Ian Garrett

Interview with Polar Ice Bear Sculpture Artist Mark Coreth

December 18, 2009COP15Artist Mark, Bear Project, Climate Change, Copenhagen, Ice Sculpture, Polar Bear, Polar Ice, Sculpture Artist, Skeleton

While walking around in copenhagen last night between re:think locations I noticed that the Ice Bear was being boxed up. It’s below O Degrees now so it’s stopped dripping, but at it’s last stage of melt, It was still very effective. Here is an interview with Artist Mark Coreth

‘I realised that I had to bring the problem of climate change on this extraordinarily beautiful environment back to the world,’ he says.Â ‘To do that I created this idea of making a bronze skeleton which I was going to sink into a huge block of ice and therefore theÂ Ice Bear Project was born.’

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuibv5PoTUU

Extensive Climate Recaps

December 17, 2009COP15Barack Obama, Bella Center, Bouncer, Climate Conference, Climate Talks, Climate Treaty, Forest Negotiations, friends of the earth, Friends Of The Earth International, Global Treaty, Greenhouse Gases, Headway, John Kerry, Midday News, New Ground, Senator John Kerry, Term Climate, Tropical Countries, Uphill Struggle, Us Congress

Yes we’re focusing on Art, but for your Information….

Uphill struggle for ambitious deal: The Danish Presidency has given up on its ambition to create consensus on a text that would form the basis of a global political deal to combat global warming, reports a Danish daily.
A Bouncer at the Gate: When delegates from Friends of the Earth International turned up today at the Bella Center, site of the climate talks in Copenhagen, to have their badges scanned, they were startled to find they were no longer valid.
Forest negotiations are making headway:Â There is mounting agreement on rewarding tropical countries which slow deforestation under a new deal. This is the first issue where significant progress has been made in Copenhagen.
Taking Out the Life Preserver: Yvo De Boer, the chief United Nations functionary managing talks on a new climate treaty , signaled the state of affairs on Tuesday by carrying an orange-and-white life ring with him into the midday news conference.
Obama won’t break new ground at summit: A warning to delegates in Copenhagen: If you’re looking for President Barack Obama to cave to pressure and deepen US efforts to curb greenhouse gases, don’t bet on it.
Operational accord out of reach, China signals: UN climate conference faces severe difficulties. China signals an operational accord is out of reach.
Japan: 15 billion dollars in climate aid: Japanese pledge outbids the EU’s funding for short-term climate aid in developing countries.
Kerry: US to pass “major” climate legislation: A successful deal in Copenhagen will lead the way for climate legislation in the US Congress, says Senator John Kerry.
China Presses Case for Climate Aid: Even as China has signaled that it wonâ€™t be first in line for adaptation assistance from the West, it has remained steadfast in insisting that the language of the one global treaty on climate involving all countries, dating from 1992, still applies.
Africa shows a willingness to negotiate: African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi has scaled back the demands for climate finance from rich countries, signaling thaw under way in the deadlocked UN negotiations.
New compromise proposal said to be on its way: Danish PM takes over the COP15 presidency, he will present a compromise on Wednesday afternoon, a Danish newspaper reports.
Alternative conference venue for observer organizations TV links and wireless internet connections have been provided for NGOs and others who are barred from entering the Bella Center Thursday and Friday due to access restrictions.
Key issues at Copenhagen climate talks: The Associated Press has taken a look at key sticking points during negotiations at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.
Countries pledge billions to protect rainforests: The US, Australia, France, Japan, Norway and Britain will make 3.5 billion US dollars available for developing countries that produce ambitious plans to slow and eventually reverse deforestation.
The Missing â€˜Pâ€™ Word in Climate Talks: If you scan the most recent drafts of the climate agreement that delegates here are trying to complete, youâ€™ll have a hard time finding the word population .
Climate talks deadlocked as clashes erupt outside: Danish police fired pepper spray outside the UN climate conference on Wednesday, as disputes inside left major issues unresolved just two days before world leaders hope to sign a historic agreement to fight global warming.
De Boer: â€œUnexpected stopâ€ in negotiations: â€œA number of unsolved issuesâ€ are left for world leaders to resolve during the next two days, said the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, after observers of the UN climate conference had spent Wednesday afternoon waiting for breaking news on the climate talks.
India: Kyoto in intensive care if not dead: Whether the expiring Kyoto Protocol, which sets targets for greenhouse gas emissions from rich countries only, should be continued, expanded or replaced with an alternative agreement still splits the parties.
COP15 among the largest summits ever: The 119 heads of state and government participating at the climate summit in Copenhagen represent countries that account for 89 percent of the world’s GDP.
British PM warns of failure but brings hope: According to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the first sign of progress in the negotiations could be seen Wednesday with new proposals for climate change from African Union climate negotiator Meles Zenawi.
Carbon capture is put on hold: As some countries have reservations on carbon capture and storage (CCS) the emerging technology is not likely to be added to the UN-backed carbon reducing mechanisms here in Copenhagen.
UN conference gearing up for make-or-break finale: World leaders â€œface a defining moment in historyâ€, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as the Copenhagen conference formally entered its high-level stage Tuesday.
Developing world threatens battle on drafts: African countries, Brazil, China, South Africa and India say they have produced a default proposal to be used only if rich countries try to shortcut UN-led negotiations in Copenhagen.
Poll: Action on climate will boost US economy: More Americans believe steps taken to reduce global warming pollution will help the US economy than say such measures will hurt it.
South Korea to bridge rich and poor nations: As the first emerging economy to take on absolute reduction commitments, South Korea hopes to play a key role in Copenhagen where on Thursday President Lee Myung-bak will also offer to host the 2012 UN conference on climate change.
Merkel concerned over Copenhagen pace: German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced concern Tuesday about the pace of climate negotiations in Copenhagen and said she is “somewhat nervous” about prospects of success.
Climate Agreement Urgent, Corporations Tell Obama: Microsoft, Nike and Dow Chemical join the call for ‘significant near- and long-term emissions reductions targets.’
Sierra Clubâ€™s Carl Pope in Copenhagen on the need for a global deal: “The fact is the real energy innovation in the world is not happening in the United States although that’s where much of the technology came from.”Â Markey calls for a hearing on the deal
India and the Global Energy Assessment: A view on climate and clean energy from the world’s largest democracy
Coming to Copenhagen commits Obama to getting the bipartisan climate and clean energy bill passed
Gore Derangement Syndrome: Yes, Maslowski predicted just two years ago that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2013 — see graph of projected ice volume
Must-See Video of Youth in Copenhagen: Blame Canada!
Crackdown inÂ Copenhagen:You can help byÂ signing this petition protesting Danish police violence against climate protestors.

