News
Archive 2011
7-9 December 2011
SENSORY WORLDS: Environment, Value and the Multi-Sensory
Edinburgh, Scotland

Conference Theme
It is through our senses that we investigate, navigate and know the world around
us and the other beings, forces and phenomena that constitute it in its rich and
lively variety. To consider the nature of sensory being is to be confronted by
questions that examine the ways in which we engage with our environments and
those that interrogate the very nature of embodiment. Constantly at work and yet
often undervalued, the sensorium is broader and more complex than the
traditional Western classifications of the five senses allow. Intermingling and
constantly shifting with our attention and experiences, our senses orient us in
the world (though sometimes they also disorient us). We sense the world and are
at once both part of it and other from it. Moving through a terrain, feeling the
resistance of the ground beneath our feet or the push of the crowd, or smelling
the fumes of diesel and the throbbing heat of a machine engine, or quietly
tracing the intricate lines of wood carvings made by another hand in another
time, or tasting the sharp or bitter flavours of foods unfamiliar to the palate,
or re-imagining the suffered pain of an ugly injury; all such episodes and more
raise the question of how our senses play a role in human flourishing and
well-being. Furthermore, they illuminate the ways in which our actions, values
and ways of understanding the world are rooted in our sentience – which is ever
becoming and allowing of us to exceed ourselves.
Sensory Worlds engages with these and other issues; considering 'worlds' in a
particularly ecological light in order to ask: what contribution can a
sensorially-engaged Humanities make to environmental thinking and action? The
conference will examine the multi-sensory and will reflect upon the historical,
contemporary and possible future relations between the senses (from balance to
taste to the haptic and beyond). It will be an interdisciplinary, interrogative
and exploratory meeting that will make space for sensorially-engaged scholarship
and practice, and will facilitate discursive and constructive meetings between a
variety of scholars working on themes related to embodiment, ecology and value.
Contributions are invited from those working within the humanities, arts and
social sciences. We are interested in contributions that will themselves embody
alternatives to the presuppositions common to Western twentieth century
engagement with the world such as anthropocentrism, mind-body dualism, and
isolated subjectivity.
Conference Structure
The conference will
consist of four different structural elements: Paper Sessions, Panel Sessions,
Keynotes and Installations. Drawing upon traditions, strong in Edinburgh, of
conversation and conviviality, the conference aims to allow generously for both
formal and informal discussions and dialogues. To this end, scheduling will
allow for discussion time after all presentations and for breaks during which
conference attendees will be invited to eat and socialise together.
Keynote presentations will be delivered by David Abram, author of 'The
Spell of the Sensuous' and 'Becoming Animal' and Iain Borden from The
Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. These lectures will be open to the public
as part of our effort to engage with wider issues and audiences, and will be
followed by Q&A sessions.
Animal Senses
(human and non-human; species embodiment; animality; communication and
expression; consciousness; morality; senses across species; habitat; environment
and behaviour)
Technology and the Wasting and/or Enhancement of the Senses
(de-sensitizing; loss; over-stimulation; technological mediation; progress;
health; the cyborg; the haptic; atrophy of the senses; new horizons of
perception; renovation of the senses)
Nature, Self and Society
(relationality; identity; formation of self; interdependence; resilience;
gender; self and other; embodiment and being; ecology)
Value, Action and Environmental Engagement
(Humanities engagement with environmental issues; feeling and motivation;
making; participation; rights and responsibilities; resonance; rights;
movement(s))
Historical and Future Senses
(period senses; bodies and the sensory organs; memory; time and space; how the
senses have been understood throughout the ages; transformation; medicine,
science and discovery; rationality)
The Imagination and the (Inter)Play of the Senses
(common sense; synaesthesia; intervention; beyond 'the five'; the sixth sense;
play; creativity; metaphor; empathy; intermingling senses; the uncanny)
www.iash.ed.ac.uk/Sawyer/Conference.html
11 November, 2011
Thesis: In Nature, a dialogue with the
the works of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää
Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
On Friday 11 November, Leena
Valkeapää, member of our research group on arts-based environmental
education, will defend her doctoral thesis at Aalto University, School of Art
and Design (Media Centre Lume, Sampo Hall, Hämeentie 135 C, Helsinki), at 12.00
AM The opponent will be Professor Tere Vadén, of University of Tampere.
Inspiration for this research came from the highland fell region of Finland’s
northwestern panhandle Käsivarsi, or in English - The Arm. To the eyes of a
stranger the landscape is barren and empty.
However, the Sami artist Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Áillohaš (1943-2001), who was
born and spent his life in the area, told the world through different modes of
expression that this land of stark nature was also home to the people who lived
there. Inspired by his poems, the research examines how people have lived in
this environment devoid of almost all traces of human existence, and what life
is like today in the decade 2010.
The dissertation is an artistic enquiry. In the research, art moves step by step
into the way of life in which Nils Aslak Valkeapää’s works were born, and from
there progresses into a circle of artistic creation and reception. The locality
is approached first from the point of view of a hiker, then from that of an
artist and then a new transformed personal point of view eminating from the
researcher’s life experiences. The research is approached through artistic modes
of thinking and realised through an autoethnographic account; that is,
explicated through exposure and acquisition of research data issuing from the
events of everyday life. The core of the research lies in a continuing
dialogical relationship between the thinking of the researcher’s husband Oula A.
Valkeapää and the researcher. Thus the data of the research is also based on the
researcher’s own life, observations, experiences and continuing dialogical
contact.
The research widens when alongside Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s poems are set mobile
text messages from Oula A. Valkeapää (b.1970) and extracts of Johan Turi’s
(1854–1936) work Kertomus saamelaisista (1979), from the original Sami Muitalus
sámiid birra (1910) and translated into English as Turi’s Book of Lappland
(1931). They are all Sami people from nomadic reindeer cultures. In the research
the shared practices and cultural heritage of the narrators is called reindeer
life.
The themes of the dialogue are wind, reindeer, time, fire and humans. The focus
is on the impact of wind, life with reindeer, concept of time, different
meanings of fire and the sense of feeling your way as a human into the practices
of reindeer herding. The themes of the research define the circle of life for
all the narrators. The dialogue brings forth phenomena which are conserved by
living in nature. For example it is evident that Sami reindeer herders have not
attempted to domesticate nature. From the perspective of reindeer life, nature
already exists fully formed and there is no impetus to manipulate or develop it.
The core skill to the way of life is an understanding of how time passes and the
ability to connect with the ever changing environmental conditions so that the
balance of nature doesn’t change. Hence, human traces disappear from the
landscape. Thus the opportunity to live in nature is passed from generation to
generation. Through the dialogue it also becomes apparent what kind of an impact
the technologised time has had on the relationship between humans and nature.
The three narrators’ poems, tales and text messages weave a multi-layered
pattern of thinking. The text is accompanied and commented on by photographs by
Oula A. Valkeapää and the researcher and drawings by Johan Turi and Nils-Aslak
Valkeapää’s mother, Susanna Valkeapää.
Leena's book In Finnish) is for sale via:
www.taik.fi/kirjakauppa
www.maahenki.fi
15 November, 2011
Shorelines: A one day international symposium exploring place, creativity and
wellbeing
The Maclaurin Galleries, Ayr, Scotland
Organisers : School of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of the West
of Scotland in conjunction with University of Wales Institute Cardiff and South
Ayrshire Council Museums and Galleries
Keynote Speakers:
Iain McGilchrist, Psychiatrist, writer, author of The Master and His Emissary:
the Divided Brain and the Making of the Modern World, and
Chris Drury, Land Artist.
Jan van Boeckel of the research
group on arts-based environmental education will present a paper here with the
title: "Angels talking back and new organs of perception: Art making and
intentionality in nature experience."
This one day academic symposium, to be held at the Maclaurin Galleries, Ayr,
Scotland,
will explore interconnections between creative spaces or locations and physical
and
emotional wellbeing. It will seek to bring together a multidisciplinary audience
of
researchers, academics and arts practitioners to present cutting edge research
in their
fields, to foster discussion and further understanding about the significance of
place in
the creative process and its potential to enhance the quality of human
experience.
Themes:
Place: Stimulating locations, creative spaces, geographical inspiration
Creativity: creative process in the visual arts, music, literature, poetry and
drama with
focus on stimulation, inspiration, innovation and cognition related to physical
spaces and
location
Wellbeing: physical and mental health and connections with creative process and
physical location, spaces or places.
Contacts:
Elizabeth Kwasnik Elizabeth.Kwasnik@south-ayrshire.gov.uk Tel: (01292) 445447
Anne Bontke Ann.Bontke@south-ayrshire.gov.uk Tel: (01292) 445447
www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/events/eventdetails.aspx?id=1022
4-5 November, 2011
BALANCE - UnBaLANCe 2011
Montreal, Canada

