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First Fridays are our regular monthly community gatherings during which we hear about current work from a wide range of artists and those interested in art. They are an opportunity for artists to share work in progress or to hear about interesting projects from some of the many artists and others engaged with creativity and the planet. Since May 2020 our meetings have been online.
On Friday October 1 (13.00 – 14.00 BST/UTC+1) we welcome Prof Jaeweon Cho, Director of the Science Walden (pictured) project at the Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology in South Korea. The project has been running for more than five years and is exploring not just new engineering projects for the planet but at the fundamentals of how we operate as a society. One of the basic tenets of Science Walden has been the bringing together of artists, engineers and scientists (as well as other thinkers) to create a better world.
Jaeweon Cho is professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). He teaches Science Humanities, Environmental Justice, and others under program of convergence of Science and Arts. He now directs the Convergence Research Center, named ‘Science Walden’, supported by National Research Foundation of Korea, with convergence of science and arts being focused, since 2015. He tries to make various designs for communities, education program, etcetera. He proposed the faeces Standard Money (fSM) concept in edge.org (edge.org/response-detail/26660). He is one of founding members of North Korea Water Society under the ministry of Unification, Korea, since 2015, to discuss what should be done for Korean re-unification and on potential ways to collaborate to solve water issues in both Koreas, between two Koreas. He has been providing small water purification units being operated without electricity (named ‘OngDalSaem’), to villages in various different countries. He is authors of books, “Honey Money: fSM a new money for a new society” (2020, art.earth, UK), “This is not a toilet” (2021, in Korean), and “Climate Change Humanities (2015, in Korean).
Our second guest is Mr K C Wong, Creative Officer of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change and a Hong Kong-based artist. The Museum of part of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change is the first museum of its kind in the world, offering an interactive, multimedia exhibition that showcases valuable collections and information about climate change. More information to follow.
Mr Wong was introduced to us by Selva Ozelli, an artist who has been prodigious in promoting art and climate change activities around the globe. It was Selva who also originally linked us with the Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change. See below for more information about her and her work. Richard will talk to Selva about her extensive work with museums and NGOs and promoting art that is paying attention to climate change issues.
Selva Ozelli has been busy making, curating art shows, writing environmental articles and interviewing artists, museums and international NGOs to support an equitable, resilient green recovery from the pandemic.
Her current/upcoming exhibitions include:
Net Zero Festival, London: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q63Y_4LDjXE&t=4s
UN Habitat Urban October Art Show: https://urbanoctober.unhabitat.org/event/art-time-corona-1-2-3-4-5-6-recovery-roses
On October 7, Selva added this news about her exhibitions:
My 2021 articles and art shows were published by the 2021 United Nations General Assembly Guide (2021 UNGA Guide): https://virt.com/search/?term=selva+ozelli&when=past.
It also looks like I will be exhibiting my Net Zero Art Shows at COP26, at 2021 UNGA Guide’s COP26 Channel, I am waiting to get back a link to it. It’s great news that yesterday Turkey (where I am currently based) ratified the Paris Agreement, I suspect there will be others joining in.
An award winning artist whose work has been acknowledged in 18 international art contests including the United Nations, and whose 9 digital art shows have been exhibited in over 70 art shows in UN conferences and museums across the world https://www.talenthouse.com/selva-ozelli/about.
This International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development has witnessed the rapid spread of the highly transmissible delta variant of Covid-19, as well as a new coronavirus variant, known as C.1.2 with multiple mutations amidst the worst wildfire season. But then, akin to pollution and corona, the transboundary nature of digital art has allowed Selva to participate in numerous international art shows during this year, with the theme of a sustainable and resilient recovery from the covid-19 pandemic with her “Art in the Time of Corona” series of art shows that were published by CUHK Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change.
For a green recovery from the pandemic, everyone needs to work together, including the public, policymakers, academia, artists, business, community, civil society, NGOs and museums. Accordingly, Selva interviewed for TiredEarth Viviane Gosselin, the Director of Collections and Exhibitions for the Museum of Vancouver and a member of the Advisory Group for the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice who explained “I just want to stress that it’s clear […] that social and environmental justice are interconnected. That the interdisciplinary nature of environmental connections span between literature, art, science and much more according to Ava Hedeker, the founder of F(earth)er Magazine. And that art as well as museums and NGOs play a part in raising awareness about climate change according to Cecilia Lam, Founding Director of CUHK Jockey Club Museum of Climate Change; Patrick Hamilton, Director of Global Change Initiatives, Science Museum of Minnesota; Cassia Patel, Program Director at Oceanic Global Foundation; Angela Haseltine Pozzi, Founder and Artistic Director of the Washed Ashore Project – Art to Save the Sea; Captain Raymond Ashley, President and CEO, Maritime Museum of San Diego; Diane Drubay, Founder of We Are Museums; Florian Schlederer, Founder of Museums For Future; Ingmar Rentzhog, Founder of We Don’t Have Time and Austin Dinesh Joseph, Head of Operations at TIIKM Conferences.