Currents of a Changing World
Water flows through soil, roots, sky—and through memory, justice, and law.
It carries the story of a city learning to live with climate change, carving channels through landscapes, courtrooms, and theaters.
These gatherings bring together field notes from struggles where art and law meet activism, in defense of ecologies of livelihood. We walk Chicago’s green spaces, listen to water’s hidden circuits, and ask: What if a tree could testify? What if law flowed like a river?
To follow these questions is to step into the currents of our time—attuning ourselves to vertical rivers, shifting lawscapes, and new forms of collective imagination in the Anthropocene.
Program is free, free lunch and dinner
10 AM
Climate Justice, Cultural Heritage and Museums: Notes from the Field
Location: Great Space, University of Illinois at Chicago Art and Exhibition Hall, 5 Floor, 400 South Peoria Street Chicago, IL 6060
What are some of the best practices and creative projects addressing questions of climate and heritage justice today? What experiences and wisdom can these projects, and the cultural institutions who are running them, share with each other towards safeguarding indigenous and local heritage landscapes? These landscapes are increasingly vulnerable as part of what we collectively call the Anthropocene consequences. In this panel we will focus on legal battles and art-practice based activism to counter the consequences of extraction and the undermining of communities, and we will hear from its practitioners about their methods and field experiences.
Speakers: Dr. Ömür Harmanşah (Director, School of Art & Art History and Associate Professor at UIC), David Henkin (earthJustice, Environmental Lawyer), Stephanie Smith (independent curator and writer), Mariah Mata (Policy Fellow at the Chicago Environmental Justice Network), Dr. Morag Kersel (Professor
of Anthropology, DePaul University), and Dr. Caitlin Southwick (Founder and Executive Director of Ki Culture and Ki Futures)
Format: 8–10-minute lightning perspectives from each speaker, collect questions from audience + moderator, another round of 5 minutes each.
12 PM
Lunch
1:30 PM
Vertical Rivers: Water flow across the soil->plant->atmosphere continuum
Location: Plant Research Laboratory, 1020 S. Union St., Chicago, Illinois 60607
Guided walk by Max Berkelhammer, Professor, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois Chicago
The soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC) is a conceptual model ecologists and hydrologists use to describe the dynamics of water flow from deep in the soil to the atmosphere as mediated by vegetation. During this meeting, we will walk around the grounds of UIC’s Plant Research Laboratory and look at the many different analytical techniques we are currently using to measure water flow through common trees and turf landscapes that make up Chicago’s green spaces. We will then discuss what these data show us about the hydrology and ecology of Chicago and how it is responding to a changing climate.
4 PM
Coffee Break
5 PM
Lawscapes
Location: Great Space, University of Illinois at Chicago Art and Exhibition Hall, 5 Floor, 400 South Peoria Street Chicago, IL 60607
An evening that begins with a lecture performance by Berlin-based playwright Kevin Rittberger, followed by a conversation on art, law, and the climate crisis. How might theater help us think through—and reimagine—our relationships across species, as well as the connections between activists, artists, and lawmakers? What if whales could speak on their own behalf in court? Which lawscapes are still to come?
We invite participants into a discussion and a shared act of co-creating theater that gives voice to these questions and opens space for new forms of collective imagination.
Kevin Rittberger, theater director; Virginia Harding, Retired Adjunct Professor of Real Estate Law and Transactional Real Estate Attorney.
Celeste Hammond, (Professor, Institute for Energy Science (IESP), Affiliated Faculty) UIC School of Law; Prof. Rachel Havrelock, UIC College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.