On ecological innovation: a panel discussion

This kōrero will explore how both creative and scientific restorative practices can foster meaningful encounters with the environment. Across three different approaches to ecological innovation, our panellists will discuss how their respective work, spanning academic research to contemporary artmaking, considers the symbiotic and reciprocal potential of human-environment relationships.

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Xin Cheng lives in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and works across sculpture, moving image and participatory practice. Care and resourcefulness are central to her explorations in how we relate with our more-than-human surroundings. She was a co-director of the artist-run space RM in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (2007-2012) and holds a Master of Fine Arts from Hamburg University of Fine Arts (DE). Currently Xin collaborates with localmaking.org and teaches design at Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland.

Dr Mark Harvey (Ngaruahine iwi) is a researcher and artist, focusing around the arts with science awareness and social science with ecology, arts advocacy, mātauranga Māori, te Tiriti contexts, performance art/live art, video, curating, collaborating and transdisciplinarity. His research is centralised around connecting with communities and building public awareness around ecological issues, social justice and related mātauranga Māori perspectives. He has recently led and co-led te Tiriti-based and Māori transdisciplinary projects in forest health and other te taiao/environment perspectives. Harvey has a PhD from AUT’s School of Art and Design and teaches in Creative Arts at Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland.

Dr Samantha Ladewig is a marine ecologist and researcher at Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland’s Institute of Marine Science. Her research explores how human activities and emerging pollutants affect coastal ecosystems, with a particular focus on plastic and tyre wear pollution. She investigates how these pollutants interact with seafloor communities and influence fundamental processes such as primary production and carbon and nitrogen cycling. Her work aims to better understand the often unseen ecological consequences of materials embedded in everyday life and to help inform more sustainable ways of managing human impacts on coastal environments.

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Image: Mark Harvey, Whakahokia, film still, 2025. Courtesy of the artist.