Collaboration

The Foraged Book Project

220583_103475879807133_1603288737_oA collaboration between renowned forager Fergus Drennan and artist James Wood to produce a unique book made entirely from plants foraged from the wild, and to host related public events that will offer participants deeply engaging interactions with the natural world including food making and participating arts.

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Together Fergus and James will collaborate on the production of a book. Physically every material used within the book will be foraged and processed by either Fergus or James. The content of the book will include information, recipes, illustrations, tips and hints on foraging and processing materials for food and art equipment. The book will show the wonderful possibilities that lie within the natural landscapessurrounding us. It will get people interested in foraging and will offer different perspectives on derelict urban plots, parks and green spaces – revealing the potential of how these spaces can be used beyond walking spots.

Whilst Fergus and James will develop the book as collaboration, a key part of the project will be to pass on the information and techniques we learn during the research stages of the books production to a wider audience as well as allowing them to participate in a form of sustainable art. To achieve this, we will carry out a number of workshops and wildlife tours that include teaching and performing some of the recipes used within the book whilst keeping a continued focus on some combined Artistic outcomes. For more information on up and coming workshops, exhibitions and tours join our mailing list or watch our twitter and facebook pages as well as the Workshops section of this site.

http://www.theforagedbookproject.co.uk/

Foraged Book on Facebook

Osomocene

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

By guest contributors Seth Baum and Inés Garcia

Greetings. We are Seth Baum and Inés Garcia. We are a scientist and an artist. And we both care about climate change. Seth cares about climate change because of the threat it poses to humanity, to other happy living things, and to their future in the universe. Inés cares about climate change because it affects every person and living being on the planet and we, as a civilization, are far too intelligent to continue contributing to the destruction of the endless resources on this planet.

We made Osomocene Productions because we believe that humanity can make a world that has a healthy environment and is still enjoyable for us humans. Indeed, we coined the word Osomocene to mean the Age of Awesome – awesome for humans and awesome for the environment. We intend the Osomocene as the successor to the current era, the Anthropocene, which is defined by human disruption of the environment. With Osomocene Productions, we want to envision this age of awesome and communicate the vision to other people so that together we can make the vision a reality.

Osomocene Productions articulates its vision for a better world through short-form online videos. Short form videos are fun and easy to watch, and they offer us the chance to talk about a variety of subjects. By putting them online, anyone can watch them, and who knows, they may even ‘go viral’ and get seen by many. (Click here to share our videos!) But most importantly, short-form videos let us create everyday scenarios that depict positive ways to help with climate change that everyone can take part in.

Our collaboration brings together Seth’s research and Ines’s artistry. Seth’s research covers two important areas. First is the science of climate change, and in particular the science of what people can do to help with climate change. Second is the science of communication, and the psychology of how communication can translate into action. Ines’s artistic sense for aesthetic quality helps us identify key themes from the research and convert them, through dramatic interpretation, into compelling story and character. Ines also manages the logistics of how to produce a film, coordinating with actors, directors, editors, and crew.

So far, we have produced one video (titled Vegetarian Cookbook) and have a second video scheduled for filming in April. Many more ideas are in the works. These videos have given us the chance to explore and refine our artistic and collaborative styles. Working together has been a tremendous growth process for both of us. We’re constantly trying out new ideas in our ongoing effort to promote a better world.

Filed under: Featured Artist, Multimedia, Video

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.

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Web of Life Foundation 2013 essay competition

WOLFoundationThe Web of Life Foundation (WOLFoundation.org) is issuing the first call for essays for its 2013 essay competition.

WOLFoundation is dedicating to stimulating new thinking in the field of sustainability and socio-environmental issues. Within this context, the theme of this year’s essay competition is “An Aspirational Future”.

Essays should be up to 2,000 words of prose in any non-technical style (including fiction) and are meant for a general readership.

From the Guidelines: “Any and all views on the specified theme are welcome and encouraged. We would like to see entries that address all perspectives creatively. Just avoid giving us tired ideas that have been hashed out many times before.”

The winning essay will receive a cash prize of $1,500 and $500 is awarded to the second placed entry.

Submissions should be addressed to submissions@wolfoundation.org. Closing date for submissions is September 30th, 2013.

