NEWS
JANUARY 2012
FRAME-TALKS: Gegenueber sein ist Alles
A 24 hour action with Shelley Sacks and Wolfgang Zumdick .
Forum Altenberg -Bern, Switzerland
Opening - Friday 27 January, 7 pm
Action - Saturday 28 January, 12 noon to Sunday 29 January, 12 noon
Dreitages-Pass für Freitag bis Sonntag Fr. 20.-/15
Freitag, 27. Januar 19 Uhr Apéro, 20 Uhr Einführung von Hans Christoph von Tavel, ehemaliger Direktor Kunstmuseum Bern, Samstag, 28. Januar 12 Uhr mittags bis Sonntag 29. Januar 12 Uhr mittags
«FRAME TALKS»
Shelley Sacks, Meisterschülerin von Josef Beuys und Wolfgang Zumdick, Philosoph, beide aus Oxford, England. Die südafrikanische Künstlerin Shelley Sacks und der Philosoph Wolfgang Zumdick laden Sie zu einer zukunftsweisenden, künstlerischen Interaktion ein, die sich durch die Nacht erstreckt! Eine 24 Stunden-Aktion. Während diesen 24 Stunden sind die Künstlerin und der Künstler anwesend. Als Teilnehmende wählen Sie die Zeit zu kommen und zu gehen; kommen wieder, harren aus ... Diese Open Space-Veranstaltung macht eine besondere Begegnung mit dem Andern und mit sich selber erlebbar. Der technisch-analytischen Begegnungs-FORM steht der Versuch einer künstlerischen Begegnungs-WEISE entgegen, welche auch soziale und existenzielle Prozesse anregen soll. Es ist eine Initiative im praktischen Experiment. Individuelle und gesellschaftliche Impulse und Fragen sollen die oft im Verborgenen schlummernden Gegenwartskräfte aktivieren. Dieses Projekt zeichnet sich nicht durch äussere Grösse,s sondern durch seinen erlebbaren Realitätsgehalt aus.
2012
NEW SOCIAL SCULPTURE APPOINTMENTS
We are delighted that Dr. Hildegard Kurt and Dr. Wolfgang Zumdick have both been appointed as Senior Lecturers linked to the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes.
They will contribute to the MA in Social Sculpture programme, supervise doctoral research students and develop research projects in collaboration with the ocial Sculpture Research Unit. If you are interested in being supervised by either hildegard or wolfgang, please contact us via the Research Student Coordinator, Ray Lee. ray.lee@brookes.ac.uk
8 DECEMBER 2011
COYOTE-ACTION II
Shelley Sacks at the Large Glass, London- to mark the end of the exhibtion of images by Caroline Tisdall of her photographs of Beuys' Coyote action.
- in dialogue with Elk, Coyote and Beuys -
NOVEMBER 2011
UK - University of the Trees - Introducing Earth Forum and other connective practices. Shelley Sacks in collaboration with the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World
Friday 17 November: Workshop for organisations - 10 am to 5 pm
Saturday 18 November 7 -10 pm Introduction to University of the Trees / Lecture-Practice
SOUTH AFRICA - Earth Forum (University of the Trees) in collaboration with the CopArt Climate Train for the Climate Summit in Durban.
Facilitated by Dylan McGarry and a team of 'responsible participants' in training.
OCTOBER 2011
UNIVERSITY OF THE TREES-Germany EARTH FORUM -16 October
Hildegard Kurt and Shelley Sacks introduce the Earth Forum process. Meet at Haus der Kulturen der Welt at 14.00
All welcome
15 October 2011
Earth Forum - as part of the Green Party 'Denkfabrik' Congrees
Bonn, Germany
Shelley Sacks and Wolfgang Zumdick facilitate an Earth Forum process on Saturday 15 October 2011
11 October 2011
Coyote - Action
Shelley Sacks in dialogue with Beuys and beings of the other than human world.
At the Large Glass, Caledonian Road, London.
An event to coincide with the opening of Caroline Tisdall's images of Joseph Beuys' 'I Like America and America Likes' Me action
SEPTEMBER 2011
Shelley Sacks and Hildegard Kurt present University of the Trees as part of the C21 Annual Congress.
