Monthly Archives: August 2016

PR Print and Design is Supporting Our Green Arts Sector

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

We’re proud to announce that we have partnered with PR Print and Design as our sponsor for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award and the Green Arts Initiative, and have been awarded a New Arts Sponsorship Grant to help grow our work towards a green arts sector!

We’re excited to be partnering with an organisation whose aims also serve the development towards a more sustainable Scotland, through its commitment to carbon neutral printing. This sponsorship will serve to grow the scale and quality of our work across the sector.

The partnership will see PR Print and Design become the first ever sponsor of these initiatives, both encouraging and enabling local, national and international arts organisations to make sustainable printing choices when considering the marketing and promotion of their productions. Funded by the Scottish Government, and administered by Arts and Business Scotland (themselves committed to improving environmental sustainability) the New Arts Sponsorship Grant scheme encourages private sector sponsorship of cultural activities in Scotland by offering matched funding to cultural organisations securing sponsorship from eligible businesses.

Established in 1987, and based in Glasgow, PR Print and Design is passionate about sustainable supply chains, renewable energy and carbon reduction. Generating over 80% of their own energy from 192 solar panels on their building roof, and with a waste recycling rate of over 96%,

The company is committed to enhancing sustainability in their own operations, as much as those of all they work with. For each order, any unavoidable carbon emissions are offset through a certificated carbon neutral partner scheme, with a certificate and official branding supplied to the ordering organisation.

Creative Carbon Scotland first came across PR Print and Design as a customer of their print work, and were impressed by their carbon-neutral production of our annual Green Arts Initiative report. Being able to highlight our environmental commitment through our own sustainable procurement choices is a key part of our operations.

PR Print and Design offers a variety of printing services for arts organisations, including:

  • Posters A4 to 60x 40
  • Flyers and leaflets
  • Postcards
  • Programmes
  • Tickets
  • Exhibition stands and boards

To find out more about sustainable print for the arts sector get in contact with Phil Brady: phil@prprint.net

More information about the New Arts Sponsorship Grants can be found on the Arts & Business Scotland website.

The post PR Print and Design is Supporting Our Green Arts Sector 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: Top Ten Things to See in Edinburgh this Week

Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is officially starting today! Some people might already be resenting the crowds just as others have been looking forward to the swirl of colourful bustle for weeks. But one thing is certain: There’s no other place with such a variety of a cultural programme, in fact, the choice can be overwhelming. So we have done the hard work for you.

Creative Carbon Scotland has been scouring the Fringe programme for the best shows about sustainability to present to you. Every week we pick 10 of the most exciting and creative productions that we have found, from theatre to exhibitions, talks to dance, that are not be missed!

Also keep an eye out for the shortlist for the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award, which will be released on 12 August right here on our website.

1. Faslane

FaslanePolitical drama on nuclear power

“Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde, or Faslane, situated 40 milesoutside Glasgow, is home to the UK’s nuclear missile program: Trident. With family having worked in Faslane all her life, and with friends protesting at the gates, Fringe First-winner Jenna Watt explores what happens when the personal and political collide. Drawing upon interviews with individuals at the front line of the nuclear debate, Jenna navigates her own journey through the politics, protests and peace camps.”

2. Counting Sheep

countingsheepPolitical musical theatre

“A rousing call to arms by a 15-piece guerrilla-folk punk band.Bolstered by first-hand footage from behind the barricades, Counting Sheep invites you to lose yourself in the events that changed the course of Ukraine’s history. Sing, march, protest, dance, eat, recoil, laugh, cry – experience the revolution on the main floor, including food, or from the balcony seats above. Sung in traditional Ukrainian polyphony, this is an electrifying exploration of human resilience and immersive theatre at its best.”

3. Labels

labelsPerformance art on society and politics

 “The internationally acclaimed story of migration, family and prejudice returns to Edinburgh! Navigating a childhood in 90s England, a cacophony of right-wing rhetoric and a global refugee crisis, this honest, human tale of multicultural Britain is not to be missed. Expect paper planes, racist romances and lots of sticky labels!”

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4. The Low Down Dusty Blues

The Lowdown Dusty BluesMusic and theatre about the effects of environmental change

“The American Dust Bowl of the 1930s was not the only force of nature that ripped families apart. Set in Okemah, Oklahoma, birth place of Woody Guthrie and the Dust Bowl blues, The Low Down Dusty Blues looks at how a typical American family disintegrated from the inside and the fallout afterward.”

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5. Ribbet Ribbet Croak

Ribbet Ribbet CroakMulti-sensory experience for families

“Join Grandma and Grandpa Frog as they leave the pond to plan a big surprise. You can also help them keep an eye out for their cheeky grandfrogs, who pop up in unexpected places along the way! Featuring puppetry, songs and plenty of audience interaction, Ribbet Ribbet Croak is a multisensory playful exploration of life as frog. Ribbet Ribbet Croak is suitable for PMLD and ASD family audiences and groups.”

