conscient podcast / balado conscient
arts + ecological crisis = #conscientpodcast / arts + crise écologique = #baladoconscient
Ceci est la version ’40 minutes de composition seulement’ de l’épisode 100 journal d’hiver revisité – hommage à r. murray schafer, destiné à ceux qui veulent écouter la composition sans l’introduction de 25 ‘ et les crédits de 3’. Voir l’épisode 100 pour les détails sur cet épisode.
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‘Que seraient les Prairies sans le vent ? C’est le son principal ici, celui par rapport auquel tout le reste est enregistré. Mais pour l’enregistrer ? Impossible.’
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journal d’hiver revisité – hommage à r. murray schafer (introduction 25′ + composition 40′ + crédits 3′) est une composition de paysage sonore qui présente des extraits d’un essai non publié que R. Murray Schafer a écrit après un voyage d’enregistrement de 10 jours qu’il a entrepris avec moi dans la campagne manitobaine en février 1997 pour la Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (WDR). Je ‘revisite’ ce voyage avec une combinaison des écrits de Schafer et des nouveaux paysages sonores hivernaux enregistrés en Ontario et au Québec en 2022 et des paysages sonores d’archives. La version anglaise de cette pièce est l’épisode 99 du balado conscient. Le mixage final a été réalisé dans le cadre d’une résidence à New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) à South River, Ontario en février 2022.
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This is the ’40-minute composition only’ version of episode 99 . See episode 99 for details on winter diary revisited – homage to r. murray schafer. It is intended for those who want to listen to the composition only without the 25′ introduction and 3′ of credits.
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‘What would the Prairies be without wind? It’s the keynote sound here, the one against which everything else is registered. But to record it? Impossible.’
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e99 winter diary revisited – homage to r. murray schafer (25′ introduction + 40′ composition in 12 parts + 3m credits) is a 68-minute episode that closes season 3 and features a soundscape composition of mine based on an unpublished essay that composer R. Murray Schafer wrote after a 10-day field recording trip that he and I undertook in rural Manitoba in February 1997 to produce a radio program on winter soundscapes for the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (WDR). In this episode, I ‘revisit’ this trip by illustrating Schafer’s text with new winter soundscapes recorded in Ontario and Quebec in 2022 as well as archival soundscapes. The final mix was realized and presented as part of a residency at the New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) in South River, Ontario. e99 (b) winter diary revisited – homage to r. murray schafer (composition only) is the 40-minute composition only (without the introduction or credits). The French language version is cons conscient episode 100. I’ll be back with season 4 in the spring.
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‘I came to realize that in season three that I continue to be very deeply moved by the layering of words and soundscapes. There’s something about it, when new contexts for listening are created, that I find it very stimulating. It’s like the spirits of the sounds are actually speaking directly to me and that I can hear and feel their presence. Now I’ve always felt this, but I rarely talk about it, because it sounds so, you know, strange or is hard to explain, but there it is. It’s something that I just love doing and I’m interested to know if you have any similar experiences, so please write or reach out to me and let me know.’
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This episode is a reading of my January 2022 #conscientpodcast blog about some of the high and lows of season 3 of this podcast and my interest in layering words and soundscapes that create new contexts for listening, with excerpts from episodes 65, 69, 81, 86, 96 and a preview of e99 Winter Diary Revisited.
Also available as a blog: https://www.conscient.ca/conscient-podcast-blog-january-2022/
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‘We are missing so many voices that could be the change. Art gives us that opportunity to amplify those voices and I think it’s important that now, more than ever, that we amplify those marginalized voices, those racialized voices, those voices that are being directly affected with what’s happening around mother earth (CHANTAL CHAGNON). An online map that showcases all the ideas, artists, institutions, projects and programs that are around this idea of climate and art intersecting with each other, and we would launch this resource at the online sharing that would happen in spring of 2022 (KEVIN JESUINO) I think part of the question what it is that art can do in this moment of time in terms of the climate emergency. (MELANIE KLOETZEL). I always say traditional indigenous knowledge, we were the prime example of what sustainability should be. (CHANTAL CHAGNON)’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with indigenous artist Chantal Chagnon, multidisciplinary artist Kevin Jesuino and performance maker & educator Dr. Melanie Kloetzel of the climate art web project about decolonization, networking, mapping and growing the climate arts movement.