The BALANCE-UNBALANCE
conference will seek to bring artists together with scientists, economists,
philosophers, politicians, sociologists, engineers, management and policy
experts with the intent of engendering a deeper awareness and creating lasting
intellectual working partnerships in solving our global environmental crisis.
Using art as a catalyst, BALANCE-UNBALANCE 2011 will explore intersections
between NATURE, ART, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SOCIETY as we move into an era of
both unprecedented ecological threats and transdisciplinary possibilities.
BALANCE-UNBALANCE will call for two days of reflection, debate, and the
promotion of projects and actions regarding the environment and our human
responsibility at this defining moment in our history. The conference will be
held at Concordia University during November 4th and 5th of 2011.
One of the main goals of this conference is to develop the role of the arts and
artists in dealing with environmental challenges.
CALL FOR PAPERS / ARTISTIC WORKS / TRANSDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES
CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY Montreal - Canada
http://balance-unbalance2011.hexagram.ca/
8-15 October, 2011
Transhumance
Eastern Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of shepherds and their livestock. They
migrate between mountainous and lowland pastures as the seasons change.
Transhumance used to be widespread in Bulgaria and although the transhumance is
of high importance for the maintenance of grassland habitats and culture
conservation, the practice was lost under communism.

It has been unclear until recently, but we are happy to inform you that the
Transhumance in Bulgaria, for the fourth continuing year, also will be held this
year. The main reason for this is that the National Park “Sinite Kamani” (Blue
Rocks) near Sliven need a herd to grace the higher pastures and that in the area
Kotel – Sliven the move of herds is not banned. This Transhumance will again be
open for tourists who, with their contribution, will help the economic
possibility by side-financing the shepherd’s family and contact person of the
Foundation for Wild Flora and Fauna (FWFF).
The spring Transhumance will be held from 14-21 May and the route goes from
Arpaluka – Kotel – Zheravna – Neykovo – Sinite Kamani. The autumn Transhumance
will be held from 15 – 22 October with reversed route. Per day the distance will
be not more than 15 km and the attitude difference not more than 600 meters
(400-1000 meters). The heard will be between 100 to 140 sheep, accompanied by
the shepherd’s family Dobri and his wife together with one or two horsemen, and
facilitated by Lucho from the local FWFF branch. Jaap van Beelen, a Dutchmen
living in Kotel and owner of goKotel, will be organisator, guide and interpreter
during the tour.
During the spring transhumance, a festival will be organised at the day that the
herd will leave Kotel, The festival includes Bulgarian and Karakachan folklore,
the ritual blessing of the herd, and competition for the best sheep shaver, the
best/most practical shepherd’s attribute and shepherd dog. In the evening their
will be a festive diner together with the shepherd family and FWFF staff.
Maximum number of guest that can go along is 12.
Autumn Transhumance, Sinite Kamani – Kotel: 15-22 October, € 415
Transhumance Bulgaria 2011 is organised by FWFF Bulgaria (www.fwff.org)
together with goKotel (www.gokotel.com),
and is possible thanks to the good work of Rebelfarmer (www.rebelfarmer.org)
over the last 3 years.
Download flyer (PDF)
on Transhumance project

1–6 October, 2011
Eventually Wild: Practices at the Threshold. Leading into our unknowable
future
The Towerland Wilderness, Langeberg Mountains, Southern Cape,
South Africa
A workshop with
Chris Seeley, Robert McNeer, Sue Davidoff and Allan Kaplan
“In Wildness is the Preservation of the World”
Henry Thoreau
 |
Wild is a
state of being - to be able to range beyond limits, to cross thresholds,
inner and outer. In our working lives, we are often so defined by outer
circumstance that we are unable to access the creativity and freedom
demanded by situations that call for entirely new ways of responding, beyond
the conventional. We need to be able to go deeper into our own sense of wild
and freedom.
Eventually Wild is an exploratory workshop offering you the opportunity to
expand your perceptions of what the world is calling from you now as a
leader in your field, whether you work in business, consultancy, education,
community development or the public sector.
Together, we will explore wilder ways of seeing and responding to our world. We
will shape imaginative and perceptual practices that will enable us to
experience the qualities of wild within and without us in practiced and rigorous
ways. |
We’ll work creatively with our minds and bodies through imagination, slow
contemplation, inquiring discussion and fierce conversations;through playing and
movement, words and voice, listening and watching; through image-making, writing
and questioning. We will work to find the qualities of wild within ourselves
such that we can renew and evolve our purpose and presence as leaders. So that,
in fact, we can begin to lead beyond the expected, to find the unexpected and
even unexperienced within ourselves. And we will do this within a wilderness
setting that enables outer paths and inner paths to meet in conversation through
our unfolding journey. Eventually Wild will take place at Towerland Wilderness,
a mountain wilderness situated in the Langeberg Mountains of the southern Cape,
South Africa.
Workshop dates/times: 1 – 6 October 2011. Participants are expected to arrive
late afternoon of 30
September and depart morning of 6 October.
Cost: R7,800 including 6 nights accommodation, all food and facilitation. (If
you are interested but
cannot afford the cost please contact us. This workshop enjoys no outside
financial support. But
we will try to accommodate where we can.)
Inquiries and Applications: Please contact Luke Kaplan of The Proteus Initiative
at people@proteusinitative.org with any inquiries. If you wish to apply please
send a letter of application – containing a brief description of who you are and
what motivates you to want to attend – also to Luke Kaplan.
http://proteusinitiative.org/PCurrentNew.aspx
26 September – 2 October, 2011
FIELD_NOTES – Cultivating Ground
Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Kilpisjärvi/ Lapland/ Finland
Organized by the Finnish Bioart Society in the context of the Ars Bioarctica
project together with the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station.
“ Field_Notes – Cultivating Grounds” is a week long field laboratory for theory
and practice on art&science work at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the
University of Helsinki in Lapland. Five working groups, each hosted by an expert
(Oron Catts, Marta de Menezes, Anu Osva, Tapio Makela and Terike Haapoja)
together with a team of four, will develop, test and evaluate specific artistic
approaches based on the interplay of art & science. The outcome of Field_Notes
will result in a publication published by the Finnish Bioart Society in 2012.
Read more
http://bioartsociety.fi/archives/1929
29 September - 1 October, 2011
Art
+ Environment Conference
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, USA

