PPEH Lab

The Understory is PPEH’s environmental humanities digest, a growing digital community space to feature work in EH, share information, and most importantly, to expand conversation in all areas of the environmental humanities. We hope you’ll feel welcome to contribute your events, related work, and recommendations by DM or emailing [email protected]!

A huge thank you to our 2024 Ecotopian Toolmakers: Austen Camille, Blue Lab, e+i Studio, Richard Hamilton, and Bobby Haskell, and our partner, Morris Arboretum & Gardens! The tools presented in this year's workshops have truly left us feeling inspired and energized! All five projects brought exceptional care and creativity in engaging audiences with the new, unfamiliar, and sometimes even uncomfortable issues surrounding Multispecies Flourishing. These tools empowered viewers to engage with and act upon these issues with newfound confidence. Stay tuned for our upcoming catalog and learn more these amazing artists on our Ecotopian Toolkit website via the link in bio!

The 2023-24 academic year has been one of growth and impact for My Climate Story! The new Campus Correspondents initiative brought fresh perspectives from across North America. Their powerful Climate Stories have strength in numbers as they help build community connections and inspire climate action and literacy! It’s been energizing for our team to collect and reflect on these numbers which illustrate the project's progress, but at the end of the day, the heart of MCS remains the people, communities, and lived experiences these stories reflect. As we look forward to the future, we remain committed to amplifying these stories and fostering a deeper understanding of the human impacts of climate change!

Dive into the world of climate fiction with “Crafting Climate: A Cli-Fi Film & Book Review"! This collection, penned by students in Bethany Wiggin's 2023 "Sustainability & Utopianism" course and edited by Zade Dahman (C'25), explores textual and cinematic themes like dystopia, scarcity, Afro-futurism, and climate disasters across literature, film, and television. Whether you're seeking insights from voices of the environmental movement or aspiring to write your own work of climate fiction, "Crafting Climate" hopes to be a source of inspiration! Check it out today at my-climate-story.org!

Don’t miss this awesome op-ed written by one of our Campus Correspondents, Seema Parmar, in “The Daily Pennsylvanian!” In the piece, Seema shares her unique takeaways from gathering climate stories on campus and how she’s seen climate change affecting the Penn community right now. Read about why she believes that sharing our stories can spark real action. Head over to our "Press Room" page to read "Discussion on Climate Change Can Lead to Real Change" – link in bio!

Join Us for the Blue Lab Popup Story Patch at Morris Arboretum! On Saturday, June 15, 2024, Blue Lab will be at Morris Arboretum & Gardens as part of the Ecotopian Toolkit, hosting their Popup Story Patch! This project aims to create a space for visitors to reflect on and better understand their relationships with the multispecies worlds around them. Emphasizing imagination, memory, speculation, and active engagement, the Blue Lab Popup Story Patch invites visitors to participate in conversations about individual plants and animals that have captivated their imaginations. These could be more-than-human family members (past or present), lively presences in yards or neighborhoods, or reminders of ecological loss and distant places. For those who want to participate, their stories will be recorded and become part of a living multimedia love letter to the more-than-human world. **The Story Patch will be held in the “Fairy Woods'' section of Morris. For more information on visiting Morris Arboretum, please visit our events page at the link in bio or morrisarboretum.org.

On Saturday, June 15, join us for the debut of “Auscultation Points” a soundscape design by 2024 Ecotopian Toolmaker, Richard Hamilton. Immerse yourself in this new soundscape right where it was recorded at Morris! Learn firsthand how the sounds were captured and even try your hand at recording some yourself! **Headphones are necessary to experience Auscultation Points. Limited pairs will be available to borrow— but we recommend bringing your own! Richard Hamilton brings over a decade of sound designing, mixing, and composing for film and tv to his Ecotopian Tool “Auscultation Points.” Unlike traditional auscultation, which diagnoses ailments in the human body, this soundscape uses advanced recording and editing techniques to let you listen closely to the natural world.

