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Protect Tayos

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Help us to tell the story of Cueva de los Tayos through art, music and science and galvanize the call for its protection!

This is a GoFundMe for TAYOS, an expedition taking place this summer bringing together conservation, art, music, neuroscience, photography and architecture in one voice, to help protect the extraordinary Cueva de los Tayos in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest.

Join us in helping to realise an explorer’s vision and build a global network of guardians for Cueva de los Tayos.

https://www.tayos.org/ 


What is Tayos?

This story started in 1976 with a real-life Indiana Jones named Stan Hall: a Scottish explorer, engineer and historian. The previous year Stan had stumbled upon a book on the myths of Tayos that changed his and his family’s life forever; inspiring him to leave the “normal world” behind and set out to discover treasure and mystery, in what miraculously turned into the largest cave expedition of its kind.

Answering Stan’s call to join him on this quest were over 100 people who ventured deep into the Amazon jungle in Ecuador, to a cave called Cueva de Los Tayos (Tayos caves), including Ecuadorian and British government officials, joint special forces, leading scientists, cave researchers, and more.

Their mission was so unusual and captivating that astronaut Neil Armstrong agreed to join Stan on the expedition too as Honorary President. Reflecting on the otherworldly landscape he experienced there Neil exclaimed that Tayos is “up there with our landing on the moon.”

This vast network of chambers, underground waterfalls and passages stretches over 5 kilometres / 3 miles under ground, part of a huge system of caves winding their way through the lower reaches of the Andes. Just one of the caverns is large enough to hold a 20 story building lying on its side and its initial entrance from the rainforest requires over a 200 ft drop in by winched rope into the abyss!



Protecting Tayos

Stan Hall was drawn so deeply into the magic and pull of Tayos in Ecuador, along with the indigenous Shuar tribe, that his life instantly became dedicated to preserving one of the top 6 most prolific biodiverse areas in the world. As if this wasn’t enough the caves also carry a myth of housing ancient artefacts: knowledge from the earliest civilizations, that if discovered, would alter mankind’s perspective on history and human origins.

Stan never managed to complete his life’s mission, passing away in 2008 with the work to secure UNESCO World Heritage status for this precious place left unfinished. In his place his Scottish-Ecuadorian daughter, Eileen Hall promised to spread the story of Tayos as far and as wide as she could, honouring the research that her father knew was vital to humankind, to history, and to natural ecosystems on earth.


And it’s more crucial than ever for this mission of protection to happen, because Tayos, and the jungle above it, lies in a region surrounded by mining exploits and deforestation; unprotected and vulnerable.

Any negative impact on Tayos threatens the entire ecosystem around it, including a Jaguar Corridor, critical to their need to roam, and the indigenous Shuar tribe who inhabit the area and may face being displaced.

All over Ecuador conservationists, ecologists and indigenous people are fighting against the loss of precious rainforest. The map below shows the current mining concessions, oil blocks, and other threats surrounding the region and getting increasingly closer to Cueva de los Tayos.



Completing a mission

This mission of turning Tayos into a UNESCO World Heritage site is within reach of being successful, and will be a first of its kind for South America, setting a crucial precedent for the Amazonian region. But this mission is much greater than any one person.

Together with renowned geologist and volcanologist Dr Theo Toulkeridis and her artistic co-director Tamsin Cunningham, Eileen has been helping organize an expedition of professional artists, musicians, architects and scientists, alongside the indigenous Shuar tribe, to tell the story of the caves, and provide education through both creative and scientific means on their relevance to modern humanity.

This unusual expedition through the Amazon, and into the Tayos caves, will take place in August of 2018.

Among the 12 person multidisciplinary creative team that are participating from all over the world, is expert producer and electronic musician Jon Hopkins, and neuroscientist Mendel Kaelen, both widely known in their respective fields. The expedition is being organised by the Open Close Collective , founded by Eileen and Tamsin, who work on innovative and experimental creative projects in Scotland.



“I have come to believe that the most effective way forward, to safeguard the survival of our species, is an integrative approach: One that unites science, art, technology, entrepreneurship and politics, with as its primary goal to bring about a radical transformation in the ways we relate to ourselves, to others, and to the home we all share and depend upon; our planet.”
Mendel Kaelen


"I have always been fascinated by the relationship between environment and musical output. The chance to make music inspired by, or even partly created within, such an unusual space really feels like an incredible privilege. I also can think of few more worthwhile causes than doing something that, in any way at all, could help protect a unique ecosystem such as this one.”
Jon Hopkins



Making the Expedition Possible

As a supporter of the GoFundMe, you’ll help make this expedition possible, and become an honorary Tayos Cave Guardian, mentioned in upcoming publications and exhibitions of the creative work generated from the expedition.