Art museums can be
temples to culture or cultural catalysts. They can be passive and predictable or
unpredictably idea-driven. Museums can watch the world pass them by, or they can
shape the trajectory of its course. Art and ideas matter here. We see art that
challenges minds, melds environments and cultures, and responds to the
uncertainties of the future. Art has a point of view and it deserves a voice at
the table. That's what the Art + EnvironmentSM Conference gives it.
The Art + Environment Conference at the Nevada Museum of Art reaches across
continents, disciplines, and media to unite a dynamic group of thinkers shaping
ideas about human interactions with global environments. A flagship program of
the Museum's Center for Art + Environment, the 2011 Conference brings together
artists, scholars, designers, and writers for a dialogue that fosters new
knowledge in the visual arts. During the Conference, the Museum's galleries
feature exhibitions that question our relationships with natural, built, and
virtual environments, while serving as a springboard for Conference sessions and
keynote presentations.
http://www.nevadaart.org/conference2011/index.html
29-30 September, 2011
Ute
är inne 2011 (Outside is Inside 2011)
Malmö, Sweden
Den tredje konferensen
om utomhuspedagogik öppnar dörrarna till morgondagens skola.
Här tar du del av både nya och beprövade verktyg för lärande i lokal
skolutveckling - med närmiljön som lärmiljö. Att visa vägen till kunskap är en
av skolans uppgifter. Utbildningen ska enligt läroplanen främja hälsa, lärande,
lek och en allsidig utveckling i ett livslångt perspektiv. Genom
utomhuspedagogik och friluftsliv kan skolans alla ämnen och teman göras levande
utifrån läroplanen.
Upplevelser i utemiljön erbjuder ett variationsrikt lärande där boklig bildning
växelverkar med sinnliga erfarenheter - känsla, handling och tanke förenas. Vid
2011 års konferens i Malmö sätts stadens utemiljö i centrum med inspiration från
havet, kulturlandskapet och andra spännande platser i staden.

Konferensen vänder sig till:
• skolledare, pedagoger och övrig personal inom förskola, grundskola och
gymnasieskola, samt lärarutbildningar och skolhälsovården.
• landskapsarkitekter, arkitekter, planerare och andra som arbetar med
utvecklande utemiljöer för barn och unga.
• alla som är ideellt engagerade exempelvis inom friluftsliv, hälsofrämjande
arbete,
natur- och kulturvägledning.
http://utenavet.se/
28 September, 2011
OUT & ABOUT - Perspectives on Outdoor Education
Malmö University, Sweden
RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
- Deadline for submission of abstracts: August 15,
2011
An informal research symposium focusing on emerging research on outdoor
education! The conference is hosted by Malmö University in collaboration with
the city of Malmö and the Skåne Region. Conference language will be Swedish –
papers and presentations in English are however most welcome. We especially
encourage contributions from young researchers, Masters and Ph.D. students.
Background and aim of the symposium
Outdoor education is a rapidly growing field in Scandinavia, which is expressed
as an increased interest in outdoor activities and learning in pre-schools and
schools. The research symposium Out & About is preceding the third major
conference in outdoor education for practitioners Ute är Inne – further
information and programme on www.utenavet.se. The outdoor education field has
developed in parallel with a strong tradition in social movements with a focus
on outdoor activities, recreation, health promotion and nature conservation.
This symposium will focus on outdoor education as a general phenomenon in a late
modern, urbanized, transcultural, multimodal and – prospectively – sustainable
society.
Themes:
Outdoor education – international and intercultural perspectives
Nature as an arena for learning
The extended classroom – exploring new opportunities
Sustainability and outdoor education
Representations of learning and health promotion in natural environments
The learning city – nature and culture in a new light
Call for abstracts
We invite you to submit abstracts in relation to the above topics. Deadline for
abstracts is August 15, 2011. Abstracts should contain no more than 400 words.
Participants with accepted abstracts will be asked to present papers at the
symposium – further information about papers, set-up of sessions, proceedings,
etc, will be communicated with the authors.
The Scientific Committee of the symposium will be encouraging innovative,
emerging research topics and short papers/presentations in favour of previously
published works.
Participation at the symposium will unfortunately be limited to those who have
accepted abstracts/presenters.
Social programme - related activities
The research symposium Out & About is preceding the Third Conference “Ute är
Inne”, a major Scandinavian conference on outdoor education for practitioners. A
special evening programme is arranged on the 28th at Limhamns kalkbrott (lime
quarry) in collaboration with “Ute är Inne”. A limited number of seats are
reserved for participants at Out & About. Please make a request for the evening
programme when applying for the symposium.
www.mah.se/lut/outandabout
28 September, 2011
Cultivation Field: Postgraduate Symposium &
Exhibition
Postgraduate research Art PhD Symposium 2011
Symposium: 28th September 2011
Exhibition: 28th September to 6th October 2011
The premise for this Symposium and accompanying Exhibition is that cultivation
is leading to new art practices deserving of critical inquiry and articulation.
Whether in the garden or allotment, the soup kitchen or the road, on wasteland
or the tower block, or wherever there are cracks in the system, cultivation
provokes questions about human being's relation to and encounter with the earth
and its growth systems and operations. The purpose of this Symposium and
Exhibition is to encourage discursive exchange and productive encounter between
art practitioners and researchers within the cultivation field.

