At this Green Tease event, we explored the role of the arts and culture sector in helping to imagine and cultivate spaces for climate democracy in Scotland.
At the root of the climate emergency is a crisis of political imagination. Our current democratic structures are limited in who they represent and what they can achieve. We need radical, collective visions of alternative futures to drive transformative action.
At this Green Tease event, we explored the role public participation can play in the climate and ecological emergency; and the importance of art and culture in envisioning and creating the radical climate futures we need. A just and equitable response requires creating and extending dynamic, participatory systems with new citizen engagement opportunities.
To help understand those connections, we had three great speakers on creative democratic innovation followed by creative participation in practice in the form of a live version of The People’s Palace of Possibility, an interactive performance installation about utopias, rage, and how we create change.
Our first speaker of the evening, Oliver Escobar, senior lecturer in Public Policy and academic lead of democratic innovation at Edinburgh Futures Institute, introduced the term ’democratic myopia’ – a concept of short-term thinking in institutions driven by electoral and market cycles that makes it difficult to act on the climate emergency. He argued that we, through public participation, can unlock this mechanism:
“The climate crisis demands short-term action based on long-term thinking, and democratic innovations can do that. However, we cannot reach a desirable future if the means do not reflect the values we want for the future. That is where democracy and climate come together.”
Imaginaction: A creative democratic life
Art and culture are essential in opening up spaces for democratic participation by connecting to futures greater than the present:
“It is important that we begin to think of power as creative: When you share power, you generate power because your creative capacity to act was not there before”, Oliver Escobar said.
Democracy is more than elections, and we need art to reverse this narrow understanding and open up the public imagination that we can create new citizenship that goes beyond the established institutions. To capture this need, Oliver Escobar used the term imaginaction1:
“Imagination and action go together. Action without imagination is an action that constrains the horizon of possibilities we are now endeavouring. We cannot act on the crisis we are facing unless we can imagine things that are truly different”.
Unlocking our imagination was also crucial for the next speaker, Claire Dufour, Creative Climate Producer at Creative Dundee, who said:
“We are in a crisis of imagination of what today and tomorrow could be. To me democracy is about action.”
Communities as vital democratic spaces
When people are given the right conditions, they can create change and build bridges between communities, movements and institutions. However, today only 35% of Scottish citizens feel part of how decisions affecting their community are made and 77 % would get more involved if it was easier to participate in decisions that affect it. By increasing opportunities for public participation, we can deepen the role of citizens in decisions around climate.
An important feature of democratic innovations, such as Citizen Assemblies, is that members are selected in a way that is demographically representative of society. This means we avoid the self-selection bias that normally exists in public spaces. Creating in-build institutional spaces for citizens to be heard is also something that environmental movements such as Extinction Rebellion have long been advocating for. However, democratic innovations should also take place outside formal institutions and for this communities are vital.
Democratic life should unfold in all social, cultural, and economic relations, something that was emphasised by Claire Dufour from Creative Dundee. Her presentation focussed on the regional programme CULTIVATE that demonstrates how art can cultivate democratic spaces in communities.
CULTIVATE is a leadership programme for creative practitioners and local communities to collaboratively explore creativity as a root for climate action in the geographically, socially and economic diverse Tay region. CULTIVATE helps creative practitioners to engage local communities in sustainable practice, foster environmental leadership, and share learning.
From left: Claire Dufour, Oliver Escobar and Malaika Cunningham
One of the artists in CULTIVATE is Nicky Bolland, who works to bring together communities in conversations across generations, creating spaces around painting and tea to have conversations. Another project is led by Jade Anderson called The Wee Wardrobe, making second hand clothing a first choice locally.
“On a local level we are showing what can happen through collective action, collaboration and placemaking. Democracy needs to be people focussed, from the grassroots meeting people where they are and help people in communities with their visions and art and culture can really help with that,” Claire Dufour said.
A culture of participation
The third speaker of the evening, Malaika Cunningham from Artsadmin spoke about how we need a culture of political participation where we use multiple approaches to create deliberative and participatory spaces where citizens can imagine and express their views in different ways. Getting everyone into a space is not enough. We must make sure that everyone feels able to express themselves.
