heathrow – AmeliasMagazine

Amelia’s Magazine | Greenpeace need your help to find 100,000 owners for Airplot by May 1st!

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Immani da silva

All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Born in Brazil but resident of Milan, case Cristiane Chaves brought us a ‘subliminal message of seduction from Italy’ with her Cyberwitch look. A google search on this designer throws up an intriguing website Temporary Label, visit web which suggests that Cristiane puts a lot of thought into the execution of her work, more about using dissolvable labels that remove all trace of the original designer’s input. I think you’d want to remember who’d designed these highly accomplished draped and roped garments if you managed to get your paws on one.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Cristiane Chaves

Cristiane Chaves.

I found Olivia Grogan‘s collection of stripy print dresses cute but nothing special. A textiles graduate from Northampton University, these were sweet halter neck outfits to wear to a summer party.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Olivia Grogan

Toni Ann Haines was quite frankly frightening: plastic coats over ill-fitting boned bodies. No thanks.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Toni Ann Haines
Toni Ann Haines.

From Germany, Wilfried Pletzinger showed a brilliant collection of recycled sportswear. Thanks to a bit of clever ruching, jumbling everything upside down this way and that, he gave us something new and highly desirable. From day to day clothes to evening wear he aims to challenge the role of ‘sportswear’ and he does a really good job of making this happen – take a look at his website to get inspired by more of his creations. This is how all sportswear should end it’s days (or merely start them once more, to be upcycled all over again?)

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Wilfried Pletzinger

Wilfried Pletzinger brings a whole new meaning to upcycling.

Immani Da Silva, inspired by the worlds of fetish and burlesque (no shit Sherlock), presented a truly frightening collection of clothing fit only for the most outrageous trannies. It didn’t hold together in any way at all, but I enjoyed shooting the models, posers, the lot of them.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Immani Da Silva

Immani Da Silva models have fun with the photographers.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010
Does she belong with Immani? I’m not sure.

Make up artist Maya was lurking around backstage during the Immani show, looking fabulous again. And then I espied another young girl sporting amazing rainbow eye make up. Related? What do you think? I was too chicken to ask.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Make up artist maya

And last but very not least I absolutely adored the collection – Sock it to Me (Make Do and Mend) – made by the students of Waltham Forest College, the entirety of which was made out of old socks and presented on the most hilarious gaggle of models shod in floral welly boots. In bright pink Barbara Cartland lipstick with zingy blue eyeshadow they were utterly brilliant exhibitionists who couldn’t stop posing once they’d left the catwalk. Who would have thought that recycled socks could be so sexy? Just gorgeous. I’d photograph these girls again any day.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Waltham Forest College

For some good footage from the catwalk on Friday check out Ballad Of here.
You can read part one of this blog post here.
Look out for my last post, which will be ways in which to make the best impression at Alternative Fashion Week. Something to read for next year maybe!

If I have got any credits wrong please email me and let me know. I’ve done my best.
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Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Waltham Forest College
All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Born in Brazil but resident of Milan, cost Cristiane Chaves brought us a ‘subliminal message of seduction from Italy’ with her Cyberwitch look. A google search on this designer throws up an intriguing website Temporary Label, visit this site which suggests that Cristiane puts a lot of thought into the execution of her work, price using dissolvable labels that remove all trace of the original designer’s input. I think you’d want to remember who’d designed these highly accomplished draped and roped garments if you managed to get your paws on one.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Cristiane Chaves

Cristiane Chaves.

I found Olivia Grogan‘s collection of stripy print dresses cute but nothing special. A textiles graduate from Northampton University, these were sweet halter neck outfits to wear to a summer party.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Olivia Grogan

Toni Ann Haines was quite frankly frightening: plastic coats over ill-fitting boned bodies. No thanks.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Toni Ann Haines
Toni Ann Haines.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Wilfried Pletzinger

Wilfried Pletzinger brings a whole new meaning to upcycling.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Immani Da Silva

Immani Da Silva models have fun with the photographers.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010
Does she belong with Immani? I’m not sure.

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Make up artist maya

Alternative Fashion Week Day 5 2010 Waltham Forest College

If I have got any credits wrong please email me and let me know. I’ve done my best.
Aniela Murphy Airplot
Illustration by Aniela Murphy.

Airplot is the name by which Greenpeace’s campaign to prevent Heathrow’s third runway from being built is known and is a piece of land near the endangered village of Sipson upon which great schemes are hatched to thwart and confound the BAA in their mission to destroy and expand. Anna Jones has been with Greenpeace, treat campaigning against airport expansion, adiposity for the past three years.

Could you give us a bit of background on the project? How did it all begin?
In about Spring 2008 we decided to try and buy a bit of the runway, essentially, to be able to take direct action and put ourselves in the way of the plans. It was quite a tall order to do that under the radar, as it were, top secretly. We were worried that BAA might find out and try and buy the bit before we got there. We spent quite a few months trying to find a piece of land that we could buy and in January 2009 we managed to pull it off and announced it to the world a couple of days before the government announced it was going to support the third runway. We knew all along that the government was going to support the runway because it had basically been a stitch up from the beginning, so they had said in 2003 that they wanted the runway to happen. Greenpeace and other groups did a lot to highlight the collusion that went on between the Department of Transport and BAA to fix the figures to try and argue that expansion wouldn’t create any more air or noise pollution. The key thing was that they didn’t really mention climate change; they thought as they were dealing with climate change through the climate emissions scheme theat they didn’t really need to worry about it, and that it was all fine. But of course, we all knew that it’s not all fine, and the new runway would massively undermine our ability to meet our climate change targets.

When we launched Airplot, we made it possible for anyone and everyone around the world to become an owner of the land. Now there are over 80,000 people signed up to become beneficial owners of the land, and we’re hoping to take this number up to 100,000 by the beginning of May. Our aim is, once the new government comes to power after the election, we’ll slap the deeds on their desk and show them the level of opposition, which will continue if they don’t drop the plans.

The recent high court decision that the airport expansion needs to be reviewed must’ve really helped.
That’s what we’ve been arguing all along; that they weren’t properly considering climate change. We had to take them to court to prove that and the judge ruled that the government hadn’t properly considered the climate change act when they were considering the third runway. Now they need to go back and do a whole review of their whole aviation policy of which the third runaway is a big part, and make sure that it’s in line with the climate change act. It’s a massive step-forward for the campaign but also hugely significant for climate change law & climate change policy.

Aniela Murphy Airplot
Illustration by Aniela Murphy.

How much danger is the village of Sipson in, at the moment?
A great deal of danger! The whole village would be completely destroyed.

How are the government defending that? What are they suggesting the villagers do?
They’re shying away from it. People are going to have to find their own way. What’s worrying is that BAA have already started buying people’s houses, which shows that they are going to do whatever they can to try and get their runway. Up at Stanstead, where they were pushing for a second runway, they had been buying up properties in the area that they wanted to build the runway, despite the fact that they didn’t even have planning permission for it, so they’re a really underhand company who think they’re going to get their way by bullying people. They’re just going to bulldoze through people’s lives, essentially. It’s very tense in Sipson, it’s been a long time for people to be living with the threat of the runway, seven or eight years now, so it’s a really difficult situation for the residents, but there’s an incredible bunch of people down there who’ve been fighting all the way, and we’ve been joining with them, and all the other groups who’ve been involved in the coalition over the last couple of years. By joining together we’ve become a lot more powerful and are really looking like we’re going to win the campaign now, so it’s difficult but everyone’s feeling very confident that we’ll get there in the end.

On the website, you encourage people to really get involved with “astonishing actions“; what have people been getting up to?
People have been climbing mountains and putting the Airplot flag on top of them, Plane Stupid do bold actions where they break into airports and stop planes from taking off. Greenpeace activists got onto a plane at Heathrow and stopped a short-haul flight from going to Manchester. Not everyone wants to take direct action though, so people around the country have been baking cakes & planting trees and encouraging their MPs to become beneficial owners. We now have nearly 100 MPs who are beneficial owners of the land. Each of the trees in the orchard, that we planted in November last year on the land, have been adopted by different parts of the coalition, including MPs from all the four main parties – Labour, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and The Green party- including David Cameron. Nick Clegg came down to plant his tree on behalf of the Liberal Democrats as well.

You describe the orchard, and the allotment, as ‘putting roots down’ in an action directly and symbolically opposed to the destruction BAA is prepared to wreak…It also meant you got to meet Richard Briers from The Good Life…
Yeah, he’s come down a couple of times. He came down to help create the allotment, as, obviously, he’s a champion of growing-it-yourself. He also came down to plant the orchard, and that was a good day. We had the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy down as well, who’s written a poem about the area which Alison Steadman read on the day – which you can see in the video on the main Airplot site – and Nick Clegg came that day as well. We’ve had some really great support from well-known people who are really passionate about the campaign. A lot of them live in West London as well, so they’re affected by the noise, and worry about the other consequences of the third runway too.

Have you sent veg from the allotment to every MP?
We just planted a load more; a lot of the villagers helped themselves to the veg last year, which was great, they were making soups and dishes for each other. We’ll be continuing to plant stuff in the allotment and get the produce to the next government.

With all the MPs who have trees in the orchard, do you think that if the Liberal Democrats or Conservatives get into power, they’ll take the campaign seriously?
Yep, I think so, we hope so! They’ve said pretty categorically that they won’t allow it and they’ll have to come and dig up their trees if they want to go ahead! So hopefully they’ll stick to their word. Governments have u-turned in the past, so we’ll have to keep up the pressure so that if they were to come to power they can’t go back on their promise and if Labour do get back into power, then we’ll be doing what we can to change their minds. I think we’ve got a really long way ahead in the campaign to the point where we do have the Tories & Liberal Democrats opposed to the expansion and the legal ruling on our side. We’re feeling very confident that we’re going to win, but we’re definitely not there yet and that’s why we want to get to 100,000 by the beginning of May to show that strength of grassroots power and public power across the country, and the world.

Anna Jones Aniela Murphy
Illustration of Anna Jones by Aniela Murphy.

How has the recent eruption of Eyjafjallajökull helped the project, aside from achieving the elusive goal of every environmental activist and grounding all Britain’s planes!
Well, it was a pretty amazing week, and a lot of people who were affected by the noise had a bit of a respite. Emissions will definitely have gone down in that time because millions on tonnes of CO2 go into the air from aviation. It also helped encourage debate about whether we’re too dependant on aviation for moving things around. People were realising that we can slow down a bit, it is possible, and we can make journeys by alternative means. What we’ve been arguing all along is that short haul flights shouldn’t be going at all when we’re able to take the train. There are loads of destinations that Heathrow is going to which are under 500 km which you can easily get to by train. I think its given people a different perspective and shown that we can make those journeys, we don’t have to fly. It’s highlighted the dual aspect of the project then; not just grounding planes but thinking about alternative means of travel and energy use… Greenpeace is always about championing solutions & alternatives as well as highlighting the things that are wrong and need to be stopped. A lot of our work on climate change is about energy and trying to move away from fuel-based energy systems, and reducing the amount of energy we use to begin with as well as improving energy efficiency and looking at renewable energy. That goes for transport as well; we’re talking about using alternatives and instead of flying somewhere, taking the train somewhere. Ultimately, we need to be thinking about whether we need to take those longer flights or how many we need to take. We need to be reducing the amount of miles that we’re travelling.

