StrangeWeather.info

Nature Version 2.0: Ecological Modernities and Digital Environmentalism
Jan. 21 ­ Feb. 16,  2008 @ Colgate Universityis Clifford Gallery, Hamilton,
New York.

http://www.ecoarttech.net/sustainablefutures

Featuring works by Natalie Jeremijenko, Brooke Singer, Joline Blais, Jane
Marsching, Colin Ives, Alex Galloway, Amy Franceschini, Tom Sherman, Michael
Alstad, Don Miller (aka no carrier), and Andrea Polli. Curated by EcoArtTech
(Cary Peppermint & Christine Nadir)

---------------
Nature Version 2.0 is a survey of artists who reinvent environmentalism for
a digital age in a number of ways: by examining how digital technologies can
make ecological problems more salient, by reusing and recycling obsolete
technologies for new uses, and by exploring how digital spaces and the
public domain may require environmental protection much like nature.
Re-imagining the relationship between nature and technology, Nature Version
2.0 suggests an ethics of the network and an environmentalism of natural,
built, and digital spaces.

This exhibition is in conjunction with Environmental Art and New Media
Technologies: Imagining Sustainable Futures, a two-day symposium on
interdisciplinary, digital, and networked art and research that draws upon
environmental science, computer science, design, hacking, gameplay,
engineering, and ecocriticism. Following the Nature Version 2.0 artists¹
reception on February 8, keynote speaker Natalie Jeremijenko will launch the
two-day Environmental Art and New Media Technologies symposium in Golden
Auditorium, Little Hall, at 7pm. ³90 Degrees South,² a multimedia
performance by Andrea Polli will follow at 9pm in the Clifford Gallery. The
symposium will resume in Golden Auditorium on February 9 for a day of talks
and presentations by critics and exhibiting artists, 9am-5pm.

Hosted by Colgate University¹s Clifford Art Gallery, the Department of Art
and Art History, and the Environmental Studies Program, these events were
made possible through funding provided by the Institute for the Creative and
Performing Arts, the Film and Media Studies Program, the Environmental
Studies Program, and the Center for Ethics and World Societies at Colgate
University. All events are free and open to the public.

---------------
Exhibition & Symposium Events for Friday February 8th, 2008:

Artists' reception
5­7pm, at Little Hall, Clifford Gallery

Environmental Art and New Media Technologies Symposium, Keynote Presentation
Natalie Jeremijenko
7-9pm, at Little Hall, Golden Auditorium

'90 Degrees South,' a multimedia performance by Andrea Polli
9pm, at Little Hall, Clifford Gallery

----------------
Located on the first floor of Little Hall, the Clifford Art Gallery presents
approximately six exhibitions a year. A teaching gallery, all exhibitions
are selected by Colgate¹s art and art history faculty to provide examples of
work executed in a variety of media that demonstrate issues originating in
the academic curriculum. Another focus of the gallery is the display of
professional work by contemporary artists, who are often featured in the
weekly public lecture series.

The Clifford is free and open to the public from 10:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
on weekdays and from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. on weekends.

Posted by 1stpulse at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

via Rhizome.org:

While scientists calculate the long-term prognostics for the health of the planet, artists continue to take the natural world–and its fate–as both a medium and a subject in their work. The Natural World Museum and the United Nations Environment Programme have gathered a group of 79 such examples in the volume Art in Action: Nature, Creativity, and Our Collective Future. Representative projects range from the crowd-pleasing site-specific work of Christo and Jeanne Claude to Olafur Eliasson’s immersive provocations–just in time for a recently-opened mid-career survey of his work at SFMOMA–and the book is separated into sections that track artists rendering nature as everything from a fantasy Eden to a fallen wasteland of unchecked human development. The title makes the book’s overall purpose clear. As much as it documents individual projects that engage with and manipulate ecology, the intent is a cumulative attempt to draw awareness to the ever-more fragile state of the planet.

[Link]

This entry was posted by William Hanley on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 12:45 pm.

