Transdisciplinary

Odyssey: Climate

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

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All photos credit: Nikolai Wolff/Fotoetage

This information was shared with me by Natalie Driemeyer. Hearing about the festival and seeing the amazing photos that Natalie sent me makes me wish I could have attended.

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This past June, the transdisciplinary festival ODYSSEY: CLIMATE  took place at the municipal theatre in Bremerhaven, Germany.

At the centre of the festival was the CLIMATE-PARCOURS. Actors, performers, musicians and dancers performed in exceptional venues – extreme-climate-spaces – dealing with the elements (fire, water, earth, air) and the extreme natural events caused by climate change. The artists were supported in their work by scientists from various fields. This transdisciplinary exchange allowed participants a different, more sensual approach to the creation of visions for our future on the planet; it opened up new possibilities and looked at our chances for adapting to new circumstances and ways of life.

The festival was proud to have both the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research as partners. The involved scientists didn’t just advise the artists, some of them stood on stage as well.

Falck Safety Services

The festival presented guest-performances that dealt with climate change. The performer Eva Meyer-Keller cooked natural disasters with the help of gourmet chefs – naturally, everyone had a taste of the catastrophe. Anna Mendelssohn brought her one-woman conference on climate change Cry Me A River. And the renowned architect, designer and urban planner Friedrich von Borries let the audience in on his visions for our future ways of living.

The International Theatre Institute (ITI) asked performing artists from around the world to join in a live Skype debate. Artists from South America, Asia, and Africa spoke about the situation in their country and about their theatrical approaches to the topic.

In front of the theatre a tent city, the KLIMA-ZELT-STADT, hosted a scientific conversation and a laboratory for sustainable urban development. Food, which supermarkets would have thrown away, was served, films were screened, bands played, and a photo-exhibit about life in Antarctica was presented.

WeserWind

Climate is very topical in Bremerhaven: the city has become a major centre of excellence on climate change due to its scientific bodies and as a location for the offshore wind energy industry. Furthermore, Bremerhaven, which lies in the estuary of the river Weser, needs to adapt to man-made climate change. A few weeks prior to the festival, the new embankment, which was raised by two meters, was re-opened. Energiekonsens, a non-profit company that works on energy conservation in the region, advised the festival about CO2-minimization. For the CO2-emissions that could not be prevented 1 € per ticket went towards the climate fund “Klimafonds.”

Thanks to support from the German Federal Cultural Foundation as well as from the municipal environmental agency and friends of the theatre, the artists involved were able to continue their examination of relevant social themes through festivals, as begun with the festival ODYSSEY: HEIMAT (home/belonging).

For more information (in German):
www.stadttheaterbremerhaven.de

Filed under: Multidisciplinary, Performance

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.

Go to Chantal Bilodeau’s Artists and Climate Change Blog

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Slow Wing

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

Slow Wing Owl, with permission Ilka BlueSlow Wing Owl, with permission Ilka Blue

Ilka Blue in Australia asked for this to be shared,

Slow Wing – an Australian satellite workshop of the Uncivilisation UK Festival

Byron Bay, 17th & 18th August 2013

Latorica in collaboration with The Dark Mountain Project present Slow Wing, a weekend workshop of storytelling from the deep.

Led by transdisciplinary artists Ilka Blue & Cherise Asmah, this will be an intense exploration of cultural and biological extinction as we search for ways to belong and adapt to a changing world. The workshop involves 2 full days of storytelling, walking, writing, deep ecology & creative practices that will conjure old & new stories of dying, death, belonging, place and mythologies of this land.

Slow Wing is free of charge but places are limited to 25 and will be offered through a registration process. For a registration form or enquiries please email ilka@thelasttree.net More details www.latorica.net

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

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IHOPE

Image from NASA's online history of Apollo 11

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The Journal of Ecology and Society frequently has interesting papers, and the current issue includes “Toward an Integrated History to Guide the Future”.

Abstract:

Many contemporary societal challenges manifest themselves in the domain of human–environment interactions. There is a growing recognition that responses to these challenges formulated within current disciplinary boundaries, in isolation from their wider contexts, cannot adequately address them. Here, we outline the need for an integrated, transdisciplinary synthesis that allows for a holistic approach, and, above all, a much longer time perspective. We outline both the need for and the fundamental characteristics of what we call “integrated history.” This approach promises to yield new understandings of the relationship between the past, present, and possible futures of our integrated human–environment system. We recommend a unique new focus of our historical efforts on the future, rather than the past, concentrated on learning about future possibilities from history. A growing worldwide community of transdisciplinary scholars is forming around building this Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE). Building integrated models of past human societies and their interactions with their environments yields new insights into those interactions and can help to create a more sustainable and desirable future. The activity has become a major focus within the global change community.

Key words: agency; anthropocene; backcasting; causality; contingency; holistic approach; integrated history; long-term perspective; resilience; social and ecological systems

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

The Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Submissions are invited for The Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science (TJES),  by the The Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning & Advanced Studies (TheATLAS). The editors search for original manuscripts reporting multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary engineering and science research. Not only primary research articles, but also papers in transdisciplinary education can be published.
The journal aims to be the voice of the worldwide Transdisciplinarians community.

Possible research areas for the journal are:

  • Development of shared conceptual framework that draws upon discipline specific concepts, theories, and methods (integrative methods, concepts and tools).
  • Development of integrated analysis, synthesis, and design from a wide range of knowledge, involving both soft sciences and hard sciences and also art.
  • Transdisciplinary cognitive integration, sustainability research.
  • Unified transdisciplinary modeling framework—developing computer based modeling systems that permit cooperation and collaboration among diverse groups that are globally dispersed in order to drive complex research efforts to an innovative solution.
  • Designing the communication infrastructure and shared resources to facilitate computational and transdisciplinary thinking within existing organizations.
  • System engineering and management.
  • Research areas crossing diverse disciplines such as: Optimization, System Architectures, Digital Systems, Software design and development, Data Engineering, Computational Intelligence, Security Systems, Computer Systems, Network Systems Design, Biomimetic Systems Design, Medical applications and research results involved with sensors, mechatronics, and nanotechnology.
  • Process and design methods and analysis used by diverse disciplines (such as image processing and anlysis, statistical methods, probabilistic methods etc.).
  • Transdisciplinary education

Texts about global complex problems such as transportation, humanitarian needs, security, natural disasters, health, international development, environment, sustainable development; societal systems, green engineering and science and international research ethics are encouraged.

You are able to submit your work through the online submission site:
http://www.theatlas.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=96

Please find earlier issues of this journal available online for free: click here

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