News Archive 2013
19 November, 2013
Open lecture: From education for
sustainable development to
sustainable education – what is the role of art? by Jan van Boeckel
Ås, Norway
time: 13.00-14.00 PM
place: Tower building (Tårnbygning), UMB, room T230 (second floor)
The divide between us and the rest of the nature has been attributed to various
root
causes: the growing disenchantment of the world, the loss of direct experience
and
lately the replacement of the real with simulations of it. Modernity’s move away
from
the natural world has also generated countervailing movements, beginning with
the
Romantics and leading up to the manifold forms of environmental education in our
time.
In August 2013 Jan van Boeckel defended his thesis At the Heart
of Art and Earth: An
Exploration of Practices in Arts-Based Environmental Education at Aalto
University
in Helsinki, Finland. In this lecture, Jan van Boeckel will specifically focus
on the role
of the arts when developing new forms of sustainable education.
(arr. Section for Learning and Teacher Education, IMT, UMB)
21-22 November, 2013
Jubileum & Visioner - Fagkonferanse
Høgskolen i Telemark, Notodden, Norway
On Thursday afternoon,
Jan van Boeckel will present his doctoral research, between 16:30 and 17:00 PM
In Norwegian:
En Konferanse ved
Høgskolen i Telemark for deg som er interessert i fagfeltet, som er eller har
vært formings/kunst- og håndverkslærerstudent. Det årlige Åpen-Dør-arrangementet
går samtidig med åpne utstillinger for alle. Det blir også spesialprogram for
deg som er elev på videregående skole og mye å oppleve for deg som er elev i
grunnskolen!
Program:
http://kunstoghandverk-jubileum.blogspot.no/p/program_15.html
24 November, 2013
Jordnära konst för alla: Earthly art workshop
with clay
Varberg, Sweden
kl. 10.00 -12.00 & 13.00-15.00
Vi tar lera – den fuktiga, degiga substans som ligger under våra fötter – i
våra händer. Få din naturliga kreativitet till ljus. Skapa organiska former som
uttrycker dynamiska naturliga processer av groende, tillväxt och förfall. Du
behöver inte vara en konstnär för att njuta av denna dag. Två workshopar kommer
att äga rum med konstnären Jan van Boeckel som lärare. På förmiddagen riktas den
särskilt till barn och deras föräldrar. Workshopen under eftermiddagen är bara
för vuxna. Anmäl dig senast den 15 november (naturum: 0340 – 87510).
www.naturumgetteron.se/program/helaprogrammet/
11 November, 2013
Artistic and pedagogical interventions:
Department of Art Sympo 2013
Room 5022, Department of Art, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland
11.05 AM Wioletta Piascik: lecture:" Practice of Wildness - An
Arts-based Environmental Education perspective"
Full program of the day:
http://aaltoarted.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/sympo-nov-2013-lopull.pdf
1-22 October, 2013
FALL ART BOOST - Learn to draw & paint naturally
Location: cyberspace
ONLINE e-course
with community at www.creativebynature.org
Week 1- Outside-in
sensory nature connection
Touch, listen, look and feel into the world as you draw and paint in surprising
new ways closing your eyes and using both hands.
Week 2- Inside-out art-making
Explore breath, colour, change, spontaneity, impermanence and image dialogue as
you open to your own images.
Week 3- Inside-outside-in art-making
Put it all together. Learn to co-create fluidly with both nature and your own
unique expression.
Build a fresh
creative habit and transform your nature relationships as you spark creative
confidence in drawing and water-media painting. Appreciate art-making as a way
to know self and nature more deeply. Feel the peaceful joy of having a personal
creative practice you can access at anytime in any place.
This class is prefect for anyone wanting to develop their own creative practice
while working at home. Activities are easy to do and require max 20-30 minutes
each day. You can even work at your own pace, using the class PDF as a
reference, as you enjoy the company of co-travellers online and check in with me
as needed for personalized support (extra fee).
