Monthly Archives: January 2022

Guest blog: European Day of Sustainable Communities 2021

Creative Carbon Scotland

In this guest blog, Scottish Communities Climate Action Network reports on the European Day of Sustainable Communities.

On 18th September, organisations around Europe celebrated Ecolise’s Annual European Day of Sustainable Communities (EDSC). In the anticipation of COP26, Scottish organisations were eager to celebrate the vital work achieved by communities all over the country. 

Ecolise is a Europe-wide network that focuses on community-led action against climate change on the path towards a more sustainable world. The 2021 EDSC is the fifth to take place and, amid a pandemic, it is more important than ever to celebrate the amazing community work that has taken place.

Here’s a look at how communities around Scotland celebrated EDSC 2021:

The Pyramid at Anderston’s Community Fun Festival

The Pyramid at Anderston is a community-owned space for the people of Anderston, Finnieston, Kelvingrove, Yorkhill and Glasgow. Six hundred and thirty-one people attended The Pyramid at Anderston’s Community Fun Festival, taking part in a wide range of activities and workshops. This included:

  • wildflower seed weaving, creating a 10-metre-long woven piece of bee and butterfly friendly seeds to be planted down the side of our building and seed mats to be planted in the area
  • making community artwork with Jim Parkyn (Aardman Animations lead modelmaker)
  • sharing their wants and wishes for the community
  • fairground rides, games, face painting, balloon modelling, smoothie bike, street dance, circus skills and hula hooping
  • Glasgow Science Centre climate challenge exhibition models
  • zine-making with Glasgow Zine Library
  • drawing with Mind and Draw
  • Plus magic, children’s author Kjartan Poskitt and more – all accompanied by live music and plant-based snacks!

Glasgow bike ride with Food and Climate Action

Food and Climate Action along with Bike for Good and Glasgow Allotments Forum ran a very successful bike tour to three allotment sites on the Southside of Glasgow.  The group visited Queen’s Park allotments, South West Allotments and New Victoria Gardens. Members at each site gave fascinating tours and participants saw the diversity of allotments and found out more about the history, biodiversity and community engagement of allotment sites.

Sustaining Dunbar film screening

Pix in the Stix – in association with Sustaining Dunbar, Climate Action East Linton and Take One Action – hosted a screening of Not Without Us, a 2016 Cert (12+) documentary that connects the dots between growing economic inequality, fossil fuel-driven economies and government inaction in the face of the greatest crisis engulfing our planet. It conveys the call from campaigners from around the world for deep, far-reaching system change. The film traces seven grassroots activists from around the world as they head to the COP21 UN climate talks in Paris and poses the question: can the will of the people put pressure on world leaders?

Following the screening, the audience engaged in lively discussion and debate focusing on a series of questions provided by Take One Action. These included considering the extent to which perceptions of COP climate negotiations and agreements shifted as a result of seeing the film. A number in the audience were surprised to learn that the Paris Agreement did not mention fossil fuels directly and that, following COP21, nothing relating to fossil fuels was legally binding, having only featured in the preamble. 

The consensus was that, although it was not an uplifting film overall, it did convey the vital importance of people power; the joy and solidarity that working together to combat the climate crisis can bring, along with the assertion that we cannot rely on governments and corporations alone to do the right thing.

Net Zero Action’s documentary screening

Net Zero Action hosted a screening of Not Without Us, followed by facilitated open discussions in four small groups to air ideas on what we can do, and what aiming for Net Zero might mean to us as a community. The event was kindly hosted by Bruntsfield Evangelical Church, with first-rate facilities for accommodation, screening, food, and group facilitation. Free refreshments were provided by local residents in Leamington Terrace and generously by Dig-In Community Greengrocer. 

Net Zero Action hopes to use the information gathered at the event to boost community action and assist them in setting up their own street-level community groups to act on net zero.

GAMIS Community Market

GAMIS hosted the first Govanhill Community Market led by G42 Pop-Ups in partnership with Govanhill Baths Community Trust. The community market project aims to strengthen connections between diverse communities of Govanhill, support the local economy, and activate underused parts of the neighbourhood. The market had a focus on sustainability in its wider sense, focusing on the social, environmental, and economic impact, with this event linking to the Scotland Sustainability Summit, Climate Fringe Week, Glasgow Open Doors Days and Harvest Festival that also took place in September. The target audience was local residents, including families, young people and older generations. In addition to the market, there were many free events and activities such as a family ceramics workshop, Roma dance demonstration and workshop led by Sonia from Romane Cierhenia, choir performance by Govanhill Voices community choir, music performance by local music ensemble FIRKA, and Climate Frisk, which is an interactive workshop to help develop an understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change. 

Communities for Future

This year’s EDSC gave communities the opportunity to celebrate and highlight their achievements in community-led action against climate change. However, it is also an opportunity to kickstart more projects and inspire others to join the journey towards a more sustainable world. The Communities for Future project, led by Ecolise, is an online Europe-wide network designed to help communities take action in their own way. The Communities for Future project encourages communities to pioneer their way towards a more sustainable world and to respond creatively to the climate crisis. Creating a post-carbon future means we must celebrate and indulge in the diversity of local culture.  Communities for Future provides a platform for communities to share their stories and inspire each other. We must all work together to achieve a happy, just and sustainable world.

If you would like to learn more about Communities for Future, please visit www.communitiesforfuture.org

Become a SCCAN member to stay up to date on community-led action in Scotland! www.scottishcommunitiescan.org.uk 

(Top image: A young person enjoys having their face painted. Photo credit Robin Mitchell.)

The post Guest blog: European Day of Sustainable Communities 2021 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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Conscient Podcast: e89 excerpts from ben okri’s ‘artists must confront the climate crisis’

Conscient Podcast 
episode 89 features quotes from Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days by Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri from the November 12, 2021 edition of The Guardian newspaper. Okri writes about existential creativity and call for a new philosophy for these times, with an excerpt from episode 87 kendra fanconi. Cover art is a collection of flowers and fruits by Jeannine Schryer of Ottawa.

conscient podcast episode 89, Sunday, December 5, 2021, 7.32 pm

I’m back in Ottawa and I’m going to record this monologue in one take, as I have been doing since the beginning of season 3 of this podcast. So here we go. 

Today’s episode features quotes from Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days by Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri from the November 12, 2021 edition of The Guardian newspaper.

Here is the first quote from Ben Okri’s article: 

Here we are on the edges of the biggest crisis that has ever faced us. We need a new philosophy for these times, for this near-terminal moment in the history of the human. It is out of this I want to propose an existential creativity. How do I define it? It is the creativity wherein nothing should be wasted. As a writer, it means everything I write should be directed to the immediate end of drawing attention to the dire position we are in as a species. It means that the writing must have no frills. It should speak only truth. In it, the truth must be also beauty. It calls for the highest economy. It means that everything I do must have a singular purpose. It also means that I must write now as if these are the last things I will write, that any of us will write. If you knew you were at the last days of the human story, what would you write? How would you write? What would your aesthetics be? Would you use more words than necessary? What form would poetry truly take? And what would happen to humour? Would we be able to laugh, with the sense of the last days on us?

Words like this provide clarity and insight, don’t they?

I think they help contextualize complexity and they help us cut through destructive fantasies like endless growth.

They literally lay out the truth so that we can see, and hear, the world in which we live, as it really is and it reminds me what a zen teacher once told me: 

‘Zen practice shows us how to take care and take responsibility with, and as each moment, by opening attention to reality and responding to what actually needs to be done.’

It being December, Okri’s words are all the more poignant as we enter this crazy period of hyper consumerism that we call the holiday season. 

This is how Okri concludes his article and I encourage you to read the entire thing: 

This is the best and most natural home we are ever going to have. And we need to become a new people to deserve it. We are going to have to be new artists to redream it. This is why I propose existential creativity, to serve the unavoidable truth of our times, and a visionary existentialism, to serve the future that we must bring about from the brink of our environmental catastrophe. We can only make a future from the depth of the truth we face now.

