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my response to the 3 prompts from world listening day, july 18, 2023
(bell and breath)
Every July 18th is World Listening Day. It’s also composer and acoustic ecologist R. Murray Schafer’s birthday. Rest in peace Murray.
Now World Listening Day 2023 proposes three very interesting listening prompts and I’ll try to answer their questions in today’s episode.
Question 1
What can we learn from the listening practices of all living beings?
What can we learn from the listening practices of all living beings?
It’s a very good question and I would start by questioning who is the ‘we’ in this context. I would also question the assumption that other living beings have listening practices as we know them. ‘We’.
This being said, this prompt made me think of a story told to me by composer Robert Normandeau in 1991 for my Marche sonore 1 radio program that I did for Radio-Canada. I quote it in episode 19 reality and I’ll play it back for you now.
(e19 reality)
It’s a bit like taking a frog, which is a cold-blooded animal, and putting it in a jar of water and heating the water, little by little. The frog will get used to the temperature rising and rising, and it will not notice that the temperature has risen and one day the temperature will be too hot for it and it will die. Therefore, our civilization, in terms of sound, looks a bit like that, that is to say we get used to it, we get used to it, we get used to it and at some point, we are going to have punctured eardrums.
Now the early 1990’s were a time of great environmental awakening and action, in particular the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. There was a sense that this was our last chance to change directions, to undo some of the wrongs of pollution. Ironically, things got much worse after 1992.
Sadly, this window is now closed and we find ourselves in very hot water not feeling or responding to the heat, the smoke and other signals we are receiving and so we’re slowly boiling to death…
(Bell)
Question 2
How can we deterritorialize listening practices?
How can we deterritorialize listening practices?
Dererrirorialize. De… terror. Deterritorialize. It’s a hard word to say.
The notion of territory makes me think of stolen lands by colonial settlers, like myself, living in indigenous lands, unceded lands, such as the Algonquin-Anishinaabe nation, otherwise known as Ottawa.
One form of deterritorialization is the land back movement.
According to journalist and Canada Council for the Arts chair Jesse Wente (also see e107 harm) land back is :
about the decision-making power. It’s about self-determination for our Peoples here that should include some access to the territories and resources in a more equitable fashion, and for us to have control over how that actually looks.
What does land back sound like?
Just last week I published an episode about decolonized listening 128 revisited. Here’s an an excerpt from that episode :
On June 23, 2023 I had the pleasure, and the privilege, of attending ‘Listening to Lhq’a:lets’ (I hope I’m pronouncing that right), otherwise known as the city of Vancouver, at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Learning at the University of British Coumbia, which is situated l on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam Nation. A group of artists, all women, spoke about their week-long residency, organized by indigenous sound scholar and UBC professor Dr. Dylan Robinson. They shared a wide range of sensory engagements through listening to Lhq’a:lets: how our bodies listen through the haptics of vibration, about hearing and feeling the voices of our non-human relations, about how we can perceive the built environment with new perspectives – the air, waterways and earth that surround us. They spoke about their encounters with the trans-mountain pipeline, their dialogues with animals and birds, their encounters with haunting vibrations and their thoughts about the past, present and future sounds of this region. What they did not talk about was themselves, their accomplishments or the type of technology they used to extract and manipulate the sounds. None of that. There was also no reverence for say R. Murray Schafer or the World Soundscape Project, nor any nostalgia about the good old days when, say, the term ‘soundscape’ was invented. There was no disrespect either. They were listening from a different position. So I heard stories, poems, anecdotes, images, silences and prophecies… It was uplifting.
I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).
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 – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action 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 – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief 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.
season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.
season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity
About
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 :
We’ve recently become much more aware of the negative impact our website and social media activities have on the planet. We asked Natalie Whittle from Glasgow-based climate tech startup, Neuto, to give us some more information about digital carbon emissions and why it’s so important that we reduce them.
To use the internet, you need a lot more power than you might realise. Information does not appear online by magic: it is requested from a data centre or local server and transmitted through cable networks to reach your device. Phones and computers themselves need energy to display information, and they’ll be especially energy hungry if they are asked to render a video or high-resolution image.
This is bad news for climate change, because only a tiny fraction of the internet’s infrastructure uses renewable energy. As a result, almost everything that powers our connected world also pours carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
This simple fact is often overlooked. When was the last time you heard someone talk about a website’s carbon emissions? Meanwhile, the arts and creative industries are often encouraged to digitise their outputs, but this kind of web-based project rarely includes digital carbon emissions among its considerations for environmental impact.
In general, there is a lack of awareness about digital carbon emissions, not just in the arts but across society as a whole. As it stands, the internet burns so much energy it is equivalent to the aviation industry, in terms of carbon dioxide emitted. The mass adoption of smartphones has accelerated the rise of digital consumption, and the overall energy-burn of the internet is forecast to increase steeply by 2030. We are evermore reliant on the digital world, without understanding its carbon toll.
What can we do about the problem?
Neuto is a climate tech startup based in Glasgow, founded by Alex McCartney-Moore, developer, and Christiano Mere, designer. It was created during COP26 in Glasgow with the express purpose of tackling and reducing carbon emissions from digital activities.
At first the founders worked with Not 1 More to create an efficient, time-saving email campaign to be sent to politicians in Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau, Brazil and the UK. After the COP26 conference, Alex and Christiano began to think more deeply about the energy implications of the internet: would it be possible to work out how much carbon dioxide it burns? What change could they bring about if more people knew the precise carbon footprint of their digital activity? They decided not to take shortcuts in answering these questions.
