonathon Keats, & Adam Csank
Attend the in-person or via our
Doors at 6:30pm, Talk starts at 7:30pm
For the first time in over a decade of research, Long Now Research Fellow Anne Heggli will present her synthesis of high-resolution climate data collected using paradigm-shifting long science principles at Long Now's Nevada Bristlecone Preserve in the Great Basin.
Since 02012, Heggli’s team has monitored an eight-station transect running from the floor of Spring Valley, up through Nevada's subalpine zone, and back down into Snake Valley. Among the bristlecone pines, the Nevada Climate-ecohydrological Assessment Network (NevCAN) collects data every 10 minutes, around the clock. It records the environmental ingredients that trees use to grow, ring by ring — from temperature and precipitation to soil moisture. In a way, this data can be used as a recipe book to grow a bristlecone. In this talk, Anne Heggli will introduce NevCAN and unearth the value of high-resolution environmental monitoring taking place in the Snake Range of the Great Basin.
The evening will also feature Elders of Time, a documentary following the installation of , a multi-millennial artwork by Jonathon Keats commissioned by the Nevada Museum of Art in partnership with The Long Now Foundation. The piece has two components: a monumental arboreal clock and a land art installation sited at Long Now’s Nevada Bristlecone Preserve. Jonathon Keats will join us to discuss “bristlecone time,” his tree-calibrated temporal standard, and how it exposes the limitations of Universal Standard Time.
Adam Csank, paleoclimatologist and dendrochronologist, will present the science behind bristlecone time, introducing his new long-term studies of bristlecone growth rates at the Preserve in support of Centuries of the Bristlecone.
Why This Talk Matters Now
There has been very little long-term multi-decadal work studying bristlecone regeneration until now. The Great Basin is a region with high climate variability both interannually and interdecadally. As the long science is drawn out, bristlecones have lessons to teach us about resilience and adaptation over vast timescales.
The Long View
“Long science” is research designed to unfold across decades, centuries, and beyond. Long Now is committed to advancing this type of study, which we believe is integral for meaningfully stewarding our planet. Long science requires patience, continuity, and the ability to think beyond a single human lifespan, qualities that bristlecone pines themselves inspire.
Learn More
- READ Anne Heggli’s Long Science in the Nevada Bristlecone Preserve in Long Now Ideas
- READ the interview with Great Basin scientist Scotty Strachan
- LEARN more about the Great Basin Mountain Observatory for Long Science
- WATCH the
Anne Heggli’s work focuses on long-term monitoring of mountain hydro/biosphere systems that informs the understanding of larger scale processes and water resources.
Anne is a research scientist at the Desert Research Institute, and completed her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her peer-reviewed work has been published in iScience, Earth and Space Science Open Archive, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and Western Snow Conference Proceedings. Anne has been awarded previous Fellowships by the Nevada NASA Space Grant and Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, and is a Graduate Dean’s Merit Scholar at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Jonathon Keats is an artist, writer and experimental philosopher. His conceptually-driven transdisciplinary projects explore all aspects of society, adapting methods from the sciences and the humanities. He has exhibited and lectured at dozens of institutions worldwide, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to Stanford University to the Triennale di Milano, and from SXSW to CERN to UNESCO. He is the author of six books on subjects ranging from science and technology to art and design.
Adam Csank is a paleoclimatologist and paleoecologist with expertise in stable isotope geochemistry and dendrochronology. His primary research involves the use of stable isotope dendrochronology to reconstruct past climates and the impacts of climate change on trees over time periods ranging from the Pliocene to the present. Csank also works to understand historic land use patterns and to find novel ways to use paleodata to inform climate adaptation by understanding risk, vulnerability and resiliency.
is a globally-recognized champion of long-term thinking and responsibility, operating within the context of the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now. Launched by Stewart Brand in 02003, has invited more than 400 leading thinkers to share their civilization-scale ideas with a live audience on stage in San Francisco and with millions more around the globe through our podcast and videos.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 28.52
