news

Virtual Book Launch – the future is not fixed

The Arts & Climate Initiative and the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts invite you to the virtual launch of The Future Is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Green New Deal. Featuring the 50 plays written for our Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 festival, and a series of essays, this anthology is our latest achievement towards telling the many stories of the climate crisis in a way that empowers all of us.

Saturday, April 15
2 pm PT / 5 pm ET
Online


Come to hear readings of a few plays, participate in a conversation with playwrights, and for a chance to win your own signed copy of the book! Hosted by Chantal Bilodeau, Ian Garrett, and Julia Levine.

This event is free but you must reserve your spot in advance in order to receive the Zoom link. Your registration automatically enters you into the raffle.

RSVP NOW

This anthology is a useful tool for teachers and professors, a source of inspiration for writers, actors, and theatremakers, and the perfect stepping stone for anyone looking to engage their family and friends in conversation about the climate crisis.

BUY THE BOOK

Also available from your domestic Amazon store.

Artist Report: Aphra Shemza

We are thrilled to share with you this very first Artist Report, which focuses on the work of UK-based multimedia artist Aphra Shemza. A natural extension of the CSPA’s exploration of sustainability and the arts in our publication the Quarterly, Artist Reports focus on a single artist and provide an in-depth look at their practice and the way they engage with sustainability.

For more information and to purchase: https://www.lulu.com/shop/aphra-shemza-and-catherine-baxendale-and-chantal-bilodeau/artist-report-aphra-shemza/paperback/product-8p8vjd.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Conscient Podcast: Interview in The Charlatan Newspaper (March 3, 2023)

Combining sound and art, local podcast producer and retired music composer Claude Schryer is reinventing the podcast medium with the fourth season of his climate-themed podcast, conscient.

In the podcast’s new season, titled “Sounding Modernity,” Schryer reflects on sounds in his everyday life. From the dripping of his tap to the heating system in his house, he explores various sounds in relation to their impact on climate change while addressing feelings of climate anxiety approximately 40 per cent of Canadians experience daily.

“I call it a personal learning journey,” he said. “I’ve decided to learn out loud and to use the medium of podcast to reach people.”

READ MORE

The post Interview in The Charlatan Newspaper (March 3, 2023) appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/interview-in-the-charlatan-newspaper-march-3-2023/

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Creative Climate Leadership Canada (online) 2023: Participants Announced

We are pleased to share the full applicants list of who will be joining us for our Creative Climate Leadership (CCL) programme in Canada, online.

The 4-month online programme is for arts and cultural professionals who want to take a lead on climate change, adapted from the CCL week-long residential course.

What is Creative Climate Leadership?

The CSPA (Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts) and Julie’s Bicycle (JB) have partnered up to host a second edition of the CCL programme in Canada, this time online, with the support of theCanada Council for the Arts.

CCL is an international training and transformation programme to empower artists and cultural professionals to take action on the climate and ecological crisis with impact, creativity, and resilience.

The programme will take place remotely from February to May. This year’s candidates work in areas as varied as photography, music, visual art, activism, research and curation.


Creative Climate Leadership Canada 2023 (online) – Full List of Participants

Alejandra Nuñez

she/they

Alejandra Nuñez is a vocalist, percussionist and composer.

Born in Santiago Chile, Alejandra has lived and worked as a musician in Canada and the United States, she has performed in Europe as well as North and Central America. Alejandra has performed with The Toronto Dance Theatre and written scores for various plays, including Princes Pocahontas and the Blue Spots by Monique Mojica, and many more.


Allison O’Connor

she/her/elle

Allison O’Connor is a Franco-Ontarian multidisciplinary visual artist and art administrator working at the intersection of ecology and public art.

She is the co-creator of internationally touring artworks entitled Trophy as well as a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa.


Alyssa Kostello

she/her

Alyssa was born and raised in a small town in North Eastern Ontario.

She is a graduate of the Acting for Stage and Screen program at Capilano University and has taken multiple courses and programs around Sustainability Leadership including Climate Reality Training and IMPACT Sustainability Leadership Training. For 5 years she was Artistic Director of NOW! Theatre, and is a former member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.


Amy Ash

she/they

Amy Ash is a queer, white-settler interdisciplinary artist engaged with collective care through processes of shared meaning-making.

Amy’s work traces connectivity through the intersections and overlaps between memory, learning, and wonder, to incite curiosity and kindle empathy.