65+ data points
Neuto uses more than 65 data points to analyse the full breadth of the internet’s energy chain, including the energy that your phone, computer or other device uses to present online information. In developing their tools, it was important to Alex and Christiano to use this comprehensive methodology, rather than look solely at isolated parts of the energy equation.
The result is a highly advanced piece of software, Neuto Carbon Monitor, which can measure the carbon emissions of any web page, showing you how much carbon dioxide it produces, where its server is located and what kind of energy it uses, and also indicating the scale of improvement possible. For websites or organisations with large web systems that wish to analyse the entirety of their digital carbon emissions, Neuto offers a bespoke service that is tailored to individual needs.
Real-life examples
To give a quick example of how different organisations perform, let’s take a look at some of the most famous museums in the world. As measured by Neuto’s Web Browser Plugin(an instant snapshot of emissions while you browse) on Monday 10 July 2023, the carbon emissions per page load were as follows for the official homepages of:
Museum of Modern Art, New York: 0.99gCO2e
The Louvre, Paris: 1.11gCO2e
Rijks Museum, Amsterdam: 1.56gCO2e
Museo del Prado, Madrid: 1.66gCO2e
National Gallery, London: 1.99gCO2e
Unsurprisingly for museums with vast collections of visual art, their websites use high-resolution images to show off their greatest attractions to their best advantage. This is relevant for carbon emissions, since imagery and video files are often the biggest culprits when it comes to slowing down the page-load time of a website.
When you think about the number of users a popular website might attract, 1.99gCO2e can quickly add up to kilograms and tonnes of carbon. To put this in perspective, if 100,000 people visited a website with 1gCO2e per page load, it would be equivalent to the energy required to charge 12,164 smartphones, and would require almost 2 trees to grow for 10 years in order to sequester the associated carbon emissions.
Part of the work done by Neuto’s software is to pinpoint the assets on a website that are ‘heaviest’, or producing the most carbon dioxide emissions, because they require more energy to be transmitted to a device through the network.
We’re keen to support organisations in the arts and culture sector to understand and reduce their digital emissions, and we have some simple tools to help. Sign-up to Neuto’s software is free; we encourage you to have a look around our website and check out your own organisation’s digital emissions.
Good housekeeping
Here are some tips for lowering your carbon emissions when working and browsing online:
Laptops are more efficient than desktop computers. As a general rule, even when plugged in, laptops use less energy than desktops.
Avoid wifi, if possible. Plugging your computer into a wired connection uses less energy. The network effort for wireless connectivity is much greater.
Check the off switch: this is an old one, but it’s worth repeating. Turn off devices at the wall and don’t leave them in sleep mode.
If you’re publishing images online, consider using compression to make them ‘lighter’ assets.
Be aware of your server’s energy source – and switch (if possible) to a renewable-powered alternative. You can check your server’s info at the Green Web Foundation website.
[Editor’s note: Enormous thanks to Natalie for these insights. We encourage everyone to reduce their digital carbon emissions wherever they can including using Neuto’s terrific carbon monitor and other resources.
Cleaning up our website is a priority for Creative Carbon Scotland. It’s been hosted by a server run on renewable energy for a while now, but there’s more work to be done, especially because the site is so content rich. At the moment, we’re busy compressing images, reducing the number of pages and deleting past events and outdated posts. In the longer term, we’re planning to redevelop the site altogether.]
an impressionistic portrait of the musicality and poetry of past, present and future soundscapes of Vancouver composed using archival sounds dating from the World Soundscape Project in the early 1970’s and from recordings of Vancouver made in the early 1990’s by Bob MacNevin on behalf of the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University (SFU). My method was to select a few hundred sounds from the collection, which I edited and catalogued by spectrum, category, function, pitch, and context. I then experimented with various combinations and modifications of the material until interesting sonic alchemies were found…’
For example, you can now hear the ubiquitous sound of rain in Vancouver, a distant train whistle, bird song, the rumble of the harbour and… the 9 o’clock gun.
Let me tell you a short story.
On June 23, 2023 I had the pleasure, and the privilege, of attending ‘Listening to Lhq’a:lets’ (I hope I’m pronouncing that right), otherwise known as the city of Vancouver, at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Learning at the University of British Coumbia, which is situated l on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Musqueam Nation.
A group of artists, all women, spoke about their week-long residency, organized by indigenous sound scholar and UBC professor Dr. Dylan Robinson. They shared a wide range of sensory engagements through listening to Lhq’a:lets: how our bodies listen through the haptics of vibration, about hearing and feeling the voices of our non-human relations, about how we can perceive the built environment with new perspectives – the air, waterways and earth that surround us.
They spoke about their encounters with the trans-mountain pipeline, their dialogues with animals and birds, their encounters with haunting vibrations and their thoughts about the past, present and future sounds of this region.
What they did not talk about was themselves, their accomplishments or the type of technology they used to extract and manipulate the sounds. None of that. There was also no reverence for say R. Murray Schafer or the World Soundscape Project, nor any nostalgia about the good old days when, say, the term ‘soundscape’ was invented. There was no disrespect either. They were listening from a different position.
So I heard stories, poems, anecdotes, images, silences and prophecies… It was uplifting.
(excerpt from movement 2, fire)
So when I listened back to my soundscape composition, I realized that my revisitation was mostly a, let’s call it, a reshuffling of the colonial deck chairs.
Yes I cleverly combined horns, whistles, sirens, industrial and natural sounds as a commentary on the beauty and madness of contemporary urban life but my revisitation was from a very narrow point of view.
I now realise that this music, my music, is inherently complicit with colonialism and that my creative gestures are actually further cycles of exploitation.
In retrospect it might have been more useful for me to figure out how to repair the damage done to past, present and future soundscapes of Lhq’a:lets.