What are your thoughts on the solar planes in development, and other renewable energy technologies which are being researched in regards to the aviation industry?
It’s really interesting to see that happening, and obviously, if we can find those solutions that’s great, but what we’re worried about is the industry saying that we’re going to use biofuels and solar planes so we don’t need to worry and we can keep expanding now. The problem is that we can’t expand in the meantime because that’s still using oil and pumping emissions out into the atmosphere. We can’t see that as an excuse for expanding. We need to stop the expansion programme, see whether those alternatives are really viable. We have some concerns particularly about biofuels, as they’re linked to rainforest destruction and there isn’t clear evidence that they do reduce emissions. Ultimately, if we do find an alternative that really does work, then fantastic, but we’re very concerned about the industry using that as greenwash.

What else is going on down at the Airplot at the moment? Are there any more events planned for the future?
Potentially, if we keep up the pressure. We’ve been running a competition to design a fortress from the Airplot, which we’ll be judging in a month or so. There’s an exhibition happening at the beginning of June down at OXO which will showcase the winning designs. So if we have to we’re prepared to build a structure to enable us to take direct action, but hopefully we’ll win before then, so we won’t have to build it. We’re preparing for that stage now, in case we have to take direct action. The exhibition will be around the 2-6th June at OXO Barge Gallery.

There’s only a week left to go to grab a bit of the plot and become a beneficial owner before the start of May, so head over to the Airplot website for your own piece of the action, and don’t forget to spread the word among your friends too. It only takes a moment to fill in your details and read up on the legal ramifications of being a beneficial owner which I’m sure includes the right to play in a fort!

Written by Amelia Wells on Wednesday April 28th, 2010 8:53 pm

Categories ,Airplot, ,Aniela Murphy, ,Anna Jones, ,baa, ,Election, ,Greenpeace, ,heathrow, ,MPs, ,Nick Clegg, ,Orchard, ,sipson

Amelia’s Magazine | Happy Birthday Grow Heathrow

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Gabriel ‘Gaarte’ Ayala.

Krystof Strozyna has been on my radar for what seems like forever in fashion… which in practice means a couple of years – ever since we wrote about him in the print version of Amelia’s Magazine, generic visit this shortly after his graduation from Central Saint Martins in 2007. Which makes it all the more annoying that we don’t receive proper tickets to his shows. I hate e-invites, information pills I really do. I always forget to print them out which usually means I forget to attend the show (I need tickets IN MY HANDS during LFW – there’s just too much to juggle otherwise) and they’re invariably no good for anything better than standing. Basically, viagra they just don’t cut it.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Gabriel ‘Gaarte’ Ayala.

Luckily my face is so well known around Fashion Scout that I can usually slide into any show with no problem. So it was that I got cajoled in to see Krystof Strozyna‘s A/W collection – well, it didn’t take much to be honest. Apparently Kimberly Walsh was there too, flying the flag for Girls Aloud during a rare break for Nicola Roberts. I can imagine her curves would suit his sexy 80s inspired draped tailoring a little better anyhow.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Matilde Sazio.

For the most part this collection did not disappoint, featuring tailored black and flesh tones combined with undulating shades of ruched blue chiffon. A little more awkward was a one legged dress – maybe a good idea in practice but somewhat inelegant on the catwalk.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011 by Gabriel ‘Gaarte’ Ayala.

The winning numbers were undoubtedly Krystof Strozyna‘s gorgeous neon fractal prints, which brought a splash of welcome colour to the ubiquitous Little Black Dress… and a devastating punch delivered by the liberal use of acidic orange. Red may have been the favoured highlight of many an A/W collection but on the strength of this I’m voting for vibrant orange. Yum yum.

Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011. Photography by Amelia Gregory
Krystof Strozyna A/W 2011. All photography by Amelia Gregory.

Grow Heathrow by Rebecca Peacock.

Just over a year ago a group of my friends envisioned a radical new version of the Transition Town model. Activists drawn from groups such as Plane Stupid and Climate Camp decided to squat a rundown old market garden in the village of Sipson that was being used as a dumping ground for car scrap in an area planned for demolition to make way for the third runway at Heathrow. And thus Grow Heathrow was born, link a great big YES in the face of so many NOs.

We Won! Grow Heathrow by Sam Parr.

Over the course of the past year they have utterly transformed the area; growing their own food, stomach hosting bike workshops and ensuring a sustainable community has sprung up that fully involves the locals. What was once an eyesore covered in shattered glass has become an inspiring success story, described by one local as “better than prozac”. In this beautiful short video from You and I Films the misty eyed community get together to reminisce about the past year, describing how what they did was “naughty but extremely worthwhile” and a necessary action to enable the creation of their “own piece of paradise.” As is so often the case, gardening has proved the glue that has brought people together.

Later in March Grow Heathrow will host the Reclaim the Fields European gathering, and then a group of people associated with the project will go on an ambitious 100 day cycle ride to Palestine. P.E.D.A.L. will meet with permaculture projects along the way; sharing ideas and stories for a better world.

Inspiring stuff indeed, but I’ll let this lovely video – made to celebrate Grow Heathrow‘s first birthday – do the talking.

You can read more about Grow Heathrow in this blog, written just after it was set up in early 2010.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday March 1st, 2011 5:47 pm

Categories ,Climate Camp, ,community, ,Direct Action, ,Firecatcher, ,gardening, ,Grow Heathrow, ,heathrow, ,P.E.D.A.L., ,Palestine, ,Plane Stupid, ,Rebecca Peacock, ,Reclaim the Fields, ,Sam Parr, ,sipson, ,squatting, ,sustainability, ,Third Runway, ,Transition Heathrow, ,transition towns, ,You and I Films

Amelia’s Magazine | Is the Governement failing us on climate change?

Most of us pat ourselves on the back at the thought of having ‘done our bit‘, symptoms information pills whether it’s recycling or bringing a load of old clothes to a charity shop. Robert Bradford, ailment in that case, deserves a rather large pat on the back. Not only did he ‘do his bit’, but also got rather creative doing it.

bradford%20toy%20child.jpg

bradford%20toy%20girl.jpg

Whilst staring at his children’s box of discarded toys, a beam of light shun down from the heavens, a choir of angels sung and everything was still. Well, perhaps inspiration doesn’t happen like that in real life, but Bradford defiantly had a light bulb moment. Instead of taking the toys to local charity shop, Bradford decided to make sculptures out of them. Bradford assembles the toys into kaleidoscopic life-size dogs and people. Since his foray into toys, Bradford has also transformed other would-be discarded items. Crushed Coca-cola cans, combs, pegs and washing up brushes have also been made into extra family members and man’s best friend. Using what most would describe as rubbish, Bradford is one artist who wouldn’t mind his work being so called. It says so on his website.

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Images courtesy of Robert Bradford

Monday 27th October

Connan Mockasin and Drop The Lime – Durr at The End, mind London
Noah & The Whale – Academy 3, dosage Manchester
Jesus & Mary Chain, Black Box Recorder and British Sea Power – The Forum, London
Mystery Jets – Glee Club, Birmingham

Tuesday 28th October

Alphabeat, Das Pop and Pandering and The Golddiggers – Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Fleet Foxes – Waterfront, Norwich
Smokers Die Younger, Wild Beasts, Stricken City, Cats In Paris, Tender Maulings DJs – The Deaf Institute, Manchester
George Pringle and No Bra – The Social, London

Wednesday 29th October

Yo Majesty – Pure Groove Records, London
Lords – The Portland Arms, Cambridge
Ipso Facto, S.C.U.M and Kasms – The Roundhouse, London
The Presets and Micachu – The Royal, Derby
Neon Neon and Yo Majesty – Koko, London

Thursday 30th October

Black Kids and Ladyhawke – Astoria, London
Hot Chip – Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Florence and The Machine and The Big Pink – Bush Hall, London
Anthony and The Johnsons with London Symphony
Orchestra – Barbican Centre, London
Primal Scream – UEA, Norwich
Wave Machines and Micachu and The Shapes – hush at Royal Albert Hall, London

Friday 31st October

Release The Bats – Shellac, Les Savy Fav, Lightning Bolt, Om, Wooden Shjips and Pissed Jeans – The Forum London
El Guincho, The XX, The Big Pink and A Grave With No Name – No Pain In Pop at Goldsmith’s Tavern, London
Peggy Sue and The Pirates, Alessi’s Ark and Derek Meins – The Windmill, London
Pete and The Pirates – The Fly, London
Underworld and Autokratz – Brixton Academy, London
Metronomy – ULU, London

Saturday 1st November

ddd – Barfly, London
The Metros and Lion Club – Push at Astoria 2, London
The Week That Was and The Ruby Suns – Crawdaddy, Dublin
Grammatics – Forum, Tunbridge Wells

Sunday 2nd November

Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The Joy Formidable, The Operators and Young Fathers – 229, London
Ned Collette Band, Lawrence Arabia and The Boat People – The Windmill, London
Good Books, Polka Party and The Molotovs – Proud Galleries, London
Monday 27th October
Camden Arts Centre, advice ‘Wallace Berman’: Untl 23rd November
Arkwright Road, drugs London NW3 6DG
Considered as a major mover and shaker in the beat generation in the late 50s and 60s, view Wallace Berman’s (1926-1976) jazz record covers, art publications are all on display. Also his 16mm film ‘aleph’ is screened as well as posters, book covers and postcards. Most people recognise his portrait on the cover of The Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ but he’s got plenty of other art to have a gander over.

wallace%20bergman.jpg

Tuesday 28th October
White Cube, Sam Taylor-Wood: Yes I No: Until 29th November
Mason’s Yard and No 1 The Piazza, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8HA
This show includes three groups of photographs and a large scale film installation on the subject of absensce and morality. Other photos based on Wuthering Heights with desire and suffering playing key themes.

sam%20taylor%20wood.jpg

Wednesday 29th October:
V&A Museum of Childhood, Tom Hunter’: until 9th November
Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green E2 9PA
Exploring the changing face of the East End, Hunter’s photographs focus on people, places and community in and around the area.

Thursday 30th October:
Stephen Friedman Gallery, ‘Catherine Opie’: Until 15thNovember
25-28 Old Burlington Street?London W1S 3AN
The exhibition title, ‘The Blue of Distance’, is inspired by Rebecca Solnit, a writer on photography and landscape. Here, Opie continues her investigation with two new series of work capturing the remote beauty of the Alaskan landscape.

catherine%20opie.jpg

Friday 31st October:
Whitecross Gallery, ‘Girlie’: Daphne Plessner: Until 21 November
122 Whitecross St, London EC1Y 8PU
Whitecross Gallery welcomes you to ‘Girlie’, an exciting and thought provoking solo exhibition of luscious new paintings by talented artist Daphne Plessner.?Her work combines uncompromising social critique with colourful, elaborate surface decoration, and beautifully crafted, exquisite attention to detail.

