Here is a video of the presentation Bill Dempster gave on Biosphere 2 at The University of New Mexico Civil Engineering seminar on March 27, 2013.

 synergeticpress.com

Research Vessel Heraclitus’ Cultural History Project: Contemporary Histories of Mediterranean Ports

Lives and Legends of the Mediterranean Sea   (Reposted from LifeArtsMedia.com)

For millennia, the Mediterranean peoples have conducted maritime quests for myth, treasure, inspiration, food, commerce, transportation, conquest, exploitation, research, discovery and adventure.

Photo by Craig Inglis

The Research Vessel Heraclitus and its parent organization, the Institute of Ecotechnics, in collaboration with Mediterranean institutions, have launched a multi-year oral history expedition documenting stories, exploring the rich Intangible Cultural Histories of the peoples of key Mediterranean port cities – their values, myths, memories, hopes and wisdom in relation to this legendary sea.  These histories are gathered in interviews and documentation of the modern and historic port communities.

Studies are now underway in collaboration with the Museu Valencia d’Etnologia, Office de la Mer of Marseille, Museu Marítim de Barcelona and other EU and international organizations. Project leaders are working with the local community in interchanges with local guardians and practitioners of traditional customs and maritime knowledge, and others who represent the current trends of civic development and cultural shifts. Fishermen, elders, historians, sailors, fishmongers, chefs, boat builders, meteorologists, artists, marine biologists, business leaders and port officials are among those being interviewed.

We live on the Water Planet with a dynamic and complex biosphere. The worldwide crises of pollution and species loss affecting oceans and waterways emanates from human activities, and in turn, profoundly affects our daily lives. These activities in turn spring from values that define relationships between cultures and the hydrosphere-oceans, groundwater, lakes, glaciers, rivers and streams.

Photo by Christine Handte

The Expedition seeks to understand dynamics of the ethnosphere (the global web of cultures), their consequences, intended and unintended, and how they affect our biosphere. Oral history has been recognized as a practice that reveals unmediated ground truth of women and men whose lives create local and global history. A documentation of oral history offers insight into experience and events of specific times and places.

The Heraclitus has sailed the oceans for thirty-six years with a core crew of mariners who have developed a way of life on the sea. These contemporary sea people have acquired an intimate and unique knowledge of the biosphere and varied cultures which inhabit the Water Planet. Visiting land from the point of view of the water offers a distinctly different perspective of human activities than that from the land or air.

Previous Heraclitus expeditions have included ethnobotany, weather patterns, coral reef health, cetaceans, and wastewater impact on coastlines.  Voyages have also focused on leadership training, adventure and cultural exchange. The Mediterranean expedition explores the present moment of dynamic Mediterranean maritime history, and documents those cultures that spawn the future.

A Brief History of the Expedition So Far …

Photo by Daniel Garcia-Castellanos

After sailing from the South Pacific to the Mediterranean the storied ship Research Vessel Heraclitus wintered over in Marseille, France at the Vieux Port and in nearby port of  Sete. This summer’s focus is drydocking the ship and expansion of the oral history project to the North African Mediterranean coastlines. Heraclitus is currently in Roses, Spain where it will spend the next few months in drydock making repairs and improvements.

Th current expedition documenting contemporary Mediterranean maritime cultures commenced in February 2011. In Marseille and surrounding areas the crew worked with some of the region’s more experienced captains to conduct oral history interviews with members of the maritime community in Marseille and surrounding areas, returning the vessel to Marseille in time to participate in the September 2013 festivities celebrating the Mediterranean marine history and culture.

Ecotechnics Maritime is working with Museu Valencia d’Etnologia and Museu Maritim de Barcelona to produce a major exhibition based on Heraclitus’ expedition for 2014, and in Marseille, the Museum of Civilizations from Europe and the Mediterranean (MUCEM) for 2015.

