Monthly Archives: June 2014

Edinburgh Green Tease with Sarah Hopfinger

Creative Carbon Scotland, , , ,

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

creative_carbon_scotlandChildren and artists both do something very well indeed: inventing exciting worlds to live and play in. At a time when our own world is in environmental and economic crisis, how can we use that imaginative power to make things new?

If you haven’t already heard, Green Tease is coming to Edinburgh this June for a special event in collaboration with Imaginate and Festivals Edinburgh.

Following on from a workshop we ran with Imaginate a while back with children’s theatre makers exploring what a sustainable children’s theatre network might look like in 50 years we wanted to get the ball rolling again.

We hope you can join us at Summerhall on June 18th, 5 – 7pm for this first Edinburgh Green Tease. We’ll be joined by Sarah Hopfinger, artist and children’s theatre-maker, in a discussion of how we can transform the children’s theatre sector and the art we make, and transform folk’s lives in doing so. Sarah’s practice explores the interconnections between people and wider ecology, and we’ll be thinking about the connections between children’s theatre, the wider arts sector, the city, and the world.

Green Teas(e) brings together the artistic and sustainability worlds of Edinburgh to spark new connections and join up projects and activities which share a common desire to make the city a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable place to live. At each event invited speakers start us off with short presentations/provocations to lead us on to a wider discussion. We really want to hear your views and hope you can join us and contribute to the event.

To find out more and to sign up for the event click here.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Image: Sarah Hopfinger: www.sarahhopfinger.org.uk

The post Edinburgh Green Tease with Sarah Hopfinger appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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BODO KORSIG IS WINNER OF COOL STORIES FOR WHEN THE PLANET GETS HOT IV

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artport_making_waves_logo_animated_gif_2014_367_pxl1Artport is  pleased to announce BODO KORSIG (Germany) as the public-voting-winner of COOL STORIES FOR WHEN THE PLANET GETS HOTS IV with his video “Täuschung (Deception)”, 2013 (3:03′).

He will be awarded a 4-weeks-residency at the artist residency Largo das Artes in Rio de Janeiro  in May 2014. Bodo Korsig explores human behavior under extreme conditions such as fear, violence, pressure, and death. He is especially intrigued by the artistic conflict of those neurological and cognitive processes inside human beings that are difficult to record from a scientific standpoint.

Korsig has exhibited in over 100 museums and galleries, both in his native Germany and internationally. His work is in over 40 museums and public collections. Exhibitions include “Stronger than Fear is Hope” at Kunstverein Pforzheim(C) (2013); “Metal” at Greenfieldsacks Gallery Los Angeles (2010); “CLASH” at Makii Masaru Fine Arts Tokyo (2009); and “I CAN’T STOP” at Tenri Cultural Institute, New York (2007).

He has received 14 international prizes and scholarships, including Artist Residency Inside-Out, Art Museum, Beijing (2012), Grand Prix 4th International Triennial Prague (2004), and a grant from the Max Kade Foundation (2003).

New exhibition in Singapore from The Migrant Ecologies Project

Cultura21, , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Curated by Kenneth Tay and Jason Wee, the exhibition is the latest incarnation of over 6 years of art history-informed explorations of relationships between wood, trees and people from this region.

When_you_get_closer_to_the_heart_a

Date: 12 June 2014, Thursday
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: NUS Museum

Free admission with registration. To register, please email museum@nus.edu.sg

Guest-of-Honour: Professor Leo Tan, Director (Special Projects), Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore

Special guest: Professor Alan Chan, Dean, College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University

Programme:
6.30pm – Arrival of guests
7.00pm – Arrival of Guest-of-Honour, Prof Leo Tan
7.05pm – Welcome remarks by Ahmad Mashadi, Head, NUS Museum
7.15pm – Opening address by Prof Alan Chan
7.30pm – Speech by Guest-of-Honour, Prof Leo Tan
7.50pm – Curator’s tour followed by refreshments

NUS Museum presents an exhibition featuring encounters and exchanges between the arts and sciences, between practice and research, between the inquiring subject and the object inquired. An interdisciplinary project, “When you get closer to the heart, you may find cracks” is a continued inquiry by the Migrant Ecologies Project into the human relationships to trees, forests and forest products in Southeast Asia – explored in terms of materials, metaphors, magic, ecological resources and historical agency. Beginning with an attempt to trace the origins and stories connected to a teak bed found in Singapore, and set against the macro-context of “cutting of wood” (deforestation) today, the project has evolved into an accumulation of the diverse “aborealities” – connections between the peoples, trees and wood – in Southeast Asia.