Artists and research students are invited to submit 250 word abstracts for the
Symposium and/or the Exhibition, accompanied by a short biography or CV. We are
interested in proposals for paper presentations, performance (including
culinary), film, intervention, sound, installation, or text works, that explore
plant-based material, land use, growth, ecosystems, economy, taxonomy,
environment, power and chaos in the field of cultivation.
Performances can be arranged in open-air locations on the campus. Individual
presentations will be restricted to 20 minutes duration.
For enquiries contact: cultivationfield@pgr.reading.ac.uk
The deadline for registration is: 23 September 2011.
Artist-made plant-based lunch and refreshments will be available.
THIS EVENT IS FREE
www.reading.ac.uk/art/pg-research/art-postgraduate-research-courses-about.aspx
3-10 Sept. & 11-17 Sept., 2011
"Spirit of Wilderness"- Wild
Intelligence environmental creativity courses
Lapland, Finland
Wild Intelligence is an
exciting new approach to outdoor learning and environmental awareness through
creativity. Through workshops and courses in nature it offers experiences that
raise the value of experiencing wilderness as a multi-dimensional intelligence
with the potential to change lives, to educate at all levels, to heal and
inspire.
Wild Intelligence is offering unique and inspirational environmental creativity
courses for the summer of 2011 in the Arctic Circle. This is a magical
wilderness landscape, vast and overwhelming and to create paintings, ceramics,
land art, or work in other media here is unforgettable.
The courses
in Lapland are a chance to respond to experiences of wilderness that combine
the development of sensory awareness and immersion in the landscape, with
the perspective of a deep rooted indigenous culture.
We will be in an environment that has immense presence, and our quest is to
find ways to express its place in our lives, and our lives in its presence. |
 |
In September the
landscape transforms in the period of ‘Ruska’ when the trees and shrubs turn to
glorious bright yellow and red – an autumn festival of rich colour celebrating
the end of another fertile season, and heralding the time to prepare once again
for the long and unforgiving winter. Soon the sun will disappear beneath the
horizon and the light will go, only to be replaced by moonlight reflected on the
snow and the magical dance of the Northern Lights.
The energy of the colour is about very close chromatic, tonal and textural
combinations set against completely contrasting ones ... so all the subtle
yellows, pinks and ochres of birch and aspen are set in dark woods of deep
greens, blacks, blue greys. These are then, surprisingly, poised above a carpet
of wine, purple and the maroons of bilberry leaves! Walking in a wood is like
being bathed in different glowing lights, luminous and ethereal... your energy
seems to change, your senses open and close, you can even feel light headed. The
courses in September will be for painting and drawing, colour and the use of
natural materials in two dimensional work. We will visit artists in the region
and have tours of exhibitions at galleries.
www.wildintelligence.co.uk
Download the course flyer

21-25 August, 2011
Art of Ecology: Transdisciplinary Research in Practice
Merida, Mexico
SER2011 World Conference on Ecological Restoration
Re-establishing the Link between Nature and Culture
SER (Society for Ecological Restoration) is an important and authoritative
scientific organisation concerned with environmental remediation in many
countries. It has, previously, held three 'World Conferences', two of which had
sessions on ecological art (Liverpool, 2000 and Zaragoza, 2005).
The SER World Conferences offer an opportunity to meet with some of the
world’s top ecological scientists and activists from diverse cultures.This Symposium seeks
presentations that pursue the following concept: ‘The Art of Ecology: Transdisciplinary
Research In Practice’.
Abstracts, indicating the title of the symposium, can be submitted here:
http://www.ser2011.org/en/ser2011-scientific-program/call-for-abstracts-posters/
1-6 August, 2011
Lofoten Whale Festival: A meeting of humans and whales: science, music, art
and tourism
Henningsvaer, Norway
Latest update: For
pictures of the festival
click here; for the latest program,
click here

A one week gathering celebrating the culture and nature of our cetacean species
in the Lofoten waters: pilot whales, killer whales, different dolphins, harbor
porpoises, minke whales, fin whales and humpback whales. There will be talks,
workshops, special whale-watching tours with scientists, naturalists, artists
and musicians to introduce the wide human ways of relating to these mysterious
and fascinating animals. A group of internationally-known researchers from many
different fields will converge upon Henningsvær in early August to present the
facts and mysteries we have discovered about these important ocean creatures.
National and International renowned artists will present their work and interact
with the whales, people and nature of Lofoten. The goal will be to raise
awareness, educate people about the marine ecosystem and its wonderful
creatures, embedded in artistic and fun activities!
Actions:
1. Sailing trips to find the whales and play music for them, film interactions,
do research
2. Talks, films, presentations about whales and the marine ecosystem at the
Ocean Sounds Center
3. Concerts: downstairs at the Ocean Sounds center (or at local coffee shop)
4. Discussion rounds & party: all over town (but mostly in my garden)
Objective:
To celebrate the importance of the cetaceans in arctic Norwegian waters, to
educate children and people and to enhance the experience of visitors to
Henningsvær and to boost the local tourist economy.
Accommodation: bring your own tent or spend some nights at the hotels,
Rorbuer, or hostels in Henningsvaer.
Food: we can arrange for a soup kitchen on the island, otherwise use the
variety of restaurants and cafes in Henningsvaer.
Costs & funds: this is a low budget event, so travel, accommodation and
food has to be covered by the participants, unless we will get extra funds. If
you have an idea where and how to get funding, please do not hesitate to get
into action!
There will be cover charges for presentations, films, workshops and boat
excursions, the rest of the activities should be free.
Read more
Download flyer on the program

www.ocean-sounds.com/eng/art/art-projects/whale-festival
www.helsinki.fi/~lauhakan/whale/lofoten_whale_festival.html
www.halikonlahti.net
www.tekotuulahdus.blogspot.com
3-8 July, 2011
Learning From Leonardo: The Role of the Arts in
Overcoming Our Crisis of Perception
Big Sur, California, United States
with Fritjof Capra &
Peter Adams
Leonardo da Vinci, the great genius of the Renaissance, developed a unique
synthesis of art, science, and technology. In this course, Fritjof Capra and
Peter Adams, a scientist and an artist who have both been frequent visitors to
Esalen, will discuss Leonardo’s synthesis and its great relevance to the present
time. They will argue that, in order to overcome the crisis of perception that
lies at the root of the major problems of our time, it will be critical to
integrate an artistic dimension into the ecological perspectives of science,
philosophy, and spirituality.

