Activists

Chiang Mai Now!

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This post comes to you from Cultura21
Exhibition presenting Chiang Mai through visions of contemporary cultures

April 7th – June 19th, 2011 – 9th Floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand

Chiang Mai Now! is the exhibition presenting Chiang Mai through contemporary visions. Curated by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, the exhibition puts forward unique perspectives of 12 artists and contemporary cultural activists.

Chiang Mai Now! – is a contemporary art and cultural exhibition, curated by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, presenting twelve artists and cultural activists who put forward and demonstrating their vision and activism – as they search for alternative solutions and at the same time actively create networking – in their quest to confront a myriad of contemporary living problems. The exhibition as well, serves to convey the time frame in the Thai society now, full of diverse and differences in ideas. “Chiang Mai Now!” seizes a moment, one stop in our present motion, to take note and make some sense of the world around us.

More Info: www.bacc.or.th

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

Chiang Mai Now!

Cultura21, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Exhibition presenting Chiang Mai through visions of contemporary cultures

April 7th – June 19th, 2011 – 9th Floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thailand

Chiang Mai Now! is the exhibition presenting Chiang Mai through contemporary visions. Curated by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, the exhibition puts forward unique perspectives of 12 artists and contemporary cultural activists.

Chiang Mai Now! – is a contemporary art and cultural exhibition, curated by Angkrit Ajchariyasophon, presenting twelve artists and cultural activists who put forward and demonstrating their vision and activism – as they search for alternative solutions and at the same time actively create networking – in their quest to confront a myriad of contemporary living problems. The exhibition as well, serves to convey the time frame in the Thai society now, full of diverse and differences in ideas. “Chiang Mai Now!” seizes a moment, one stop in our present motion, to take note and make some sense of the world around us.

More Info: www.bacc.or.th

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

Designers Accord “Town Hall’ Brighton UK

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What actions can we take to design a more sustainable future?’

We are educators, learners, architects, economists, ecologists, activists, filmmakers, photographers, graphic, communication, business, product, fashion, textiles, interior, landscape, systems and thinking designers.

Come and join us to discuss how we can all take actions to design a more sustainable future together.

The evening will start with a selection of short presentations. Followed by food, wine and discussion in small break out groups. Finishing with feedback and action to be taken forward!

Places are limited, please only register for a ticket if you can make the event, or if circumstances change please let us know asap.

The Designers Accord provides a participatory platform with online and offline manifestations so that members have access to a community of peers who share methodologies, resources, and experiences around environmental and social issues in design.

If you would like to know any more about the Designers Accord please click here or if you would like further information about the Brighton Group please feel free to contact us at the address below.

designersaccord.brighton@gmail.com

via Designers Accord “Town Hall’ Brighton UK – Eventbrite.

ashdenizen: from no plays about climate change to three in a month

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It was only a couple of years ago that this blog was writing about why theatres don’t touch climate change. It seemed, at the time, as if there was something about theatre, or the way people conceived of mainstream theatre, that made the subject almost impossible to treat. This was part of a more general avoidance of the environment as a subject for the performing arts. The Ashden Directory had been launched, back in 2000, as a way of following and encouraging those works which did engage with this subject.

But now things are changing. Eighteen months ago there was finally, a good play about climate change.  It was also possible to see in the works, for instance, of Wallace Shawn and Andrew Bovell the green shoots of climate change theatre.

Fast forward to January 2011, and this month alone three climate change plays will open in London - Greenland at the National, The Heretic at the Royal Court, and Water at the Tricycle.

Why is this important? Because climate change alters the way we think about our lives. The news contained within the various IPCC reports will be as influential, as paradigm-shifting, on the way we see ourselves as Darwin’s Origin of Species. It is, ultimately, a question of values and relationships. As such, it is a natural subject for theatre.

But new plays don’t open in a vacuum. For them to succeed, there needs to be a lively engaged audience that has some sense of what is at stake. That’s why we have also been involved with the Open University in producing a new series of podcasts that puts cultural work around climate change in perspective.