Christine Handte, expedition chief, with oral historian, Johanna Eurich conducting an interview.   Photo by Jedrek Kapen

The project consists of interviewing and gathering information and stories from members of the marine community with a special emphasis on fisheries.  Our focus is both the past and the present experience of those who are culturally grounded in the Mediterranean region.  There have been many oral histories studies in the Mediterranean but the Heraclitus project is the first to take a region-wide approach to the fisheries.  This is of particular importance because the region has undergone tremendous changes in fishing technology, marine habitat, and biological abundances.  That, coupled with accelerating climate change, brings additional stresses and challenges to the system. Where there is an environmental crisis there is also a cultural crisis.

We are working with the Office de La Mer in Marseille to produce a strong document of this community because as a natural harbor, Marseille has played a major role in the region for millenia.  The city is also taking steps leading the way towards a more sustainable future with the creation of Parque de la Calanque – a natural reserve that includes the community, the hinterland, and the harbour, islands and immediate marine environment. This is a ground-breaking approach because it includes the human society and culture, and it provides a natural venue for the oral history project.

Photo by Christine Handte

A summary of each interview is written, and the interviews, summaries, and any photographs or additional documents  are archived on the Dedalo website, at the Institute of Ecotechnics base, and other archival sites.

In this way, the knowledge base generated by this project provides a valuable resource for scholars and researchers well into the future.

By involving local collaborators, the project is expected to create the beginning of an archive that can continue to grow long after the immediate project is over.

Dedalo is a site created by an innovative IT team in collaboration with the Museu Valencia d’Etnologi.  It allows curators and scholars to access video material by content.  Once transcribed in the system, any user can search it much the way one searches a text document.  This approach also allows researchers to go directly to the material one is interested in, instead of listening to the whole interview. Dedalo Company has donated its software and services to the Heraclitus expedition.

More Info:

Those interested in volunteering and participating in the expedition, helping with drydock, and voyaging on the Heraclitus please visit our website www.rvheraclitus.org and contact the directors below.

Kathelin Gray President, Ecotechnics Maritime Co-founder, Institute of Ecotechnics Expedition Liason, Research Vessel Heraclitus kathelin@yahoo.com kathelin@mac.com

Christine Handte Expedition Chief, Research Vessel Heraclitus; Executive VP, Ecotechnics Maritime; Director, Institute of Ecotechnics; Fellow, The Explorer’s Club christinehandte@gmail.com

For the fascinating history of the Heraclitus, see John Allen’s memoir, Me and the Biospheres. 

The first in a series of podcasts of talks from the Mediterranean conference in October 2011. Other talks will be uploaded soon!

Captain Rip Hayman reviewed some five thousand years of maritime history of the Mediterranean. Quoting Homer, “the seas connect, but the land divides”, he reviewed some of the recurring cycles of trade, piracy, war and conquest in the Mediterranean. And here is a link for a summary of his talk: Talk Summary

Antonino Saggio takes us along on his mind-expanding magical mystery tour, from the Etruscans to the emerging outlines of a new artistic sensibility. Taking Italy as his microcosmos he decoded three types of imprinting, from the light and shadow of the elevated Greek south to the Roman abstract, military grid of the North and the Etruscan organic earthiness of central Italy.

“Maritime History of the Mediterranean”

Captain Richard (Rip) Hayman, Master mariner, maritime historian, composer,performance artist, journalist. Maritime lecturer for Cunard, Regent and Seabourn Cruises, navigator, director of marine propulsion engineering project, and skipper of the Klang II, a 1924 English 54′ yawl. In addition, he is co-proprietor of the Ear Inn, the oldest sailor’s pub in Manhattan,and publisher and editor of the renowned Ear Magazine, which was influential in the worldwide avant garde music and performance movement of the 80′s and 90′s.