The exhibition will feature several new woodprint works by artist Lucy Davis alongside works by photographers Shannon Lee Castleman and Kee Ya Ting. Tales from two “Islands after a Timber Boom” form an underlying structure to the exhibition, vacillating between Muna Island, Southeast Sulawesi (where early DNA tests have suggested as the origins of the wood from the teak bed) and Singapore island (where Davis has been researching stories of the local entrepot timber industry in and around the Sungei Kadut Industrial Estate). Fragments of iconic woodblock prints from the NUS Museum’s collection are also reconstructed as animated shadows which weave in and out of the exhibition. A disappearance of forests in the region sees also a similar disappearance of the various stories of wood with their attendant memories and practices. This exhibition is an attempt to re-member and re-animate these tales. “When you get closer to the heart, you may find cracks” is a curatorial collaboration between NUS Museum and Jason Wee from Grey Projects.

Exhibition runs till November 2014.

Works are supported by: Ministry of Education Tier 1 Grant, DoubleHelixx, Singapore International Foundation, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Art & Heritage Museum, National Arts Council, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Lee Foundation, Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film and The Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.

[Image: Together Again (Wood:Cut) Part V: EVIDENCE, Lucy Davis.  Assembled print fragments of a ripped-up log end. Part of what is supposedly the last shipment of teak logs to Singapore from Burma before a 31 March 2014 ban on whole log exports by the Burmese government. The log ends were donated by Allen Oei, an old-time Singapore timber trader and log grader. The letter and number marks were punched into to the timber in Burma. They tell you the grade of the timber and (if you can decode the marks) where in Burma the logs come from. A star apparently means best quality. 125 x 125 cm, woodprint collage on paper, 2014]

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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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Solar panels at Toynbee Studios

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Artsadmin logoArtsadmin has taken a major step in reducing its environmental impact with the installation of 40 solar panels on the roof of Toynbee Studios.

Toynbee Studios is Artsadmin’s hub for artistic innovation and development. The studios are home to the organisation’s own staff of 25 and to Artsadmin’s artistic programme, as well as providing office space for over 20 other artists and arts organisations. Fully refurbished in 2007, the theatre and five rehearsal spaces are used by over 13,000 artists every year.

Gill Lloyd, Director of Artsadmin said;

“Our solar panels are a symbol of our commitment to sustainability and the environment. Artsadmin is a leader in the arts and environment field, encouraging artists to address climate change in their work with commissions and special projects and hosting our own Two Degrees festival of art and climate change at Toynbee Studios. We’re determined to practice what we preach, so we’re really delighted to have been able to install this solar panel system.”

The rooftop system of 40 photovoltaic panels will save around 4.6 tonnes of CO2 per year – generating over 10% of the electricity used in the Studios. The panels are installed in an East West formation (rather than the traditional South facing), which maximises the use of the space and means they’ll be active for a longer period each day. A digital display in the foyer shows how much electricity is being generated at any time, as well as the total energy generated and CO2 saved since installation.

The system was installed by Joju Solar. James Page Head of Engineering, said;

“Last year I attended an inspiring climate change event ‘Two Degrees’ at Toynbee Studios and was delighted when Artsadmin agreed to ‘walk the talk’ and find room for some solar panels. Roof space was constrained, as it often is in central London, so we went for an innovative system with panels facing East and West to gather energy in mornings and evenings, which is actually the peak time for electricity use in the UK.”

Artsadmin were motivated to make the investment by Julie’s Bicycle’s Energy Efficiency project. Julie’s Bicycle makes sustainability intrinsic to the business, art and ethics of the creative industries. Alison Tickell, Chief Executive said;

“Artsadmin is a pioneering and deeply ethical organisation in so many ways, and their new solar panels are another great example of leadership. Cultural landmarks powered by renewable energy sources – Glyndebourne, the Tobacco Factory, Artsadmin – are powerful advocates for sustainability, and reach thousands of people every year as well as reducing carbon.”

Luminato Festival (Toronto): Martha Wainwright in conversation

Cape Farewell, news, ,

Martha Wainwright in conversation with David Buckland and Tom Rand of Cape Farewell on Arctic Journeys and other adventures

images In 2008 Martha Wainwright joined the Cape Farewell expedition to West Greenland along with fellow musicians Feist, Laurie Anderson, KT Tunstall and other artists and scientists.  On this extraordinary journey she composed a new song which she will perform.  Cape Farewell director David Buckland will show film clips of the expedition and join Martha in conversation to discuss with Tom Rand the issues climate change, the Arctic reality, and the important perspective artists bring to this important subject.

