Doing Ecology Otherwise

International Conference hosted by the Centre for Art and Ecology, Goldsmiths, University of London
11-12 September 2026
Doing Ecology Otherwise addresses the imaginative, sensory, material and embodied capacities of art to address urgent ecological challenges. Drawing on essential insights from Natasha Myers and Lola Olufemi on the potentiality of imagining and acting ‘otherwise’, the conference explores how art can hold space for new understandings, practices, relations and structures of feeling that may be marginalized in mainstream scientific and environmental action.
How do contemporary art and artistic research function as what Matthew Fuller calls a ‘meta-discipline’ for transdisciplinary collaboration? What kinds of rituals, practices and inquiries might be needed to understand and process long histories and memories of environmental and social harm? How can artists and their collaborators navigate the overlapping temporalities of ecological grief? How can artistic research build more-than-human networks of solidarity and connection? How can ecology, policymaking and archiving (disciplines, institutions and practices that emerged in the context of imperialism), be re-oriented through creative collaboration to struggles for eco-social justice? What decolonial, feminist and queer methodologies are emerging through art-led transdisciplinary collaboration? From fungi forays, material experimentation and singing composts to embodied memory-work, agropoetics and queer bestiaries, the conference brings together artists, curators, ecologists, soil scientists, researchers and policymakers in transdisciplinary dialogue to engage in the vital work of doing ecology otherwise.
Organized and hosted by the Centre for Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths, University of London, in conversation with the British Ecological Society (UK), Celadon Center for Arts and Ecologies (Cyprus), Contemporary Art Archipelago (Finland) and Kafkárna Center for Arts and Ecology UMPRUM (Czech Republic), the conference is a gathering of academic and creative presentations, workshops and performances to present artistic research unfolding across multiple sites across the world.

PROGRAMME

FRIDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2026

All sessions take place in the LG02 Lecture Theatre, Professor Stuart Hall Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, 8 Lewisham Way, London SE14 6NW.

9:00: Doors open and coffee served

9.30: Welcome

10.00: Performance: Dr Youngsook Choi

10.20: Keynote: Professor Matthew Fuller

11.00: Break

11.30: Panel 1: Land, Bodies, Borders

Presenters: Adriana Arroyo, Paola Bascón, Rehana Zaman

Chair: Dr Becca Voelcker

13.00: Lunch

(Richard Hoggart Building, Room 150)

14.00: Panel 2: Decolonising Ecologies in Cyprus: The Archive, the Collection and the Self

Presenters: Dr Gabriel Koureas, Dr Elena Parpa, Dr Evanthia Tselika

Chair: Dr Alev Adil

15.30: Break

15.45: Panel 3: Queer Ecologies

Presenters: Dr Ama Josephine Budge, Carle Gent, Dr Sophie Seita

Chair: Dr Lenka Vráblíková

17.15: Welcome drink and launch of Queer Flora, Fauna, and Funga: A Radical Forage Through Art and Writing. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2026, edited by Frances Cannon

(Professor Stuart Hall Building Foyer)

SATURDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2026

All sessions take place in the LG02 Lecture Theatre, Professor Stuart Hall Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, 8 Lewisham Way, London SE14 6NW, except for the workshops and performances, which will take place in the locations listed below.

9:00: Doors open and coffee served

9.30: Welcome and Introduction of the Centre for Art and Ecology with Dr Anna Colin, Dr Ros Gray and Urtė Janus

10.00: Conversation 1: Arts of Ecological Repair

Presenters: Dr Anna Colin and Dr Ros Gray

Chair: Dr Tobie Kerridge

11.00: Break

11.15: Conversation 2: Undisciplinary Archiving

Presenters: Dr Taru Elfving, Dr Althea Greenan, Lotta Petronella

Chair: Dr Ros Gray

12.45: Lunch

(Richard Hoggart Building, Room 150)

13:45: Workshops

Workshop 1: Sense-itive Policy Making for Ecological Justice

(Richard Hoggart Building, Room 141)

Convenors: Becky Lyon with guest Dr Eirini Saratsi

Workshop 2: Somewhere Else: A Myco-pedagogical Foray

(Richard Hoggart Building, Room 140)

Convenors: Dr Elspeth Mitchell and Dr Lenka Vráblíková

Workshop 3: Meeting Microbes

(Art Research Garden, 41 Lewisham Way, entrance via the gate on Parkfield Road)

Convenors: Louie Destouches, Dr Paul Granjon, Melissa Thompson

Workshop 4: Kafkárna, Via The Corporeal Way

(Richard Hoggart Building, Room 250)

Convenors: Eva Koťátková and Kateřina Vídenová

Workshop 5: Into Cryptobiosis: Tardigrades and the Body of Degrowth

(Richard Hoggart Building, Room 251)

Convenor: Esther Lu

15.00: Break

15.15: Panel 4: Material Matters

Presenters: Louise Ashcroft, Claire Baily, Rain Wu

Chair: Dr Anna Colin

16.30: Break

16.45: Closing Roundtable

Scott Burrell, Professor Jack Hannam, Harun Morrison

Chair: Dr Wood Roberdeau

17.15: End

18:30: Offsite performances (location TBC): Chooc Ly Tan and and Dr Jol Thoms

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