Cursive Moon, image
by Peter Ward
www.windgrove.com/blog
Workshop participants
will be engaged not only intellectually, but also physically and emotionally, in
adaptations of Leonardo’s methodology in observations, experiments, and artistic
expressions within the Esalen landscape.
www.windgrove.com/blog/esalen-institute-workshop/
28 June - 3 July
2011
ARCTIC WATERS
Kilpisjärvi, Arctic Finland
Call for workshop participation in Kilpisjärvi

Organizer: Ars Bioarctica / Finnish Bioart Society
Arctic Waters is a workshop on nature, research and art. From a scientific
perspective it investigates sub Arctic water ecosystems, especially
phytoplankton and zooplankton. The key questions hereby are why this research is
done and in what way monitoring of specifically arctic freshwaters is done. From
an artistic perspective the workshop is thought as an introduction to artistic
motivated field work in the mountains and laboratory.
Scientific support is given by PhD, Laura Forsström, researcher Environmental
Change Research Unit (ECRU) Department of Environmental Sciences of the
University of Helsinki. Her main interests of research are related to primary
producers* ) and dissolved organic carbon in arctic and subarctic lakes
http://www.helsinki.fi/bioscience/ecru/people/laura_f.htm.
For the artistic support the aim is that the participants themselves are
supporting each other with skills, knowledge and through discourse.
Pre-confirmed contributions:
-
Underwater video- and audio-recording, Antti Tenetz
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Introduction into practice-based artistic field- and laboratory-work, Anu Osva
-
Environmental art and the local culture-landscape, Leena Valkeapää
-
Environmental computing; sensors and real-time data, Erich Berger
-
Introduction into issues in art&science, Laura Beloff
Please send your application with CV and a letter of motivation to
erich.berger@bioartsociety.fi.
Deadline: 31.3.2011
http://bioartsociety.fi/archives/1807
June, 2011
Study trips to children playgrounds
Copenhagen, Berlin
NORDIC TRIP - Program in Copenhagen/Lund/Malmö: June 16,17,18. (3 days)
BERLIN TRIP - Program in Berlin 2011: June 21, 22, 23, 24. (4 days).

PROGRAM
Copenhagen/Lund/Malmö:
Visiting parks, theme parks (Malmö), kindergardens, schoolgrounds, public
places.
Berlin:
2 first days in bus (heavy programs) - visiting lots of schoolgrounds, and a few
adventure playgrounds.
2 days on bikes (easy/relaxed programs) - visiting parks, public places,
kindergardens.
Weekend free with good suggestions, - such as:
A visit to Britzer Garten, Gärten der Welt (Gardens of the World), Volkspark
Potsdam, Sans Souci and other places.
More information: Frode Svane, Barnas Landskap, Childrens Landscape- Norway,
phone: 0047 92669969
e-mail: frode.svane(at)gmail.com
www.barnaslandskap.blogspot.com
17-19 June, 2011
Aesthetics of Human Spaces: Between Urban and Nature
Lahti, Finland

