Our December 2025 meeting revolved around Jonathon Keats introducing The Common Law of Nature project, several respondents from a variety of disciplines expanding on the project and the questions it raises, and an open discussion period addressing the project from different angles.
We look forward to future engagement with The Common Law of Nature project! This quick two-question survey (“Suggestion Box”) collects ideas for what this future engagement might look like.
More on The Common Law of Nature project:
Within the self-contained space of Biosphere 2 and in consultation with senior research specialist Aaron Bugaj and other B2 scientists, artist Jonathon Keats proposes to set down several dozen ceramic tablets, a few in each biome, inscribed with legal maxims derived from the principles of self-organization governing the lifeways of several dozen nonhuman species. Keats writes: “We need to rediscover the underlying legal system of the biosphere as negotiated through the interaction of species in deep time.” Keats contends that the process begins with a close reading of present-day behavior and phenology, and collective human interpretation of this living precedent as guidance for human activity. In other words, his maxims inside B2 will help to activate literacy in the environment on a planetary scale. Undertaken during Keats’ time as an artist-in-residence at Biosphere 2, the “Common Law” is an exciting pilot project for The Reading Initiative’s collaborative mission due to its emphasis on an expanded sense of literary literacy, and the crucial role that literacy beyond the written word has played historically in the process of knowledge-production and its continued potential impacts on social, cultural, and environmental health.