Yearly Archives: 2012

Paul Kingsnorth speaks at RANE

ecoartscotland, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

RANE, in collaboration with University College Falmouth’s Department of Writing, are pleased to welcome back author, poet and novelist, Paul Kingsnorth – one of the UK’s most original, and controversial writers on the environment:

Thursday 15th March 2012 @ 5.30pm, Woodlane Lecture Theatre, Woodlane Campus,  University College Falmouth

Paul’s first book, One No, Many Yeses (2003), explored the rise of the global resistance movement. In 2008, his polemic travelogue Real England: The Battle against the Bland was described in the Independent as “a watershed study, a crucially important book”. In 2009, Paul co-founded the Dark Mountain Project, a global network that aims “to bring together writers and artists, thinkers and doers, to assault the established citadels of literature and thought, and to begin to redraw the maps by which we navigate the places and times in which we find ourselves”. Paul is also a former editor of the Ecologist magazine and a frequent contributor to national newspapers.

www.dark-mountain.net

www.paulkingsnorth.net

Please note: This event is free and open to all, but those wishing to attend need to register online by following this link: Lecture Registration

More information about this and other events in the RANE lecture series please visit www.rane-research.org

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

SurVivArt – Art for the Right to a Good Life

Cultura21, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Berlin

7th to 24th of February 2012

From the 7th to the 24th of February the exhibition SurVivArt – Art For the Right to a «Good Life» takes place at the galleries Mikael Andersen and Meinblau in Berlin.

International artists from Ethiopia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Thailand and the Czech Republic were invited to do a reflection on the meaning of the right to a «Good Life».  From these reflections arose various works of art and related communications on what the “good life“ means to them and people around them. Often the project started off the communication between artists and local communities about sustainable practices in their home country. The artworks touch upon many aspects of our everyday life: Habitation, food, clothes as well as consumption. The works will be shown at the exhibition, which opens at the 5th of February.

The Heinrich Böll Foundation developed SurVivArt with the help of its offices around the world. The project was inspired by the initiative ÜBER LEBENSKUNST from the Kulturstiftung des Bundes and aims at connecting sustainability, climate change and gender equity with the arts and culture.

Among others the works by artists Kebreab Demeke, Robel Temesgen, Alafuro Sikoki, Segun Adefila, Adebimpe Adebambo, Oeur Sokuntevy, Neak Sophal, Tith Kanitha, Nino Sarabutra, and Phyoe Kyi will be shown at both galleries.

“The art works narrate widely differing stories – about the quest for a “good life”; the quest for balance, happiness, and contentment; about the responsible as well as creative and playful handling of resources and new modes of consumption. They also tell us about the power of communities, their potential to survive, and their strength that inspires artists to contribute to a good life through their art.”

The conference Radius of Art takes place in parallel (February 8/9, 2012) and fosters international dialogue and exchange of ideas between culture, science, and politics.

Opening hours of the exhibition are Tuesday to Friday 12 noon – 6 p.m. and Saturdays 11a.m. – 4 p.m.
Opening: 5th February 2012, 6 p.m.

For further information: www.survivart.org and www.radius-of-art.de/conference

This post is also available in: German

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

LAGI announces it’s 2012 competition

Green Public Art, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Green Public Art

In partnership with New York City’s Department of Parks & Recreation, the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition is being held for a site within Freshkills Park (the former Fresh Kills Landfill) in New York City.

The competition is free and open to everyone. Designers, artists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, university students, urban planners, scientists and anyone who believes that the world can be powered beautifully and sustainably are encouraged to enter. Download the RFP here. Deadline: July 1, 2012

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian conceptualized the Land Art Generator Initiative in the fall of 2008 shortly after moving to Dubai. The project was strongly founded by the spring of 2009 and they continue to work tirelessly to nurture and promote the concept of aesthetics and renewable energy with the goal of seeing to the construction of the first large-scale public art works that generate utility grid electricity in clean and sustainable ways.

In January of 2010 LAGI put out an international call to artists, architects, scientists, and engineers to come up with both aesthetic and pragmatic solutions for the 21st century energy crisis. The 2010 LAGI design competition was held for three sites in the UAE and received hundreds of submissions from over 40 countries. View entries from the last competition.

 

Rebecca Ansert, founder of Green Public Art, is an art consultant who specializes in artist solicitation, artist selection, and public art project management for both private and public agencies. She is a graduate of the master’s degree program in Public Art Studies at the University of Southern California and has a unique interest in how art can demonstrate green processes or utilize green design theories and techniques in LEED certified buildings.