This is the reason Malaika Cunningham developed the People’s Palace of Possibility, which everyone got to try in practice after the talks. a way to create conversation between strangers. She got inspiration from the idea of Real Utopias developed by Eric Olin Wright, based on the idea that utopias already exist out there and that the more we connect and celebrate them the more they can actually transform society. According to Malaika Cunningham, we need a culture of participation to make that happen.
“We need a broader idea of ourselves as citizens more than just consumers. We need deliberative spaces all over society in which citizens are invited to be critical and imaginative, and listen to opposing views and to exchange ideas,” Malaika Cunningham said.
One way of building a democratic culture is via artistic practice. According to Malaika Cunningham, a crucial part of creating a democratic culture is providing alternative forums for political exchange, not always depending on verbal political debate. Diversity within the room is not enough: To include as many people as possible, there must be various ways to communicate through alternative channels like sound, pictures, or text.
The People’s Palace of Possibility
After the three speakers, Malaika Cunningham presented a live version of The People’s Palace of Possibility an interactive performance installation about utopias, rage, and how we create change.
The project started in 2019 as a part of the Bare Project and creates a space where citizens are invited to join a collective called palace citizens that dares to imagine a different future. First the participants were invited to become palace citizens and were sent out for an audio guided walk which invited people think about our connections with each other, place, our values. During the walk people were asked questions such as, ‘what do you think about when you think about the world?’ and ‘who or what gives you hope?’and were encouraged to take pictures related to those, which would be uploaded to a shared archive.
When people returned from the walk, the event space had been split into four areas with the prompts from the walk together with pictures to continue the reflection. Participants were then invited to reflect and discuss ways that they could work with creating spaces for democratic participation with the climate emergency.
During the discussion, the participants touched upon the value of getting out and exploring the local area through a creative and participatory exercise: a practice some could see themselves using in teaching and community activities as a way of engaging people with their local environment. Several also expressed that today’s talks and exercises have revealed creativity is a powerful way of inviting a more diverse audience into a conversation about the climate emergency.
Here is a sample of some of the other themes and thoughts.
Over time, the hope with The People’s Palace of Possibility is that the archive can model a different democratic participation that is creative and playful: “I think it is important for democracy to be fun,” Malaika Cunningham said.
At this Green Tease event, we explored the growing movement within the arts to engage with and address the UK’s colonial history, looking at how this is intimately connected with work on climate change as a neo-colonial issue.
Cultural relationships within a landscape
When we talk about decolonisation and climate change we need to talk about land, the front lines of extractivism.
“It’s not just about the lost land in and of itself but also about the lost cultural relationships that exist within communities within that landscape, it is a slow industrial genocide”
said Suzanne Dhaliwal and referred to her work in the Boreal Forest in Canada, an area of the size of England and Wales combined that is now a site of extraction:
“It is a continuation of the genocide of indigenous people. We use art and culture to communicate these issues, but we also use art to understand the cultural heritage that has been lost.”
She encouraged people to use stories to generate solidarity for the people living in front line communities like the Boreal Forest, because by telling their stories, we can bring empathy and fill in the “human voice gap” that some environmental movements can leave out.
Parvinder Marwaha gave an example of her work on digital programming on the loss of land in times of the climate emergency with a project called Landless, an interactive resource site exploring climate refugees. The resource looks at objects travelling between countries, and so the map serves as a conversation starter about climate refugees. With the map, you can go back and forth in time and zoom in on specific areas with data-specific information about risks.
Titilayo Farukuoye, the final speaker of the evening, emphasised that we need to tackle all types of inequalities to tackle climate change – class, capitalism, transphobia – which are all destroying livelihoods. Stepping away from a white supremacist point of view, we need to acknowledge that colonialism is driving climate injustice. The power structures today are built on the right to land, and Titilayo Farukuoye read out a poem called “Draped in Cotton” about how we are all dressed in blood from the cotton and fabric industry.
Titilayo Farukuoye ended their presentation with a poem based on an Afrofuturist perspective called ‘What do you remember about the earth?’ reflecting upon how it will feel if we do not take care of our shared home:
“The home that has been a lost love of our lives. What do you remember about her?”