GOOD COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

December 17, 2009COP15Activist Groups, Activists, Artists, Bella Center, Climate Change Conference, Collaboration, Contemporary Fine Arts, Cop Show, Copenhagen Denmark, Global Attention, Good Cop, Kanal 4, Negotiations, Real Deal, Spotlight, St Th, United Nations, United Nations Climate Change Conference, Venue

HEADQUARTERS, a collaboration venue for artists and climate activist groups in Copenhagen, invites you to come play â€œGOOD COPâ€.

With civil society access to Bella Center growing increasingly restricted, the GOOD COP aims to make your voice heard during this critical week of negotiations.

GOOD COP opens following a bold media stunt on Monday by North American, European and African activists that placed the spotlight on countries standing in the way of a real deal in Copenhagen. The stunt – and the global attention that followed – challenged us to imagine the world as we want it, and proved that our alternative messages can and will have an impact. But this was only one statement of the many that need to be voiced in the final days of negotiations.

HEADQUARTERS welcomes the public to come voice their own statements on the GOOD COP stage. As heads of state arrive this week we need to keep our expectations high to push for our vision of a GOOD COPENHAGEN – a real deal at COP15.

Have your say at GOOD COP – show that an ambitious agreement at COP15 is not too good to be true.

HEADQUARTERS

Open 11:00 – 17:00

Gallery Poulsen Contemporary Fine Arts

Frederiksholms Kanal 4, st. th.

1220 Copenhagen K

Denmark

GOOD COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009.

Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism

December 17, 2009COP15Activism, Agitators, Aviva, Copenhagen, Culture Center, Daily Recaps, Developing Countries, Eyewitnesses, Fabian, High Tension, Huffingtonpost, Mean Time, Melee, Minimal Progress, Orderly Society, Point Theory, Protestors, Sustainability Program, Trigger Point, World Culture

Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism was a three day workshop, culminating yesterday, led by Aviva Rahmini. I’m trying to meet-up with Aviva later today, but in the mean time, please check out the last three daily recaps from her workshop:

Day 1

Just spoke with someone from Shell: formerly working for their sustainability program, quit so they can look at themselves in the mirror (minimal progress, 30-33 people killed annually, stupid, selfish choices re: developing countries.) Asked not to be identified

Day 2

Fabian, one of the Climate Pirates who brought 5 ships to Copenhagen, saw his colleagues surrounded by the melee of violent police on the way to the World Culture Center where we are working. He perceives that the police are deliberately sustaining the high tension of the situation by making arrests and quick releases.

