Sustainability Research

The Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Submissions are invited for The Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science (TJES),  by the The Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning & Advanced Studies (TheATLAS). The editors search for original manuscripts reporting multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary engineering and science research. Not only primary research articles, but also papers in transdisciplinary education can be published.
The journal aims to be the voice of the worldwide Transdisciplinarians community.

Possible research areas for the journal are:

  • Development of shared conceptual framework that draws upon discipline specific concepts, theories, and methods (integrative methods, concepts and tools).
  • Development of integrated analysis, synthesis, and design from a wide range of knowledge, involving both soft sciences and hard sciences and also art.
  • Transdisciplinary cognitive integration, sustainability research.
  • Unified transdisciplinary modeling framework—developing computer based modeling systems that permit cooperation and collaboration among diverse groups that are globally dispersed in order to drive complex research efforts to an innovative solution.
  • Designing the communication infrastructure and shared resources to facilitate computational and transdisciplinary thinking within existing organizations.
  • System engineering and management.
  • Research areas crossing diverse disciplines such as: Optimization, System Architectures, Digital Systems, Software design and development, Data Engineering, Computational Intelligence, Security Systems, Computer Systems, Network Systems Design, Biomimetic Systems Design, Medical applications and research results involved with sensors, mechatronics, and nanotechnology.
  • Process and design methods and analysis used by diverse disciplines (such as image processing and anlysis, statistical methods, probabilistic methods etc.).
  • Transdisciplinary education

Texts about global complex problems such as transportation, humanitarian needs, security, natural disasters, health, international development, environment, sustainable development; societal systems, green engineering and science and international research ethics are encouraged.

You are able to submit your work through the online submission site:
http://www.theatlas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=96

Please find earlier issues of this journal available online for free: click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

YORK UNIVERSITY seeks faculty for ECOLOGICAL DESIGN FOR PERFORMANCE

Applications are invited for a full-time tenure-track position in Ecological Design for Performance, at the rank of Assistant Professor, with graduate and undergraduate teaching responsibilities, effective July 1, 2012. In addition to teaching and research responsibilities, and service at the departmental, Faculty and University levels, the appointment will be key in the direction and development of the new Theatre MFA in Design for Performance.

York’s Department of Theatre has an undergraduate program with over 400 majors pursuing BFA or BA degrees in performance, devised theatre, theatre studies, playwriting, production and design. There is also a Graduate Program with a PhD and MA in Theatre Studies and an MFA in Acting, Directing, and Design. The Department has the only MFA in Acting in Canada and is at the forefront of developing sustainability in design for performance at the graduate level.

The Faculty of Fine Arts, and especially the Department of Theatre, have been developing an active interest in ecological sustainability and, in doing so, have embraced the mandate of York University’s Sustainability Policy: “York will strive to be at the forefront of sustainability research and education, and will use its capacity and expertise to promote sustainability within and beyond the University, with its alumni, governments and the surrounding communities.” The position in Ecological Design for Performance will support the continued exploration and development of sustainability in design, primarily at the MFA level, and potentially in conjunction with Film, Dance, Visual Arts, Architecture, Environmental Studies, and Engineering.

Applicants must be mid-career designers for performance who have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability in their work. Strong consideration will be given to applicants whose work challenges the borders of art within the construct of sustainability; this may include the research and exploration of technological innovation. Good interpersonal communication and ability to work closely with students, colleagues and other departments are required, as is demonstrated excellence or promise of excellence in scholarly and creative research and teaching. Preferred candidates will have a terminal degree in an appropriate discipline, demonstrated professional recognition, teaching experience at the post-secondary level, and strong connections with the theatre and industrial communities.

Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. The successful candidate should be suitable for prompt appointment to the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

A letter of application with an up-to-date curriculum vitae, a statement of research, professional and teaching interests and experience, a DVD or online examples of creative work, and the names and contact information of three referees should be sent to: Search Committee, c/o Mary Pecchia, Room 320 Department of Theatre, Centre for Film and Theatre, York University, 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3J 1P3; Tel: 416-736-2100 ext 66266;  Fax 416-736-5785.  Email: mpecchia@yorku.ca

York University is an Affirmative Action Employer. The Affirmative Action Program can be found on York’s website at www.yorku.ca/acadjobs or a copy can be obtained by calling the affirmative action office at 416.736.5713. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority.

Deadline for applications: Friday, December 2nd, 2011

EcoArt SoFla

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Mary Jo Aagerstoun has just posted the following to the EcoArt South Florida website:

Why does South Florida need EcoArt?

EcoArt SoFla believes art must be integrated into sustainability strategies. In South Florida, like everywhere else on the globe, sustainability strategies have been driven by science and political expediency. One searches in vain at all levels of the worldwide sustainability research/policy development community to find the tiniest acknowledgment of the role art could and should play in making sustainability a reality. The sustainability discourse is, therefore, very uni-centric in the knowledges it taps.

It seems self-evident that the kinds of environmental crises we face worldwide require that we tap a multiplicity of knowledges. To infuse societies with sustainability-enhancing scientific innovations, culture must be both mobilized and transformed. And communities and the general public must be inspired and educated to pursue serious and committed environmental stewardship. Artists are the expert innovators and creative thinkers most engaged with the art knowledge and cultural integration skill that help to create the cultural glue holding societies together. Art and science, as twin knowledge forms, must be tapped in tandem to create the wisdom, and activate hope, that underpin sustainability.

But not just any art will do. EcoArt SoFla will seek support for and promote artists whose practices are inspired by the precepts of Joseph Beuys’ “social sculpture” and address environmental problems with creative combinations of conceptual art, process art, connective aesthetics, participatory and socially engaged practices, phenomenological and eco-philosophies, direct democracy processes and other social/aesthetic forms and techniques.

EcoArt SoFla seeks nothing less than development of a large contingent of ecoartists committed to staying in South Florida and who are, or wish to become, master cross-disciplinary learners and social system choreographers, skilled at drawing into the collaborative creation of ecoart stakeholders from grass roots community organizations, scientific institutions, public policy agencies and pioneering philanthropic entities. EcoArt SoFla will dedicate itself to development and promotion of the best ecoart projects: those that engage and mobilize community while employing, enhancing and melding techniques, knowledge and wisdom from landscape architecture, environmental biology and chemistry, planning and engineering and many other disciplines, and collaborating with their practitioners, while drawing from the deep roots of art history and the broadest lexicon of aesthetic methods.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.

Go to EcoArtScotland

Sustainability | eyebeam.org

The Eyebeam Sustainability Research Group is comprised of past and present residents, fellows, and staff. Our goals are to improve the internal practices, physical infrastructure and materials used at Eyebeam to create a lab for workable sustainable solutions, to educate ourselves and the public through programs and exhibitions, and to facilitate the creation of sustainability-related projects at and beyond Eyebeam. The main areas of focus for the group have been energy, materials and making, urban sustainability issues, especially transportation and pollution, and green spaces and agriculture.

Check it out:  Sustainability | eyebeam.org.