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dot.rural internships

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

dot.rural Internship Scheme 2014

dot.rural is one of the three RCUK Digital Economy research hubs and brings together a team of over 80 researchers from a range of academic disciplines to explore the challenges of the rural digital economy. Activities in the Hub are organised around four rural challenges: healthcare, accessibility & mobilities, conservation of natural resources, enterprise & culture. Technology research to meet challenges in these areas is focused around natural language generation and affective communication, mechanisms to support reasoning, coordination and collaboration, intelligent information infrastructures, satellite and wireless communications. More details on the Hub its research activities and projects can be found on the website: http://www.dotrural.ac.uk

Internship Scheme

As part of its wider engagement with the academic community and impact agenda, dot.rural has introduced a summer internship scheme. This is designed to support students from outside dot.rural and the University of Aberdeen to spend time at the Hub. You will join a lively community of 23 PhD students already based in the Hub, working across a range of disciplines.

The duration of an internship is 10 weeks (full-time) and the scheme is aimed at currently registered postgraduate students, particularly PhD students. For PhD students who receive a stipend from their home university during the internship, a bursary of £300 per week will be available. For PhD students who suspend their stipend at their home university’s request, an enhanced bursary of £350 per week will be available. Internships will take place over Summer 2014.

University accommodation is available (at a cost to the intern) but is only available between 23 June and 30 August 2014.

Applications should be submitted by 5pm on 25 April 2014 by filling in the application form and uploading a CV. Applications will be considered by the Hub Directors and relevant other researchers in dot.rural. For queries relating to the scheme contact Dr Jennifer Holden (j.a.holden@abdn.ac.uk, 01224 274238).

Eligibility

Internships are only available to UK or EEA students, i.e. UK nationals at a UK university, EEA nationals at a UK university and EEA nationals at a EEA university. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the scheme and UKBA regulations, students on a Tier 4 visa at UK universities are not eligible to apply for internships.

Due to the nature of the funding for the internship scheme, students registered at the University of Aberdeen are not eligible.

Illustrative Topics

For the 2014 internships we are looking for interns to specify their own 10 week research project related to dot.rural’s current work or future priorities related to the Information Economy. Projects do not need to be rural in their focus and research areas could include (but are not limited to):

  • Social Media – Data Analytics (inc. Text-Mining), Curation
  • Internet of Things
  • Trust, Privacy & Risk
  • Digital Culture
  • Smart Cities
  • Climate Change, Risk & Vulnerability
  • Personal & Pervasive Health
  • Inclusive & Secure Societies

For more background information on the UK Government’s Information Economy strategy, see the report at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/information-economy-strategy

Timetable

  • Deadline for Applications 25 April 2014
  • Decisions Announced 16 May 2014
  • Earliest Internship Start Date 23 June 2014

University Accommodation Available: 23 June to 30 August 2014 (Wavell House £17pppn) 14 July – 30 August (New Carnegie Court en suite £22.50 pppn) contact: hillhead.halls@abdn.ac.uk

Residential Requirement

It is expected that internship students will be physically present in the Hub everyday during the working week, except when they are away on fieldwork and other meetings away from the Hub. Part of the internship is about spending time in a large interdisciplinary Hub and making the most of the networking opportunities and mentoring opportunities from postdoctoral researchers. Short-term accommodation is can be difficult to find in Aberdeen so it is highly recommended that internship students time their internship period with when university vacation accommodation is available.

Selection Criteria

Each application will be considered on its merits, with the following criteria being used to guide the selection process: academic excellence, fit between student and internship topic, potential for impact, and feedback from referees.

To Apply

To apply for a dot.rural internship please complete the online application form at http://www.dotrural.ac.uk/content/applicationinternship. As part of the application process you will be required to upload a 2 page CV (as pdf) and to supply the names for two referees. For PhD students one of these referees should be your lead supervisor. You will also be required to outline a possible internship project including possible academics and researchers you would work with.

