A new publication in the Ecology Series at Heinrich Boell Foundation, by Andreas Weber
“People often call for “changing the system†and seek to reform the “free market†approach that turns everything, including life itself, into a commodity. But it is impossible to alter our prevailing “operating system†for economics, politics and culture if the underlying “bios†– our unexamined, foundational assumptions about reality – remain the same. And that is literally our biggest problem today: our understanding of “biosâ€, the nature of life itself, is wrong†(Andreas Weber).
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
“So, what is the role of art in sustainability?,†asks the editor of The Guardian’s environment section, as the British newspaper highlights a collection of animal portraits by Joseph Zammit-Lucia, and the accompanying article where Zammit-Lucia argues that for a truly sustainable future, we need more artists, novelists and musicians in the business world.
Rational, data-driven decision-making is largely ineffective when it comes to sustainability, argues Joseph Zammit-Lucia. First of all, because data is by definition about the past:
“The rational, data-driven approach tends to keep us stuck in the past and the present, reducing sustainability to mere extrapolation. We reduce the amount of packaging around a product and call it sustainable. We make something out of recycled material and we call it sustainable. We jig our supply chain around and call it sustainable. Yet none of this will be sufficient to deliver a sustainable future. It will simply prolong very slightly the time it takes to hit the wall.
The businesses that will lead the way in sustainability will move away from rationally pursuing sustainability as an extension, with minor tweaks, of our unsustainable culture and lifestyle. They will start reimagining a future that is unknown, currently unimaginable and truly sustainable. How can this be achieved?â€
Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.
The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.
Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society. Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures
Pop-Up Repair is opening this Saturday, June 1st! You should all receive an email from us shortly with the details. I am wondering whether you all would be willing to post on your sites/email lists/facebook pages, and generally keep spreading the word?
Just in case the email doesn’t come to you for some reason, the basic info is below. Feel free to edit as you see fit. Â (Though the official email is much prettier, should come in an hour or so!)
Thank you for all your help, you guys have been amazing!
best, Sandra
Saturday June 1st, Pop-Up Repair will open at 4975 Broadway (at Isham). We will run for 4 weeks only, Tuesdays – Sundays 10 am – 7pm.Â
We will fix household items of all kinds: bring your broken stuff!
This Saturday, we will also be at the Inwood Greenmarket, doing Free Quick Fixes: Buttons, Belts, and Books from 9:30 – 2.
We also have 3 free workshops this month: Books, Musical Instruments, and LCD Screens. Learn to fix your own stuff with an expert!
Climate, consumerism, community… Two Degrees asks what is broken in our world and what can we do to mend it?
The third Two Degrees festival sits somewhere between art and action offering audiences a chance to take part and think about how we can change our future. Disassemble and reassemble everyday objects in Kate McIntosh’s Worktable, make your own public commitment to help prevent climate change in Davis Freeman’s 7 Promises, or join Platform for a spy thriller, venturing deep into the underbelly of London’s oil economy.
Other artists in the festival include Lewis Bassett, Coney, Tom Chivers, Andrea Francke, Kamala Katbamna and others, as well as a day of talks, films and performances presented by Artsadmin and LIFT in association with nef (new economics foundation).
Two Degrees is supported by the European Commission Culture Programme as part of Imagine 2020, a wider network of eleven European Theatres and production organisations. Imagine 2020 is producing programmes making explicit connection between artists’ works and climate change.
Resonance104.4fm is broadcast media partner for Two Degrees 2013.
The event is free but places must be booked. To book your place email admin@edinburghsculpture.org or call Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop on 0131 551 4490.
The nature of collaboration, particularly cross-disciplinary, is examined with a view to asking how current models of collaboration function, and ways in which they could be improved.
This day-long conference is being organised as part of Steep Trail, an international project set up by Polarcap, Fife Contemporary Art & Craft and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, to explore the legacy of John Muir and his continuing relevance to current environmental and cultural debate in the 21st century with a keynote speech by Dr Iain Biggs of the University of the West of England and chaired by Ben Twist of Creative Carbon Scotland.
The project has developed through several strands, art/eco labs were established along the East coast of Scotland which brought together artists, scientists and environmental activists to follow John Muir’s example of physical and intellectual exploration through walking and talking. Participants met over two days to discuss their work within the contexts of climate change, public dissemination and social impact. Talks about the project have allowed other organisations within and outside of Scotland to use this model, and artist exchanges and exhibitions set up between China and Scotland in 2012 have widened the context of the discussion.
Using themes identified from these activities, the conference seeks to bring together strands of shared concerns between artists, scientists and writers including conservation, sustainability, climate change and the role of contemporary art in helping to foster effective dialogues.
Ben Twist (Chair): Carbon and Arts Management Consultant, Creative Carbon Scotland
Dr Iain Biggs: Director PLaCE, University of the West of England
Prof David Munro: Historical geographer, author of ‘Scotland: An Encyclopedia of Places and Landscape’
Mary Modeen, artist and Senior Lecturer in Fine art and Art and Philosophy at the University of Dundee. Convener PLaCE, Scotland
Lothian Buses (26, 44) 30-40 mins from outside Waverley Station Edinburgh.
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
Dance/USA’s vision is to lead the professional dance industry by providing value to a strong, diverse membership base and encouraging the membership to be responsive to current economic, demographic and participation realities. But, with limited time at the Annual Conference, sometimes we are unable to have all the conversations we’d like. So, this year we’re adding something new: a UN-Conference! This special block of time is dedicated to discussing the topics which are important to you, proposed by you, and not offered in other Conference programming. We welcome you and your voice at the professional dance table!
Click here to make and vote on suggestions for topics and/or questions you’d like to see discussed in our mini UN-Conference. Your suggestions will determine the conversation during this engaging afternoon!
“Meshing the clarity of maps and diagrams, and the accessibility of science with the visceral sense of the site, I try to create an instant of wonder and understanding for the viewer.†– Stacy Levy
Spiral Wetland is an outdoor eco-art project by artist Stacy Levy that was inspired by Robert Smithson’s famous outdoor sculpture Spiral Jetty. The project is supported by the Walton Art Center as part of the Artosphere Festival in Fayetteville Arkansas.
Levy created Spiral Wetland with one specific goal in mind: to improve the water quality of Lake Fayetteville. The project consists of a 129 foot long spiral floating wetland that is made with native soft rush, Juncus effusus, growing in a closed cell foam mat, anchored to the lake’s floor. The plants help remove excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from the lake water, and add shade for fish habitat. The installation will remain until the summer of 2014 at which time sections of the wetland will be adopted and transplanted into other wetlands and retention basins in the region.
Last year, Levy unveiled a Straw Garden at the Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. Additional information about the artist can be found on her website.
Rebecca Ansert, founder of Green Public Art, is an art consultant who specializes in artist solicitation, artist selection, and public art project management for both private and public agencies. She is a graduate of the master’s degree program in Public Art Studies at the University of Southern California and has a unique interest in how art can demonstrate green processes or utilize green design theories and techniques in LEED certified buildings.
Green Public Art is a Los Angeles-based consultancy that was founded in 2009 in an effort to advance the conversation of public art’s role in green building. The consultancy specializes in public art project development and management, artist solicitation and selection, creative community involvement and knowledge of LEED building requirements. Green Public Art also works with emerging and mid-career studio artists to demystify the public art process. The consultancy acts as a resource for artists to receive one-on-one consultation before, during, and after applying for a public art project. Go to Green Public Art
The Transition Network is a growing network of over a thousand communities around the world. The network “supports community-led responses to climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap energy, building resilience and happiness.†The summer issue of the magazine Transition Free Press, which was published on 1 May 2013, contains four articles about arts projects that relate to the topics of sustainability and ecology in various ways. In summary:
Art and Science meet at new Bee Festival
The Louth Festival of the Bees, organised by Transition Louth in the United Kingdom in May 2013, combines biological sciences with an art exhibition, exploring “the relationships between the aesthetic and the rationalâ€.
“We may not, single-handed, be able to stop war, cure disease, end hunger, or save the planet, but we can, each of us, plant some flowers that give insects a better chance and make our world a little more beautiful,†writes Biff Vernon, a teacher who grows vegetables and flowers in Lincolnshire, and is, according to the magazine editor, “attempting to save the planet one Facebook post at a time.â€
“If we are to make the transition to a truly sustainable post-industrial society, protection of biodiversity must be an urgent priority. The festival aims to raise awareness of biodiversity, focussing particularly on wildflowers and all their pollinators,†Biff Vernon writes.
Louth Festival of Bees includes a Family Fun Day, Conference Day and Art Exhibition with stalls, exhibitions, children’s activities, workshops, talks about wild bees, wild flowers, beekeeping and art.
Anne-Marie Culhane, a performer, activist and catalyser of projects who lives in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, tells about the projects ‘Abundance’ and ‘The Diary Keepers’, about the festival ‘Grow Sheffield’, and about exploring the dynamic relationship between the artist and the community:
When Anne-Marie Culhane talks about Art, it is not as it is commonly understood, a commodity to be bought and owned, but a narrative co-created by people seeking to bring the earth and belonging into an urbanised culture.
“I’ve always been uncomfortable with the perception of an artist as a solitary creator who’s outside society,†she tells Transition Free Press.
To be resilient in the face of ecological and economic challenges, communities need to be adaptive and collaborative. As climate scientists admit, “we’re not managing to communicate properlyâ€. Because what inspires us to change are not dry facts, but celebration, creativity, and most of all, belonging:
“We can’t go into any meaningful thinking about the future unless we are examining how we live now, and the diversity of the way different people in the community live now: really looking, taking time, slowing down, observing our place within natural cycles, seeing what we share. So we can say: OK, this is where we’re at. From this point we can look forward.â€
Anne-Marie Culhane developed a project, ‘Diary Keepers’, to engage people into thinking about these things by keeping a diary for a month, where they would be trying to answer questions about what it is like to live now.
For Anne-Marie Culhane everything began when she came across climate change as a student of geography: “I was overawed by what it meant,†she said. Characteristically her first piece of work did not appear in a gallery, but in a city park in Leeds – twelve installations, actions and performances during one year.
“I began to ask: How can I support people to grow their own food, to be more knowledgeable about what they’re eating, to start seed-saving and seed-sharing and using organic and permaculture methods which nourish the land and communities? This where the main energy for ‘Grow Sheffield’ came from.
The idea was to hold a big season of events around harvest, giving people from different backgrounds lots of points of access – some creative, some more practical. We had guerrilla gardening in the city centre, a film screening and open space session in a local cinema, poetry walks and Allotment Soup, a celebration of allotment culture, with artists taking up mini-residencies on different allotments.â€
Her creative project ‘Abundance’ started from an idea about harvesting unwanted fruit from street trees, but it also quickly took foraging and growing stuff to another level and became about doing and being with people.
Jeppe D. Graugaard writes about ‘The Telling’ which he describes as “a new kind of grassroots, power-down, artistic event which draws on various forms of storytelling, performance, music and craft to explore what living through a time of transition means.
“Born in the imagination of Warren Draper, The Telling is inspired by The Dark Mountain Project and created on a DIY ethos as a reaction against the debilitating effect of the entertainment industry on folk culture.
The enchanting performance of Mr. Fox is just one of many that evening set in the post-apocalyptic Church View courtyard, which is adorned by a large mural by street artist Phlegm, depicting an archer sitting in a giant horn shooting down human bones tied to floating balloons. And the evening programme is just the culmination of a series of events and workshops that ran throughout the day: a pop-up cinema, the Sheffield City Giants (15 ft large puppets), bread-making, make-do-and-mend, a singing workshop, a talk on peace, and my absolute favourite: making iron in a clay foundry.
This diverse mix of activities and performances makes The Telling a place to be inspired and to learn practical skills at the same time.â€
Jeppe D. Graugaard is a writer and researcher at UEA, with an interest in grassroots movements and projects. More of his writing is available on patternwhichconnects.com
Arts book in the making: mapping arts and ecological living
Fifteen artists and writers gathered at a Writing Residency at Lumb Bank in Yorkshire to lay the first tracks down for a groundbreaking workbook – mapping ways in which the arts inspire a different way of living within the ecological limits of the planet, reported Lucy Neal.