Here's what one
student had to say:
"Lisa's Create By Nature Art Boost program opened me up to new possibilities and
a journey that was transformational. It was more than just creating art....it
was about expressing my soul and intuition in a way that words could not
express. The art projects were fun, simple and before I even started to paint I
already felt that whatever expression I presented it was the right one from me.
Lisa helped me take that leap of faith onto the page. I realized that this is a
gift we all have to help us explore our inner depths. Forever grateful." N.
Watters, 2013
http://creativenatureconnection.com/
6-11 October, 2013
Ecology In Practice - Creative Conservation
Symposium
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Madison, Wisconsin, USA
October 6-11, 2013
Ecology In Practice - Creative Conservation Symposium
Haley has convened and chaired the Ecological Arts symposia at SER World
Conferences in 2000 (Liverpool), 2005 (Zaragoza) and 2011 (Merida), and
contributed to Richard Scott’s Creative Conservation workshops at these and
European SER conferences. In 2013 they will combine arts and science concepts
through formal oral presentations concerning practical research approaches to
ecological restoration. In particular, contributors to this event, will aim to
shift the focus away from the common position of having to justify the art in an
ecological restoration context, or even justifying ecology in an arts context.
They will consider the position that art and ecology exist naturally in the
world, but that many societies continue to spend much time, effort and money
extracting and destroying these embodied phenomena, resources and values. While
some artists' practical interventions reveal ecology through their art, or
contribute new perspectives to ecology, their art may also transform the
material world, ecologically. These intentions and manifestations are very
different from art that merely illustrates nature, or art as a tool to
popularize scientific endeavor. Here, ecological art is a necessary component in
interdisciplinary thinking and research, and through creative practices, may
emerge as a new 'transdisciplinary’ form of working towards restoration.
Now open!
The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) is now accepting abstracts for oral
and poster presentations at the 5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration.
Prospective presenters should carefully review the information below and then
submit their abstract via the online submission form provided. The deadline for
abstract submissions is May 1, 2013.
www.ser2013.org
23-24 September, 2013
Symposium Deep Time / Deep Futures
Helsinki, Finland
- a symposium on
artistic responses to the dichotomy between human time-perception and time in
biological, environmental, and geological processes, within which we are
embedded.
Time: 23rd September 16:00h – 19:30h and 24th September 09:00h – 16:30h
Location: VILHO, Kuvataideakatemian seminaaritila, Sörnäisten Rantatie 27 C,
Helsinki/Finland
Accessible for everyone and free entry. A collaboration between the
Finnish Society of Bioart and the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts Helsinki as part
of the Techno Ecologies EU project
From 15th to 22nd of September 2013, a group of Finnish and international
artists, scientist and practitioners met for “Field_Notes – Deep Time”, an
art&science field laboratory at the Kilpisjärvi Biological Station in Lapland,
organized by the Finnish Society of Bioart. Composed in work groups, think
tanks, and workshops they carried out basic interdisciplinary research and field
work with specific topics concerning Deep Time and Deep Futures. In the
symposium the five work groups will present and discuss their preliminary
findings from the working week.
Contributors:
Amanda Crowley (AUS), Andy Gracie (ES/GB), Antero Kare (FI), Antti Tenetz (FI),
Anu Osva (FI), Astrida Neimanis (SE/LT), Elizabeth Ellsworth (US), Erich Berger
(FI/AT), Heather Davis (US), Jamie Kruse (US), Jasmine Idun Lyman (SE), Johanna
Rotko (FI), Jukka Hautamäki (FI), Karolina Sobecka (US), Kathie High (US), Kira
O’Reilly (GB), Kristiina Ljokkoi (FI), Laura Beloff (FI), Leena Valkeapää (FI),
Markku Nousiainen (FI), Mia Makela (FI), Minna Pöllänen (FI), Ole Kristensen
(DK), Oliver Kellhammer (CA), Oron Catts (AUS), Perdita Phillips (AUS), Pia
Lindman (FI), Simo Alitalo (FI), Tarsh Bates (AUS), Tere Vaden (FI), Terike
Haapoja (FI), Till Bovermann (FI/DE), Tuike Alitalo (FI), Zachary Reyna (US),
Zahra Mani (GB)
Program: Erich Berger, Pia Lindman
Contact: erich.berger -at- bioartsociety.fi , piuska -at- mit.edu
Deep time and deep future are two concepts referring to the history and future
of our planet on a geological time scale. In 1785 James Hutton delivered two
lectures on his conclusions about the formation of rocks to the Royal Society of
Edinburgh, suggesting that the earth is of unknown and unidentifiable age.