I’m intrigued by this notion of existential creativity, and I wonder what it might sound like?

(Sound of a piece of paper ripping)

Maybe it sounds like a piece of paper being torn. 

Once torn, the paper cannot be put back together again, like Humpty-Dumpty, and one is left holding the pieces. 

More on the sound of some of these concepts in a future episode. 

I’ll end with an excerpt from episode 87, where theatre artist Kendra Fanconi comments upon Ben Okri’s article: 

We are all artists of the Anthropocene. We inherently are because this is the world that we’re living in right now. There’s no other world. We were down earlier at Robert’s Creek (BC) and it’s a salmon bearing stream. I think of it like we’re artists in the Anthropocene, like fish would be in the ocean: the water is all around us and the Anthropocene is all around us. I think it may be what Ben Okri is tasking us with is: can you describe the water? It’s all we know, but we need to be able to look from this moment now into the future and maybe that’s the job of artists. We’re the visionaries, we can see the future and we can envision it in different ways. I think he speaks to that too at the end of the article about saying part of why we need to talk about the times we’re in now is in relationship to a future, whatever that future looks like. And I do spend a lot of time trying to negotiate my belief in the future.

I wish you peace, peace of mind as you negotiate your own belief in the future.  

I want to thank Ben Okri and The Guardian newspaper for sharing these words and Kendra for her reflections upon them. 

And I thank you, for listening. 

The act of listening, to me, and maybe I should say the art of listening, true listening, sincere and radical listening, through to the depth of the truth, is at the heart of this moment.

*

L'épisode d'aujourd'hui présente des citations de Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days par le romancier et poète nigérian Ben Okri, tirées de l'édition du 12 novembre 2021 du journal The Guardian. Okri écrit sur la créativité existentielle et appelle à une nouvelle philosophie pour notre époque, avec un extrait de l'épisode 87 kendra fanconi.

balado conscient, épisode 89, dimanche 5 décembre 2021, 19h32

Je suis de retour à Ottawa et je vais enregistrer ce monologue en une seule prise, comme je le fais depuis le début de la saison 3 de ce podcast. C’est parti. 

L’épisode d’aujourd’hui présente des citations de Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days par le romancier et poète nigérian Ben Okri, tirées de l’édition du 12 novembre 2021 du journal The Guardian.

Voici la première citation de l’article de Ben Okri : 

Nous sommes ici au bord de la plus grande crise à laquelle nous n’ayons jamais été confrontés. Nous avons besoin d’une nouvelle philosophie pour ces temps, pour ce moment quasi-terminal de l’histoire de l’humain. C’est de cela que je veux proposer une créativité existentielle. Comment la définir ? C’est la créativité où rien ne doit être gaspillé. En tant qu’écrivain, cela signifie que tout ce que j’écris doit avoir pour objectif immédiat d’attirer l’attention sur la situation désastreuse dans laquelle nous nous trouvons en tant qu’espèce. Cela signifie que l’écriture ne doit pas avoir de fioritures. Il ne doit dire que la vérité. En elle, la vérité doit être aussi la beauté. Cela demande la plus grande économie. Cela signifie que tout ce que je fais doit avoir un but singulier. Cela signifie aussi que je dois écrire maintenant comme si c’était les dernières choses que j’écrirais, que chacun d’entre nous écrira. Si vous saviez que vous en êtes aux derniers jours de l’histoire humaine, qu’écririez-vous ? Comment écririez-vous ? Quelle serait votre esthétique ? Utiliseriez-vous plus de mots que nécessaires ? Quelle forme prendrait vraiment la poésie ? Et qu’adviendrait-il de l’humour ? Serions-nous capables de rire, avec le sentiment des derniers jours sur nous ?

Des mots comme ceux-ci apportent clarté et perspicacité, n’est-ce pas ?

Je pense qu’ils aident à contextualiser la complexité et qu’ils nous aident à couper court aux fantasmes destructeurs comme la croissance sans fin.

Ils exposent littéralement la vérité afin que nous puissions voir, et entendre, le monde dans lequel nous vivons, tel qu’il est vraiment et cela me rappelle ce qu’un professeur zen m’a dit un jour : 

La pratique du zen nous montre comment prendre soin et assumer nos responsabilités à chaque instant, en portant notre attention sur la réalité et en répondant à ce qui doit être fait.

Maintenant que nous sommes en décembre, les mots d’Okri sont d’autant plus poignants que nous entrons dans cette folle période d’hyperconsommation que nous appelons la période des fêtes. 

C’est ainsi qu’Okri conclut son article et je vous encourage à le lire en entier : 

C’est le meilleur et le plus naturel foyer que nous ayons jamais eu. Et nous devons devenir un nouveau peuple pour le mériter. Nous devons être de nouveaux artistes pour le redessiner. C’est pourquoi je propose une créativité existentielle, au service de l’inévitable vérité de notre époque, et un existentialisme visionnaire, au service de l’avenir que nous devons créer au bord de notre catastrophe environnementale. Nous ne pouvons créer un avenir qu’à partir de la profondeur de la vérité à laquelle nous sommes confrontés aujourd’hui.

Maintenant, je suis intrigué par cette notion de créativité existentielle et je me demande à quoi elle peut ressembler ? 

(Bruit d’une feuille de papier qui se déchire)

Peut-être que cela ressemble à une feuille de papier que l’on déchire. 

Une fois déchiré, le papier ne peut pas être recollé, comme Humpty-Dumpty, et on se retrouve avec les morceaux. 

Nous reviendrons sur le son de certains de ces concepts dans un prochain épisode. 

Je terminerai par un extrait de l’épisode 87, où l’artiste de théâtre Kendra Fanconi commente l’article de Ben Okri : 

Nous sommes tous des artistes de l’Anthropocène. Nous le sommes par nature, car c’est le monde dans lequel nous vivons en ce moment. Il n’y a pas d’autre monde. Nous étions tout à l’heure à Robert’s Creek (BC) et c’est un ruisseau à saumon. Je pense que nous sommes des artistes dans l’Anthropocène, comme des poissons dans l’océan : l’eau est tout autour de nous et l’Anthropocène est tout autour de nous. Je pense que ce que Ben Okri nous demande, c’est de décrire l’eau. C’est tout ce que nous savons, mais nous devons être capables d’envisager l’avenir à partir de ce moment présent, et c’est peut-être là le travail des artistes. Nous sommes les visionnaires, nous pouvons voir l’avenir et nous pouvons l’envisager de différentes manières. Je pense qu’il en parle aussi à la fin de l’article en disant qu’une partie de la raison pour laquelle nous devons parler de l’époque dans laquelle nous sommes maintenant est en relation avec un avenir, quel que soit cet avenir. Et je passe beaucoup de temps à essayer de négocier ma foi en l’avenir.

Je vous souhaite la paix, la paix de l’esprit alors que vous négociez votre propre croyance en l’avenir.  

Je tiens à remercier Ben Okri et le journal The Guardian pour avoir partagé ces mots et Kendra pour ses réflexions à leur sujet. 

Et je vous remercie d’avoir écouté. 

L’acte d’écouter, pour moi, et peut-être devrais-je dire l’art d’écouter, la véritable écoute, l’écoute sincère et radicale, jusqu’à la profondeur de la vérité, est au cœur de ce moment.

The post e89 excerpts from ben okri’s ‘artists must confront the climate crisis’ appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

my professional services

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias

While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

Go to conscient.ca

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Guest blog: COP 26 – overwhelming, alienating, inspiring and moving

Creative Carbon Scotland

In this guest blog, Anna  Hodgart of the Tayside Climate Beacon, part of Climate Beacons for COP26,  our Scotland-wide collaborative project connecting arts and sustainability, describes her experiences at what was for many of us in Scotland the biggest event of 2021: COP 26. 

