Monthly Archives: September 2014

#GreenFests Tips: Top green films at the Take One Action Film Festival

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Take One Action is a Scottish-based organisation dedicated to promoting social and environmental justice through film. The organisation is hosting an upcoming film festival in its eighth year of running, and borrows the theme “Another World is Possible” from the World Social Forum. The entire programme is rich in film and discussion events ranging from family-friendly animated tales to chillingly accurate documentaries of environmental plight.

Here are our top five green-tinged film recommendations from the festival’s programme-

Bidder 70 (with short films Feel Like a Mountain and For the Love of…)

“In response to huge areas of public land being sold off for oil and gas leases in Utah, nascent activist Tim DeChristopher disrupted the auctions by successfully bidding $1.7 million he didn’t have for thousands of acres he wanted to preserve. Arrested and threatened with prison, he defies the courts to inspire others to take action for better environmental policies, arguing that civil disobedience is one of our most powerful tools in the fight against climate change.

As hopeful and defiant as its protagonist, Bidder 70 is a powerful portrait of a man coming to grips with the destruction we have wrought on the planet and deciding to keep up the fight.”

Big Men

“Brad Pitt exec produces this extraordinary expose of the hope, scepticism and corruption that threaten to exacerbate Africa’s resource curse and leave its ordinary citizens behind.

In Ghana, a small American energy company fights to hold onto its discovery of oil just as a new government comes into power. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, an established industry continues to take its toll from the people. Amid political uncertainty, power-plays are made, reputations gambled, and pipelines attacked by militants.

With unprecedented access and an unflinching eye Big Men shows the global and all-too-human drama behind the fuel that we continue to take for granted.”

Millions Can Walk (with short film This is Water)

“Can one fight for one’s fundamental rights without resorting to violence? In 2012, hundreds of thousands of Adivasis, India’s aborigines, embarked upon a country-wide march spanning hundreds of kilometres to demand a life of dignity.

Adivasis have borne the brunt of India’s destructive agricultural policies and large-scale infrastructure projects, as land grabs and environmental destruction have robbed them of their homes and traditional existence. Millions Can Walk provides insight into their lives and, in bearing witness to the philosophy of non-violent resistance at the heart of this epic march, offers an inspiring tribute to their perseverance.”

Once upon a Forest (with short films Earthbook and Feel Like A Mountain)

“This magical pilgrimage from the director of March of the Penguins transports you body and soul into rainforest canopies in the Amazon and Africa to celebrate some of the untold wonders of trees.

In a tropical forest 200 feet above the ground, botanist Francis Hallé makes intricate drawings of all he surveys. His images then come alive in Oscar®-winning director Luc Jacquet’s sensory spectacular, using innovative, soaring cinematography techniques to illustrate how trees communicate, co-operate and fight for their lives. Drawing on vast research and knowledge, Jacquet and Hallé lead viewers on a journey into the depths of the tropical jungle.”

Seeds of Time (with short films After My Garden Grows and Sausage)

“Around 10,000 years ago, human populations embraced agriculture, embarking on a path of fundamental social and environmental transformation. 10 millennia later, food security across the globe is threatened by diminishing crop diversity, new diseases and the effects of climate change. Can we future-proof global food production?

Crop diversity pioneer Cary Folwer believes we can – if we act now. Battling natural disasters and international bureaucracy, he has set out on a race to protect the one resource we can’t do without: our seeds. Seeds of time follows Fowler on his impassioned journey to re-invent a global food system that can “live forever”.”

Watermark (with short films Vezo and Thank You Toilet)

“Tumultuous, lush, unfamiliar and epic – multi-award winning director Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) returns with this mesmerizing symphony on humankind’s relationship with water, reflected through the vision of internationally acclaimed photo artist Edward Burtynsky.

Shot in stunning ultra-HD, The Watermark plunges you into the turbulent interconnections between our seas and watercourses and neo-industrial human endeavor. We visit vast floating farms and the biggest arch dam in the world, the leather tanneries of Dhaka, the US Surf Open, and the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, where thirty million people gather for a sacred bath in the Ganges.”