We need your financial support to help cover expedition expenses. It is also very helpful if you share this for awareness, both to help with funding, but most importantly to show that the Cueva de los Tayos are valued and deserve protection.

The money we raise will go towards:

+£13.5k for on the ground expedition costs including equipment, our guides in the caves and transport.

These core expedition expenses part of the overall expedition budget of £34k, the remainder of which is being funded by participants in the expedition and generous in-kind support for specialist equipment.



More history about Tayos and info about the expedition

When Stan, Neil, and the team set out on the massive 1976 expedition, they had two goals. One was to follow the legend in search of a metal library that could change human history, and the other was to establish a new new scientific framework to research Tayos's incredibly rich, biodiverse ecosystem.

Just some of their findings included 400 plants collected (20% previously undiscovered by science), 36 species of termite, 7 new species of bat and 400 new species of butterfly.

The discoveries were not only limited to the wonders of the natural world, but proved that Tayos has drawn human curiosity throughout the ages. Within the depths of Tayos, traces of prehistoric human habitation were found including a fragile, decomposed cadaver found seated, surrounded by array of pottery shards and ornaments, dated to around 1500 BC.


The area has been home to the families of the Shuar tribe for hundreds of years. They have been working with Stan Hall, and now Dr. Theo Toulkeridis to try to protect their home habitat.

If the caves and their rainforest were to fall prey to commercial interests, this is just part of what failure looks like:

Deforestation of the Amazon, displacing the Shuar population, and disrupting the Jaguar Corridor

Cave Mining, Resource Exploitation, and Ecocide


ULTIMATE SUCCESS: UNESCO World Heritage Status

Taking up the mantle from Stan Hall, Dr Toulkeridis: geologist, volcanologist & Coordinator of Geosciences at the ESPE University in Quito, is now working to secure the designation of Cueva de los Tayos as a UNESCO World Heritage site: assisting the Shuar in their guardianship of the caves, and supporting the recording and management of the cave’s cultural, ecological, geological and biological content.

Securing this UNESCO status will also add a vital protected link in the Jaguar Corridor, allowing them the space to roam which is critical to their survival. Securing UNESCO status would help the cause of the Shuar people, whose future, like the A’I Cofan and so many of Ecuador's indigenous tribes, hangs in the balance under the threat of mining and deforestation.


THE NEXT STEP TO PROTECT TAYOS

In August of 2018, the next great expedition takes place, in collaboration with the Shuar people, guardians of the caves.

It combines science with art to create a whole picture of Tayos and to provide education on and inspiration by this precious natural habitat.

[More info on the team below]

Together, we will capture sound recordings, photographs, film, neuroscience data, and other recordings, which will form the basis of a series of collaborative works to illustrate the unique qualities of the caves. The resulting exhibition will include a musical performance with high quality visuals and lighting, an art installation, and will be accompanied by a high quality art and science Tayos book, collecting photos, essays, drawings, journals and interviews from the expedition.


We will be bringing each of you into the depths of the caves, with all the creatures and treasures we may discover, through our GoFundMe updates.

#TayosCaveGuardians
#ProtectTayos


BONUS

If you donate £100-£500, you will receive a hand illustrated thank you card by artist Tamsin Cunningham or Eileen Hall

£1,000-£5,000 will receive a one of a kind piece of the artist's art

£5,000+ TBD will receive a large, one of a kind canvas of the artist's art


2018 EXPEDITION TEAM

Dr. Theo Toulkaridis, World renown geologist and volcanologist
When David Attenborough and National Geographic needs the best of the best to guide their expeditions, they are quick to pick up the phone and have Dr. Theo lead the way. He will be our leading guide during the expedition.


Eileen Hall , Expedition leader, artist, and healer
Since the death of her father Stan Hall in 2008, Eileen has carried on his research and exploration of Cueva de los Tayos, alongside her art & architecture practice. Eileen founded Open Close , with Tayos Creative Director, Tamsin Cunningham in 2015.

Eileen's approach to architecture, art and design is informed by her research into embodied design, place awareness, installation art, sensory experience, neuroscience, the psychology and philosophy of wellbeing, meditation and storytelling, with a special interest in how texture, colour and light affect our perceptions of space and our reactions to various environments.

