A City is Part of the Universe
Many of us recognize the need for more ecological lifestyles, but if we live in a city with little or no ‘ecology’ around us, where on earth do we start?
Patrick M. Lydon
Lydon is founder of City as Nature, and serves as the arts editor for The Nature of Cities (New York). He has written about ecology and art for Kyoto Journal, YES! Magazine, The Mercury News, Resilience Journal. In 2019, he co-curated the Forum for Radical Imagination on Environmental Knowledge at Sorbonne University in Paris, and previously served a city-council-appointed role as Arts Commissioner for the City of San Jose (USA). His internationally exhibited artwork inspires empathic relationships between humans and nature, drawing on years of nomadic study with the farmer-philosophers of East Asia. He holds an MFA with distinction from the University of Edinburgh’s “Art, Space & Nature” program, with previous studies at Aichi University of Art, and California State University, San Jose. Together with his wife Suhee Kang, he co-directed the internationally-acclaimed film Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness, which has been translated into seven languages and continues to be screened around the world. He currently lives in Osaka, Japan, and tends to a natural urban garden with Suhee.
“Food, Earth, Happiness” Television Broadcast in UK
For the first time ever, our short film exploring the natural farming mindset will be broadcast on live television! You can catch the premiere in March and April in the UK as part of the Inheritance Festival.
Art & Ecology Chapter in “Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology” (2nd ed.)
We are pleased to announce our contribution to this volume from Routledge, which covers recent developments around the world with contributors from 33 different countries.
Call for Artists: The Nature of Cities Festival 2021
Submissions are open for ecological artworks and happenings to take place at this global virtual festival of urban ecology.
Sumiyoshi: Cities and the Sea
A short multimedia story inspired by the fishermen of a Japanese port village in the Seto Inland Sea, a place where city, sea, and forest are intertwined.
Cities, Trains, and Cultures in a Pandemic
A journey between Japan and Korea in these times, means government health checkpoints, special bullet trains, hazmat teams, and disinfectant baths. Through it all, different ways of viewing ourselves, our cities, and viruses, become clear.
Making a Natural ‘Pocket Park’ in Japan
With only a few weeks to work, we tried to turn vacant urban land into a pocket park that would make Masanobu Fukuoka and Patrick Geddes proud. Here is the short story of how it happened.
Lateral Lab: Ways of Thinking / Cultural Olympiad
During spring and summer 2020, The Branch worked in partnership with the Scottish cultural trust, Lateral
“Ways of Thinking” Cultural Olympiad Exhibitions
June 2–5 & 9–12: Celtic and Eastern cultural exchanges in this global era, offering a point of focus and a shared responsibility. Art that reminds us how we are all connected.
The Branch Pocket Farm
The Branch Herb Garden is a space to re-connect ourselves with nature amid the urban setting of Osaka, and it also serves as a central point for many of our workshops and events.
We Had Forgotten We are Ecological Beings
In this time of slowness, natural farmers in Japan’s countryside remind us that everyone has the ability to listen to nature. But can city dwellers really learn?
Aya Shimamoto: Mezzotints / Play Indoors
For Aya, the work of making prints, spending time touching and observing objects and places, is also a way of touching and transferring these memories, and the sense of wonder they embody.