Guidelines for submissions can be found at http://www.wolfoundation.org/guidelines/

A book of collected essays from the 2011 competition (published in collaboration with Cultura 21) is now available for purchase ($7 + p&p. No sales tax.). Enquiries to submissions@wolfoundation.org

Open call – Museum of Arte Útil

This post comes to you from Cultura21

dec6_queens_logoThe Museum of Arte Útil is a collaboration between the artist Tania Bruguera, theQueens Museum of Art, New York and the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The Museum of Arte Útil is the result of Tania Bruguera’s decade of research into a concept that emphasizes effectiveness and implementation over representation, looking at historical and contemporary examples of alternative strands in socially informed art practice.

Útil as a term refers to something being useful. But it goes further than the English translation, encompassing the idea of a tool or device. Bruguera states that “Arte Útil moves beyond a propositional format, into one that actively creates, develops and implements new functionalities to benefit society at large.”

The project will comprise research, an online platform, an association of Arte Útil practitioners, a series of public projects, a lab presentation at the Queens Museum of Art beginning in February 2013, culminating in the transformation of the old building of the Van Abbemuseum into the Museum of Arte Útil in the Fall of 2013 and a publication. The aim is to present a survey of past and present projects that are rooted in the notion of art’s use to its users and to society at large. Central to the project’s various forms is this open call.

The notion of what constitutes Arte Útil has been arrived at via a set of criteria that Bruguera and the participating museums’ curators have formulated. These criteria will set the parameters of the project and its working methodology. Arte Útil projects should:

  1. Propose new uses for art within society
  2. Challenge the field within which it operates (civic, legislative, pedagogical, scientific, economic, etc)
  3. Be ‘timing specific’, responding to current urgencies
  4. Be implemented and function in real situations
  5. Replace authors with initiators and spectators with users
  6. Have practical, beneficial outcomes for its users
  7. Pursue sustainability whilst adapting to changing conditions
  8. Re-establish aesthetics as a system of transformation

The public is invited to submit information on past or ongoing projects that align with these criteria. Submitted projects should meet as many of these criteria as possible. The selected projects will be listed on the website, to be launched in February and will be considered for inclusion in the artist association, the exhibition at the Queens Museum, the Van Abbemuseum, and/or the publication. Projects can be submitted by anyone, from any field, and need not be submitted by the initiators of the project.

The deadline for project submissions is 15th February 2013.

Click here for the submission form.

For questions, contact: opencall [at] arteutil [dot] net

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

Cultura21′s 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 Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (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

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Some of the videos from the Radius of Art conference

This post comes to you from Cultura21

This is a selection of videos focusing on the conference introduction and on the thematic window “Art toward Cultures of Sustainability” at the Radius of Art conference (Berlin, Feb. 8-9 2012). This specific thematic window was organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation in collaboration with Cultura21.

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

Cultura21′s 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 Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (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

“Enabling Emergent Voices And Expression Through Technology”

This post comes to you from Cultura21

October 17th, 2011
MIT Media Lab, USA

“Moore’s law and the Internet have dramatically reduced the cost of producing and distributing information. This has greatly lowered the cost of collaboration and has empowered a qualitatively different “public” to think, express, and act without, or in spite of, central authority. These changes and advances in technology enabled interventions such as low-cost video cameras in the case of WITNESS; blogs (Global Voices); or open hardware and software used to build, distribute, collect and visualize data from geiger counters (Safecast). Ito will discuss how these trends relate to media, citizenship, academics, and conflicts. Joichi Ito was named Director of the MIT Media Lab in April 2011.”

The “Zones of Emergency: Artistic Interventions – Creative Responses to Conflict & Crisis” Fall 2011 lecture series investigates initiatives and modes of intervention in contested spaces, zones of conflict, or areas affected by environmental disasters. The intention is to explore whether artistic interventions can transform, disrupt or subvert current environmental, urban, political, and social conditions in critical ways. A crucial question is how can such interventions propose ideas, while at the same time respecting the local history and culture.

More information at the Zones of Emergency Blog: http://zonesofemergency.mit.edu/

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

Cultura21′s 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 Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (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

Andrew Rogers: Time and Space

Andrew Rogers, a leading contemporary artist based in Australia, is primarily a sculptor.  His large works may be found in plazas and buildings around the world.  He is also the creator of the world’s largest contemporary land art undertaking.