Questioning the, at that time, predominant western belief that the earth is only
a few thousand years old, his “Theory of the Earth” became the base for modern
geology. The current scientific understanding is that the earth is about 4.54
billion years old and that our planet has undergone massive changes over this
period and will continue to do so. The time of organic life-cycles are easy for
us to grasp, but inherent processes of life span from immediate quantum effects
to deep time evolutionary processes. Apart from catastrophic events,
environmental changes occur over the time of many human generations and are part
of our learned environmental history and mythologies, but not part of our
everyday experience. Most geological processes are beyond our understanding of
change. We still can see the paintings and carvings made onto rock by our
earliest ancestors almost as they have been on the first day of their making.
However, it is difficult for us to realize that we live in an permanently
changing environment. Due to human influence or not, our environment is in flux
on different time scales. Although we realize, that we introduce changes on
planetary scale, and that resources, habitats, and favourable environmental
conditions are limited in space and time, it is difficult for us to think and
act more than one or two generations ahead.
http://bioartsociety.fi/deep_time/symposium-deep-time-deep-futures/
16 August, 2013
Public defense of dissertation Jan van
Boeckel
Sampo Hall, Aalto University,
Helsinki, Finland
On Friday, August the 16th, 2013, between 12.00 and 15.00 pm, Jan van Boeckel will publicly
defend his dissertation, entitled At the Heart of Art and Earth, at Aalto
School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki. Dr. Sacha Kagan
(Universität Lüneburg, Germany) will act as his opponent.
http://arts.aalto.fi/en/current/events/dissertationboeckel/
One can order the book (420 pages) at
Aalto ARTS Bookshop.
15 March - 16 August, 2013
Yes, Naturally: How Art Saves the World
Den Haag, The Netherlands
The international art event Yes Naturally – How art saves the world has
opened on 15 March around the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in the Netherlands. Yes
Naturally is an event initiated by Stichting Niet Normaal under the artistic
direction of Ine Gevers. The key question in Yes Naturally is ‘What is natural,
and who or what decides?’ Are human beings the only ones to have a say or do
animals, plants and inanimate objects also have a role to play?
The exhibition will
offer a thrilling tour of the natural world, including both clichéd images of
romantic landscapes with waterfalls and the hard and inescapable facts of
environmental degradation. It will wake us up to the reality of oil slicks and
genetically modified fish, but suggest that solutions to environmental problems
can be found if we are prepared to change our habits: through recycling and new
kinds of cooperation we can save the planet. Artists will propose new and
unconventional approaches. The exhibition will include work by Francis Alÿs,
Jimmie Durham, Olafur Eliasson, Atelier van Lieshout, Zeger Reyers, Superflex,
Ai Weiwei and others.
More than 80 artists will use this grand-scale exhibition to present surprising
partnerships between humans, nature and technology. The results are both
liberating and hilarious: you can design your own pet, fungi turn out to be our
best friends, you can harvest the city and seagulls are quite tasty on the
barbeque. But also: your smartphone is your memory, Facebook is your habitat,
internet the new biotope and nanoparticles have become an integral part of our
existence.
