Announcements

Green Picks and Opportunities of the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Announcements, Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe, Open Calls

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

“All the world’s a stage” and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is arguably one the most well-known stages of them all. With thousands of productions and hundreds of venues putting on tens of thousands of performances over a three-week period, it’s one of the world’s biggest cultural events – and somewhere where sustainability, climate change and environmental impact is being tackled in a variety of ways.

Here’s our summary of sustainability activity at the Fringe:

Strategic Engagement by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe society are the guardians of the festival, providing leadership, co-ordination and support for the many that participate. In 2018 they launched their ‘Fringe Blueprint’: a statement of intent of their work until 2022 (their 75thanniversary!).

One of their 8 key commitments was to “A Green Fringe: to reduce the festival’s carbon footprint and champion initiatives that limit our impact on the environment”, with ideas around paper reduction, adoption of cutting-edge technologies, and embedding sustainability into the designs for a new headquarters. With this long-term high-level demonstration of their commitment to sustainability, we’re excited to support them as a green festival!

Practical Support for Venues and Companies

We know that sustainable practice can be new for the local, national and international venues and companies producing shows at the festival, so we work with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society to create and promote toolkits to advise how to increase the sustainability of everything from show design to promotion! Current handbooks and advice can be found on the EdFringe website, including:

Our Green Arts Initiative supports Scottish-based venues, companies, agencies and other cultural organisations to reduce their environmental impact and increase their sustainability. As of this year, all Edinburgh Festival Fringe venues who are members of the Green Arts Initiative have a ‘badge’ on their EdFringe.com listing. Check out examples including Assembly Hall, Pleasance Courtyard and Greenside!

Other Campaigns and Initiatives

The Fringe Swap Shop
Hosted at Fringe Central on the last three days of the festival, this initiative encourages companies to donate good-quality props, costumes and materials which would otherwise be discarded at the end of a show run – enabling them to be reused or recycled! With a ‘bring what you have; take what you want’ approach, anyone is able to collect items during the Swap Shop, and we have a case study on how it works!

The Fringe Food Bank
Run by comedian Simon Caine, and a variety of partners and venues, this initiative encourages participating companies to donate leftover food and period products before they leave Edinburgh, with the supplies redistributed to the local community in need.

The #SustainableFringe campaign
New for 2018, this campaign seeks to encourage ‘performers, punters ad planners’ to take on three challenges for a more sustainable Edinburgh Festival Fringe experience.

Shows and Performances

One of the unusual things about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is its uncurated nature: any company wishing to put on a show is able to do so, and there is no artistic director. Of course, with over 3,500 shows across a huge range of genres, it can be difficult to choose what to see, and know how to identify productions with environmental or sustainability content. However, each year there are productions with themes of climate change, sustainability and nature.

Here at Creative Carbon Scotland we’ve identified our first pick of the shows on offer this year!

Cabaret

  • Anya Anastasia: The Executioners 1 – 26 Aug / 8pm / Gilded Balloon Teviot
    “Award-winning musical-comedy maverick Anya Anastasia brandishes her razor-sharp satirical wit…attacks on ecological screwups, techno obsessives and self-congratulatory slacktivist keyboard warriors.”

Children’s Shows

  • The Adventures of Sam Swallow 2 – 27 Aug / 11.45am / C Venues – C Too
    A new play for children and families about the beauty of nature and our need to protect it, brought to life through music, dance and puppetry.
  • The Garden of Delight 31 Jul – 19 Aug (not 15, 16, 17) / 2pm / Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens
    “We have a simple environmental message: look after our world before people destroy it forever. The children journey back in time with Tumshie the jester joining the inhabitants of the garden with music and singing along the way.”