This panel was hosted by Arts Club Theatre curated by The Only Animal Core Artist Kendra Fanconi, about different perspectives on the role of the artist in the climate crisis, with Coast Salish theatre and dance artist Tasha Faye Evans, Latinx climate playwright Elaine Avila, Metcalf scholar on art and sustainability David Maggs, and Japanese-American climate-performance artist Miwa Matreyek.
This panel was hosted by Arts Club Theatre was done in partnership with the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
Photography exercise made during the Facing Human Wrongs course. July, 2022, Duhamel, Quebec (photo by Claude Schryer)
On February 8, 2022, when I published episode 99, Winter Diary Revisited, of the conscient podcast, I mentioned that I was taking a break to study decolonization and, among other things, to ‘learn to unlearn’.
I did this.
On March 15, 2022 I wrote a posting for the Artists and Climate Change website called Rise Up, Dissent, and Disassemble,where I suggested that ‘the arts sector has the capacity to shift people’s hearts and minds and will be central to a transformation agenda’ about the ecological crisis.
I stand by this.
On June 6, 2022, I posted this statement on social media :
‘I’m not sure if or when I’ll produce more conscient podcasts. I don’t see the point of sharing more info or awareness. What interests me now, inspired by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, is how to transition out of modernity through metabolic connections. Not sure what that sounds like, yet…’
I do now (or at least I’ve figured out a way to explore it).
What is Sounding Modernity?
On September 16, 2022, I had the privilege of receiving a Canada Council Strategic Innovation Fund Seed grant to produce season 4 of my conscient podcast called ‘Sounding Modernity : weekly 5-minute sound art works in 2023’, published on Sundays, from January 1 to December 31, 2023, in English and in French.
Each episode explores a complex issue and includes a question for listeners to respond to in any way they wish, with words, images, sound, video, etc. through the conscient website or on conscient social media. The idea to create an informal forum for learning and unlearning. I commit to do my best to respond to every submission and, with permissions, to publish some of them in the conscient newsletter.
My goal with ‘Sounding Modernity’ is to explore what modernity sounds like, how it affects us and how to ‘create the conditions for other possible worlds to emerge in the wake of what is dying’ as suggested in ‘Preparing for the end of the world as we know it’ by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, a group of scholars and researchers led by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity. The work of the GTDF collective has strongly influenced my approach to this project and I am deeply grateful for their wisdom and support.
Metal rods from ‘tension, episode 101 of Sounding Modernity, September 2022
What do I mean by modernity?
Which modernity? I don’t mean modernist art or modernism as a style (though I guess it can be a part of it). I mean the modern era based on extractive capitalism, overconsumption, endless growth, systemic racism, white supremacy, separation from nature, and so on.
I want to investigate various interpretations of ‘modernity’: our so-called modern lifestyles, structures, sites, beings, creatures, habits, etc. and I want to do this by listening to the sound of modernity.
In other words, I want to address some of the causes of this massive and violent overreach of planetary boundaries while exploring how we can preserve some of modernity’s benefits, without the destruction.
My objective with Sounding Modernity is not to find short term solutions, nor is it to help you feel better about the state of the world. Rather, with a lot of humility and respect, I offer you 5 minutes every week to stop and listen to a sound artwork that addresses an issue, a situation, a dilemma, a problem, an impossibility, but also to celebrate, to preserve and to nurture possibilities.
I invite you to ‘stay with the trouble’ which is a well-known quote from Dr. Donna J. Haraway and to embrace the advice of Dr. Vanessa Andreotti to ‘hold space for the good, the bad, the ugly and the messed up, within and around’.
From mitigation to regeneration
When I started the conscient podcast in 2020, I was mostly in a ‘mitigation’ and ‘information deficit’ mindset. I believed that by raising awareness and sharing knowledge that artists could provide insights and help find solutions to the ecological crisis. This remains a valid intention, however I’ve now shifted to a ‘regeneration’ mindset, whereas I accept the inevitability of systems collapse based on past behaviour (many are already happening) and focus my efforts on longer term adaptation and regeneration strategies.
Excerpt from a video report made during the Facing Human Wrongs course, Unlearning Bundle Unit 3 – Denial of Unsustainability, July 5, 2022, Duhamel, Quebec (photo by Claude Schryer)
What does modernity sound like?
