Digital Decarb

14 April 2023 / 10:30-16:30

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.

Please note this is a ticketed event taking place at Contact Theatre (Oxford Road, M15 6JA); ticket price includes vegan lunch and refreshments. There is also the option of attending on Zoom.
You can find out more info and register at  https://digitaldecarb.eventbrite.co.uk.
Please note that Digital Decarb is a blended event and not all speakers will be present in person.

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Speakers

• Dani Admiss, British-Assyrian independent curator and researcher based in Edinburgh and founder of the art, climate justice and collaborative learning project Sunlight Doesn’t Need a Pipeline
• Maya Chowdhry, multidisciplinary artist working with live art and installation whose work focusses on food justice and climate justice
• Teresa Feldmann, designer and founder of Bank of Care and artist collective Planet Abundance
• Heidi Nikolaisen, visual artist living and working in Denmark, SUSTAIN participant and collaborator on the development of the Low Carbon Artists’ Website Checklist
• 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 Decarbonisation and the Arts Consensus Statement
• Jane Lawson, Artist Environmental Lead, Castlefield Gallery

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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 regularly create space for fresh perspectives and approaches, and a shift is underway. Artists, independent creatives and institutions are increasingly looking for more regenerative ways to create and work whilst intervening in the developing ecological emergency. 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.

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Attendees to Digital Decarb will hear from practitioners engaged in

• digital residencies
• online artist exchange programmes
• the development of low carbon artists’ websites
• the co-creation of decarbonisation plans for a wider arts and cultural sector context
• building power for a just transition

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As well as presentations and panel discussions, Digital Decarb will make space for those attending to make connections and be part of the conversation.

Ticket price includes refreshments and hot vegan lunch

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Funded by Manchester City Council and Arts Council England

Supported by Castlefield Gallery and Contact

Research and development Castlefield Gallery with AAbKC