Wild Art is a firecracker new performance company based in Los Angeles.  Its inaugural production, H&G, a public outcry is a hysteric fun play about our imminent demise.  A hyperbolic performance about America’s blooming new fear of extreme weather caused by climate change, the audience is placed in the shoes of Hansel & Gretel to wander through a dreamlike, wild, and surprising journey from drought to flood. Playing at Paloma Street Studios, February 5 – 27, 2016.

Wild Art creates artistic projects that are relevant to NOW, charging people to examine and question the world we live in.  Our performances herald unfettered self expression and are daring, ambitious, visually striking, exciting and never without a sense of danger.

H&G, a public outcry was created through a series of workshops in The School of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts.

Principal Editor - Carole-Anne Upton , Middlesex University (C.upton@mdx.ac.uk)
Associate Editors

• Clare Finburgh, University of Essex (cfinb@essex.ac.uk)
• Lourdes Orozco, University of Leeds (L.Orozco@leeds.ac.uk)

Reviews Editor –  James Hudson, University of Leeds

Performing Ethos is a double-blind peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal which considers ethical questions relating to contemporary theatre and live performance. Global in scope, it provides a unique forum for rigorous scholarship and serious reflection on the ethical dimensions of a wide range of performance practices from the politically and aesthetically radical to the mainstream

Performing Ethos 4.2 and 5.1 & 2. 
List of articles (partial list):

Performing Ethos 4.2

• A ‘Turn to the Species’: Una Chaudhuri reflects on some of the ethical challenges and possibilities that are emerging from a decade of ecological performance practice and scholarship  - pp. 103-111(9)
  Authors: Preece, Bronwyn; Allen, Jess; Chaudhuri, Una
  This is a research article focussing on the ethical challenges of ecological performance practice and scholarship.
• Performed by ecologies: How Homo sapiens could subvert present-day futures - pp. 113-134(22)
  Author: Kershaw, Baz
  In this article, Kershaw argues that while humans assume that they possess agencies unique among the species, we are fundamentally performed by Earth’s ecologies and the only hope of averting our extinction is to perform more responsively and ethically with those ecologies.
• What is YOUR ethic of performance and/as ecology? - pp. 135-138(4)
  In 100 words or less, Performing Ethos contributors and editors answer the above question.

Performing Ethos 5.1&2

• Locating an Indigenous ethos in ecological performance  - pp. 17-30(14)
  Author: Woynarski, Lisa
  This article argues that an Indigenous ecological ethos is a necessary addition to thinking about performance and ecology.
• Performing from Heidegger’s Turning  - pp. 37-51(15)
  Author: Grant, Stuart
  This article aims to describe aspects of the performance methodology and philosophy of the site-specific ecological performance group, the Environmental Performance Authority (EPA) and make an argument for the efficacy of the EPA’s work, through concepts from Heidegger’s later writings.
• How to Duet with a Saguaro - pp. 53-64(12)
  Author: Eisele, Kimi
  Through a series of ‘somatic’ experiments, including one that involved standing with the cactus for an hour, the artist uncovers new meanings of both ‘duet’ and ‘performance’.
• Mother Earth tied to the train tracks: The scriptive implications of melodrama in climate change discourse - pp. 87-99(13)
  Author: Mancus, Shannon Davies
  This article examines the way climate change narratives have mobilized melodramatic frameworks, by examining An Inconvenient Truth (Guggenheim, 2006) as paradigmatic.
• Swimming with the Salamander: A community eco-performance project - pp. 119-135(17)
  Author: Kuppers, Petra
  This article uses community writing to explore the ethics and engagements of the Salamander Project, an eco-performance project by The Olimpias, a disability culture collective.
• Temporary home: An ethical investigation into the ecologies of a homemaking ‘between wheat and pine’ - pp. 65-78(14)
  Author: Andersen, Mads Floor
  How can we produce performance events in an ethical manner, which are built ofs dialogues between the event and the ecological processes in which the event will take place? This article is an investigation of this question through a reflection on the making of Nomadic Arts Festival, Poland 2014.If you have more questions about this journal then please click here or email eden@intellectbooks.com

Join us for an evening exploring why scenarios are such a key element of climate change research and politics, and also why it is important to invite a wider range of perspectives on these themes.