We are part of a much wider metabolism, and this metabolism is sick. There is a lot of shit for us to deal with: personal, collective, historical, systemic. Our fragilities are a big part of it. This shit needs to pass, so that it can be composted into new forms of life, no longer based on the illusion of separability.
Without being aware of it, I have always felt the ‘metabolic sickness’ that the GTDF collective refers to here and have always been intuitively attracted to electroacoustic music, with its transformational potential to serve as an acoustic mirror at the intersection of reality, fantasy, and spirit.
During my career as a composer and sound artist, I developed a ‘soundscape composition’ style that combines layering context (field recordings) with abstraction (electronic and instrumental music) – often with an observational or poetic narrative.
The artistic language of ‘Sounding Modernity’ expands on this vocabulary with a mix of slowly paced narration and long silences that are interwoven with new or archival field recordings and/or soundscape compositions. Each episode involves a combination of the following elements:
presentation of the topic (what it is and why it interests me)
new and/or archival field recording(s) that illustrate or evoke the topic
thoughts and insights on the nature of that sound
transformation or alteration of that sound through soundscape composition techniques that suggests alternative or new perspectives
thoughts and insights on the transformed sound(s) and how they might raise new questions
An invitation for listeners to engage with a question on an issue or concept that can be uploaded to the conscient podcast website for public sharing and dialogue.
Here is a preliminary list of topics I am considering (note: these will evolve, including rewrites, through to the end of the project on December 31, 2023):
Excerpt from a video from exercises in Hospicing Modernity, April, 2022, Duhamel, Quebec (photo by Claude Schryer)
Thought, felt, and danced with and through
My intention is not to define these terms, nor to explain them as such, but rather to engage in ‘worlding their meaning’, as suggested by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti’s notion of ‘worlding stories not focused on the aesthetic perfection of form, but on the integration of form and movement. They are not supposed to be ‘thought about’ but thought, felt, and danced with and through’.
Note: The term ‘worlding’ is used by Dr. Vanessa Andreotti in reference to the work of Māori writer Carl Mika, see ‘Indigenous Education and the Metaphysics of Presence: A Worlded Philosophy’ (Milton Park, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2017)
In other words, my hope is to create sound art works that are ‘living entities’ (with thanks to my curriculum advisor Azul Carolina Duque for this observation).
I like the way a colleague from the Facing Human Wrongs course this summer put it in an October 24, 2022 email:
May the living sounds and entities in the episodes co-inform sounding modernity and where it’s heading/losing its way.
I will explore how to engage in ‘co-information’ during this project and to be OK when it loses its way.
The Facing Human Wrongs course involved facing these complex systemic issues with honesty, humility, humour and hyper self-reflexivity and learning to live with their discomforts and pain and doing so without falling into ‘traps’ such as self-validation, self-infantilization and exceptionalism, while exploring how to ‘create the conditions for other worlds to emerge’.
Hum, that’s a rather long and charged sentence, isn’t it?
What I mean to say is that it is important to have a good frame of mind going into this work and to avoid repeating cycles of personal glorification and self-indulgence.
This is difficult for artists, who, like me, love the spotlight and often engage in self-referential work, but I think it’s possible to focus on the impact of our work, and less on our personal needs, for those who are coming from situations of privilege and low-intensity struggle.
Sobriety, maturity, discernment and accountability
I have found the 4 compass values illustrated above, along with the tightrope teachings, to be useful guide marks in making decisions and avoiding the worst pitfalls.
This compass (and related cartographies) also helps me work through ethical and relational issues when I do field recordings, such as obtaining implicit and explicit permission to record sounds and how to use them respectfully in published works.
The work of UBC professor and indigenous scholar Dylan Robinson, notably his Hungry Listening book, also guides my decisions in terms of how and when to record.
But who will listen?
The urgency of the climate and ecological crisis demands that the arts and culture sector activate its unique capacity for creative expression in service of a livable future for all. In this critical decade of action, this requires a clear focus on climate justice and a genuine transformation in values: from consumerism and extraction to stewardship and regeneration.
My experience in producing 100 episodes of the conscient podcast is that audiences are saturated and overwhelmed with facts and data about the ecological crisis but are more comfortable engaging, relationally and affectively, with these complex issues through stories, metaphors, illustrations, and connections to what they value the most in everyday life.
