Bill McKibben, author, activist and founder of 350.org, still has hope that the climate crisis can be averted.  His new book Eaarth (see the recommended book list in the sidebar) is both saddening and full of hope and ideas for adaptation and how we can live on a new earth he calls “eaarth”.  Here is a recent interview with Bill McKibben from the Post Carbon Institute.

credit: postcarboninstitute

Post Carbon Fellow Bill McKibben and Executive Director Asher Miller discuss Bill’s sobering assessment of life on earth as presented in his brand new book Eaarth. Bill also provides an update on the efforts of his 350.org campaign.

FUTURIST COOKING EDITION:

Photo of Marinetti Eating Pasta

Boccioni’s Il Bevatore [Drinker], 1914

Check out Laura Santtini’s Easy Tasty Magic collection of taste-enhancers for stimulating the senses

Color – interpreted into alcohol. See CYMK Cocktail.

• Jewelry design house De Wan has dedicated an entire collection to Futurismo. (link)

• Soccer/ Football and Futurism

• Youth put together exhibit on Futurism in Parma [“Energie Futuriste- Parma 1911-1924”, April 15 - May 2, 2010]

• One man’s visit to the Wolfsonian-FIU “Back to the Futurists…or “we don’t need any roads”” – I am impressed that he, too, noticed the CYMK Cocktails, which recall quisibeve concotions.

• Congrats to 2010 Guggenheim Fellow Luca Buvoli (interviewed here)

• Christie’s to sell Fillia, Dottori, Prampolini, Sironi, Crali, Balla, Carra’s for sale at May 25, 2010 Modern and Contemporary Art sale in Milan

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Horrified by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?  5,000 barrels of dirty oil a day now polluting the waters only a few miles off the U.S. coast.  Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, has declared a State of Emergency, and the federal government is beginning to get involved in trying to stop the leak.  It’s an environmental catastrophe already and getting worse by the hour.  It’s unfortunate that we can’t declare the climate crisis as a “state of emergency”, because it is.

Some day these types of devastating spills will be impossible, because people will finally get fed up with them and they will learn more about climate change as it becomes more apparent.  Some day, there will be no more drilling for fossil fuels anywhere.  The U.S. EPA is ready to move on restricting CO2 emissions now, and that will reduce the use of fossil fuels and eventually stop it.  (that and a situation called “peak oil”)  The Obama administration is now taking a “wait and see” approach to offshore drilling, even after announcing that more offshore drilling was to be a part of our energy future.  (That is probably not likely at this point).

Lisa Jackson, EPA administrator

From the EPA Press Office –Statement of Lisa P. Jackson Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Legislative Hearing on Clean Energy Policies That Reduce Our Dependence on Oil, House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment

Released April 28, 2010–WASHINGTON – Chairmen Markey and Waxman, Ranking Members Upton and Barton, Chairman Emeritus Dingell, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify about the Environmental Protection Agency’s work to reduce America’s oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions. That work stems from two seminal events.

First, in April 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act’s definition of air pollution includes greenhouse gases. The Court rejected then-Administrator Johnson’s refusal to determine whether that pollution from motor vehicles endangers public health or welfare.

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision, and based on the best available science and EPA’s review of thousands of public comments, I found in December 2009 that motor-vehicle greenhouse gas emissions do endanger Americans’ health and welfare.

I am not alone in reaching that conclusion. Scientists at the 13 federal agencies that make up the U.S. Global Change Research Program have reported that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions pose significant risks to the wellbeing of the American public. The National Academy of Sciences has stated that the climate is changing, that the changes are mainly caused by human interference with the atmosphere, and that those changes will transform the environmental conditions on Earth unless counter-measures are taken.

The second pivotal event was the agreement President Obama announced [...]

The Cochabamba World People’s Conference on climate change ended last week in Bolivia, and most greeniacs agree it was a good boost  for the cause of environmental and climate justice and acknowledging peoples’ rights to their resources. The Copenhagen climate summit, by comparison, seemed mostly geared towards protecting corporations, economic systems, and preserving forms of governments,  and suggesting how much they should contribute to help those suffering from climate change,  that these big economic giants have mostly caused.    There was little serious talk of climate justice in Copenhagen among the big “capitalist” players (the U.S. and Europe), but it was very prevalent at the Cochabamba summit.

There is no doubt that most of those who will suffer the most from climate change are those with the least money.  They are also the people who will lose their way of life and even their land and resources first as climate change progresses.

What came out of the Cochabamba conference was not firm commitments from anyone, but it was a good starting point for environmental justice conversations and a framework to demand rights,  and it was a big push to a  movement based on ecosocialism,  instead of preserving capitalism (aka profits) for the richest corporations and countries who are doing most of the polluting. Exxon Mobile is just one example of what is wrong with capitalism butting heads with climate.  Exxon posted record profits again last year ($45.2 billion in profits) and paid no American taxes, so they aren’t even contributing to cleaning up the climate, or environmental disasters that the EPA needs to be involved in and pay for. That’s outrageous, but that will continue as long as corporations run our government and our govenrment worships capitalism.  (See below the declaration for more comments.)

