Peoples Republic of South Devon

On the Flipside

posted by Cptn

The Flipside Film Festival aims to turn the world on its head and shove a camera in its face, and those intrepid bunch at D+CFilm caught up with the festival’s best boy Dan Paolantonio to uncover the motivation behind the alternative festival.

April 30th, 2008

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Art course discount

posted by Cptn

Those good people at Schumacher College, Dartington, have offered citizens of the republic a 20 per cent discount on its Creating Nature: Art in the Landscape course, if they mention the People’s Republic of South Devon when they book.

The course ‘will explore unique ways to work within the landscape to create works of art that help our understanding and protection of nature and our enjoyment of art’.

The teachers on the course are pretty cool too.

Susan Derges is a photographer. She has created a major commission for the Eden Project’s new Education Resource Centre in Cornwall and has exhibited her work around the world.

Lynne Hull has pioneered “trans-species” art, creating sculpture installations as wildlife habitat enhancement and eco-atonement for human impact. She has worked in the American West and eight other countries with a variety of wildlife agencies.

James Marriott is a writer, artist, activist and naturalist. He is a co-director of PLATFORM, which since 1983 has brought together artists and activists to create projects and campaigns that help the struggle for ecological & social justice.

Satish Kumar, programme director at the college and narrator of the BBC 2 programme Earth Pilgrim told the PRSD: “The wondrous, awesome beauty of the natural world is both the artist’s muse and the artist’s toolkit. As humans we are inherently creative, and on this course we look to nature and learn by Divine example how to design intelligently and create something of intrinsic beauty.”

April 30th, 2008

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Swing low

posted by Cptn

Clear out your diaries for a week and a bit of smooth, silky, sultry songs in (metaphorically) smokey waterside venues. Yes, the first International Barbican Jazz and Blues Festival is set to swagger its way around the quay, daddy-o.

Opening the shindig of international artists, some of whom are home-grown, is Plymouth’s First Lady of Jazz Louise Parker. She’ll swing the event into action at 1pm on Saturday May 3, at The Parasols - and it’s free. What a way to start the bank holiday weekened.

The whole event has been nurtured into life by the soul of the party herself Mama Tokus, who will also play a supporting role to gentleman of jazz Earl Okin, on Thursday May 8, at the Barbican Theatre, kick-off, 8pm (£10).

But this is just the tip of the iceberg of cool composers and toe-tapping tunes.

Check out the Barbican International Jazz and Blues Festival website for more.

April 30th, 2008

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Youth Parliament lords it

posted by Cptn

The voice of youth will be heard in the House of Lords on Friday May 2, when the 300 members of the Youth Parliament descend on the House of Lords chamber to kick around, mull over, muse and cogitate the issues which are facing young people.

The three Devon members, Alex White, 15, from Chumleigh; Annalisa Palmer, 14, from Kingsbridge and Brittany Munday, 14, from Exmouth, will be there as the six debating issues

- the abolition of university tuition fees;
- a national public transport concession card for young people under 18;
- the creation of one single age at which young people are deemed an adult;
- lowering the voting age to 16; the Your Future, Your World, Your Fight – recycling / environment campaign;
- and ensuring fair and accurate representation of young people in the media

are whittled down to the three campaigning issues.

Alex White, UK Youth Parliament Member for North, West Devon and Torridge, told the PRSD: “I am extremely excited about being invited to the House of Lords with the youth parliament.

“It is the first time we will be able to debate in the House of Lords. We will be selecting on our three aims for the year. We will have a debate and then vote on the issues we would like to campaign on for the year.

“This is our opportunity to show everybody that we take politics seriously and want to have an active part in decisions that affect our lives. I hope this is a sign of things to come and perhaps one day we will get the opportunity to sit in the House of Commons.”

April 29th, 2008

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Looking at planet Earth

posted by Cptn

Ba-arp, barp-barp. This is planet Earth.

If you’re keen to know more about this hunk of rock we call Earth, you should shuffle off to one of campuses of the University of Exeter’s Geography Department, which is celebrating the United Nation’s International Year of Planet Earth with a series of free evening lectures on the past, present and future of Earth.

“There’s a growing sense that science should be doing more to explain the world around us,” co-organizer professor Chris Turney of the university Geography department told the PRSD. “In this lecture series, we will be exploring the dim and distant past and looking towards the possibilities for the future. We’re really looking forward to sharing our passion with local people.”

The events spin into action on Thursday 1 May on the University of Exeter’s Tremough Campus, Penryn where Dr Richard Jones will take us to ancient China to reveal why human impact on the environment may not be such a new phenomenon after all.

Dr Jones told us: “Very little is known about the long-term effects of human activity on the environment. Our research shows that human impact on the environment can be traced back thousands of years. This is a long-term research project for me and we are just beginning to find some of the answers, but I am excited to have the opportunity to share what I have discovered so far with local people at Tremough.”

