Showing posts with label international. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

NKA Foundation: Mud House Design Competition

For most of us mud houses are something of the past. We are used to modern houses, tall apartment blocks and skyscrapers. Our homes are made of the best materials. We know there are small zinc sheet homes for the poor. Just as there are zinc homes, there are also plenty of places in Africa where mud houses are still used. Nka Foundation makes us aware of this situation and is reaching out a helping hand in a creative and innovative manner. It is currently accepting ideas and proposals from designers, architects and builders to improve these mud houses and entries can come for anywhere around the world.

Design Problem: A Typical Mud House at Abetenim Village

  • The competition is open for entries until the 31st of August. The selection of the winning designs will be chosen between 15 September and 30 September by a panel of judges. 
  • An individual or a design team can submit an entry to the Mud House Design competition.
  • There will be three winning projects. The prizes are: 1st prize- $1,500 or Construction of design in Ghana plus a short trip to Ghana for the opening ceremony once construction is completed; 2nd prize- Construction or $1,000 and 3rd prize- Construction or $500. Honorable mentions may be awarded.
  • Judging criteria involve the functionality, aesthetics and technical factor to the degree the design response resolves the design problem.


ENTER NOW



Visit www.nkafoundation.org/2014mudhousedesign.html to read more about the requirements, background, conditions and more. If you have the talent, you now have the chance to show it where it will matter: designing for life, improving people's lives.


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Nature in Expressive Movement

In 2010 Karl Cronin from San Francisco got backing from sponsors on Kickstarter for a project in which he documents the movement patterns of plants and animals. It's facinating work and I love watching his reenactments of these movement patterns. View the Somatic Natural History Archive at naturalhistory.us and dryearth.org



You can also read more about the project at Cargo Collective, the Movement Research Blog, and a review by Cathy Fitzgerald entitled "Performance artist creates movement portraits of 10,000 plants and animals".



When looking at a project like this, I am reminded how endless the possibilities are for art or creativity to express and explore our natural world, and to educate people about the wonders of nature! 

Are you working on a project focused on appreciating, researching, archiving, expressing and/or exploring the natural environment, animals or the landscape? Share it on this blog - email your story to artlovenature@gmail.com. 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

CALL OUT: Articles for 4th edition of Plastik


http://art-science.univ-paris1.fr/

Art and biodiversity: sustainable art?

Interest in ecology and sustainable development is unprecedented, as is to the increasing concern overshadowing society´s well-being. With the news of massive deforestation and the scarcity of water resources, we are continually reminded of how animal and vegetable species are endangered. It´s clear that the need to respect the environment is shared by all but that natural resources are being exhausted through conflict of interest and contradictory action. As a result living and endangered organisms are affected by a kind of universal heritage value, as if representing the memory of an uncertain future. 
Since the ´60s, artists have testified to, and denounced, through their work, the ravages that human activity has brought on a planetary scale. With art interventions that have taken place in nature or have been an actual part of a landscape, the concepts of the environment, of site and territory, have become more visible in the art world. By demonstrating the physical properties of the material, and of the living, such artworks – whether perennial or ephemeral, in natural or developed spaces – actively call for the spectator's participation, alternately as observer, walker, or explorer in a double game with the attitude of the artist him/herself. To what extent have the new contours of spatialization in an artwork and art´s modus operandi in general contributed to the change in the way we look at the natural world? What impact has it all had on increasing the general public´s awareness, and of protecting our environment?

Between the esthetic and ethics, art and the science of the living, the 4th edition of Plastik will present an evaluation of the perimeters of action and the meaning of artistic practice dealing with the subject of safeguarding biodiversity. The ties between environmental issues and artistic creation will be tackled from the point of view of the real as well as the symbolic scope of such practices, between the implementation of an ecological, imaginary approach, and social commitment. We will try to understand the propositions revealed by artworks which entertain a relationship to the balance at play between the living and the extinction of species. What kind of response do such artworks develop in relation to this new challenge, launched by scientists, as being of the greatest interest for humanity? Is it ecological art or ecologically-made art? Can one talk of eco-gestures in art? Through their experience as researchers, artists, critics, or exhibition curators, the authors will gather together a collection of testimonials and studies, questioning the procedures in order to understand how the preservation of biodiversity has become the subject of today`s most significative artworks. 

We´ll be asking: 
  • Are researchers, and artists, in the face of environmental challenges: the new crisis managers?
  • Notions of creation and destruction, safeguarding and conservation
  • Reevaluating nature, landscape, and territory
  • Eco-art, the green esthetic, neo-naturalism, sustainable art?
  • Collaborative environmental intervention
  • Animal ethics in artistic practice, abolitionism and welfarism
  • The eco design approach, and individual commitment?
  • Implementing art and eco-gestures : exploration-fiction, surveying, plantations, collecting, ethnography, gentle intervention
  • Museums, institutions and their ecological responsibilities 
[Plastik] est la revue de l´Institut ACTE 
CNRS - Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Admission criteria for articles: 
Authors are invited to propose texts of between 3 000 and 10 000 worlds. Contributions can contain up to 10 images with a resolution of 72 dpi. Images should be sent separately, with mention of their place, title and source. The same goes for pictures and other illustrations under format image. The first page must contain: the title of the article, the name of the author(s), their affiliation, email and postal address, a summary of 10 to 15 lines and a list of keywords characterizing the contents of the article.

Deadline for articles: 
Please send your articles by email before June 15, 2013.

Rédaction [Plastik]
plastik.art.science@gmail.com
Institut ACTE - CNRS
Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
47 rue des Bergers 75015 Paris - France

Olga Kisseleva 
olga.kisseleva@univ-paris1.fr

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Call for proposals: international Environmental Art Residency


2013 Environmental Art Residency Program/Biennale: September
I-Park Foundation, East Haddam, Connecticut, USA

Application Deadline: Monday, April 1, 2013

A call for proposals to those working in the following creative fields:
  • Environmental sculpture/installation
  • Landscape/garden design
  • Music composition, sound sculpture/design
  • Performance art
  • Language arts
  • Architecture
  • Photography, moving image
  • Inter-disciplinary practice

Artists will create their works on site during their residency for presentation at the Biennale. 12 – 15 artists will be selected to participate. A $2,000 prize will be awarded to each participant or collaborating team to create the work, and transportation costs of up to $1,200 for artists travelling to and from other countries like South Africa. Lodging and meal service provided during the residency. There is a $30.00 entry fee.

To find out more and apply, go to: