Chris Williams, activist and author of “Ecology And Socialism”, spoke to the recent BP ecological crisis at a public meeting presented by the ISO (International Socialist Organization) in New York City. He tackles the “how’s” and “why’s” of the policies that led to our current crisis and examines the role that a democratic socialist society could play in an ecological restructure.  From EcoSocialism Canada.

As he said, the bodies of the BP workers were never found, and all our government can do is reference an invisible hand of God. Our government’s real “gods” are oil and consumption and growth, which is ironic, because these things are going to end up killing us. Maybe those are the hands Obama was referring to.

It’s clear that capitalism is leading to a future that is even more dangerous to human life,  and unsustainable, but so far there is no move in the U.S. to replace it with anything that would be acceptable to the people on the “right”.  They favor growth and corporations over peoples’ lives.

Evidence Refutes BP’s and Fed’s “Deceptions”

Scientists think about half the oil from the BP leak is still in the water or sunk to the ocean floor.  A recent report found that the Obama administration probably downplayed or hid the amount of oil leaking from the well from the public, from the start of the leak.  Then shortly after the well was capped by BP, the government made the incredible claim that the most of the oil was “gone”, which defied all logic and common sense.  It was also factually untrue, and it’s still not really clear why the government was attempting to lie to people about this.

by: Dahr Jamail and Erika Blumenfeld, t r u t h o u t | Report

Photo: Erika Blumenfeld

“In August, Truthout conducted soil and water sampling in Pass Christian Harbor, Mississippi; on Grand Isle, Louisiana; and around barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana, in order to test for the presence of oil from BP’s Macondo Well.

Laboratory test results from the samples taken in these areas show extremely high concentrations of oil in both the soil and water.

These results contradict consistent claims made by the federal government and BP since early August that much of the Gulf of Mexico is now free of oil and safe for fishing and recreational use.

The samples taken were tested in a private laboratory via gas chromatography.

The environmental analyst who worked with this writer did so on condition of anonymity and performed a micro extraction that tests for total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH). The lower reporting limit the analyst is able to detect from a solid sample is 50 parts per million (ppm).

Just two examples of many from the article:

“A water sample from inside Pass Christian Harbor, Mississippi, taken on August 13, contained 611 ppm of TPH. Seawater that is free of oil would test at zero ppm of TPH.

A soil sample containing tar balls from the beach on Grand Isle, Louisiana, taken on August 16, contained 39,364 ppm of TPH.”

The oil is not gone. It’s still where BP put it — in the water and on the shore.  More on the “cover up” from The Hill:

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is reaching out to the presidential oil spill commission to clarify what the White House calls misleading claims about the federal response to the disaster.

“NOAA Administrator Dr. [Jane] Lubchenco will send a letter today to the commission ensuring that they have an adequate understanding of what was happening in that process at that time,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

The letter to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling follows Wednesday’s release of draft findings by the commission staff about the White House spill response.

The staff report suggests that the White House may have blocked public disclosure of worst-case discharge scenarios from BP’s [...]

Flammable water is just one negative side effect of natural gas drilling. Photo from "Gasland" --click on photo for more info.

Natural gas extraction is a serious environmental threat, yet natural gas  remains a widely-used fuel.

Thanks in large part to to T. Boone Pickens, we may not get competitively priced renewable energy for 10 years or more.  His push for natural gas to make himself even richer, and his “army” of gas supporters are proving to be a major obstacle to pricing renewable energy more affordably than fossil fuels.  Many people believe that pricing fossil fuels as more expensive than renewable energy is the only way that a capitalist country like the U.S. will ever get off fossil fuels and on to renewable energy.  Thanks to the proponents of natural gas, a fossil fuel, this now may not happen for a decade.  Our main hope to stopping the devastating pollution caused by natural gas fracking is EPA regulations.  (Predictably, the Republicans want to fill Congress this fall with anti-science, anti-renewable energy advocates who have protected the fossil fuel industries for decades.)