Day 3

I like an orderly society as much as anyone but not at the cost I’m experiencing here. I spoke to eyewitnesses (people known to me), who watched Danish plain clothesmen infiltrate the protestors and become provocative until the police charged, at which time the police encircled the phony agitators to bring them back into the folds of their own, while going on to beat up the rest of the crowd.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/protests-in-copenhagen-de_n_393784.html

High Tide COP15 Project: Numbers

December 17, 2009COP151 Million, Audience Members, Aviva, Constituency, Ecological Art, Exhibitions, Family Members, High Tide, James Brady, Journals, Math, Museums, Project Numbers, Publications Group, Wikipedia

Between James Brady and Aviva Rahmani, they calculated close to 1 million people are engaged directly or indirectly in ecological art or audience members for it’s ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ecoart

This is how we estimated it:

1. How many schools/ museums/ books-journals internationally the ecoart list serve alone (about 100 invited members) represents (ie., including residencies, publications, group & individual exhibitions)?

2. Estimate 2,000 audience venue impact total (av. 20 times 100 per person, a conservative figure I think)

3. Each venue represents about 200 min audience access per… = 400, 000 if my math is correct…+ secondary effect has to double that figure = close to 1 million (chatter with family members & friends assuming at lease one conversation per person and then there are workers for each venue: guards, bookkeepers, etc)

That’s a mighty constituency.

via High Tide COP15 Project: Numbers.

CO2 CUBE SHINES A LIGHT ON COPENHAGEN WITH MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ART AT COP15

December 17, 2009Announcements, COP15Aesthetic Experience, Art Sculpture, Copenhagen Denmark, Dimensional Art, Dna Strands, Dynamic Media, Google, Graphic Animations, Hyper Cube, Metric Tonne, Millennium Art, Obscura Digital, Planet Info, Reducing Co2 Emissions, Software Techniques, Stunning Imagery, Transition Techniques, United Nations Department, User Interface System, Youtube Videos

December 17, 2009, San Francisco, CA, USA / Copenhagen, Denmark – The San Francisco Bay Area based team of Obscura Digital, YouTube, Google, and Millennium ART, joined forces with the United Nations Department of Public Information to launch a first-of-it’s kind digital media hyper cube installed at COP15 in Copenhagen. The CO2 Cube is a contemplative art sculpture of light and sound mirrored in a lake, displaying stunning imagery of the planet, info-graphic animations, and solutions for reducing our carbon footprint.

YouTube provided the technology to power the cube and is continuously streaming videos into this international communications platform; Obscura Digital’s technologists and designers created the visual content and employed a number of software techniques to help visualize CO2 on the cube; and Millennium ART harnessed this customized media system to transform carbon dioxide facts and figures into an inspiring aesthetic experience helping people visualize the invisible… what 1 metric tonne of CO2 looks like, which is the amount of CO2 the average American emits into the atmosphere every two weeks. The United Nations Department of Public Information activated the CO2 Cube as a vehicle to attract, engage, and mobilize the public in reducing CO2 emissions locally and globally.YouTube videos about climate change are brought to life on the facades of the 27ft x 27ft x 27ft cube through an array of artistic transition techniques, such as DNA strands, CO2 molecules, and many more. “YouTube is delighted to be the technology partner for the CO2 Cube and to bring to life in a new and innovative way the video content created by citizens, filmmakers, NGOs and activists to address the important issue of climate change,” stated Chris Di Cesare, Chief Marketing Officer of YouTube.

“Obscura has deployed a 4-D Hypercube User Interface System as a dynamic media portal that is capable of presenting web based, real-time, and produced content integrated into the CO2 Cube public art sculpture, offering new dimensions for audiences to interact with visual concepts and content sources from around the world,” said Travis Threlkel, Creative Director of Obscura Digital.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon premiered his public announcement to Copenhagen via video on the CO2 Cube during an on-site reception. “This cube shows 1 tonne of carbon dioxide. Science has made it clear, we have a chance here in Copenhagen to turn the tide, to cut emissions, to help people adapt. We know what to do, all we need is the political will,” announced Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General.

The cube is constructed of 12 shipping containers stacked in an interlocking pattern on a custom engineered floatation barge. Two sides are covered with an architectural mesh fabric for video projection illuminated with Obscura Digital’s FireFrame graphic and digital media system, while the other sides remain as open exposed shipping container surfaces with LED lighting design by The Do Lab. “Using motion graphics, 3-D animation, and live action, we were able to communicate the impact CO2 has through both literal and abstract visualizations; also keeping in mind the architecture of the physical cube and reflections on the lake as canvases for our media” stated Ron Robinson, Art Director at Obscura Digital.

“The beauty behind this work of art is the collaborative spirit, will and determination that went into creating something that is an artistic and architectural feat, designed to inspire change in the hearts and minds of people across all geo-political boundaries” expressed Mia Hanak, Executive Director of Millennium ART. CO2 CUBES: Visualize a Tonne of Change is a Millennium ART installation presented in partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information, powered by Google and YouTube and produced by Obscura Digital. This is a CO2 neutral exhibit.

Contact: Mia Hanak +1-415-637-0525Â mia@millenniumart.org

Download Photos and Video: www.millenniumart.org/press

View the video from the opening celebration of the CO2 Cube.

View the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon premiering his announcement to Copenhagen via the CO2 Cube.

SOS Gulf to Gulf is a virtual model for the role of art in creating resilience

December 16, 2009Announcements, COP15Art Practice, Art Practices, Aviva, Bella Center, Building Art, Century Art, Climate Justice, Collaborative Opportunities, Communication Gaps, Country Parties, Developing Country, Ecological Art, Immediate Release December, Indigenous Art, Ldc, Least Developed Countries, Protestors, Rahmani, Term Cooperation, Virtual Model

For Immediate Release: December 16, 2009

Contact: Aviva Rahmani 646 403 7130

Asger Jorn Room, Bella Center, Copenhagen

ghostnets@ghostnets.com www.ghostnets.com

Art can help build the capacity and facilitate adaptation needed at COP15;

SOS Gulf to Gulf is a virtual model for the role of art in creating resilience

Protestors world wide see COP15 as a conflict between money and legalisms. This press conference asserts that is why art needs to be at the table, â€œ [supporting] [assisting] [enabling] all developing country Parties, particularly the most vulnerable, in undertaking adaptation measures.â€ Art is how people express their experiences. Millions of artists have another approach to environmental issues.

Artists can help COP15 communicate between parties

The media can convey how art can enable adaptation and implement climate justice
Contemporary and indigenous art practices provide relatively low-cost, uncontentious models for adaptation and mitigation that can contribute to long term cooperation and capacity building. Art is a vehicle to express what words and numbers canâ€™t.
When we take â€œaspirational goalsâ€ seriously for the Least Developed Countries (LDC), we see that the arts in each culture and between cultures are a means to express aspiration, sustain itâ€™s people, bridge communication gaps and be a container for important historical information, including indigenous environmental knowledge. Art is the glue holding societies and cultures together, under stress, means to intimately connect people.
In the 21rst century, art can create ways for technology transfer and development to translate and protect bodies of cultural knowledge, because artists are innovative.
Ecological art is a recognized practice that embraces an ecological ethic in both its content and form/materials, embracing collaborative opportunities.

SOS Gulf to Gulf is an example of how an ecological art practice can help

SOS Gulf to Gulf developed in virtual collaboration to reduce carbon emissions
Artist Aviva Rahmani and scientist Dr. Jim White, director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), University of Colorado at Boulder, initiated a cross-disciplinary virtual collaboration, addressing the international global warming crisis in gulf regions.
The story reveals parallels between Bangladesh, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Maine, the Gulf of Aden and the Persian Gulf connecting water, war, pirates, fisheries, education and migrations.
SOS Gulf to Gulf was inspired by the Trigger Point Theory of environmental restoration developed by Rahmani

Presentation Credits: dialog is between artists Aviva Rahmani and Peter Buotte, curator Tricia Watts, Ecoartspace, Marda Kirn, director EcoArtsÂ Connection, Dr. Jim White, INSTAAR, Dr. Ed Maibach, George Mason University, Dr. Eugene Turner, Louisiana State University, Dr. Michele Dionne, director of Research at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, Wells Maine and Tuku Ahmed, a New York City taxi cab driver and immigrant from Bangladesh.

If COP15 and the UNFCCC desire just allocation of resources to deal with climate change. Why then, has art, which has so much to contribute to that goal, been absent from all discussions of adaptability?

