Energy Cafe | Gunpowder Park Mar 21 2009 from William Shaw on Vimeo.
At Gunpowder Park, Saturday March 21. The Energy Cafe, a project commissioned by the Art of Common Space; and an excuse to try out the Flip Video.
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Darwin’s tree: the Eureka moment
Tania Kovats’ TREE will be unveiled at the Natural History Museum tomorrow. It’s a special commission for Darwin 200. In an interview with Tom Bailey for RSA Arts & Ecology, she talks about the process of thought that led her to take a thin section from a 200-year-old oak tree. There’s one great section in which she mentions the extraordinary page from Darwin’s notebook, in which he’s written “I thinkâ€, then drawn his first representation of the evolutionary “tree of lifeâ€, and then about what it makes her aspire to as an artist:
What, if any, other artistic interpretations of evolutionary theory, or natural history, have influenced your work?
The I think drawing is definitely a drawing that I’ve been compelled by for quite a long time, partly because of how amazingly well it describes a moment of conception. It’s like the idea is happening in front of you when you look at that drawing. In drawing there’s an exchange between thought and the mark that you make, the drawing becomes a trace of that moment. So I think that drawing is so exciting, partly because it’s also very simple. The thing that compels me about Darwin’s evolutionary theory is that you have a really simple answer to a very big, complex question. A lot of the artworks that I feel are strongest (and I strive to do this in my own work) are incredibly simple in essence, but may have many complex readings that can be projected onto them. A dumb art work is one that you can usually talk about the longest. An artwork that has something very simple at its core then lends itself to constant reflection, and lots of layering can go on.
Postlethwaite protest over Kingsnorth
Actor Pete Postlethwaite is considering handing back his OBE if the UK government gives the go-ahead to the Kingsnorth Power coal-fired power station, linking the Kingsnorth issue to the Iraq War protests, the largest in modern UK history. “We tried to stop Tony Blair going to war in Iraq. But this time we’re not having it.â€
Jon Stewart and the Art of Responsibility
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This will not be the first place you’ve heard of Jon Stewart’s interview with Jim Cramer, of Mad Money, on the Daily Show. This may be, in fact, one of the last places you’d expect to see it mentioned. This is a blog about environmental art. The Daily Show is a mainstream political comedy show. The interview was largely about finance, investment, and the economic crisis (which are not separate from natural resources, blah diddy you know the drill . . . )
But as comedian, Stewart provided an invaluable service. He called Cramer out. He urged Cramer and his network to use their visibility and connections for the public good, and not in service to investors, corporate interests, or mere ratings. He chided Cramer for misusing his powerful influence.
And that’s the essence of its relevance. At greenmuseum.org we’re constantly seeing artists who are using their craft as a tool for the public good, whether with education, aesthetic power, or literal utilitarianism. They’re doing it with the planet in mind, defending rivers, forests, communities, connections. Jon Stewart is defending the very nature of work, the transparency of media, and his parents’ retirement fund.
To all of those who voted to cut NEA funding: I defy you to look at the body of work on greenmuseum.org and not understand the public service that artists provide. Tell me that Jon Stewart lecturing Cramer like our nation’s Cultural Daddy isn’t achingly important. Come to grips with the incredible responsibility that comes with the work of culture. And I say: boo-yeah. Now let’s get some work done.
Go to the Green Museum
Treadmill Bike
I often talk to my students and people in workshops about Ancient Technology. What the term means refers to is old ways of doing things that are simple and forgo electronics. The most important part though is that they strip down systems instead of adding onto existing systems.Â
An example of an ancient technology might be using steamed banana leaves for food service, or non-vitrified clay in drink ware that gets smashed and reformed. Both are sterile, both from the about of heat used to prepare them for use. The banana leaf is biodegradable entirely and the cup is truly recycled (as opposed to downcycled, though I guess you might be loose some clay in the process, but It’s just clay)
Ancient technologies are my favorites because they were created out of necessity out of what was available and they’re simple.Â
A lot of our green technologies are now systems layered on other systems. Or, the incorporation of one technology into an existing one to make it greener. But, this doesn’t work as well as not making the first one benign in the first place.Â
I’ll use Hybrid cars as an example.
By adding a battery into the power train of the car you do decrease emissions significantly. However, battery technology doesn’t last as long as internal combustion technology alone, so the life cycle of the car for the user is less. They would need more cars in the same period of time.
