APRIL 28th SPECIAL EVENT!!
Finger Lakes Bioneers Presents “An Ecology of Mind- A Film and Conversation About the Pattern that Connects.” Cinemapolis, 120 East Green St. in downtown Ithaca, 1:00-4:00PM. Reception at Finger Lakes Wine Center to follow screening and panel discussion.
Finger Lakes Bioneers and Sustainable Tompkins are very pleased to host a visit to Cinemapolis of the international tour by director Nora Bateson who will introduce her new documentary An Ecology of Mind. The 60-minute film presents a richly engaging portrait of the very relevant and compassionate insights of her father Gregory Bateson (1904-1980). He was and is recognized as an influential figure in a number of arenas of thought especially family therapy, anthropology, early cybernetics and environmental philosophy. Nora walks the viewer through a landscape of ideas her father (the son of one of the founders of genetics) explored and together we better appreciate “the pattern that connects.” The film offers a “tender and poetic portrayal…of one of the most provocative thinkers of the last century but also a vivid relationship between a daughter and father.”
Humanity faces highly complex and interwoven problems. Crises and conundrums. Science and art — our search for pattern– help us find solutions, yet our understanding of relationships is lacking. We are all interconnected and speedily we advance, we hope, in the direction of well-being for all. BUT we are all on a learning curve here and now– co-educators struggling to cope and seeking still to inspire. Gregory Bateson’s ideas and Nora Bateson’s film can help to cut through the din and assist in the quest to design for the “pattern that connects.” In An Ecology of Mind, we discover a resonant voice and renewed insights for advancing human wisdom and ethics as well as for guiding technology.
The afternoon event begins at 1PM (doors open at 12:30) and will include Nora and other panel members in a stimulating exploration of themes related to education, systems thinking, biomimicry, and the interwoven economic, political, and environmental problems we face. Panelists include Derek Cabrera of ThinkWorks and Dana Levy of NYSERDA’s Industrial Research Program. Visit the Finger Lakes Bioneers Facebook page and website: http://wemakeourfuture.org/ where there is more info about this and the ongoing regional film events organized by Finger Lakes Bioneers and Sustainable Tompkins.
This event is made possible by the generous support of NYSERDA, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, Sustainability at Ithaca College, Cornell Anthropology Department, and La Tourelle Inn. Appreciation for its collaborative outreach is extended to Cornell University’s Mann Library ongoing programming for “Connected Minds, Resilient Communities.” The film is being shown as part of a regional film series organized by Finger Lakes Bioneers, a program of Sustainable Tompkins. More details about the film series are at www.wemakeourfuture.org.
Tickets at door: students and under 21 – $3.00, adults – $7.00 includes refreshments.
For More Information: Nick Vaczek, tel. 607-227-7222 or Nick@sustainabletompkins.org
“Bateson’s style of presentation was an essential and intrinsic part of his teaching. His central message was that relationships are the essence of the living world, and that we need a language of relationships to understand and describe it. One of the best ways to do so, in his view, is by telling stories. “Stories are the royal road to the study of relationships,” he would say. What is important in a story, what is true in it, is not the plot, the things, or the people in a story, but the relationships between them …To experience the essence of Bateson’s message, you would really have needed to experience his own live delivery of that message” — which is now possible thanks to this unique film.