With big thanks to the determined perseverance of Lewis Coenen-Rowe at Creative Carbon Scotland in navigating the complex registration process, I was lucky enough to attend the first week of COP26  on behalf of the Tayside Climate Beacon. I found  COP  -the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties  held in Glasgow on 31 October to 13 November-  an overwhelming, alienating, inspiring and moving experience.

My time at COP started with a lot of queuing to get accredited and issued with my pass. It was a strange transition from the streets of Glasgow, the protestors congregating at the security gates shouting, singing, handing out flyers – to showing lateral flow test, passport, and invitation letter to the security team, with the metropolitan police force monitoring nearby. It was surreal too to see Glasgow transformed into UN territory, the familiar made unfamiliar – like when big blockbuster movies shoot in the city and George Square becomes New York. And to be allowed access – to be ‘on the inside’.

This unreal feeling persisted as I made my way through security and into the Hydro arena. It was a little like navigating an airport – easy to lose sense of time, location in a conference centre with little natural light; thrilling and disorientating to be surrounded by people from all over the world, to hear different languages, see different clothing and customs. I tried to orientate myself by consulting the programme and the map and found myself in the Action Hub – an Instagrammable globe floating suspended from the Hydro ceiling, news reporters dotted around the edges grabbing politicians, activists, and diplomats for interviews and soundbites. I sat down in a corner and watched the World Leaders Summit opening speeches. It was a strange experience to be inside the conference itself but watching from a screen. Inside but still outside. It was also strange to hear people speak powerfully and movingly about the climate, nature, their country, and people, about the ticking clock and growing emergency in this heightened conference centre context – so removed from the natural world and civic society – muttering translators, strip lighting, and air conditioning.

I don’t want to make it seem like a wholly negative experience. At COP I heard some incredible speeches. I had some epiphanies. I was fired up by a panel discussion on just transition led by trade unionists and considered the trade unions’ rich history of organising and struggle and what that could offer if mobilised towards green jobs, just transition, and climate justice. I was inspired by a panel discussion about digital storytelling led by the Climate Storytellers Collective, that the traditions and tools of storytelling could be mobilised towards climate action. I felt privileged to hear the Indigenous People Council speak about the knowledge they hold, their particular relationship to the earth, and was deeply moved by the vision of a future where this type of knowing and relationship could lead our way out of this mess. I found myself returning to the Resilience Lab in the pavilions several times, to hear engaging conversations about stewardship versus ownership, about transforming humanity’s relationship to nature, about the Imaginal cell and the possibility for system change coded inside our DNA.

I took away some key learnings from COP and have been considering since how we might weave some of this learning into the next steps the Tayside Beacon takes. (You can learn more about the Climate Beacons for COP26 initiative  led by Creative Carbon Scotland here. In a nutshell, Climate Beacons brings together shared resources and knowledge from cultural and climate organisations, providing a welcoming physical and virtual space for the public, artists and cultural sector professionals, environmental NGOs, scientists and policymakers to discuss and debate COP26 themes and climate action specific to each local area that constitutes a Beacon hub, of which Tayside is one of seven.)

I’ve been reminded of the crucial importance of asking who is in the room. At an early morning press conference, I slipped into, a young activist woke up the room by pointing out that she was the only young person in the space, it was her first COP, that everyone else had been coming to COP for years – what had they achieved? Our course of action, she implied, is being set by older, white people – mainly men – from the ‘global north’, who are statistically those less affected and less likely to see the worst effects of climate change. We need the voices of those who are already experiencing the reality of climate change, we need indigenous leaders who can offer different ways of thinking about and addressing what has gone wrong, we need young people who are going to be living with the consequences of these decisions.

I learnt about the strength that exists at the intersections. The struggle for the survival of our planet intersects with many other struggles – race and gender equality, the trade union movement, the fight against poverty and socio-economic inequality, disability rights, the land back movement, and many others. Our best chance comes from acting in solidarity, gathering around the places those struggles intersect and learning best practice from each other to inform our respective movements.

It’s not the politicians that create system change, it’s civic society. There are many inspiring politicians doing great work. It was incredible to hear the Prime Minister of Barbados and the President of the Seychelles speak at COP for example. However, the real energy was definitely outside of the official COP26 site. The ideas, solutions and path forward will come from people organising, not the politicians.

We need to reconnect to nature. It’s no coincidence that countries and cultures who hold the majority of economic and political power often live at a disconnect from nature. Our rituals and celebrations no longer centre around it, our lifestyles keep nature at arm’s length – a visit away. The natural world can feel other and abstract. We need to tap into the truth of our interconnectedness and re-remember that we are a part of nature too, that our survival and wellbeing and the earth’s are intimately connected at every level.

My biggest takeaway from COP was that art can do more and be more in this conversation. Art can speak in a way that statistics, presentations, and political rhetoric can’t. Art can create momentum and fun around something – can elevate and transform. Art can be ritual and connection, a place for us to understand ourselves and nature. And art can be a space to really feel something. And from feeling – to act. The arts industry is navigating a lot right now as we deal with the consequences of Covid-19 and the pandemic on our sector; however we can’t lose sight of the crucial role we can and must have in climate action. We need more initiatives like the Climate Beacons project to create the space and means for artists and arts organisations to engage in and shape the discourse and action.

(Top image: A sign surrounded by greenery reads “Welcome to COP26.” Photo Credit Catriona Patterson)

The post Guest blog: COP 26 – overwhelming, alienating, inspiring and moving 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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Green Tease Reflections: Climate/Class/Culture

Creative Carbon Scotland

14th October 2021: This Green Tease event provided an opportunity to explore the intersection of climate, class and culture, thinking about how climate change is exacerbating existing inequalities, the need for climate policies to be socially just, and the importance of cultural organisations addressing their own barriers to participation in order to effectively help address climate change. 

Speakers

Our two speakers for this event were Francis Stuart, Policy Officer at the Scottish Trades Union Congress and Katharine Wheeler, artist and representative from The Stove Network, the first artist-led development trust in Scotland. You can watch a video of their two talks here or read a summary in the text below.

Francis Stuart discussed how the climate crisis intersects with issues of poverty and inequality, highlighting some key examples playing out in Scotland right now. He showed how the wealthiest countries are responsible for most of the world’s emissions but are less heavily impacted by the impacts of climate change. This inequality also plays out in the UK where the emissions of someone in the richest 1% is eleven times that of someone in the poorest half of the population.

In Scotland, transport is the sector responsible for the largest portion of emissions with the majority coming from road transport. 29% of households do not have access to a car while, over recent decades, bus tickets have increased in cost while usage has fallen. This affects quality of life but also limits the availability of lower carbon transport options.

Housing is also a major source of emissions with many of Scotland’s homes being poorly insulated, meaning that energy used to heat homes is wasted while a large portion of the population live in ‘fuel poverty’, speeding more than 10% of their income on heating. Francis highlighted the need for retrofitting of buildings to jointly address both these issues.

Renewable energy generation in Scotland has trebled in the last three years. However there has not been a corresponding increase in jobs in the sector. The offshore wind sector is largely owned by private companies most of which are registered outside of the UK and are able to pay employees significantly less than the UK minimum wage with manufacturing jobs often located in other parts of the world. Francis argued that if renewable developments do not offer high quality jobs they will lose their public support making further development more difficult.

Francis finished by highlighting some key lessons on how environmental and anti-poverty campaigns can work together, giving some examples of past campaigns such as the Lukas Plan, the Green Bans movement, and the Pollock Free State. He argued that the role of culture can be to help form connections, allowing people to work together more effectively and form collectives to more effectively bring about change.

Katharine Wheeler also highlighted the role of collectivism and how the Stove Network uses the arts to connect to social issues and help members of the community to actively shape a future for Dumfries. The town has an ageing population, lower than average employment levels and the town centre is in the top 10% of Scotland’s Index of Multiple Deprivation.

