Memes

Using Memes to Improve Climate Change Communication

June 15, 2013Artists and Climate ChangeAction Art, Artistic Responses, Balazs, blog, Change Communication, Chantal Bilodeau, Climate Change, Communication Artists, Disciplines, Face, Global Warming, Improve Communication, Intriguing Article, Joe Brewer, Lazlo, Memes, Playwright, Virus

This post comes to you from Chantal Bilodeau’s Artists and Climate Change Blog

Global Warming Meme Map

An intriguing articleÂ just got published that puts forward a theory about why the messaging about global warming has been wrong. Hint: it may be because global warming is not an experience; itâ€™s a meme. You can find the full report on which the article is based, called Global Warming is a Virus, compiled byÂ Joe Brewer and Balazs Lazlo Karafiath,Â here.

Filed under: Climate Communication

Artists and Climate Change is a blog by playwright Chantal Bilodeau that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

SCANZ 2013: Wananga-Symposium

January 26, 2013Cultura21Aotearoa New Zealand, Art Technology, Curators, Human Habitation, Hybrid Space, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Perspective, International Artists, Legacies, Memes, New Plymouth, Nina Czegledy, Peril, Premier Art, Scanz, Sustainable Civilization, Symposium Schedule, Technology Culture, Theorists, Trajectories

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Developing the culture to create a sustainable civilization

Feb 1stâ€“3rd, 2013 â€“ New Plymouth, New Zealand

SCANZ (Solar Circuit Aotearoa New Zealand)Â is New ZealandÂ´s premier art, technology, culture and ecology event and involves a symposium, creative residency, and public events and exhibitions. Occurring biennially, it has typically involved a mix of Aotearoa New Zealand and international artists, producers, theorists and curators.Â SCANZ 2013: 3rd natureÂ will be theÂ fourth eventÂ and will be organized by Ian Clothier, Trudy Lane, and Nina Czegledy ofÂ Intercreate, in partnership with aligned organizations within the arts and sciences and with tangata whenua.

SCANZ 2013 3rd natureÂ seeks to develop a fresh space, carrying memes from previous SCANZ events (which have all had an emphasis on environment) and other Intercreate projects that have involved scientists, indigenous peoples and artists working together. The aim is to build new knowledge and establish legacies around this work, unencumbered by old perspectives and now distant categories.

We ignore the environmental crisis at our peril. Integrating the indigenous perspective, creative, environmental and scientific views on the environment is essential for continued human habitation of the planet. From these trajectories, it is possible to conceive of a fresh hybrid space, composed of overlapping elements.

For the symposium schedule, a list of selected abstracts and to register,Â click here

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21â€²s 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 LÃ¼neburg, Germany) and Rana Ã–ztÃ¼rk (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

Genetically Modified Music: Mixed Feelings.

February 28, 2010newsArt Installation, Artist David, Artistic Exploration, Awe, Botany, Death Throes, Genetic Modification, Human Nature, Insects, Intervals, Lily Pads, Memes, Mixed Feelings, Music Artist, Nauseous, Old Lady, Pods, Pretty Things, Roles And Responsibilities, S Vision

Weâ€™re at that point now. We can talk about growing music. Artist David BenquÃ©â€™s piece Acoustic Botany is a series of models and diagrams for a genetically engineered music and sound garden. It envisions insects created to chew in rhythm, flower pods designed to explode at certain intervals, and Lily Pads that amplify the death throes of bugs in a vascular speaker structure.

I gotta say this makes me just the slightest bit nauseous, and not for the obvious old-lady-with-a-clipboard reasons (nature is nature! etc). Itâ€™s because of the roles and responsibilities of the artist inherent in the work. Here I was all excited about environmental art because itâ€™s such a great example of the logistical application of the aesthetic, of an artistâ€™s capacity to engage and care, a unity of practical and aesthetic reason. Now, again, sing the the memes of art trumping reason, or at least twisting it severely to achieve its goals.

A genetically modified art installation, with no comment to make on genetic modification itself, no analysis really of the human/nature relationship, really just an artistic exploration of the fun and pretty things we could do with plants if given the opportunity to play with their DNA. And I bet it would be stunning.Bugs designed to chew in rhythm! What kind of glorious aesthetic high would visitors to this installation get? Awe and wonder of science, with a little bit of nature, maybe.

Go to the Green Museum