Event overview
Through talking, screenings, debating, and making, this workshop will examine the visual culture of Britain’s climate justice movement.
'Blockadia Archive : Extractive Britain' is a curatorial project conceived in opposition to the UK government’s “dash for gas”. The project aims to represent the visual culture of Britain’s climate justice movement, centering on the upsurge of anti-extraction activism across the country resisting the government’s “backing of fracking”. The research process will bring together artists, activist groups and environmental organisations in a series of workshops with the longer term aim of collaboratively devising a visually striking, accessible, and useful activist resource for others to draw from in the work of movement-building. The research will be expanded upon to form a nomadic archive that can travel to regions of the UK licensed for natural gas exploration. Local groups opposing new extractive projects will be invited to activate the archive in community spaces in response to our current political and environmental condition.
Blockadia is a global, grassroots, and broad-based network of local resistance to extreme extraction. Blockadia’s frontlines are multiplying across all continents, wherever high-risk extractive projects are attempting to dig and drill; whether for open-pit mines on the Halkidiki Peninsula, Greece, gas fracking in the village of Pungesti in Romania, or tar sands oil pipelines in Canada and the United States. 'Blockadia Archive : Extractive Britiain' takes as its departure the multiple outposts of Blockadia that have formed across Britain. From the central belt of Scotland to the wield basin in southern England, resistance is manifesting in imaginative actions against an industry the government is forcing on communities. 'Blockadia Archive : Extractive Britain' represents the simple principle that we can tackle climate change, or we can extract and burn fossil fuels, but we cannot do both.
Workshop at enclave
Saturday 25 March
15.00. ‘Talking’ (roundtable discussion between artists, curators, environmental campaigners and sustainability professionals on ‘cultural activism: from critical content to critical consequence’).
[Closed event]
19.00. ‘Screening’ (‘This Changes Everything’ – the documentary by Avi Lewis, inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller, 1 hr 30 min.).
Sunday 26 March
13.00. ‘Debating’ (a staged debate on cultural boycotts and fossil fuel divestment).
15.00. ‘Making’ (drawing inspiration from the art and design of “disobedient” object-making in social movements, we will design posters and make a collaborative textile piece; we will eat, drink, and research together, exchanging ideas).
[Basic materials will be provided, but please bring along anything you see fit!]
17.00. ‘Screening’ (‘Just Do It’ – the feature documentary on the clandestine activities of climate activism groups such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid, 1 hr 30 min).
Blockadia Archive : Extractive Britain (A Workshop)
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 25 Mar 2017 | 1:00pm - 8:00pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
