Innovation Studio: Pattern Nature

Sept. 24, 2021: Primal U Co-Founder Kate Parsons was a guest lecturer at University of Nebraska - Lincoln this week as part of a class called Pattern Nature. The class, offered through the Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, is the brainchild of Assistant Professor Jesse Fleming. Parsons and Fleming attended UCLA’s Media Arts MFA program together in 2015, and have remained friends since. Fleming is known for his research into mindfulness meditation and its interplay with emerging media. He is the founding director of the Awareness-Based Design Lab (ABD) at the University, which focuses on tools, experiences, and artworks as vehicles for self awareness, discovery, and interconnection. 

The overlap between Parsons’ new practice with Primal U and Fleming’s established work with mindfulness made the collaboration a natural fit. Parsons spoke with the students about her background in rural Montana, off-grid living, and the various ways that history makes its way into her work.