Most energy experts agree that the way to get renewable energy used widely in the United States depends in large part on making fossil fuels more expensive.  Natural gas has been portrayed as a “bridge fuel,” but the cheap price of this fossil fuel is going to make the bridge period itself last much longer than it would otherwise.  This means it will take many extra years before renewable energy becomes widely demanded.  Do Pickens’ supporters realize their very support for natural gas is delaying renewable energy implementation and use?  Fans of Pickens include many Democrats in Congress, like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, making this even more difficult to stomach.  (Some of these people have actually invested their own wealth into natural gas as a “bridge fuel”.)    Yet because of natural gas extraction, people in Wyoming can’t even drink their water.  A recent article explains why natural gas is threatening the use of renewable energy.

It’s a Gas, Gas, Gas

Unconventional natural gas is having profound effects on power prices, negatively affecting renewable energy’s competitiveness. The effect may last the rest of this decade.

Unconventional natural gas is often see as the bridge fuel that will further better integration of renewable energy resources, but now it is a power price depressant that will keep renewables at a cost disadvantage for the foreseeable future.

That view was part of a wide-ranging discussion on the current economic and policy landscape that affects renewable energy. The topic was one of several discussed in the recent American Bar Association-American Council on Renewable Energy webinar. The webinar is part of a series that assesses how renewable energy’s future will be affected by developments throughout the power sector, especially as they affect the wider acceptance of wind, solar, biomass and other resources.

One issue noted here previously is how the current low price of natural gas is making [...]

“Mountaintop Removal is going to be ended. We will not back down on this issue.” In this fantastic video, done on September 27th, you can see a growing movement of people are demanding the end to coal mining and mountaintop removal mining and even better, the use of coal itself. Dr. James Hansen was among those arrested protesting in Washington against coal strip mining and mountaintop removal. “Appalachia Rising is a mass mobilization in Washington DC on September 27, 2010 calling for the abolition of mountaintop removal and surface mining.” This message is as basic as the human right of everyone to have clean air and clean water, necessities of life.  Coal and other fossil fuels directly threaten our rights to these natural resources. Video by Appalachia Rising.  Read more about this event here.

Below  is more environmental news collected from Climate Crisis Coalition and Dot Earth.

Obama’s Chunky Energy-Climate Plan

In a new Rolling Stone interview, President Obama has offered a replacement for the now-defunct notion of comprehensive climate and energy legislation: a policy rolled out in “chunks.”

Given the inability of Congress, after seven years of struggling, to pass “comprehensive” climate legislation, it’s good to see a shift to the approach pushed by, among others,  Stephen H. Schneider, the veteran climate science and policy expert at Stanford University who long stressed the need for a sequence of steps to build public support before the heavier lifting comes. Of course the question is, what are Obama’s “chunks”?

‘One Nation’ March on Washington Set for Saturday. eWorldPost, 9/29/10. “‘One Nation working together’ is gaining momentum albeit slowly. The Tea Party, the unemployment, the budget deficits and the foreclosure is making [for difficult times]… Under these dim circumstances it is really good to see that almost 170 organizations have united together and formed One Nation Working Together. It is a coalition that is demanding for all the positive changes they voted for in the year 2008.  However, the question is how will this massive coalition work and will they achieve the objective. By the look of things the media is not very interested in covering this coalition. The immediate objective of One Nation Working Together is a mass mobilization on the 2nd of October. The event will be happening in Washington. It is believed that caravans and buses from all across the nation will arrive by noon and thousands of people will participate in the four hour rally. There will be affiliated events in other parts of the country as well.” Editor’s Note: The Climate Crisis Coalition is a sponsor of the One Nation march.

Big Oil and Other Industries Spend Over $500 Million Against Climate Legislation. ClimateProgress, 9/27/10. “The oil, gas, and coal industries have spent over $2 billion lobbying Congress since 1999. These three industries combined spent a whopping $543 million on lobbying in 2009 and the first two quarters of 2010. Meanwhile, alternative energy companies spent less than $32 [...]

A new video called “No Pressure” is making the rounds online and if you haven’t seen it yet, a copy of it can be found at a link from the Guardian. The original has been removed from Youtube, but of course there are several copies of it still out there. The video’s message seemed to be one of action on climate change, but it’s really hard to say, because the message is lost in a Tarrantino-like sea of blood.

