Conferences

/adaptations/ 2012 Call for Entries

This exhibition is open to proposals from all fields of design including industrial design, fashion design, interior design, graphic design, architecture, fabrication, engineering, and information technology. We are looking for innovative approaches which reflect the future of design through sustainable, emergent and regenerative systems, particularly those which are informed by biological and natural processes.

Adaptation refers to the ability of an organism to survive in a particular setting or milieu, through alterations of structure, physical form and/or behavior, operating through a process of natural selection. Similarly, design ingenuity, the creation and articulation of new technologies, is a human expression of adaptation.

Patterns of global consumption, resource depletion, and pollution have rendered many of our current modes of design and production insufficient or harmful to our existence. Innovative solutions to these issues are essential and as they emerge, they collectively influence and integrate the fields of design, fabrication, and information technology to bring us back into balance with our planet.

/adaptations/ is an exhibition to showcase leading developments in sustainable, emergent, and regenerative systems, particularly those which are informed by biological and natural processes. The exhibition is curated by Ginni Stiles, as part of DesignPhiladelphia 2012.

/adaptations/ will be installed in indoor and outdoor galleries at  Provenance Architecturals, located in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia.

October 10 – 20, 2012
Provenance Architecturals
912 Canal Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123

Deadline: August 1, 2012

Proposal Submission:

Please email a .pdf file (max 5MB) which includes:

  • a description/narrative of the work including any specific display requirements (max. 200 words)
  • 3 to 5 images
  • bio(s) or company information (max. 200 words)
  • Supporting links for reference may be included in the body of the email but may not substitute for the information requested in the Proposal document.

Email for Submissions: entry@adaptations2012.org

For more information and inquiries please contact ginni.stiles@adaptations2012.org

DesignPhiladelphia, in partnership with University of the Arts, now in its eighth year, is a nationally recognized, city-wide design festival that celebrates Philadelphia as a center for creative advancement, drawing from broad range of design disciplines.

Ginni Stiles is an interior designer and craft artisan who specializes in the reuse of salvage materials. She is currently designing the renovation of several Philadelphia row houses and organizing the non-profit initiative Arcadia Commons. Previously, she worked at Greensaw Design & Build, where she was the lead designer and one of the fabricators for the “Reclaimed Kitchen” episode of House Crashers, and at Onion Flats, where she assisted with the construction administration of green roof, storm water management, and solar pv projects.

Sense of Planet: The Arts and Ecology at Earth Magnitude

This post comes to you from Cultura21

NIEA Symposium

Saturday, 25 August 2012, 9:30–6:30pm

The acceleration of climate change, species extinction, and other ecological crises enjoins us to find ways of grasping historical and evolving circumstances at earth magnitude. The Sense of Planet symposium concentrates together an international array of artists, eco-theorists, and scholars to address the issues and activities of representing the earth in its entirety, and of representing and self-representing regions or localities amid the complex global systems in which they are enmeshed. The symposium follows the lead taken by Ursula Heise in her book Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global to investigate the possibilities and difficulties of sensing the planet, in all senses of sense.

Invited speakers

Ursula Heise, Professor of English and Director of the Program in Modern Thought & Literature,

Stanford University

The Database and the Ecological Imagination of the Planet

Marko Peljhan, Professor in Art and Media Arts & Technology, University of California at Santa Barbara, Co-director of Arctic Perspective Initiative

One Degree At A Time – Creating Systems of Systems for Interpolar Constructiv(ist)e Engagement

Jennifer Gabrys, Convener of the MA Design and Environment at Goldsmiths, University of London

Environmental Sensor Technologies and the Arts

Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University

Anthropocene Aesthetics

Timothy Morton, Professor and Rita Shea Guffey Chair in English, Rice University

Of Planet-Sense

Panel discussion

Terry Smith (Professor at Pittsburgh and NIEA, UNSW), Douglas Kahn (Professor of Media & Innovation, NIEA, UNSW), Jill Bennett (Professor and Director, NIEA, UNSW), and others. Convened by Douglas Kahn and Jill Bennett.