Meanwhile, this Declaration came out of the People’s Climate summit. See more at Climate and Capitalism for their coverage of Cochabamba and related events. Also see the official website’s declaration here which starts out:

“Today, our Mother Earth is wounded and the future of humanity is in danger.

If global warming increases by more than 2 degrees Celsius, a situation that the “Copenhagen Accord” could lead to, there is a 50% probability that the damages caused to our Mother Earth will be completely irreversible. Between 20% and 30% of species would be in danger of disappearing. Large extensions of forest would be affected, droughts and floods would affect different regions of the planet, deserts would expand, and the melting of the polar ice caps and the glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas would worsen. Many island states would disappear, and Africa would suffer an increase in temperature of more than 3 degrees Celsius. Likewise, the production of food would diminish in the world, causing catastrophic impact on the survival of inhabitants from vast regions in the planet, and the number of people in the world suffering from [...]

There was no remote-control backup switch on the oil rig that exploded and sank, according to the WSJ.  Why not?  Probably to save money.

Graphic from the Wall Street Journal

“The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.  The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig, hired by oil giant BP PLC, last week.

The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

The scale and complexity of the operation highlights the titanic struggles faced by the modern oil industry. Locked out of easier-to-exploit oil reservoirs by governments in developing countries, international oil companies such as BP invest billions of dollars every year in scouring the depths of the sea for oil and gas. But when problems arise, they are equally difficult to conquer.

On Tuesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.) sent letters to BP and Transocean asking the companies to explain what they knew about the risks of drilling at the site.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

“Easier to exploit” is perfect wording for this WSJ article. Exploitation is what fossil fuel companies are best at.

In an astonishing comment today, facing this devastating environmental disaster, some of the more ignorant Republicans in the U.S. said this should not deter anyone from offshore oil drilling.

“At almost the exact moment that Reuters broke the news (on Twitter) that a second oil drilling rig had overturned off the coast of Louisiana, Sarah Palin posted her latest Facebook “note.” The headline: “Domestic Drilling: Why We Can Still Believe.”

Apparently no non-natural disaster caused by drilling or sucking up fossil fuels in any manner will ever stop the profit-based, anti-science approach to energy and the unlimited greed of Republicans like Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Michele Bachmann, and their fossil fuel energy friends.  No disaster is too great to try another more progressive way forward, to stop using these destructive, polluting forms of energy.  What will ever deter these people? We don’t need to use fossil fuels.

“No human endeavor is ever without risk,” Palin’s ghostwriter adds later, comparing dangerous and pointless off-shore domestic drilling to the moon landing.”

Even the news that another oil rig has overturned has had no impact on the worst of them.   We know from hurricanes of the past how oil rigs do overturn during storms and apparently, even without storms.  They also explode, [...]

Futurismi al confine orientale. Avanguardie di regime

December 1, 2009 – February 21, 2010 May 2, 2010
Istituto Regionale per la Cultura Istriano-Fiumano-Dalmata | Trieste
Curated by Piero Delbello
Catalog

more info

In occasione del CENTENARIO del FUTURISMO (1909/2009), si propone in questa sede un’approfondita ricerca sulla grafica d’avanguardia al confine orientale che va a recuperare l’immagine applicata ad eventi, occasioni o alla propaganda delle diverse istituzioni e organismi in un arco di anni fra il 1920 e gli anni ‘40 (con un’appendice che supera il 1950) del secolo appena trascorso.

Trieste e la sua Provincia, l’area goriziana e il Friuli, ma anche l’Istria, Fiume e la Dalmazia, nonché la zona carsica sono i luoghi di questa indagine che, indubbiamente, andando al recupero soprattutto della grafica minore ed in qualche caso minima (e dei suoi autori) si presenta come totalmente innovativa e mai tentata in precedenza.

Sul futurismo, sui suoi artisti, molto si è scritto e si continua ad indagare. Nuovi approfondimenti emergono, frutto di studi monografici e indagini locali: sempre di più si completa il mosaico dell’iper-attività dei membri di un movimento che fu, nelle intenzioni, socialmente totalizzante investendo del suo impeto innovatore non solo ogni disciplina artistica “classica” (dalla pittura alla scultura, dalla letteratura alla rappresentazione scenica, alla musica) ma anche l’approccio al vivere quotidiano. La meno “classica” arte pubblicitaria, il design e il lettering di accompagnamento, la fotografia, la contaminazione di questi elementi, furono terreni di interessanti esperimenti e prove per il futurismo: ma furono anche il luogo dove una sterminata (e, spesso, sconosciuta) miriade di artisti (pittori, grafici, fotografi, ma anche architetti, scultori, decoratori), pur non rientrando ufficialmente nelle file del movimento, applicarono, in qualche modo, l’aria che il futurismo faceva respirare. Erano artisti minori, non era futurismo e non erano futuristi, ma seppero mediare e mediarsi, talvolta anche confondersi, fra futurismo, déco, cubismo, costruttivismo … Ne uscirono esiti vari, a volte straordinari, più spesso ingenui, ma erano la personificazione quotidiana di tanti “ismi”, di tanta volontà di innovare.

È per questo – sia concesso dai puristi – che si è inteso dare a questo lavoro il titolo di “futurismi”, nell’intenzione di riassumere l’atmosfera appena descritta, indagando “a lato” sia geograficamente (le terre giulie) che artisticamente.

La repertorializzazione di alcune centinaia di campioni grafici in argomento (gentilmente messi a disposizione dell’I.R.C.I. da fonti private) consentono di svelare un panorama sicuramente poco noto (addirittura, in molti casi, del tutto sconosciuto) delle nostre terre e, con la pubblicazione della catalogazione e della riproduzione del tutto, di proporre al pubblico degli esperti e degli storici dell’immagine, nonché a tutta l’opinione pubblica, uno strumento assolutamente nuovo e, appunto, inedito.

È questo il piccolo contributo che l’ Istituto Regionale per la Cultura Istriano-fiumano-dalmata, insieme con la Famiglia di Grisignana dell’Unione degli Istriani, vuole dare al centenario della nascita del futurismo: indubbiamente il momento culturale più dirompente che l’Italia abbia prodotto nel corso del Novecento e l’unico che abbia travalicato i confini nazionali ottenendo seguito e coinvolgimento in tutto il mondo.

EVAL, con uno schizzo che più infantile non si può, traccia la linea futurista di visione di Albona. Anzi: lo sguardo è dall’alto, dall’aeroplano, tanto che la sua opera, messa in cartolina, ha per titolo “Albona. Aeroschizzo della Piazza Vittorio Em. III”. La piazza ostenta negli edifici un’improbabile geometria, accentuata, nella visione di Eval, con linee tracciate sull’area aperta a tela di ragno, rombi, cerchi, stelle a otto (8) punte. Ma chi è EVAL? E cosa mai ha conosciuto Albona, la centro dell’Istria, di futurismo?

Nel percorso che stiamo compiendo vengono alla luce campioni di produzione di artisti poco noti e, talvolta, del tutto ignoti: Antonio Quaiatti, Umberto Ranzatto, Omero Valenti, Urbano Corva … sono solo alcuni dei nomi di cui si scoprono esiti impensabili.

Disegno e lettering vengono esaminati nelle loro esemplificazioni: scopriamo le inattese scelte giovanili di artisti come Mascherini (superomico) o Carà (cubo-futurista).

Si tratta a volte di un segno molto ardito, come nel caso di Ferenzi o di Marcello Claris, di una costruzione di chiara ispirazione futurista (architetti come Angheben) che diventa esempio anche per altri: in linea appaiono Urbano Corva (che, però, aveva indubbiamente occhieggiato Depero) oppure, ancora, le scelte che superano il déco (Gustavo Petronio), sfociano nel novecentismo (Guido Marussig) o ammiccano al cubismo (Orfeo Toppi, Pollione Sigon, ancora Ferenzi, Caucigh, Mitri). Fino ad arrivare all’estrema sintesi in una razionalissima semplificazione grafica che ha in Edoardo Ricci il suo campione.

Se tutto ciò, nella grafica applicata, trova una strada molto libera in ambito delle istituzioni del regime (Opera Balilla, Dopolavoro ma soprattutto GUF con i Littoriali), è innegabile che scelte stilistiche “ardite” le si ritrovino, pur con minore intensità, anche nella propaganda commerciale, industriale, turistica o del terziario.

Come è innegabile che lo sforzo grafico “insolito” superi il confine degli anni della guerra e si procrastini, spesso per opera degli stessi artisti (e il caso, p.e., di Omero Valenti), sino ai primi anni ’50. Magari per situazioni di “idea” diametralmente opposte: proprio Valenti che nel 1944 aveva disegnato la copertina dell’opuscolo “Nostro Socialismo”, per la Repubblica Sociale Italiana, comporrà il manifesto, con un bel gioco di inserti grafici e fotografici, per il “I° Maggio Socialista” del 1953.

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Lisa P. Jackson Talks about How the US Can Lead the World on Climate

Planet Forward – Lisa Jackon On How America Leads the World on Climate from Center for Innovative Media

From our live Planet Forward event on April 20… Planet Forward Host, Frank Sesno, asks Lisa Jackson to explain how the US can be a global leader on climate change if Washington gridlock kills a climate bill.

From our live Planet Forward event on April 20… Planet Forward Host, Frank Sesno, asks Lisa Jackson to explain how the US can be a global leader on climate change if Washington gridlock kills a climate bill.

In this clip, “The Case for EPA Action” On April 1 the Environmental Protection Agency established rules restricting greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks, starting in 2012. This is the first of what could become a sweeping series of regulations stemming from the agency’s conclusion that greenhouse gases harm human health. But a dangerous assault on the agency is gathering momentum in Congress, corporate boardrooms, the media and the courts. “The fight over EPA rulemaking may be the most important environmental battle in a generation.”