The Stove Network runs events and activities from their building in the town centre working with people who are often not a traditional arts audience. They offer a place for discussion, exploration, and for local groups to come together, using art as a way to develop conversations. For example, a previous event involved bringing together diverse stakeholders to develop a ‘People’s Transport Policy’ for Dumfries.

They also hold events away from their site, such as at the Nithraid River Festival where they tried to develop debates over defences against the flooding of the river. Another event called We Live with Water invited people to imagine what a Dumfries 50 years in the future that had embraced its relationship with the river would look like.

The Stove network aims to bring about real change by allowing local voices to influence policymaking, developing skills and growing culture outside of the main centres. Further information about their approach to ‘Creative Placemaking’ is available in a recent report.

Discussion

This was followed by some discussion time where we split into smaller groups to reflect on the issues raised by our speakers and respond to some prompts – including an interview with artist John Akomfrah, a photograph of an art installation at Taigh Chearsabagh arts centre and museum, and some old political posters from the 1970s – which are available to view here. Here are some of the key ideas that came out of the discussion:

  • It’s important to consider who is best placed to create art that engages with the intersection of climate and class. We should consider who need to work and co-create with rather than speaking for people.
  • Effective art can cut through the noise by providing simple and evocative ways of representing complex or intangible issues. The Lines installation at Taigh Chearsabagh is a good example of this.
  • Artistic engagement with climate change can reach us in more direct ways through allowing us to relate to issues on a more direct human basis by showing the people effected by climate change and not just the science behind it.
  • It’s important to learn from the mistakes of the past. For example, the development of the North Sea oil industry didn’t economically benefit everyone in Scotland and there’s a risk that the transition to renewable energy could lead to the same problems.
  • Artists can have license to be direct and be clear about who is to blame for climate change in a way that other fields might struggle with. Conversely, art can also be a space to explore complex or ambiguous issues. It’s important to be clear about what role you want  your art to have.
grey oblique lines growing darker, then a green line with an arrow pointing right and overlaid text reading 'culture SHIFT'

About Green Tease 
The Green Tease events series and network is a project organised by Creative Carbon Scotland, bringing together people from arts and environmental backgrounds to discuss, share expertise, and collaborate.

The post Green Tease Reflections: Climate/Class/Culture 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: Greening Arts Practice CPD Manager

Creative Carbon Scotland

Freelance contract (part time), initially to March 2023 with potential for extension.

This work is being offered as a single package based on 1.5 days per week

We wish to appoint an experienced arts professional with demonstrable experience to co-ordinate, facilitate and help develop our Greening Arts Practice (GAP) programme and other professional development initiatives. This is an exciting opportunity to work across our projects, providing advice and support for artists at different career stages and contributing to the development of new content which supports artists and audiences.

Responsibilities:
  • Contributing to the planning and implementation of CAD support programmes for artistic practice development that focus on green arts practice, environmental issues, slow art and social engagement.
  • Facilitating our GAP programme of talks, discussions and events. This programme combines online sessions with in-person events, including talks and discussions.
  • Management and delivery of other training initiatives, including a range of bespoke learning opportunities for visual artists.
  • Research and writing of online CPD information, including toolkits and other support materials.
  • Contributing to funding applications and strategic documents.
  • Providing information to artists in response to enquiries and contributing relevant content for our website, newsletters and other outlets.
  • Data collection, evaluation, follow-up and presentation of project information.
  • Attendance at weekly team meetings. These involve a combination of online and in-person sessions.
Experience:

Essential

  • Experience of environmental and climate-related issues
  • Visual arts background
  • Knowledge of artists’ professional development
  • Presentation and facilitation skills
  • Project development and implementation experience

Desirable

  • Experience of Higher Education
  • Experience of art and community engagement projects
  • Fundraising skills
To apply:

Please view the full job description and application details on our website.

Deadline for applications: Thursday 5 February, 2022.

Any questions or to arrange an informal discussion, please email Christine Keogh.

Chrysalis Arts Development is an arts development agency and national portfolio organisation (NPO) supported by Arts Council England. Current projects include Unfolding Origins, Five Hectares and our Greening Arts Practice Continuing Professional Development programme.

(Top image: A group of people sitting on chairs under the shade of a tree [supplied])

The post Opportunity: Greening Arts Practice CPD Manager 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

Conscient Podcast: e88 robin mathews – on radical listening & political poetry

Conscient Podcast 
My #conscientpodcast conversation with my father-in-law, the poet and educator Robin Mathews, which combines a 2021 recording about radical listening with a 2004 recording about political poetry and the role of the artist in society, including Robin reading 3 of his poems: at the Café Lenin, The Lady From Iraq and Unmarked Graves.
https://vimeo.com/653808340

This is a special edition of the conscient podcast. You’ll hear two recordings that I did with my father in the law, the poet and educator Robin Mathews. I did not narrate his extensive biography however there are some links in the episode notes below for you to learn more about his distinguished career as a writer and activist. 

The first recording is from just a few days in Vancouver, where I ask him to help me understand the origins of the term radical and also the notion of radical listening, which is the theme of this 3rd season. The second recording is from 17 years ago, in 2004 which was a series of conversation I had with Robin about political poetry and the role of the artist in society. I thought I would bring these two conversations together in this episode.

You’ll also hear him read three of his poems. The first is at the Café Lenin from his Think Freedom book of poetry published in 2004 by Northland Publications.  The second is The Lady From Iraq, written in 1991. The third is from this year, called Unmarked Graves. 

In particular I like this quote from our 2004 conversation about the role of the artists in society:

It doesn’t do to dictate about the artist, because artists are as various as it is possible to be. A great many artists can only have their being in withdrawal and insularity, retreat and silence and so to call upon them to be social activists would be wounding and maybe destructive but in the large picture of the artist in the society, even the artists that I have described, must in himself or herself, recognize that to be artists is a special function and a special blessing and in response to it, the artist must take responsibility for the nature of the society in which he or she lives. And that’s asking a great deal, but I don’t think it’s asking too much.

I want thank Robin for sharing his deep knowledge of arts and culture and his passion for poetry and literature. I also thank him for being a generous and supportive father-in-law to me and a loving grandfather to our children. Though she does not appear in this episode, I also recognize the work and wisdom of Esther Mathews as an activist and cultural worker. 

Poems narrated in this episode

at the Café Lenin (2004)

We’ll meet at the Café Lenin. 

when the midnight hour has toiled.

We’ll drink to the hopes, the past held dear

on a planet grown tragically old 

We’ll mourn the loss of the ozone, 

the oceans depleted of fish; we’ll remember the songs that were sung by the frogs,

we’ll remember and wonder and wish 

We’ll sit in the Café Lenin 

with its decor of scarlet and black 

mourning the million’s gone down to their grave

so the markets can stay ‘on track’. 

We’ll drink to the men and the women 

who fight for the Good and the Just

and are torn from hope and human love 

by Imperial greed and lust. 

We’ll praise all revolutions – 

no matter how poor or small – 

where the weak and the tortured fight to break free 

of Capital’s murdering thrall. 

We’ll meet at the Café Lenin 

in the darkness and dead of our night. 

We’ll remember, dream – and then plan a fresh

for a New Day filled with Light.

The Lady from Iraq

The lady in the High-Class Store, backs the madmen on the Hill. She blesses them and thinks it right, that they should kill and kill, because the world, she says, is bad and good. Our leaders stand up for the right. The bad must feel our heavy wrath falling on them in the night.

The lady in the High-Class Store Doesn’t wish her neighbour ill, Doesn’t have a racist hate, Doesn’t rifle from the till.

Like you and me she starts her day with coffee by her lawn side view, Sews for her daughter, loves her son, Fears the different and the new.

She talks about our U.S. friends. She says they need to go to war. As friends we ought to follow them. We can’t do less, she thinks, or more.

