Metabolic Studio

Oberlander Prize Forum IV: Soak it Up Opening Reception/Keynote Speech by Lauren Bon Thursday, December 4, 5:30pm SWA Group 811 W. 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 RSVP here We’re excited to announce that Lauren Bon is this year’s…

Tonight's Oberlander Prize Forum keynote speech by Lauren Bon is sold out but tix are still available for our Saturday workshop the Art of Disturbance! Find out how natural disturbances like landslides, wildfires, and floods can become opportunities and address systematic inequity.

bit.ly/48EQSJv

Tomorrow at 8:33am on dublab, we're sharing answers to the question "What does Moving Mountains mean to you?" Moving Mountains is an ecological initiative diverting landslide soils once considered waste into remarkable regenerative practices transforming the urban landscape.

Tomorrow at 8:33am on dublab, we're sharing answers to the question "What does Moving Mountains mean to you?" Moving Mountains is an ecological initiative diverting landslide soils once considered waste into remarkable regenerative practices transforming the urban landscape.

bit.ly/44HIM1x

AgH20: What Was Mined, What Was Diverted, What Was Left Behind at Fotofocus2025 — Water and silver. Two elements that shaped the American West and the history of photography. Water diverted from Owe... TikTok video by Metabolic Studio

Here's a clip from Fotofocus2025, with Lauren Bon talking Metabolic Studio's Optics Division and the way Owens Lake is connected to the work:

www.tiktok.com/@metabolicst...

In October, Lauren Bon gave a talk at FotoFocus 2025. The event explored photography’s part global industrialization, the impacts on social and political systems, and the economies of mining, industrialization, land use, and environmental degradation. Watch it on our Substack!

bit.ly/4oRS5UF

REIMAGINE is Metabolic Studio's monthly printmaking session, where we open-source the creative process to reshape narratives, reclaim space, and redistribute creativity. Tomorrow at 8:33am on dublab, we're sharing our Sonic Division jam session from the 11/3 event. Take a listen!

bit.ly/44kZdAB

Terraforming Los Angeles with art, corn, and a lot of… | KCRW Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studios are "getting some hammers and sledgehammers out and ... letting sunlight and rain water hit the ground." Their canvas is LA itself.

Thanks to @kcrw.com and Brandon R Reynolds for coming to Metabolic Studio, and sharing about the living systems emerging from Topanga Canyon landslide soil, oak seedlings taking root inside a warehouse and LA River water returning to the land instead of flowing out to the sea.

kcrw.co/4859T7O

dublab

Tomorrow at 8:33am on Out There, we're sharing a Metabolic Studio Sonic Division Retreat held in a giant steel PPG silos in Owens Valley. One of the silos is also an instrument akin to an Aeolian harp with 80-foot-long "strings" on the exterior and the silos as resonant chambers bit.ly/47Cj7cz

I heard Diego explain this when I visited last month and it was ASTONISHING and deeply informative for anyone working in urban ecologies. Tune in!!

We're in LA so PST but dublab is also on demand! Last week's episode isn't up yet but it should be up soon. Here's our archive: bit.ly/4nLTLxu

This summer, we gave tours of our Moving Mountains project at Un-development 1, a former tow yard beside the LA River. We pulled up the tarmac and replaced it with floodplain soil. Soon dormant seeds sprouted and their roots pulled up the residual contaminants, remediating the land. Learn more here!

Tomorrow at 8:33am on dublab, biologist Diego Zapata, a member of the Metabolic Studio team, explains how native plants remediate land contaminated with lead at "The Moon" aka Un-development 1. We'll also play you an improvised set from Metabolic Studio's Sonic Division. Tune in! bit.ly/47p8Mka

The Sound Sculptures of Douglas Lee In collaboration with Lauren Bon, Dr. Martí Ruiz and the Metabolic Studio Sonic Division Metabolic Studio works within a triangle of transmission connecting… Enchanting the Floodplain

Tomorrow at 8:33am, Douglas Lee of Metabolic's Sonic Division and Dr. Martí Ruiz, from the sound sculpture workshop at the University of Barcelona, performed at the 2025 Baschet Conference in Kyoto. Check it out! bit.ly/4ofLcMN

We also demonstrate sound sculptures over on YouTube: bit.ly/3LAHONN

Ñoquisonics, a monthly sound art happening, is tomorrow 10/29, unfolding simultaneously in LA at Metabolic Studio and in Buenos Aires at cheLA. We connect the LA River, Rio de la Plata and the tributaries in between. Tomorrow's sonic offering will livestream from 2-5pm: bit.ly/47vATgc. Join us!

This weekend, October 24-26 in St Louis, Lauren Bon is presenting new work at the inaugural CIRCUS OF LIFE convening from Counterpublic, which brings together leading artists, thinkers, and advocates to imagine new ways of being in the world together.

Come check it out! bit.ly/3J9Al7L

Tomorrow morning at 8:33am on Out There, we're broadcasting a soundscape from Metabolic Studio's Sonic Division. In this session from 2022, we accompanied our yearly ritual corn planting with metallophones, gongs, and wooden percussion.

Listen in: bit.ly/47gyaHq

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service Watch full episodes of your favorite PBS dramas, find in-depth news analysis and explore documentaries on history, science, art and more!

"Art & Science Collide" showcases Lauren Bon and other artists featured in the Getty's 2024-25 art event Pacific Standard Time, showing how artists and scientists working together can find new ways to address our world's urgent challenges.

Today at 8/10 p.m. on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS App!

Designers Rethinking Our Relationship to Water - Metropolis Across sculpture, planning, and public space, designers are making invisible water systems visible again—challenging us to live differently with them.

Metropolis Magazine's feature "Designers Rethinking Our Relationship to Water" highlights Lauren Bon's "Bending the River" along with work from other artists making invisible water systems visible again—and challenging us to live differently with them bit.ly/3IRzzw5

dublab dublab is a non-profit, radio station dedicated to the growth of music, arts, and culture.

Tomorrow morning at 8:33am on Out There, a poetry reading by member of Project 1521, from January 7th, 2022 at “The Moon”, a former tow yard being un-developed and regenerated using phytoremediation. The poems are interspersed with improvised music by Metabolic Sonics. Listen here! bit.ly/4ogQ43G

Soil Time tomorrow at 10am! Come visit the new Cesar Chavez Community Garden and learn about soil, health and natural remediation, and make your own soil and seed sculpture to take home! Hosted by Metabolic Studio, culivatLA and Prospering Backyards. Sign up here: bit.ly/46OIIPe

The Sky High Farm Biennial 2025 in Germantown, NY closes tomorrow! The closing celebration is a day of art events and performances, including a panel at 12:30pm featuring Lauren Bon in conversation with Dan Colen, Joshua Harrison & Luke Fischbeck. Check it out! bit.ly/4h57Qoj

Metabolic Studio's Sonics Division holds jam sessions in unique locations, using a variety of instruments and sound sculptures to tap into sound waves and vibrations. Tomorrow's Out There on dublab is a “party mix” from the Metabolic Sonics’ archives. Check it out! bit.ly/48lFlAr

Metabolic Sonics explores the captivating sound waves and vibrations of the web of life/ Thursdays at 8:33am on dublab, we present field recordings that transport you through the power of sound. This week's show is music is from the archive, a jam from March 18, 2019.

Check it out! bit.ly/4mIqmE4

Each week, Dublab and Metabolic Studio transport you through the power of sound. Tomorrow at 8:33am check out Metabolic Sonic Division's jam from March 18, 2019. Tune-in, open up, and venture out there as we take excursions into evocative audio fields together. Only on Dublab!

bit.ly/46AhfiH

Come visit us today from 3-7pm at the the LA River Farmers Market. Our mobile art studio is ready for community members to contribute to our textile project honoring the 20th Anniversary of Lauren Bon's "Not A Cornfield." Supplies provided, just bring yourselves!

foodaccessla.org/la-river

Tomorrow on Out There, 8:33am on Dublab, we're playing an excerpt from 3000 Minutes, Lauren Bon’s durational work commemorating the 20th Anniversary of 9/11—and the 3000 people killed. Composed in collaboration with Douglas Lee and performed with Brooklyn Rail on September 12, 2021 bit.ly/4m8rGj6

Our Moving Mountains tours extended through September! Friday mornings, walk through a living floodplain on the bank of the LA River and see a former tow yard transformed by bio-remediation and inoculation with Topanga Canyon landslide soil. Discover what's possible. Sign up here: bit.ly/45Pfpvl

Tomorrow morning on Out There, we feature our Bending the River project. Check out field recordings of removing metal shoring, placing vitrified clay pipe and rebar, and pouring concrete as we close up the launch pit in the LA River channel that diverts water to Metabolic Studio! bit.ly/45N69b6

Tomorrow morning on Out There, we're playing an archival recording from the Anabolic Orchestra, a social practice exercise where we fabricating 90 gongs and chimes ranging from 8"–30” in diameter, inspired by the ancient gong and chime orchestras of Southeast Asia. Listen in! bit.ly/3HwGyKf

Come visit us today from 3-7pm at the the LA River Farmers Market. Our mobile art studio is ready for community members to contribute to our textile project honoring the 20th Anniversary of Lauren Bon's "Not A Cornfield." Supplies provided, just bring yourselves!

foodaccessla.org/la-river