Join us on 7th and 8th March to hear about the experiences of the people running the Climate Beacons.
Climate Beacons for COP26 is a Scotland-wide collaborative project that creates connections between two types of organisations: climate change and environmental organisations on one hand, and arts, heritage and cultural organisations on the other, with the purpose of stimulating long-term public engagement on climate change in the lead-up to and following COP26.
Seven Climate Beacons run by partnerships made up of a mixture of cultural and climate focused organisations in Argyll, Caithness & East Sutherland, Fife, Inverclyde, Midlothian, the Outer Hebrides and Tayside have been up and running since July 2021. The coming of spring felt like a good time to showcase their work and achievements with twin online events.
The first event takes place on Monday, 7th March from 4:30pm to 6pm and its theme is ‘Collaboration and how to work together.‘ Join us for a chance to hear from the people running the Climate Beacons on their experiences of bringing together a group of very different organisations to work together and get practical advice on how to make such partnerships work effectively.
The event will feature:
Simon Hart, Director of Business and Development at Taigh Chearsabhagh, speaking from the Outer Hebrides Climate Beacon
Anna Hodgart, Tayside Climate Beacon Producer, and Dr Rebecca Wade, Lecturer at Abertay University, speaking from the Tayside Climate Beacon
Alexia Holt, Senior Director of Programmes at Cove Park, speaking from the Argyll Climate Beacon
A map of Scotland with icons of radio beacons situated in 7 locations around Scotland. Text reads: Climate Beacons for COP26 showcase: 2. Inclusive public engagement and climate justice. Tuesday 8th March, 3.30-5pm, online, free.
The second event is the very next day, on Tuesday, 8th March from 3:30pm to 5pm. Its theme is ‘Inclusive public engagement and climate justice. This event will feature:
Charlotte Mountford, Co-Director of Lyth Arts Centre, and Dr Malaika Cunningham, Director of the Bare Project, speaking from the Caithness & East Sutherland Beacon
Nicole Manley, Artist and Soil Hydrologist with the British Geological Survey, and Victoria Robb, Education Manager at the National Mining Museum Scotland, speaking from the Midlothian Beacon
Duncan Zuill, Teacher at Levenmouth Academy, speaking from the Fife Climate Beacon
Climate Beacons for COP26 is funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Change and Culture Divisions, Creative Scotland, and Museums Galleries Scotland. The project is run by Creative Carbon Scotland and supported by partners Architecture & Design Scotland, Creative Scotland, Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, Museums Galleries Scotland, Scottish Library & Information Council and Sustainable Scotland Network.
Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.
In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.
We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.
Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:
Changing their own behaviour; Communicating with their audiences; Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.
This episode is a reading of my January 2022 #conscientpodcast blog about some of the high and lows of season 3 of this podcast and my interest in layering words and soundscapes that create new contexts for listening, with excerpts from episodes 65, 69, 81, 86, 96 and a preview of e99 Winter Diary Revisited. Also available as a blog: https://www.conscient.ca/conscient-podcast-blog-january-2022/
conscient podcast, episode 98.
This episode is a reading of my conscient podcast blog for the month of January 2022.
Some might recall that I started the 3rd season of this podcast with a fictional case study:
(Teacher) Today, we’re going to do a case study today of the second season of the conscient podcast, which ran from March to August 2021. It was produced by an Ottawa based sound artist, Claude Schryer, who is passed away now, but I was very fortunate that his children, Riel and Clara, kindly helped me do some of the research for this class. I want to check if you have all had a chance to listen to the course materials, which were… conscient podcast episodes… 19 reality and 62 compilation. Were you…
(Male student, interrupting) Excuse me, but can you tell us why did you choose this podcast? Historically speaking, you know, there were other podcasts in Canada in 2021 that also explored issues of art and environment. Why this one?
(Teacher) That’s a very good question. I chose the second season of this podcast because Schryer was exploring the themes of reality and ecological grief, which were timely in 2021 and still are today. Also, because it gives us a snapshot of what artists and cultural workers were thinking about in relation to the ecological crisis.
I had fun doing that episode with my family. I presented it to a couple of university classes in the fall of 2021 and got some good feedback. For example, I appreciated this question from a student in an arts policy, equity and activism class at centennial college:
My question is more towards the arts industry in terms of activism. I feel like there’s a really high risk for burnout and for a lack of reward in terms of the work that you do. I think a lot of the time it falls on deaf ears and so I was wondering in your experience, what support systems have been put in place to support arts activists in their journey?
You can hear my answer and more conversation about art activism in episode 86.
After publishing episode 100, I will take a break from podcast production and think about next steps. During this time, I invite you to get caught up on topics of interest in season 3, which started with episode 65, recorded while floating on a kayak at the cottage:
… There’s a duck… you hear…. di-di-di… the wings are so beautiful … – and share the process of failure and attempts to change that didn’t work, in a very straightforward kind of way, because that’s life: where we make mistakes and stumble and learn and get excited and then look back and we observe that. So that’s what season three will begin like as like. Actually, I can’t predict what it will end like, because, well, I’m just starting ….
