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Point your browsers towards YASMIN where there is a new e-discussion about the "Perception of Climate Change in Contemporary Art". Below you will find the list of the 15 invited respondents. The duiscussion is intended to further our understanding of the nature and quality of our perception of Climate Change...

 via YASMIN:

YASMIN is a network of artists, scientists, engineers, theoreticians and institutions promoting communication and collaboration in art, science and technology around the Mediterranean Rim.

YASMIN welcomes information on events, artists' works, organizations' programmes, projects, initiatives as well as discussions and critical analysis in the field of art, science and technology around the Mediterranean Rim.

YASMIN aims to identify the players and to facilitate cooperation within the Mediterranean Rim.

The list is currently moderated by the following team : Pau Alsina, Neora Berger, Dimitris Charitos, Nina Czegledy, Ahmed Hassounna and Julien Knebusch. They form the "Yasmin Group" together with Roger Malina, Jaco Du Toit, Annick Bureaud and Andreas Giannakoulopoulos.

Regional correspondents of YASMIN are Samirah Al-Khassim in Jordan, Ricardo Mbarak in Lebanon, Oguzhan Ozcan in Turkey, Erika Katalina Pasztor in Hungary and Rui Trindade in Portugal. You may find contact information for both moderators and correspondents in Contact page.

The Yasmin mailing list was made possible thanks to ISOC (Internet Society), The Rockefeller Foundation, Leonardo/Olats, The University of Athens, Artnodes- UOC Barcelona and all the coordinators from the "Yasmin Group". It is co-sponsored by the DigiArts Programme of UNESCO. 

Continue reading "Perception of Climate Change: online discussion @ YASMIN" »

Posted by 1stpulse at 07:42 AM | Permalink

via The Yes Men:

May 9, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

   Contact: mailto:EPDU@halliburtoncontracts.com
   Photos:  http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/EPDU/

HALLIBURTON SOLVES GLOBAL WARMING
SurvivaBalls save managers from abrupt climate change

An advanced new technology will keep corporate managers safe even when climate change makes life as we know it impossible.

"The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way," said Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss conference held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida. "This technology is the only rational response to abrupt climate change," he said to an attentive and appreciative audience.

Most scientists believe global warming is certain to cause an accelerating onslaught of hurricanes, floods, droughts, tornadoes, etc. and that a world-destroying disaster is increasingly possible. For example, Arctic melt has slowed the Gulf Stream by 30% in just the last decade; if the Gulf Stream stops, Europe will suddenly become just as cold as Alaska. Global heat and flooding events are also increasingly possible.

In order to head off such catastrophic scenarios, scientists agree we must reduce our carbon emissions by 70% within the next few years. Doing that would seriously undermine corporate profits, however, and so a more forward-thinking solution is needed.

At today's conference, Wolf and a colleague demonstrated three SurvivaBall mockups, and described how the units will sustainably protect managers from natural or cultural disturbances of any intensity or duration. The devices - looking like huge inflatable orbs - will include sophisticated communications systems, nutrient gathering capacities, onboard medical facilities, and a daunting defense infrastructure to ensure that the corporate mission will not go unfulfilled even when most human life is rendered impossible by catastrophes or the consequent epidemics and armed conflicts.

"It's essentially a gated community for one," said Wolf.

Dr. Northrop Goody, the head of Halliburton's Emergency Products Development Unit, showed diagrams and videos describing the SurvivaBall's many features. "Much as amoebas link up into slime molds when threatened, SurvivaBalls also fulfill a community function. After all, people need people," noted Goody as he showed an artist's rendition of numerous SurvivaBalls linking up to form a managerial aggregate with functional differentiation, metaphorically dancing through the streets of Houston, Texas.

The conference attendees peppered the duo with questions. One asked how the device would fare against terrorism, another whether the array of embedded technologies might make the unit too cumbersome; a third brought up the issue of the unit's cost feasibility. Wolf and Goody assured the audience that these problems and others were being addressed.

"The SurvivaBall builds on Halliburton's reputation as a disaster and conflict industry innovator," said Wolf. "Just as the Black Plague led to the Renaissance and the Great Deluge gave Noah a monopoly of the animals, so tomorrow's catastrophes could well lead to good - and industry must be ready to seize that good."

Goody also noted that Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society was set to employ the SurvivaBall as part of its Corporate Sustenance (R) program. Another of Cousteau's CSR programs involves accepting a generous sponsorship from the Dow Chemical Corporation, whose general shareholder meeting is May 11.

Please visit http://www.halliburtoncontracts.com/EPDU/ for photos, video, and text of today's presentation.

Posted by 1stpulse at 11:47 AM | Permalink

 

Performance Studies Tuesday Night Forum Series Presents:

Nuclear Futures
Julia Bryan-Wilson
Assistant Professor, Contemporary Art and Visual Culture
Rhode Island School of Design

February 14, 2006  7pm

Tisch School of the Arts
New York University
Department of Performance Studies
721 Broadway
6th Floor, Room 636

Drawing on art history, performance studies, and visual culture studies, this paper asks how monuments mediate, enable, and block different kinds of futures. "Nuclear Futures" explores the plans for a large-scale warning marker that will be constructed above the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a nuclear waste dump currently operating near Carlsbad, New Mexico. This marker--whose design was recently finalized--is meant to caution people for the next 10,000 years about the dangers of drilling or digging on this radioactive site.  What might these plans tell us about the duration and legibility of visible signs--their persistence or erosion through time--and the persistence and dangers of the dream of a universal language? What kinds of futurity does the warning marker ask us to imagine--or forget? What might the marker tell us about the performativity and temporality of visual imagery in the nuclear age?

Posted by 1stpulse at 04:18 PM | Permalink

via Social Design Notes:

The Hurrican Poster Project hits a few good notes. From the site:

The Hurricane Poster Project seeks limited edition sets of hurricane-related posters from high-profile and up-and-coming artists, designers, and firms from the United States and abroad. The donated posters will be sold online, and all profits will go directly to the Red Cross.

As of this writing, the site shows 108 posters from around the U.S. and the world. As with any open call, the sophistication of the messages is checkered — but there are a few that do a good job. It's also instructive to see the wide variety of approaches. And, despite the depoliticized context the campaign, several images do hold FEMA, Bush, and the media to account.

Posted by 1stpulse at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)