Comedy

  • Luke Rollason’s Planet Earth 2 – 26 (not 15) / 2.30pm / Monkey Barrel Comedy Club
    Set in a future where our worst predictions came true – following ecological collapse, thousands of endangered species are extinct, including the BBC. But one plucky (and unpaid) intern isn’t giving up, and right on programming schedule, we’re getting series three.
  • Lucy Porter: Pass It On 1 – 26 Aug (not 13, 20) / 5.30pm / Pleasance Courtyard
    Musings on what we receive from our ancestors and what we pass on to future generations. Lucy’s inherited dodgy knees and global warming from her parents, but can she leave a better legacy for her children?
  • Matt Winning: Climate Strange 2-26 Aug (not 13) / 5pm / Just the Tonic at The Mash House
    Dr Matt Winning is thinking about starting a family but wonders if he should. A show about why our knowledge about climate change doesn’t necessarily match our actions.

Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus

  • The Grey Life 19 – 27 Aug / 7.10pm / C Venues – C Royale
    “Open the window, take a breath – outside it’s grey. The world is polluted. We produce, we consume, we waste and we are never satisfied. How does our globalised world work?” A documentary-dance-theatre-film.

Events

We’re a bit biased on this one: we’re hosting it! Taking place at Fringe Central (the home of support for participants) it’s a celebration of the community of practitioners and venues practising sustainability at the Fringe.

Exhibitions

  • Nàdar / Prakriti 3 – 27 Aug/ 10am -6pm Tu/Th/Fri/Sat; 2pm – 6pm Wed / Edinburgh Printmakers
    Through new print commissions, Ravi Agarwal responds to current conversations about rural and urban sustainability and the various challenges posed to nature in Scotland and India. Partnership support from the John Muir Trust. We’re running a Green Tease discussion around this exhibition in July.
  • Reuse, Reinvent, Reimagine Opening party 10 Aug / 7pm / Gallery 23
    This art exhibition highlights the inability of humankind to effectively cope with the disposal of the vast amounts of household and industrial waste and the destruction of the natural world for profit.
  • Go Wild on the National Cycle Network Photo Exhibition 6-31 Aug / 8am – 7pm / Lochrin Basin
    The National Cycle Network (NCN) is a series of traffic-free paths and quiet, on-road cycling and walking routes that connect to every major town and city in Scotland. A collection of photographs curated by active travel charity, Sustrans.

Music, Musicals and Opera

  • The Great Song Cycle, Song Cycle 13 – 18 Aug / 12.05pm / theSpace @ Surgeons Hall
    A musical memoir about one woman’s solo bicycle/music tour 1,254 miles down the west coast of the USA.
  • World in Progress 13 – 25 (not 19) / 10.20pm / theSpace on North Bridge
    A brand-new musical song-cycle that explores our ever-changing relationship with the earth.

Theatre

  • The Man Who Planted Trees 20 – 27 Aug / 2.30pm / Scottish Storytelling Centre
    Multi award-winning adaptation of Jean Giono’s classic environmental tale by Edinburgh-based Puppet State Theatre Company. A previous winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.
  • Solarplexus: An Alternative Energy Play 3 – 27 Aug (not 13, 20) / 7.35pm / Zoo Carteris
    Corporate surveillance and conspiracies abound in this hyper-speed piece of sustainable sci-fi theatre from NYC.
  • Bottled Up 3 – 18 Aug (not 12) / Times vary / theSpace on North Bridge
    This funny solo show explores eco-anxiety, our dependency on plastics in day-to-day life and considers the irony of living in a world of plenty.
  • The Handlebards (Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet) 22 – 26 Aug / 1pm / Assembly George Square Gardens
    The HandleBards have cycled 1,500 miles from London to Edinburgh, carrying on the back of their bikes all of the set, props and costumes necessary to perform Shakespeare. A previous winner of the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.

If you want to browse your own sustainability selection, take a look on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe website (or use their app!). We’re also always open to new recommendations, so get in touch or submit your event listing if you have a show to share!

Not just the Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is only one of the major Edinburgh Festivals and it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to international cultural leadership on environmental sustainability. Take a look at the members of our Green Arts Initiative and our member case studies to find out more.

The post Green Picks and Opportunities of the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe 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

NYC Monthly fire-side gatherings

Announcements, news

Kinstillatory Mappings in Light and Dark Matter

Choreographer/director Emily Johnson of Emily Johnson Catalyst invites participants for her upcoming fire-side gatherings in New York city.