24 -26 September 2011
JULY 2011 - Oxford
AGENTS OF CHANGE - Summer School
2 week programme led by Shelley Sacks and Hildegard Kurt
See Oxford Brookes Short Courses
MAY 2011 - Berlin
University of the Trees and Eco-Citizenship in the Ueber Lebenskunst Klub!
Shelley Sacks will launch the University of the Trees - Berlin with a workshop process that is part of the Ueber Lebenskunst Programme. The workshop is from 14.00 to 17.30 hours -meeting at Haus der kulturen der Welt, Berlin.
Shelley will contribute to the evening session 'When Utopia becomes a reality...?' with a talk and a social sculpture process exploring the 'seven deadly sins' and a sustainable future... The other three speakers are Matthew Herbet, Michiko Nitta and Susanne Hertrich from the 'Berlin Wildlife' project.
In German
"BORN TO BE WILD" - Wann wird Utopie Wirklichkeit?
31. Mai, 14-20 Uhr, Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Diesmal befasst sich der Klub mit der These, dass ein grundlegender gesellschaftlicher und kultureller Wandel nur über eine fundamental veränderte Wahrnehmung möglich ist. Die Künstlerin Shelley Sacks führt daher bereits um 14 Uhr in den Tiergarten, wo sie ihre „University of the Trees" eröffnet. Michiko Nitta und Susanna Hertrich von der ÜBER LEBENSKUNST.Initiative „Berliner Wildes Leben" präsentieren im zweiten Workshop (wie gewohnt ab 16 Uhr) ihre Vorstellungen von „spekulativem Design" zum Thema Wildtiere in der Stadt. In der offenen Klubsitzung um 18.00 Uhr diskutieren: Matthew Herbert, Heike Langsdorf, Christiane Huber und Shelley Sacks.
Anmeldung unter: klub@ueber-lebenskunst.org
APRIL-MAY 2011
Exchange Values on the table: Images of Invisible Lives is now at the Voegele Kultur Zentrum, near Zurich -from mid April to 21 August 2011 - where it is a central part of 'Going Bananas' a multidisciplinary exhibition on Bananas and Global Trade.
This is Exchange Values' 12th venue since it began in 1996 - although it now includes a 5m round table, at which organised social sculpture forums take place. About 30 people can come together at a time.
In the first week of the project- Shelley Sacks facilitated 4 forums. One of these was for 35 teachers and lecturers, and another for members of the public that included the CEO of Chiquita and the legendary banana woman, Ursula Brunner, who in the 70s began the Fairtrade movement. Shelley is currently developing a booklet for teachers to use in schools, and for people who want to become faciltators of social sculpture processes.
Earth Forum for the 2011 Climate Summit
Earth Forum is a new collaborative social sculpture process, developed by the SSRU for the Climate Fluency Exchange, South Africa. It involves a number of social sculpture processes which will take place in South Africa in the lead up to the Climate Summit in December 2011. The first process - in May 2011 - brings together goverment officials, Shell bosses and other stakeholders in a reflective-imaginative process that explores the effects of 'fracking' for gas. Earth Forum, funded by the British Council and the Commonwealth Institute, is a collaboration with the Sustaining Commons Institute at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa and the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Brookes.
In May, Shelley will begin training a small team of facilitators in South Africa to lead the Earth Forum processes themselves. In July, Shelley will present a paper at an international Arts and Sustainability conference in Grahamstown, funded by the Commonwealth Institute.
University of the Trees - Berlin
At the end of May, Shelley Sacks and Hildegard Kurt, assisted by ex Brookes students will launch the UOT-Berlin with a social sculpture process in Berlin's renowned Tiergarten. This event is part of the Ueberlebenskunst project of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Shelley will also give a short talk to the 350 person Uberlebenskunst Klub, in response to the theme 'What will we do when we have reached utopia?' The Tiergarten, opposite the Reichstag, will be the arena for the first 20 University of the Trees tree-bands, that declare a city to be a Univeristy of the Trees. An additional 'instrument of conciousness' object is being created for this event. The object reads: Nachhaltigkeit ohne Ich-Sinn ist Unsinn! (Sustainability without the 'I'-sense [or active individual consciousness] is non-sense). Future University of the Trees events in Berlin in the autumn will focus on 'soil' and the connection between humus and humanness - as explored by Hildegard Kurt in her recent Agents of Change lecture at Brookes.
