26-28 November, 2010

Unruly Ecologies: Biodiversity and art
Perth and Mandurah, Western Australia

A symposium exploring the possibilities and difficulties of the diversity of life through critical investigations in art, ecology and activism.
The ecology of biodiversity is based upon an uncertain definition, incomplete statistics and the need to act in a world without balance. While multiple flora and fauna databases have being established and are being coordinated, there is an urgent need to engage even more proactively with complex ecosystems and human responses. Artists, scientists, humanities scholars and conservationists will come together to talk of the ‘matters of concern’ around the potentials and futures of biodiversity.
Confirmed Speakers include Professor Bruce Clarke (Professor of Literature and Science, Department of English, Texas Tech University), Professor Timothy Morton (Professor of English (Literature and the Environment), Department of English, University of California, Davis), Associate Professor Anas Ghadouani (School of Environmental Systems Engineering, The University of Western Australia), Greg Pryor (Artist and Lecturer, School of Communications and Arts, Faculty of Education and the Arts, Edith Cowan University), Dr Lesley Instone (Lecturer, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Newcastle University) and British Artists Dr Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir and Mark Wilson.
Registration: Symposium sessions free but please RSVP for catering purposes sym@symbiotica.uwa.edu.au
Call for contemporary artworks for a survey of examples: Artist whose work explores the idea of biodiversity are invited to post links to their work under the following categories or email an image and paragraph of text to: perdy@perditaphillips.com
1. as a concept or idea (eg taxonomy and classification, issues of scale in ecology, resilience)
2. as an issue (habitat loss, over-exploitation of resources, alien species, pollution and climate change)
3. as a way of thinking — diversity (human/nonhuman), complexity and interconnectedness, compositionist strategies (Latour), resilience thinking and contingent decision making

 http://symbiotica-adaptation.com
 

8-14 November, 2010

Gentle Actions, Final week
Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, Norway

This week is packed with weird, wonderful, poetic, political and aesthetic happenings for a changing world at Gentle Actions. Multi-artist author and philosoper David Rothenberg has arrived, sharing interspecies communications that bridges the gap between humans and other living creatures. The philosopher and author David Abram is also here and will talk about his latest book Becoming Animal - a conversation on Cultural Metamorphosis with ecophilosopher Per Ingvar Haukeland. Jane Trowell and others from Platform has arrived and will give us an insight on how oil is infiltrating our lives. Every evening, from 5 - 8pm, you are invited to travel to parts of the world acutely affected by oil and gas extraction, and experience how this is connected to finance, and to our own lives. Anonymous Petroholics (Anonyme Petroholikere) will facilitate everyone who wants to confess their oil-addicions. Politicians are especially invited! Fermentation revivalist Sandor Ellix Katz is coming to teach people about the wonderful world of fermenting everything from cabbage and milk to cultural fermentations. The artist Rebecca Beinart will host teaparties with hot infusions and teach sourdough breadmaking and artist Jana Frøberg invites you to join her for remarkable porridge meals spiced with stories and butter. The economist Irene Nygårdsvik will speculate on the economics of generosity and consciousness and physicist whale activist Rauno Lauhakangas will talk about human meetings with whales and share wonderous whale stories from Karelia, and the biologist and whale researcher Heike Vester is conversing about whale culture and language in the amazing yurt made and inhabited by artist Tuula Nikulainen who also has come to join us. The environmental historian Hilde Ibsen invites you to Walden for conversations about nature, health and green living toghether with artists Anna Widén and Walter van Broekhuizen.

And if that was not enough: Join Karen Kviltu Lidal and Runa Carlsen for a readingcircle about the hand-made, reading texts by Richard Sennet and Lee Ufan. Sørfinnset skole/the nord land is hosting conversations about the role of the arts in a changing landscape in their birch teabar. The author Freddy Fjellheim will be presenting his latest book and asks the question if literature can help save the world. Musician Bendik Hofset will be there. So will climate researcher Rasmus Benestad, sharing his universe, and our ever vibrant and brilliant film program by Oslo Dokumentarkino is rolling on every day FOR FREE!! On Friday night the yurt will be rockin´with Mungolian Jet Set DJ´s alias Pål Nyhus and Knut Sævik
Hold your breath for the Bumblebee Anti-Gravitational See-You-Off Finnissage on Saturday where interspecies clarinetist David Rothenberg meets Karelian master of glitch: electronica artists Cycle Hickups alias Alexandr Velikoselsky. And last but foremost saddle your horses and wake up your creative potential for the Art and Activism day on Sunday the 14th!
Take the week off work, cancel your appointments and bring your friends and family and join us for Gentle Actions at Kunstnernes Hus in this final week.
For a full program for this last week download here: Gentle Actions Program week 45