What does decolonized listening sound like to you?
*
This event was part of the three-part Friday evening series, Artists Within the Anthropocene. Presented in partnership with the Belkin Art Gallery. Listening to Lhq’a:lets / Vancouver is also part of a week-long artist residency organized with The Score: Performing, Listening and Decolonization UBC Research Excellence Cluster, in partnership with the UBC School of Music and Evergreen. The six participating artists were Bonnie Devine, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Dolleen Manning, Lisa Myers, Astrida Neimanis, Lisa Ravensbergen and Rita Wong.
With thanks to the six artists who represented their work on June 23 and to Dylan Robinson for his ongoing enquiries.
I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).
My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to Full Circle.
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 – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action 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 – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief 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.
season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.
season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity
About
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 :
The masterclass introduces the notion of Ecoscenography merging ecological design thinking and stage design to create engaging work which reflects and impacts the current world, especially in relation to climate change and social justice concerns.
We will explore both theory and practical ways to take responsibilities for what and how we create theatre and collaborate with the wider ecosystem at all stages of personal practice and projects.
Participants will be introduced to interdisciplinary practices with case studies, living examples of the connection between individual creativity and sustainability showing how ideas can be translated into actions. You are invited you to explore approaches to integrating holistic environmental principles within your own creative practice.
The course will include time for discussions, Q&A and plenty of breaks.
Take action. Help to build a movement of ecologically-aware performance makers.
All performing arts practitioners at all stages and scales of production to provide knowledge sharing between different experiences. I’m especially keen to reach out to producers, directors, stage managers and others who are part of the decision-making process.
Why
• Learn about Ecoscenography • Comprehend the importance and advantages of integrating ecological considerations within your creative practices • Examine worldwide case studies of sustainable work • Exchange knowledge with diverse roles in the theatre industry • Understand what is your role and how to approach sustainability with varied teams. • Co-create sustainable new narratives for the new paradigm of our society and the planet
Cost
Cost is designed to keep knowledge affordable for all and depends of your financial means. Trusting that you’ll choose the appropriate amount for your needs and support fair exchange. Income based sliding scale £200/£170/£140 (high/medium/low) + booking fees.
For those with limited funds I’m offering 2 ‘pay it’ forward exchange bursaries consisting of 1 day of work with me in exchange for taking part in the masterclass. Please email a CV and a short paragraph of why you require the bursary and what skills you can offer in exchange (assisting, making, painting, construction, marketing, admin, etc…) by 24th July – places available confirmed upon acceptance.
Accessibility
The 2 days will be divided between indoors and outdoors work – weather dependent.
Lift is available. Suitable entrance for wheelchair is from the basement carpark.
Please share any personal and accessibility needs ahead of time if need be to help prepare.
Facilitated by Mona Kastell, an international award-winning ecological designer, educator and shamanic practitioner who places Nature, well-being, interconnectedness and authentic community engagement at the heart of her creative process. She’s one of Ecostage’s co-directors – a grassroots initiative and website that provides a holistic framework, tools and resources for embedding practice-based ecological thinking at all stages of our creative processes and scales of production. Her design for ‘Glimpsing Air Pockets’ is featured in Tanja Beer’s book on Ecoscenography and won 1st prize at World Stage Design 2022 in ‘Alternative Design’.
Note: the podcast recording was improvised based on this script and therefore has additional material.
This 127th episode of the conscient podcast marks the halfway point of season 4, which, as you might recall, is called Sounding Modernity and explores what modernity might sound like, how it affects us and what we can do about it..
Maybe…
A heads up that this episode is 57 minutes in duration because it is part of the ‘afield’ series of framework radio in Estonia.
I was thinking about the tensions in our lives and the art of finding balance points… So I went for a sound walk in Vancouver and came upon a piece of fishing line. I brought it home, strung it up and recorded myself plucking it…
(cross fade to the end of e101)
Listeners might recall that each episode this season ends with a question:
How do you feel now?
‘How do you feel now’ is actually at the heart of this project. How do one perceive the sounds of our modern world? What does it feel like to absorb these sounds into our bodies? How can we change the way we listen? How can we move away from the madness of modernity? And if, tragically, we are unable to step away, at the very least, how can we help prepare future generations for what is coming?
How can art help?
How can listening help?
Are we helpless?
(Silence then ocean sounds)
I’ve received some interesting responses and reactions to the first 26 episodes and 6 blogs of the project so far, in various forms and channels, for example, this poem from artist and educator Carolina Duque (also known as Azul), submitted on January 3, 2023, about her experience with e101 tension :
I walked down the sea line of San Andrés Island, in the Caribbean, as I listened. Listened Felt the ten sion tens Ion
I grew up on this island. I notice the shoreline getting smaller. I notice the corals turning grey. I notice the buildings growing taller. The overlapping reggaeton and vallenato music from competing speakers. I notice everything getting louder. I notice the Tens – ion.
I notice the menus saying fish is scarce.
I notice In my lungs the tension. In my eyes the tension. In my waves, in my feet.
The tension.
(Ocean sound fade out)
My response :
I was reading Jenny Odell’s ‘How To Do Nothing’ book today and came upon this sentence that relates to your response. I quote: ‘I hold up bioregionalism as a model for how we might begin to think again about place’ (end of quote), which to me means that we need to be stewards of the land, wherever we are, in collaboration with all living beings.
I documented almost all of the feedback I received from listeners in my monthly conscient blog on conscient.ca. I am grateful for these gifts of knowledge and insight.