A monthly fire-side gathering on the Lower East Side

Beginning this Friday, March 16, 7-10pm

Join them every month from March to July for bonfires in the Abrons ampitheater, just off Grand Street. Sit by the fire and welcome the evening with neighbors, friends, kids and sometimes with stories, food (bring some to share if you’d like), star knowledge and dancing. Gather and welcome, stay as long as you like, and go home with the sweet smell of campfire on your clothes.

Abrons Art Center, 466 Grand Street, Lenapehoking (NYC)
Dates: March 16, April 13, May 25, June 8, July 24

It is celebratory, to come together like this!

Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. A Bessie Award winning choreographer and 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography, she is based in Minneapolis and New York City. Originally from Alaska, she is of Yup’ik descent and since 1998 has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as installations, engaging audiences within and through a space and environment—interacting with a place’s architecture, history, and role in community. Emily is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; where performance is an integral connection to each other, our environment, our stories, our past, present, and future. She receives inspiration from the annual migration of salmon, who swim upstream for thousands of miles because they must. She has watched these salmon swim up waterfalls and she believes humans can also be called to do amazing things. She has been told that she makes dance for “dance-lovers” and she makes dance for “people-who-generally-don’t-like-dance.” She would like to think that this is true; she would like to think that her dances are for every body and that maybe they enlighten small aspects of our existence. Emily received a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award and her work is supported by Creative Capital, Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Map Fund, a Joyce Award, the McKnight Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, and The Doris Duke Residency to Build Demand for the Arts. Emily is a current Mellon Choreography Fellow at Williams College and was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota, 2013 – 2015, an inaugral Fellow at the Robert Rauschenberg Residency, a 2012 Headlands Center for the Arts and MacDowell Artist in Residence, a Native Arts and Cultures Fellow (2011), a MANCC Choreographer Fellow (2009/2010/2012/2014/2016), a MAP Fund Grant recipient (2009/2010/2012/2013), and McKnight Fellow (2009, 2012). Her new work, Then Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars is an all night, outdoor performance gathering. It will premiere in 2017 and tour to Williamstown, MA; New York City; San Francisco; Chicago; and Melbourne, Australia.

Events by York University

Announcements, news

Join York University’s celebration of the Las Nubes Project and the Cultural and Artistic Practices for Social and Environmental Justice Certificate (CAP) on March 8th.

The evening will feature performances by Costa Rican Artist Guadalupe Urbina and/or Toronto’s own Long Branch and talented York University faculty and students. You won’t want to miss these stellar performances and reconnecting with friends of Las Nubes and CAP!

About Guadalupe Urbina
A multidisciplinary Costa Rican Artist, Urbina’s music explores social issues including gender roles, the environment and the cultural identity of Costa Rica.

March 8 at 6:30pm
Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St W. Toronto

Tickets: $10
Students FREE with ID or PWYC at the door 

BUY TICKETS AT: 
go.yorku.ca/lula-18

Dinner Reservations guarantee seating
call Lula Lounge at 416.588.0307 to make arrangements

About Long Branch
With four formidable frontwomen supported by nuanced, driving rhythms, Long Branch’s songs tell stories of overcoming hardship with grit and determination.March 8 at 10:00pm
Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St W. Toronto

 

Tickets: Students FREE with ID or PWYC at door

RSVP AT: go.yorku.ca/lula-18

The Eco-Arts Media Festival Cabaret
At 10pm following Urbina’s dinner performance, stay for the programming associated with Eco-Arts and Media Festival Cabaret. The evening will also feature a cabaret of performances by students and faculty from York University.

Sustainability in Film – November Fortnight

Announcements, Creative Carbon Scotland, Open Calls

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

We’re pleased to announce a series of events connecting climate change, sustainability and film this November.

Whether you’re interested in exploring the meaning of environmental film making, looking to enhance the sustainability of your film productions or turn your hand to a creative challenge – we’ve got something for you.