Posted by 1stpulse at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Agnes Denes

Uprooted & Deified - The Golden Tree
February 16— March 17, 2007
 
BravinLee programs
526 West 26th Street, Suite 211
New York, New York 10001
phone 212 462 4404
fax 212 462 4406
inquiry@bravinlee.com

MANIFESTO

working with a paradox

defining the elusive

visualizing the invisible

communicating the incommunicable

not accepting the limitations society has accepted

seeing in new ways

living for a fraction of a second and penetrating light years

using intellect and instinct to achieve intuition

achieving total self-consciousness and self-awareness

being creatively obsessive

questioning, reasoning, analyzing, dissecting and re-examining

understanding the finitude of human existence and still striving to create beauty and provocative reasoning

finding new concepts, recognizing new patterns

desiring to know the importance or insignificance of existence

seeing reality and still being able to dream

persisting in the eternal search

© l970 Agnes Denes

Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule:
11,000 Trees, 11,000 people, 400 years
1992-1996

Posted by 1stpulse at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 via NEWSgrist:

SILENT MIGRATION
Brandon Ballengée
The Arsenal Gallery in Central Park
5th Avenue at 64th Street, 3rd Floor

Please join us for the opening of artist Brandon Ballengée's Silent Migration exhibition at the Central Park Arsenal Gallery on Weds March 7th at 6pm. This exhibition is the fourth event of the Human/Nature series, a joint partnership of the organizations Ecoartspace, The Nature Conservancy and New York City Audubon in conjunction with the New York City Department of Parks.
 
Ballengée explores local issues threatening New York City’s bird populations. Over 300 species of birds visit New York City each year. Birds fly from as far away as Patagonia and Greenland to visit our metropolis. NYC is located along the Atlantic Migratory Bird Flyway and during the spring and fall thousands of birds pass through the city. Many species of birds migrate at night, and can be disoriented by illuminated structures—particularly when weather conditions force them to fly at lower altitudes. 

In this exhibition, Ballengée explores to local issues threatening our bird populations. Using actual historic prints by John James Audubon, Ballengée has cut and removed extinct and declining birds. In a photographic series titled Electric Stars at Dawn, the artist will demonstrate the light pollution problem that New York City buildings create for birds. The Great Atlantic Fly-way is a large collaborative artwork generated from hundreds of migratory bird photographs taken by the public throughout the Americas and placed along a painted mural of the Atlantic coastline. In addition the artist has created three tropical dioramas contrasted by video footage of exotic birds attempting to survive in the concrete jungle of New York City.
 
A panel discussion with Brandon Ballengée, Mike Feller, NYC Park's Chief Naturalist; Denise Markonish, Curator, ArtSpace, New Haven and Rebekah Creshkoff, the founder of NYC Audubon's Project SafeFlight program will take place on Tuesday, March 20th at 6pm. The panel discussion will be moderated by Ecoartspace curator, Amy Lipton. 
 
This lecture is free, reservations are not necessary. For additional information, please contact 212-381-2195 or nycevents@tnc.org

more info on Brandon Ballengée:

www.greenmuseum.org/ballengee
www.wavehill.org/arts/brandon_ballengee.html
www.scicult.com/artists/brandonballengee
www.disk-o.com/malamp
http://media.nyas.org/content/podcasts/snc/ballengee.m4b

Posted by 1stpulse at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Image: From At This Rate, by Giles Revell and Matt Wiley].

Logging roads in tropical rainforests expose whole landscapes to disease, fire, drought, longterm human settlement, and uncontrolled future deforestation.
"Every second we lose an area the size of a football pitch," Giles Revell and Matt Wiley write, describing the ecological motivation behind their new photographic series, At This Rate. "Every day we lose an area larger than all five boroughs of New York City... Every year we lose an area three times the size of Sri Lanka."

[Image: From At This Rate, by Giles Revell and Matt Wiley].

Revell and Wiley produced At This Rate for a publication by the Rainforest Action Network; the project is "aimed at increasing awareness of the rapid destruction of our rainforests. If this destruction continues, half our remaining rainforests will be gone by 2025 and by 2060 there will be absolutely nothing left."

Posted by 1stpulse at 03:03 PM | Permalink

Bruce Sterling writes:

    I never realized that James Howard Kunstler, prophet
    of suburban oil-peak doom, is a painter.  The guy is
    a pretty darn good painter, actually.

