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Julie’s Bicycle: Green My Production, 27th March

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A showcase of sustainable solutions for music and the performing arts

Julie’s Bicycle and White Light invite you to a showcase of best practice and market-ready products and services to make your productions more environmentally sustainable.

27th March 2013
13.00 – 17.00
White Light Ltd (Wimbledon, London)

CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION AND BOOKING >

WL LogoOne of the industry’s key events of the year to focus solely on sustainable production, the afternoon will include a programme of talks and discussions from industry experts, and a trade show exhibiting tried-and-tested products and services designed to help green your production.

You will have the opportunity to try out new technologies and seek advice from manufacturers, designers and event production professionals on all aspects of greening your work.

SPEAKERS

Green My Production will feature an afternoon of practical demonstrations, talks and discussions from industry experts on approaches to reducing the environmental impacts of production. Programme speakers will include:

  • Soutra Gilmour Set and Costume Designer
  • Laura Pando, Sustainability Manager Festival Republic
  • Robin Barton, Lighting Systems Technician Royal Opera House
  • Adam Bennette, Technical Director ETC Europe
  • Simon Yorke Stage Designer
  • Bryan Raven, Managing Director White Light
  • Alison Tickell, CEO Julie’s Bicycle
  • Rob Halliday, Lighting Designer and Developer FocusTrack
  • Lucy Doherty Milk Presents Theatre Company

See the full conference programme >

EXHIBITORS

Alongside the conference programme suppliers to the creative sector will showcase sustainable products and solutions, to help make your events and productions greener. Exhibitors will include:

  • Arcola Energy and Youngman Hydrogen fuel cell power
  • Community Repaint Paint recycling
  • Electric Pedals Pedal power
  • ETC Lighting
  • GDS Lighting
  • Firefly Solar Solar and kinetic power
  • goCarShare Carshare services
  • H-Squared Rechargeable batteries
  • Julie’s Bicycle Environmental consultancy for the arts
  • Midas UK Biofuel generators
  • Offset Warehouse Costume fabrics
  • Philips Lighting
  • Scenery Salvage Production waste services
  • Set Exchange Prop and materal waste service
  • ShowTex Stafe fabrics
  • Stack Cup Reusable cups for events
  • White Light Lighting

More information and booking details >

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We look forward to seeing you there!

Julie’s Bicycle & White Light

Visit Green Theatre Network at: http://juliesbicycle.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

Sustainability in Oregon Film & Media

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Grimm_biodiesel_web-280In Oregon, the Annual Governor’s Meeting on Film and Video was recently held in Portland, which is quickly becoming a hub of media activity thanks to the dedicated efforts of independent filmmakers, the success of Laika Animation Studio films like Coraline and ParaNorman, and current television productions Grimm, Portlandia, and Leverage (which has just finished shooting on its final season).

According to the Governor’s Office of Film and Television, the average amount spent on production in Oregon each year has risen from $7 million to $100 million. This amount is expected to surpass $120 million next year as tax credits and other incentives draw production away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles to the relatively more laid back atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest.

With this change, the Office of Film and Television has gone out of its way to promote sustainable production practices and has included a link to a Green Production Guide on their website. At the meeting, Oregon’s First Lady Cylvia Hayes took the stage and delivered a well-received presentation on Grimm‘s efforts to use blended biodiesel for their fleet, Leverage‘s use of sustainably harvested wood for set construction, and Portlandia‘s decision to hire a “master recycler” to oversee on-set sustainability. Though the state still has a long way to go to make productions carbon neutral, these initial steps are very encouraging as Oregon seeks to promote itself as a new destination for green film and video production.

World Premiere of Cassie Meador’s How To Lose a Mountain

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Dance Place

Washington DC

March 16, 2013 at 8 p.m.

March 17, 2013 at 7 p.m.

Click here for tickets

This Spring, Dance Exchange Artistic Director Cassie Meador examines loss and gain, risk and reward, and the distances travelled by our stories, our stuff, and ourselves, in How To Lose a Mountain. The National Performance Network commissioned stage production is part of a multi-year choreographic project, which included a 500-mile walk and community engagement tour last spring.

One year prior to the How To Lose a Mountain world premiere, Meador investigated the resources that power by walking from her home in Washington, DC to a site of mountaintop removal in West Virginia. Along the way, she and Dance Exchange artists visited power plants, led movement and outdoor education workshops called “Moving Field Guides,” and collected stories from community members in workshops called “500 Miles/500 Stories.”

During this past year following the walk, Meador and her artistic collaborators returned to the studio to build the evening length work that addresses issues of use and reuse, of living in the now and honoring our past, of what we lose when we gain and what we gain when we lose. The piece features a few additional voices, including that of a 200-year-old piano that will play an unconventional role in How To Lose a Mountain.