I did make mistakes, stumble, learn and get excited in season 3. For example, my promise to do short episodes, of doing everything in a ‘single take’ or asking all guests about radical listening. I learned and adjusted my ways as season 3 unfolded and I got better at listening, sometimes quite radically, to my guests during conversations. I was able to do most of my conversations live in Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal, which improved the sound quality of the show.
However, some episodes did not work out as I had hoped. For example, here  is the beginning of e69 soundwalk in the dark.Â
Good morning. It’s 4.56am on Wednesday September 29th and I’m about to go for soundwalk in the dark. I wanted to share with you this experience and see what happens.
At the time it seemed like a good idea to share my experience of improvising a soundwalk in the dark however, the result, in this case, was a lot of fun to produce but did not make for good podcast listening. In retrospect, I should have only kept the best moments from that soundwalk, like this one:
I’m on a hill so you can feel gravity. The pull towards downwards is an interesting sensation, like dancing with the mountain.
So, I’ll continue to experiment with new formats and uncomfortable situations in this podcast but next time I will ensure higher production values. My apologies for episode 69 and some of my other rambling monologues.
On a more positive note, one of things I realized during season 3 is my sensitivity to tone of voice. For example, episode 81 is this called inspiration and explores how ‘the tone and emotion in the voice of each person inspires and uplifts me every time I listen to it’. Here is the first minute of e81.
Art is a practice of expanding consciousness, which gives us a tremendous opportunity to explore and to embody possibility (Rebecca Mwase)
We want to awaken in order to be a service to everyone. (David Loy)
Creative cultural allegiance and how do we use that in a purposeful way is a critical question for us all. (Alison Tickell)
I also came to realize during season 3 that I am deeply moved by the layering of words and soundscapes that create new contexts for listening. It’s like the spirits of the sounds are speaking to me. I can hear and feel their presence. I always have felt this but rarely talk about it because it sounds … strange and it’s hard to explain. Maybe you have had similar experiences? Feel free to let me know. Here’s an example (and a preview) from episode 99:
When Murray and I recorded Winter Diary in 1997, we recorded a lot of different winter sounds, but not cross-country skiing and it is a typical sound of winter in Canada and a very rich one. You can hear me skiing now as well as people skiing beside me. Skiing sounds have a number of different of elements: there the push and pull of the ski and the poles that hit in the snow and of course the breath of the skier and sometimes you can hear the wind in the trees: snowmobiles in the distance, dog…
One theme that interests me in future episodes is the idea of liminal space that Joan Sullivan talks about in episode 96  :Â
We find ourselves in a liminal space right now and liminal space means it’s that time between what was and what’s next. That’s where we are. It’s a place of not knowing and unless all of us humans, and not just artists, recognize that we are already in a transition – not just an energy transition – but a cultural, a democratic, a social transition. There is an end. We will come out of this. No one knows how, but we will pass through. It’s inevitable and what waits on the other side is up to us to design.
Excusez-moi, mais pouvez-vous nous dire pourquoi vous avez choisi ce podcast ? Historiquement parlant, vous savez, il y avait d’autres balados au Canada en 2021 qui exploraient aussi les questions d’art et d’environnement. Pourquoi celui-là ?
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.
There’s something about looking up at the night sky and trying to find some sort of meaning beyond the magic and beauty. We might become transfixed for hours at both the light and dark parts of the night sky. Astronomers continue, at an exponentially faster rate, to discover new facts about space. But fiction authors may also discover new things, like the kind of imaginaries that connect environment to experience, while intersecting art and science or humanity and nature. This world eco-fiction series looks at the ways writers make these connections, and this month I’m happy to talk with the author of Dark Constellations (Soho Press), Pola Oloixarac.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Translated by Roy Kesey, Dark Constellations is a slim science-fiction novel, set mostly in Argentina, that has its feet in biological exploration and its eyes on the future – on hacking and DNA research. Dark, mysterious, and surreal, the story has three main characters whose works connect with each other over the course of 150 years. Vivid images of the jungle as well as human-plant hybrids also fill the story. Dark Constellations rates in my top reads of 2021, and I am happy to be talking with the author. I think readers will agree with me that the cover is beautiful.
A CHAT WITH THE AUTHOR
I was drawn to Dark Constellations a couple of years ago and finally got a chance to read it recently. It’s intriguing and full of knowledge, which made me think that you are a wise author! How did you imagine and research this novel?
I’m glad you enjoyed it. I love playing with knowledge because I find it very playful in a way. Science and the things we take for granted, as when we “know something,†are a deep tissue made of stories. Many times, fortuitous factors determine which stories become more real than others, and are turned into validated science. Science and knowledge must be funneled through a lot of storytelling to actually make it into the books of the science genre. I find this process very inspiring. With Dark Constellations, I wanted to imagine a side story that didn’t make it into the big books, where species were organized differently, like an alternative dark history of the science of the South. I love working in libraries, which tend to be very helpful if you want to write in this vein; libraries become your vessel and the books find their way into your book.