Also, the newness of the technology then asks people to buy new cars. If they already have a working vehicle and it continues to have a life with another user as a used car, you’ve not decreased the number of cars on the road creating emissions necessarily, you’ve added a car that isn’t as bad as another.Â
Finally there is also issue of destruction at the end of the car’s life. New systems of disposing the hybrid batteries, or at least expansion of existing systems of disposal make are need to accommodate this new technology.Â
And as it continues to evolve, like it will with plug in hybrids, more systems will be created to deal with the effects of changing existing technology.Â
On the other hand, another approach to curbing emissions is building infrastructure that doesn’t require a car in the first place. Building an urban environment that is geared towards pedestrians and then added mass transit systems for longer distances that alleviate the need to have a dedicate personal car.
While these infrastructural changes might not be ancient, they do predate cars and thus would predate the issues of cars in their impact.Â
As an example of what happens when you unnecessarily add technology onto another, I offer you the Teadmill Bike. It is a bike that instead of pedaling, you walk on a treadmill.Â
While the intention is to give you a treadmill gym experience outside, it disregards the point of a treadmill. If you’re on a treadmill you don’t want to walk anywhere, you want to stay put in your gym.Â
The better alternative? Walking… or just biking.
I personally hope this was a joke.
Mandalas
The phrase “Earth Peace Mandala†sounds awfully alterna-hippie. Brings to mind sage, and barefoot dreadlocked dancing, and the sounds of, say, Phish, or the Dead. Which sometimes is great for the worms, and sometimes is great for jokes.
Artist Veronica Ramirez created Earth Peace Mandalas along the route of the Sustainable Living Roadshow. She does indeed bless the circle first with sage, but she does not dance around barefoot, and she’s not necessarily a Phish fan. What she does create is a gathering space, a place for people to connect with something slow and beautiful, and she does it with foliage and flower cuttings she finds in each city.
There’s much about a big ol’ flower soil mandala that’s not designed for transport: at every city a series of about 12 boxes, tubs and bags were unloaded: pinecones, pebbles, corn and a heart-shaped rock make up the basic elements of each mandala. In contrast, most other gear can be characterized bu the EZ-up: designed to be lightweight, transportable, quick to set up and break down. When asked about her gear, Veronica simply says, “It’s a process.â€
Which is the essence of mandala-making: the process. Traditional Buddhist mandalas are created with colored sand, following intricate lined patterns marked out on a level surface. The act of manipulating tiny grains of sand into endless and repeating forms is a kind of mediation in and of itself.The lines in such mandalas depict the four directions, significant gods, portions of legends, and symbolic colors.
Ramirez just uses sticks and petals. As she works, folks stop by, tuning out the music and surrounding carnival to help her pluck petals, strip branches, sift grains and spread them into a circular devotion of the planet. It gives a moment to pause and reflect, and to wonder for a moment at natural processes.
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Go to the Green Museum
Problems with Firefox for Mac?
Anyone out there using Firefox for Mac to view the main RSA Arts & Ecology website? Is it showing up OK?
Artists responding to empty store fronts
The Free Store in Nassau Street, Manhattan, created by artists Athena Robles and Anna Stein has been creating a stir. It was inspired by a liberal hippie initiative from 1967, the Diggers Free Store which operated under the slogan “Don’t Waste Give To The Diggersâ€. This time Robles and Stein have created their own Free Store just a few from Wall Street in New York’s financial district.
The idea is simple. Everything in the store is free. You’re encouraged to donate something too, of course. In return for your purchase you’re issued with a receipt that declares no money has changed hands.
“Alternative and generous systems such as bartering have long been used in times of financial hardship,†say Robles and Stein. “Artists, in particular, are familiar with having to be creative to make ends meet and have functioned on generous systems, especially artist-to-artist. Free Store aims to broaden this circle of trust and exchange by including the general public.â€
From an economic perspective, it appears a facile response to crisis. Are the artists seriously saying that we should abandon materialist ideas of value? As art though, it’s a playful, optimistic gesture, questioning what we place our trust and value in, especially given the context. With all the vacant store-frontage in our High Streets, even with Wellworths, there’s so much potential to play/do something productive in the dead space in middle of our cities.
Any nominations for best used empty shop?
9THIRTY THEATRE COMPANY ANNOUNCES: A FRESH ASSORTMENT, An Eco One-Act Festival
Earth Week 2009: April 22nd – 25th
www.smarttix.com.