The Take One Action Film Festival full programme can be viewed here. For more information, please visit the Take One Action website. Image and film descriptions courtesy Take One Action.

The post #GreenFests Tips: Top green films at the Take One Action Film Festival 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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Content of Nothing :: Part 6 :: On Hope

ecoartscotland

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Featured Image: Judy Spark: Untitled, digital print (500 x 309mm approximately) 2010

[In the previous post, Samantha Clark had been talking about the ethical import of wonder in the work of Ronald Hepburn, Suzi Gablick and Jane Bennett.]

Judy Spark: I want to believe in this link between wonder and ‘ethical generosity’ and even love and that there may only be a ‘short step’ from here to ‘humility’ but I feel compelled to take up the cynic’s position again. I’m not convinced. It’s not that I think that this is not possible exactly, but rather that it will be a long road. The human capacity for wonder is one that is shared by the artist, philosopher and scientist alike, indeed all of us have this latent disposition whether or not it is ever developed. But if it was going to lead naturally to an ethical relationship to the wider world, then I think that it would have done so by now. Sometimes it has pre-empted great scientific discovery, but equally, it can lead us to dismantle and separate things in an effort to learn how they work. It does not necessarily, for instance, always lead to an appreciation of the interconnected dependency of things. I feel inspired by Hepburn and Gablick, though I’m not so familiar with Bennett, but I don’t think that they back up their claims with anything concrete, how could they? How exactly does one move from a position of wonder to one of love and ethical awareness? But if this progression is at the moment unclear, perhaps this is ok. I think that the reason I make art and write is in order to encourage this tuning to wonder and the hopes for its potential, that maybe at some point, the pathway between these things will become clearer.

Samantha Clark: Yes, I think you are right to be cynical. Wonder linked to ignorance is a dangerous combination. People flock to see the orcas performing at Seaworld, and experience genuine wonder at the power and beauty of these creatures and their willingness to engage with humans, but they are ignorant of the suffering that this captivity causes the very creatures they admire so much. People wonder at the bare landscape of the Highlands with no idea that they are looking at an ecological disaster area, a man-made wet desert. A little bit of ‘dismantling to see how it works’ doesn’t need to dispel wonder, but can actually create a more educated awareness. Wonder doesn’t depend on a state of naivety. Kant, in his Critique of Judgement, noticed a difference between astonishment (Verwunderung) which fades once the novelty wears off, and a steady, contemplative wonderment (Bewunderung) which does not depend on novelty, and may even grow deeper with familiarity and understanding. The contemplative wonderment he described maintains the questioning and questing aspect of wonder, and yet rests attentively in the wonderful object (Kant, 1997: 273).

A recent document put together by the organisation Common Cause seems to propose some means by which this transition from ‘wonder’ to ethical and environmental awareness might be made. Their focus is on addressing the values we hold in order to create a shift to a more socially and environmentally just society, suggesting that the arts’ ‘capacity to trigger reflection, generate empathy, create dialogue and foster new ideas and relationships offers a powerful and democratic way of expressing, sharing and shaping values.’ (Common Cause, 2013: 4). In the core paper of this document, the psychologist Tim Kasser suggests that our values can be described as either broadly extrinsic, such as financial success, image, popularity (which depend on rewards or other’s opinions and promote competitive and selfish behaviour), or intrinsic, such as self-acceptance, community, affiliation (which promote more empathic and co-operative ways of behaving). He argues that we all have all of these values in us, but that they increase in importance to us the more they are stimulated, and that, broadly speaking, consumer societies emphasise and so promote the development of extrinsic values. These are shown to make us more dependent on external sources of happiness, such as status, entertainment and consumerism. This has far reaching effects. ‘People who prioritise extrinsic values have been shown to care less about the environment and other species, whereas a focus on intrinsic values promotes more ecologically sustainable attitudes and behaviours’ (11). Kasser builds an argument that pursuit of the arts (either as active participant or viewer) is important as it may deepen public commitment to values that promote environmental and social concern. I think there is some truth to this, though with certain caveats. Engaging with art as a high-end luxury commodity and status symbol clearly stimulates extrinsic values. So we need to be circumspect about what kind of art, and what kind of engagement we are talking about. But it seems pretty clear that it is emotions, not factual arguments, that shape our decisions, and that art can have some role to play here.