The video takes a seriously wrong turn when it says that people who do not reduce their emissions 10% a year  (through a 10:10-approved activity) should be joyfully blown up. (The video is bloody, so be forewarned).  A few select idiots at the 10:10 campaign wrote this and actually decided it was a good enough idea to film. Unfortunately, it  sends the message that if you don’t cut your carbon emissions by 10% this year, some crazed “eco-terrorist” is  going to murder you, but first, they’ll tell you not to worry by saying “no pressure”.  At least, I think that’s the message. If there is another one, it’s lost somewhere in the gore.  What is funny about this?

This video is the exactly wrong approach to trying to get a message about climate change across. If you thought the documentary The Age of Stupid was a little bit heavy handed, (though it’s a must-see movie) this is 1000x worse.

The 10:10 website states: “Many people found the resulting film extremely funny.”  Really?  Who?   Maybe they are so isolated that they don’t understand a few simple facts: the climate change denier movement is big, it’s serious, and it’s very well funded.  It’s also very politically charged, as is national security.  And the media is involved too, and I can just picture this video being shown on TV here.  It would be a nightmare if that happened. This video only adds fuel to their arguments.

This will have a big backlash, especially in the U.S. Thanks a lot. The public needs to be educated on climate change — not insulted.  It took me less than a year to realize that, but even people at the 10:10 campaign site don’t get that yet.  Even though they apologized for the video, they seem still devoted to the video and all its many copies. Too bad.  This video is beyond condemnable and it’s message could be seen as terroristic and psychotic.

Bill McKibben didn’t like it either. He called it “crap” and I could not agree more.  This is an article of his that he wrote for Climate Progress.

Days that Suck (A response to the “No Pressure” Video)

October 1, 2010

by Bill McKibben

I just climbed off an airplane at Boston’s Logan Airport. The day began in Monterrey, Mexico–and though I was tired, I was also feeling pretty good. Our big day of action on October 10th has been building to a crescendo: we yesterday broke our [...]

Is this the beginning of the leadership push on climate change we have all been waiting for? This video is pleasant to hear (in the sense that Obama still has this on his mind, at least) but it has all the impact and taste of a low-cal snack.  If only he’d get on TV and say this to the general public, instead of the wonks that watch his Saturday addresses online.

This part sounds especially good:

It was essential – for our economy, our security, and our planet – that we finally tackle this challenge.  That is why, since we took office, my administration has made an historic commitment to promote clean energy technology.  This will mean hundreds of thousands of new American jobs by 2012.  Jobs for contractors to install energy-saving windows and insulation.  Jobs for factory workers to build high-tech vehicle batteries, electric cars, and hybrid trucks.  Jobs for engineers and construction crews to create wind farms and solar plants that are going to double the renewable energy we can generate in this country.  These are jobs building the future.

It’s hard to imagine why the Republicans would fight against progress like this, but they are.  Maybe they are just against the future.  (for all of us).  Meanwhile, we are still waiting for Obama to do something game-changing about climate change instead of mostly just talking about rebuilding our car-based infrastructure.  His approach to this serious issue so far seems to be incremental, moving with baby steps.  We don’t have time for a slow-mo solution to all these things — peak oil, coal pollution, CO2 emissions, global warming and increasingly violent weather patterns.   There are indications that Obama is beginning to take this more seriously though.  The White House is reportedly close to announcing new mileage standards of 62 mpg by 2025, according to Bloomberg.

Brightsource, the company he references can be found here. Obama is right about the Republican party though. They are still the party of no and they want to burn every last bit of coal in the earth.  Doing that will be the end of human life on this planet.  Maybe that’s why they’re looking so hard for other inhabitable planets. Why would Republicans want to scrap all renewable energy projects? Because they can’t see the future past the end of the day, and they don’t really care if people in the U.S. are employed or not. They also don’t want companies like BP, Exxon and Shell to suffer.

At this rate of two steps forward, 3 steps back, parts of the United States will be uninhabitable in a few decades.  This is from Climate Progress:

This graphic shows what Arizona will look like if the Tea-Party-led Republican Party has its way.  It’s from a terrific March presentation, Climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe has a figure of what staying on the business as usual emissions path (A1F1 or 1000 ppm) would mean (derived from the NOAA-led report):

Close-up:

Arizona — not a place [...]

It seems like American politicians find it more difficult to do things that other countries are already doing, or have already done. Like how to transmit solar and other types of renewable energy. South Korea and other countries are doing it,  while our politicians fight about “affording it” and whether it’s even possible.

