Search

Societal Impact Statement Summary People often undervalue plants, hindering botanical education and conservation efforts. This study demonstrates how art‐based approaches including audience co‐creation elements can yield new insights into human‐plant interactions. Analyzing plant‐related memories showed that reflecting on personal experiences with plants evokes emotions and can reconnect individuals to specific people and places. The role of multisensory experiences of plants was also highlighted. This knowledge can inform botanical education practices and improve the design of effective outreach programs, fostering greater societal plant awareness and appreciation. The lack of plant appreciation, a manifestation of plant awareness disparity, is concerning in the context of plant conservation and preservation of botanical knowledge and skills. Developing effective strategies to foster plant awareness requires a better understanding of the nature of human interactions with plants. Art‐based approaches offer a new lens for attracting diverse audiences and can generate unique data through promoting self‐reflection and evoking emotional responses. Herein, we used the case study of visual exhibition “In Memory of Plants” to investigate how arts can be used to explore lasting connections to plants. The exhibition, presented at the Alternative Kilkenny Arts Festival 2022, was designed to inspire reflection on plants as elements of personal experiences and introduce the concept of plant awareness disparity. It also included a co‐creation component where visitors were invited to add their own plant‐related memories to a display board. These audience contributions were subjected to qualitative and quantitative analyses. The results underscored the ability of plants to act as memory anchors, providing lasting connections to places and people from the past. Additionally, the study yielded insights into the identity of “plant mentors” and highlighted the role of multisensory perception in human‐plant interactions. Presented observations can inform future projects focused on plant awareness and may encourage new collaborations between artists, botanists, and science communicators. Collectively, this study supports the use of arts‐based methods to both enhance and investigate plant awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organized as part of the annual Art Days festival in the capital of the Latvian SSR, the First Exhibition of Approximate Art comprised a cacophonous and provocative mashup of music, dance, performance art, and design. At the center of the event was a demonstration of mixing and scratching records by Maximilian Lenz, also known as Westbam, one of the leading DJs in West Berlin. Mining archival sources in Berlin and Riga, this article reconstructs the complicated path by which the DJ came to perform at the event. It reveals a surprising network of relations and alliances operating in tandem behind the scenes, featuring a Riga artist dedicated to enacting a vision of postmodern performance in his city, an ambitiously networking émigré Latvian living in exile in West Germany, and a pair of Soviet offices under direct control of the KGB, charged with managing cultural exchanges with the West in hopes of currying sympathies for Soviet culture and policy. Complementing and extending research on the "gaps" and "holes" in the Soviet system that sometimes allowed for the staging of otherwise unacceptable works of art, the story of the First Exhibition of Approximate Art reveals how personal connections and interpersonal networks within even the most highly monitored parts of the system itself—the state security apparatus—could open doors for artistic projects unanticipated and even undesired by the bureaucratic state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Index: Revista de Arte Contemporaneo is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ido Movement for Culture. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology is the property of Idokan Poland Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in artist-led collectives with high-profile recognition within contemporary art mega festivals, prizes, and biennials. Yet, these amorphous entities and initiatives tend to be framed either through their politically motivated actions or as a critique of the notion of the single author or 'artist-as-genius' mythology. This article builds upon this discourse to shift the emphasis onto both interpersonal and socio-political relationships that constitute artist-led collectives in order to explore their complex role in convening and placemaking and what this might mean for both policymaking and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses India's efforts to strengthen its ties with the Global South and its strategic ambitions and constraints. India aims to act as a leader and voice for the Global South, believing that it plays a crucial role in shaping the international system. India seeks to enhance its international influence and facilitate economic transformation through closer relations with the Global South, while also maintaining friendly relations with the US and the West. India is advocating for the reform of the United Nations to better represent the Global South and is actively engaging with Global South countries through bilateral and multilateral consultations. India is also competing with China in the Global South and strengthening ties with the United States. However, India faces constraints due to limited national capacity and concerns about its leadership and ability to effectively engage with the Global South. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Papeles del CEIC is the property of Centro de Estudios sobra la Identidad Colectiva, Facultas de Ciencias Sociales and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Indonesia has many traditional's arts. However, not all Indonesian people treat them to protect sacred objects since art is considered as a finished cultural product. Considering that the performing arts have not been well communicated for providing and empowering the community's benefits except for home entertainment and stage performances, this research aims to create a model of performing arts communication through empowering cultural art-based tourism. The research method used is a qualitative approach and creative artwork using the R&D method by analyzing various performing arts in West Java, by collaborating on art's packaged in the form of tourist performance, field tests are carried out through performances in tourist areas, performances through art's festivals. This research resulted in a workflow for developing cultural art to create art products and cultural art-based tourism spaces to arrive at a model of performing art's communication. An important contribution from the perspective of performing arts communication is the understanding of value relations between actors and their public. Social, cultural, economic, political, educational, environmental, and tourism's values become meaningful references in creating art and tourism spaces for the community's sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID lockdowns of 2020/21, the transmission of live or recorded concerts grew exponentially as festival makers embraced digital technologies to a greater degree. Investigating how this digital pivot interrupted festival-making practices is now important given that online and hybrid modes will potentially be used in conjunction with in-person events in the future. This task has relevance for rural areas where digital infrastructures can be under-developed. Yet, place-based, community-organised festivals can play a significant role in sustaining local communities. In this context, we explore the recent digital programming practices of music festivals in West Cork, Ireland. Methodologically, the study adopted a qualitative research design and generated data from fieldwork observations and in-depth interviews with festival practitioners in West Cork. This area was chosen for study because it is characterised by intensive arts and festival activity, high tourism activity, and a significant level of social change. The findings show that the ability of festivals to move practices online was variable and highly resource dependent. Overall, they suggest that in times of crisis the role of festivals became even more important than normal. Festivals played an important role in sustaining social connectivity, cultural participation and employment, with festival organisations demonstrating a strong sense of care and responsibility towards participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We all attend the annual festival for many different reasons, but the one common reason should be to become intertwined with our featured speakers. They bring an amazing background in [...]

This paper focuses on the economic and marketing analysis of the Burning Man event (also known as the "Burning Man festival"). It is doing so by tracing the festival's evolution from a small bonfire ritual on San Francisco beach in California in 1986 to a globally renowned art festival held for the whole full week before the Labor Day weekend in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. The festival has gradually become one of the world's top "must-see" and "must-attend" attractions (often getting various nicknames by the press and researchers - from the "magic circus in the desert" to the "lucrative circus" or "Silicon Valley playground"). Currently, Burning Man is attracting more than 60,000 participants (who call themselves "Burners") annually and making over $8 million in tickets and donations (there has been a cap implemented on the maximum number of participants due to the environmental and land protection concerns since the current venue is located in the National Conservation Area). It has also served as an inspiration for a series of similar festivals or smaller events organized in other parts of the world, from Lithuania to Spain (or even Israel), helping to create and sustain the global "Burning Man" worldwide community. Drawing on data from more than 500 surveys conducted at the different Burning Man festivals between 2012 and 2018 by the authors, this paper explores the transformation of the Burning Man event into a high-end event characterized by significant expenditure and participation from upper social echelons. Contrary to popular perception, Burning Man emerges not as a 'hippie' Woodstock-type gathering but as an elite networking hub, highlighting the interplay of luxury and 'radical expression'. The research reveals that average spending per participant ranges from $5,000 to $6,000 (including tickets, travel costs, gear, supplies, and gifts), challenging the festival's accessibility. Furthermore, despite the allure of the event, the demanding Black Rock desert environment distinguished by the severe temperature changes and alkaline dust storms often happening on a dry lakebed (or "playa") seems to deter repeat attendance among wealthier participants. Our paper contributes to understanding the dynamics of popular festival marketing and the shifting demographic profile of the Burning Man festival, offering insights into its exclusivity and the economic implications of its 'radical expression' ethos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses audience responses to two creative works inspired by traumatic loss—the first, a performance presentation, recounting events from the author's adolescence; the second, a short film about a suicide in the filmmaker's family. Both were shown in 2017 as part of a mental health arts festival, attracting audiences with affinity for the lived experiences portrayed. Given the potential for such works to give rise to negative feelings and/or to retrigger trauma, the objective of this research was to understand firstly whether audiences could process the trauma conveyed in a contained and facilitative setting and, secondly, how the specific aesthetic modality of each work supported this processing. The psychosocial methodology adopted consisted of a group-based, image-led associative method—the visual matrix—which invites participants to express their sensory-affective and felt responses to a creativework. In the case of both works, the visual matrix gave rise to a distinctive form of aesthetic enactment, expressed through rhythm and image association. This imagistic and 'rhythmic' mode of engagement appeared to be key to the re-symbolisation of trauma for the audiences. The implication of