Please Support Interspecies

I am Interspecies main spokesperson. These days I get invited to speak, perform, and present at an incredible array of events. Yet it still remains rare that these activities provide direct funding for my participation. For one example, Interspecies’ 30 year program with cetaceans has been the subject of two National Geographic documentaries in the past two years. Neither production paid anything beyond travel expenses, so, quite honestly, neither would have happened without Interspecies support. Interspecies support was crucial, because the first film, for NG Television, has reached tens of millions of people around the world, conveying a perceptual message of new music and art created for, and with, intelligent whales. The second film has just been released.

It’s always been tough to make a living as an artist. In fact, most of the art we promote could not otherwise prosper, without Interspecies’ unique networking support, philosophical leadership, and stipends. A few other examples from our ongoing programs should make this point clear, while also describing in detail the key influence our projects exert around the world.

Two years ago, Interspecies was commissioned by Japan-EXPO to fill a pavilion with works focused on coexistence with living cetaceans. Our music, film, and images represented 22 artists from 11 countries. The centerpiece was a software instrument called a Whalesinger, which was designed by a team from Interspecies, programmed by a German music software company (Native Instruments), and administered by Japan's best known living whale club (ICERC). The Whalesinger was a sensation. Long queues of Japanese children formed daily to make digital music using the calls of whale, seal, fish, and water sounds, and to learn about the endangered status of various species. What better audience could there possibly be, for an art created to transform perceptions about whales? One magazine journalist concluded that Interspecies’ pro-whale message touched the Japanese public more effectively than a half dozen Western anti-whaling groups have ever managed to achieve on a budget 1000 times larger than Interspecies’.

Last year, a multimedia show, written and performed by artists sponsored by Interspecies, was produced as an evening event for the 8th World Wilderness Congress in Anchorage Alaska. It was an honor to perform this two-hour show about the human relationship to wilderness for 1100 professional environmentalists, nature writers, and representatives from 60 native tribes worldwide.

The World Wilderness Congress event took two months of writing and rehearsal time. The Interspecies EXPO pavilion took 18 months for five people to develop and implement, and also included input from 30 volunteers. The National Geographic films demanded that Interspecies purchase specialized computer gear. Yet the actual payments for these events provided about 10% of the support for the participants. The rest was provided through the umbrella of Interspecies. We have been doing it this nonprofit way for thirty years.

Interspecies Communication Inc. was incorporated in 1978 to provide a tax-deductible umbrella for a growing community of artists whose work attempts to transform the human species' emotional, spiritual, and cultural relations with nature. People often ask me how artists can affect the environment. Think of it like this:

Art has always been the foremost tool available to human culture for transforming perceptions.

Engaging artists to develop new models for perceiving nature is vital if we are ever to repair our battered planet for generations unborn.

Interspecies is known around the world for a program that engages musicians, ecologists, technicians, and scientists, to devise communication studies with whales and dolphins. Interspecies’ influential role in the arts and environmental philosophy, clearly belies its tiny size.

Interspecies gives direct stipends to support art, eco-philosophy and direct relations with wild animals.
It produces events and performances tailored to the themes of environmental and educational conferences.
It produces media — CDs, DVDs, and films.
It gives outright grants for tools and for the development of new technology. Last year we granted a new computer system to programmer Mark Fischer to aid his original work of developing new graphing techniques to study cetacean calls.
Interspecies publishes this newsletter, now in its 27th year. Check out our library of reviews and essays.
Interspecies produces field projects to all points on the globe to study cetacean language and interspecies communication.

Clearly, Interspecies can not continue these activities without a committed network of supporters. I am hoping this letter has convinced you to support us with a tax-deductible donation.