http://gentleactions.wordpress.com/

October 2010

eARThbound
Helsinki, Finland

The research group for arts-based environmental education is sending in an application this week at the Academy of Finland for a grant to start an international research project, called eARThbound. Commonly, when art activities are practiced as part of environmental education or of education in natural science in general, it is thought of as an “extra.” The aim could for example be to awaken enthusiasm, or to loosen the learners up. In such a context, art practice is seldom seen as in itself a complementary form of learning, a type of meaning-making and knowledge-building about phenomena in the natural world in its own right. In a time when pedagogues and scholars call for an urgent renewal of environmental education practices, developing practices and evolving epistemologies in arts-based environmental education may provide interesting source material for a rigorous evaluation of potentialities, challenges, but also of the risks of an arts-centred redesign of environmental education. As part of eARThbound, different collaborating research institutions worldwide will analyse this theme in an exploratory way, from diverse angles and focal points, ranging from the paradigms of environmental education in its strict sense, to approaches stemming from art pedagogy, to arts practice and artistic research proper. The strength of eARThbound is that it will actively search for common denominators and contrasting viewpoints across disciplines. To our knowledge, a similar undertaking has not been performed before.

International project partners are:

Finland: Aalto University, School of Art and Design, Department of Art, Helsinki, Finland, http://www.taik.fi/en/
Canada: The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy & Department of Language and Literacy Education, http://educ.ubc.ca/
United Kingdom: Research in Art Nature & Environment research group at Falmouth University College, http://rane.falmouth.ac.uk
Norway: Dept. of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, University of Life Sciences, Ås. Section for Learning and Teacher Education, http://www.umb.no/imt/arkiv/lering-og-lererutdanning
Netherlands: Education and Competence Studies Group of Wageningen University, Wageningen, http://www.ecs.wur.nl/UK
Ireland: School of Art and Design, University of Ulster, Belfast, http://www.adbe.ulster.ac.uk/schools/art_design
United States: Florida State University, Department of Art Education, Tallahassee, http://arted.fsu.edu
United States: Arts in Education Program, Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, www.plymouth.edu/graduate/mat/art/index.html

For more information, contact Jan van Boeckel: jan.vanboeckel(at)aalto.fi
 

25-29 October 2010

The Seventh International Conference on the Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena (INSAP VII)
Bath, England

for all Artists and Art-Academics with an interest in the Cosmos, Planets and Stars

This interdisciplinary conference will explore humanity's fascination with the sky, a strong and sometimes dominant element in human life and culture. Scholars from a variety of disciplines, from the humanities and sciences, as well as artists, are invited to present and discuss their work on the cultural impact and inspiration of astronomical phenomena. The list of topics discussed at previous INSAP conferences is available at the INSAP website. Attendance is limited to 100 participants.

www.insapvii.org
 

30 October 2010

Symposium "Naturen i människan" ("Nature in the human being," symposium partly in English)
Sigtuna (Uppsala), Sweden

Vilken roll spelar vårt biologiska och kulturella arv för vår naturuppfattning? Hur påverkas vi, fysiskt och mentalt, av olika typer av miljöer? Kan naturen bidra till hälsa och välmående? Vad är det i naturen som tilltalar oss? Har vi en nedärvd fallenhet för att tycka om levande varelser och trivas i naturen? Vad finns det för kulturella skillnader på hur vi uppfattar naturen och handskas med den? Symposiet kommer att ta upp och belysa dessa och andra frågeställningar som rör vårt förhållande till naturen ur olika perspektiv.
Medverkande är Henrik Ekman, journalist och fotograf; Caroline Hägerhäll, landskapsarkitekt; Stephen Kellert, samhällsekolog; Hans Landeström, psykolog; Ernst Pöppel, psykolog och neurofysiolog samt Laila Spik, samisk kulturarbetare.
Symposiet hålls delvis på engelska.
Symposiet ingår i den mångåriga serie om människans natur som Sigtunastiftelsen och Agora for Biosystems samarrangerar.
För ytterligare information kontakta Alf Linderman, alf.linderman@sigtunastiftelsen.se
I samverkan med Agora for Biosystems och Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien

http://www.sigtunastiftelsen.se/Aktuellt+program_2__.html/lid/5/boka/235/
 

1-3 November, 2010

Conference: Climate Existence
Sigtuna, Sweden

CEMUS and the Sigtuna Foundation welcome you to Climate Existence. What are the existential aspects of the climate crisis? What do our values and visions have to do with the current crisis? Who are we as humans in this age of environmental crisis and what is our responsibility? Do we need to change the way we perceive nature and our role in society?
Today, most of us know that climate change poses a real and serious threat to our societies. Information reaches us in the shape of numbers and facts in new scientific reports and in media coverage of political meetings and international summits. The message: we need to make deliberate changes in the way we live our lives in order to minimize our environmental impact.
But the changes proposed are often focused on the implementation of economic or technologic solutions and a lot of emphasis is being put on the physical and infrastructural aspects of this new challenge humanity faces. Very little is said about a need to challenge our minds, mindsets and lifestyles to respond to climate change or the moral, ethical and psychological aspects of the changes needed.
This conference will deal with the underlying moral, existential and psychological aspects of human and societal responses to climate change. This will be a follow up Conference to a similar successful venture held in Sigtuna in 2008. The conference is going to run for 3 days and during that time we will not only be listening to inspiring keynotes and participating in rewarding workshops but also be listening to poetry, music and enjoying social events.

