June 22, 2012 by amucklow
Welcome to Rio +20
Despite grey, dreary, overcast skies; rain; a seeming lack of political support in some quarters and palatable disappointment over what is or rather, what is not included in the final outcomes of Rio +20, there have still been some things to celebrate.
Captain Planet
Bumping into Captain Planet (and the composer of the catchy theme-tune) notwithstanding, there was a lot of hope and optimism on behalf of the activists, lobbyists and young people that the small solutions being talked about and planned were helpful and would go some way in solving some of the issues at stake. Providing a forum and meeting place for people and ideas is certainly a positive part of the conference experience.
There have been many side events, debates and discussions as well as the People’s Summit or Cúpula dos Povos, in which people without UN accreditation could attend and put forward their ideas and expectations. This afternoon, away from the negotiations there has been music, dancing, a lot of talking and a sharing of ideas.
So, what of fashion. While, it may not have been on everyone’s mind, the issues being hotly discussed and disagreed upon, all feature in discussions on sustainable fashion. Brazilian brand Osklen, took the opportunity of all eyes on Rio, to host a launch party for a new range of sustainabley sourced t-shirts, and a charity tee for the Fundação Amazonas Sustentável, an organisation that works on projects in the Amazon area of the country – and a hot topic for everyone, here at Rio +20 and beyond. A quick chat with Oskar Metsavaht, the owner of Osklen, revealed his thoughts towards sustainability in the fashion supply chain – slowly and clearly, were two words that peppered the conversation and a remainer that some stages of innovation are costly, but a worthwhile investment all the same.
March 16, 2011 by Hatty
Somewhere Else – Ailleurs
11 February 2011, 8 May 2011
Espace culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Group Exhibition
The Espace culturel Louis Vuitton is offering a new variation on the theme of travel and choosing to reveal the Somewhere Else of eighteen “expeditionist” artists.
The nature of the expedition to which these artists devote themselves may vary widely. In this movement, in this encounter with new environments and cultures — sometimes distant, sometimes near, but always “other” — the artist finds the opportunity for a singular creation that is primarily characterised by its offset nature.
Lucy + Jorge Orta present a selection of artworks: Drop Parachute, Dome Dwellings and drawings from the series Antarctica, resulting from their incredible journey to the continent, where they installed the ephemeral artwork Antarctic Village – No Borders. The in-situ installation of dwellings took place during the Austral summer 2007 and was aided by the team of scientists stationed at the Marambio Antarctic Base situated on the Antarctic Peninsula.
Antarctic Village and the many artworks resulting from their artistic research draw attention to plight of those struggling
March 14, 2011 by Hatty
TippingPoint are hosting two fantatsic London-based events taking place during Climate Week (March 21 – 27). Check out the details below and for more information please visit the TippingPoint website.
The TippingPoint ‘Science Day’ – briefings on climate change for artists
Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, University College, Gower Street, London Monday 21st of March 3.00 pm – 6.00 pmTippingPoint regularly organises a series of presentations from noted figures in the world of climate change, aimed at bringing the artistic community up to speed with recent scientific and other developments. As the years have gone by the subject has become ever broader, as does the range of speakers we invite. It will be an extremely stimulating afternoon, followed by an opportunity for a drink at 6.00 PM. Speakers will include:
Tom Burke: among many roles Tom is currently Visiting Professor at both Imperial and University College in London, and Business Adviser to the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change, John Ashton. He has had a long career in environmentalism, including being Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, and founding the ‘change agents for sustainable development’ E3G. Tom will be speaking on the global regulatory and negotiating perspective, including his thoughts on what we might expect from COP17 in Durban at the end of this year. More on Tom <http://www.e3g.org/about/Tom-Burke/> and E3G <http://www.e3g.org/> .
Professor Mark Maslin is Head of of UCL’s Geography Department and Co-Director of UCL’s Environment Institute; he has worked and published extensively on climate change, including the popular book, Global Warming: a very short introduction. Mark will be bringing us up to speed on very recent developments, including the floods in Pakistan and Australia. More here <http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/people/academics/mark-maslin> .
Ro Randall is the inspiration behind Cambridge Carbon Conversations, the virally spreading workshop format for neighbourhood carbon reductions. Crucial to the success of this is the perspective she brings as a psychoanalytically trained psychotherapist, which has given her important insights into how we respond to the often gloomy news from the science world. Ro has written extensively about the impact of the loss implicit in climate change, and the ways we deal with it, and she will be talking about this. More on her blog <http://rorandall.org/> and organisation <http://cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/> .