Sculptures, films, installations, performances and bioart from Francis Alÿs,
Jimmie Durham, Olafur Eliasson, Peter Fend, Fischli & Weiss, Natalie
Jeremijenko, Marjetica Potrc, Zeger Reyers, Tinkebell, Superflex and Ai Weiwei,
among others, will be on display until the end of August 2013 in the
GEM/Gemeentemuseum, in the museum gardens, the duneforest and even further
afield.
This expanded art exhibition is not limited to the museum walls. On the
contrary. Yes Naturally offers a varied programme throughout the city, including
urban wildlife safaris, performances, workshops, lectures and debates in art
institutes and film houses. It goes without saying that Yes Naturally is firmly
nestled in all kinds of social media and online forums.
www.gemeentemuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/yes-naturally
http://ja-natuurlijk.com/site2/category/showing-the-fish-the-water-en/
23-29 June, 2013
Making Art in Strong Colors: Landscape Painting in Northern France
Acquet, France
When I paint, said Paul
Cézanne, then the landscape is expressing herself through me: “I am its
consciousness.” This is the motto of the landscape painting course in the hemlet
of Acquet in Northern France, that will be taught by Dutch art teacher Jan van
Boeckel who earlier taught wildpainting courses in Norway and Sweden (click
here for images and description). The
forthcoming course in France is from Sunday afternoon, June 23, until Saturday
morning, June 29, 2013.
More information
12-14 June, 2013
Melliferopolis Workshop: Understanding the Essence of Flowers - Exploring
Pollen
Harakka Island, Helsinki, Finland
Call for Participation
There is an intrinsic
link between bees and flowers. In evolution they arose at the same time, bees
feeding on nectar and pollen; the flowers relying on the pollinators for
reproduction. Bees visiting flowers and harvesting their essence is a
choreography that nature performs each year. In these encounters, the flowers
disclose their secret to the bees, who take it home in the form of scent and
taste.
In this three-day workshop, we explore the environment of the Melliferopolis
bees living on Harakka Island, in front of Helsinki, Finland.
First, we concentrate on the scientific aspects of the bees' surrounding in the
chemistry laboratory built on the island in 1929 for military purposes.
In a second part, we focus on the poetic aspects of plants and pollinators,
their relation and communication with each other. Inspired by these dynamics, we
engage with the visual aspects of pollen, inviting drawing, painting and collage
to reveal stories and metaphores behind this natural phenomenon of pollination.
To participate in the workshop no preliminary knowledge is necessary. Please
write a short statement of motivation/intention (200 words) before the 20th of
May and send it to: ulla.taipale@aalto.fi
A maximum of 15 workshop participants will be accepted, 10 places are reserved
for students of Aalto University and 5 for other interested people.
The workshop is part of Aalto Biofilia –Base for Biological Arts program and
takes place in collaboration with Harakka Luontotalo of Helsinki Environmental
Centre.
It is guided by Christina Stadlbauer (beekeeper, artist, chemist), Asta Ekman
(chemist, responsable of the Harakka environmental laboratory) and Lina Kusaite
(illustrator, artist).
The workshop is part of Melliferopolis –Honeybees in Urban Environments, a
research project by Christina Stadlbauer at Aalto Biofilia, initiated in 2011.
Melliferopolis is supported by Biofilia at Aalto University, Kone Foundation,
Finnish Cultural Foundation, Helsinki Environmental Centre and Luontotalo
Harakka and Helsinki City Cultural Centre. Other collaborators can be found in
the www.melliferopolis.net/collaborations
More info at:
http://melliferopolis.net
www.biofilia.aalto.fi
12-13, 14 June, 2013
Symposium: New Pathways in Transformative Higher
Education: Co-creating University Futures
Olomouc, Czech Republic
How can higher
education become a more multidimensional enterprise, one that draws on the full
range of human capacities for knowing, teaching, and learning; that bridges the
gaps between the disciplines; that forges stronger links between knowing the
world and living creatively in it, in solitude and in community? If we cannot
find ways to respond to that question—not with a monolithic solution, but by
laying down multiple threads of inquiry and experimentation that might come
together in a larger and more coherent tapestry of insight and practice—we will
continue to make fleeting and fragmentary responses to the hungers and needs of
our students, to the abiding questions of the human adventure, and to the
social, economic, and political challenges of our time. As large as that agenda
obviously is, we believe it describes the high calling of higher education.