Daphne%20Plessner%20-%20Girlie.jpg

Saturday 1st November:
ICA, ‘Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’ Retrospective: Until 23rd November
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH
In tandem with Under Scan on Trafalgar Square, a retrospective of Lozano-Hemmer’s moving-image works, via a series of documentaries, spanning the past decade of his career. Lozano-Hemmer has been commissioned for events such as the millennium celebrations in Mexico City, the Cultural Capital of Europe in Rotterdam (2001), the United Nations World Summit of Cities in Lyon (2003), the opening of the Yamaguchi Centre for Art and Media in Japan (2003) and the expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004).

tilly%20and%20the%20wall.JPG

Warm and jubilant and wholesome. That’s how a Tilly and the Wall gig will leave you – and the title to their debut album in 2004, check Wild Like Children, cheapest is an indicator as to how. Add to this Slow Club, who when I saw several months ago in a weekly slot at The Enterprise in Camden, had brought along home-baked goods to pass round, and you’re wholly rejuvenated.

The ULU played host to this delectable recipe on Saturday, and they do compliment each other incredibly. Dulcet boy/girl harmonies, songs that pay homage to the bliss of youth and spontaneity, and full sounding percussion that is hard to put your finger on until you see it; The Slow Club often bang their drumsticks on chairs, and the percussion for Tilly is tap-dancer Jamie on a mic’ed up wooden box (they used to steal road-signs for the purpose but have since become more legit).

Tilly’s latest release, “o” was produced by acclaimed producer, Mike Mogis. Their kaleidoscopic sound has gotten bigger and fuller, but maintaining to the familiarity of Tilly ingredients. “I feel like I know them”, I heard someone say, and when the encore brought them back on stage with Charles and Rebecca from the Slow Club in tow, tambourines in hand, it felt like we all did. Clapping and stamping along, I thought the experience perhaps drew a thin line next to what I’d imagine an evangelist Sunday session to be like, only without strings attached, a drink in hand, and prophets that chant out about first loves, recklessness and “life that is so wonderful it shines like fire” (Let it Rain – Tilly); so put that in your wine glass and sip it.

Across the pond in Portland, viagra buy Oregon environmental art group Leave No Plastic Behind (LNPB) are holding a month long art exhibit intitled “Haste Management” and a one off film night, “Plastic Fantastic” to showcase the creative ways that plastic can be saved from the landfill. So it’s a given that you can recycle paper, aluminum and glass, but shiny plastic has been left behind. LNPB focus on avoiding plastic for this very reason, and not relying on recycling.

The “Haste Management” exhibition runs from the 6th-30th November and includes contributions from the wonderful>>>>>
On Nov 23rd “Plastic Fantastic”, a special film event from performance artsist and film maker Devon Damonte will be screened.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jessica Lyness | jessica.lyness@gmail.com | 503-913-3882

Environmental Group- Leave No Plastic Behind
Presents a Plastic Art Show and Film Event
November 6-30

(Portland, OR). Recycling paper, check. Recycling aluminum, check. Recycling glass, check. Recycling plastic? Not so fast. Environmental art group Leave No Plastic Behind (LNPB) urges consumers to curb plastic habits through reducing, reusing and creating. Concentrating on single-use plastic, LNPB focuses on avoiding the material and not relying on recycling. The Portland based group present a month-long art exhibit “Haste Management” and a special film night, “Plastic Fantastic” to showcase creative ways that plastic can be saved from the landfill.

The “Haste Management” exhibition begins on First Thursday, November 6 with an artist reception and Opening Night party at Visage, 1047 NW Johnson Ave. The Exhibition continues through Sunday, November 30. A special film event from performance artist and filmmaker Devon Damonte entitled “Plastic Fantastic”, takes place on November 23 at the Waypost, 3120 N Williams Ave. Following the exhibition, artist’s work will be available for view online at www.lnpb.org.

Artists participating in this exhibition are from all around the country including Waterville, ME, San Francisco, CA, Olympia, WA and Portland, OR. Each participant engages in a three month “episode” to live a plastic-free lifestyle, wherein any plastic they do collect, they make art out of it. Participants include filmmakers, photographers, musicians, and activists. In the past two years, over 50 artists have participated in an episode of LNPB.

LNPB presents art exhibits and creative events year round to raise awareness about the damaging effects of single use plastic and offers alternative suggestions on how to reduce and reuse. LNPB continues to be inspired by Captain Charles Moore and the Algalita Marine Research. This collective considers the true costs of modern convenience and demonstrates the importance of collaborative resourcefulness.
buraka%20som%20sistema%20gawain%20hewitt%203.jpg
Photos: Gawain Hewitt

Portuguese party starters Buraka Som Sistema are perhaps one of the most hyped up musical endeavors to hit our shores in recent years. They launched onto the stage at cargo and turned the lackluster Tuesday night, ask tired from work, health crowd into a bunch of whooping partygoers.

Buraka’s set up onstage is a little out of the ordinary, but it works. Essentially it’s a DJ and MC set up, but with some added percussion in the form of a guy on bongos and a drummer. I can’t help but always get excited by the addition of bongos to live show; everyone loves bongo players.

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The only problem with tonight’s gig may be that people don’t know an awful lot of their stuff, having not released their album yet. They get round this though by breaking out their own interpretations of Around The World by Daft Punk and Thunderstruck by AC/DC. These seem to have quite an effect in rousing the crowd. Some people were actually shaking their booty so much that my friend had to move out of their way – honestly; some people just have no manners.

My favourite track of the night was Luanda Lisboa, a track that genuinely gives me the jitters if I listen to it very loud. I’ve only heard the instrumental version of it before now, but live the MCs managed to get the crowd particularly on side, even though the vast majority had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.

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What seemed to get the crowd most excited was Sound Of Kuduro, which has been thrown into popularity largely because it features M.I.A on vocals, and it has really good video. Live it was brought to life by the female MC they have live.

I’ve seen DJ sets by these guys before, but the live show is a much more engrossing experience. I was left blown away by their show, though what really excited me about them is their production skills – which is so often the case with electronic music.

Tuesday 4th November

Sigur Ros – Civic Hall, buy Wolverhampton
Stars Of Sunday League and Catriona Irving – Wilmington Arms, rx London
The Feeling and Das Pop – Hammersmith Apollo, viagra order London
The Kills – Oran Mor, Glasgow
Screaming Tea Party, Artefacts For Space Travel, This Is Pop and Ice Sea Dead People – Buffalo Bar, London
Why?, The Dead Science and Munch Munch – Upset! the Rhythm at Scala, London

Wednesday 5th November

Eugene McGuinness and Swanton Bombs – The Luminaire, London
Al Green and Gabrielle – Royal Albert Hall, London
George Pringle – Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London
MGMT – Academy, Leeds
The Boat People – The Fly, London
Fleet Foxes – Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Thursday 6th November

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip and The Clik Clik – Emergency Playground at Astoria 2, London
I Haunt Wizards, The Pity Party, Little Death and Kilkane – The Macbeth, London
Yo! Majesty – Oran Mor, Glasgow
Fucked Up, Rolo Tomassi and Invasion – Xposure at Barfly, London
Hot Chip, Wiley and Max Tundra – Brixton Academy, London
Threatmantics – Milkwood Jam, Swansea
Jackie O Motherfucker and True Primes – Bardens Budoir, London
Alessi’s Ark, Peggy Sue and Derek Meins – Club Fandango at 229, London

Friday 7th November

The Irrepressibles – The Great Court of The British Museum, London

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The Irrepressibles will be playing two sets as part of an event to support a forthcoming display of contemporary art installations at the museum including works by Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Ron Mueck, Antony Gormley and Noble and Webster. Best of all, it’s completely free. Perfect for these crunchy credit times.

Thomas Tantrum – Koko, London
Fleet Foxes – Vicar Street, Dublin
Mr Scruff – Matter, London
Howling Bells – Academy, Birmingham
My Tiger My Timing, A Human and Underground Railroad – The Last Days of Decadance, London

Saturday 8th November

FrankMusik, Dels, Kamerakino and Tin Can Telephone – Club Motherfucker at Bardens Boudoir, London
Little Boots – Proud Galleries, London
Ezra Bang and Hot Machine, Maths Class and Mayor McCa – The Monarch, London
Glasvegas, White Lies and Cage The Elephant – Little Noise Sessions at Union Chapel, London
Ebony Bones, Riddler, King of Conspiracy and Minipuma – Rhythm Factory, London

Sunday 9th November

Nas, Mos Def, Supernatural and Scratch – Rock The Bells at Indigo2, London
Goldfrapp and Eugene McGuinness – Brixton Academy, London
Nigel Of Bermondsey and The Razzle – Monto Water Rats, London
Razorlight, Florence and The Machine, Esser and Skint And Demoralised – Little Noise Sessions at Union Chapel, London

This is just one of the question posed by Campaign against Climate Change. Under the labour government CO2 emissions have increased by 2%, cheap plans are under-way to expand Heathrow and other airports and there are plans for a new wave of coal-fired power stations starting with Kingsnorth in Kent. Further, viagra measures have been introduced increasing the use of biofuels which accelerate deforestation, information pills a major cause of climate change. But, what some see as the biggest failing is the government’s failure to respond to the problem. There is no grasp of the immensity and urgency of the threat to shape the policies we need to combat climate change.

Come down to Friends House at 7pm, Thursday November 6th to listen to what can be done to counteract these problems of climate change. The diverse panel: George Monbiot, Zac Goldsmith– editor of “Ecologist” magazine, Bob Crow– general secretary of the RMT, Ann Pettifor- director of Advocacy International and Phil Thornhill– national coordinator of Campaign against Climate Change, give their views on these issues and ask them your own questions.

Campaign against Climate Change
Is the government failing us on climate change?
Public Meeting, Thursday November 6th
7.00 pm at the Friends House, 173 Euston Road (opposite Euston Station)

A date for your diaries is the 6th December, the next Campaign against Climate Change event, part of a Global Day of Action. In which a march to parliament fro speakers corner is taking place, campaigning against the issues mentioned above.

Images courtesy of Campaign against Climate Change

Written by Dearbhaile Kitt on Tuesday November 4th, 2008 12:01 pm

Categories ,Campagn against Climate Change, ,Climate, ,Heathrow, ,Kingsnorth

Amelia’s Magazine | Solar Impulse: the plane that flies with the power of the sun.

The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.
solar impulse plane-thereza rowe
The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.

Holiday season is steadily approaching; the time when adverts for faraway climes become ever more enticing and flight prices drop like environmentalists’ jaws when they see photos of tar sands. Heathrow and London City airports both have plans for expansion, troche whatever the cost to the surrounding area or local people. While they claim that more flights are beneficial to everybody, information pills East Londoners face ever higher levels of respiratory diseases and noise pollution, and Sipson residents wonder when the property laws became irrelevant in the face of the aviation industry. With all this contention, isn’t it about time someone threw some renewable technology into the aero-space?

