Ashden Directory

Ashden Directory receives the 2015 Nick Reeves AWEinspiring Award

December 22, 2015Ashden Directory

We are honoured to announce that the Ashden Directory, Ashdenizen and Landings Stages have been awarded the 2015 Nick Reeves AWEinspiring Award for Arts, Water and the Environment.

The award is presented by the Arts and Environment Network of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) in association with the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW).

The award celebrates projects that have contributed innovatively to CIWEMâ€™s vision of â€˜putting creativity at the heart of environmental policy and action.â€™

Each year, on the Directory and Ashdenizen, we looked forward to announcing the AWEinspiring winner, never expecting to be on the other side of the story. We have long appreciated the work of the late Nick Reeves, and the Arts and Environment strand of CIWEM, which has shown the way for other organisations to acknowledge and incorporate the arts in their thinking and in their work.

In making the award, CIWEM found that â€˜the vision, intention and execution of the Directory has been far-reaching, and represents an impressively deep treatment of ecology in theatre and the performing arts over many yearsâ€™.

We are very proud to be included in the company of past winners and would like to thank also the many artists and writers whose pioneering work has provided the inspiration for the Ashden Directory, Ashdenizen and Landing Stages.

warm regards

Wallace Heim, Robert Butler, Kellie Gutman and Eleanor Margolies

Landing Stages. Selections from the Ashden Directory 2000 â€“ 2014, available as pdf on www.ashdendirectory.org.uk

There are hard copies of Landing Stages available. Please contactashdentrust@sfct.org.uk if you are interested in receiving a copy.

The Ashden Directory of Environment and Performance,www.ashdendirectory.org.uk

Ashdenizen, ashdenizen.blogspot.co.uk

For more information on the award:

CIWEM www.ciwem.org/competition-and-awards/the-nick-reeves-award.aspx

CCANW www.ccanw.co.uk/

New from Ashden Directory

July 2, 2014Ashden Directory

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Dome for sale at CCANW

Crowd-sourcing is building two online databases: Actipedia for activist art, and TippingPoint’s database of climate art.

The Museum of Water and the pop-up Water Bar assemble in Soho, London next week.

Send a bottle of sea water to the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh for an exhibition in 2014.

The last of the Wasteland Conversations in Nottingham is on the Common Imagination.

The Center for Contemporary Art and the Natural World is sellingÂ its all-weather Dome, and moving to the University of Exeter.

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Reports from Fukushima

April 29, 2014Ashden Directory19 February Su, Artist Su Grierson, Fukushima, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima Province, Province, Robert Butler, Su Grierson Wallace Heim, Wallace Heim

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‘Ghost Town’, photo by and copyright Su Grierson

Wallace Heim writes:

Artist Su Grierson has been sending updates to ecoartscotland on her 10-week residency in Kitakata, Fukushima Province, Japan. Su emphasises that she is there as an artist, not a journalist, and she is only able to report what she is told, often through translation, and what she sees herself without external verification.

Suâ€™s reports evoke the everyday life of those living with the continuing effects of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disastersÂ in stories of rescue, luck and tragedy.

Two excerpts:

19 February
Su visits the Scottish artist Aenaes Wilder and they drive to the coast northÂ from Kitikata, an area decimated by the earthquake and tsunami.

â€˜Aenaes was keen to revisit the area which still holds horror images and a memory of the smell that he was still needing to come to terms with … HeÂ told me the story of how only one small town survived undamaged. Many years ago the Mayor of this town had insisted on building the sea defence wall many meters higher than anywhere else had even considered. He was laughed at and his wall was the subject of jokes throughout his lifetime. After 11 March his town was the only one in the area where not a single person died. The very next day the local people began laying flowers on his grave.â€™Â moreâ€¦

11 February
The Director of Minamisouma City Museum guides Su and otherÂ artists through the area nearest to the nuclear disaster site.