You were born in Argentina, which made me wonder when I was reading the novel: Do you have great memories of viewing constellations, or the dark places between them, from when you were growing up? Can you briefly describe what dark constellations are?
Dark constellations were how the Incas named and organized their astronomic exploration of the night sky. In the southern hemisphere, unlike in the North, the dark spaces between the stars are much wider. Interestingly, the Incas built their characters and stories as written inside the dark spaces, and not around the lights dots of the stars like in the Western tradition. For the Incas, what others saw as noise (simple darkness) was in fact information. All their figures are constructed as shapes in the dark – a complete departure of how form and content, information and noise, are understood in the Western European tradition.
There are three timelines: starting in the 1800s, then forwarding to the 1980s, and then to 2084. Each story is intriguing. Can you tell our readers how they are connected?
One is the story of Cassio, a young hacker who lives in the South, between Brazil and Argentina. His story is a bit of a sentimental biography of the Internet, and the different moments of its development until the present day, which includes crypto. He begins making hacks to video games, then on the BBS (the precursor of chatrooms), and he discovers his power making viruses. He joins a company that is putting together banks of DNA and mining them. Niklas Bruun is an explorer working in the 19th century to define new species of orchids. He travels from the Famara crates of the Canary Islands to Brazil, where he joins a strange cult of men led by a rat who makes experiments cross-pollinating women and orchids. In the DNA mining company, Cassio meets a female engineer, Piera, and together they hark his hacking powers to break the surveillance state they live in. What unites these stories is the way they look at humankind as something in-between species; they’re all working on the edges of when human becomes inhuman, and vice-versa.
I’ve interviewed a lot of authors who deal with, in some way, ecology and fiction. It’s fascinating to see the different approaches. Being a fan of strong imagery of nature and how we connect to it made me appreciate your novel. So did the fact that the ecological aspects of our world are not always set apart as simply “nature†but are inherent in us all. It showed a lot of interconnectedness between humans and other objects we might call wild. What are your thoughts on this?
It’s interesting you mention that because what drove me to write this novel was a desire to show the intimacy between the realms of the humans and the orchids, insects, fungus, and the computer viruses that populate the novel. It’s a book about symbiosis. I wanted to write about humans who are becoming something else, and about plants and animals that are also undetermined in their capabilities – where possibilities of evolution are actually open and brimming with life. And the people who are witnessing this are feeling it too. All life is semiotic, and all life is making language, so I wanted to make a book sensitive to that.
It works so well. This intersection between information and biology, again, is fascinating. I recall the 80s clearly and might have met many similar characters (like Cassio), so there is comfort in reading about that time period – but of course, he is very different, a genius hacker who is interested in surveillance as well as control. What inspired you to create Cassio and his peers?
For a while, I fantasized about writing a book on the hackers I met in my youth in Buenos Aires. Most of the characters are inspired by my friends or real people I met. There was something about Cassio that attracted me particularly – his quest for knowledge is always haunted by darkness. I’ve met all of these people who “worked for the Evil side†or were white hats (the good side), and it intrigued me immensely. (White hats and black hats are common terminology in the hacker world.) There’s an aesthetic pleasure in hacking; it’s not only about the material outcome. If you’re just going after the material, that would make you a common thief with a computer. But Cassio is not that kind of hacker; he’s more interested in being hands-on with a kind of hacking closer to the sublime.
You recently published Mona. Can you tell us about that book as well?
Mona follows the eponymous character Mona, a young female writer from Peru, who travels to a resort in Sweden to participate in a literary festival. The book is both a comedy and a horror story set in the world lit scenario, or the contemporary international circuit of literature. Mona is running away from something horrifying, and the key to her secret lies in her body.
Thanks so much for your time, Pola. I am looking forward to learning more about your upcoming book. To the readers: Pola tells me that she is currently working on a book about the Amazon. I’m looking forward to it!
Mary Woodbury, a graduate of Purdue University, runs Dragonfly.eco, a site that explores ecology in literature, including works about climate change. She writes fiction under pen name Clara Hume. Her novel Back to the Garden has been discussed in Dissent Magazine, Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity (University of Arizona Press), and Uncertainty and the Philosophy of Climate Change (Routledge). Mary lives in Nova Scotia and enjoys hiking, writing, and reading.
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Artists and Climate Change is a blog 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.
The successful applicants will be provided with a living/working space at Cite internationale des arts in Paris, together with a stipend for production and subsistence costs (80 EUR per day), a contribution towards production of EUR 500 at the beginning of the residency and a success fee of EUR 1 000 at the end of the residency, provided a work of art has been created.
The residency will take place from 2nd September until 28th November 2022.
The deadline for applying is Sunday 20th March at midnight (GMT+1).
Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.
In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.
We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.
Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:
Changing their own behaviour; Communicating with their audiences; Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER Permanent, part-time Salary: £37,105 – £41,526 pro rata
This post will oversee the community engagement work across programmes ensuring best practice in the approach, delivery and legacy. The post will work with colleagues to identify areas of community engagement work that have the potential for further development and growth, and will effectively articulate, plan and champion this. The post will also support, and at times lead on, specific community engagement partnerships and projects within National Galleries Scotland (NGS) with an initial focus being the overview of The Art Works community engagement strand. This will include the line management of the programme officer and advising on strategic alignment and sustainability of the programme.
The post will be a key part of the management team within the department and will support and progress the strategic direction of the Learning & Engagement department where EDI and health and wellbeing are two key priorities. The post line-manages part of the team and will undertake management duties as required to ensure the smooth running of the department. The post reports to the Head of Learning and Engagement and will work alongside the Deputy Head of Learning and Engagement: Exhibitions & Collection.
Key responsibilities:
To oversee and provide management support to the community engagement work of the department across programmes ensuring best practice in the approach, delivery and legacy.
To identify areas of community engagement work within the department that have the potential for further development and roll-out, and effectively articulate, champion and progress this.
To support specific community engagement partnerships and projects within NGS with the initial focus being the management overview of The Art Works community engagement programme.
Line-management of programme coordinators (provisionally schools, outreach, families, The Art Works Community Engagement Officer) and oversee their respective programmes.
Budget planning and management.
To assist the Head of Learning and Engagement in the overall operational management of the Department and support strategy development and implementation and any other duties as reasonably required.
Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.
In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.
We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.
Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:
Changing their own behaviour; Communicating with their audiences; Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.
Our new Green Arts manager will work with 300+ arts and cultural organisations across Scotland and continue developing our carbon management programme, our work with Festivals Edinburgh and other national and international initiatives as well as playing an integral role in our leadership team.
CCS is the leading charity working to harness the power of arts and culture to achieve a sustainable, equitable, climate-adapted Scotland. You can learn more about what we do, who we work with, and who our founding partners and funders are on our website.
The Green Arts programme is a core part of our work and focuses on helping the creative and cultural sectors respond to the climate emergency by reducing their environmental impact and adapting to the impacts of climate change. The Green Arts manager is responsible for leading and developing the programme and our work with hundreds of creative and cultural organisations throughout Scotland. The Green Arts programme includes the Green Arts Initiative, the carbon management programme and our work with the Edinburgh Festivals and several other national and international initiatives.
CCS aims to be an open, collaborative employer where the team knows they are supported, valued and respected. We offer flexible working arrangements to balance employees’ personal circumstances with the needs of the organisation and we facilitate team and individual training and development opportunities. As a result, we have a great team of 11 knowledgeable, friendly and committed people producing work of a very high standard. CCS has grown in the last few years and is likely to do so again soon, as our work is valued by both the cultural and climate change sectors amid the widespread demand for innovative ways to achieve sustainability.
Employment details
Job title: Green Arts manager (0.6FTE)
Start date: Monday 4th April 2022 or as soon as possible after that date
Salary: £19,349 (pro-rated as 0.6FTE from full time salary of £32,249) per year plus a contribution to a personal pension of 3% of salary
Reports to: Director (Ben Twist)
Responsible for: Green Arts & Edinburgh Festivals sustainability officer, carbon management planning officer, carbon reduction project manager
Hours: 0.6FTE i.e. 3 days/week. This means a 21-hour week with a degree of flexibility on both sides, as some evening and weekend work may be required and busy periods may call for extra hours, with time taken off in lieu during quieter periods.
Flexible working and job sharing: CCS welcomes proposals for flexible working or job-share, subject to the needs of the role being satisfactorily fulfilled.
Holidays: 12 days plus 6 public holidays (pro-rated as 0.6FTE from full time allowance of 20 +10 days) to be taken at times agreed with the line manager. An additional full day will be awarded, to be taken at any point in the 2022-23 leave year, to match the national Queen’s Platinum Jubilee holiday.
Place of work: CCS has an office at City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh, but remote and hybrid work is the norm at present. Travel throughout Scotland may be required if government guidelines and personal health concerns permit.
Contract and notice period: This is a permanent post. A probationary period of three months will apply following successful completion of which the full contract will be confirmed. The notice period is two months for both employer and employee.
Secondments: Creative Carbon Scotland is very willing to consider a secondment for this role where this will embed climate change knowledge and work within the cultural sector.
Equipment: CCS is a BYOD (bring your own device) organisation. A laptop and mobile phone can be provided if required. Additional equipment will be provided in line with CCS policies if needed to support a healthy working from home workstation.
Staff benefits: CCS offers annual salary increments, a workplace pension scheme, a salary sacrifice scheme for bicycles and IT equipment, confidential access to mental health counselling, and a WFH heating & lighting allowance.
