Interspecies was founded and led by conceptual artist and environmentalist Jim Nollman. Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1947, Nollman received an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Tufts University, where he also composed incidental music for theater. After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1970, Nollman became involved with the post-Cage avant-garde, producing experimental radio pieces for the legendary KPFA station in Berkeley, California. These pieces would become his first experiments with interspecies collaboration, famously including an acapella rendition of the folk song “Frog Went a Courtin’” accompanied by 300 turkeys, as well as pieces featuring kangaroo rats in Death Valley, California and wolves north of Reno, Nevada.

By 1975, Nollman was living in Bolinas, California where he received a grant from the newly-founded California Arts Commission to build a buoyant drum with a seat and outriggers to interact with several different cetacean species in the wild. It is here in Bolinas as well that Nollman begins his career as an author, penning articles for the CoEvolution Quarterly (a subsidiary journal of the Whole Earth Catalog) documenting his experiences of playing music with animals. Through this work, Nollman develops a reputation for his interspecies endeavors and in 1977 is invited by a fledgling Greenpeace to participate in a project combatting the brutal dolphin drive fishing practices on Iki Island, Japan – a practice later made famous by the 2009 documentary "The Cove". During his time in Japan, Nollman developed early prototypes for electronic music systems designed to protect the dolphins from local fisherman, creating acoustic "fences" around fishing boats with audio signals amplified underwater.

Interspecies Communication, Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in late 1979 as means to formalize this work, develop community around a shared artistic vision, and support the artists, writers, and philosophers exploring new approaches to environmental art, eco-philosophy, and other works demonstrating novel means of communicating with nature. The first issue of the Interspecies’ Newsletter - a physical missive sent out to all Interspecies Communication members and donors - was written and published by member Susanna Scanlon in early 1980, documenting Nollman’s eco-protest and technological work at Iki Island. Newsletters were issued intermittently for several years, becoming a quarterly publication from 1983-1987 under the editorial leadership of Sandra Wilson, and from 1988-2005 with Nollman as editor and printing provided by Marshall Davis.

The Interspecies Newsletter proved to be a very successful tool for developing an active international membership. Nollman provided the lion’s share of the writing, with many articles eventually being re-formatted as essays in other publications such as Utne Reader, Orion Magazine and New Age Journal, as well as his own books published by Bantam Press, Henry Holt Publishing, and the Sierra Club Press. Additional newsletter contributors include Paul Watson formerly of Sea Shepherd, Animal Rights advocates Marc Bekoff and Ben White, Greenpeace co-founder Rex Weyler, Mike Cohen of Project NatureConnect, and artist Daniel Dancer.

The multifaceted projects of Interspecies Communication were funded by the generous donations from readers of the newsletter in addition to support from various donors, grants, and media appearances. Projects include the Human/Dolphin Foundation, a collaboration with John and Toni Lilly in Careyes, Mexico; the Orca Project an annual expedition to the Johnstone Strait in Canada to record musical interactions with wild orcas; development of custom electronics and recording equipment for in-situ recordings of animals and environment with engineers Richard Ferarro, Mike Sofen, and Mark Fischer; collaborative efforts with the indigenous Aborigines of Lake Tyers, Australia to rescue a stranded dolphin community; using music and sound to help free gray whales caught in the Barrow Strait, Alaska; developing longterm communication programs with beluga whale populations in the Arctic Circle; collaborating with writer and artist Micky Remann on the development and implementation of underwater musical performances; as well as giving talks, leading seminars, and exhibiting work on interspecies communication internationally.

Interspecies Communication - renamed simply interspecies.com at the dawning of the Internet Age - remained vigorously active, with members and volunteers from around the world, until its dissolution in 2005. During its tenure, the organization remained unique. With a formal research program dedicated to interfacing with animals, plants and the non-living environment through music, art and ceremony, Interspecies was in many ways ahead of its time artistically, scientifically, and spiritually, while simultaneously highlighting and honoring traditional relationships between humans and the natural world as expressed by indigenous peoples around the globe. This interdependent connection seems especially pertinent in our current moment, as we navigate an environmental crisis that demands a fundamental re-consideration of our species with and within the fabric of Nature.

"The world itself can only be perceived as a unity upon which we all live and die, grow and collaborate."