Sounding Modernity is intended to be accessible to all audiences but is more likely to be relevant to those who have already begun a learning and unlearning journey about the ecological crisis, including questioning the complicity of western art itself. This is hard work, akin to biting the hand that feeds you.
For example, I am extremely grateful to have received the aforementioned Canada Council Strategic Innovation Fund Seed grant for this project to hire expert collaborators to help me deepen this work and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their support and yet I am critical of institutions like the Council that perpetuate colonial systems.
But at the same time, I appreciate that the Council and other funders offer opportunities to empower artists to develop a more resilient, equitable, inclusive and sustainable arts sector, and in so doing, a more liveable planet. This is the complex and hard work of decolonization and transformation that the arts sector is currently undertaking. For example, Shannon Litzenberger wrote an essay called State of Emergence: Why We Need Artists Right Now. I also spoke with her in episode 90 of the conscient podcast;
I would first and foremost love to see artists really lean into experimentation with their creative practices and to share that what comes out of those practices: the learning and experimentation with each other. I think that’s something that even as a community of art makers we can get better at. But what that then also does is start to socialize learning about what art as a system of knowledge production is, and this is how we start to disentangle ourselves from the ways that we’re trying to solve this challenge, or the ways that we’re trying to think about what is happening right now as a problem to fix, is maybe part of the dilemma and that art as a way of knowing.
My hope is that we find a way, together, to navigate our way out of modernity’s trappings and to create, step by step, the conditions for other worlds to emerge. I know many of my colleagues in the arts are working hard on this. I am grateful for their vision and courage.
I like the way fellow podcaster and cultural icon Kamea Chayne explains it in her vision for the Green Dreamer project:
Exploring our paths to collective healing, biocultural revitalization, and true abundance and wellness *for all*.
I also refer to my own experience in listening to podcasts about culture and environmental issues, which have the potential to nourish our spirits and remind us that we are not alone in feeling deep anxiety about the ecological crisis. I am grateful for the aforementioned Green Dreamer and also:
Because we have no choice, but we also don’t need to drown in a state of inertia (life will go on, without or without ‘us’).
Much has been written by artists about this crisis and how to increase the impact and resilience of the arts sector, such as poignant and courageous ‘call to arms’ essays by Dr. David Maggs and the aforementioned Shannon Litzenberger. And yet, society is not (yet) in ‘emergency mode’ as suggested by the Climate Emergency Unit. We seem to be asleep at the wheel of ‘comfort and indifference’ as Denys Arcand noted in his 1991 film (albeit in a very different context).
What I love about the arts is their unlimited potential as a process of change. The arts can simultaneously comfort the afflicted, inspire the depressed, anticipate the impossible, invigorate the dispirited, catalyse the discouraged, challenge our assumptions, etc. The arts also have the potential to inflict harm, consciously or unconsciously, which is why a set of guiding values and principles are critical.
For example, I observed this dynamic at the Government of Canada’s laudable National Culture Summit on 3 May 2022, where most arts leaders spoke with great passion about rebuilding the arts sector, while sidestepping (or underplaying) that our planet is rapidly and inexorably becoming uninhabitable…
How can we help people ‘tune in’ to these complex issues without becoming overwhelmed and complacent?
How can we address these deep disconnects and address the root causes of imminent societal collapse?
More to the point: what can any one person do?
The 20/80 ratio
We need to hold space for the good, the bad, the ugly and the messed up, within and around.
Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, Hospicing Modernity
Actually, we do have choices to make (and accountabilities) as citizens and as artists.
For example, I often tell colleagues about how I adopted the 80-20 ratio principle in 2021, an idea I first heard from arts and climate leader Kendra Fanconi.
The idea is to spend 20% of your time and energy on reducing your carbon footprint and changing the things you control (less travel, local foods, giving to worth causes, recycling, being kind and joyful, etc) and 80% of your time and energy on collective action towards systemic change (advocacy, voting, coalitions, campaigns, protesting, decolonization, reparation, supporting for those in high-intensity struggles, directing anger towards positive change, etc).
This helps take some pressure off our collective shoulders, while focusing our energy on positive, long-term action.