Here's a snippet from the interview and some info on his '93 book, Geography of Nowhere:

An Interview with James Howard Kunstler
Bring It On Home
by Mark Givens

James Howard Kunstler has written four books on Urban Design and Suburbia including the ground-breaking "Geography of Nowhere" in 1993. He has also written nine novels, the newest of which is entitled "Maggie Darling" and it's a doozy. He is a passionate author, a painter, an insightful social critic, and a sharp-witted observer. His latest book is called "The Long Emergency" and it talks about life after "peak oil" - or, as he describes it in this interview, "the cheap oil fiesta of the late 20th century". His "Clusterfuck Nation" is loaded with his commentary on our social condition and his "Eyesore of the Month" serves to remind us, with wit and sincerity, of the horrible things we're doing to our surroundings. But most of all, James Howard Kunstler gives voice to the uneasy feelings that bubble up within us, from the discomfort and confusion regarding our current urban environment to the uncertainty regarding our future post-cheap oil.

MungBeing: Your background is not in urban planning or architecture. Where does your passion for urban design come from?

James Howard Kunstler: Well, I've had to live in the shitty environments of daily life here in America for half a century, and I have strong feelings about it. The books I wrote represented to a large extent a personal struggle to understand why we could do such damage to our civilization.

MB: What attracted you to New Urbanism?

JHK: When I was writing "The Geography of Nowhere," I went up a lot of blind alleys. I talked to a lot of people who were, in fact, part of the problem -- for example, "star" architects like Bob Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown, who thought all the suburban crap was wonderful, playful, marvelous. When I finally encountered Andres Duany, I realized I had finally come to the right source. That very year, 1993, Andres along with his wife Lizz Plater-Zyberk, Doug Kelbaugh of the U of Washington, Peter Calthorpe, Stefanos Polyzoides, and a bunch of other dissatisfied architect / urbanists were organizing the official group that came to be called the Congress for the New Urbanism  -- the name was supplied by it's founding director, Peter Katz. These guys knew the score. I had found my way home.

[read on...]

The Geography of Nowhere:
The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape (Hardcover)
by James Howard Kunstler
303 pages
Simon & Schuster (June 1993)
ISBN-10: 0671707744
ISBN-13: 978-0671707743

From Library Journal
In this spirited, irreverent critique, Kunstler spares none of the culprits that have conspired in the name of the American Dream to turn the U.S. landscape from a haven of the civic ideal into a nightmare of crass commercial production and consumption.

Kunstler strips the bark off the utopian social engineering promoted by the machine-worshiping Modern movement of Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright and skewers the intellectual camps (e.g., Venturi) that have thrived on making academic glory of the consumer wasteland.

With the fervor of an investigative reporter and in the vernacular of a tabloid journalist, Kunstler exposes the insidious "car lobby" and gives case studies of landscapes as diverse as Detroit, Atlantic City, and Seaside, Florida, to illustrate both the woes and hopeful notes.

The ideas in this book are not new (Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte Jr. were bemoaning the loss of civic life a quarter-century ago), but Kunstler gives their case an urgent, popular voice. An eminently relevant and important book; highly recommended.

- Thomas P.R. Nugent, New York
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Posted by 1stpulse at 10:49 AM | Permalink

reblogged via NEWSgrist, 10/26/06:

User's Guide for the 21st Century

Posted by 1stpulse at 10:44 AM | Permalink

eft image: ”No Way Back?” poster. Design by César Sesio.
Right image: “Land, Art: A Cultural Ecology Handbook” book cover. Design by SMITH. 

via e-flux:

Arts & Ecology announces forthcoming conference and book launch

For more information on these events and the Arts & Ecology programme visit
http://www.rsaartsandecology.org.uk

No Way Back?
A two day international conference at the LSE, London
11 & 12 December 2006
Tickets available here
Book before 10 Nov for a discounted ticket.

Speakers include Maria Thereza Alves, Lara Almárcegui, Jeremy Deller, Andrew Freear, Tue Greenfort, Peter Head, Peter Hewitt, Patrick Holden, Professor Zou Ji, John Jordan, David Lammy MP, Heather & Ivan Morison, Ruth Padel, Marjetica Potrc, Claudio Prado, Ralph Rugoff, Tomás Saraceno, Professor John Schellnhuber, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Matthew Taylor, Klaus Weber, Dr Ken Yeang

No Way Back? is a two day international enquiry organised by the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, London, in partnership with Arts Council England and the London School of Economics and Political Science. As part of the Arts & Ecology programme, the conference aims to provide different perspectives on ecological issues from major thinkers of our time. Bringing together artists, geographers, ecologists, economists, sociologists, architects, philosophers, anthropologists and others, it will focus on real places and issues. The exploration will include keynote presentations, workshops, panel discussions, walks, readings, screenings, artists’ interventions and will encourage dialogue with and among the delegates.

LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook
Edited by Max Andrews

Published by the RSA in partnership with Arts Council England.
Designed by SMITH. Distributed worldwide by Cornerhouse Publications and available from http://www.cornerhouse.org/publications
ISBN 0 901469 57 2 / 280pp / Full colour throughout

Publication date: 12 December 2006

Contributions by Lara Almárcegui, Francis Alÿs, Amy Balkin, James Boyle, Fernando Bryce, Susan Canney, Chu Yun, Donna Conlon, Jimmie Durham & Maria Thereza Alves, Feng Yuan, Futurefarmers & Free Soil, Tue Greenfort, Henrik Håkansson, Thomas Hirschhorn, Katie Holten, Marine Hugonnier, Alfredo Jaar, Jiang Jun, Brian Jungen, Jeffrey Kastner, Winona LaDuke, Learning Group, Lucy R. Lippard, Wangari Maathai, Jonathan Meuser, Jason Middlebrook, Aleksandra Mir, Nils Norman, David Naguib Pellow & Lisa Sun-Hee Park, PLATFORM, Richard Prince, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Tomás Saraceno, Paul Schmelzer, Peter Schmelzer, Michael Shellenberger & Ted Nordhaus, Cameron Sinclair, Stephanie Smith, Simon Starling, Bruce Sterling, Kirstine Roepstorff, Rirkrit Tiravanija, David Toop, Vitamin Creative Space, Insa Winkler, the Worldwatch Institute and Zheng Guogu.

The RSA and Arts Council England are pleased to announce the publication of LAND, ART: A Cultural Ecology Handbook. Edited by writer and curator Max Andrews, the book presents a compendium of essays, dialogues and commissioned projects by artists, ecologists, cultural theorists, activists and curators exploring art’s varied modes of response to notions of territory, cultural production and the emergencies of the 21st century. Original contributions from international practitioners as well as reproductions of existing artworks will accompany artists’ on-the-page ‘studio visits’.

In part a genealogy of ‘land’ and what has been understood by ‘the environment’ since the 1960s—with the activities of ‘Land artists’ and the emergence of a popular ‘eco’-consciousness—LAND, ART… proposes and tests if and how our conceptions of art and artists are relevant to a global debate about the future of the planet, and where, how and why art might operate—at the grass roots, at a tangent, as propaganda, activism or as resistance, for example.

About RSA Arts & Ecology
Arts & Ecology was launched by the RSA and Arts Council England in April 2005 to support the work the work of the arts in examining and addressing social and environmental concerns in an interdisciplinary and international arena.

Arts & Ecology consists of a series of initiatives including conferences, networking, ongoing discourse, international research trips, education pilots, artists’ projects and commissions, a website and a publication. Information can be found at http://www.rsaartsandecology.org.uk

Posted by 1stpulse at 08:54 AM | Permalink

TAVARES STRACHAN
The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Ice Project), 2004-06
Preview Date: Dec. 5th, 5–8pm
Dec. 6–10, 2006
(11am–8pm, except Sun, 11am–4pm)
2010 North Miami Ave (between 20th / 21st St)

http://www.distancebetween.org
http://www.pierogi2000.com
http://www.feldmangallery.com
 

via art-agenda:

Pierogi Gallery and Ronald Feldman Fine Arts are pleased to present the exhibition of Tavares Strachan's The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want (Arctic Ice Project) in the Wynnwood section of Miami, FL, opening December 5th, 2006 (5-8pm).

In March 2005 Strachan traveled to the Alaskan Arctic in search of a frozen river. Within several days he located one under the Arctic Circle. With the help of a skilled team, he cut into the frozen water to extract a 4.5 ton portion. This block of ice was shipped to Nassau, Bahamas for exhibition in July 2006, an extremely hot summer month in the Bahamas. While on exhibition, the ice sits in a glass freezer, which derives its power from a solar energy system. In effect, the power of the sun keeps this remnant of the Arctic intact, stable, and on view. After the exhibition in Miami the work will travel for further exhibitions.

