lovely, ordinary, strange: multispecies community building
@visible-zing care festival | October 9-10, 2025 | the care lab | artist & facilitator
What happens when we consider the ways in which other life forms experience the spaces we
share?
Lovely, Ordinary, Strange brings students and faculty at The New School into conversation with the flora, fauna, bacteria, fungi and other beings that abound in Lang Courtyard - the only outdoor space on campus. Human participants are invited to ‘step into the shoes’ of more-than-human neighbors with the aid of some tools and a lot of creative license to imagine, explore, and record the space through the sensory worlds of other beings we share it with; maple trees, rats, vines, pigeons, fungi, butterflies, even bacteria!
Collage with map of Manhattan pre-colonization via the Welikia Project and current Google Map of same area. Collage includes ecosystems, beings, and happenings of this place accross time scales. Vera List Courtyard photographed by James Shanks, circa 1997, The New School Photograph Collection, NS.04.01.01, box 4, folder 5, The New School Archives and Special Collections.Lovely, Ordinary, Strange event page.