How To Lose a Mountain is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by John Michael Kohler Arts Center in partnership with Dance Place, Dance Exchange and NPN. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Art Works.

 

John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Sheboygan, WI
April 25, 2013

Superhero Clubhouse and Matchboxarts in association with Chez Bushwick present MARS (a play about mining)

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uqze_MARSlogo2013FacebookcoverphotoMarch 7-9, 7:30pm

Center for Performance Research (CPR)

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Displaced Appalachians resettled on Mars face a familiar dilemma when their leader initiates a questionable mining operation. The sixth in our Planet Play series, MARS is a dance-theater event featuring live music, graphic art and an original story inspired by the history of Appalachian coal mining.

MARS (a play about mining)
adapted from the graphic novel MARS! by  Tom Coiner
Choreography by Adam H. Weinert
Music by Adam Miller
Graphic Art by Kristy Caldwell with assistance from Clay Rodery and Ray Jones
Stage & Costume Design by R.B. Schlather
Stage Management/Assistant Direction by Alessandra Calabi
Dramaturgy by Megan McClain

Directed by Jeremy Pickard

Created & Performed by

Javier Baca
Nathaniel Bausch-Gould
Rosie Dupont
Aba Kiser
Logan Kruger
Dan Lawrence*
Keisuke Matsuno
Adam Miller
Manelich Minniefee
Jeremy Pickard
Davon Rainey
J.P. Schlegel
Adam H. Weinert

*appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

marslogoMust human progress always end in destruction?  What are the risks we will take to restore our home? Contemporary politics and childhood fantasies come crashing together in this unique event inspired the history of Appalachian coal mining.  Led by choreographer Adam H. Weinert, director Jeremy Pickard and composer Adam Miller, MARS features original dance, live music, graphic art and a strong ensemble of cross-disciplinary performers. Our technology is opening new frontiers… and new mines. We can go to Mars, hold the internet in our palm… and blow the tops off America’s oldest mountains. The controversies and paradoxes of mining have never been more relevant. In MARS, we explore these topics in our own unique way, and invite you to join in the adventure and the conversation.

Green Choreographers-in-Residence

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ecocityIn December, Dance Exchange hosted Amara Tabor-Smith, our first Green Choreographer-in-Residence. Amara and her collaborator Sherwood Chen spent a week with Dance Exchange artists exploring sustainable food practices and food justice. Amara’s residency, which took place in our studios, as well as at sites like Eco City Farms in Edmonston, MD, culminated in a Thursday night HOME event featuring a potluck dinner and reflections on food and family. Visit Dance Exchange’s Facebook page to view more pictures from the residency.

Jill Sigman, of New York City, is our second Green Choreographer-in-Residence and will be in residence from January 28-February 1, 2013. Sigman will explore principles of permaculture and engage in hands-on work with small living systems, and this research will inform the development of movement scores and improvisational systems for use in her work The Hut Project, a series of site-specific structures built from trash. Sigman will share her methods and research in her HOME event on Thursday, January 30th from 7:00-9:00pm, and teach FRIDAY CLASS on Friday, February 1st from 9:30-11:15am.

The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project Book and EBook now Available.

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The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project at Salo Art Museum / Halikonlahti Green Art. Erik Sjödin 2011. More information at www.eriksjodin.net

The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project at Salo Art Museum / Halikonlahti Green Art. Erik Sjödin 2011. More information at www.eriksjodin.net

The Azolla Cooking and Cultivation Project (2012) is now available as free pdf, as paperback at Amazon US / UK and as e-book at Kindle Store.

Erik Sjödin is an artist and researcher based in Stockholm and Bergen. His practice explores interdependencies and interrelationships between humans and non-humans as well as questions of being and becoming.

Erik’s work is primarily constituted of transdisciplinary research and interventions in the public realm. His projects are often of an exploratory nature and take shape over several years. He frequently collaborates with and consults experts such as scientists, farmers, chefs and craftspeople.

 

The Celebrated Trees of Nashville: Ecological Performance Action

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On November 1st, Plantable (made up Meghan Moe Beitiks, Bronwyn Preece and Lisa Woynarski) performed an ecological action on the streets and state capitol of Nashville, Tennessee. As part of the American Society of Theatre Research (ASTR) conference, the performance began with a procession through the streets of downtown Nashville. Carrying large red buckets full of red wiggler worms, the performance proceeded to the grounds of the State Capitol where we surrounded a tree and “planted” the worms at the base. Red wiggler worms are prized for their fertilisation qualities and their ability to enrich the soil, providing nourishment for the tree. In conversation with State Capitol maintenance staff, we learned of previous, but not current, usage of RoundUp on these trees – necessitating further remediation, and equally not jeopardizing the life of the worms. Amidst curious looks and questions from onlookers, the performance sought to bring the research questions of the ASTR Ecology and Performance Working Session to a form of praxis, asking what the intersection of an ecologically positive action, performance and intervention would look like.

