Robert Butler

Island at the National Theatre

March 3, 2012Ashden Directory25 February, Arctic Island, Computer Phone, Cottesloe Theatre, Different World, Effects Of Climate Change, Facebook, Family Audiences, Feather Boy, Gutman, Herschel Island, Interviews News, Primary Schools In London, Robert Butler, School Holiday, Schoolboy, Schools In London, Six Ways, Spring Term, Twitter, Whaling

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Abandoned whaling settlement at Pauline Cove, Herschel Island

Kellie Gutman reports:

A new play for children ages 8 and up runs at the Cottesloe Theatre 15-25 February. Â Island, by award-winning author Nicky Singer (Feather Boy),Â has been commissioned by the National Theatre’s Learning programme. Â The play is set on the remote Arctic island of Herschel.

[It] raises questions about the effects of climate change on the island. Â the play centres on a London schoolboy, Cameron, forced to spend his school holiday without computer, phone or Facebook with his scientist mother on the remote Herschel Island, where he encounters an indigenous girl whose stories open up this different world.

Along with the performances and workshops for family audiences at the Cottesloe Theatre, Island will tour to primary schools in London throughout the spring term.

State of the Arts gets the environment

March 1, 2012Ashden DirectoryAdebayo, Andy Field, Artistic Expression, Artistic Practices, Arts Council England, Climate Change, Creative Economy, Environmental Focus, Environmental Themes, Field Co, Forest Fringe, Interviews News, James Marriott, Jay Griffiths, London Region, Material Effects, Robert Butler, Substantial Shifts, Taking Shape, Twitter

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Wallace Heim writes:Â

At the most recentÂ State of the Arts (SOTA) conference hosted by Arts Council England in Salford had, for the first time, two sessions on â€˜Artists and our future environmentâ€™, with speakers James Marriott from PLATFORM;Â the writer Jay Griffiths;Â Mojisola Adebayo, writer, performer, director; and Andy Field, co-director of Forest Fringe.

All of SOTAâ€™s sessions – on the creative economy, changing society, imagination, fundraising – touch on environmental themes. But these two drew out specific questions of the relations between artists and environments, of the material effects of artistic practices on the Earth, and of the importance of artistic expression of environmental themes.

This interest by SOTA in the environment comes about, in part, from talks between ACE London and arts organisations with an environmental focus in the London region â€“ organisations who had lost their Regularly Funded Organisation status, and questioned ACEâ€™s policies on the environment and climate.

James Marriott’s session, transcribed on theÂ PLATFORM blog, sets out how this collaboration between disparate organisations has worked, and how substantial shifts in ACE’s environmental directions are taking shape.

Plunge by Michael Pinsky

February 13, 2012Ashden DirectoryArtist Michael, Associate Editor, Central London, Climate Change, Duke Of York, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Led Lights, Metaphors, Michael Pinsky, Monuments In London, Nbsp, Pillar, Plunge, Public Art, Robert Butler, Sea Level, Seven Dials, Six Ways, Square Column

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Michael Pinsky’s Plunge, on three monuments in London

In a collaboration among LIFT, Artsadmin., and IMAGINE 2020, artist Michael Pinsky was commissioned to create a new work of public art in central London. Today the project is launched and will remain on view through 4 March. Blue circles of LED lights have been placed on the Seven Dials Sundial Pillar, the Duke of York Column, and the Paternoster Square Column indicating the height of the sea level one thousand years from now, if climate change continues unchecked.

Though thousands of people pass these monuments every day, Pinsky’s art allows people to see them in a new (blue) light.

Together, the Plunge monuments create an arc across central London, following the line of a future Thames that has swallowed much of the capital in its wake.

Plunge on Twitter
Plunge on Facebook
Plunge website

First daffodil in Low Wood

February 6, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Blossom, Climate Change, Daffodil, Features Interviews, Flowers, Garden Cultivars, Interviews News, Latitude, Leaves, Metaphors, Old Apple Tree, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Soil, sustainability, Timeline, Two Kinds, Wild Ones

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Wallace Heim writes:

Today, the first daffodil is blossoming here in Low Wood, Cumbria (latitude: 54 degrees North). There are two kinds of daffodil here, the garden cultivars and the small wild ones that fill the woods. This one, a cultivar protected by an old apple tree, will be in full, open blossom in a day or two, unless the forecasts are correct and the nights are cold and the snow is heavy.

The wild ones usually blossom earlier than the cultivars, but their leaves are only breaching the soil. Last year, the wild ones blossomed on 18 March. This one today is 7 weeks earlier that that.

Following spring’s advance

February 2, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Climate Change, Daffodil, East Coast, Fahrenheit, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Metaphors, Paideia School, Postcard, Richard Gutman, Robert Butler, Route 1, Science Project, Sightings, Six Ways, Snowstorm, Springtime, Twitter, West Roxbury Ma

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For several years we have been following the advance of spring on the East Coast of the United States by participating in the Paideia School’s science project. Â Our editor, Kellie Gutman, writes:

The letter arrived on January 7th, the address printed in a 9 or 10 year-old’s hand, with an accompanying postcard carrying this message:

I saw the first blooming daffodil on:__________, 2012
Kellie and Richard Gutman
West Roxbury, MA

The fourth and fifth grade classes track the speed of spring by documenting daffodil sightings along U. S. Route 1, from Florida to Maine. Â It will be interesting to see how quickly spring arrives this year. Â Here in Boston we have Â had only one snowstorm, and that one freakishly early before Halloween. Â Last year the school’s letter arrived on a day that Boston got 8 inches of snow; this year it was a record 60 degrees fahrenheit.