The role
Main responsibilities:
Oversee all the elements of the Green Arts programme, bringing them into an integrated whole, monitoring and evaluating progress, always working within the financial and carbon budgets set by the leadership team (50%)
Ensure that this programme delivers co-ordinated leadership and support to the efforts of Scotland’s cultural sector to contribute to achieving national climate change targets and objectives, aligned with the relevant Creative Scotland plans and targets where appropriate
Lead on ensuring that this programme contributes strategically to the wider CCS mission
Lead on budgeting and fundraising for projects within this programme
Lead on monitoring, evaluating and reporting on projects within this programme and on the programme as a whole
Line manage all relevant staff (10%)
Work with the communications and PR managers to promote the programme externally (5%)
Nurture existing and new relationships with organisations and individuals across the cultural and climate change worlds
Seek new opportunities for CCS, including speaking, writing and contributing to external networks
Develop new partners and customers for the programme
Undertake appropriate research and development to develop the programme and to ensure that it continues to support, stimulate and lead the sector (10%)
Maintain awareness and understanding of the cultural, economic, artistic and scientific context in which the programme operates
Scope new project ideas for potential inclusion in the programme
Play an active role in the leadership team (10%)
Contribute to the strategic development of CCS
Contribute to the thought leadership of CCS on the development and application of the essential role of culture in addressing the climate emergency in Scotland and beyond
Ensure that the strategic direction of the Green Arts programme is integrated into the work of the leadership team
Contribute to major corporate funding applications as appropriate
Contribute to corporate initiatives to improve and strengthen policy, Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion, communications and employee wellbeing
Contribute to general CCS administration, including attending team meetings and work planning (15%)
Person specification
Essential criteria
Strong and up-to-date knowledge of climate change mitigation and adaptation and the ability to apply this knowledge to (small to medium size) cultural organisations and practitioners.
Experience of building, leading and supporting a strong team
Excellent project management skills including budget management
Excellent written and oral communications skills, including the ability to run training sessions and deliver presentations to a wide range of audiences
The ability to form strong relationships and partnerships with colleagues and external individuals and organisations
Experience of contributing to strategic thinking and leadership to enable an organisation to develop and thrive
A commitment to the role of arts and culture in addressing climate change
A commitment to Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion and their intersection with climate justice
Flair and imagination
Desirable criteria
Awareness and understanding of the Scottish climate change legislation, regulation and networks
Strong knowledge of the Scottish cultural world
Application process
The application process is as follows:
Applications must be made using the application form unless you have difficulty accessing or using the website (see Accessibility below).
Please study the job description and person specification closely and ensure that you demonstrate clearly in the application form how your skills and experience meet them.
Confirm on the application form that you have completed the Equality Monitoring Survey. The survey is anonymous and the information provided will not affect your application in any way.
When you submit your application via the online form you will receive an automated acknowledgement of receipt.
The anticipated schedule is:
Application deadline: 23:59, Sunday 6th March
Invitation to interview: Issued to those on the shortlist by Thursday 10th March via email
Interviews: Virtually via MS Teams on Tuesday 15th March
Candidate commences: Monday 4th April or as soon as possible thereafter
Feedback: Offered to all applicants via email by Friday 18th March
Accessibility, equalities & data protection
CCS wants to increase team diversity so that people with a range of views and experiences contribute to our thinking. Before we pass your application to our recruitment panel we will remove your personal data to help them avoid bias during the shortlisting process.
Accessibility
Applications will only be accepted via the application form below, unless alternative arrangements are made. If you wish to make alternative arrangements or have any problems in using the site (for example, if you are experiencing digital exclusion or have specific accessibility requirements), please write to gemma.lawrence@creativecarbonscotland.com or call/text 07533 832467 to seek assistance in good time before the closing date of Sunday 6th March. Your interactions with us on accessibility will remain confidential and will not be shared with the recruitment panel.
Equalities
Creative Carbon Scotland promotes a diverse and inclusive working environment. We welcome applications from everyone with suitable skills and experience and we will make reasonable adjustments where necessary to enable people with particular needs or requirements to work with us. Please read our Equalities Policy and Safe Working Statement, and please remember to complete our Equality Monitoring Survey.
Data protection
We will only use the personal data you provide in your application for the purpose of completing this recruitment process. All records created during the course of this process will be permanently deleted once the appointee is under contract. For more information on how we handle your data, take a look at our Data Protection and Information Security policy.
Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.
In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.
We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.
Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:
Changing their own behaviour; Communicating with their audiences; Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OFFICER (BAND 5) FIXED TERM PART TIME Salary: £29,816 – £32,645 Pro rata
The Art Works is our project to deliver a sustainable new facility for the National Galleries of Scotland to care for, research and share Scotland’s world-renowned collection of art. We will build a dynamic new facility in Granton, right at the heart of the local community, with spaces for local people and groups to meet and connect. It will be the largest building in Scotland designed to the Passivhaus environmental standard and, once open, it will operate at carbon net zero.
This role will ensure that National Galleries Scotland (NGS) is responding to and working with the local community to embed The Art Works in North Edinburgh to enable it to make a positive contribution. The post holder will maintain and developing relationships with local groups and organisations. The role will enable the community voice to contribute and influence the Art Works in terms of its design and its contribution to the community. The role will be a conduit for clear and open communication between the local community, NGS colleagues and project partners. The research and insights gained through working with the community will support the wider NGS audience development planning and as such this post will have an awareness and understanding of the audience plans for NGS. The post will contribute to a community engagement plan for NGS and The Art Works.
