Monthly Archives: August 2015

Opportunity: Open Call for Re:See It 3

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Artists and creative practitioners are invited to submit proposals for artworks and workshops for this year’s Re:See It Exhibition, hosted by Edinburgh Palette and Gayfield Creative Spaces. 

As part of ArtCOP Scotland, this year’s submissions are open to the Edinburgh Green Tease network as well as Edinburgh Palette studio holders!

Exhibition brief: 

Artists and creative practitioners in Edinburgh are invited to submit high quality artwork proposals for our 3rd Re:See it exhibition. This exhibition focuses on environmental sustainability and climate change and your positive personal roles and responses towards it. This 3rd Re:See It extends its reach and calls on the communities engaged with Creative Carbon Scotland Edinburgh and the Green Tease Network in addition to tenants of St Margaret’s House.

Workshop proposals brief: 

Alongside the exhibition, artists/creative practitioners/makers/thinkers in Edinburgh are invited to submit proposals for creative and thought provoking workshops, events and talks to take place during Re:See it exhibition at St Margaret’s House or during the subsequent ArtCOP Hub events at Gayfield Creative Spaces.

What is Re:See it about?

Re:see the connection and meaning– how do you connect with what is happening to our planet with relation to climate change and the need for environmental sustainability? How can we go beyond despair and find more hopeful and positive possibilities through your creative expression? How can you help others connect? Consider the meaning of your work, how might its meaning affect other people’s awareness?

Re:see your impact and role– How do your materials and processes impact the planet? Consider the processes and materials that you use in your work. for example you may want to reuse or repurpose, or research environmentally responsible materials and ways of making. Consider your role and the contribution that you can make in creating a more sustainable future. You may wish to consider topic areas covered in the current UN sustainable development goals. For more detail on SDGs https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html

This exhibition and events will be promoted in the lead up to ArtCOP Scotland programme, running alongside COP21 climate talks Paris, December 2015. Works may also be considered and selected, with artist consent, for additional exhibition as part of the ArtCOP Scotland Hub at Gayfield Creative Spaces during the COP21 Talks in December (to be confirmed).

Deadline:

Artwork and Workshop Proposal submission deadline is 5pm Friday 21st August. Successful proposal notification Friday 4th September.

Apply:

Click here to download the Re:See It Artworks Proposal Form

Click here to download the Re:See It Workshops Proposal Form

Email completed proposal document and images to greenteam@edinburghpalette.co.uk

Exhibition dates

St Margaret’s House, 151 London Road, Gallery 2 & 3

Saturday 24th October – Monday 16th November 2015

Opening night Friday 23rd  6:30pm-10pm

Gayfield Creative Spaces, 11 Gayfield Square

Saturday 5th – Sunday 13th December 2015

Opening night Friday 4th December 6:30pm-10pm

Click here for more information on ArtCOP Scotland.

Image credit (from left to right): Will Mcevoy, Eleanor Symms, Sheila Masson

 

The post Opportunity: Open Call for Re:See It 3 appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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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#GreenFests: FSPA Shortlist Diary No.1

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

At the end of July we announced the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award shortlist. Two weeks on from this and Edinburgh has been transformed: the Fringe has hit! Consequently, we have finally begun the reviewing process of our 21 shortlisted shows. Over the next three weeks we will update you on the shows we have seen, how they exist in real time and in what ways they are addressing sustainability.

For more information on the 21 shortlisted Fringe shows, click here.

This week our reviewers, from the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Creative Carbon Scotland, have been kept on their toes, managing to fit in 7 shows in just 6 days! Here is our shortlist diary so far:

 

We May Have to ChooseSaturday 8th  3pm:  We May Have To Choose

“Farting breaks the ice. Ice caps are good places for Japanese Butoh dancing. Dancing fills your body with happy chemicals. Chemicals are destroying the oceans. Antarctica is not a good place to visit. The polar bears are angry with you.”

We May Have to Choose tackles the thoughts in our heads, the things we hear on the news, the actions we see on the street: in gentle confrontation. Emma Hall manages to capture the audience’s attention with the familiar and unfamiliar, forcing us to examine the interconnectedness of opinions and actions, and the societal pressures that influence our daily choices. The phrase ‘In my opinion…’ now seems of utmost importance to state.

 

Bayou BluesSunday 9th  3.45pm:  Bayou Blues

Bayou Blues addresses the social domain of sustainability; dealing with issues of colour and race, presented as the experiences of a young girl growing up in the bayou of New Orleans.

Writer and performer, Shaine Lynn, leads a captivating strong performance. The audience is drawn into each moment of joy and struggle the young girl faces, as the show progresses through scenes of her life. Lynn masters all forms of performance, including a series of monologues, song, poetry, and dance. The multi-media production includes a series of short animations, all beautifully in sync with the themes of the performance.

 

GardenMonday 10th  3.30pm:  Garden

“I stick my tongue out a tiny bit. Just a tiny bit. To see what the soil, the ground, the earth tastes like…”

Garden looks at both the loneliness of many current modern day lifestyles, and the inherent desire of humans to reconnect with nature. The performance follows an isolated lonely woman from London, working as the photocopier and printer girl in a dead end office job. Lucy Grace leads the audience down the ever-unhinging tale of this city dweller’s journey into the natural world.

For a one-woman show the stage was a marvellous small space that grew with the content of the performance: banners, pot plants, glitter and ivy all inhabited the space by the end of the hour.

 

FrankensteinTuesday 11th  6.45pm:  Frankenstein

This new adaptation of Frankenstein highlights the prescience of Shelley’s classic novel; asking us to examine the monsters we create, and the ones that live within us. The production evokes the audience to probe questions, such as; how can we carry out personal responsibility, what is the new path that will guide us, and, what are the present agreements we have made that threaten our species?

Frankenstein took a sustainable approach to the design of their show. They used recycled berry netting for their set and have been recycling and re-using their costumes for the past 30 years. The company’s goal is to keep introducing sustainable aspects of theatre into their show to promote the importance of sustainability through art.

 

To SpaceWednesday 12th  5pm:  To Space

An engaging and intelligent performer opens up the world of the scientist and would-be astronaut. Niamh Shaw conveys the excitement of an 8 year-old, watching Star Wars for the first time, and takes the audience on an expedition through the astronaut potential of a girl who dreams of going to space.

Sitting in the Dissection Room of Summerhall, as Shaw’s aspirations and achievements are exposed and documented, ‘To Space’ makes us all question our position when it comes to an environment where the primary attraction is the extreme unknown.

For NASA’s interactive evidence of global climate change, click here.

 

Sing For Your Life8.40pm:  Sing For Your Life

Celebrated taxidermy artist Charlie Tuesday Gates scraped animals from the road, bought deceased dogs on Gumtree and revived the family pet to create this cabaret from the Underworld.

Sing for Your Life was one of the most disgusting and yet highly entertaining shows at the Fringe. The singing and dancing taxidermied puppets, handled superbly by a young cast, used the spotlight to highlight issues such as animal testing, overbreeding, mass-production, unnecessary culling and the problems of invasive species. Despite the seriousness of these issues, they were dealt with in an enjoyable and comical fashion, whilst still proving extremely thought provoking.

 

NdebeleFuneralThursday 13th  1pm:  Ndebele Funeral

Ndebele Funeral looks at contemporary South Africa through the meeting of three characters in Soweto shantytown. The production examines the characters’ aspirations and losses, as they quarrel with the notions of fate and choice.

The impacts of decades of social change and the AIDS epidemic are exposed within a one-room set constructed of scavenged corrugated metal, cardboard and wood: the politics of which are further demonstrated through the clipboard-documentation and the multiple interpretations of the term ‘affirmative action’.
Careful storytelling is blended with call-and-response song, powerful choreographed movement and quick dialogue to transport the viewer to the Southern Hemisphere, and a social environment of danger, fear and violence. In these moments the emotionally intense performance became irresistibly alive and dynamic.

Our next Fringe Sustainable Practice Award shortlist diary will be out next Thursday, the 20th August. Be sure to have a read, as our reviewers will have 8 new shows to report back on!

For details on the Fringe Sustainable Practice Award Ceremony on 28th August at 4pm, check out our event page here.

If you are interested in sustainability in the Fringe, the Fringe Swap Shop (formerly known as the Reuse & Recycle Days) occurs each year at the end of August and is a great opportunity for companies, individuals, and those that have participated in the Fringe to dispose of any unwanted props, sets and costumes. We’d also like to encourage anyone, fringe participant or not, to come along to pickup and re-use the dropped off materials – it’s a swap shop after all!

Image, Brown Linen Lace Coptic Journal, courticy of Samandra Vieira

The post #GreenFests: FSPA Shortlist Diary No.1 appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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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#GreenFests: Tips & Tricks for Sustainable Festivals

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

1. Use your own water bottle and encourage staff and audiences to do the same. Make sure that everyone knows where they can fill them up too.

2. Find out the location of the nearest recycling facilities and actively advocate their usage. Landfill should be a last resort!

3. Opt for sustainable forms of transport – especially cycling and walking. Websites like www.walkit.com and www.edinburgh.cyclestreets.net can be used to find new routes and avoid the manic festival traffic

4. Always use recycled and/or recyclable paper. The price difference is often negligible while the environmental benefits are huge. See here to learn more about your paper options.

5. Use the Fringe Swap Shop. At the end of the festivals, don’t throw everything away! Bring along any good quality props, costumes, and set materials that you no longer want to the Fringe Swap Shop, running 11am-6pm from Sunday 30th August through to Tuesday 1st Here they can be collected and reused by other productions and members of the local community. You might even find something you like for yourselves! Contact participants@edfringe.com for full details.

6. Join the Green Arts Initiative. Members of the GAI commit to helping to grow a sustainable arts sector for Scotland by reducing their environmental impact and sharing their green ambitions with audiences and artists. This is supported by Creative Carbon Scotland and Festivals Edinburgh, and you will join a community of practice of same-minded and mutually supporting organisations.

7. Follow our blog and twitter campaign #GreenFests where we will be posting case-studies of best practice and reviewing and promoting festival shows, especially those involved with the Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.

8. Check out the Fringe Sustainable Practice Guide for further ideas (click here for the guide)

We’d love to know how you get on or if you have any other ideas on how to be green at this summer’s festivals. Let us know via Twitter @CCScotland, our Facebook page or – if social media’s not your thing – email us at info@creativecarbonscotland.com. We will be posting on festival sustainability throughout the summer under #GreenFests so get in touch!

[Image: ‘Dancers on the Royal Mile’ courtesy of Edinburgh Festival City]

The post #GreenFests: Tips & Tricks for Sustainable Festivals appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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

Assembly Rooms Attains Silver Award in Green Tourism Business Scheme

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh have been given a Silver Award by the Green Tourism Business Scheme, a programme that aims to develop and recognise exemplary sustainability initiatives within the hospitality sector. The award marks the success of the programmes and strategies implemented by the Assembly Rooms’ ‘Green Team’ to increase environmental awareness and positive action within this historic venue. A number of initiatives have been administered by the Assembly Rooms’ team, including a highly successful recycling programme (with effective custom signage), the introduction of bioplastics into biodegradable plastic cups and ongoing coordination with ethical suppliers.

The Assembly Rooms is a Green Arts Initiative member and has worked jointly with Creative Carbon Scotland on carbon monitoring projects within the City of Edinburgh Council Culture and Sport division. As a regular Edinburgh Festival Fringe venue, the Assembly Rooms sets a high standard for green operations during the busy summer festival period. Through their genuine commitment, the venue continues to showcase the finest international acts while pioneering techniques for approaching sustainability effectively at various levels of engagement.

To read more about the Assembly Rooms’ Silver Green Tourism Award achievement, please visit the Assembly Rooms’ website.

Image courtesy Assembly Rooms

 

The post Assembly Rooms Attains Silver Award in Green Tourism Business Scheme appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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

Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art & SYSTEMS BREAKDOWN

ecoartscotland

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Rachel Duckhouse was Associate Artist engaging staff at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art around issues of climate change, in response to Ellie Harrison’s Early Warning Sign that the gallery has been hosting.

The image above, part of a suite of images in SYSTEMS BREAKDOWN is the result of conversations with staff about their relationships with each other and with the institution.  She says,

I became aware of patterns, relationships, connections, disconnections, motivations, hierarchies, agendas, preoccupations and passions that shaped each individual’s perception of the institution and how it related to wider environmental and social issues inside and outside its walls.

I attempted to map out and draw the infinitely dynamic, multi layered and intangible relationships between people and the systems they work, live and think within.

In the process of making the drawings, I better understood the difficulties in addressing a community of individuals each with their own relationship to that community and ultimately to climate change; and I’m beginning to understand how they act as a metaphor for the challenges we all face as a global community.

It’s worth looking at these drawings and this process in relation to the irational.org project The Status Project.   That also used visual methods to explore individual’s relations with bureaucracies in a social context. 

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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GAI Member Survey: The Results

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Green Arts Initiative is changing: growing from a simple branding and accreditation scheme, to a more useful and interactive community of practice for those artists and organisations working to reduce the environmental impact of the Scottish arts sector.

Our primary step was to find out more about our GAI members: who they are, where and how they work, and what they want from the redevelopment. From these results, we’ll be working to create more opportunities for the GAI to be useful to its members; in terms of working on their sustainability activities; learning from each other; and showcasing their sustainability to audience and partners.

Here are some of our key results:

More about our members

The survey revealed a lot of information about our members, allowing us to tailor the advice we provide, the events we hold and the way we communicate. We’re also able to place some focus on those who are more individual in their aims and challenges, and make sure that we’re providing information useful to all our different members.

