thoughtsandtalks

TIK is een samenwerkingsproject rond ecologie en media kunst, en belicht het subversieve karakter daarvan. Gedurende 2 jaar wordt gewerkt aan het realizeren van een serie windklokken en een tijds-server, met de bedoeling een andere sensitiviteit ten aanzien van tijd te belichten. Het project bevat een belangrijk luik artistiek onderzoek naar de ecologische achtergronden en mogelijkheden, via workshops rond de constructie van de windmolens en -klokken, internet tijds-protocols, relevante visualizering en sonificatie. Daaruit volgen collectieve creatieve werken zoals genetwerkte installaties en webkunst, live radio sessies, performances en tentoonstellingen. Een tweede luik, het zgn. “open green”, houdt zich specifiek bezig met het exploreren van de mogelijkheden van nieuwe ecologische plekken om deze werken te brengen: tuinen in de stad, op daken en vensterbanken, of op oude industriele en agrarische sites, in de publieke ruimte. Via conferenties, presentaties en publicaties, maar ook met een groeiende online documentatie, wordt het project kritisch geannoteerd, en voor een groter publiek toegankelijk gemaakt. Het resultaat moet een creatieve benadering tonen, van hoe anders om te gaan met de tijd, vanuit een andere esthetiek, gebaseerd op wind. Een andere ruimte. Een andere tijd.

Workshopweek/ letny dielne in Hranicé/ Kravín. An old farm with a beautiful stable for workshops and residencies in the middle of the Czech Republic countryside. This is the first TIK-stop to start windclockbuilding and to dive into the Open Green research. Soon the bees and beekeepers will be involved too.

The Summer Workshops Kravín take place in a rural environment, at the edge of the small village Hranice u Malce, in the Vysocina region of the Czech Republic.
The dates - August 24 - 29. (Closing party on Saturday 28th).
The activities will twist around the several main themes: beekeeping / wind clocks / radio art / + agri-kultura.

In the beekeeping workshop, Annemie Maes will talk about new artistic approaches towards beekeeping and her experiences with the citz beehives. The apiarists from Vysocina from the Czech Beekeepers Union (Cesky svaz vcelaru - see http://www.beekeeping.cz/) will talk about their experiences. We plan to visit the nearby beekeeping educational center in Nasavrky village, with the arboretum (http://www.souvnasavrky.cz/). Hopefuly some of the numerous local beekeepers will also come.

With Gert Aertsen, Marcio Domingues, Hannes Hoelzl, Gívan Belá, Michal Kindernay and others you can invent ecological time with wind clocks in an open air workshop. The idea is to construct a series of simple wind mills - clocks in the surroundings of Kravín.
Amplion: together with Czech artist Johana Svarcova you can work on a radio play, which will hopefully go on air in the village radios.

In the evenings, we plan to have discussions, screenings, concerts, artistic presentations within an agri-cultural context. Also Diafilm Sound Robots by Barbara Huber, a selection of Hungarian movies curated by Livia Roszas, Kravin movie by Viola Jezkova, concert by the band from Brno, Hugo a Zoe. And the local country Bago band for the opening.

More information here: http://yo-yo-yo.org/summer_workshops_kravin.html.

… TIK is a project, an interest into ecology and media art, a collaborative experiment with time … taking an ecological approach to observing patterns in time and time control systems … the creative tools we build to generate new audio and visual artworks … a ‘horloge a vent’, an imaginary time keeping device regulated by the irregular movement of the wind …

Build your own Wind Clock in our fresh air and connected Open Green testing grounds!

*Wind Clocks* or the Time Inventors
A new ecological time concept for enjoying creativity, brought by an international group of experimental artists, gardeners, engineers, bricoleurs, managers, organizers, documentarists, writers, musicians, but mostly new 21st century style inventors with non-conventional minds. United they bring you manuals and advice, experience and ideas, about how to make your own windclock and share your data over the networks for the benefit of everyone.

*Connected Open Greens* or the Kabinet
The Kabinet, which stands for all-weather-conditioned city gardens, abandoned agricultural and industrial spaces, or miniature parks on your balconies and window sills. Come and see how you can expand your creative space by participating in an artistic network and playground for letting your creativity run wild. Ecologies are interactions between organisms and their environment.

*Development Labs and Local Distributors*
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Slovakia, etc…
Call us for distributors outside Europe!

Soon coming near to you:
Free conferences, publications, talks, workshops, performances, installations, new and subversive aesthetics.
Check the program and agenda at http://timeinventorskabinet.org/
Collect the logos and win a free Wind Clock or Foldable Open Green!

TIK launch days Brussels at Ateliers Claus
Rue Crickxstraat 10
1060 Brussels
wednesday 14, thursday 15, friday 16th of july 2010.
You can check the final program here.

Since 2006, City Mine(d) devote themselves to the issue of economic paradoxes in Brussels. Under the banner MICRONOMICS, they look for answers at the micro scale. They have brought together a wealth of micro-initiatives, who are actively building an urban micro-economy that is fair to those who take part in it and that is at the heart of the way our cities are shaped.
During the 2010 Micronomics festival, Klorofil, FoAM and OKNO join forces to spread the green virus in the city. In a collaborative action they organize seed-balling workshops, construct small vertical gardens and give all information on how to grow your own vegetables on the tiniest spaces in the city …
Interested to join us? The workshops start on May 1st at Micromarché, from 11:00 am.
Check the Micronomicsprogram here.

