Sound Of Sirens

SEEDS Festival
Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance, + Science
June 14 - 28th 2009
www.earthdance.net/seeds

Call for Proposals
SPREADING SEEDS: DEADLINE December 20th

SEEDS Festival will benefit from projects beyond the scope of our curatorial imagination. We invite you to propose and participate in the following projects: Single Workshops (Green/Body/Local & CI as a Social Experiment), Interdisciplinary Residencies, Presentations, Panel Discussions, Performances, Videos & Films, Archiving, and more! Our website lists the complete descriptions and downloadable application forms.

SEEDS Festival (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance, + Science)is a unique interdisciplinary summer festival dedicated to arts and ecology. The two weeks will feature workshops, collaborative design projects, panel discussions, live performances, films, and interdisciplinary investigations. This year’s format: Week One: A week of workshops, and a two-track weekend of eco-soma-regional research, & social experiments into CI. Week Two: Interdisciplinary investigations.

The 2009 Festival will focus on potentiality - in this year of potential political change & community organizing, we invite this phenomenon into our interdisciplinary investigations.

Earthdance is an artist-run residential retreat center and an international arts organization. Through a broad spectrum of activities and programs, Earthdance cultivates the art of improvisation, dance, collaboration, and ecological understanding. Located in Pioneer Valley, Western Massachusetts, Earthdance features two beautiful dance studios, farmhouse, comfortable dorm accommodations, delicious cuisine, wood-stove sauna, spring-fed swimming quarry, and 100 acres of outdoor bounty.

For me Masanobu Fukuoka was a poet. He is known as one of the pioneers of natural farming and was an inspiration for the originators of the permaculture concept.

“If a single new bud is snipped off a fruit tree with a pair of scissors, that may bring about a disorder which cannot be undone…. Human beings with their tampering do something wrong, leave the damage unrepaired, and when the adverse results accumulate, work with all their might to correct them.”

“To become one with nature — agriculture is an occupation in which a farmer adapts himself to nature. To do that, you have to gaze at a rice plant and listen to the words from the plant. If you understand what the rice says, you just adjust your heart to that of the rice plants and raise them. In reality, we do not have to raise them. They will grow. We just serve nature. A piece of advice I need to give you here. When I say gaze at a rice plant or stare at its true form, it does not mean to make an observation or to contemplate the rice plant, which makes it an object different from yourself. It is very difficult to explain in words. In a sense, it is important that you become the rice plant. Just as you, as the subject of gazing, have to disappear. If you do not understand what you should do or what I am talking about, you should be absorbed in taking care of the rice without looking aside. If you could work wholeheartedly without yourself, that is enough. Giving up your ego is the shortest way to unification with nature.”

One Straw Revolution is maybe one of his best known books (’Der Grosse Weg Hat Kein Tor‘ auf deutsch) and even if you are not particularily interested in gardening, I recommend to read it, and if it’s just for a few paragraphs.

The Fukuoka Farming Website:
www.fukuokafarmingol.info

The Plowboy Interview: Masanobu Fukuoka

The Sound Earth Foundation is a not-for-profit information network first and foremost dedicated to promoting sound art, environmental art and the field of acoustic ecology.

Our other goal is to teach everyone to bring their state of being back into balance with nature, and help themselves make decisions on how to lessen their impact on the world around them.

Check it out!

http://www.thesoundearth.com

‘Art, Ecology & Education provides pathways to an integrated and sustainable way of living. We participate in the development and integration of an ecologically conscious and systemic worldview.
Using a holistic and transformative approach in our work, we support individuals and groups in the process of transition towards a life sustaining society.’

Upcoming workshops (in german and english):
12+13 July CHANGE - a different worldview for sustainable living
20-24 August ‘EFTERFESTEN Gathering for Sustainability’, Sweden
3-7 September SHIFTING TERRAIN - dancing new ways of perceiving
20+21 September PERMACULTURE - the Basics

Next AEE Evening at the HUB, Berlin:
9 July, 8pm, CSA / Community Supported Agriculture - Conscious consumption one step ahead

Art, Ecology & Education (www.art-ecology-education.org) works as international, intercultural consortium based in Berlin.

Participate in shifting the paradigm / feel free to get in touch!