(e102 aesthetics)
Most episodes in this podcast are about the relationship between art and the ecological crisis. For example, in e102 aesthetics:
The problem with beauty is that it can distract us from reality. Sit with me, please, take a moment. Sit and listen…
I’ve also integrated soundscape compositions in and around the narrative, for example, from e103 heat:
(end of e103)
This thing is smart. Everything talks to each other. I would just leave it on auto and let it choose what it wants to do. What does decarbonization sound like to you?
How do we decarbonize our lifestyles? One way is to rethink the way we use energy in day to day life, for example, in e110 – drain, I talk about water :
(beginning of e110)
It goes down the drain (again) and into the sewer system to be processed and dumped into the Ottawa river, then it evaporates into the sky and it rains back into our lakes and rivers, bringing with it with many pollutants, and then is pumped into our homes, in our bodies and heated until…
A friend, artist Maria Gomez, shared this response to e110 on March 6:
Only the water doesn’t stay in the Ottawa region, as it travels south in the moist of the clouds all the way to the Patagonia glaciers, and in ocean currents to Asia and its skies and then it travels up the Arctic… the water I bathe in contains my cells that are distributed around the world, and particles from the world touch me in the water.
I responded:
It’s true that water travels in us, through us and beyond. The sound of water can be either pleasant or a signal of danger but either way we need to listen and understand the language of water…
Some episodes call upon quotes from previous episode such as photographer Joan Sullivan in e96 from season 3 which I used in e106 fire :
(near the end of e106)
And it suddenly dawned on me that I, my hands, weren’t shaking up because of the cold, but because of an anger, you know, this deep, profound anger about our collective indifference in the face of climate breakdown. Wait, we’re just carrying on with our lives as if you know, la la la and nothing, nothing bad happening. So there was this sense of rage. I mean, like, honestly, it’s surprising how strong it’d be in a violent rage just sort of coming outta me. I wanted to scream, and I just, you know, took my camera and just moved it violently, right? Left up, down the, and almost, I suppose, it was almost like I was drowning in the water. You know, my arms are just doing everything. And I was holding down the shutter the whole time, you know, 20, 30, 40 photos at a time. And I did it over. And oh, I was just, I was just, I was just beside myself. And you know, you at some point, you just stop and you’re staring out at the river. And I just felt helpless. I just didn’t know what to do…
I hear you dear Joan. I also do not know what to do.
I also called upon climate activist and politician Anjali Appadurai from e23 in season 2 in e114 :
(middle section of e114 privilege)
Privilege can go back as far as you wanted to go back, right? And of course it’s so nuanced. It’s not every white guy has this much privilege, but you do have a privilege that goes back hundreds of years and I think one aspect of privilege, one that a lot of people leave out, is this economic aspect, right, of class and resources. And that is not often talked about in the climate conversation, but it’s a huge piece of it. Because when we talk about the extinction of our species, this extinction doesn’t happen overnight. It happens in a spectrum. Who are the last ones standing? Those with the most resources and who are the first ones to go? It’s those with the least, the most disenfranchised. So I don’t think you can talk about climate without talking about privilege ultimately. And I think it’s on each of us to unpack that for ourselves and to bring that into the conversation.
(field recording of natural soundscape from Florida)
The most ambitious episode so far has been e112 listening, which I presented as my keynote speech at the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) conference Listening Pasts – Listening Futures, in Florida. It actually runs for over 10 minutes so I broke my own rule here of having only 5 minute episodes but I decided to go with the flow when an episode needed more time. Why not? Here the final sequence from e112:
(from the end of e112)
Conclusion 5 : connect our efforts
Todd Dufresne, e19: ‘Whoever survives these experiences will have a renewed appreciation for nature, for the external world, and for the necessity of collectivism in the face of mass extinction.’
Asad Rehman, Green Dreamer podcast (e378) : ‘Our goal is to keep our ideas and policies alive for when the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable’.
George Monbiot, tweet November 13, 2021 : ‘We have no choice but to raise the scale of civil disobedience until we have built the greatest mass movement in history.’
My question to you is ‘how can listening help’?
During the performance I walked out of the room at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach around the building asking that same question :
How can listening help?
(Recording from live performance of my keynote)
Each episode of this season has a different aesthetic, a different style, depending on my inspiration, mood and what I am learning or unlearning on any given week.
For example, some episodes feature unedited field recordings, such as the subway in Montreal in e120 metro where I invite you, the listener, to sit with the sound and let it speak to you, as if the sound were a living entity, which, I think, it is.
(beginning of e120)
Sometimes we just have to stop and listen. Without passing judgement. Just listen…. Sometimes we just have to stop and listen.
Another example is the sound of freezing rain on a canopy of hard snow in a frozen forest in e122 quiet:
(middle of e122)
I suspect this one might seem a bit boring for some listeners because not much happens, but I enjoy listening to quiet spaces and tuning into more subtle sonic patterns and layers of sound and silence.
(end of e122)
When I launched Sounding Modernity in December 2022 I wrote that my intention was to :
Address some of the causes of this massive and violent overreach of planetary boundaries but also to explore how we can preserve some of modernity’s benefits, without the destruction.
In retrospect I realise this was a very ambitious goal but also pretentious and sometimes naive. I soon realized that failure was not only inevitable but necessary in order to experience boundaries and limitations.
Here’s a quote from the Gift of Failure teaching by the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective in my February blog :
We chose the word “gesture” for the title of our collective to underscore the fact that decolonization is impossible when our livelihoods are underwritten by colonial violence and unsustainability. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, our health systems and social security, and the technologies that allow us to write about this are all subsidized by expropriation, dispossession, destitution, genocides and ecocides. There is no way around it: we cannot bypass it, the only way is through.