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‘We find ourselves in a liminal space right now and liminal space means it’s that time between what was and what’s next. That’s where we are. It’s a place of not knowing and unless all of us humans, and not just artists, recognize that we are already in a transition – not just an energy transition – but a cultural, a democratic, a social transition. There is an end. We will come out of this. No one knows how, but we will pass through. It’s inevitable and what waits on the other side is up to us to design.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with photographer and writer Joan Sullivan whose work is focused exclusively on climate change and the energy transition. We spoke about her roots in science, her work as a columnist for Artists and Climate Change, how we are the climate emergency and liminal space between what was and what’s next.
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‘Yes, we agree that anti-racism is important. Yes we agree that anti oppression is important. Yes, we agree that equity is important. Yes, we agree that sovereignty is important for indigenous peoples in particular and that decolonization is really important but to us, these are tools to get toward a new society, to transform the world in which we live. If I can refer to the panel that we had the other day that led off this conference, to get out of the social historical economic trap that we’re currently in, that forces us to compete with each other, that forces us, as Peru ?? was saying, to ignore the land and what the land is trying to say to us, that forces us to treat certain arts as better than others, without truly understanding the artistic standards that some arts products are created to turn. To turn over the Massey Commission and say, you know what, that is the trap that we’re also in. These historical institutions that have come out since the 1950s that basically are struggling with relevance this day and age.’ (Charles C. Smith)
‘We hear conversations around this idea of back to normal and I beg to question: was it ever normal before? What’s the better? Was it best before? We wanted to have a conversation around the state of how artists and arts organizations emerging out of a pandemic and also what it means in a time of planetary renewal, given also the racial reckoning about renewal that was going on, we felt it that there were assumptions being made about how we would begin again and so we wanted to make sure that we had our different panels and focus around this idea of starting back, but also addressing what was happening to artists and to organizations prior to the pandemic that led to some of the further marginalization of IBPOC artists and the further under sourcing of IBPOC artists so how do we begin to address that so that can be shifted or changed emerging out of the pandemic.’ (Kevin A. Ormsby)
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) Executive Director Charles C. Smith and Program Manager Kevin A. Ormsby on Dec 10, 2021 about the Gathering Divergence Multi-Arts Festival & Conference Fall 2021 | Art in the Time of Healing: The Importance of IBPOC Arts in Planetary Renewal. 1 of 6 episodes recorded at this event.
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‘We have a national data set that’s about to emerge and that’s a really powerful thing. If we can gather data from across the country from arts and culture organizations across the country and build a data set over time, then we’ll actually be able to understand what kind of programming we need for environmental sustainability in the arts and culture sector. We can actually do that based on the demonstrated needs of the community.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with scientist and manager of the Creative Green Tools Adaptation project, Devon Hardy on Dec 10, 2021, at a CPAMO panel about art and climate and walking the back alleys in Montreal on December 16, where Devon talks about the importance of measurement tools for the arts sector in the climate emergency.
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‘The economic models and the way that policy is guided in Canada and around the world at the moment assumes that culture will not change. It assumes that we’re self interested individuals, which science is now showing us that that is not the case. We’re actually very collaborative and that are ancient cultures and traditional cultures around the world already knew this but we’re assuming we’re continuing to plan the economy under these old assumptions, that are just no longer useful and no longer actually accurate. What needs to happen now is a massive culture change and what’s interesting in from the lessons world war II is that we know that this has been done in the past and very rapidly. While we sometimes fall into cynicism and think that things can’t change, in the face of this particular issue, these lessons, I think are very important to learn from and I think can be applied to national cultural policy.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with climate emergency organizer Anthony Garoufalis-Auger on Dec 10, 2021, at a CPAMO panel about art and climate where Anthony talked about our need for massive culture change and how lessons from the past can inform national cultural policy.
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‘The environment and sustainability is an integral, if not the founding process, of how we view the world: interconnectedness, responsibility as human beings, to be caretakers of the earth, to be forward thinkers about what we do now will affect seven generations later and that has always been our understanding since we can remember. It’s written into our wampum belt designs and our pottery shards and all of those things that are encoded knowledge, is what I am using today and what my family has used to understand our responsibility.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with indigenous multidisciplinary artist Santee Smith, artistic director
of Kaha:wi Dance Theatre, on Dec 10, 2021 in Tkaronto at a CPAMO panel about art and climate where Santee talks her new post-apocalyptic work in progress ‘SKéN:NEN’, ecological calendars, permaculture and more.
‘I look for stories that are not there just to educate people. If I tell a really good story and it happens to be about the global crisis, about global warming and about the effects on community, if I get your heart, then you’re gonna go forward and look at other things, you’re gonna start doing some research. It’s like, I wanna look at and so to me, I always tell people, tell a really good story and get them on your side, and then they’ll go and do their own work. As opposed to like, these are the seven things that are happening in the world right now, due to global warming. When people feel that they, they immediately start going to their shopping list or the things that they’re gonna do, or if they feel they’re being lectured but if you tell them a really good story, they’re gonna be engaged in the story they’re gonna, their heart’s gonna be in, they’ll have a nice little cry or they’ll get angry and they’ll, they’ll walk outta that theatre and they will feel empowered to do something or maybe empowered to read something or to reach out to an MP and say, I gotta do something.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with indigenous playwright, actor & director Keith Barker, artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts on Dec 8, 2021 in Tkaronto about indigenous theatre & storytelling including a reading of his ‘APOLOGY, MY’ 5 minute play for the 2021 Climate Change Theatre Action with voice actors Riel Schryer and Sabrina Mathews. Also with excerpts from e92 santee smith and e44 bilodeau.
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‘I would first and foremost love to see artists really lean into experimentation with their creative practices and to share what comes out of those practices – the learning and experimentation – with each other. I think that’s something that even as a community of art makers we can get better at, but what that then also does is it starts to socialize learning about what art as a system of knowledge production is and this is how we start to disentangle ourselves from the ways that we’re trying to solve this challenge, or the ways that we’re even thinking about what is happening right now as a problem to fix, is maybe part of the dilemma to begin with and that art, as a way of knowing, is so critical.’
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This episode combines a conversation with dance artist, choreographer, director and embodiment facilitator Shannon Litzenberger on December 8, 2021 in Toronto with Shannon reading her ‘State of Emergence: Why We Need Artists Right Now’ essay at the Gathering Divergence Multi-Arts Festival & Conference Fall 2021 | Art in the Time of Healing: The Importance of IBPOC Arts in Planetary Renewal organized by Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) led by executive director Charles Smith and artistic programmer Kevin Ormsby.
This is the first of 6 episodes recorded at the Gathering Divergence.
Photo of Shannon Litzenberger by Aria Evans.
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Today’s episode features quotes from Artists must confront the climate crisis – we must write as if these are the last days by Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri from the November 12, 2021 edition of The Guardian newspaper. Here is the first quote from Ben Okri’s article: ‘Here we are on the edges of the biggest crisis that has ever faced us. We need a new philosophy for these times, for this near-terminal moment in the history of the human. It is out of this I want to propose an existential creativity.’ This episode includes an excerpt from episode 87 kendra fanconi.
Note: Cover art is a collection of flowers and fruits by Jeannine Schryer of Ottawa.
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‘I don’t know how many people in Canada who would immediately understand what radical listening is, because it would occur to me that the listener would have to be sensitized beforehand in order to listen radically, so that the radical listening is a secondary function of becoming radicalized in a political matter or political level. Radical listening is at one level, isn’t it, one listens in repose. One listens in usually undefended state of mind and so radical listening would be post action listening or preparatory to action.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with my father-in-law, the poet and educator Robin Mathews, which combines a 2021 recording about radical listening with a 2004 recording about political poetry and the role of the artist on society, including Robin reading 3 of his poems: at the Café Lenin, The Lady From Iraq and Unmarked Graves.
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‘We are all artists of the Anthropocene. We inherently are because this is the world that we’re living in right now. There’s no other world. We were down earlier at Robert’s Creek (BC) and it’s a salmon bearing stream. I think of it like we’re artists in the Anthropocene, like fish would be in the ocean: the water is all around us and the Anthropocene is all around us. I think it may be what Ben Okri is tasking us with is: can you describe the water? It’s all we know, but we need to be able to look from this moment now into the future and maybe that’s the job of artists. We’re the visionaries, we can see the future and we can envision it in different ways. I think he speaks to that too at the end of the article about saying part of why we need to talk about the times we’re in now is in relationship to a future, whatever that future looks like. And I do spend a lot of time trying to negotiate my belief in the future.’
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My 2nd #conscientpodcast conversation with theatre artist and art + climate activist Kendra Fanconi in Robert’s Creek, BC about the ‘Artists Brigade’, Ben Okri, eco-restoration, eco-grief, eco-anxiety & reauthoring the world, with excerpts from e43 haley, e30 maggs & é37 lebeau.
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‘I’m interested in what we can do to both mitigate the climate emergency and adapt to it but there’s another level which is revisioning the world and maybe that’s the one that’s most interesting, because unfortunately it’s going to be rough for the foreseeable future on earth, but life will go on, with or without humans. I think humans have a place in it, but then we have to figure out how we’re going to live with much, much less resources and all the damage that’s been done and have a positive view of that. So rethinking and reauthoring the world. David Maggs wrote a really interesting paper about that. There was a paper recently by a Nigerian writer, Ben Okri. I’ll put the link in the chat. He talked about how artists must confront the climate crisis and that we must write as if these are our last days. That’s where I’m at.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with Robin Sokoloski, Janis Monture and their students as part of a class in Art Policy, Equity and Activism at Centennial College in Toronto. This episode includes quotes from e40 frasz, e82 washable paint, e05 carruthers, e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving and e85 tracey friesen – narratives of resilience for a post carbon world.
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‘What’s starting to interest me is stories of resilience for a post carbon world. What are we going to need for our emotional well-being? It’s going to be a different world not long from now. If we do this, and we must do this, this transition has to happen and there’s going to be a sense of loss and sacrifice and challenge, not just with what’s happening externally from a climate point of view, but in how we’re going to have to make changes to our lives and reorient our energies in terms of our advocacy. I feel like there’s an opportunity for artists – I’m more connected to the film and television sector and the documentary community – throughout the system, to be able to provide realistic and yet reassuring narratives about what the upside of all this might be.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with media producer and cultural impact leader Tracey Friesen of Vancouver about increasing the power of media to affect social change, her book and organization Story Money Impact, and the good work of Good Pitch. Including quotes from e26 klein and e54 garrett.
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‘Museums have been very good at normalizing social values and so when you have this shift and the government is seeing it, we have to change behavior, the museum can create that space where people can rethink some of their conventional thinking about consuming, for example and there’s all kinds of ways, like we were saying earlier, of integrating this kind of knowledge, not in a lecturing way. I think that’s the key word, is we can be cheeky. This is a social activity. Nobody is forcing anyone to come to the museum and so when people come, they want to be intrigued, surprised and they love it. If you look at exit surveys, they love to come out thinking it’s like: I had no idea that I can make this kind of change and have this kind of impact.’
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My conversation with Viviane Gosselin, Director of Collections & Exhibitions, Curator of Contemporary Culture and Mauro Vescera, Chief Executive Officer of the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) about greening their operations and addressing the climate emergency and issues of climate justice through their exhibitions.
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‘This episode lasts 59 seconds. I want to share a November 13th, 2021, tweet by British writer and climate activist George Monbiot: ‘Now we have no choice but to raise the scale of civil disobedience until we have built the greatest mass movement in history. We do not consent to the destruction of our life support systems’.’
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e83 is my reading of a November 13th, 2021, tweet by British writer and climate activist George Monbiot about ‘raising the scale of civil disobedience until we have built the greatest mass movement in history’. I agree and thank George.
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e82 is an unedited, 20-minute soundscape recording, without narration, of a climate emergency rally and march on Friday, November 12, 2021, in Vancouver and an incident with police. The recording includes songs, speeches and chants about climate action and social justice.
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‘Art is a practice of expanding consciousness, which gives us a tremendous opportunity to explore and to embody possibility and to engage with the earth as it continues to change and with each other.’
– Rebecca Mwase, excerpt from e10 mwase – expanding consciousness (from an interview at Creative Climate Leadership USA, March, 2020)
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e81 inspiration are excerpts from all my #conscientpodcast conversations up to today where the tone and emotion in the voice of each person inspires and uplifts me.
é81 inspiration sont des extraits de toutes mes conversations #baladoconscient jusqu’à date où le ton et l’émotion dans la voix de la personne m’inspirent et m’encouragent profondément.
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‘Nous, les soussignés, déclarons que les peuples, leurs cultures et le patrimoine naturel et culturel de la Terre sont profondément menacés par le changement climatique causé par les êtres humains et par l’inaction climatique qui aggrave la crise climatique en cours, tout en réaffirmant l’immense pouvoir des arts, de la culture et du patrimoine pour inspirer l’action climatique et permettre une transition juste vers un avenir à faible émission de carbone et résilient face aux changements climatique.’
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é80 est ma lecture #baladoconscient du manifeste ‘Accélérer l’action climatique grâce au pouvoir des arts, de la culture et du patrimoine’ élaboré par le Climate Heritage Network pour résumer les messages culturels clés de la COP26 et activer le secteur des arts, de la culture et du patrimoine. Vous trouverez plus d’informations sur les origines et les co-auteurs du manifeste sur cultureatcop.com.
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‘We, the undersigned, declare that people, their cultures, and the natural and cultural heritage of the earth are profoundly at risk from human-caused climate change and the climate inaction that is deepening the unfolding climate crisis even while we reaffirm the immense power of arts, culture, and heritage to inspire climate action and enable a just transition to low carbon, climate resilient futures.’
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e79 is my #conscientpodcast reading of the ‘Accelerating Climate Action through the Power of Arts, Culture and Heritage’ manifesto developed by the Climate Heritage Network to summarize key cultural messages for COP26 and activate the arts, culture and heritage sector. You can find more information on the origins and the co-authors of the manifesto at cultureatcop.com.
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‘I think art needs to get on the street, because raising awareness in a gallery is really speaking to the choir. I’ll leave raising awareness, because we both agree that the time for that has passed, but I think art needs to revert back to artisan and crafts, in the sense that imagination can lead to crafting things that we will actually need for survival. I think that – and again, this is my radical rant – I think that one of the reasons why we’re seeing these unprecedented amounts of anxiety and even this new term ‘climate anxiety’ that we have, which is almost probably about to be defined as a kind of mental health condition, is because we are so profoundly disconnected from our own means of existence.’
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e78 is my #conscientpodcast conversation with acoustic ecology colleague Dr. Milena Droumeva on November 3, 2021 in Vancouver about multiple points of ‘listening’, thoughts about radicality, that imagination can lead to crafting things that we will actually need for survival and how to address profound disconnections.
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‘I think the same model (climate emergency coalitions) could and should be used by SCALE to have these arts and culture groups come together, identify a shared vision and a shared set of actions that together constitute a true climate emergency agenda for the arts and culture sector. That’s step one and then agreement to jointly campaign all with your individual constituencies on that declaration on that list of actions so that if you are the federal minister of culture or provincial minister of culture, you keep hearing over and over again from all of these different groups that are part of your portfolio. This is what we want.’
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This is my second #conscientpodcast conversation with seth klein (see e26 klein) where we get an update on the Climate Emergency Unit and a suggestion on how the #arts and #culture sector can identify a shared vision and set of actions that constitute a true climate emergency agenda and how to create a joint campaign. This episode includes an excerpt from e41 rae, with Jen Rae, in response to e26 klein.
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‘I wrote an article called Seeding a Green New Theatre in Canada that is drawing on a lot of principles of conversations happening around a green new deal in the United States and elsewhere, as well as other kinds of social justice movements happening on both sides of the border and thinking through what’s the kind of theatre and what are the plays that already existed in Canadian theatre history and what are more of the kinds of stories that we need to be telling and sharing and how to think about the transition that we’re facing socially from a justice perspective that really advances and brings forward the impact of the existing system by racialized communities, low income communities, the people who work within the energy or extractive development sector. There are a number of really quite remarkable pieces of work, many of which hadn’t been produced a whole lot of times that addressed those issues.’