Here are some snapshots of our community membership:

  • 68% of members are focused on carbon reduction, whilst 30% are focussing on changing their organisations from within – such as through engaging more staff members.
  • 53% of members are the only green champion in their organisation – but the remaining 47% vary, from having one other supporting member, to a fully engaged staff team.
  • 80% of GAI members have previously used the tools provided by CCS (including Claimexpenses.com and GAP).


Area of arts workArea of work

More about the resources they want

We asked our members specifically about they kinds of information they want, and how they want to access them. We’ve been working to make this a reality:

  • Use technology more actively and innovatively to maintain easy access to up-to-date resources
    • We’re working to redesign and streamline our website to make it easier to identify the resources that are relevant to you. We’re also working to extend the platforms across which these resources are hosted on: already we’ve created a video tutorial for our Claimexpenses.com travel tool, and we have more planned.
  • Involve external experts in specific aspects of sustainability
    • Since the conclusion of the survey, we’ve already commissioned expert consulting advice with regards to sustainable travel planning for new capital (building) projects. As we continue to identify the knowledge gaps of the community, we’ll seek further support to make sure the GAI is an access point for quality information.

More about their needs

We asked our members about what they think the core values of the GAI should be, and what kinds of activities would help them achieve their environmental sustainability aims. Our top results are prompting us to consider different ways to meet these needs:

  • Enhance the sustainability competencies of arts organisations
    • Creative Carbon Scotland is working hard to grow the range and accessibility of the resources and tools we provide to help guide those addressing their environmental impact. Over time, we plan to host informative training events on key sustainability topics to grow organisational competency.
  • Identify, use and share relevant knowledge
    • Our members are experts in their own field, each having faced specific sustainability questions and issues. But many of these issues are familiar across the arts sector, across regional boundaries, and across art form. We’re investigating the different ways to share these stories – through case studies and research reports, to best communicate how to overcome the common problems.
  • Provide a central gathering of arts and sustainability expertise in Scotland
    • On 6th October 2015, we’re hosting our first annual conference for GAI members and those Scottish arts organisations reporting on their environmental efforts. Held in Glasgow at the Pearce Institute, the conference will be a great opportunity to hear about the challenges and successes of fellow GAI members, and glean ideas to adapt for other organisations.

Thanks once again to all those who completed the survey. For those who missed it, we are always eager to hear any thoughts or ideas on how you want the GAI community of practice to work. Please let us know! You can get in touch with Catriona by emailing catriona.patterson@creativecarbonscotland.com.

For the mean time, keep an eye on the Green Arts Initiative project page and our social media accounts (#GAI) to stay up-to-date with our members. And don’t forget to save the date for our GAI and carbon reporting conference on October 6th: 50 Shades of Green. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

If you’re interested in joining the Green Arts Initiative, have a look on the Green Arts Initiative project page to find out more, and to join the community.

Image: David Smith of The Filmhouse/Edinburgh International Film Festival – Winner of our GAI Member Survey prize draw!

 

The post GAI Member Survey: The Results appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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

#GreenFests Top 10 Things to See in Edinburgh This Week

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Creative Carbon Scotland presents our 10 sustainable top picks for the week ahead. We have scoured through the programme of each and every festival to find the best and brightest acts engaging with art and sustainability. From shows to exhibitions, talks and discussions to events, I hope you enjoy our list of the sustainability crème de la crème on show in Edinburgh this week.

1. Workers’ Rights in the 21st Century – do we need them?

Festival of Politics

Fringe 1Although they have been synonymous with industrialization for more than a hundred years, detractors believe unions are outmoded institutions whose role has been pre-empted in the 21st century by labour laws, better human resource management and an increasingly educated and mobile workforce.  Yet many believe we still need a fairness and voice in the workplace. Join Chair Deputy Presiding Officer, Elaine Smith MSP as she discusses these issues with Ann Henderson, Assistant Secretary, Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC); Professor Mike Gonzalez, formerly head of Latin American studies at University of Glasgow and member of Solidarity – Scotland’s Socialist Movement; and Colin Borland, Federation of Small Businesses.

A special Festival discount will apply if tickets are bought for both this panel and the film screening Made in Dagenham.

2. Lungs

Fringe 2Edinburgh Festival Fringe

‘I could fly to New York and back every day for seven years and still not leave a carbon footprint as big as if I have a child. Ten thousand tonnes of CO2. That’s the weight of the Eiffel Tower. I’d be giving birth to the Eiffel Tower.’ In a time of global anxiety, erratic weather and political unrest, a couple want a child but are running out of time. What will be the first to destruct – the planet or their relationship? ‘The most beautiful, shattering play of the year’ ***** (Sunday Express).

