Monthly Archives: February 2010

ADM Tries to Take Down Funny Video; Big Business Has No Solutions; Now What?

  • ADM video still available here, here, and (for download and reposting) here; page here
  • Fake initiatives pages, with links to organizations seeking change on these issues
  • More information about last week’s website and videos
  • Contact: scurrilous@theyesmen.org, bportello@cinemalibrestudio.com

A legal complaint from agribusiness giant ADM has resulted in the removal from Youtube of a fake video of ADM’s CEO making over-honest pronouncements. (The video is still available here, here, and, for download and reposting, here.)

Last week, the filmmaking team behind The End of Poverty? partnered with the Yes Men to create a parallel, imaginary World Economic Forum in which world leaders came up with real solutions to poverty. The leaders seemed, in a < a href=”http://www.we-forum.org/en/events/AnnualMeeting2010/index.shtml”>series of videos, to be supporting a set of initiatives based on 10 Solutions to End Poverty, a petition for which the filmmakers are trying to get ten million signatures by the end of 2010.

Each of those initiatives pages has links to organizations that are fighting hard for change on these issues.

In contrast, the actual World Economic Forum ended Sunday with a profound lack of results, some seemingly satirical but all-too-real headlines (like Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein’s rumoured $100 million bonus), and one fruitless complaint to Youtube.

“If we can bail out bankers to the tune of trillions of dollars, surely we can solve poverty, which will just take a few structural changes, plus a whole lot less money,” said Beth Portello, the producer of The End of Poverty?

“All the crises we’re facing are rooted in massive inequality and poverty,” says Philippe Diaz, the film’s director. “If these leaders really wanted to make a difference, they would work towards ending poverty, however uncomfortable that might be for business.”

“It’s easier to remove funny videos from Youtube,” added Portello.

LOVELY WEATHER ARTISTS RESIDENCIES DONEGAL

Donegal County Council and Leonardo/Olats are proud to announce the five projects selected for the ‘Lovely Weather Donegal Artists Residencies’, a ground breaking art & science project which will examine the issues of climate change in County Donegal, Ireland.

Leonardo/Olats : http://www.olats.org

IRELAND & CLIMATE CHANGE

A large community across the world is in agreement: the climate is changing. But what is climate change? What is causing it? And how will it affect us? These are the questions which are being asked by this unique initiative by Regional Cultural Centre / Donegal County Council Public Art Office in partnership with Leonardo/Olats.

The project has entailed a national and international competition resulting in five art/science artists or group of artists being selected to work in each of the electoral areas of the county to explore on the ground, the effects of climate change and its modifications throughout the county.

According to one of the project co-coordinators John Cunningham, “If we truly want to understand climate change, we have to realise how it works in local environments like Donegal. Art could help us to question our perceptions and relationships to weather, climate and help us to experience and reveal our inner participation with weather and climate; the rupture of their balance and its meaning for our world. The ‘Lovely Weather’ projects, which are currently being developed, will access ongoing scientific studies alongside generations of local knowledge and are important mechanisms for progressive understanding of the impact of climate change on Donegal.”

WHO?

The 5 selected artists are:

  • Peter d’Agostino (USA)
  • Seema Goel (Can)
  • The League of Imaginary Scientists (Lucy Hg & partners, USA)
  • Antony Lyons (UK/IRE)
  • Softday (Sean Taylor & Mikael Fernstrom, IRE)

See projects below

WHERE?

The 5 residencies will be situated in the five Electoral Areas of County Donegal, Ireland (One per area).

The Electoral Areas of County Donegal are:

  • Glenties
  • Donegal Town
  • Letterkenny / Milford
  • Ballybofey / Stranolar
  • Inishowen

WHAT WILL THEY DO?

The Lovely Weather projects will take an interdisciplinary approach from the outset and actively involve local people in their work, to develop artworks that raise questions about climate and its changes on a practical level, with the aim of contributing to familiarising them with cultural praxis and specifically new media, and ecologically aware behaviour.

WHEN?

The Lovely Weather Artists Residencies will run from December 2009 until December 2010.

WHO ARE THE FUNDERS?

Donegal County Council’s Public Art Programme will utilise monies from the 5 electoral areas (under the % for Housing Scheme) to initiate a series of residencies for artists to examine on the ground the effect of climate change throughout Donegal. These residencies will examine cultural approaches to weather, climate and their modifications throughout County Donegal.

WHO WILL COORDINATE THESE RESIDENCIES?

The residencies will be managed by co-curators for the project Annick Bureaud (Leonardo/Olats) and John Cunningham (Regional Cultural Centre on behalf of Donegal County Council’s Public Art Office). Workshops and seminars will be held with the artists and interested parties, throughout the run of the residencies.

ARTISTS & PROJECTS

Artists: Peter d’Agostino, Deirdre Dowdakin, David Tafler
Project: WorldWideWalks / between earth & sky / Dún na nGall
Location: Glenties Electoral Area

http://www.peterdagostino.net

WorldWideWalks / between earth & sky / Dún na nGall

This project is based on a series of World-Wide-Walks, video / web projects that combine elements of natural, cultural & virtual identities. The complimentary realities of actually walking through a physical environment and of virtually surfing the web are key components of these projects that began with The Walk Series, video documentation / performances in 1973, and have continued to the present. The project intends to explore issues of the natural environmental sciences with an emphasis on cultures and histories, including examining climate reconstructions; the science of climate; societal impacts of climate change; and cultural analyses of climate history.

Peter d’Agostino is an artist who has been working in video and new media for three decades. His pioneering projects have been exhibited internationally in the form of installations, performances, telecommunications events, and broadcast productions. Recent surveys of his work include: Interactivity and Intervention, 1978-99 exhibited at the Lehman College Art Gallery, New York; and Between Earth & Sky, 1973/2003 at the University of Paris I Partheon-Sorbonne. Major group exhibitions include: The Whitney Museum of American Art (Biennial, and The American Century-Film and Video in America 1950-2000), the Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil, and the Kwangju Biennial, Korea. His work is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art and is distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.

Artist: Seema Goel
Project: Carbon Capture Sweaters
Location: Inishowen Electoral Area

Carbon Capture Sweaters is a process-based artwork linking local phenomenon to global climate change. While the scientific data and analysis are imperative to our understanding of climate change, the project will also consider the hijacking of the term “climate” as in “the economic climate”, the concept of “low-carbon” economies, a statistical correlation analysis of Malin Head meteorological data with Ireland gross domestic product (GDP) and green house gas emissions, and a substantial consideration and use of local materials, knowledge, iconography and personal industry on a human (rather than industrial) scale. The project will attempt to make the science and issues of climate change accessible by rephrasing them in materials and contexts, which are part of the everyday experience, as well as working to reclaim local iconography.

Seema Goel is a Canadian artist and a MFA Graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and is currently completing a MA.Sc. (Interdisc) at the Fine Arts / Environmental Engineering dept, University of Regina.

Artists: The League of Imaginary Scientists (Lucy Hg & partners)
Project: The Irish Rover: Looking for Mars Off the Northern Coast of Ireland
Location: Letterkenny / Milford Electoral Area

http://www.imaginaryscience.org

The Irish Rover: Looking for Mars Off the Northern Coast of Ireland project focuses on and takes its inspiration from the legendary voyage of ‘The Irish Rover’ and the current work being carried out by NASA on Mars. The idea is to develop a scientific expedition along the Fanad / Swilly peninsula’s that will mirror the work currently being undertaken on Mars. In combining planetary storylines, the League hopes to draw a reverse timeline from Earth to Mars and question whether the Earth could end up with a Martian like climate in the future. In examining these seemingly opposite planetary climates, we hope to understand the effects of climate change on Donegal.

The US based League of Imaginary Scientists is a group of artists and scientists who engineer hybrid art works in the cross-section of their worlds, in collaboration with local communities. The League’s previous history aboard boats, barges and ferries prepares them of their Irish expedition. This includes works with the NY Water Taxi, a League residency on the Waterpod (a floating sustainable habitat).

Artist: Antony Lyons
Project: Weather Proof
Location: Ballybofey / Stranolar Electoral Area

http://www.antonylyons.net

Blog/Diary of the project : http://www.antipod.info

Weather-Proof

‘Slowness’ is the key to Antony Lyons’ project. In the Ballybofey / Stranolar area, a look- out point, which is also an existing field-gate, will be selected. The site will be close to a location where scientific weather measurements (rainfall, humidity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, wind direction) are already being taken. This will become the site for year-long observation (by the artist and some observers). At the gate / look-out site, the artist’s recordings will be highly personal weather-words/ weather-diaries recorded on paper and digitally with photos and sounds. The programmed visits by the artist will be supplemented by daily/weekly visits by members of a small volunteer observation team. Furthermore, there is the potential to extend the observer participation into the idea of a geo-caching trail, with weather-proof boxes located at points in the landscape.

Antony Lyons is an artist, landscape designer and environmental scientist based in Bristol, UK. He was the lead artist for NOVA’s 2005/6 ‘Brunel 200’ commissions in Bristol. Co- founder of Deiseal – formed in 2006 to develop sculptural and land-art projects in Ireland.

Artists: Softday (Sean Taylor & Mikael Fernstrom)
Project: Marbh Chrios (Dead Zone)
Location: Donegal Electoral Area

http://www.softday.ie

Marbh Chrios (Dead Zone)

In 2008, Virginia Institute of Marine Science Professor Robert Diaz showed that the number of “dead zones”—areas of seafloor with too little oxygen for most marine life—had increased by a third between 1995 and 2007. Diaz and collaborator Rutger Rosenberg of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that dead zones are now “the key stressor on marine ecosystems” and “rank with over-fishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems.” The study, which appeared in the August 15, 2008 issue of the journal Science, tallied 405 dead zones in coastal waters worldwide, affecting an area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand.

It is currently estimated that there are 20 such ‘dead zones’ in Ireland and two were identified in the study at both Killybeg’s Harbour (1999) and Donegal Bay (2000). Geologic evidence shows that dead zones are not a naturally recurring event in marine ecosystems; dead zones were once rare, now they are common place and increasing, which poses a serious threat to indigenous marine habitats and the human food chain.

Softday proposes to examine the available data from the Irish dead zones and work collaboratively with three distinct partners, local traditional musicians from An Charraig/Amhainn a’Ghlinne (Cairdeas na bhFidiléirí) in Donegal, Met Éireann (the Irish Meteorological Service) and The Marine Institute of Ireland, to address the relationship of climate and culture to sound.

Since 1999, visual artist Sean Taylor and computer software designer Mikael Fernstrom (aka SOFTDAY) have collaborated on a number of high profile science/art projects. Both artists are interested in exploring ‘the cracks’ between various media such as expanded theatre, sound art, sculpture, music, dance and the application of new technologies.

In 2000 they presented a computer generated musical composition entitled Blian le Baisteach (A Year With Rain), with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. The project was constructed using rainfall data supplied by Met Éireann (The Irish Meteorological Agency) for the year 1999-2000. This rainfall data was converted into music using a series of specifically designed neural networks and algorithms, trained by a database of traditional Irish melodies and folk tunes. In 2002, they developed a collaborative project Coisir an Tsionann, with The Irish Chamber Orchestra, Daghdha Dance Company and the Berlin based choir ‘Der Brullchor’. The composition used data from The Electricity Supply Board from the power station on the River Shannon at Ardnacrusha and salmon stocking information from the salmon hatcheries.

For further information please contact Declan Sheehan, Assistant Public Art Officer. Tel: ++ 353 74 9129186 e: declan.sheehan@donegalcoco.ie & www.donegalpublicart.com

Kinda like Netflix, only for live theater – The Artful Manager

An increasing range of entertainment these days is available through a monthly all-access payment rather than a per-use or per-unit cost. Netflix offers unlimited on-line movies and DVDs for one monthly payment. Rhapsody offers access to a jukebox in the clouds for a monthly fee, as well. Now Seattles ACT Theater is playing with the same idea for live theater, and it seems to be catching on.

via Kinda like Netflix, only for live theater – The Artful Manager.

Land Art and changing perspectives


Filming Jan Dibbet’s 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, 1969


Jan Dibbets 6 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective, Maasvlakte beach, 8 February 2009

A year ago this week as part of the Portscapes project, the artist Jan Dibbets had what he called a “second attempt” at his 1969 piece 12 Hours Tide Object with Correction of Perspective; the artist and curators rejected the idea of the event being a recreation. The apparently parallel lines are drawn on the beach and disappear again within the space between two high tides.

The original work became part of the canon of Land Art when it was included in Gerry Schum’s 1969  Land Art TV broadcast, alongside pieces by Robert Smithson and Richard Long. For Schum the attraction of Land Art was its liberation of art from the gallery. He was trying to make a TV-based form of art that suited the more democratic half of the 20th century.

In the second attempt the work becomes more obviously about man’s relationship to the natural world, partly because Portscapes, which we list as one of the 21 highlights of 2009, was a series of commissions by Latitudes on a piece of land that will disappear as part of the new Dutch industrial port complex Maasvlakte 2. And the piece now seems to emphasise the tidal inequalities of that relationship. Just as Dibbett’s illusory parallel lines are seen being washed away by the rising tide, so this beach will soon be gone. That is another perspective shift, of a kind.

Read more about 6 Hours Tide Object… here

Photos: Latitudes, Paloma Polo/SKOR and Freek van Arkel

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

Green Theatre Showcase

Reprinted from Stage Directions: “St. Norbert College Hosts Green Theatre Showcase” by Vicki, February 9, 2010

DEPERE, WI—St. Norbert College is open their doors March 23 for an exhibit and discussion on the new green theatre movement. From 3:00 PM until 8:00 PM in the lobby of Walter Theatre on the St. Norbert’s campus manufacturers will be on hand to discuss their latest innovations on greening up theatre.

Green Theatre has become a big topic, especially with all the energy and resources that go into a single production. School districts have begun making grant money available for environmentally projects as well, but theatre sometimes are at a loss on how to green their processes enough to qualify for the funds. The Green Theatre Showcase aims to answer some of these questions for theatres looking to go green.

Representatives of ETC, Strong, Rosco, Altman, Color Kinetics, Prism Projection, Martin and probably more manufacturers will be on hand to address how their products fit into the green movement, including such products as Low VOC paints & coatings, LED lighting fixtures, modern HID followspots to replace aging incandescent units, or products for any other area of a theatre.

There will be a product presentation at 5:30 PM. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. Attendees will also receive a CD containing information on the featured products.

Registration for the Green Theatre Showcase is requested, but not required.

The showcase will take place:

Saturday, March 23

3:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

St. Norbert College

Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts

Walter Theatre

315 3rd Street DePere, WI 54115

For more info, contact Doug MacDonald and Brian Hatfield at DesignLab Wisconsin, 800-43-DESLB x301 and x302 or e-mail them at wisales@dlabwi.com , or visit www.dlabwi.com.

ShareThis

Go to the Green Theater Initiative

JRHS Book Sigining & Exhibit at Dawson’s Books

Kim Stringfellow pleased to announce that Michael Dawson Gallery will host a book signing and exhibition featuring photographs from my most recent publication, Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938-2008. Published by the Center for American Places, this 136-page hard cover book with dust jacket features sixty-one color photographs with an accompanying text. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase for those unable to attend the event. Signed and inscribed books may also be purchased through PayPal at www.kimstringfellow.com.


Twenty-four photographic images from the book will be on display in the gallery from February 20th until April 3rd, 2010. Historical documents and photos related to the jackrabbit homesteading experience will also be on display.
For more information about this project or to download the JRHS audio tour, please visit the project’s Web site at www.jackrabbithomestead.com.


OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20th, 2010 FROM 2 TO 4 PM.
Dawson Books/Michael Dawson Gallery
535 N. Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004
PH: 323.469.2186
Hours: Thursday – Saturday 11am-5pm and by appointment.
www.michaeldawsongallery.com

Gadget OK! Symposium and Exhibition at UCLA Broad Art Center

Gadget or device art is a great tool for ecovisualization. This is an interesting symposium happening Feb. 18 & 19th at UC Los Angeles. Gadget OK! (also an exhibition) will explore new ways of bridging art, design, technology, science and entertainment using both latest innovations and everyday technology.


RSVP via Facebook HERE


Or, for more information go HERE

Go to EcoLOGIC LA

Coalition of the Willing: film-making, collaboration, activism

This is a brilliant initiative: a growing online activist movie created by an army of collaborators, who are animating a script by philosopher/activist Tim Rayner:


Still from Coalition of the Willing: Back to the 60s by World Leaders

The film is appearing online at coalitionofthewilling.org.uk. Rayner’s collaborator is the film maker Simon Robson aka Knife Party, who has pulled in a glorious range of film makers and animators to bring Rayner’s script – on how activists can come together to combat climate change.

The first clips went up at the start of this week. More will be appearing in waves in the coming weeks.

it’s a really exciting way of bringing creative people together on a project like this. The medium is wonderful. I’m not entirely sure I’m convinced of the message – though I would like to be. The Coalition of the Willing’s theme is that that the net allows “swarm politics” to flourish, giving activists a unique chance to mobilise against global warming.

While the net does have that effect, there are two other effects which seem to be just as strong:

1) It gives exactly the same power to those who think the very opposite of what you do – witness the swarm  of warming scepticism online.

2) Though it creates lots of networks there is no real incentive for those networks to link up. They are often reproducing exactly the same message, deploying the same tactics, in isolation from each other. At the same time as it pulls people together it also keeps them in separate silos.

Knife Party, Tim Rayner

FILMMAKERS: Adam Gault & Stefanie Augustine, Bran Dougherty-Johnson, Cassiano Prado, Mario Sader & Ralph Pinel, Clapham Road Studios, Dave Baum, Decoy, Dom Del Torto, Dylan White & Andy Hague, Echolab, Foreign Office, Andreas Gebhardt, James Wignall,BBWD (Loyalkaspar), Sehsucht – Directed by Mate Steinforth, Mighty Nice, Parasol Island, Thiago Maia, World Leaders, Yum Yum London

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

Mel Chin to speak at Farm Lab 2/11 7pm



For those of us who have followed the art and ecology movement over the last two decades, Mel Chin is considered an influential pioneer combining art with brownfield remediation. His famous or infamous Revival Field (1989-ongoing) funded with NEA money that was rescinded then later reinstated, demonstrated the natural processes of removing heavy metals from soil using hyper accumulator plants.
He did this project in collaboration with an agronomist at a landfill site in Minnesota.

Mel will be in Los Angeles next week to give a talk on his Fundred Dollar Bill Project in New Orleans. If you have never heard him speak, you should go, with the promise that you will be entertained and educated. Being an artist should be so much fun!

For more information go the FarmLab website HERE

Go to EcoLOGIC LA

Creating Cities: Culture, Space, and Sustainability – The City, Culture, and Society (CCS) Conference

Jointly organized by Japan Center, Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology and Institute for European Ethnology, and Seminar of Economic History of Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, and Urban Research Plaza of Osaka City University

supported by

The Japan Foundation, Osaka City University, State Ministry for Social Affairs of Bavaria, Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft

The conference Creating Cities: Culture, Space and Sustainability, which will take place from 25 to 27 February 2010, investigates the forces that shape the conditions of urban development and the creation of cities in comparative and interdisciplinary perspective. In recent years, the notion of the „creative city“ has become a guiding framework for thinking about the present and future state of cities and their capability of coping with the impact and challenges of globalization. Cities are regarded as engines of regional, national, and global economic growth because they are the key centers for cultural production and consumption and target areas for mobility and migration. They are also contested sites because of increasing cultural and social diversity. Simultaneously, cities use cultural diversity and even counter-cultures to display appealing images and representations of creativity and innovation. Many citizens aspire to live and work in the cosmopolitan global environments that only metropolitan centers seem to be able to provide, but cities also provide vital space for the challenged, homeless, and other socially disadvantaged groups. The resolution of social disparities is consequently becoming an urgent policy task. Environmental and social sustainability, urban revitalization and amenity are major keywords of our time.