The
IXth IIAA International Summer Conference on Environmental Aesthetics
The International Institute of Applied Aesthetics (IIAA) will arrange the IXth
IIAA International Summer Conference on Environmental Aesthetics in Lahti,
Finland, 17.6.–19.6.2011. The theme of the conference is “Aesthetics of Human
Spaces: Between Urban and Nature.”
The concept of space has become one of the most important instruments for
investigating the constitutive factors involved in building human relationship
to the surroundings. Recent research in different fields has revealed various
dimensions of the concept and different viewpoints from which it can be
addressed. The concept of space helps direct attention to the human, felt
dimension not only of natural environments, but of urban environments as well.
The concept of space is also an importantly aesthetic one, as it is connected to
critical issues in contemporary aesthetics. For example, focus in aesthetics on
the corporeal side of human existence has provoked new questions and may provide
new insights about the aesthetic experience of human spaces: What kinds of role
do the senses play in our experience of spaces? Are the different senses
involved in the experience of space in equal interaction with one another, or
are one or more senses in some way primary or even foundational?
One important way of approaching human spaces is to make a distinction between
private and public space. Some spaces could be called “hybrid spaces,” including
aspects from different kinds of spaces. What are the differences between the
aesthetics of the different forms of space? What sort of a role does the
experience of spaces play in human life as a whole?
A diversified approach to research into the variants of spaces, including the
role different spaces play in human existence by e.g. contributing to
well-being, can help in finding ways of creating more meaningful spaces and
might aid those in positions of power to make informed decisions about public
spaces that better satisfy the needs of human life.
People interested in exploring these issues are asked to send an abstract of no
more than 300 words to iiaa-info[at]helsinki.fi. Deadline for abstracts is
28.2.2011. The time allotted to each paper is 40 minutes (30 minutes for
presentation and 10 minutes for discussion).
Keynote speakers:
Isis Brook (Writtle College, UK)
Andrew Ballantyne (University of Newcastle, UK)
Martin Seel (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Germany)
Contact person: Kalle Puolakka, kalle.puolakka[at]helsinki.fi
www.helsinki.fi/ksei/tapahtumat/index.htm
Summer 2011
Wild
Intelligence environmental creativity courses
Lapland, Finland
Wild Intelligence is an
exciting new approach to outdoor learning and environmental awareness through
creativity. Through workshops and courses in nature it offers experiences that
raise the value of experiencing wilderness as a multi-dimensional intelligence
with the potential to change lives, to educate at all levels, to heal and
inspire.
Wild Intelligence is offering unique and inspirational environmental creativity
courses for the summer of 2011 in the Arctic Circle. This is a magical
wilderness landscape, vast and overwhelming and to create paintings, ceramics,
land art, or work in other media here is unforgettable.
The two
courses in May and September in Lapland are a chance to respond to
experiences of wilderness that combine the development of sensory awareness
and immersion in the landscape, with the perspective of a deep rooted
indigenous culture.
We will be in an environment that has immense presence, and our quest is to
find ways to express its place in our lives, and our lives in its presence. |
|
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"Earth"
21-28 May & 29 May - 4 June, 2011
In May, the spring
period begins with the last snow of the winter still on the hills, cascading,
swelling rivers and nature coming to life, with daylight hours increasing by the
day and dramatic changes taking place in the scenery. Wildlife is all around and
encounters with many bird species, such as Three-toed Woodpecker, Waxwing, Pied
Flycatcher and Siberian Jay are not uncommon. An abundance of other arctic
animals are also in evidence – reindeer, red squirrels and the arctic hare all
inhabit the area surrounding our accommodation.
In this course the quest will be to explore the landscape through its materials,
and we will also look for inspiration to the ancient 6,000 year old Pit-Comb
culture. We will also visit the wood sculpture collections at Kemijärvi and
visit local crafts people.
May / June, 2011
art aspects – seminars 2011
Spanish island of Lanzarote
SOUNDS OF THE SURROUND & MIND FIELDS
New EU funded arts and educational seminars for further education on the Spanish
island of Lanzarote. Following the successful completion of our seminars this
year, art aspects has been organising the following courses in May/ June 2011:
SOUNDS OF THE SURROUND - encounters with nature and tradition through art
In both nature and the modern city, complex interactions create the rich,
textured possibilities of life. However we must also balance and re-view our
human relations and our relationship with nature. Sounds of the Surround
reflects the idea that collaboration and exchange must be at the heart of
Europe’s progress towards greater harmony with nature and our collective
histories.
MIND Fields - working with all senses
The importance of an artistic education lies in its ability to develop visual
intelligence and creativity. By reshaping a simple exercise and loading it with
formative, creative and artistic value we can encourage others and nurture a
talent into growth.
Our courses receive the support of the European Community through the Life-Long
Learning mobility programmes Grundvig and Comenius, allowing participants to
benefit from the opportunities provided.
www.art-aspects.de/en/projects/seminare.html
23-25 May 2011
Challenging
(Un)certainties - the future of education and sustainability
Uppsala, Sweden
Cemus/CSD Uppsala welcomes you to the second annual conference on Education for
Sustainable Development (ESD)
How can higher education help us meet the sustainability challenges of today
and tomorrow? What are the key issues to adress in and across diciplines? What
roles can and should students have in the organisation of education and it's
implementation?
Keynotes, panelists and workshop facilitators include:
Richard Douthwaite - Economist and co-counder of FEASTA (the Foundation for the
Economics of Sustainability);
Gigi Ibrahim - Egyptian citizen journalist and political activist. Featured in
"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", "Time Magazine" and several shows on Al
Jazeera English;
Danny Chivers - Carbon footprint analyst, writer and performance artist;
Lena Sommestad - Professor in Economic History and Former Minster for the
Environment.
The conference is free (excl. conference dinner) and you can register by
emailing:
Sara.andersson@csduppsala.uu.se. Register before May 16!
www.challenginguncertainties.se
4 Feb. – 29
May, 2011
ECO–ART exhibition
Pori, Finland
Jan-Erik Andersson, Brandon Ballengée, Ciel Bergman, Christo and Jeanne-Claude,
Joyce Cutler-Shaw,
Agnes Denes, Chris Drury, Michael Flomen, Andy Goldsworthy, Helen and Newton
Harrison, Ichi Ikeda,
Richard Misrach, Nils-Udo, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, Alan Sonfist
Guest Curators: John K. Grande (Canada) and Peter Selz (USA)
Curator: Pia Hovi-Assad
The Eco-Art exhibition starts the 30th anniversary year of Pori Art Museum. It
represents legendary American pioneers in Land and Environmental Art, and
contemporary artists from USA, Canada, Japan and Europe. Many of these artists
are showing their works for the first time in Finland. Eco-Art comprise of
photographic prints, drawings, videos, installations and wall paintings. Most of
the photographic prints have been produced locally to enable a reduced carbon
footprint for the exhibition.
As the landscape and environment change on our planet for a number of reasons,
artists’ engagement with these issues increasingly moves from a theoretical and
conceptual bias to direct action and process-oriented art, or alternatively an
art that involved landscape integration as part of its vernacular.
The discourse on art and ecology has become important.
Eco-Art reinforces a new vision of art through the various artists’
presentations, an alternative to economies of scale more like art in scale
with nature, and ecological systems. |
|
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As we can see from the beginnings of Earth
and Land Art, this art form is evolving. Increasingly ephemeral earth art
attracts a truly global and inter-cultural participation.
The Pori Art Museum has a long history of exhibitions and events that reveal a
strong commitment to the
art/nature dialogue. Eco-Art is an effective show for its renders available to
audiences the works of artists
from far away, and we can see the themes, the approaches, the interests all lead
us back to nature, along a trail that history and time can forget, but only
briefly. Similar triggers and cues inspired even the early
modernist artists of the 20th century, but the economic vision was one of
unassailable growth and
exploitation of resources. The economies we have built out of the natural world,
and its correspondent
tautology of progress, are still reliant on resources just as they have always
been. The dilemmas of
contemporary criticism are, in part the result of a failure to identify with the
holistic basis of art, not only
in a visual, symbolic or conceptual way, but more importantly, in realizing that
nature is the art of which
we are a part.
In co-operation with: Royal Botanical Gardens (Canada), Galerie Lelong (USA),
Electronic Arts Intermix
(USA).
More information: Pia Hovi-Assad, exhibition curator, tel. +358-02-621 1089, or
+358-044-7011089
pia.hovi-assad@pori.fi
www.poriartmuseum.fi
Master's degree in Applied Visuals Arts
Rovaniemi, Finland
The application period is extended: It is possible to Apply by 19
May 2011
Visual arts and cultural productions have become an integral part of the
tourism-related experience industry. On the one hand, this requires new skills
from the artists, and on the other, it offers an inviting setting for developing
and enhancing the ways of creating art. The program aims to integrate artistic
skills as well as practise-based and scientific knowledge to create ecologically
and ethically sound experience environments, services, and art productions that
are based on the cultural heritage and traditions of the area and its people.
The studies include project-based collaboration with cultural institutions and
tourism companies in Lapland and the Barents region.
The Master’s Degree in Applied Visual Arts is a two-year program. The graduates
will obtain the Master of Arts (Art and Design) degree. The programme is
organized jointly by the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland
and Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences as part of the Insitute for
Northern Culture. The studies take place in Rovaniemi and in Tornio, Finland.
The programme consists of studies in Applied Visual Arts (85 cr.) and minor
subject studies (35 cr.). The studies in Applied Visual Arts include
environmental art, community art, project studies, and research. The minor
subject studies include design studies (20 cr.) and optional studies (15 cr.) in
six alternative fields: environmental design, entrepreneurship, tourism
research, environmental studies, cultural industries, and Arctic studies.
More information about the program:
http://www.ulapland.fi/appliedvisual
20-22 April, 2011
Staging Sustainability
Toronto, Canada

How can we produce art
that reflects, celebrates, critiques and advances the cultural life of our
community without contributing to the destruction of the setting that inspires
these artistic endeavours?
The Faculty of Fine Arts at York University (Toronto - Canada) invites proposals
for papers for Staging Sustainability: Arts, Community, Culture, Environment, a
conference taking place April 20-22, 2011.
The conference will provide an opportunity for artists and those who support the
arts in a myriad of ways – from scholars, critics, producers and designers to
policy-makers, industry and government – to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue
about issues associated with the creation of environmentally sustainable arts
practice and performance.
The conference committee welcomes proposals for papers that consider the
relationship between the cultural and ecological aspects of sustainability in
the arts, and may encompass aspects of subjectivity with respect to community
and identity.
Please forward a 250-word abstract of your proposal, including your name,
affiliation, mailing and email address to:Ina Agastra, Executive Assistant to
the Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University,
ffadeanasst@yorku.ca. Submission
deadline: September 1, 2010.
www.stagingsustainability.ca
18–29 April 2011
4X4 Dance Body And The Environment
Dundreggan, Scottish Highlands

With Guest Artists: Jennifer Monson, Simon Whitehead and Angus Balbernie
4×4 is an eleven-day event on the theme of dance, body and the environment for
dance or movement artists, choreographers and artists working in related
art-forms.
“Somewhere in the midst of ‘sustainability’ lies an inspiring vision of
transformation. As movement artists we will take our dance and choreographic
practice into this territory, developing and deepening our sense of the self
within the body, to inspire and engender a vital reconnection between humanity
and the planet.”
www.bodysurfscotland.co.uk/bs/home/dance-body-and-the-enviroment
14 April, 2011
Lecture on art, nature and sustainablity
Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle, Sweden
18-20 pm. Lecture by
Jan van Boeckel, on art, nature and sustainability.
www.gavlekonstcentrum.se/content/view/30/85/lang,sv/
10 February-16
April, 2011
Nurturing Nature: Artists Engage the Environment
Bronxville, NY, United States
At OSilas Gallery, Concordia College,
with artists Eva Bakkeslett, Vaughn Bell, Susan Benarcik, Michele Brody, Jackie
Brookner, Linda Bryne, Xavier Cortada, Sonja Hinrichsen, Basia Irland, William
Meyer, Maria Michails, Roy Staab, and Joel Tauber.
Co-curated by Amy Lipton and Patricia Miranda.

