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17.05.2012

Peninsula Europe: The Force Majeure

Workshop, Presentation and Panel Discussion with Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison (Santa Cruz, CA) – Friday 01/06/2012, 2 pm – 7.30 pm in Lueneburg, Germany

Workshop: 2 – 5 pm – Please register: info(at)kim-art.net
Presentation and Panel Discussion: 6 pm s.t.

 Kunstraum of Leuphana University of Lueneburg – Scharnhorststrasse 1, Campus Hall 25, 21335 Lueneburg (Germany)

 The events will be held in English.

Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison – often referred to as »the Harrisons« – count as leading pioneers of the eco-art movement. In Germany, the Californian artist couple became better known not least for the EXPO2000 book »Grüne Landschaften« and their participation in the Federal Horticultural Show 2001 in Potsdam titled »Project Peninsula Europe«. Both artists will be guests in Lueneburg on June 1 and 2 to present their »Peninsula Europe: The Force Majeure Works« series and their artistic practice in general. They have thus accepted an invitation extended by the project KIM at the Innovation-Incubator of the Leuphana Universitity of Lueneburg whose thematic focus this year is on »Art and Sustainability«. This event is organised in cooperation with the Kunstraum of the Leuphana University of Lueneburg. In the frame of their presentation, the Harrisons will explicate their artistic work and put it up for discussion in a subsequent panel, to which representatives of various disciplines of the Leuphana University of Lueneburg have been invited. The panel discussion will be followed by an open exchange with the audience.

Please find below the event announcement text, by the KIM project team: Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

16.05.2012

Be a gathering! The Natural Circus trainings, Spring 2012

‘I am movement and stillness at the same time’

The Natural Circus trainings are a body and movement practice (and maybe a bit more), embedded in an understanding that ‘nothing lasts, nothing is finished, nothing is perfect’.

Situated in a powerful natural environment, they are playful gatherings beyond the human(-centered) perspective that may help realize the complete interdependence and interconnectedness of the human being with the natural world – until what remains is dance only. The trainings integrate elements of Contact Improvisation, Physical Theater, Tango, Bodywork, Meditation, Deep Ecology and Nature Awareness Work, Taoist/Advaita/Zen philosophy.

 This 4-days gathering will take place in Barnave/Diois, France; from May 24th to the 28th, and will feature Diethild Meier (Dancer, improviser, visual artist), Lars Schmidt (Wandering Monk, Natural Thinker, Improviser) and Romain Petit (Freeclimber and climbing teacher).

 The cost of the gathering is 240€, housing on site (Le Serre) included, in two rustic apartments, food will be extra, shared and prepared together. The number of participants is limited to 12 persons

 For more information, go to Natural Circus´ website.

Registration: contact [at] passiveactivism [dot] net

By Sacha Kagan

16.05.2012

Opportunity to make work at Teaneck Creek

The Ecoart Committee of the Teaneck Creek Conservancy in Teaneck, NJ seeks proposals from ecoartists or ecoartist teams to create an ecoartwork in 2012-13.

The Teaneck Creek Conservancy is a 46-acre eco-park within Bergen County’s 1,200-acre Overpeck Park, this property is being reclaimed and rehabilitated as wetland habitat and for positive public use through a unique “Brownfields to Greenfields” project. Community-based plans for the Conservancy are developed by artists, activists, scientists, historians, educators in a non profit partnership with local government over the past ten years. These plans have created a park with a 1.5 mile trail system for passive recreation, eco art, wetlands research and rehabilitation, and public outreach and education that is focused on the property’s environmental resources, land use, and history.

Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

15.05.2012

Science Inspires Art 2012: VITAL SIGNS

Open Call for Artists: What vital signs of life pull at your inquisitive mind and imagination?

The Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) announces an Open Call for their annual,  international, art-sci competition. The exhibition will be held at the New York Hall of Science, September 1, 2012 – February 3, 2013.

For this year’s competition they are seeking original art inspired by our biological world with a special interest in what lies beneath its surface, and/or reflects upon scientific research questions, processes, ethics, and the stunning discoveries being made in biology and the biosciences today.

This time, the Art Co-Juror will be Patricia Kernan, curator of the New York State Museum’s illustration collection; and curator of the museum’s international, biennial, “Focus on Nature” exhibits; and the Science Co-Juror will be Dr. Dana Boyd, microbiologist and Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School; long-time collaborator of Joe Davis, the “father” of bio-art.

The Deadline is June 17, 2012.

For more details, click here.

By Sacha Kagan

14.05.2012

Collapse: The Cry of Silent Forms

Brandon Ballengée – Collapse: The Cry of Silent Forms

May 5 – June 16 2012

Visual artist and biologist Brandon Ballengée will exhibit sculptural installations and photographs at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in his first major solo exhibition in New York. The exhibition, entitled “Collapse: The Cry of Silent Forms”, consists of three bodies of work that explore the effect of ecological degradation on marine life and avian and amphibian populations, synthesizing scientific inquiry with art/making.

For more information, visit www.feldmangallery.com

By Sacha Kagan

13.05.2012

Key Issues Guide on Indigenous knowledge and climate change

Indigenous communities have long been recognised as being particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to the close connection between their livelihoods, culture, spirituality and social systems and their environment. At the same time, however, this deep and long-established relationship with the natural environment affords many indigenous peoples with knowledge that they have long used to adapt to environmental change, and are now using to respond to the impacts of climate change.