New York, NY – March 10th, 2009 – 9Thirty Theatre Company (Jeff Burroughs, Founding Artistic Director; Michael Crowley, Producing Manager) announces A FRESH ASSORTMENT, an ECO ONE-ACT FESTIVAL will be performed April 22nd – 25th @ 8pm at The Seaport Cultural Space located at SEAPORT 210 Front St, NYC 10038.
A FRESH ASSORTMENT will begin 9Thirty Theatre Company’s one-year residency at the South Street Seaport. The company is committed to bringing eco-art and sustainable thinking to downtown Manhattan as part of their 2008- 2009 season: Nature Takes its Course.
A FRESH ASSORTMENT features four eco works:
THE 10 BILLIONTH BABY
Written by Bailey Williams & directed by: Justin Eure
“A woman named Magpie has her second child in a world of only firsts. When the media discovers that he is the ten billionth baby born on Earth, questions rise about the little town of Chester – a town that contains seconds, thirds, and even fourths. Magpie must then decide what is right and what is easy. A question that is only answered with silence.”
THE 10 BILLIONTH BABY was developed as part of Curious Theatre Company’s New Voices program in Denver and was presented at TCG’s 2008 Convention Plenary Session: Theatre and the Environment, moderated by Pulitzer Prize- winning playwright Paula Vogel.
LIVING IN THE BLUE ZONE
Written by Barbara Kingsley (August: Osage County)
“When a small town girl gets the chance to visit her BFF from college, she is thrilled by the prospect of tasting life in the Big Apple. Expectations clash with reality when Darsi learns that sometimes less can be more – right down to the empty matchbox when you’re living in ‘blue zone.'”
COLLAPSE
Written & directed by Sarah H. Haught
“Two tenured employees await delivery of their precious product. When the silence falls, the workers must make sense of the disruption to their own ecosystem. Little do they know that their co-workers have fallen victim of colony collapse disorder…”
MR. SASQUATCH GOES TO WASHINGTON
Written by Michael Anderson & directed by: Justin Eure
“Mr. Sasquatch Goes to Washington is a fast-talking romp through the world of politics, corporations and environmental activism. It features a senator, a bear terrorist, a famous Dr. Suess character and the furriest lobbyist to ever hit Washington!”
The cast for A FRESH ASSORTMENT features Ashley Morris* (Die Mommie Die!, “The Electric Company“), Will Rogers* (From Up Here, Columbinus), Trevor Vaughn*, Freddie Bennett, Jeff Burroughs, Chance Carroll, Nicole Hodges, Holly Pierson, Stacy Salvette, and Elizabeth Van Meter. With lighting design by Rachel Gilmore and costume designs by: Elaine Lim and Francisco Pablo
Additional Casting and Creative team information for A FRESH ASSORTMENT will be announced at a later date. Tickets will go on sale in late March at smarttix.com.
9Thirty Theatre Company is New York City’s only arts organization dedicated to encouraging writers, artists and designers to explore today’s pressing ecological issues. For more information about 9Thirty Theatre Company, please visit www.9TTC.org.
*Appearing Courtesy of Actor’s Equity Association, Equity Showcase Code Pending Approval
Press Contact: Michael Crowley, 917.705.7014, michael@9TTC.org
Collaboration in the face of chill winds
Anne Brodie @ National Glass Centre, SunderlandThis week has brought profound jolts with respect to political and economic predictions on climate change, the first from Rajendra Pachauri, leading the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He seriously doubts that the US will be able to make the pledge needed on carbon reduction. This is frightening given the latest revision on sea levels which has been given wide press coverage this week. Scientists think their rise will be nearly twice as much as they previously reckoned, which would be disastrous for an estimated 600 million people (the UK population was 60.5 million in 2006).
This is why increasing numbers of artist and arts organisations are focusing on the Arctic and the Antarctic for their subject matter.
The most recent exhibition relating to the Antarctic is at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland. You have until 29 March to visit it. Anne Brodie has created a chandelier using a huge block of ice from the Antarctic lit not by electricity but by bacteria. It’s creativity and collaboration that we need and Brodie’s work is an exemplar of both, supported as it is by the British Antarctic Survey, Arts Catalyst and Arts Council England as well of course by the National Glass Centre – together presumably with the advice and support of scientists and technicians.
Anthony Giddens wrote in The Guardian on Wednesday 11 March of the “collaboration essential to coping with climate change†(more on this in his new book The Politics of Climate Change which will be available in a week’s time). It’s collaboration – relationships – which makes me sure that the word “ecology†is the right one for our centre here and of which we need so much more. We have a lot to learn on the subject from artists.