Digital Decarb

We are a contemporary art gallery and artist development organisation. Established in 1984, we’ve led the way in artist development for almost 40 years. We provide creative and career development, exhibition opportunities and commissions for artists and independents. We work from our galleries in Manchester, off-site, online and in the public realm. We create long-lasting impacts in our city region, North West and beyond. Our national and international activities focus on artist exchange. Castlefield Gallery’s public and participation programmes provoke new ways of thinking, bringing together artists, creatives, communities and audiences to explore the art and issues of our time. We believe when artists and communities come together they can help shape a better world.We support more than 250 Castlefield Gallery Associates and a host of creatives through person-centred development programmes. Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces provide affordable making and project space in the North West of England, including on the high street. We are a home for artists and creatives. We are advocates for what we believe in. We believe in the power of new art. We make new art happen.Ryan Gander OBE is Castlefield Gallery’s Artist Patron. We are a registered charity, supported by Arts Council England and Manchester City Council.www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk

Castlefield Gallery

A day of knowledge exchange exploring digital decarbonisation, convened by Castlefield Gallery

Contact Theatre

Digital Decarb is an opportunity to hear from practitioners engaged in action on digital decarbonisation. It is also an invitation to join the conversation, make connections and get involved. Ticket price for in person attendees includes refreshments and vegan lunch. This is a blended event - please note that not all speakers will be present in person. Speakers<ul><li>Dani Admiss, British-Assyrian independent curator and researcher based in Edinburgh, and founder of the art, climate justice and collaborative learning project <a href="https://sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sunlight Doesn’t Need a Pipeline</a></li><li><a href="http://interactiveartist.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">M﻿aya Chowdhry</a>, multidisciplinary artist working with live art and installation whose work focusses on food justice and climate justice</li><li>Teresa Feldmann, designer and founder of <a href="https://www.bankof.care/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bank of Care</a> and artist collective <a href="https://feminist-exchange-network.ailierutherford.com/planet-abundance/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Planet Abundance</a></li><li>Heidi Nikolaisen, visual artist living and working in Denmark, SUSTAIN participant and collaborator on the development of the <a href="https://sustainartists.info/2022/03/10/the-checklist/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Low Carbon Artists' Website Checklist</a></li><li>Anne Pasek, Canada-based director of Low-Carbon Research Methods Group who led on the digital decarbonisation strand of Sunlight Doesn't Need A Pipeline, including facilitating the <a href="https://sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com/2022/08/17/digital-decarbonisation-consensus-conjectures/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Decarbonisation and the Arts Consensus Statement</a></li><li>Jane Lawson, Artist Environmental Lead, <a href="https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Castlefield Gallery</a></li></ul>As the climate emergency deepens, decarbonisation has never been more more urgent. Digital is an important part of the decarbonisation equation; on the one hand, working digitally can help us move away from carbon-intensive travel– on the other, digital technologies and media come with social and environmental costs, such as the impacts of server farms, that are often hidden from users.The arts, creative and cultural sectors have become increasingly characterised by carbon-intensive international movement and air travel. However these sectors also regularly create space for fresh perspectives and approaches and artists, independent creatives and institutions are increasingly looking for more regenerative ways to create and work. The pandemic gave this shift extra impetus with many arts workers finding different ways to create and connect, especially when working internationally, and discovering unexpected advantages to operating digitally.As part of this shift, in 2021 Castlefield Gallery and Aarhus Centre for Visual Art launched SUSTAIN, a two-year programme of professional development and artist exchange focussed on low carbon artmaking and working. A pilot, SUSTAIN tested a six-month digital artist exchange programme of joint learning and development for ten artists, five from Greater Manchester and five living and working in Aarhus. SUSTAIN also piloted a Slow Culture Artist Residency Exchange that built low carbon transport into the residency process itself. In part stemming from this, Castlefield Gallery has initiated SPARK, a Greater Manchester network for artists wanting to intervene in the trajectory towards climate breakdown.Attendees to Digital Decarb will hear from practitioners engaged in<ul><li>digital residencies</li><li>online artist exchange programmes</li><li>the development of low carbon artists’ websites</li><li>the co-creation of decarbonisation plans for a wider arts and cultural sector context</li><li>building power for a just transition</li></ul>As well as presentations and panel discussions, Digital Decarb will include space for those attending to make connections and be part of the conversation. Access informationT﻿he event space is wheelchair accessible. Access info for Contact Theatre can be found <a href="https://contactmcr.com/about-us/accessibility/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">here.