Artists are available to help with adaptation. In additional to indigenous cultural groups, over 200 educational and cultural institutions internationally have courses or entire programs devoted to ecological artÂ The vast pool of resources for COP15 implementation can be seen at: http://www.ecoartnetwork.org/, http://www.greenmuseum.org/, http://www.ecoartspace.org/, http://www.sfeap.org/, http://www.ashdendirectory.org.uk,
http:/ashdenizen.blogspot.com, http://www.uoregon.edu/~ecodrama/whatis

TEXT IN COP DOCUMENTS DESCRIBE THE NEED:

Report of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention on its seventh session, held in Bangkok from 28 September to 9 October 2009, and Barcelona from 2 to 6 November 2009; chosen because it bears equally on human needs for ethics and culture.

Key words and phrases:

build capacity and facilitate adaptation, Ecological art, adaptation and mitigation, aspirational goals, technology transfer and development, Resilience, Vulnerability, â€œ[the level of adaptation][adaptation needs]â€, â€œ[framework] [programme]â€

Key document text that illlustrates why art can become a partner:
pg 54: â€œAdaptation is a challenge shared by all countries; …. in order to reduce vulnerability, minimize loss and damage and build the resilience of ecological and social systems and economic sectors to present and future adverse effects of climate change [and the impact of the implementation of response measures]. (reference content of non-paper no.41 (5 November 2009)â€
pp 61: â€œidentifying sources of adaptation;

(b) Strengthening, consolidating and enhancing the sharing of information, knowledge, experience and good practices, at local, national, regional and international levels, consistent with relevant international agreements, through creating forums where different public and private stakeholders can discuss concrete challenges;â€

Additional considerations

Gender issues relate to questions of art and culture. Disproportionately, artisans in indigenous cultures are often women. Their practices often preserve the, â€œ[land use, land-use change and forestry sector]â€; (and represent how to) p. 92 â€œrespect the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples[, including their free, prior and informed consent,]Â Deforestation is often a consequence of the cultural disruption that displaces gender roles.
Art and humanities foster creativity through out all sectors of society. In transition periods, creative problem-solving is as essential to survival as financial or regulatory support.
The costs of sustaining cultural communities in relation to other ecological costs is not only minimal but has historically transferred wealth, in a variety of forms back into an economy. This will help cultures in transition maintain identity and independence, a response to the need to, â€œdevelop low-emission [high growth sustainable] development strategies.â€

Films by Aviva Rahmani with discussion afterwards will be viewed at 5: PM December 16: Farumgade 4-6, 2200 Kbh N (NÃ¸rrebro) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203108274870#/pages/FIT-freie-internationale-tankstelle/60219692736?ref=ts (via shareaholic)

Two Days in Copenhagen

December 14, 2009COP15Artist Renderings, Bella Center, Copenhagen, Creative Interpretations, Creative Responses, Everyday Relationships, Exhibition Rooms, Health Foundation, Meridian, Millennium Art, Miranda, Personal Tour, Planetarium, Prague, Quality Time, Shipping Containers, Steve Mason, Sustainable Solutions, Tycho Brahe, Tycho Brahe Planetarium, Tyco, Vj

We’ve arrive back in the apartment after our second day in Copenhagen. I will refrain from saying we’re here for Cop15, because, while I’m interested in what’s going on in there, I’m really here to see the creative responses collected in this place at this time. That isn’t to say we didn’t go to the Bella Center, we did, but it’s not our primary goal.

I had the opportunity to check in with Martin Rosengaard of Wooloo.org while Miranda was delayed in London, as well as get a very helpful and personal tour of the city on bike by our host (and sterling scenographer)Â Sara Vilslev, a friend from the 2007 Prague Quadrennial.

On Sunday we headed to the Bright Green Expo at the Forum. It is the concurrent trade show for green tech during COP15. There was a promise of the inclusion of cultural programming, so it seemed like a good place to start. The Cultural programming really consisted of a DJ/VJ set for about an hour by CPH:DOX remixing Cities on Speed. We moved on pretty quickly: green-tech (good or green-washing) is green-tech. We’re into it, but it’s better covered elsewhere.

We then continued on to view the CO2 Cube floating by the Tycho Brahe Planetarium. After the artist renderings Â was surprised to see it’s construction was of shipping containers and that it had media on 2 of 4 sides. They were recalibrating the video, but we got some footage you can see from posts yesterday. We only strayed away for a little while so that we could wander towards the Downtown Hopenhagen Live area until we spoke with Deanne LeRue of the Meridian Health Foundation and Millennium Art and Steve Mason of Obscrua Digital.

