Edinburgh University

BEDLAM THEATRE WINS VENUE SUSTAINABILITY PRIZE AT INAUGURAL TECHNICAL THEATRE AWARDS

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Charlotte_Hodge_Tim_Atkinson_Rick_FisherBedlam Theatre has taken the :entertaining sustainability Award for Venue Sustainability at the inaugural Technical Theatre Awards, presented at a ceremony held on Tuesday evening at the annual PLASA London live entertainment technology show at the ExCeL.

Charlotte Hodge, Bedlam’s Theatre Manager, collecting the Award on behalf of the student-led venue in Edinburgh, said, “Receiving this award is a huge honour for Bedlam. We feel that sustainability is so important to the future of theatre as a whole. We have many ideas on how to improve but as a student-run theatre company we don’t necessarily have the professional experience or the funds to know where to make a start on them. That is why this award is so important to us: it rewards our enthusiasm and our drive to make changes with the resources we have. This award will help us in our mission to make Bedlam Theatre a more sustainable venue for future members.”

Hodge continued, “Thanks must go to Edinburgh University and the Edinburgh University Students’ Association for their support; to Creative Carbon Scotland and Harry Giles of Festivals Edinburgh for their advice; and to the many Bedlam members who have got us to this point, in particular Luciana Miu, Adam Alton, Bryn Jones and Ruth Luckins.”

Tim Atkinson, Technical Director of :entertaining sustainability, the award sponsor, said, “Bedlam Theatre’s team demonstrates once again that it is perfectly feasible to present uncompromising and exciting live entertainment whilst continually innovating and experimenting to reduce the residual impact of its operations”.

Atkinson went on, “By experimenting with initiatives such as electronic programmes, and collaborating with organisations such as Creative Carbon Scotland, Bedlam repeatedly pushes the envelope of what is achievable within their parameters. Most importantly, the team communicates their work with their audience – a crucial engagement – and with so many patrons at each performance, their message spreads quickly beyond the walls. Huge congratulations to them all.”

The Technical Theatre Awards has been established to recognise the achievements of backstage staff in production, and was given considerable industry support, not only by its host, Tony and Olivier Award-winning lighting designer and former chairman of the Association of Lighting Designers, Rick Fisher, but by the industry sponsors who supported each award.

The full list of winners is: Paul Arditti, dBS Award for Outstanding Achivement in Sound; Tim Routledge, Philips Entertainment Award for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting; Ben Philips, AVW Award for Outstanding Achievement in Automation; Jonathan Hall, StageBitz Award for Outstanding Achievement in Prop Making; Chris Layton, PRG Award for Outstanding Achievement in Education; Megan Cassidy, IOGIG Ltd Award for Outstanding Achievement in Wardrobe; Adam Searle, Load Cell Rental Award for Outstanding Achievement in Flys and Rigging; Stefan Musch, The Theatres Trust Award for Outstanding Achievement in Wigs and Makeup; Sadler’s Wells, Spotlight Accounting Award for Receiving Venue of the Year; Autograph Sound, AdVision Hire Company of the Year Award; Janet Williamson, Triple E Award for Outstanding Achievement in Building and Set Construction; Richard Bullimore,  Lighting and Sound International Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Management; Bedlam Theatre, :entertaining sustainability Award for Venue Sustainability

For more information visit www.entertainingsustainability.com

Edinburgh Feed the 5000

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Edible Edinburgh

Reposted from Edinburgh City Council / University of Edinburgh – see Edible Edinburgh for more information or download Edible Edinburgh 5 Oct flier 500kB – thanks to David Somervell for alerting us to this,

Please join us on Saturday 5th October in Bristo Square and Potterrow, University of Edinburgh for this Feeding the 5,000 event, with community stalls showcasing local food related action and a discussion about the future of Edinburgh as a sustainable food city.

Community stalls open from 11am in Potterrow, with a free lunch being served outside in Bristo Square from 12pm until 5,000 portions run out or we close at 4pm!

The purpose of this event is to:

Inspire awareness about local food production, food waste and social responsibility.

Engage Edinburgh residents about the proposed strategy to develop Edinburgh as a Sustainable Food City and launch “Edible Edinburgh” – an action group of the re-established Edinburgh Sustainable Development Partnership.

Feeding the 5000 is a campaign launched in 2009 to raise awareness of the amount of food wasted locally, nationally and globally and how we can solve this. Following successful events in London, Paris, Bristol, Manchester and other cities across Europe, we are planning Scotland’s very first Feeding the 5000 event in Edinburgh on Saturday 5th October 2013.

5,000 people will be fed with a delicious free meal created by celebrity chefs and community groups from ingredients that might otherwise have been thrown away. Along with participatory cooking sessions, educational and campaign stalls and more, the two days are sure to be a must for anyone who enjoys good food and cares about food waste.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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Nuclear history, nuclear future

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Artists have been working with the cultural and environmental dimensions of nuclear power for a long time.  Many have also been anti-nuclear activists as well.  The artists want to raise awareness and contribute to the public discussion.

This work isn’t facile or simple, and drawing attention to it is done in a spirit of respect for the people currently working to minimise the impact of the disaster at Fukushima.

Gair Dunlop is launching his film Atom Town with a tour including Inspace at Edinburgh University 27/28 May, Caithness Horizons, Thurso, 3 June and Arts Catalyst, London, 23 June.  There is a short ‘sketch’ on Vimeo:

Dounreay Atomic Research Establishment (official website for decomissioning) is a sprawling monument to solidity, optimism and analogue engineering. The intangible alchemies and sense of romantic science at its heart are trapped like amber in archive film and in its colossal structures. Over the last two years, unprecedented access to the facility and to the UKAEA Archive at Harwell have allowed Gair Dunlop to explore the dream and the consequences of high science in a remote community.

Eve Andree Laramee has successfully secured funding through UnitedStatesArtists.org amongst other sources for her film/video project Slouching Towards Yucca Mountain.  Yucca Mountain in Nevada is a proposed nuclear waste repository.  This work in development is about another aspect of legacy.

Her initial proposal video is on youTube:

She has also posted some initial character sketches on youTube:

But each of these artists has their own personal history with nuclear activism. Sitting with Lorna Waite discussing art and nuclear activism I discovered that the reason she didn’t get to be Civic Week Queen in Kilbirnie when she was 16 was because she asked “What exactly is a safe container for radioactive waste?”  She went on to an action to disrupt a meeting of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management – she took some sand from Dalgety Bay in a lead-lined container and a home-made Geiger-counter to the meeting.  Dalgety Bay is polluted with radioactive waste because the luminous dials for WWII aircraft have ended up there (download an NHSFife document on the subject).  She then went on to talk about the assassination of Willie Ross, an SNP activist who had been working on legal arguments against Nirex and their plan to do test drilling in the Scottish Highlands in preparation for developing a nuclear repository. 

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.

Go to EcoArtScotland

For the end of the Edinburgh Festivals – Scottish Researchers Turn Whiskey into Fuel

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Don’t drink and drive, but feel free to let your car party all it wants! After two years and $400,000, researchers at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland have successfully turned whiskey into fuel. The researchers were provided with the general products needed to make whiskey as well as the byproducts that typically result from production of the alcohol. They found they were able to make a form of biobutanol — which is 30% more efficient than ethanol — with two whiskey byproducts – pot ale and draff. Finally, a discovery worthy of a toast!

via Scottish Researchers Turn Whiskey into Fuel | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.