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e76 kim richards – – seeding a green new theatre in canada is my #conscientpodcast conversation with Dr. Kim Richards, a post-doctoral fellow in public energy humanities at the University of Alberta, about the role of theatre in the climate emergency during a soundwalk around Trout Lake Park in Vancouver on Monday, November 1, 2021. With excerpts from e44 bilodeau, e59 pearl and e36 fanconi.
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‘To me, radical listening is about stepping out of our comfort zone when we listen. Radical listening about thinking beyond what we think we know when we listen. Radical listening is about recognizing our biases, both conscious and unconscious. It’s about listening actively and sincerely. Ultimately, it’s about getting to the truth and facing reality.’
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e75 radical listening as climate action is my presentation and Q&A period at the FKL’s Unheard Landscapes Symposium on October 29, 2021 about ‘music as acoustic ecology’ and ‘radicality’ in the context of listening and the climate emergency, with excerpts from e54 mahtani, é55 trépanier and e22 westerkamp
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‘I’ve come to realize that the main barrier to my re-education, and I might not be the only one in this situation, is… ‘me’. My personality, my baggage and that the solution, simply, is to let it go. To release it.’
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e74 letting go – laisser aller was recorded on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, at 6.40am. It’s a bilingual monologue about how I’ve come to realize that the main barrier to my re-education is… ‘me’, and that the solution, simply, is to let it go… A soundwalk around the neighbourhood follows.
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‘I feel really at the base of myself that creating anything, art, sofas, whatever it is, allows us to give of ourselves to something that may not be lasting but in the moment, that act of creation can engender hope, can engender a sense of autonomy, a sense of possibility and we can’t despair right now, we’re at a tipping point, as everyone is saying and the question for me is how do we find the energy alone and collectively to keep moving in this urgency that we’re all feeling without drowning in despair. I think art has an essential role to play in that agenda.’
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e73 judith marcuse – finding the energy to keep moving is my conversation with arts for social change activist and dance artist Judith Marcuse on October 24, 2021 about ‘radical listening’ and her work as executive director and founder of the International Centre of Art for Social Change (ICASC) and the upcoming Arts for Social Change Network
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‘It’s 2.29am on Sunday October 17th, 2021. I can hear the rumble of the city in the background, but the rain has stopped for a few minutes. Yesterday, I walked by the People’s Coop Bookstore on Commercial Avenue in Vancouver and thought I saw a new book by Richard Wagamese in the corner of my eye. How could this be? The title was What Comes From Spirit. My heart was pounding. Could this be a new book from my favorite author, who tragically passed away in 2017?’
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e72 richard wagamese’s what comes from spirit is my monologue about my excitement when I found a copy of a posthumous book, What Comes From Spirit, by my favorite writer, Richard Wagamese, at the People’s Coop Bookstore in Vancouver and my reflections on Drew Hayden Taylor’s touching introduction.
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‘The Green Sessions was invented because this small group of people got together and decided we wanted to do something that created impact. I’m really interested in new and more opportunities for us to collaborate as a sector and putting people into focus and a place of knowledge on this agenda’
– Emma Stenning
e71 green sessions debrief are highlights from the 2021 Green Sessions organizing committee : Philippa Domville, Sandy Crawley, Robyn Stevan and Liisa Repo-Martell of Artists for Real Climate Action, Emma Stenning and Rohan Kulkarni of Soulpepper Theatre and myself from SCALE. We talked about the Canadian arts sector can step forward with impact to address the climate emergency.
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‘We make choices by not making choices
And we live with unbearable consequences
We hear alarm bells, but do not respond
We cling to uncertainty like a sad song
We act as if unaware and innocent We are cognitively dissonant’ …
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e70 one step at a time is a monologue that I recorded on September 28th, 2021, in one take, while walking in the forest in Duhamel Québec where I talk recite a poem that I wrote earlier that day about making choices and moving forward one step at a time in ‘radical listening’ mode, which is the theme of season 3 of #conscientpodcast.
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‘It’s 4 56 am on Tuesday, rather than Wednesday, September 29th. I’m about to do something I’ve never done before, a soundwalk in the dark. I wanted to share with you this experience of walking in the dark and see what happens.’
e69 soundwalk in the dark is a monologue that I recorded on September 29th, 2021, from 4.56am to 5.25am, in one take, while walking around our cottage in Duhamel Québec in the dark. I talk about soundwalking, listening, reconciliation, John Cage, dancing, etc., including quotes from #conscientpodcast season 2: ‘do not listen to this episode’ and e22 westerkamp. Note: I miscalculated the time that the sun would rise and ended up walking in the dark for the entire time !