Keynote speakers

David Abram
David Abram, cultural ecologist, philosopher, and performance artist, is the founder and creative director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics. He is the author of The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-Human World (Pantheon/Vintage), for which he received the international Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction. An accomplished storyteller and sleight-of-hand magician who has lived and traded magic with indigenous sorcerers in Indonesia, Nepal, and the Americas, David lectures and teaches widely on several continents.

Bill McKibben
American environmentalist and writer Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, an international climate campaign. His first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989 by Random House after being serialized in the New Yorker. It is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has been printed in more than 20 languages.

Harald Welzer
Professor Harald Welzer, is head of the Research Group "Interdisciplinary Memory Research" at the KWI Essen. He teaches social psychology at the universities of Hanover and Witten-Herdecke.

Call for papers/essays
You are warmly welcome and encouraged to submit papers or essays for the conference, preceded in both cases by an abstract. The theme is Climate and Existence and can include key issues such as; spirituality, power, leadership, politics, arts, eco-criticism, ethics, education.

www.cemus.uu.se/climateexistence
 

23 September - 15 October 2010

Course: Art and Environmental Education
Aalto University, Department of Art, Helsinki, Finland

Content
Main trends in environmental education of children are studied and presented in lectures: Joseph Cornell, Earth Education (Steve Van Matre), Richard Louv, David Sobel, etc. The assignments to the class are to envisage themselves how these approaches can be altered/enriched/improved from an arts-based perspective.

Learning Outcomes
Through fulfilling the requirements of this course, students should have acquired a basic, but comprehensive, understanding of different current approaches in environmental and outdoor education, mainly based on practices in the English speaking world.

tk0215, Art and Environmental Education, 5 credits
Teacher: Jan van Boeckel. Teaching language English
Time: Thu 10.00-12.00 & Fri 10.00-12.00
Place: PR7010 TKO 7010 Maalaustila TaiK päärakennus
Organisation: Department of Art, Type Course Grading 0-5
https://oodi.aalto.fi/a/frame.jsp?Kieli=6
More information via: jan.vanboeckel(at)aalto.fi

October 2010

Relationship between nature and culture artistic points of view
Spain - Canarian Islands - Lanzarote - Haria
Session 1: 18.10. - 23.10.2010, Session 2: 25.10. - 30.10.2010
 

The main objective of the course concerns itself with an exchange of opinions on the far-reaching theme of the 'Relationship between Nature and Culture' worked on in an intercultural context and on a European level.
European countries – as represented by the participants - have an enormous richness of regionally grown cultures that are perfectly preserved in some parts but destroyed in others. This 'Inconvenient Truth' offers endless material for discussions. With the exchange of positive and negative examples we can lead ourselves to broadened insights that can flow back into educational programmes back in the participant's home countries. The central focus of the presented course is to emphasise a positive attitude for a symbiosis between 'Nature and Culture' and using this as a main goal in education on any level. To strengthen this attitude we will work in Lanzarote with individual artistic practice and process oriented group work. Pedagogic concepts can be developed as a group effort and as we progress through the week.

The tools of inspiration will be:
- lectures and group discussions
- practical creative work according to the theme
- excursions of particular relevance to the theme

Together we will discuss questions such as:
- How does the culture and landscape of Lanzarote influence me?
- Why do we find the worst destruction of nature and culture precisely where people prefer to go for recreation and enjoyment?
- What is my personal position on the matter and how is it tied to my experiences within my own cultural background?
- How do creative individuals express their thoughts about nature, culture and tourism and can I connect with these works?
- How do I anchor my objectives within my teaching practice?
- How can I transfer my individually acquired insights to my educational work at home?
The preservation and sustainable treatment of remaining natural and cultural goods in all regions of Europe should be further enhanced through the participants acquired knowledge.

