What can an artist learn from the hard sciences? In this film, artist David Brooks discusses the motivations and broader meanings behind his on-going work as a volunteer with conservation biologists in the Amazon basin region of South America. Long fascinated by birds and fish, Brooks has been doing frequent field work since 2005 with conservation biologist Dr. Nathan Lujan and his research team in Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela, studying the evolution of the local armored catfish populations.

Working directly in and along rivers, Brooks collects, documents, and preserves the armored catfish for the team. It’s a uniquely hands on opportunity to experience the wildly diverse ecosystems of the Amazon region—to “witness evolution itself”—as well as the chance to interact directly with the scientists themselves. For Brooks, the scientists’ insistently multi-disciplinary approach—which takes into consideration a complex and intersecting set of geologic, ecologic, cultural, and economic factors—is not just a model for his own artistic practice but a way of creating a more “robust personal worldview.”