Discussions around art and interdisciplinary practices, the politics of the possible, climate action and the rights of nature.
KinShip supported by MTU Arts Office under the Create Le Chéile Arts fund, presents a one-day symposium, 'Staying with the Trouble'.
A one-day symposium, Staying with the Trouble on Wednesday 4th October, 2023 will mark the closing of the Tentacular Thinking exhibition, at the Rory Gallagher Theatre, MTU Bishopstown Campus, Cork. The symposium will showcase through a series of talks and presentations, the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the input of diverse forms of knowledge in addressing rights of nature and climate action. By embracing multiple perspectives and ways of knowing, we aim to stay engaged with the complexities of the issues at hand when confronting environmental degradation.
Throughout the day KinShip project partner Cork Nature Network will be onsite at the Symposium to share the important work they have been undertaking at Tramore Valley Park, including the newly developed Biodiversity Plan for the park. Also present all day will be the MTU Clean Technology Centre who are partners and part of the KinShip working group. The CTC's goal is to move consumption and production patterns towards more preventive approaches, ensuring a carbon efficient society.
9.30 - Registration
10:00 - Introduction to the KinShip project and the symposium by artist collaboration LennonTaylor.
Link to LennonTaylor Website
10:30 - Fuinneamh Workshop Architects - Seán Antóin Ó’Muirí and Kieran Ruane (KinShip EcoLab, sustainable construction and material processes). Fuinneamh Workshop Architects are the team responsible for the design and construction of Ireland's first public rammed earth EcoLab shelter currently under construction in Tramore Valley Park. The team will talk about their construction ethos and the use of rammed earth, thatch, hoggin and wood as sustainable materials in the building of the EcoLab.
Link to Fuinneamh Website
11:00- 11:15 - Break
11:15 - Colette Lewis in conversation with Helen O'Shea and Eileen O'Leary: (Sustainable materials, waste, circular economy, creativity). Artist Colette Lewis created the (Waste) Fibre Flows Laboratory on her long-term KinShip Artist Placement, as an experimental space to process materials and ideas for new ways of thinking about our complicated and entangled relationship with waste. The laboratory is a space where policy, philosophy, speculative design and hands-on material processes meet.
Colette will be in conversation with Helen O'Shea, a textile artist focused on new narratives for waste plastics. They are joined by Eileen O' Leary, a senior researcher with the MTU Clean Technology Centre who's research includes waste flows. Helen worked with Colette on the (Waste) Fibre Flows Laboratory workshop at Cork City Chambers, 2022. Eileen was a participant on that workshop.
Link to Colette Lewis Link to Helen O'Shea Website
11:45 - Ann Burns: Socially engaged artist, Ann Burns will be in conversation with immersive filmmaker Linda Curtin, to discuss the role of XR technologies and climate action. Ann undertook a KinShip artist placement in Tramore Valley Park in '22-'23 and Linda is currently making an artist film documenting the EcoLab construction.
Link to Ann Burns Studios Linda Curtin Website
12.30 - Lunch and talk provided by My Goodness (Cork SOIL project, composting, circular economy etc) My Goodness was established in 2015 by Dónal and Virginia O’Gara. My Goodness is an award-winning ethical health focused business that specialises in vegan, raw, sugar-free, gluten-free and fermented probiotic products. All ingredients are sourced from local and organic suppliers where possible. My Goodness is working towards becoming a zero-waste company. During lunch Virginia O’Gara will give a talk about the company and their ongoing community projects in Cork City.
Link to My Goodness Website
Afternoon - Rights of Nature for Tramore Valley Park
13:30 - Love Our Ouse Project (UK) -Cllr Matthew Bird (Mayor of Lewes and Town Councillor (and Natasha Padbury (Founding Director of Love Our Ouse).
On 20 February 2023, Lewes District Council (Sussex UK) passed, by 27 votes to 2, a Rights of River motion for the river Ouse. The passing of this motion, the first in the country, means a charter on the river Ouse’s rights will be developed over the next two years. The motion was proposed by Matthew Bird, who is a former cabinet member for sustainability as well as climate lead for Sussex Wildlife Trust.
Love Our Ouse is the lead organisation who has initiated and is developing and delivering the Rights of River work for the River Ouse with community participation as a big part of the remit.
Link to Love Our Ouse Website Matthew Bird Website
14:30 - Peter Doran is an activist-law academic with a long-standing interest in political ecology and international affairs. His research and interests include degrowth and the wellbeing economy, climate justice, global environmental politics, and the intersections of Zen philosophy, ecology, and wellbeing. His most recent publication is the book, A Political Economy of Attention: Reclaiming the Mindful Commons (Routledge 2018). He is also a senior editor/writer for the International Institute for Sustainable Development at United Nations conferences on the environment and development. He has worked on environmental policy and campaigns in both government and NGO settings for over thirty years. Peter is on the steering group of Environmental Justice Network Ireland.
"The Rights of Nature movement is capturing the imaginations of communities across the world because it helps to turn our narratives of transition towards the ‘more-than-human': that intimate web of nature and meaning in which we are all entangled and implicated. It also represents an expression of a ‘biocentric’ or ‘ecocentric’ turn in the law: a decentring of ‘the human’ in favour of protecting the intrinsic rights of other beings”. Peter Doran et al, 2021.
About Peter Doran Link to Environmental Justice Network Website
15:30 - Questions & Answers
16:30-17:00 - Closing addresses
The opportunity to bring this Exhibition and Symposium together is made possible by the Munster Technological University Arts Office, under the Create le Chéile fund.
You can book this event on EVENTBRITE NOW - places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment .