news

Ãœber Lebenskunst. Initiative for Culture and Sustainability

The “Ãœber Lebenskunst” project is turning the city of Berlin into a showcase for initiatives that bring together culture and sustainability and examine new models for action.

Whether neighborhood gardens, urban beekeepers, carrot mobs, Wiki woods, sewing cafés or climate pirates on the Berlin’s Spree River – around the world, new forms of ecologically sustainable living models are being put to the test.
The Call for Future is directed at everyone who wants to come up with ideas both in and for Berlin. We are looking for art projects and social initiatives conceived to go beyond what we think is possible. That make the impossible a reality. The art of sustainable living in the 21st century needs not only global expertise, it needs the dedication and the innovative spirit of local initiatives.

Application deadine: May 24, 2010

“Everyone’s a part” – the trailer for the Call for Future.

See the movie in large scale

HOW TO BECOME AN ARTIST FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING

It’s easy. Please fill out our form (making sure it’s legible) and submit it in either German or English by May 24, 2010.

Please download the form here:

Deutsch | English | Français | Srpski/Hrvatski/Bosanski |  Polski | Español | Türkçe | Tiêng Viêt

In a two-phase selection process, applicants who are selected in the initial round will be asked to submit supplementary material (business plan, information about relevant previous projects, project planning, etc.) at the beginning of June 2010. An international jury made up of representatives from the realms of art, culture, media, politics, science and civil society will confer on which projects should receive funding by the the end of June 2010. The successful participants will be invited to present their projects at a kick-off workshop September 7-9 at the House of World Cultures in Berlin. The chosen projects will be given conceptual and financial support up through the theme festival to be held in June 2011.

How to submit your application
The application deadline is May 24, 2010 (postmark date/date of e-mail)
# by e-mail to call@ueber-lebenskunst.org
# by mail to

House of World Cultures
The “Ãœber Lebenskunst” project
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
10557 Berlin

… or submit your application in person at the reception.

The House of World Cultures at

Google Maps

If you have questions about the Call for Future, you can contact the Ãœber Lebenskunst team.

Just send an e-mail to Info@ueber-lebenskunst.org or call us:

Mon-Fri from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Tel. 030 397 872-20
FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the Call For Future

Application

1. Who can apply?
Anyone can apply. Individuals, groups, families, residential communities, citizens’ initiatives, associations or organizations from the realms of art, culture, media, architecture and urban development, science and research. Applicants who are NOT residents of Berlin have to work together with a local partner. Because the idea is to focus on model artistic projects and social initiatives that build on models from elsewhere both in and for Berlin, we are expressly seeking these types of partnerships.

2. Which application documents have to be submitted?
For the pre-selection process, it is sufficient to submit the form (in German or English) which you have personally filled out and signed. Supplementary materials such as drawing, photos, manuscripts, recordings, audio files or DVDs can also be submitted. These materials will not be sent back. They will remain in the House of World Cultures.

3. How are projects selected?
As part of a two-phase selection process, a pre-selection will be made on the basis of the application documents submitted. The preselected applicants will be informed in writing at the beginning of June and asked to submit additional information about the planned project (résumé, business plan, information about previous projects, etc.). The Über Lebenskunst jury will confer on project funding at the end of June 2010.

4. What kind of funding can I expect?
In addition to financial funding of up to €20,000 per project, initiatives may receive both technical and/or conception all advice for project implementation from the Über Lebenskunst team. The participants selected by the jury will present their concepts at an (internal) kick-off workshop to be held September 7-9, 2010.
All participants that make the second round will be invited to a dinner the day before the kick-off workshop. The focus here will be getting to know each other in person and networking among the relevant actors in Berlin.

5. Can third-party resources be incorporated into the project?
Co-funding is possible.

6. Why is the call limited to Berlin?
In the 21st century, local ideas always have to be applied globally. Which is why we are primarily directing our call to local initiatives or to people who will implement their ideas and projects together with partners in Berlin, focusing (implicitly or explicitly) on global issues.
In addition, the future of humanity lies in the urban realm. Already today, more people live in urban regions than in rural regions around the world. Global urban co-existence must be conceptualized in a way that gives new value to living and is continuously reinvented. Today, people from roughly 190 different countries live together in Berlin. This is just one more reason that Berlin is a model city for ecologically sustainable living models for the 21st century.

via Ãœber Lebenskunst. Initiative for Culture and Sustainability.

Creativity, Action and Rhetoric.

Any fellowship program that respects artists will not set out like missionaries to train them to be good citizens, which will do as much to reinforce the popular assumption that artists are irresponsible children as supporting facile aesthetic tantrums . . . The visual arts field should be seen as en ecosystem in which many different kinds of art must be able to flourish.