Website

Read course description
 

7-24 October 2010

The Arctic Circle residency
High Arctic

Where: on a sailing-vessel in the High Arctic
When: Oct 7 - Oct 24, 2010

Program Outline: The Arctic Circle is a series of artist and scientist-led expeditions to remote and fascinating destinations aboard a specially outfitted scientific-research sailing vessel. Our expeditions are followed by an international exhibit schedule.
Expedition: The Arctic Circle 2010 (Oct 7- Oct 24, 2010): Aboard an ice-class, traditionally rigged, sailing-vessel artists of all disciplines, architects, scientists will voyage 17 days and nights into the High Arctic.
The Arctic Circle aims to empower the creative individual while fostering the collaborative. Our emphasis is on providing a variety of opportunities to our participants through thought provoking programming and professional development prospects.

www.thearcticcircle.org

Read a blog of the 2009 expedition by David Rothenberg

Starting October 2010

MA Art & Environment
University College Falmouth, United Kingdom
 

For centuries artists have interpreted and represented the natural environment. It has provided materials and subject matter, as well as inspiration and knowledge. In recent times – particularly since the growth of the environmental movement – there has been a dramatic change in our understanding of the many ways our society impacts upon the Earth. This awareness has galvanised around the fact that the relationship between humanity and our life-giving planet is in a critical state. This change in knowledge has been reflected in contemporary art practice. MA Art & Environment, at University College Falmouth, encourages a focused engagement with ecological and environmental issues. Designed to give you the skills, expertise and confidence to operate as a professional artist in this critical area of practice, the course will also enable you to develop strategies and practices that use art as a cultural agent – as a tool for knowledge, understanding and change. Students on the course have opportunities to benefit from our relationship with Cape Farewell, The Eden Project and University of Exeter’s Environment and Sustainability Institute. For further information please contact Dr Daro Montag: daro.montag(at)falmouth.ac.uk +44 (0)1326 211077

course website

www.falmouth.ac.uk
 

16 September 2010 - Summer 2011

Course: Environmental Investigations
Aalto University, Department of Art, Helsinki, Finland

A series of lectures, laboratories & workshops, divided into 6 lecture meetings and 6 workshop meetings
(5 ECTS).
Environmental Investigations critically examines the human position and education within the man-created world. Every unit takes several thematically related (environmental) works of cultural production as point of origin and explores from there methods of interpreting the environment. The discourse will be made in the fields of art, literature, music and dance vs. science, philosophy & aesthetics placed in historical and contemporary context of ethics, education, ecology and economy.
Connected to the themes different creative methods of investigation, communication, interpretation, (re)presentation and experimentation are introduced. It is important to underline that each human sense allows for a different spectrum of information and as such results in very different possible methods.
Other 'discussion cores' are also the making, recording and practising of (about, in-between, mis-, ...) ‚of-this-time‘ communication nodes/modes within society such as cultural hacking, bio/geo/city-tagging, flash-mob, memes, (guerrilla) interventions (e.g. g-gardening, parkours, non-place-claiming...), augmented reality, etc.
Each theme block (PART 1 & PART 2) will evolve into one theoretical or practical work (students' choice) that can be done in the 3-week workshop period intersecting with the lecture period. Methods are open to student's preferences.

PRELIMINARY THEMES:
PART 1: Creation of space and time
1. Concepts of time and space
2. Means of orientation and mapping
3. Negative space and elapsing time
PART 2: Memory ON/OFF // Recording and Play-back
1. Language, letters and libraries
2. Memory, memorial and museums
3. History is written by the winners

Environmental Investigations will continue with PART 3&4 in the spring term and then deal with perception, 'ordering' of the world and global effects (action vs. reaction). All students' projects will be presented at the end of the year in the framework of an exhibition.

TEACHING LANGUAGE: English
TEACHER: Cathérine Kuebel
FIRST MEETING: 16.09. 2010, 13.00-15.00, classroom 7002A, Department of Art
MORE INFORMATION: e-mail: catherine.kuebel(at)aalto.fi
 

14 September 2010

Seminar: Model for Evergreen Environmental Education from Vihti
ULKONA OPPIMISEN IKIVIHREÄ SEMINAARI (text in Finnish below)
Aalto University School of Art and Design, Annala Garden, Helsinki, Finland

Time: Tuesday 14.9.2010 at 9.00-16.00
Place: Aalto University School of Art and Design/TAIK (Hämeentie 135 C Helsinki) and Annala Garden/Association for useful plants (Hämeentie 154)

The Model for Evergreen Environmental Education has been developed in Vihti in collaboration with schools and local Vihti 4H-association. The model gives profound and hands-on possibilities to accomplish the school curriculum in the outdoors. It means learning environments including school garden, farm, forest and the water as places to learn by doing and by experience. Nature art education is one important element to enlarge use of the model in school every day.
The aim of the seminar is collect together outdoor and enviromental educators and decision makers – school headmasters, teachers, officials on municipality and state levels, researchers and students.