‘We carried radiation monitors in the car (you can buy them in the Home Centre)â€¦
Miles of empty houses including whole villages with cars, lorries and tractors left abandoned because they are too contaminated to be moved. The ghost towns with their traffic lights still working are an eerie and disturbing sight especially in near blizzard conditions. Houses of all sizes are left abandoned with police patrol cars driving round as protection. These black-and-white cars with their silent red rotating beacons add an almost holocaust atmosphere as they glide around the empty roads…

The scale of all this is so huge it is only by seeing it that any idea of scale can really be imagined. I was told that in this Province there are 100,000 refuges and 200,000 in the next Province and there are more in many other areas.’ Â moreâ€¦

The residency, involving four artists, is working towards an exhibition with the Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art on the theme Spirit of the North.
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New on Ashden Directory’s News Page

April 28, 2014Ashden DirectoryClimate Change, Robert Butler, Wallace Heim, Wysing Arts Centre

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for Burning Ice #6, copyright Sarah Vanagt

Environmental Arts Festival Scotland is calling for projectsÂ connected to land, energy, the coast, rural living, Dark Skies, climate change, and more.

Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeis calling for ideas on the theme of Tracing the Tacit, for retreats exploring the underlying ideas, influences and concepts informing artistsâ€™ practices.

The work of art in critical times works out on energy, economy and environment at a symposium in Falmouth.

Wasteland Conversations in Nottinghamtake on utopia, community and ecology.

Also in Nottingham, and in London, the vacuum cleaner talks: ‘I Went Mental and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt’ .

And in Brussels, Kaaitheater looks atÂ animals looking back for their Burning Ice #6 Festival.

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The form is the story with telematic climate opera

February 17, 2013Ashden DirectoryArt Dance, Audience Members, Climate Change, Dance And Music, Dramatic Account, Geographies, Instrumental Soloists, Intricate Structures, Matthew Burtner, Media Artist, Melting Snow, Musical Elements, Narrative Content, Political Perspectives, Scientific Information, Simultaneous Performances, Snow Ice, Superstorm, Testimonials From People, Washington Virginia, Winter Storm

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Wallace Heim writes: Superstorm Sandypostponed the simultaneous performances of the climate change opera Auksalaq in two of its seven world-wide venues. Winter storm Nemo may make travel challenging, but tonight, performances in Washington, Virginia and New York are scheduled to go ahead.

The form of the opera is the story. Composer Matthew Burtnerand media artist Scott Deal, created a system of telecommunications and informatics, a ‘telematic’, they say reflect the geographies of distance and interconnection. Performers play live in different venues. By video and audio these performances are mixed in one location and sent out via the Internet to the other locations. Audiences contribute via their laptops or cell phones using NOMAD technology.

Audience members in any one space will see and hear the live performance happening immediately before them and see the content created in another city. In no single location will the audience perceive the full work. Like an ecosystem, these musical elements create interacting layers that transform into new intricate structures.

â€˜Auksalaqâ€™ is the Inupiat word for â€˜melting snow/iceâ€™. The narrative content is held together with a dramatic account of a boyâ€™s journey, and incorporates testimonials from people in the region, social and political perspectives and scientific information along with characters personifying wind, sun, shifting ice, and clouds. These are layered with visual art, dance and music. Burtnerâ€™s score incorporates sung and spoken voices, instrumental soloists and ensembles, computer-generated sound, video and sonifications, including that of data on ice melt.

From auksalaq.org:

Explanations of how the opera works are here and here.