Ellie Harrison hits the nail on the head in her contribution to the same publication – arguing that to emphasise ‘art’ and ‘culture’ per se gives them a falsely elevated status and is misleading. ‘What we all need regardless of our occupation, is not arts and culture per se, but simply time and space beyond the realms of the market, where we can each access knowledge, critically reflect and feel empowered to change our lives for the better’ (21). She’s right, but art can be one way of opening up some space and time. I think that wonder, when it crops up in the mundane, maybe hearing migrating geese honking as they go flying over the supermarket car park, momentarily opens up a space of this kind. Engaging with art or writing which invites us to share that experience with the writer or the artist ‘primes’ us to be receptive to it when it crops up in life. I think it helps us to open up a little crack in the midst of the day, a ‘space between,’ a momentary breather from the demands of making our way in a market economy devoted to heedless economic growth. Anything that makes us stop and remember to be grateful, even in a small way, makes a contribution. Gratitude is very subversive in a consumer culture that primes us to be in a constant state of wanting. Kasser again: ‘One set of studies showed that very brief and very subtle reminders of the extrinsic value of money lead people to behave less helpfully and generously moments later’ (9). And another study, ‘that focused particularly on people for whom material possessions and social status were quite important found that thinking for a few minutes about the intrinsic values of affiliation and being broadminded caused these individuals to express stronger care for the environment’ 10). So inviting others to share a moment of wonder or reflection or gratitude through the art we make is maybe part of this drip feed, just tickling those extrinsic values one more time.

You mentioned hope, and hopefulness is a real issue these days, its something I seem to come up against again and again – in the context of ‘eco-art’ especially. Reading Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Hope in the Dark’ helped me to think about this – that ‘results’ or ‘outcomes’ of creative work are nonlinear and unpredictable, so hanging on to some idea of what you’d like to happen as a result of your creative work is pointless. If you want direct results then direct action is a better bet. As artists we’re working at the level of metaphor, getting in ‘under the bonnet’ of thought as it were – shift the metaphors and you contribute towards shifting thought. But it’s not something didactic, or fact-based. It’s more like lending your own small weight to the other side of the scales, towards tipping things back, rebalancing, in a Taoist kind of way. And if Kasser is right, and even such a subtle cue can unconsciously affect someone’s values and behaviour, then perhaps that’s cause for hope.

References:

Kant, I. (trans. Pluhar, W) (1997) Critique of Judgement, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing

Common Cause and Mission Models Money (2103),  The Art of Life: Understanding How Participation in Arts and Culture Can Affect Our Values  http://valuesandframes.org  [Online:  Accessed 12-11- 2013]

Solnit, R (2005) Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power, Edinburgh: Canongate

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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E-Waste Recycling Drive – September 17!

Broadway Green Alliance

This post comes to you from the Broadway Green Alliance

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The Broadway Green Alliance was founded in 2008 in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League and a fiscal program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. Along with Julie’s Bicycle in the UK, the BGA is a founding member of the International Green Theatre Alliance. The BGA has reached tens of thousands of fans through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media.

At the BGA, we recognize that it is impossible to be 100% “green” while continuing activity and – as there is no litmus test for green activity – we ask instead that our members commit to being greener and doing better each day. As climate change does not result from one large negative action, but rather from the cumulative effect of billions of small actions, progress comes from millions of us doing a bit better each day. To become a member of the Broadway Green Alliance we ask only that you commit to becoming greener, that you name a point person to be our liaison, and that you will tell us about your green-er journey.