Main duties and responsibilities:
Maintain, and develop new relevant, relationships with community groups and organisations in North Edinburgh
Maintain up to date knowledge of community research, consultations, community planning for the local North Edinburgh area.
Plan and deliver a financially viable programme of engagement for NGS and the local north Edinburgh communities that establish NGS presence in local area, and aligns with the strategic direction of The Art Works
Integrate existing NGS programmes with local community
Contribute to the development of The Art Works project through contributions to reports, team discussions, project decision making and collaborating across the project and NGS more widely
Contribute to the development of a community engagement/integration plan for The Art Works pre and post opening
Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.
In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.
We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.
Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:
Changing their own behaviour; Communicating with their audiences; Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.
This month, I have a fascinating interview for you with the founders of Flourish Fiction. Blake Atkerson, Anya Lamb, and Ben Soltoff launched the project earlier this month to give a platform to fictional stories about climate change that are optimistic, and solutions-oriented.
In our interview below, we discuss what inspired this work, their interest in climate fiction more generally, and the kinds of stories they’re looking to publish. There’s also information below on where to submit your stories.
Tell us Flourishing Fiction’s origin story. How did it come about?
Anya: Blake, Ben, and I met through the On Deck Climate Tech Fellowship, a remote program bringing together climate tech entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals. We initially connected over a shared interest in writing and got a Slack channel going. The idea for Flourish came a little bit later, after a storytelling workshop led by Roope Mokka of Untitled. The workshop reminded us of the importance of storytelling for imagining and inspiring the kind of social transformation that climate change demands. We started chatting about our own storytelling aspirations and about our desire to see more inspiring climate fiction stories from diverse perspectives. At some point, we said, wait a minute – the fellowship is a diverse community with different perspectives on climate solutions. Why not encourage our cohort (and other climate professionals) to share their visions for the future?
Blake: Going into the fellowship, I had this idea that developing a collection of climate fiction short stories would be a fantastic project. I first spoke to Anya about writing, and we felt like something that allowed people to write short stories and poetry would be a great way to promote innovation and imagination in the climate tech space. Once I posted in our fellowship Slack, I was overwhelmed by the interest in writing climate fiction.
Ben: Like Anya and Blake have mentioned, it all goes back to the On Deck program. Given the nature of that fellowship, we knew that we had at least one thing in common: we had chosen to center our careers on solving the climate crisis. But we soon realized that we also shared something else: a passion for creative writing that wasn’t incorporated into our so-called day jobs. I think it’s fitting that we started this project in a program mainly about building startups, because entrepreneurship is an inherently creative endeavor, and with Flourish, we took that creative impulse in a different yet complementary direction.
Tell us about yourselves, as well! How did you become interested in climate fiction?
Anya: I read fiction almost constantly when I was growing up, but with the exception of a fantasy series or two and a few sci-fi books my Dad recommended, I mostly stuck to historical fiction and classic literature. Questions of why the world is the way it is and what’s universal in the human experience have always fascinated me. I’ve always cared deeply about nature, and when I got to Stanford, I ended up studying climate change. Since then, I’ve tended to think of climate change (and the flawed economic systems, cultural assumptions, and incentives that underpin it) as the overarching challenge of our time. And yet, for most of my adulthood, climate fiction – and indeed the topic of climate change – has been more of a void than a presence.
After a first job in environmental consulting, I got discouraged by my limited impact (and career prospects) and took a decade-long detour into startup land. In 2018, fires here in California gave me a visceral experience of the effects of climate change that I could not ignore, and I began pivoting my career back towards addressing climate change. Since then, climate has become a lens through which I view most things. I’ve seen climate themes in much of the contemporary fiction I’ve read recently, from NK Jemison’s Broken Earth Trilogy to Richard Powers’ The Overstory.
I suppose I first began thinking seriously about writing climate fiction in the summer of 2020 when I felt the sudden urge to write a novel imagining how we return to a state of balance in our social and economic systems and with the natural world. Although I may still write that novel, I know that whatever I might write would be limited by my own perspective. And I believe that we all have a unique perspective and we all can play a role in imagining and creating a better future. That’s why I’m so excited about the idea of creating a fiction collective.
Blake: I was writing a fantasy novel, still in progress, and was looking for a different project to give me a break. I saw a post for Grist’s climate fiction competition online. I started reading climate fiction anthologies, and it really clicked that I had stories to tell in this genre. I work in the climate tech space, and I am surrounded by exciting ideas everyday. I also wanted to write something that only I felt I could write. As a member of the Osage Nation, I wanted to bring awareness to the rich history the Native Americans have as stewards of the environment.