Peachy Coochy Nite at Artsadmin
Toynbee Studios, 28 Commercial Street, London E1 Tuesday 22nd of March at 7.30 pm
Join us for an evening of fast talk, potent images and fantastical musings on and around climate change in the company of a range of Coocheurs drawn from the TippingPoint fold of art makers and scientists.
An image is visible for 20 seconds – no more, no less. The Coocheur must accompany each image with precisely 20 seconds of spoken text, and they have 20 images. The restriction is strangely liberating….
For this special night TippingPoint embraces PowerPoint, a form normally shunned in favour of participatory gatherings that enable scientists and artists to explore the wider cultural preoccupations of climate change.
If you would like to attend please RSVP to hannah@tippingpoint.org.uk
November 5, 2010 by Cath
The Oxford Climate Forum is meeting at the Oxford Union on the 19th and 20th of November 2010, and is currently advertising for delegate applications. With a world class line-up of experts discussing our approach to climate change just days ahead of Cancun and one year on from climategate, this year’s Forum promises to be a valuable experience for students and young professionals of all levels of interest. The event is completely free, including dinner on Friday and breakfast on Saturday morning.
April 23, 2010 by Hatty
Announcing a Call for Entries
The Earth Awards 2010 A Global Search for Sustainable Innovations Designed for the 21st Century
Great thinkers of our generation have joined The Earth Awards to help search for design innovations that will change the way we live and pave the way to the imminent sustainable revolution. From pioneers of the sustainable movement to green entrepreneurs and adventurers alongside household names in design and architecture, The Earth Awards has gathered powerful momentum to ignite the revolution.
The Earth Awards invites design submissions from all corners of the globe in six categories: Built Environment, Fashion, Products, Systems, Future and Social Justice. Ideas, great or small, realized or prototypes, will be considered but must distinguish themselves in six criteria: Achievable, Scalable, Measurable, Useful, Original and Ecological.
The grand prizewinner will receive $50,000 while category winners receive $10,000 each. In 2010 The Earth Awards’ Ceremony moves from New York City to London, where the Selection Committee will judge a shortlist of six finalists culminating with an exhibition in sustainable design.
This world-class exhibition will showcase the 2010 winning submissions, as well as past years winners. Along with the exhibition, the Financial Times will hold a Sustainable Business Conference and gala dinner inviting CEOs, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to match innovation with investment, fulfilling The Earth Awards’ commitment to shepherd winning innovations closer to market. Not since the Industrial Revolution has there been a more apt moment for unbridled creativity, invention, innovation and entrepreneurialism.
The Earth Awards provides a platform for transformational ideas for the way we think about design and the way we live on Planet Earth.
Open for Submissions: March 3rd – May 10th 2010
Selection Committee Review: May 17th – July 23rd
Submit a better world: http://www.theearthawards.org/
April 8, 2010 by Hatty
Lighter Later is 10:10’s latest policy plan to brighten our days! The 10:10 team suggest that by moving our clocks forward by one hour we could shift an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening – a time when more of us will be wide awake to enjoy it or use it more productively. This would still mean putting the clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, but the sun would rise and set one hour later throughout the year.
The guys at 10:10 believe this would help to cut carbon emissions as the more natural light we have available in the evening, the less energy-hungry and expensive electric lighting we rely on at home and in the workplace. The result is more efficient electricity generation, cutting around half a million tonnes of CO2 per year and saving us money on our electricity bills. Intrigued? Find out more about the Lighter Later campaign at the 10:10 website.
April 1, 2010 by Hatty
WWF estimates that last Saturday evening over a billion people across the world united in switching off their lights for one hour to show they care about climate change.
The official statistics are still coming in at this stage, but the latest news is that over 4,000 cities and towns in 126 countries took part in WWF’s Earth Hour 2010. Global landmarks switching off included Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Pyramids, Rome’s Coliseum and Forbidden City in China.
In the UK, other landmarks included Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Tower Bridge, the National Gallery and National Theatre and Wembley Stadium Arch in London; The Wales Millennium Centre, and Millennium Stadium in Cardiff; Stormont, City Hall and the Wheel in Belfast, Edinburgh Castle, the Scottish Parliament, Wallace Monument and the Falkirk Wheel, to name just a few.
This year’s event was a massive success and demonstrates the positive impact that Earth Hour is having on engaging the masses to think about how our behaviour impacts on the world and helping to spread the message of how vital it is to act now to help prevent climate change.