Solar and thermoelectric power transmission towers in South Korea

“Transmission towers carrying solar and thermoelectric power from the Korea South East Power Co. (KOSEP) plant are seen in Ansan, about 80 km (50 miles) west of Seoul, September 30, 2010.

South Korea’s technology giants are behind the pace in getting on the $35 billion global solar energy bandwagon, but are now making up for lost time, snapping up assets overseas.”

World Environment News.  The upcoming midterm election will be crucial for renewable energy.  We need to put people into the U.S. Congress who understand science, who understand the ramifications of climate change, and understand the huge importance of investing in renewable energy. Let’s keep the climate change deniers (aka the Tea Party candidates and many in the GOP) where they belong — on the fringes of society and not infiltrating our government with their anti-science viewpoints.

Vote accordingly this November.  Don’t sit this one out.

The tar sands in Alberta are so big they can be seen from space, and this filthy project is already killing people and wildlife.

H2Oil is a documentary, now on DVD.

“In the vast, pristine forests of Western Canada, the ‘war for water’ has already begun…

Thanks to Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands, Canada is now the biggest oil supplier to the United States. A controversial billion-dollar industry is heavily invested in extracting crude from the tarry sands through a process so toxic it has become an international cause for concern. Four barrels of glacier-fed spring water are used to process each barrel of oil, then are dumped, laden with carcinogens, into leaky tailings ponds so huge they can be seen from space. Downstream, the people of Fort Chipewyan are already paying the price for what will be one of the largest industrial projects in history. When a local doctor raises the alarm about clusters of rare cancers, evidence mounts for industry and government cover-ups. In a time when wars are fought over oil and a crisis looms over access to clean fresh water, which resource is more precious? And what price are we willing to pay? — Gisèle Gordon.”

And now they want to do this in Utah, though on a smaller scale:

A plan to strip-mine oil sands crude on U.S. land for the first time in northeastern Utah is facing legal challenge.

Through a legal appeal, a pair of local environmental groups are working to overturn a decision earlier this month by John Baza, director of the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (UDOGM). He upheld a permit approval for a 62-acre mine in the remote Uinta Basin of the Colorado Plateau.

Should the legal option fail, the groups said they are determined to block the project – by whatever “peaceful” means.

Why is this being allowed?  The state department in the United States, headed by Hillary Clinton, has approved pipelines coming into the United States from these devastating “oil” fields, calling it a matter of national security. Yet a project as devasting and destructive to the environment as the Alberta tar sands would not be allowed in the U.S.

Press Conference: Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC, 23 September 2010, Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of the United Nations Framework on the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Last December the international climate change conference in Copenhagen convened with major world expectations. This year’s conference, called COP16, has less expectations surrounding it.  This year, officials are stressing building a foundation for climate change mitigation instead of coming up with big goals, like in the agreement ending COP15.

Proponents of a deal “seem to have accepted” that no treaty will be written during two weeks of talks in the Mexican resort, and that bodes well for the prospects of taking smaller steps, said Halldor Thorgeirsson, a director at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which organizes the talks.

“The obstacles to a significant outcome in Cancun remain formidable, and the likelihood of a continued deadlock remains significant,” Thorgeirsson said today in a speech at the political analyst Chatham House in London. Still, “a new treaty is by no means the only measure of success,” he said.  (Business Week)

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said some governments are trying to “rebuild the sense of trust in the process and rekindle the commitment to deliver” some agreements and funding.  “Governments have realized this year that you don’t build tall buildings without laying the foundations, unlike last year when they tried to build a very tall building without laying the foundations,” she said.  (AP)

According to UN News:

“We are barely two months away from the UN climate change conference in Cancun, the place where Governments need to take the next firm step on humanity’s journey to meet the full-scale challenge of climate change,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Director of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Ahead of the next conference of parties to the Convention, to be held in November in Cancun, governments will hold a negotiating session in Tianjin, China, next week.

It is in Tianjin, said Ms. Figueres, that they will need to “cut down the number of options they have on the table, identify what is achievable in Cancun and muster the political compromises that will deliver those outcomes.”

She told a news conference at UN Headquarters that governments are converging on the need to mandate a full set of ways and means to launch a new wave of global climate action.

