This post comes to you from Ashden DirectoryKellie Gutman writes: Pulitzer-Prize-winning Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles‘ latest cartoon on climate change. Toles has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning, winning in 1990. He replaced the legendary cartoonist Herblock at the Washington Postin 2002. Toles’ cartoons are syndicated in over 200 newspapers. He is known for tackling complicated subjects such as environmental issues. He often includes a small doodle, a caricature of himself, in the corner.
“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network) ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance. The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’. The Directory has been live since 2000. Go to The Ashden Directory
Hosted by Griffith University Centre for Cultural Research
‘Creative communities’ is a well-worn phrase conventionally equated with notions of well-being, civic participation and social inclusion. Creativity in this sense is regarded as social glue that bonds individuals together through collaboration in various forms of creative projects – be it visual art, drama, dance, theatre,music, writing or a combination of these. that bring communities together in positive and fulfilling ways.
Similarly, community connotes a wholehearted feeling, the strength of relationships in networks or inclusiveness through a sense of shared characteristics and values.
There is now a significant body of practice, policy and academically focused work that highlights the importance of the ‘creative community’ in fostering community well-being. At the same time, however, the term creative community throws up a number of questions that remain largely unaddressed in existing research, for example;
How does creativity actually impact community?
What is lost when the term ‘creative communities’ is imposed on place?
How are decisions on processes of inclusion / exclusion in creative practices made and who controls such decisions?
What happens to a creative community when access to resources that facilitate its creativity are lost or compromised and what sort of factors can contribute to this – e.g socio-economic change, civil unrest, urban redevelopment, shifts in state and government policy?
Call for Proposals
Griffith Centre for Cultural Research invites proposal submissions from scholars, artists & cultural workers, designers, urban designers, architects and policy makers interested in presenting oral papers, presentations, interactive workshops, panels or roundtable discussions on the following Conference themes;
1. Creative Communities At Risk
Perceptions of societal danger- Aversion and subversive behaviour
Individual versus collective risk and possibility between invisibility and presence
Laws and regulations and their impact or influence on creative communities
2. Itineraries of engagement
Creative Practice and cultural indicators in policy making
Idealization and leadership
Professional versus hobbyist perspectives of creative practice
Public events as catalysts for community
Observing and evaluating participation in creative engagement
Possibilities of participation- gatekeepers
3.Transcultural dialogues
Emergent global creativities
Community, creativity and post transnational trauma -, for example, 9/11- Bali bombing, London ‘youth’ riots, Black Friday Victorian bush fires
Cultural tourism /mis-tourism
Asia Pacific heritage ·dialogues
4. Politics of networks
Digital social networking (lived environments versus online/virtual)
Politics, kinship, and the role of communities /Creative geographies, ecologies and networks
Migration of skills and experience (migrants/refugees, professional arts workers, skills exchange learning, mentors and novice)
Flexible and local forums and networks, complexity in varied contexts
Hard-to-reach’ membership cohorts.
5. Diversity and inclusion: Creativity as a catalyst for reconciling difference Social Sustainability and the creative artist: socially responsible creative commitment
Personal Development as a liberating force: confidence building in community sub groups
Collaboration: reliable interdependence: links through non-political non-biased creativity
Transparency and ownership: who owns the project
Old and skilled/young and skilled: forging links and breaking down generational barriers
Proposals due 23rd June 2012 to gccr [at] griffith [dot] edu [dot] au
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
Steven Chu, the 12th Secretary of Energy for the United States, has a post on his Facebook page about the new movie, The Avengers. Though his friends are not listed, he does have 18,963 ‘likes’ on his page. Chu lists his job:
As Secretary of Energy, proudly carrying out President Obama’s ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create millions of new jobs.
About The Avengers he says:
‘[It] focuses on a new, limitless clean energy source called ‘The Tesseract.”… While the “Tesseract” may be fictional, the real-life global competition over clean energy is growing increasingly intense, as countries around the world sense a huge economic opportunity AND the opportunity for cleaner air, water, and a healthier planet…’
“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)
ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.
Opening on June 2nd 2012 and running until September 30th 2012, Manifesta 9 takes place in the former coalmining complex of Waterschei in Genk, Limburg, Belgium.
Manifesta 9 is an assembly of artworks, testimonies, and participants inviting the viewer to rethink the role of culture in industrial and post-industrial societies. For its ninth edition, which take place in Limburg, Belgium, the curatorial team, composed of Cuauhtémoc Medina (México), Katherina Gregos (Greece) and Dawn Ades (U.K.) has developed a concept creating a dialogue between different layers of art, heritage and history.
