knowing when it its time to 'find a hammock' & take a break whilst encouraging those with the energy for the next thing!

A few days ago in blogland I happened on the comments page of a thoughtfully written blog which I cannot recall the name of now or how I arrived there at all! The post that inspired 20 or more comments triggered the audience's thoughts on global warming and planetary changes. People  commenting seemed to be in the over 40s bracket - people with children, even grandchildren, life experience and so on. No-one seemed to be contradicting the idea of global warming...it was almost an agreed upon fact in these comments that there is no point concerning oneself with issues around global warming as we have destroyed the planet, there's no hope, its a fact its all going down the proverbial, once upon a time there were no humans walking the earth etc... thats where we are going and we just have to deal with it.  It seemed one lonely voice came along towards the end of the comments and said "YES...ok that's all true perhaps....but we have to do something!" I should have written to that person.

Instead I just felt restless and discontent and kept thinking about it.
It reminded me of the period 2001- 2007 when I returned to teaching in secondary schools - surrounded in part by excellent people with huge commitment to their work and their students. However, some of those whose vocation was seen as more of an endless wait for retirement and superannuation, made comments as to the ridiculous notion of global warming or shrugged it off with an "oh well...it wont affect us....we wont be here - we'll be long gone!"
Numbness and burn out is a fact of life- its not hard to understand how it happens, but its not a creative space to be operating from - especially when your audience is the future waiting to be initiated into a sense of what's possible for them.
It did, and still does bother me, to hear people of similar vintage to myself be that ho hum or tired about global concerns when they actually perceive it to be a real event we are facing.
WHY? Because the 12 to 18 years olds I was conversing with daily were not ho hum at all. They were, too many of them, dealing with the effects of parental absence - actual physical absence to emotional or spiritual absence, substance dependance and many such raw edges to life. Lectures on the future on top of curriculum topics weren't what they needed ...instead - asking them what they saw, what they perceived, what mattered to them. They were thinking, they were keen to talk and to be asked. Story-telling was welcomed over lectures - but - getting them to ask questions,  be curious, find out what they could do, encouragement to move towards what mattered to them in their lives and to not lose heart -there was endless desire from kids for this kind of nurturing. Nurture - not pats on the head - or empty praise!
If we are burnt out the least we can do is NOT burn out those around us who have ideas and energy, especially those younger voices. Maybe we need to get a whole lot better at being encouragers as opposed to doers. We dont need to be everywhere doing everything! That's not feasible or desirable. But genuine words of support to someone who is doing something is actually sometimes the greatest gesture and most effective doing we can do.
well...now I will be accused of lecturing. I'll get off the soap-box and pass this on after finding it at Kim Carney's wonderful little something blog today. The GOOD 100 list is put together to celebrate and inform about projects and ideas that are making our world better. Read here to get the background story.

on the list of 100 is Bundanoon's bottled -water boycott. This small australian town of Bundy (in aussie-speak)  prohibited sales of bottled water this summer. Read more here about how and why this happened. Also visit www.bundanoon.com.au to read about the town.

Ok...so that was the Australian example on the list of 100. There are 99 more to investigate. Then there are the myraid ideas out there that we stumble across, take part in or have friends and family putting energy into. Artists might like to check out this one from Chattanooga in Tennessee called CreateHere. With the aim of connecting inspired, entrepreneurial doers with a rich network of existing resources and to try and unlock the endless potentials of Chattanooga's people CreateHere this year raised $450,000 which funded 57 grants to local artists. THAT sounds like a brilliant scheme. Artists often identify what's needed in communities - so to enlist them in giving life to their ideas through grants is inspired and no doubt hugely enriching - with a broad flow on effect.

Lost Found Art via Art Propelled

Robyn Gordon's wonderful blog Art Propelled is full of treasures. Tonight I happened to visit again and find these collections with a great story - Dec 2nd 09 - about how an interesting business started up for Mark Indursky of Lost Found Art .