The podcasts bring together 17 artists, activists, writers, film-makers, scientists, entrepreneurs and academics, including comedian Marcus Brigstocke, choreographer Siobhan Davies, BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin, architect Carolyn Steele and Mike Hulme, author ofWhy We Disagree About Climate Change.

Radio 4’s Quentin Cooper chairs these four ‘Mediating Change’ discussions which cover the history, publics, anatomy and futures of cultural responses to climate change. The podcasts are now available to download from iTunesU.

via ashdenizen: from no plays about climate change to three in a month.

NEW LIFE CANCUN Call for Proposals

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Call for Proposals

Artists working with interventions, activism and other participatory practices are invited to apply for participation in NEW LIFE CANCUN. This experimental hospitality project will take place during the UN Climate Change summit (COP 16) in Canc̼n, Mexico from 29 Nov Р10 Dec 2010.

In continuation of Wooloo’s NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN festival – in which we secured housing for more than 3.000 activists coming to the Copenhagen summit – NEW LIFE CANCUN is aiming to connect visiting activists and NGO employees with local families in the area of Cancún, infamous for its vulnerability to climate disasters (mainly hurricanes), as well as for the high-CO2 emissions associated with its tourism sector.

Utilising this meeting of hosts and guests in Cancun as our exhibition platform, artists and activists are invited to explore its social architecture and suggest work proposals of an awareness, educational and/or practical-action nature designed around the topic: “NEW WAYS OF LIVING TOGETHER”.

Up to five artists will be selected for participation and will get all travel, accommodation and production costs covered by Wooloo. Proposals must include a detailed budget. As fundraising efforts are still ongoing, we do not yet know the size of our final production budget. However, it wont be large – so please be aware that your project must be able to be realized in a low-budget manner!

The deadline for work proposals is Thu 1 August 2010.

Please direct all research questions to contact[at]wooloo.org

NEW LIFE is an ongoing series of works focusing on social and artistic experimentation. Staged by Wooloo and taking place in institutions and public spaces worldwide, NEW LIFE aims to be a test field for new ways of living together on our planet.

NEW LIFE CANCUN is a collaboration between Wooloo.org and the Mexican climate change collective Carbonding.

via ==criticalnetwork== NEW LIFE CANCUN.

Institute of Contemporary Arts : Talks : The Climate for Theatre

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8 July 2010 –  £5 / £4 ICA Members plus + £1.20 booking fee per ticket in advance

As theatre makers struggle to create the iconic work about climate change, should they borrow the models of local activism practiced by the anti-globalisation movement? Can theatre that inspires change by virtue of its rootedness in real life concerns also connect and inspire on an international stage? Chaired by Chris Smith, previously secretary of State for Culture and now chairman of the Environment Agency, and with speakers including John Jordan, artist and activist and author of We Are Everywhere, this debate examines theatre makers’ attitudes to environmental concerns. Why, unlike AIDS, the conflict between Israel and Palestine or even the global financial crisis, has climate change not inspired a potentially attitude-shifting piece of theatre? Films and literature have tackled the subject through fiction and polemic; where is the theatrical equivalent?

But is there actually a need for a catalyst, a great inspirational moment, or should we just continue at a local level, building from the grassroots up and up? As climate change activists deal with the failure of the Copenhagen talks last year, there is a move away from global mobilisation towards specific and local targets such as particular fossil-fuel power plants or mines, focusing more on local grassroots campaigns, “to start from the bottom” as the Rising Tide spokesman puts it. Should theatre makers take a leaf from the activists’ book and think local? As a subject that touches the daily business of life, is it more appropriate that theatre that addresses climate change and the need for action should itself be created in a local and practical context, intimately connected to its audience or participants’ daily life?

Held in association with Artsadmin, This is the third of four LIFT Debates that form part of LIFT Club at the ICA. These debates aim to explore our new relationship with theatre in the company of international theatre makers, critics and commentators.