List of events
Thursday 1 May, 6.30pm Tremough Campus, Penryn (Lecture Theatre A)
Richard Jones: Farming, Floods and Dragons - Human impact in Shangri-La over the last 10,000 years

Thursday 29 May, 6.30pm Streatham Campus, Exeter (Moot Room)
Chris Fogwill: Antarctica, an isolated continent? Some lessons from the past

Thursday 26 June, 6.30pm Tremough Campus, Penryn (Lecture Theatre A)
Larissa Naylor: Rock coasts on the move: effects of the March 2008 storms

Thursday 31 July, 6.30pm Streatham Campus, Exeter (Moot Room)
Tim Quine: Use and abuse of land resources

Thursday 28 August, 6.30pm Tremough Campus, Penryn (Lecture Theatre A)
Bridget Woodman: Energy Policy for a Changing Climate

Thursday 25 September, 6.30pm Streatham Campus, Exeter (Moot Room)
Stewart Barr: ‘Doing Your Bit’. Can we change our lifestyles to help the Planet?

Thursday 30 October, 6.30pm Tremough Campus, Penryn (Lecture Theatre A)
Jasper Knight Climate Change and Sandy Coastlines

Thursday 27 November, 6.30pm Streatham Campus, Exeter (Moot Room)
Chris Turney: Ice, Mud and Blood: Lessons from Climates Past

Thursday 11 December, 6.30pm Tremough Campus, Penryn (Lecture Theatre A)
Chris Caseldine: Iceland - living on the margin

April 29th, 2008

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Sally Waterman (art review)

- The Waste Land: PhD Work in Progress (Section II Game), Viewpoint Gallery, PCAD, until May 3
posted by Cptn

It’s fitting that a show inspired by The Waste Land, TS Eliot’s 1922 poem about how bad everything is, should open in April, what with it being the cruellest month, an’ all.

But Sally Waterman’s personal interpretation of the text that’s on show at the Viewpoint Gallery, PCAD, focuses on part two of the poem, the Game of Chess. And Waterman picks up on the strategic battle of the sexes.

This is the second part of Waterman’s journey through the whole of The Waste Land, and the work is due for completion in 2010. Each section of the five part poem is intended to sit within a gallery and take the viewer on an emotional journey through the piece, plenty of which are based on the artist’s visualisation of past traumatic experiences.

It’s a fair old chunk to bite off; Eliot’s poem is renowned for its uncompromising allusions, oblique references and rich imagery. Waterman’s use of multi-media offers an opportunity to reflect that, but still she keeps her use of it quite tight: there are just four photographs, and four monitors with one film on a loop, other looped film and a soundtrack. All in all, it’s quite sparse.

Waterman’s Game slips straight to the miscommunication between the couple, with Hushing the Room Enclosed, where the spoken soundtrack echoes parts of the one-sided conversation (’Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.) Four photographs fill in the rest (’What is that noise?/ The wind under the door.’)

Opposite the photographs, four monitors swirl the looped film Quartet Manoeuvres, where a crumbling wall, cockles, a church ceiling and gin bottles pursue each other on the screens.

Between these parts of the work, almost acting as arbiter, is the larger video installation In The Cage where “the non-communication between the poem’s speakers is conceptually interpreted as a series of gestures that are ‘acted out’ by Waterman, entrapped between two pillars”.

It’s the personal aspects of this piece that work most strongly. The Quartet Manoeuvres film feels personal to the artist but intangibly familiar to the viewer. The poem itself is at its most melancholy when external viewers offer their pub-fuelled commentary on a relationship. Maybe that’s something we should all remember (And still she cried, and still the world pursues,/ ‘Jug Jug’ to dirty ears.)

Sally Waterman will hold a public talk about her work at PCAD, Studio Theatre on Wednesday April 30.

April 28th, 2008

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Keenly greenly

posted by Cptn

Are you Keen to be Green? Then pop along to a free event at the Riviera International Conference Centre in Torquay today.

The do is part of the tourism industry’s attempt to square the circle of people wanting green holidays while keeping the spa bath, flat screen tv and patio heaters.

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of South West Tourism, told the PRSD: “With more green certified tourism businesses than any other region in the UK, the South West is already making good progress. However, both as a destination and as individual businesses, we need to get better at communicating this to visitors - telling them what we’ve done and motivating them to join in.”

And who will this motivation come from on the day? Well, Alastair Sawday, the inspiration behind Special Places to Stay, Neil Lewis from Marks and Spencer, on how building ethics into the business can transform how the customer sees you, and Caroline Scarles from the University of Surrey presents the latest national research on how the public feels about greener holidays.

Pop along and see if you can pick up any tips.

April 28th, 2008

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Just the job

posted by Cptn

If Mondays are getting too difficult, maybe it’s time for a change.