Chasing Ice Chases Oscar

February 14, 2013Ashden DirectoryAcademy Award Nomination, Associate Editor, Chases, Documentary Award, Effects Of Climate Change, Features Interviews, Film Festivals, Gutman, Interviews News, Melting Glaciers, Metaphors, National Geographic Photographer, Oscar Nomination, Photographer James, Robert Butler, Scarlett Johansson, Six Ways, Time Lapse, Twitter, Violinist Joshua Bell

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Kellie Gutman writes:Â Chasing Ice a film about National GeographicÂ photographer James Blalog’s quest to document the melting glaciers, has received an Academy Award nomination for Best Song. Â The film, directed by Jeff Orlowski, chronicles Blalog’s three-year project setting up time-lapse cameras to chronicle the effects of climate change on the great glaciers of the world. Â Although the film is in limited release, the Oscar nomination should bring more attention to it. Â Screenings in the UK, Canada and the US are listed here.

Chasing IceÂ has won twenty-three awards at film festivals, including the Environmental Media Association’s Best Documentary Award. Â The nominated song, “Before My Time,” was written by J. Ralph. It is performed by Scarlett Johansson and violinist Joshua Bell.

Jennifer Monson live, indoors, at The Kitchen

February 13, 2013Ashden DirectoryArt Nature, Bird Brain, Brain Dance, Climate Change, Collaborative Art, Environmental Projects, Grey Whales, Improviser, Interdisciplinary Laboratory, Interviews News, Migratory Pathways, Monson, Outdoor Experiences, Project Bird, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Southern Hemispheres, Theatr, Twitter, Video Installation, Water Log

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Wallace Heim writes: Tomorrow, at The Kitchen in New York City, the movement artist Jennifer Monson starts Live Dancing Archive, a week of live performances, video installation and a digital archive.

One of the first stories on the Ashden Directory in 2000 featured Jennifer’s project BIRD BRAIN Dance, a dance touring project following the migratory pathways of birds and grey whales in the northern and southern hemispheres. Jennifer’s work in the UKcontinued with Water Log, an outdoor movement project across the sands of Morecambe Bay. She returned to America and now is director of iLAND (Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance), developing collaborative art and environmental projects.

The New Yorker previews her show:

14 ways to look at Scotland

February 8, 2013Announcements, Ashden DirectoryArtistic Diversity, Artistic Life, Botanic Gardens, Deeside, Director Chris, Dooks, Environmental Arts, Loch Lomond, Loch Lomond Scotland, Natural Diversity, Photographic Project, Professional Dancers, River Tweed, Scottish Government, Scottish Natural Heritage, Spring Fling, Tabula Rasa, Television Director, Walking A Line, Wetland Park

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from The Bothy Project

Wallace Heim writes:Â TheÂ Year of Natural Scotland, an initiative led by the Scottish government, connects the countryâ€™s natural diversity and its artistic life. Their economic incentive is to develop tourism and the events industries. The means to do this includeÂ 14 arts projects across every region ofÂ Scotland.

The projects, supported by Creative Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage, will share Â£500,000 to create events, poetry, walks, films and installations that combine the countryâ€™s natural and cultural life.

An outline of the projects shows their geographic and artistic diversity. The longer list of organisations, groups and communities that are collaborating on each project shows the social reach of this economic programme.

The projects:

NVA presentsÂ Island Drift, a lighting and photographic project on the islands ofÂ Loch Lomond.
Scotlandâ€™s Botanic Gardens inÂ Edinburgh, Argyll, the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway will develop writing and walking residencies.
Wide Open and Crichton Carbon Centre, Spring Fling and the Stove will present an International Environmental Arts Festival based on themes of land and energy.
Walking a Line by Dunbar North Light Arts is a year-long site-specific project of walking, marking and recording in the environment.
Sound Out@Seven Lochs will compose music and soundscapes for a new planned wetland park nearÂ Glasgow.
Smallpetitklein Dance Company will present an outdoor event with professional and non-professional dancers around the Tentsmuir Nature Reserve.
Tabula Rasa will bring together artists, environmentalists and people working on the River Tweed.
Tiny Geographies, by composer and television director Chris Dooks, will gather local stories and music for festivals in Aberdeenshire and Deeside.
For Natural Bennachie, three artists will work with scientists to celebrate the heritage of this north-eastern landmark.
My Place in the Natural World will involve young people inÂ AberdeenÂ and creative digital media.
The Highland Print Studio andÂ Cape FarewellÂ will deliver the exhibition Sexy Peat celebrating the Lewis blanket bog.
Composers Inge Thomson and Lise Sinclair will create Da Fishing Hands, a project featuring song aboutÂ Fair Isleâ€™s fishing grounds and their changing and sustainable use.
Sweenyâ€™s Bothy / Bothan Shuibhne is an off-grid retreat for artists, writers and the public, involving events, walks, residencies reflecting on wild nature and contemporary culture.
In addition to these projects, in the Autumn, the Year of Natural Scotland will host a major conference, â€˜Reading the Landscapeâ€™ exploring the representation, mis-representation, imagining and re-imagining of nature in Scotland.