How we fail is important. It is actually in the moments when we fail that the deepest learning becomes possible and that is usually where we stumble upon something unexpected and extremely useful. Failing generatively requires both intellectual and relational rigour.
One of my favorite failures is e121 rumble where I impersonate a superhero, Dr Decibel, in Stanley Park in Vancouver. It’s pretty hokey and raw but I like the way it explores storytelling and fantasy.
This is Dr. Decibel. Your sonic superhero on the unseated ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations otherwise known as… Well, I think you know where I am. (plane passing by). You have a problem here people. The low frequencies are excessive : traffic, industry, ventilation. Layers and layers of rumble and I hate rumble. Rumbleeeee is not something that I enjoy, so I’m going to use my superpowers today to reduce the amount of rumble in your city. Ruuuuumble… (imitation of rumbling sounds)
(middle section of e118)
Another failed episode was e118 toilet about shit. My intention here was to comment upon composting, both literally and figuratively. Vanessa Andreotti talks eloquently about shit in her book Hospicing Modernity but instead of addressing the issue head on, I took the easy way out and produced an episode with the statement ‘where does your shit go’ accompanied by four recordings of toilets flushing, which does not directly address the issue, but it’s a start. And, to be honest, I was attracted by the rich sound of the toilet refilling and the silence that follows when it is full, waiting to flush, again and again, precious water in a wasteful cycle of flushing away our issues…
(beginning of e118 toilet)
(bell and breath) where does your shit go? (toilet flush 1)
On April 25 my dear father in law Robin Mathews passed away of pancreatic cancer. His illness was on mind throughout the first half of the project. I had the privilege of recording him reading his last poem, deeper into the forest, in February 2023, at his home in Vancouver, in one take. I published it 2 days before his passing in both audio and video format. Here is how e117 deeper into the forest ends:
(end of e117)
You know the voices
And you know they cannot shape words
that will break the surface over your head.
Lights flash in the skies above,
Dart through the water.
But words do not form.
The surface above you,
Which you cannot break through.
Closes….
In the darkness that moves toward you
As if a living creature
The voices fade away … or seem to fade away,
And you know the surface above your head
Will not break.
The voices beyond the surface
Will grow distant and imperfect
And you, quite alone, will move deeper into the forest.
(sound of forest from Kitchener, Ontario)
I received this comment from listener Cathie Poynter, a former student and friend of Robin’s, on May 8 about this episode:
This is so wonderful to hear, see, feel and read. Beautifully done, the poem, the paintings, the voice, all of the sounds. It is like reaching from beyond, to tell us where, and how to move through further into the depth of the forest: of reality, life, and death. I think it is very profound. It gives me hope that we all must go on this journey. He has captured the experience I feel of time and eternity.
I also wrote a one person play during this time called e111 traps, which explores some of the traps in our live :
(beginning of e111)
(bell, breath and occasional balloon sounds)
Me : Have you ever had the feeling that you were being observed?
Observer : I’m observing you.
Me: Who are you and what are you observing?
Observer: Ah, well, I’m a part of you and I’m observing the traps that you tend to fall into.
Me: Traps?
Observer : Do you remember the Facing Human Wrongs course you took during the summer of 2022?
Me: Ya.
Observer: The one about navigating paradoxes and complexities of social and global change and all those trappings along the way?
Me: Ya, I remember. Easier said than done, though.
Observer: Ya
Me: So. What are you observing?
Observer : Well, what can I say? I notice that you’ve fallen into a trap called ‘exit fixation’ which is where people feel a strong urge to walk out on an existing commitment. For example, when someone realises that the path they are on is full of paradoxes, contradictions, and complicities. Often their first response is to find an immediate exit in hopes of a more fulfilling and/or more innocent alternative or maybe even an ideal community with whom to continue this work.
Me: Like an escape?
Observer: Ya, something like that
I’ve also had the privilege of receiving insightful feedback from listeners about the conscient podcast as a whole, such as this email on May 16 from a friend who asked to remain anonymous:
So grateful to have been able to listen and stay close to your work. It’s wonderful to witness, feel and sense into the different layers and movements over the course of the episode and throughout the arc of the season so far. It’s almost as if the story of Sounding Modernity is being stitched by the sounds, walks and episodes and shape-shifting it into this surprising creature (sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes visible, sometimes fictional…). I wonder how else the story of Sounding Modernity will further weave itself (both in/out of control) as you continue to loosen even more of your grips on it, slowly and gently. I like how humor mixes with pain and poetry mixes with interviews, and ocean mixes with toilet shitty waters. The playful and surprising diversity is fun. It’s even clear that you are both struggling and having so much fun, which adds honesty and trust in wanting to go with you on the inquiry. As you approach the middle of your journey, what might be needed at this time to invite further and what might be ready to be released into new soils? May more sounds reveal/be revealed.
I responded:
Your point about how Sounding Modernity might unfold in/out of control is a good one as I approach the midpoint in the project on July 1. I’m coming to terms with its failings, surprises and unanticipated unlearnings. The isolation in particular has been bewildering. I think I have already ‘lost my grip on it’, in a good way. I have essentially given up on it being a ‘exploration of the sounds of modernity’ – which was quite pretentious anyway – but rather, as you suggest, has become a portrait of my struggles and discoveries through the sounds of modernity.
Let me expand a bit on that idea of isolation. I hoped this project might engage the arts community in dialogue with me and each other about these existential issues, which is why each episode ends with a question. It’s meant to be a prompt or an invitation but not a rhetorical enquiry. My expectation was that it might interest artists and others who are in a similar frame of mind as I am, you know, dealing with eco anxiety and eco grief and so on.
