FEVERISH WORLD will be a free three-day convergence of artists, scholars, and citizens from Oct. 20-22 to:

  • help prepare UVM, Burlington, and Vermont for the next 50 years of anticipated global "feverishness"—climate and ecological changes, rising temperatures, floods, droughts, resource conflicts, refugee populations, clashing politics, and so on
  • provide ideas for collective survival and thriving
  • and catalyze the building of bridges between the arts and the sciences, and between academia and the broader community.

FEVERISH WORLD will provoke conversation between people interested in the arts, sciences, and environment. It will feature internationally recognized scholars and artists, public art and music performances, keynote talks and roundtables, a parade, and more:

  • Over 50 ‘TentWorks’ public art installations by artists from New England and across the U.S., and from Canada, the U.K., Germany, and Brazil.
  • Minimal Monument, a melting ice sculpture by famed Brazilian sculptor Nele Azevedo, will be unveiled in Burlington’s City Hall Park on Saturday afternoon.
  • Anthropologist and philosopher of science Bruno Latour will give UVM’s Burack Distinguished Lecture on The Politics of Gaia on Monday at Ira Allen Chapel.
  • UVM composer David Neiweem’s church bell compositions will be heard at various churches and times over three feverish days, including during a parade and sunset ceremony on Saturday evening.
  • Burlington City Arts (BCA) artist-in-residence Pauline Jennings will lead a community-building, riddle-solving urban wilderness walk with site-specific performances in Burlington on Saturday; her exhibition Becoming Human will be ongoing at BCA, with an opening reception Friday evening.
  • Painter, sculptor, and installation artist Torkwase Dyson's Molly Ruprecht Lecture will take place on Monday evening at Ira Allen Chapel.
  • Anne Strainchamps and Steve Paulson, co-hosts of the award-winning NPR radio program To the Best of Our Knowledge, will facilitate discussions with guests on Sunday and Monday.
  • A keynote panel Fever Dreams: Nature, Art, Music will feature environmental philosopher, clarinetist, and ‘animal musician’ David Rothenberg and eco-artist and critic Linda Weintraub.
  • Rothenberg, cellist Anne Bourne, and other musicians will perform at Disfeverization/Refugia, at Contois Auditorium on Saturday evening.
  • Abenaki historian and archaeologist Frederick Wiseman will speak on the deep history of western Ndakinna—now known as Vermont—at UVM on Sunday.
  • Synth/drone metal band Weather Warlock will perform a sunset concert of sun, rain, wind, and temperature-triggered music at Champlain College on Sunday evening.
  • Artist-engineer and eco-agent-provocateur Natalie Jeremijenko will be in residence at the Green House from Oct. 15 and will lead a Feverish World Truth Tango on Sunday evening.
  • Vermont poet laureate Chard deNiord, digital artist Jonathan Harris, ecology and religion scholar Bron Taylor, eco-artist Aviva Rahmani, cetacean ecologist Laura May-Collado, data visualization artist Jane Adams, and others will speak on topics from “Complexity, Mutualism, and Ecopolitics” and “Art versus Ecocide” to “Transdisciplinary Strategies for a Feverish World.”

ABOUT FEVERISH WORLD

“FEVERISH WORLD draws on the creative imagination of the arts, the know-how and know-what of science and technology, and the wisdom and critical insight of the humanities, to prepare solutions for the impacts of climate change and other urgent environmental challenges over the next 50 years,” says UVM’s Adrian Ivakhiv, lead organizer of the event with a group of UVM faculty and area activists that calls itself the EcoCultureLab.

EcoCultureLab works to enable new forms of collaboration between artists, humanists, scientists, practitioners, and activists so as to better meet the “wicked” challenges of the 21st century in ways that are ethically just, aesthetically gratifying, and ecologically viable. It was formed in 2017 from out of the UVM-based BASTA group, organizers of 2016’s 6X Howl, by Ivakhiv and colleagues including environmental artist Nancy Winship Milliken, UVM artist Cameron Davis, St. Michael’s College artist and curator Brian Collier, Champlain College media artist Al Larsen, the Shelburne Institute’s Jonathan Harris, and over a dozen other faculty, graduate students, and local professionals and citizens.

FEVERISH WORLD will encompass over 3 full days of events featuring over 50 artists working in visual media, sculpture, sound/music, and theatre and performance; and over a dozen workshops and performances, 3 gallery exhibitions, and 9 panels, talks, and roundtables on topics related to developing collaborative strategies for flourishing in a Feverish World.

FEVERISH WORLD brings together a range of higher education and arts institutions, including the University of Vermont, Champlain College, Burlington City Arts, Saint Michael's College, and the Shelburne Institute:

  • UVM’s participation includes faculty from 4 schools and colleges (Arts and Sciences, Rubenstein School, Education and Social Services, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences), nearly a dozen departments and programs (Anthropology, Art and Art History, Biology, Classics, English, Environmental Studies, Film and Television Studies, Gender/Sexuality/Women’s Studies, Geography, Music and Dance, Romance Languages and Linguistics), and the Complex Systems Center, the Fab Lab, and the Gund Institute for Environment.  
  • Hundreds of UVM students enrolled in classes in Art History (“Museum Studies”), Studio Art (“Drawing”), Environmental Studies (“Introduction to Environmental Studies,” “Environmental Literature, Arts, and Media”), Film and Television Studies (“Film and Video Production”), and Natural Resources (“Environmental Problem Solving and Impact Assessment”) will be participating as volunteers, interns, and artists.
  • Faculty and students from Champlain College (Emergent Media, “Aesthetic Expressions,” “Ethics of the Environment”) and St. Michael’s College (“Sculpture: Site and Installation”) will also be participating as TentWorks artists and volunteers.

FEVERISH WORLD will be free and open to the public.

SUPPORTERS

  • FEVERISH WORLD is made possible with the generous support of
  • the Gund Institute for Environment, which provided initial funding for the event through the Gund Catalyst Awards program,
  • the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Steven Rubenstein Family Fund, which support Ivakhiv’s leadership of the EcoCultureLab,
  • the UVM Humanities Center, which is sponsoring multiple artists and speakers including Nele Azevedo,
  • the Dan and Carole Burack Distinguished Lecture Fund, which is sponsoring Burack Lecturer Bruno Latour,
  • the Molly Ruprecht Fund for Visual Arts, which is sponsoring a keynote talk and exhibition by artist Torkwase Dyson and a keynote talk by eco-artist Linda Weintraub,
  • UVM departments and programs including Environmental Studies, Art and Art History, Global and Regional Studies, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies,
  • Champlain College’s Division of Communication and Creative Media, Burlington City Arts, the McCarthy Art Gallery at St. Michael's College, the Fleming Museum, and the Shelburne Institute.

Program and general info

Press contacts:

Press images: Available for download at ecoculturelab.net/press-gallery

Feverish World Website
Program
Press Images and Contacts