Planet Forward – EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson on Coal from Center for Innovative Media on Vimeo.

In a clip from Planet Forward’s Earth Week event Lisa Jackson talks about the business impact of uncertainty regarding potential carbon regulation.

The world’s largest climate rally in history is going on right now (April 25) in Washington DC and you can watch it live right here.

The live stream below will feature everyone  from James Hansen to James Cameron to  Sting to Joe Romm (thanks to Climate Progress for this notice, by the way) right here:

(I removed the video because it was starting automatically and it couldn’t be turned off).

Other speakers this afternoon include:

Climate scientists like James Hansen, and Stephen Schneider.

EPA chief (and heroine!) Lisa Jackson & CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley
Cultural leaders like James Cameron (Avatar; Titanic) and Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale; The Blind Assassin)
Top business executives from Siemens, Phillips, UL, Future Friendly & SunEdison
Top labor leaders, including the President of the AFL-CIO and Secretary of the SEIU.

Progressive activists, including Jesse Jackson, Lydia Camarillo, & Hilary Shelton
Climate policy gurus like Joe Romm, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, & Rafael Fantauzzi
Spiritual leaders, including Rev. Theresa Thames, Rev. Richard Cizik, & Rabbi Warren Stone
Athletes like Dhani Jones, Aaron Peirsol, & Billy Demong

Environmentalists like Bobby Kennedy & Phillipe Cousteau

I wish I was there! In between the speakers we will hear from some of the most committed artists in the nation, including Sting, John Legend, The Roots, Willie Colon, Passion Pit, Bob Weir, Jimmy Cliff, Joss Stone, Booker T, The Honor Society, Mavis Staples….Here is the music schedule:

12:00 – Bob Weir (w/Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, John Cage, John Kadlecik)
12:45 – Willie Colon
1:25 – Honor Society
2:20 – Passion Pit
3:10 – Jimmy Cliff (w/ John Legend, Bob Weir)
4:05 – The Roots
4:55 – The Roots and Friends (Mavis Staples, Booker T., Patrick Stump, Joss Stone, Robert Randolph, Bob Weir)
5:45 – John Legend w/ The Roots
6:35 – Sting w/ The Roots.

From Climate Progress and EarthDay.org.

Futurism Now has just been moved from another server, which is why it disappeared for a couple of days. I’ve done website migration before before but for some reason it was a little more challenging this time.  There might still be some link problems. Now I’m leaving town for a few days so FN won’t be updated much in the meantime.   And for some reason, there’s no climate change legislation news today because it wasn’t introduced in the Senate.  Apparently the other two senators (Kerry and Lieberman) can’t function, for some reason,  without Lindsay Graham, (who is pouting in the corner about immigration.)

And the huge amounts of oil leaking from the collapsed, exploded oil rig continues to pollute the water in the Gulf of Mexico, where it’s about 30 miles off the coast and threatening all life in its path.  It’s almost too depressing to think about.  Meanwhile, enjoy this “Earth Day”  video of James Cameron, creator of Avatar, one of the most awesome environmental and anti-war movies ever made, at the climate rally in D.C. last Sunday.  I recorded a large portion of the climate rally and will try to put it out in a podcast if I can find the time,  because the music was great.  I finally got to hear Joss Stone sing live, and since I’ve been watching her play Anne of Cleaves on The Tudors, (Showtime)  it was a huge change to see her rocking with The Roots.  (The “best band in the world!”)

Also recent, this article below, which I thought was notable last week.  From the WSJ, no less.  Are the old-school capitalism devotees getting it about climate change? Some are.

By William Ruckelshaus, first EPA administrator.

Today’s environmental challenges are far different from those of 40 years ago. And so, argues William Ruckelshaus, the solutions must change as well. —

A NEW SHADE OF GREEN

“In the 1960s, it all seemed so simple.

We humans with our big cars and our big factories and our big cities were discharging terrible stuff into the air and water, and it had to be stopped or we would soon make our nest uninhabitable. The public was growing increasingly outraged. Every night on color television, we saw yellow sludge flowing into blue rivers; every day as we drove to work, we saw black smudges against the barely visible blue sky. We knew that our indiscriminate use of pesticides and toxic substances was threatening wildlife and public health.

But we didn’t do much about it. Until 1970, most regulation of industry was done by the states, which competed so strongly for plants and jobs that regulating companies to protect public health was beyond them.

Environmentally, it was a race to the bottom.

Until, that is, the public had enough and demanded action. A seminal moment: the [...]

Yuk! A deadly fungus is thought to be spreading up north because of climate change.

Potentially Deadly Fungus spreading in US, Canada

* Fungus is unique genetic strain * — Climate change may be helping its spread

According to NPR:

“A rare and dangerous fungal infection named Cryptococcus gattii has been quietly spreading from British Columbia southward to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. And it’s changing as it goes.

