I don’t want to confuse the end of an ecologically unsustainable, untenable way of civilization working in this moment with a complete guarantee of extinction. There is a future. It may look very different and sometimes I think the inability to see exactly what that future is – and our plan for it – can be confused for there not being one. I’m sort of okay with that uncertainty, and in the meantime, all one can really do is the work to try and make whatever it ends up being more positive. There’s a sense of biophilia about it.
ian garrett, conscient podcast, may 25, 2021, toronto
Ian Garrett is an artist, designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture. Ian is Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University in Toronto, is the co-founder and director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), and Producer at ToasterLab. Ian maintains a practice focused on the integration of sustainability, design, and technology in performance and performing environments. He has spoken and consulted on the arts and the environment around the world. Originally from Los Angeles, Ian has also called Houston and now Toronto home, where he lives with wife Justine and their two dual citizens, Miles and Henrietta.
I’ve known Ian for many years as a leading thinker and activist in arts and sustainability. He is a hard worker, a visionary and generous person. Our conscient conversation covered many topics including one that I had not touched upon yet this season, including arts and sustainability in the digital world.
We also talked about measurement of impact, such as the Creative Green project, which is at the heart of our ability to move forward as an arts sector in the climate emergency.
Some notable quotes from our conversation include:
The extreme thought experiment that I like to use in a performance context is: if you had a play in which the audience left with their minds changed about all of their activities, you could say that that is positive. But, if the set that it took place on was a pile of burning tires – which is an objectively bad thing to do for the environment – there is a conversation by framing it as an arts practice as to is there value in having that impact, because of the greater impact. And those sorts of complexities have sort of defined the fusion and different approaches in which to take; it’s not just around metrics.
The intent of it [the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Tools] is not like LEED in which you are getting certified because you have come up with a precise carbon footprint. It’s a tool for, essentially, decision-making in that artistic context, that if you know this information, then you have a better way to consider critically the way that you are making and what you’re making and how you are representing your values and those aspects, regardless of whether or not it is explicitly part of the work. And so there’s lots of tools in which I’ve had the opportunity to have a relationship with which that are really about empowering artists, arts makers, arts collectives to be able to make those decisions so that their individual values towards sustainability – regardless of what they’re actually making – can also be represented and that they can make choices that best represent those regardless of whether or not they’re explicitly creating something for ‘earth day’.
The separation of the artist from the person and articulating as a profession is a unique thing, whereas an alternative to that could just be that we are expressive and artistic beings that seeks to create and have different talents but turning that into a profession is something that we’ve done to ourselves and so while we do that, we exist within systems, our cultural organizations exist within systems, that have impacts much farther outside of it so that a systems analysis approach is really important.
As I have done in all episodes in season 2 so far, I have integrated excerpts from soundscape compositions and quotations drawn from e19 reality, as well as moments of silence, in this episode.
I would like to thank Ian for taking the time to speak with me and for sharing his deep knowledge of arts and sustainability, his passion for education, his leadership on tool development and his keen sense of ‘what’s next’ on the horizon.
For more information on Ian’s work, see https://www.ianpgarrett.com
Additional Link
NAC Climate Change cycle, part 2: Green Rooms 2020 The Earth is Watching… Let’s Act
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(translation)
Je ne veux pas confondre la fin d’un mode de civilisation écologiquement non viable, intenable, fonctionnant en ce moment, avec une garantie totale d’extinction. Il y a un avenir. Il peut sembler très différent et parfois je pense que l’incapacité à voir exactement ce qu’est ce futur – et notre plan pour cela – peut être confondue avec le fait qu’il n’y en a pas. Je suis plutôt d’accord avec cette incertitude et, en attendant, tout ce que l’on peut faire, c’est de travailler pour essayer de faire en sorte que l’avenir, quel qu’il soit, soit plus positif. Il y a un sentiment de biophilie.
ian garrett, balado conscient, 25 mai 2021, toronto
Ian Garrett est un artiste, designer, producteur, éducateur et chercheur dans le domaine de la durabilité dans les arts et la culture. Il est professeur agrégé de design écologique pour la performance à l’Université York de Toronto, cofondateur et directeur du Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), et producteur a ToasterLab. Ian maintient une pratique axée sur l’intégration de la durabilité, du design et de la technologie dans les performances et les environnements de spectacle. Il a donné des conférences et des consultations sur les arts et l’environnement dans le monde entier. Originaire de Los Angeles, Ian s’est également installé à Houston et maintenant à Toronto, où il vit avec sa conjointe Justine et leurs deux concitoyens, Miles et Henrietta.
Je connais Ian depuis de nombreuses années en tant que penseur et activiste de premier plan dans le domaine des arts et de la durabilité. C’est un travailleur acharné, un visionnaire et une personne généreuse. Notre conversation consciente a porté sur de nombreux sujets, dont un que je n’avais pas encore abordé cette saison soit les arts et la durabilité dans le monde numérique.
Nous avons également parlé de la mesure de l’impact, comme le projet Creative Green, qui est au cœur de notre capacité à aller de l’avant en tant que secteur artistique dans l’urgence climatique.
Voici quelques-unes de mes citations les plus notables de notre conversation :
L’expérience de pensée extrême que j’aime utiliser dans le contexte d’une performance est la suivante : si vous avez une pièce de théâtre dans laquelle le public part en ayant changé d’avis sur toutes ses activités, vous pouvez dire que c’est positif. Mais si le décor sur lequel elle se déroule est un tas de pneus en feu – ce qui est objectivement une mauvaise chose pour l’environnement – il y a une conversation en l’encadrant comme une pratique artistique pour savoir s’il y a une valeur à avoir cet impact, à cause de l’impact plus grand. Et ces complexités ont en quelque sorte défini la fusion et les différentes approches à adopter ; il ne s’agit pas seulement de mesures.
