2nd artist workshop: “Re-Thinking Forests: Artistic Practices, Digital Media, and the Role of Experience.” With Eva-Maria López and many others

The second Artist Workshop focuses on art, sustainability, and forests in urban spaces. Centering on artistic practices, aesthetic perception, and the potential impact of digital visual media on people’s relationship to “nature,” it brings together various dimensions of the forest in times of human-made climate change, declining biodiversity, and limited resources. We will start with a walk through the Siebentischwald (forest) and some activities (no spoilers here!), with forester Wolfgang Sailer, artist Eva-Maria Lopez, and photographer/environmental educator Pia Wimmer. Please wear solid shoes and bring a blanket/towel. Upon returning to WZU we will enjoy a Green Hour talk with Eva-Maria Lopez followed by a discussion and exercise. The first day ends on Rathausplatz, where Eva-Maria will introduce an augmented reality app “paper-trees” that she has developed, thereby providing us with a starting point to discuss the potential of digital media in the larger context of eco-societal transformation processes. The following morning, we will continue our conversation about the multiple meaning(s) of forests and how those ideas can help create greener urban environments. We will meet Caspar Möller from the NGO Miya-forest (Eberswalde), who will introduce us to an alternative concept of the forest and tell us more about the initiative’s effort to plant them in urban areas. This will be followed by a panel about how art, the humanities, and initiatives like Miya-forest can help us develop “forest visions” and bring about the changes that are necessary to ensure habitable, climate friendly cities. The participants are Eva-Maria Lopez, Caspar Möller, the Augsburg historian Stefan Lindl, and environmental education expert and photographer Pia Wimmer.