Patrick is founder of City as Nature (Osaka & Seoul) and arts editor for the Nature of Cities (New York). He has been a contributing writer for YES! Magazine, Kyoto Journal, Landscape Architecture Frontiers Journal, Arts Everywhere, Resilience, Routledge Press, and the San Jose Mercury News among others, and has co-authored multiple books. Below you’ll find a collection of essays, prose, and other writings published in various journals, magazines, newspapers, books, and blogs.
The Possible City
A series of illustrated stories, exploring the solutions for the equitable, ecological cities of the future that exist in the world today.
Book Chapters
1 + 1 = 3 : Stories of Imagination and the Art of Nature-Based Solutions [forthcoming]
Nature-based Solutions for Cities
Scheduled for 2023 Release / Edward Elgar Publishing, UK
Editors: Timon McPhearson, Nadja Kabisch and Niki Frantzeskaki
Chapter Authors: Patrick M. Lydon, David Maddox, Robin Lasser, Carla Vitantonio, Baixo Ribeiro
We often think of art as a way to help illuminate nature-based solutions, and it is. Yet, art is also its own way of knowing. This chapter explores how art can be central to enacting nature-based solutions (NBS) by helping to rediscover our human relationships with nature. Through a three-step process of 1) Awareness, 2) Radical Imagination, and 3) Becoming Storytellers, the chapter presents examples of participative practices that meld ecological and social perspectives in the United States, Brazil, Italy, Cuba, Korea, and Japan. Through such practices we may find new paths towards practical actions for NBS in cities by re-discovering our own relationships with nature and each other.
Urban Biodiversity? Artists Have the Keys
BiodiverCities by 2030: Transforming Cities with Biodiversity
2022 / publisher: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogotá
ISBN printed: 978-958-5183-48-3
ISBN digital: 978-958-5183-49-0
Editors: Mejía, M. A., Amaya-Espinel, J. D
Chapter Authors: Carmen Bouyer, Patrick M. Lydon
If we look at the ‘contemporary’ art world—filled with acrylics, solvents, chemical colors and adhesives— it might be difficult to imagine how artists could be champions for nature and biodiversity. The work in contemporary art museums and galleries however, represents only a minor slice of what constitutes art around the world. To find more ecological art then, we must cast a slightly wider net. Our premise is that, at its most elemental form, art must be ecological practice. It can only be so, as art is a means of conveying the truth of our individual relationship with nature and the universe. In nearly every world culture, at nearly every time in history, this has been a constant feature of what we call ‘art’ in the broad sense. These acts of art are inherently acts of connection to the earth.
This book is released freely, under a Creative Commons license.
Download Chapter (PDF)
See Complete Book
Urban ecology: Art and the cultivation of ecological mindsets
Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology (2nd Edition)
2020 / publisher: Routledge, New York
ISBN: 978-1138581357
Editors: Ian Douglas, P M L Anderson, David Goode, Michael C. Houck, David Maddox, Harini Nagendra, Puay Yok Tan
Chapter Author
A practical academic handbook with an emphasis on the biophilic design of cities, homes and workplaces, demonstrating the myriad ways in which nature is a critical value of urban development, rather than a constraint. The chapter I’ve authored explores how we can cultivate ecological mindsets in urban contexts, using concepts from ecopsychology and the mindset of artists as building blocks.
Download Chapter (PDF)
Books
Co-Authored with partner Suhee Kang, the following books are available at booksellers throughout South Korea:
불안과 경쟁 없는 이곳에서 (Here, Without Anxiety or Competition)
2017 (2nd printing 2020) / 320 pages / full color / publisher: Yeolmaehana Books, Seoul
ISBN: 9791196171117
Co-Author (with Suhee Kang)
An account of Patrick and Suhee’s six years of travel through Japan, Korea, UK, and the USA to visit regenerative ‘natural’ farmers and urban dwellers working to build social and ecological wellness in their communities. The book is printed in full color and features the duo’s beautiful photographic imagery along with the interviews and personal reflections on their journey. [published in Korean language]
Selected Reviews:
Korea Herald
Daejeon Ilbo
The Farmer’s News
more…
자연농(Final Straw)
2015 / 92 pages / full color / publisher: Geumulko, Seoul
ISBN: 978-8990090775
Co-Author (with Suhee Kang)
A photo essay book about natural farmers. Images can be removed from the book individually, to be used as postcards. [published in Korean language]
Essays
- Photo Essay: Seoul and the Call of the Urban Wild
The Nature of Cities // 29 June, 2022 - The Branch: Living by Leaves in Osaka, Japan
La Feuille des Feuilles // Spring 2022 (Issue 17) [French & English] - Art and Ecology at the Edge of Osaka, Japan
Landscape Architecture Frontiers Journal // Spring 2021 (Vol. 9, Issue 1)
DOI: 10.15302/J-LAF-1-050029 - Cities, Trains, and Culture in a Pandemic
Resilience Quarterly, Urban Systems Lab at The New School // 6 November 2020 - We Had Forgotten That We Are Ecological Beings
YES! Magazine, Issue 94 // Summer 2020 - Nature in Korea’s Capital: The Magic Stops at the Car Bridge
The Nature of Cities // 31 March 2020 - Kitakagaya: A Japanese Neighborhood Where Time Stopped
The Possible City // 6 March 2020 - Cloud Cities, Melting Cities: Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei Review
The Nature of Cities // 31 January 2020 - Shotengai: Shopping Streets and Bicycles in Japan
The Possible City // 7 November 2019 - How is the Concept of “Stewardship” Expressed Around the World?