Strachan's work in general, and the Arctic Ice Project in particular, touches on many different issues: environmental, geographical, social, cultural, and historical. Perhaps the most obvious reference is environmental, relating to global warming and the recent recognition (or denial) of current and potential climactic changes—the reality and the politics of global warming. Geographically and culturally, the work references multiple levels of displacement that draw on human experience. Socially, Strachan has been working to involve communities of school children in the Bahamas through lectures, the tradition of oral story telling, and performances. The act of retracing this expedition is a way of imbedding this arctic experience into the imagination of the community. Using phenomena as a vehicle, this project involves systems of myth, and the products of these experiences are the basis for Strachan’s new works that will be incorporated into later exhibitions.

Continue reading "Tavares Strachan's Arctic Ice Project" »

Posted by 1stpulse at 09:11 AM | Permalink

Posted by 1stpulse at 02:41 PM | Permalink

Alexis Rockman
Carol Selter
Christy Rupp
Free Soil
Free Fruit/Fruta Gratis
JohnKo Systems Unlimited/Old World Productions
Laura Parker
Matthew Moore
Rachel Major
Shada/Jahn
Susan Leibovitz Steinman
Temescal Amity Works
Wowhaus

 

Hybrid Fields is a group exhibition of contemporary artists creating socially engaged art that explores philosophies for growing food, distributing food, and consuming food. Their art inhabits a hybrid space where art and life, art and agriculture, converge. Sonoma County is a unique agricultural community supporting small farmers who have raised livestock and a multitude of crops through the years, including apples, hops, prunes, and increasingly, grapes. As new technologies expand our capacity for producing more food, faster, through mechanization, hybridization, and genetic engineering, questions are being raised as to the environmental and social impact of such practices.

For more information CLICK HERE

Contemporary Project Space

In conjunction with Hybrid Fields, artists Marisa Jahn and Steve Shada of Shada/Jahn present Swan Song, a lyrical contemporary art installation with a live fruit tree and constructed xylophone that renders the sound of falling fruit as a metaphor for the disquieting loss of un-harvested foods.

The Mezzanine: Selections From the Permanent Collection

Fields of Change
Agricultural Highlights from the Permanent Collection

Fields of Change will highlight the objects, stories, and images of Sonoma County’s agricultural past from the Museum’s collection, and provide an opportunity to consider important transitions.

CHRISTO AND JEANNE-CLAUDE: THE LAND
Selections from the Tom Golden Collection
April 22 - December 2006

Sonoma County Museum is home to one of the largest collections in the nation of works by environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Land features the preparatory drawings for their large-scale, temporary works envisioned to interact with the land and its inhabitants. Projects include Running Fence, Umbrellas, Surrounded Islands, Valley Curtain, and The Gates.

Posted by 1stpulse at 06:34 PM | Permalink

Posted by 1stpulse at 04:36 PM | Permalink

via Arts & Ecology (new to the Blogroll) - http://www.artsandecology.org:

Arts & Ecology is a programme supporting the work of the arts in examining and addressing environmental concerns in an international arena.

Arts & Ecology explores the current practice of artists, writers, architects and film-makers through a series of conferences, publications and projects that looks at local and global projects that attempt to communicate, challenge and sometimes propose solutions to pollution, waste and loss of natural habitats. The issues at stake – from the broad one of climate change to thespecific problems of desertification, waste and dwindling biodiversities- are being examined through artists’ practices, and through interdisciplinary dialogue with scientists, industrialists, government and environmental groups.

A key notion informing the entire project is that of ecology as a study of an individual’s relationship with their cultural, social and economic, as well as natural, environment. As such this is a broad reaching programme and aims to locate the arts as a central player in providing creative, and sometimes radical, insights and solutions to the challenges facing contemporary society. The information hub of this website provides a growing bibliography and directory of the inspirational work of many artists, writers and agencies that is currently taking place across arts forms.

Posted by 1stpulse at 07:46 AM | Permalink

via NYTimes:
Next Victim of Warming: The Beaches
By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: June 20, 2006

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — When scientists consider the possible effects of global warming, there is a lot they don't know. But they can say one thing for sure: sea levels will rise.

This rising water will be felt along the artificially maintained beaches of New Jersey, in the vanishing marshes of Louisiana, even on the ocean bluffs of California. According to a 2000 report by the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, at least a quarter of the houses within 500 feet of the United States coast may be lost to rising seas by 2060. There were 350,000 of these houses when the report was written, but today there are far more.

"If it is as bad as people are saying, at some point it will be a crisis," said Thomas Tomasello of Tallahassee, Fla., a lawyer who represents many owners of coastal property. But he does not dwell on it. "I cannot deal with sea level rise," he said. "That's such a huge issue."