Afterwards we returned for some quality time with the work at Hopenhagen Live. This green glowing cluster of portable exhibition rooms showcased policy, the integration of sustainable solutions into the city scape and some creative interpretations highlighting everyday relationships to the environment. A favorite was The Apartment, seen in a quick video here:

We wandered to the Polar Ice Bear to check it’s melt status, slowed by the freezing temperatures we’ve dipped into. After dinner we headed over to the CO2 Cube Reception, which was a high class affair, no pictures, but we did catch some night footage of the cube.

We did miss the demonstrations going south, which you’ll likely know resulted in hundreds of arrests. We did hear the helicopters and sirens as Police sprung into action, preemptively arresting people after a group of anarchists started egging them on. Tensions are a little high now, though the majority of all demonstrations have been peaceful.

With everything going on, we felt it was important to offer some guidance around town. So, to help others better find the arts activities occurring in Copenhagen, I spent the rest of the night trying to get everything onto our events calendar and created a google map for those who want to find their way around, guided by Eco-Arts.

Monday is now wrapping up and the center of the city, all the way to the Bella Center is policed to within an inch of it’s life. However, we both leave (though I return just 24 hours later) on Tuesday, so Monday became about trying to see everything that was open (like many cities, cultural institutions in Copenhagen are closed on Mondays).

We began by heading to the wrong address for the Poulsen Gallery. But, once we found our mistake, we were able to make it to the installation of Ghost Forest in Thorvaldsens Plads, right around the corner from the real Poulsen Gallery. It’s quite breath-taking, especially with a proper background in the process of getting these stumps here. But, even as we seemed to be some of a few onlookers, there was a constant police presence here and along the canal.

LED at 7 meters high, where the sea will rise here if Greenland's ice sheet melts.

The Poulsen Gallery has been turned over to The Colonel (said phonetically and not as one who serves fried chicken or in the military), the identity of french artistÂ Thierry Geoffroy, as his HQ for a number of evolving projects during COP15. This is serving as the headquarters for the Yes Men and their SurvivaBalls (registered trademark), a series of Critical Runs, Facebook projects, and whatever else they come up with while here. It’s advised to check in with them regularly. Upon my return, I’ll likely head back over to try and talk to some of them about what they are doing. We were lucky to be invited to a semi-junket event, which we’ll get to in a moment.

With the short daylight moments dwindling, we walked to the Bella Center, hoping to find the path set by Glowing Climate, which we were able to find some of as we got closer.

It should be remarked that the Bella Center is not in the center of Copenhagen. It is, from our lodgings, 8.4km or 5.2 miles. From the center of town it is 5.9km or 3.7 miles.

While we didn’t see much until right up to the Bella Center, as the lights from 7m began to appear overhead. Â Once we were there the walk was worth it. The Pulse of the Earth is a fantastically creepy piece and really lends to the night time, what I’d venture to call semi-apocalyptic scene that is the entrance to the barricaded center. This is entirely appropriate, COP15 itself is semi-apocalyptic. Between the pulsing red lights of the installation, the cold an huddled hopeful observers lined up at the fences, scores of police, Avaaz.org‘s and Climate Action Network‘s Jumbotron showing the award for fossil of the day, press, vegans dressed in animal costumes pass out bags for converts and the ground littered with pamphlets (really now), it was all a bit amazing to see.

As the talks let out, we hopped the metro back into town. We had diner and made it to the Poulsen Gallery event, were we saw a demonstration of the SurviaBall (still a registered trademark), were treated to a song from the Red Suited Climate Debt Agents (accompanied by the green suited Mr. Green from Oxfam), and milled about the gallery while that day’s talks were remixed for ambiance.

We made out way home, finding that it too was lined with the flashing red markers from 7m, just as the reports of clashes between activists and police in Christiania started to make it into our news feed. I had planned to visit Christiania upon returning from the sojourn to London, but that’s now differently colored. Word on the street was that the police had left the area, to some great extent, alone, as to focus on the Bella Center and downtown. As I write, it is being evacuated and those in cafÃ©s are being told to leave or be arrested.

It’s getting colder here in Copenhagen, but tensions are starting to boil over.

Tomorrow we both head to London. Miranda will continue to head on home, but I will be there for the Future Arcola launch event at City Hall. I will also , finally, meet William Shaw of the RSA in person, after missing him by hours in Copenhagen.