Wednesday 15th November, 6 – 8pm

Green Tease: More Films about Food and Farming. And Water…

What defines an ‘environmental film’? Do films have a role to play in raising awareness and changing our culture towards a more sustainable one? In this Glasgow Green Tease event we’ll be joined by Scott Donaldson, Head of Film Education at Creative Scotland, and Aimara Reques, Producer of the extraordinary documentary Aquarela (release date 2018), with screenings of film clips old and new, and audience discussion.

Register here

Wednesday 22nd November, 10 – 5pm

Carbon Literacy Training with albert

Carbon Literacy with albert is a unique, engaging and solutions based training session offering attendees from the UK production and broadcast industry the information and inspiration to live and work in a more sustainable way. Across the 6 hour workshop, delegates can expect to be challenged with engaging presentations, fun (yes, fun!) activities and the space to reflect and plan. On successful completing of the day, attendees will:

  • have a sound understanding of the science of climate change
  • understand how to take action to reduce their impact
  • recognise the impact that production has on the environment
  • have knowledge of the tools and techniques to lessen this impact

Register here

Monday 27th November, 5 – 7pm

Green Tease: Environmental and Green Issues Pitch

Can you speak passionately about environmental issues? We’re looking for new talent from across Scotland who can take environmental news stories, both global and local and turn them into engaging videos for BBC The Social.

Whether you’re a budding film maker, engaged in tackling climate change or looking for new ways to communicate about sustainability, why not turn your hand to this exciting creative challenge?

In this opportunity and Green Tease event, run by Creative Carbon Scotland and hosted by BBC The Social, we’re inviting you to produce short (90 second) videos about environmental stories and share your content with arts and sustainability practitioners, with the chance of your footage being showcased on the BBC The Social platform.

Register here

Please contact gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland.com if you have any further enquiries about these events.

 

The post Sustainability in Film – November Fortnight appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

 

About Creative Carbone 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

Sonica 2017 special offer for Conference attendees

Announcements, Conferences, Creative Carbon Scotland, news

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

We are pleased to announce a special offer for registered (and not-yet-registered) attendees for The Green Arts Conference. 

Cryptic, a member of the Green Arts Initiative, is offering a discount to attend the opening night of their climate-change-themed music/theatre production Shorelines, which follows directly from the conference drinks reception at 7.30pm on November 1st at Tramway in Glasgow.

About Shorelines

Shorelines is part of Sonica 2017, and has strong sustainability themes, exploring the impacts of a natural disaster, and mankind’s relationship with the natural world. As part of the Green Arts Conference this year, we’ll be exploring the artistic programming emerging along such themes (including hearing from artist Kathy Hinde, also part of Sonica 2017), and this is an opportunity for you to see some of it for yourself.

The Green Arts Conference

The Green Arts Conference: Spotlight on Sustainability is crafted specifically for those working on sustainability in organisations in the cultural sector, and those interested in the intersections between the arts and sustainability. This full-day conference will explore current best practice, and deliver practical, hands-on workshops on topics such as travel recording; staff green team engagement, and carbon management planning for arts organisations. Perfect for green champions in the arts, screen and creative industries, and for members of the Green Arts Initiative.

Delegates for the Green Arts Conference can get tickets for Shorelines on 1st November for £8 (instead of £15), contact us for details.

Find out more about Shorelines

Book your place at The Green Arts Conference: Spotlight on Sustainability

 

The post Sonica 2017 special offer for Conference attendees appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

 

About 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

[Int21] Residential Short Course and Evening Talk (UK)

Announcements, news

Environmental artist Chris Drury and writer Kay Syrad lead a residential short course with guest artist David Buckland from Monday 30 October to Friday 3 November 2017. Chris will also offer a public talk on the evening of Wednesday November 1st.

Part of art.earth’s compelling new programme of short courses and talks. Context and Form, Art and Writing is facilitated by Chris Drury and Kay Syrad. Their special guest is David Buckland, Founding Director of Cape Farewell. Both events take place at Dartington in SW England and are open to all.

In this five-day intensive, Chris Drury shares his renowned practice of working with form, including whirlpool and vortex, fractal and wave patterns, exploring and investigating how aesthetic forms have the universal enfolded within them but are at the same time particular to individual experience.

Kay Syrad has collaborated closely with Chris on a number of art-text projects and brings her rich knowledge and experience of narrative and poetic form.