Program of the seminar on Tuesday 14.9.2010
9.30 Registration and morning coffee in Aalto University School of Art and Design/TAIK (Hämeentie 135 C Helsinki)
10.00 Wellcome to the seminar, Professor of Arts Pirkko Pohjakallio.
10.15 Evergreen Enviromental Education Model of Vihti, Mirva Lindfors Vihti 4H-association.
10.30 In the beginning there is did. Lic.Soc.Sci, MA Jaana Venkula.
11.15 The model of living learning in Norway. Farm as a pedagogigal resource. Prof Erling Krogh and researcher Linda Jolly, UMB Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
12.00 Comment speeches from the representatives of official of the ministeriums of education, environment, agriculture and the Aalto University.
Walk to Annala Garden 12.15-12.30
Lunch and presentation of the Annala Garden in two groups.
Examples of different possibilities of outdoor learning – exhibition in the Annala Garden.
13.45 The connection between learning and gardening. Anu Ranta Association of useful plants.
14.15 Nature Art Workshop. Teacher of environment art and Pauliina Ruokokoski, Taidelipas.
15.30-16.00 The future visions of the possibililties for use of the Model of Evergreen Environment Education.
The seminar is organized by the Vihti 4H-associaton and The Model of Evergreen Environment Education in collaboration with the Aalto University School of Arts and Design/TAIK and Annala Garden The Association of Useful Plants.
The seminar is financed by the Ministery of Environment and the Municipality of Vihti.

ULKONA OPPIMISEN IKIVIHREÄ SEMINAARI

Aika: 14.9.2010 klo 9:00-16:00
Paikka: Aalto-yliopisto Taiteen laitos/TAIK Sampo-Sali (Hämeentie 135 C Helsinki) ja Annalan puutarha Hyötykasviyhdistys (Hämeentie 154 Helsinki)

Ympäristökasvatuksen ikivihreä toimintamalli on kehitetty Vihdin 4H-yhdistyksen ja vihtiläisten koulujen yhteistyönä. Ikivihreä mallin avulla on kouluilla mahdollisuus luoda itselleen ulkona oppimisen kokonaisuus, jossa puutarha, maatila, metsä ja vesistö toimivat oppimisympäristöinä sekä tekemisen ja kokemisen paikkoina. Ympäristötaide sekä kädentaidot ovat kiinteä osa ikivihreän mallin ympäristökasvatusta. Ulkona oppimisen seminaari on suunnattu ympäristökasvatuksen ja ulkona oppimisen tekijöille sekä aiheesta kiinnostuneille rehtoreille, opettajille, kuntahallinnon ja valtakunnan tason päättäjille ja vaikuttajille, tutkijoille ja opiskelijoille.

9:00 Ilmoittautuminen ja aamukahvit Aalto-yliopisto/ TAIK
9:15 Tervetuloa seminaariin, prof. Pirkko Pohjakallio
9:30 Ikivihreän toimintamallin ympäristökasvatus TJ Mirva Lindfors Vihdin 4H-yhdistys
9:45 Alussa on teko. VTL, tiedekirjailija Jaana Venkula
10:30 Maatila oppimisympäristönä Living learning mallissa prof. Erling Krogh UMB, Norjan bio- ja ympäristötieteiden Yliopisto, Oslo
11:15 Maatilaoppimisen vaikutus oppilaisiin pitkäaikaistutkimus tutkija Linda Jolly UMB
12:00 Kommenttipuheenvuorot YM, OPH/OPM, MMM, MTK, SEED-hanke ja Vihdin kunta
Siirtyminen Annalan puutarhaan (Hämeentie 154)
12:30 Keittolounas ja tutustuminen puutarhaan kahdessa ryhmässä.
13:45 Puutarhan ja oppimisen yhteys. MMM Kirsti Salo, Vihdin malli ja TJ Anu Ranta, Hyötykasviyhdistys
14:15 Ympäristötaidetyöpaja taidekasvattaja Pauliina Ruokokosken ja Jan van Boeckelin johdolla
15:30-16:00 Yhteenveto, ulkona oppimisen tulevaisuuden näkymät ja tutkimus

Osallistumismaksu 20 euroa sisältää kahvi- ja ruokatarjoilun.
Ilmoittautumiset 6.9. mennessä osoitteeseen ikivihreamalli(at)gmail.com.
Lisätiedot Kirsti Salo +358 40 7199336.
Järjestäjä: Vihdin 4H-yhdistys/ Ikivihreän mallin ympäristökasvatus www.ikivihreamalli.fi
yhteistyössä Aalto-yliopiston Taiteen laitoksen ja Hyötykasviyhdistyksen kanssa
Rahoitus: Seminaarin rahoittaa Ympäristöministeriö, Vihdin kunta ja Vihdin 4H-yhdistys
 

2-10 September 2010

Exhibition on Environmental Art workshop
Helsinki, Finland

Exhibtion by artists who participated in the Environmental Art workshop to Kilpisjärvi Biological Station last spring. The location is Gallery Atski, on the 8th floor of Aalto University School of Art and Design, Hämeentie 135 C.
 