More recap soon. When I return the museums and exhibition halls will be open, while parts of town are shut down. And I’m curious as to see how we move around the city when Obama arrives on Friday.

P.S. It was the Yes Men

Technology, Arts, and Fringe

December 14, 2009newsAccounting Project, Arts Organizations, Development Framework, Festivals, First Love, Fringe Festival, Hail, Leveraging Technology, Networking Platforms, Organizers, Project Management, Ruby On Rails, Social Networking, Technical Backgrounds, Technical Solutions, Technology Arts, Technology Budgets, Volunteer Section, Volunteers, Web Based Services

This is reposted from the Hollywood Fringe Blog. It originally posted on December 8th by Ben Hill, Director of the Hollywood Fringe.

http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/learn/article/157

Modern business has gone very far leveraging technology to market, promote, and produce their firms and products. It stands to reason that the arts could easily do the same, even with comparatively fractional technology budgets .

Several organizers of your first Hollywood Fringe Festival happen to hail from technical backgrounds. Itâ€™s been fun applying these skills to our first love (the arts). Key to our strategy is this thing called â€œcloud computingâ€. Without getting too technical, all applications supporting the festival â€“ accounting, project management, email, etc â€“ are provided through a number of small, web-based services.

Making our strategy a reality took a lot of time, thought, and trials â€“ so to save those of you seeking technical solutions some time, we have provided this little post with the hope it will help you streamline and modernize your arts organizations.

Enjoy!

Ben

THE WEBSITE
the website at www.HollywoodFringe.org that we use to book shows, match venues and projects, collect volunteers, and promote the festival is a custom-built system using Ruby on Rails, a popular website development framework. We have big plans to export this technology to other festivals as well as provide a year-round service for venues seeking interesting projects to book. The website took two full years to develop and a lot of love, thought, and time. We have a many plans for it so keep your eyes on coming developments. In the next few months alone, you can expect

A Fringe bulletin board
A significantly enhanced volunteer section
The ability to sell tickets directly form your project
Enhanced features to market your project on other social networking platforms

â€¦ideas are always welcome, so feel free toÂ email us with your thoughts.

TICKETING
We made the decision early that we would not reinvent the wheel in the area of ticketing â€“ instead we partnered with the good people atÂ OvationTix. Plans are afoot to develop a few customized integration features between the OvationTix and Fringe systems. Ideally, you will be able to run pre-sale reports without any hassle whatsoever.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
We would be nowhere today without collaboration tools. As this is the first year, ideas come at a lightning speed. Plans require buy-in and assistance from our staff, advisers, board, and core company members. There are millions of to-doâ€™s, deadlines, musings, and digital assets. Where to keep track of them?

This is the job of a project management tool, and ours is one of the best available. MeetÂ Basecamp. This little program has been the key to the organizational success of many a project. Working collaboratively with others online, you can post messages, mark and organize tasks, collaborate on documents/lists, track milestones/dates, and keep track of files.

And most importantly: It reduces your meeting/conference call overhead. I personally hate big, regular meetings and basecamp renders them mostly unneeded; if you keep on top of basecamp and the emails it generates, everyone is in-the-know. Easy.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
CRM is a big, ugly term. In a nutshell, it is a way of keeping track of everyone you know and meet that could help you. To do anything of worth, generally you need more than just you and your ideas, you need to leverage the many stake holders in your community interested in your cause. You want to keep track of conversations, email addresses, phone numbers, job titles â€“ and ideally you want to share that information with your whole organization. So if the director of theÂ NEA needs to talk to someone in your organization and you are on a beach in Nice, France â€“ someone local can come up-to-speed quickly by researching the history of that relationship in yourÂ CRM system.

There are tons of solutions to fulfill this problem â€“ many of them are expensive and clunky.

We went withÂ Batchbook.com â€“ about which I canâ€™t say enough nice things. This is a very flexible and open system, and they have been known to give discounts to nonprofits. Using batchbook, you can keep track of contact information for humans and organizations, log communications, and create lists of contacts that have something in common. For example, we maintain our press list in batchbook. Thanks to its handy integration with other popular applications, when we want to send a press release, it is as simple as exporting our list of press to our email newsletter application. It take 3 minutes and the moving target of press contacts becomes much easier to manage.

EMAIL
If you are starting companyÂ ABC Theatre, and you are still sending emails from Myname@hotmail.com â€“ you may want to consider using your own domain name instead. Not using a custom domain name in your email address is an instant signifier of a non-professional organization. Good news is that it is free and relatively simple to create custom domain emailsâ€¦so you can send emails from MyName@ABCTheatre.org, for example.