The programme days assume a regular pattern of immersion in the landscape: walking, collecting, making; reflecting and working inside, with short lectures, shared conversation and discussion, individual tuition, and studio time exploring visual and/or written forms that are personal and universal.

The course includes:
– a series of short lectures on context and form in art and writing
– meditative and sense-based engagement with the landscape
– a chance to experiment together and individually with different forms in language and image
– the opportunity to work outside and inside in dialogue with the tutors

Further information and booking can be found at http://artdotearth.org/context-and-form-art-and-writing/

On the Wednesday evening, Chris Drury will offer a public talk Wandering: earth, art and context.
Tickets are £5 and information can be found at http://artdotearth.org/chris-drury-wandering-earth-art-and-context/

Radical Reciprocity: Wildly Expressive earthBODYment Artivism

Announcements

Join Bronwyn Preece for a weekend radical earthBODYment intensive on Lasqueti Island, BC, Canada
Arriving Friday, August 18 and leaving Sunday, August 20 late afternoon.

$250 (Canadian) includes workshop, all meals, camping and transportation on Lasqueti.*

How do we tune into our sensuous experiences with the other-than-human world and creatively engage and express them through a radical reciprocity?
How does site-specific deep improvisation: an arts-based corporeal process of exploration of interconnection, translate to a vitally potent politics? I
n the current politically and ecologically fraught era, what might gathering together on an off-the-grid island in Traditional Straits Salish Territory with artistic intention and focus — birth in ourselves and with/for others?
Where are our borders in these ‘wild’ times?!

Facebook event posting: https://www.facebook.com/events/627341657464916/

earthBODYment incorporates solo and whole group processes: movement, sound, language, collaborative writing and painting practices, music, yarn ‘bombing’ and other creative manifestations of presence and resonance with the places we find ourselves in.

The workshop will take place at a variety of site-specific locations around the island

The workshop will begin with an evening session on Friday night. Sunday morning’s session will begin pre-sunrise. Days will be full.

Participants are asked to bring appropriate clothing for walking and working in the forest and on the shore, a headlamp, waterbottle, journal, costume elements and musical instruments, if possible.

Participants need to bring their own tent and sleeping bags for camping (indoor accommodations are possible, at extra expense). Please be aware that Lasqueti Island is an off-the-grid, rugged environment with limited infrastructure and a highly sensitive ecosystem… please be prepared for ‘roughing’ it: with gorgeous ocean views.

earthBODYment is inspired by Bronwyn’s extensive training, and as a teacher, of Action Theater™ for more than 17 years (studying with Ruth Zaporah); her work with Deep Ecologist Joanna Macy (the Work that Reconnects); her work with Butoh dance; her community-engaged Applied Theatre work; her own extensive explorations with embodied and expressive activism, and her more recent work with La Pocha Nostra…and a host of other movement and radical arts based modalities.

Space is limited: for further information and about registering, please email Bronwynat improvise@bronwynpreece.com

*Arrival and Departure from Lasqueti: Depending on the number of participants, a chartered water taxi may be arranged for from French Creek, Vancouver Island on the Friday: taking you directly to the South End, closer to the location for workshop. However these details will not be known until closer to the time. Otherwise, participants will arrive on the 2:30 ferry on Friday from French Creek, and will depart on the Sunday 4:00 ferry from Lasqueti. Please note that the above price does not include transportation costs to and from Lasqueti. Coordiantion is key as Lasqueti Island has limited passenger-only ferry access, and limited on-island transporation options.

Arrangements may be made to arrive earlier and leave later — extending this time into your own residency — arrangements to be discussed with Bronwyn.