For example, on June 7, Jean-Marc Lamoureux wrote about episode e123 maps:
When it comes to unknown possibilities for humanity, it is important to acknowledge that our knowledge and understanding of the world are limited. There are areas in science, technology, philosophy, and exploration that remain largely uncharted. New discoveries, innovations, and breakthroughs are possible in these domains and could unveil unforeseen possibilities. It is also important to note that the future is uncertain, and it is challenging to accurately predict what will unfold. Technological advancements, social and political changes, as well as unforeseen events, can all shape the future of humanity in unexpected ways. To address the uncertainty of the future and the challenges of the ecological crisis, it is crucial to foster an open, inclusive, and collaborative approach. Encouraging research, innovation, and exploration across relevant fields, as well as promoting sustainability, environmental conservation, and social justice, are essential. We must also recognize that the future of humanity is closely intertwined with our relationship with the Earth and the other living beings that inhabit it. Taking care of our planet and living in harmony with nature are vital. … Thank you for your attention and for engaging in deep reflection on these important questions.
I responded:
I agree that we need to keep a positive attitude and that there is much we do not know. I quote writer Rebecca Solnit in episode 19, who said ‘hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act’. My point in e123 was to share my stress (and distress?) about where we are at and where we might be going. … What concerns me most is our deep disconnection with nature, which has been in the works for centuries and is killing us all. … So, Jean-Marc, I don’t think innovation will help if it is built on a self-destructive model. … Certainly doomism does not help, but neither does naïve hope. …
So, it’s July 1st 2023 and I’m at the halfway point in this project. 26 episodes done with 25 to go.
What’s next?
Well, to be honest, and I admitted as much in e123 maps, I really don’t know.
(e123 maps section of scrunching piece of paper)
So these are the five elements on my map: mitigation, adaptation, tipping point line, survival and recovery, but the problem is that I’m wrong. The map is wrong. The truth is that I don’t know. There are endless possibilities and dimensions that I’m not yet able to conceive or understand and yet sometimes, somehow, I can feel them. So I’m done with drawing maps and speculating with thoughts and ideas. Instead, I’m going to listen to the intelligence of my body, to the intelligence of non-human beings around me, to other forms of knowledge and beings that are emerging, and see where that takes me.
I thought of erasing it all and returning the funds to the Canada Council and becoming a monk or a hermit.
I expressed this sadness and grief at the end of my June blog as follows:
I was reminded today of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective’s SMDA Compass teaching about how to walk a tightrope between desperate hope and reckless hopelessness. It’s a fine line … but these days I’ve fallen into a deep cavern of hopelessness but not (yet) recklessly.
Speaking of erasure, I notice recently that Catherine Ingram, the brilliant buddhist scholar and philosopher who has deeply influenced my learning journey, wrote on her website, in reference to her seminal essay, Facing Extinction, that:
I wrote the long-form essay ‘Facing Extinction’ in early 2019. Over these past years I have occasionally been able to update the information and perspectives contained therein. However, I am finding that the speed with which the data is changing and the pressing issues that we are immediately facing, such as the exponential rise of artificial intelligence and transhumanism, have made some of this essay obsolete. I have thus decided to remove it.
Her statement reminded of this prescient quote from Facing Extinction that I used in episode 19 :
(middle of e19 reality)
Love, what else is there to do now? Here we are, some of the last humans who will experience this beautiful planet since Homo sapiens began their journey some 200,000 years ago. Now, in facing extinction of our species, you may wonder if there is any point in going on.
Catherine, you’re right that love is what we must do, and be. It might be all we can do, and be.
So where do we go from here?
Is there any point going on?
(long silence)
What do you think?
More importantly…
(end of e101 tension)
How do you feel now?
After quite a bit of thought, I decided to finish what I started, every Sunday, through to episode 153 on December 31st and see what happens.
What can I learn and unlearn?
What can I slow down or undo?
I’m actually quite excited about part 2 of this project. In particular I want to explore the idea of inviting listeners differently and releasing materials into new soils.
Thankfully, I don’t have to do this work alone. I have the privilege of working with a number of great collaborators, including content advisors Azul Carolina Duque and Flora Aldridge, translator Carole Beaulieu, communications advisor Jessica Ruano, web designer Ayesha Barmania and countless friends and colleagues who provide feedback and support. Thank you for your input and trust.
I’ll leave you with an excerpt from an episode in development.
Thanks for listening and take care.
(crows in city with rumble + various nature field recordings)
*
I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this episode. (including all the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation and infrastructure that make this podcast possible).
My gesture of reciprocity for this episode is to Living Dharma.
The post e127 halfway – towards what are you halfway? appeared first on 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.
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 – october 2020) : environmental awareness and action 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 – august 2021 ) : reality and ecological grief 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.
season 3 (october 2021 – february 2022 ) : radical listening Season 3 was about radical listening : listening deeply without passing judgment, knowing the truth and filtering out the noise and opening attention to reality and responding to what needs to be done. The format is similar the first podcast format I did in 2016 with the simplesoundscapes project, which was to ‘speak my mind’ and ‘think out loud’. I start this season with a ‘soundscape composition’, e63 a case study (part 1) and e64 a case study (part 2), a bilingual speculative fiction radio play, set in an undergraduate university history seminar course called ‘History of 2021 in Canada’. It concluded with a soundscape composition ‘Winter Diary Revisited’.
season 4 (1 january – 31 december 2023) : sounding modernity
About
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 :
Taiwo Afolabi presents the conversation Retooling Green Tool for Theatre in Africa livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Wednesday 19 July at 9 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 7 p.m. EAT (Nairobi, UTC + 3).