– Michael Brenson, “Visionaries and Outcasts”

Last year at the UN talks in Copenhagen there was an awful lot of art. I mean a big glorious bucketful. I mean exhibitions and performances and people-hosting-people-as-art, and there was a great amount of debate as to how that was going to affect policy. If at all. In an interview with me for Inhabitat.com, Ian Garrett of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts reported that in Copenhagen, “These creative ventures, in talking about climate change, are reinforcing what people are feeling around town here and they have an increasing voice with the policy makers of the world,” while admitting that the influence art had on policy was indirect at best.

So now what? Tonight, in New York, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there was a gathering of minds looking to answer exactly that question. Part of the PEN World Voices of International Literature, the even was called Weather Report: What Can We Do? and featured, among others, Bill McKibben, author of the 350.org campaign, Skeptical Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, Climatologist James Hansen and Dot Earthist Andrew Revkin.

Would love to read somebody’s lecture notes. In the meantime, I’ll be “doing” some blogging and art-ing.

Go to the Green Museum

The Schuylkill Center – Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature

Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature
May 1 – September 26, 2010

Joe Chirchirillo
Jason Krugman & Christian Cerrito
Mark Malmberg
Patrick Marold
Moto Ohtake
Tim Prentice

Opening Reception
Saturday June 5, 2010
The trails will be open all afternoon for self-guided tours

6 pm
Refreshments available in the Gallery and at the Widener Trail Bird Blind
6:30 pm
Exhibition Introduction in the Gallery

7 pm
Artist Talk and Tour on the Trails

8 pm
Miro Dance Theatre performance of generate.degenerate in Founder’s Grove
tickets $5

Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature is The Schuylkill Center’s 2010 On The Trails exhibition. Six artists or artist teams from around the country will present outdoor sculptural installations that engage a natural element – wind, water, sun – to create a dynamic or kinetic artwork. Each piece creates sound, movement, or both, using only the energy they harness from nature. These exciting works will be installed for visitors to The Schuylkill Center to discover along Widener, Woodcock, and Grey Fox Loop trails.

Rain Machine by Joe Chirchirillo Sun Birds by Mark Malmberg
Rain Machine by Joe Chirchirillo Sun Birds by Mark Malmberg
Solar Drone by Patrick Marold Aero 2010 by Moto Ohtake
Solar Drone by Patrick Marold Aero 2010 by Moto Ohtake
Solar Thumpers by Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito
Yellow Zinger by Tim Prentice Solar Thumpers by Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito

Solar Bugbots workshop by Elemental Energy artists Jason Krugman and Christian Cerrito
May 12 at 6 pm
Hosted by Art in the Age
116 North 3rd St, Old City Philadelphia

Solar Bugbots Workshop
In this workshop, participants will learn how to construct a circuit that gathers solar energy and releases it in bursts, and then use it in the creation of a small, light-powered, vibro-bot. TheseBugbots will respond directly to the intensity of the light that they are exposed to, using solar energy to power two vibrating pager motors. On a sunny day they will skitter about frantically…On cloudy days they will move intermittently as they build up energy.

During the course of this workshop, participants will be introduced the basics of solar electronics and circuit construction. Each participant will solder their own circuit board and build a Bugbot of their own to take home. Participants need no prior experience in this field. Just come with a willingness to learn!

Astronaut combines art and science to awesome effect – The Irish Times

The Irish Times’ SHANE HEGARTY shows us what Soichi Noguchi sees.

On Wednesday he posted a picture of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, its black tendrils looked eerily beautiful as it stretched through miles of ocean. It is a unique image, giving a sense of its scale previously unseen and with a touch of humanity that a satellite cannot. The picture looks as if it was taken by an interested photographer rather than a disinterested automaton.

What Noguchi does is to bring science and art together in a way that appeals to 250,000 people each day. He is one of the best things NASA has right now; up there at least with the rovers still toddling across Mars or the Voyager and Pioneer spacecrafts on lonely, perhaps eternal journeys into deep space. And if you want, you can talk to him and he may even talk back. If you need any proof of how wonderful modern technology can be, it’s that you can send a message to a man floating 400km above your head, and that he might reply with a holiday snap of your entire country.

He is not the only tweeting astronaut, but he is a reminder of just how awesome science can be. Not “awesome” in the modern way in which it is used merely as an everyday replacement for a nod, but “awesome” in a way that leaves your mind breathless from trying to appreciate the scale of it. And of how much fun it can be.

We’re fans of the macro view of planet. Check out there previous posts:

California City

STUNNING VIEWS OF GLACIERS SEEN FROM SPACE | WIRED.COM

via Astronaut combines art and science to awesome effect – The Irish Times – Sat, May 08, 2010.