www.osilasgallery.org/mysitecaddy/site3/events/auto_events.htm?item=8192
14-16 March, 2011
SYMPOSION 2011 - Artistic Research & Contemporary Art
Helsinki, Finland
Organized by Aalto University School of Art and Design/ Department of Art
(Helsinki) & Department of Art and Media (Pori)
The objective of the symposion is to adequately articulate the ratio between
artistic work in contemporary art (in fine arts, theatre, dance, design and
media) and the research work done by contemporary artists in universities. It
will come to be proved that artists who are active in art world also develop
interest in trying their skills in research work that aims at both systematic
knowledge building in artistic action and describing the outcome of such
knowledge building. The use of fiction, narrative methods, artistic description,
and/or art as an effort to submit the outcome to the critique of peer review
and/or academic assessment will emerge from the need to remain in artistic
discourse instead of changing, in the middle of the procedure, to an alien
context of scientific scrutiny.
The significant issues thus appeared to include:
-
feasible solutions to
the need of a methodology of artistic research,
-
the possible impact of
the strategies of contemporary art and thinking into the strategies of artistic
research,
-
the ambiguous nature of
the concept of knowledge in artistic action,
-
the translation of
emotive, experimental, and inner experience to an articulated outer expression,
-
the role of sense
experience in artistic research,
-
aesthetics, understood
as knowledge of sense experience, in artistic research,
-
the narrative
characteristics of artistic research,
-
the role and nature of
the written report in projects focused on artistic action,
-
the significant
differences in artistic research between fine art, dance, theatre, design and
media,
-
the relationship
between art curating and artistic research, and
-
the possible impact of
artistic research and its institutional frames on the practices of contemporary
art.
The symposion will take
place in the Helsinki premises of Aalto University, Arabia Campus, Hameentie
135C. It will include presentations of six invited speakers plus posters,
workshops and evening program.
http://aaltoarted.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/2nd-announcement-symposion-2011/
18 March, 2011
SYMPOSIUM: AGENTS OF CHANGE: Ecological Citizenship and
The Art of Changing One's Mind(set)
Oxford, United Kingdom
Friday 18 March 11 - 5 pm, Buckley Building, Oxford Brookes University. Room
BG01
A one-day symposium and dialogue process with contributions from 3 leading
figures in the field of arts and sustainability
Dr. Arran Stibbe - Ecological Citizenship and the Arts
In this talk Arran will discuss ecological citizenship and its relationship with
sustainable development, the transition movement and the Dark Mountain project.
He will explore the role of the Arts in helping to break out of a set of social
and cultural constructions that have placed humanity on a path to
self-destruction and in helping to open up new, previously unimagined paths. He
will raise questions of whether it is too late, or impossible, for the
trajectory of society to change fast enough to avert ecological collapse of some
kind, and the consequences for how we see our work.
Dr. Hildegard Kurt - What has sustainability got to do with an expanded
understanding of art?
In order to become sustainable, we need a viable understanding of the human
being: an understanding which is strong, emphatic, but beyond anthropocentrism.
The idea that every human being is an artist, based on the expanded concept of
art or ‘social sculpture’, offers such a new, viable understanding of the human
being. But what does the expanded concept of art mean? Why is it necessary in
order to practice truly humane – and thus also ecological – forms of living and
working, of economy, of science, of education and of politics? The idea of
social sculpture corresponds with the “culture of the inner human being” that
the economist and early promoter of sustainability, Ernst F. Schumacher, called
for. If this culture is neglected, selfishness, according to Schumacher, remains
the dominant power, especially in the economic system.
Peter Gingold - Tipping Point: facilitating collaboration between artists and
climate experts
For six years, TippingPoint has been creating dialogue between artists and
climate experts of all types, with the aim of creating new projects,
collaborations and cross-fertilisations, first in the UK, and more recently
internationally. Its activities have given and continue to offer artists and
scientists the opportunity to explore the cultural challenges precipitated by
climate change and the role of artists in this complex debate. Peter will be
talking about what has come out of this programme, and where it is headed next.
All welcome. Free entry. These lectures, seminars, workshops and 1-day symposia
are hosted by:
the Social Sculpture Research Unit; the Arts, Culture, Sustainability OBU
university-wide forum and ARP - the Arts Practice Research cluster at Oxford
Brookes.
Winter, spring,
summer and autumn, 2011
Mustarinda residency
Paljakka Nature Reserve, Finland
The
last Finnish forest areas that can be found in their natural state are located
in the Paljakka Nature Reserve in the Kainuu region, and the surrounding
research forests. Satellite photos and the terrain clearly show how the abstract
formal ideals of human culture are replacing the original organic structures of
the planet and the ecosystem at a devastating pace. Let the unpredictable
forms of the forests surrounding Mustarinda influence the art created at the
Centre.
Located in Hyrynsalmi (Kainuu province, Finland), Mustarinda-residency offers
rooms for artists and researchers of varying fields. Available for rent are
three artist studios and additionally three rooms suitable for researchers/
writers.
Mustarinda is situated on the second highest summit in Kainuu, adjacent to the
north-east edge of the Paljakka nature reserve. The surrounding view is of
valuable, and in some places, completely natural old-growth forests. Paljakka
and Mustarinda are also some of Finland’s snowiest areas. Mustarinda is the only
inhabitated house on the summit.