Derived from an early sculpture, the Rhythms of Life project is composed of 47 land art structures, which can be found in 13 countries and on 7 continents.  The project is the result of 13 years of work, and the collaboration of 6,700 people from around the world.

The work is particularly unique in that Rogers has incorporated a great civic vision.  The structures represent a process, and local collaboration.  At many sites, a common Rhythms of Life piece is not far from a work that is local and unique to the community it represents.

For the first time, images of these works are on exhibition at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California.  68 large scale photographs of Rogers’ Rhythms of Life project will be on display at the gallery until May 28, 2011.  You can also view the work online at www.andrewrogers.com/landart.

Rhythms of Life / Chile

Rhythms of Life / Chile

Rhythms of Life / Antarctica

Rhythms of Life / Antarctica

OPENwater | by Brian Andrews | Art Practical

by Brian Andrews

On the weekend of November 13 and 14, a cabal of chefs, scientists, artists, and aesthetes gathered to find connections between their disparate fields as their interests overlapped within the tidelands of the San F rancisco Bay. The event was OPENwater, the most recent incarnation of OPENrestaurant, a collaboration of restaurant professionals Stacie Pierce, Jerome Waag, and Sam White, all of Chez Panisse. In collaboration with SFMOMA, the OPENresturant projects endeavor to bring cooking and its associated local environmental concerns into art spaces in order to invite a shift in the language and meanings surrounding their gustatory preparations.

via OPENwater | by Brian Andrews | Art Practical.

A Mayan Pyramid Built From Recycled Boxes and Hope | Inhabitat #COP16

Inhabitat was on the scene yesterday at COP16 when tcktcktck, a global network of NGOs, pieced together this colorful Mayan pyramid. Sure, it’s made from recycled boxes, but this cardboard monument is a little more than green materials. In fact, it’s covered in images submitted by NGOs worldwide, sending a message of passion and hope for the talks ahead. Read on to learn about how you can be part of this massive collaboration (hint: it has to do with that blank TV screen…)

via COP16: A Mayan Pyramid Built From Recycled Boxes and Hope | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World.

David Buckland: The Art of Climate Change

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ifhfCnLUZQ

David Buckland is an artist with an international reputation. In 2000 he created and now directs the Cape Farewell project, which brings artists, scientists and educators together to collectively address and raise awareness about climate change. This highly successful artistic intervention has spurred worldwide activity and underlines the power of artistic engagement to stimulate and vision the necessary cultural shift to build a sustainable and exciting society.

In The Art of Climate Change, David explores what happens when artists collaborate with scientists and educators in response to global warming. Cape Farewells highly successful artistic intervention has spurred worldwide activity and underlines the power of artistic engagement to stimulate and envision the necessary cultural shift to build a sustainable society.

Resources:

Twitter: @capefarewell

Facebook Group: Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell: www.capefarewell.com

David Buckland: www.bucklandart.com/

Background:

In October 2009 delegates from across Canada and beyond joined Artscape in Toronto for our third Creative Places + Spaces: The Collaborative City conference. In a packed two-day program inspirational keynote speakers and ground breaking projects made the case for the power of collaboration to solve complex multi dimensional challenges and to fuel innovation. www.creativeplacesandspaces.ca

Over the next few months “The Campaign of Ideas: Video Knowledge Exchange” series will bring you a regular diet of conference highlights focusing on the major themes of the conference and some of the tools for collaboration that were presented.

Respond to Our Current Poll: Visit the Creative Places + Spaces website at www.creativeplacesandspaces.ca and tell us what you think is the most practical and relevant conference learning on the theme of Collaboration Fuels Innovation. The poll is located on the lower right-hand side of the website.

Keep Informed About Creative Places + Spaces:

You can follow us on Twitter @CPandS, use #CPandS″ in your tweets and join in the conversation on Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. The Creative Places + Spaces website will be updated often, so be sure to check back for updates or subscribe to our RSS Feed or Email Updates. www.creativeplacesandspaces.ca

Creative Places + Spaces was presented by Artscape in collaboration with MaRS Discovery District, Martin Prosperity Institute and the City of Toronto: Economic Development, Culture & Tourism.

www.torontoartscape.on.ca

www.marsdd.com

www.martinprosperity.org/

www.toronto.ca/culture/

Think. Create. Collaborate.