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

 

3.  Current Location

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 9

Three women stand on a cliff-edge overlooking their village; a village which is soon to disappear. ‘Sometimes we need to do things like this; we need to step away from our daily lives, and look at them from a distance.’ Set in the intimacy of a choir rehearsal room, an all-female cast presents this immersive piece of theatre with live music by Ben Osborn, which explores how rumour and the fears associated with climate change disrupts families, friends and communities. ‘Quietly gripping and thoroughly unsettling, this piece climbs inside you, like the best examples of sci-fi’ (ExeuntMagazine.com).

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

4.  We May Have To Choose

Fringe 10Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Winner: 2015 Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award – Best Theatre. A monologue of sorts, a list of 621 declarations about the universe. A darkly humorous solo show that asks: in a dying world, what is it to speak one’s mind? “a refreshingly experimental performance… surprisingly funny… provocative…an introspective experience” (Buzzcuts.org.au). Australian performer Emma Hall creates a funny, withering, and moving piece about the fallibility of thought in our quest to solve the riddles of our world. I think therefore I am…often wrong. **** ‘smart, fun and distinctly different’ (TheatreGuide.com.au). **** (RipItUp.com.au).

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

5. Holoturian

Edinburgh Art Festival

Fringe 3For the Edinburgh Art Festival, Guzik has constructed a beautiful capsule, the Holoturian, designed to send a living plant and a string instrument into the depths of the sea. Imagined in extraordinary drawings, this ship has instrumentation, which expresses life, space, harmony and brightness as primary messages, and is dedicated to sperm whales and other deep ocean creatures.

6. Embrace Your Creativity and Improve Your Life

Fringe 7Edinburgh International Book Festival

BBC arts editor Will Gompertz has interviewed plenty of creative people. In Think Like an Artist he focuses not just on their output, but the creativity with which they approach their work. He argues that there’s a link between creativity and entrepreneurialism, and using artists like Picasso and Warhol as examples, he says we can improve our own lives by learning some of their skills.

 

7. The Wild Man of Orford

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 4

Orford, the Suffolk coast, 1167. A fisherman hauls up a mysterious catch: a scaly, glistening creature from the depths of the sea. Man or monster? Is the wild man barbaric or simply free of the constraints of society? A tale from English folklore, The Wild Man of Orford is a story of freedom, of kindness, and of the strange wild song of the sea. Beautiful and improbable, Rust and Stardust’s production features an exciting combination of handmade puppets, live theatre and music, and projected animations. Part of the Sea of Stories season at Sweet Venues.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

8. Ndebele Funeral

Fringe 5Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Winner! FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award Best Play, Critics’ Pick Time Out New York. From a successful run off-Broadway in New York and South Africa’s National Arts Festival. Hilariously heartbreaking, Ndebele Funeral pulls audiences into the music, dirt, and dreams of modern South Africa by examining the aspirations and loss of three characters whose lives intersect in a Soweto shack. Smoke and Mirrors Collaborative’s powerfully physical production delves bravely into modern poverty, health care and violence featuring original music and gumboot dancing from the mines of Jo’burg.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

9. Scarfed for Life

Fringe 6Edinburgh Festival Fringe

‘The play, Scarfed for Life, is a loud, lively piece about sectarianism in Glasgow … a mix of broad, mouthy comedy and serious agitprop’ (Joyce McMillan, Scotsman). A modern parable set against the backdrop of the first Old Firm clash of the season. Funny, hard-hitting and thought provoking, Scarfed for Life tells the story of two teenage friends caught in the crossfire of polite suburban prejudice and garden equipment. This play draws on what sectarianism and prejudice actually means to young Glaswegians, and how it affects them and their peers. Supported by the Scottish Government.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

10.  Fraxi Queen of the Forest

Fringe 8Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Home provider, light giver, and oxygen producer, Fraxi the Ash tree is a guardian (and BFF!) to all woodland creatures. When tragedy strikes and Fraxi is infected with the ash-dieback virus, her childhood friend Woody must choose how to save the forest. A triumph of whimsical physical theatre for young audiences written by Scotland New Playwrights award winner, Jack Dickson.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

 

[Top image courtesy of Lonely Planet]

The post #GreenFests Top 10 Things to See in Edinburgh This Week appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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

Land Use Strategy pilot: what’s it got to do with artists?

ecoartscotland

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Aberdeenshire landscape – photo: Chris Fremantle

Absolutely fascinating webminar organised the Ecosystems Knowledge Network on the Aberdeenshire Land Use Strategy Pilot undertaken by Aberdeenshire Council and James Hutton Institute. You can access the presentation online here.