The point of departure of Manifesta 9 is the significance of the former coalmining region of the Belgian Campine, as a locus for different imaginary and ecological issues associated with industrial capitalism as a global phenomenon.
For more information about Manifesta 9, you can visit their website : http://manifesta9.org
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
Since their first American Society for The Theatre Research (ASTR) Working Group session at the 2010 conference in Seattle, the Performance and Ecology Working Group has spawned symposia, anthologies, and publications. Foremost among those is a new volume that grew out of the 2010 session: Readings in Performance and Ecology, eds., Wendy Arons and Theresa J. May (Palgrave 2012). The Working Group has continued valuable research on numerous fronts, including “Earth Matters on Stage” conference at Carnegie Mellon University (2012) and “Staging Sustainability” at York University (2011).
“The rising tide of this focused research indicate not only a growing concern and mounting artistic will in the realm of ecological sensibility, but also faith in the imagination as a critical aspect of our individual and collective ecological identities.”
This year, as part of ASTR’s “Theatrical Histories” focus, they turn their attention to trans-cultural, trans-national, and trans-species performance in anticipation of a second volume of ecocritical writings on theatre and performance. The questions for the upcoming 2012 Working Group session, that will take place November 1st.- 4th 2012 include:
How do transcultural and transnational performances re-map our understanding of what May has called “ecodramaturgy”?
What constitutes “theatre of species” (Chaudhuri) and how might these trans-species performances rearrange or reinterpret understandings of representation?
How do the material characteristics of artistic sites condition the aesthetics of the work produced?
What kinds of geological and geographical histories emerge alongside socio-cultural storytelling?
How do intersecting histories – indigenous, place-based, community-driven – play out on stage in performance?
How do ecological transitions, transmigrations, transmutations, transformations and transference shape artistic practice and meaning-making in the theatre?
Other questions, approaches and topics that clearly address trans-national, trans-cultural, trans-species topics in performance.
Please send Abstracts as word attachments to both Working Group conveners below by May 31, 2012:
Theresa May, University of Oregon ( tmay33 [at] uoregon [dot] edu)
Nelson Gray, University of Victoria ( ncgray [at] uvic [dot] ca)
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
One of the explanations offered for why climate change is not more prominent in people’s thinking is that it’s not physically seen. It doesn’t feel ‘real’ enough.
But a different view comes out in the stories people tell about how climate change is immediately altering their everyday lives. The climate is changing how they feel about the world and their decisions about what to do.
Project ASPECT, based at University College Falmouth, is gathering people’s stories about climate change from individuals and communities in Wales, northern England, London and Cornwall. Building a digital narrative archive, they are capturing on DVD how people talk about the climate in the context of their everyday lives.
There are those who watch. Heather continues the diary her mother started, recording every day what work is done on the family farm and the weather. Duncan and Matt are surfers in Cornwall, watching the storms. There are those who work with renewable energy, or, like Hanna, find green jobs for young people. Many are changing the way they grow food and eat: Mary from Incredible Edible; Owen with his backyard in Peckham; and masked night-time Ninja guerrilla gardeners. Singers, rappers, athletes tell their stories. Spontaneous acts of community kindness sit alongside the meticulous work of digitising the weather reports from World War I ship’s logs.
In these stories of everyday life, there is a cultural reality emerging, soft-voiced, but pressing.
“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)
ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.
Sydneysiders and visitors to the Harbour City can explore the impact of climate change on island communities through this large-scale performance installation by Tongan Islander, Latai Taumoepeau. Large blocks of ice, suspended using traditional Tongan architectural lashing techniques for binding, will draw connections between melting ice glaciers and rising sea levels. Lanai says that she attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in 2007, and thereafter decided to “extend the voice of our invisible pacific people through my artistic practice.”
In her own words… “My name is Latai Taumoepeau, I am a performance artist with a new performance installation campaign called i-Land X-isle. It is about the impact of climate change on vulnerable indigenous communities from the arctic to coastal low lying islands. My body will be bound by rope to a 2 tonne block of ice to parallel the experience of already impacted people of human induced climate change to a form of water torture, that is imposed by developing countries. It will be live and a durational performance over 2 days.
I humbly invite you… to use my public art spectacle as a platform to raise wider awareness of communities already impacted by human induced climate change and instructions of how ordinary citizens can change to minimise and cease harm to Australia’s nearest coastal neighbours all the way to the Arctic.”
