Terrestrial University: global (s)warming – recollections of insects and clouds

How can insects help us to perceive and respond faster to the climate crisis and environmental threats? Sybille Neumeyer, Michael John Gorman and Jessica Ware in conversation. How is climate change experienced by a dragonfly? How can – in a data-driven world – old forms of insect-human relationships be recollected, to recover a diversity of knowledge, as fertile ground for new allies and terrestrial communities? And, what implications does the ecological crisis and species extinction have for the work of Natural History and Science Museums? Taking Sybille Neumeyer’s work »souvenirs entomologiques #1: odonata / weathering data« as a starting point, this conversation will investigate how insects can invite us to reconsider a diversity of relationships between humans and non-humans. While multiple insect identities are medially shaped and reshaped by co-evolving modes of mapping, monitoring and collecting, their embodied environmental knowledge, their sensorium and senses are an inspiration for alternate ways of perceiving and being in dialogue with the world.