April Marie Glaicar

she/her

April Glaicar is a circumpolar photographer and artist whose work has a strong connection to the northern world and Arctic conservation while embracing traditional knowledge and cultures.

In November of 2022, April participated as the Expedition Artist-In-Residence and co-lead of arts programming for the Sea Women Expeditions’ snorkel research project – while observing Orca and Humpback Whales north of the Arctic Circle in the Norwegian Sea.


Bailee Higgins

she/her

Bailee Higgins is a Unama’ki (Cape Breton, NS) based settler, emerging artist, educator and researcher with a focus on community-based art education.

Bailee is passionate about fostering thoughtful community building through creative practice. She recently completed her Master of Arts in Art Education from NSCAD University and holds a BFA from Mount Allison University.


D’Andrea Bowie

she/her

D’Andrea Bowie is an artist living and working in the rural outskirts of Toronto, and a current MFA candidate at York University.

She has held solo exhibitions at Station Gallery in Whitby and Central Art Garage in Ottawa, most recently she is the recipient of a SSHRC research grant.


Diego Narváez

he/him

Diego Narvaez is a Mexican visual artist living and working in the unceded territories of the T’sou-ke Nation, Vancouver Island, BC.

Through his paintings, he creates metaphors so we can question our relationship with the environment. From city issues to fragile and faraway environments such as Antarctica and Iceland, he creates sublime landscapes of an ever-changing world.


Dominic Lloyd

he/him

Originally from the Yukon Territory, Dominic grew up working and volunteering in the arts.

He was Artistic Director of the Dawson City Music Festival for 6 years before moving to Winnipeg to work at the West End Cultural Centre, where he was Artistic Director until 2009 when he joined the Winnipeg Arts Council.


Emily McKibbon

she/her

Emily McKibbon is Head of Exhibitions and Collections at Art Windsor-Essex.

She has worked in curatorial, collections and research capacities with the MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York; Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; The Image Centre, Toronto; Seneca College, Toronto; and the University of Guelph.


Hayley Roulstone

she/her

Hayley is an environmental activist and passionate about saying ‘yes’ at every opportunity to learn more about tackling the climate crisis.

Hayley’s Caymanian and First Nations cultures are disappearing in exchange for mass production and the expansion of global elites. She aims to challenge herself more and use her creative talents to bring attention to the climate issues that the people of her cultures face.


Jane Gabriels

she/they

Jane Gabriels, Ph.D. supports artists and other non-profits as Executive Director, Dance West Network (based in Vancouver).

Jane’s dissertation (Concordia University, Montréal) focused on artists, creative processes, curation, and non-profits in the Bronx, NY, her professional and artistic home for over 20 years.


Julie Fossitt

she/her

Julie is a passionate advocate for access to arts, culture and heritage.

She has held marketing positions at the National Arts Centre, the Victoria Symphony and is currently the Manager, Marketing and Revenue Development for the City of Kingston.


Kate Declerck

she/her/elle

Kate Declerck, of British and Belgian ancestry, currently lives and works on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Kate is a Program Officer with the Canada Council for the Arts.


Kim Fry

she/her

Kim is a co-founder, board member and coordinator for Music Declares Emergency Canada.

She has spent over a decade as an activist and environmental educator/naturalist working for a number of environmental organizations after doing two degrees in Environmental Studies at York University.


Lara Aysal

she/her

Lara is a climate justice and human rights activist, performance artist and facilitator of community-oriented projects.

She has collaborated with communities across borders and facilitated research projects in development and conflict settings with refugees, prisoners, minorities and Indigenous communities.


Luciana Erregue

she/her

Luciana Erregue is a cultural worker, writer, editor, and publisher, owner of Laberinto Press, dedicated to lifting up hyphened Canadian voices in literature.

Luciana is a Banff Centre Literary Arts program alumni, and Edmonton Arts Council artist in residence. Laberinto Press has won the 2022 BPAA Award for Best Emerging Publisher.


Marian Wihak

she/her

Marian Wihak is a multi-award winning Production Designer.

She is active in numerous sustainability initiatives within the film industry (DGC National Sustainability and Climate Action Committee, Ontario Green Screens, GreenSpark Group Round Table, and the Sustainable Production Forum).


Marta Keller-Hernandez

she/her

Marta is Managing Director at Mural Routes and is the co-founder of Paralia Newcomer Arts Network.

