Monthly Archives: August 2009

Armory 20th Anniversary Exhibition

Installations Inside/Out
September 20 – December 31, 2009
Opening reception, Saturday, September 19, 2009, 6–9 p.m.

Jay Belloli and Sinéad Finnerty-Pyne, curators

This exhibition will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Armory Center for the Arts by commissioning twenty contemporary artists, who have created art installations in the past, to make new site-specific art installations both inside and outside the Armory. Artists in the exhibition will include Kim Abeles, Edgar Arceneaux, Deborah Aschheim, Daniel Buren, Carl Cheng, Seth Kaufman, Bruce Nauman, Barry McGee, Michael C. McMillen, Carlos Mollura, Matthew Moore, Jane Mulfinger, Sarah Perry, Rudy Perez, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Barbara T. Smith, John Trevino, Pae White, and Mario Ybarra Jr.

The Armory has a long-standing goal of supporting contemporary Southern California artists, as well as the Gallery’s determination to bring art to the public in exterior, non-art locations.

At the Armory, Caldwell, Mezzanine, Art All iance Galleries and outside the Armory.

Go to EcoLOGIC LA

APInews: 2009 iLAND Residencies: Waterways and Strataspore

iLAND (interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance) has announced the recipients of its 2009 iLAB collaborative residencies: two collectives called Waterways and Strataspore. The New York residency program supports collaborations among movement-based artists and scientists, environmentalists, urban designers/landscape architects, architects and others that integrate creative practice within different fields/disciplines, culminating in public actions. Waterways is a collaboration among The League of Imaginary Scientists and Danish choreography collective E.K.K.O. Their research, surrounding the theme of water, takes place aboard the Waterpod, a floating habitat that is host to collaborations and artists, beginning August 15 at Brooklyn Bridge Park. StrataSpore is “a platform for collective knowledge about mushrooms” as the pivotal orientation point for exploring urban systems. Strataspore’s public work begins October 5 at Gabriel Rivera’s facade/fasad in Brooklyn. Details online.

via APInews: 2009 iLAND Residencies: Waterways and Strataspore .

APInews: New in Places To Study: Art and Environment, WVU

New in CAN’s Places To Study database is “Art and Environment,” a course taught by Erika Osborne at West Virginia University in Fall 2009. The multidisciplinary graduate and upper-division undergraduate studio/seminar course is designed to increase awareness for the interactivity of studio artists and the environment, including studio work and extensive field activity. Students will address topics such as micro-ecology with soil scientist Jeffrey Skousen; astronomy with physicist Boyd Edwards; organic agriculture with Steve and Sunshine Vortigern of Round Right Farm; permaculture with landscape architect Ashley Kyber; Kayford Mountain (a mountaintop removal site) with Larry Gibson of Keepers of the Mountains; acid mine drainage with Amanda Lachoski of Friends of Decker’s Creek; and art in Antarctica with artist Chris Kannen.

via APInews: New in Places To Study: Art and Environment, WVU .

Sculpting clouds

Artist-in-residence at UCL’s Environment Institute Martin John Callanan has completed his artwork A Planetary Order, a terrestrial globe showing clouds around the planet from one single moment in time. Working with satellite data provided by the Institute, he’s created a 3D representation of the data to portray this thin mantle of water vapour that shields the earth. This delicate, pale globe will be on public display soon at the institute’s Pearson Building. Callanan says, via email:

A Planetary Order is a terrestrial globe showing clouds from one single moment in time, thereby subtly highlighting the fragility and interdependence of the Earth’s environmental systems.”

The Globe was digitally manufactured (SLS) in a single piece measuring 300mm diameter with clouds scaled to 1-12 km above the Earth’s surface. Landforms are absent from the model, but cloud formations will give glues to the continents located below.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0906/09062303
http://greyisgood.eu/globe/

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

Brent Bucknum of Hyphae Design: a profile.

We don’t have time to do environmental at that’s not functional.

– Brent Bucknum



In working on a Climate Clock for the San Jose Initiative, designer Brent Bucknam would often get into theoretical debates about the nature of art. His project partner, Brian Howe of greenmeme, would quote Picasso: Art is the lie that reveals the truth. Brent’s response was the quote above.

It’s one of the central questions of the environmental art movement, and one that is integral to Brent’s work with Hyphae Design Laboratory, a company he founded.

How can art save the world?

Artists on greenmuseum.org and elsewhere  are blurring cultural boundaries between art and science, science and activism, volunteerism and performance. Traditional forms hold fast, but functionality remains central to Hyphae’s work. Function: defined by this designer as “interpreting and conveying ecological information or serving otherwise as an ecological tool or system.” Hyphae is currently working on a project in West Oakland, a plan to line the 580 highway on either side with towering stands of bamboo, natural air and particulate filters. On a greenmuseum.org-sponsored panel at the recent Earth Matters on Stage Symposium, he presented a number of other exciting projects, from green roofs to living walls.