Though most of the country's ocean beaches are eroding, few coastal jurisdictions consider sea level rise in their coastal planning, and still fewer incorporate the fact that the rise is accelerating. Instead, they are sticking with policies that geologists say may help them in the short term but will be untenable or even destructive in the future.

Florida is a good example. To prepare for hurricane season, which began June 1 and has already brought Tropical Storm Alberto, Floridians were still repairing storm damage from 2005 and even 2004, building or repairing walls to shield beachfront buildings.

Until May 1, when turtle nesting season forced them to stop, they were also pumping hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand onto eroded beaches. Florida has relied on this approach for decades, but after the past few storm seasons, there has been an increase in applications for sea wall permits, many from Mr. Tomasello's clients. "If you have a house or a condo that's threatened, it's really the only alternative," he said.

Maintaining eroding beaches with artificial infusions of sand is difficult and costly, and as sea levels rise, it may become economically impractical or even impossible. "The combination of sea walls and rising sea level will accelerate the rate of land loss in front of those sea walls," said Peter Howd, an oceanographer who conducts shoreline research for the United States Geological Survey in St. Petersburg. "So people with a sea wall and a beach in front of it will end up with just a sea wall."

Many people "want to disagree" that global warming is a threat to the coast, said Daniel Trescott, a planner on the staff of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council, one of 11 such boards in the state. "But the first place you see these impacts is on the beach."

The council is participating in a federal program to map areas that are vulnerable to rising sea levels, identify crucial infrastructure there and assess how much will probably end up protected by armor. Mr. Trescott said he hoped that the effort would put sea levels "on the radar, to start addressing how we are going to respond to this rise."

Elsewhere, scientists are studying data from ancient sediment formations to predict how the barrier islands that form most of the East and Gulf Coasts will respond to rising seas. "As scientists, and especially as federal agency scientists, it's our responsibility to think long term," said S. Jeffress Williams, a coastal geologist at the United States Geological Survey in Woods Hole, Mass., who is organizing a session on sea level rise at a meeting of coastal scientists next year. "What are the cumulative impacts we can expect over the next 50 to 100 years?"

Dr. Williams pointed to a plan by the Army Corps of Engineers for beach maintenance on the South Shore of Long Island, from Fire Island to Montauk Point. The project relies on historical rates of sea level rise, measured by an array of instruments in many locations, rather than on predictions of future acceleration, said Cliff Jones, a project manager for the corps. That is typical of the corps, he said, "to take advantage of what history has shown, as opposed to what might be predicted."

It is an understandable approach, Dr. Williams said, but "it is going to build up false expectations."

As with climate change and other environmental problems that develop imperceptibly, it is hard for people to see rising sea levels as a threat.

"It's a slow process," Dr. Howd said. "It's not something that is visible right now or next week or a year from now."

And the remedies are not attractive, to say the least. Few coastal residents want to see their towns walled off and surrounded by water. And few want to elevate their houses by 20 feet or more, as flooding experts are beginning to recommend in some coastal areas. The approach favored by many scientists, a gradual retreat from the coast, is a perennial nonstarter among real estate interests and their political allies.

"Socioeconomically, politically, it's an ugly mess," Dr. Howd said. [read on...]

Posted by 1stpulse at 10:05 AM | Permalink

Panel Discussion
Reclaiming the Land: Conversations on Collaboration

Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 6:30 PM
The New School, Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
55 West 13th Street, New York City

Admission: $10; free for New School students and alumni with ID 

Acknowledging the conditions arising from harmful past land uses and evolving methods to address them, landscape architects, artists, scientists, educators, engineers, lawyers and civic leaders have embarked on efforts to reclaim and reuse polluted lands. This conversation will address such topics as toxic pollution, waste disposal, reclamation design, public lands and urban renewal, looking at the potential for innovative collaborations that engage in contemporary land patterns and processes.
    
Participants
Alan Berger, Associate Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design; author of "Reclaiming the American West"

Chris Reed, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, Boston

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Percent for Art-Artist of Fresh Kills, New York City, and Artist-in-Residence, NYC Department of Sanitation

Moderated by Niall Kirkwood, Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture, Director, Center for Technology and Environment, Harvard Graduate School of Design

This event is part of the Vera List Center's year-long theme "Considering Forgiveness."

