ecoartscotland

‘Sustaining the imagination: theatre and learning for sustainability’

3 year funded PhD hosted by the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow in partnership with Catherine Wheels Theatre Company – Further information – Closing date 9th July 2012.

Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow is seeking to award one fully funded PhD studentship to commence 1 October 2012.

The studentship, which will support three years of full-time study, is funded through the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards Scheme. Within the wider School of Culture and Creative Arts, the studentship will be based in the Theatre Studies’ subject group. The studentship is with non-academic partners Catherine Wheels.

The student will undertake a critically informed and contextualised practice-based doctoral thesis exploring how site-orientated theatre can facilitate children’s engagement with sustainability learning. Reviewing the landscape of theatre that connects with environmental and climate change agendas, the research will suggest original ways in which place-based rather than issue-based performance can engage children in developing everyday sustainability practices. Through the partnership with Catherine Wheels Theatre Company, the student will have an opportunity to acquire a range of creative industry skills and knowledges whilst developing critically-informed work which aims to respond to one of the greatest and most pressing challenges of our time. Working directly with Catherine Wheels, and supported by its Artistic Director Gill Robertson and Company Producer Paul Fitzpatrick, the student’s practice-led research will be developed at and respond to two contrasting sites: a primary school located in an urban context (Glasgow) and another in a rural context (East Lothian).

A Sort of Table of Contents, 2011

Read the review.  See the exhibition on the Feldman Gallery site. Force Majeure Works, including Sierra Nevada Adaption, on the Harrison Studio site.

The minor earthquake in Cumbria last week brought fracking to the UK headlines.

Fracking is a technology for extracting gas from unconventional geological formations.  Very topical in the North Eastern US where there hasn’t been a huge oil industry, but where now fracking is being considered as a means to extract gas.  The problem is that the chemical cocktail which is forced down the wells can affect whole watersheds, polluting the watertable and poisoning the land.

Josh Fox’s film Gasland has received extensive media attention, revealing some of the unintended consequences of fracking

SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics)’s project Fracking: Art and Activism Against the Drill, at Exit Art Gallery, New York City, December 7, 2010 – February 5, 2011.

But extracting oil from Shale has a long history in Scotland – the area around Broxburn in West Lothian has a number of bings which are the result of the 19th Century shale mining industry – different process, but no less environmentally damaging.

PS. John Latham redefined these, the Niddrie Woman and the Niddrie Heart, along with the Five Sisters, as artworks and historical monuments, during his APG Feasibility Study at the Scottish Office in 1979-80.

Focus on the  Zen question: “What can we not do?” Not cut down weeds, not tidy up derelict ground, not plan, organise, manage and control parts of our cities.  Asking how an open source ethos might affect urban living.  Read the rest of the article in the Vancouver Observer here.

Oliver Kellhammer is leading a week-long investigation into some of these topics entitled Open Source City: Field Study at Emily Carr University from June 20-24th. It’s part of the Continuing Studies Program and there is still space available. More info here: http://www.ecuad.ca/programs/courses/CESE/355/SU01