Enter Solar Impulse. A weird insect-looking plane which runs on solar power, with a wingspan to match that of an Airbus A340 (roughly 63 metres) and a bulbous cockpit hanging in the centre like a spider’s egg sac. Also known as the HB-SIA, the plane has been in development for the past six years, and last week, on April 7th, completed its first two hour test flight. The man behind this project is Bertrand Piccard, a Swiss ex-astronaut who was one of the first men to complete a non-stop round the world tour in a hot air balloon, an experience which led to the realisation for him of the need to live sustainably on the planet which we are currently destroying.

The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.
Illustration by Thereza Rowe.

At the moment, Solar Impulse is more of an ambassador for renewable technologies than a useable mode of transport. Much of the technology used was developed solely for, and due to, this project. The wings are covered in photovoltaic cells which convert sunlight to power the propeller. One square metre of cells provides a consistent supply of 28 watts, the equivalent to a lightbulb, over a twenty-four hour period and the planes motor achieves no more than 6kW altogether – similar to the amount the Wright brothers had for their first powered flight of 200 metres. Due to this restriction on power the plans has been stripped of all extraneous weight. The wings are made from a composite carbon-fibre honeycomb around a sandwich shape with carbon ribs placed at intervals to create the aerodynamic shape. The speed is obviously also affected by this and the plane cruises at forty-six miles per hour. The cockpit is also big enough for only one pilot, and is unpressurised, which is fine for test flights which are used to optimise the balance between weight, energy consumption and manoeuvrability, but bigger things are planned for Solar Impulse.

The next steps are more test flights to perfect this balance, and then hopefully a night flight later in the year. This ability to store power and fly over night is what marks Solar Impulse out from the other solar powered plans currently in development. The ultimate goal for the project is to develop a second plane with a pressurised cabin, capable of making a round the world tour, stopping only for pilot changeovers.

The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.
Illustration by Thereza Rowe.

The purpose of the Solar Impulse project is to challenge pre-conceived notions of what can be achieved with alternative renewable energies. If a plane can be solar powered, then surely other forms of transport can incorporate this technology into their energy supplies. It has also pushed people to develop more efficient forms of solar technology, advancing this field of research and encouraging new ways of thinking when it comes to uses of alternative energy sources. We know that oil and coal are not only running out, but are derived from the environment at great cost to the planet, and in an age where people are not willing to give up their conveniences no matter how many before and after photos of boreal forests in Alberta are waved in front of them, could solar planes be the saving grace of the aviation industry?

Well, we’re not going to see solar powered jump jets anytime soon, but consider that it was only sixty-six years between a 200 metre flight and two men on the moon. Solar Impulse already has two hours under its belt, who knows where it could progress to from here?

You can read about other similar projects in Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration, available from this very website!

Written by Amelia Wells on Wednesday April 14th, 2010 2:22 pm

Categories ,Alberta, ,Bertrand Piccard, ,Fight the Flights, ,heathrow, ,London City Airport, ,Plane Stupid, ,Renewable Technologies, ,sipson, ,Solar Impulse, ,solar power, ,Tar Sands, ,Thereza Rowe, ,Transition Heathrow

Amelia’s Magazine | Solar Impulse: the plane that flies with the power of the sun.

The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.
solar impulse plane-thereza rowe
The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.

The Solar Impulse Plane. Illustration by Thereza Rowe.
Illustration by Thereza Rowe.

You can read about other similar projects in Amelia’s Anthology of Illustration, available from this very website!

Written by Amelia Wells on Wednesday April 14th, 2010 2:22 pm

Amelia’s Magazine | Climate Camp Logo and Poster Callout!

Monday 20th

Slow Club is a duo formed by Charles and Rebecca, this web buy information pills who both come from Sheffield. He does the singing and plays the guitar; she deals with the drums and all sorts of weird instruments, from bottles of water to wooden chairs. The result? You can go hear for yourself tonight at Barfly.
7pm. £5.

Slow Club

Tuesday 21th

We Fell To Earth and special guests at the ICA theatre. Richard File (UNKLE) and PJ Harvey-ish singer/bassist Wendy Rae doing something that they call “sinister and kind of arousing rock music”.
8pm. £10.

We Fell To Earth

Wednesday 22th
Vessels will be at Buffalo Bar this Wednesday launching “Retreat”, a collection of songs including a single, some remixes and an unreleased track by this Leeds five-piece.
8pm. £6.

Vessels

Thursday 23th
Camera Obscura make a come back with “My Maudlin Career”, the band’s fourth studio album that is coming out today.
All their sweet freshness that you could feel from the first single out entitled “French Navy” will be performed on the stage of Shepherds Bush Empire next Thursday.
7pm. £13.50.

Camera Obscura

Friday 24th

Je Suis Animal single launch party for the upcoming release ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget’ 7″ at The Victoria. Support comes from Betty and The Werewolves and Hong Kong In The 60s. People from Twee as F*** also promise free cupcakes for earlybirds so that is a Friday night out you can not miss.
9pm. £6/ 5 concessions.

Je Suis Animal

Saturday 25th

The Camden Crawl Festival brings the best of Indie to town. Line up for Saturday looks like great performances will be on stage. The Maccabees, Little Boots, Marina And The Diamonds and The Golden Silvers are only a few to be named.
12pm. £32.50 (Saturday only).

The Golden Silvers

Sunday 26th
Due to the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone‘s sell-out London show on 27th April, a new show has been added on Sunday 26th April – also at The Luminaire. Releasing their fifth album, Vs. Children, the band succeeded to make a record that feels just as warm and intimate as the first.
7:30pm. £8.50, adv £8.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
On the cover of this CD, sickness Caroline Weeks appears to be a healthy, seek pink-skinned young woman. However, sildenafil fill your ears with her music, and you will be in no doubt that she is a ghost. And her clarinettist, too. Ghosts! Caroline has been to the other side, and seen things, and now wanders around my auditory cortex in a Victorian gown, lamenting the moment that life’s glories were cruelly wrenched from her grasp. Maybe Caroline drowned in a lake, or caught one of those Jane Austen chills, or fell under a horse, or was cuddled to death by an overaffectionate simple boy cousin. I can’t begin to imagine what happened to her polter-woodwindist. Probably choked on his reed.

This is the spookiest music I have heard in a long time. She feels like a sister to SixToes, playing with similar moods, guitar work and larynx-trembling. But much spookier. I can’t help but think of Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice, a morbid teenager rejecting the world from her wilfully glum bedroom. So it’s not a huge surprise to discover that Caroline is also Ginger Lee, colleague of Natasha Khan in Bat For Lashes. Although you can actually dance to some of Natasha’s ditties, there is the moody, brooding moroseness there too. But while Bat For Lashes keeps this in the realm of relationships with sprinklings of dreamy visions, Caroline Weeks takes it to the pure Victorian pre-Pankhurst inner world of reflective femininity.
It turns out that all the lyrics are taken from the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an early Twentieth Century American who was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Musically, it is very accomplished. Recorded quite simplistically, with a few dramatic reverb effects, the instrumentation has plenty of room to shine. The guitar gently drifts between dextrous, finger-picked, rhythmic regularity and airy pausing in a lovely, caressy, wavey kind of way. But it’s the tender voice that dominates, or haunts, the album. Caroline sings to you. It’s deeply personal, and unwavering in its humourless, sorrowful plea. And there is much depth of feeling and depth of lyric, which I cannot really do justice to here.
This is simply music to surrender to. Alone. Dim the lights, let the shadows fall across your soul and be utterly, utterly alone with the ghost of Caroline Weeks.

La Weeks is performing at The Good Ship in Kilburn on May 19.
Tuesday 21st April

2pm
Institute of Education?
20 Bedford Way, buy
?London WC1H 0AL?

“How to Educate Children in the UK About Sustainable Development”
discussion with Professor Randall Curren, more about Institute of Education. Info: fbrettell@ioe.ac.uk or call 020 7612 6000

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, email leajaffy_1@hotmail.com for further illustrations)

Wednesday 22nd April

“The Green Agenda: Are We Engaging The Consumer?”
9:30am

Dorich House Museum
67 Kingston Vale,
London SW15 3RN

The rise and rise of the green agenda is creating an ever increasing number of green initiatives, CSR projects, and local and national government proposals. Almost all organisations – both commercial and non commercial – want to establish their green credentials and communicate them to the consumer.
To explore these issues and to find new ways of engaging the customer, Kingston University has brought together a number of leading experts from a wide range of sectors – manufacturing, retailing, NGO’s, academics and a number of consultancies.
For full programme information and to book please go to http://business.kingston.ac.uk/flavor1.php?id=398.
Contact: Wendy Eatenton
?Tel: 020 8547 2000 ext. 65511
?Email: rm.rettie@kingston.ac.uk

“Can Developing Country Needs For Energy Be Met Without Causing Climate Change”

(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, email leajaffy_1@hotmail.com for further illustrations)

1.00pm
Committee Room 14
Palace of Westminster, London
SW1A 2PW
Recent studies suggest a large potential for clean energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa; if fully implemented, they could provide more than twice the regions current installed power-generation capacity. It has been posited that Latin America has a comparative advantage in maximizing clean energy opportunities; energy consumption could be reduced by 10 percent over the next decade by investing in energy efficiency. This suggests that the adoption of clean energy technologies typically results in a “win:win” situation for developing countries: reducing costs and emissions.
But many developing countries have been failing to reach their full productive potential for years. Growth diagnostic studies in many developing countries regularly identify constraints such as lack of grid electricity and poor infrastructure. Typically, levels of investment in the electricity sector in developing countries are around 50 percent of needs. Credit constraints mean that the cheapest available options are often chosen as opposed to those that deliver environmental benefits. So can developing country needs for energy be met without causing climate change? How can developing countries be incentivised to adopt cleaner energy? And what steps do developed countries need to take to facilitate this?

Professor Sir David King, Gordon MacKerron. Info: 7922 0300/ meetings@odi.org.uk/ ODI

Thursday 23rd April

“Financial Meltdown and The End of the Age of Greed”

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(Image courtesy of Aarron Taylor, www.aarrontaylor.com)

7pm
Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ
Info: 7479 8950
£10 Online booking now available
This event will be moderated by Michael Wilson, Business Editor of Sky News
Paul Mason talks about the ongoing financial crisis that has brough the global economy to the brink of depression. Gordon Brown hailed the result of deregulation as the ‘golden age’ of banking in the UK. Mason will give insights into how deregulation is at the heart of the collapse of the banking system in September and October 2008 and how it led to expanded subprime mortgage lending, an uncontrollable derivatives market, and the lethal fusion of banking and insurance.
http://www.frontlineclub.com/events/

Saturday 25th April

People’s Republic of Southwark April Mini Eco-Fair
People’s Republic of Southwark
Brandon Street/Orb Street
SE17

12.00pm – 4.00pm
On Saturday 25th April, 12-4pm, People’s Republic of Southwark’s mini eco-fair goes all the way to SE17, to the Nursery Row Park http://www.nurseryrowpark.org/SaveNurseryRow/Welcome.html , a beautiful green space located just behind the East Street Market (between Brandon and Orb Street).?? We are hoping to have another great day out for everyone and some of the activities for the day are:?- mulching the orchard?- planting sunflower seeds?- making art?- a free shop (space where you can swap/give away/take things you need for free – bring easy-to-carry usable things you don’t need, ex clothes, dvds, books. and swap them for something you do need or simply give them away to someone who does; please don’t bring anything bulky or electrical)?- seed swap (get your window boxes, balconies, gardens ready for spring and summer)?- you can also find out about local environmental projects, issues and campaigns. ?Or just come along for a chat
Prepare to throw your sensibilities and all sense of conventionality out of the window! Why I hear you scream? Well, search this week sees Alternative Fashion Week bombard an unsuspecting Spitalfields in all its wonderful obscurity. Forget all the opulence of London Fashion Week; Alternative Fashion Week is going to assail you with raw, viagra buy un-censored Fashion Design.