Eileen is organizing the expedition, as well as using the caves as inspiration for the upcoming exhibition in collaboration with the creative team.

www.eileen-hall.com 


Tamsin Cunningham, Creative Director, artist, and architect
Tamsin Ghislaine Cunningham is an architect, artist and co-founder of the Open Close arts collective with Eileen Hall. Tamsin's artistic practice is centred around meditations on landscapes, relationships and sensory experience of place. In her architecture work Tamsin is a Senior Associate at WT Architecture; an award-winning architecture studio working across Scotland's remote and beautiful landscapes on buildings addressing themes of community, sensory experience and connection to our natural and cultural surroundings.

Alongside Eileen Hall, Tamsin developed Open Close as a way of examining how a multi-disciplinary collaboration involving artists, architects, musicians, designers, social geographers, sociologists and neuroscientists might inform the re-imagining of both natural and human landscapes and the role that creative re-imaging can have in protecting our environments.

Tamsin will be working with Eileen on giving artistic vision to the neuroscience research to be carried out by Mendel Kaelen on the trip and the soundscape to be produced by Jon Hopkins. Tamsin will also be collaborating on the Tayos book with Eileen Hall and Eoin Carey.

www.tamsinghislaine.com 



Jon Hopkins , World renown composer and musician
Jon Hopkins has just released his fifth solo album, Singularity, establishing him, in the words of the New Yorker, as ‘one of the most celebrated electronic musicians of his generation’. Immunity (his 2013 hypnotic breakthrough album) and Diamond Mine (his collaboration with King Creosote) both attracted Mercury nominations, and his Monsters film score attracted an Ivor Novello nomination. Already known as an expert producer and collaborator, as well as a remixer of artists as diverse as David Lynch, Moderat, Disclosure, Four Tet, Wild Beasts and Purity Ring, other recent projects have included scoring the prestigious Barbican production of Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch, collaborations with Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes and Bonobo, and productions for London Grammar and Coldplay. 

During the expedition, Jon will be recording soundscapes that may be used in the composition of a future album, and for an auditory experience in the upcoming exhibition.

jonhopkins.co.uk 



Mendel Kaelen , Neuroscientist and musician
Mendel Kaelen is a musician and post-doctoral neuroscientist at Imperial College London, specialising in the function of music in psychedelic therapy. Mendel’s work focuses on unifying contemporary arts, psychotherapies and intelligent technologies into new models of care-giving. Mendel is founder of Wavepaths, a social venture that revisions mental health care by building meaningful communities and creating accessible psychotherapeutic tools. Wavepaths centres around the concept of art works not as objects but as triggers for experiences, with new experiences posited as the most effective way to bring about positive change in identity.

Mendel will be mapping the full team's brain activity during the expedition to study the neurophysiological and psychological effect of different sensory environments. This data informs the visual and audible art created in the exhibition, and further scientific studies on the impact of urban and natural environments on people’s mental health and wellbeing.

mendelkaelen.com 
https://wavepaths.net/ 



Eoin Carey, Photographer
Based in Glasgow, Eoin's work crosses between portraiture, performance and reportage photography on projects across the performing and visual arts in the UK. He is often drawn in his work to representing people.

Eoin will be documenting the expedition and using his photography in the upcoming expedition, and print materials as well as collaborating with Eileen and Tamsin on the production of the Tayos art and science book.

www.eoincareyphoto.com 



Kyle Kesterson , Artist and storyteller
As a multi-disciplinarian creative, nomadic explorer, and fear-slayer, Kyle will be documenting the experience through photography, illustration, written word, and more.

http://www.kylekesterson.com



David & Carlos Villagomez and Danny Millan Collazos, Musicians (Dharma Aqua)
Based in Ecuador, brothers David and Carlos along with band member Danny create music that centres around South American instrumental traditions through their band Dharma Aqua. David has most recently been working on the soundtrack to the film ‘The Legend of Tayos’, exploring the story of the caves and the history of past expeditions, released in 2017.

David, Carlos and Danny will be playing and recording their music inside the caves during the expedition, using the sounds taken as a sonic record of Tayos.



Yessenia Urquizo Ramos

Yess Ramos is a documentary film-maker from Ecuador whose work focuses on social issues and indigenous culture and plant medicine traditions. As well as her documentary work Yess has worked on music videos for several national and international artists and various advertising videos for digital platforms.

In recent years Yess has worked in production on documentaries such as "NATEM, The Sacred Drink of the Shuar", winner of the Festival CINE AL CUBO, and is currently in charge of general and field production ofdocumentary La Leyenda de Tayos.

Yess is organising all expedition logistics on the ground in the rainforest and is liaising with our Shuar hosts and guides on the journey through the jungle and into the caves.


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  • Lisa Eaglesham
    • £5 
    • 5 yrs
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