Doug + Mike Starn on the Roof: Big Bambú | Current Exhibitions | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Doug + Mike Starn on the Roof: Big Bambú
April 27, 2010–October 31, 2010 (weather permitting)
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden

Go to Flickr for behind-the-scenes photos and installation views. flickr
Read the Guided-Tour Guidelines.
Curator Anne Strauss talks to Doug and Mike Starn about the exhibition.
Download the audio file. MP3 (7.97 MB)

Invited by The Metropolitan Museum of Art to create a site-specific installation for The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, the twin brothers Mike and Doug Starn (born in New Jersey in 1961) will present their new work, Big Bambú: You Can’t, You Don’t, and You Won’t Stop, opening on April 27. The monumental bamboo structure, ultimately measuring 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 50 feet high, will take the form of a cresting wave that bridges realms of sculpture, architecture, and performance. Visitors will witness the continuing creation and evolving incarnations ofBig Bambú as it is constructed throughout the spring, summer, and fall by the artists and a team of rock climbers. Set against Central Park and its urban backdrop, Big Bambúwill suggest the complexity and energy of an ever-changing living organism. It will be the thirteenth-consecutive single-artist installation on the Roof Garden.

Doug + Mike Starn on the Roof: Big Bambú

Above: Installation in progress, March 2010. Photo by Doug and Mike Starn. © 2010 Mike and Doug Starn / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

More about the Exhibition
Big Bambú is a growing and changing sculpture―a vast network of 5,000 interlocking 30- and 40-foot-long fresh-cut bamboo poles, lashed together with 50 miles of nylon rope. It will continue to be constructed throughout the duration of the exhibition. The first phase of the structure―measuring about 100 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 30 feet high―will be completed by opening day, April 27. Subsequently, the artists and rock climbers will build up the eastern portion of the sculpture to an elevation of 50 feet. By summer, the western portion of the sculpture will be about 40 feet high. An internal footpath artery system will grow along with the structure, facilitating its progress. The evolving state of the work will be documented by the artists in photographs and videos.

Visiting the Exhibition
Visitors will be able to experience Big Bambú from the Roof Garden level, open to everyone during regular Museum hours, weather permitting, and to walk among a forest of bamboo poles that serves as the base of the sculpture. Alternatively, visitors will be able to explore the artwork on brief tours led by Museum-trained guides. On the guided tours, held during regular Museum hours, weather permitting, small groups of visitors will be able to walk along the elevated interior network of pathways roughly 20 to 40 feet above the Roof Garden. Tickets will be required for the guided tours, and specific guidelines will apply to those interested in participating. Please read them for details and requirements.

Tickets for guided tours will be able to be obtained only in person and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis with Museum admission at the Big Bambú Registration Desk, in the Uris Center for Education, located at the 81st Street ground-level entrance. Tickets will be available twice a day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Sundays, andHoliday Mondays, when the Museum is open to the public, and three times a day on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets for morning tours will be released at 9:30 a.m. Tickets for afternoon tours will be released at noon. On Fridays and Saturdays, tickets for evening tours will be released at 3:30 p.m. There will be a limit of one ticket per person, and tickets will be nontransferable. All tour participants (other than children without identification) will be required to present photo identification to obtain a ticket.

About the Artists
Born in New Jersey in 1961, the identical twins Doug and Mike Starn work collaboratively and defy categorization, combining traditionally separate disciplines such as sculpture, photography, painting, video, and installation. In spring 2009, the Arts for Transitprogram of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City unveiled See it split, see it change, the Starns’ first public commission. The work, which is installed permanently at the South Ferry subway station, won the Brendan Gill Prize. Their work has been exhibited internationally and is included in public and private collections worldwide. Their solo exhibitions include Gravity of Light (2004, 2008), Absorption + Transmission (2005, 2006), Behind Your Eye (2004), Sphere of Influence (1994), Mike and Doug Starn: Selected Works 1985-87 (1988), and The Christ Series (1988). The artists live and work in the New York area.

Exhibition Organization and Credits
The exhibition is organized by Anne L. Strauss, Associate Curator of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum.

The exhibition is made possible by Bloomberg logo
Additional support is provided by Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky.
The exhibition is also made possible in part by the Jane and Robert Carroll Fund.
Rope is provided by Mammut Sports Group, Inc.

Doug + Mike Starn on the Roof: Big Bambú | Current Exhibitions | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Robert Juliat Releases the Aledin LED Profile Into the Wild | iSquint.net

Justin over at iSquint brings us this update on the Juliat LED Profile/Ellipsoidal/Focus-able instrument. I won’t ruin the surprise about the price here though….