Originally from Spain, Marta holds Degrees in Tourism and Humanities, a Masters in Social Media Marketing from the University of Alicante (Spain), and a Graduate Certificate in Culture & Heritage Site Management from Centennial College (Canada).


Sandra Lamouche

she/her

Sandra Lamouche is a member of the Bigstone Cree Nation in Alberta, living and married in Blackfoot territory.

She has an M.A. on Indigenous dance and well-being. She is a champion hoop dancer, award winning educational leader, two-time TEDx speaker, writer and researcher.


seeley quest

sie/hir

seeley quest is a trans disabled environmentalist from the US working in literary and body-based composition, curation and facilitation.

Sie landed 2017, in Montreal and 2022 in Halifax, after presenting in the San Francisco Bay Area 2001-14 and touring the US. Hir play “Crooked” is in At the Intersection of Disability and Drama, and first game narrative was in Canada’s National AccessAbility Week 2020.


Shumaila Hemani

she/her

Shumaila Hemani, Ph.D. is an Alberta-based singer-songwriter, acousmatic composer and community-engaged artist addressing climate challenges with expressive arts sculpting with sounds of the environment and addressing the climate crisis in the world.

The Cultural Diversity Award winner released her debut album, Mannat (2022) which was applauded as “powerful” in evoking a spirit of perseverance in supporting victims of climate disaster in Pakistan and featured on CBC’s What on Earth, Edmonton Journal, and Calgary Herald.


Terri Hron

she/her

Terri Hron is a musician, a performer, a multimedia artist and is Executive Director of the Canadian New Music Network.

Her work explores and questions historical performance practice, field recording, invented ceramic instruments and videoscores. She practices and researches collaboration and scoring.

DOWNLOAD FULL PARTICIPANT BIOS


The Aims of the Programme

Creative Climate Leadership will:

  • Explore the role of culture and creativity in responding to climate change and environmental challenges;
  • Bring together a range of expert guest speakers to share case studies, research, approaches and practical solutions for environmental sustainability in the cultural sector;
  • Enable each participant to develop their leadership and ideas;
  • Prepare participants to apply their learning and new skills when they return to their work, and support ongoing learning and exchange through an alumni network.
  • CCL recognises the unique role of culture to influence new ways of being, doing and thinking, and supports creative professionals to apply these abilities to the climate challenge through a programme of events, training programmes and policy labs.

Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice (by Iphigenia Taxopoulou)

How does the world of theatre and the performing arts intersect with the climate and environmental crisis? This timely book is the first comprehensive account of the sector’s response to the defining issue of our time.

The book documents a sector in transition and presents theatre professionals, practitioners and organizations with a synthesis of information, knowledge and expertise to guide them to their own endorsement of sustainable thinking and practice. It is illustrated with inspiring case studies and interviews, from London’s National Theatre, to Sydney Theatre Company, to the Göteborg Opera and the American Repertory Theatre. These foreground the work of pioneering institutions and individual practitioners whose artistic ingenuity, creative activism and sense of public mission have given shape, content and purpose to what we can now call ‘sustainable theatre’.

Spanning almost three decades, the book approaches the topic from multiple angles and through an international perspective, recording how climate and environmental concerns have been expressed in cultural policy, arts leadership and organizational ethics; in the greening of infrastructure and daily operations; in the individual and institutional practice of sustainable theatre-making; in performing arts education; and in touring practices and international collaboration. It investigates, too, how the climate crisis influences theatre as a story-teller – on stage and beyond.

Written by a leading expert in the field of culture and environmental sustainability and distilling many years of research and hands-on experience, Sustainable Theatre: Theory, Context, Practice is intended to be relevant and useful to professionals involved in the theatre and performing arts sector in many different capacities: from policy-makers, arts leaders and managers to administrators, technicians, artists, scholars and educators.

For more information and to preorder the book: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sustainable-theatre-theory-context-practice-9781350215702/

CATR: Re-Imagining the Future

You are invited to Re-Imagining the Future: a teach-in on fostering Environmental Stewardship in Theatre and Performance Education hosted by the CATR Working Group: Environmental Stewardship in Theatre and Performance Education. This online event will take place March 18th at 1pm – 4pm CST. Experts will present on sustainability in post-secondary education and share practical tools rooted in environmental activism to bring back to your theatres and classrooms. We’ll also actively explore how to ecologize your syllabus.