In December 2015, University of Sheffield and the Open University launched Climate Change in Residence: Future Scenarios. This funded programme of work provides an opportunity for three artists to be ‘in residence’ for one year from June 2016 within key climate change networks and institutions. The project includes an award for each artist of £10,000. Through these residencies, artists will be able to research climate change, and spend time exploring and developing their own artistic practice. In this way we hope these artists will introduce a new cultural depth to public conversations around the future.

This evening event at ArtsAdmin will explore climate scenarios and be an opportunity to learn more about the University of Sheffield and the Open University’s programme to support three artists-in-residence to develop new work in response to climate change scenarios with lead researchers Renata Tyszczuk and Joe Smith and producer Hannah Bird. It will be an opportunity for applicants to develop their applications before the deadline on 15 February 2016.

This project is generously supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation, The Ashden Trust, The University of Sheffield and The Open University

WHEN
Wednesday, 27 January 2016 from 19:30 to 21:30 (GMT) Add to Calendar

WHERE
Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios – 28 Commercial Street City of London E1 6AB GB – View Map

The great warrior king of 17th century India, Shivaji Maharaj, established the Maratha Empire against the dominant Mughals and held off the territorial ambitions of the Europeans. Part of his legacy is a group of island forts in the Arabian Sea with stonewalls ringing the edges against the sea and the Europeans. The Shivaji island forts are the starting metaphor and reality for responses to the invasion of the seawaters for the barrier islands and low elevation islands and deltas around the world.

With the predicted sea level rise of one meter, thousands of islands and deltas and millions of people around the world will be threatened with frequent saltwater floods from storms and king tides. Freshwater may disappear. Sewer and rainwater drainage will not function. Evacuation will intensify a refuge crisis and tensions in national borders. Most islands have a light human or agricultural intervention. Others like Miami Beach are dense urban places.

The competition asks artists, architects, designers, planners, scientists and writers to propose the practical and impossible to maintain the continued human habitation of these islands throughout the 21st century. The ideas should be demonstrated on an island or delta under high risk to bring worldwide attention to these threatened places and push the world to live up to Article 8 of the COP21 agreement signed in Paris.

Responses can be elaborate infrastructures for urban cities and DIY methods for agricultural islands by residents with very limit economic resources. (or vis-a-versa). Both parody and reality are welcome as long as the proposals help wake up politicians, engage the minds of a broad public and respect the people of the islands or deltas. Think like Shivaji. The old political structure has lost its ability to respond and the invasion of the little known outside forces from the sea pose a serious threat to your way of life.

Each entry will be submitted online as a GIF demonstrating a proposal when the sea rises at least one meter. The GIFs should be persuasive to an international audience. Humor, drama, paradox and factual reality in photographs, anime, renderings and all other visual formats are acceptable. Clarity of idea and message is very important.

A group of 15-25 finalists will be selected by most of the participating artists, architects and scientists from Rising Waters Confab 2015 & 2016. These finalists will become part of a traveling exhibition available to museums, global warming conferences and outdoor giant screens. One of the finalists will be selected to join Confab 2016 for one week in May 2016. All expenses will be paid to travel and to participate.

Organizer

The competition is a project organized by Glenn Weiss as a contribution to the Rising Waters Confab 2016 dialogue. Weiss has curated and managed other competitions and exhibitions for the public art agencies in the USA including Times Square and for institutions such as the Storefront for Art and Architecture and PS1 in New York City.