The BGA is co-chaired by Susan Sampliner, Company Manager of the Broadway company of WICKED, and Charlie Deull, Executive Vice President at Clark Transfer<. Rebekah Sale is the BGA’s full-time Coordinator.

Go to the Broadway Green Alliance

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Opportunity: Freelance Carbon Reduction Advisers

Creative Carbon Scotland, Open Calls

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Freelance Carbon Reduction Advisers

Creative Carbon Scotland is seeking top quality people to advise arts and cultural organisations and individuals working in the sector on carbon management and reduction in one-to-one sessions in person, over the phone and by email.

We help the cultural sector to reduce its environmental impact and a large part of our work is helping people and organisations measure, report and reduce their carbon emissions from energy use, water use, travel and waste production/recycling.

Job Description

The Freelance Carbon Reduction Advisers will provide one-to-one support to arts organisations and individuals introduced by CCS. The two aims of the work will be:

  • To prepare and train the clients to be able to report their carbon emissions related to travel, energy use, water use and waste disposal (as appropriate) to Creative Scotland for the financial year 2015/16. Some clients may want to report emissions relating to an earlier year.
  • To help clients develop and implement a carbon reduction plan to start to reduce their carbon emissions alongside any reporting

Creative Carbon Scotland has developed a reporting methodology and has licensed tools for these purposes and Advisers and their clients would be encouraged to make use of them. An introduction to and training in our materials and approach will be provided before the Advisers meet clients.

The Advisers will be engaged to work on a self-employed, freelance basis, either with a certain number of days’ work committed to on either side between October 2014 and March 2015, or by being included on a list of advisers who we could call upon when required, with the option of refusing the work when offered. The daily rate would be between £150 and £200, plus approved expenses, depending on the number of days of guaranteed work.

We anticipate there will be a significant need for Advisers in the Central Belt, particularly in Glasgow and the West, with some work in the Tayside, Dumfries and Galloway and Highland regions. We would prefer to work with Advisers resident in these areas to reduce unnecessary travel.

Person Specification

  • Excellent knowledge of carbon management and reduction
  • Experience of advising on carbon reduction in one to one and other situations
  • Ability to engage with people and work with them to achieve their and Creative Carbon Scotland’s aims
  • Excellent written and spoken communication skills
  • Excellent numeracy and facility with spreadsheets and similar tools
  • Awareness of the challenges relevant to SMEs in reducing carbon emissions

Understanding of the built environment and/or the cultural sector would be an advantage

Applications

Please apply by 5pm on Monday 22 September by sending an email with a CV and covering letter to Fiona.maclennan@creativecarbonscotland.com, making sure that you indicate clearly how you meet the person specification above. We will respond to all applications received by that time.

Equal opportunities and environmental policies

Creative Carbon Scotland aims to be an equal opportunities employer and we will consider all applications equally in line with our policy which is available here. All staff are expected to comply with our Environmental Policy which is available here.

Further information

For more information please visit our website www.creativecarbonscotland.com. If you have any further enquiries, please contact Fiona MacLennan at the address above or call 0131 529 7909.

The post Opportunity: Freelance Carbon Reduction Advisers 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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Opportunity: Paper makers – communicating science through art

ecoartscotland, Open Calls

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

 

Paper making, the production of academic papers, is an increasingly important and interesting part of the work of artists, and in particular artists working with environmental and ecological issues.  This opportunity was recently highlighted by Dave Borthwick on belhalf of Lydia Bach and Kate Foster:

The Paper Makers project, funded by the British Ecological Society, aims to create a dialogue between early career artists and scientists focussing on human impacts on biodiversity, with the overall aim to generate collaborative work for a wider audience.

To do so five pairs of early career artists and scientist will get together to discuss the content of one scientific paper and create five piece of work based on these discussions. The progress and process of the creation of the artwork to a wider audience.

