Monthly Archives: May 2012

Six films on culture and climate change

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About Water - 2007 a film about our precarious relationship with water

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Kellie Gutman writes:

Filmbase, in Dublin, is presenting climate.culture.change,  a series of films from six European countries, and discussions, through 12 June on culture and climate change. A collaboration between Cultivate and the EUNIC European cultural partners: Goethe Institut, British Council, Austrian Embassy, Alliance Française and the Italian Institute of Culture, with additional funding from the European Commission, this film and discussion series is a lead-up to Rio +20, the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Information on the program available here

 

“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

Science Inspires Art 2012: VITAL SIGNS

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

Open Call for Artists: What vital signs of life pull at your inquisitive mind and imagination?

The Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) announces an Open Call for their annual,  international, art-sci competition. The exhibition will be held at the New York Hall of Science, September 1, 2012 – February 3, 2013.

For this year’s competition they are seeking original art inspired by our biological world with a special interest in what lies beneath its surface, and/or reflects upon scientific research questions, processes, ethics, and the stunning discoveries being made in biology and the biosciences today.

This time, the Art Co-Juror will be Patricia Kernan, curator of the New York State Museum’s illustration collection; and curator of the museum’s international, biennial, “Focus on Nature” exhibits; and the Science Co-Juror will be Dr. Dana Boyd, microbiologist and Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School; long-time collaborator of Joe Davis, the “father” of bio-art.

The Deadline is June 17, 2012.

For more details, 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

Carbon-lite touring

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The Last Polar Bears on tour

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Wallace Heim writes: 

The carbon footprint of a production meets the content of the play in the National Theatre of Scotland’s tour of their climate change play The Last Polar Bears. For the 350-mile tour, everything needed for the show will be carried by the cast and crew on bicycles made from reclaimed bikes. The vinyl panniers are made from recycled National Theatre of Scotland banners.

As part of the production’s legacy, the National Theatre of Scotland will donate to the World Wildlife Fund’s Adopt a polar bear project on behalf of the 18 primary schools on the tour.

Alongside the production, director Joe Douglas will use the tour to interview people, ‘taking the temperature of how people are feeling about climate change.’

 

“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

Theatres Trust Conference 12: ‘Delivering Sustainable Theatres’ is open for booking

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The challenge of achieving the triple bottom line

Booking is now open for The Theatres Trust’s sixth annual conference Delivering Sustainable Theatres taking place at Stratford Circus, London on Tuesday 12 June 2012.

Conference 12 looks at the sustainable design, development and operation of theatre buildings in relation to environmental, economic and social disciplines, and the challenges of delivering sustainable theatres for future generations.

Conference Chair

  • Samira Ahmed

Session Chairs

  • Dorothy Wilson MBE, Chief Executive and Artistic Director, mac, Birmingham
  • Mark Robinson, Director, Thinking Practice
  • Nick Starr, Chief Executive, National Theatre, London.

Keynote Speakers

  • Griff Rhys Jones, Chairman, Civic Voice
  • Baroness Hanham CBE, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government

The event will explore how theatre buildings have addressed the sustainability agenda and introduced new technologies, adapted to meet rising energy costs, tougher environmental building standards, economic constraints and the expectations of audiences – and see what lessons have been learnt.

In addition to showcasing the experiences of the 48 London theatres on The Theatres Trust ERDF funded ECOVENUE project, particular focus will be paid to just what sustainable development means for theatres now, what opportunities exist for theatre buildings in the new National Planning Policy Framework, how funding programmes are now promoting more sustainable capital development of theatre buildings, and what is needed to ensure theatres can meet the triple bottom line head on and continue to thrive.

Conference 12 will be of critical interest to those trying to maximise economic, social and environmental returns from their theatre buildings through redesign, adaptation or new builds. It provides the opportunity to discuss these issues with other theatres, government and arts policy makers, theatre consultants and architects and take part in the debate.

Delegates will have the opportunity to hear from many engaging speakers and leaders including: Dame Elizabeth Forgan, Chair, Arts Council England; Rosemary Squire, Ambassador Theatre Group; John Holden, DEMOS Associate and Visiting Professor, City University, London; Rab Bennetts OBE, Bennetts Associates Architects

Coinciding with the 34th ABTT Theatre Show, the Conference’s timing and location aims to maximise opportunities for the theatre sector, visitors and exhibitors to engage with both events in the dynamically evolving Olympic Borough of Newham.

Industry support is key to producing Delivering Sustainable Theatres and in 2012 The Theatres Trust is delighted to announce the support of the following organisations: Charcoalblue Ltd, Clay Paky, ETC Ltd, ShowTex, ABTT, Audio Light Systems, Martin Professional, State Automation, Northern Light, Arup, Harlequin Floors, Stage Systems, Theatre Project Consultants, White Light, Wigwam, Global Design Systems, Stage Electrics, Stratford Circus and The Society of Theatre Consultants.  Our Media Partners are Lighting & Sound International and The Stage.