Residency periods range from two weeks up to three months. The applicant may
apply for a specific space depending on their needs and working methods.
Depending on the timing, families can be accommodated by the larger bedrooms or
two separate rooms.
The Mustarinda-residency application is informal. It should include a
preliminary work plan (1-2 pages) and 2-5 images. There are two application
deadlines per year, the upcoming deadlines are December 15th 2010 (applying for
the periods of winter, spring and summer 2011) and April 31st 2011 (applying for
the periods of autumn and winter 2011). Outside these deadlines availabilities
may requested by e-mail.
Workspaces are available with the basic tools for working with wood. The rooms
have large windows, proper lighting and mechanical ventilation. A digital SLR
camera is available for loan. The building has wireless internet access.
Mustarinda Society preserves natural and cultural diversity by bringing together
art, science and society to life via discussions, seminars, exhibitions and
events. The Mustarinda-building is powered pollution-free via geothermal and
wind power. We stress eco-friendly solutions in all areas of our operations. For
more information about the Mustarinda residency and exchange center, as well as
Mustarinda Society activities, visit
www.mustarinda.fi.
Applications may be sent to the e-mail address: info(at)mustarinda.fi
10-11 March, 2011
The Culture of Climate Change
New York, NY, United States
The 10th Annual Nature Ecology Society Colloquium at the CUNY Graduate Center,
hosted by the Environmental Psychology PhD Program
Sustainability, Environmentalism, Ecology, Conservation, Environmental Justice,
and Green Everything! The terms swirl interchangeably around one another to
challenge and cope with “Climate Change”. Specialists try to be more disciplined
in using these and other such terms, cordoning them off from popular meanings
but also separating disciplines and discourses in ways that prevent effective
communication. This year’s Nature Ecology Society Colloquium is intended to open
up the conversation around climate change and engage its many representations
and registers.
We are celebrating our Tenth Year as The City University of New York’s (CUNY)
Interdisciplinary Network for researchers, activists and other colleagues whose
work is at the intersection of Nature Ecology and Society. This two-day
colloquium will bring together CUNY and allied Students, Artists, Activists,
Designers, Journalists, Musicians, Performers, Film and Video Makers, Humanities
Scholars, and Life, Natural, Physical and Social Scientists to exchange their
ideas about climate change.
We seek artwork, presentations, panel and workshop proposals from individuals
and groups whose work addresses, visualizes, performs or re-thinks the culture
of climate change in novel ways. We welcome border-crossing interdisciplinary
proposals on the culture of climate change, including performance and visual
art, design, digital media, film, journalism, media culture, participatory
methods and technologies, science-writing, visual representations in empirical
or social research, and more. Contact us via email if you have any questions
(nature@gc.cuny.edu).
http://opencuny.org/nature
“When we find meaning in art, our thinking is most in sync with nature”
A review of An
Ecology of Mind, The Gregory Bateson Documentary
by Jan van Boeckel
 |
When we reflect on how environmental education can be innovated to meet the
needs and challenges of today’s world, and if we also consider the role that the
arts can play in this, we are well-advised to take a closer look at the
groundbreaking work of the great thinker Gregory Bateson. The year 2010 saw the
release of a highly interesting documentary on his work, entitled An Ecology of
Mind. Completed more than thirty years after his death, filmmaker Nora
Bateson (Gregory Bateson’s youngest daughter) directed a compelling
hour-long introduction to the world of this thinking. Gregory Bateson was one of the most
original thinkers of the late twentieth century. His research covered a vast
array of different fields: anthropology, biology, psychology, and philosophy
of science. |
He would often move himself across the
boundaries of disciplines, and do so in highly innovative ways.Until now his work has been largely
inaccessible to those outside of the academic community. With An Ecology of
Mind, this is soon bound to change.
Read the full review
Download the review as PDF
www.anecologyofmind.com
25-26 February, 2011
Inspiring Change Towards a Green Economy
Freiburg, Germany
It is widely
agreed that we need a greener economy, but asking what that looks like or
how we get there unleashes a lively debate. Throughout conflicting political
discourses, one common agreement stands out: Business as usual is no longer
an option - there must be a fundamental change of the status quo.
The Freiburg Forum on Environmental Governance welcomes this debate and asks
the questions: Where will change come from and how radical does it need to
be in order to succeed?
Will it come
from top-down or bottom-up, i.e. from new governance structures and
regulations or from creative initiatives of thousands of small experiments?
What types of changes are being championed by civil society, by businesses,
and by governments and can they effectively accelerate us towards a green
economy? |
 |
Part of the event is a five
hour long environmental art workshop that will be facilitated by Jan van
Boeckel.
www.megforum.uni-freiburg.de/
Ars Bioarctica art&science residency
Kilpisjärvi Biological Station, sub-Arctic Lapland
The application deadline is 28th of February 2011
Ars
Bioarctica is long term art and science initiative by the Finnish Bioart
Society. Since 2010 it is organizing an artist-in-residency program together
with the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station of the University of Helsinki in the
sub-Arctic Lapland.
The residency has an emphasis on the Arctic environment and art and science
collaboration. It is is open for artists and art&science research teams. Amongst
the first residents have been Andrea Polli (US), Helene von Oldenburg (DE),
Claudia Reiche (DE), Raquel Renno (BR), Anu Osva (FI) and Sini Haapalinna (FI).
The residency takes place in the facilities of the Kilpisjärvi Biological
Station. The Kiekula-house provides the residents with a combined living and
working environment, kitchen, bathroom, sauna and internet connection. The
Kilpisjärvi Biological Station offers to the visiting artists the same
possibilities and infrastructure as its scientists and staff. This includes
access to all scientific equipment, laboratory facilities, the library and
seminar room as well as the usage of field equipment. A dedicated contact person
in Kilpisjärvi will familiarize residents with the local environment and
customs.
The basic costs of a residency period include: Travel to Finland, travel within
Finland to Kilpisjärvi, accommodation, meals and sauna. There is a possibility
to cook in a common kitchen or to eat in the canteen of the station. The Bioart
Society will assist with the funding process.
Applications have to include a work proposal, a working plan with time schedule,
the desired residency outcome, a list of necessities for the work to be carried
out and the artists CV.
The evaluation of the applications emphasizes the quality of the proposal, its
interaction of art&science, its artistic and scientific significance, the
projects relation to the thematic focus of Ars Bioarctica and its feasibility to
be carried out at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in the given time.
For applications or questions contact Erich Berger:
erich[dot]berger[at]bioartsociety[dot]fi
More info:
http://bioartsociety.fi/3
http://www.bioartsociety.fi/residency/
http://www.helsinki.fi/kilpis/english/index.htm
Call for artists: The 1st International Eco-Artists'
Residency
Israel
The first international artist residency in the world which specializes in
ecological art has opened. The Photography & Eco-art Centre includes a charming
and relaxing artist residency which allows the artist to relax/create, explore
in a homely environment.
To apply for the residency please send us, the eco-art center, information about
you and your artistic achievements. Please fill in, what would you like to do
while you are here according to priority:
- Receive eco-art workshops, and/ or an environmental photography workshop,
and/or ceramic workshop, or work in a welding and wood studio* ( only for
experienced artists)?
- Register for the Eco-art course
- Walks and hikes, create new artwork ( please describe )
- Make your research for a new artwork based on the ecosystem near the
residency?
- Volunteer in studio office, in the garden?
- Make contacts with local artists? Receive environmental consultant for a new
artwork?
- Studying at the eco-art studio, archive and professional library
- Other?

Please indicate preferred dates and length for residency.
Costs: The artist is encouraged to apply for a grant in his/her own
country/university/community.
We can send a letter of invitation to the selected artists. Please send request
for costs of stay.
The Eco-art Residency is making a huge effort to find grants for needed guests,
and is looking for funding.
To support the residency please call- 972-2-9912101 or write to:
eco.art.center(at)gmail.com.
For
more details:
www.eco-art.co.il/eco-art-artistres.asp?CL=ENG