Representing Nature: A Writer and a Composer in Conversation" (w/ Ben Shattuck)

Ben Shattuck and Ben Cosgrove have each spent years using their work (Shattuck is an artist and the author of the new book Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau; Cosgrove is a traveling composer-performer whose latest instrumental album is 2021's The Trouble With Wilderness) to grapple with the eternally vexing question of how to depict and engage with nature in their work. In their recent projects, both artists have considered the fraught history of reflecting landscape and nature in art, music, and nature writing. In an hour-long conversation built around readings by Shattuck and performances by Cosgrove, they'll discuss and demonstrate what they've uncovered in the process and how they've each adjusted their own practice to reflect these lessons.