Ben: I’ve loved creative writing since I was a teenager, and I’ve been drawn to good storytelling for much longer than that. I think that telling and listening to stories is a fundamental human need. However, for a long time, I saw these passions as parallel or even secondary to my professional and academic life, which has been focused on climate change for over a decade. I’ve worked at environmental organizations in India and Washington, DC, and I’ve also advised and supported a wide range of environmental startups. Fiction just seemed so removed from that work. I’ve written short stories, and I’ve also increasingly dabbled in climate tech journalism, but I had never figured out how to make creative writing more of a priority. That’s why I jumped at the chance to be part of Flourish Fiction. For the first time, I could see how these different interests might actually feed and strengthen one another.
What kind of fiction are you looking for? Given the wide range of climate fiction, are there particular types of stories, tropes, or characters that you want to see more of?
Anya: We’re looking for short stories (5,000 words or less), flash fiction (500 words or less), and poems that imagine ways we might address climate change, adapt, and thrive. We see creative writing as a way to begin exploring ideas that may seem too “out there†to put into practice today, but that might inspire problem solvers of the future. I think it’s also worth noting that despite our backgrounds in climate tech, we aren’t just interested in “technical†solutions. Many of the solutions that exist today to help us live in better harmony with the natural world aren’t especially new or technical at all, but they will require widespread cultural and economic transformation if they are to take root at scale. Although climate change is a global phenomenon, both the effects and solutions tend to be highly specific to place. If a writer wants to submit a story but isn’t sure where to start, I’d encourage them to think of a specific place they know intimately and project into the future the trends that they see or can imagine in that place and among the people who live there. Then ask, what would have to change along the way to make that projected future more positive?
Blake: We call the pieces that we publish “Flourishes,†and we’re looking for Flourishes with emotion, innovation, and hope on the horizon. We are familiar with dystopian futures, but Mad Max is just one view of the future. There is so much potential for humans to return respect to nature and heal the planet with both love and creative solutions.
Ben: Like Anya and Blake have said, we’re looking for Flourishes imbued with hope, drawing some of our inspiration from the Grist Imagine 2200 competition. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everything needs to be dripping with sunshine and rainbows. It’s possible to be hopeful while also being sad, satirical, or just downright bizarre. However, at the end of the day, we want to publish fiction that’s more about solutions than problems. Many members of our community work in the growing field of climate tech, which lies at the intersection of climate action and technology, so we’re enthusiastic about the role of technology but also wary of its limitations. And critically, we want to share stories from diverse perspectives. We’re seeking stories by, for, and about all the strange and wonderful people who live on this planet, especially if their stories have been largely ignored or excluded from other narratives.
What role do you think fiction can play in our wider discourse on climate change?
Anya: Stories are among the best tools we have for making abstract and unfathomable realities more human – more relatable and immediate. The bigger, scarier, and more insurmountable a challenge, the more we need stories to motivate us, inspire us, and show us that our tiny individual actions can (collectively) make a meaningful difference. And what challenge today is more intimidating and confounding than climate change? In the realm of fiction, we are less constrained by critical notions of what is, and can enter a more expansive realm where we have the freedom to imagine what we wish could be and what just might be possible, given an amount of time, vision, and effort that we often struggle to imagine in our day-to-day lives. Fiction can also give us the necessary distance to reflect on our own time, place, and culture with objectivity and more clearly discern possible paths forward.
Blake: We need everyone for climate solutions to work. In a divided country like the U.S., it is a challenge to get everyone rowing in the same direction. Stories have the power to reach new audiences that either never thought about climate change, or were against taking action for whatever reason. Stories can touch an emotional chord and just might turn the tide in the adaptation to and mitigation of climate change’s negative impacts.
Ben: I’m a film buff, and I once tried to make a list of climate change movies to recommend to friends. It ended up being a very short list. Climate change has massive consequences for humankind, but it’s often conspicuously absent from our fictional narratives. There are of course some wonderful examples of climate fiction out there, but there’s so much room for more. If you can reach people through their imaginations, that’s such a powerful thing. You know how a smell has a unique tie to memory and emotion? I think imagination works similarly. It shortcuts past our rational brain and right to our feelings. The nonfiction channels for information about climate change – stuff like research reports and policy papers – can be filled with technical jargon and grim prognostication, neither of which is particularly inspiring. Fiction cuts more to the core.
What do you hope readers take away from the stories you publish?
Anya: One thing I want readers to take away from the stories is that they can imagine and tell their own stories, too. I want readers to realize that it isn’t up to experts or elite visionaries to save the planet for future generations; it’s up to all of us. I’ll also add that I’m a firm believer in the power of hope, or faith, if you want to call it that. When we despair, we fail, because we fail to act. But when we have hope, when we believe we are capable, we make ourselves more likely to succeed because we are more willing to take the actions necessary for success. If we can imagine that a flourishing future is possible, then that will make it easier for us to act to make it possible. I’m reminded of a journal prompt I love – a day in the life of your dream – in which you write a journal entry as if you are writing in the past tense about the day you had in your imagined future dream life. It’s easier to imagine our dreams and the paths towards them if we begin writing as if they’ve already happened.
Blake: I want readers to have hope for our future and the inspiration to be part of that better future.
