Bringing out the family china and polishing up the silver – the Findlay family teacup sets laid out for guests arriving to the event on Energy & Adaptation. November 5, 2011.
The Wonderlogues are a series of dinner/dialogue events which host the sharing of knowledge, ideas, skills, intrigues, perspectives, observations and fascinations about nature across disciplines and cultures. In this way, we seek to encourage fresh perspectives on ways to understand everyday aspects of nature, the world around us, and our place within it.
A topic is selected for each gathering, and everyone is invited to come and share their thoughts on that topic in some form. This could for example be a short statement, story, picture, object, video, audio, a song, a dance or a performance! Or maybe a question for the group. You decide what you would like to bring and you will be given a chance to share it. The gathering sometimes also involves a walk, workshop or other activity.
Past events have included artists, farmers, teachers, astronomers, philosophers, physicists, lepidopterists, stilt-walkers, ornithologists, writers, designers, cooks and orchardists, and we’d like to add you to our expanding network of creative, inquisitive and generous people.
The format is to bring-a-plate-and-a-wonder. Please see this link for more information on the general format for these events. More specific times/schedules will be given per event.
Dinners — Past
Deep Time: Energy & Adaptation – November 2011
Geologist Alistair Brickell shares his wonder at the ancient creatures found at the Burgess Shales site.
This day was spent as a reflection on connections between energy and adaptation, with House of Wonder having the great honor of hosting a wide variety of perspectives and knowledges. Geologists, Physicists, Philosophers, Ecologists, Anthropologists, Astronomers, Artists, local people and all were invited and joined for ‘A Walk Through Deep Time’ – a short walk on the farm property through the deep time of the earth’s formation, to discuss the energy exchanges involved in the evolution of life.
See project information… See notes from the event…
Open Time: how might we open up time? – September 2011
An image of the space-time warp effect on planet mercury’s orbit as it goes behind the sun in relation to the earth.
Einstein thought that the time at your head, was faster than the time at your feet – that all time is relative. The chronological time of our clocks today are a socio-political construct of convenience, but there are many ways to think about time. To discuss this mind-bending topic, a simultaneous dinner/breakfast was held between New Zealand and Denmark, where Physicists, Philosophers, Hackers, Thinkers and Tinkers, Astronomers and Artists were asked to come with your time-hacking thoughts, ideas, or projects to share. Workshops held prior in both countries were discussed at the dinner.
See event announcment… See notes from the event…
Atmospherics & the Experiential – June 2011
A meteorological rendering of the paths taken by the air breathed the night of the event, in the six hours prior.
What do we know of the interconnectedness of ocean and atmosphere? How much can we come to know from observation and the physical sensing of our environment? For this dinner we welcomed the visiting US artist Andrea Polli, whose work has included the sonification of major atmospheric phenomena such as hurricanes and climate change in the work Atmospherics, and research into scientific vs. experiential understanding of weather data in the Ground Truth video series.
See event announcement… See notes from the event…
A Dinner for a Lepidopterist: Energy as Orientation – May 2011
Above: At dinner, Jim Byrt, Paul Moss, Keith Woodley, Annie Wilson, Sean Wilson, Ruth Irwin, Maria Heidemann, Trudy Lane. (By disciplinary descriptors: Animator, Lepidopterist, Amateur Astronomer, Shorebird Centre Manager, Orchardist, Engineer, Philosopher, Stiltwalker, Artist/Curator)
Migrating shorebird researchers, moths and butterfly experts, philosophers, astronomers, orchardists and cooks… what might these knowledge areas have in common? If the moon guides the moth, and electromagnetics the globe travelling godwit/kuaka shorebird, then how might knowledge of cosmologies – both maori and european – in turn guide these understandings? Over a shared hearty winter meal, the Keeper of the House explores the many possible interconnections between the work of her guests.
See event announcement… See notes from the event…