The event unlike London Fashion Week is open to everyone and free for the designers to participate. It will be running all this week from the 20th-24th of April at Spitalfields Traders Market. So get your skates on people and get on down for all the outlandish action. With 15 shows a day, it will see at least 10,000-hop foot through their doors. Applicants range from recent graduates to independent designers keen to establish themselves in the fashion sphere. The participants are an eclectic range of designers from a myriad of different fields from the theatre to circus, so be prepared for a vivacious show. In conjunction with the free daily shows, the event hosts an adjacent market from noon till three showcasing a whole treasure trove of accessories, Womenswear and textiles for us to feast upon.

Here is a sneak peak at one of the accessory designers that will showcase her A/W collection at the event. Helen Rochfort’s innovative designs focus on all things delectable. Infact just glancing at her liquorice allsorts bag is enough to have me running to the nearest sweet shop for a fix. She describes her delectable designs as simply “ a sprinkling of vintage and a dusting of retro all whipping together with a kitsch twist of humour” So keep your eyes out for Rochfort’s designs, they are hard to miss!

The event prides itself on its promotion of sustainable fashion, and actively supports recycling and ethical sourcing. It’s organizers are The Alternative Arts, a group based in East London that invests in local artists and projects in the community. Its overriding ethos is the importance of accessible fashion and art in the public domain.

The event is a riot of creativity that questions our ideological view of fashion design; Alternative Fashion Week provides that vital foundation for applications to bridge the gap between them and the seemingly intimidating abyss of the fashion industry.

So keep your eyes peeled as Amelia’s Magazine will be reporting from the front line this week to bring you all the zany fun and frolics!
Sometimes the stories for Amelia’s Magazine come to us. And this story is one of unimaginable corruption by one of the worlds largest companies, search aided by an equally unscrupulous government. While there will never be a happy ending to this tale, medicine there may be, tadalafil after many years of campaigning, justice finally delivered. I was emailed recently by a group called Remember Saro-Wiwa, asking if I would attend a talk entitled Wiwa Vs Shell at the Amnesty International House in London.

I went along to the event, which was fully attended, and listened to what this case was about. In 1995, a man called Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight colleagues from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, was executed by the Nigerian State for campaigning against the devastation of the Niger Delta by oil companies, specifically Shell Oil. Thankfully, this is not where the story ends. On May 26th, 2009, after fourteen years, Shell will stand trial in New York for complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria, including the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and his eight colleagues. The purpose of the evening was to highlight the case, and I listened in horror and disbelief to what has been happening in Nigeria. Having not known much about the unethical way that oil companies conduct their business – and the ways in which they silence their objectors – I could almost not comprehend what I was hearing. The panel speaking included Katie Redford, a U.S lawyer and co founder of EarthRights International, which, along with the Center for Constitutional Rights has filed the case against Shell.

She discussed the upcoming trial, and included the seemingly never-ending charges which have finally been brought against them. As well as the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity, they are being charged with torture, arbitrary arrest and detainment. We learnt that this is a groundbreaking case – companies of this size do not usually find themselves in court for their actions – however reprehensible. If Shell are found liable, they could be forced to pay damages that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

We learnt about the situation between Ken Saro-Wiwa and Shell. From the time that Shell had started producing oil in the Delta in 1958, the local communities had been concerned about the levels of pollution, along with the gas flares which were coming from Shell’s production plant. Furthermore, drilling operations were routinely destroying farmers lands with oil spillage and rendering the lands unsuitable for use. When faced with such levels of devastation to their land (and health), it seems only natural that the communities would protest.

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Unfortunately for them, Shell and the Nigerian Government were not in the business of facilitating these protests; instead, Shell would employ the presence of the Mobile Police Force, who were also known as the “kill and go”police. At one such protest, the MPF massacred 80 people and destroyed around 500 homes. Saro-Wiwa, who had always been a prominent figure in the campaigns against Shell was arrested and charged under bogus offences – unlawful assembly and conspiring to publish a ‘seditious’ pamphlet. On November 10th, 1995, Saro-Wiwa, along with 8 others was executed.

Speaking at Amnesty International, Ben Amunwa, who was chairing the evening, used a quote from Milan Kundera to help surmise the subsequent fight to continue with Saro-Wiwa’s cause, and bring long awaited justice : “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting”. I spoke with one of the campaigners behind Remember Saro-Wiwa afterwards and asked how others can get involved. He told me that ” We’re currently in the process of developing a website and hopefully actions people can take as part of the shell guilty campaign, we hope to use viral films, the media and activist actions to generate loads of attention on Shell around the trial. At the moment it’s just about spreading awareness of the trial to warm people up for actions they can take further down the line.

In the meantime we would encourage people join the facebook group. Our current aim is to get 1000 members. One way we are thinking about framing this call out is:

Take the 999 action:

9 Ogoni activists died for their cause
2009: the year their relatives must see justice and gas flaring in Nigeria must end
9: the number of your friends we urge you to invite to join this group.”

Everyone involved with this case will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of the trial in New York. After the panel had finished, I spoke with Katie Redford and asked her whether she felt positive about the outcome of this groundbreaking trial. She explained that while no one can predict whom the jury will side with, or what the outcome may be, the fact that a global and powerful company such as Shell will be finally held accountable for their actions in the Niger Delta demonstrates the power that non-violent protesters actually wield. Although it took twelve years to get to this stage, it seems like justice is finally being administered.
Born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, viagra buy living in Utrecht in Holland and half Spanish, online Maria Stijger is a fashion photographer who has recently sprung to my attention. Her style of surrealism mixes with vintage meets modern. Maria’s playful personality results in beautiful images which if nothing else are aesthetically striking.

Maria, link you’re images are beautifully created. How long have you been doing photography for?
I took my first photograph around the age of six and from then I always thought that it was a kind of magic. But I never picked it up seriously until I got out of high school, graduated from art school and after doing a lot of different things, including working as a photographer’s assistant. I started producing my own fashion stories about two years ago.

Is it true your work has been recognised by the Dutch publications of Elle and Marie Claire??
Yes, I’ve also had my work published in HMagazine (a magazine available in Barcelona) twice, and in professional and weekly magazines, newspapers, and once in a book about jewellery.

I really enjoyed the old fashioned-romantic-fairy tale-esc sequence of the photoshoot shown here:
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What is the story behind this?
Well, I always like to make little fantasy stories, you can make up your own just looking at the series and here I was looking for an old feeling, using the atmosphere of the space that I found one day when I visited a party in the building. It’s a big building in the eastern part of Holland used by squatters. The guy that runs the place has a fantastic store inside it, where he sells all kinds of beautiful things he finds in old houses he restores. It is about a girl who is lost in time; she lives in a world of her own, surrounded by all this old stuff. She is a little bit weird, but happy and enjoying herself. She puts on shoes that are too big, plays with old porcelain dolls and likes funny hats. There is no story with a beginning and an end, but I like to make more images in my head, fantasize about what she does. I hope that others will do this too!

Do you prefer to work to a specific brief in your work?
No, in my personal work I really like to brainstorm in advance and come up with a lot of ideas, pick out the best and look for the right location, model and the stylist brings the clothes and things and we make our own décor if possible. But on the day of the shoot, I want to just let it all go and go with the flow of the day, see what comes on my path and switch if something doesn’t work. I like it when the whole team participates and gets excited and understands the feeling that I try to create and comes up with good ideas and then there is a buzz that I cannot describe…

Quite a lot of your work I found reflected some surrealism, would you say you have a specific style of photography, or does it vary?
I really love the Latin American magic realism and I try to use this in all my personal work as much as possible. I love surrealism, theatre and movies, things that are old. I love to mix it with modern age and fashion. I try to do this as often as I can, especially in my personal work, sometimes I like to go a little bit further than my commissioners want, so in the end my work varies quite a lot. But I like to show them that side as well so I always take some shots that link to this theme and sometimes they love it too!

Can you explain the series of gloves images?
This was a great series to make! We had so much fun! We wanted to do something with beautiful gloves, but not in a studio or with a model. So I came up with this idea to make animal shapes, shadow play. I have a very old magic lantern (Lanterna Magica) that gives this great old feeling because of the dust and the frame. So this was the perfect combination mixing the old with the new fashion. We sold this particular series to (Dutch) Elle magazine.

Who would you say influences and inspires you?
A lot! Things like literature, art, music, European film, but not specifically one person. There are so many great and diverse people that I love for what they do, I couldn’t point out just one.

Can you see a progression or a change in your work from when you first started to now?
Yes. In the beginning I only concentrated on landscapes and snapshots of people. Now I love to make stories using fashion. I’d say it’s a big change, and I guess it will never stop changing. I like to move around and experiment.

Do you have a muse?
No not really, I value my boyfriend’s opinion a lot. So in that sense I guess it’s him!

What do you do in your spare time?
At the moment I am expecting our first child, so my extra activities are not so exciting ha-ha. But I love going to the woods, going out with friends and listening to music. I also love to make sweet little stuffed monsters, exploring other realms of creativity! Most of my time is for photography though. And my family is very important too.

When you were younger, what did you wish to be when you grew up?
Ha-ha, first I wanted to be a dentist, but I loved arts and crafts and drawing so much, that I discovered that this was “my thing”. Although my parents were scared that I’d drown in the competition and of course it is more difficult for an artist to make a good living, I knew that there was no other option for me. I get bored quite easily, so I need to occupy myself doing creative things with other creative and inspiring people.

Thanks Maria, and good luck with the bun in the oven!

You can view Marias work at here.
And contact her here.
Happy Earth Day, here Amelia’s Magazine readers!

April 22nd is Earth Day (mainly for America, but we can still take part in celebrating it – it is everyones Earth after all!) If you are in America, then check out http://earthday.net/all_events to see what is going on around your neck of the woods.

Images courtesy of Sachiko, http://www.loveandhatesati.com/

Perhaps this is fortuitous timing because this is also quite an interesting day in terms of the Government 2009 Budget. Hands up who was watching the budget today? I can understand if lazing around in the sun took top priority, so leave it to me to fill you in on the important facts.