Click here to go to the Registration page.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

ALECC 2012 Biennial Conference

This post comes to you from Cultura21

The Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada / Association pour la littérature, l’environnement et la culture au Canada (ALECC) is a non-profit organization focused on the creation, appreciation, discussion, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge about the work of nature writers, environmental writers and journalists, eco-artists of all disciplines, ecocritics, and ecotheorists in Canada. Collectively they are interested in artistic, critical and cultural studies work on activism, animals, ecology, the environment, environmental justice, geography, land, landscape, mountain literature and culture, nature and nature writing, natural history writing, plants, region, regionalism, the rural, sense of place, transborder environmental issues, wilderness and wilder places, and much more.

 2012 ALECC Conference

The 2012 ALECC Conference will be focused on “place” as an embodied, embedded, troubling, elusive, contested, personal, political, and ecological site in which space + memory = place, in an astonishingly complex range of ways.

The Okanagan was chosen as the location for this conference as it contains one of the most endangered ecosystems in Canada and it is home to a vital indigenous culture, the Syilx or Okanagan Nation. Place is acknowledged through the co-hosting of the conference by Okanagan College and the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. The conference (August 9 – 12) will take place in the largest community in the Okanagan—Kelowna—with workshops and events in Penticton at Okanagan College’s internationally acclaimed zero-carbon footprint building and at the post-secondary indigenous educational institution, the En’owkin Centre

Publication

The ALECC publishes twice a year an online journal, The Goose, with diverse sections, reflecting the contributions and suggestions they receive:

  • Editor´s Notebook
  • Reviews and Lists of New/Upcoming Publications
  • Edge Effects
  • Canadian Regional Feature
  • The Graduate Network:
  • Scatterings

If you want to know more about The Goose, contribute or read their previous issues, visit http://www.alecc.ca/goose.php

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Earth Matters On Stage 2012 at Carnegie Mellon University

  There have been a bevvy of eco-theater conferences in recent years, but it’s great to bring it all together with Earth Matters on Stage, which took place this past May 31st-June 2 at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg, PA. It included a collection of performances, presentations and panels covering everything from carbon footprint to eco-dramaturgy. Session titles included: “Sustainable Design,” “Ecocriticism & Contemporary American Theater,” and “The Carbon Footprint of Theatrical Production,” among many others. That last one was by CSPA’s Ian Garrett, and involved discussions of all the usual players: Arcola Theatre, Julie’s Bicycle, the Broadway Green Alliance . . . Discussions of sustainable design carried throughout the festival and bled into discussion of performance throughout the weekend. Again and again: how do we make theatrical production more sustainable? How do we incorporate or cultural dialogue with the planet into the work? How do we make work that goes beyond “being less bad” into something that actually has a positive impact on the environment?

Below are a selection of photos from the event. Keynote speaker and performer was Holly Hughes, one of the NEA four, whose most recent work (“The Dog and Pony Show: Bring your own Pony,”) examines her relationship with her pets. Ecodrama Playwright competition winners this year included Chantal Bilodeau, whose work “Sila,” explores a cultural cross-section of inuit culture, scientific researchers, and polar bears, and Mark Rigney, whose play, “Bears,” depicts a slow deterioration of civilization through the intimate stories of a group of zoo-bound bears.  The work of Earth Matters founder Theresa May was ever-present in the discussion on eco-dramaturgy, and the weekend ended with a discussion of conferences past and future. The dialogue continues, as we discuss and discover more ways that our set of skills can serve the environment.

Readings in Performance and Ecology (What Is Theatre?)

This ground-breaking collection of essays focuses on how theatre, dance, and other forms of performance are helping to transform our ecological values. Leading scholars and practitioners explore the ways that familiar and new works of theatre and dance can help us recognize our reciprocal relationship with the natural world and how performance helps us understand the way our bodies are integrally connected to the land. They also explore how environmentalists use performance as a form of protest; how performance illuminates our relationships with animals as autonomous creatures and artistic symbols; and how performance can help humans re-define our place in the larger ecological community.

CSPA Director Ian Garrett contributed a chapter about the carbon footprint of theatrical production.

Purchase here Amazon.com: Readings in Performance and Ecology (What Is Theatre?) (9780230337282): Wendy Arons, Theresa J. May: Books.