Greening the theatre is crucial to the sustainability of theatre and the planet. Theatre designers such as lighting personnel, set designers, costumiers, property designers and sound engineers are rethinking and retooling for the purpose of creating a more eco-friendly, sustainable and environmentally just and responsible theatre practice. In this episode, we bring theatre practitioners (such as designers, and eco-scenographers) who are advancing sustainable artistic values in their practice. We explore how sustainability plays a significant role in creating an ecologically conscious theatre. For instance, what need to be considered in the creative process? How does the choice of materials, the use of colours, arrangements, recycling etc. support the green movement? Furthermore, what are the challenges encountered by scenographers and designers in their attempts to construct sustainable stage? What is needed for theatre designers on the African continent to employ ecological designs for theatre performances?
Potentials panellists: Adam Marple (Egypt) is the Co-Artistic Director of the internationally recognized The Theatre of Others and the co-host of The Theatre of Others Podcast (with listeners in over 80 countries and in the top 5% of podcasts worldwide). He is also the founder of The Sustainable Theatre Network, an international partnership of over 15 theatre schools and organizations from every continent dedicated to researching, creating, codifying, and amplifying less wasteful theatre practices worldwide for use at all levels of theatre-making. Accessible as an Open Source/Creative Commons website. He has been practicing and teaching The Viewpoints for over twenty-five years having worked with its founders Mary Overlie, Anne Bogart, and Tina Landau. His research centers on the expansion and testing of The Viewpoints as an Interdisciplinary and Transcultural pedagogy. Published: The Viewpoints as Transcultural Pedagogy in Western Theatre in Global Contexts: Directing and Teaching Culturally Inclusive Drama around the World (Routledge) and Applying the Viewpoints to Multimedia Performance (Global Performance Studies).
Mawukplorm Harriet Abla Adjahoe (University of Cape Coast, Ghana) is a Theatre practitioner a researcher, and an educator whose works centers on the place and power of arts amid sustainability issues. Particularly, her current research interest stems from the many incidents of flooding coupled with the high risks of health hazards associated with waste. Mawukplorm holds a Bachelor of Arts (Theatre Studies) from University of Cape Coast and an MPhil (Theatre Arts) from University of Ghana where she developed a pictorial representation of the history and trends of set design in Ghana for a span of 40 years. With over a decade of spirited practice, she is keen on researching into performing arts practices and social and behavioral change; arts history; and promotion of alternative materials for technical theatre practices. She actively participated in a 2 year arts workshop for children where she taught props making with waste materials to incite the interest of recycling at an early age. In 2016, she co-founded and became the Administrator of The Oguaaman Performance Studio (TOPS) operating under the auspices of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Cape Coast, and subsequently becoming the Artistic Director. during which term, she successfully superintended a number of outreach programs in Senior High Schools in the Central and Western Regions. She was a Demonstrator at the Department of Theatre and Film Studies from 2016 to 2019. She is currently a PhD candidate awaiting her final oral examination.
About HowlRound TV
HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email tv@howlround.com or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.
We’re thrilled to share that our CCTA 2021 anthology, The Future Is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Green New Deal, was recently featured in the article “Books to help you stay inspired to fight climate change” on Yale Climate Connections. Thank you Michael Svoboda for mentioning us! You can get your copy of the book here or from your domestic Amazon store.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
The Future Is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Global Green New Deal
For all of the political, economic, and technological obstacles that stand in the way of addressing climate change, perhaps the greatest challenge is in the realm of imagination. Can we envision a better world? What might an equitable, sustainable, decarbonized, and just society look like? What if the concept of a Green New Deal—the initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while addressing interwoven social problems like economic inequality and racial injustice—could become reality?
The Future Is Not Fixed presents a dazzling variety of answers to these questions in the form of fifty plays—from writers representing all inhabited continents—commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2021, a global participatory theatre festival that brings communities together around climate issues. The pieces gathered here feature a wide range of styles and perspectives, from realist dramas to experimental works, encompassing the dangers that we face as well as ecstatic possibilities for a renewed social contract. With contributions suitable for both conventional and nonstandard theatrical settings, these plays can be performed in intimate readings, staged productions with extensive sets and props, and everything in between. Climate Change Theatre Action plays have been performed on street corners, at the foot of glaciers, in churches, schools, libraries, backyards, community centers, and bars. They have been enjoyed by audiences as diverse as water treatment workers in Montana; homeless youth in London; refugees in Denmark; children in New York City, Iran, and Nigeria; faith communities in Florida and Washington State; unsuspecting passersby in Brazil and New Zealand; and students in every corner of the world. Regardless of style, audience, or venue, each play offers a bracing, affecting vision of how we might come together to face the challenge of global climate change.
Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator. In her capacity as artistic director of the Arts & Climate Initiative, she has been instrumental in helping theatrical and educational communities, as well as diverse audiences in the United States and abroad, to engage in climate action through programming that includes live performances, talks, publications, workshops, and national and international artist gatherings. In 2019, she was named one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation” by Audubon Magazine.
They hail from Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States, and represent several Indigenous Nations. Meet the 50 playwrights commissioned to write the plays for our Climate Change Theatre Action 2023 collection:
Javaad Alipoor Klae Bainter Keith Barker Nicolas Billon Chantal Bilodeau Wren Brian Manjima Chatterjee Karen Elias Nathan Ellis Kendra Fanconi Angie Farrow Annie Furman Justine Garrett Emma Gibson Dia Hakim Whiti Hereaka Sarah Higgins
Jessica Huang Vinicius Jatobá Vitor Jatobá Nathan Joe Aleya Kassam Nikhil Katara Ethan King Himali Kothari Heidi Kraay Camila Le-bert Andrea Ling Joan Lipkin Eric Lockley Jo MacDonald Thomas McKechnie Anna Maria Nabirye Lana Nasser
Tira Palmquist 『 s i g l o 』 Nicole Pschetz Gab Reisman Mark Rigney Carmen Rivera Juan Sanchez Charly Simpson Evon Darrah Teitel Chris Thorpe Harley Vale Kirby Vicente Caity-Shea Violette Kevin Matthew Wong XANA Haeweon Yi
For more information about organizing an event in the fall, visit our CCTA website or watch the recording of our CCTA 2023 Virtual Meet-Up on our YouTube channel.