Namely, that this is the first year that a carbon budget has been announced. Alistair Darling announced £1 billion will go towards funds to tackle climate change. This budget aims to cut 34% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. £375 million has been promised over the next two years for energy and resource efficiency in households, businesses and public buildings. £70 million will also be spent on small-scale and community low carbon energy and resource efficiency. With regards to fuel duty, increases in the duty are aimed to reduce emissions and pollution, saving 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2013-14.

Andy Atkins, executive director at Friends of the Earth spoke to The Guardian, and said that he was disappointed by the budget, adding
“The Government has squandered a historic opportunity to kickstart a green industrial revolution, create tens of thousands of jobs and slash UK carbon dioxide emissions. The green sheen on this year’s budget will do little to disguise the fact that yet again the government has merely applied a sticking plaster to a low-carbon industry on life support.”

So, do you think that the Government are doing enough to tackle climate change? Let us know what you think of the new budget at hello@ameliasmagazine.com

Image courtesy of Sachiko, http://www.loveandhatesati.com/
Sort of initiating the summer festivals around the area, information pills Stag & Dagger takes place next month bringing zillions of awesome groups to the city. Oh come on, order like you haven`t seen thousands of flyers and posters all over the city? Here in East London they are everywhere!

The event actually happens in one single day and with one ticket you can have access to all the gigs (yes, I said all the gigs).
London is the first one and then Stag goes for a short roadtrip taking everybody to Leeds and Glasgow on the consecutive days.

The line up for London is particularly fantastic, with over 140 names distributed in 21 venues such as Cargo, 93 Feet East and Hoxton Bar & Kitchen.

I, as a proud Brazilian, am super excited to see Lovefoxxx, who is currently taking a well deserved break from CSS after a massive success last year, but will be having a solo performance at Catch.

Lovefoxxx

There is also Cold War Kids, our dearest Slow Club, Wet Dog, My Toys Like Me, Moshi Moshi and plus an endless list of musical geniuses.

Slow Club

My Toys Like Me

Many many many gigs and venues to be able to organize yourself and enjoy it all in one day only. Super difficult task, isn`t it?
Since the list is huge, I suggest you go check their website for the complete offer. Can you believe there is still more people to be announced? Man, there is no end to it.
And have I said how much does the pass cost? Freaking £16.50! Ridiculously cheap.
I still have no idea on how I`ll choose the gigs to go. At first I thought about making a list of pros and cons for each of the bands. Yeah right. Better start now …
Here at Amelia’s Magazine we are always bounding up and down in excitement whenever we unearth a designer that is striving to take care of mother earth along with creating delectable pieces for all us avid fashionistas! Our latest find Ada Zanditon ticks all our boxes, sildenafil hoorah!

At the forefront of her field, buy more about Zanditon is raising the flag for innovative ethical fashion design. Injecting a healthy dose of cool into eco-fashion Zanditon’s ethos is clear, elegant, pioneering and experimental designs that challenge the conventionality and boundaries of sustainable design.

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Zanditon brings a new dimension to haute couture, a area that has not been widely broached in ecological design. Her collections are an eccentric tour de force venturing through medieval volumitous silhouettes to theatrical ruffles, all in a subdued palette of neutral blacks to muted greys and teals. Her collections convey a journey and have a real sense of fluidity. Her latest A/W collection is no exception, inspired by the literary novel Soil and Soul by Alastair Mc Intosh the book charts an ecological journey to prevent mass construction in cherished lands in Ireland. The collection subsequently has a distinctly celtic feel that is entrenched by Zanditon’s interest in Irish mythology, the collection utlises a range of prints custom designed and woven by Ada. Aswell as working in Fashion Design she also works as a Ilustrator.

Zanditon has been shrouded with accolades, having excelled though university, with a first at London College of Fashion in Womenswear Design in 2007. She then went on to cause waves in the fashion sphere, winning an award for most creative collection at her debut at The Ethical Fashion Show in Paris in October 2008. Zanditon’s success has grown in momentum ever since and has went on to collaborate with Gareth Pugh on his pattern designs and to create a capsule collection for Oxfam out of re constructed recycled clothing.

1. Tell me a little bit about yourself Ada?

I created my ethical and sustainable womenswear business in March 2008. I have exhibited at London Fashion Week as part of Estethica (Feb09) and at Ethical Fashion Show in Paris (oct08) where I won an award for most creative collection which includes the prize of fabric sponsorship from CELC masters of linen. I also make multimedia illustrations which have recently been exhibited in a show in Moscow alongside the work of Mark Le Bon.

2. Your work has a environmental ethos, what inspired this?

A friend wrote her final year thesis about the environmental impact of fashion and much of the information really surprised me because it was not something I had considered in depth before although I had always been interested in Green issues since childhood. I then attended an event organised by anti apathy at which Katharine Hamnett spoke about her work in the sector of organic cotton and what it meant to her as a designer. The environmental impact of any product starts with the designer and their choices. I don’t feel limited by choosing this as a path, I feel it is a great opportunity for me as a designer to create things that I not only perform aesthetically and functionally but which I can believe in having real value to people and planet.

3. Do you think enough is being done within the fashion sphere to promote sustainable fashion design?

It depends on the definition of enough, its a lot better than it used to be, in fact there have been weeks and months when you cannot open a magazine or a paper without there being something on sustainable design but of course there can always be more. For me it will never be enough until it is no longer necessary to promote something as sustainable because it is expected both by the designer, the buyer and the consumer that it should be designed sustainably. However I think that we have come a long way even in the last five years and I really admire and respect the hard work of the label from somewhere not only for their brand but also for putting so much passion into creating and sustaining Estethica.

4.Do you have any advice for inspiring eco- designers?

Think of yourself first as a designer , i.e think that anything is possible and then really research and consider your concepts. Look also at what is available close to you, in your town, your country. Local is a huge part of living more sustainably.
Personally for me I am happiest when people look at my work, exclaim how much they like it and then look confused and say “but how is this eco?” because it doesn’t look like their perception of what eco friendly clothing looks like. People will adopt more sustainable life styles either through neccesity or desire. Neccesity usually comes after catastrophe so I prefer desire.

5. What do you use as a main stimulus when your designing?

A concept. I chase after something that is illusory. Its a tyeing together of different strands, its not exactly story telling but it’s got similarities. The images can be anything but the structure to my working process comes from a fascination with an idea. Or that is at least one half. The other half is people, muses, personalities and I have to say I dress very differently to the clothes I design. I think this is because I want to design clothes that have elegance, strength and allow a women to express being sexy and intelligent at the same time. I am a tom boy personally! If I had my way I would just wear jeans ,
leggings and t shirts all the time….

6. Your also an illustrator as well as a designer, does your art work inter breed into your fashion work?

Absolutely. For my aw 09 collection drew the art work that I had woven by Vanners as a silk jacquard. For my graduate collection I created prints inspired by Mayan glyphs and space travel that were digitally printed onto Silk Jersey. I also create prints for various other labels. My silhouettes and shapes in my collection also influence the shape and look of some of my
illustrations.

7. Your illustrations have a distinctly multi-media feel, take me through your working processes?

Its quite mysterious sometimes even to me….. I start by drawing usually directly with fineliners. I might not have anything particular in mind… or just one or two images of the subject if there is one. These are usually very different to the thing I am drawing itself which often comes more from my mind’s eye. I sketch a lot from life of objects and people but hardly ever make studies that connect the sketches to the illustration. I think this is because I remember and imagine 3 dimensional imagery/objects much more than words. Then I continue via creating texture through photography and painting. All of this gets scanned in, and then a lot of photoshop and illustrator later…… and I arrive at a point where I think the balance is just right between the image I have by now an idea of and chaos. Like the clothing I think its quite an organic process.

So keep your eyes peeled for Ada Zanditon, with fans such as Patrick Wolf I have an inkling we haven’t heard the last from this talented lady.
The UK is more than a little obsessed with celebrity. But what if you’d just dropped out of the sky, visit this site say, and had no idea who these faces were that ignite people’s collectively salivating curiosities. Better yet how would you paint them? For artist Yuko Nasu that scenario isn’t far off. When she first arrived in London from Japan four years ago, she had no idea who these revered celebrities were. In fact to her, they were just as anonymous as she felt she was in her new environment.
Coming face to face with one of Yuko’s “Imaginary Portraits” your subconscious goes into overdrive trying to place the face until you realize abruptly that you’ve been staring, hard. The portraits’ fluidity and the simple strokes of vivid color are utterly mesmerizing and has recently earned her a second successful solo exhibit, “John Doe” this time at The Arts Gallery

Although she didn’t watch much TV at first, like so many of us Yuko picked through the gossip mags and short papers on the commute home and became intrigued by the recurring faces of media personalities. As she points out “To someone else they’re special but to me they’re no one, an unknown.” That unique experience informs her perspective and reflects a culture with an often grotesquely overdeveloped interest with celebrity. In an amusing twist of fate, one of her ambiguous paintings of Kate Moss was scooped up by the model-mum’s beau Jamie Hince. It seems familiar faces can be distilled into even the barest of essentials and still be recognized.

After completing her MA in Fine Art at St.Martins she went on to Global Arts Practice at Chelsea College continuing her series of adjoining portraits, based on the horizontal roll call of tv personalities in the back section of the papers. When questioned about the arrangement she says, “They’re like playing scales on an instrument.” There certainly is a meditative repetition to her method. A training of the subconscious so that you can suspend the cerebral part of your mind when you work, letting it flow. Not sure which happened first Yuko explains that at some point she began to take more risks with her portraits, challenging herself and gaining confidence from the results. Although she’s still quite anxious about viewer’s responses.

Yuko reached a turning point when, after trying unsuccessfully to denote features, she splashed some turpentine on the surface to erase or as she says “delete” the face. She feels her work began to develop a more cartoony quality, a genderless but still identifiable face.

She started allowing the accidents to happen, as she says “like a river to flow”. The river analogy brings me quickly to the topic of “shodo“ or Japanese calligraphy, also closely linked to Buddhism and meditation. At the heart of shodo are three strokes, “tome-hane-harai” or stop-jump-sweep. The gestural quality of Yuko’s pieces and the absence of belabored heaviness are evidence of her enviable sensitivity to the freedom and balance in her work. She makes no drafts but dives into the paintings without preconception, feeling that “It would make them boring”, opting instead to simply create more paintings and have a wider selection to chose from at the end.

The speed at which she paints depends on the surface she’s trying to create and her paintings can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a month to complete. “If I realize I’ve made a mistake, I’ll delete everything and sometimes turn the painting upside down and start again.” Not surprisingly her influences are Francis Bacon for the dynamism and strength of his images. Dutch artist Marlene Dumas’ for the tonality and passionate energy they emit and Mari Sunna’swork for its intimacy and its dark earthy browns and red.

Yuko prefers to work in oils because “the colors are more beautiful and acrylic is too plastic, has no depth.” Cringing at the price though she admits when she first arrived in the UK “The only oil paints I had were a box of damaged/defective paints given to me by Mr. Hayakawa, vice-president of Japanese paint manufacturer Kusakabe, who’d come to my show in Ginza Tokyo.” Yuko has certainly put some distance between then and now with awards for being one of St.Martins brightest stars, her work appearing in French Elle, Vogue and an interview in Art World Magazine. Yuko Nasu’s paintings elegantly address the issue of displacement and identity, especially anonymity. The motion and speed in her images is a reflection of the way we live our lives, where details may be blurred but hey, we get the idea. Keep a sharp eye out for this one!