Researchers have discovered that a unique strain of the bug has emerged recently in Oregon, and already has spread widely there, sickening humans and animals.

So far, over the past 11 years there have been about 220 cases reported in British Columbia. Since 2004, doctors in Washington and Oregon have reported about 50 cases. Among the total 270 cases, 40 people have died from overwhelming infections of the lungs and brain.”

You might want to put that vacation to British Columbia or Seattle on hold. According to the fungus’s FAQ pdf linked to above:

Until recently, C. gattii was only found in certain subtropical and tropical environments. In 1999 it emerged on Vancouver Island, British Columbia (BC), Canada. Between 1999 and 2006, 176 cases were reported in BC. C. gattii has been isolated from native tree species on Vancouver Island and from the surrounding soil and air, primarily from the east coast of Vancouver Island. Cases have also occurred on the lower BC mainland. The exact geographic distribution of the fungus is not known, and may be expanding.

And from Reuters – A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.

The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.

“This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people,” said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

“The findings presented here document that the outbreak of C. gattii in Western North America is continuing to expand throughout this temperate region,” the researchers said in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens at http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000850.

“Our findings suggest further expansion into neighboring regions is likely to occur and aim to increase disease awareness in the region.” The new strain appears to be unusually deadly, with a mortality rate of about 25 percent among the 21 U.S. cases analyzed, they said. “From 1999 through 2003, the cases were largely restricted to Vancouver Island,” the report reads.

“Between 2003 and 2006, the outbreak expanded into neighboring mainland British Columbia and then into Washington and Oregon from 2005 to 2009. Based on this historical trajectory of expansion, the outbreak [...]

A Century of Futurism: 1909-2009

Edited by Federico Luisetti and Luca Somigli
p. 384
ISSN 0741-7527

The revue Annali di Italianistica edited by the University of North Carolina has published a special issue dedicated to the “Centenary of Futurism”.

####

La rivista Annali di Italianistica della University of North Carolina ha pubblicato un numero speciale dedicato al “Centenario del Futurismo”.

CONTENTS

13 Federico Luisetti & Luca Somigli, A Century of Futurism: Introduction (download as PDF)

I. The Art of Violence

23 Günter Berghaus, Violence, War, Revolution: Marinetti’s Concept of a Futurist Cleanser for the World

44 Appendix I: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, La necessità e bellezza della violenza. Edited by Günter Berghaus

64 Appendix II: “Rassegna stampa”. Edited by Günter Berghaus

73 Leonardo Tondelli, La fissazione al trauma: Marinetti tra mito, mimesi e memoria

85 Simona Cigliana, Diritto di uccidere. Su un romanzo dimenticato di Bruno Corra e sull’ipotesi di un suicidio letterario

103 Lucia Re, Maria Ginanni vs. F. T. Marinetti: Women, Speed, and War in Futurist Italy

II. Affected Bodies

125 Silvia Contarini, Guerre maschili / guerre femminili: corpi e corpus futuristi in azione / trasformazione

139 Enrico Cesaretti, Dangerous Appetites: Sex and the Inorganic in F.T. Marinetti’s Erotic Short Stories

157 Timothy Campbell, Vital Matters: Sovereignty, Milieu, and the Animal in Futurism’s Founding Manifesto

175 Paola Sica, Regenerating Life and Art: Futurism, Florentine Women, Irma Valeria

187 Eugenia Paulicelli, Fashion and Futurism: Performing Dress

III. Hard and Soft Machines

209 Samuele F. S. Pardini, Before the Future/ists, or, the Rise and Fall of the Machine: Luigi Barzini’s La metà del mondo vista da un’automobile. Da Pechino a Parigi in 60 giorni

225 Michael Syrimis, Mechanical Giants, Futurist Laughs: From Gazurmah to Deed’s Bully

243 Paolo Valesio, La “macchina morbida” di Marinetti

263 Roberto Terrosi, Futurismo e postumano

275 Alessio Lerro, Tecnologia negativa: Marinetti e la rappresentazione del sublime moderno

IV. The Life and Death of Matter

295 Fausto Curi, Marinetti, il soggetto, la materia

309 Patrizio Ceccagnoli, “Necrofilia” e prosopopea della materia: la personificazione in Marinetti

333 Arndt Niebisch, Cruel Media. On F. T. Marinetti’s Media Aesthetics

349 Janaya S. Lasker-Ferretti, Appropriating the Abstract: Benedetta’s Le forze umane and Mondrian’s Neoplasticism

369 Giovanni Lista, Il neofuturismo di Giacomo Balla

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Concierto futurista: He visto volar. Tríptico para Boccioni. Unica función

April 28, 2010
7-9pm
Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires
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Entrada libre. Cupos limitados

En ocasión de la exhibición El Universo Futurista. 1909 – 1936, y como parte de las actividades paralelas que desarrolla Proa para documentar el alcance que tuvo el Futurismo Italiano en diversas disciplinas artísticas, el concierto de Giancarlo Schiaffini da cuenta de la importancia que tuvo en la composición musical la revolución del Ruidismo de Luigi Russolo.