University of the Trees [UOT] workshops in Exeter
In April, Shelley led two UOT workshops that explored key UOT methodologies and principles. Hosted by the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World [CCANW] the first event was for 20 students and staff of the MA Art and Environment program at Falmouth; the second day was for 20 artists, curators and activists. The very positive response from all present at both events is helpful as the workshops were testing methods that will form part of the UOT's new 'handbook'.
These two workshops are the first in a series of UOT events to be hosted by CCANW throughout this summer as part of their 'Tree Culture' exhibitions and events.
SSRU Research Associates
Hildegard Kurt has recently run a 3 day seminar on climate change, sustainability and social sculpture for the Austrian ministry of education, art and culture. A dialogue between Hildegard Kurt and Shelley Sacks on 'social sculpture today' will be published in the July 'arts and society' edition of Oya - a new German journal for culture and sustainability. It also contains a guest essay by Hildegard focusing on ways of defining the 'artist' appropriate to a sustainable future.
Wolfgang Zumdick has been asked to write about the Masters in Social Sculpture programme for a German cultural journal -Die Drei. Oxford Brookes' Interdisciplinary Arts programme also featured in his recent public lecture at the Stuttgart National Gallery on the work of Joseph Beuys and Rudolf Steiner. Wolfgang's recent literary monograph celebrating 150 Rudolf Steiner's centenury, is now in its second edition.
Shelley Sacks has a chapter in a new publication on Joseph Beuys and social sculpture, edited by Ulster's Head of Research, Mia Lerm-Hayes. Shelley's text is entitled: ‘Social Sculpture and New Organs of Perception: New practices and new pedagogy for a humane and ecologically viable future‘. The book - "Beuysian Legacies" is now available.
A new book entitled Art and Sustainability - Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity by Sacha Kagan profiles Shelley's social sculpture work.
New SSRU collaborations
Recent meetings between the SSRU and the Citizenship Foundation were very productive. Sophie Milner, who is writing up her PhD in the field of citizenship practices at Bradford's Peace Studies centre, has begun work on a number of funding applications - which will be partnered by the Citizenship Foundation. One aspect of this work will be to explore how the phenomenological ideas and practices in the UOT can be used in NGOs and schools.
SSRU Alumni
James Reed's Agents of Change- Climate Change kit is a key 'workshop' in the Portland State University Open Engagement Art and Social Engagement Conference. It will take place on the 13th - 15th of May 2011, in Portland Oregon, USA. Since completing his MA in Social Sculpture, James has lectured on Social Sculpture in a number of US and South African universities and the Agents of Change kit has been part of several eco-art / art and sustainiblity shows in the USA - including Exit Arts (NY) and Intersection for the Arts (SF). 
http://ecoartspace.blogspot.com/2010/07/agent-of-change-james-reed-in-san.html
www.agentsofchangeproject.blogspot.com
Deborah Ravetz has extended her final project for her Masters in Social Sculpture - 'Becoming a Self in the World' - with REOS, for an international group of 'change management' consultants. Her work for REOS has led to someone who participated in her workshop from NERC -the National Energy Research Centre - enrolling for the MA in Social Sculpture.
SSRU PhD student - Jo Thomas has recently been awarded another Arts Council grant. This time for £29,500 - towards organisational development for Figure Ground - the artist led organisation that she co-initiated. The funding will also be used to develop public events and artist's residencies in participatory and public art practises.
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Planning for Semester 1 - 2011/2012
Call for contributions: Agents of Change seminars and lecture series
We will continue this theme for the coming year.
If you think you have something to contribute that fits this theme, please contact Shelley Sacks (ssacks@brookes.ac.uk) as soon as possible.
The 2011-2012 series will include a local arts-cultural project focused on food; a contribution on practices for environmental justice; forms of social eurythmy; and a look at 'creative cultural action' collectives.