this study is that the re-visiting of potentially distressing experiences in an aesthetically mediated, containing setting is potentially reparative in its effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the major intellectual debates surrounding the Black and African Renaissance, the interview with Sarah Frioux-Salgas, head of archives and collections' resources at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac media library, covers topics such as the role of Black writers' and artists' congresses and art festivals in the cultural reaffirmation of Black people during the decolonization era of the 1950s-60s, the place of literature in the shaping of Black pan-African and transcontinental solidarity, the figure of the Black intellectual, particularly that of Léopold Sédar Senghor, and the networks of ideological affinities and antagonisms formed by Black writers, artists and activists. The interview aims to highlight the complexity of the socio-political and aesthetic issues at stake, all too often summed up in simplified definitions of projects such as negritude or Pan-Africanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Artnodes is the property of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article is an interview with The Wa, a French artist living in Berlin, about his experience working as a street artist in Sri Lanka. The Wa collaborated with local artists to create murals and participated in street art festivals. He also distributed stickers to rickshaw drivers, which became a popular form of his artwork in the country. The Wa reflects on the challenges of working in a different cultural context and the importance of bridging art and reality in the streets. He emphasizes the value of travel and encounters in shaping one's beliefs and approaches to life. The Wa is currently focused on sincerity in his work rather than catering to the art market. [Extracted from the article]

Being-in-the-Breathable, a collaborative artwork by Robert Bean and Barbara Lounder, was introduced in 2017 for the Contexts International Festival of Ephemeral Art in Sokolowsko Poland. Being-in-the-Breathable: An Annotated Walk responded to the earth's atmosphere as the last Commons shared by human and non-human entities. Their 2018 work, Being-inthe-Breathable: Weathering, was based on walks in the Lake District, UK. In 2019 they created Being-in-the Breathable: The Commons and the fourth work in the series, Being-in-the Breathable: 44.649589,-63.574150, which took place in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. This visual essay is about the first two works in the series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of seven years during ten events, the author explored real-time interactive audiovisual projections, using ad hoc and portable projections and audio systems. This was done in the specific location of Cockatoo Island in the waters of a part of Sydney Harbour, Australia. The island offers a unique combination of the remnants of a shipyard industrial precinct, other buildings, and increasingly restored natural environment. The project explored real-time audiovisual responses through projected overlays reminiscing the rich history and past events, interactively resonating with the current landscape and built environment. This included the maritime industrial history, as well as other historical layers such as convict barracks, school, and the significance of the location for Australia's original inhabitants before colonisation by the British started in 1788. But most prominently, the recent use of the island for large scale art projects (such as the Outpost street art festival in 2011, and over a decade of use as part of the Sydney Biennale of Art, and the use of the island for film sets). This was a rich source of image material collected by the author and used to extend and reflect on current realities. By using the projections, overlaying and extending the present reality with historical data in the form of sounds and video, dialogues were facilitated and a conflation of past and present explored. The main activity were the VideoWalks, where the author, using a custom built portable audiovisual projection system and a bank of audiovisual material was able to re-place sound and video of previous events in the present context, in some instances whilst delivering a performative lecture on the way. The explorations are part of the author's Traces project, exploring traces and remnants of past events and how these can inform design approaches. The project over the years also developed an element of recursion, by using footage of an earlier projection into the current, the footage of which was then used in the next event, and so on—up to five layers of extended reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key broadening participation challenge for science communication is to reach non-traditional audiences beyond those already interested in science. In this study we test a "Guerilla Science" approach that blends elements of access, by removing barriers to participation, with those of inclusion, by designing participant-centered activities, for reaching an art-interested adult audience at the FIGMENT art festival in New York City. Our results show that participants at Guerilla Science were similar to festival goers overall in their connection to and interest in science, indicating the effectiveness of the approach for engaging non-traditional audiences and those who might not self-select into science activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alto do Moura, the largest figurative art center in the Americas, is a neighborhood in the city of Caruaru, known mainly for the production of figurative clay art. In addition to clay crafts, there are several other types of expressions, most of them with music, that are performed by the locals - or by other people who go to the place to make such expressions happen -, among them: Reisado, Bacamarte, poesia, pífano and others. One of the aspects of the artistic and cultural expressions carried out in Alto do Moura is their relationship with clay figurative art and the Festas Juninas (June festivals). This article, which aims to discuss how these expressions are changing to continue existing, is an excerpt from a qualitative