“On the whole, governments have been cognizant this year that there is an urgent need to move forward and they have been collaborating in moving beyond their national positions to begin to identify common ground so that they can reach several agreements in Cancun.”

The UN climate change chief said that negotiations are on track towards reaching agreements on the sharing of technology, jump-starting activities in developing countries dealing with reducing deforestation and degradation, setting out a framework for adaptation, and establishing a fund that would help developing countries with their mitigation and [...]

Karen Warren/Chronicle -- David Ryman secures a sign opposing the coal plant on the property of Michael Ledwig, who is in the forklift.

Planned Coal Plant Generates Controversy in Texas.   Houston Chronicle, September 25, 2010. “The idea had undeniable power at first: the cleanest coal-fired plant in Texas. But now, with the White Stallion Energy Center about to receive an air pollution permit from the state, many local officials and residents are having second thoughts — even in the face of 12% unemployment… In and around Bay City, the county’s hub, opponents are planting roadside signs showing a menacing monster billowing from smokestacks, with the rallying cry: ‘Stop White Stallion Coal Plant’…

Others see promise instead of peril. Supporters of the $3 billion proposal include officials at the Matagorda County Economic Development Corp., the Bay City Chamber of Commerce and the superintendent of the Bay City Independent School District. They say the plant would mean hundreds of jobs, higher incomes and better lives for some of the 38,000 people in the county… Coal is the dirtiest fuel for making electricity, but jobs are a big motivating factor in towns that are struggling. And that’s why some folks think Randy Bird picked Bay City. ‘We’re simply too small, with no political clout, and hungry for economic development,’ said Robert Malina, a retired professor who has led a local group called the No Coal Coalition.”

Climate Activists in Australia Close Down World’s Largest Coal Port. Reuters, September 26, 2010.   “Australian climate change activists today [9/26/10] closed down operations at the world’s largest coal port after entering its three terminals and attaching themselves to loaders, the terminal operator and the protesters said. The action by climate change group Rising Tide Australia [see photo below] stopped operations at all three terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services, which normally run continuously, a company spokesman said. Asked if all operations at the facility had been halted due to the action, a company spokesman told Reuters: ‘Yes, that is correct. All operations have temporarily stopped.’

Rising Tide said about 50 people in total were involved in the protest, some entering before dawn Sunday morning, abseiling down machinery and attaching themselves to loaders. Others demonstrated with banners. Spokeswoman Annika Dean said nine protesters attached themselves to infrastructure, calling it an ‘emergency’ action to highlight climate change, which she blamed for recent fires in Russia and floods in Pakistan.”

Here is a photo of their demonstration:

Two climbers hanging from the NCIG coal terminal in Newcastle: Photo by Conor Ashleigh http://www.conorashleigh.com

Sante Monachesi

September 21 – October 24, 2010
Fondazione Roma Museo
Curated by Prof. Stefano Papetti and the Archivio Sante Monachesi
Catalog

La città marchigiana dove Sante Monachesi nacque nel 1910, Macerata, chiusa nel suo riserbo rinascimentale, appariva troppo angusta al giovane artista per soddisfare il suo desiderio di nuovo e il Futurismo sembrò allora rappresentare per lui l’occasione per evadere da quel mondo provinciale: la mostra allestita nell’estate del 1922 dal pittore Ivo Pannaggi presso il Convitto Nazionale era stata sufficiente ad innescare una bomba destinata a far deflagrare il sonnolento ambiente provinciale e la lettura del testo di Boccioni Pittura e Scultura Futurista fece il resto. Monachesi divenne futurista e lo fu per il resto dei suoi giorni: il capo storico del movimento futurista Filippo Tommaso Marinetti lo accolse a Roma e lo introdusse nel vivace laboratorio culturale dell’Urbe e Monachesi corrispose a quanti avevano creduto in lui creando sculture metalliche e dipinti di impronta futurista, pronto però già nel 1941 ad abbandonare quelle sperimentazioni per navigare verso altri lidi.

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Il segno Alfa

September 24 – October 10, 2010
Triennale di Milano
Curated by Francesco Casetti

Check out this video

Includes works by Valerio Adami, Giorgio De Chirico, Fortunato Depero, Mimmo Paladino, Mimmo Rotella, Mario Schifano and Mario Sironi.