The Theatres Trust

Protecting Theatres for Everyone

National Advisory Public Body for Theatres

Ecovenue and Conference 12 are funded by the European Regional Development Fund and The Theatres Trust.

 The Theatres Trust: The Theatres Trust is The National Advisory Public Body for theatres.  The Trust was established by The Theatres Trust Act 1976 ‘to promote the better protection of theatres’.  We are a statutory consultee on theatre buildings in the planning system, we provide expert advice on the sustainable development of theatre buildings, and we help promote awareness and solutions for theatres at risk.  We champion all theatres, historic, contemporary and new, in theatre use, in other uses or disused. Our central London Theatreland-based Resource Centre provides access to a specialist theatre building Reference Library including books and architectural plans. For more information: www.theatrestrust.org.uk

Ecovenue: Ecovenue is a significant theatre-specific environmental project run by The Theatres trust. It aims to improve the environmental performance for forty-eight London theatres and raise awareness of how to make theatres greener. Ecovenue is promoting the sustainability of theatres and the reduction of carbon emissions through the provision of free theatre-specific, environmental advice. Further information on Ecovenue and The Theatres Trust can be obtained from its website www.theatrestrust.org.uk

European Regional Development Fund: London European Regional Development Fund 2007 to 2013: The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is used to tackle regional disparities across Europe. The ERDF supports regional development through actions such as business innovation and support and regeneration. Working on behalf of the Mayor of London, the European Programmes Management Unit (EPMU) at the London Development Agency (LDA) is responsible for the administration of the 2007 to 2013 ERDF programme.

For futher information and images, or to register your interest please contact Suzanne McDougall suzanne.mcdougall@theatrestrust.org.uk T: 020 7836 8591  F: 020 7836 3302.

International Conference:“Popular Culture and Social Transformation”

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

What can we learn about social transformations from popular culture?

The two- day conference, entitled “Popular Culture and Social Transformation”,  will be held in Oslo on 4-5 October 2012.

The aim of the conference is through a variety of sessions and topics to address how popular culture is not only a mirror of society, but also a crucial element of power; the keynote speakers are Simon Lindgren and Jason Dittmer.

For those interested in joining the conference, the deadline for abstracts is May 15th, 2012.

The call for papers is available here.

For more information about the conference, please visit:

http://www.uio.no/kultrans/aktuelt/konferanser/popular/

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

Key Issues Guide on Indigenous knowledge and climate change

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

Indigenous communities have long been recognised as being particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to the close connection between their livelihoods, culture, spirituality and social systems and their environment. At the same time, however, this deep and long-established relationship with the natural environment affords many indigenous peoples with knowledge that they have long used to adapt to environmental change, and are now using to respond to the impacts of climate change.

The potential of indigenous knowledge for informing observations of, and responses to climate change is an area of growing interest. The United Nations University published a compendium, available online, which presents a wide-ranging overview of more than 400 projects, case studies and research activities specifically related to climate change and Indigenous Peoples (IP).

That  publication, as well as other resources, can be  found on the website of the Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex (UK): 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

Fear Me No More: Performance, Activism and Permaculture.

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A free workshop with the Laboratory of Insurectionary Imagination.

Hamburg, Kampnagel. August 2012.

Join us in an intensive workshop merging performance, activism and the design science of Permaculture run by the infamous artivist collective The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.  Held as part of Kampnagel’s Summer Festival in Hamburg, the workshop is Act 1 of What is Enough ? the Labofii’s 16th experiment. At the end of the workshop, participants will have the chance to perform in a live piece of art activism (Act 2 – Natural Revenge).

Fear Me No More aims to make productive connections between artists and activists within the framework of Permaculture. A set of tools for building a postcapitalist society, Permaculture teaches us to mimic the efficiency, diversity and resilience of natural ecosystems. This fulltime workshop is an ideal introduction for those wishing to explore new forms of creative resistance and horizontal politics.

“It reminds us of the time when it was still possible for free theatre to try out a loving anarchic social utopia… This is about saying goodbye to representation and is therefore the most radical form of theatre” -Frankfurter Rundschau.

For more information and application forms (deadline May 31st) click here. The workshop will be run in english.

Workshop Act 1:  12th-19th August, Kampnagel.
Rehearsal (optional):  20th-23rd August, Kampnagel.
Performance Action (optional) Act 2:  24th August, 7pm. Kampnagel.

What is Enough? is accompanied by the publication of our film/book Pfade durch Utopia (Paths Through Utopias) in Germany,  with Nautilus.

