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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

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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

———-

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!

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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.

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The Cotabato Sessions, a music legacy from the Philippines by Susie Ibarra — Kickstarter

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The Cotabato Sessions, a music legacy from the Philippines by Susie Ibarra — Kickstarter.

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The Cotabato Sessions, a film and music album featuring the Kalanduyan family legacy from Cotabato City,Mindanao, Philippines

Susie Ibarro posted this project on Kickstarter and as of February 20th she announced it has been fully funded. For information about the project from the Kickstarter page, read on or visit the original posting.

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The Cotabato Sessions is a full length music album and 30 minute short music film that features the music legacy of one family, the Kalanduyans, in Cotabato City, Mindanao, Philippines.

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Who are the Kalanduyans and what is the music legacy?

The Kalanduyans are several generations of musicians from the Maguindanaon tribe in the Philippines who perform a beautiful Indigenous art form known as kulintang, gong ensemble music as well as lute string music, the kutyapi. Alongside the music there is always dance.

With master kutyapi /lute string player and flautist, Ismail Akmad, we are reminded that the origins of blues are far reaching and that the virtuosity inside 8 notes is endless.

https://soundcloud.com/susie-ibarra/binalig-by-ismail-akmad-the

With a kulintang gong ensemble , we can enter a series of entrancing music through a welcome song, Duyog, performed by the Kalanduyan family.

https://soundcloud.com/susie-ibarra/duyog-by-kalanduyan-family-the

The Cotabato Sessions was recorded and filmed in Cotabato City, Mindanao in the southern island of the Philippines.  It was a rare moment to be able to get together these generations of musicians in the family.

The Kalanduyans are part of a minority Islamic tribe, the Maguindanaons in the Philippines who have been entirely relocated to Cotabato City and elsewhere after many decades of civil unrest in the south.

Who will be the next generation to follow in their footsteps?

This album and film capture the generations of men, women, and youth performing ritual music and its variations in the home of master artist Danongan Kalanduyan, in a procession,  in the courtyard of a mosque and in the recording session of a concert hall.

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Why pledge to this project?

The Cotabato Sessions is the first album and short film in a series for the company Song of the Bird King LLC (http://songofthebirdking.com/) that will feature digital download album recordings of Indigenous, world music with digital short films that share the stories and culture through the music.  We are working to promote the collaboration of traditional and contemporary music with sustainable practices and offer platforms for the musical communities such as the Maguindanaons to grow.

Alongside Indigenous tribes in the Philippines, Song of the Bird King also works with Indigenous and traditional artists in the New York Seneca Nations, Egypt, U.A.E, Lebanon, Israel, Canada, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Guinea, Cuba, India and will be releasing with its digital music company digital download releases of artists as well as distribute catalogue. Song of the Bird King will continue to partner with independent film companies to create short music films for several of the digital albums.

What are future goals for this project?  

The Cotabato Sessions is the first album and short film in a series for the company Song of the Bird King LLC (http://songofthebirdking.com/) that will feature digital download album recordings of Indigenous, world music with digital short films that share the stories and culture through the music.  We are working to promote the collaboration of traditional and contemporary music with sustainable practices and offer platforms for the musical communities such as the Maguindanaons to grow.

Alongside Indigenous tribes in the Philippines, Song of the Bird King also works with Indigenous and traditional artists in the New York Seneca Nations, Egypt, U.A.E, Lebanon, Israel, Canada, Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Guinea, Cuba, India and will be releasing with its digital music company digital download releases of artists as well as distribute catalogue. Song of the Bird King will continue to partner with independent film companies to create short music films for several of the digital albums.

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Solidarity Campaign for IDEA (International Drama/Theatre and Education Association)

Cultura21, news, , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

IDEA (The International Drama/Theatre and Education Association) currently needs some help from all of us who are supportive of arts education, in a difficult situation they are experiencing at the moment with the Ministry of Culture in Brazil.

The campaign focus in short (quote from Robin Pascoe):

We need to convince Ms Marta Suplicy, Minister of Culture in Brazil to intervene to resolve a case which is seriously damaging the professional and personal lives of key drama educators in the Brazilian Network of Arteducators (ABRA). For three years, ABRA has carried a debt which has now grown to US$300,000, caused by the Ministry of Culture, who have refused to meet the organizers to reach a bilateral resolution, since January 2012.

Please find more details in this PDF file: Letter from IDEA to its members, friends and partners (January 2014) To support this campaign,  please use the following Word document: Action letter (January 2014)

You can also watch this campaign video from Manoela Souza of the Brazilian Network of Arteducators:

This post is also available in: French, Spanish.

———-

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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Illuminating art, design and health

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Reblogged from CHRIS FREMANTLE:

Click to visit the original post
Two interesting trajectories across the need for light particularly in winter.  The one is a blog from the Wellcome Trust on research being undertaken by their Research Fellow, Dr Tania Woloshyn, on the history of phototherapy, and the other is an exhibition at Marres House for Contemporary Culture in the Netherlands entitled Winter Anti Depression where they have created an Art Resort, a sensory environment in response to the winter.The idea that the lack of sunlight affects those of us living in northern climates is not new, and research into the history of treatments highlights the complexity of the amount of sunlight that is healthy.

The exhibition demonstrates a number of art and design approaches to activating the senses.  Different works explore different senses from textured surfaces that you feel through your feet, to sounds to cocoon you in your bed, to light and colour.  The installation comprising a range of yellows is particularly evocative (see below).

Light and colour are increasingly significant in the design of healthcare contexts.  New technologies such as ‘Sky Ceilings’ and lightboxes can bring a feeling of daylight into rooms that lack windows.  The ‘temperature’ of light, especially with the increasing availability of LED bulbs, is enabling much more sophisticated design of environments.  But what is clear is that light and colour are not ‘universals’.  On the one hand their meaning is culturally informed, and as these examples highlight, also informed by seasonality.  We might want healthcare to be 24/7, but our bodies respond to seasonality just as they do to day and night.

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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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In Melbourne

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Ecoartscotland thought that Australasian subscribers might be interested to hear that Professor Anne Douglas, sometime contributor and longterm colleague and friend, is going to be in Melbourne for eight weeks from 1st Feb 2014 on a Mcgeorge Fellowship.  Also in the area at the same time is Sophie Hope, social practice researcher and author of ‘Participating the Wrong Way’.

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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