Climate Change Theatre Action is a worldwide festival of short plays about the climate crisis presented in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. CCTA 2023 runs from September 17 to December 23, 2023.
CPA is seeking a part-time communications co-ordinator to lead on internal and external communication.
The CPA is looking for a highly organised co-ordinator with strong verbal, written and visual communication skills, keen to join a self-organised and relationship-based working culture.
Location: UK-based remote working, attendance at occasional in-person meetings with expenses paid.
Hours and pay: 16 hours per week starting 4 September 2023 for six months in the first instance. £31,502-£37,386 pro-rata.
About the Climate Psychology Alliance
The Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) is a membership organisation whose purpose is to explore psychological responses to the climate crisis in order to strengthen relationships and resilience for a just future. CPA has over 500 members who are predominantly from the psychological professions and psychosocial and arts academics, but we welcome anyone exploring the psychology and soul of our current ecological crisis. We see the climate and ecological crisis as inextricably linked with racism and coloniality, and have a commitment to decolonising our own working practices. This central role co-ordinates the internal and external communication around our work.
Our work falls into the following six areas:
Support to individuals and groups suffering with eco distress and offer safe spaces to share emotions surrounding the climate crisis.
Young people – we are especially concerned with the impact of the climate crisis on young people.
Research and reflection on the psychological impact of the climate crisis and climate injustice.
Training and events – continuing professional development and educational and community development.
Talks and consultancy for organisations and businesses.
Membership with the opportunity for co-creation and making links to support members’ work on the climate crisis.
The main tasks of the job
This role is at the centre of the culture of care that CPA seeks to create in its work and working practices. You will lead on our internal and external communications, working closely with the voluntary co-ordinating group, which meets weekly, and you will have regular supervision.
The role involves the following:
Co-ordinating and supporting the hosting and promotion of CPA public events and meetings, mostly online: for example Climate Cafes and training, Youth support work, Living with the Climate Crisis and Through the Door trainings and support workshops.
Membership processes for new members joining, and for renewals, using the Mighty Networks platform, Google group and maintenance of the membership and board registers on MailChimp.
Co-ordinating and supporting within membership private CPA events that run from the community platform on Mighty Networks.
Key to this work is contributing to relationship and connection and nurturing a caring working culture of social equity that seeks to amplify marginal and ethnically diverse voices.
General admin and communications including being the first point of contact for enquiries, directing the enquiries appropriately and monitoring progress on responses; keeping the website up to date including the Therapeutic Support directory; managing the membership mailings including the monthly digest and the monthly newsletter.
Social media support – social media presence is shared between a group of members so the role is to help co-ordinate this group.
Board Secretary support – co-ordinating meetings including agenda and minutes, zoom links and making sure papers go out to Board members and to the membership as appropriate.
Support for Treasurer in managing membership and events financing. The bookkeeping and payroll are outsourced but your role could include making sure appropriate information, invoicing etc goes to the right people.
There is a comprehensive set of handover materials provided by the previous co-ordinator, which would support you as you get started in the job.
The Scottish Classical Sustainability Group (SCSG) has launched its ‘Classical Music and Train Travel in Scotland 2022-23’ report.
Collated using learning and data from the 30+ members of the SCSG, the report presents the five key barriers currently preventing greater use of train travel by the Scottish classical music sector.
Established in 2020, the Scottish Classical Sustainability Group brings Scotland’s classical music sector together to make sustainable change in a unified way. The SCSG represents the breadth and variety of the sector, with member organisations that include international festivals, national companies, touring ensembles, and freelance and leisure-time musicians. The group also includes representatives from the Association of British Orchestras, The Musicians Union, Creative Carbon Scotland, and Creative Scotland.
The findings in this report are the results of a survey distributed to all SCSG members, as well as feedback and learning from more than two years of regular meetings.
The report highlights the following key barriers preventing greater use of train travel:
Timetables
Ticket costs
Travel with large instruments
International connections
Accessibility
Travel is one of the most significant sources of carbon emissions for many classical music organisations in Scotland – at times accounting for as much as 90% of an organisation’s annual carbon footprint. It is one of most challenging emissions sources to decarbonise, a fact reflected in Scotland’s own national emissions reporting.
To achieve government climate targets, it is vital that society transitions to different methods of travel. This report concludes that by addressing the identified challenges, transport providers, local authorities, and the government, can support classical music organisations, artists, and audiences to take the train more often and reduce travel-related carbon emissions.
Scott Morrison, co-founder of the Scottish Classical Sustainability Group and co-author of the report says:
“Increasing the use of public transport is a crucial step in achieving Scotland’s decarbonisation goals. This report clearly lays out the barriers currently preventing classical musicians, audiences, and organisations from making greater use of trains and reducing their travel-related carbon emissions. We hope its contents can inform future decisions by policymakers and transport providers to make rail travel as accessible as possible and reduce the damage currently being done to the planet.”
The contents of the report will be shared within the arts sector and presented by the SCSG to key elected representatives and officials at transport providers. It is intended as a snapshot of the current situation and a summary that can be used to influence future planning decisions.