Re-Imagining the Future is a teach-in on fostering environmental stewardship in theatre and performance education, conceived of, and hosted by, the Environmental Stewardship Working Group of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR).

Our event partners are: the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), the Canadian Green Alliance (CGA), Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE), and the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT).

The first 90 minutes will consist of presentations, followed by break-out rooms that support the integration of ecological principles into existing curriculum.

Please register in advance and identify your syllabus area: design, theatre history, theory/analysis, production, performance/acting, directing, or new play creation.

If you have any questions, please reach out to CATR Environmental Working Group Co-Leaders Hope McIntyre (U Winnipeg) h.mcintyre@uwinnipeg.ca and/or Kimberly Richards (UBC) kricha05@mail.ubc.ca.

NEW BOOK: The Lichen Museum by A. Laurie Palmer

THE LICHEN MUSEUM
By A. Laurie Palmer
University of Minnesota Press | 184 pages | February 2023
ISBN 978-1-5179-0867-6 | paperback | $24.95

Art after Nature Series
The Lichen Museum explores how the physiological characteristics of lichens provide a valuable template for reimagining human relations in an age of ecological and social precarity. Using this tiny organism as an emblem through which to navigate environmental and social concerns, Palmer implores us to envision alternative ways of living based on interdependence rather than individualism and competition.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A. Laurie Palmer is an artist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

PRAISE FOR THE LICHEN MUSEUM
The Lichen Museum is a deeply engaging, provocative, humorous, and moving account of why we should pay more attention to lichens. As lichens can be found anywhere, the entire surface of the earth becomes the lichen museum. A. Laurie Palmer weaves together personal anecdotes, theoretical interventions, photography, and detailed research to draw attention to how lichens can offer new ways to think through questions of relationality, life and death, and our mutual obligations to each other.” —Heather Davis, author of Plastic Matter

For more information, visit the book’s webpage: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-lichen-museum

Ecoscenography Summer Internship Opportunity

Graben-Neudorf, Germany (July/August 2023)

Calling all sustainability-focused performance design (set & costume) & technical theatre production students/recent graduates! You are invited to apply for The Magic Flute: Upcycled, an industry placement opportunity for Germany’s first Living Stage project (July/August 2023).

The Living Stage is a global initiative by Austrian-Australian designer Tanja Beer. The project combines stage design, horticulture and community engagement to create recyclable, biodegradable, edible and biodiverse performance spaces. Part theatre, part garden and part food growing demonstration, The Living Stage engages people from all walks of life in developing a greater understanding and appreciation of the more-than-human world. Since making its debut in Castlemaine (Australia), the concept has travelled to Cardiff (Wales), Glasgow (Scotland), New York (USA), as well as Armidale, Lorne and Melbourne in Australia. At the crux of the project is the notion of community-engaged and place-based design processes to foster equity and togetherness on global-to-local issues. The German Living Stage and costume design will be centred around the creation of an Eco-Opera production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, entitled The Magic Flute: Upcycled (19th/20th August).

The Eco-Opera will be the 8th Living Stage and the first to be developed in Central Europe. The project will be developed as part of a new public space initiative in Graben-Neudorf from mid-July to late-August (approx. 6 weeks on the ground) with some online meetings prior to this time. This is a low-cost grassroots community initiative, with the locals very much joining in the creation and realisation of the event, alongside professional artists. While it is an unpaid position, all successful applicants will be provided with homestay accommodation for the duration of the project to also assist in facilitating community integration and cross-cultural exchange.

The opportunity would suit students or recent graduates who are interested in engaging in this experience as part of their studies (i.e. Work-Integrated-Learning) or early career development. We are looking for candidates based in Europe or those that are already planning to attend the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space in June. All Summer Interns will be provided with mentoring support to further their education and development in sustainable theatre production. German language proficiency is an advantage but not mandatory.

To apply for this opportunity, please send the following to tanjabeer.design@gmail.com by the 12th of March 2023:

  • A letter introducing yourself, explaining your interest in the project and area of expertise (i.e., set building, prop making and costume construction)
  • CV/Resume detailing any previous experience, current skills and referees (including one of your teachers or mentors)
  • PDF portfolio or link to portfolio of selected works and/or website/social media page

Successful candidates will be confirmed by April 2023.

blog – the gift of failure

February 5, 2023

Hi there,

I re-read the gift of failure document this week. I recommend it.