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JANUARY - MARCH 2011
AGENTS OF CHANGE
Ecological Citizenship and The Art of Changing One's Mind(set)
Interdisciplinary Symposia - Participatory Seminars - Dialogue Processes
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Programme 2011 in Oxford
All events are free and open to everyone.
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Friday 4 February
11 - 4.30 (Oxford Brookes Univ. Buckley Bdg, Room BG01)
Dr. Maritta Koch-Weser
Re-thinking Sustainability: New directions for Rio+20?
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Friday
18 February 11 - 4.30 (Oxford Brookes Univ. Buckley Building, Room BG01)
Allan Kaplan
Taking Goethe seriously - stretching our
thinking
Only 40 participants.
Please RSVP to lturner@brookes.ac.uk
about the process on 18 Feb with Allan Kaplan.
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Monday 21 February 4 -
7.30 pm (Buckley Building, Room BG01)
Dr. Wolfgang Zumdick
Aesthetic Education and Poetic Imagination: key
tools for social and ecological change
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Friday 4 March 11 am - 4.30 pm (Oxford Brookes Univ. Buckley Building, Room BG01)
Prof. Dr. Alex Arteaga
Knowledge as process of transformation... and
how aesthetic practice can contribute to it
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Friday 18 March 11 - 5
pm (Oxford Brookes Univ. Buckley Building, Room BG01)
A one-day symposium and dialogue process with contributions from 3
leading figures in the field of arts and sustainability - Arran Stibbe,
Hildegard Kurt and Peter Gingold
Dr. Arran Stibbe
Ecological
citizenship and the Arts
Dr. Hildegard
Kurt
What has
sustainability got to do with an expanded understanding of art?
Peter Gingold
Tipping Point: facilitating collaboration between artists and
climate experts
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For DETAILED PROGRAMME
These lectures, seminars, workshops and 1-day symposia are hosted by:
the Social Sculpture Research Unit; the Arts, Culture, Sustainability
OBU university-wide research forum and ARP - the Arts Practice
Research cluster at Oxford Brookes.
..........................................................................................
Please bring your own refreshments. Lunch can be purchased in the near-by
canteen.
VENUE: all events
at Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Buckley Building BG01
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AGENTS of CHANGE - ECOLOGICAL CITIZENSHIPSummer
School
See detailed programme for this summer school in July 2011 or
www.http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/shortcourses/details/agents_of_change/ or www.hildegard-kurt.de
Book online from January 2011
For information please contact Lucy Turner
lturner@brookes.ac.uk
OCTOBER 2010
Hildegard Kurt, co-founder of und. Institut
für Kunst, Kultur und Zukunftsfähigkeit (and. Institute
for Art, Culture and Sustainability), located in Berlin,
Frankfurt/Main and Hamburg, has recently been awarded an International Visiting Research Fellowship at Oxford Brookes
University.
Her new monograph is entitled WACHSEN! Ueber das Geistige in der Nachhaltigkeit (GROWTH! Concerning the Spiritual in Sustainabilty). Although available currently only in German, parts of it will be translated into English.
OTHER NEWS
SSRU / und.Institut collaboration in USA
Hildegard and Shelley are currently developing a 'branch' of University of the Trees for a
group in Florida, USA,
that is closely linked to ecological issues in the Everglades.
Further details will be posted.
During 2011 Hildegard Kurt will, together with Wolfgang Zumdick, replace Shelley Sacks at Oxford Brookes - during her sabbatical. They will contribute actively to the MA in Social Sculpture and co-supervise her doctoral students.
SEPTEMBER 2010
Wolfgang Zumdick will work for 1 year in one of the workgroups on the Ueber Lebenskunst programme in Berlin. . This project was initiated and supported by the German Cultural Foundation and the House of World Cultures.
Wolfgang has recently also co-curated 'Energy Plan' an exhibition at Schloss Moyland , in Germany, and authored one of the catalogue essays. The beautifully illustrated catalogue, available only from the Schloss Moyland museum shop, is in English and German.
He has recently also contributed key essays to the catalogues of
the “Rudolf Steiner and Contemporary Art” organized by the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, as well as 'Rudolf Steiner -Alchemy of the Everyday', a major retrospective of Steiner's work, organised by the Vitra Museum.