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ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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International Award Celebrates a Greener Edinburgh Fringe

Creative Carbon Scotland, news, Open Calls, , ,

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Applications are now open for the 2014 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award, celebrating the greenest and most sustainable shows on the Edinburgh Fringe.

This project, a partnership between Creative Carbon Scotland and the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, rewards shows which engage their audiences with sustainability, take responsibility for their environmental impacts, and think big about how the arts can help to grow a sustainable world.

Applications are open from February 19th to July 18th, with a shortlist announced in The List on July 30th, and the winner announced in a ceremony at Fringe Central on August 22nd.

“We believe artists and cultural organisations are uniquely placed to address the challenges brought on by climate change,” says Ben Twist, Director of Creative Carbon Scotland.

“This major award celebrates and publicises their innovative work during the Festival Fringe.”

The award for Sustainable Production on the Fringe was first launched in 2010 at the Hollywood Fringe and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

“We see the arts as the best driver of sustainable societies and it’s not just our opinion: data shows that performance promotes positive environmental, social, and economic impacts,” says Ian Garrett, Director of the CSPA.

“The fringe model provides an ideal platform to start working with sustainable ideas through all of the freedoms and restrictions the festival allows!”

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of cultural organisations using the arts to help shape a sustainable Scotland.

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts is in the Arts is a Think Tank for Sustainability in the Arts and Culture.

Shows can apply now at https://www.sustainablepractice.org/fringe/

Previous Edinburgh recipients include: The Pantry Shelf (2010), a satirical comedy that takes place in any ordinary pantry shelf, produced by Team M&M at Sweet Grassmarket; Allotment (2011) by Jules Horne and directed by Kate Nelson, produced by Nutshell Productions at the Inverleith Allotments in co-production with Assembly; The Man Who Planted Trees (2012) adapted from Jean Giono’s story by Ailie Cohen, Richard Medrington, Rick Conte and directed by Ailie Cohen, produced by the Edinburgh’s Puppet State Theatre; and How to Occupy an Oil Rig (2013), by Daniel Bye and Company, produced at Northern Stage. Awardees have gone on to future success on the Fringe and presentations around the world including as close as Cardiff for World Stage Design, and as far as New Zealand and all across the US and Canada.

Contact:

Ben Twist, Director, Creative Carbon Scotland
ben@creativecarbonscotland.com
0131 529 7909
www.creativecarbonscotland.com

www.sustainablepractice.org/fringe/

Image Credit: EFF

The post International Award Celebrates a Greener Edinburgh 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

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Arts and Ecology: emerging uses for digital technologies

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This post comes to you from Cultura21

Digital Creativity is a journal devoted to the intersection of the creative arts and digital technology. Concerned with both the practical and the theoretical, Digital Creativity offers a unique forum to researchers and practitioners involved in the interdisciplinary nature of making or using digital media in creative contexts. They include such disciplines as fine art, graphic design, illustration, photography,
printmaking, sculpture, 3D design, interaction design, product design, textile and fashion design, film-making, animation, games design, music, dance, drama, creative writing, poetry, interior design, architecture, and urban design.

Proposal for a special issue of Digital Creativity Vol 25 No 4

Call for papers

In this special issue, they explore the emergent practice known broadly as ‘Arts & Ecology’, a set of practices in which arts practice engages with the natural world.
Practice might be issues-based or activist in nature, or may simply have a desire to reflect upon or engage directly with nature or ecology. This special issue of the journal seeks writers, theorists, practitioners, and other researchers who can reflect on this practice and on emerging and emergent uses of digital technologies within it. Can it be said that there is a new awareness of and a newly-emergent practice of nature writing? Are ecological artists using technologies in different ways? Do
ecological pressure impact upon how we use, develop and fuel our technologies? Can renewable energy play a part in a technological arts practice? Are digital technologies changing the ways in which people can engage with the natural world? How are cultural practices remixing the digital world with the more-than-human and other-than-human worlds? We welcome philosophical and/or theoretical reflection as well as detailed descriptions of practice or critique.