This two year exercise was one of two pilots funded by the Scottish Government to take the national Land Use Strategy and ‘translate’ it down to a local authority level and below that to a more local level. Scottish Government expected GIS to be central to this work. One key output is a new tool which utilises existing data relevant to ecosystems services assessment and integrates it into one interface. The speakers recognised the limitations of spatial data, that some things are not easily translated into spatial data.

The core data in the model is based on ecosystems services assessment across three categories:

  • Provisioning Services
  • Regulating Services
  • Cultural Services

(I don’t quite understand why Supporting Services aren’t included, though in a sense they are perhaps ubiquitous?)

Cultural Services were broadly represented by areas identified for recreational use, areas adjacent to core path networks and judgements such as not prioritising woodland within two miles of coastlines.

The model, which is publicly accessible at xxx allows some key overarching issues eg prime farmland, forestry, water, biodiversity, flood risk, to be prioritised within the model so you can see areas where you might increase tree planting to promote biodiversity by linking up existing areas of woodland, or where you might prioritise farmland over woodland if you want more arable.

It immediately triggered a series of thoughts about where artists are working in ways that directly speak to the challenges described.

The Collins and Goto Studio has been working with Forest Research, the Forestry Commission and the local communities looking at the Blackwood of Rannoch in Perthshire – access the report here. This is a futures modelling exercise seeking to understand how different ways of thinking about priorities including cultural dimensions to do with both woodland character and also Gaelic culture might inform management. Their report can be accessed at . The Collins and Goto Studio have extensive experience working with GIS (as do some other artists working with ecological systems such as Aviva Rahmani in the US).

The artists Hodges and Coleman worked with Dr Claire Haggett, University of Edinburgh, to explore ways to integrate cultural dimensions into the conventional Environmental Impact Assessment process. Aspects of their process lend themselves to the spatialisation of inhabitants’ perception and value of their landscapes in interesting ways. You can access documentation here.

Hurrel and Brennan have demonstrated ways to spatialise traditional knowledge in their project Mapping the Sea – Barra looking at the waters around Barra in the Outer Hebrides and have also explored the biological, economic and cultural dimensions of the Firth of Clyde in their more recent project Clyde Reflections with a good overview here.

These three all benefited from Creative Scotland’s Imagining Natural Scotland programme developed in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage – Imagining Natural Scotland specifically supported artist scientist collaborations.  You can read the review Dr Wallace Heim wrote for us here.

Professor Pete Smith and John Wallace’s Cinema Sark directly sought to undertake ecosystems services assessment through the medium of film, offering a distinct form of analysis.

Another potentially relevant recent development is the Pinning Stones project which mapped culture across Aberdeenshire. François Matarasso’s brief was to produce “…a portrait of the the shire’s culture, highlighting the role of creativity in place making, identity, quality of life and prosperity.”

Clearly one of the challenges for the arts is to understand how to engage with land use strategy development both in terms of effective intervention, perhaps as evidenced by the Collins and Goto Studio work, as well as supporting understanding cultural ecosystems as demonstrated by the art science collaborations of Hodges, Coleman and Haggett, Hurrel and Brennan and Smith and Wallace.

The integration of the cultural dimension in meaningful and robust ways into GIS to contribute to land use policy and strategy is not new, but its also far from ubiquitous.  But even the list of examples we’ve cited covers Perthshire, Dumfries and Galloway, the Western Isles, the Firth of Clyde – only one example is in Aberdeenshire.  For useful artists work to be integrated into local GIS based Land Use Strategy there needs to be a lot more artists work commissioned.

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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July Green Tease Reflections

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Our monthly Green Tease events took a different approach in July as we went Pecha Kucha style in both Edinburgh and Glasgow. Alongside free pizza and low cost beer, both nights saw us enjoying eight presentations from artists discussing their work, its connection with sustainability and how they can get involved in ArtCOP Scotland – our project this November and December to encourage creative responses across Scotland to the climate change negotiations that will be happening in Paris at COP21.

Pecha Kucha is a style of presentation where the speakers show 20 images, each for 20 seconds, and frame their talk around this. The pace of the presentation is both terrifying for the performer and enjoyable for the audience and is a really good way to discuss a lot of ideas in not very much time. Our speakers didn’t follow the format precisely, but it certainly got things moving.

Despite the common format, each presentation differed wildly from the last as our brave volunteers gave us insight into their very different worlds. From curators of galleries to visual artists, sculptors and theatre directors, the creative industries were well-represented as we were given a whistle-stop tour of sustainability across the art world.

Edinburgh Green Tease

In Edinburgh we had presentations covering everything from wildlife photography to outdoor children’s theatre to using plants to create landscape drawings and turn unappreciated brownfield sites into living works of art.