Remember that “project” Robert Juliat showed off at LDI in a back room under special invite?  Looks like the “project” has been turned into a final product and is getting ready to ship! Here is more from the Press Release:

The Aledinâ„¢ is the first product of its type to achieve significant output AND superlative framing and projection ability from an extremely low-powered LED light source.

Robert Juliat Releases the Aledin LED Profile Into the Wild | iSquint.net.

158 Lifeguard Towers to Begin their Transformation into Public Art – LAist

Starting Sunday April 25th and lasting through October, the regions biggest public art project will begin to take shape. By Mid-May “Summer of Color” will have turned 158 lifeguard towers on 31 miles of California coast into vibrant floral pieces of public art. On Sunday, volunteers will paint tower railings with one of five colors: yellow, rumba orange, sweat pea, Toronto blue, and crocus petal purple. If you want to volunteer, sign up here.

via 158 Lifeguard Towers to Begin their Transformation into Public Art This Weekend – LAist.

CLUI on Display: Through the Grapevine: Streams of Transit in Southern California’s Great Pass

Through the Grapevine: Streams of Transit in Southern California’s Great PassThe mountainous passage that separates the great population of Southern California from the rest of the state is a zone of transit, from one epic region to another. Located at the collision of the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountain Ranges, this steep and convoluted terrain lies between Castaic, the northern edge of the Los Angeles megalopolis, and the depopulated place known as Grapevine, at the southern end of the Central Valley. Layers of traffic, water, and energy move like a braided stream through the mountainous terrain, connecting here to there.From April 23, 2010This exhibit is made possible by a grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles and the CLUI Remarkable Roadways Program.

CLUI on Display: Through the Grapevine: Streams of Transit in Southern California’s Great Pass.

The Crane Also Rises: CalArts Connection to Coachella’s Ascension

Picking up a story about Executive Director Ian Garrett’s Practice outside of the CSPA from the CalArts Blog’s Christine Ziemba….

Anyone who attended the Coachella or Stagecoach festivals in recent weeks in Indio, Calif., couldn’t miss the giant origami crane towering over the festival grounds. The art installation, Ascension, was crafted by the Crimson Collective, an LA-based consortium of artists, architects and designers. Based on Japanese legend, Ascension stood as a symbol of peace and prosperity.

The Collective’s Nick Vida tapped artist and CalArts alumnus Ian Garrett(Theater MFA 08) to design the lighting for the project in an environmentally sustainable manner. In other words, the lights were programmed and run by solar power: “We had to collect enough light to charge the batteries and power the lights at night,” said Garrett. He used multicolored LED lights to change the crane’s colors continually each evening, providing concertgoers dramatic visuals to go along with the music from the festivals’ stages.

Standing at more than 45 feet and with a wingspan of more than 150 feet, the fabric and truss installation gave concertgoers shelter from the desert sun by day, too. Here’s a description from The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog:

Defined by the collective as a living art installation, the giant white crane was crafted from white fabric, modular aluminum and tension wire, all of which combine and provide vast expanses of shade. While simultaneously blocking the sun, two solar energy collectors will charge via the sun’s rays to provide colored ambient lighting once the sun goes down. Underneath each of the solar panels is a bench and rest area, offering extra space for respite.

Since the crane is a fully sustainable and reusable project, the Crimson Collective is planning to take the crane around the world. For those interested in learning more about the crane project, the Collective’s Nick Vida and Brent Heyning will be on campus next week (May 7 at noon) to discuss the crane project and installation as part of CalArts Sustainability Speaker Series.

Garrett was at Stagecoach this weekend to help take down Ascension. He provided us a few early renderings of the crane, as well as photos from the festival grounds in the photo gallery posted above.

24700 » Blog Archive » The Crane Also Rises: CalArts Connection to Coachella’s Ascension.

Braziers International Artists Workshop

In a departure from its usual structure, BIAW 2010 will focus on organising a 2 day extravaganza open to the public on 21st and 22nd August 2010.

We present Supernormal – a one-off, non-commercial festival investigating the power of arts practice to reshape and reinvigorate the public sphere through
collective action.

16 artists will be selected to work with the co-ordinators over 14 days to create a brilliant fusion of art, music, film, conversation and fun, playing host to a hand-picked line-up of exciting artists and performers.

We are calling for artists who, conscious of the social, economic, environmental and cultural challenges we face in the 21st century, are open to working together in a sustainable and inclusive way to explore arts practice in the context of the public realm.

Deadline for receipt of applications: Monday 3rd May 2010

Braziers International Artists Workshop.