Showman Fabricators Celebrates Donyale Werle’s Tony win for Peter and the Starcatcher

Tony Awards After Donyale Werle’s win for best Scenic Design for a play at the Tony Awards last night, Showman Fabricators, who worked to bring the show to Broadway, sent an email to congratulate Donyale Werle on her Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play for ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’. Saying “Building this set was an honor and pleasure.”

Read on from their email this morning…..

BRAVA!! to Tony Award winning Set Designer Donyale Werle for her work on ‘Peter and the Star Catcher’.


Best Scenic Design of a Play was 1 of 5 Tony Awards ‘Peter’ won last night. Donyale is very conscience about the environmental impact of  her designs and material choices. We could not have been more proud to have built this show for her. Congratulations to Donyale as well as David Benken, Technical Supervisor and Patrick Eviston, Production Carpenter.  And Donyale, thanks for the shout out during your gracious acceptance speech!

Set Designer Donyale Werle at Showman Fabricators

Donyale Playbill

Playbill came to Showman and took a tour through the sustainability-conscience design and fabrication process of ‘Peter’ with Donyale Werle.  For more information about the show, visit Peter and the Starcatcher.

Highlights of ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’


Click the video to view some of the highlights of ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’.  Also visit the Showman and ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ facebook pages for additional video’s and information.

View our profile on LinkedInLike us on Facebook Showman Fabricators
www.showfab.com
47-22 Pearson Place
Long Island City, New York 11101

 

Announcing Heatwave: LA’s Theatre Community Commits to the Environment

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) is proud to partner with

TO SUPPORT

HeatWave: LA’s Theatre Community Commits to the Environment.

Register here to attend the HeatWave conference on June 9th by clicking here!

HeatWave is a project which brings together the professional Los Angeles Theatre Community – writers, devised theatre makers and producing theatre companies – to confront and grapple with environmental issues, including Climate Change and issues of Environmental Justice.

HeatWave is designed to generate new works and connect the Theatre Community to the Environmental Community, as well as promote and facilitate greener practices in operations and production.

Join us for our kick-off day-long event at TreePeople’s Conference Center in Coldwater Canyon Park.

  • 12601 Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
  • Saturday, June 9, 2012
  • 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

$25 Registration Fee (includes lunch)

Scheduled Speakers include:

  • Terence McFarland (LA Stage Alliance)
  • Ian Garrett (CSPA)
  • Douglas Clayton (LA Stage Alliance)
  • Justin Yoffee (Arts, Earth Partnership)
  • John Raatz (GATE Foundation)
  • Spoken Word by Steve Connell & Douglas Kearney
  • Video by Heidi Druckler Dance Theatre
  • Staged Reading TBD

For more information about HeatWave and HeatWave events, visit www.HeatWaveTheatre.org!

ASTR Working Session Calls for Papers “Trans-cultural, trans-national, trans-species histories in performance”

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Since their first American Society for The Theatre Research (ASTR) Working Group session at the 2010 conference in Seattle, the Performance and Ecology Working Group has spawned symposia, anthologies, and publications. Foremost among those is a new volume that grew out of the 2010 session: Readings in Performance and Ecology, eds., Wendy Arons and Theresa J. May (Palgrave 2012). The Working Group has continued valuable research on numerous fronts, including “Earth Matters on Stage” conference at Carnegie Mellon University (2012) and “Staging Sustainability” at York University (2011).

“The rising tide of this focused research indicate not only a growing concern and mounting artistic will in the realm of ecological sensibility, but also faith in the imagination as a critical aspect of our individual and collective ecological identities.”

This year, as part of ASTR’s “Theatrical Histories” focus, they turn their attention to trans-cultural, trans-national, and trans-species performance in anticipation of a second volume of ecocritical writings on theatre and performance. The questions for the upcoming 2012 Working Group session, that will take place November 1st.- 4th 2012 include:

  •  How do transcultural and transnational performances re-map our understanding of what May has called “ecodramaturgy”?
  •  What constitutes “theatre of species” (Chaudhuri) and how might these trans-species performances rearrange or reinterpret understandings of representation?
  •  How do the material characteristics of artistic sites condition the aesthetics of the work produced?
  •  What kinds of geological and geographical histories emerge alongside socio-cultural storytelling?
  •  How do intersecting histories – indigenous, place-based, community-driven – play out on stage in performance?
  •  How do ecological transitions, transmigrations, transmutations, transformations and transference shape artistic practice and meaning-making in the theatre?
  •  Other questions, approaches and topics that clearly address trans-national, trans-cultural, trans-species topics in performance.

