Art

Green Concerts Rocks Your Socks

- Adam Clare

Here in the province of Ontario there’s the Hillside Festival, and it has been the greenest event I’ve ever been to (their website shows that they have tons of energy). Going to a place to hear great music, exchange great ideas, and help the environement while doing it is more fun than it sounds 😉

The idea of running a green concert has caught on and now a company, Sustainable Waves is helping to make sure that the (green) band keeps playing.

But can the green message be at odds with a rock extravaganza? Festival organizers know that outdoor concerts leave a big footprint, and they’ve worked hard to reduce Echo’s impact. Electricity for sound and lights at one of the five stages will be provided by an array of solar panels; generators at other stages will run on bio-diesel fuel.

Even the temporary fencing around some stages and tents will be built out of an Earth-friendly product — in this case fast-growing bamboo harvested by Franklin of the nonprofit enviro group Change of Atmosphere.

A fraction of the price of each ticket will be contributed to a tree-planting project, and, for an extra $4, patrons can buy green tickets that pay for “carbon offsets” elsewhere — an investment in 500 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy, such as wind energy.

Where are my legs?

- Adam Clare

water toyWe all know that kids like having fun and we know that there is a thing called the environment. Finally someone has combined fun on the beach with cleaning up the environment.

This toy is designed to be attached to improperly disposed of water bottles and use those bottle as a floatation device. Kids can run around on the beach while cleaning it up all for fun!

Via the Swiss Miss.

Look at The Box in Toronto

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Shameless promotion (but not self-promotion) of an event happening in Toronto that looks to be really good:

The Box is a quarterly salon night that aims to bring diverse communities and audiences into an environment of artistic and social intermingling. On September 15th, the Box goes to rare heights. We’re perching atop the Wrigley building and you’re invited to a roof-party with words, performance, humour, and music. Featuring: Claire Jenkins avec band, Jess Dobkin, Karl Mohr, Motion, Mike Hoolboom, Leanda Quinquet (About the Music, CIUT 89.5 FM), Josh Thorpe, Tomboyfriend, Bryen Dunn & Jeanette Cabral (Sex City, CIUT 89.5 FM) and Steve Venright. Beverages courtesy of Mill Street Brewery.
Saturday September 15th
7 pm
The Wrigley Building

235 Carlaw, 6th Floor (just north of Queen and Carlaw, accessible by the Queen Streetcar and Pape Bus)

$10-$15 scale donation
no one turned away

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ArtCamp Vancouver

- Adam Clare

Here in Vancouver they got themselves a pretty groovy idea called ArtCamp
based off of other “unconferences”. An unconference is a conference that is organized by the participants and this proves to be no exception (well, if we ignore the funding they’re getting).

From their wiki’s About page:

ArtCamp 07 follows on ArtCamp 06 ArtCamp06, the World’s First Un-Conference on Art, was a groundbreaking day-long event co-produced by New Forms Festival and Upgrade! Vancouver in September, 2006, which was attended by over a hundred artists, designers, programmers, critics, theorists, curators and practitioners from all fields who presented over 30 workshops, talks and hybrid events throughout a single inspiration-filled day.

By the way, I’m sorry about the irregular posting while I’m in Vancouver. If you’re in Vancouver you should come out to Manhunt Vancouver tonight to get inspired for ArtCamp!

Euro-centric Thinkers Humbled

- Adam Clare

In every science text book I’ve seen only European thinkers are praised for their discoveries and this was to go unquestioned. As a result of my education I take great pleasure when those who wrote the books (so to speak) are proven horribly wrong. It boils down to the fact I like seeing credit given to those who deserve it.

Sir Isaac Newton is credited with discovering a cornerstone of modern mathematics, but in reality a group of Indians made that discovery 250 years before Newton!

The team from the Universities of Manchester and Exeter reveal the Kerala School also discovered what amounted to the Pi series and used it to calculate Pi correct to 9, 10 and later 17 decimal places.

And there is strong circumstantial evidence that the Indians passed on their discoveries to mathematically knowledgeable Jesuit missionaries who visited India during the fifteenth century.

That knowledge, they argue, may have eventually been passed on to Newton himself.

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