Jonathan Atkinson of Urban Research Collective has been invited to take part in the first phase of MAKING OUR FUTURES: THE ART OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING, a research project between MIRIAD and Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), devised by David Haley and Dr. Tongyu Zhou. The project builds on MIRIAD’s links with CAFA, and is looking to develop a research network pulling in support from local partners including Manchester City Council’s Head of Environmental Strategy, Richard Sharland and Urban Research Collective. This mirrors similar collaborations being set up in Beijing.
The project begins with a lecture by Professor Lu Shengzhong, Director of the Experimental Arts Department, CAFA, Beijing, at MMU on Wednesday 27 January 2010.
The project has already been quoted as an example of good practice at the ‘First ASEFUAN Dialogue on Climate Change‘ in Madrid last week and will be next week at the ‘Culture | Futures‘ conference, contributing to COP 15 in Copenhagen. The project, also, prompted ASEF to commission David Haley and an Indian theatre artist to write a discussion document, ‘The Art of Sustainable Living‘ as the catalyst for twelve notable thinkers, practitioners and activists from Europe and Asian in the Creative and Cultural Industries to consider the social and environmental challenges of the 21st Century.
We’re full up at OpenSpace so with the help of the Co-operative Fund we’re installing a mezzanine floor. We’re working with Loop Systems architects and Ecorenovation builders and we’ll gain extra floor space and a meeting room. It should all be ready for mid-December 2009 and you can chart progress below.
Continue reading ‘OpenSpace refurbishment’
I’ve just returned from two days at the Black Country Creative Advantage seminar run by Monika Vykoukal of the University of Wolverhampton. The project, based in West Bromwich, probes the murky waters of arts and culture-led regeneration and the seminar brought together around 30 experts in the field including artists, activists, researchers, academics and architects. It was an amazing couple of days and I just want to share a few links to the work featured in the seminar.
The seminar started rather appropriately in the controversial Public with a talk by author Anna Minton. Her book, Ground Control, Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First Century City is what I call the Penguin Guide to the Neo-liberal City. It outlines the wholesale sell off of our cities into the hands of private companies and illustrates how changes made in the name of cleanliness and safety have actually made people more fearful and less happy.
Continue reading ‘Black Country Creative Advantage’
Here are some photos from nef’s (the new economics foundation) Bigger Picture: Festival of Interdependence that I worked at on Saturday. There are some pictures of Ration Me Up from the Ministry of Trying to Do Something About It which I developed with nef and artist Clare Patey and project managed.
Continue reading ‘The Bigger Picture - photos’
In the future if you filled up your car with petrol once during a month that would be it, that would be your ration, no heat, no light, no cooking for the rest of the month.
In a just world where we, as global citizens, have equal access to the world’s resources, how can we distribute resources fairly for a sustainable future, improve our relationships with one another and address the urgent issue of climate change?
Premiering at the Bigger Picture’s Festival of Interdependence, Ration Me Up is a new environmental art installation and performance piece that creates a picture of what this might look like through the production of a contemporary ration book.
Continue reading ‘Ration Me Up - Premiering Sat 24 Oct 2009 at The Bigger Picture’
Over 150 people gathered at the Co-operative’s headquarters at New Century House, Manchester. Speakers included Chris Sherlock, Sustainability Manager at the Co-operative, Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre and George Marshall of COIN (Climate Outreach Information Network).
Continue reading ‘Pictures from Climate Action Now’
Today’s Sunday Times features an article on co-operative consortia, people or businesses who come together to form mutual trading units. Consortia are particularly common in the agricultural sector but the benefits of sharing costs and overheads have seen the model growing in popularity.
Click here to view the article.
lowwintersun are members of the OpenSpace co-working project, we operate as a co-operative consortia made up of individuals and small social enterprises with our own separate businesses. We work together to maintain our office space, sharing the costs such as rent, bills and internet services. Collaborating as a consortia has allowed us to achieve much more than we could alone and it’s a model we’d highly recommend.
There’s more information on co-operative consortia at Co-operatives UK’s site.
Through my work with Co-operatives North West I’ve been helping to organise the Climate Action Now event. Taking place on Saturday 17th October 2009, the event is a collaboration between the co-operative and NGO movements with involvement from OXFAM, the Co-operative, the Co-op Party and Friends of the Earth. The day will feature a selection of stalls from co-operatives from around the region whose activities are helping reduce carbon emissions and develop low carbon alternatives.
