LIVING WITH
Saturday, April 11th (1-5 pm)
SNRE Dana Building, room 1040

UMBees, The Beekeepers Association of the University of Michigan, is proud to announce LIVING WITH, an afternoon of interdisciplinary talks focused on the subject of living in harmony with both human and non-human living beings. LIVING WITH will largely focus on the importance of urban agriculture, rooftop beekeeping, and artistic approaches to living with both earthworms and honeybees. LIVING WITH will feature talks by Chicago-based urban beekeeper Michael Thompson and Ohio-based artist Amy Youngs, in addition to a screening of director Ben Nabor’s film BROOKLYN FARMER.

Speaker bios:

• Michael S. Thompson
  Michael S. Thompson is an urban farmer and beekeeper based in Chicago, Illinois. Since 2004, Thompson has managed the Chicago Honey Co-Op, a self-sufficient beekeeping cooperative. In addition to producing honey, Chicago Honey Co-Op provides healthy food and education for Chicago residents, and offers training and employment opportunities for the formerly incarcerated. Thompson manages fifty hives located mostly on vacant lots in blighted neighborhoods, and ten hives on four downtown roofs including the roof of Chicago’s City Hall.
• Amy Youngs
  Amy M. Youngs creates biological art, interactive sculptures and digital media works that explore relationships between technology and animals – human and non-human. Youngs’ research interests include: interactions with plants and animals, technological nature follies, constructed ecosystems and seeing through the eyes of machines. She has created installations that amplify the sounds and movements of living worms, indoor ecosystems that grow edible plants, a multi-channel interactive video sculpture for a science museum, as well as videos and community media projects.          Youngs has exhibited her works nationally and internationally at venues such as the Te Papa Museum in New Zealand, the Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre in Norway, the Biennale of Electronic Arts in Australia, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo in Spain and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. She was awarded an Ohio Arts Council grant for her work and has published articles in Leonardo and Antennae. She received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently an Associate Professor of Art at the Ohio State University, where she teaches new media and eco art courses.
• Brooklyn Farmer
  BROOKLYN FARMER explores the unique challenges facing Brooklyn Grange, a group of urban farmers who endeavor to run a commercially viable farm within the landscape of New York City. As their growing operation expands to a second roof, the team confronts the realities inherent in operating the world’s largest rooftop farm in one of the world’s biggest cities. See here for a trailer of the film.

For questions concerning this event, please contact Mike Bianco at mjbianco@umich.edu

SPONSORS:  This event has been made possible through the generous support of the Planet Blue Student Innovation Fund, The Graham Sustainability Institute, The Stamps School of Art and Design, The Barbara Trytten Richardson Graduate Student Aid Fund, The School of Natural Resources and Environment, ArtEco – the Art and Environment Workshop, and the members of UMBees.  This event is Free and Open to the public.