Rising Waters Confab 2016 at Robert Rauschenberg Residency
The second annual Confab will be held for 4 weeks at the Robert Rauschenberg estate on the threatened island of Captiva in the Gulf of Mexico. In the 2016, Buster Simpson and Glenn Weiss are coordinating the residency and think tank to produce works and dialogues about rising seas and global warming. The 2016 list of artists, architects and scientists has yet to be released, but 2015 included David Buckland, Mel Chin, Xavier Cortada, Orion Cruz, Gretel Ehrlich, John Englander, Walter Hood, Lewis Hyde, Natalie Jeremijenko, Edward Morris, Helen Nagge, Jeremy Pickard, Andrea Polli, Thomas Ruppert, Susannah Sayler, Tom Van Lent, Glenn Weiss, June Wilson, Kristie Anders and organizers Buster Simpson, Laura Sindell and Anne Focke. The online catalog of projects from 2015 can be downloaded at https://risingwatersrr.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/risingwatersreportfinal.pdf

Links

• Competition Website:   https://Shivaji2016.com
• Existing Engineering and Situations: https://www.pinterest.com/shivaji2016
• Sample GIFs: https://www.pinterest.com/shivaji2016/sample-gifs/
• Recommended GIF Maker:   http://ezgif.com/maker
• Rising Waters Confab: https://risingwatersrr.files.wordpress.com

Anthropozine is a zine of interviews and collages on the Anthropocene – not only as a geological epoch but as a manifold metaphor for our planetary concerns. Including interviews with Will Steffen, Natalie Jeremijenko, Manfred Laubichler, Amita Baviskar, Maya Kóvskaya and more. Borne of the Anthropocene Campus symposium at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin, Nov 2014.

CLICK HERE to Download the Zine 

reCreate Featured Artist Veronica Cianfrano Artist Reception

Saturday December 19th, 4pm-6pm
Installation in Gallery Dec 2nd thru the 31st

The fear of forgetting and being forgotten is practically universal. I am interested in how contemporary communication and digital photography have altered our memories, social interactions, and psychology. I use this connecting thread of memory to establish an emotional connection to the viewer by incorporating objects and images that are loaded with nostalgia or sentimentality. Aesthetic references to memory, degradation, ephemera, and family photographs are common themes in my layered, multi-media works. As I often comment on the negative psychosocial impact of public, global, digital communication, I tend to create large-scale installations that encourage viewer interaction with the space and each other. It is my hope that these interactions help reinforce a physical and emotionally responsible connection to each other and the space around us.

Veronica Cianfrano is a multimedia artist who has been examining “the communication break down” through photographic images and memories of her familial ties and through our current reliance on digital communication.

Her work serves as a display for these vignettes of examination whether it be through memory decay, new meanings found in old footage, or the effects of the news media on our state of mind. Since receiving her MFA from the University of the Arts in 2010, Veronica Cianfrano has served as both Co-Founder and Curator for Manifesto-ish and Champions of Empty Rooms. She has also served as a Mentor and Teacher for pre-college and college level art students as well as professional artists.

Find out more about Veronica and her work on her website.

New Year’s Time Capsules with reCreate Featured Artist Veronica Cianfrano

Sunday, December 20th
12:30pm-3:30pm

Come to The Resource Exchange to build your own time capsule with reCreate Featured Artist Veronica Cianfrano! Using scrap wood, paints, wallpaper, and more salvaged materials, participants will build and decorate their personalized time capsules. They could be filled with memorabilia that mark your personal timeline, traditional items that exemplify the here and now, or conceptual items that take a political stance or tell a specific story. During the workshop, Veronica will assist participants in finding the right materials in our store, building the personalized forms, planning for what goes inside, and preparing to seal them. After the workshop, participants will take their capsules home, fill them, seal them, and bury them in honor of the new year. Participants will be encouraged to document their process in photos and share them with Veronica, the re team, and each other.$5 workshop fee + the cost of supplies chosen by participants from our warehouse full of reclaimed and discounted making materials.

Space is limited, so please RSVP

info@theresourceexchange.org

267-997-0060

Changing the way homeless and marginalized youth see and are seen through film.