</a>We will enable live transcript for Zoom attendees. Please be aware that Zoom live transcript has its quirks and is not always word-for-word accurate.<aside>I﻿mage credits 1, 6,7: Hosted Gray - Low Carbon Artists' Website Manifesto by Sophy King and Heidi Nikolaisen; 2: What's Eating Paradox - Maya Chowdhry; 3: Sunlight Doesn't Need A Pipeline - design by Studio Hyte; 4: Graphic from Decarbonisation and the Arts Consensus Statement; 5: Feminist Football Scarves - Teresa Feldmann</aside>Funded by Manchester City Council and Arts Council England Supported by Castlefield Gallery and <a href="https://contactmcr.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Contact </a>Research and development Castlefield Gallery with AAbKC-﻿---------------------------------------------------------------Further Information A﻿ll sessions will include time for Q&A and discussion.10:30-12:30 Morning session: Digital Culture At A DistanceThe morning session will include a break with refreshments and time to connect with others.Dani Admiss, Teresa Feldmann and Heidi Nikolaisen will focus on the regenerative potential and pitfalls of working at a distance digitally. Looking at aspects including the various modes of digital working, the different type of emotional labour required and the impact of infrastructure such as server farms, the panel will discuss what working digitally makes possible and the environmental impacts we need to consider. Please note that Teresa and Heidi will join us by Zoom.-﻿-----------------------12:30-13:30 Vegan Lunch-﻿-----------------------13:30 - 16:15 Afternoon Session: Digital Decarbonisation and Decarbonising the DigitalThe afternoon session will include a break with refreshments and time to connect with others.Anne Pasek will Zoom in from Canada to give an overview of both the environmental impacts of digital activities and of how we can decarbonise by working digitally. Ann will draw on the <a href="https://sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com/2022/08/17/digital-decarbonisation-consensus-conjectures/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Decarbonisation and the Arts Consensus Statement</a> that was developed during Sunlight Doesn't Need A Pipeline.Maya Chowdhry, Jane Lawson and Anne Pasek will then lead a discussion about the most regenerative aspects of decarbonising the digital and decarbonising with digital.16:15 Closing remarks-﻿-----------------------More about the speakersDani Admiss (she/her) is a British-Assyrian Iranian independent curator and researcher based in Edinburgh. She uses social practices to develop projects with everyday people to voice their stories and reimagine narratives of science, technology and colonialism. In 2020 she founded <a href="https://sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Sunlight Doesn’t Need a Pipeline</a>. Admiss has curated projects and published across the UK, Europe and internationally. She is an Artangel Making Time resident (2023) and was a Stanley Picker Fellow (2020). Sunlight Doesn’t Need a Pipeline is an art, climate justice and collaborative learning project. It brings together artists, growers, healers, agitators and engineers, as well as local community groups and arts organisations in the form of community-based research, festival and publishing. In 2022 it published a holistic co-created decarbonisation plan for the art sector and beyond. <a href="https://www.daniadmiss.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.daniadmiss.com</a> / <a href="https://www.instagram.com/daniadmiss/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@daniadmiss</a> /﻿ <a href="https://www.sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com</a> Maya Chowdhry is a multidisciplinary artist working with live art and installation; utilising interactive audio, sonic art and sensory modalities to invite audiences to respond to, and create their own journey, through her climate justice artworks.These include: Soil Voicemails, exploring trans-species calling, commissioned for ‘Crossed Lines’ 2020 in collaboration with the Science Museum. Galvanising Change, a participatory live art piece examining climate anxiety, Hulme Community Garden Centre, 2021, created as part of Net//work Residency with The British Council and Digital Art Studio. You Sound Thirsty, a sonic commingling created in a time of planetary limits, Emergency Live Art Festival, Contact, 2022.She was artist-in-residence for Critical Poetics: Care Of… at Nottingham Trent University, with a particular focus on Inter-species Care, 2021.Her planetary activism includes an Earth Activist Training with Starhawk in 2015 at Ragmans Lane Farm, and SUSTAIN Artist Digital Exchange Programme in 2022.