“Inspirations from the Mediterranean”

Antonino Saggio, Architect, Associate Professor of Architectural design at
the University of Rome La Sapienza, founder of the research group
Nitrosaggio.net which operates transdisciplinarily in the relationships
between Design and Information Technology, founded and edits the book series
“IT Revolution in Architecture.” His books include Architettura e Modernità,
Dal Bauhaus Alla Rivoluzione Informatica, Frank O. Gehry Architetture
Residuali, Using Goals in Design, Frank O. Gehry Architetture
Residuali, Using Goals in Design, Roma a_Venire, The IT Revolution
in Architecture Thoughts in a Paradigm Shift.

Tropic Ventures Education & Research Foundation was incorporated in 1998 as a non-profit corporation in Puerto Rico to support the project’s research and education activities.

From Life Arts Media

An exploration into silvicultural techniques developed at Las Casas de las Selva that demonstrate how secondary forests can be ecologically and economically suitable for sustainable timber production. A project initiated by the Institute of Ecotechnics in Patillas, Puerto Rico that has pioneered experiments in sustainable rainforest ecology through planting timber trees.

The idea is to maintain the biodiversity of the ecosystem while using the land to generate some profit to encourage local caretaking of the forest.

Read more

Introduction by:  Doyne Farmer, SFI

Abstract

The talk presented the challenges and accomplishments of the Biosphere 2 facility, the world’s largest biospherics laboratory, during the years of its closed ecological system experiments (1991-1994). The talks reviewed the conceptual design of the facility, including developing bioregenerative techniques for purifying air, water and wastewater and recycling nutrients and a highly productive, non-chemical sustainable agricultural system. The relevance of Biosphere 2 research for improving human management and mitigating negative impacts on our global biosphere were explored as well as lessons for ecological restoration of critical biomes.  Some of the striking atmospheric and system dynamics was shared illustrating the opportunities the  extensive sensor and floral/faunal evolution data from Biosphere 2 offer to advance modeling of whole system metabolism and complex/non-linear systems. This can deepen our understanding of Biosphere 2’s historic dynamics and also improve future closed systems designs. The unique experience of the “biospherians” living and working as part of a biospheric system was also discussed.

SFI Host:  J. Doyne Farmer

Click link below to view the entire presentation: 

http://www.santafe.edu/research/videos/play/?id=58a391f6-3a62-470c-ad29-18e1c29f9d0d

Closing Remarks by Mark Nelson

Chairman, Institute of Ecotechnics

This weekend we have gathered to be enriched by a wide variety of perspectives on the Mediterranean. Following is my attempt to provide some reflection on this journey we have shared.

Daniel Garcia-Castellanos opened our conference by setting the geological stage. We learned that the Mediterranean is a geologically recent sea – formed by the breakup of Pangea, movement of the African and Eurasian plates, and the evolution of the Tethys Ocean. The geology of the Mediterranean is especially complex and difficult to understand, but some 6 million years ago, the Mediterranean disconnected from the Atlantic and the Messinian salinity crisis resulted in vast deposits of salt. Then, uncannily like the myth of Hercules opening the straits of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean was filled in the extraordinary Zanclean flood event through a two hundred meter hole which may have only taken one or two years and resulted in massive erosion. Daniel ended with a review of how science differs from myth and noted though the future is not well enough understand to exactly predict, the Mediterranean will be a transient event, as geologists measure time, and will disappear as the plates continue to move and Earth continues to change.

Alexandre Meinesz took us on a survey of the Mediterranean’s marine life. The Med had three sources of species – the Indian Ocean, the tropical Atlantic and most from the North Atlantic; since its formation endemic species have evolved. Mixing of the sea means there are no outright extinctions but loss of local species due to human impacts. He reviewed the serious impacts of coastal, port development which permanently destroy littoral benthic ecosystems, where biodiversity is greatest because of availability of light and diversity of biotopes. There are very serious dangers posed by invasive species such as explosively spreading tropical algae. Though it is currently economically and politically taboo, marine biologists urge permanent protection of the coastal waters of the Mediterranean along with efforts to control invasive exotic species if we wish to protect marine biodiversity.