A creative outlet is essential for healing from trauma, for gaining essential skills for self sufficiency and getting on the path to self actualization. Portland has one of the highest concentrations of homeless youth in the country. It also has some of the best wrap around social services for homeless youth in the country. However, most agencies providing life saving services do not have the capacity for consistent creative programming or cutting edge technological training.

Outside the Frame was created to fill this void.

Founder Nili Yosha created and ran an innovative and visible film program at Outside In for three years. Outside the Frame builds upon that foundation.

LEARN MORE, CLICK HERE

Curated by artists Camilla Nelson (Reading & Writing with a Tree) and Alex Metcalf (Tree-Listening). The guest artist is artist Tim Knowles.

Are you an artist, writer or performer looking to take your practice in a new direction? Are you a thinker in search of practical experiment? Are you a tree enthusiast keen to create? Or do you just want to have fun with trees?

Branching Out is facilitated by three contemporary artists and thinkers whose unique ways of working with trees include writing, performance, drawing, sound and installation. We aim to inspire and support you to explore new ideas and techniques, to work with unusual materials in novel environments, but no specialist knowledge is required. We welcome both amateurs and experts alike!

Branching Out expands conceptions of what constitutes human and other-than-human intra-action through a creative examination of being-with-trees. Our robustly researched creative exercises combine practical investigation with a thorough examination of the history of human-tree relations (as fuel, shelter, transport, weapons, tools etc.) and the imaginative tree works devised by artists through the ages (from early Japanese charcoal drawings to Giuseppe Penone’s Branches of Thought, Ana Mendieta’s Tree of Life, Andy Goldsworthy’s natural sculptures and Katie Paterson’s Future Library… to name but a few).

We will explore the shift in perception that comes from tying yourself to a tree (Charles Ray), the discombobulation of acoustically penetrating a tree’s internal workings (Tree Listening) and the mind-opening excitement of embodying tree-being (Other Spaces), among other innovative tree-led strategies designed to remake your sense of human-tree relations. Branching Out fosters a radical reconception of the ways we inhabit the world in relation to other organisms.<

Join us!

Leaders

Camilla Nelson

Camilla is a poet, text-artist, researcher and collaborator across a range of disciplines.  Her collaboration with Rhys Trimble, ‘Tidal Voices’, was short-listed for the Tidal Bay Swansea Lagoon World-First Art Commission (link is external)(Cape Farewell) and her first full collection Apples & Other Languages(forthcoming with Knives Forks and Spoons) was long-listed for the 2015 Melita Hume Poetry Prize (link is external).  She is poetry editor for The Goose (link is external) and founding editor of Singing Apple Press (link is external).  Herpoetry (link is external), reviews (link is external) and criticism have been published and documented in national and international magazines, journals,newspapers (link is external), books (link is external) and anthologies (link is external), in print and online.  She performs and exhibits her text-work (link is external) and research (link is external) at conferences and festivals across the UK and abroad.  Beyond her preoccupation with avant-garde poetics her research circles around intermedia and alternative approaches to knowledge formation.  She was awarded her doctorate in Reading and Writing with a Tree: Practising Nature Writing as Enquiry (link is external) by Falmouth University in 2013.  She is particularly interested in plants.

Alex Metcalf

Alex is an installation artist with a long history of working intimately with trees. His work has been commissioned and exhibited across Europe and in the US, and he is perhaps best known for his work with ‘tree listening’ which allows us to listen to the inner life of the tree as sap rises and falls throughout the day, and the vibrations of the surrounding environment are absorbed into the tree’s body. Exhibitions include art venues such as MoMa (NY), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Fermynwoods Contemporary Arts, Tate Britain, and CCANW. Much of his work is shown in non-art venues however. These include the John Innes Centre, the Natural History Museum (Los Angeles), Woburn Abbey, WWF Nature Reserves, Alnwick Castle, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, and RHS Harlow. His work has featured widely in print and media, including BBC1 Look North, BBC2 Autumnwatch, BBC Radio 2, 4, and World Service, and in The Observer, The Irish Times, The Times, and The Guardian newspapers.