The symposium New Pathways in Transformative Higher Education – Co-creating
University Futures offers a unique opportunity to explore the question asked in
the introductory quote. It will be a place for weaving together multiple threads
of inquiry and action to a tapestry that contributes significantly to the
emerging field of transformative higher education.
In our time of fast-paced shifts, grand challenges and new opportunities many
policy statements request higher education to take greater responsibility for
societal development, to provide insights into the emerging new realities, and
to enable citizens and leaders to deal productively with the unpredictable. This
requires both transformative higher education and transformation of higher
education.
The symposium will bring together a range of innovators and change makers from
different contexts interested in such a renewal of higher education. The
attendance will be international. The language of the symposium is English.
In the symposium we will balance vision, analysis, reflection, connection and
action in a collective process of co-creation. The symposium consists of two
parts. The first part interweaves threads of conversation and conceptualisation.
The second part is an optional extension for those who seek also to interweave
threads of action.
http://universityfutures.com
May 2013
Wildly Alive
Metsäkartano Youth Centre, Rautavaara, Finland
Wildly Alive is a
wilderness retreat for women in the beautiful, remote nature of central Finland.
It is an invitation to embark upon a personal and shared journey combining
wildcraft skills, nature awareness and arts-based group methods in a safe,
supportive, and nurturing environment. This retreat is an opportunity for
profound reconnection to the Earth and our deepest self, building a sense of
community, and understanding relationship. The course is aimed at people working
in the youth field, who wish to gain inspiration and support for applying and
combining nature activities, arts, facilitated group processes and awareness
training into their work.
One core focus of the course is our relationship with the natural world. We will
work with practical skills like fire-making, outdoor cooking, and wild edible
foods. Awareness and attunement exercises as well as living according to natural
rhythms will tune us into our surroundings and to ourselves. The majority of our
time will be spent in the wild, with some days of walking and some settled into
a “home camp”, which may be either a simple cabin, a large tent, or a lean-to.
The other core focus of the course is in a facilitated group process. Creative
methods are used to build an atmosphere of trust, where participants are
encouraged to openly and honestly connect with and share personal feelings,
needs, and thoughts that normally remain unexpressed or unacknowledged. Sharing
on different levels fosters mutual understanding and embraces individual
differences as well as that which unites. Arts-based group methods are also
central, with the intention of the group actively co-creating the experience.
There will be time for sharing and time for personal reflection. The aim of the
course is to build lasting bonds between the participants and thus create a
basis for future co-operation, sharing, and support.
We are applying for EU Youth-in-Action funding for this training course in May
2013.
The deadline for partner applications is 14 February 2013.
Training Course
Facilitators: Pauliina Helle and Karoliina Valontaival
Applications and enquiries to Pauliina and Karoliina: email
wildlyalive(at)metsakartano.com
Download application form from here
www.metsakartano.com/en/youth-work/international-youth-travel/wildly-alive
31 May - 2 June, 2013
Balance-Unbalance International Conference
Central Queensland University, Australia
"We are living in a world reaching a critical point where the equilibrium
between a healthy environment, the energy our society needs to maintain or
improve this lifestyle and the interconnected economies could pass more quickly
than expected from the current complex balance to a complete new reality where
unbalance would be the rule and human beings would need to be as creative as
never before to survive." Dr. Ricardo Dal Farra
Balance-Unbalance is an International Conference designed to use art as a
catalyst to explore intersections between nature, science, technology and
society as we move into an era of both unprecedented ecological threats and
transdisciplinary possibilities. The previous events held in Argentina in 2010
and Montreal in 2011 provided a powerful platform for reflection, debate, and
ideas leading towards Balance-Unbalance 2013, hosted in the UNESCO Noosa
Biosphere Reserve on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. The 2013 conference theme,
Future Nature, Future Culture[s] is aimed to provoke discourse around what our
elusive future might hold and how transdisciplinary thought and action could be
used as tools for positive change.