In other words, we need to engage in substantial personal change (while increasing our enjoyment of life) AND invest in massive societal transformation (without burning out).
Sketch of Claude Scrhyer by Sabrina Mathews, April 26, 2022
But what can I do?
My response, as a composer, sound producer and arts administrator is to create sound art works that encourage audiences, and specifically my colleagues in the arts community, to ‘feel and dance with and through’ the trappings of modernity and to explore how to move out of it, together, as Dr. Andreotti suggests.
Thankfully, I am working with talented collaborators on this project, including artist Sabrina Mathews, web designer and podcast consultant Ayesha Barmania, education advisor and sound artist Azul Carolina Duque, communications advisors Ben Von Wong and Jessica Ruano as well as countless family, friends and colleagues who have accompanied me on my learning journey and supported this work. Thank you.
At a meeting of the Transition Innovation Group on October 12, 2022, the assembly agreed that we were now entering a period of great transition with ‘cautious hopefulness’. I added that what we really need to do is ‘buy time’ through our collective efforts to slow the damage while envisioning new ways of life.
My motto is, there is no moment of final defeat in this. We have to measure our work into the extent of the disasters we prevent, the scale of lives of our people in the Global South. And for me, every day I get up and go, that’s what we’re doing. It’s not that we’re trying to prevent this crisis. We’re trying to prevent this crisis from getting worse and worse. And it can get much, much worse.’
and…
I would say a quote, not from one of our friends, but actually from one of our enemies, the architect of neoliberalism, Milton Friedman, who said, only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change. Our goal is to keep our ideas and policies alive for when the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. And we, and our vision, is the politically inevitable.
Every day now, when I get up and go, my goal is also to prevent this crisis from getting worse.
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I will write about my learnings and unlearnings in the conscient newsletter and in the occasional blogs, such as my keynote address at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology on March 24th, 2023.
Feedback and critique are always welcome, in public space or privately (claude@conscient.ca)
The post Sounding Modernity appeared first on 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 :
View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/sounding-modernity/
As I work with university students this semester, I am reminded of the burden the young generation is carrying in relation to climate change, and of the need to create stories that point to hopeful futures. Eco-anxiety is real – and crippling. But storytelling can be a powerful antidote, freeing up unsuspected reserves of determination and strength, and reconnecting us to the Earth and our communities.
Over the last four seasons of our Climate Change Theatre Action festival, we have given centerstage to hopeful and empowering stories. And for our upcoming fifth season in 2023, we will continue to be radical in our rejection of denial and despair. Our young people deserve as much.
We need to raise $5,000 by December 31 to ensure the success of CCTA 2023. We’re on our way but we still need your help!
To donate online, click the button below.
To donate from your phone, text 1-855-575-7888 and enter code 390533.
Craft Scotland has an exciting opportunity for a talented and self-starter marketing & campaigns manager to join our dynamic team.
Our communications (including marketing and PR) and digital platforms play a vital role in the delivery of Craft Scotland’s strategy, helping the organisation to advance on our vision and mission, and positioning us as Scotland’s leading craft charity supporting the sector.
The Communications & Digital team at Craft Scotland believe in the power of storytelling to resonate with audiences. We deliver marketing and PR campaigns to a high-standard, promoting the vibrant year-long programme that Craft Scotland delivers.
We pride ourselves on creating and commissioning engaging content that shares makers’ stories, raises awareness of the value of craft and shines a light on the diversity and breadth of activity happening in Scotland’s contemporary craft community.
This new role, marketing & campaigns manager, is a fantastic opportunity for someone with proven industry experience who is keen to get their ideas off the ground in a supportive environment. If you want to lead on results-orientated campaigns, whilst being a key contributor to a new social media strategy then this role is for you!
Full information about the role, key accountabilities and capabilities is available in the Recruitment Pack. We recommend reading through the information provided before applying: https://www.craftscotland.org/careers/marketing-campaigns-manager [opens in a new window]
Closing date: Midnight, Tuesday 17 January 2023 Interview date: Late January 2023 (date TBC) Salary: £29,000 Term: Permanent
Please note, this role has been re-advertised and the benefits package updated. We are also open to applications for flexible working, including a 4-day working week. Additionally, the Craft Scotland team are currently hybrid working.
