WE ARE NATURE: Rising and Falling (2023)

Each season of our outdoor summer series is structured around a theme referencing systems thinking. This is a comprehensive approach to environmental sustainability spearheaded by leading thinker Fritjof Capra, a longtime NOoSPHERE Arts collaborator. Systems thinking shows that all the major problems of our time—including energy, economics, climate change, and inequality—are interconnected and interdependent. In 2023, we will explore the theme of Nature’s Cycles.

A cycle is an interval of time during which a characteristic event occurs, often repeated regularly or in a sequence of events. There are cycles in everything—seasons, circadian rhythms, cellular life, planetary systems, politics, and economics—and cycles in one realm affect cycles in others. Thinking about cycles can help us to discern structure, order, and patterns in the world around us, and to realize that everything in life will ebb and flow—an encouraging thought in times of darkness.

“The fundamental dilemma underlying systemic problems is the illusion that unlimited growth is possible on a finite planet. We need to teach our children, our students, and our corporate and political leaders the fundamental facts of life – that one species' waste is another species' food; that matter cycles continually through the web of life; that the energy driving the ecological cycles flows from the sun; that diversity assures resilience; and, that life, from its beginning more than three billion years ago, did not take over the planet by combat but by networking.” (Fritjof Capra)”

Presented by NOoSPHERE Arts as part of the annual WE ARE NATURE Rooftop Series / @noospherearts 

NOoSPHERE Arts’ 2023 programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and Broadway Stages.