In June 2010, Wolfgang co-led a 6-day seminar programme with Shelley Sacks in Melbourne, Australia at the RMIT, entitled Every Human Being an Artist: the art of changing one's mind(set).
50 people participated. .jpg&w=415&aoe=1&hash=75bf80cc5f865cdf716e357a1131d8b9)
Shelley and Wolfgang both gave public lectures
during this period. The programme was hosted by the Arts Department at
RMIT and Ian George of the Social Sculpture Forum, Melbourne. There will be a follow up programme in Melbourne in 2011.
During 2011 Wolfgang Zumdick will, together with Hildegard Kurt, replace Shelley Sacks at Oxford Brookes - during her sabbatical. They will contribute actively to the MA in Social Sculpture and co-supervise her doctoral students.
JULY 2010
Social Banking and Social Sculpture
Shelley Sacks and Chris Seeely contributed to the design and delivery of an international programme on Social Banking, in Florence in 2010.
About 100 people particpated. Most are actively involved in the global social banking movement.
JUNE 2010
Social Sculpture Programme in Melbourne - June 2010
Every Human Being an Artist: The Art of Changing One's Mind(set)
2 x 3-day workshops: Beginning 10 June 2010
Unique opportunity for the management, business, art and academic communities to come together to explore the social sculpture ideas and what they have to do with working towards an ecologically viable and humane future.
Informed by Joseph Beuys' notion of social sculpture and the further development of these ideas through the work of the Social Sculpture Research Unit and affiliated projects. Led by Shelley Sacks and Wolfgang Zumdick.
SEE DETAILED PROGRAMME
MARCH 2010
ART - CULTURE - SUSTAINABILTY
A SERIES OF 1-DAY SYMPOSIA, SEMINARS AND CONVERSATIONS hosted by the Social Sculpture Research Forum at Oxford Brookes University.
Beth Carruthers (Canada) and Alex Arteaga (Berlin/Barcelona)
JANUARY 2010
ARTS AND SUSTAINABILITY:
From Goethe and Schiller through the Bauhaus to Social Sculpture
FORUM FOR CREATIVE ACTION
The Shaping of a Humane World as an Aesthetic Challenge
Place: Weimar, Germany
Date: 27 June - 10 July
This 12 day theory-practice programme runs annually in the summer.
It actively engages particpants in an introductory exploration of social sculpture and aesthetic questions relevant to the shaping of an ecological and socially just world.
It looks back to Schiller, Goethe, the Bauhaus and Joseph Beuys and forward to developing new forms of social sculpture appropraite to the challenges of the 21st century.
The prgramme is led by Shelley Sacks and Dr. Hildegard Kurt
ENROLMENT by 30 April 2010
For full details see Weimar Summer Courses
This programme has limited places. Please enrol as soon as possible.
There are also a limited number of scholarships available .
NOVEMBER 2009
ATLAS - a philosophical tour guide
exploring some of the inner territories we encounter in the Ort des Treffens processes -has been published by Mayer Verlag, Stuttgart.
It contains texts by Wolfgang Zumdick and Shelley Sacks, as well as a series of constellation images by Sacks. German only. (English publication in progress.)
Contact Verlag Mayer for details of German edition.
APRIL - OCTOBER 2009
CITY OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE
Ort des Treffens, the social sculpture process developed for the city of Hannover in Germany, that explores the connection between inner and outer work, between reflection and active citizenship, and higlights the importance of questions as formative forces, now enters its second phase.
A new project team has emerged from those who used this instrument.
This team is now developing a citizens initiative that will use this instrument for dialogue, listening and reflection, to explore how the people of the city can continue to work with this instrument that reflects its commitment to being a place of refuge, integration and participatory cultural action.
MAY 2009
SOCIAL SCULPTURE PROCESS FOR NOBEL LAUREATE'S SYMPOSIUM
The St. James's Palace Nobel Laureates Symposium in London, on 26/27 May includes a cultural event framed by Joseph Beuys' concept of social sculpture.
As part of the evening event - 'Sculpting our History' - Shelley Sacks will lead a social sculpture process, working with 'thought wedges' as 'instruments of consciousness' and questions as significant invisible materials with which we shape our lives.