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‘I think the transformation of knowledge is really important. What we can do from our generation to the next is try and help prepare them for the impacts of climate change, but it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom…’
– andrew davies
e68 andrew davies and no. 9 gardens is a #conscientpodcast conversation that I recorded on September 26th 2021, in one take, while in a yurt with Andrew Davies, Director of No 9 Gardens, near Kingston, Ontario. We talked about the art and environment, reconciliation, yurts, education, passing on knowledge and the joys of farming and art making.
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‘I’ve been thinking about decolonization and reconciliation and other issues in our relations with indigenous communities. I was reading the ‘wanna be an ally’ poem the other day that really affected me positively but also emotionally and I wanted to read it to you.’
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e67 wanna be an ally is a reading of the poem ‘wanna be an ally’ from Towards Braiding by Elwood Jimmy and Vanessa Andreotti written in collaboration with Sharon Stein and published by the Musagetes Foundation. Used with authors’ permission.
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‘I’m interested in doing episodes that are in the moment, unedited moments of thinking out loud and not thinking too much because the rest of my body is working at soaking in this space.’
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e66 stillness is a monologue that I recorded on September 14th, 2021, in one take, while sitting still in a kayak in a shallow bay on the Preston River, in Duhamel Québec where I talk about stillness, not-thinking and what I am hearing and feeling at that moment. This recording includes quotes from an unpublished episode of simplesoundscapes from 2016 and #conscientpodcast e19 reality.
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‘What I’m looking for, ultimately, is an anchoring point: where are we at and what can we do to ensure the continuation of life?’
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e65 drifting into season 3 is a monologue that I recorded on September 13th 2021, in one take, while drifting in a kayak on the Preston River, Duhamel Québec, that explains what season 3 of the #conscientpodcast (on the theme of ‘radical listening’) is about, including quotes from e21 (Dr Todd Dufresne), e23 (Anjali Appadurai) and a zen teaching.
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‘Welcome back to the History of 2021 in Canada seminar. We’re going to conclude our case study today of the 2nd season of the conscient podcast.’
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episode 64 is part 2 of a bilingual speculative fiction radio play set in an undergraduate university history seminar course about the arts scene in 2021 in Canada that launches season 3 of the #conscientpodcast.
L’épisode 64 a case study (partie 2) est une création radiophonique spéculative, bilingue, en deux parties qui se déroule dans le cadre d’un cours de séminaire universitaire de premier cycle sur la scène artistique en 2021 au Canada et qui lance la saison 3 du #baladoconscient.
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‘Welcome to the History of 2021 in Canada seminar. We’re going to do a case study today of the second season of the conscient podcast.’
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episode 63 is part 1 of a bilingual speculative fiction radio play set in an undergraduate university history seminar course about the arts scene in 2021 in Canada that launches season 3 of the #conscientpodcast.
L’épisode 63 (partie 1) est une création radiophonique spéculative bilingue qui se déroule dans le cadre d’un cours de séminaire universitaire de premier cycle sur la scène artistique en 2021 au Canada et qui lance la saison 3 du #baladoconscient.
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‘I think capitalism is over, but the problem is we have nothing to replace it with. Here’s when we need artists, and others, to tell us what kind of vision they have for a future that is different than that: a future of play and meaningful work would be one future that I think is not just utopic, but very possible. ‘
– dr. todd dufresne
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41, 1m excerpts from season 2 of #conscientpodcast
41 extraits de 1m de la saison 2 de #baladoconscient
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‘We need greater capacity within the art sector for research to action : tools, understanding, training and connections to truly impact policy. ‘
– robin sokoloski
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with arts leader Robin Sokoloski about cultural research, arts policy, climate emergency, community-engaged arts, creative solution making and how to create equitable and inclusive organizational structures
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‘L’art peut aider les humains à évoluer. Cette action a toujours été là. Il suffit de la relancer encore et encore et encore.’