For highlights from the night, including photos and film coverage, as well as further information about how to become involved in Earth Hour please visit the WWF website
March 28, 2010 by Hatty
Earth Hour 2010 took place yesterday and, as 8.30pm approached, I for one felt a growing sense of determination to become more vigorously involved in securing a sustainable future for the world’s population and for generations to come by taking action now.
And it’s heartening to see that Earth Hour’s call for action on climate change is having a greater impact with every year that passes. Not only did this years event have more participants than in previous years, it’s hugely gratifying to see the beautiful and poignant images posted on the Earth Hour website demonstrating the growing responsibility that individuals, communities and organisations throughout the world feel in making it their personal business to take action against climate change by engaging in this momentous event.
Although switching off my lights felt like a very small thing to do in my day, it was such a positive and rousing experience which connected me to the many others out there who are unwavering in their resolve to proactively tackle this issue, a task we all know will prove far more difficult than simply flicking a switch, but that is seeming ever-more achievable as a result of events like Earth Hour.
January 22, 2010 by Hatty
MA_10 /
EXHIBITION
MA FASHION & THE ENVIRONMENT GRADUATE EXHIBITION
You are invited to attend the first ever graduate showcase of MA Fashion & the Environment from London College of Fashion.
MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY
PRIVATE VIEW & PRESENTATION TO PRESS, INDUSTRY, TUTORS AND STUDENTS / 13.00 – 16.00
You are invited to see, hear and participate in creative provocations by graduates of MA Fashion and the Environment. This is an open session to view work from the 2010 graduates, and chat to them about the unique journeys they have taken. Work offers a dialogue around the ecological, social and cultural dilemmas of fashion in our time.
This exhibition is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion & London College of Fashion as part of SHIFT – a festival from Cape Farewell.
Refreshments provided.
PLEASE RSVP:
EVENTS@FASHION.ARTS.AC.UK
FRIDAY 29 JANUARY – MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY
PUBLIC VIEW / FRIDAY 17.00 – 22.30 / SATURDAY & SUNDAY 12.00 – 22.30
Included in the exhibition:
Highlights from Fashioning the Future 2009, the international student awards for sustainability in fashion ALL WEEKEND
REMADE IN LEEDS participatory sewing workshop run by MA graduate Lizzie Harrison SAT 30 JAN 12.00 – 17.00
Local Wisdom by Kate Fletcher, an opportunity for you to share the story of a favourite garment SAT 30 & SUN 31 JAN 12.00 – 17.00
ALL EVENTS FREE OF CHARGE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL FOYER
SOUTHBANK CENTRE
BELVEDERE ROAD
LONDON SE1 8XX
MORE INFORMATION:
WWW.SUSTAINABLE-FASHION.COM/SHIFT
by Hatty
Centre for Sustainable Fashion presents
MA_10 /
EXHIBITION
LOCAL WISDOM AT SOUTHBANK
SATURDAY 30 & SUNDAY 31 JANUARY
12.00 – 17.00
Do you have a skirt that you share with a friend or a jumper that has never been washed?
Do you wear something that is made up of separate pieces that can be interchanged? Or
trousers that help connect you with another person?
If so, we’d like to hear your story. Come and be part of a unique fashion research project organised by the Centre of Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion to record and celebrate the clothes we wear and the way that we wear them.
We are looking for garments that:
· Are shared between people
· Have never been washed – and aren’t leather
· Have the character of a particular place in them
· Link you with the natural world
· Catch your attention each time you wear them
· Tell the story of how they’ve been used
· Are made up of separate pieces that can be interchanged
· Make you feel part of a community (but not a uniform)
· Are enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
What it involves:
Sharing the story of your clothes with the project team and being photographed wearing them. Allow approximately 45 minutes. Changing facilities available.
Over 16s only please.
This event is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion & London College of Fashion as part of SHIFT – a festival from Cape Farewell.
Also on show at SHIFT:
FRIDAY 29 JANUARY – MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY
FRIDAY 17.00 – 22.30 / SATURDAY & SUNDAY 12.00 – 22.30 / MONDAY 13.00 – 16.00 (industry private view)
MA Fashion & the Environment inaugural graduate exhibition ALL WEEKEND
Highlights from Fashioning the Future 2009, the international student awards for sustainability in fashion ALL WEEKEND
REMADE IN LEEDS participatory sewing workshop run by MA graduate Lizzie Harrison SAT 30 JAN 12.00 – 17.00
All events are free of charge and open to the public.
QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL FOYER
SOUTHBANK CENTRE
BELVEDERE ROAD
LONDON SE1 8XX
MORE INFORMATION:
WWW.SUSTAINABLE-FASHION.COM/SHIFT