1-4 September 2010

Conference Environmental Change - Cultural Change
Bath, United Kingdom

Contributions are invited for an international conference on "Environmental Change - Cultural Change". The event is organised on behalf of ASLE-UK and EASLCE, the British and European affiliates of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, and supported by the University of
Bath's Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environment (I-SEE), the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages.

Attention will focus on two aspects of the relationship between environmental change and cultural change: the cultural, social and historical framing of environmental communication, and in particular of discourses of climate change and loss of biodiversity the challenge to contemporary environmental literature and film, and their potential contribution to ecological education and consciousness.

Public understandings of and attitudes towards global warming and other environment-related issues including GM foods, nuclear power and wilderness preservation vary in sometimes surprising ways from one country to the next. They also change over time. Apocalypticism, the environmentalist master narrative of the 1960s and 1970s, has given way, as Frederick Buell has written, to acceptance of environmental crisis as a way of life. We have learned to live with a multitude of daily ecological risk scenarios, preventing, mitigating or simply accommodating ourselves to them. The assumption that sustainability demands cultural change has been challenged by powerful resistance to radical lifestyle change: in practice, environmental problems have tended instead to be subjected to progressive reframings. Key questions for the conference will be how historical experience, physical circumstances and imaginative construction combine in the cultural framing of individual issues, how norms and expectations change, what cultural understandings of 'nature' and the human subject have stood or still stand in the way of constructive engagement with environmental change, what alternatives the reservoir of contemporary and historical images and narratives of nature and culture has to offer, and what rhetorics and art forms might be adopted as strategies in facing environmental change today. The conference will seek to gain new insights into the potential role of environmental literature, film and other media in generating environmental knowledge (Peter Swirski).

Provisional acceptance has been received from the following invited speakers:
- Prof Sidney Dobrin (University of Florida, Dept of English; a specialist in ecocomposition)
- Dr Georgina Endfield (University of Nottingham, Dept of Geography; a leading researcher in the historical conceptualisation of climate change, social responses and adaptation)
- Dr Robert Macfarlane (University of Cambridge, Dept of English; critic and nature writer, author of Mountains of the Mind)
- Dr Timo Maran (University of Tartu, Institute of Semiotics; a leading writer on biosemiotics and Estonian nature writing)
- Prof Robert Watson (UCLA, Dept of English; author of The Green and the Real in Early Modern Literature)
Proposals for papers and panels are now invited.

Website

August 2010

Spirit of Place. The Shaman Sanctuary of the Kalevala
Washington, USA (January 2010); and Seurasaari/Helsinki, Finland

Fifteen years ago architect Travis Price created an initiative to train architects to see the world differently: he founded Spirit of Place/Spirit of Design (SPSD), a design-build, educational expedition for undergraduate and graduate architecture students. The program provides students the opportunity to research, design, and construct a project in a remote landscape, in places such as Peru, British Columbia, Ireland, Nepal, and Italy.
The goal of SPSD is to explore the design and construction of architectural forms that respond to natural and cultural settings in a contemporary language of design. With 15 projects over the past 15 years, SPSD has been successful in meeting this goal, and has resulted in a series of architectural installations, which have received coverage in the architectural press, and mainstream media.
Students designed and built installations all over the world. The next Spirit of Place project is:
The Shaman Sanctuary of the Kalevala.
Come to the opening events at Seurasaari on Thursday, Aug. 26 at 6:00 pm, which will also be the launch of Helsinki Design Week. An exhibition of the student design work will be at Helsinki City Hall ’s Virka Gallery, which will run through mid-September. The exhibit will open on Night of the Arts on Friday, 27 Aug. from 5-7 pm. Follow our daily progress of construction on our blog: please tune in and comment!
www.SpiritofPlace-Design.blogspot.com
http://architecture.cua.edu/foreignprograms/spiritofplace.cfm

16-18 August 2010

Sustainability Education: Connecting Art, Science, and Design
Berkeley, California
 

How can we help students understand nature? And how can understanding nature help us design more sustainable societies?
This three-day seminar examines these vital questions at the intersection of art, science, and design. It's no accident that many great scientists have been great artists. Art and science are powerful, complementary means of visualizing and communicating an understanding of nature.
The seminar will explore a range of approaches and techniques for improving science education by using art and for combining art and science to help students better express their relationship with the natural world.
Some of today's most exciting advances in design are grounded in recognizing nature as model and mentor. Seminar participants will explore design as a form of critical thinking as well as expression and creativity and investigate strategies for applying bio-inspired design to student projects.
The seminar will be led by a distinguished faculty of educators, artists, and staff to be chosen from leading institutions, including the Center for Ecoliteracy, California Academy of Sciences, de Young Museum, Biomimicry Guild, and River of Words. They will engage participants in hands-on experiences using the arts to deepen understanding of the natural world.
The seminar will be offered at the David Brower Center, Berkeley's stunning new LEED-certified home for environmental and social activism.