‘Art, Ecology & Education’ bietet Wege zu einer integrierten und nachhaltigen Art zu leben.
Es gibt eine Webseite als Wissensresource, es gibt Workshops und Kooperationen in verschiedenen Bereichen, es gibt ein Netzwerk innerhalb des ‘Wiserearth’-Portals, es gibt diesen Blog….
Dazu kommt jetzt: ‘Art, Ecology & Education’ schafft eine Möglichkeit in ‘real life’, um sich kennenzulernen, auszutauschen, zu feiern, zu diskutieren, brainzustormen, einen gemütlichen und inspirierenden Abend zu verbringen, und durch ausgesuchten Input Neues zu lernen.

Die ersten zwei Abende haben schon statt gefunden.
Der erste Abend war ein Screening von ‚A Crude Awakening/Oilcrash’ (OV), mit anschliessender, sehr spannender Diskussion über ‘Wahrheitsgehalt’ und Machart des Films bis hin zur Frage: ‘Wie können wir auf Peakoil reagieren?’.
An dem zweiten Abend ging es um Paradigmen Wechsel als Grundlage für Sustainability. Ausgangspunkt für eine offene Diskussion waren zwei kurze Videobeiträge: ‘The Web of Life’, eine Einführung von Fritjof Capra (Physiker, Systemdenker und Autor, Mitgründer des Center for Ecoliteracy in Kalifornien) und ‘Beyond Deep Ecology’, ein Interview mit Satish Kumar (NGO Director, Peace Activist, Herausgeber des Resurgence Magazine and Programm Director am Schumacher College, U.K.). Beides sehr inspirierende Persönlichkeiten und herausfordernde Denker! Dieser Input in Kombination mit dem Interesse und der Unterschiedlichkeit der Anwesenden ergab einen reichhaltigen Abend…

Auch der Veranstaltungort trägt zur Atmosphäre bei: im selfHUB spürt man Offenheit, Vielfalt und Synergien.

Weitere Veranstaltungen folgen, die Themen und Formen werden variieren, aber es wird immer einen Bezug zu einer ganzheitlichen Wahrnehmung des Lebens und zu integrierendem Denken geben.

Check it out and feel invited!

‘The Schumacher College, in partnership with the University of Plymouth, is the first in the world to offer a post-graduate programme in Holistic Science.’

‘Das Schumacher College in Südwest-England ist eine der bekanntesten internationalen Institutionen für ökologische Studien und Nachhaltigkeit, wo namhafte WissenschafterInnen am Kreuzungspunkt zwischen Naturwissenschaften, Politik, Spiritualität und gelebter Nachhaltigkeit ihre Konzepte zur Zukunftsfähigkeit lehren.’

Ich mochte den ersten Eindruck, den ich vom Schumacher College bekam, als wir von Toni Spencer, Researcher und Project Developer des College, empfangen wurden und zusammen aßen. Das Gebäude war kleiner, als ich es mir vorgestellt hatte, die Leute schienen freundlich und offen. Ich sah den Tagesplan, der jeden morgen an eine Tafel geschrieben wird und auf dem unter anderem steht, wer an diesem Tag kocht. An diesem Tag war dafür Satish Kumar zuständig, der Programme Director des College…

Nach dem Abendessen trafen wir uns im Garten mit einigen Studenten zu selbstgemachtem Apple Cider. Die Gruppe des Master Programms für Holistische Wissenschaft ist klein (maximal 13 Teilnehmer) und international. Die Dozentenliste für das Programm ist sehr ausgewählt und inspirierend. Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass dieser Studiengang eine sehr intensive und besondere Erfahrung sein muss.

First of all, I have to tell you that we had difficulties in deciding wether to write in english or german. Still have…So if any of you would like to know more or get some german input, let us know. Otherwise we’ll keep it english. We are in the process of meeting/exploring/exchanging with people working in similar areas or with similar interests, and there is a lot of great stuff happening in the UK, so here we go.

These are some of the activities on our list:

There will be a talk with Toni Spencer of the Schumacher College:
An Ecology of Making: A Community of Things
An exploration of crafts, design and the aesthetics of sustainability

a talk with Vandana Shiva:
The transformation of Societies. What comes after development?

There will be practical input like a pruning workshop, loads of permaculture and other projects to visit, we will participate in a Transition Town Training in Totnes and then head to London, meeting people from an acting school and more. That’s the rough outline. We will see what emerges around it…Maybe we’ll just enjoy spring for a minute!…

We’ll let you know about all that right here!…