Captain Rip Hayman reviewed some five thousand years of maritime history of the Mediterranean. Quoting Homer, “the seas connect, but the land divides”, he reviewed some of the recurring cycles of trade, piracy, war and conquest in the Mediterranean. The Med’s maritime history is particularly rich because the proximity of its lands encouraged the building of ships, the first of which are recorded in ancient Egypt. Lost in the mists of time are the “sea people” who perhaps became the Phoenicians. He traced the evolution of ship technology and the rich mythology of the sea – from Oceanus and Tethys, to Jason and his Argonauts whose drive permeates Western Civilization, the desire to go out into the unknown. In the Mediterranean industrialized warfare using ships probably had its origins as imperial powers fought over prized ports and trade routes. Currently massive overfishing and mass tourism threatens traditional sea peoples’ ways of life and livelihood. Rip ended by asking if the Mediterranean will be a sea of peace in the future.

Kathelin Gray, Christine Handte and Johanna Eurich introduced us to the history and current expedition of the Heraclitus. The ship has sailed some 270,000 miles since its construction in 1976, doing whale, dolphin release, coral reef, Amazonian ethnobotanical research and contacting sea people cultures around the world. Now it is embarked on a 4-year oral history project throughout the Mediterranean, documenting the people of its ports and coasts, its trading goods, routes, currents, songs, dances and myths of this culturally rich sea. The stories of the people with connection to the sea are especially valuable as traditional ways of life continue to disappear. Such stories encode a sophisticated relationship to place and could guide restoration in the future should the “race to the bottom”, typified by industrial super-trawler fishing ships, be replaced by sustainable use of the marine resources. “Ask now, listen forever”.

After our visit to the Heraclitus at the Vieux Port in Marseille, Alessandra Belloni took our conference to an amazing new energy level. She uplifted and grounded us using the music and dance of the surviving ancient spiritual rituals of the Mediterranean.  Illustrating a number of traditional types of dances and drumming, Alessandra reminded us that frame drums were originally woman’s instruments and that the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean were matriarchal, The tambourine, drums and dances were used in honor of the Earth Mother, Cybele, then later for the Black Madonna, a powerful symbol of the depths of the Earth, the female womb, the dark side of the Moon. We sang the chorus of the rhythmic fishermen songs used to bring the fish. Dancing and drums unleash healing powers and many derive from the Dionysian Bacchae involving erotic and orgiastic release. Alessandra concluded with several versions of the powerful tarantella dance, to purify the poisons, using the dance of the spider-woman which can produce trance and transform the “bite of love”.

Alexander Borg shared with us his passion for deciphering and documenting the linguistic ecology of the Mediterranean. He illustrated the intricate interplays of languages which make the region unique.  A culture’s lexicon reveals their worldview and the historical cultures which have impacted them.   Maltese reflects its deep connection with the sea and is a mix of Arabic, south Italian, Greek and Turkish. Dialects are communal languages and perpetuate local cultures by a process of self-distancing. Alexander’s commitment to the preservation of these unique cultures has led him to develop an alphabet and dictionary for Cypriote Maronite Arabic but the political instability of communities is also part of the Mediterranean linguistic ecology. The best we can perhaps do for some of them, when the forces of globalization and mixing mean their protective isolation is broken, may be to record their languages for posterity.

Michel Chauvet took us through the mouth-watering history of food and agriculture in the region. The Mediterranean diet and agriculture mirror the evolution of foods worldwide. From our roots as hunter-gatherers before agriculture, when wild grains, vegetables, tubers and fruits/nuts supplied our needs, agriculture transformed our diet when the technologies of the Fertile Crescent reached the Mediterranean some 7000 years ago. Michel showed us the founder crops, and later the cereals evolved in domesticity and the successive waves of food crops which reached the Mediterranean from Asia, Africa and the Americas. Today technical advances in transportation, greenhouses and plant breeding and genetics have made their contributions but the question remains what will be sustainable in the future.