www.ecoliteracy.org/events/sustainability-education-connecting-art-science-and-design
 

29 August - 3 September 2010

W I L D P A I N T I N G
Jotunheimen National Park, Norway

At this 5 day painting course, participants will draw and paint the rough and
breathtaking landscape along lake Gjendebu in the Jotunheimen National Park
in Norway. Teacher Jan van Boeckel, himself a landscape painter, will facilitate
a form of painting which he calls "wild painting", connecting with nature in new
and exciting ways, in an effort to see the world around us with fresh eyes. All
participants will get personal instructions and feedback, in either English or Swedish.
This course includes delicious food and accommodation at Gjendebu hytta.
The painting medium that is used is acrylic paint. Participants bring their own painting
easel, 50 x 70 cm board and brushes. Paint and painting paper will be provided and are
part of the course fee.

Course fee: 4400 NOK
Course 1: 4 - 9 July, 2010
Course 2: 29 Aug - 3 Sept, 2010

Gjendebu DNT hytta: www.gjendebu.com
Travel to Gjendebu: www.gjende.no/en
For more information send an e-mail to: polarstarcentre(at)yahoo.com

Download flyer (in PDF)

See images of Wildpainting in Norway in 2009

August 2010

Arts and Sciences for Sustainability in Social Transformation (ASSiST): International Summer School
Balkan mountains, Bulgaria

The International Council for Cultural Centers (I3C), the International Network Cultura21 (Cultural Fieldworks for Sustainability) and the Latin American Network of Art for Social Transformation are organizing the first international summer school of arts and sciences for sustainability in social transformation. The event is planned for August 2010 in Bulgaria, in the beautiful Balkan mountains.

As part of the program of the Summer School, a limited number of workshops will be organized for participants. We are seeking workshop proposals from experienced practitioners and thinkers from the wider academic and artistic fields, who are engaged in the advancement of sustainability (i.e. goals of social justice, ecological awareness and environmental action, human rights and self-determination, cultural and biodiversity, among others), particularly with inter- or trans-disciplinary methodologies or with a potential for inter- and trans-disciplinary dialogues.

We are also particularly looking for action-research methodologies based on Walking and Places: building transformations, which will be the thematic focus of the first edition of the Summer School. These methodologies can include academic as well as artistic, creative processes, or both. They may further explore how movement also relates to place and community development, with the dynamic between movement and place, traveling and home, transnational flows of ideas and people and site specificity (whether individual houses or collective places).

Website

1-3 August 2010

Conference: “The Spirit of Place”
Sami cultural heritage center – Arran, Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway
 

We would like to invite you to attend our upcoming conference, “The Spirit of Place”. The conference is happening in conjunction with the project, “Stetind Declaration". The key topics for the conference, as expressed in “Stetind Declaration” include:
* Nature friendly living in the coming society
* How to foster a nature friendly way of living

You are invited to present a paper at the conference, and take part in conference discussions.
We encourage you to write your paper in one of the following languages: German, English, French, Spanish. Please note, however, that the discussions at the conference will be in English.
If you intend to present a paper, please send us its title by March 1, 2010. Final sign up for the conference is June 1. The same date is the deadline for sending a complete paper.
Please use one of these mail addresses: Borge.Dahle@nih.no or Aage.Jensen@hint.no

Received titles pr. December 1:
* Kazushi Maeda, Japan: “Traditional local cultures for our future”
* Andy Thompson, New Zealand: “What were Amundsen and Scott really doing in Antartica?”
* Anna Thompson, New Zealand: “Aoraki Mt Cook – cultural icon or tourist “object”
* Jana Hoffmannova & Ludek Sebek, Czech republic: “Transforming Cultural landscapes”
* Torbjorn Ydegaard, Denmark: “Culture as learning, learning from culture”
* Seaton Baxter, Scotland: “Natures Contribution to the Spirits in the Sand”
* Trond Jakobsen, Norway: “From Science to Human and Eco-Emancipation”
* Kumanga Andrahennadi, Sri Lanka: “Water; The Essential Spirit of Place”

There are a number of related events planned for the week prior to the conference that you may also wish to attend: Wednesday July 28 - Friday July 30: “Peach March for Nature”
A hike that follows an old trail from Gällivarre (Sweden) to Tysfjord (Norway)
Friday July 30, 2010: Anniversary dinner, 100 years since the mountain of Stetind was climbed for the first time.