L’objectif [des outils verts créatifs de la bicyclette de Julie] n’est pas d’obtenir la certification LEED parce que vous avez établi une empreinte carbone précise. Il s’agit essentiellement d’un outil d’aide à la décision dans un contexte artistique. En effet, si vous connaissez ces informations, vous serez mieux à même d’examiner d’un Å“il critique la manière dont vous créez, ce que vous faites et comment vous représentez vos valeurs et ces aspects, qu’ils fassent ou non explicitement partie de votre travail. Il existe donc un grand nombre d’outils avec lesquels j’ai eu l’occasion d’établir une relation et qui visent à donner aux artistes, aux créateurs d’art et aux collectifs artistiques les moyens de prendre ces décisions afin que leurs valeurs individuelles en matière de durabilité – indépendamment de ce qu’ils font réellement – puissent également être représentées et qu’ils puissent faire les choix qui les représentent le mieux, qu’ils créent explicitement ou non quelque chose pour la “Journée de la Terreâ€.
La séparation de l’artiste de la personne et l’articulation en tant que profession est une chose unique, alors qu’une alternative à cela pourrait simplement être que nous sommes des êtres expressifs et artistiques qui cherchent à créer et ont différents talents, mais transformer cela en une profession est quelque chose que nous nous sommes fait à nous-mêmes et donc pendant que nous faisons cela, nous existons au sein de systèmes, nos organisations culturelles existent au sein de systèmes, qui ont des impacts beaucoup plus loin à l’extérieur, de sorte qu’une approche d’analyse des systèmes est vraiment importante.
Comme je l’ai fait dans tous les épisodes de la saison 2 jusqu’à présent, j’ai intégré dans cet épisode des extraits de compositions de paysages sonores et des citations tirées de e19 reality, ainsi que des moments de silence.
Je tiens à remercier Ian d’avoir pris le temps de s’entretenir avec moi et de m’avoir fait part de sa connaissance approfondie des arts et de la durabilité, de sa passion pour l’éducation, de son leadership en matière de développement d’outils et de son sens aigu de ce qui se profile à l’horizon.
Pour en savoir plus sur le travail de Ian, consultez le site https://www.ianpgarrett.com/
Lien supplémentaire
The post e54 garrett – empowering artists appeared first on conscient podcast / balado conscient. conscient is a bilingual blog and podcast (French or English) by audio artist Claude Schryer that explores how arts and culture contribute to environmental awareness and action.
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About the Concient Podcast from Claude Schryer
The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a series of conversations about art, conscience and the ecological crisis. This podcast is bilingual (in either English or French). The language of the guest determines the language of the podcast. Episode notes are translated but not individual interviews.
I started the conscient project in 2020 as a personal learning journey and knowledge sharing exercise. It has been rewarding, and sometimes surprising.
The term ‘conscient’ is defined as ‘being aware of one’s surroundings, thoughts and motivations’. My touchstone for the podcast is episode 1, e01 terrified, based on an essay I wrote in May 2019, where I share my anxiety about the climate crisis and my belief that arts and culture can play a critical role in raising public awareness about environmental issues. The conscient podcast / balado conscient follows up on my http://simplesoundscapes.ca (2016–2019) project: 175, 3-minute audio and video field recordings that explore mindful listening.
Season 1 (May to October 2020) explored how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. I produced 3 episodes in French and 15 in English. The episodes cover a wide range of content, including activism, impact measurement, gaming, arts funding, cross-sectoral collaborations, social justice, artistic practices, etc. Episodes 8 to 17 were recorded while I was at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course in Arizona in March 2020 (led by Julie’s Bicycle). Episode 18 is a compilation of highlights from these conversations.
Season 2 (March 2021 – ) explores the concept of reality and is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. The first episode of season 2 (e19 reality) mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from simplesoundscapes and from my 1998 soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. One of my findings from this episode is that ‘I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way’. e19 reality touches upon 7 topics: our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, ecological anxiety and ecological grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. The rest of season 2 features interviews with thought leaders about their responses and reactions to e19 reality.
my professional services
I’ve been retired from the Canada Council for the Arts since September 15, 2020 where I served as a senior strategic advisor in arts granting (2016-2020) and manager of the Inter-Arts Office (1999-2015). My focus in (quasi) retirement is environmental issues within my area of expertise in arts and culture, in particular in acoustic ecology. I’m open to become involved in projects that align with my values and that move forward environmental concerns. Feel free to email me for a conversation : claude@conscient.ca
acknowledgement of eco-responsibility
I acknowledge that the production of the conscient podcast / balado conscient produces carbon. I try to minimize this carbon footprint by being as efficient as possible, including using GreenGeeks as my web server and acquiring carbon offsets for my equipment and travel activities from BullFrog Power and Less.
a word about privilege and bias
While recording episode 19 ‘reality’, I heard elements of ‘privilege’ in my voice that I had not noticed before. It sounded a bit like ‘ecological mansplaining’. I realize that, in spite of good intentions, I need to work my way through issues of privilege (of all kinds) and unconscious bias the way I did through ecological anxiety and grief during the fall of 2020. My re-education is ongoing.
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