From october 1st till october 7th, I followed a workshop/residence at the Navdanya Farm of Vandana Shiva, in Dehradun, North India.
Participants made up a diverse mix of scientists, strategic thinkers, artists, farmers and students. We discussed Genetically Modified Organisms (a case study: Percy Schmeiser’s war against Monsanto), Biological Commons, Fair Trade and the Organic Revolution.
Before and after the lectures and discussions, we practised yoga in the early morning, worked on the farmland in the afternoons and did some great collective cooking in the evening (all with organically grown products from the farm).
Conclusion: mix tradition with diversity. Take good things from other cultures, but never step away from yours!

PRINCIPLES FOR FOOD SECURITY IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CHANGE
This manifesto is an agro-ecological response to challenge posed by climate
change for ensuring the future of food security by mitigation, adaptation and
equity, based on the following principles:

1. Industrial Globalised Agriculture Contributes to and is Vulnerable to
Climate Change.
2. Ecological and Organic Farming Contributes to Mitigation and Adaptation
to Climate Change.
3. Transition to Local, Sustainable Food Systems benefit the Environment
and Public Health.
4. Biodiversity Reduces Vulnerability and Increases Resilience.
5. Genetically Modi?ed Seeds and Breeds: a False Solution and Dangerous
Diversion
6. Industrial Agrofuels: A False Solution and New Threat to Food Security
7. Water Conservation is Central to Sustainable Agriculture
8. Knowledge Transition for Climate Adaptation
9. Economic Transition Toward a Sustainable and Equitable Food Future

further links:
The Future of Food Manifesto (download)
Vandana Shiva on the Future of Food (download)
The case of Percy Schmeiser : interview in MO*magazine (nl)
navdanya, organic farm

BRUSSELS – 25th and 26th JANUARY 2010
This pan European event is a collaboration between TippingPoint, the British Council, the European Commission, the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Kaaitheatre Theater in Brussels. A major European gathering of individuals from across the cultural sector, including artists from all art forms, together with a broad range of scientists involved in the world of climate science will take place, symbolically, at the heart of the European institutions, in the building of the EESC in the centre of Brussels. A number of key climate change policy makers will also take part.

TippingPoint aims to ‘harness the power of the imagination to help stabilise the climate’. We offer a range of activities centred on exposing creative artists to the enormous challenges of climate change; at the heart of this lies a series of meetings involving very high quality, intense dialogue between artists, scientists and others close to the heart of the issue. These encounters provide a chance to explore the broader cultural challenges precipitated by climate change.

Tipping Point or how to change the mentality of the world population? : conference report by Eva Peeters on the BAM-website ‘Kunst en Ecologie’

(more…)

Annemie Maes is invited by Ana Valdés (Maraya.org) to present the Politics of Change project in Damascus, Syria. Presentations (lectures and screenings) are scheduled at the Finnish Cultural Institute in Damascus.
The Finnish Institute in Damascus, maintained by the Foundation of the Finnish Institute in the Middle East, is an academic institute, which promotes, in particular, the research and teaching of the languages, cultures and religions of the Middle East. The institute focuses its operation on the Arab world and its fringe areas with high cultural and historical significance. It has permanent representatives in Syria and Egypt.

The institute’s main function is to organise academic courses, lectures and seminars for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as researchers. The aim is to promote widespread cooperation in the fields of education and research, and to improve intercultural dialogue.
The headquarters of the institute are located in a building in the Old Town of Damascus, a Unesco World Heritage site. The building has a seminar room, an exhibition hall, a reference library, and lodging facilities for visiting researchers and students.

okno’s harvest day is set up as an open_lab where visitors can explore the projects conducted by artists and researchers in the open_green rooftopgardens. We will exchange ideas about the different processes of social and cultural issues related to the urban, green environment. We will share everyday procedures as cooking algorithms with ingredients forthcoming from the seasonal harvest of the connected urban gardens. We intend to explore via public discussions and onsite/online presentations the character, properties and the expressions of different natural processes.

2pm: Your hosts of the day are Olivier Meunier and Annemie Maes.
Throughout the afternoon they will give an overview of the setup of the okno gardens (materials, decisions, technology) and introduce the artistic projects -the beehive observatory, the spiral-dye, the connected domes and webcams- located in the gardens.
2:30: we start for a walk through the city to collect berries and plants for Bartaku’s mini-lab on solar cells.
4pm: workshop featuring natural dye sensitized solar cells and Preb 501, an experimental light amplifier. This arts/science research project is fused by Bartaku’s PhoEf.
4pm: workshop on absinthe-making. Various Artists will go beyond Toulouse Lautrec and create natural alchemy with local plants: Aude Thensiau - 50%.
6pm: the honeybee observatory by Christina Stadlbauer.
Spring 2009 the 2 honeybee colonies arrived at the connected rooftop gardens. The ladies enjoyed a rich season of urban blooms and rewarded us with the first harvest! A taster of urban beekeeping techniques and a view on the harvesting fields will be offered as well as some spoons to evaluate the city honey of Brussels.

Across workshops and presentations samples of homemade bio products can be savoured: pickled russian cucumbers, sundried tomatoes, pinjur, city honey, absinthe, blueberry wine, kosovar pita, courgette-soup, … Bring your recipies to share them with us!