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The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-1918

September 30, 2010 – January 2, 2011
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University*
Co-curated by Mark Antliff, Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University, and Vivien Greene, Curator of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

*Exhibit will travel:

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice [January 29 - May 15, 2011]
Tate Britain in London [June 14 - September 18, 2011]

“The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-18″ is the first museum exhibition devoted to this Anglo-American movement to be presented in the United States or Italy. It is also the first to attempt to recreate the three Vorticist exhibitions mounted during World War I that served to define the group’s radical aesthetic for the public. An abstracted figurative style, combining machine-age forms and the energetic imagery suggested by a vortex, Vorticism emerged in London at a moment when the staid English art scene had been jolted by the advent of French Cubism and Italian Futurism. Absorbing elements from both, but also defining themselves against these foreign idioms, Vorticism was a short-lived but pivotal modernist movement that spanned the years of World War I (1914-1918).

This seminal exhibition is co-curated by Mark Antliff, Professor of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University, and Vivien Greene, Curator of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. The exhibition will showcase approximately 90 works (paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photographs and related ephemera) by members of the Vorticist movement drawn from public and private collections throughout Europe and North America. Vorticism will introduce visitors to such artists as Wyndham Lewis, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Helen Saunders, Edward Wadsworth and other members of the Vorticist group. The group took its name from “Vortex,” a term coined by the American expatriate literary great Ezra Pound in 1913, when describing the “maximum energy” he and his colleagues wished to instill among London’s literary and artistic avant-garde. The Vorticist painters created compositions activated by zigzagging, diagonal forms and—in contrast to the Cubists and Futurists—more fully embraced geometric, abstract imagery, while not abandoning three-dimensional space. They harnessed the language of abstraction to convey the industrial dynamism they associated with the “vortex” of the modern city.

Among historians of modernism, Vorticism has been traditionally treated as an insular British art movement. “The Vorticists: Rebel Artists in London and New York, 1914-18″ will overcome that myth by identifying the movement as a distinctly Anglo-American endeavor developed in 1914 as an avant-garde response to the impact of French Cubism and Italian Futurism on artists and writers in London and New York.

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Da Fattori a casorati. Capolavori della Collezione Ojetti

September 24 – November 28, 2010
*Vernissage 5:30, Sept. 24
Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona
Curated by Giovanna De Lorenzi
Catalog

**previously exhibited June 26 – September 12, 2010, Centro Matteucci per l’arte moderna, Viareggio

Includes works by Balla and Boccioni.

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Dedication of Piazzale Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Sunday, September 19, 2010
11:11am
L’area dell’ex rilevato ferroviario sul lungomare Eugenio Montale, Albisola

Vittoria Marinetti will be present.

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Der Sturm e il futurismo

September 1-30, 2010
La biblioteca Angelica , Rome
Curated by Marina Bressan
Catalog

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Speed Limits

September 17, 2010 – February 20, 2011
Wolfsonian-FIU, Miami Beach, FL
Curated by Jeffrey Schnapp

Exhibit was also on display in Toronto. See previously here.

Press Release:

Miami Beach, FL (August 6, 2010)—The Wolfsonian–Florida International University presents Speed Limits, an exhibition which explores the role of speed in modern life and celebrates the hundredth anniversary of Italian Futurism. In 1909, the “Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism” proclaimed that “the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.” A century later, as the tempo of life continues to accelerate, Speed Limits asks critical questions about the impact of speed on our daily lives. The exhibition, on view from September 17, 2010 through February 20, 2011, is co-organized by The Wolfsonian and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) and is curated by Jeffrey T. Schnapp, CCA Mellon senior fellow and professor at Stanford University.

“This exhibition reflects on the legacy of the Futurist movement’s celebration of speed, and moves beyond art and literature into the realms of material culture, the built environment, popular entertainment, and everyday life,” explains Marianne Lamonaca, The Wolfsonian’s associate director for curatorial affairs and education. “It also brings into focus some of the key issues that affect each of us in our daily lives, such as the ubiquity of portable communication devices and the proliferation of nutritionally deficient food.” To inaugurate the show, The Wolfsonian will organize a happening on September 16, 2010, and a formal event celebrating the museum’s fifteenth anniversary on November 11, 2010.

Speed Limits presents more than 200 works from the collections of The Wolfsonian and the CCA and features a variety of media, including posters, books, drawings, clocks, paintings, and video installations. Critical rather than commemorative in spirit, the exhibition explores a single Futurist theme from the standpoint of its contemporary legacies and probes the powers and limits of the modern era’s cult of speed in five key domains: circulation and transit; construction and the built environment; efficiency; the measurement and representation of rapid motion; and the mind/body relationship.

CIRCULATION AND TRANSIT

Multiple perceptions of traffic and its models are vital to an understanding of the city and society. The exhibition bears witness to the prevalent dream of an urban space with freely-flowing traffic, and illustrates the concept of the grid or network that governs the movement not only of objects and goods but also of information. This is juxtaposed with the breakdown of circulation—the traffic jam. The overcrowding of city streets is captured in a series of photographs taken by John Veltri in New York City in 1938 and in the print by Benton Spruance from 1937. Visual records are accompanied by archival documents and studies of transportation efficiency and accident patterns related to increasing speeds.

CONSTRUCTION AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Architecture is a motive force behind the speeding-up of life, reflected in the increasing efficiency of construction processes. The phenomenon is illustrated through photographic sequences capturing the erection of the Irving Trust Building (New York), the Eiffel Tower (Paris), and Rem Koolhaas’s China Central Television building (Beijing). The fast pace of construction of these and other buildings can be analyzed by studying dated sequential images. Prefabrication served as a major drive towards increasing construction efficiency, and is represented by various trade catalogs of homes and other building types, as well as photographs documenting their assembly.

EFFICIENCY

Examining how notions of efficient production evolved over time, the exhibition focuses on two types of space transformed by speed, one public and the other domestic: the office and the kitchen. Filing systems, processors, and office furniture play a central role making work spaces fast and efficient. A remarkable 1936 project by Josef Ehm features an electrically-powered mechanical classifier, allowing workers of the Central Social Institution in Prague to access large-scale card catalogs via mechanized desks on lifts. The exhibition also includes photographs by Balthazar Korab that capture the modernized workspaces of the 1960s, as well as studies of the productivity of workers and their equipment such as Frank B. Gilbreth’s films of American workers in the 1910s and ‘20s. Photographs of Christine Frederick show her testing and demonstrating kitchen efficiencies in the early 20th century, when electrification, new equipment and appliances, and a redesigned space increase the speed of domestic activities. Alongside commercial artifacts and documentation, the exhibition includes architects’ studies such as drawings by Le Corbusier analyzing kitchen dimensions.

THE MEASUREMENT AND REPRESENTATION OF RAPID MOTION

Addressing the cognitive challenges with which humanity is surrounded, the exhibition features material about information compression through strata of signs, signals and messages, or diagrams that reduce complex traffic data to a usable visual representation. Increasingly, humans are processing complex overlapping of information including time and related data. This growth is reflected in a collection of clocks illustrating the tempo of modern life, and the increasing sophistication and number of instruments and devices that measure motion: accelerometers, altimeters, odometers, speedometers.

Also presented are posters and graphics whose design captures the notion of speed in order to more effectively promote cars, tires, oils, and other products or services built celebrating new levels of speed.

THE MIND/BODY RELATIONSHIP

The exhibition suggests different ways in which acceleration is associated on the one hand with pleasure—ecstasy, the search for powerful sensations, and overstimulation—and on the other with exhaustion, risk, and injury. Representations of the body in motion include the transformation of the body itself into a speeding object, gymnastics and popular athleticism in the early 20th century, the current cult of the body, natural and artificial improvements in physical culture, stimulants and tranquilizers, and the remedies associated with stimulants. Among speed’s pharmaceutical avatars are caffeine, cocaine, amphetamines, and the active ingredients in energy drinks.

EXHIBITION CATALOG

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of the same title, edited by Schnapp and co-published by The Wolfsonian, the CCA, and Skira Editore, Milan. The catalog includes new essays by Timothy Alborn, Yve-Alain Bois, Edward Dimendberg, Maria Gough, Antonino Mastruzzo, Jeffrey L. Meikle, Pierre Niox, Marjorie Perloff, Mark Seltzer, and Anthony Vidler; an anthology of historical texts; the visual essay “Rush City” by Schnapp; and studies of the impact of speed on contemporary society. The 320-page catalog ($39) is available in The Dynamo Museum Shop. To purchase, contact paola@thewolf.fiu.edu or 305.535.2680.

The Wolfsonian thanks the following supporters for making this exhibition possible: James Woolems and Woolems Inc.; Rene Gonzalez Architects; the Funding Arts Network; Continental Airlines, the Official Airline of The Wolfsonian–FIU; The Wolfsonian–FIU Alliance; the Frances L. Wolfson Fund at Dade Community Foundation; and FPL FiberNet, a leading provider of fiber-optic solutions.

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Road of Futurism

September 9 – October 28, 2010
National Art Museum of China, Beijing

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Fortunato Depero. Papagallo. 1917. Private collection, Rovereto (TN) © Fortunato Depero, VEGAP, Málaga 2010

Los juguetes de las vanguardias

October 4, 2010 – January 30, 2011
Museo Picasso de Málaga

Over four hundred works on display at Museo Picasso Malaga will illustrate early 20th-century artists’ interest in making children familiar with the shapes and ideas of modern art.

Pablo Picasso, Giacomo Balla, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Fortunato Depero, Alexandra Exter, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, Joan Miró, Edward Steichen, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Alexander Rodchenko and Joaquín Torres-García are among the more than one hundred artists and authors whose work will be shown. Play serves as the narrative thread for an exhibition that covers such diverse disciplines as art, literature, theatre, photography, graphic design and film.

Toys of the Avant-garde examines the hitherto little-explored relationship between art and teaching, in the numerous projects for children that appeared in Europe during this revolutionary period. Nowadays, they are seen as examples of the artistic and literary trends that were to set the course for art and design today.

It ends with an annexe that is a restaging of the exhibition organized by author Blaise Cendrars in Paris, in 1929. It will contain approximately two hundred works, including books, correspondence, photographs and posters for children, produced by Russian Avant-garde artists during the early years of the Soviet Revolution. It will also include the screening of the film Éclats de Cendrars, directed by the author’s grandson, Thomas Gilou.

The exhibition has been organized and produced by the Museo Picasso Málaga, and curated by Carlos Pérez, Head of Exhibitions at the Museo Valenciano de la Ilustración y la Modernidad (MuVIM), Valencia, and José Lebrero Stals, Artistic Director of the MPM. An international advisory panel of experts also collaborated on this project. They include Juan Bordes (sculptor, architect, teacher, author and member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid; Cecilia Buzio de Torres (expert on Torres García); Luigi Cavadini (Director of the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Lissone); Françoise Lévèque (conservator of the Historical Holdings of the Bibliothèque de L’Heure Joyeuse, Paris); Iva Knobloch (conservator at the Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague) and art historian and linguist Medea Höch, from Zürich.

Two editions of an illustrated book will be published to coincide with the exhibition, in Spanish and English, respectively. The book will contain essays by the curators and the experts mentioned above, as well as pictures of the exhibits.

Artdaily

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Concert for 16 Futuristic Intonarumori (Noise Intoners) EP

MART, Rovereto
September 30, 2010
6:00pm

T.R.I.O. Trento Risuona Improvisation Orchestra del Conservatorio di musica Bonporti di Trento

Luciano Chessa conductor

In 2009, RoseLee Goldberg, the director of the Performa Festival in New York, asked Italian composer Luciano Chessa to recreate a set of 16 intonarumori noise intoners basing the design on the originals created by Italian Futuristic painter and composer Luigi Russolo. A group of contemporary composers including Mike Patton, Blixa Bargeld, Ellen Fullman, Elliott Sharp, Pauline Oliveros, Ulrich Krieger and Luciano Chessa himself wrote works especially for these instruments that were then performed under Luciano Chessa’s baton. Transart brings the project to Europe for the first time, to Rovereto, and has also given commissions for compositions to Margareth Kammerer and Teho Teardo. The tradition lives on!

Futurist Banquet

8:00 p.m.
Casa d’arte futurista Depero

The spirit of Futurism lives again to the sounds of intonarumori at a special dinner held in the Casa Depero museum.

Curated by Silvano Faggioni and Sergio Coletti . Chef Marco Brink

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