She’s built herself a fortress mind. She wanders in a burning wood where admen tell her what is True, The TV tells her what is Good.

She doesn’t know her choice has been. Packaged somewhere far away. When she sees there’s throwing stones, She wants to throw some of her own.

Her leaders know that. They depend that she’ll continue being she. They build their banal madness on her firm predictability.

Unmarked Graves (2021)

Hearing voices rising from unmarked graves 

seeing forms as though of bodies

bound in ill-fitting cerements

moving away from habitations
moving silently through unbroken forest

as if along worn trails

Hearing voices murmuring unintelligible phrases 

and seeing the shapes of bodies 

(or what were once bodies)

bound in ill-fitting cerements
moving silently through unbroken forest
moving where there is no pathway….
Their voices rising from unmarked graves
echo in the empty passageways of memory.

When they speak
(as if they are speaking to one another)
their voices rising from unmarked graves
are not wise and rounded and certain voices
(as the voices of the dead should be:
voices that rise from completed lives)
they are uncertain voices 
echoing in the empty passageways of memory.

No history can restore them.
No intention can give them wholeness back, 
as if their destiny
is barely to be heard or seen
except as voices rising from unmarked graves –
except as shadows bound in ill-fitting cerements
moving through unbroken forest – 
having been given release
to utter cries of forlorn hope
cries that come to the ears as the cries of those
lost in the empty passageways of memory –
as cries uttered in sadness and abandonment
rising from the unmarked graves of those not known
or remembered
but walking on the ghostly pathways
of a past erased
and only found again in palsied memory … 
and in dream.

Links mention in this episode

Robin and Esther Mathews, November 2021, Vancouver
Robin Mathews and me, November 2021, Vancouver

*

Ma conversation #baladoconscient avec mon beau-père, le poète et éducateur Robin Mathews, qui allie un enregistrement de 2021 sur l'écoute radicale avec un enregistrement de 2004 sur la poésie politique et le rôle de l'artiste sur la société, avec Robin lisant 3 de ses poèmes : at the Café Lenin, The Lady From Iraq et Unmarked Graves.

Ceci est une édition spéciale du balado conscient. Vous allez entendre deux enregistrements que j’ai réalisés avec mon beau-père, le poète et éducateur Robin Mathews. Je n’ai pas fait la narration de sa biographie détaillée, mais vous trouverez des liens ci-dessous pour en savoir plus sur sa carrière distinguée d’écrivain et d’activiste. 

Le premier enregistrement a eu lieu lue 25 novembre, 2021 à Vancouver, où je lui demande de m’aider à comprendre les origines du mot radical et aussi la notion d’écoute radicale, qui est le thème de cette 3e saison. Le deuxième enregistrement date d’il y a 17 ans, en 2004. Il s’agit d’une série de conversations que j’ai eues avec Robin sur la poésie politique et le rôle de l’artiste dans la société. J’ai donc pensé réunir ces deux conversations dans cet épisode.

Vous l’entendrez également lire trois de ses poèmes. Le premier s’intitule At the Café Lenin et est tiré de son recueil de poèmes Think Freedom publié en 2004 par Northland Publications.  Le deuxième est The Lady From Iraq, Ã©crit en 1991. Le troisième, que vous allez entendre, date de cette année et s’intitule Unmarked Graves. 

J’aime particulièrement cette citation tirée de notre conversation de 2004 sur le rôle des artistes dans la société :

Il ne faut pas dicter le rôle de l’artiste, car les artistes sont aussi divers qu’il est possible de l’être. Un grand nombre d’artistes ne peuvent exister que dans l’Isolement, l’insularité, la retraite et le silence, et leur demander d’être des activistes sociaux serait blessant et peut-être destructeur, mais dans l’image globale de l’artiste dans la société, même les artistes que j’ai décrits, doivent reconnaître qu’être artiste est une fonction spéciale et une bénédiction spéciale, et en réponse à cela, l’artiste doit prendre la responsabilité de la nature de la société dans laquelle il ou elle vit. Et c’est beaucoup demander, mais je ne pense pas que ce soit trop demander.

Je tiens à remercier Robin d’avoir partagé sa profonde connaissance des arts et de la culture et sa passion pour la poésie et la littérature. Je le remercie également d’avoir été un beau-père généreux et solidaire pour moi et un grand-père aimant pour nos enfants. Bien qu’elle n’apparaisse pas dans cet épisode, je reconnais également le travail et la sagesse d’Esther Mathews en tant que militante et travailleuse culturelle.

The post e88 robin mathews – on radical listening & political poetry appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

my professional services

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias

While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

Go to conscient.ca

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Wild Authors: Peter Brennan

Artists and Climate Change

By Mary Woodbury

Today we talk with Dr. Peter Brennan, whose first novel, Iceapelago, was inspired by his keen interest in climate change. He chaired the Climate Change Research Group at the Institute for European and International Affairs for almost a decade. He was an advisor to the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) Committee on Climate Change and Energy. He lectured on climate change as part of the Masters Programme on Sustainable Finance and is a Director of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. Peter has authored Behind Closed Doors: the EU Negotiations that Shaped Modern Ireland (2008), Ireland’s Green Opportunity: Driving Investment in a Low-Carbon Economy (2012), and Public Procurement: Rules of the Road (2016). He has also researched many reports on climate change. Peter has travelled to the Arctic, the Antarctic, and La Palma as part of his research into Iceapelago.

Tell us about yourself – your life so far and how you got started in writing. What have you published previously, before Iceapelago?

I live by the sea at Sandycove in South Dublin with my wife Margaret. Although I am 67, and have had a career for over fifty years, I still run a business consultancy. I abide by the maxim for indie authors: Don’t give up your day job, yet. Having worked in Ireland and Brussels, including seven years with our Foreign Service, I have professionally written countless memos, articles, and reports over the past decades. After my doctorate in 2007, I published my first reference book, Behind Closed Doors: the EU Negotiations that Shaped Modern Ireland. It sold well in academic circles. When I was invited to lecture in a Masters Programme on climate change, I decided to write the course textbook, Ireland’s Green Opportunity: Driving Investment in a Low-Carbon Economy. And four years ago, I wrote Public Procurement: Rules of the Road as a textbook for my clients. Writing nonfiction, especially academic books, is a completely different skillset compared to writing fiction, and making the transition was not easy. That said, writing defines me. I truly relax when I write.

Tell us something about your Iceapelago. Who is the intended audience, and what’s going on in the story?

Iceapelago, which describes a network of iced islands near Ireland, opens with a pair of Arctic foxes walking over sea ice to an island to make a lair in an elevated area with prospect of food. The prologue paints the picture of a devastated landscape. How the Arctic foxes arrived in Iceapelago is a consequence of three story lines that have one outcome: a series of natural disasters that transform life and living. The first storyline is based in La Palma in the Canary Islands where Spanish students witness the re-awakening of a dormant volcano. In Greenland, atop the Ice Shelf, scientists try to measure the flow of melt water through the glaciers. Marine researchers use a submersible to investigate reports of seafloor seismic activity off Ireland’s Continental Shelf. The story builds slowly as the characters are introduced, but quickly gathers pace as dramatic and page-turning events unfold. La Palma explodes, the glaciers fracture, and offshore earthquakes drive tsunamis to the coast. Those who have read Iceapelgao say the narrative is scarily plausible. Anyone who has an interest in climate change should enjoy the novel. It opens up scenarios that make it a compelling read.

What other ecological themes does your novel have, and how were you inspired to write about them?

I’ve been involved in climate action policy for almost two decades. For example, I chaired the Climate Research Group of the Institute of European and International Affairs for 10 years. I also advised the Irish Parliament on climate change. I get the science. I don’t need to be convinced. In fact, I believe the tipping point has already been reached and my grandchildren will be living in a quite different world, but hopefully not in the conditions described in Iceapelago. During a cruise to Antarctica some years ago, I was challenged to use my knowledge and insights about climate issues to write a novel. I traveled to Greenland and witnessed the melting of the glaciers, visited La Palma on the Canary Islands and walked among the dormant volcanoes, and got access to a marine research vessel that did seismic surveys deep off Ireland’s continental shelf. The natural events that researchers and scientists witness are brought to life in Iceapelago with a dystopian finale.