More information can be found at: http://the-paper-makers.blogspot.co.uk/ .

We are looking for artists and scientists to apply to join us by 15th of September.​

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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#GreenFests: Highlights from A Century on the Edge: From Cold War to Hot World, 1945-2045

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

In charting 1945 to the present day context, and specifically the development of nuclear weaponry, one must consider the events of the past century as one of the most major human forays into irreversible environmental destruction. “A Century on the Edge: From Cold War to Hot World, 1945-2045” explored whether subsequent Cold War nuclear lessons have really affected our outlook, and if we can learn to live within our worldwide limit.

With a background in the biological and environmental sciences, but a later career in international security, Rogers was able to blend environmental and social sustainability concerns in a global warfare context. He propositioned that climatic change and the marginalisation of certain groups is the new form of insecurity that must be addressed by governments and agencies that might previously have focused on traditional weaponry as a primary fear.

The talk, chaired by Dr Andrea Birdsall from the University of Edinburgh and hosted at The Hub, also managed to explore and provide proof of how international cooperation had mitigated environmental threats in the past. The audience was reminded of the confirmed erosive impact of CFCs to the Ozone layer, and the successful international agreements that led to the global eradication of CFC production and the continuing recovery of the ozone hole in the Antarctic.

Rogers also drew from personal experience to demonstrate his first-hand experiences of climate change and his motivations for pursuing the topic. Although whilst joking that it would be all the audience members took from the talk, he evidenced his personal experience growing grapes and producing wine in England, enabled by obvious climatic changes that have taken place within his lifespan.

The 45-minute talk was also followed by 25 minutes of unexhausted questions from the varied audience. However, the breadth of audience query itself reflected the huge amount of material encapsulated within the topic, with further depth requested on food security, population pressure, the impact of religion and personal culpability. At several points, Rogers even suggested that whole evenings could be dedicated to discussing such topics in the context of security – demonstrating that the framing of sustainability dilemmas as ‘threats’ might provide more urgent engagement and ultimately solutions.

“A Century on the Edge: From Cold War to Hot World, 1945-2045″ was a one-off discussion event that took place on 27 August 2014. The event was part of the 2014 Edinburgh International Festival programme.

Image: Hiroshima 1945, courtesy Maarten Heerlien/Flickr.

The post #GreenFests: Highlights from A Century on the Edge: From Cold War to Hot World, 1945-2045 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

Powered by WPeMatico

Cologne – Tag des Guten Lebens “Day of the Good Life”

Cultura21

This post comes to you from Cultura21

This Sunday, the streets of Cologne-Ehrenfeld will belong only to its residents. Without traffic and lots of free space for encounters and action. “Tell everyone, talk to your neighbours, this day will be what we make of it and if all of us participate!” There will be no cars in the district of Cologne-Ehrenfeld, instead there will be room for initiatives, creative workshops and encounters in search and promotion of alternatives for a more sustainable, more communal an caring lifestyle.

Exhibitions, readings and theatre plays will take place outside, there will be food and drinks available though not in the usual commercial fashion.

When: Sun, Aug. 31st, 2014. From 11am to 8pm.

Where: Car-free area between Vogelsangerstr. and Subbelrather Straße and Gürtel and Innerer Kanalstraße

More Info: http://www.tagdesgutenlebens.de

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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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Cultura21 eBook Vol. 12: A Journey Through Alternative Ways of Living:

Cultura21

This post comes to you from Cultura21

a design approach for scaling up grassroots movements towards sustainability
12th volume in the Cultura21 eBooks series on culture and sustainability – by Nicholas Torretta

Given the growing world-wide urbanization and the need for achieving a sustainable way of living, there is an urgent need for developing possibilities sustainable ways of urban living. This study was carried to find the existing urban sustainable practices and to propose connections and complementarity between them. For this, this study was based on emerging design practices to foster and disseminate the practices to a wider public, which resulted on the creation of the »Guidebook for Urban Freedom«.

