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This program is organized by Patty Chang, Aleksija Neimanis, and Astrida Neimanis, with contributions from regional knowledge keepers Ken Workman, member of the Duwamish Tribal Council, and research biologist Jessie Huggins, as well as Canadian-based audio artist Anne Bourne.
On August 7, 2016, a juvenile humpback whale died on the beach just south of Fauntleroy Ferry Terminal in West Seattle. This animal was one of hundreds of marine mammals that strand every year on the northwest coast of the Pacific. These ocean-dwelling animals are mostly hidden from humans during their lifetimes, but in a stranding death, they reveal themselves to us, and call on us to care. This care can take many forms—from traditional ceremony, to scientific necropsy, to community vigil. Join Learning Endings collaborators for a forest and shoreline walk of storytelling, conversation, participation, and performance as we collectively consider what the death of the Fauntleroy humpback can teach us about the lives of these animals, those who care for them, and the entangled futures of humans and oceans.
Care for the Stranded is part of Learning Endings, a multi-part project by artists and researchers Patty Chang, Astrida Neimanis, and Aleksija Neimanis. Through a series of events, gatherings, research, and discussions, Learning Endings brings together local communities, scientists, artists, and humanities researchers to consider ecologies of care in a time of endings, with a focus on stranded marine mammals. For this Shoreline Walkshop, the Learning Endings collaborators will be joined by regional knowledge keepers Ken Workman, member of the Duwamish Tribal Council, and research biologist Jessie Huggins, as well as Canadian-based audio artist Anne Bourne.
DETAILS & DIRECTIONS
We will convene at the northernmost parking lot off of Fauntleroy Way SW, next to the park entrance sign at 9:30 AM. From there, the Learning Endings collaborators will lead the group through the park, stopping at predetermined points for conversation and activities. The route, with stops, should take about three hours to complete. Food and drink will be provided to participants at the final stop.
LEARNING ENDINGS COLLABORATORS
Patty Chang is a Los Angeles based artist and educator who uses performance, video, installation and narrative forms when considering identity, gender, transnationalism, colonial legacies, the environment, large-scale infrastructural projects and impacted subjectivities. She teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA.
Aleksija Neimanis is a veterinary pathologist and researcher who works with wildlife health and disease surveillance at the National Veterinary Institute (SVA), Sweden. She frames wildlife health findings within a One Health context, in which human, animal and ecosystem health are all connected, to help inform policy.
Astrida Neimanis is a feminist cultural theorist. Her research focuses on human-water relationships, and climate catastrophe as a symptom of corrupted social and cultural relations. She is currently Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities at UBC Okanagan, on the unceded lands of the syilx okanagan people. Her most recent book is Bodies of Water (2017).
CARE FOR THE STRANDED CONTRIBUTORS
Anne Bourne Artist/composer, improviser, creates emergent streams of cello, voice, field recording, image and text. Seasoned in international recording, concerts, somatic dance, and distance telematics, Anne is in research creation with Astrida Neimanis; Philippe Léonard; Hanna Sybille Müller; and Kara Lis Coverdale. A sonics improviser with composer Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016) and alumni of the sangre de cristomountain range deep listening retreats. Anne imparts Oliveros’ text scores, leads environmental listening and sounding, to create in collective empathic gesture, in the coalescence of difference, and walk. Anne is an affiliate of Center for Deep Listening, NY, and IICSI, CA; on the Board of Trustees for IONE, in support of the Pauline Oliveros Trust. A listening participant at TBA21 OceanUNI, Ocean Space, Venice IT; and field recording ecologies at Geopoetics Symposium, Cortes Is.CA, 2022. A Chalmers Fellow, Anne is writing ‘soundfield memory restoration archive’ with footsteps as touch; composing in attunement to the spectral wave patterns of water. annebournemusic.com
Jessie Huggins is a research biologist with Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, WA. As their stranding coordinator, she leads Cascadia’s responses to and examinations of stranded marine mammals in Washington State, specializing in large whale and other cetacean strandings. Her current research interests include marine mammal diseases, long-term stranding trends, and human impacts. In addition to stranding response, she works on various aspects of Cascadia’s large whale photo-identification projects. She is a Pacific Northwest native and received her BS in Zoology from the University of Washington in 2001.
Ken Workman is a Native American from the Duwamish Tribe and 5th generation Great-Grandson of Chief Seattle. Ken retired from The Boeing Company’s Flight Operations Engineering Group where he worked as a Systems and Data Analyst. He is a member of the Duwamish Tribe, the first people of Seattle, and former Duwamish tribal council member as well as a former president of Duwamish Tribal Services, the non-profit arm of the Duwamish Tribe. He is a and former Board member of the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition and of the Southwest Seattle Historical Society Non-Profit Boards. Today Ken enjoys his retired life where takes long walks in the mountains east of Seattle where he lives on a river.
CREDITS
Care for the Stranded evolved from the Learning Endings collaborators’ involvement in the Henry’s Artist Fellowship Program, which is intended to advance artistic inquiry through the mutual exchange between invited artists and the larger University of Washington (UW) community. It is designed as a generative program that promotes dynamic collaboration and facilitates artistic development, aligning the Henry's commitment to innovation and inquiry with the University's standing as a leader in research. The 2022 pilot year of the Artist Fellowship Program was made possible by the Jones Endowed Fund for the Arts. This program is also supported by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Hong Kong.