The potential of indigenous knowledge for informing observations of, and responses to climate change is an area of growing interest. The United Nations University published a compendium, available online, which presents a wide-ranging overview of more than 400 projects, case studies and research activities specifically related to climate change and Indigenous Peoples (IP).

That  publication, as well as other resources, can be  found on the website of the Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex (UK): Click here

By Sacha Kagan

12.05.2012

White Mountain National Forest & Arts Alliance of Northern NH Invite Applications for 2012 WMNF Artist-in-Residence Program

Artists in all media are invited to apply for the 2012 White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) Artist-in-Residence program

The program, a collaboration between the WMNF and the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire, seeks to highlight the ways the arts can be used to explore and interpret the forest environment and forest-related issues.

The residency offers professional and emerging artists from around the country (visual and performing artists, craftspeople, writers, composers and choreographers, eco artists and media artists) an opportunity to pursue their particular art form while being inspired by the surrounding forest and, on several occasions, sharing their work and their artistic process with members of the public.

Deadline for applications is May 18; the artist selected will choose a period of at least three weeks between July and September to be in residence.

Click here for more information and to download application materials.

By Sacha Kagan

11.05.2012

International Conference:“Popular Culture and Social Transformation”

What can we learn about social transformations from popular culture?

The two- day conference, entitled “Popular Culture and Social Transformation”,  will be held in Oslo on 4-5 October 2012.

The aim of the conference is through a variety of sessions and topics to address how popular culture is not only a mirror of society, but also a crucial element of power; the keynote speakers are Simon Lindgren and Jason Dittmer.

For those interested in joining the conference, the deadline for abstracts is May 15th, 2012.

The call for papers is available here.

For more information about the conference, please visit:

http://www.uio.no/kultrans/aktuelt/konferanser/popular/

By Sacha Kagan

23.04.2012

An Ecology of Ideas Conference – July 9-13, 2012 (USA)

The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) and the Bateson Idea Group (BIG),
a new organization exploring Gregory Bateson’s “pattern that connects,” have joined
to hold a conference on the relations among ideas as seen from multiple perspectives.
In organizing this conference they seek to find a balance between the spontaneous and the
planned. They intend to seed conversations with various forms of presentation, ranging from
keynote speakers to workshops and performances; all of which can be considered works of
art in the domain of ideas. They will provide many spaces for conversation and innovation.
The three themes of this conference are: Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

21.04.2012

The Cultural History of Climate Change

Call for papers

Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, 27 – 28 August, 2012

Historians since Herodotus have argued that climates shape cultures. We can no longer ignore the fact that cultures also shape climates. Today’s climate is increasingly a material effect of the history of industrialisation. The climate of the coming centuries will be an effect of contemporary global society. Recognition of these interactions opens a significant new field to historical inquiry. It brings the economic, political and technological history of the carbon cycle together with cultural, aesthetic and literary reflections of climate, and links the emergence of ecological thinking to broader transformations in the organization of knowledge. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

20.04.2012

18th ASEF University on Sustainable Consumption

Call for participants – Tartu, Estonia, from 18 August to 1 September

Deadline of the call: April 23rd already !

The 18th ASEF University (AU18), themed “Conscious Consumers for Environmental Sustainability”, will take place in Tartu, Estonia, from 18th August – 1st September. This two-week programme will gather up to 46 promising (under-) graduate students, young professionals and educators from Asian and European countries for a dialogue on environmentally sustainable consumption. One week of interactive lectures and workshops will be followed by one week of international volunteering awareness campaign for the young people in Estonia. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

20.04.2012

Engine Room Europe seminar “Creative Strategies of Sustainability”

Call for participants

10th – 15th of September 2012,  ufaFabrik, Berlin, Germany

Deadline of the call: April 23rd already !

Within the framework of the Engine Room Europe project of the European network Trans Europe Halles, the German partner ufaFabrik Berlin, organises a week of seminar around the theme “Culture and sustainability”, and more specifically on the “Creative strategies of sustainability for artistic and cultural centres in Europe”. Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

19.04.2012

Conference ‘Nature and the Popular Imagination’ in Malibu CA

Call for Papers

The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture http://www.religionandnature.com/society/ (ISSRNC) announced its next conference in Malibu, California at Pepperdine University on August 8-11, 2012. The conference theme will be “Nature and the Popular Imagination.” Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

18.04.2012

Atmospheres of Protest

Symposium on Sustainability and Contemporary Art

Central European University Budapest (Hungary) – 11 May 2012

The upsurge of new popular movements from Egypt to Greece and Bucharest to New York has engendered an atmosphere of defiance and social creativity that has captured the global imagination. Beyond the ebb and flow of individual protest movements, this symposium asks whether global solidarity has really taken hold this time and considers the variety of ways in which contemporary art is embroiled through practices of dialogue and collaboration in the emergence of a common horizon and the imagining of a sustainable future. Providing a trans-disciplinary forum for discussion of the vital issues bridging the fields of art and environmental thought, the symposium sheds light on our understanding of the multifarious notion of sustainability, which appears by turns as a radical concept in global ecological thinking, can be recruited as a corporate strategy for green capitalism, and may act as a spur to new forms of social activism.

Read more »

By Sacha Kagan

17.04.2012

Sustainability as a minor at US art schools

Article in the Huffington Post: “Sustainability Has Become a Growing Focus of Artists’ (and Art Schools’) Attention”

A recent article in the Huffington Post notices the growing interest in sustainability and eco-art at some US American art schools (such as e.g. the Maryland Institute College of Art). To read the article: click here

By Sacha Kagan