See video of the performance action here:

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Opportunity

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For a PhD on “New Visual Economies: Art, GIS and the Geographic Imagination,” supervised by Prof. Deborah Dixon in partnership with Environment Systems.

Project Summary:

This is one of three interlinked PhD studentships that, in collaboration with three organisations in different sectors — a scientific site (UNESCO’s Dyfi Biosphere, Wales), a geovisualisation business (Environment Systems, Wales and Scotland), and a leading cultural producer (The Arts Catalyst, London) — explore the production and audience engagement of art/science projects.

The “New Visual Economies” Studentship will explore the creation and experience of immersive, engaging visualisations that communicate the nature of landscapes to a diverse array of audiences, including state agencies, creative industry businesses and the lay public. Analysing the place of aesthetics in developing the geographical imaginary of these visualisations, research will explore how high-fidelity, high-resolution, data-driven, 3-D scientific visualizations are developed by artists, computer specialists and earth scientists working collaboratively. Research questions can include:

  • What recent developments in creative geovisualization software have taken place, and how have these been applied to visualisations of people, place and landscapes?
  • How, where and in what form have past and present art/GIS collaborative ventures emerged?
  • How do audiences respond, conceptually but also viscerally, to such geovisualisations?

The studentship will be animated by ethnographic work, as well as by practice-based research during which the student will create, explore and work with a prototype landscape geovisualisation. Following an investigation of the aesthetic dimensions of geo-visualisation, as well as art/GIS collaborations specifically, the project will focus on ethnographic analysis and participant observation of three selected, current art/GIS projects. This will be supported by in-depth interviews with key participants, as well as academic and industry experts within the emerging field of ‘creative GIS.’

The awards are funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the studentship pays post-graduate fees and an annual maintenance grant.Please note that the usual AHRC eligibility rules apply to these studentships. UK residency is normally required. EU citizens may also be eligible for fees-only awards. Further details on basic eligibility requirements are available from the AHRC web-site see:

http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf

Further enquiries can be sent to the lead supervisor: Deborah Dixon: dxd@aber.ac.uk

Applications should be made by following the link: http://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/scienceengineering/graduateschool/prospectivestudents/essentialinformation/

Call for submissions: Focus on Sustainability Film Festival

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The second annual Focus on Sustainability Film Festival will return to York University in the winter semester of 2013 with a spotlight on the increasingly vital and complex topic of food.

In addition to feature films, panel discussions and prizes centred on food, the upcoming festival also gives local filmmakers in the York University community an opportunity to have their food-related film featured. Following the submission deadline, festival presenters will choose one prize-winning film to be highlighted and up to three runner-up films to be exhibited.

Submission Requirements:

  • York University enrolled (or previously enrolled) student in any department
  • Run time for films must not exceed 60 minutes
  • Films must be focused on any food related issue
  • Suggestions include: animal rights, agriculture, veganism/vegetarianism, local/global

The deadline is Jan. 10, 2013. E-mail submissions to Jessica Reeve, IRIS junior fellow, at jreeve@yorku.ca or bring it to 395 York Lanes, the office of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability.

Submissions must be in digital formats accompanied by a 250-word abstract, title and contact information.

This call for submission is brought to you by the Osgoode Environmental Law Society, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability and the Climate Consortium for Research Action Integration.

For more information, contact Jessica Reeve at jreeve@yorku.ca.

Understanding the Potential of L3Cs in the Arts and Culture

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On November 16, Andrew Taylor, the Artful Manager, moderated a panel discussion at Columbia University in New York City on the Low-Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C), and its potential for the arts. The panelists included two of the leading national experts on the business entity (Marc J. Lane and Rick Zwetch), alongside two masters from the theater world (Gregory Moser, Victoria Bailey), and one change agent from the arts business infrastructure (Adam Huttler).

Andrew Taylor is a faculty member of American University’s Arts Management Program in Washington, DC. An author, lecturer, researcher, and consultant on a broad range of arts management issues, Andrew specializes in business model development for cultural initiatives and the impact of communications technology on the arts.

Some basic information on the L3C can be found on wikipedia by clicking here:

A low-profit limited liability company (L3C) is a legal form of business entity in the United States that was created to bridge the gap between non-profit and for-profit investing by providing a structure that facilitates investments in socially beneficial, for-profit ventures while simplifying compliance with Internal Revenue Service rules for program-related investments, a type of investment that private foundations are allowed to make.

The video might require a little of your time, but is worth it if you have an interest in emerging models for production in the United States.

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