Society@Space

Chris Gibson is a professor of human geography and executive director of the Global Challenges Program at Wollongong University, Australia. However, earlier in his life he also had a career as a musician and a radio host. In his research he spans a unique arc from matters of ecologic crisis and social vulnerability to creative practices and industries, particularly music. Having focused on other iconic objects such as surfboards and cowboy boots in the past, in his latest book “Following Guitars from Factory to Forest” (forthcoming in the University of Chicago Press) he and his co-author Andrew Warren tell the story, how the loss of old-growth forests around the Earth threatens the supply of timber to guitar-makers, and how they in turn engage in alternative forms of forestry and timber sourcing to secure their supply. These kinds of small-scale experiments and innovations in resource management, Chris is convinced, are the way forward in a world threatened by climate change and mass extinction. This episode was recorded during the “Edge – creation and valuation of novelty” conference in Berlin in November of 2019.
Kapitelmarken
00:01:04 Wildfires, the climate crisis and the question what kind of knowledge we need to survive 00:14:27 Innovation at the margins: Experiments in forestry and the sourcing of timber for guitars 00:36:53 Guitars, the music industry and environmental impacts: Which stories are there to be told?
Shownotes
University of Wollongong, profile Chris R. Gibson Paper A sound track to ecological crisis: tracing guitars all the way back to the tree by Chris R. Gibson doi.org Edge Conference Twitter profile of Chris Gibson: @profcgibson