Further details and links to the cultural event and programme.
APRIL 2009 ART AND SUSTAINABILITY
From Bauhaus to Social Sculpture: The Shaping of Humane Societies as an Aesthetic Challenge
This 12 day 'theory-practice' program runs annually in the summer.
It actively engages participants in an introductory exploration of social sculpture and aesthetic questions relevant to the shaping of an ecological and socially just future. It looks back to Schiller, Goethe, the Bauhaus and Joseph Beuys and forward to developing new forms of social sculpture appropriate to the challenges of the 21st century.
The program is led by Dr. Hildegard Kurt and Shelley Sacks.
Enrolment by 30 April 2009.
For full details see http://www.weimar-summer-courses.de/2009/kurs-b.html
MARCH 2009
Ort des Treffens - 100/0 Voices
launch of new social sculpture project in Hannover, Germany. (Short English outline)
Project Team: Shelley Sacks, Anja Steckling, Wolfgang Zumdick, Nicholas Stronczyk, Lukas Oertel, Alex Arteaga and co-worker team
Project website [currently German only]
JANUARY 2009
KEYNOTE ADDRESS - ASSUME NOTHING: New Social Practice SYMPOSIUM, VICTORIA, CANANDA
On Friday 30 January, Shelley Sacks will open this 3-day symposium, focusing on social practice work by 30 international artists and collectives.
The exhibition at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria -curated by Lisa Baldissera - and related symposium at the University of Victoria, have both been framed by Joseph Beuys' social sculpture ideas.
Shelley's talk will look at what should not be assumed, in order to develop new social practice that works on different levels towards the shaping of a humane and just society in which the poetic imagination plays a central role.
DECEMBER 2008
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH RECOGNITION
The national UK Research Assessment (RAE) results released recently, place all the work being done in the Art Department at Oxford Brookes -that houses the Social Sculpture Research Unit and its projects -in the international catagory, with some of the work regarded as 'world leading'.
Six new doctoral students are now doing doctoral research in areas related to Social Sculpture.
Shelley Sacks and Prof. Walter Kugler are supervising these studetns - with Dr. Paul Whitty, Prof. Roger Griffen and Dr. Wofgang Zumdick as second supervisors, or special advisors.
The SSRU continues to develop international collaborations and projects that contribute to this highly rated Art Department at Oxford Brookes.
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2008
The WORLD CULTURAL ECONOMIC FORUM is a two-day forum in New Orleans on Oct. 30-31 for world cultural economy leaders from approximately 60 countries invited to Louisiana to discuss best practices for growing cultural industries as key segments of a global economy.
Shelley Sacks has been invited to make a contribution about social sculpture and transformative process as part of a panel on Creative Communities chaired by Steve Dahlberg, and to co-lead a workshop on improvisation / new methods of engagement.
The aim of the international forum is to build cultural economic development opportunities through the strategic convening of cultural ambassadors and leaders from around the world, whilst positioning Louisiana as the driving force of the global cultural economy movement.
The WCEF will provide the opportunity to explore best practices and engage in critical conversations for improving our cultural economies, growing culture and engendering creativity.
OCTOBER 2008
From Paradise to Social Sculpture & Beyond:
The Philosophy of Imagination
3 Lecture-Seminars by Dr. Wolfgang Zumdick
International Visiting Research Fellow in Social Sculpture at Oxford Brookes University
On Tuesday evenings 5.30 - 8 pm
21 October, 4 November, 18 November
At Oxford Brookes University
Hosted by the Social Sculpture Research Unit (www.social-sculpture.org)
+ the Institute for Historical and Cultural Research at Oxford Brookes University
Lecture-Seminar 1
Tuesday October 21 -From Paradise ... Life-changing energies in poiesis and imagination
Lecture-Seminar 2
Tuesday November 4 ... To Social Sculpture Joseph Beuys: Evolution. An artistic perspective on the development of mind and earth
Lecture-Seminar 3
Tuesday November 18 ...And Beyond Everybody is an artist: Transforming society by developing individual potential
SEPTEMBER 2008
NEW PROJECT: ORT DES TREFFENS - HANNOVER, GERMANY
The Kulturburo in Hannover, Germany, has confirmed support for the Ort des Treffens social sculpture project.
