This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland
The Festival season is picking up speed and the array of events offered can be quite overwhelming. So we compiled a handy list of 10 things about environmental sustainability to do at the various festivals around Edinburgh this August. You’ll notice the Festival Fringe is absent – for weekly updates on which green Fringe shows you should see, follow #GreenFests on our blog.
We hope you enjoy these suggestions and have a fantastic festival experience!
1. Climate Change: On the Edge of The World
19 Aug | 7.30-9.00pm | Quaker Meeting House
Just Festival hosts this year’s events under the hashtag “FromTheEdgeâ€, including discussions, talks, exhibitions and performances. From marginalised groups in society to climate change, their programme is expansive and thought-provoking. This Just Festival Conversation in particular will look at what is being done to help communities around the world respond to the threats of climate change and whether disaster can be avoided.
2. … though it be darkness there
16 Aug | 9.30-10.30pm | St John’s Church
This performance at Just Festival brings together musician Matilda Brown and photographer Nick Rowle to collaborate on a series of musical and photographic pieces focusing on the mysteries of landscape. Within this new series of work, Matilda and Nick capture the mystical and unknowable wonder of nature; silence and darkness, solitude, encountering the sublime, sensual and occasionally violent forces of nature.
3. Richard Watson: Get Ready for Tomorrow
13 Aug | 12.30 – 1.30pm | Garden Theatre
This year’s Book Festival programme includes the theme “A Changing Societyâ€, with speakers from many disciplines. In this talk,global trends analyst Richard Watson speaks about the influence of our rapidly evolving technology on our society. What should technology do for us, beyond much-shared cat videos? In Digital vs Human, Watson predicts the areas of life that could genuinely be improved for the better.
4. Mark Kurlansky: Does Paper have a Future?
17 Aug | 12.30 – 1.30pm | Garden Theatre
For centuries we thought of paper as a wonderful and indispensable invention. Yet in recent years, we seem to have been striving towards a paperless society, suggesting it now has negative connotations. For his book Paper: Paging Through History, Mark Kurlansky, New York Times bestselling author of Cod and Salt, traces paper back to its origins and follows its path towards the digital age.
5. Barbara Rae: Return Journey
1-31 August | 10.00am – 6.00pm | Open Eye Gallery
The Art Festival returns this year with a wide variety of artists to showcase. One of them is artist and printmaker Barbara Rae, whose collection of art pieces encompasses locations from around the world, studying human habitation by ancient and modern societies that live off and work on the land. She works and exhibits here a variety of media, sometimes semi-abstract, often abstract, depicting the ruggedness of life’s daily struggle.
6. Walking Institute – Deveron Arts: Tours
Various Days and times
Part of the Art Festival programme are a series of guided walks and discussions about travel organised by the Walking Institute, Deveron Arts and the Forest Fringe. There is “Walking Women“, where artist’s walks and talks will run alongside a Wikipedia edit-a-thon of women walking artists, an open mic pecha-kucha, a ‘walkie-talkie’ mobile workshop, and a library of walking women books. “How Humans adapt†looks at how the simple process of walking can become an experimental artistic performance. “All Roads lead to Venice/Ugly Walk†is a combination of a guided walk, looking to explore the ugly landscapes of industrial estates, countering the expectations that a beautiful walk is tied to natural landscapes, and a series of discussions concerning artists undertaking long distance journeys.
7. P + P
20-26 August | 11.00am – 4.00pm | Courier Company Pack and Send
P+P explores the issues of waste and recycling in today’s consumerist society. Ten artists from around the world have been sent a 30 x 30 x 30 cardboard box and asked to use it as the basis for creating or sending a new art work. Expect a mix of installation, animation, painting and object-making by artists exploring ideas around the figure, the fantastical and spontaneity.
8. Mogwai & Mark Cousins – Atomic: Living In Dread and Promise
27 & 28 August | 9.00pm | Edinburgh Playhouse
The Edinburgh International Festival once again collects big names in Edinburgh this August, including this collaboration between filmmaker Mark Cousins and musicians Mogwai. With images of protest marches, Cold War confrontation, Chernobyl and Fukushima, Cousins’ impressionistic film is a kaleidoscope of the appalling destructive power of the atomic bomb, and also the beauty and benefits of x-rays and MRI scans. Mogwai’s compelling soundtrack encapsulates the nightmare of the nuclear age, but also its dreamlike beauty.
9. Yann Tiersen
21 & 22 August | 7.30pm | The Hub
French composer and multi-instrumentalist Yann Tiersen is best known for his quirky score to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 film Amélie. But that only scratches the surface of his enormously rich, magical musical output. After touring the globe for nearly a decade in planes and buses, Tiersen is now slowly cycling around the world, stopping for performances both in traditional venues and in the wilderness.
17 August | 8.00pm | Edinburgh Playhouse
Working with groundbreaking producers Oneohtrix Point Never and Hudson Mohawke, “Hopelessness“collides an uncompromising electronic dance soundtrack with ANOHNI’s soulful, uplifting vocals. “Hopelessness“ is a scream of fury against the evils of today’s world: mass surveillance, drone warfare, ecocide. Delivered in infectious, unforgettable pop. This is the electronic dance anthem as visceral protest song.
The post #GreenFests: 10 Green Things To Do In Edinburgh This August appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.
———-
Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.
In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.
We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.
Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:
Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.
Go to Creative Carbon Scotland
Powered by WPeMatico