TICKETS:  Reservations can be made by email to: boxoffice@newschool.edu.  Tickets can be ordered by phone with a credit card (212) 229-5488; in person at The New School Box Office, 66 West 12th Street, main floor, Monday-Thursday 1-8 p.m., Friday 1-7 p.m.

INFORMATION: 212.229.5353, specialprograms@newschool.edu www.generalstudies.newschool.edu/specialprogram

Posted by 1stpulse at 08:55 AM | Permalink

 via The Week, 5/12/2006:

The Battle for the North Pole
The melting Arctic ice cap may be bad news for polar bears, but it is prompting a frantic scramble for territory and resources. What's at stake?

How fast is the ice cap melting?
The size of the summer polar ice cap has shrunk 20 percent since 1979, reaching its smallest size last year. With average temperatures in the Arctic rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world, climate scientists predict the Arctic Ocean could be ice-free by the summer of 2050. In place of the white wilderness that killed explorers and defeated navigators for centuries, the world would have a blue North Pole and a seasonally open sea nearly five times the size of the Mediterranean. Last August, a Russian vessel, the Akademik Fyodorov, became the first ship to reach the North Pole without having to use an icebreaker.

Who stands to lose from all this?
The melting of the ice could shut down the Gulf Stream and wreak havoc with the world’s coasts and climate. It would spell potential disaster for traditional Arctic communities, for ecosystems, and for plant and animal species—polar bears would drown or starve, and the species could become extinct. But fish would prosper. Warming Arctic waters are already creating new fishing grounds as fish migrate and adapt to new conditions. Pink salmon have been seen spawning in rivers far to the north of their traditional territory.

Who stands to gain?
The melting ice cap represents a colossal commercial opportunity. Russian icebreakers are already preparing to take tourists to the Pole for $30,000 each this summer, and the thaw could open up some highly lucrative shipping routes. A northeast sea route, north of Siberia, would allow shipping to sail from Europe to northeast Asia, cutting the journey by a third; and the fabled Northwest Passage through Canada's Arctic archipelago could be open to shipping in a few decades, cutting the journey from Europe to East Asia (now routed through the Panama Canal) by 4,000 miles. The greatest profits, however, are likely to be found under the ice.

What is being discovered there?
Oil and natural gas. A quarter of the world's untapped fossil fuels (including 375 billion barrels of oil) are thought to lie under the Arctic, and will become accessible as the ice melts. Industry experts now talk of a "black gold rush," as companies such as BP Amoco, Statoil of Norway, and the Russian giant Gasprom all race to tap already discovered reservoirs in the region. The Arctic, says Moscow-based energy analyst Christopher Weafer, "is the next energy frontier." [read on...]

Posted by 1stpulse at 12:14 PM | Permalink

via e-flux: 

Busan Sculpture Project in Busan Biennale 2006
(Special Exhibition)

Theme: 'Homage to the Earth'
Period: 05. 27. 06~08. 31.06 (97 days)

*Opening Ceremony: 05/ 27/ 06 16:00, Open Air Stage in Naru Park

Venue: APEC Naru Park
Artistic director: Tae-ho Lee, Professor, Kyung-Hee University
Artworks: 20 works from 12 countries
Host: Busan Metropolitan City, Busan Biennale Organizing Committee

Contact: tel. 82-51-888-6691~9 / FAX: 82-51-888-6693
http://www.busanbiennale.org / bbiennale@paran.com

Humanity’s brutal destruction of the environment has put our planet’s ecosystem in jeopardy not only for human beings but also for all living creatures. As a result, the discussion of environmental issues can no longer be restricted to a select group of environmental specialists, but must become the responsibility of all human beings. Caring for, and protecting our ecosystem is a challenge for each and every one of us.

For this reason, the Busan Sculpture Project - a special exhibition of the Busan Biennale 2006 – has made “Homage to the Earth” its theme. Among other things, the exhibit’s goal is to raise awareness of our natural environment, the broader eco-system and our role within it, as well as to encourage all human beings to take the appropriate measures to appreciate and care for the world around us.

“Homage to the Earth” will showcase 20 artists from 12 countries. Through their art, each artist will focus on the importance of the natural environment, highlighting the message of becoming responsible guardians of the Planet Earth. To facilitate this theme, and stress our relationship with the natural world, the exhibition will be composed of site-specific earth artworks located throughout the APEC Naru Park along the Suyoung River.

