Art for social change
The RSA Arts and Ecology Centre is an organisation whose role is to catalyse, publicise, challenge and support artists who are responding to the unprecedented environmental challenges of our era. Using their inspirations, RSA Arts and Ecology aims to create a positive discussion about the causes and the human impact of climate change through commissioning, debate, interdisciplinary discourse and a high-profile website.
The RSA Arts and Ecology Centre was set up by the RSA in 2005.The centre's head, Michaela Crimmin, says "Artists have always had a powerful relationship with the natural environment. Equally artists continually question and re-examine society's notions of progress. We need their unique perspective on the enormous challenges ahead - on the relationship between environmental issues, and not least climate change, and people."
Furtherfield.org: The Zero Dollar Laptop
Nice to see Bruce Sterling picking up on the excellent media arts collective furtherfield.org’s Zero Dollar Laptop project.
Working with clients from St Mungo’s homeless charity, they’re helping people break up old laptops and build new ones, adding free opensource software to help them build new computers for themselves entirely free of charge.
It’s a great project. [...]
On houses that fall into the sea
Earlier this week the papers were full of stories of Ridgemont House in Devon – a house bought for £150,000 by auction, only to see its garden plummet down towards Oddicombe Beach.
The story brought together the national obsession with house prices with the fact of increasing coastal erosion due to climate change. Artist Kane Cunningham is jealous [...]
Pothole gardens; opportunity from decay
This via Thriving Too:
“An ongoing series of public installations highlighting the problem of surface imperfections on Britain’s roads by Pete Dungey, a Graphic Design student at the University of Brighton.”
On Dungey’s web page the photos are accompanied by the quote: ”If we planted one of those in every hole, it would be like a forest in the [...]
Arts
Royal British Society of Sculptors: 18@108:Found
Kate MacGarry Gallery: Ben Rivers
The Book Club: Rich Hendry's Ice Age exhibition at Marvel Bar
Gimpel Fils: Splitting in Two / Downstairs: Review Part II
Duckett and Jeffreys: Sally Taylor - Mouths with Triangles
Stephen Friedman Gallery: Wayne Gonzales
Diemar/Noble Photography: Marcus Doyle: The House Martin and the Cinema
Environment
England's lost and threatened wildlife
The forest scheme that fails to protect trees
Charges against sushi chef who served whale
Solar PV failed in Germany and will fail here
England's threatened species by region
Does switching off an escalator at Victoria station really save energy?