After publication, did you do any book fairs or talks? How would you describe the reaction to your book? Is it hard to market during the coronavirus?

With one exception, I have received great reviews from the likes of Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, All Authors, Readers Favorite, and many independent reviewers. However, positive reviews, newspaper coverage, and the wide use of social media have not translated into huge sales for this indie author. With bookshops on restricted opening hours, book festivals cancelled, book awards postponed, and all promotional activity impossible on grounds of social distancing, it is a bit discouraging, to be honest. But I did not write Iceapelago to make money. I wrote for the sheer enjoyment of the experience. I will be a bit wiser with the sequel and will try harder to find a publisher as without such a connection it is nigh impossible to get a profile in what is a highly competitive market. I am also conscious that fiction about climate change is a niche genre. Because I am an optimist by nature I have written my acceptance speech for the Oscars. I am told Iceapelago, the movie will cost $110m to produce! Great value to a smart investor.

Are you working on anything else right now, and do you want to add other thoughts about your book?

I hope to have the sequel, Iceapelago: the Aftermath, completed by the end of the year. The writing style is quite different; there is far more dialogue and far less by way of context detail. The story is about human survival on Iceapelago, which goes into total lockdown once winter arrives. It is set in the near future after the collapse of all basic infrastructure and public services, including currency, healthcare, and government systems. The flood waters around Iceapelago allow river cruisers to provide essential supplies. But Iceapelago, in common with other areas in the North Atlantic region, resembles the Middle Ages rather than a developed economy in the late 21st century. The Arctic foxes who thrive in tundra conditions are hunted by the humans as living conditions worsen. The community leaders try desperately to avoid chaos, loss of life, and destruction as another winter season approaches. The arrival of marauding polar bears is not a good omen. The crescendo destroys the status quo and at the same time starts a new beginning. I also have an outline, just two pages, of the final book in the trilogy. I will use the team from Design for Writers when I decided to self-publish.

Thanks so much, Peter! It all sounds interesting, and I already have a love for Ireland that I’d like to revisit in your new series.

This article is part of our Wild Authors series. It was originally published on Dragonfly.eco.

______________________________

Mary Woodbury, a graduate of Purdue University, runs Dragonfly.eco, a site that explores ecology in literature, including works about climate change. She writes fiction under pen name Clara Hume. Her novel Back to the Garden has been discussed in Dissent Magazine, Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity (University of Arizona Press), and Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Climate Change (Routledge). Mary lives in Nova Scotia and enjoys hiking, writing, and reading.

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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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Conscient Podcast: e87 kendra fanconi – on the artist brigade, ben okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief & reauthoring the world

Conscient Podcast 
My 2nd #conscientpodcast conversation with theatre artist and art + climate activist Kendra Fanconi in Robert’s Creek, BC about the ‘Artist Brigade’, Ben Okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief & reauthoring the world, with excerpts from e43 haley, e30 maggs & Ã©37 lebeau.

Robert’s Creek is on the ancient and unceded territory of the shishalh Nation.  The shishalh people call Robert’s Creek xwesam.
https://vimeo.com/650874253

I’ve known Kendra for many years, first through her work with Radix Theatre then as an arts and environment advocate in the community, notably through The Only Animal company, which she co-founded with Eric Rhys Miller in 2005 and which has created over 30 shows  that ‘take theatre places it has never gone before’. I’ve always admired Kendra’s vision, her calm demeanour, her strategic mind, and deep commitment to environment issues, as you’ll hear on our conversation, which recorded in her kitchen in Robert’s Creek, BC. 

My goal with this series of second conversations is to go deeper into issues from our initial conversation, to hear updates on their work as well as their vision for the future. 

Kendra gave me an update on the ‘Artists Brigade’ project, her perspectives Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri’s call to action Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days article, ecological restoration, the work of death doula and climate grief advisor Corey Mathews (Hardeman), the impact of eco-anxiety and about reauthoring the world, including excerpts from e43 haley, e30 maggs & Ã©37 lebeau.

Links mentioned during our conversation :

I was also moved by this quote from my conversation with Kendra:

I think the climate movement is full of love and care. Those are the people who get involved. Even though we have this sort of vision of the angry activists. I think at the heart of it, it’s about care and love. And so, I found that definition of climate grief and the link of love and loss to be very reassuring and to know that grieving in community, which may be is, I mentioned to you earlier, this sort of love that I have for this climate brethren, artists who care about climate, that I’ve found on how nourishing that is for me. Maybe we all do it together? We’re locked in this love and loss and we’re doing it as a community and versus doing it alone, which I feel like I did do for many years before I got involved in this way. It’s just so much better.

Excerpt from previous conscient episodes used in e87:

 David Haley (e43 haley):

What I have learned to do, and this is my practice, is to focus on making space. This became clear to me when I read, Lila : An inquiry into morals by Robert Pirsig. Towards the end of the book, he suggests that the most moral act of all, is to create the space for life to move onwards and it was one of those sentences that just rang true with me, and I’ve held onto that ever since and pursued the making of space, not the filling of it.

David Maggs (e30 maggs):

Complexity is the world built of relationships and it’s a very different thing to engage what is true or real in a complexity framework than it is to engage in it, in what is a modernist Western enlightenment ambition, to identify the absolute objective properties that are intrinsic in any given thing. Everyone is grappling with the fact that the world is exhibiting itself so much in these entanglements of relationships. The arts are completely at home in that world. And so, we’ve been sort of under the thumb of the old world. We’ve always been a kind of second-class citizen in an enlightenment rationalist society. But once we move out of that world and we move into a complexity framework, suddenly the arts are entirely at home, and we have capacity in that world that a lot of other sectors don’t have. What I’ve been trying to do with this report (Art and the World After This) is articulate the way in which these different disruptions are putting us in a very different reality and it’s a reality in which we go from being a kind of secondary entertaining class to, maybe, having a capacity to sit at the heart of a lot of really critical problem-solving challenges.

Anne-Catherine Lebeau (é37 lebeau.):

Note: translation from the French

For me, it is certain that we need more collaboration. That’s what’s interesting. Moving from a ‘Take Make Waste’ model to ‘Care Dare Share’. To me, that says a lot. I think we need to look at everything we have in the arts as a common good that we need to collectively take care of. Often, at the beginning, we talked in terms of doing as little harm as possible to the environment, not harming it, that’s often how sustainable development was presented, then by doing research, and by being inspired, among other things, by what is done at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in England, around circular economies, I realized that they talk about how to nourish a new reality. How do you create art that is regenerative? Art that feeds something.

Ocean view at Robert’s Creek, November 24, 2021
Kendra Fanconi, eyes closed, in her Kitchen, Robert’s Creek, BC. November 24, 2021
Kendra (and cat) at bridge over the creek at her house, Robert’s Creek, BC November 24, 2021

*

Ma deuxième conversation #baladoconscient avec Kendra Fanconi, artiste de théâtre et activiste pour l'art et le climat, à Robert's Creek, en Colombie-Britannique, sur la "Brigade des artistes", Ben Okri, l'éco-restauration, l'éco-chagrin et la réécriture du monde, avec des extraits de e43 haley, e30 maggs & Ã©37 lebeau.

Robert's Creek se trouve sur le territoire ancien et non cédé de la nation shishalh.  Le peuple shishalh appelle Robert's Creek xwesam.