In particular, I took to heart how the article begins:

We chose the word “gesture” for the title of our collective to underscore the fact that decolonization is impossible when our livelihoods are underwritten by colonial violence and unsustainability. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, our health systems and social security, and the technologies that allow us to write about this are all subsidized by expropriation, dispossession, destitution, genocides and ecocides. There is no way around it: we cannot bypass it, the only way is through. …

How we fail is important. It is actually in the moments when we fail that the deepest learning becomes possible and that is usually where we stumble upon something unexpected and extremely useful. Failing generatively requires both intellectual and relational rigour.

Like falling off a bike and getting back up again? 

What did I learn since my last blog? For example, I wrote in the January 29, 2023 conscient newsletter : 

One of my learnings from this project is letting go of expectations and the need for validation. Rather, without pretence and with humility, it is better to present one’s artwork as an offering and through this creative work, to deepen connections and relations.

I also learned to be (more) patient this week. 

A good friend told me that my podcast does not take 5 minutes in one’s life, it requires much more: time to prepare, absorb and reflect on the content and even more time and energy to respond. This friend mentioned that we are already over solicited and our attention is precious. they said, ‘I don’t have the headspace’…

Message received and thank you.

e104 time 

from Flora Gomez in Toronto

I really appreciated the train sound and the invitation to reflect on what it means to be a small moment in a much larger space. A lot to unpack there in such a very subtle proposal.  

My response:

Yours is the first comment on this episode, which so far, is closest to what I originally intended with this project, e.g. a field recording that sounds and feels like modernity (train passing), followed by moment of transition (revealing an urban space after the train passes) and concluding with a point of arrival (mountain forest) accompanied by the wise words of France Trépanier. Thanks for your feedback and for the opportunity to ‘unpack’ this episode. 

My friend and colleague in music, Peter Hatch (Saltspring Island BC) writes:

Congrats on your new initiative – I liked e104 especially I tried e105 as audio only first – it was much more intriguing with video added, for me. I love your use of ‘incidental text’ (or none) in these, and their brevity. (Who can’t afford 5’?)

Peter goes on to add my first audiovisual response to an episode: 

A couple of weeks ago I made a train recording that I was happy with (using Rode Go II mics) in Bellingham. Related to your topic, it seemed a nice metaphor for our western (linear) view of time.  Fittingly, it was a coal train. Here it is if you’re interested: https://vimeo.com/792706570/602c02ba6c.

Peter also adds that e104 time reminded him of a passage (important to him) from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass

Time as objective reality has never made much sense to me. It’s what happens that matters. How can minutes and years, devices of our own creation, mean the same thing to gnats and to cedars? Two hundred years is young for the trees whose tops this morning are hung with mist. It’s an eyeblink of time for the river and nothing at all for the rocks. The rocks and the river and these very same trees are likely to be here in another two hundred years, if we take good care. As for me, and that chipmunk, and the cloud of gnats milling in a shaft of sunlight—we will have moved on.

Thanks for setting the pace on creative responses, Peter!

e105 rope

From France Trépanier, artist (desert sonora, usa)

This morning I listened to episode 105 ‘rope’ of the conscient podcast. I listened to it while walking in the Sonora Desert and looking at the impressive San Jacinto Mountains. I felt the tension of the rope with the movement of the water. I also felt the immense tension that the mountain created, pushing a large layer of land upwards. Then the silences… like the silences of the mountain that occupy a completely different temporal reality and which, in this moment, cultivates immobility in its meditative state. In short, a very inspiring episode! Thank you.’ 

My response:

Glad to read about your experience with é105. é105 is open to all interpretations. By the way, it reminds me of… e104 time, where you said:

‘with hindsight, we will realize that this was a very small moment in a much larger space, and that we are returning to very deep knowledge.’ 

Thank you for this reminder that there are much larger spaces and silences whose temporal reality eludes us. 

The post blog – the gift of failure appeared first on conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.

———-

About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer

The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.

I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.