Please send Abstracts as word attachments to both Working Group conveners below by May 31, 2012:

Theresa May, University of Oregon ( tmay33 [at] uoregon [dot] edu)

Nelson Gray, University of Victoria ( ncgray [at] uvic [dot] ca)

 More info: http://www.astr.org/conference/2012-working-session-cfps

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Sustainability in Theater Conference Recordings Online Now!

Sustainability in Theater: People, Planet, Profit, Purpose

A blended conference dedicated to providing tangible, practical strategies to implementing greener theater practices, ensuring theaters remain a vital part of our community.

Day One (WEBCASTED LIVE): Learn

A full day of learning and networking, featuring sustainability experts, sustainability in theater pioneers and success stories.

All Day One activities were broadcast online – and are NOW AVAILABLE.

Please find the recording of the conference online! http://bnw.qwikcast.tv/

An Ecology of Ideas Conference – July 9-13, 2012 (USA)

This post comes to you from Cultura21

The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) and the Bateson Idea Group (BIG), a new organization exploring Gregory Bateson’s “pattern that connects,” have joined to hold a conference on the relations among ideas as seen from multiple perspectives. In organizing this conference they seek to find a balance between the spontaneous and the planned. They intend to seed conversations with various forms of presentation, ranging from keynote speakers to workshops and performances; all of which can be considered works of art in the domain of ideas. They will provide many spaces for conversation and innovation.

The three themes of this conference are:

Paradigm

What do our current paradigms determine or enable, and what would changes to these imply? How could we guess what other things would change along with the changes we desire? How would we implement a shift in an ethical and socially acceptable manner?

Recursion

Recursion (like its fellow concepts, self-reference and reflexivity) is open to many interpretations depending on who you are, and the context you are in. We are interested in both what is held in common between these different interpretations, and what is particular to each. We wish to explore not only the implications of acting based on how we understand these ideas, but also what happens when we proceed unaware of the differences.

Praxis

Why are praxis and theory often separated; and how can they better be brought together? In what ways are the ideas of cybernetics and systems inherently concerned with practice? Does the phrase “the paradox of praxis” evoke a resonance?

Program

The program will offer a compelling network of ideas to inspire participants in creating their own ideas, insights and thoughts. There will be a mix of meeting types: plenary presentations, workshops, conversations, and evening performances taking place in the wonderful spaces (and, weather permitting, grounds) of the Asilomar Conference Facility.

The following invited speakers will be making plenary presentations:
Graham Barnes
Eric Bateson
Nora Bateson
Fritjof Capra
Humberto Maturana
Ximena Dávila
Terrence Deacon
Debora Hammond
Klaus Krippendorff
Rex Weyler
Carol Wilder

Nora Bateson will show her award-winning film, An Ecology of Mind, about her father’s life’s work. Other performances will include film, multimedia, theatre, and music. The workshops for this conference will be designed as participatory experiences that in some manner generate or demonstrate ideas and concepts. They will have theme based conversations and also provide many convivial spaces for spontaneous conversations. A full program will be published on the organizers website by early May.

Venue

Asilomar is a National Historic Landmark is located on 107 acres of beautiful and ecologically diverse beachfront land. Asilomar offers a unique and desirable conference experience in its natural setting, its conference facilities, and its suitability for conversational spaces. http://www.visitasilomar.com/
Conference participants must book with the Asilomar site for accommodation and meals.

Important Dates

Apr-30 Proposals for Abstracts (papers and workshops) due
Apr-30 Early Bird Registration closes
May-10 Referees respond to proposals
May-20 Any Revisions to Abstracts due
May-30 Abstracts published online
May-30 Program details published online
July-09 Conference starts

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21