Initiated by Shelley Sacks, with a team that includes Hannover based artists, Anja Steckling and Nicholas Stronczyk, Alex Arteaga -Berlin based sound artist and philospher, Lukas Oertel - Masters student in social sculpture, and Wolfgang Zumdick, philosopher and author from Aachen- the project will work with the citizens of Hannover from March to September 2009, exploring connections between imaginal thought (bildhaftes Denken), listening and dialogues processes. It will also relate the social sclupture ideas central to this project to the work of Leibniz, Hannah Arendt and Joseph Beuys.
For full details of the project see: Developing the Territory/Ort des Treffens
The project has its own website www.ortdestreffens.de (under development)
JULY 2008
UNIVERSITY OF THE TREES at CCANW, Haldon Forest, Exeter
International Weekend Forum - 26 and 27 July 2008
On 26 and 27 July, University of the Trees (Exeter Region, UK) will become an exploratory forum to experience and consider new ways of connecting with the world and what we mean by developing ‘new organs of perception'*.
It will also be an opportunity to get closer to the social sculpture ideas and their relationship to the University of the Trees as an ‘instrument of consciousness' in our work toward a humane and ecologically just society.
The three guest speakers -Dr. Chris Seeley, Dieter Schuhmacher and Prof. Volker Harlan are all actively involved in the University of the Trees project or related connective practices. See www.universityofthetrees.org (about / project people)
Through presentations, discussion and experiential processes in the forest they will open up the space to explore how the University of the Trees relates to our work towards an ecologically just society.
Day 1
Presentations at CCANW and participatory processes in the forest with the three visiting presenters, introduced by Shelley Sacks (10.30 -6 pm)
Day 2
Further exploratory day for UoT Group, Exeter and interested Day 1 participants (10.30 -4.30)
For more detailed programme see www.universityofthetrees.org
If you have not been involved in the University of the Trees meetings and processes before, please come one hour earlier on Sat 26 July. Shelley Sacks will introduce you to the project. It would be helpful if you could look at the UoT website to acquaint yourself with the project beforehand.
Please contact Johanna Korndorfer at CCANW
j.korndorfer@ccanw.co.uk or Tel: 00 44 (0) 01392 83 22 77
Contributions: Day 1: £10 (Consc. £8) -Bring a packed lunch; Day 2: £5 (Lunch provided)
*‘New organs of perception' is a phrase that stems from the scientific work of Goethe, who contrasted a participatory, holistic mode of seeing to onlooker consciousness. Joseph Beuys' used this phrase too to emphasise the need for new forms of knowing and perceiving that would lead us to act in a more connected way. Some of our organs of perception -like eyes, ears and tongue - are already fairly well developed at birth. But others, our higher human organs of perception - like the ability to empathise, to develop a conscience, to perceive the idea in things and the interconnections in the world- need to be developed.
University of the Trees creates an arena and a framework for exploring our relationship to the world, and for enabling us to develop actions based on new insights and perceptions.
Find out what University of the Trees groups are doing - get information on University of the Trees events and meetings
JUNE 2008
CONNECTIVE PRACTICES CONSULTATION-SYMPOSIUM - June 17/18 Oxford
The purpose of this small international gathering is to explore in some depth the transdisciplinary notion of connective practices being used by the 20 practitioners attending the event.
The event - designed and faciltated by Shelley Sacks and Chris Seeley - is hosted and funded by Oxford Brookes University's Institute of Historical and Cultural Research; The Art, Culture and Sustainability research group and the Social Sculpture Research Unit.
FOLLOW UP EVENT
In Autumn 2008 a follow up event - open to all - will present the findings of this consultation to others who actively wish to engage in the ongoing work of this growing international connective practices network.
UNIVERSITY OF THE TREES EVENTS - June and July 2008
12 June 2008 - Exeter Region, UK :
CREATING THE MAIN FORUM OF UNIVERSITY OF THE TREES
in Haldon Forest, Exeter.