Important dates:
Abstracts are due on May 1, 2014
Short/long papers are due on: July 10, 2014
Final, revised papers are due on: August 23, 2014
Expected publication: November, 2014

More Info.

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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

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Greater Thames Marshes, Nature Improvement Area Commission Opportunity

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The project provides a unique opportunity with much of the land within Hadleigh Country Park being designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest as it is a haven for around 1,300 species of wildlife including the shrill carder bee, the emerald damselfly and the weevil hunting wasp. The local environment also supports dark-bellied Brent geese.

Public Art Online Commissions – Greater Thames Marshes, Nature Improvement Area Commission Opportunity.

(Deadline was 3 March 2014)

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Here Comes the Sun… | Artsadmin

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From Artsadmin.

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As a leader in the arts and environment field, Artsadmin is always looking for ways to make Toynbee Studios more sustainable (and are proud to have Green Tourism Silver award).

Since the studios were renovated in 2006 Artsadmin has been investigating the potential of putting solar panels on the roof. Then, back in September last year (when the sun was still shining) the group came upon Joju Solar, who thought they might be able to help.

Joju turned out to be exactly what was needed – they were able to manage the whole project – from the many conversations with surveyors about the weight of the panels, how they would be fixed and designed, and how much electricity the system might generate, to the purchase and installation of the panels. Finally last week Joju’s engineers installed 40 solar panels – which will generate up to 10 kilowatts of green energy.

The installation will also (hopefully) help make significant savings. With an estimated return of around 12% the panels will hopefully pay for themselves in around eight years – and over the next 25 years (the length of the lease we have on the whole building) Artsadmin is likely to make a significant return through its feed-in tariff.

For those who haven’t made it up to the roof to have a look, Artsadmin has also installed a digital display in the foyer which will show how much electricity it’s generating at any time, so here’s hoping for a hot summer in E1.

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Display in the foyer the day Artsadmin overstepped the 100 kWh mark.

ARTPORT_COOL STORIES FOR WHEN THE PLANET GETS HOT IV: WATCH AND VOTE FOR THE WINNER

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From ARTPORT.

COOL STORIES FOR WHEN THE PLANET GETS HOT IV

CSIV

PLEASE WATCH & VOTE
until March 31, 2014

for your favorite artist to help them win an artist residency at Largo das Artes in Rio de Janeiro!

ARTPORT_making waves is pleased to announce the launch of COOL STORIES FOR WHEN THE PLANET GETS HOT IV, the fourth biennial competition of short art videos and animations by artists from around the globe who address climate change.COOL STORIES IV is launched on the web at www.artport-project.org and invites the public to vote for the final winner who will be awarded an artist residency at Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (largodasartes.com.br). The deadline for voting is March 31. COOL STORIES IV (50′) is presented in partnership with FilmAnnex,filmannex.com, an online platform and community for independent filmmakers and video artists.
Copyright © 2014 ARTPORT_making waves, All rights reserved.

WILDFLOWERING L.A. enters blooming and touring season

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Via WILDFLOWERING L.A..

WILDFLOWERING L.A. blooming and touring season arrives…

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Site #37: Cal Poly College of Environmental Design

In November 2013 owners of of 50 selected sites across Los Angeles county were prescribed one of four custom wildflower seed mixes based on their location. Participants were responsible for sowing, watering, weeding, and occasionally hunting gophers. Over the past few weeks we have been receiving reports from these Wildflowering L.A. sites. The first accounts of flowers came in early February, but with our early spring Southern California heat and sun kicking in, we have many sites experiencing their first waves of dramatic blooms. This will continue in secessional waves through June with various species coming up, flowering, and then receding as others take the stage.

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Site #44: 478 E. Avenue 2, Lincoln Heights

On January 17th, 2014, our governor Gerry Brown declared a “drought state of emergency” in California. And while the orchards and fields that feed us are drying up in the Central Valley, our green lawns and flowing fountains down here in Los Angeles make it seem like everything is just fine. Perhaps the Wildflowering L.A. project might have been easier during a rainy El Niño year when our wildflowers really pop and Angelenos make the pilgrimage out to the flowing poppy fields of the Antelope Valley. Though it’s been a challenge, this drought period seems like the most appropriate and provocative time for us to really pay attention to the land we live on, to what really grows here, along with the whys, whens, and hows.