Special Offer

Buying a ticket for this event and for the ICA featured LIFT performances at the same time – Revolution Now, Best Before, FML or Oxygen – entitles the purchaser to a discounted ICA Members price on their chosen performance. Call the ICA Box Office for details.

via Institute of Contemporary Arts : Talks : The Climate for Theatre.

WOOLOO.ORG – NEW LIFE CANCÚN

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Artists working with interventions, activism and other participatory practices are invited to apply for participation in NEW LIFE CANCUN.

This experimental hospitality initiative intends to promote and facilitate participation during the UN Climate Change summit (COP 16) in Cancún, Mexico at the end of 2010 (Nov. 29th – Dec. 10th).

In continuation of Wooloo’s NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN festival – in which we secured housing for more than 3.000 activists during the Copenhagen summit – NEW LIFE CANCUN is aiming to connect visiting activists and NGO employees with local families in the area of Cancún.An area infamous for its vulnerability to climate disasters (mainly hurricanes), as well as for the high-CO2 emissions associated with its tourism sector.

Utilizing this meeting of hosts and guests in Cancun as our exhibition platform, artists and activists are invited to explore its social architecture and suggest work proposals of an awareness, educational and/or practical-action nature designed around the topic: “NEW WAYS OF LIVING TOGETHER”.

The deadline for work proposals is JULY 1st, 2010.

Please direct all research questions to contact@wooloo.org

Proposals must include a detailed budget. As fundraising efforts are still ongoing, we do not yet know the size of our final production budget. However, it wont be large – so please be aware that your project must be able to be realized in a low-budget manner!

NEW LIFE CANCUN is a collaboration between Wooloo.org and the Mexican climate change collective Carbonding

Image credit: Stephanie Claverie

via WOOLOO.ORG – NEW LIFE CANCÚN.

2010 Power of Words Conference: Call For Proposals

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The 8th Annual Power of Words conference will be held Sept. 23-26, 2010 at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT and we’re looking for workshop proposals!

One way or another you’ve been connected and in touch with the Transformative Language Arts Network and we thought you and yours might be interested in the event again this year. Please consider the Call for Proposals yourself and give thought to forwarding this along to those for whom this might spark some interest. If, instead, you’d like to discontinue your communications with the Network you will find means to do that at the bottom of this message.
The 8th Annual Power of Words conference brings together writers, storytellers, performers, musicians, educators, activists, healers, health professionals, community leaders, and more. All participants are united in the common exploration of how the written, spoken, and sung word can catalyze individual and communal liberation, celebration, and transformation.

We invite your proposals for experiential, didactic, and/or performance-based workshops that focus on writing, storytelling, drama, film, narrative medicine, songwriting, and other forms of Transformative Language Arts (TLA). We support proposals that focus on social change, the spoken or sung word, and how to make a living using transformative language arts in service to our communities. Because we are strongly committed to including individuals from diverse backgrounds, we encourage proposals from people of color and from presenters of many ages.

To submit a workshop proposal, visit the TLAN 2010 Call for Proposals Page.

The 2010 conference will feature four thematic tracks. Particular consideration will be given to workshop proposals that forward one or more themes:

  • Right Livelihood, finding a work life that is an expression of your gifts and makes a contribution to the world.
  • Social Transformation, using the power of word to deepen engagement with social issues and transform self and society.
  • Engaged Spirituality, writing / employing spiritual pathways challenging deeply-embedded structures of injustice to cultivate a sustainable, just, and peaceful world.
  • Narrative Medicine, using the power of narrative to help patients discover their own stories of illness and create ones of healing that pull toward recovery.

The conference will feature the following keynote speakers:

  • Greg Greenway – Singer and poet who works with the social awareness of Woody Guthrie
  • S. Pearl Sharp – Writer/actress/filmmaker/broadcast journalist focusing on cultural arts, health and healing, and Black history
  • Kayhan Irani – An artivist using the the arts to deepen engagement with social issues and societal transformation. A writer, director, performer, and facilitator of Playback Theater
  • Katherine Towler – Poet, author, teacher – writes lyrical novels of family and place

To submit a workshop proposal, visit the TLAN 2010 Call for Proposals Page.