Click here to download the eBook for free in PDF format.

Reminder: The Cultura21 eBooks are also available for purchase at a very small price, in a genuine Kindle ebook version, on the Amazon Kindle websites worldwide. Just search for “Cultura21″ on your Kindle shop to find our ebooks… (This 12th volume will be released in Kindle eBook version in a few weeks.)

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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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#GreenFests tips: 2014 Edinburgh Mela

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Edinburgh Mela celebrates its 20th birthday this year! Join in the fun this weekend at Leith Links, 30-31 August from noon-9pm. Here are Creative Carbon Scotland’s tips for enjoying everything green at the festival.

Walk or cycle

The Edinburgh Mela boasts extensive cycle parking, and even a mechanic (provided by the City of Edinburgh Council) to give bikes a “once over” free of charge! The festival is located within a short cycling distance from the city centre, estimated times can be found on the Mela website here. The website also includes information about desirable walking routes to the Leith Links.

Enjoy the Global Food Village

In 2013, the Edinburgh Mela set progressive packaging regulations for their Global Food Village; non-compostable packaging has been banned since then, but with Vegware as a partner the Global Food Village is still a roaring success.

Wee Green Cinema

Global cinema advocates Take One Action are at the Edinburgh Mela this year with their Wee Green Cinema, a pop-up cinema powered by solar energy and cycles. The Wee Green Cinema will screen feature films in the evenings, along with daytime activities, animations and even an exclusive UK film premiere!

Social sustainability

Not only does the Edinburgh Mela promote environmental sustainability, but the festival also celebrates cultural diversity and inclusivity. Edinburgh Mela Director Chris Purnell describes the range of cultures at this year’s festival as going “beyond its beginnings as a celebration of the city’s Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.” This year’s programme includes music, dance, fashion, film and food from all corners of the globe.

Image courtesy David P Scott and Edinburgh Mela. 

The post #GreenFests tips: 2014 Edinburgh Mela 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

Powered by WPeMatico

Teresa Posyniak’s Beautiful Losers

Artists and Climate Change

This post comes from the Artists and Climate Change Blog

Featured Image: The Deeps Tapestry VI. 3′ x 2′, paper on cradled wood stretchers, wax and mixed media.

Teresa Posyniak is a painter and sculptor best known for her work with encaustic, using hot beeswax to create rich, sensual surfaces that incorporate textures, drippings, splatters and layers of tinted, glowing colors. She is also an artist exploring climate change issues in Calgary, Alberta – a city that boast over 100 energy companies, mostly in the oil and gas industry. One of the fasted growing economy in Canada, with the tar sands literally in its backyard, Calgary does not play well with those who criticize its economy’s main driver. Yet artists still find a way to make their voices heard.

Note: The photos included in this post are studio shots of works in progress that will become part of Beautiful Losers: My Carbon Sink Muses. Each photo is a detail of a much larger installation. There will be at least 9 columns in total. Tree forms will number about a dozen. Bleached Forest will be one much larger piece with many more elements.

You’ve provided this blog with a few details of works in progress for your series Beautiful Losers: My Carbon Sink Muses. Can you describe these paintings, sculptures and installations?

In this series, I explore the beauty and function of plankton, the smallest photo-synthesizer and supplier of half the earth’s oxygen, and trees, the largest, through paintings, sculpture and installations. Fascinated by the ornate shells and lace-like appearance of plankton and the striations and other marks on trees, I’ve created many paintings of these subjects individually (see Inhale and Birch Poems series). More recently, I’ve begun combining these subjects to create new forms. The plankton paintings are shaped irregularly, like pieces of a large puzzle, and the sculptural elements are evolving into installations which are designed to adapt to myriad gallery spaces. The materials I use vary widely: painting media, canvas, paper, cast paper and concrete, wax, felt, wood, lace and industrial steel connectors. Once completed, I hope to exhibit this work in a public gallery in the near future.