“I am full of gratitude for the other day. You have such a beautiful ability to give space, and to offer ample space for us to be. How powerful to speak to us about our choices being perfect. I have only ever rarely seen that degree of honouring our nature and potential in any tradition. You are a gem and a revolutionary and inspiring leader.”
~ Mariko Ihara, earthBODYment participant

“Bronwyn’s workshops/exercises were raw and unconventional; engaging all aspects of our being in spawning individual/collective expression. It gave me a shiver of excitement each time before the class as I really didn’t know what to expect. I love those scary unknown places and the challenges proposed because there is no choice but to show up! Bronwyn skillfully directs and facilitates the work while stepping aside to allow participants to dive into the depth of their own experiences.”
-Thomas Loh, Nelson, earthBODYment participant (from 2014 Leviathan intensive)

“Bronwyn is such an elegant, feminine, powerful artist and facilitator. I was blown away her presence and her self assuredness to give me (us) the space to fully trust in her process and to experience a wonderful workshop.”
~Joanna Bond, earthBODYment participant (Penpynfarch Studio, Wales, 2015)

About Bronwyn Preece:

Bronwyn Preece is a site-specific, improvisational performer, poet, author, visual and walking eARThist. She is currently pursuing her PhD: using site-specific improvisation to explore the overlaps between ecology and disability. She holds an MA and BFA in Applied Theatre. She is the pioneer of earthBODYment and became Canada’s first certified teacher of Action Theater™. She is the author of three books, among other publications. All of Bronwyn’s work focuses on connection to place and interdependence — interrogating the dichotomies between culture and nature, self and environment. Highlights include performing at World Stage Design in Wales (in an outdoor edible set), at Women’s Caucus for Art in NYC, with Kokoro Dance in three of their Wreck Beach Butoh performaces; and performing with the La Pocha Nostra international winter school in Mexico. She facilitates workshops internationally and works with communities and within classrooms to engage with timely issues through the arts. She served two terms in local politics as the youngest woman ever elected to her post with the Islands Trust, the municipal level government for the Gulf Islands of BC (2002-2008). Learn more about Bronwyn at www.bronwynpreece.com

Jumping Rope With the Wind

Announcements, Artists and Climate Change, EcoArt

This post comes from the Artists and Climate Change Blog

Our Renewable Energy Artworks series continues this month with an introduction to the prolific Dutch artist/architect/innovator Daan Roosegaarde, a self-described “futurist-focused-on-the-present” and founder of Studio Roosegaarde based in Rotterdam, with a new satellite “pop-up” studio in Shanghai.

It’s hard to keep up with Daan Roosegaarde, the internationally acclaimed visionary creative change-maker whose nature-driven social design lab, Studio Roosegaarde, functions as an interactive incubator to create site-specific installations exploring the dynamic relation between people, technology and space.

Fresh on the heels of his TED2017 lecture last month in Vancouver, Roosegaarde just won yet another international award, this time for his mind-bending Windlicht (Wind Light) project, eloquently described by one spectator as “jumping rope with the wind” in the video below:



Inspired by the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kinderdijk, one of the Netherlands’ most popular tourist attractions where 19 windmills were built between 1738 and 1740 to help manage water levels, Windlicht celebrates the invisible beauty of clean energy while creating a “missing link between the Dutch and the beauty of our new landscape.”

According to Slate, Roosegaarde worked with a team of designers and engineers to create special software and tracking technology to detect the movement of wind turbine blades rotating at 280 kilometres per hour (174 mph). He visually connected the turbines in the evening sky using a series of dancing green laser beams whose movement was choreographed into what Roosegaarde calls “a dynamic play of light and movement.”

wind, energy, renewable, daan, roosegaarde, laser

The first Windlicht light show was visible over four nights in March 2016 at the Eneco wind farm at St. Annaland in Zeeland. Future international Windlicht sites are planned and will be announced on Studio Roosegaarde’s website and social media.

I first started following Roosegaarde back in 2014, when his gorgeous solar-powered, glow-in-the-dark Van Gogh-Roosegaarde bike path opened in Nuenen, NL, to international acclaim.

Inspired by Van Gogh’s 1889 painting The Starry Night, this 600-metre stretch along the 335-km-long Van Gogh cycle route contains 50,000 pebbles coated in a phosphorescent paint and solar-powered LEDs, both of which collect solar energy by day and illuminate by night. The swirling patterns provide cyclists enough visibility after dusk, with minimal intrusion on local animal habitat. By incorporating lighting directly into the surface of the bicycle path, additional street lighting is unnecessary.