Claudine Cohen took us on an expedition to our evolutionary origins. She showed how simplistic linear sequences have been supplanted by more complex family trees. The earliest common ancestors of hominids were small brained, with bipedalism perhaps a more important factor than our intelligence. The discovery of our ancestors is an unfolding story, with the earliest hominids now dated at over 6 million years. DNA and molecular evidence give us new tools in discovering our story. The Mediterranean played an important role, with its mild climate and abundant resources. There is evidence of the close proximity of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man around the Med, and the probable hybridization of the two. Anatomical evolution of our species has given way to cultural evolution in the Neolithic, as hunter-gathering gave way to agricultural sedentary cultures.

Antonino Saggio took us along on his mind-expanding magical mystery tour, from the Etruscans to the emerging outlines of a new artistic sensibility. Taking Italy as his microcosmos he decoded three types of imprinting, from the light and shadow of the elevated Greek south to the Roman abstract, military grid of the North and the Etruscan organic earthiness of central Italy. Nino led us through the Via Cave culture which saw the Earth as alive and sacred, to the successor cultures which forgot and attempted to bury this worldview. He shared the emerging new architecture with its multi-functional, green, living accessibility coming to birth through what he called magic crisis. His inspirations were fueled by decoding through the cracks, two of the revolutionary artists of the Mediterranean: Caravaggio who broke the frame, putting people on the stage at a moment of precarious equilibrium and launching the power of the digital. He ended with the journey of Vincent van Gogh, from the bleak north to the vivid and vibrant Mediterranean.

Tahir Shah brought the storied Mediterranean alive, sharing tales of Jinns and magic. He took us to the world where humanity should live – where fact and fantasy merge, to the childlike wonder and the dream-state. Coming to the Mediterranean via Afghanistan and living in Morocco, a thousand and one nights land, he reflected on the erosion of Western Civilization, where too much is read and too little understood. Stories, the “once upon a time” that sets our minds free, are mechanisms for allowing truth to be absorbed and transmitted, like water by a sponge. He recounted some favorites, including several from the incomparable Mullah Nasrudin. He shared his personal hunt for the story in his heart, which Moroccans believe is true of everyone, and finding which you will light up like having a thousand stars inside. Half the Mediterranean still lives with this enriching magic which should be the natural, default setting of humanity: the stories, the oral transmission, which we pass on like a baton from generation to generation.

Roger Malina ended our expedition to the Mediterranean by leading us to the safe space where science and art meet and collaborate. He celebrated the curiosity which drives both – the scientist’s ethos, objective finding, sharing of data, impersonal, skeptical and evolving. The artist’s curiosity is no less but is embodied, social, cultural. He gave us stunning examples of the cutting-edge in modern science and art and some examples of what is now possible: dancing with your avator in zero-gravity, swimming in the world of data, nano-fireworks, experiencing the world with three arms and three ears. For experience of worlds beyond our experience, artists are equally able as scientists to achieve valuable insights. Humans may be poorly designed for understanding the universe, and need instruments to expand our senses, but we are superb at generating meaning.

For all that we have learned and experienced this weekend, it’s clear that we have only made an initial reconnaissance, since the Mediterranean is a world with depth upon depth. Though it can no longer be seen as the center of world history, its past, present and future remain remarkably important. David Abulafia in his magnificent history, The Great Sea, concludes that “the unity of Mediterranean history lies paradoxically in its swirling changeability, in the diasporas of merchants and exiles, in the people hurrying to cross its surface as quickly as possible….Its opposing shores are close enough to permit easy contact, but far enough apart to allow societies to develop distinctively under the influence of their hinterland as well as of one another…. The Mediterranean thus became probably the most vigorous place of interaction between different societies on the face of this planet, and it has played a role in the history of human civilization that has far surpassed any other expanse of sea”.