<a href="https://interactiveartist.org" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://interactiveartist.org</a> / <a href="https://www.instagram.com/maya_chowdhry/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@maya_chowdhry</a> Teresa Feldmann is a designer who studies un<a href="https://www.sunlightdoesntneedapipeline.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"></a>paid care through the lens of feminist economics. Sustainability is of utmost importance to her, but specifically a more low-tech variety which implies adjusting habits and mindsets. Estonian-born but based in the Netherlands since 2018, she is the brain behind Bank of Care—an ever-evolving project which seeks to create a value system that prioritises caregiving.With the award of a Design Grant by Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie in 2021, Teresa continued to dig deeper with BoC, exploring gift economies, indigenous thinking, and anarchist utopias, among others. Spurred by feminist science fiction, she uses creative writing as a tool to design thought experiments. She’s now busy with Planet Abundance—an artist collective who envisions caring post-work futures.<a href="https://www.bankof.care" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.bankof.care</a> / <a href="https://www.instagram.com/te_resaf/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@te_resaf</a>Jane Lawson is Artist Environmental Lead for Castlefield Gallery. She has worked for Castlefield Gallery since 2012, first setting up and running the gallery’s Associates programme and then running artist development programmes such as bOlder (a development programme for artists aged over 50) and the Manchester Open winners’ professional development programme. In 2020 she had to move all these programmes online. As well as co-developing and co-leading SUSTAIN, she has kickstarted the SPARK network for artists wanting to intervene in the climate emergency. She’s recently been part of a ten-strong group co-curating Manchester Art Gallery’s Climate Justice gallery which used the Gallery’s collection to highlight narratives around colonialism and extractivism. As an artist, her practice centres on fungus and diagrams. She is currently studying MA Art and Ecology at Goldsmiths.<a href="https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk</a> / <a href="http://www.janelawson.co.uk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.janelawson.co.uk </a>/ <a href="https://www.instagram.com/msjanelawson/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@msjanelawson</a>Heidi Nikolaisen is a visual artist who works with text, spatial gestures and objects that combine the use of the digital with foraged natural materials, readymades and archive materials. In 2021 she was part of the SUSTAIN Artist Digital Exchange, during which she collaborated with UK artist Sophy King to create the Low Carbon Artists' Website Checklist. In 2022 Heidi took part in the SUSTAIN Slow Culture Residency Exchange, using low carbon travel to get to and from Manchester. She has recently finished her own low carbon artist website.Heidi has participated in various activist work camps and programmes in Estonia, Cuba and the US. She has visited the spiritual island of Olkhon in Siberia, has completed a Vipassana silent retreat, worked with gardening in a Buddhist retreat center in England and lived and studied in Moscow and Lisbon. From 2017 to 2019 she co-founded and worked as programme director of the artist-run exhibition platform for contemporary art Organon in Odense facilitating solo shows, group exhibitions, film screenings, talks and book presentations. She is part of and chairperson of the artists’ studio collective Corporum, Aarhus. <a href="http://www.heidinikolaisen.dk" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.heidinikolaisen.dk </a> / <a href="https://www.instagram.com/vita_active_recovery/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@vita_active_recovery</a>Anne Pasek led on the Digital Decarbonisation strand of Sunlight Doesn’t Need A Pipeline and is an Assistant Professor and the Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture, and the Environment at Trent University, Canada. Her research explores the cultural politics of climate change, with a particular emphasis on the social and technical means through which carbon is enumerated and mobilized within diverse social formations, including climate denialism, the tech sector, and the arts. She is also the director of the Low-Carbon Research Methods Group, a network of scholars examining the climate and equity impacts of decarbonizing academic work, and the Experimental Methods &amp; Media Lab, a hub for research-creation and critical making at Trent with a particular focus on emerging climate tech. In addition to her academic work, she maintains an activist and art practice, focusing on tactics for building power for a just transition. <a href="https://www.annepasek.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.annepasek.com</a>/ <a href="https://twitter.com/aepasek" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@aepasek</a> / <a href="http://lowcarbonmethods.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://lowcarbonmethods.com</a>/

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