Chit-Chats
Chit-Chats are a conversational form we use to engage dialogue about topics of interest relevant to some of the concerns and questions that have come out of our research based practice. We adapted this form from a once lost practice of Montalvo’s Library Committee, when we were there in residence in 2014. We pair our chit-chats with tastings from the FW Spirit Collection as a way to merge experience and dialog with the aim of exploring questions and addressing themes, tensions, and urgent concerns at the intersection of nature and culture.
We think of these conversations as collaborations with participants to exchange and gather public knowledge, questions and ideas. The shared knowledge generated in chit-chats adds to our ongoing investigation and informs the development of creative strategies that we hope can offer fresh approaches to pressing challenges. Themes we have explored include contemporary urban relationships with the forest and the harvest. We are now researching and planning a series of chit-chats on urgent questions related to the effects of climate change, its systemic entanglements and impact in our local environments.