New Film – The CSPA

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

The Electricity Fairy is a new film which approaches the issue of mountaintop removal from the everyday need for electricity:

â€œThey reach out and flip the switch and the light comes on.Â Well, thereâ€s not a magic electricity fairy.Â That electricity comes from a power plant that feeds on coalâ€.

But the question of coal-fired power is not a just a question for China and Appalachia, it is also a question for Scotland.Â Should a major new coal-fired power station be built at Hunterston?

http://www.conchcampaign.org/

http://www.ayrshirepower.co.uk/

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established byÂ Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate withÂ On The Edge Research,Â Grayâ€™s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.

Go to EcoArtScotland

Strange beasts in Shrewsbury

Theo Jansen is unveiling one ofÂ his new wind-driven creatures at Shrewsburyâ€™s Shift-Time: A Festival of Ideas this July. This gives us an excuse to show this piece of much-loved video of his â€œstrandbeestsâ€:

STRANDBEESTEN_TRAILER from Alexander Schlichter on Vimeo.

Shift-time is taking its inspiration from the Darwin celebrations this year. It also features a new sound/video work Follow The Voice by the great Marcus Coates:

In a playful echo of Darwinâ€™s The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, Marcus Coatesâ€™ new film work, Follow the Voice establishes striking parallels between a range of familiar man-made sounds and an equally evocative chorus of animal cries and calls. Chasing pockets of sound around the urban landscape of Shrewsbury, (the â€˜beepâ€™ of the supermarket checkout; the siren of a reversing delivery lorry) and by slowing down or speeding up his recordings, Coates reveals an extraordinary likenesses with the natural calls of animal species. Follow the Voice captures the heightened feeling of interconnectedness at the heart of Darwinâ€™s view of the world, and reminds us of the spirit of curiosity and discovery that infuses his ideas.

Follow The Voice premieres on July 11 and is installed in the Unitarian Church where Darwin worshipped as a child.