April 8 – May 8, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: Thursday April 8, 2010 6-9 pm

Todd Parsons/ K.R. Wood/Jebney Lewis
As we seek to predict and manage the consequences of human activity on the natural world, we rely on `early warning signs’ and upon our ability to extrapolate the future from the consequences of small changes observed in the past. Unfortunately, complex systems, like ecosystems or economies, defy our efforts to make easy predictions. As the recent economic downturn has made painfully apparent, change can be swift and catastrophic. Far from an aberration, such catastrophes –bifurcations – are a natural mode of change in tightly coupled, closely interacting systems, like the global economy or a local ecology. Fisheries collapsing. Desertification. Algal blooms. Deforestation. All occur as the consequences of what appear to be gradual changes: small increases in temperature, nutrient, or grazing. They seldom offer advance indications.
In recent years, the notion of a bifurcation has begun to enter popular consciousness -- the tipping point – and with it, an understanding of the limits of our ability to anticipate and manage change. We now need to appreciate the notion of hysteresis: unlike a scale or a see-saw, not all tipping points will tip back. Fisheries don’t return when the take is reduced to pre-collapse levels. Deserts recede and lakes clarify only after long waits. The return point often lags far behind the tipping point.

Bifurcation. Hysteresis. Catastrophe. These are notions that must inform our understanding of a warming world. Cap and trade agreements and international protocols are responses that rely on our ability to divine the future from the gradual response to gradual changes in CO2 and gradual changes in temperature. Our accounting has yet considered a downturn, or the possibility that recovery may require much more than a freeze at levels in 2050, 2010, or…


Bios:
Jebney Lewis is a jack of several trades, including sculpture, experimental sound, choral singing, technical direction, and event production.

Todd Parsons is a postdoctoral researcher in mathematical biology at the University of Pennsylvania. A transplant from Toronto where he studied applied mathematics whilst attempting to apply the lessons of dynamical systems and stochastic processes to transforming social relations. Previous exhibitions include The City at the University of Toronto with TLR Club, and various ramblings on math and society with Mammalian Diving Reflex. His writing has appeared in Genetics, Theoretical Population Biology, and Nature.

K.R. Wood is compelled to re-interpret physical and emotional landscapes using a variety of unlikely materials. She studied architecture at the University of Virginia and has worked for the past six years in the fields of architecture and urban design.  Previous exhibitions include the 2009 Tyler fiber student show and the 2009 Whole 9 Yards juried exhibition.