Monthly Archives: December 2012

New Red Stables Art & Ecology Summer School publication

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Image: A meeting of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club at the Giant’s Causeway, 11 June, 1868. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland Collection Ulster Museum

Image: A meeting of the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club at the Giant’s Causeway, 11 June, 1868. Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland Collection Ulster Museum

I gave a presentation of my theory and practice research, and my video experiments to date (see video at top of my homepage), the Hollywood Diaries: screen reel 2008-12. There were contributions from many other diverse fields that were part of significant projects undertaken by Seoidín O’Sullivan and Geraldine O’Reilly. My video was shown along with films and videos by Seoidín O’Sullivan, Grace Weir, David Nash, Andy Goldsworthy, Christine Mackey, Toon.ie animations.A great legacy of the Dublin Red Stables Art & Ecology summer school, in which I took part in August, has now been produced. The series of events and projects have been reviewed and collated into a new publication created by the Dublin City Arts Office, edited by  Seán O Sullivan with an essay by invited curator and cultural geographer, Dr Karen E. Till.

All are welcome to attend the book launch, details below. I will putting a copy of the book into the National College of Art & Design for those that are interested. My thanks to Denise and the staff at Red Stables for creating such a important project and to Karen Till for reviewing what is becoming an important new area in fine art/visual culture and cultural geography.

The book  launch was this Saturday 15 December 2012.

The Red Stables Summer School: Jul – Aug 2012
St. Anne’s Park, Dublin 3

Edited by Seán O Sullivan

This Saturday, Dublin City Council Arts Office will launch a book entitled The Red Stables Summer School: Jul – Aug 2012, which details two major projects, Seoidín O’Sullivan’s Field Work and Geraldine O’Reilly’s Weeds Are Plants Too!. This year’s summer school included a rolling series of talks and field trips with invited artists, geographers, botanists and architects and an art & ecology summer school.

Alongside more than sixty full-colour illustrations, the book includes essays by Seán O Sullivan, Dr. Karen E. Till [Cultural Geographer, NUI Maynooth], and Dr. Declan Doogue, [Botanist, Dublin Naturalists’ Field Club]. It is printed lithographically on high quality book paper in an edition of 250 copies, and it is available free of charge.

This book which highlights art and ecology projects that took place in St. Anne’s Park will be launched by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Naoise Ó Muirí, who will also switch on the Christmas tree lights.

Following on from The Red Stables Summer School and the theme of art and nature, there will be a ‘Winter Walk’ in the park with Botanist, Dr. Declan Doogue.

This project is supported by Dublin City Council Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland.

  Screen Shot 2012-12-12 at 21.33.02

Related links:

My talk online and video works at Red Stables Art & Ecology summer school,  17 July 2012

Art and Ecology at the Red Stables Summer School Dublin

Stories from the Field and Forest seminar at Red Stables Dublin

Please note:

Due to time demands, I am now posting a lot more regularly on my new phd website www.ecoartfilm.com which you are also welcome to follow. Just add your email to bottom of homepage. Here you will find info on experimental ecocinema practice and theory, my work and others in this small field.

An Arts & Ecology Notebook, by Cathy Fitzgerald, whose work exists as ongoing research and is continually inspired to create short films, photographic documentation, and writings. While she interacts with foresters, scientists, and communities, she aims to create a sense of a personal possibility, responsibility and engagement in her local environment that also connects to global environmental concerns.
Go to An Arts and Ecology Notebook

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To Life! eco art in pursuit of a sustainable planet

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Linda Weintraub has produced an excellent series of books on arts and ecology – they are toolkits and learning resources suitable for people who want to know more or engage groups in arts and ecology.

The most recent just published by the University of California Press is To Life!  The blurb is here Linda Weintraub: To Life! and you can purchase it here University of California Press.  Other titles are here.

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

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Call for Papers – Crisis, Critique and Change

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esa-150x150The European Sociological Association (ESA) is calling for papers for their 11th conference, taking place in Turin, Italy from the 28-31 August 2013. The topic of the conference is “Crisis, Critique and Change“.

There are multiple calls by all the different Research Network and Research Streams, ranging from Environment and Society or Quantitative Research to Social Theory, as well as a Call for Paper for a pre-conference PhD Workshop at the end of August.

One particular Research Network is the Sociology of the Arts RN chaired by Tasos Zembylas:

Art’s position within society and politics has always been complex and ambivalent. Artists may raise a critical voice or offer ideological legitimation for a dominant, hegemonic image of society. They may display a strong commitment or keep a distance from others’ fate. The attitude of the arts towards contemporary issues such as the ecological crisis, the debt crisis, violence against minorities and opponents, economic exploitation, and deprivation of people’s rights has never lost any relevance. Therefore, we would like to create special sessions and invite papers on this topic with the expectation that they may include a broad nexus of sub-issues around the relation and commitment of arts in society.

More information on this specific call, is available here.