The term “conscient” is defined as “being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations”. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016-2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.

season 1 (may – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie”s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.

season 2 (march – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief Season 2 (March 2021 ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that “I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, “the state of things as they actually exist”, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way”. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.

season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.

season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity

About

I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I”m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation :

View the original: https://www.conscient.ca/blog-the-lessons-of-failure/

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Call for Papers – Eco-citizenship, Sustainable Climate, and the Performance Art

Planet, people and practices

Climate action is at the heart of combating climate change because climate change is no longer a travesty. Between 31 October-13 November 2021, world leaders converged at the United Conference of the Parties (COPS26)—the supreme body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to “revisit and strengthen their 2030 emissions reduction targets, to align with the Paris temperature goal, and to do that by the end of this year”. At this global event, developed countries were urged to scale up climate finance, specifically to double finance for adaptation by 2025. Less than a year after this summit, Hurricane Ida stroke in the United States, and the world continued the gradual shrinking of the River Euphrates and the incessant forest burns, glacier melts, floods and heat waves in various geographical spaces on the African continent. As COPs 27 held in November 2022 in South Sinai, Egypt, environmental activists and scholars know that the agenda would stand on the shoulders of agendas of previous conventions. Resolutions at previous COPS-such as the 1995 Berlin conference, the Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, have always fallen short of their capacity to combat the depletion of the environment and create livable cities.

Could this be a result of the overemphasis on capital? The ongoing planetary crises has led to a critique of capital and a call to end the extraction-based economy, particularly from the Global South (Bassey, 2012). The resource-based system and over-reliance on finance continue to create more room to extract rather than build. The argument is that the continuous acquisition of capital is responsible for the complexity of the quest for world leaders to create liveable societies devoid of climate crises. Scholars such as Lisa Woynarski (2020) looked at bio-performativity as a direction toward rethinking man’s relationship with the environment and giving agency to non-human species. John Forster and Brett Clark (2016) analyze the global environmental crises as caused by capitalism, globalization and neoliberal practices and therefore advocate for ecological revolution driven by anti-capitalist methodologies. The contention here is that the focus on capital by climate change stakeholders (Forster and Clark 2012, Moore 2017), such as what holds sway in the COPs, has done little or nothing to create eco-citizens and sustain climate.

The performance art has navigated the space of anti-anthropocentric methodologies, thereby lending credence to adopting less humanistic systems to create eco-citizens, sustainable climate and livable communities. For instance, Downing Cless’ stage adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1991), and James Cameron’s film Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) are about embracing anti-capitalist and less-humanistic ideologies to combat climate change. In the same vein, many performing art organizations and advocacy groups are using the creative sector to take action against greenhouse gas emissions, hydro-degradation and sustaining climate. Organizations such as the Guardian of the River and Julie’s Bicycle exemplify this drive for an ecological turn. This recent advocacy for anti-anthropogenic approaches, a shift from humanistic perspectives to biocentric methodologies and practices in narratives within the performing arts, is worth exploring. An investigation of this shift can offer new perspectives in pluriverse way of seeing and relating with the environment (Chaudhuri 1994). Hence, this volume addresses the extent to which the performing art (cinema, theatre, literature, music, sculpture and painting) have become sites of discourse on eco-citizenship, eco-centred philosophy, epistemic and ontic beliefs, and practices.

Abstracts are welcome from within specific disciplines of the performing art, e.g., performance studies, theatre studies, history, literature, cultural studies, visual arts, film, dance, and from across disciplines. Themes in this volume could focus on but not limited to:

  • Decolonizing climate action methodologies
  • Eco-cinema and climate action
  • Theatre and eco-citizenship in the global south
  • The performing arts and climate change
  • Theatre and indigenous climate action
  • Politics of inclusion and exclusion of indigenous people
  • Participation and climate crises
  • Sustainable art practices
  • Eco-scenography and climate actions
  • Climate change and policies
  • Greening the performing art
  • Ecocriticism from page to stage; from page to screen

Send an abstract of 300 words and a 100-word bio to the editors– Dr. Taiwo Afolabi and Stephen Okpadah at sustainableclimatebookproject@gmail.com on/before 30th March.

If accepted, the final papers will be due on 30th September 2023. Contributors are to use the MLA 7th Edition referencing style.


Works cited

  • Bassey, Nnimmo. (2012). To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa. Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.
  • Chaudhuri, Una. (1994). There Must Be a Lot of Fish in that Lake: Toward an Ecological Theatre. Theatre Vol. 25 (1): 1-25.
  • Forster, John, and Clark, Brett. (2016). Marx’s Ecology and the Left. Monthly Review. Vol. 68 (2): 37-52.
  • Moore, Jason. (2017). The Capitalocene, Part I: on the nature and origins of our ecological crisis. The Journal of Peasant Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2016.1235036
  • Woynarski, Lisa. (2020). Ecodramaturgies: Theatre, Performance and Climate Change. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.