Green Public Art is a Los Angeles-based consultancy that was founded in 2009 in an effort to advance the conversation of public art’s role in green building. The consultancy specializes in public art project development and management, artist solicitation and selection, creative community involvement and knowledge of LEED building requirements. Green Public Art also works with emerging and mid-career studio artists to demystify the public art process. The consultancy acts as a resource for artists to receive one-on-one consultation before, during, and after applying for a public art project.
Go to Green Public Art

A PEOPLE’S PRELIMINARY HEARING ON MONSANTO

ecoartscotland, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

‘listening to zea maize’ from mid west radical culture corridor website

ANDANDAND made the following announcement through the dOCUMENTA (13) newsletter (who, it should be noted, added “dOCUMENTA (13) is not responsible for the views or factual claims expressed by the artists and artworks it presents.”.

“Our focus is on Monsanto’s role in transforming and damaging the ecologies, economies, and social relations of this region. Proceedings will unfold in several stages, and as the deliberation process builds, it will add to the accumulating record of harms perpetrated by this corporation against human and non-human bodies, food, biological processes, weeds, neighborhoods, farmers, alternative forms of knowledge, and finally the environment from which all these entities emerge.

Through this project, we challenge rigid categories of legal protection, and seek an ethics that protects life itself from coercion. We invoke the form of a trial to produce a comprehensive public understanding of harms, and to determine responsibility for those harms. Existing judiciary frameworks are inadequate to the scale and nature of the ongoing damages perpetrated by Monsanto, which, under current law, is granted the rights of a legitimate “person,” while human non-citizens and non-human agents in our biosphere are not recognized. Existing law produces exclusive notions of legitimacy and harm that ignore and damage entities that do not favor a reductive calculus of profit.

Our proposition is to consider all living things as potential plaintiffs in an accounting of Monsanto’s crimes. We submit to public review impacts that are experienced materially and culturally, in the past, the present and extending into our shared future. By expanding notions of legal standing and of legitimate harm, we assert our interdependence. The urgent question is: what will it take to safeguard the interlocked nature of the world against criminally reckless corporate priority?”

The first hearing will take place at:

Time: Saturday, January 28, 2012, 11 am
City: Carbondale IL; Chicago IL; Iowa City IA; others TBA
Country: USA
Location: 37° 43′ 35.11″ N, 89° 13′ 12.97″ W
Address: Lesar Law Building Courtroom, Carbondale

Midwest Radical Culture Corridor has undertaken a number of drifts with the likes of Temporary Services and Brian Holmes.  Their Call to Farms project and publication is inspirational.

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

Broadway Green Alliance Gel Project

Broadway Green Alliance, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Broadway Green Alliance is pleased to announce the pilot program, “The Gel Project.” Each year thousands of dollars of lighting gel must be changed out on Broadway shows as part of the maintenance procedures. This lighting gel is usually not damaged nor faded, and in great condition. The goal of “The Gel Project” is to transfer good lighting gel from Broadway shows to the collections of regional theaters for only the cost of shipping. This will keep lighting gel out of the dumpster and into theatrical productions throughout the country.  We are happy to announce the first “The Gel Project” participants as Broadway’s Wicked and The Old Globe in San Diego, California. We look forward to future pairings in 2012.

If you are a regional theater is who interested in continuing your greening efforts by receiving gel from a Broadway show, please contact The Broadway Green Alliance at dwerle@broadwaygreen.com

If you are involved in a Broadway show and would like to donate your used gel, please contact The Broadway Green Alliance at dwerle@broadwaygreen.com.  This commitment would entail the following:

  • letting us know when you have your next scheduled gel change (yearly or bi-yearly) so we can get it on our calendar
  • collecting all gel & scroller color when you do your change over and pack into ship-able box(es)
  • Contact the BGA so we can pick-up the box or boxes.  We will take care of the shipping; the regional theater will cover the cost of the shipment.

The Broadway Green Alliance will work with the theater & show to create successful matches. This pilot program is slated for the calendar year 2012.  In December 2012 we will evaluate the progress of the program and determine how to proceed going into 2013.

On behalf of the Broadway Green Alliance and the Pre & Post Production Committee, we would love to have you join us in this exciting new program of creative re-use and outreach.

Best LIFE Nature Projects 2010

ecoartscotland, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The EU LIFE programme includes the ‘Nature’ strand and for a number of years the best ten projects have been highlighted in a publication.  The 2010 publication (download pdf) includes projects to promote suitable conditions for the Iberian lynx as well as restoring critically rare natural woodlands.  LIFE co-funded a total of 1,256 projects between 1992 and 2010, with a total budget of more than €2 billion.

