Join us on International Repair Day for the conversation with geographer and co-ordinator of Repair Acts, Ireland Dr Alma Clavin and artist and researcher Monai de Paula Antunes on “What Does It Mean to Care and Repair?”
Drawing on the work of Amartya Sen ‘Commodities and Capabilities’, Irish geographer and coordinator of Repair Acts, Ireland Dr Alma Clavin shares some of the theories that inform her research on sustainability and their relation to practices of repair. ‘Tales of Care and Repair’ project partner, Ravi Agarwal, provides an overview on his artistic work on climate change, care, attention and the livelihood of various communities. Brazilian artist and researcher Monai de Paula Antunes relates the Brazilian notion of gambiarra – a slang term used to describe a temporary solution to an unexpected event or crisis as an example of her thinking on ‘Wild Design’ and how it provides an alternative view to Western ideals of designing for control and maintenance. Gambiarra is also a key inspiration for our ‘Tales of Care and Repair’ partners Gambiologia, Brazil.
Tying into International Repair Day, this public seminar is part of ‘Tales of Care and Repair’. a project that is led by Repair Acts at the University of the West of England in collaboration with Toxics Link, India and Gambiologia, Brazil. The project is supported by the British Council’s Creative Commissions programme – a series of creative commissions exploring climate change through art, science and digital technology.
#CreativeCommissions #TheClimateConnection #COP26 #TogetherForOurPlanet @britishcouncil #repairacts
Agenda:
13.45: Online ‘room’ open
14.00: Welcome and Moderation, Teresa Dillon, University of the West of England
14.15: Dr Alma Clavin, University College Dublin
14.30: Ravi Agarwal, Artist and Co-founder of Toxics Link
14.45: Monai de Paula Antunes, Artist and Researcher, Berlin
15.00: Q+A
15.30: Close and thanks
Registration:
This is a free event but registration is required via: Eventbrite.
The event will be held on Zoom/webinar.
Speaker Biographies:
Dr Alma Clavin is an urban geographer and social sciences researcher in the School of Geography, University College Dublin. Over the last two decades Alma has worked for a number of public, private and non-governmental organisations in Ireland and the UK on community planning, energy and sustainability issues with a focus on grassroots practices and the relationship between green areas, health and wellbeing in densely populated urban areas. While this work is primarily rooted through the discipline of Geography, it’s interdisciplinary in practice, drawing on the fields of art, architecture, planning and design. From 2019-2021 Alma coordinated the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – a funded collaborative action research project, creating a community-led greening strategy in Dublin city and is currently undertaking a project funded by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) to examine place based approaches for Just Transitions. This work focuses on how we can create decent work and quality of life as we move to a low carbon economy. In collaboration with Teresa Dillon, Alma is the receipt of a Creative Ireland, Climate Action grant (Sept 2021-Dec 2022), which focuses on past, present and futures repair histories, narratives and imaginaries in Ireland.
Ravi Agarwal is the founder-director of the environmental NGO Toxics Link, which has pioneered work on waste and chemicals over the past three decades. Toxics Link has played a key role in issues relating to environmental health at various levels, including helping formulate policies and regulations for bio medical waste, municipal solid waste, electronic and electrical waste, hazardous waste, chemicals in products, POPS, and also to establish several best practice models on the ground. Alongside Agarwal is also an artist, writer, and curator. His work has been exhibited at Havanna Biennial (2019), Kochi Biennial (2016), Sharjah Biennial (2013) and Documenta XI (2002) etc. He has authored and edited articles, books and journals including the recently published ‘The Crisis of Climate Change, Weather Report’ (2021, Routledge) edited with Omita Goyal and the chapter ‘Alien Waters’ (2021) in The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change (edited by T.J Demos, Emily Eliza Scot and Subhankar Banerjee). Ravi was awarded the WHO-IFCS Award for Chemical Safety (2008) and the Ashoka Fellowship (1997). He lives in New Delhi and is an engineer and MBA by training.
Monai de Paula Antunes is an artistic researcher interested in complexity and communication together with their material, spatial and political entanglements. Her work specialises in Generative Art and Experimental Spatial Systems with a focus on developing alternative transdisciplinary models for the articulation, research and display of complex phenomena. This currently manifests though the idea of ‘Wild Design’ a framework for researching design practices in which humans are not driven by notions of control, stability, durability or safety but instead they resonate with synonyms of “wild” such as untamed, radical, marginal, uncontrollable, uncivilized, informal, undisciplined, unruly and unconventional. Such thinking is currently being activated through Monai’s position as one of the six artists-in-residency at the Politics of Heritage residency program: The School for Sonic Memory, part of Alexandria: (Re)activating Common Urban Imaginaries – a project co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union (2020-2023) and organised by Onassis Stegi and Theatrum Mundi. Alongside this Monai has co-formed with Kate Donovan the research project ‘Radio Otherwise’. She is the director and founder of Archipel Stations Community Radio and founding member of Archipel e.V, as well as a diligent member of other NGOs engaged with art, education, communication, philosophy and ecology. Monai’s work has been exhibited at internationally and she has lectured at a number of institutions and organisations across Europe. Between 2013-16 Monai has held the post of research assistant at the Vilém Flusser Archive, where she co-edited the Flusseriana: An Intellectual Toolbox – for which she won the prize #6 Deutsche Schönste Bücher 2016 from the Stiftung Buchkunst.
Moderators Biography:
Teresa Dillon is an artist and researcher and the artistic lead for ‘Tales of Care and Repair’ . In 2018 she co-founded Repair Acts – a practice-based research programme that explores repair cultures and practices in a pluralistic and collective manner. Since 2013 she also directs Urban Hosts – a programme the explores alternative urban futures and is a member of the spatial collective Soft Agency. Her work has been published in various contexts and she has participated in numerous exhibitions, art residencies, conferences and seminar programmes. A Humboldt Fellow, Teresa currently holds the post of Professor of City Futures at the School of Art and Design, UWE Bristol.
Image credit: Crack In the Dish, Annabel Stagg, BA Graphic Design, University of the West of England