Alexandra Horowitz
Alexandra Horowitz is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know; Being a Dog: Following the Dog into a World of Smell; and Our Dogs, Ourselves. She is a dog-cognition researcher and teaches at Barnard College, where she runs the Dog Cognition Lab. She has written about topics as varied as attention, imitation, fairness, guilt, captivity, patents, play, and footnotes; from animal representation in children’s books to things people say to their dogs; from anthropomorphisms of animals to dogs in movies. She has been described as “a New World reverse of the Oulipo eminence Georges Perec,” a “skilled investigative reporter,” and a “reasonably sane adult human.” She lives with her family and two large, highly sniffy dogs, one cat, and one puppy in New York City.
3 words to describe Nature?
Integral. Formidable. Omnipresent
3 things Nature taught you?
Respect the unknown
There is wisdom in tree growth and bird activity and mosses.
Nature is everywhere.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Among giant redwoods
On a walking path in the Japanese Alps
In our local forest surrounded by my family
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Awed. I'm humbled by the ocean, which does not care about me. I treat it carefully.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Delighted that there is such a community without people.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
I've never seen a volcano
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Pleased to have color vision.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Moved to go indoors.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like smelling into the breeze.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Forest
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Remembering camping with my dog among quaking Aspen in the high country of Utah, my senses are all awakened: between the perfect clarity of the air, the smell of drying grasses and sage, and the sound of Aspen leaves gently tinkling against each other.
Jan Van Ijken
Jan van IJken is an internationally known documentary photographer and filmmaker from the Netherlands. Self-taught and working mainly autonomously on long-term projects and microscopy, he is interested in human/animal relationships and nature.
His most recent video BECOMING (2018) has been screened at more than 25 International Film Festivals and received the Award for Best Short Documentary at the Innsbruck Nature Film Festival 2018 and the Vision Science Award at Imagine Science Abu Dhabi 2019. The film went ‘viral’ on the internet, being awarded the Vimeo Staff Pick and watched by a few million people on National Geographic, Aeon, Colossal, Live Science, IFLScience and numerous others.
His ART OF FLYING (2015) movie was Awarded Best Art Film at Pärnu Film Festival, Estonia. It was screened more than 50 times at international film Festivals, Galleries, Biennales, etc.
FACING ANIMALS (2012) won the Grand Prix Short Films at Split Film Festival, Croatia
Jan has published 3 books: Precious Animals (2005), New Neighbours (2004) and A touch of Divinity (2001)
3 words to describe Nature?
The connection with all other life
Pristine beauty
A fragile ecosystem, not to be destroyed by humans
3 things Nature taught you?
To be silent
That all life is one
To care for other creatures
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The North Sea and Waddenzee (NL)
Kagerplassen (NL)
Waterland (NL)
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Free
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Open
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Humble
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Joyful
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Alive
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like running
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Definitely Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Ice skating in our neighborhood on local waters