Martha Wainwright is a Canadian musician whose music melds genres of folk, rock, country, and chanson singing. Wainwright joined Cape Farewell for their 2008 Disko Bay Expedition.

David Buckland created and now directs the Cape Farewell Project, he is a designer, artist and film-maker.

Tom Rand is a global thought leader with a recognized record of extraordinary achievement in the promotion of a low carbon economy. A green entrepreneur, investor, advisor, public speaker, and author, Rand’s ambition is to help bring clean technology to life. Tom is: the Cleantech Senior Advisor at MaRS Discovery District; the founder and director of VCi Green Funds; Managing Director of ArcTern Ventures; a co-developer of Planet Traveler, the “greenest hotel in North America”; and the author of both Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World and recent bestseller Waking the Frog: Solutions for our Climate Change Paralysis.
Tom speaks publicly about the issue because it is his belief that we have yet to have a serious, public conversation about the threat of climate change, and the economic opportunities afforded by the global transformation to a low-carbon economy.

Soil Culture Forum

ecoartscotland, , ,

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Layout 1Daro Montag asked us to highlight this important event taking place in the South West of England:

We are inviting all those who have an interest in soil, art and education to join us at Falmouth University for our Soil Culture Forum.

In addition to films, art events, presentations and some good local food, there will be a series of creative workshops where you will be able to touch the earth and learn about the different ways in which artists use it.

Prepare to experiment, play and get a little bit dirty!

For more information or to register for the Forum visit: Soil Culture | Using the arts to revitalise our relationship with a resource we take for granted..

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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The Trieste Contemporanea International Design Contest 2014 is open!

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ENGLISH TEXT (di seguito testo italiano)

gocciaWe are pleased to announce that is now possible to participate in MAP PIN, the eleventh edition of the International Design Contest Trieste Contemporanea and we would be very grateful if you could help us and spread the information of the competition by your means of communication (you will find a short description below and the contest’s announcement and logo attached).

Whilst hoping the initiative may meet with your favour, we thank you for your kind attention.

Best regards,

Giuliana Carbi Jesurun

Trieste Contemporanea Committee

MAP PIN – Eleventh International Design Contest Trieste Contemporanea

The competition deadline is midnight (Italian time) of the 15th June 2014.

The entry is free.

Designers from 24 Central Eastern European countries are called to submit a project of an original item of contemporary design: a souvenir object and an information flyer which relate to a distinctive feature of a place chosen in one of the countries within the purview of the competition.

The contest is promoted by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Central European Initiative (CEI).

You can read more about the provided prizes and check the competition notice on www.triestecontemporanea.it/mappin .

download the announcement.pdf 

download the map pin logo.pdf

For further information please contact:

Trieste Contemporanea Committee

e-mail info@triestecontemporanea.it

telephone +39 040 639187

_______________________________

Siamo lieti di annunciare che sono aperte le iscrizioni a MAP PIN, l’undicesima edizione del Concorso Internazionale di Design Trieste Contemporanea e vi saremmo grati se poteste aiutarci a diffondere la notizia del concorso attraverso i vostri canali.

Una breve descrizione del concorso è in calce e il bando e il logo sono in allegato.

Sperando che l’iniziativa sia di vostro interesse, vi ringraziamo della cortese attenzione e vi salutiamo cordialmente,

Giuliana Carbi Jesurun

Comitato Trieste Contemporanea

MAP PIN – Undicesimo Concorso Internazionale di Design Trieste Contemporanea

Il termine per l’iscrizione è fissato alle ore 24.00 del 15 giugno 2014.

L’iscrizione è gratuita.

Ai progettisti di 24 paesi dell’Europa centro orientale è richiesto di  creare un progetto di design contemporaneo inedito: un souvenir e un flyer informativo legati ad un elemento distintivo di un luogo sito nei paesi a cui il bando è aperto.

L’iniziativa è promossa con il patrocinio del Ministero degli Affari Esteri italiano e dell’In.C.E. Iniziativa Centro Europea.

