joibittle

[joibittle]

Leafcutter Ants at Work - J. Bittle Animal Behavior & Ethics, CUNY.

I just completed a detailed ethogram observation study of a colony of Leafcutter ants (Atta cephalotes) currently at the American Museum of Natural History (2024). Check out my poster results.

I specifically focused on the caste collaboration between majors (soliders) and media (leaf carriers).

There were many new discoveries and questions.

...ask me about the evolution of mandibles!

This poster was presented at several CUNY Science Research Poster Conferences, spring 2025.

Queens College - winner

LaGCC - 2nd place winner

John Jay College - Women in STEM

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INDIA.

August 2024. I engaged with hundreds of students in Southern India during the classroom connect program for CUNY's Environmental Science, Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Here: CUNY + KIIT + KISS - Kalingua Institute of Industrial Technology + Kalingua Institute of Social Sciences - came together for a series of events, talks and hands-on workshops including a beach clean-up on the Bengal Sea at Puri.

Also, a visit to the sun temple on wheels, filled with sand… hidden inside is a magnet to hold the iron structure and capture the sun’s rays so they fall outside the temple. Of course I learned this from the brilliant students studying physics at KIIT/KISS ⏳🌞…learning a ton. Humbled beyond the moon!

Though, these students are studying science, engineering and medicine, we talked about being an artist in New York City. I learned many of them are skilled craftswomen and poets!

[joibittle]

SUMMER 2024 Part 1: Mycobiota + Moss + Microscopy

Mushroom Hunting in a Lab with Rutger's University, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.

Objective: The lab searches for new species of plant mycobiota - communities of fungi that inhabit plants - in the NJ Pine Barrens.

Found: Coniochaetales, a new subspecies ?!? (joi R18). After DNA isolation from New Jersey's pygmy pitch pine, gene sequencing + PCR + Gel Electrophoresis, a BLAST showed a new species was potentially discovered, but more collecting and research are needed to identify...

Conclusion - the bigger picture: Adding to the mycobiome of vascular plants in New Jersey, uncharacterized fungi were found from the pygmy pine location in the Pine Barrens. In conclusion, our results showed that non-vascular plants or mosses have an equal mycobiome to vascular plants.

Thanks to Dr. Ning Zhang's Lab - Alexis, Emily, Jing, Iviana, Megan!

From lab to field and back to my NYC studio, I’m grateful for this unique opportunity to zoom into the magnificent microcosmic worlds of plant mycobiota to better understand their rare symbiotic relationships and develop a life-long inspiration for idea-building. - Joi Bittle

[joibittle]

HERE: Revisiting environmental and animal sciences by rethinking the "swampscape" through the social practice and process of art-making, science research and fieldwork.

Rethinking...

Revisiting...

Reconstructing...

Thanks to LAGCC Student Ambassador's STEM program at CUNY for the invitation to present and introduce my ideas and experience to new students and the Department Chair Faculty in physical sciences + mathematics, biological + environmental science.

I'm looking forward to continuing my studies alongside this community in Long Island City!

29 Feb. 2024

[joibittle]

August 2023.

I'm thrilled to be a participant with a Position on Retreat AIR on Vancouver Island next month!

...Looking to the shell-builders and storytellers for clues.

July 27, 2023: The island was once a lagoon-like environment - salt + fresh water close to the shore - that somehow became closed off from the open ocean, trenches formed present day Lake Cowichan. Amphibious whales either died or performed a conscious mass beaching - intentionally moving to land - when the lagoon dried up, something sealed them off from the sea and fresh water flowed in the trench forming the lake. New hybrid segmented creatures took shape and started to thrive on the whale bone yard.

"Fossil Matrix"

(through the chain of craters)

charcoal on paper rolls

2023 ->

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day/night/this room🪨🌿💡#backlit #refraction #reflection #thegreen #reticulite #lavafoam #basaltic #caldera #hāpuu #volcano #compound-eye #selfie (at Kilauea Volcano) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoNWT1-pd_-/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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[joibittle]

Re-imagining and then building an entire marshland-swamp, piece by piece, in France after my amazing residency in the Everglades living among the raptors and reptiles was pretty f*cking insane! And, I’d do it all over again... 

[joibittle]

Knots, Nerves, Orbs

Finito!

“...Room in a Room...” 2022

54 x 54″

oil and charcoal on canvas

(+ process pics and failures)

NOTE TO SELF: always look to the shell-builders for clues...

[joibittle]

Crash course complete...The Biodiversity of Algae 💯 @uofcalifornia-rpg-blog

... micro/macro algae, diatoms, dark reactors, bio-manufacturers and metabolic air bladders, etc. NICE! 👁

~ 3.5 billion years of evolution ~

@svanyc in my spring course Living Planet, we'll discuss #chlorophyll + algae + plants connected to #cosmos  the past/future #purpleearth and the possible creatures that live there.

[joibittle]

Grazie Giovanni Sanzone! I'm especially happy he wrote about three paintings from "Mutatis Mutandis & The Gadfly" (a large group of works from the swamp - not yet seen).

"...they are the beings with whom we have the least in common but who most of all participate and come into contact with our life." ~ GS

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[joibittle]

endemics & extremophiles - salt of the earth ❤️ @deathvalleynps • Nevada side-blotched lizard • Pupfish in fossil waters (speckled dace?, Salt Creek, Amargosa, Devil’s Hole) 🐟 •Creosote - for the pollinators •Phainopepla •Screwbean mesquite pod •Cholla cactus •Evaporites for the Badwater snail 🐌 •Microbes + host rock (Endoliths, Halophiles, Xerophiles) 👾⏳ • (Seen): desert holly, kangaroo rat, sidewinder traces, chuckwalla tail, thrashers, golden eagle… #extremophiles #endemicspecies #fossilwaters #saltoftheearth #sideblotchedlizard #pupfish #creosote #screwbeanmesquite #evaporites #chollacactus #badwatersnail #microbes 👾 🧂💦🌎 (at Death Valley National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca2rXTJlGc2/?utm_medium=tumblr

[joibittle]

Preparing for my trip to Death Valley, the Warped Mountains and the International Dark Sky Festival!

I’ve been waiting for this for a very, very long time...

February 23 - March 3, 2022

[joibittle]

HNY from the studio! Here’s to keeping the doors open, terrariums, emerging seedlings, peace and truths… #2022 🌱 • • • #phosphorescence #scorpion #dungbeetle #moonman #pyroclastic #swampscape #seedlings #barbirusapig #painting #truths #terrarium #covarium #reset #mutatismutandis @joibittlestudio 🌱🪲🦂🐗🌋 🛶🌐❤️‍🩹 (at Queens, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYJubtJrkmh/?utm_medium=tumblr