Robert Butler

New metaphors for sustainability: song

November 14, 2011Ashden DirectoryAssocia, Bob Dylan Chronicles, Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume One, Climate Change, Complete Verse, Friend John, Grimaldi, John Cartwright, Key Change, Losing Things, Metaphors, Musician Friend, Night Songs, Particularity, Peoples Minds, Rhythm Rhyme, Robert Butler, Sue Palmer, Twitter, Two Kinds Of Sounds, Verse Chorus Verse

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Sue Palmer, an artist making live and digital work with people and place, and author of inquiline, a blog on botany and art, suggests song as a metaphor for sustainability.

the extraordinary song:often straightforward, yet infinitely complex

the diversity (how many millions have been created)

the particularity (each one individual)

a structure enabling brilliant inventiveness

often a voice and an instrument

two kinds of sounds, working

my musician friend John talks about chords as metaphors

about how two â€˜discordantâ€™ tones are shifted

through the addition of a third note, bringing resolve

songs are free, and they can make someone a living

they help people make it through the day, and night

songs have changed peoplesâ€™ minds

a song can contain a lot of information, honed,

ideas packed in language,

rhythm, rhyme

thereâ€™s craft in it, and anyone can do it

thereâ€™s multiple ways to begin, and a sense when itâ€™s complete

verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, chorus,

bridge

and key change, â€˜ad lib to fadeâ€™

the pleasure of the repetition, letting the song free up, go

When I think of sustainability, I usually think of losing things, resources, capacity, and I find my materially-centred thought frustrating.

‘If anything, I wanted to understand things and then be free of them. I needed to learn how to telescope things, ideas. Things were too big to see all at once, like all the books in the library – everything laying around on all the tables. You might be able to put it all into one paragraph or into one verse of a song if you could get it right’, Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One, 2004.

photo: by Orelie Grimaldi of John Cartwright playing C#m7

Margaret Atwood is with the bears

November 10, 2011Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Bbc, Bbc Radio 4, Climate Change, Directory, Element, Features Interviews, Flowers, Helen Simpson, Interviews News, Margaret Atwood, Mariella Frostrup, Metaphors, Reflection, Robert Butler, Short Stories, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

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Margaret Atwood and Helen Simpson discuss I’m With The Bears, a new collection of short stories about climate change, with Mariella Frostrup on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book.

Helen Simpson says one problem of writing about climate change is the moralizing:

“That’s about as popular as telling someone they need to lose weight. It’s the nagging and being preached at element that is very hard to avoid around this subjectâ€.

My Last Car – final showings

October 15, 2011Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Climate Change, Component Parts, Features Interviews, First Car, Imove, Interviews News, Last Car, Metaphors, Nbsp, Reflection, Robert Butler, Rover 216, Showings, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Tipping Point, Twitter, Warwick Arts Centre, Wheel

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My Last Car, commissioned by Tipping Point, I Move, and the Warwick Arts Centre, has its final performances today through Saturday at the Warwick Arts Centre. Â Everyone remembers their first car; what if their present car were their last car? Â The show looks at the influences the motor car has had on people’s lives, and issues of sustainability.

The star is a soft-top Rover 216 broken down to its component parts. Â My Last Car is both a gallery installation and a performance. Â Information and ticketsÂ here.

My Last Car – Alan Dix, the man behind the wheel from imove on Vimeo.

Ecocide’s day in court

October 7, 2011Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Barrister, Climate Change, Crimes, Ecocide, Expert Witnesses, Extraction Of Oil, Features Interviews, Gulf Of Mexico, Interviews News, Metaphors, Michael Mansfield Qc, Mock Trial, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Sky News, sustainability, Tar Sands, Timeline, Twitter

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Wallace Heim writes:

Today, the theatre of a mock trial plays out in the UK Supreme Court, live onlineÂ (download the software at the top left of the panel).

The Ecocide Trial has Michael Mansfield QC as prosecuting barrister and Nigel Lickley QC as defence barrister leading a case for and against two fictional CEOâ€™s, and is complete with expert witnesses, jury andÂ judge.

The crimes chosen by the court this morning are the extraction of oil from Canadaâ€™s Tar Sands and the Deepwater disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

There is no script. It is up to a jury to decide whether the case for Ecocide crime is made.

Follow the case on twitterÂ and on Sky News/home/supreme-court.

Culture and Climate Change: Recordings

October 5, 2011Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, blog, Climate Change, Culture Change, Directory, Environment, Features Interviews, Flowers, Interviews News, Metaphors, Pdf, Podcasts, Reflection, Robert Butler, Robert Wallace, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter, United Kingdom

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A pdf of Culture and Climate Change: Recordings is now available.

See four podcasts on culture and climate change

Download the podcasts

A final posting from Cape Farewell expedition

September 14, 2011Ashden DirectoryArtist Sculptor, Basalt Columns, Basking Sharks, Cape Farewell, Climate Change, Gutman, Interviews News, Island Profiles, John Cumming, Kame, Lexicography, Minke Whales, North Rona, Pilot Whales, Risso, Robert Butler, Screes, Sea Journeys, Shetland Islands, Time Journey, Twitter

Shiants - watercolor by John Cumming

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Kellie Gutman writes:Â The artist, sculptor and writer John Cummingtook part in the fourth and final week of Cape Farewell’s expedition to the Shetland Islands this summer. Â John was born and raised in Burra Isle, Shetland. He writes:

What draws me to these places is hard to define.Â The journey is part of the magic.Â The sea is endlessly, and wonderfully alive; unlike concrete, unlike tarmacadam.Â No two sea journeys are ever the same.Â On the trip to North Rona, we met families of dolphin, Rissoâ€™s, basking sharks and minke whales.Â The sea was calm, the swell long and leaden.Â The night-time journey back was before a north-easterly gale, sailing only on the jib.Â Â Driving southwards at eight to ten knots, we listened to the clicking of a school of pilot whales some three miles away.