www.balance-unbalance2013.org
June 9-14, 2013
Seventh World Environmental Education Congress:
Environmental Education in Cities and Rural Areas: Seeking Greater Harmony
Marrakech, Morocco
The scale and pace of migration is rising at an
unprecedented rate. Migrants flee poverty, hunger, cultural intolerance,
conflict, and the effects of environmental deterioration. They also seek new
opportunities. In the end, most migrants move from rural areas to urban centres
and with this in-migration cities grow. Like an organism, cities exchange
material, energy, and information, within themselves and with rural areas. When
they consume too much, too fast, they are unsustainable.
The deadline for submission of proposals is December 31, 2012.
Thematic niches are:
1. Promoting Environmental Education and Networking.
2. Intercultural dialogues.
3. Social Movements and building ecological societies.
4. Communications and the impact of social media.
5. Ecological economics and green economies.
6. Ethics, ecophilosophy, human-nature relationships.
7. Greening education.
8. Creative impulses: Arts, imagination, and emotional understanding.
9. Pedagogy and learning.
10. Research in environmental education.
11. Risk, health, and environment.
www.weec2013.org/en/
June 8, 2013
eARTh Walk
National Park Kennemerduinen, The Netherlands
"The universe is
full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper,"
wrote the English playwright Eden Phillpotts in 1919.
What happens when we seek to connect with the living world – not through
pre-established scientific knowledge, but through an open-ended artful process?
The relationship of Art in Earth will be explored during this experiential
course, in which Spring College will be joined by two artists and teachers Jan
van Boeckel & Azul-Valerie Thome. Each of them will take you through their
unique process of open creation. During eARTh Walk, we invite you to engage with
the living world and the moist, pasty substance that is below our feet and now
in our hands: clay. Working the clay, we will imagine and give shape to organic
forms, expressing dynamic natural processes of germination, growth and decay. We
walk through the beautiful Kennemerduinen while exploring how we interpret our
daily lives and how our ways of perceiving the world affects how we co-create
society and its systems. In this light, we will share our experiences of the
value of open artful processes. ‘eARTh in Kennemerduinen’ invites you deeply
into the space of the more-than-human-world. You will work with organic forms
and matter, use carving tools, paints, pigments and other materials to bring
your natural creativity to light. Throughout the day, a new relationship will be
woven between the place, your self and your creativity. We complete the course
with sharing our creative journey of the day.
Read more:
http://springcollege.org/upcoming-events/june-8-earth-walk/
6-12
March, 2013
Im Bann der sinnlichen Natur
Berlin/Hannover/Munchen, Germany, Prague Czech Republic
Wege in eine lebensfördernde Gesellschaft
|
Eine
Symposien-Reise mit Hildegard Kurt, Shelley Sacks, David Abram und Andreas
Weber
Was liegt
an der Wurzel der menschengemachten Krisen? Die Annahme, die Welt sei ein
Ressourcenlager für die Bequemlichkeit der eigenen Spezies, ist so tief in
der westlichen Kultur verankert, dass sie uns geradezu zur »zweiten Natur«
geworden ist. Die ökologische Krise ist im Grund eine Wahrnehmungskrise,
und Nachhaltigkeit in erster Linie eine kulturelle Herausforderung. Die
Symposien-Reise fokussiert auf eine zeitgemäße Naturerfahrung: Was folgt
daraus, dass wir die Welt als lebendig und nicht als eine beliebig
auszubeutende Ansammlung toter Bausteine erfahren? Wie können
wir zu einer Haltung und Praxis finden, in der menschliche Kreativität
positiv zur Lebendigkeit dieses Planeten beiträgt? Eine lebensfördernde
Kultur verlangt nach neuen Formen des Wirtschaftens. Aber wie könnte eine
auf die Pflege von Gemeingütern ausgerichtete Ökonomie gestaltet sein?