Inspirándose en la vida y la obra del artista Umberto Boccioni, Schiaffini compone He visto volar, acompañado por la voz de Silvia Schiavoni. La destacada pieza musical es una síntesis de diversos lenguajes en diálogo: escritura, imágenes, voces y la ejecución en vivo de ambos intérpretes. Las imágenes son antiguas fotos, pinturas y fragmentos de películas que reflejan los pensamientos de movimiento-acción presentes en la obra de Boccioni.

El concierto futurista He visto volar es el primero de una serie de eventos paralelos que tienen lugar en Fundación Proa en el marco de la exposición El Universo Futurista, 1909 – 1936. A partir de mayo, comienza el ciclo de Cine Futurista y las visitas guiadas por especialistas.

Los intérpretes

Giancarlo Schiaffini (Roma, 1942) es compositor, trombonista y tubista. Se dedica a la música contemporánea, jazz e improvisación, y colaboró con músicos como John Cage, Karole Armitage, Luigi Nono y Giacinto Scelsi en diversas obras.

Organización y producción:

Instituto Italiano de Cultura de Buenos Aires

Informes y reservas auditorio@proa.org / [54 11] 4104 1000

___________________________________________________

La Aventura Futurista, 2010

Duration: 28 minutes
Research: Rodrigo Alonso
Edition: Santiago Recart and Fundación Proa

La Aventura Futurista  (English subtitles)  includes images and recordings from artists such as Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Futurist (Battaglia, 1924) and Carmelo Bene (Contra Passat Venezia, 1910), and excerpts from the film Thaïs, by Anton Giulio Bragaglia ( 1916).

The video provides a comprehensive overview  in 28 minutes and is displayed continuously on the Fundación Proa Auditorium and can be seen before the visit or after finishing a tour of the rooms.

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“The main enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism.” — Evo Morales

Bolivian  Climate Conference Draws Thousands

See live coverage of Cochabamba here–until it’s over on Earth Day, April 22nd

Bolivian President Evo Morales launched the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth on Tuesday, welcoming over 10,000 people from 135 countries and dozens of social organizations to what he declared to be an alternative to the United Nations climate talks.

In a moving multicultural ceremony in a stadium outside Cochabamba, amautas — indigenous cultural leaders — performed an official opening ceremony offering a gift to mother earth “Pachamama”.

A written goal of the conference is “to save the planet,” and Morales, who opposed the U.S.-backed Copenhagen Accord during the last international climate conference, was clear about where he’d like to start.”

By Claudia Lopez Pardo, from Solveclimate.com

I wrote these notes while Evo Morales was speaking live last evening.  These quotes were from his translated remarks.

“The main enemy of Mother Earth is capitalism.”
“Capitalism proposes unlimited growth.   2.8 billion people are existing on less than $2 a day.
Capitalism makes everything into commodities.  Water traditional cultures, human genome, if we don’t change the capitalism system then any measures that we do adapt will have limited scope.

There can only be harmony with nature if there is equality amongst humans themselves.

We need a new economic system here which respects the rights of humans and of nature.

Developing countries do need to improve but they in no way can follow the path of developed countries….”

More information can be found on OneClimate.net and the summit’s official site here.

What was Morales talking about?  Capitalism is destroying the earth in a very simple way — it promotes unlimited growth, which promotes consumer growth, product growth and waste growth.  Any economic system that relies on growth will eventually deplete the resources of the planet, which is now holding about 7 billion people and will hold 9 billion in 10-20 years.

It means that the rich get richer, as we are seeing now, and the poor get poorer, which we are also seeing.  Capitalism sets up a system where the poor must rely on charity to survive.   It’s not sustainable.

Here is another viewpoint:

Prensa Latina via Links International Journal of Socialist Revewal

April 20, 2010—Cochabamba, Bolivia — Bolivia’s President Evo Morales Ayma condemned the capitalist system in the opening session of the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth today.

Morales, speaking at the April 20 conference inauguration, started his speech with a slogan, “Planet or death, we shall overcome.”

He said that harmony with nature could not exist while 1 per cent of the world’s population concentrates more than 50 per cent of the world’s riches. Capitalism is the main enemy of the Earth, only looking for profits, [...]

Thayaht e Madame Vionnet: tra sperimentazione e alta moda

May 14-16, 2010
Lucca Elegance | Lucca

more info

I bozzetti di Thayaht a “Lucca Elegance”

“Thayaht e Madame Vionnet: tra sperimentazione e alta moda” è il titolo dell’esposizione focalizzata su Ernesto Michahelles, meglio noto come Thayaht, artista divenuto famoso fra gli anni Venti e gli anni Cinquanta del secolo scorso. La mostra, allestita all’interno del complesso monumentale del “Real Collegio” e realizzata in collaborazione con la Galleria d’Arte Bacci di Capaci di Lucca, raccoglie alcuni dei modelli realizzati dall’artista toscano per la casa di moda francese di Madaleine Vionnet, una delle più innovative dell’epoca.

