Wild Talks is a series of public lectures hosted by Manchester Museum, in collaboration with the University of Manchester, that will delve even deeper into some of the issues raised by our new exhibition, Wild. Issues that often have an unseen, yet powerful, impact on our daily lives.
Birds, wasps and bees build nests, spiders weave webs, termites create mounds, mollusks build shells, beavers engineer whole landscapes. But many more animals have strong relationships to our own buildings, even if, in some cases, we’d rather they didn’t.
This talk takes three animals – pigeons, peregrine falcons and beavers – to explore how we can develop more awareness and greater care towards animals in our buildings and cities. So, first, we might create buildings for animals – pigeon lofts and dovecotes for example; second, animals might choose to inhabit our buildings – peregrine falcons on high towers; and third, animals might themselves build – beavers constructing lodges and dams. Providing a richly illustrated take on this subject, this talk asks what might be required to design with animals and how we can become more attuned to the other lifeforms that already use our structures.
Location: Manchester Museum, Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL