February 20 - 22, 2006
Memorial Union
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa

Wednesday, February 15th
8:00 PM
Pioneer Room, Memorial Union

This documentary is a portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an environmental artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature. A land-artist who uses materials from nature to make site-specific works, Goldsworthy allows the elements to have the last say in his beautiful creations, as his ingenious patterns of wood, leaves, stone and ice move and erode over time. German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer followed the artist for over a year in several outdoor locations, intimately documenting his improvisational process and capturing the serene spectacle of his works and their delicate changes. This remarkable movie uses the artist's own voice to guide us through his processes. 2001 (90 minutes)

If the natural world around us, including the world of our own bodies, is a palimpsest, as Gary Snyder suggests, with constantly shifting layers of history—partially known or unknowable, largely forgotten or existing only in memory—is it possible to develop techniques that will allow us to imagine, remember, or recover those landscapes from which we have become exiled? On this panel, a writer, an artist, a literary critic, and a geneticist will discuss their methodologies of discovery.

Panel: Debra Marquart (moderator), ISU Dept. of English; Thomas Rice, Department of Art, Kalamazoo College; Patrick Schnable, ISU Departments of Agronomy and Zoology & Genetics; Maya Socolovsky, ISU Department of English.

The killing, "harvesting," of animals is central to human relationships with the "natural world." Many cultures evolved in familial identification with animals. Today animals are hunted, slaughtered, and euthanized. They are killed for "sport," for food, for clothing, for money, and for the purpose of managing wild, feral and "unwanted" populations. The livestock we eat die well beyond the homes of most of us and become commodities in the supermarket. The wild landscape has been changed because of the animals we choose to kill and to eat. This panel will explore the ways in which Americans have killed and kill animals and the consequences for the environment and for society.

Panel: Stephen Pett, (moderator), ISU Dept. of English; Ron Andrews, Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources; Stacey Brown, Wheatsfield Grocery Store; Joe Cordray, ISU Meat Laboratory; Dan O’Brien, novelist/memoirist and buffalo rancher.

What does it mean to say that the earth belongs "in usufruct" to the generations of the living? Usufructuary rights are rights to use and manage, and to earn profit from the fruitfulness of the earth. But such rights also include obligations to manage wisely, to protect the basic resource and pass it on undiminished and undamaged. Have we failed to meet this obligation, and what debts or disadvantages are we passing on to our children? In this panel, Clark Wolf, the director of the ISU Bioethics Program, will lead a discussion on the ethics and obligations between generations.

Panel: Clark Wolf, (moderator) Director of Bioethics Program, ISU Dept. of Philosophy; Fred Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; A. Whitney Sanford, ISU Religious Studies Program.

Visiting Creative Writing Professor, Jon Billman, will read from his debut short-story collection, When We Were Wolves. "In the new American West, true wilderness remains only in the hearts of a few people," one critic from the Austin Chronicle of Books wrote, and Billman's characters are "wandering souls who inhabit sparsely populated towns on the fringe of the fringe of society."

In this Emmy-nominated documentary, author/filmmaker, Sarah Penman, has collected narratives from three remarkable Ojibwe women from Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. After the viewing of Nokomis, Penman will discuss her process and her other projects, including her recent book of oral narratives, Honor the Grandmothers: Dakota and Lakota Women Tell Their Stories.

Aldo Leopold, considered by many to be the father of modern wildlife conservation, was born in Burlington, Iowa. He worked for the US Forest Service in Arizona, and taught at the University of Wisconsin. Join us for this celebration of his life and work.

Weather is our next frontier. This panel will dowse such subject matter as elemental energy, ethics and even weaponry.

Panel: Jon Billman, (moderator) ISU Dept. of English; Lee Honeycutt, ISU Dept. of English; A. Whitney Sanford, ISU Religious Studies Program; Scott Stevens, Meteorologist.

Does the landscape around us, and the changes to that landscape—for better or worse—imprint itself on us? In this panel discussion, Agrestal founder, Roger Gipple, will lead a discussion of the impact of domestication on our landscape and ourselves.

Panel: Roger Gipple (moderator), Agrestal Fund; Marc Edward, Iowa Department of Natural Resources; Lonnie Gamble, Co-founder of Abundance Ecovillage in Fairfield, Iowa; Richard Manning, author/environmental journalist.

The recent controversy over the literal truth behind James Frey's memoir on addition, alcoholism, and recovery, A Million Little Pieces, has engendered a national debate on how natural writings evolve from real-life experiences. How true does nonfiction have to be in order to remain credible? Can memory, by nature, be accurate? How does the place one is from shape the story one tells? And do domesticated landscapes, by nature, breed domesticated narratives? On this panel, graduate students from the ISU Creative Writing Program will explore their wild side by discussing these questions as they occur in their work and creative practices.

Panel: Matthew Abbott (moderator), ISU Dept. of English, Alicia Hernandez, ISU Dept. of English; Jenny Maddox, ISU Dept. of English; Julia Sweet, ISU Dept. of English.

When sections of the urban landscape are neglected and allowed to decay, wildness begins to creep in. In these spaces, human behavior that would not be tolerated in the more ordered areas of our communities flourishes—criminal activities multiply, drug use rises, prostitution is practiced openly, and bohemians and artists move in. A non-human wildness also appears. Abandoned lots become groves and meadows. Falcons nest on rooftops. Coyotes prowl alleys for house pets, and house pets like parrots and dogs become feral and move about the streets in groups. This panel will explore the notion of wildness in the urban landscape: what it is, what it means, and what it is becoming.

Panel: David Zimmerman (moderator), ISU Dept. of English; Mira Engler, ISU Dept. of Landscape Architecture; James Pease, ISU Dept. of Natural Resource Ecology & Management.