|
 |
Die
Erfahrungssymposien möchten ermutigen, eine Praxis »des guten Lebens« nicht als
ferne Utopie zu begreifen, sondern im Hier und Jetzt – in jeder sinnlichen
Erfahrung – umzusetzen und daraus mutige Schlüsse für eine (R)Evolution der
Gesellschaft zu ziehen.
http://think-oya.de/allgemeines/symposien-reise-2013.html
March 2013
Course: The Biology of Snow and Arctic Experience (5ECTS)
Helsinki and Kilpisjärvi, Finland
The course aims at observing and experiencing the snow from art and science
angles. It will be organized as an open seminar, held in Otaniemi Campus
biological arts laboratory, in March 2013. The seminar gives a
trans-disciplinary introduction to the snow, to its biology and art. After the
seminar a group of students (max. 8 persons) will take part to a week-long
workshop in Kilpisjärvi biological station.
The workshop will take place in the arctic landscape. The students will work on
their projects combining artistic and biological expressions. During the
hands-on workshop the direct experience of snow will be accompanied by the
scientific knowledge of the same element. The snow is present and a part of the
landscape, it is essential for the survival of the plants and animals; a man has
also adapted to the snow. It´s presence can be observed through a microscope, or
using any other tool either in the laboratory of the station or using other
methods offered by the arts.
More information: Leena Valkeapää,
email: leena.valkeapaa@aalto.fi
PhD Leena Valkeapää, environmental artist and researcher, has lived the last ten
years in Lapland, far away from the road network. Her doctoral thesis, In
Nature, a dialogue with works of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää”, was published in 2011.
The subjects of the dissertation are the wind, a reindeer, time and a man.
Valkeapää is interested in the influence of the natural conditions to the
worldview of people.
http://arts.aalto.fi/en/research/future_art_base/
6 March, 2013
The Biology of Snow
Helsinki, Finland
Aalto Biofilia Open
Seminar
Otaniemi Campus, Otakaari 7B, School of Electrical Engineering (ELEC) Sähkötalo
1
How to get there: Bus number 102 from Kamppi, bus stop "Teekkarikylä"
The seminar “The
Biology of Snow” at Aalto Biofilia observes the snow as a captivating natural
phenomenon and a significant part of the water cycle. Natural scientists
specialized in researching snow will present their research related with its
origin, physiology, morphology and the significance for the life in the
Earth.The program, designed with artist and researcher Leena Valkeapää, will
give an introduction to the nascency of the snow in the aerosphere, the essence
of the snow fallen on to the ground and its significance for the flora and
fauna. The snow and the organisms living in it will be contemplated under the
microscope. The seminar will also introduce participants to the tools and
methodologies used by natural scientists, and interconnect with artistic
thinking and practice.
The seminar is open to the public and marks the beginning of “The Biology of
Snow and Arctic Experience”
workshop, that will take students north to the Kilpisjärvi Biological Field
Station of the University of Helsinki.
The presentations will be given by three snow researchers, PhD Dmitri Moisseev
(University of Helsinki),
PhD Sirpa Rasmus (University of Jyväskylä) and Prof. Pekka Niemelä (University
of Turku).
The snowchange reflects to the decision making of local people and is linked to
a larger worldliness of the
weather, that covers – beside the knowledge of snow – the Moon, dreams, stars,
winds, traditions and
experiences.