Le regole del concorso, i premi e la scheda d’iscrizione sono disponibili sul sito www.triestecontemporanea.it/mappin .

scarica il bando.pdf

scarica il logo di map pin logo.pdf

Per ulteriori informazioni:

Comitato Trieste Contemporanea,

e-mail info@triestecontemporanea.it 

telefono +39 040 639187

Edinburgh Coach Tour | Global Shadow, Local Mist

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Global Shadow, Local Mist

Coach Tour
Sunday 8th June, 2 – 5pm

As part of Conversation of Monuments, Laura Yuile invites you to join a coach tour to a landfill site, incorporating talks and performances that explore ideas of waste and pollution in regards to material culture, knowledge production, digital and psychological space. Considering ‘invisible’ infrastructures and the relationship we have to them, the event will question how the infrastructure that manages and directs our waste – and the material reality of the waste itself – might serve as a reflecting pool of our times and a method of maintaining divisions and separations. Building upon John Latham’s proposed classification of the Five Sisters bings as ‘monuments’ or ‘process sculptures’ in 1976; the tour takes its starting point as a proposal to view the landfill site as monument, in order to explore new ways of looking at waste and the action that might result from doing so.

With contributions from Angela McClanahan and Neil Bickerton.

This event has been organised by Laura Yuile, Satellites Programme, Critical Discourse Intern.

The tour will leave from Collective at 2pm so please arrive before this time to ensure you catch the coach. Don’t wear your best shoes! The tour will end back at the gallery at 5pm.

Click here to visit Eventbrite to book your free place.

Brandon Ballengée – Events in Germany

Cultura21, , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Brandon Ballengée will be exhibiting and talking in Germany from late May 2014 onwards.  He will be in Berlin and in Lüneburg:

In Berlin

Exhibition at  Art Laboratory Berlin: [macro]biologies II: organisms  (Suzanne Anker, Brandon Ballengée, Maja Smrekar) // 31 May- 20 July, 2014
Vernissage: 30 May, 2014, 20:00
Artist and curators talk: 1 June 2014, 15:00
More information here

In Lüneburg

Praeter Naturam: Beyond Nature  (Lecture)
Tuesday 3 June 2014, 12:15-13:45
Leuphana University (Scharnhorststr. 1, building 3) Room C 3.121
The lecture will be followed by an open discussion with Brandon Ballengée, moderated by Dr. Sacha Kagan (Leuphana University, ISKO / Cultura21).

DFA 186: Hades. 2012. Unique digital-C print on watercolor paper. Cleared and stained Pacific tree frog collected in Aptos, California in scientific collaboration with Stanley K. Sessions. 46 x 34 in. Courtesy the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY.

DFA 186: Hades. 2012. Unique digital-C print on watercolor paper. Cleared and stained Pacific tree frog collected in Aptos, California in scientific collaboration with Stanley K. Sessions. 46 x 34 in. Courtesy the artist and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York, NY.

Biologist and artist, Brandon Ballengée creates transdisciplinary artworks inspired by his ecological field and laboratory research into amphibians, birds, fish and insect species found in today’s ‘preternatural’ environments. Ballengée uses art in order to realize scientific research, and science in order to realize art. He is a systemic practitioner and an “ecosystem activist” who stresses public involvement through participatory biology, field investigations and laboratory programs. Since 1996, Ballengée’s primary scientific research and much of his art has focused on the occurrence of developmental deformities and population declines among amphibians.

Brandon Ballengée’s work has been exhibited internationally, incl. solo exhibitions at Museum Het Domein (Sittard, Netherlands: 2014), the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education (Philadelphia, USA: 2013), Longue Vue House and Gardens (New Orleans, USA; 2011); Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale University, New Haven, USA: 2007); and a.o. Documenta 13 (Germany: 2012); 3rd Moscow Biennale (Russia: 2009); Venice Biennale (Italy: 2005); Geumgang Nature Art Biennale (South Korea: 2004). In 2011 he was awarded a conservation leadership fellowship from the National Audubon Society’s TogetherGreen Program (USA).

The lecture in Lüneburg is organised by the Innovation Incubator and the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, in collaboration with the Leuphana Arts Program and Cultura21. The Innovation Incubator Lüneburg is an EU major project supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the federal state of Lower Saxony.

———-

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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Can art help us viscerally understand climate change?

Quarterly, , , , , ,

Lars Jan’s HOLOSCENES is an epic public art and performance installation that is a visual, visceral response to climate change. Presented in public space, the centerpiece of HOLOSCENES is a large aquarium that floods, drains, and floods again by way of a hydraulic system that moves 12 tons of water in a minute. The aquarium is inhabited by a performer conducting one of many everyday behaviors sourced from collaborators across the planet.

We can’t wait to see how this project evolves. It is a bold, thoughtful response to an issue we will all undoubtably face- and perhaps currently fear. You can help support this incredible work by visiting the HOLOSCENES Kickstarter.