The 28-year old designer went to a farming high school. He worked for bioremediation and green roof companies before joining Rana Creek, with which he worked on the California Academy of Sciences’ living roof. He became that company’s first Director of Design before moving on to create Hyphae.  He sees his new company as a catchall, providing services from ecological design and research to consulting for artists interested in environmental projects.

That last aspect is the result of Bucknum’s own experiences making environmental art: he’d like to see artwork that ’s better informed by ecology, not, as he puts it, the “horti-torture” that creates living systems barely able to survive the duration of an exhibition. He’d like the art to be the change it would like to see in the world: smart, sustainable, and thriving.

Go to the Green Museum

Six degrees: Mark Lynas’s book visualised in new magazine

ecomag

EcoLabs, a network of designers and artists who are looking to create what they call “ecological literacy” has an excellent new magazine out EcoMag, which puts their ideas into practice. It’s available via as a low res download or as an online purchase for £10.

It leads off with a feature in which six artists visualise Mark Lynas’s Six Degrees. For anyone who hasn’t read it Six Degrees is about six different climate warming scenarios, each marked by a single degree increase in the earth’s temperature. This is Jody Barton’s rendition of Five Degrees. The accompanying text reads:

With five degrees of global warming, an entirely new planet is coming into being- one largely unrecognisable from the Earth we know today… Humans are herded into shrinking zones of habitability by the twin crises of drought and flood.

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

An overview of eco-art Nings.

If you haven’t heard of it yet, Ning is a sort of DIY social network platform. You pick a title and a logo and boom, you’ve got your own specially-themed, mini version of facebook. Over the past year quite a few nings have popped up specifically focused on arts and ecology. Here’s the digs on a few of them.

Earth Artists Network

Members:61

Earth Artists is an interdisciplinary network of artists, focused on ecology. The coordinators of the group are based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. “Earth Artists,” as defined by the Ning,  “are dedicated to advocacy for art, sustainable culture, and ecology.” Lots of folks posting photos and info about their eco-artwork.

The Art of Engagement

Members: 476

Also a network of eco-artists, this one with a curated online artist-in-residence. This Ning asks: What role can art play in transforming the current cascade of social and environmental crises? Can we develop a way to create culture, to research, learn and teach with/in ecological systems? Lively discussions and reviews in the forums.

CSPA Connect

Members: 126

The social network of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. Created to give CSPA affiliates a place to exchange ideas. Interesting forum discussions, plenty of events postings, also reports from conferences and of course, members posting photos of their artwork.

Art + Environment

Members: 200

Created by the Nevada Museum of Art. Many discussions and postings related to that museums’  LAND/ART symposium. Some cross-postings from the excellent Smudge Studio blog.

SEEDS

Members: 89

A conglomeration of folks interested in Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance and Science, an interdisciplinary summer arts festival. Most recent posts include news of SEEDS t-shirts and footage of performances from the festival.

Go to the Green Museum

Think it, Do it, Blog it: Green Feedback!

Seema Sueko from Mo’olelo invites your feedback on the latest version of the Green Theater Toolkit!

Available at http://www.tcg.org/pdfs/grants/Toolkits.pdf – be patient, it may take a moment to download.

Leave your feedback here:  Think it, Do it, Blog it: Green Feedback!.

FROM SEEMA:

Hello Think it, Do it, Blog it readers:

We’ve posted the updated Green Theater Toolkit scorecards for Wood Products; Plastics and Foams; Metals; and Glass, Ceramics, Earthen Materials here. Please take a look and post your comments and feedback – feel free to be as direct as you wish with feedback. These scorecards arent final, so your ideas will be extremely valuable to their development. If you dont feel comfortable posting your feedback on this public blog, you can email me directly at seema@moolelo.net please write “Green Theater Toolkit” in the subject line.

Some questions for you to consider:

1) Do you understand the charts below?
2) Is any of this useful for your theater-making process?
3) Are there any materials you wish were on the list; or anything you wish were not on the list?
4) Are there any surprises for you on this list?Thanks for taking the time to contribute to this project!

    Aloha,

    Seema Sueko
    Artistic Director
    Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company

    The logic of carbon trading

    atreem

    This is A.T.R.E.E.M (Automated Tree-Rental for Emission Encaging Machine) by Nitipak Samsen, a student at the Design Interactions course at the RCA in London. Samsen’s artwork is a satire on the notion of carbon credits: by measuring the girth of the tree, this meter purports to measure carbon the tree is capturing over its lifetime. “Carbon credit brings the ‘convenience’ back to the ‘inconvenient truth’,” announces Samsen, enthusiastically on his website.

    See also Francesca Galeazzi’s artwork about justifying carbon offsetting.

    Thanks to Groundswellblog.

    Go to RSA Arts & Ecology