ARTS & the ENVIRONMENT
With support from
Fall 2008
Why Arts and the Environment?
We humans have created staggering problems for the Earth, endangering life on the planet. Scientists and policymakers have amply demonstrated the urgency of our environmental problems and the steps we need to take to solve them. Arts on Earth decided to see if collaborative groups of artists, scientists, scholars, and policymakers could create work that spoke to people in a different way.
The group we gathered – 20 faculty members from six different units – quickly diagnosed a major malaise: somewhere along the way, we humans lost our awareness of our continuity with the natural world.
As we pushed further away from our agrarian roots and attunement to natural rhythms, we increasingly saw nature as "other" rather than mother. The world around us became a source of things to be exploited, not an inextricable part of ourselves. Our alienation from our existential roots allowed the catastrophic environmental depredation to occur in the first place, and keeps many from recognizing its costs even now.
With this alienation in mind, the faculty members formed four groups – Earth, Air, Fire, and Water – and set to work to create experiences that would bring people, literally, back to their senses. The projects you’ll find on North Campus meld science and the arts in experiences meant to surprise, delight, and re-awaken participants to the wonders of the natural world that gave us our birth.
We hope you’ll come, bringing colleagues and friends – even your children – to reconnect through art to the original parent of all known life: planet Earth
All events are free and open to the public.
Full Schedule of Arts & the Environment
The Giving Tree
OPENING NIGHT
Wednesday, November 5, 5 – 11 pm
Duderstadt Center on U-M's North Campus
5:00 pm – 11:00 pm |
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5:00 pm – 6:00 pm |
Conversations with the makers at each installation site |
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6:00pm |
Multimedia performance, "Water" installation, featuring orginal music and dance by U-M faculty and students in the Duderstadt Center Video Studio. This performance is repeated, Nov. 6, 4pm & 7:30pm and Nov. 7, 1pm. For full info, visit water. |
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7:00 pm – 8:30 pm |
Keynote address and conversation, David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College. This talk is supported by the School of Natural Resources and Environment, LSA's Program in the Environment, and LSA's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Located in the Stamps Auditorium adjacent to the Duderstadt Center. For more information on David W. Orr |
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9:00 pm – 11:00 pm |
Screenings of classic films inspired by environmental issues. Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance, Stamps Auditorium |
Many events are scheduled around Arts & the Environment, from November 3 through November 7. For more information see the full schedule.
Most events take place in the Duderstadt Center on U-M's North Campus.
North Campus Map to locate "the Dude," the Stamps Auditorium, and available parking and bus stops.
Duderstadt Center Map to locate installation and event locations within the Duderstadt Center
The Giving Tree: Swap Stuff for Sustainability
The newly-formed Michigan Artists for Sustainability – an interdisciplinary group of students in the arts, environment, and other fields – invites you to "Swap Stuff for Sustainability" at The Giving Tree, November 3 through 6 in the Duderstadt Connector Hallway across from the gallery and November 3 through 5 in the Dana Building Commons.
The Giving Trees are art pieces that we created from reused and reclaimed materials. You probably know Shel Silverstein's book, The Giving Tree, about humans destroying the environment that keeps them alive. Silverstein used art to make his message vivid, and we're hoping to do the same. The arts speak to people on a completely different level than just flat facts. We hope the Giving Trees will speak to you, and get you to think about sustainability in a new way.
Please – come to the Giving Trees and take stuff you need, and leave good stuff you don't need anymore, but think someone else on campus could use. We hope that, through this art project, we can motivate the U-M community to reduce waste, and raise awareness of environmental sustainability as one of the most urgent issues facing our generation.
Come and swap with us!
Teams
Faculty from six schools and colleges have joined forces to create interactive installations and performances inspired by the ancient elements - Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Additional information on each team is available at the links below.
The faculty involved
Sara Adlerstein, Aquatic Research, SNRE
Jan-Henrik Andersen, A&D
Evan Chambers, Composition, SoMTD
Werner Dahm, Aerospace Engineering, CoE
Karl Daubmann, Architecture, TCAUP
Beth Diamond, SNRE, A&D
Jessica Fogel, Dance, SoMTD
Mike Gould, Percussion, SoMTD
Joesph Gramley, Percussion, SoMTD
Doug Hesseltine, A&D
Wayne Jones, Materials Science, CoE
John Marshall, A&D
Malcolm McCullough, Architecture, TCAUP, A&D
Dick Norton, Urban Planning, TCAUP
Perry Samson, AOSS, CoE
Sherri Smith, A&D
Erik Santos, Composition, SoMTD
Keith Taylor, MFA Writing Program, LSA
Joe Trumpey, A&D
Malcolm Tulip, Theater, SoMTD
Ben van der Pluijm, Geology, LSA
With the invaluable assistance from the Duderstadt Staff
Tom Bray, Managing Producer Media Resources, Digital Media Commons
David Greenspan, Media Consultant
John Merlin Williams, Director, The Duderstadt Center
Jacques Mersereau, Media Consultant
U-M Links
Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute
This website links to all things green on the UM campus! GESI is a partnership of the University of Michigan and the Graham Foundation for encouraging multidisciplinary research and education in environmental sustainability. GESI helped fund the student sustainability project, which is part of Arts & the Environment.
The Infinite Landscape: Master Photographers from the UMMA Collection
The University of Michigan Museum of Art presents a compelling array of landscape images September 20 – January 3, at the UMMA Off-Site.
LSA Energy Futures
The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts has a theme each semester. This fall is Energy Futures, Society, Innovation & Technology.
External Links
A small selection of relevant sites
Community Arts Network, Arts and the Environment
The Community Arts Network website provides a wealth of information about community environmental arts projects nationwide.
Allegheny College’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development
CEED is a project of Allegheny College in Pennsylvania, engaging students, faculty, and the community in creating innovative approaches to environmental stewardship, environmental education, and regional revitalization and beautification, providing interesting examples of campus action.
The Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management
The UK’s Chartered Institute for Water and Environmental Management launched the Arts and the Environment program to “put creativity at the heart of environmental policy and action.”
The Green Museum
The Green Museum, an online museum of environmental art, advances creative efforts to improve our relationship with the natural world by connecting people though environmental art and encouraging the creation of new work that serves our communities and ecosystems.
The Prix Pictet
The Prix Pictet is a major new global prize in photography that focuses on one of the greatest issues of the twenty-first century: sustainability. The award is sponsored by Pictet & Cie (a major Swiss bank), in association with the Financial Times of London. This site links to environmental photographers worldwide.
Artist Chris Jordan
Chris Jordan is an American photographer whose images of the waste Americans produce bring home the data in an entirely new way.