“At Lumb Bank we glimpsed an everyday ‘art of living’ which now remains to build on and articulate over the next few months, as the book and the project come together.â€
“Stories shape the way that we act,†says Shaun Chamberlin, author of ‘The Transition Timeline’, in this interview which is an excerpt from the film ‘In Transition 1.0: From oil dependence to to local resilience’ from March 2012.
A transition art piece
About the art piece Oil Memorial
Another excerpt from the same film, ‘In Transition 1.0’.
Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.
The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.
Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society. Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures
“Field_Notes – Deep Time†is a week long art&science field laboratory organized by the Finnish Society of Bioart at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Lapland/Finland. Five working groups, hosted by Oron Catts, Antero Kare, Leena Valkeapaa, Tere Vaden, Elisabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse, together with a team of five, will develop, test and evaluate specific interdisciplinary approaches in relation to the “Deep Time†theme.
“Field_Notes – Deep Time†is in search of artistic and scientific responses to the dichotomy between human time-perception and comprehension, and the time of biological, environmental, and geological processes in which we are embedded. The local sub-Arctic nature, ecology, and geology, as well as the scientific environment and infrastructure of the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station will act as a catalyst for the work carried out.
Dates and places:
15th – 22nd September 2013, field laboratory at the Kilpisjärvi
Biological Station
23rd, 24th of September 2013, conference in Helsinki
Application process:
The organizers are looking for 25 artists, scientists and practitioners, who are interested to develop, collaborate and work in one of the below mentioned groups.
Application including CV, group preference and a max A4 letter of motivation and/or direction of possible Field_Notes research/contribution are to be sent to erich [dot] berger [at] bioartsociety [dot] fi
Application deadline: 31st of Mai 2013
The organizers welcome artists, scientists and practitioners from different fields to apply. They will pay for the journey from Helsinki to Kilpisjärvi and back, as well as for full board and accommodation at the Kilpisjärvi Biological
Station for the whole working week. Participants from outside of Finland have to take care of their travel to Helsinki and possible necessary accommodation in Helsinki themselves.
Groups, hosts and fields:
During one week the five groups will approach the “Deep Time†theme from different angles. They will organize themselves in work groups, think tanks, and workshops. They will carry out their work in their related field environment, as well as have common activities of lectures, presentations and feedback sessions. Expected results include abstracts, collaborations, data, documentation, future workshops, hard an software, ideas, knowledge, photos, presentations, prototypes, skills, sounds, projects, videos and more. The languages used are Finnish and English.
The five groups are:
* Journey to the Post-Anthropogenic
hosted by Oron Catts, takes place in the sub-Arctic nature, in the lab, and in the study
* Deep Futures in the Making
hosted by Elizabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse, takes place in the sub-Arctic nature and in the study
* Deep Time of Life and Art
hosted by Antero Kare, takes place within the sub-Arctic geology of bedrock, sediments and caves, the lab and the study
* Time and Landscape
hosted by Leena Valkeapää, takes place in the sub-Arctic landscape, amongst reindeer and the Sami culture
* Second Order
hosted by Tere Vaden, takes place amongst the working groups and in the study
More information at: http://bioartsociety.fi/deep_time/ or contact erich [dot] berger [at] bioartsociety [dot] fi
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
Cathy Fitzgerald has just blogged about the The Green Party in Ireland who have just launched it’s Forest Policy (read the press release here).  This new Policy argues that
“Ireland’s public forests are at a point where, non clearfell, continuous cover forest systems need to be introduced and supported to fully realise the full long term economic, environmental and amenity values of Ireland’s forests.â€
Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison would, we are sure, endorse this – it’s the sort of Policy that they were proposing in amongst other works, the Serpentine Lattice.
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
A new publication in the Ecology Series at Heinrich Boell Foundation, by Andreas Weber
Pop-Up Repair is opening this Saturday, June 1st! You should all receive an email from us shortly with the details. I am wondering whether you all would be willing to post on your sites/email lists/facebook pages, and generally keep spreading the word?
