Nora Bateson, Gregory Bateson & William Bateson
Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute (IBI), based in Sweden. Her work seeks to answer the question: “How can we improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?”. An international lecturer, researcher and writer, Nora wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary, An Ecology of Mind, a portrait of her father, Gregory Bateson. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems.
Nora’s first book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles, released by Triarchy Press, UK, 2016 is a revolutionary personal approach to the study of systems and complexity. Her long-awaited second book Combining was published by Triarchy Press in 2023. This book is a collection of essays, reflections, poems, and artwork by Nora Bateson. It is an embodiment of her recent work on Warm Data and offers a radical ecological approach to many of the key issues of our time: climate change, political upheaval, education, health, food, and relationships.
The IBI integrates the sciences, arts and professional knowledge to create a qualitative inquiry of the integration of life. As President, Nora directs research projects at the IBI that require multiple contexts of research and interdependent processes. Asking, “How can we create a context in which to study the contexts?”, an impressive team of international thinkers, scientists and artists have been brought together by the IBI to generate an innovative form of inquiry, which Nora coined “Transcontextual Research”.
As an educator she has developed curricula for schools in Northern California and produced and directed award winning multimedia projects on intercultural and ecological understanding. Her work, which has been presented at the world’s top universities, is described as “offering audiences a lens through which to see the world that effects not only the way we see, but also the way we think”. Nora’s work in facilitating cross-disciplinary discussions is part of her research into what she calls “the ecology of the conversation”. Her speaking engagements include keynote addresses and lectures at international conferences and universities on a wide range of topics that span the fields of anti-fascism, ecology, education, the arts, family therapy, leadership, and many more aspects of advocacy for living systems — she travels between conversations in different fields bringing multiple perspectives into view to reveal larger patterns.
Memberships and awards: Chairman International Bateson Institute, Associate of The Taos Institute, Board Member: Human Systems Journal of Systemic Practice, Tallberg Foundation, Fellow of Lindsifarne Foundation, Bateson Idea Group (BIG), Club of Rome, Great Transition Foundation, Human Potential Foundation, Awards: Sustainable Thompkins Ecology Award, Winner Spokane Film Festival, Winner Santa Cruz Film Festival, Media Ecology Award.
“There is growing pressure to divide and distill environmental and social issues into smallest parts and put them in separate drawers in order to understand them and to solve them. Nora’s work reveals how this mechanical approach is at the core of today’s biggest challenges that we face. She gives language and terminology to the complexity, where in order to really find new solutions, we need to re learn how we think, feel and navigate from a very different mindset. She lays ground for new insights and ways to work across climate and ecological crises.”