At this year’s GreenFest at UPenn, community members shared their stories at the My Climate Story Pop-Up Storytelling Booth. Together, this narrative climate data created a powerful tapestry of handwritten reflections and drawings. The Storytelling booth was initiated and organized by Faith Bochert (PPEH Public Research Intern, UPenn, W ‘24) as part of her final project for the Spring 2024 Public Environmental Humanities course. Now live on the PPEH blog, “Field Notes,” read Faith’s reflection on how she encouraged community engagement and how these compiled stories form a better picture of climate impacts. Read Faith’s full article on “Field Notes” through the link in our bio!

Mark your calendars! The Ecotopian Toolkit returns to the Morris Arboretum & Gardens on Saturday, June 15 from 10 AM - 1:30 PM! Save the date and check out three Ecotopian Tools in one afternoon! From birds nesting above to beetles in fallen tree trunks, and microscopic critters in the soil beneath our feet, this year's Toolmakers are exploring the complexities of building a world that enables multispecies flourishing. Through looking and listening closely, and reflecting on their own story, participants will have the opportunity to explore these Ecotopian Tools, whether realized or in prototype form, during our arts-based community workshops— suitable for all ages! For more information on visiting Morris, check out the link in our bio! Presented by PPEH and the Morris Arboretum & Gardens, these artist-led workshops are part of an ongoing initiative to craft and share tools across the Delaware Valley that take a utopian approach to ecological crisis as a way to confront feelings of helplessness and apathy that often arise in the face of global warming.

Richard Hamilton brings over a decade of sound designing, mixing, and composing for film and tv to his Ecotopian Tool “Auscultation Points.” Unlike traditional auscultation, which diagnoses ailments in the human body, this soundscape uses advanced recording and editing techniques to let you listen closely to the natural world. On Saturday, June 15, Rich will be at the Morris Arboretum & Gardens showcasing the completed piece. Immerse yourself in this new soundscape right where it was recorded at Morris! Learn firsthand how the sounds were captured and even try your hand at recording some yourself! **Headphones are necessary to experience Auscultation Points. Limited pairs will be available to borrow— but we recommend bringing your own! For more information about visiting Morris, please visit the our events page at the link in bio. We hope to see you there. Images: 1. Rich’s studio 2. A glimpse of a timeline from one of Rich’s sound mixes in progress 3. Cover art for “A Tourist,” a sonic narrative piece created by Rich in 2023 4. Behind the scenes: Rich at work recording audio on a film set

We loved seeing this feature about Campus Correspondent Sydney Coldren! Sydney, a recent Rice University grad in anthropology and environmental studies, was one of 12 students from across North America selected for the inaugural MCS CC cohort. Read about her perspective on climate, storytelling, and her experience with My Climate Story on our “Press Room” page at the link in our bio!

What an amazing Ecotopian Toolkit workshop with Bobby Haskell at the Morris Arboretum & Gardens! Bobby guided participants in creating beautiful sculptures of saproxylic organisms from wood-crete. These unique creations will help protect and advocate for dead wood ecosystems right here in Philly. Visitors left with a deeper understanding of the vital role saproxylic critters play in forest health and how their art can contribute to conservation efforts. A big thank you to everyone who joined us and to Bobby for sharing such inspiring work and passion. Plus, don’t miss Bobby’s sculpture "Saproxylic Figure" on view at Morris for the next few weeks. Swing by the outdoor classroom to check it out in person! The Ecotopian Toolkit will be at Morris Arboretum & Gardens again on Saturday, June 15 with drop-in workshops from Blue Lab, Austen Camille, AND Richard Hamilton. Visit our events page (link in bio) for more info— we can’t wait to see you there! Images (L-R) Cover: Two saproxylic sculptures of a stag beetle (top) and a puffball (bottom) 1: Bobby Haskell demonstrating how to mix wood-crete to make these sculptures 2: Saproxylic sculpture of a moth 3: Bobby’s sculpture “Saproxylic Figure,” on view now at Morris Arboretum & Gardens, surrounded by critters made during the workshop!