Je connais Kendra depuis de nombreuses années, d’abord par son travail avec Radix Theatre, puis en tant que défenseur des arts et de l’environnement dans la communauté, notamment par le biais de la compagnie The Only Animal, qu’elle a cofondée avec Eric Rhys Miller en 2005 et qui a créé plus de 30 spectacles qui “emmènent le théâtre là où il n’est jamais allé auparavant”. J’ai toujours admiré la vision de Kendra, son comportement calme, son esprit stratégique et son profond engagement envers les questions environnementales, comme vous pourrez l’entendre au cours de notre conversation, enregistrée dans sa cuisine à Robert’s Creek, en Colombie-Britannique. 

L’objectif de cette série de secondes conversations est d’approfondir les questions abordées lors de notre première conversation, d’entendre des mises à jour sur leur travail ainsi que leur vision de l’avenir. 

Kendra m’a parlé du projet de la “Brigade des artistes”, de son point de vue sur l’appel à l’action du romancier et poète nigérian Ben Okri, de l’article “Les artistes doivent faire face à la crise climatique – nous devons écrire comme si c’était les derniers jours”, de la restauration écologique, du travail de Corey Mathews (Hardeman), doula de mort et conseiller en matière de deuil climatique, sur la réécriture du monde, y compris des extraits de e43 haley, e30 maggs & Ã©37 lebeau.

Liens mentionnés au cours de la conversation 

J’ai également été émue par cette citation tirée de ma conversation avec Kendra :

Je pense que le mouvement climatique est plein d’amour et d’attention. Ce sont les personnes qui s’impliquent. Même si nous avons cette sorte de vision des activistes en colère. Je pense qu’au fond, il s’agit d’amour et de compassion. Et donc, j’ai trouvé cette définition du deuil climatique et le lien entre l’amour et la perte très rassurant et de savoir que le deuil en communauté, qui est peut-être, je vous l’ai dit plus tôt, cette sorte d’amour que j’ai pour ces frères du climat, les artistes qui se soucient du climat, que j’ai trouvé sur la façon dont il est nourrissant pour moi. Peut-être que nous le faisons tous ensemble ? Nous sommes enfermés dans cet amour et cette perte et nous le faisons en tant que communauté plutôt que de le faire seuls, ce que j’ai l’impression d’avoir fait pendant de nombreuses années avant de m’engager de cette manière. C’est tellement mieux.

Extrait de précédents épisodes du balado conscient utilisés dans e87 :

David Haley (e43 haley)

Ce que j’ai appris à faire, et c’est ma pratique, c’est de me concentrer sur la création d’un espace. Cela m’est apparu clairement lorsque j’ai lu la : Lila : An inquiry into morals de Robert Pirsig. Vers la fin du livre, il suggère que l’acte le plus moral de tous est de créer l’espace nécessaire à la vie pour aller de l’avant. C’est l’une de ces phrases qui m’ont semblé vraies, et j’y ai adhéré depuis lors, en cherchant à créer de l’espace, et non à le remplir.

David Maggs (e30 maggs) :

La complexité est le monde construit de relations et c’est une chose très différente de s’engager dans ce qui est vrai ou réel dans un cadre de complexité que de s’y engager, dans ce qui est une ambition occidentale moderniste, de l’époque des Lumières (enlightenment), d’identifier les propriétés objectives absolues qui sont intrinsèques à toute chose donnée. Tout le monde est aux prises avec le fait que le monde s’expose tellement dans ces enchevêtrements de relations. Les arts sont complètement à l’aise dans ce monde. Et donc, nous avons été en quelque sorte sous la coupe de l’ancien monde. Nous avons toujours été une sorte de citoyen de seconde classe dans une société rationaliste de l’époque des Lumières. Mais une fois que nous sortons de ce monde et que nous entrons dans un cadre de complexité, les arts sont tout à fait à leur place et nous avons une capacité dans ce monde que beaucoup d’autres secteurs n’ont pas. Ce que j’ai essayé de faire avec ce rapport (Art and the World After This), c’est d’articuler la manière dont ces différentes perturbations nous placent dans une réalité très différente, une réalité dans laquelle nous passons d’une sorte de classe secondaire de divertissement à, peut-être, une capacité à prendre notre place au cœur de la résolution d’un grand nombre de problèmes vraiment critiques.

Anne-Catherine Lebeau (é37 lebeau) :

Pour moi, c’est sûr que ça passe par plus de collaboration. C’est ça qui est intéressant aussi. Vraiment passer du modèle ‘Take Make Waste’ à ‘Care Dare Share’. Pour moi, ça dit tellement de choses. Je pense qu’on doit considérer tout ce qu’on a dans le domaine artistique comme un bien commun dont on doit collectivement prendre soin. Souvent, au début, on parlait en termes de faire le moins de tort possible à l’environnement, ne pas nuire, c’est souvent comme ça que l’on présente le développement durable, puis en faisant des recherches, et en m’inspirant, entre autres, de ce qui se fait à la Fondation Ellen MacArthur  en Angleterre, en économie circulaire, je me suis rendu compte qu’eux demandent comment faire en sorte de nourrir une nouvelle réalité. Comment créer de l’art qui soit régénératif? Qui nourrisse quelque chose.

The post e87 kendra fanconi – on the artist brigade, ben okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief & reauthoring the world appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

my professional services

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias

While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

Go to conscient.ca

Powered by WPeMatico

Amy Talluto: Moments of Light in the Forest

Artists and Climate Change

By Etty Yaniv 

Amy Talluto’s paintings and collages depict landscapes, ranging from representational wood-scapes to more abstracted forms reassembling a hybrid of landscape and still life. Darren Jones wrote in Artforum that Amy Talluto’s series of oil paintings from 2017 produce “symphonic arrangements of green, ranging from deepest phthalo to honeyed laurel. Dashes of pink, crimson, and yellow also crop up, to shimmering effect. The technical proficiency of her sumptuous compositions, based on forests around the artist’s Catskills home, parlays them into sites of ethereality.” (Darren Jones, Artforum). Recently, during the pandemic, the artist started exploring collage, resulting in bold cutouts, and then paintings, where the previously hinted pinks, yellows, and crimsons become central alongside the blues and greens. 

You were born in New Orleans, studied art in Washington University in St. Louis, and later at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Tell me a bit more about yourself and what brought you to landscape painting and specifically woodland?

When I was a kid in New Orleans, my parents got divorced and my mom moved across the street from an abandoned field. I remember pouring all my teenage angst into making images of that place and it was the first time that I realized that the landscape could be a receptacle for psychology and emotion.

I continued in that vein at Washington University and found that St. Louis had these beautiful farmlands outside of the city. In the fall, the grasses would turn pale blonde or rust-colored and almost look like the fur of an animal spreading out over the fallow fields. I was also drawn to the clumps of trees popping up sporadically in the vast whiteness of snow-covered golf courses in the winter. These odd landscapes were largely human-made and I got very interested in representing them in painting. Later, after I moved to Brooklyn, I went to graduate school at SVA and visited Prospect Park for inspiration. I also loved the scarred beech trees in Cadman Plaza Park in D.U.M.B.O.

I’m drawn to landscape because it jumps out at me in an insistent way. Trees especially have always startled me with their eccentricity. They can look very bizarre and personified to me, and I feel moved to note and represent them.

I am looking at Measured and Divided (2017) and Snake in the Garden (2020). What draws me to these paintings is the sense of a specific light element and interplay of gravity/movement upwards. What can you share about the genesis of these paintings and your process of making them?

The body of work that produced Measured and Divided was loosely inspired by Eudora Welty’s story Moon Lake and features landscape scenes from Upstate NY. In the story, orphaned children are camping in the Mississippi woods and the nature around them is described with rich metaphors. For example, one of the camper’s hands flops out of her tent in her sleep and she cradles “[night’s] black cheek.” Also, the night sky is described as being like “grape flesh” or the “grape of the air.” It got me wondering how a body of work might look if you viewed nature through a grape, or through an emerald glass. 

