Symposium

The Golden Record

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Dario Robleto’s presentation at the Systems of Sustainabilty Symposium in Houston earlier this year explored extinction through stories and archival sound.  One portion of his presentation has not left my mind: The Golden Record.

The Golden Record

The Golden Record is a phonographic record that was included in the two Voyager spacecrafts launched in 1977.  The record was intened to provide insight into life on earth for any extraterrestrial life forms or far future humans who may find it.  In 2008, the Voyagers escaped our solar system.

The Record, for me, represents the sustainability of a life and culture in the form of archive.  At the time of launch, President Jimmy Carter is quoted to have said, “This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings.  We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours.”

The Record’s sounds include a message from the Secretary General of the UN at the time, greetings in 55 languages, a lovely track titled ‘The Sounds of Earth,’ and music from around the world.

You can view ‘Images of the Earth’ and listen to all of the tracks at www.goldenrecord.org

A Report from SFEAP

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For those of you who haven’t been following the South Florida Environmental Art Project (a.k.a. SFEAP- with founder Mary Jo Aagerstoun, above), I want you to know that they are doing good things out there. They hosted a Symposium recently in Stuart, FL, and invited a few artists (Xavier Cortada, Betsy Damon and Michael Singer) who either live in or have worked in South Florida to speak about their work. I had the honor to give the keynote address and got to learn a bit about some of the issues facing that region and explore ways of encouraging the creation of new community-engaged eco-art. The key thing for me is their emphasis on a strategy to build up a movement, connect people and groups and train artists, as a useful model for other places around the world seeking to do the same. An organization worth following and supporting

Here’s me (and a few other interviews) from the reception at the end of the day (I’d like to thank the Academy and particularly thank my hairdresser…).

Go to the Green Museum

Ecodrama Playwrights Festival & Symposium Update

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The Ecodrama Playwrights Festival & Symposium On Theatre and Ecology is now closed to play submissions, and have reissued their call for proposals for the symposium. The CSPA sesions are also still open, and are linked at the top of the column on the right. We hope that you’ll apply to one or both and foresee some overlap and sharing in the final symposium. We, the CSPA, will be concentrated on the more scientific research side of the symposium, but are very excited to see everything everyone has to offer!

The Revised Call:

May 21~ 31, 2009 ~ University of Oregon

Ecology is at the heart of burgeoning creativity and interdisciplinary scholarship across the arts and humanities. This Festival, together with a concurrent Symposium, invites artists, scholars and activists to share their work, ideas, and passions with one another and with the larger community.  

CALL FOR PROPOSALS for Artist Workshops and Scholarly Papers.  FEB. 1 2009 DEADLINE

We welcome creative and innovative proposals for workshops, round-tables, panels, papers, working sessions, installations, or participatory community gatherings that explore, examine, challenge, articulate, or nourish the possibilities of theatrical or performance responses to the environmental crisis in particular, and our ecological relationship in general.

The form and format is wide-open and we will schedule and shape the Symposium around the types of proposals received and selected. We especially encourage artists who have performance work they would like to present to develop a workshop in which they present all or part of their work, and then use it as the basis for involving others in exploration. We encourage proposals that go beyond a recitation of ideas or positions, and instead bring presenters and participants together as they engage the driving question of how theatre has or might function as part of our reciprocal relationship with ecological communities.

Possible topics include: 

  •  land and body in performance;
  •  representations of bioregionalism; 
  •  eco-literacy and performance;
  •  representation of/and environmental justice; 
  •  green theatre production; sustainable theatre;
  •  design and technology developments towards green practice;
  •  old cultural narratives/new stories;
  • indigenous performance; 
  •  community-based performance/ecological communities; 
  •  sensing place/staging place; 
  •  the ecologies of theatrical form and/or space; 
  •  animal representation; 
  •  application of ecocriticism to plays, performance and culture.

    Send a one-page proposal and/or abstract by 1 February, 2009 to: 

    Earth Matters Symposium 2009, Theresa May, Director, 

    Theater Arts, VIL 216, University of Oregon
    Eugene, OR 97403. 

    Please include: type of session & title; time-length (60 min; 90 min; 2+ hours; half-day); bio or cv. 

    We encourage proposals that include more than one presenter; however, single person proposals are accepted and will be combined with others as themes and formats allow.