The deadline for submissions is the 1st February 2013. For further information on the Conference, all the Calls for Papers and the submission procedure please visit:http://www.esa11thconference.eu/home/

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

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‘Ten Billion’ from another side

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Wallace Heim writes:

Michael Billington, in his nomination of Ten Billion as the best theatre event of 2012, claims that all the people he knows who saw the production found it life-changing. From my unscientific poll of the dozen people I know who saw the production, including myself, it’s possible we were in a different theatre. The lecture was well-crafted, the production tight, but the event was neither moving, informative or motivating. It was ‘old news’, a ‘first-year introductory lecture’, ‘Al Gore without the cherry picker’.

Billington’s lauding of the production is encouraging. That he, and others, were deeply affected is even more so, although one wonders what he has avoided reading or seeing for the past 20 years if the information presented was shocking. But Billington finds that it is not merely the accumulation of statistics, but the presence – the performance - of Stephen Emmott, the verifiable scientist, the speaker with a creditable reputation outside the theatre, that gave the production its urgency.

For this audience, the fluid realm of belief and disbelief that makes theatre work had to break down for the shock of climate instability to be heard. At the same time, the very theatrical occasion of sitting in that darkened room redolent of emotions of past productions, listening to another human speak, heightened any effect.

Asking again of those who found the production lacking, I found in each person’s experience at least one, if not many moments when the numbers add up, when the terror hits, when someone trusted speaks about a future irreconcilable with what one could bear. These events can be motivating and if Ten Billion provided that for some, then theatre’s role as educator has been met.

But if you’ve already had that experience, theatre is where you want to go to understand it, and a collocation of facts will not do that. This is a far more confused territory, requiring human imagination and many avenues of intelligence, deliberation, conflict and consent. It requires doing something like the processes of science, itself – its questioning and cross-questioning, experimentation, doubt and informed agreement.

Theatre may not be the place to present firm courses of action; Emmott’s advice to get a gun falls especially short. Conventional forms of theatre may, or may not, be adequate to the combination of reality and fiction that understanding climate change demands. But theatre, or something like it, continues to be a place where collectively, humans find a way through. There will continue to be many kinds of productions for many kinds of audiences. The hunger for a theatre by the audience that gets the facts but wants more continues to be strong.

“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

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‘Ten Billion’ changes Billington

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Stephen Emmott in Ten Billion

Wallace Heim writes:

Michael Billington in today’s Guardian nominates Ten Billion as the ‘most momentous theatrical performance’ of 2012. The show was a lecture by Stephen Emmott, at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, on the consequences of human overpopulation and climate change.

Billington writes: ‘I came out shaking with fear, but also moved by theatre’s capacity to confront the emergency facing our planet.

‘This was theatre doing what it does best: confronting us with unpalatable facts about our very existence. This doesn’t mean that there is no room for invented stories or that King Lear and The Lion King have suddenly become redundant. But Ten Billion, directed by Katie Mitchell, shocked us into a new awareness of the future, and even the existing present, with ecosystems being destroyed, the atmosphere polluted, temperatures rising and a billion people facing water shortages.

‘I don’t know a single person who saw it who didn’t feel it was a life-changing experience. If enough people, especially those in positions of power, could see Emmott’s lecture, it might, just might, help to save our planet from destruction’.

“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

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A Climate Change in the Art World?

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

An interesting article on www.artnews.com, written by Robin Cembalast, gives insight about the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the art community in New York and shows that Sandy could have been the wake-up call for the community to realize that action against climate change is required on their part.

Barry Bergdoll, MoMA’s Chief Curator of Architecture and Design is thinking about reshaping New York in a collective movement of architects, designer, officials and others:

“I don’t want to have yet another panel discussion, I want something that takes it to yet another level of effectiveness. I’m trying to figure out what that is.”

A more radical art project concerned with Global Warming is the Greenhouse Britain by theHarrisons, as it addresses resettlement as the final consequence of climate change and shows how artists can work with architects and urban planners to redesign cities and neighborhoods. Of course this proposes a more drastic approach to the reaction to climate change and arts’s role in it, as it asumes that rising water levels are inevitable and that the then displaced population will need a differently designed civilization. But maybe adaption to climate change will require this kind of transformation?

For the whole article at artnews.com, 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

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AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Opportunity

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For a PhD on “New Visual Economies: Art, GIS and the Geographic Imagination,” supervised by Prof. Deborah Dixon in partnership with Environment Systems.

Project Summary:

This is one of three interlinked PhD studentships that, in collaboration with three organisations in different sectors — a scientific site (UNESCO’s Dyfi Biosphere, Wales), a geovisualisation business (Environment Systems, Wales and Scotland), and a leading cultural producer (The Arts Catalyst, London) — explore the production and audience engagement of art/science projects.

The “New Visual Economies” Studentship will explore the creation and experience of immersive, engaging visualisations that communicate the nature of landscapes to a diverse array of audiences, including state agencies, creative industry businesses and the lay public. Analysing the place of aesthetics in developing the geographical imaginary of these visualisations, research will explore how high-fidelity, high-resolution, data-driven, 3-D scientific visualizations are developed by artists, computer specialists and earth scientists working collaboratively. Research questions can include:

  • What recent developments in creative geovisualization software have taken place, and how have these been applied to visualisations of people, place and landscapes?
  • How, where and in what form have past and present art/GIS collaborative ventures emerged?
  • How do audiences respond, conceptually but also viscerally, to such geovisualisations?

