Join Merlin Sheldrake, Robert MacFarlane, César Rodríguez-Garavito and Elena Landinez for this conversation on More than Human and how science, law and storytelling can help us to reimagine the boundaries, and connections, between humans and non-human species.

Co-hosted by the Design Museum and the NYU More than Human Life (MOTH) Program, and chaired by Future Observatory Head of Programme Rebecca Lewin, this panel will examine the role of design in offering new perspectives on our relationship with the More than Human world.

Speakers will discuss: how scientific research and new discoveries can transform political and regulatory frameworks; how legal systems are evolving to incorporate the More than Human paradigm for rights and justice in our interconnected world; and how storytelling is key to challenging conventional perspectives and fostering new narratives around our symbiotic relationship with nature.

This conversation seeks to inspire cross-disciplinary dialogue and new ways of thinking: we hope attendees from various disciplines will be inspired to rethink their own relationship – and shared future – with More than Human species.

 This event forms part of the public programme for More than Human at the Design Museum, a major exhibition bringing together art, science and radical thinking to ask how design can help our planet thrive by shifting its focus beyond human needs.

Merlin Sheldrake

Merlin is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller, and winner of the Royal Society Book Prize and the Wainwright Prize. Merlin is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam and works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks and the Fungi Foundation. A keen brewer and fermenter, he is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms. merlinsheldrake.com

Robert Macfarlane

Robert Macfarlane is the author of books about people, place and nature including Underland, The Old Ways, Landmarks and The Wild Places, as well as — with Jackie Morris — The Lost Words and The Lost Spells. He has written films including River (2022) and Mountain (2017), both starring Willem Dafoe, and collaborated with musicians including Johnny Flynn, Cosmo Sheldrake and Julie Fowlis. His work has been translated into many languages and widely adapted for stage, film, television, music and radio. He is Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities in Cambridge, and his current book-in-progress is called Is A River Alive?, and concerns the lives and deaths of rivers and the global Rights of Nature movement.

César Rodríguez-Garavito

César Rodríguez-Garavito is the founding director of the More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program and the Earth Rights Research and Action (TERRA) Program at NYU School of Law. He is a Professor of Law and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. César is a human rights and environmental justice scholar and practitioner whose work and publications focus on climate change, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the human rights movement.

Elena Landinez

Elena Landinez is a Latin American interdisciplinary artist and art fellow with the NYU MOTH Project. Her practice explores the relationship between the human and more than human world. Marked and inspired by the movement of water and dreams, Elena relies on her own style of magical realism to portray diverse artworks, through collections, drawings, writings, photography, and paintings. She is also an Art Fellow with the NYU MOTH Project.

Rebecca Lewin

Rebecca Lewin is Head of Curatorial Programme at Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition. Previously, she was Senior Curator at the Design Museum and Curator of Exhibitions and Design at Serpentine Galleries. She has produced independent exhibitions at Centre Pompidou Metz, Kestle Barton and Cell Project Space, and has contributed to artist’s monographs, Phaidon’s publication Vitamin C and Koenig Books. She has taught on courses at the Royal College of Art and Design Academy Eindhoven and acted as an external examiner at Iceland University of Arts and écal Lausanne. Lewin is co-curator of the Design Museum’s exhibition More than Human.

BOOKING INFORMATION

• Hearing loops available

• Assistance dogs are welcome

• Suitable age: 18+. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible, ticket-holding adult

• Individuals can purchase a maximum of 4 tickets

• If you require BSL interpretation, please indicate this when booking at least 4 weeks in advance of the event

Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Visit our Terms & Conditions page for further information.