USDA Forest Service & The Nature of Cities // 11 October 2019 - Slow Village, Cute Organic Lawnmowers
The Possible City // 10 September 2019 - A City Designed by Trees
Kyoto Journal, Issue 95 // Fall 2019 - French Landscape Painters, and the Nature of Paris
The Nature of Cities // 30 January 2019 - A City Designed by Trees
The Nature of Cities // 12 September 2018 - When a Korean Hillside Town Disappears, Who will Notice?
The Nature of Cities // 17 July 2018 - Artists in Conversation with Water in Cities
The Nature of Cities // 15 July 2018 - Artists in Conversation with Air in Cities
The Nature of Cities // 11 October 2018 - What the Garden-Hacking Grandmas and Grandpas of Korea Know
YES! Magazine // 28 August 2017 - Drought and Flood in a Silicon Valley Museum
The Nature of Cities // 27 June 2017 - Ghost Ship Raises Broad Questions about Art & Culture
The San Jose Mercury News // 21 December 2016 - Building an Ecology of One
The Nature of Cities // 2 September 2016 - Life and Death in the Field
Final Straw Blog // 29 May 2016 - The Seeds Inside of Us
Final Straw Blog // 13 April 2016 - The Earth Flag
Final Straw Blog // 22 February 2016 - Compassion, Syria, and Paris
Medium // 20 November 2015 - A Restaurant and Garden Serving up Connections to Urban Nature
The Nature of Cities // 16 September 2015 - Rice Fields, Rice Balls and Relationships
SocieCity // 22 July 2015 - Trees of Life and Fruitful Relationships
The Nature of Cities // 14 July 2015 - Artists, Vagabonds, and an Accidential Nature Reserve in San Francisco Bay
The Nature of Cities // 14 June 2015 - What if we All Grew Food?
Resilience // 15 May 2015 - Fixing Soil Loss Requires a Mindset Change
Resilience // 4 May 2015 - Garden City Culture: How a Connection with Nature can Build a Truly Sustainable Future
The Nature of Cities // 9 April 2015 - Solving Crime and Inequality with a Seed
Resilience // 23 March 2015 - No Money Farming? It’s Enough.
SocieCity // 25 March 2015 - How Can Art be a Better Catalyst for Urban Nature and Greenspaces?
The Nature of Cities // 22 November 2014 - Shanghai’s Silent Motorcycles and Global Pollution
SocieCity // 14 September 2014 - The Role of “Sacred” in Urban Greenspaces
The Nature of Cities // 10 September 2014 - What can the Loss of Culture Teach us About Urban Nature?
The Nature of Cities // 21 August 2014 - Ecosystems Services and the Value of Nature
The Nature of Cities // 3 March 2014 - Negotiating with Mother Earth
Blog // 18 February 2014 - Cities Don’t Need More Good Design
Medium // 15 February 2014 - London’s 1.4 Billion Cycling Seed
SocieCity // 10 March 2013 - Mighty Cheeseburger Meets Lowly Cabbage
SocieCity // 22 November 2012 - Graffiti Artists Misunderstood by Society and DA
San Jose Mercury News // 5 September 2012 - From Suburbia to Eco-Utopia in San Jose?
SocieCity // 12 April 2012 - Cut the Red Tape, Activate the City
SocieCity // 14 December 2011 - Burgers to the Grid: A City Powered by Human Fat
SocieCity // 17 November 2011 - Silicon Valley: Where Art and Technology ‘get it on’
SocieCity // 14 November 2011 - Why the Bicycle isn’t About Saving the Planet
SocieCity // 24 October 2011
Previous Works
Secure Wireless Integrated Solutions Guide
2008 / 512 pages / publisher: Syngress Elsevier, New York
ISBN: 978-1597491938
Co-Author & Art Director
During the decade that he worked in Silicon Valley in his early life, Lydon was art director and co-author of the SonicWALL Secure Wireless Integrated Solutions Guide, authoring several chapters while inserting ‘easter eggs’ that reflected the real world experience in the tech industry. Can you find them?