In this context, this conference focuses on the interactions among culture, sustainability, and space. We would like to emphasize inquiry into the dynamics of cultural creativity, industries and production, the risks and benefits of both cultural diversity and social inclusion or exclusion, the sustainability of efforts to plan and redesign the urban built environment to promote creativity, and the identity politics of representations of the city and creativity in the popular imagination as well as spaces of heritage and tourism. We recognize that there are many different groups and focal points related to creating cities, so one major purpose of this conference is to create a framework in which both practitioners and researchers of different disciplines can interact and share ideas about how urban environments are being transformed.

Introductory Session: Creating Cities & Creative Cities

As global market forces penetrate hitherto closed rural areas wherever market liberalization occurs, urbanization, too, is progressing rapidly. Even though regional differences obviously do exist the global ratio of urban population has now crossed the 50-percent line. While mega cities may be one of the most conspicuous phenomena of the present urbanization the term urban must be understood in a much broader sense. The fact that the majority of urban dwellers still lives in smaller and medium-sized settlements is frequently overlooked. Only through a combined effort of local supplier development, national institutional support, and foreign investment can there be any real benefits from for example creative cluster development and economies of scale and scope. Two prominent regions of Southeast Asia, namely the Greater Mekong Region and Singapore, will serve as examples as this session will investigate the relationship between the process of creating cities and the making of creative cities.

Session 1: Creative Diversity, Socioscapes, and Cultural Politics

This session critically reviews current notions and implications of cultural diversity in cities by bringing together broadly three strands: representation, socioscapes, and cultural politics. The interplay between creating particular urban images and the urban condition of particular socioscapes, ranging from less empowered groups such as those that are affected by transnational precarization to elite diasporas, will be examined.

Session 2: City Marketing

Cities are increasingly undertaking marketing activities to support their local economy. By way of example, this section will look at how city marketing may cope with challenges in terms of communication content, tools or media, and with regard to underlying organizational structures and processes.

Session 3: Mobility and Built Environment

Mobility is a crucial aspect of globalization and the development of more efficient mobility systems on a grand scale is a significant locus for planning activity in global cities. This session will compare and contrast corporate and planning approaches to mobility issues in several global cities.

Session 4: Networks

Global cities rely upon networks with other cities, and the institutions, infrastructure, character, extent and effects of such inter-city networking are the subject for this session. It will identify the possibilities and constraints on such network development.

See also the detailed conference program (as of 2010-01-14, pdf format, 600 KB).

Please note:

  • The conference will take place at the IBZ Munich, Amalienstraße 38, D-80799 Munich / Germany (how to get there).
  • Admission fee (regular/student) will be EUR 40/20 for the whole conference, or EUR 20/10 for participation on Thursday and EUR 10/5 for participation on Friday or Saturday, respectively.
  • If you would like to attend the conference, please register until February 15th, 2010 via E-Mail schicken an osakamuc2010@lrz.uni-muenchen.de E-Mail(Subject: Registration Creating Cities)
  • Please also consult our list of accomodations near the conference site.
  • For the duration of the symposium (25-27 February) our invited guests will be staying at the Savoy Hotel Munich at Amalienstrasse 25 (Tel. +49 (0) 89 / 287870 - how to get there). At the hotel, they will receive the conference folder, containing also a map with the symposium venue indicated. The symposium venue is literally just down the street, at Amalienstrasse 38, i.e. in easy walking distance (cf. the Google Maps location of the hotel).

Prof. Dr. Evelyn Schulz

LMU Japan Center

phone: +49 89 / 2180-9800
fax: +49 89 / 2180-9801

For further inquiries, please E-Mail schicken an osakamuc2010@lrz.uni-muenchen.de E-Mail us.

via Veranstaltungen – Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.