research, with ethnographic methodological procedures and fieldwork, based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and personal experience. Part of the data was obtained through the work carried out for the "Inventário do Ofício dos Artesãos e Artesãs do Barro do Alto do Moura - Caruaru-PE". It is possible to notice that, to remain alive, the expressions of Alto do Moura transit between the new (change) and the old (tradition), the art of clay and Festas Juninas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a psychosocial lens, informed by relational psychoanalysis, this article discusses the design, delivery, and impact of The Big Anxiety's 2022 festival in Warwick, Queensland—an arts-based program that engages with lived experiences of trauma, distress, and suicide, and in this case with the devastating impact of youth suicide, disproportionately affecting First Nations communities. It describes the festival's methods of creative engagement, examining how these create conditions for the transformation of trauma and for experiences of growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with gaining independence, in Ukraine festival tendencies were revived, including theatrical art: the exchange of experiences has been intensified, tendencies to present social- and historical topics forbidden during the USSR times along with the search for new means of bringing theatrical art closer to the audience became more visible and prominent. In the early 1990s, festival movement became key to Ukrainian theatre’s revival, enabling its adaptation to the new socio-political, economic and cultural reality. The aim of the article is to present the GogolFest festival in the context of various directions of the festival movement after 1991. The idea and initiative to create this multidisciplinary project came from the director, producer and artistic manager of the ‘Dach’ Center for Contemporary Art. As a result, activities of GogolFest and its evolution have a broader culture-forming scope: through the integration of various fields of art and creators, they aim at modernizing Ukraine in the space of art. This, in turn, is the basic condition of forming or increasing the awareness and conducting social discussion on current and historical topics brought by the reality of contemporary Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural arts events (triennials/festivals) are mainly aimed at local and regional revitalization. This exhibition-driven tourism (unlike traditional festivals, conferences, and exhibitions) has existed for more than 20 years in Japan. The curators of exhibition-driven tourism hope that these events can promote the economy and stop population decline as a result of the aging population. Therefore, this paper attempts to evaluate the effects of urban and rural arts event tourism in local and neighborhood areas in Niigata, Japan from the perspective of SDG 8.9. The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial and Water and Land Niigata Art Festival were chosen as case studies. Panel data (1997–2019) concerning tourists, income, and population in Niigata were evaluated using multiple empirical methods with descriptive correlation statistics (simple linear regression (SLR) and one-way ANOVA) and spatial analysis (Moran's I). Through multiple-method analysis, the positive impacts of urban and rural arts event tourism in local and neighborhood areas in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 8.9 were evaluated. The findings presented herein have meaningful implications for tourism academia and the industry in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alternative Francophone is the property of Alternative Francophone and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Artnodes is the property of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Art festivals have a significant importance in the development of a local community, being a factor of cultural and social cohesion, a platform for interaction between those who share the same cultural values. The purpose of this research is to identify the managerial competencies needed by festival organizers, being known that performance in the organization is given by the existence of cognitive skills, emotional and social intelligence. The study conducted on several festivals organized in Cluj, Romania involved carrying out an exploratory and descriptive research, through a pre-existing questionnaire, on the competencies and roles that organizers must have from a professional standpoint. The results showed an approximately identical perception of the two groups in assessing the skills of emotional intelligence and empathy, managers and artists, a different one in terms of cognitive skills and the dimensions ordered by the number of mentions highlighted the need to professionalize the competencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A young man with Down syndrome and an early adopter of self-managed supports wanted to have a great life, but he needed to be sure what a great life was for him. He decided to ask successful people, "What do you love about your life?", which he felt was a question that gets right to the heart of the matter. In this paper the young man and his father will outline their journey as co-researchers in collecting/filming 600 stories across ten countries, with some interviews prearranged but many occurring spontaneously at music, film, and arts festivals. The initial findings of "what people loved about their lives" fall into the following categories: Family, Work, Home, Travel, Health, Pets, and Life Itself. Positive side effects for the young man covered: self-confidence, ability to connect with people, opportunities, working relationships, and ongoing friendship. The implications of taking a social journalism approach to collecting stories will be discussed in line with the question "What makes for good inclusive research"? The journey of the co-researchers speaks to the outcome that it is worthwhile to research your life path, accessing elders' wisdom. The tools of inclusive research are powerful when applied to a citizen's life questions. Each person values their life in unique ways, yet there are many commonalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]