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Gino Severini (1883-1966)

Composizione
signed ‘G. Severini’ (lower right)
pastel, brush and India ink and pencil on toned paper laid down on board
18 1/8 x 13½ in. (46 x 34.3 cm.)
Drawn circa 1949

Christie’s Sale 2312
Impressionist/Modern Works on Paper Featuring Property from the Collection of Mrs Sidney F. Brody

May 5, 2010
New York, Rockefeller Plaza
Estimate: $15,000 – $20,000

Provenance

O’Hana Gallery, London.
Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, Milan, 30 May 1995, lot 302.
Anon. (acquired at the above sale); sale, Christie’s, Milan, 26 May 2008, lot 150.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Lot Notes: Romana Severini Brunori has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

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Everything is wonderful, especially for Big Oil

President Obama spoke to a group at the White House on Earth Day. He was optimistic, as he usually is. According to Politico, who had a reporter  there, President Obama spent about 20 minutes at the private Rose Garden reception marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, but he only spoke for a few minutes.

Among those spotted by the pool reporter in what POTUS called a “good-looking crowd” of about 200: Energy Sec. Steven Chu, Labor Sec. Hilda Solis, HUD Sec. Shaun Donovan, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Reps. Ed Markey (D-MA), Dale Kildee (D-MI) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Plus actress Sigourney Weaver. !  [Was James Cameron around too?]

Not in attendance were the three senators writing the climate change bill expected to be introduced Monday: Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Kerry (D-MA).

Maybe because the bill, to be introduced next Monday, is not a climate change bill.  It’s a fossil fuel giveaway bill.  And it is going to be even weaker than the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the Congress already!   Here is what Mother Jones has found out about this mysterious bill that no one has seen yet:

In the teleconference, [on Thursday April 22] organized by the We Can Lead coalition, Sen. Kerry outlined specific details from the bill that have not previously been publicly available. Here’s a rundown:

The bill would remove the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act, and the states’ authority to set tougher emissions standards than the federal government.
There will be no fee—or “gas tax”—on transportation fuels. Instead, oil companies would also be required to obtain pollution permits but will not trade them on the market like other polluters. How this would work is not yet clear.
Agriculture would be entirely exempt from the cap on carbon emissions.   [holy cow that's stupid]
Manufacturers would not be included under a cap on greenhouse gases until 2016. [also weird and wrong]
The bill would provide government-backed loan guarantees for the construction of 12 new nuclear power plants.
It will contain at least $10 billion to develop technologies to capture and store emissions from coal-fired power plants.
There will be new financial incentives for natural gas. [a fossil fuel that emits CO2]

The bill would place an upper and lower limit on the price of pollution permits, known as a hard price collar. Businesses like this idea because it ensures a stable price on carbon. Environmental advocates don’t like the idea because if the ceiling is set too low, industry will have no financial incentive to move to cleaner forms of energy.
The energy bill passed by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year will be adopted in full, which has sparked concerns among environmentalists for its handouts to nuclear and fossil fuel interests.

<p [...]

Happy Earth Day — today is Earth Day’s 40th anniversary.  Go to earthday.org to look up Earth Week events, if you haven’t already.

It will not be a really “Happy” Earth day as long as oil rigs remain in our oceans and we continue to burn coal and use fossil fuels.  See the photo below?  Not happy.  In fact, a disaster.

On Earth Day, Americans are reminded that they live on a planet that contains living things besides themselves that deserve protection.    It’s a shock to be reminded of this, for some.  Americans have gotten very divorced from nature, especially those that live in large cities.  What is our government doing for the Earth besides Obama’s recent announcements of new offshore drilling and continuing the use of coal?

Carol Browner, the director of the White House Office on energy and climate change, recently told Politico that if Congress doesn’t act to regulate greenhouse gases and curb carbon emissions, the White House will.  Browner said, “We’re not going to ignore a Supreme Court decision” that gives the EPA the authority to treat greenhouse gases as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.  “We take the Court’s decision very, very seriously,” said Browner.  In other words, if cap and trade fails in Congress, (and it probably will) then the EPA will go ahead and put caps on carbon dioxide itself.  Browner gave a long interview to Politico and a small excerpt is on the end of this post with a link to the whole thing.  It’s hard to tell if she is serious about climate change or not.   She spends a lot of  time concerned with protecting business.

Here is Earth Day information  from True Majority.

“Forty years ago today, 20 million Americans took to the streets as part of the first Earth Day and launched the modern environmental movement.   That day in 1970 helped drive Congress to pass major regulations that remain the backbone of U.S. environmental law — the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and more.

Four decades later, we need another groundswell of support to push lawmakers to address the biggest challenge now facing the Earth and humanity: climate change.  Congress is debating major [weak and bad] legislation right now. But the bill has stalled in the Senate and needs a big, public push if it’s going to help solve the climate crisis.