A serious look at developing countries role in climate change needs a serious location, and and the talk that I attended yesterday entitled “Can Developing Country Needs For Energy Be Met Without Causing Climate Change?” was held at The Houses of Parliament. Running late as usual, web I raced through the streets of Westminster, purchase which was actually quite difficult to do as there was a huge police presence and a protest taking place (I believe it was a Stop The War group). By now, I have become used to finding myself in the middle of a busy, noisy protest with police helicopters flying overhead, and I was briefly tempted to throw myself into the mix, but remembered that I had a prior engagement, so I hot-footed it over to Parliament.

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(Image courtesy of Lea Jaffy, lea_jaffy1@hotmail.com)

The room was steeped in solemn grandeur. I took a seat, and surveyed the room and its inhabitants. Naturally, I was the only red faced and breathless one from running through the halls of Parliament. The talk began by Professor Gordon MacKerron, Director of SPRU (Science and Technology Policy Research ) at the University of Sussex, and was followed by Sir David King, who at one point was a Government adviser and now chairs the Smith School of Enterprise and The Environment at Oxford University, a think tank that is pioneering ways in which to tackle the issues of climate change.

The talk started off in a relatively light note, with Prof Mackerron saying that perhaps the element of emergency over the situation of climate change has not been taken seriously enough due to the fact that many think of it as global warming; and have connotations of “warmer summers and vineyards sprouting up in England”. The reality, he assured us, was rising sea levels, melting ice caps and unpredictable weather systems, not the ability to have more barbeques in the back garden. Sir David King asserted that “now is the time to put radical ideas on the table to sweep away the molasses that we are wading through as we tackle climate change”.

Professor Mackerron went on to explain that the term “developing countries” has different groups; one would be the lowest income countries, which mostly include the countries, which are to be found around the equator, especially sub-Saharan Africa. Statistics have shown that they are only responsible for an extremely small proportion of all Greenhouse Gas Emissions, so the quick answer to the events headline question is that if their energy needs are met, it will not significantly affect climate change. The issues with the other countries are slightly more complex. Continents such as India and China are most likely to be affected by climate change, and are also the least resilient to the impact. However, they are also making huge economic growth, and burning a great deal of coal – just under half the world’s amount. I was surprised to hear that both India’s, and China’s Governments are keen to embrace low carbon technologies, especially wind and nuclear power. China has pledged to improve energy efficiency by 205 by 2020. Meanwhile, India’s Prime Minister says that he wants to have a ‘low carbon footprint’. However, it is difficult to see how this is realistically going to happen exactly because of the rates of their economic growth – Professor MacKerron explained that “in order for China to play its part in a global mitigation effort, it would need to reach an emissions peak between 2020, and 2030″. And they show no signs of slowing down now.

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(Image courtesy of Kerry Lemon)

Sir David King spoke about Brazil, and what it can do to reduce its carbon footprint – in fact, he said that there was only one thing that it could do – stop deforestation. Sir King had met with Brazil’s President, Luiz Da Silva and told him this. He found the response as unexpected as we did – that the President announced, “By 2025 we will stop all deforestation”. This is a curious thing to say, he felt especially because so much of Brazil’s business is done as a result of deforestation.

Sir King also talked about ideas for alternative energy that are currently being investigated. I couldn’t quite comprehend one method; which appears to be extremely viable – and that is the technology that Holland and Norway have developed which harnesses energy from salinity power plants. It sounds unbelievable, but scientists and engineers are planning to use the difference between saltwater and fresh water found at river mouths to generate electrical power. Not being much of a scientist I decided that I would research it further when I got back, and while I still don’t quite understand how it works, the fact is that it could generate a large percentage of a countries power needs. As the board summarized in closing, with regards to climate change; “we have the tools, but no one yet is picking them up in the proper way.” We can only hope that technologies such as the above will be championed and funded so that they do become the tools that we work with to save our planet.
The UK is more than a little obsessed with celebrity. But what if you’d just dropped out of the sky, clinic say, and had no idea who these faces were that ignite people’s collectively salivating curiosities. Better yet how would you paint them? For artist Yuko Nasu that scenario isn’t far off. When she first arrived in London from Japan four years ago, she had no idea who these revered celebrities were. In fact to her, they were just as anonymous as she felt she was in her new environment.
Coming face to face with one of Yuko’s “Imaginary Portraits” your subconscious goes into overdrive trying to place the face until you realize abruptly that you’ve been staring, hard. The portraits’ fluidity and the simple strokes of vivid color are utterly mesmerizing and has recently earned her a second successful solo exhibit, “John Doe” this time at The Arts Gallery

Regular followers of my blog will know that I’ve been involved with Climate Camp for nearly two years – ever since I attended what I like to term the “University of Climate Change” at Heathrow in 2007. Before then I had been aware of the environmental issues we face, capsule but I had been unable to properly articulate why I felt so uncomfortable and useless – I knew that we humans were responsible for the perilous state of our climate, but I had not fully accepted the extent of our situation. I certainly didn’t understand what I could personally do to make a change given the narrow timeframe we now have to avert Climate Chaos.

But then something extraordinary happened. I went to all the talks and workshops on offer and got myself an education. Suddenly I felt empowered by the passion of the incredibly well informed people around me, people who were prepared to actually take direct action to avert Climate Change. For there are only two ways to solve the mess we are in. On the one hand we have to relearn how to live more sustainably and communally – which will inevitably lead not only to a lower carbon lifestyle, but an altogether more satisfying life. And at the same time we have to stop the government and multi-national corporations from putting profits before the welfare of our planet. Because without their commitment to our future we’re quite simply buggered.

Climate Camp is amazing quite simply because it tackles both these strands. Climate Camp empowers people to learn from each other within a working model of a fully sustainable community, and allows us to take direct action together to stop the causes of Climate Change. Because Nature Doesn’t Do Bailouts, this year Climate Camp will be sited somewhere within Greater London between 26 August – 2 September, near the financial institutions that have shown such disdain for the future of our world.

But… we need to start mobilising now, and this is where you come in. If you are a typographer or an illustrator or a designer we need your help! We need you to help us produce an amazing logo and poster image for our publicity. We can’t offer you any money because everyone who contributes to the Climate Camp process does so because they want to help solve Climate Change, not for financial gain. But we can offer you an amazing opportunity to contribute to an amazing movement that is really making a change in the world.

There are two parts to this brief. Part one has to be completed and submitted in only three weeks – by Friday 15th May – so that we can start the first phase of flyering and networking. For part two we have a little longer…. til Friday the 5th of June. In an ideal world you would submit to both. But if you can’t then pick one and give it your all. We’re looking for diverse imagery that reflects the themes of our camp and our goals as a whole! We can’t wait to see what you produce for us!! If your work is chosen expect to see it everywhere….

Brief 1
We need a Climate Camp 2009 name logo. Last year we had the iconic penknife logo (above) designed by UHC in Manchester. It has now been adopted by the French Climate Camp so its life continues. The fabulous illustrator Adrian Fleet created the Climate Camp in the City logos for the event on April 1st in Bishopsgate, both of which you can see below.
The new Climate Camp 2009 logo should also be simple, bold and iconic, easily translatable into both large and small copy.
It should encapsulate the key themes of Climate Camp in one inspiring image.
The words Climate Camp 2009 must be part of the logo.
It should be squarish in nature so that it can be used on other media such as badges.
It should work well in black and white as well (so make it high contrast!)

Technical Information. PLEASE READ!
Please send your design to info@ameliasmagazine.com on an email clearly headed CLIMATE CAMP LOGO any time before the closing date of Friday 15th May. The sooner the better!
SIZE: Please create this logo at high resolution so that it can be blown up to an A2 poster size if needed. For this reason it is recommended to work in Illustrator. If using Photoshop please work at a resolution that works at 300 dpi at A2 size in CYMK mode. Please send me a low res version of your file when you submit your work, no larger than 3MB.

If your design is picked to be used I will be in touch immediately after the closing date to let you know. Please be aware that we may need to ask you to make some minor alterations to fit different medias.

Brief 2
We would like a more complex image to use on big posters, similar to the one that Leona Clarke (see below) created for the London neighbourhood last year. This can incorporate many more ideas from the list of suggested imagery below, but should remain focused on the positive. The words Climate Camp 2009 should be included somewhere, and there should also be space to add a further subtitle or slogan (yet to be decided) and important info such as website and sms details. (as can be seen on the London poster)
Technical Information. PLEASE READ!
Please send your design to info@ameliasmagazine.com on an email clearly headed CLIMATE CAMP POSTER any time before the closing date of Friday 5th June. The sooner the better!
SIZE: Please design your image at a resolution of 300 dpi in CYMK Mode to fit an A2 poster. Please send me a low res version of your file when you submit your work, no larger than 3MB.

If your design is picked to be used I will be in touch at some point after the closing date to let you know. We have plans to put on a widely publicised exhibition of the best entries, possibly with an auction to help raise money for Climate Camp funds. For this we will need original artwork and you will of course be invited to the event if yours is chosen.

Join the facebook event to keep abreast of updates here.

IMAGERY IDEAS TO INSPIRE YOUR DESIGNS:
We would like you to be inspired by some (or all!) of the following imagery ideas:

Looking towards a positive future:
making things ourselves, a sense of DIY
self sufficiency, make do and mend, teaching each other skills, compost loos
wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable energies (sun, sea, tide)
growing our own food, living locally and lightly on the earth
colourful tents, marquees, flags and lots of bunting making our own city
cracked pavement with flowers growing though, green vines growing up buildings
working by consensus – groups of people making decisions together so that everyone is happy with the outcome
happy campers, living communally – eating well, dancing, making music
the circular links of sustainable action
people of all ages including children and old people protesting together
“swooping” down on a campsite with a mass of people

Contrast between our world now and the future we aspire towards:
sunrise/sunsets
money flying through the air, and a stack of cards falling down
bubbles coming out of the stock exchange
Bank of England doric columns, skyscrapers, Gerkin (iconic buildings)
things falling apart or falling off
person standing on the wreckage of the failed economy (or a coal station / gas line) holding a wind turbine or other good thing!
people taking versus people sharing
planes causing climate change, versus travel by bike, foot, boat and train
biofuel degradation of rainforest and other ecological systems
the perils of the system – as represented by graphs and skyscrapers, bankers and money
banker’s deals/ handshakes, ticking clocks representing a timebomb
scales of injustice and exploitation
tipping points from which there is no return to a just world for all
heat of a future world if we don’t avert climate change
lack of food, water and habitable land

More specifically – styles you might consider working in:
lo-fi DIY aesthetic
soviet style propaganda
ideas that work well in black and white lo-fi printing
super colourful and detailed styles too
movie poster aesthetics

Written by Amelia on Saturday April 25th, 2009 12:45 pm

Categories ,activism, ,Climate Camp, ,Direct Action, ,g20, ,heathrow, ,kingsnorth, ,Open brief, ,sustainability

Amelia’s Magazine | Royal College of Art Show One 2010: Photography and Printmaking

aniela-murphy_yeslab
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, unhealthy approved but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.