The solution is Gmail â€“ in our humble opinion, still the greatest online email client on the market. Our friends at Google have provided a service (no charge) to use their popular Gmail interface for any non-gmail domain to which you have the rights. Check outÂ this link for more information, I think you will like it.

CALENDAR
Along with email, users of Googleâ€™s service also have access to branded, dedicated, organizational calendars using the popular Gcal application. When you sign up for your email account (above) you will also be able to pass around a calendar you all can share. For those of you who work in the business world, you might be used to creating an event and sending invitations to members of your organization. Googleâ€™s calendar solution provides this service (free!).

DOCUMENTS
And yes, we also use Googleâ€™s document service. For those users signing up for the above service â€“ good news is that you, too, can have a custom space for your organizationâ€™s documents. For example, if I needed that press release we sent a few weeks back, it is sitting in docs.ABCTheatre.org waiting for me. Our budget worksheet is handles thought Googleâ€™s online spreadsheet application. As a personal hater of MS Office and its significant limitations when it comes to collaboration, this is a godsend.

WIKI
We donâ€™t host a â€œpublic wikiâ€ â€“ like wikipedia, but youâ€™d be surprised how useful a private, organizational wiki can be. For example, say you are working on a big proposal to close down Wilshire Blvd. for your huge arts event. You want a lot of people involved in that proposal â€“ your Exec Director, your Dev Director, your outreach guy, your Producing and Artistic Directors. How awful is passing around a word document for everyone to edit? I shudder at the thought. Changes are lost so very easily.

Your private wiki can help. Have your principal owner for the project create a new wiki page and take a stab at a first draft. They can then post on your project site (basecamp, for example) that they need all-hands to help bring the proposal home. Everyone can make their changes and additions on your wiki page. If your wiki tool is any good, all changes will be trackedâ€¦so you can see who changed what, and easily revert any unwanted amendments.

There are millions of wiki solutions out there, hereâ€™s our favorite:Â WikiSpaces.

NEWSLETTER
Still sending your organizational emails to a bunch of contacts in your email program? You may want to check out some of the many email newsletter solutions out there waiting for you. Our favorite isÂ Mailchimp. Using this program, you can manage lists, expose sign-up forms for your website, create beautiful, graphical emails, handle unsubscribes, and keep ahead of spam laws. You can even get a list of who has opened your newsletter and how many times they read it. There are about 10,000 features in this program, 9,986 you will never need. Still, it is very affordable, easy to use, and designed to give you a professional edge.

SUPPORT DESK
We take support very, very seriously at the Fringe. Key to grassroots community building is making sure people know where to go when they have a problem and ensuring they receive prompt guidance when they need it. There are scads of solutions out there, hereâ€™s our hands-down favorite:ZenDesk.

Using ZenDesk, you have a beautiful solution to email support. Support seekers can go to a url and fill our a form with their query, or simply send an email to an email address you specify (Zendesk will suck up that email and create a support ticket for them). You can run a myriad of reports and develop zillions of business rules if you want to get complex. At its simplest, it shows you what tickets are open, and gives you a chance to respond and close them.

As a fun aside, both Mailchimp and Zendesk talk to Batchbook. Thatâ€™s something we call â€œconvergenceâ€ in the tech world, and itâ€™s a very good thing.

ACCOUNTING
Quickbooks (a non-cloud application running on your computer) is the default tool for small business accounting. Itâ€™s good, donâ€™t get me wrong â€“ but sharing data with others in your organization and your accountant can be a pain.

EnterÂ Xero. Itâ€™s all online (â€œin the cloudâ€) and very simpleâ€¦even fun to use. Who thought accounting could be fun? It is simple enough for a layperson to use, but provides the business-class accounting framework yourÂ CPA needs to do your taxes. The folks behind Xero are just getting their act together for US service â€“ we have been using it for a bit and loving it!

So there it is. Thereâ€™s much more, for sure; this is a great start. Almost all of the services listed here are free or have free trials so give them a spin!

COP15 Arts Map

December 14, 2009COP15Copenhagen, Ctz, Europe, Google, Hl En, Iframe, Map, Maps, Ms Ie, Msa, Msid, Utf8, Www Google Com

For those in or interested in the Arts Events in Copenhagen, here is a map we’ve compiled and our events list, so you can make you plans or just follow along!

Let us know if you know of something that is missing!

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View COP15 Arts Locations in a larger map

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