Faka’apa’apa Atu (with respect), Latai Taumoepeau
When: 26 & 27th May 2012
Time: 10am – 12noon & 2pm – 4pm
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art – Circular Quay Sydney.
The Natural Circus trainings are a body and movement practice (and maybe a bit more), embedded in an understanding that ‘nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect’.
Situated in a powerful natural environment, they are playful gatherings beyond the human(-centered) perspective that may help realize the complete interdependence and interconnectedness of the human being with the natural world – until what remains is dance only. The trainings integrate elements of Contact Improvisation, Physical Theater, Tango, Bodywork, Meditation, Deep Ecology and Nature Awareness Work, Taoist/Advaita/Zen philosophy.
This 4-days gathering will take place in Barnave/Diois, France; from May 24th to the 28th, and will feature Diethild Meier (Dancer, improviser, visual artist), Lars Schmidt (Wandering Monk, Natural Thinker, Improviser) and Romain Petit (Freeclimber and climbing teacher).
The cost of the gathering is 240€, housing on site (Le Serre) included, in two rustic apartments, food will be extra, shared and prepared together. The number of participants is limited to 12 persons
Registration: contact [at] passiveactivism [dot] net
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
Sustainability in Theater: People, Planet, Profit, Purpose
A blended conference dedicated to providing tangible, practical strategies to implementing greener theater practices, ensuring theaters remain a vital part of our community.
Day One (WEBCASTED LIVE): Learn
A full day of learning and networking, featuring sustainability experts, sustainability in theater pioneers and success stories.
All Day One activities were broadcast online – and are NOW AVAILABLE.
Thanks to Alison Bell for drawing attention to this.
OPEN HUMANITIES PRESS is delighted to announce the publication of two new open access books in its Critical Climate Change series:
TELEMORPHOSIS: THEORY IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE, vol. 1
edited by Tom Cohen (University at Albany)
Freely available here
The writers in the volume explore how the 21st century horizons that exceed any political, economic, or conceptual models alter or redefine a series of key topoi. These range from figures of sexual difference through to bioethics, care, species invasion, war, post-carbon thought, ecotechnics and time. As such, the volume is also a dossier on what metamorphoses await the legacies of “humanistic” thought in adapting to, or rethinking, the other materialities that impinge of contemporary “life as we know it.”
Introduction: Murmurations-”Climate Change” and the Defacement of Theory by Tom Cohen
Time by Robert Markley
Ecotechnics by J. Hillis Miller
Care by Bernard Stiegler
Unicity by Justin Read
Scale by Timothy Clark
Sexual Indifference by Claire Colebrook
Nonspecies Invasion by Jason Groves
Bioethics by Joanna Zylinska
Post-Trauma by Catherine Malabou
Ecologies of War by Mike Hill
Notes Toward a Post-Carbon Philosophy by Martin McQuillan
Health by Eduardo Cadava and Tom Cohen
IMPASSES OF THE POST-GLOBAL: THEORY IN THE ERA OF CLIMATE CHANGE, vol. 2
edited by Henry Sussman (Yale University)
Freely available here
The diverse materials comprising Impasses of the Post-Global take as their starting point an interrelated, if seemingly endless, sequence of current ecological, demographic, socio-political, economic, and informational disasters. These include the contemporary discourses of climate change, ecological imbalance and despoilment, sustainability, security, economic bailout, auto-immunity, and globalization itself.
Introduction: Spills, Countercurrents, Sinks by Henry Sussman and Jason Groves
Anecographics: Climate Change and “Late” Deconstruction by Tom Cohen
Autopoiesis and the Planet by Bruce Clarke
Of Survival: Climate Change and Uncanny Landscape in the Photography of Subhankar Banerjee by Yates McKee
Global Warming as a Manifestation of Garbage by Tian Song
The Physical Reality of Water Shapes by James H. Bunn
Sacrifice Mimesis, and the Theorizing of Victimhood (A Speculative Essay) by Rey Chow
Security: From “National” to “Homeland” … and Beyond by Samuel Weber
Common Political Democracy: The Marrano Register by Alberto Moreiras
Bare Life by Ewa Plonowska Ziarek
Sustainability by Haun Saussy
The Global Unworld: A Meditative Manifesto by Krzysztof Ziarek
Bailout by Randy Martin
Auto-Immunity by Henry Sussman
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.