Using the 'tree bands' from the University of the Trees kit, foresters and members of the Exeter, University of the Trees group will create a central 'main forum' in which regular meetings will take place. a further 12 bands will also be positioned around the periphery of Haldon Forest, defining the entire forest as a university of the trees.
21 June 2008 - Exeter Region, UK
MIDSUMMER'S MEETING OF THE EXETER GROUP.
Open to all.
See www.ccanw.co.uk and www.universityofthetrees.org for details
26/27 July 2008 -Exeter Region
DEVELOPING 'NEW ORGANS OF PERCEPTION'
and the ECOLOGICAL CRISIS AS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CONSCIOUSNESS
This 2-day particpatory event in Haldon Forest, Exeter explores the University of the Trees' emphasis on new organs of perception. This idea and practice, first developed by Goethe, was central to Joseph Beuys' work.
On Saturday 26 July University of the Trees advisors, Dr. Chris Seeley, Dieter Schumacher, Prof. Dr.Volker Harlan and Shelley Sacks will make presentations that engage participants in this territory. On the Sunday 27 July the Exeter group and people who have attended the Saturday 26 July presentations, will work together in the University of the Trees in Haldon Forest to further explore the methods and ideas presented on the previous day.
All welcome.
See www.ccanw.co.uk and www.universityofthetrees.org for details of participation and to confirm a place
APRIL 2008
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THE HIGH TABLE INTERVENTION
Nicholas Stronczyk's presentation of works, questions and research in Oxford on 16 April 2008, as part of the work towards his practice-based PhD. All welcome.
More details.
MARCH 2008
ART AND SUSTAINABILITY
From Bauhaus to Social Sculpture : The Shaping of Humane Societies as an Aesthetic Challenge
This 12 day programme runs annually in the summer. It actively engages participants in an introductory exploration relevant to cultural workers and interdisciplinary practitioners in the 21st century.
The programme is led by Dr. Hildegard Kurt and Shelley Sacks.
SAVING THE BLOCK BEUYS
The first small victories in the process to save the Block Beuys in Darmstadt from rather destructive renovations have been won.
RESTORERS' FORUM
This is an arena for restorers and others who are trying to preserve work comprising of emphemeral and easily degradable materials, to discuss some of the complex issues surrounding the preservation of such time-sensitive work.
This forum is of particular relevance at present with regard to the technical debates relating to the Block Beuys in Darmstadt.
APRIL 2008
NEW PROFESSOR IN SOCIAL SCULPTURE
A Professorship at Oxford Brookes University has recently been confered on Walter Kugler (author, musician and curator of many contemporary exhibitions) which will enable him to develop his work in this field and play a much more active role in the Social Sculpture Research Unit. Walter's own transdisciplinary background (contemporary music, philosophy, pedagogics, politics and work with Beuys) makes him well suited to co-teach on the MA in interdisciplinary Arts and to supervise graduate research students in social sculture related fields.
This Chair is Social Sculpture has been generously funded by the Iona Stitchting, Holland.
JANUARY 2008
SHELLEY SACKS and CAROLINE TISDALL on Art and Climare Change programme
hosted by Cornelia Parker for RADIO 3
The Guardian 14.01.08
Last night's Sunday Feature - Rules of Engagement (Radio 3), presented by Cornelia Parker, featured possibly one of the lines, and certainly one of the diverting mental images, of this young year. "I'm a vegetarian," said artist Shelley Sacks, "but I cover my arms with raw bacon while I'm giving this quite academic lecture."
The rest of the programme wasn't quite so peculiar, though it featured a soundtrack that made Tom Waits' more experimental moments sound positively pedestrian. It began with something akin to silent movie music of apocalyptic doom, and then slipped into a section that suggested rumbling tummies at war.
Parker had assembled a cast of hypnotically clever contributors who said fancy things about art in the age of global warming that were hard to disagree with, largely because you'd long forgotten what the question was. Artist Olafur Eliasson tussled with the relationship between art and politics: "sensational questions in terms of our senses, neurological questions, cognitive questions, can be very political ... political in social, ethical, environmental ways". Gustav Metzger had an altogether pithier analysis. "It's a disaster in which we live," he said, in a low, dark grumble.
© 2008 Social Sculpture Research Unit