Creature Columns: 8' x 18", cast paper over sono tube, cast concrete base, lace, wax, oil. Creature Columns: 8′ x 18″, cast paper over sono tube, cast concrete base, lace, wax, oil.

How does an artist dealing with climate change survive in the heart of Canada’s oil country? Does the proximity of the tar sands influence how you approach your work?

I can’t help but approach the issue of climate change with some trepidation because many of my friends, family, neighbours, acquaintances, collectors and clients work in the oil industry or business related to oil. As a social activist, I’m aware that many of the social justice organizations and charities I’ve supported have been funded by the oil and gas companies. Like most of us anywhere in the world, I am dependent on oil and gas for my energy needs. In Alberta and Canada, oil is a key driver in our economy. But, as I like to point out, it doesn’t mean we can’t question it or lobby for alternatives to this non-renewable resource.

I’ve had many private studio viewings of this series in progress and had several images published in the 2012 Paris exhibition Carbon 12. Reactions vary wildly from fascination, curiousity, appreciation for the aesthetics of the works but doubt about my stance on climate change, defensiveness and occasionally open hostility towards the perceived “attack” on oil. Because I’m not a scientist but an artist who loves science in general and reads voraciously about climate change, I always emphasize the importance of paying attention to the science. When I do have an exhibition, I’ll definitely promote the invitation of scientists and others to lecture on this subject.

You mentioned being inspired by the work of science journalist Alanna Mitchell [featured in a previous blogpost] for your Inhale and Beautiful Losers series. Can you talk a little bit about this?

Alanna Mitchell, my close friend since the late 70’s, introduced me to plankton about 8 years ago while she was researching and writing Seasick: The Hidden Ecological Crisis of the Global Ocean. Our frequent conversations about her experiences with ocean scientists on their expeditions inspired me to look deeply into the function of plankton and the effects of ocean acidification as a result of increasing carbon emissions. About 3 years ago when Alanna walked into my studio, she pointed out that I was working on both the largest absorber of carbon emissions, trees, and the tiniest, plankton. Prior to that, I considered trees (a long-time subject) and plankton as separate series in spite of their common function. Alanna’s observations inspired me to integrate these distinctive forms ever since, leading me back into sculpture and installations after many years of painting. Her influence on the direction of my work and ideas has been no less than profound.

Tree Form I: 5' x 2', felt, paper, wax, oil, lace, wood. Tree Form I: 5′ x 2′, felt, paper, wax, oil, lace, wood.

Beautiful Losers: My Carbon Sink Muses is a convergence of interests (trees and plankton) and disciplines (painting and sculpture). Do you feel this intersectional quality speaks to the nature of climate change in some way?

It feels very natural for me to explore the imagery of trees and plankton through painting and sculpture, both major disciplines in my art education and studio practice over 35 years. Blending art with reality has always been a major focus of mine as well, and when a work strikes a nerve with the public, it’s a hugely rich experience. In 1991 I built Lest We Forget: A Memorial to 135 Canadian Murdered Women which was later permanently installed in the University of Calgary’s Law School in 1994. It was one of Canada’s first such memorials and a catalyst even now for more discussion and action to address domestic violence. It now seems fitting that the cast paper and concrete columns I used in that sculpture are now being resurrected for Beautiful Losers where they are covered in lace and wax, appearing like strange trees crawling with plankton. The hugely all-encompassing nature of climate change lends itself to the convergence of ideas, imagery and the creation of new forms.

What gives you hope?

Without hope, we lack the motivation to discover solutions to this crisis that we face. Individual initiatives give me hope. Major climate change deniers and others that refuse to acknowledge the crisis make me lose hope. Unless governments provide leadership to impose controls on carbon emissions and the coal, oil and gas industries, what real impact do our efforts to recycle, use public transit, limit our energy consumption have?   Hope is life-affirming, the only way forward.

The Deeps Tapestry VII. 3' x 2', paper on cradled wood stretchers, wax and mixed media.The Deeps Tapestry VII.

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Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

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