Posts Tagged ‘Cop Art’
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Could you be the winner of the Fun Theory Award!?
The Fun Theory is based on the idea that fun is a simple and easy way to effectively change people’s behaviour for the better. The Fun Theory Award is in place to recognise these simple and fun thoughts, and reward them with the opportunity to win 2 500 Euros! So could your idea be the next winning Fun Theory!?
Some examples of fun theories include: the Piano Staircase, stairs which have been turned into piano keys in order to draw people away from using escalators; the Bottle Bank Arcade, an interactive recycling bin that scores its users; and a karma kalculator that dispenses fortune cookies to freecyclers. There’s also a machine that reads faces and rewards smiles with chocolate!
If you have any fun ideas, for example ideas which may help change people’s behaviour towards acting on climate change, then visit www.thefuntheory.com and enter the competition! Be quick! The deadline is 15th December.
You may also want to turn your idea, theory or invention into a piece of art and enter it into COPArt! The winning piece of COPArt will be used as the design for all future Climate Squad t-shirts and the best part is – you will get some free t-shirts with your design for you and your friends! Visit www.cop-art.org.uk to take part.
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Cue…or should I say?…Kew Zac Goldsmith!
Climate Squad Volunteer, Sydney Fleming-Gale, reflects on her experience interviewing Zac Goldsmith and Professor Stephen Hopper, for The Community Channel.
This is it Climate Squad volunteers, we have officially been let loose into the glamorous world of television.
I was summoned into action on November 20th, called by my press officer duties, to interview respected environmentalist and conservative MP candidate Zac Goldsmith. All for The Community Channel’s new programming on climate change – due to be released next month.
Starring as their ‘young reporter’ I was asked to arrive bright and early on Friday morning at London’s Kew Gardens to firstly interview the Director of Kew, Professor Stephen Hopper in the stunning interior of the Palm House. The lovely Media Trust crew set up their camera amidst the luscious greenery and began rolling as I started with my questions.
Passionate about the conservation work being done at Kew, Professor Hopper spoke about the importance of understanding the vital role plants play to our environment. He told me all about the 50 countries who are members ofKew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership working to prevent the extinction of plant species by collecting seeds and storing them for future research. So far they have banked 10 per cent of the world’s plants – that’s 24,200 species.
He was very impressed to hear about all the events and team work that climate Squad and Global Action Plan volunteers are doing to help the environment and even suggested that his own Cop-Art contribution would be: “A green planet, because I think that it represents the significance of our planet’s vegetation.”
After shaking hands with Professor Hopper and thanking him for being such a wonderful interviewee, I had a couple of minutes to enjoy the tropical atmosphere inside the botanical greenhouse before it was time to start interview two, with Zac Goldsmith.
During the interview we covered a range of topics from his opinions on the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, to his personal views on economy and the environment. He smiled his way through the questions and took time to explain how he believes deforestation contributes to Climate Change. He said: “One of the most positive things that I hope to come out of Copenhagen will be a set policy on deforestation around the world.”
Zac runs his own organic farm in Devon and was very interested to hear about the work that the Eco-teams and Climate Squad do in their local communities, saying he would like to find out more about how the projects are going. Zac decided that his Cop-Art would simply be a tree, because they are a work of art made from our planet’s natural beauty.
After a little ‘walk and talk’ filming it was time to call it a day, wrap up the interview and send the footage to be prepared for broadcasting. It was so much fun working with the Community Channel and Media Trust and it was all thanks to the climate squad. I’m sure there will be plenty more exciting opportunities to come for all volunteers, so watch this space!
The full televised version will be available on The Community Channel from December and on the Community Channel website.
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Radical Nature Month!
17th August – 17th September is Radical Nature month and the Barbican Art Gallery, London, is going all out to celebrate the occasion by hosting a number of events. To kick of the month, Kit Hammonds, an independent curator and tutor at the Royal College of Art will be delivering a “Green Talk”. Green Talks will be running throughout the month alongside the gallery and exhibition, and will be delivered by a number of Art related guests including Ariella Yedgar, Francesco Manacorda and Joel Robinson. The talks will be focussing on binding relations between art, nature and climate change with discussions on environmental issues. If you are interested in volunteering to take part in the Climate Squad CopArt project then these events may give you a great insight into the link between art and climate change that may help you formulate great ideas to bring to the table!
For those of you who haven’t heard about it, CopArt is a project run by Climate Squad giving our volunteers the chance to take part in forming a piece of artwork that will be taken to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen this December. The art will be viewed by the world leaders themselves and so is a great opportunity for you to express your concerns about climate change in a big way! If you would like more information on CopArt, register your interest with Climate Squad.
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