After that series, I began making my oil paintings alongside smaller gouache studies on paper, and the vividness and quickness of the gouache started to seep into my oil painting style. Snake in the Garden is such a work. An old beech forest in Aquidneck, RI, that was originally a Rockefeller estate, inspired the painting. Beech trees are smooth and white so they change color constantly depending on shadows and where they are in a forest. Some looked like they had tiger stripes, some were blue or pink and covered in knobs, and this one seemed to be an Eden-like snake guarding its sacred garden.

Measured and Divided, 24 x 30 in.,oil on panel, 2017
Snake in the Garden, 34 x 40 in., oil on linen, 2020

Your collages often integrate gouache and oil into playful compositions. When I look at them, I see a sense of adventure and improvisation. This is evident, for example, in At the Edge of the Sea. Can you elaborate on the relationship between your collage and painting?

I began making collages during the pandemic when I was at home with my son doing remote school. Collage felt fun and low-pressure at a very scary and high-pressure time. All you needed was a table, scissors, glue and some small bits of time. I made several works that way and was really excited by the results. Later, I got an opportunity to spend a long weekend at the Saltonstall Foundation in Ithaca, NY. I dumped a suitcase full of collage scraps over all of the tables in my room and worked for 48 hours straight, becoming what I jokingly refer to as a “collage goblin.”

Most of the works in that group evoked my visit to Taughannock Falls Gorge, an area that I stopped at on the way. Deep in the gorge, the light was dim, and heavy clouds only allowed short bursts of intermittent sunlight. The moments of light would illuminate parts of the forest and suddenly you would see things (like the tip of a branch or a part of a trunk) that had been previously hidden by the gloom. Approaching Storm was one of the paper collages that grew out of that experience. When I returned home, I was curious to see how the image would look blown up as a large painting. I’ve always felt that landscape painting lends itself to big sizes as we’re used to experiencing nature as grand and vast. I think that the large Approaching Storm painting functions a bit like a totem, memorializing the alchemical process of its source collage.

Approaching Storm, 50 x 64 in., oil on linen, 2021

Your graphite drawings are meticulous, precise, and seem to be consistently small in scale. What is your drawing process and what is the role of drawing in your work?

Drawing is my way of understanding the visual world around me, especially trees and natural forms. Trees are built kind of like the body so you’ll see limbs that kind of bulge in and out like an arm or a torso or a knee, and you need to feel those forms with the line. After I moved from Brooklyn to the Hudson Valley in 2010, I used drawing to understand my new home. I drew quarries that were down the road, a hollow mining mountain in Rosendale and a frozen waterfall in a cave along the Ashokan Reservoir, among many others. It was all sort of a way to claim this territory as my own.

The Edge of the Sea, 80 x 60 in., oil on canvas, 2021

What is happening in your studio these days?

I’m currently working on large oil paintings based on collages I have made this past year. I am also working towards a two-person exhibition at the Art & Culture Gallery at the Albany Airport opening in November. 

(Amy Talluto in her studio in Upstate New York, 2021. All photos courtesy of the artist.)

This interview is part of a content collaboration between Art Spiel and Artists & Climate Change. It was originally published on Art Spiel on December 2, 2019 as part of an ongoing interview series with contemporary artists.

______________________________

Etty Yaniv works on her art, art writing, and curatorial projects in Brooklyn. She has exhibited her immersive installations in museums and galleries, nationally and internationally. Yaniv founded the platform Art Spiel to highlight the work of contemporary artists through art reviews, studio visits, and interviews with artists, curators, and gallerists. Yaniv holds a BA in Psychology and English Literature from Tel Aviv University, a BFA from Parsons School of Design, and an MFA from SUNY Purchase.

———-

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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Conscient Podcast: e86 arts policy, equity and activism class at centennial college

Conscient Podcast 
My #conscientpodcast conversation with Robin Sokoloski, Janis Monture and their students as part of a class in Art Policy, Equity and Activism at Centennial College in Toronto exploring the role of the arts in activism, including quotes from e40 frasz, e82 washable paint, e05 carruthers, e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving and e85 tracey friesen – narratives of resilience for a post carbon world.
https://vimeo.com/649361934

Robin Sokoloski and Janis Monture teach a class in Art Policy, Equity and Activism at Centennial College in Toronto and asked me to be guest speaker on the issue of art and activism on November 23, 2021. The class kindly agreed to have the class recorded as episode 86 of this podcast. 

I’ve known Robin from many years in her role with Mass Culture and more recently as a co-founder of the Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE) network. Robin was also my guest on episode 61 of this podcast. I met Janis many years ago back when I ran the Inter-Arts Office at Canada Council for the Arts in her role with the Woodland Cultural Centre.

Before the class Robin suggested I read this article : Assessing the Impact of Artistic Activism, which I recommend to anyone interested in art and activism. 

The conversation took place in ‘interview’ style. Robin asked me four questions: 

What is the arts role in activism when it comes to positive social good?

Can art affect policy? Is there an example you can think of?

What role can arts funders play when it comes to art and activism?

Share your current interest in art activism. What possibilities do you see within the arts or general public that encourage you to continue this work?

My answers, as well as my interaction with students, are in the recording. 

This episode also includes excerpts from e40 frasz, e82 washable paint, e05 carruthers, e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving and e85 tracey friesen – narratives of resilience for a post carbon world.

Links referred to in this episode:

Some of the arts policy, equity and activism class at centennial college on november 23, 2021

*

Ma conversation #baladoconscient avec Robin Sokoloski, Janis Monture et leurs étudiants dans le cadre d'un cours sur la politique artistique, l'équité et l'activisme au Centennial College de Toronto sur le rôle des arts dans l'activisme, y inclut des extraits des épisodes suivants: e40 frasz, e82 washable paint, e05 carruthers, e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving et e85 tracey friesen – narratives of resilience for a post carbon world.

Robin Sokoloski et Janis Monture donnent un cours sur la politique artistique, l’équité et l’activisme au Centennial College de Toronto et m’ont demandé d’être conférencier invité sur la question de l’art et de l’activisme le 23 novembre 2021. La classe a aimablement accepté que le cours soit enregistré comme l’épisode 86 de ce balado. 

Je connais Robin depuis de nombreuses années dans le cadre de son rôle au sein de Mobilisation culturelle et, plus récemment, en tant que cofondatrice du réseau Leadership sectorial des arts sur l’urgence de la transition écologique (LeSAUT). Robin était également mon invitée dans l’épisode 61 de ce balado. J’ai rencontré Janis il y a de nombreuses années, lorsque je dirigeais le Bureau Inter-Arts du Conseil des arts du Canada dans le cadre de son rôle au Woodland Cultural Centre.  

Avant le cours, Robin m’a suggéré de lire cet article : Assessing the Impact of Artistic Activism, que je recommande à toute personne intéressée par l’art et l’activisme. 

La conversation s’est déroulée sous la forme d’une “interview”. Robin m’a posé quatre questions : 

1.      Quel est le rôle des arts dans l’activisme lorsqu’il s’agit de faire du bien social ?

2.      L’art peut-il influer sur la politique ? Y a-t-il un exemple auquel vous pouvez penser ?

3.      Quel rôle les organismes de financement des arts peuvent-ils jouer en ce qui concerne l’art et l’activisme ?

4.      Partagez votre intérêt actuel pour l’activisme artistique. Quelles possibilités voyez-vous au sein des arts ou du grand public qui vous encouragent à poursuivre ce travail ?

Mes réponses, ainsi que mon interaction avec les étudiants, se trouvent dans l’enregistrement. 

Cet épisode comprend également des extraits de e40 frasz, e82 washable paint, e05 carruthers, e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving et e85 tracey friesen – narratives of resilience for a post carbon world.

Liens mentionnés dans cet épisode :

The post e86 arts policy, equity and activism class at centennial college appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

my professional services

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca

acknowledgement of eco-responsibility

I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.

a word about privilege and bias

While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.

Go to conscient.ca

Powered by WPeMatico