 

6. JunNk

JunNkComedy and Music on recycled insturments

 “A dynamic and original variety show where four guys use nothing but junk to create a unique world of music, comedy and pure entertainment. Combining a cappella singing, captivating percussion and innovative music creations, JunNk is a hilarious and lively show that’s fun for all the family. Fans of STOMP and Blue Man Group, say hello to your new favourite show!”

 

 

7. Beached

BeachedExhibition inspired by waste

“Liz returns, exploring the sea’s edge through legend, environment and flotsam’s intrigues. Mediums include bronze, ceramic and papier-mâché. Come beach-combing and find porcelain treasures from Liz’s workshop! Returning too, working in the installation, is poet-in-residence Dawn Gorman. Also back, storyteller Francis Maxey, with The Ship of Dreams, tales of loss and redemption. Come ashore for sundowners with Liz and chat about the work most days. To find exactly when you will find Liz, Dawn or Francis in the installation contact gallery or Liz’s website: www.lizwatts.co.uk/beached-edinburgh-festival-fringe.”

 

8. One Day Moko

One Day MokoSolo show about homelessness and society

“Life’s never a dull moment when you live one day at a time. Meet Moko. Urban cowboy. Drifter. Thinker. His life fits into a single trolley. Moko wants to meet you. Come spend some time with him. Inspired by real encounters with people living on the streets, One Day Moko investigates how rebellion, opportunity and routine shape our everyday lives. One performer builds a city from a suitcase of worldly possessions. Take a tour and discover Moko’s haunts and secret places. Wake up and smell the baked beans.”

 

9. Keep the Kids Out!

Keep the Kids OutTalk on urban landscapes and science

“When they go out at all, they terrorise our streets and are a nuisance in our neighbourhoods. Are children an environmental threat? Or should we be adapting our environments to suit them? How about closing our city streets so children can play out like they used to? PhD researcher Jenny Wood and community engagement charity PAS will encourage you to look again at our urban landscapes and what they say about children. Is there anything you’d change? Or should we avoid making our cities too child-centric? Come and help keep the kids out(side)!”

 

10. Acting Alone

Acting AlonePolitical storytelling

“Acting Alone is inspired by the people Ava met in refugee campsin Palestine. In her unique performance style, Ava weaves together stories of immense complexity and fragile humanity with tales of her often funny and occasionally bizarre experiences of working as an actor and performing alone. Heartbreaking, witty and confronting, Acting Alone asks questions of us all – can one person make a difference? And what are we willing to risk?”

 

What sustainable Fringe shows are you seeing this week? Let us know on twitter with the hashtag #GreenFests!

Top Image Credit: Laura Suarez on flickr

Show Descriptions courtesy of Edinburgh Festival Fringe Website

We Plastic

Artists and Climate Change

This post comes from the Artists and Climate Change Blog

Featured Image: Ceaseless no. 1, 24×24 inches

by Guest Blogger Doug Fogelson

Surrounded by ghosts spinning and whirling
we gyre
the emulsion bath of flavors and cloud degrees
lift and bob

Excited like a proton in a microwave
sizzling hot from the inside out
the seed that was engineered to sprout
percolates under steroid soil

Cooled in the Freon
Covered by the rayon
Colored like a crayon
Culvert in a canyon

A synthetic erection
floating puff of Styrofoam on a bauble of warm air
like a brain tazed under Ketamine
We Plastic.

______________________________

The industrial building in downtown Chicago that houses my studio is sandwiched between a catering company and a garbage sorting facility, however my work takes me far outside urban confines. Both allow me to pass between and through landscapes that are familiar, unfamiliar, and almost alien. Experiencing these discrete spaces, with the interplay of varying sensory inputs they offer, juggling thoughts and camera controls, engages something within me. This is the first stage in the art making process.

Lately I’ve been thinking about a synthesis of the “artificial” with what we normally consider natural. In the grandest sense this is called Anthropocene, the impact of the totality of human inputs on the planetary system, and in the smallest it is drinking a glass of water from a warm plastic bottle. Every day, my mental list, forever running in the background like a data algorithm monitoring internet searches, pulls in more and more examples: biologic medicines, surgical implants, facial recognition software, Siri, genomics, Wi-Fi radiation, and on and on.