Wendell E. Berry Lecture | National Endowment for the Humanities

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Suzaan Boettger drew attention to Wendell Berry’s Lecture “It all turns on affection”, given to the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Wendell Berry is one of the great advocates for places and for a way of life that is committed to place and nature.  There are some standout parts of this lecture.

His critique of capitalism and philanthropy is damning,

“If you can appropriate for little or nothing the work and hope of enough such farmers [or for that matter any other workers – ed], then you may dispense the grand charity of “philanthropy.”

When arguments are made for philanthropy, remember that there is a choice: perhaps not accumulating great wealth might in some cases mean that more people have had better lives and more environments are less depleted.

But Berry’s argument for imagination is the most important, developed and illuminating aspect of this lecture.

The sense of the verb “to imagine” contains the full richness of the verb “to see.” To imagine is to see most clearly, familiarly, and understandingly with the eyes, but also to see inwardly, with “the mind’s eye.” It is to see, not passively, but with a force of vision and even with visionary force. To take it seriously we must give up at once any notion that imagination is disconnected from reality or truth or knowledge. It has nothing to do either with clever imitation of appearances or with “dreaming up.” It does not depend upon one’s attitude or point of view, but grasps securely the qualities of things seen or envisioned.

I will say, from my own belief and experience, that imagination thrives on contact, on tangible connection. For humans to have a responsible relationship to the world, they must imagine their places in it. To have a place, to live and belong in a place, to live from a place without destroying it, we must imagine it. By imagination we see it illuminated by its own unique character and by our love for it. By imagination we recognize with sympathy the fellow members, human and nonhuman, with whom we share our place. By that local experience we see the need to grant a sort of preemptive sympathy to all the fellow members, the neighbors, with whom we share the world. As imagination enables sympathy, sympathy enables affection. And it is in affection that we find the possibility of a neighborly, kind, and conserving economy.

Wendell E. Berry Lecture | National Endowment for the Humanities.

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

Opportunity to make work at Teaneck Creek

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

The Ecoart Committee of the Teaneck Creek Conservancy in Teaneck, NJ seeks proposals from ecoartists or ecoartist teams to create an ecoartwork in 2012-13.

The Teaneck Creek Conservancy is a 46-acre eco-park within Bergen County’s 1,200-acre Overpeck Park, this property is being reclaimed and rehabilitated as wetland habitat and for positive public use through a unique “Brownfields to Greenfields” project. Community-based plans for the Conservancy are developed by artists, activists, scientists, historians, educators in a non profit partnership with local government over the past ten years. These plans have created a park with a 1.5 mile trail system for passive recreation, eco art, wetlands research and rehabilitation, and public outreach and education that is focused on the property’s environmental resources, land use, and history.

For this project, they are seeking an experienced ecoart practicioner, who´s capable of responding imaginatively to a recovering urban forested wetland, and will work collaboratively with community students and volunteers, and mentor a local artist in the creation of the piece.The work should build support among the larger community for an understanding and definition of ecoart that is inclusive yet underscores the notion of ecology and our impact on this recovering environment. The process will be video documented throughout the residency period.

The Anticipated total budget including artist(s) fee is a range of USD$15000. – 20000.

To apply, you can submit via email by June 1, 2012 to devery [at] teaneckcreek [dot] org :

1) A brief artists statement of interest outlining a preliminary proposal for this site project. (Interested artists are strongly encouraged to visit the Conservancy prior to making a submission.)

2) Up to 5 images of representative works that address the requirements of this RFP. Images should be smaller than 1MB. A website address can be substituted. They are interested in viewing your work as an ecoart practitioner.

3) C.V. , either via e-mail or associated with a website.

4) Contact information including daytime phone number.

You can check the proposal form at  Teaneck Creek´s website and you can also check www.PuffinFoundation.org  for further information and directions.

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

Collapse: The Cry of Silent Forms

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland
BRANDON BALLENGÉE
Collapse: The Cry of Silent Forms
May 5 – June 16

Vertical fall in the Winter call that dances in the spring nocturnal…, 2010/2012 from “A Season in Hell Series, Deadly Born Cry” unique digital chromogenic print 64 x 56 inches In scientific collaboration with Stanley K. Sessions Title from a poem by KuyDelair

Ronald Feldman Fine Arts 31 Mercer Street | New York, NY 10013 | 212-226-3232 | www.feldmangallery.com

Brandon Ballengée, a visual artist and biologist, will exhibit sculptural installations and photographs at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in his first major solo exhibition in New York.  The exhibition, Collapse: The Cry of Silent Forms, consists of three bodies of work that explore the effect of ecological degradation on marine life and avian and amphibian populations.  Synthesizing scientific inquiry with art-making, Ballengée transforms his field research into metaphors that reduce life to its essentials.

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