Ecotone兼容並續Interdisciplinary Sustainability ForumBecome a speaker
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NTU × NYCU × SOS

Ecotone/ˈɛkəˌtoʊn/ n. the zone where two ecosystems meet兼容並續

Above ground, a series of talks.
Below it, the web that joins them.

  • Syuan-Jyun Sun → Ecology, Climate, Taiwan
  • Wei-Ping Chan → Ecology, Climate, Technology, Taiwan, USA
  • Na Yen → Literature, Taiwan
  • SALAD Dressing → Landscape Design, Ecology, Singapore
  • Hank Wang → Medicine, Technology, Taiwan, Japan

The most important exchanges in a forest happen out of sight. Trees pass nutrients and signals to one another through mycorrhizal networks (the wood wide web), and these networks connect different species too.

Ecotone sets out to do the same thing: to wire literature, law, medicine, electrical engineering, fisheries and more together beneath the surface. Hover over a mushroom above ground (or focus one with the keyboard) to see where each speaker connects.

Latest volume · Sustainable Urbanization? Rewilding? Vol. 01Atlas of Crossings PL. III
Next leap01 / 12

LwLawAgAgriculture“Does soil have rights?”

Plate II: Why Ecotone On the edge effect

兼容並續
jiān róng bìng xù n.
  1. A play on the Chinese idiom 兼容並蓄: to take in all manner of different things, side by side.
  2. One character is swapped for its homophone, 蓄 (to store) for 續 (to continue): embracing every field and identity, sustaining what lasts, so that sustainability itself can endure.
  3. Its English name, Ecotone: the transition zone where two ecosystems meet, such as a riverbank, a tidal flat or a forest edge. These are often the places richest in species, a phenomenon known as the edge effect.

e.g. Where the dentist’s chair meets the carbon footprint, there is an ecotone.

The edge effect: the species curves of the two sides overlap at the boundary, and total richness peaks in the ecotone.edge effectrichnessForestGrasslandECOTONEwhere they meetspecies of Aspecies of B
Fig. 2 The edge effect: the ecotone holds more species than either side.

Swap the forest for medicine and the grassland for literature, and the curve still holds.

The most interesting ideas are rarely born at the centre of a discipline. Ecotone creates these edges on purpose, and keeps them coming, regularly and for the long term: volume by volume, it places people from different fields and countries on the same plate.

Plate III: Atlas of Crossings

Every speaker stands on a border: on one side their discipline, on the other the places where they work. Hover over a name (or focus it with the keyboard) to see who joins which worlds together; click it to read about the speaker. With every volume, the atlas grows a little.

Atlas of Crossings: fields float above; in the middle, each speaker is a knot on one shared rhizome; below lie the places where they work. Every root is a real connection. The full list follows the figure.↑ fields↓ placesHistoryHs · openFinanceFn · openLawLw · openPoliticsPl · openElectrical Eng.Ee · openMechanical Eng.Me · openAgricultureAg · openFisheriesFs · openSportsSp · openMusicMu · openFine ArtsAr · openDanceDn · openEducationEd · openLiteratureLtTechnologyTcMedicineMdEcologyEcClimateClLandscape DesignDsTaipei25°01′N 121°32′ECambridge, MA42°22′N 71°07′WHualien23°54′N 121°32′ESingapore1°17′N 103°51′ETaiwan≈ 24°12′N 120°54′ESendai38°15′N 140°52′ESyuan-Jyun SunWei-Ping ChanNa YenSALAD DressingHank WangAtlas of Crossings: fields float above; in the middle, each speaker is a knot on one shared rhizome; below lie the places where they work. Every root is a real connection. The full list follows the figure.↑ fields↓ placesLiteratureLtTechnologyTcMedicineMdEcologyEcClimateClLandscape DesignDsTaipei25°01′N 121°32′ECambridge, MA42°22′N 71°07′WHualien23°54′N 121°32′ESingapore1°17′N 103°51′ETaiwan≈ 24°12′N 120°54′ESendai38°15′N 140°52′ESyuan-Jyun SunWei-Ping ChanNa YenSALAD DressingHank Wang

Vacant fields History, Finance, Law, Politics, Electrical Eng., Mechanical Eng., Agriculture, Fisheries, Sports, Music, Fine Arts, Dance, Education

The register now holds 5 speakers, touching 6 of 19 fields. Fields drawn in dashed lines are waiting for their first speaker.

Plate IV: Latest volume Volume I · Sustainable Urbanization? Rewilding?

Volume I

Sustainable Urbanization? Rewilding?How cities and nature might share the same ground

Five speakers, twelve identities. From insects in the city, artificial light at night and how humans have recorded nature, to rewilding, closing with a shared conversation, one question runs through the evening: can cities grow sustainably, or should some of the land go back to nature?

Two sessions on two days: Monday 16 November, 18:30–21:00, at NTU’s Gongguan campus, and Tuesday 17 November, 13:30–16:30, at NYCU’s Hsinchu campus. Register below.

Sessions NTU session Mon 16 November 18:30–21:00 · NYCU session Tue 17 November 13:30–16:30

Open the volume Vol. 01Register (opens in a new tab)

Speakers in this volume

Plate V: Call for Speakers

Do you, too, carry more than one label?

We are looking for speakers who are interdisciplinary and have a real connection to sustainability or nature: people who live in several worlds at once (between the lab and the field, the clinic and policy, Taiwan and another country) and whose work genuinely touches the land, ecosystems or the transition to sustainability. If your work is itself a border, we would like to invite you to speak in the next volume.

Become a speaker CALL FOR SPEAKERSApply to speak OPENS IN A NEW TAB
Desiderata · Speakers wantedECO-S-??
I.
Your first field
II.
Your other identities
LOC.
Where you work
ECO.
Your link to sustainability or nature
TALK
The topic you would bring

det. ________ · Vol. ??

Atlas · Diverse Voices

Hopes that cross every kind of border
are a kind of pollination, too.

High school students and retired teachers, fishers and lawyers, Indigenous villages and cities: we ask people of different ages, genders, ethnicities, schooling, occupations and places to each record a short film about what they hope interdisciplinary sustainability can become, do or change. Put side by side, the hopes of different lives are interdisciplinary in themselves.

Open the Atlas
  • Sheet 01Cambridge, MA · USA42°22′N 71°07′W
  • Sheet 02Singapore1°17′N 103°51′E
  • Sheet 03Europe≈ 50°00′N 10°00′E
  • Sheet 04Latin America≈ 12°00′S 62°00′W

Co-organizers

The forum was founded and is run jointly by these three organisations.