(Top image: Image: Studio Emma, photography by Susan Castillo. [supplied])
Craft Scotland has an exciting opportunity for a passionate and organised digital co-ordinator to join our dynamic team.
Our communications (including marketing and PR) and digital platforms play a vital role in the delivery of Craft Scotland’s strategy, helping the organisation to advance on our vision and mission, and positioning us as Scotland’s leading craft charity supporting the sector.
The Communications & Digital team at Craft Scotland believes in the power of storytelling to resonate with audiences. We deliver marketing and PR campaigns to a high-standard, promoting the vibrant year-long programme that Craft Scotland delivers.
The digital co-ordinator is essential to the organisation, as the role supports the promotional activity of the wider craft sector and helps the organisation to promote its programme and reach a variety of audiences.
Full information about the role, key accountabilities and capabilities is available in the recruitment pack. We recommend reading through the information provided before applying: https://www.craftscotland.org/careers/digital-coordinator [opens in a new window]
Closing date: Midnight, Tuesday 17 January 2023 Interview date: Late January 2023 (date TBC) Salary: £22,500 Term: Permanent
Please note, that the team are currently hybrid working. We are also open to applications for flexible working, including a four-day working week.
(Top image: Studio Emma, photography by Susan Castillo. [supplied])
The Jorum Craft Award is a materials focused grant supported by Jorum Studio & Craft Scotland
The Jorum Craft Award provides funding to support makers’ exploration of materials, including but not limited to research and development of a new piece of work, project or collection.
Each award centres around a theme, exploring the intersection between technical skill and material innovation.
The theme for Round 6 (Dec 2022) is Unusual Weather. The influence weather and unusual phenomena can have on design; studying unusual weather phenomena to influence creativity.
We are looking for proposals for new bodies of work that explore unusual weather and different approaches to materiality. Each theme can be interpreted by the maker through their materials, concepts, designs whether this is literally or abstractly.
Applicants must be able to demonstrate a clear view of their future development (and/or that of a particular project), and how receiving the Jorum Craft Award would help them to achieve their goals.
One award available per round, between £500 and £1,000, to assist with the development of your creative practice
Paid commissions – composers to write for Stories of People and Trees
Stories of People and Trees is commissioning six new works – for for string quartet and one for solo cello – inspired by elements of the stories collected in this project, and the trees and people within them. In addition to being premiered by Glisk quartet in summer 2023 at the Hidden Gardens, Glasgow, the new music will be recorded and made available online, with QR codes sited at featured trees to allow visitors to listen to the music in the company of the trees themselves.
This opportunity would suit composers who are inspired by the natural world, by the stories that individuals have to tell, and those who are interested in eco social arts practice, connection to nature and working at the intersection of arts and ecology.
Bad Taste: confronting the role of industrial food in the climate crisis
Bad Taste is a Greenpeace project funding creative ideas that confront the role of the UK’s industrial food system in the climate crisis.
UK-based artists and activists are invited to devise artworks, creative actions and interventions in places of public, political and corporate structural power.
Three projects will be supported with grants of £10,000, a separate production budget and a box of ash from burnt Amazon rainforest.
In recognition that there are inequities built into the industrial food system, this project prioritises the perspectives of artists and activists who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, people of colour and/or working class. We welcome people identifying as disabled and neurodivergent, and will support access needs wherever possible.
The ash represents the damage and violence that underpin industrial meat and dairy. Climate-critical forests across Brazil are burnt for the expansion of animal agriculture – displacing and destroying Indigenous Peoples’ lives.
Even if fossil fuel use ended today, without significantly reducing meat and dairy, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C.
Greenpeace is calling for a reduction of industrial meat and dairy in the UK of 70% by 2030. The transition away from industrial meat and dairy requires support to be in place for farmers to produce food more sustainably for all; stopping imports of all agricultural commodities like animal feed that are linked to the destruction of forests overseas; freeing up land to restore nature in the UK; a commitment to ensuring accessible, affordable, nutritious food that respects cultural and religious traditions; and adequate support for households on the lowest incomes.
This project sits at the intersection of art and activism to foster imaginative strategies that create change. It’s the first time Greenpeace has fully opened up its action design process.