In a must-read in-depth feature on Roosegaarde published last month in Wired, Yves Béhar, the San Francisco-based entrepreneur and founder of design firm fuseproject said: “Designers can choreograph the world to make a statement or tell a story. The air, the wind, and the Earth are Roosegaarde’s canvas.”

Roosegaarde’s bike path project has already inspired the construction of a similar bike path using slightly different solar-sensitive materials in Poland, as shown below:

Poland, Roosegaard, solar, bike path, Van Gogh

It is just a matter of time before more photoluminescent cycle paths appear in countries across the world. Studio Roosegaarde has already received enquires from Dubai, China and Turkey. This innovative project is part of a larger smart roads project in collaboration with Heijmans to create safer, more efficient roads using solar energy. I will write more about this important project in a future post, right here on Artists & Climate Change’s Renewable Energy Artworks monthly series.

 About Artists and Climate Change:

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

Create a Green Team: Glasgow Workshop

Announcements, Creative Carbon Scotland, Education and Workshops, news

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Tuesday 16 May 2017, 14:00-16:00

Venue: MANY Studios: 3 Ross Street Glasgow , G1 5AR (Google Map)

Being the sole Green Champion in any organisation can be a big job. Are you running out of ideas? Feeling like you are fighting a losing battle? Perhaps you have limited knowledge of how all the other departments work within the company?

Now is the time to form a Green Team. This FREE workshop will give you ideas on how to:

  • Build cooperation from the whole of your organisation
  • Include senior management of the organisation
  • Arrange dates and agendas for your green team meeings
  • Create a tailored environmental policy for your organisation
  • Report back on your work to your board and build support for your work

Bring along your ideas and questions. Refreshments supplied. Feel free to bring a packed lunch

This workshop will also run in Edinburgh on Tuesday 30 May

Register Here

The post Create a Green Team: Glasgow Workshop appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

 

About 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

Last Call: BGA College Green Captain Prize in Final Week of Submission

Announcements, Broadway Green Alliance, Open Calls

 

 

 

 

The Broadway Green Alliance College Green Captain Prize was created to reward College Green Captains for their greening efforts on campus productions. This years winners will be announced by Hamilton’s Seth Green at the 2017 United States Institute for Theatre Technology, Inc. (USITT) Annual Conference & Stage Expo, March 8-11 in St. Louis, Missouri.

To apply for the prize, College Green Captains should submit a one-page summary statement explaining their greening efforts and a pdf of a 18″x 24″ cardboard poster showing off the best elements of their greening program. Additional documentation can include a 3-5 minute video or up to 10 pages of written reports or spreadsheets documenting the greening.  Photographs with captions explaining the greening program are encouraged.  Winners will have brought innovative, creative, and/or widely-applied greening and energy-efficiency methods into the design and/or production of theatre at their campus.  The posters of finalists will be displayed at the BGA booth at the USITT Expo in March.

Greener practices can involve – but are not limited to – designing theatrical productions in a greener manner (e.g. alternate materials, energy, lighting, costumes or set pieces); running the show in a greener manner (e.g. energy-efficient lighting, rechargeable batteries, or educating the cast and crew about better practices); striking the production in a way that reduces waste (e.g. re-use, recycling, or composting); or changing front-of-house operations to reduce waste and encourage greener audience practices (e.g. alternative advertising, programs, or tickets).

Entries are due by March 1, 2017 and a winner will be announced at the USITT conference in St. Louis.
Entries can be sent to green@broadwaygreen.com. The winner of the BGA College Green Captain award will receive, subject to availability, tickets to the Broadway production of HAMILTON along with a professional backstage tour of the production and a meeting with a current Broadway Green Captain. Though groups can apply, only two tickets are available.  The entire group will receive a certificate commemorating their win.  Any student or faculty/staff member interested in helping to green their theatre department is encouraged to volunteer to be a College Green Captain and to sign up at  BroadwayGreen.com/college-green-captains.

All prize applicants must be College Green Captains.

More information about the BGA and the Prize for Achievement in Greener Theatre