FANK

Andrea Geie. FANK site with Chlorophylles. Image courtesy of Public Art Online

Landscape artist and sculptor Andrea Geile discussed her work creating imaginative sculpture/plant combinations in which the plants and sculpture reflect each other and interplay to form a symbiotic relationship of sorts. In particular, she talked about her new piece FANK on the Isle of Mull which she hopes will permanently and sympathetically integrate with the surrounding environment.

Interestingly, Lothian-based visual artist Karen Gabbitas takes the opposite approach and aims to leave no trace. Karen’s art centres on walking VERY slowly through one’s environment, taking each step, each breath at a time. The group becomes a living drawing in the landscape, an interesting contrast to the pace of modern life. To this end, Karen proposed an interesting project for ArtCOP – a Christmas Slow to counterbalance the notorious Christmas rush that we all know and loathe.

Indeed, walking seemed to be a common theme as John Ennis, curator of Gayfield Creative Spaces, discussed new exhibit Pace, in which an old garden path that can be seen on maps from 1876 is being retraced and recreated through 20 minute strolls every lunchtime. People walking the path on the map recreate the path in the real world: walking by design.

Of course, walking is not always an optional activity. We were joined for a remote presentation from the Isle of Skye by Hector MacInnes, an artist who participated in our second Mull residency, and who is working on a piece called Arburo, a vocal piece of music  examining enforced clearance of people from land by powers that be.

Glasgow Green Tease

In Glasgow, we were pleased to be joined again by Hector and his remote presentation, but also by a very different crowd. It’s always interesting to see the difference between the Edinburgh and Glasgow Green Tease events – a difference which often reflects the unique characters and atmospheres of the cities. This was especially true this time as it is the first time we have held the same Green Tease events in both cities.

While in Edinburgh the ArtCOP Scratch Night was held in the Eltham Suite at the Eric Liddell centre, in Glasgow we were at the Vic Bar at the Glasgow School of Art. Being in a public venue changed the nature of the event as speakers needed to use a microphone and people who were not originally there for the event were drawn in and engaged. There was a very different atmosphere and so, despite the same format, the two ended up being very different events.

Andy Rutherford. Weaving Sample. Image courtesy of www.threadfallen.com

As we once again enjoyed free food, eight brave presenters stood up and did their bit to keep us entertained. We were not disappointed. Designer and artist Andy Robertson gave an excellent presentation on his work weaving unwanted telecom cables into beautiful textiles. Artist-in-residence Ailie Rutherford told us about a theatre project that she is currently running for young people, while Kate Foster discussed her new project exploring carbon flux in the water and rivers of Dumfries and Galloway. Glasgow wasn’t short of ArtCOP ideas either, as Tom Butler discussed his plans for running a protest song workshop.

All in all, both of the ArtCOP Scratch Nights were an unmitigated success. Plans for our August Green Tease events are now live so sign up here for Ecology and Theatre Making with Eco Drama in Edinburgh or here for discussion and an informal, unpredictable drawing experiment with visual artist Rachel Duckhouse in Glasgow.

In the meantime, we’re always on the lookout for exciting proposals for future Green Tease events. Check out our new Green Tease DIY Handbook which enables you to use the Green Tease model to explore the links between arts and sustainability.

The post July Green Tease Reflections 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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#GreenFests Top 10 Things to See in Edinburgh This Week

Creative Carbon Scotland, CSPA Convergence, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Creative Carbon Scotland’s presents our 10 sustainable top picks for the week ahead. We have scoured through the programme of each and every festival to find the best and brightest acts engaging with art and sustainability. From shows to exhibitions, talks and discussions to events, I hope you enjoy our list of the sustainability crème de la crème on show in Edinburgh this week.

1.   A Cinema in South Georgia

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 1

An exciting, new piece of ensemble theatre written by Jeffrey Mayhew (Swift, Bright is the Ring of Words,) and Susan Wilson (daughter of whaler William Watt). Based entirely on first-hand accounts they bring to life the experiences; bitter, hilarious, rueful and heart-warming, of some of the last men to follow the millennia-old tradition of hunting the whale. It is a celebration, in words and song, of four Eyemouth men, who, at differing points in their lives, in different ways and with differing attitudes and outcomes risked their lives among the Antarctic ice floes.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

2.  Antigone

Edinburgh International FestivalAntigone

Juliette Binoche plays Antigone, a Theban noblewoman whose brother is deemed a traitor after fighting to the death in a vicious civil war. When his body is left unburied beyond the city walls, Antigone defies King Kreon to bury her brother with the honours he deserves.