Ceaseless no. 2, 24x24 inches

Ceaseless no. 2, 24×24 inches

Stage two is returning to my room, and the processed latent images. The camera machine and the plastic film base support the cache of colors suspended in layered emulsion I see glowing on the milky surface of a light box. Time is relative and the memories of travel fades so quickly, some of which are now jogged back into view from photographic neural stimulation. Time can be layered over multiple exposures I shoot along the filmstrip so that spaces overlap and become somewhat abstracted under bands of framed edges. Film material is the embodiment of another synthesis, one of natural and artificial elements combined in just the right way to perform magic, the collaboration of humans with physics and chemistry. Even the black leader of unexposed film contains the potential for recording and this excites me to the point of a fetish.

We don’t consciously choose to be in the alive in a specific era. This writing finds me at mid life and this shifting world is something I have to accept somehow, endeavor to change, or worry over. I was born in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day. In that time the situation has gone from bad to worse. So much could have been accomplished to help future generations that it boggles the mind. My son is 10 years old now, what will he face by mid century?

Creative Destruction no 2

Creative Destruction no. 2, 30×34-5 inches

Phase three of the art making process begins when I put on a respirator, safety glasses, and latex gloves. My full color film is at hand along with a collection of spray bottles and bowls containing chemicals purchased at the local hardware or grocery. I spray, soak, dip my precious memory stimulating material in this toxic bath to abstract the image surface— echoing the large-scale impact of waste and pollution in our land, air, and sea. Eroding the surface of the signifier my film’s emulsion begins to melt in a succession of acrid dyes; first the yellow, then the magenta, finally the cyan layer in light and dark until only the clear plastic base is left. Emulsions break apart, waving in the liquid chemicals like ribbons or tattered flags.

What if we could accept that we are hybrids, that a future of beauty and balance will invariably involve stripping something away, adding something not yet imagined? To what end will we see ourselves go in climate engineering? Will we add to the growing list of feedback loops already in play? I never thought I would entertain geoengineering, but I suspect once the melted permafrost and resulting methane release is uncorked I will give it serious consideration.

Creative Destruction no. 6, 30x42-5 inches

Creative Destruction no. 6, 30×42-5 inches

The fourth stage of production comes when the soupy film dries down, fixing its abstraction into place. Residue from the silver halide and chemistry form small crystals in some areas and in others leave a patina of shapes resembling snowflakes or veins. Bubbles can dry and be captured flat. The layered film at times doubles the remaining imagery and often looks like the red/blue of a vintage 3-D image (seen from goofy glasses). Collaborating with invisible forces of change and chance the final image is one of arrested slippage. To my mind these can hint at the struggle for sunlight and the phases of earthly circulation.

What I do, where I go, flying high above earth’s surface, bumping along with ozone in the stratosphere, I help push our event horizon ever closer even as I fear it’s approach. The blue veil breaks apart the cocoon contrails continuously wrapping it up. Here, each of us is offered an incredible vantage point, an opportunity to gain perspective and yet, so many of us choose to distract ourselves with screen upon screen, updating an invisible taskmaster even thinner than air itself, high on our sugar/insulin spikes. We are simple creatures only requiring food and drink, elimination, rest, and breathing. To accept the time we inhabit and the state of the world right now is to know we are not only our body, the planet is not only our host.

Return to Oblivion no. 8, 30x40

Return to Oblivion no. 8, 30×40

The final stage of my art making process is the high-resolution scan of the altered film. Once it has been digitized I can zoom in and out on my computer screen to see the details. The scanner is like a microscope, I feel like an adventurer and fledgling scientist as well as an artist/photographer. At times I am repulsed by the remaining hues of the film, missing the color range of the original or disliking the acid tones laid bare in the process. The tension of interplay between representation and abstraction, or simply the abstraction alone, is ultimately the reward. I print the images via thermal pigment dropped onto ink jet paper to exhibit as editions. And I accept what may have been lost, to processes and decisions made along the way, along with that which is left in its place.

______________________________

Doug Fogelson studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. His photographic works are included in collections at The J. Paul Getty Center, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Cleveland Clinic, and have been exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center, Walker Art Center, Sasha Wolf Gallery, Linda Warren Projects, Marlborough Chelsea, and Museum Belvedere, Netherlands. Fogelson founded Front Forty Press and has taught photography at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Doug Fogelson is represented by Sasha Wolf Gallery in NYC.

______________________________

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Filed under: Guest Blog Series, Photography

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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.

Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog

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#GreenFests: 10 Green Things To Do In Edinburgh This August

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Festival season is picking up speed and the array of events offered can be quite overwhelming. So we compiled a handy list of 10 things about environmental sustainability to do at the various festivals around Edinburgh this August. You’ll notice the Festival Fringe is absent – for weekly updates on which green Fringe shows you should see, follow #GreenFests on our blog.

We hope you enjoy these suggestions and have a fantastic festival experience!