In 2010, spring advanced at the speed of 1 mile an hour; in 2011 it was clocked at 1.3 miles an hour.

While waiting for the first bloom, you might want to re-read our ‘flowers on stage’ postings, to get into the springtime mode.

Michael Pinsky LIFT unveiling 7 February

February 1, 2012Ashden DirectoryArt Work, Artworks, Associate Editor, British Artist, Central London, Climate Change, Features Interviews, Flowers, Interviews News, Metaphors, Nbsp, Public Art, Public Spaces, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Theatre London, Thirty Years, Timeline, Twitter, United Kingdom

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To celebrate thirty years of groundbreaking international theatre across London, LIFTÂ Â partnered with Arts Admin., as part of the IMAGINE 2020 network, to commission a new piece of public art work in central London. Â Michael Pinsky, a renowned British artist, who has created artworks in public spaces and galleries across Europe, won the commission. Â His work will respond to the issue of climate change. Â This secret project will be launched 7 February 2012. Â Stay tuned for more details.

New metaphors for sustainability: include the craft of great design

January 17, 2012Ashden DirectoryAesthetics, Aged Sex, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Co Founder, Creative Solutions, Design Photo, Ed Gillespie, Features Interviews, Gillespie Co, Interviews News, Metaphors, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Solitaire, sustainability, Sustainably, Timeline, Twitter, William Morris

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Following Solitaire Townsend’sÂ suggestions for metaphors – teen-aged sex, Shakespeare, and advice to the dude – Ed Gillespie, co-founder of Futerra, emailed us to add a crucial component to the art of sustainability. Ed writes:Â

To add to Soli’s suggestions I would include: craft.

Sustainability is really all about craft – artful, considered, creative solutions that work for people and planet.

Sustainability is also the crucial third component of great design, building on William Morris’s‘fit for purpose’ (functionality) and ‘beautiful to look at’ (aesthetics). I add to these ‘sustainably produced, reusable, durable, recyclable’. Sustainability turns good design into truly great design.photo above of William Morris

New metaphors for sustainability: the surprises

December 22, 2011Ashden DirectoryAmbiguities, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Conceptual Metaphor, Directory, Environment, Features Interviews, Flowers, Glass Ceiling, Interviews News, Iron Curtain, Metaphors, People, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Surprises, sustainability, Timeline, United Kingdom

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Wallace Heim writes:

When weâ€™ve asked people to think of a metaphor, we tried to present the idea of â€˜sustainabilityâ€™ in neither a positive nor a negative light, but to leave it as open as possible for people to interpret it in their own way. Even for the DVD, we filmed the four people without knowing ahead of time what their metaphors would be. We didnâ€™t want to promote any one idea of sustainability.

Itâ€™s been surprising how positive the metaphors have been, even from those people for whom sustainability is not a strong idea, or from those who acknowledge its ambiguities.

It’s also been surprising to see how people have found something, maybe not the grand conceptual metaphor, but something in their lives that relates to their view of sustainability. This is as important as the encapsulating metaphor, like the ‘iron curtain’ or the ‘glass ceiling’. The metaphors have not been about a concept imposed from the outside, but about a relation between the idea and something from one’s life that makes sense.

We’ll be presenting more metaphors in the next two weeks.

New on our news page

December 13, 2011Ashden DirectoryAdebayo, African Odyssey, Arcola, Bookshops, Brendon, Changing Climate, Climate Change, Closer To Home, David Abram, David Rothenberg, Edinburgh Festival, Features Interviews, Forest Canopies, Home Culture, Interviews News, Public Art, Robert Butler, S Green, Six Ways, Social Values, Twitter

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In Nottingham, there’s a three-day celebration of the apple.In Edinburgh, David Abram, author of TheÂ Spell of the Sensuous, and Being Animal: An Earthy Cosmology,Â Â gives a public talk.

In London, Arcola’s Green Sundays return with a focus on recycling and upcycling.

In the bookshops, David Rothenberg’s Survival of the Beautiful investigates why nature is beautiful and how it has influenced science,Â Brendon Larson explores how metaphors entangle scientific facts with social values and Mojisola Adebayo’s Plays One includes ‘Moj of the Antarctic: An African Odyssey’.

There’s a new funding stream for public art by Creative Scotland, and a call for runners to participate in NVA’s Speed of Light at the Edinburgh Festival.

On the international scene, Conversation between TreesÂ uses sensors and mobile phones in the forest canopies in Brazil and the UK to communicate the light andÂ colour of the trees and the changing climate around them.

Closer to home, Culture and Climate Change: RecordingsÂ is available as an online pdf and publication.

New metaphors for sustainability: why we started

November 18, 2011Ashden DirectoryAnomaly, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Definitions, Dissent, Everyday Life, Expression, Features Interviews, Flowers, Interviews News, Metaphor, Metaphorically, Metaphors, Paradoxes, People, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

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Wallace Heim writes:

We began thinking about metaphor and sustainability when we noticed that there weren’t any strong or imaginative metaphors for the concept, or ones that we could easily use in conversation. Metaphors are pervasive in human thought and communication. ‘Sustainability’ stood out as an anomaly, a common concept with many definitions, but no metaphors.

So in April, we asked four people to suggest a metaphor and we filmed their responses. We weren’t looking for ‘the’ metaphor. We were experimenting to see whether it was possible to think metaphorically about sustainability, in all its promise, its limitations and paradoxes.

Since then, we’ve added 14 more metaphors, (18 if you count everyone in the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home), and will add another 6 through November and December, here on Ashdenizen and collected on the Directory.

Too, we’ll be posting comments on the project itself, which for some contributors was challenging; for others, playful; and for others, a delicate expression of meaning taken from their everyday life.