At this turning point between Earth rights and Earth fragility, how might we divine messages from the non-human inhabitants of our ecosystems to protect our collective future and find hope, despite threats? Can the trees and small creatures of the world teach us to adapt to a global crisis even as much of the world holds its breathe in the face of catastrophe? Are there threads from cultural, scientific and even spiritual knowledge to lead us out of a labyrinth of trouble? Activities in this workshop are designed to go beyond mindfulness and hear the silent cries of alarm and the whispers of hope we can pass on to others to collectively find the answers we need, welcome or not.

Each day of the workshop will focus on employing familiar tools in new ways: walking, journaling, recording, sharing and discussing the implications of our observations. Our frame of reference for these exercises will be the rules of trigger point theory with the goal of identifying points for possible intervention in environmental cascades.

Aviva Rahmani is one of the most important artists contributing to the current movement of environmental art. Her public and ecological art projects have involved collaborative interdisciplinary community teams with scientists, planners, environmentalists and other artists, and her projects range from complete landscape restorations to museum venues that reference painting, sound and photography.

She began her career as a performance artist, founding and directing the American Ritual Theatre (1968-1971), performing throughout California. In 1971, she collaborated with Judy Chicago, Suzanne Lacy, and Sandi Orgel on Ablutions, now considered a groundbreaking feminist performance work on rape. After graduating from California Institute of the Arts and getting her PhD from Plymouth, Aviva began presenting workshops on her theoretical approach to environmental restoration, and her transdisciplinary work has been exhibited internationally.

Aviva's video documentation Gulf to Gulf sessions have made international impact, and it's precursor "Trigger Points/Tipping Points" premiered at the 2007 Venice Biennale. In 2002, her pioneering community action project "Blue Rocks" helped restore degraded wetlands on Vinalhaven Island, Maine (triggering a USDA investment of over $500,000). "The Blued Trees Symphony" (2015 - present) has received numerous awards and had huge impact around the globe.

"Ghost Nets 1990-2000", one of Aviva's best known works, includes her original theories of environmental restoration and trigger point theory. In 2012, she applied trigger point theory and the "Gulf to Gulf" webcasts to "Fish Story Memphis," a multi-part public art project. In 2006, she initiated a series of podcasts, "Virtual Cities and Oceans of If", which segued into webcasts on climate change. She is currently an Affiliate with the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado (UCB), where she has been collaborating with the Director, James White since 2007 on "Gulf to Gulf", a series of webcasts on global warming with other scientists, artists and thinkers. Their first collaborative work premiered with Cultura21 in the Joseph Beuys Pavilion of the 2007 Venice Biennale.

In 2007, in collaboration with White, Aviva appeared in the collective exhibition Weather Report, debuting her work "Trigger Points, Tipping Points". She displayed a series of digital prints that superimposed satellite imagery with textual warnings on the morphing and changing of climate change on the global landscape. Her work embodies a discourse that focuses on the power dynamics of disaster and how rising sea levels will not only effect landscape, but also result in the relocation of communities and refugee migration. She seamlessly ties together climate change with the themes of class, power, and justice - a conversation frequently not as prevalent in the global warming conversation.



WHERE AND WHEN?

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HOW TO BOOK

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