The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve instead created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.

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Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Lab runs in part like the current Fix the World Challenge website, where most of Andy and Mikes’ tips and tricks are given away and you can find like-minded individuals around the world to work with, but this time the Yes Men plan to work directly with the groups and organizations who come to them, providing guidance and training, linking them up with other useful people and checking in with projects until they succeed. The aim is to provide resistance so that when Obama or Cleggeron find themselves cornered by industrial lobbyists they will be able to point out of the window, where we’ll all be camped, naturally, and say “Sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking me to do – those people won’t let me.” It’s no secret after all, that if we all get it together and push in the same direction, even under different names, the government has to listen, and change does get made. The main focus of the Yes Lab, and the Yes Men, is to pressure elected officials, companies and corporations until they make the changes we want to see happen.

With the $50,000 they hope to raise through generous donations the Yes Lab could run for an initial period of six months, with actual staff doing the leg work involved in organising the facilitation of these projects. The Yes Men aren’t just begging for money though, oh no. If you’re not already motivated to give a little after reading about the dangers of the “policies that place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment” and the Yes Men’s plans to “kill capitalism before it kills us… before the next generations inherit a world where hunger and violence are the norm in a rapidly fraying civilization” then perhaps a few Yes Men goodies might perk your interest. For a mere $10 you can have a sincere, if mother-scaring, thank you. $25-$100 helps clear out their office, if you fancy a heap of junk alongside copies of The Yes Men Save The World (read our review here) and the Good News edition of The New York Times. $400 is a date with Survivaball model Rocco Ferrer. $1000 for a brainstorming session. $5,000 gets you a Survivaball. $30,000, really, turns into a 2-3 day retreat in the secret catacombs of Paris, checking out underground murals, chilling out with heaps of bones if you’re into that sort of thing. (Guess I’d better start saving.)

If you can’t quite jingle that out of your sofa, then even if you only have a few minutes per day the Yes Men suggest you can make a difference. Taking the time to write to elected officials, joining protests, giving money to great organisations (ahem, cough, etc) and joining social networks to spread the word of these great organisations (cough, cough, ahem, etc) all help, so head over to the Yes Lab, sign up for the newsletter and start telling all your friends to turn over their couch cushions and drop some pennies into the Yes Men’s piggy bank. You never know, you might win a Survivaball. Then who’ll be laughing when England floods, huh? Oh wait. Yeah. No-one.

Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.

You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.

aniela-murphy_yeslab
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, viagra but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.

The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.

aniela-murphy-yesmen
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.

You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.

aniela-murphy_yeslab
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Men began when founders Mike and Andy received an invitation intended for the director-general of the World Trade Organisation – via their fake WTO website – to attend a gala event. They emailed Michael Moore to take the invite up, there but when a reply was not forthcoming went themselves, healing and thus their legendary actions began. Now they’re looking to spread the joy of their ‘Yes-tivism’ with the creation of the Yes Lab project to train others in their headline-provoking methods. Though they deplore the media, drowning us in “fake information, spun by those who follow the profit motive in order to sell us on crazy ideas that we all sort of believe even though we know better,” they believe that HEADLINES MATTER when they’re used to tell the truth. Well. Not the truth. The version of reality so completely opposite to the truth that the truth is forced to come out of hiding and wave its pale head above the parapet. Ironically, they’ve recently been accused of “devaluing information, making it hard to tell what is real from what is fake.” Because the mainstream media is the bastion of truth and objective reporting. Yeah, right.

The Yes Men defend their devious behaviour by saying that it’s needed to achieve “a condition of honesty”. When they interrupt meetings and conferences to highlight the failed logic of the free market they push their actions to the most “sinister, corrupt and disgusting” lengths to force people to confront their own twisted morals. To then have audiences simply agree has taught them just how much needs to be done. So, after twelve years of faux-press releases, bumbling around in Survivaballs and campaigning continuously against Dow on behalf of Bhopal, the Yes Men want to get the rest of the population involved and for this they’ve created the Yes Lab to help activists all over the world bring our most crazed creations to life.

aniela-murphy-yesmen
Illustration by Aniela Murphy/NeltonMandelton.

The Yes Lab runs in part like the current Fix the World Challenge website, where most of Andy and Mikes’ tips and tricks are given away and you can find like-minded individuals around the world to work with, but this time the Yes Men plan to work directly with the groups and organizations who come to them, providing guidance and training, linking them up with other useful people and checking in with projects until they succeed. The aim is to provide resistance so that when Obama or Cleggeron find themselves cornered by industrial lobbyists they will be able to point out of the window, where we’ll all be camped, naturally, and say “Sorry, I can’t do what you’re asking me to do – those people won’t let me.” It’s no secret after all, that if we all get in together and push in the same direction, governments will eventually have to listen, and changes will happen. The main focus of the Yes Lab, and the Yes Men, is to pressure elected officials, companies and corporations until they make the changes we want to see happen.

Amelia met the Yes Men last year when they came to London town. You can read all about it here. And remember to check in with the Yes Lab.

You can also follow the Yes Men on twitter. Of course.

RCA show 2010 entrance
Wowser! the entrance to the 2010 RCA graduate show.

The Royal College of Art has really gone to town for the graduate shows this year: there’s a huge SHOW sculpture around the entrance to the college in the same neon orange as their invite that ensures you’re not gonna miss the location if you’ve never been before.

The MA graduation shows are always a very mixed bag – the RCA lays claim to the pick of the creative crop, symptoms but despite much lauded links with the creative industries I find that many of its students still very much have their head in the clouds when it comes to producing something that will appeal to more than a few people. This morning I only had time to get around the printmaking and photography exhibitions so will leave the rest to another time, if I find it. Within the photography section I was only really moved by the work of Noemie Goudal – who had pole position right next to the free teas for press in the entrance hall stage right. Her strongest piece is Les Amants (Cascade), which shows a waterfall in a woodland artfully recreated with some draped plastic. I won’t try to paraphrase the abysmal entry in the RCA catalogue describing her work but it’s obviously a commentary on the presence of humans in nature, and I always like that kind of thing.

Noemie Goudal Les Amants (Cascade)
Les Amants (Cascade) by Noemie Goudal.

In printmaking I walked straight past the work of Cordelia Cembrowicz, though I should have seen her giant Climate Rush inspired print straight away – it’s an event I remember well. The last big Climate Rush action to inspire the masses took place in June 2009 when we organised a huge bike rush which ended with a blockade of Westminster Bridge right outside Parliament (read about it here), and the print depicts Cordelia astride the famous statue of Boudicca. It makes me sad to see work inspired by Climate Rush and these artworks feel a bit like a memorial to a certain place and time that has now passed. Still, they serve as a reminder of how much we achieved before the group (as it was then) imploded under Tamsin Omond’s drive to reach her next goal – becoming MP for the constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn as head of her own political party, To The Commons. She failed, but I’m sure she has a new plan in the pipeline.

boudicca Cordelia Cembrowicz
Boudicca (Deeds Not Words) by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

Still, our clothes and actions were always going to be ripe for artistic plundering and Cordelia (who joined us for a couple of actions) has done an admirable job of producing some wonderful lithographs inspired by photographs of various associated members of Climate Rush. I particularly love the one of Tracey – who will be well known to those who have campaigned against Heathrow in Sipson – grasping at a clutch of planes.

tracey Cordelia Cembrowicz
Tracey by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

And the print showing a crouched Brenda, fist to the sky in front of a decorative Shell rondel, is simply stunning. Just look at the detail on Brenda’s proudly displayed armpit hairs! Around her dead yellow canaries are sploshed against some psychedelic swirls; presumably inspired by our No New Coal Awards back in February 2009, *sigh* those were the days. And there’s Cadi, smoke stacks billowing out of her multiple heads on a stained glass window designed for a new look Westminster.

brenda Cordelia Cembrowicz
Brenda by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

RCA show 2010 Cadi
Detail from a stained glass window showing Cadi’s mulitple heads, by Cordelia Cembrowicz.

What a shame it all went tits up.
Moving swiftly on….

I was most intrigued by a group of tables set up with various kitchen implements and paint, but had to have the concept explained to me. In a flight of fancy the like of which you can get away with at the RCA, Helen Murgatroyd has set up her own homespun cottage printing industry utilising kitchen implements and other familiar domestic objects to create a traditional looking screenprint of a plate on a checked table cloth, rendered special by the process that produced it. She must be doing something right because she has just had her entire graduate collection bought up by Terence Conran.

RCA show 2010 Helen Murgatroyd
Part of the installation by Helen Murgatroyd.

Another printmaking graduate that caught my eye was David Orme, whose work so reminded me of Luke Best that I asked if he’d had him as a tutor. He hasn’t, but has heard the comparison before. I particularly liked his decorative use of metallic foils in a group of voyeuristic illustrations inspired by tourism, but was unable to take a decent photo. The work on his site showcases an altogether different style.

RCA show 2010 David Orme
Detail of a work by David Orme.

Next to him Olenna Mokliak showed large ~~lithographs~~ etchings and aquatints of weird monsters with extendable fingernails and ballet shoes. Very weird, I like a lot, but she has made the unforgivable error of not creating a website before her graduate show. Who tutors these people?! Fail!

I AM AFRAID I’VE HAD TO REMOVE THIS WORK – SEE COMMENT BELOW.
Detail of a work by RCA show 2010 Olenna Mokliak.

Downstairs my trip was curtailed still further when I bumped into a friend that I haven’t seen in over a decade. I studied fashion textiles with Philippa Wagner at the University of Brighton and she is now a top trends forecaster, living with her young family in sunny London Fields. She too was enjoying the Hackney Parks for Life festival with her kids last Saturday when a gang shot a passer by who was innocently enjoying a picnic just like us. More like Parks for Death me thinks. It was nice to catch up, albeit briefly, and I just had time to take in the work of Sun Ju Lee – stunning shadow-like prints made with great delicacy on fishing wire, almost lenticular in appearance. Unfortunately not translated well into 2D.

Sun Ju Lee RCA
A Practiced Place by Sun Ju Lee.

Part one of the RCA show continues until 6th June 2010. It’s open from 11-8 daily at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2EU. Admission is free.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Thursday May 27th, 2010 5:54 pm

Categories ,Bike Rush, ,Climate Rush, ,Cordelia Cembrowicz, ,hackney, ,heathrow, ,Lithograph, ,London Fields, ,MA Graduate Show, ,Noemie Goudal, ,Olenna Mokliak, ,Parks for Life, ,Philippa Wagner, ,photography, ,printmaking, ,Royal College of Art, ,screenprint, ,Show One, ,sipson, ,Sun Ju Lee, ,Tamsin Omond, ,Trends forecasting, ,University of Brighton, ,Westminster Bridge

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