www.councilforecophilosophy.com/wips/501591427/

Sustainable Art Education

The theme of the congress challenges art educators and researchers to present, compare, and develop functions that support the goals of sustainable development through art. Sustainable development is understood as continuous and controlled societal change taking place at global, regional, local levels. Its aim is to secure good living possibilities for present and future generations.
Traditionally, sustainable development has been connected with the environment and economy, but it also entails a strong social and cultural dimension. Art and education are changing at the national, regional, and global levels, which poses a challenge for art educators to check and update their views and practices and to develop art education that supports social wellbeing, equality, prevention of alienation, cultural interaction, and diversity.
The congress sets a challenge to examine how the education of art, in pursuance of sustainable development, creates teaching and learning situations in which the sociocultural reality of local communities encounters wider cultural consciousness and deeper social observation. Thus, the congress breaks down the superimposition of the local, the glocal, and the global. It also explains how artistic activity becomes part of concrete and responsible interaction, reflexion, dialogue, critical thinking, and change orientation.
Sustainable development also requires an interdisciplinary, interartistic, and holistic approach. The congress encourages the participants to treat the theme from many perspectives and welcomes the representatives of various fields of science and art to examine and shed light on the relation of art education to the subsections of sustainable development, which are the following:

- Ecological and environmental sustainable development
- Social sustainable development - Cultural sustainable development
- Economic sustainable development

We believe that art educators, artists, and researchers play an important part in the creation of culturally, socially, and ecologically more sustainable culture.

Website

3-6 June 2010

16 April 2010

Isstjärnan, Icefestival on lake Sörälgen, Sikfors
Hällefors, Sweden

March – September 2010

Glow Co-Create - Sought: Visual Artist
North Uist, Scotland

Deadline: 15 February 2010

Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum & Arts Centre on North Uist is seeking a visual artist to form an integral part of a creative team, which will deliver an innovative arts education project in the Uists. The project is funded through the Glow Co-Create Project, a partnership between Learning Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Arts Council.
Taigh Chearsabhagh, in partnership with North Uist Woodland, is planning an exciting education initiative involving S2 pupils from Lionacleit School investigating aspects of the biodiversity and heritage of Langass Woodland on North Uist. The selected artist will work with a team of staff and pupils to creatively interpret aspects of the Langass woodland that encourage understanding and appreciation of the area. The project will result in the creation of permanent artwork for the woodland created by the artist in collaboration with the pupils.

Timeline: 15th March 2010 – September 2010. For a full project brief please contact Sarah MacIntyre, Cultural Access Officer for Taigh Chearsabhagh on email: access(at)taigh-chearsabhagh.org or tel: 01876 500240.

www.taigh-chearsabhagh.org

8-10 February 2010

 Seminar: Sustainability Education: Connecting Art, Science, and Design
 Berkeley, California
 

The Center for Ecoliteracy
This seminar will probe the implications for education of Leonardo da Vinci's science, examine ways to deepen students' understanding of the natural world through art and science, and apply ecological principles and processes to student projects to design solutions to environmental issues. Center for Ecoliteracy education program director Carolie Sly; cofounder Fritjof Capra; and other experts in integrating art, science, design, and education will be featured.

Website

16 February 2010

Seminarium om "konst för ett ekologiskt hållbart samhälle" (Swedish)
Wij Trädgårdar, Ockelbo, Sweden

Tisdagen den 16/2 kl. 9.00-16.00 på Wij Trädgårdar

Klimathotet kan lösas bara med mycket radikala, världsomspännande regleringar av utsläpp och energikonsumtion. Nödvändiga politiska beslut förutsätter en genomgripande beredskap till omställning hos oss alla. Tekniska och politiska lösningar finns, men den viktigaste förutsättningen för en hållbar utveckling är vår mentala omställning. I konsten och kulturen kan vi gestalta, bearbeta och forma en livshållning för framtiden.

Ecology/ technology av Anders Thyr 2005

Program:
Vad händer med klimatet efter Köpenhamn? Hur mycket är det individers ändrade konsumtionsmönster eller politiska beslut som behövs? Mikael Malmaeus
(Mikael Malmaeus är forskare på Svenska miljöinstitutet och aktiv i organisationen Klimataktion.)

Konstens betydelse för förståelse av vårt förhållande till naturen. Rörelser och personer som inspirerat det ekologiska tänkandet. Jan van Boeckel
(Jan van Boeckel är knuten till en forskargrupp vid Helsingfors universitet för Konst o Design, som sysslar med konstbaserat lärande om naturen.)

Vad betyder konst, teater, musik etc. för opinionsbildning och samhällsförändringar? Gunilla Kindstrand
(Gunilla Kindstrand är journalist med inriktning på kultur och samhällsfrågor. Hon är även verksam som redaktör, dramaturg, utställningsproducent och föreläsare.)

Avslutande diskussion:
Hur når konsten människor som inte är vana ”kulturkonsumenter”? Ett ekologiskt konstcentrum i Ockelbo, vad skulle det betyda för kommunen och regionen?

Kostnad för seminariet är 100:- (inkluderar lunch och fika)
Anmälan senast 25/1 via e post till y.g@glocalnet.net eller telefon 070 3766062.
Antalet deltagare är begränsat.

http://www.konstochlandskap.se/sem100216.html