The UVM Humanities Center, the Environmental Program, and the Rubenstein School of Environment & Natural Resources are proud to present
David Rothenberg
in Conversation and Performance
BIRD WHALE BUG: MAKING MUSIC WITH NATURE
Thursday October 30, 11:30 am-12:45 pm, Waterman Memorial Lounge
How do we communicate with the natural world? Is interspecies music possible? Desirable? David Rothenberg has written and performed on the relationship between humanity and nature for many years. In this talk/performance by the jazz musician, clarinetist, interspecies collaborator, and professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rothenberg will share his experience playing alongside whales, birds, insects, and other fauna.
David Rothenberg’s books include Bug Music: How Insects Gave us Rhythm and Noise (St. Martin’s Press, 2013),Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution (Bloomsbury, 2011), Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound (Basic Books, 2008), Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Bird Song (Basic Books, 2005),Sudden Music: Improvisation, Art, Nature (Georgia U Press, 2002), The Book of Music and Nature (Wesleyan, 2001), Hand’s End: Technology and the Limits of Nature (U of California Press, 1993), and Is It Painful to Think? Conversations with Arne Naess (U Minnesota Press, 1993). He also edited and translated Ecology, Community, and Lifestyle by Norwegian environmental philosopher and founder of the deep ecology movement, Arne Naess, and was founding editor of the journal Terra Nova: Nature and Culture (MIT Press). His writing has appeared in Parabola, Orion, The Nation, Wired, Dwell, Kyoto Journal, and the New York Times.
Rothenberg’s original musical recordings include Bug Music (2013), Whale Music (2008), Sudden Music (2002), and collaborations with Marilyn Crispell (On the Cliffs of the Heart, 2011; One Dark Night I Left My Silent House 2010), Lewis Porter (Expulsions of the Triumphant Beast, 2011), Scanner (You Can’t Get There From Here, 2011), DJ Spooky, Jaron Lanier, Laurie Anderson, and others. For more information on his work, seewww.davidrothenberg.net, https://davidrothenberg.wordpress.com/, and https://humanities.njit.edu/people/rothenberg.php.