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Ma conversation #baladoconscient avec la chercheure en pratique des arts, Dr. Danielle Boutet sur la conscience écologique, la réalité, l’activisme, le deuil, l’art comme mode de vie, l’innovation et la spiritualité
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‘SCALE (Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency) is a national round table for the arts and culture sector to mobilize around the climate emergency. A few months ago, you and I, and a few others were all having the same realization that while there was a lot of important work and projects happening at the intersection of arts and sustainability in Canada, there lacked some kind of structure to bring this work together, to align activities, to develop a national strategy, and to deeply, deeply question the role of arts and culture in the climate emergency and activate the leadership of the sector in terms of the mobilization that needs to happen in wider society. SCALE is really trying to become that gathering place that will engender that high level collaboration, which hopefully will create those positive tipping points.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with arts and climate organiser Judi Pearl about theatre, climate emergency, collaboration, arts leadership, intersection of arts and sustainability and the newly formed Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE)
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‘The arts give us a shared sense of this moment and its gravity, but also what’s possible and how quickly that tipping point could be reached.’
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My #conscientpodcast conversation with Stephen Huddart about dematerialization, nature, culture, capital, supporting grassroots activity, innovation and how the arts can show us what is possible
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‘Ouvrir des consciences, le rêve dans l’esprit des autres et insuffler des graines de possibles d’un avenir.’
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Ma conversation #baladoconscient avec l’artiste Annie Roy sur l’art socialement engagé, le deuil, les politiques culturelles, l’apport de l’art, ouvrir des consciences et la place de l’art dans nos vies
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‘Il y a des exemples dans l’histoire quand l’humanité s’est rassemblée pour surmonter des injustices. Il faut s’inspirer de ça.’
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Ma conversation #baladoconscient avec l’activiste Anthony Garoufalis-Auger sur les sacrifices à venir, les stratégies politiques, les coalitions, le point de vue des jeunes et le rôle de l’art et de la culture dans l’urgence climatique
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Le colonialisme aura été un tout petit instant dans un espace beaucoup plus vaste.
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We do have a future. It may look very different and sometimes our inability to see that future is confused for there not being one.
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We are facing a crisis of failure of imagination and one of the things that artistic practice does is to nurture imagination. It’s our job.
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We need to find ways to encourage people to listen and savour a deeper relationship with our natural world.
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The arts are maybe the last open space where boxiness and rigidity aren’t present.
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We put bounds on what feels like reality and the arts helps us push against that limited set of beliefs: we can imagine the future we want.
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The arts are a great vehicle to deliver holistic messages about change to everyone
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Comment peut-on se raconter la planète, ou se raconter notre expérience terrestre, quand on partage un lieu?
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My book ‘We All Go Back to the Land’ explores our Original Agreement to nurture, protect, honour and respect the Earth Mother and work collectively towards healing her.
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The arts are a place to ask questions, play out politics, negotiate ideas and create space for people to think through issues.
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Reality is deeply subjective but also socially constructed : as a filmmaker I try to explore reality to untangle and figure out in what ways are we being deluded.
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I think of the arts as planting a seed and saying ‘here’s a problem: let’s think about it together and explore avenues.’
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Climate change is a cultural issue, not a scientific issue : we need to ask deep questions and listen.
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Humanity is adaptable and resilient and when forced to, can make surprisingly monumental changes when the threat becomes real.
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A preparedness mindset means that you are thinking into the future and if one of those scenarios happens, you’ve already mentally prepared.
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The arts help people wake up to the need for change AND undergo the transformation process once woken
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The role of artists is fundamental and we need their perspectives and ideas about how change occurs.
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Art is a tributary coming off from ritual that is still consensually allowed in this reality when the direct communication with nature was silenced.
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Il faut passer du modèle ‘Take Make Waste’ à ‘Care Dare Share’ et de créer de l’art régénératif et nourrissant.
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We want to do carbon positive work and for our artwork to be involved with ecological restoration.
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Artists are interested in understanding how to adapt their practice to the climate crisis but they need help, like we all do.
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Quand des chiffres et des courbes statistiques sur le climat sont transposés, joués, et interprétés en musique, ça nous emmène ailleurs.
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We need to tell climate stories about what we’re fighting for, not what we’re fighting against.
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