Ben: We want readers to truly believe that a better world is possible. It’s so easy to feel pessimistic these days, with a seemingly endless pandemic, glaring inequality, systemic injustice, democracy in peril, and the specter of climate disaster looming over everything. All of that is very real, and none of it will be fixed within a given news cycle or election cycle. Some of it maybe won’t even be fixed within our lifetimes. Fiction can let us see ahead to a repaired world. I hope that readers will see something in our Flourishes that moves them and then find something they can do to make that imagined idea a reality.
Anything, in particular, you’d like my readers to watch for, beyond what you publish on the site?
Ben: Flourish Fiction is not just a site that publishes creative writing. It’s a community of writers and readers. We aim to provide feedback on every submission, and we help our community members to improve their craft. We recently held a climate poetry workshop, and we’re developing other skill-building workshops as well. We’ve finished our events for this year, but keep an eye out for a new slate of activities in 2022! Subscribe on Substack or follow us on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook) to stay in the loop. And please submit your writing! We look forward to reading it.
(Top image: Photo that accompanies the story “A Land of Rivers and Stars†by Shilpi Kumar. Photo credit: “Upper Missouri Wild and Scenic River, Montana†by Bureau of Land Management, via Flickr.)
This article is part of the Climate Art Interviews series. It was originally published in Amy Brady’s “Burning Worlds†newsletter. Subscribe to get Amy’s newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
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Amy Brady is the Executive Director of Orion Magazine, and the former Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Review of Books. She is also the co-editor of The World As We Knew It: Dispatches from a Changing Climate (Catapult) and author of Ice: An American Obsession(GP Putnam’s Sons). Every month she edits the newsletter “Burning Worlds,†which explores how artists and writers are thinking about climate change. Amy holds a PhD in English and is the recipient of a CLIR/Mellon Library of Congress Fellowship. Read more of her work at AmyBradyWrites.com at and follow her on Twitter at @ingredient_x.
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Artists and Climate Change is a blog 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.
My #conscientpodcast conversation with indigenous artist Chantal Chagnon multidisciplinary, artist Kevin Jesuino and performance maker & educator Dr. Melanie Kloetzel of the climate art web project about decolonization, networking, mapping and growing the climate arts movement.Â
This is my first episode with three guests! I was impressed when I first heard about the work of this dynamic trio through SCALE and am honoured that they took the time to speak with me on solstice day, December 21, 2021. Our conversation covered a range of issues, including decolonization and the need for artists concerned about the climate emergency to network and develop solidarity. The trio also explained their collaboration on the climate art web project, which, btw, has a deadline to hire regional curators on January 15, 2022.
Dr. Melanie Kloetzel (MFA, PhD) is a performance maker, scholar and educator who is committed to research that spans stage, site, and screen. Kloetzel employs practice-as-research methodologies to develop events, workshops and encounters in theatre spaces, alternative venues, spaces of public assembly, and online environments. In addition to her work with TRAction, a collective of interdisciplinary artists who engage communities in art-making to address issues of climate justice, Kloetzel is also director of the dance theatre company kloetzel&co. and co-director of the performance collective ReLoCate. Kloetzel’s research focuses on performance, place, text, and characterization. Her three books, the co-edited anthology Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces (2009), the co-authored (Re)Positioning Site Dance: Local Acts, Global Perspectives (2019), and the co-authored Covert: A Handbook – 30 Movement Meditations for Resisting Invasion (2021), are currently available from University Press of Florida, Intellect, and Triarchy, respectively.
Kevin Jesuino is a Portuguese Canadian queer multidisciplinary artist, facilitator, teacher, arts producer and community organizer working in performance and socially engaged art. He is based in Mohkinsis of Treaty 7 territory, also known as Calgary, Canada. His work is oftentimes collaborative, site-specific, participatory, and process oriented. His practice explores the intersection of the body, society and place. His recent research explores the queer body, ecology, fragility and modes of being together. His community-embedded projects engage participants in performative actions, discussions, creative interventions, activations and other forms of organizing — positioning art & culture as a vehicle for meaningful social change. Â
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.
My #conscientpodcast conversation with photographer and writer Joan Sullivan whose work is focused exclusively on climate change and the energy transition. We spoke about her roots in science, her work as a columnist for Artists and Climate Change, how we are the climate emergency and liminal space between what was and what's next.
Joan is an accomplished bilingual photographer and writer who uses both documentary and abstract methodologies in her work. She also writes a monthly column about the intersection of art, artists and the energy transition for the international blog Artists and Climate Change.
Joan Sullivan spent her first 50 years studying/working to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, mostly in Africa. With a master’s in public health from Harvard, she criss-crossed the continent at the height of the HIV epidemic, working for a variety of international organizations to fund community-based HIV prevention programs targeting the most vulnerable populations: women, migrants, orphans. She recognizes that it was a privilege, a gift in fact, to have been able to spend so much of her adult life in Africa. It was in Africa that Sullivan’s photography matured, thanks in part to Mike Hutchings at Reuters (Johannesburg office) who gave her her first gig as a stringer based in Botswana. Sullivan also moonlighted for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a photographer.
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.
