The Camp for Climate Action - 2007 - August 14th-21st -
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: abbey hoffman <createresist@???>
Date: Jun 20, 2007 1:59 PM
Subject: Workshop on Art Activism and the Camp for Climate Action
Departure Lounge: A weekend workshop designing creative resistance
against the root causes of Climate Change.
13 – 15 July, near Heathrow, London.
"I did not fully understand the dread term 'terminal illness' until I
saw Heathrow for myself."
— Dennis Potter, in The Sunday Times, 4 June 1978.
Some of the most successful political movements have been those that
have developed creative forms of protest: the suffragettes chaining
themselves to buildings, the beautiful tree houses of the anti roads
protesters, the Zapatistas with their poetic communiqués and masks,
Reclaim the Streets' rebel carnivals, the Italian white overalls'
imaginative take on civil disobedience. All these forms have emerged
when the unbridled imagination of art mixes with the deep social
engagement of politics. The growing radical movement for climate
justice needs its own new forms.
Departure Lounge is a weekend workshop where we will collectively
explore the spaces between art and activism and design creative
actions in preparation for the Camp for Climate Action -
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk - The Camp, which takes place near
Heathrow from 14th to 21st August, has been described by the
Independent as "Glastonbury, science seminar and protest all in one".
It mixes low-impact ecological living, dozens of workshops and mass
direct action aimed at the root causes of climate change. This year it
will be targeting the aviation industry and airport expansion.
At the workshop we will work together to create imaginative new forms
of protest, share skills and ideas, and design events/actions that
will take place during the Camp to engage, delight, provoke, challenge
and encourage participation.
The weekend is suitable for those who are interested in work that does
not merely 'represent' a political issue, nor serves as propaganda but
directly confronts and transforms the issue itself. If you are
interested in radically engaged practices that look neither like art
nor activism but take the best of both of these worlds, that sit
somewhere between direct action and performance, resistance and
creativity then this workshop is for you.
A key inspiration for the workshop will be Steven Duncombe's concept
of creating "Ethical Spectacles" – see
http://turbulence.org.uk/politicsinanageo.html
Taking place from the evening of Friday 13th July to late Sunday
afternoon, 15th July, the workshop will be funded on a donations
basis. We hope to be in one of the villages threatened with
destruction by the expansion of Heathrow airport. The exact location
will be confirmed later.
Facilitated by artist/activist John Jordan, and writer/activist
Katharine Ainger, the workshop aims to inject a large dose of radical
imagination into the rising movements for climate justice.
Places will be limited so please fill in the attached form and email
it to - createresist@??? -- before the 29th June. We will
confirm your place by 1st July.
Even if you have done nothing like this before, please consider
applying. We are looking for a diversity of perspectives. If you have
special needs for attendance please let us know once your application
has been received and accepted.
"Heathrow is its own city, a Vatican of the western suburbs… The
airport complex with its international hotels, storage facilities,
semi-private roads, is as detached from the shabby entropy of the
metropolis as is the City, the original walled settlement. They have
their own rules, their own security forces, the arrogance of global
capitalism. They service Moloch in whatever form he chooses to reveal
himself; they facilitate drug/armament, blood/oil economies."
- Ian Sinclair, 'London Orbital'
