True authors of the mud paintings
In collaboration (Dan Beiting and Jen Grenier, among others) I have identified 1000s of different species (presumably not all pigmented) from the Archaea and Bacteria branches of the ‘tree of life’ (see 2 of the left most branches in the dated but novel diagram of all life from the 1990 PNAS publication by Carl Woese & team).
The list of genus identified via sequencing rDNA is long (and incomplete!); the paintings themselves are a massive collaboration between diverse species. I endeavor to make a whole page of the actual painters - but the point here is: it takes a community to make a community!
Muddy Collaborators
Technical
Coburn Wightman (all things raspberry pi sensing)
Mark Shelby Perry (all things photography)
Eugene Madsen (all things microbiology, toxicology, risk assessment)
John Szczesniak (lighting and 3-d array buildout)
Dave Perry & Precision Plastics Team (plexiglass fabricator since 2015)
Robert Ortiz (tiger maple frames for Chester River Transect)
Tom Besemer (fabricated steel frame for Winogradsky Rothko)
Art Student League (welding lessons taught by Anne Stanner)
Johannes Lehmann (biochar donation) and team
Murray McBride (soil chemistry interpretation)
Bart Kahr (chemistry interpretation)
Framing
Sarah Christman (Gowanus Canal)
Heidi Rae Cooley, journal of visual culture
Grants, Commissions, Residencies, Curators
2023 Verity Platt & Andrew Weislogel and Team (Johnson Museum)
2022 Seth Murray for Tri Societies (ASA, CSSA, SSA) annual meeting
2022 Djerassi, especially Tim, Valerie, Alexander, and Jewel
2019 Science Gallery - Bengaluru, India
2022 Mann Library, especially Eveline Ferretti, Jenny Leijonhufvud & Peggy Tully
2022 Tim Murray & Tina DuBois (Cornell Biennial)
2022 RPI HASS Production Grants
2020 Coalesce
2019 Science Gallery - Bengaluru, India
2018 Science Gallery - Detroit
2015 Alex Castro, Sean Meade & Team (SANDBOX)
2014 Center for Book Arts
2013 Randall’s Island Team
2012 Siuslaw Model Forest, Greene County, Acra, NY
2012 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Swing Space Catalogue
2004 Mann Library, Cornell Council for the Arts, CU Department of Crop and Soil Sciences
I know I’m missing loads of you. Help me remember and I’ll add you!
Muddy Sites
Beebe Lake, Ithaca, NY USA
Around NYC
Hudson River, Nyack, NY USA
Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, NY USA
Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn, NY USA
Newtown Creek, Queens, NY USA
East River, Governor’s Island, NY USA
Randall’s Island, NY, NY USA
Siuslaw Forest, Acra, NY USA
Moorestown, NJ USA
Belle Isle, Detroit, MI USA
Peebles Island, Troy, NY USA
Bengaluru, India
Varthur Lake
JP Nager Puttenahalli Lake
Borewell
Narispura Lake
Shivram’s coconut farm in Ramanagara
3 lakes near Thirmunmenahalli
Mestripalya
Aivarakhandapunna Lake
Curiouscity Construction Site
Belagante Lake
Beebe Lake v2 (+/- biochar), Ithaca, NY USA
Woodside, CA, USA
TBD - invite me to come make a mud pie for your community!
CONTACT ME
Nancy & Revilo Wightman, pointing to the year I was born.
We are all products of a long lineage of becomingness. How do we, with all this history (real, imagined, lost; carried in books, laws, geography, assumptions, ‘common sense’, infrastructure, culture, memories) help craft an equitable path for co-evolving this shared life and landscape?
Much gratitude to my parents (and endless others) for helping me navigate this game.