For further information, please contact the TLAN Coordinators.

Callid & Kristina Keefe-Perry
TLA Network Coordinators
coordinator@tlanetwork.org
877-303-TLAN (8526)

[Please note that (a) presenters are not paid for their presentations and must register for, pay for, and attend the conference, (b) conference fees begin at $200 with reasonable room and board available, (c) a limited number of partial scholarships are also available, and (d) no individual should submit more than three proposals.]

Success for New Life Copenhagen Festival during COP15

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Success for art festival during COP15

NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN was a great success and expects to continue during COP16 in Mexico

During COP15, the untraditional art festival NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN has hosted the free hospitality of more than 3.000 climate guests from 108 different nationalities. Activists, grassroots, scientists, diplomats and delegates have lived on couches and in guest rooms in Danish homes for the past two weeks. This vast cultural meeting makes NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN the largest free private housing project worldwide in relation to an international summit or conference.

The social success of the summit

The organizers behind the project, Wooloo.org, is very satisfied with the outcome. The large cultural meeting went by and large without problems, and the reactions from the participants have been overwhelmingly positive.  Wooloo.org states:

Most of the hosts chose to spend a lot of time with their guests. The hosts showed them Copenhagen, discusse climate politics, cultural differences, food and so much more. They sat and talked all night, and the younger participants went out at night – some of them even started dating. Others have already made plans to visit their guests in their home country next year.

A social experiment

The objective of the art festival was always to create something more than a free hospitality project. Wooloo.org says:

Instead of inviting artists to create art pjeces for a traditional museum, we have chosen guest hospitality and meetings between people as our exhibition platform. The purpose of the festival is to create a foundation for new ways of living together. Individual solutionas are not enough. As a society we need to live of lives radically differen if we are to succeed with the climate changes.

With this objective as a starting point, the artist group Superflex asked participants to make an absurd choice to decide if they wanted a climate-friendly death if they were to die during the summit. Signa made a special guest- and host book for all participants where particpants could evaluate each other’s lifestyle patterns, and the activist duo The YesMen encouraged everybody to take a pledge to never drink Coca-Cola again.

The success continues in Mexico

Already now, the world is looking ahead to the next climate summit in Mexico (COP16). And the organization behind is already very positive about implementing NEW LIFE as a way of welcoming climate guests and once again examine new ways of living together by the hand of a series of challenging choices and happenings developed by Wooloo.org and other artists.

NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN is the largest private and free accommodation project worldwide ever in relation to an international summit. NEW LIFE COPENHAGEN is funded by the Danish Arts Council, Nordic Culture Point, the Danish Arts Foundation, the City of Copenhagen, People’s Climate Action, Tryg Vesta and the Danish Society for Nature Conservation.

For more information:  www.newlifecopenhagen.com / www.wooloo.org

GOOD COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009

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HEADQUARTERS, a collaboration venue for artists and climate activist groups in Copenhagen, invites you to come play “GOOD COP”.

With civil society access to Bella Center growing increasingly restricted, the GOOD COP aims to make your voice heard during this critical week of negotiations.

GOOD COP opens following a bold media stunt on Monday by North American, European and African activists that placed the spotlight on countries standing in the way of a real deal in Copenhagen. The stunt – and the global attention that followed – challenged us to imagine the world as we want it, and proved that our alternative messages can and will have an impact. But this was only one statement of the many that need to be voiced in the final days of negotiations.

HEADQUARTERS welcomes the public to come voice their own statements on the GOOD COP stage. As heads of state arrive this week we need to keep our expectations high to push for our vision of a GOOD COPENHAGEN – a real deal at COP15.

Have your say at GOOD COP – show that an ambitious agreement at COP15 is not too good to be true.

HEADQUARTERS

Open 11:00 – 17:00

Gallery Poulsen Contemporary Fine Arts

Frederiksholms Kanal 4, st. th.

1220 Copenhagen K

Denmark

GOOD COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009.