 

 

3.   Bayou Blues

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 2

Enter the dream, the drowning dream of a girl named Beauty in the bayou of New Orleans. Dive into her conscious, journey into the waters that flood the bayou. Carrying residue of slavery’s damaging effects on black beauty and identity. This story is filled with the rich history of New Orleans taking the audience through Mardi Gras, Congo Square, bounce music and more. True elements to the poetry world now meet the traditions of monologue and dance. Exploring animation and how it relates or challenges visual projections of the world on stage and in Beauty’s world.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

4.   Frankenstein

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 3

Lindel Hart’s thrilling new adaptation of Frankenstein highlights the prescience of Mary Shelley’s classic novel. As we lumber headlong into the myriad manmade crises of our era, Frankenstein asks us to examine the monsters we create, and the ones that live within us. What have we done? And perhaps more importantly, what do we do now? Can we transform our story from dominance over nature to a new interconnectedness? Can the human race learn to thrive in respectful relationship with the planet? Three actors portray six central characters as they spiral through the interface between science and humanity.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

5.   Garden

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 4

‘I stick my tongue out a tiny bit. Just a tiny bit. To see what the soil, the ground, the earth tastes like…’ At Insignia Asset Management Lucy is in charge of the photocopier, printer, scanner, shredder and binder. She’s starting to wonder how this fits into The Grand Scheme Of Things. One day Lucy rescues the abused office pot plant and her world alters. Inside her flat 24 floors up, she starts to plant, cultivate, nurture her own personal wilderness. Written and performed by Lucy Grace, Garden tells of one city dweller’s journey into the natural world.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

6.   Photosynthesis

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 5

The first exhibition in Scotland by artists from the Dutch art collective Tropism. Featuring photographs of plants taken with unusual, often scientific, visualisation techniques, the exhibition provides a surprising and spectacularly different view on plants. Botanical installations located around the Garden will fuse art, poetry and science and combine audio, video and classic museum displays. The Tropists are a group of artists that work with phenomena occurring at the edge of perception: events that are hardly noticed, but which lead to a reaction similar to the manner in which a plant responds to light.

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

7.   Sing For Your Life

Edinburgh Festival FringeFringe 6

Notorious taxidermy artist Charlie Tuesday Gates has scraped up roadkill, bought deceased dogs on Gumtree and revived her family pet to bring you this five-star, death-defying and hilariously unsettling musical comedy… starring real dead animal puppets. Hold on to your conscience – it’s the greatest show that ever died. ‘A powerful howl of injustice with a distinctive creativity and grotesque charm all of its own.’ ***** (C of E Newspaper). ‘A mass of contradictions … incongruously clever. A sordid, sardonic Sesame Street’ **** (Londonist).

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

8.   To Space

Edinburgh Festival Fringeringe 7

To Space is your telescope into a future and capsule that will preserve the past. Scientist and performer Dr Niamh Shaw has dreamed of space travel from the age of eight. After a year of interviewing astronauts, astrophysicists, space industries and potential future colonists of Mars, she’s discovered that what was once her childhood dream may soon become a reality. In a multimedia immersive performance that buzzes with new technologies, she explores the beauty, darkness and humanity of Space. What is our attraction to Space? What are we chasing – or escaping from?

Shortlisted for the 2015 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

9.   Tree No. 5 (from the Jadindagadendar) – Charles Avery

Edinburgh Art FestivalTree No. 5

Charles Avery’s The Islanders is an evolving lifelong project, dedicated to describing the inhabitants, flora and fauna of a fictional island. At the heart of the island is Onomatopoiea, whose municipal park is called the Jadindagadendar, and is filled, not with living botanical specimens, but with artificial trees, flowers and shrubs, an expression of the islanders’ refutation of nature. For the Improbable City, the theme for this year’s Art Festival Commissions, Avery will realize a tree from the Jadindagadendar. Over five metres tall and ripe with strange fruit, it is cast in bronze, and draws entirely on mathematical equations (including the square root of 2 as well as the Fibonacci sequence) for its design.  Part plant, part sculpture, part temple, Avery’s tree sits within our world and outside it, offering a meeting point, or a place for momentary escape and contemplation.

10.  UN at its best?

Just FestivalSustainable development

Supporters claim the Millennium Development Goals galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest people; critics say there’s been very uneven implementation of the goals by topic, country or world region. Will the Sustainable Development Goals be any different?

Chair: Andrew Bevan I Speakers: Joanna Keating, Gillian Wilson, May East, Prof. Pamela Abbott

[Top Image courtesy of Visit Scotland]

The post #GreenFests Top 10 Things to See in Edinburgh This Week appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

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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