Also loved the friday Nov 27 post on Sarah Mitchell - 'tied up with string' featuring this wonderful image below:

from flickr -  little paperbird: sarah mitchell - concertina books

To see Robyn's intriguing and detailed artwork in wood go to flickr.

Posted on Nov 19 was the introduction of a newly published book titled HOT AFRO by Craig Fraser which features the interiors of Neville Trickett some of you may have seen at the excellent saint verde blog. Below the image is from Gerhard Swart and Anthony Harris.

Thanks to Robyn for the inspiration and excellent journey into Africa without leaving home.....actually, I would be wrong in suggesting all that she posts on hails from the African continent - however - there is a distinct flavour and sensibility in what she brings to us that I sense is very much an African one!

fluid dynamics

Read here at New Scientist's Gallery to find out fully what this model represents. Its a satellite image of the Kurishio current, the world's second strongest current after the Gulf stream. Here, fast moving water (red) forms geometrical structures reminiscent of loops traced out by chaotic systems. (images: caroline Mendoz and Ana M Mancho)
...off on another tangent altogether, but inspired by the image above, these photos taken of water at an ocean pool are captured in their fluidity. Where the image above is a satellite photo taken at great distance the images below are frozen moments of that fluidity as recorded by my camera whilst standing next to the pool. The first 2 images below are magnified a little. The flow of forms is engrossing, even hypnotic to observe.

culture futures at copenhagen

In a few days the Culture /Futures symposium kicks off in Copenhagen led by the Danish Cultural Institute and a partnership of arts organisations from around the world. Its based on the premise that the scale of the transition to the environmental age is so massive that just waiting for the right technological or political solution to show itself is not enough. It requires fundamental cultural change, and very fast change. Read more here from the RSA Arts and Ecology blog.
COP15 public events

Burning Ice exhibition.

100 places to remember before they disappear.

conversations with the earth- indigenous voices on climate change
These are 3 of 90 events on the official cultural program. This will open at the visit copenhagen site and you can click on the link there to open to COP15 events and then to the cultural calender. The link was faulty sorry!

Q: did art help to add the sheen to Dubai?

A: read William Shaw on the excellent Arts and Ecology blog to see his response and that of others.



A comment left on this post by contemporary art historian Reuben Fowkes suggests the Sharijah Biennial in Dubai is perhaps an extreme example of a general trend of art biennials being hitched to the marketing goals of cities or regions, with contemporary art mobilised as branding tool to boost tourism.
The Arts and Ecology Blog is well worth investigating - it feeds from the RSA Arts and Ecology Centre which was set up in 2005 by the RSA-  the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce  in the UK. The Centre's head, Michaela Crimmin, says "Artists have always had a powerful relationship with the natural environment. Equally artists continually question and 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."
Read Reuben and Maja Fowkes fascinating www.translocal.org site for what looks like a very comprehensive take on contemporary art and ways it interacts with ecology. 
With a new year coming up, and time to pause, I wonder what will be thought up for 2010  that addresses the questions surrounding us at this time? 

new maths

from  www.morenewmath.com  by Craig Damrauer who is interviewed here at inside out blog. Worth reading if these are of interest. Below is a set of postcards Ed Ruscha picked out to be published from the website assorted bits of wisdom.com

from the NY Times july 28, 2009 Hurrying into the Next Panic?

Botanica Exhibition opens this week

Talented artist from this part of the world Nicola Moss is exhibiting artworks from the 'Family Tree' series developed during her year as Artist-in-Residence at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coo-tha in 2009. Read Nicola's blog to find more information about the opening this thursday night, 3rd of December and viewing times up until Dec 6th. Also on her blog you can read about her newly printed book 'Layers of Life' which promises to be a wonderful document of her times spent at the Gardens this year. In September I posted on a guided tour a few artist friends did with Nicola in the gardens here. It will be excellent to see the culmination of her exciting year of Botanical discovery and delight in this exhibition....Nicola's website  is also well worth a visit.