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Site #27: 4237 Eagle Rock Boulevard

Participants have been sending their ‘bloom ratings,’ estimates of when their wildflower site might peak, some current snapshots, and general anecdotes about their experiences with the project. I have been compiling this information and adding it to our ‘map’ page, which will continue to be updated through June. Around that time the plants will start to dry up and set seed. Participants will be encouraged to let this cycle play out, allowing the meadows to gradually turn golden brown and broadcast seed for the next season.

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Site #17: 1150 W. Grovecenter Street, Covina

From March to June 2014 you can take a tour to view the sites with the best displays which include homes, churches, schools, botanic gardens, public parks, vacant lots, and even a U.S. post office. All of the sites are visible from streets and public paths (but should not be entered). A prominent carved wood sign, inspired by state and federal park signage, identifies each site which range in size from 500 to 2000 square feet.

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Wildflowering L.A. map / Bloom Ratings: Red = Excellent / Yellow = Good / Blue = Low to None

To help plan your tour, start on our interactive map page, and then download this PDF list of the most active sites organized by geographic region. And for the energetic cyclist crowd in North East L.A. – where there is an especially heavy concentration of sites – a special map for touring on two wheels has been created. Share your text and photo blooming updates with the Twitter and Instagram hashtag #wildfloweringLA, which will post directly to this webpage, where you can also see what people are finding at other sites across town.

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Site #44: 478 E. Avenue 2, Lincoln Heights

Future Wildflowering L.A. programs include an installation/exhibition about the project presented April 26-27, 2014 at The Shed (1355 Lincoln Avenue, Pasadena 91103) hosted by La Loma Development; a late-June seed-sharing event; and a fall release event for a booklet telling the story of selected participating sites with before and after photos.

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Site #28: 3847 DuRay Place, Baldwin Hills

Wildflowering L.A. sites were selected from an open call based on public visibility and distribution across the County. Owners of selected sites are given free native wildflower seed mixes at workshops in partnership with the Theodore Payne Foundation. Soil preparation, seeding, and wildflower tending were demonstrated, and one of four custom wildflower seed mixes was prescribed – Coastal, Flatlands, Hillside, and Roadside – inspired by Reyner Banham’s 1971 book, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies.

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Site #25 – 2821 West View Street, West Adams (from The Horticult)

For more information visit the ‘about’ and ‘resources’ pages of the website. And posted yesterday at The Horticult is a great tour of various project sites by Chantal Aida Gordon, Field of Dreams: ‘Wildflowering L.A.’ Turns Urban Sprawl Into Native, Magical Meadows.

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Site #17: 1150 W. Grovecenter Street, Covina

Special shout-outs to Roman Jaster for the graphic design and website; the boys at the Knowhow Shop for the sign fabrication (and super idea of burning them, instead of staining them black); Isabel Avila for the official before and after photos; Lili Singer and Genny Arnold at the Theodore Payne Foundation for their support/expertise/enthusiasm; the ladies at LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division), Samantha Frank, Laura Hyatt, Maryam Hosseinzadeh, and especially Shamim Momin.

CALIFORNIA POPPY (ESCHSCHOLZIA CALIFORNICA)

#40 – Carthay Center Elementary School, 6351 W. Olympic Boulevard (from The Horticult)

Wildflowering L.A. is a native wildflower seed sowing initiative throughout Los Angeles County by artist Fritz Haeg. It is presented by LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) in partnership with the Theodore Payne Foundation and supported by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation.

