I am Lila van Grieken, a visual anthropologist with a keen interest in the more-than-human worlds around us. I am passionate about issues on environmental issues, and work intentionally to achieve outputs that inspire, inform and motivate wider audiences about nature conservation. I believe nature conservation should be done through acknowledging entanglements. I stand behind the philosophy of convivial conservation, something already practiced in the Van Gogh Nationaal Park. [1]
Last year, I worked on the skilled visions [2] of volunteers in Het Groene Woud. [3] I explore the complexity of attuned noticing [4], anecdotal knowledge, and hands-on practices with these inspiring people. Through ethnographic film, I convey a story of passion for nature and craftsmanship. In my written thesis, I address how my interlocutors are noticing and practicing human-nature entanglements. They are actively rethinking the nature-culture divide. Telling this story makes me feel very lucky.
During my masters and bachelors at Leiden University, I skilled myself with curiosity, passion and empathy. I have done a minor in city planning and a minor in nature and forest conservation. My bachelor thesis was on human meaning-making in machine translation for non-humans. Earlier, I did research with three peers on au pairs in the Netherlands, for which we won the Speckmann Award. [5] As a kid I loved to tell people nature facts. My most recent nature fact: platypuses close off their eyes, ears and nose in the water, and instead use their beak to sense electrical changes in the environment, allowing them to notice brain signals in fishes or even in algae. Can you imagine what this does to the basic theoretical questions in sensory anthropology?
[1] https://www.vangoghnationalpark.com/nl/homepage/over-ons
[2] Grasseni (2007) Skilled vision. An Apprenticeship in Breeding Aesthetics
[3] https://www.hetgroenewoud.com/gebied/
[4] Tsing (2020) The Mushroom at the End of the World
[5] https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2024/03/fieldwork-nl-on-au-pairs-and-thesis-on-public-policy-win-speckmann-awards-2024
