We are becoming increasingly attuned to the damage that plastic and the chemical components within that disrupt the human endocrine system, lurking in everything from cleaning products to fragrances. Many artists and visual art students have recently become attuned to this particular environmental crisis, responding in a myriad of ways.
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It’s the bicentenary of John Ruskin’s birth this year so it is timely to consider his pedagogy and how it may still be relevant today.
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It’s all too easy to feel impotent when it comes to saving the planet. We can recycle, take the bike to work, have our meat-free Mondays – and even go on a march. As writers we can use biodegradable pens, recycled paper and search engines that put their profits towards planting trees. But deep down, we fear our individual efforts are a drop in the plastic-choked, over-fished, polluted ocean. But I’m here to try to inject a little optimism. Because individual writers, and artists of any kind, can do something huge. They can change the way we think. The arts make us empathic to the plight of others and they can make us change what we do, every day.
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This is a reminder of this Wednesday – 25 September 2019 – Arts & Environment e-meet from 6pm-7pm. Please join OCA’s Dan and Melissa for an hour of show and tell.
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“I found it interesting that Alistair related Grizedale’s approach to art and everyday life to ideas of curating as, ‘making things with care – be it food, craft, art, writing, social projects, enterprises…’
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We discussed how different cultures and histories understanding of ‘good and bad soil’, before glass and microscopy developed scientific understanding of microorganisms, about mythologies of ghosts, culture and knowledge attached to the land, and more specifically compost, earth, clay, loam, silt and sand.
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Over three blog posts. Dan reports on his recent involvement in Grizedale Arts anniversary weekend, and a current opportunity to get involved with them. The themes of this relate to current Arts & Environment learning resources, visits and e-meets developed by Dan and Melissa for OCA.
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The word Anthropocene combines the root “anthropo”, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time. Whilst the term is widely used across many discourses it is important to recognise that the term has spread with great speed often dislodging familiar terms like nature and environment. The notion of the Anthropocene raises important questions that concern the sustainability of the planet to support human life.
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These events are part of a program of Art & Environment visits taking the context of climate change as a backdrop for explorations of art, design and ecology, environment and nature.
Read MoreIn our discussion about trial and error and finding the right working conditions to be able to experiment as part of the creative process, OCA student Bernadette summed it up nicely, “Lets set out to make loads of mistakes.”
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