Sanitation is culture

January 31, 2013Ashden DirectoryArchitects, Artist In Residence, Associate Editor, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, City Planners, Climate Change, Debeer, Department Of Sanitation, Endless Hours, Features Interviews, Floor Sweepers, Interviews News, Maintenance Staff, Metaphors, New York City Department Of Sanitation, Peggy Johnson, Robert Butler, Security Guards, Twitter

talking with
Brooklyn Museum employee Peggy Johnson

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Wallace Heim writes: In New York last week, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, artist in residence since 1977 for the New York City Department of Sanitation, conducted a series of live interviews with Brooklyn Museum’s daily maintenance staff, window washers, floor sweepers, security guards, and told them what they do is “the first kind of culture”.

In her performance, which also included architects and city planners, she asked each person a series of questions: How do you personally survive? What do you need to do to keep going? What happens to your dreams and your freedom when you do the things you have to do to keep surviving? What keeps New York Cityalive? What does the city need to do to survive after Sandy?.

Ukeles told the workers, “Here’s the museum with all this stuff, and then there’s what you do. You are culture, and your work is culture. And the endless hours that will never be done, that’s what enable us to be in an institution like this. Mopping up the garbage from yesterday. It’s safe. And the things in here are taken care of. That’s culture.”

Full interview with Ukeles on Gallerist NY.
photo: Carole DeBeer, courtesy Brooklyn Museum.

h/t to ecoartscotland.net

From six seasons to two

January 16, 2013Ashden DirectoryArtistic Director, Associate Editor, Central India, Climate Change, Excessive Heat, Features Interviews, Gutman, Hardware Store, Interviews News, Monsoons, Nature Watch, Puppeteers, Puppetry, Puppets, Reck, Robert Butler, Short Transition, State Of Orissa, Summer Winter, Twitter

Bronze-winged jacana. Â Photo: India nature watch

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Kellie Gutman writes:

The state of Orissa, located in east-central India, was once known for having six seasons. Â Not only were there six, Grishmar (summer), Barsha (rainy), Sarata (autumn), Hemanta (dew), Sisira (winter), and Basanta (spring), each two months long, but the people in the area could forecast the onset of each one by the behaviour of certain birds. Â For instance, the bronze-winged jacana would lay its eggs during the monsoons, so its mating calls signaled the arrival of the rains.

But climate change has brought excessive heat to Orissa, and now people say there are only two seasons: rains and summer. Winter is just a short transition between them.

The Glass Half Full Theatre in Austin, Texas, which crafts “Environmental Puppetry” is putting on Once There Were Six Seasons, opening February 13, 2013. Â Environmental Puppetry uses very small puppets on large landscapes with visible puppeteers. Â The puppetry focuses on the changing landscapes more than on the actual puppets. Â Their earlier work, Bob’s Hardware, about a small family-owned hardware store being pushed out by a big-box store can be seen here:

Once There Were Six Seasons is based on the story of Orissa’s seasons, as told to the artistic director, Caroline Reck, on her visit to India.

See: WhatÂ happened to the seasons