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

Open Call: ENVIRONMENTAL UTTERANCE

Open Calls, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

University College Falmouth inc. Dartington College of Arts invites you to

“ENVIRONMENTAL UTTERANCE”

 1st-2nd September 2012 

Deadline for applications: 31st March 2012

Across disciplines academics and artists are researching and creating practices that are highly contextual (determined by the environment in which they are located), exploring ways of articulating specific environments, spaces or places.  This conference examines a specific problematic that attends the dissemination of this work: how to engage with ‘being there’ when ‘there’ is not here?

We understand environment (social, built, natural, technological) as that which surrounds and informs us. Through our practice we influence our environment.  What we create is shaped by our surroundings. We exist in a relation of mutual exchange; making ourselves other and incorporating that which is other in turn.  This conference offers a forum for academics and creative practitioners to come together and engage with articulations of mutual formation: to discuss work as environment.

Such work often relies on direct, personal experience of a particular environment.  Transfer and abstraction, necessary for the communication of this work beyond the specifics of this original environment, challenge the work.  Negotiating publication or conference environment, for example, necessitates reformulation of the work, engendering changes in texture and experience, in adapting to alternative structures.  What do such alterations, translations or transformations, mean for this work?

This conference aims to examine these questions on a very practical level. When it comes to considering environment, what is the relationship between the structures of dissemination and the environment our work seeks to convey?  What is the relationship between our academic environment and the work we (aim to) produce?  How do we utter our environment?

We invite poets and writers, artists, academics, social and environmental scientists, performers and musicians, among others, to discuss ways of uttering environment. We seek work that explores the phenomenological sense of speaking with environment. We encourage the use of a diverse range of media as part of this dialogue. Participants are invited to find new ways of expressing their research and/or artistic practice in a conference setting that reflects upon this process of adaptation as a process of practical enquiry.

Instead of presenting what they already know, participants are invited to experiment with their ‘potential’ environment, using the space of the conference as an opportunity to learn from and with each other. The structure of the conference is specifically designed to support such an exchange.  Over the course of two days we seek to create a plastic community of practice. There will be both indoor (seminar rooms, lecture theatres, studios) and outdoor (gardens, orchard, parkland) spaces available to present your work. Your proposal will have to comply with the health and safety norms of Tremough Campus. Please refer to the health and safety guidance before you start planning your presentation/performance.

The (types of) environments we invite participants to explore in their presentations include (but are not limited to):

  • natural
  • social
  • technological
  • digital
  • ideological
  • logical
  • intuitive
  • empathetic
  • linguistic
  • imagined
  • the body
  • the archive
  • the laboratory
  • the book
  • the recording studio
  • the gallery
  • the library
  • the seminar room
  • the lecture theatre
  • the conference
  • professional
  • domestic
  • specialist
  • private
  • public
  • visual
  • auditory
  • oral
  • tactile
  • olfactory

Those interested in participating are invited to send a paper/performance summary (250 words max) along with an indication of how they wish to present this work (250 words), to Camilla Nelson, Natalia Eernstman and Jeanie Sinclair at environmental.utterance@gmail.com , describing:

  1. How or what will you present
  2. The main questions & ideas you aim to explore through your presentation
  3. The media you will use
  4. What space and/or additional equipment you require

Special Call to Develop Live Exchange

This is a call for proposals to design a method of documentation to function as an integral part of this ‘conference-as-community-of-practice’: a method of exchange whereby ideas, insights, lessons learned, questions and connections are cross-referenced between the different times and spaces of the conference. We invite applicants to submit proposals to environmental.utterance@gmail.com detailing a process that will (effectively & inspiringly) collect, record and disseminate participants’ experiences. Media and methods might include (but are not limited to) technology, social media, interactive installations, mobile performance, poetic or artistic representations, etc. Selected participants will run their activity for one morning or afternoon of the conference. The material costs required to realize the activity will be reimbursed in consultation with the conference organizers.

Deadline for applications: 31st March

David Abram at Sensory Worlds, Edinburgh

ecoartscotland, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

[iframe http://player.vimeo.com/video/34169143?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0 500 331]

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

Jane’s Walk USA

ecoartscotland, , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Jane Jacobs

Jane’s Walk USA is a project celebrating 50 years since the publication of Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities.  The project encourages the exploration of where you live and provides some ideas for things to do.

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