We live in times that are dramatic and challenging, full of potential but also grave danger. The Mediterranean is where much that is wrong emerged, from industrialized warfare, the cycles of empire and conquest, religious intolerance and conflict and abuse of resources. But it is also where so much that is hopeful has come – from its healing sacred rituals, the maintenance of oral traditions of value transmission, its unique record of cross-fertilization and enriching of cultures, its artistic inspirations and scientific achievements that are timeless and eternal. The Mediterranean is in short, a microcosm of our planet and the current state of the human experiment.

What history is awaiting us? Joyce’s Daedalus declares, “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” Blake wished to “destroy this sorry world entire, and remake it closer to our heart’s desire.” Margaret Meade reminded us: “Never doubt that a small group of people can make history. It’s the only thing that ever has.”

May we take the energy, wisdom and perhaps collective intelligence we have generated this weekend to not simply await, but to help shape that future, with one lucky step after another … in the right direction. So we end by beginning.

You are invited to view: 2011 Institute of Ecotechnics Mediterranean Conference, Aix-en-Provence, France 7-10 October.

 Thanks to all our speakers and participants for helping make this such a memorable gathering!

From everyone at the Institute of Ecotechnics, best wishes for the holidays!

A Colloquium held at the October Gallery, London, on 14 May 2011

By Deborah Parrish Snyder

Director, Institute of Ecotechnics

Publisher, Synergetic Press

Programme arranged by:

Institute of Ecotechnics, Scientific and Medical Network, and the

Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Lecture Series

What an inspiring afternoon and evening with four illuminated minds. SMN Chairman and expert cosmologist, Bernard Carr, with John Allen, a pioneer in biosphere science and inventor of Biosphere 2; Ralph Metzner, pioneer of consciousness research, cofounder of Green Earth Foundation; and Amanda Feilding, founder and director of the Beckley Foundation, a force for change in the fields of consciousness research and drug-policy.

These four free-thinking explorers of consciousness and the biosphere generously shared their knowledge and vast experience. David Luke, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Greenwich, London, and Director of Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Lectures Series moderated the colloquium. The event was recorded and will be available online through Lifeartsmedia.com. Dr. Metzner’s talk is already available.

A brief summary of the talks:

John Allen spoke on Biosphere, Ethnosphere and Emergent Evolution. The inventor of the Biosphere 2 project, this visionary polymath described some basic kinds of reality apprehensions held by humans relating to their biosphere and consciousness. He presented his concept of the human body being thought of as “a cybersphere, a feedback system of molecules, nervous currents, and orientations that can greatly increase or deepen a human’s consciousness of its reciprocal relationship to biosphere by systematically changing its perceptions of itself.” And that the “frontline of evolutionary action on this planet has become the cybersphere; the world of an individual human body.” His passionate and perceptive description of the world we (our bodies) live in under the control of financial capitalism and world markets broke open up our minds to possible new futures.

John is author of many books and papers including his award winning memoir, Me and the Biospheres, and his recently published novel of emergent evolution, Far Out and Far Away, which he read from later at the Synergetic Fusion Salon following the colloquium.

Ralph Metzner presented a brilliant overview of the Expansion of Consciousness in the Individual and Society, talking about many pioneers he knew and worked with in the field. He brought up “the notion of consciousness expansion. Many of us don’t think about that … few people know that consciousness expansion happens every morning when we wake up! Maybe you’re in a dream … then suddenly you become aware, here is my body. You become aware when you wake up … Consciousness can also be contracted.”

 Coauthor of Birth of a Psychedelic Culture with Ram Dass and author of many books, Ralph is a practicing psychotherapist involved in consciousness research for over fifty years, including psychedelics, yoga, meditation, and shamanism. Professor Emeritus at the California Institute of Integral Studies, he is cofounder and president of the Green Earth Foundation, a non-profit educational organization devoted to healing and harmonizing the relationship between humans and the Earth.