This bill is not going to be effective in stopping climate change, and might do more harm than good, so it does not deserve a push.   Senator Maria Cantwell’s bill would be somewhat better than what John Kerry is putting together.   In any case, I would not recommend fighting for a cap and trade bill that allows for the use of coal and offshore drilling, especially not after the explosion and disaster on an oil rig over the last two days.  Today the entire oil rig sank, and this proves to be yet another fossil fuel environmental disaster. Today cable TV news [...]

Energie Futuriste- Parma 1911-1924

April 15 – May 2, 2010
Palazzetto Eucherio Sanvitale – Parma

Press Release

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Fear-mongers are still pushing the idea that the world is going to end in 2012 because the Mayans predicted it, which they certainly did not do. If anything, 2012 might be interpreted as predicting a positive new era. Mayans certainly did not predict the end of the world, but that is being sold to people, literally as something to buy. I don’t at all like it when people take advantage of other people by scaring them with baseless claims about Planet X and pole shifts, The End Times, Armageddon, etc. Science is one thing; false claims of predictions are something else entirely. It’s true that the earth might be be in the path of a giant asteroid some day, but if so, living in an underground “city” for a year isn’t going to save people for centuries to come.

It’s possible that a few people could survive in something like this for a year, but a cave might work just as well. This new underground bunker is being sold as something to protect people, mainly the rich, who are the only people who can afford it.

It isn’t built yet and as you can see by this rudimentary video, it’s being planned to look like a big office complex in Second Life. People are already reserving the right to live in these “pods”. This is from the website of the company building these, Vivos.  Supposedly, the entire network of ‘luxury bunkers’ will house 3,400 people,  and is being built by timeshare developer Robert Vicino. There is a long list of what these people are afraid might happen:

The soil of the Earth itself can provide the best shelter for most catastrophes including a pole shift, super volcano eruptions, solar flares, earthquakes, tsunamis, and asteroids, as well as potential for many more manmade devastations such as nuclear bombs, bio terrorism, chemical warfare, and even the return of Planet X (known as Niburu or Nemisis) and the solar disturbances it will cause.

The Vivos complexes will be deep underground, airtight, fully self-contained shelters designed to survive virtually any catastrophe, or threat scenario including natural disasters, a nuclear blast, chemical and biological weapons, or even social anarchy. Each self contained shelter complex will comfortably accommodate a community of 172 – 200 people, in spacious quarters, for up to 1 year of autonomous survival to ride out the potential events.  Every detail has been considered and planned for.  Members need to only arrive before the [...]

Volcanic eruptions can lead to temporary global cooling.  The Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 led to slight global cooling for years.  With the Iceland volcano (smaller than Mt. Pinatubo) continuing to disrupt the atmosphere, and will we be in for some global cooling effect from the volcano?  Probably not, say most scientists– tentatively.  It depends on how long the volcano erupts, and whether another one will join it.  The effects of Pinatubo, according to NASA:

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the Philippines June 15, 1991, an estimated 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide and ash particles blasted more than 12 miles (20 km) high into the atmosphere. . . . Large-scale volcanic activity may last only a few days, but the massive outpouring of gases and ash can influence climate patterns for years. Sulfuric gases convert to sulfate aerosols, sub-micron droplets containing about 75 percent sulfuric acid. Following eruptions, these aerosol particles can linger as long as three to four years in the stratosphere.

According to USAToday, Mount Pinatubo pumped ash for two days in 1991, and spewed it 70,000 feet into the stratosphere. This dropped temperatures worldwide about four degrees for about a year.

“When volcanic ash reaches the stratosphere, it remains for a long time,” reports Hufford. “The ash becomes a very effective block of the incoming solar radiation, thus cooling the atmosphere’s temperatures.”

Notice the temperatures dropping worldwide for only a year. That’s not nearly enough to offset global warming. So it’s hard to conceive of how much sulfur dioxide would need to be “sprayed” into the air via some global geoengineering method to slow down climate change for any appreciable length of time.

Global cooling could happen temporarily happens if the Iceland volcano Katla blows.

The potential eruption of Iceland’s volcano Katla would likely send the world, including the USA, into an extended deep freeze.

“When Katla went off in the 1700s, the USA suffered a very cold winter,” says Gary Hufford, a scientist with the Alaska Region of the National Weather Service. “To the point, the Mississippi River froze just north of New Orleans and the East Coast, especially New England, had an extremely cold winter.

“Depending on a new eruption, Katla could cause some serious weather changes.”

From Scientific American:

OSLO – A thaw of ice caps in coming decades caused by climate change may trigger more volcanic eruptions by removing a vast weight and freeing magma from deep below ground, research suggests.

While that’s not the case with Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier, which is too small and too light to affect local geology, other volcanoes on the island nation are seen as vulnerable.

“Our work suggests that eventually there will be either somewhat larger eruptions or more frequent eruptions in Iceland in coming [...]