Moreover, to maximize viewer interest, the artworks will be dynamically displayed and visual overlapping will be minimized. Some of the exhibits will be set underground, or arranged in a line to represent the interconnectedness of all human beings with the earth. This approach promises to generate a novel experience for viewers – one that will result in lots of fun, while serving as a continuous reminder of our natural connection with the earth around us. 

[read more]

Posted by 1stpulse at 12:05 PM | Permalink

"A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness Summer 2005 "
Cary Peppermint & Christine Nadir
Performance on DVD
Summer 2005

via Ecology | Art | Technology:

A Series of Practical Performances In The Wilderness, Summer 2005 is a video performance work made in the woods and on rural back-lots. Performative chapters on the DVD include, Move This Rock, Waiting On Bob, DoAble, Home Economics, Sticks Like Snakes, Digging for Chicory, and Springwater Finale. This video is the first in a series of forthcoming performance-art videos by Peppermint & Nadir which engage issues, ideas, and mythologies of the American concepts of wilderness, space, the frontier, and humans’ relation to animals, forestlands, and nature.

This project is part of Cary Peppermint and Christine Nadir’s series of performance-art videos begun in 2002. Peppermint is an artist who works with new media technologies to create networked environments incorporating the internet, physical installations, experimental music and sound, and live performance. Until recently, Cary directed the Digital Art and Design program of Hartwick College, and in Fall 2006 he will assume the digital media position at Colgate University's Department of Art and Art History. Christine Nadir teaches literature at State University of New York College at Oneonta and is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University where she is completing her dissertation. Its working title is “The Future of the World: Sacrifice, Economy, and Ethics in Environmental Literature and Ecocriticism.”

Christine feels that these videos capture some of the energy, activities, and thoughts that she and Cary have experienced as New Yorkers living in the wilderness for four months every year: trying to establish a functional home without running water, electricity, or maintained roads; developing relationships with locals; un-learning the romanticization of nature while re-learning humanity’s dependence on the environment for survival; and researching the details of the history of the land and the surrounding area (its previous deforestation, its logging, its near use for an auto salvage yard, its use as farmland and grazing ground one hundred years ago, its inhabitation by Native Americans for millennia before that).

Cary says: The North American concepts of wilderness are informed by nationalist ideologies and concepts of freedom as a wild, un-checked frontier of possibility. I don’t believe there is any such thing as wilderness as we Americans are inclined to see it. How could one know or understand that which is truly wild much less employ it toward nation-building? Also, I find a certain intellectual humor in the offering of performances that purport to be both practical and wild.

Look for our quicktime videos on DVBlog.org
If you have seen these quicktime videos on DVBlog.org or through any other venue, we would welcome hearing your response.

Posted by 1stpulse at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Posted: Wednesday 12 April 2006

Posted by 1stpulse at 06:19 PM | Permalink

Posted by 1stpulse at 07:47 AM | Permalink

(thanks Christina!) 

News Release, March 22, 2006

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

New USGS Website features repeat photography of Glacier National Park glaciers over time.

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists with the Global Change Research Project are unveiling a new website featuring a collection of repeat photographs of glaciers in and around Glacier National Park, Montana. The striking images created by pairing historical photographs with contemporary photographs reveal significant glacial

recession.  The website was created to showcase the photographs for scientific as well as general purposes. To view the photographs, go to http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/repeatphoto/. 

Currently, 55 images are featured on the website with more color versions and newly repeated photos added as they become available. Most of the photographs were taken in Glacier National Park and many of the historical photos came from the Park's archives. 

USGS scientists began documenting glacial decline through photography in 1997.  While less quantitative than other high-tech methods of recording glacial mass, depth, and rate of retreat, repeat photography provides an effective visual tool to better understand how climate change contributes to the dynamic landscape of Glacier National Park.

The website provides an easy method to download the images. It also includes an overview of the project, instructions for downloading images, guidelines for using and crediting the photographs, and links to other historical and repeat photograph collections.  The images can be downloaded as repeated pairs or individually.  File

formats include high resolution TIF images (300 dpi), lower resolution JPG (72 dpi) images, and Powerpoint ®.

The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life.

To receive USGS news releases go to

www.usgs.gov/public/list_server.html. 

***www.usgs.gov**

Posted by 1stpulse at 08:32 AM | Permalink