Amanda Feilding, scientific director and founder of the Beckley Foundation, dedicated to further understanding of the subject of consciousness and its altered states, spoke on Frontiers of the Mind: Exploring Human Capabilities.  “If we could demonstrate the potential gains that humanity could harvest from the intelligent use of psychoactive compounds and consciousness enhancing practices we could hopefully make the world a happier place with wiser humans to take care of it.”

Founded in 1998, the Beckley Foundation works  in collaboration with leading scientists around the world. It is dedicated to providing a rigorous, independent review of global drugs policy, which aims to reduce the harms associated with both the misuse of drugs and the policies that aim to control them. The Beckley Foundation has been influential in the development of many novel policy initiatives over the last decade.

Our last speaker was Bernard Carr, Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London, and Chairman of the Scientific and Medical Network, speaking on Cosmos, Creation and the Culmination of Consciousness. He presented an engaging talk on the evolving view of how we understand the cosmos, and how the emergence of complexity and consciousness sciences and the role of mind and spirituality are coming together, extending science to factor in consciousness. We were riveted to our chairs while revolving in cosmic space.

 Bernard Carr’s research includes the early universe, black holes, dark matter and the anthropic principle. He is the author of more than two hundred scientific papers and editor of “Universe or Multiverse?” His interests include psychical research and the relationship between physics and consciousness.

In sum, from David Luke who moderated the colloquium: “We’ve travelled very far in a short period of time: from the biosphere and technosphere to noosphere to the mythosphere to geocentric, to ethnocentric to galactocentric.” The day will be remembered by all who were there. See Lifeartsmedia.com for webcasts of the talks.

The afternoon was chaired by David Luke, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Greenwich, London, and Director of Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Lectures Series. The evening portion of the event included dinner with spirited conversation, poetry and dance.

 Cosponsored by Synergetic Press, the October Gallery,
Scientific and Medical Network and Earthdance

Special thanks to Gennaro Ambrosino of Lifeartsmedia.com, Martin Redfern from SMN, and Jonathan Greet for documentation of this event.

Photos of the event by Jonathan Greet available @: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathan_greet/sets/72157626951784928/

Videos of the talks are available through Lifeartsmedia.com.
Dr. Metzner’s talk is now online there:

http://www.lifeartsmedia.com/ralph-metzner-expansion-of-consciousness-and-psychedelic-culture

and

Here is a new link to a summary and video of the Q&A with David Luke for our colloquium in the Lifeartsmedia.com newsletter last week.http://www.lifeartsmedia.com/consciousness-and-the-biosphere-q-and-a?utm_source=Life+Arts+Media&utm_campaign=6078ab95d4-Newsletter_29_January_2012&utm_medium=email

Click here for three minute tour through Biosphere 2 in September 1991 …

Since 1974, the Institute has organised annual international conferences to bring together creative thinkers on topics of basic and cutting‐edge interest to scientists, artists, and project initiators. Our new conference series focuses on exploration. This year’s conference will be a multi‐disciplinary meeting looking at the Mediterranean region from the geologic, biomic, cultural and technospheric perspectives, giving an overview of its rich history, diversity and future potentials.

The conference begins Friday evening, October 7th, at 6:00 p.m. and concludes Monday, October 10th, at noon. These conferences are always unique and creative events. There are lively conversations, warm hospitality, and ample opportunity for strolls on the beautiful grounds of Les Marronniers. Delicious Provençal cuisine is prepared each day using fresh produce grown on Domaine Les Marronniers’ organic farm. A special treat this year is our research ship, the Heraclitus, which will be docked at the port in Marseille. The Heraclitus has sailed over 250,000 nautical miles, and is currently on a multi‐year expedition exploring and documenting lives and legends of the changing port cultures of the Mediterranean. The weekend will include an excursion to Marseille to visit the ship and meet the crew.