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Phacelia tanacetifolia (Lacy Phacelia) from the Roadside and Hillside mixes

OPEN CALL: ARTLEAKS GAZETTE NO.2

Cultura21, news, Open Calls

This post comes to you from Cultura21

(An)Other Art World(s)? Imagination Beyond Fiction

The first issue of the ArtLeaks Gazette was aimed at bringing critical awareness of the challenges and obstacles of the contemporary art system. While they considered this a necessary initial step in enacting meaningful transformations of this system, ArtLeaks now feels the need to move beyond exposure and breaking the silence into ways of engagement, or what does it mean to be agents of change in the art world today?

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The main question that the second issue of the ArtLeaks Gazette addresses is: What are the conditions and possibilities of alternative art worlds? And because they ask about that which is yet to come, how can people engage and use their imagination, avoiding, at the same time, the traps of utopian thinking? In many ways, these questions are precisely related to the challenge of special and temporal limitations, of the continuity of building more engaged institutions, sustainable socio-political practices, something which people can come back to and extend. It seeks to bring together a host of proposals for practices, platforms, organizations and ask how people can push further beyond their being too local and temporary. One step towards this is recognizing the international character of the resistance, calling for a different way of making a critical art, of running institutions and of doing politics as people translate their aspirations and practices into a new cycle of struggles.

They welcome contributions in a variety of narrative  forms, from articles, commentaries, and glossary entries, to posters, drawings and films. The deadline for entries is the 31st of March 2014. Contributions should be delivered in English or as an exemption in any language after negotiations with the editorial council. The editorial council of ArtLeaks takes responsibility of communicating with all authors during the editorial process.

Please contact them with any questions, comments and submit materials to: artsleaks [at] gmail [dot] com.

They will publish all contributions delivered to them in a separate section. However, they take full responsibility in composing an issue of the gazette in the way they feel it should be done.

More Information

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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

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New at The Resource Exchange: reOPENING!

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From The Resource Exchange.

Preview the re!

Want a sneak peek of The Resource Exchange’s new store? We are proud to announce that starting Sunday, March 9th from 12-4, The Resource Exchange will be open for business!

newsletter_photo_logo.1donate_here

But before we totally lift the curtain…

Much like theatre productions have a series of show previews, March will serve as our time to test, fix, and continue to rejuvenate the store while we have customers. Starting on Sunday March 9th, the re will be open our normal hours of Wednesdays-Saturdays from 10-6 and Sundays from 12-4. Then in April, when we’ve finished our last fixes (and when the weather is warmer!) we will have a GRAND reOPENING EVENT!

Wait, will you be open in March?

Yes! The Resource Exchange will be open our normal hours all through March starting on Sunday the 9th from 12-4.

We have been working hard setting up the new store. Here’s a sneak peek of what it looks like so far, but make sure you come on by this month to see our progress in person, and of course to get your reclaimed and salvaged arts materials, office supplies, set pieces, home decor…and so much more!

When you come visit us on Sunday, be sure to check out the store’s new neighbors at Mid Century Furniture Warehouse, they will be open from 12-3.

HowlRound: Climate Scientist’s Challenge to Artists

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Via HowlRound.

Playwright Karen Malpede recently wrote an essay for HowlRound, a Center for the Theater Commons, highlighting how tragedy and theater needs to be restructured around the truths of climate change. At the end of the essay, she highlighted important theatre artists and playwrights making work to begin challenging art to take on a more active role in leading climate change, including a regular contributor to the Center of Sustainable Practices in the Arts Chantal Bilodeau.

Here is the beginning of Karen Malpede’s article:

Relatively recently, the climate modeling of climate scientists has allowed us to see into the future. While we don’t know everything we know enough to ask if we wish to damage the planet beyond repair in this the new Anthropocene era, when the earth’s ecosystems are being altered by human beings at an unprecedented rate. The knowledge we now have thanks to climate models creates both a terrifying certainty and a spiritual dilemma for every person. And to confront the spirit, humans turn to art. Literature changes paradigms, whether the literature of the Bible or of the great Greek Tragedies, we learn our selves through the word.

To read more of how she traces climate’s importance and the arts’ historical role in shaping paradigms like climate change, see here for the full article.

HowlRound_0