1. Climate Change: On the Edge of The World

19 Aug | 7.30-9.00pm | Quaker Meeting House

Just Festival hosts this year’s events under the hashtag “FromTheEdge”, including discussions, talks, exhibitions and performances. From marginalised groups in society to climate change, their programme is expansive and thought-provoking. This Just Festival Conversation in particular will look at what is being done to help communities around the world respond to the threats of climate change and whether disaster can be avoided.

2. … though it be darkness there

16 Aug | 9.30-10.30pm | St John’s Church

This performance at Just Festival brings together musician Matilda Brown and photographer Nick Rowle to collaborate on a series of musical and photographic pieces focusing on the mysteries of landscape. Within this new series of work, Matilda and Nick capture the mystical and unknowable wonder of nature; silence and darkness, solitude, encountering the sublime, sensual and occasionally violent forces of nature.

3. Richard Watson: Get Ready for Tomorrow

13 Aug | 12.30 – 1.30pm | Garden Theatre

This year’s Book Festival programme includes the theme “A Changing Society”, with speakers from many disciplines. In this talk,global trends analyst Richard Watson speaks about the influence of our rapidly evolving technology on our society. What should technology do for us, beyond much-shared cat videos? In Digital vs Human, Watson predicts the areas of life that could genuinely be improved for the better.

4. Mark Kurlansky: Does Paper have a Future?

17 Aug | 12.30 – 1.30pm | Garden Theatre

For centuries we thought of paper as a wonderful and indispensable invention. Yet in recent years, we seem to have been striving towards a paperless society, suggesting it now has negative connotations. For his book Paper: Paging Through History, Mark Kurlansky, New York Times bestselling author of Cod and Salt, traces paper back to its origins and follows its path towards the digital age.

5. Barbara Rae: Return Journey

1-31 August | 10.00am – 6.00pm | Open Eye Gallery

The Art Festival returns this year with a wide variety of artists to showcase. One of them is artist and printmaker Barbara Rae, whose collection of art pieces encompasses locations from around the world, studying human habitation by ancient and modern societies that live off and work on the land. She works and exhibits here a variety of media, sometimes semi-abstract, often abstract, depicting the ruggedness of life’s daily struggle.

6. Walking Institute – Deveron Arts: Tours

Various Days and times

Part of the Art Festival programme are a series of guided walks and discussions about travel organised by the Walking Institute, Deveron Arts and the Forest Fringe. There is “Walking Women“, where artist’s walks and talks will run alongside a Wikipedia edit-a-thon of women walking artists, an open mic pecha-kucha, a ‘walkie-talkie’ mobile workshop, and a library of walking women books. “How Humans adapt” looks at how the simple process of walking can become an experimental artistic performance. “All Roads lead to Venice/Ugly Walk” is a combination of a guided walk, looking to explore the ugly landscapes of industrial estates, countering the expectations that a beautiful walk is tied to natural landscapes, and a series of discussions concerning artists undertaking long distance journeys.

7. P + P

20-26 August | 11.00am – 4.00pm | Courier Company Pack and Send

P+P explores the issues of waste and recycling in today’s consumerist society. Ten artists from around the world have been sent a 30 x 30 x 30 cardboard box and asked to use it as the basis for creating or sending a new art work. Expect a mix of installation, animation, painting and object-making by artists exploring ideas around the figure, the fantastical and spontaneity.

8. Mogwai & Mark Cousins – Atomic: Living In Dread and Promise

27 & 28 August | 9.00pm | Edinburgh Playhouse

The Edinburgh International Festival once again collects big names in Edinburgh this August, including this collaboration between filmmaker Mark Cousins and musicians Mogwai. With images of protest marches, Cold War confrontation, Chernobyl and Fukushima, Cousins’ impressionistic film is a kaleidoscope of the appalling destructive power of the atomic bomb, and also the beauty and benefits of x-rays and MRI scans. Mogwai’s compelling soundtrack encapsulates the nightmare of the nuclear age, but also its dreamlike beauty.

9. Yann Tiersen

21 & 22 August | 7.30pm | The Hub

French composer and multi-instrumentalist Yann Tiersen is best known for his quirky score to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 film Amélie. But that only scratches the surface of his enormously rich, magical musical output. After touring the globe for nearly a decade in planes and buses, Tiersen is now slowly cycling around the world, stopping for performances both in traditional venues and in the wilderness.

10. ANOHNI: Hopelessness

17 August | 8.00pm | Edinburgh Playhouse

Working with groundbreaking producers Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke, “Hopelessness“collides an uncompromising electronic dance soundtrack with ANOHNI’s soulful, uplifting vocals. “Hopelessness“ is a scream of fury against the evils of today’s world: mass surveillance, drone warfare, ecocide. Delivered in infectious, unforgettable pop. This is the electronic dance anthem as visceral protest song.

The post #GreenFests: 10 Green Things To Do In Edinburgh This August 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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