Photo:
Still image from video by Tomi Paasonen and Jorma Paranko for Vol.at.ilit.y
stage performance.
http://vimeo.com/29024947
The seminar s held in English and
is available in real-time streaming:
http://biofilia.aalto.fi/en/live_stream/
Program:
9..00.-9.15. Opening of the seminar by artist, PhD Leena Valkeapää and Ulla
Taipale, Aalto Biofilia
9.15. – 9.45 Presentation: Cloud Physics. PhD Dmitri Moiseev, University of
Helsinki
9.45 - 10.00 Demonstration: Snowflake formation viewed in a microscope. (Marika
Hellman, Aalto
Biofilia)
10.00.-12.00 Presentation: Physics and Ecology of Snow. PhD Sirpa Rasmus,
University of Jyväskylä
Sample taking from the Otaniemi snow cover.
12.00-13.00 Lunch
13.00-13.30 Presentation: Arthropods living in the snow. PhD Pekka Niemelä,
University of Turku
13.30.- 14.30. Practical session: Observations of melted snow under the
microscope with Pekka Niemelä
14.30. Closing the seminar: Up to Kilpisjärvi, the arctic experience. Artist,
Leena Valkeapää
Aalto Biofilia
Biofilia – Base for Biological Arts, a biological art unit was launched under
the Aalto ARTS
in 2012. It offers a platform and infrastructure for trans-disciplinary research
and education
that aim at creating cultural discussion and innovation around the topics
related to the
manipulation of life and biological processes at a practical and theoretical
level, including
philosophical and ethical dimensions. Project Manager Ulla Taipale and
Laboratory
Manager Marika Hellman are Biofilia staff members. More information:
ulla.taipale@aalto.fi
www.biofilia.aalto.fi
11-13 February, 2013
Interdisciplinary conference: Art and geography:
aesthetics and practices of spatial knowledge
Lyon, France
We invite proposals to participate in a conference which will explore the
contours of geographic and artistic practice, examine their porous boundaries,
and delve into all manner of art-geography linkages, interrelationships and
hybridizations.
Context
The contemporary art world has gravitated toward notions of space and place with
terms such as “in situ”, “outdoor” and “alternative space” becoming ubiquitous
in its terminology. Further examples of art-geography hybridization include use
of geolocation, georeferencing, fieldwork methodologies, and other geographical
input in the creative process and in the appearance or significance of resulting
works. Consequently, art critics and scholars increasingly view issues
pertaining to public space, environment, and virtual space as prime topics of
concern. Yet if art practice is engaged with a “spatial turn” then geography too
is adopting and adapting art practice to the geographical imagination. Indeed,
maps may be viewed as artworks; map-making as a creative process; and fieldwork
methodologies as essentially artistic practices. A further aspect of the
art-geography nexus concerns art’s engagement with contemporary spatial
development planning and practice. From the branding of artist districts to
festivalisation and local policies based on cultivating, promoting and
clustering “creative industries”, artists are now seen as key players in the
urban development game. This poses a new set of opportunities and challenges for
artists to engage with revitalization processes, and also opens up new areas for
critical research.
http://artgeographie.sciencesconf.org/?lang=en
February 1-3, 2013
SCANZ 2013 3rd nature wānanga-symposium
Developing the culture to create a sustainable civilisation
Owae Marae, Aotearoa New Zealand
SCANZ 2013: 3rd nature brings together diverse people to discuss how to approach
working together across culture, discipline and media. We must work together to
resolve the issues emerging at the boundary between fresh knowledge and deep
knowledge, beginning with sharing knowledge and projects.
Integrating indigenous perspectives
with creative, environmental, scientific and academic views on reality is
essential to a sustainable future. At the same time, computing and digital media
are changing our relationship to culture and the environment.
On the one hand digital technology
allows us to analyse and display data in new ways, as when anthropologists use
language databases to shed light on the movement of culture.
On the other hand digital technology
adds to our senses, and extends them beyond the body to the forests and the
land. Scientists, artists and others are transforming the environment into an
organism, as Maori and indigenous peoples have always known it to be.
www.intercreate.org/category/scanz-2013/2013-wananga-symposium