Next day the sheer sculptural magnificence of the Shiants was a revelation.Â I have a personal lexicography of island profiles; the Kame of Hoy; the Kame of Foula; the Drongs of Eshaness; each place uniquely powerful and awe inspiring, yet even now, weeks later the basalt columns and screes of the shiants are etched on the back of my eyelids.

For his complete posting, including additional sketches, as well as postings of others on the expedition, see the Cape Farewell blog here.

New version of 3rd Ring Out opens in Edinburgh

August 25, 2011Ashden Directory, FringeAga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan Trust, Alternative Futures, Charitable Trusts, Drama Critic, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Editorial Adviser, Grassmarket, Independent On Sunday, Patricia Morison, Pleasance Courtyard, Practice Art, Robert Butler, Sainsbury Family, Shelley Sacks, Shipping Containers, Simulation Cell, Slide Presentations, Term Crisis, Twitter

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One of the winners of the 2010 Tipping Point commissions, 3rd Ring Out (which we blogged here and here) has now opened at the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. Its director ZoÃ« Svendsen says:

We’ve now got a ‘strategy’ cell as well as a ‘simulation’ cell – we’ve split the use of the two containers into (1) short term crisis in a climate-changed future, under a business -as-usual scenario (which is the same format as last year but now about the Suffolk coastline); and (2) long term alternative futures about the city we are in, generated by ideas gathered from the public and others.

18-28 August, Edinburgh Fringe Festival
In the bright orange shipping containers. Grassmarket
Pleasance Courtyard
60 Pleasance
Phone 0131 556 6560

Other shows of interest at the Edinburgh Fringe blogged here
ZoÃ« Svendsen’s metaphorÂ for sustainability on this blog and the Ashden DIrectory

Cape Farewell expedition reaches half-way point

August 21, 2011Ashden DirectoryAga Khan Foundation, Aga Khan Trust, Associate Director, Associate Editor, Cape Farewell, Charitable Trusts, Climate Change, Drama Critic, Editorial Adviser, Gutman, Independent On Sunday, Outer Hebrides, Patricia Morison, Practice Art, Robert Butler, Ruth Little, Sainsbury Family, Sheep Pens, Shelley Sacks, Slide Presentations, St Kilda, Television Film

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Kellie Gutman writes: Cape Farewell’s journey to the Outer Hebrides has reached its half-way point. The crews have changed each week, but the Associate Director, Ruth Little is onboard for the duration. Â Her latest post, filled with wonderful pictures and observations can be seen here.

For all of the expedition posts go hereÂ or follow it on our blogroll.

New metaphors for sustainability: nine so far

August 13, 2011Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Climate Change, Divider, Drama Critic, Editorial Adviser, Environmentalists Activists, Glass Ceiling, Independent On Sunday, Iron Curtain, Key Concepts, Metaphors, Nietzsche, Patricia Morison, Practice Art, Robert Butler, Sailboat, Shelley Sacks, Sustainability Art, Sweet Pea, Twitter

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From the ‘iron curtain’ to the ‘glass ceiling’, metaphors are one of the most powerful ways in which we frame the way we think.

Yet one of the key concepts in environmentalism – sustainability – seems to be remarkably short of vivid metaphors.

So we asked some artists, writers, architects, cultural commentators, environmentalists, activists and scientists to come up with their own metaphors for sustainability.

We’ve published nine new metaphors so far. More to follow.

Watch a film about four of the new metaphors.

Please suggest metaphors of your own. As @TheMuseDailytweeted yesterday, “The drive toward the formation of metaphor is the fundamental human drive. – Nietzsche”

New metaphors for sustainability: "Come into my house" (DVD)

August 7, 2011Ashden DirectoryAlchemist, Associate Editor, Climate Change, Doorstep, Drama Critic, Editorial Adviser, Global Policy, Hester, Independent On Sunday, Metaphor, Metaphors, Paradigm Shift, Patricia Morison, Poetic Imagination, Practice Art, Reeve, Richness, Robert Butler, Shelley Sacks, Term Sustainability, Twitter

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When we asked Hester Reeve, artist and lecturer,Â to suggest a metaphor forÂ our series New metaphors for sustainability, she offered to makeÂ this DVD, “Come into my house.”

The term ‘sustainability’ is rightly used first and foremost in the contexts of both local and global policy changes. Whilst acknowledging the crucial role played by activist pressure in ensuring sustainability is on the agenda in the first place, I see its implementation chiefly as the responsibility of politicians (shame on them).

I made my metaphor in my house. The camera is out on the street and I open each door/window in turn and call out for various thinkers to “Come into my house.”

As an artist, I am more interested in restoring richness to the ‘cult’ of everyday life and in incorporating the force of poetic imagination than in reflecting/interacting with culture at large. My metaphor therefore reflects this sensibility.

I suppose the only thing someone like me at this point in the environmental direness of 2011 can do is to come back to the doorstep, where the agency of the single being starts and to call for that paradigm shift in our thinking that might finally allow us to dwell as an act of loving the world.