Author: clemente.49

Lichen Likers join Earth Day 2025

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Every day is Earth Day, but April 22 is when we celebrate.

It is the 55th Anniversary of Earth Day – let’s celebrate! You are cordially invited to the Living Art and Ecology Lab’s 2025 Earth Day Events and Parade.

What: We are having a parade and participatory performance on campus in honor of Earth Day and invite you to join us! Together with various classes, student organizations, and partners from across campus, the parade is composed of costumes, banners, and floats dedicated to the soil, air, and waters upon which we all depend for our shared existence. This event is a celebration of joy for everything that makes life on this floating blue marble possible!

When: April 22nd, 2025. 3:30pm Participatory Performance. 4:30 Parade starts See the Full Schedule of Events

Where: Meet on the South Oval. Parade goes from the East end of Mirror Lake and moving towards Iuka Ravine.

How: For a simple way to join, show up on the South Oval wearing blue, green, or brown to represent the water, soil, lichen, or plants of the Earth. Costumes relating to the spirit of the event are also encouraged. You can also become part of the Lichen Pipeline participatory performance by arriving at 3:30 to don an artistic costumes provided by the Lichen Likers.

Who: Current collaborators in this celebration include the Living Art & Ecology Lab, the Lichen Learning group, known as the Lichen Likers and Lost Waters research group; SUSTAINs Living Community; Facilities, Operations, and Development; Planning, Architecture, and Real Estate, The Emerging Technology Studio; Knowlton School of Architecture; The Soil Culture Group; Art 5101 Eco Art Class; Art 3001 and 4503 Glass Classes; Design 4650 Collaborative Design Studio

See the Full Schedule of Events

Earth Day Parade: Get Involved!

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You are cordially invited to the Living Art and Ecology Lab’s 2025 Earth Day Parade. Join the Lichen Likers in celebrating the Earth!

What: We are hosting a parade in honor of Earth Day and invite you to join us! Together with various classes, student organizations, and partners from across campus, the parade is composed of costumes, banners, and floats dedicated to the soil, air, and waters upon which we all depend for our shared existence. This event is a celebration of joy for everything that makes life on this floating blue marble possible!

When: April 22nd, 2025 at 4pm

Where: Meet on the South Oval. Parade starts at 4:30, from the East end of Mirror Lake and moving towards Iuka Ravine.

How: For a simple way to join, show up on the South Oval wearing blue, green, or brown to represent the Earth. Costumes relating to the spirit of the event are also encouraged. Interested in building a float, carrying a banner, or coordinating involvement for your student org? We request that you submit an interest form here and read the guidelines enclosed.

Who: Current collaborators in this celebration include the Living Art & Ecology Lab’s Lichen Likers and Lost Waters research groups; SUSTAINs Living Community; Facilities, Operations, and Development; Planning, Architecture, and Real Estate, The Emerging Technology Studio; Knowlton School of Architecture; The Soil Culture Group; Art 5101 Eco Art Class; Art 3001 and 4503 Glass Classes; Design 4650 Collaborative Design Studio

“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”  –Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

A Busy Spring Ahead for the Lichen Likers

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The second week of the spring semester, many of the Lichen Likers got together to share progress of their components on the project, as well as look ahead to the rest of the semester.

Led by Amy Youngs and Doo-Sung Yoo and joined by Madison Blue, Brennan Jones, Ophelia Kruse, Sam C, and Jiara Sha, the Lichen group welcomed back Alex Buchan a recent Ohio State B.F.A. graduate, now working towards his MFA at Ohio University.

Some of the Lichen Likers sharing their work at the first workshop of the Spring semester

From Jones’ further work on the augmented reality of different lichen species to Kruse and Blue’s ideas for more wearable lichen exhibitions, the Lichen Likers are excited to share more of their work with Ohio State and beyond.

Brennan Jones sharing his work on the lichen in an augmented reality

Lichen, Like You – A Lively Exhibition

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Step into this installation. Take a long, slow breath. Become a part of the lichen world. Real and fabricated lichens embrace you, as part of the web of life.

The Lichen Likers are a human organism that is learning with lichens and drawing inspiration from their resilient, collaborative, and queer lifestyles. Embodying the symbiosis of fungi and algae, we create art that gives voice to this overlooked, communal lifeform.

At the end of a busy semester at the Ohio State University, we made some time to share some of our group’s experiments in the Department of Art Open House.

Thank you to the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme for supporting our work!1

  1. https://globalartsandhumanities.osu.edu/research-funding/arts-creation ↩︎

The Lichen Likers Receive the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme Grant

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After a year of learning with lichens, we received the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant. The grant provides “funding that engages artists across the university in the creation of new, impactful, arts-led research and creative productions informed by cross-disciplinary methods and practices.1” The grant encompasses 16 Center + Institute collaborations, 40 department-level collaborations, and 250 affiliates (faculty and staff). The project is led by Department of Art Associate Professor Amy Youngs, Living Art and Ecology Lab Specialist Emma Kline, and Department of Art Lecturer Doo-Sung Yoo.

The grant allows the Lichen Likers, an interdisciplinary group of student, faculty, and staff, to further employ art as a research practice and intervention to engage with the intelligence of the more-than-human world, seeking insights into resolutions for the critical social, cultural, and environmental injustices that plague our anthropocentric society.

Fungal Entanglement Performance. Photograph: Dev Patel

“Learning Lichens: A Symbiotic Co-Creation” builds upon the existing artwork, workshops, and interdisciplinary connections we have developed over the 2023-2024 academic year. We continue to embody the ethos of collaboration that we have learned so far from studying lichen through following emergent learning practices, considering multiple epistemologies, and equitably supporting student co-collaborator efforts through multiple avenues for financial support.

  1. https://globalartsandhumanities.osu.edu/care-culture-justice ↩︎