Guest Artist

Tim Knowles

Tim Knowles is best known for making visible what is, by nature or by design, unseen. Working in a range of media from photography and video to drawing and light installation, Knowles creates process-oriented works that rely on chance and environmental elements. Known for incorporating nature into his projects, in 2009 Knowles mounted a kite-like weathervane onto a helmet and followed the wind’s momentum wherever it led, recording the experience with a series of long-exposure photographs entitled “Wanderlust.” Knowles’ foray into a more man-made process resulted in “Recorded Delivery” (2011). To create this collection of video and still images, Knowles attached a camera and GPS device to a package and recorded over 20 hours of the object’s journey through the U.K.’s postal system.

The Guardian says: While land artist Richard Long has tramped the earth in an attempt to understand its mass, Tim Knowles walks to comprehend its power. His art is beholden to the vagaries of the British weather, and in particular the wind, which he follows doggedly across the countryside wearing a Heath Robinson-style device that indicates its direction and the path he should follow. These journeys have ranged from a perilous two-day excursion across Dartmoor to wandering through the lamp-lit streets of London at midnight. Each of these endeavours is captured on film. When Knowles returns to the studio, he refers to the GPS and redraws the route, creating a finely wrought image that charts his meandering walk across the countryside. These expeditions were inspired by a hot-air balloon accident in which Knowles broke his leg. Far from scaring him off adventure for life, the frustrating period of recuperation proved the spur for a series of arduous challenges. Perhaps the riskiest was an ongoing project he calls Nightwalks, a series of excursions across the countryside conducted during new moons last year. The artist sets up a large-format camera on a long exposure, then scales treacherous ridges and inches along precipices for an hour while carrying three flashlights. The resulting images reveal thin streaks of amber light, shuddering across the pitch black.

December 15, 2015 6:30pm

June 21st overture destroyed by Spectra. Photo by Aviva Rahmani, November 23, 2015.

Aviva Rahmani will perform the first three movements of Blued Trees, a five-part symphony that began with an overture in Peekskill, New York during the summer solstice in June 2015 and will conclude on Election Day in 2016.Newtown Creek is the second movement of the symphony, and is conceived in relation to the exhibition Aqueous Earth. Blued Trees at ISCP will be a musical installation with live performers and projections and will include a requiem for the lost habitat of Newtown Creek that has become a Superfund site.

Peekskill was chosen for the overture of Blues Trees because plans for expanded pipelines there would pass within 105 feet of the flawed Indian Point nuclear plant which is only 30 miles from New York City. The music for Peekskill was installed as a series of vertical symbols painted on trees with ultramarine blue and buttermilk, to grow moss and reflect the connection between trees and water. The designated pattern of the painted trees was aerially conceived as one-third-mile-long musical measures. One tree equaled one note. Blued Trees has or will be been installed in 20 sites internationally, and is copyrighted to initiate litigation against the pipeline companies.

We are pleased to invite you to the premiere of the first three movements of Blued Trees, a live performance with media, at ISCP in New York City (http://www.iscpnyc.org/events/current/blued_trees_for_aqueous_earth.html). After the performance there will be a brief conversation with the artist, Aviva Rahmani.

The overture trees were cut down by the Spectra Corporation for high volume natural gas pipeline. The destruction was in defiance of the Cease and Desist notification meant to protect Blued Trees and the habitat and community they were a part of for the overture in Peekskill, NY. This is still a critical site because the expanded, high-pressure pipeline would pass 105′ from a decrepit nuclear plant (Indian Point) situated just 30 miles from New York City.

You may enjoy this new article about the project: http://cornellsun.com/2015/12/03/aviva-rahmanis-blued-trees-and-the-fight-against-pipelines/

The Blued Trees overture from June 21, 2015 can be found here: https://vimeo.com/135290635.

Please consider making a donation to help cover the cost of the legal work needed to stop pipelines with Blued Trees: Blued Trees Defense 2.

This program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.