Yesterday’s post mentioned in passing an Arts Council project that typifies the standards we’ve come to expect from publicly funded art. Jarvis Cocker, the country’s foremost socialist pop musician, was sent to the Arctic for “inspiration” and to raise planetary consciousness, along with another two dozen artistic luminaries:
The ambition of the expedition was to inspire the creative team to respond to climate change… It was an amazing journey; 10 days of artistic inspiration, debate, discussion and exploration.
The ecological insights gleaned by Mr Cocker?
Men have produced a lot of great art over the centuries, or whatever… but… an iceberg kind of, basically, pisses on it.
Here’s the contribution by Beatboxer Shlomo, who “dedicates his beats to the cause.”
Mr Shlomo’s deep, deep insights into climatology and life can be read here. They include,
I couldn’t help but notice that it’s really quite cold.
And,
Being with all these inspired people seems to have filled my head with a zillion ideas for musical endeavours that could easily save the world.
The expedition organisers explain the artistic riches to be tapped and why the creative excursion is so worth your money:
Through witnessing the environment, taking part in stimulating discussion and observing and participating in scientific field research, we enable our voyagers to gain a real connection to the subject matter. Our ambition is that this experience will inspire all who journey to somehow respond to the Arctic and create work on their return.
Such was the level of inspiration, some of the assembled artists began to work their creative magic immediately.
Tracy Rowledge constructed three series of ‘automated’ physical drawings, mapping the movement of the boat during the expedition.
We must heal the planet with drawings, people. It’s a matter of urgency. For readers of a technical inclination, these ‘automated’ drawings involved suspending a felt-tip pen from the underside of a chair, resulting in random scribble on numerous sheets of paper positioned underneath. This feat was “REALLY exciting” as it “explored movement, time, place and permanence.” The radical innovation also freed the artist to leave the dangling pen and do something more interesting. According to her two brief blog entries, the sum total of her commentary, Ms Rowledge spent much of this liberated time struggling with Greenlandic place names and making sure her fellow passengers knew how “overwhelmed” she was.
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