The studentship will be animated by ethnographic work, as well as by practice-based research during which the student will create, explore and work with a prototype landscape geovisualisation. Following an investigation of the aesthetic dimensions of geo-visualisation, as well as art/GIS collaborations specifically, the project will focus on ethnographic analysis and participant observation of three selected, current art/GIS projects. This will be supported by in-depth interviews with key participants, as well as academic and industry experts within the emerging field of ‘creative GIS.’

The awards are funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the studentship pays post-graduate fees and an annual maintenance grant.Please note that the usual AHRC eligibility rules apply to these studentships. UK residency is normally required. EU citizens may also be eligible for fees-only awards. Further details on basic eligibility requirements are available from the AHRC web-site see:

http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf

Further enquiries can be sent to the lead supervisor: Deborah Dixon: dxd@aber.ac.uk

Applications should be made by following the link: http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/scienceengineering/graduateschool/prospectivestudents/essentialinformation/

ANTENNAE CFP: Art, Environment, Sustainability

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ANTENNAE CFP

Art, Environment, Sustainability

Submission Deadline: 1st of September 2013

At the forefront of today’s social issues are questions related to the human relationship to nature and the environment, the meaning of a sustainable future and the relationship of environmentalism to modernity and today’s economic structures. While the sciences have, until recently, dominated the debate, the arts are making an increasingly important contribution. Antennae is seeking submissions to an issue focused on Art, Environment, Sustainability. We are seeking contributions that go further than being a mere rehashing of the narrative of environmental activism (the human as destroyer of nature; the dangers of climate change; extinction of species; etc, etc.) to address more fundamental meanings, explore ambiguities and engage with the complex societal questions that arise from the environmental and sustainability debate – and the role of the arts in that debate. We encourage potential contributors to be bold and creative in generating and exploring perspectives that move beyond the apocalyptic and often “preachy” culture of modern environmentalism.

Academic essays = length 6000-10000 words

Artists’ portfolio = 5/6 images along with 500 words max statement/commentary

Interviews = maximum length 8000 words

Fiction = maximum length 8000 words

www.antennae.org.uk

antennaeproject@gmail.com

Call for submissions: Focus on Sustainability Film Festival

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The second annual Focus on Sustainability Film Festival will return to York University in the winter semester of 2013 with a spotlight on the increasingly vital and complex topic of food.

In addition to feature films, panel discussions and prizes centred on food, the upcoming festival also gives local filmmakers in the York University community an opportunity to have their food-related film featured. Following the submission deadline, festival presenters will choose one prize-winning film to be highlighted and up to three runner-up films to be exhibited.

Submission Requirements:

  • York University enrolled (or previously enrolled) student in any department
  • Run time for films must not exceed 60 minutes
  • Films must be focused on any food related issue
  • Suggestions include: animal rights, agriculture, veganism/vegetarianism, local/global

The deadline is Jan. 10, 2013. E-mail submissions to Jessica Reeve, IRIS junior fellow, at jreeve@yorku.ca or bring it to 395 York Lanes, the office of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability.

Submissions must be in digital formats accompanied by a 250-word abstract, title and contact information.

This call for submission is brought to you by the Osgoode Environmental Law Society, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability and the Climate Consortium for Research Action Integration.

For more information, contact Jessica Reeve at jreeve@yorku.ca.

The High Water Line: The New Yorker

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Eve completes the Manhattan portion of the line near the West Side Highway & West 14th Street. Photo: Hose Cedeno (Permission Eve Mosher)

In 2007 the artist Eve Mosher, interested in climate change, followed the 10ft elevation above sea level around Brooklyn and then Manhattan.  She called the work High Water Line.  She used one of those push along carts that are used to mark football, baseball, rugby and other pitches with chalk (in the US called a heavy hitter, believe it or not).  The New Yorker magazine carried the story post-Sandy.

Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom started from the question, “The waters are rising.  How can we retreat gracefully?” and the first works that the artists produced were the re-drawing of the UK coastline at the 5m, 10m and 15m marks.

Artist Chris Bodle did a similar exercise in Bristol – you can see documentation here.

Bill McKibben recently said that where artists cluster around issues you know something important is happening.

He’s been quoted as describing artists as ‘the antibodies of the cultural bloodstream”.

“Artists”, he says “sense trouble early, and rally to isolate and expose and defeat it, to bring to bear the human power for love and beauty and meaning against the worst results of carelessness and greed and stupidity. So when art both of great worth, and in great quantities, begins to cluster around an issue, it means that civilization has identified it finally as a threat.” (thanks to Roanne Dods/Clare Cooper for this quote)

Please comment with other examples of artists marking high water lines.

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

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