Check out our jobs page which features all the latest from ethicaljobs.com, which lately have included an advocacy and campaign monitor for Oxfam based in Ghana, or work for the soil association in Bristol.

And if you’re quick you’ll be able to get your application in for a green workplaces project leader and part-time green workplaces project worker for the South West TUC.

April 28th, 2008

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Yvette Martin (art feature)

- Paintings by Yvette Martin, inspired by light, shadow and confusion, is on at The Horn of Plenty Country House, Tavistock, until May 1
posted by Cptn

Yvette Martin is a bundle of calm energy, especially when dealing with problems. There’s an issue at her Okehampton gallery on the day of our interview. She’s pragmatic, business-like and her main concern is for the work and the artist.

Two of the ceramic works of Paul Devon have been broken. Throughout the day she checks up on the situation and speaks to the artist, who will pick up the pieces and use them to create something new.

It’s a metaphor that could be extended to the Exeter-born artist herself.

Although not often broken (The Rings Project notwithstanding) she has transformed into different beings. Now as proprietor of The Arts Gallery she also deals with Art fashion and is trying to push forward plans for a dance studio/art centre in Okehampton. And her career as a practitioner has seen her shift seats, or change hats. She is an environmental artist after graduating from the Royal College of Art, but she’s also been an arts planner, architect, interior designer, international snow carving team member, and is now developing her painting – she has two earmarked to put in for the Royal Academy summer show.

Not surprisingly a lot of her pictures are of mazes. Her maze paintings have a stark, almost inter-war modernity, with uneasy shadows that are 20 minutes away from being sinister.

“Working in the environment, you come across labyrinths and mazes. They are part of our history, and they are versatile with different meanings and different purposes. And I’m fascinated with the stone circles and crosses on Dartmoor,” says Yvette.

And it’s an abiding interest that manifested itself in her environmental work – a recent commission at Delamore was a twig and branch maze that swirled around one of the lawns. The ability to see through the walls and being forced low by the ceiling adding to the feeling of being trapped while in full view.

The Rings Project, too, was based around a labyrinth. Set in Hatherleigh this was to be a £3 million land art project on seven acres that was to complement the town’s community centre. Despite four years in the planning and a handful of Blue Chip commercial sponsors, the plans fell through, but along the way she become qualified in setting up a social enterprise, adept at IT and won a grant from Community Champions. And February 2003 was awarded a certificate for exceptional achievement for the work.

It also cost her her marriage, and since then, sans husband, she’s built up the successful Arts Gallery, in Okehampton.

She confesses she loves a challenge, but maybe it’s the nurturing of an idea that she enjoys. Plenty of her early environmental work deals with seeds, growth and change. She worked in the Natural History Museum grounds to create Seed Pod, and similar themes spring up in her work in Epping Forest and The Mythic Garden. And her four-month resident in the Forest of Dean was inspired by the seasons.

“When I applied for the residency I had an interview. One of the interviewers asked what I intended to do. After a while I said ‘look, I don’t know until I get there’.”

It was the answer they were after, and that improvising, that adapting, that use of local materials is what excites Yvette.

Her paintings take on different tone and are worked over and over again until she’s happy. And that happiness might include what other people see as mistakes, or don’t see at all.

“People think they know what’s in a painting, but it’s not until they’ve really looked that they can see what’s going on,’ she says.

This includes shadows that aren’t true, a curtain blowing in the wind that is about to knock over a vase, birds dancing, not fighting, and an ‘error’ that pops up in a number of her butterfly paintings.

“Pictures are made up of different parts,” she says. “At first the image appears OK but when you look deeper there are sharp and jagged lines.”

The pictures of the butterflies are a case in point, they are fleeing the display boxes they’d been collected in, their bright colour in contrast to the stark box, and there’s a loss of identity. Essentially hopeful, there’s the idea of being trapped and on display, which is reminiscent of her Delamore maze, and mazes in general.
Flight, too, is a theme. “I hover above them,” she says of her maze pictures. And then there are the pictures of the birds and butterflies, and even the curtains are flapping in the wind.

Yvette has selected two of her maze pictures to be entered into submissions for the Royal Academy summer show.

April 27th, 2008

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In Search of Happiness

posted by Jess Sains

The University of Plymouth is seeking volunteers for a self-help study, ‘Improving Moods’. Over a two week period participants are asked to mark whether or not the mind exercises given in a workbook levitate their mood.

Is it really that easy? Two weeks of pseudo-psychological self-assistance and you to can be happy. If only you could bottle happiness, you’d make a fortune. We all seek it, so much so we miss it when it is here. We seek money, so we’re not in debt, poor and unhappy. We seek someone to love us, and for someone to love us we need nice clothes and a decent haircut.

Happiness, like thinness, televisions, love, or sofas, becomes a commodity. Being happy is good, being happy is success.

The media barrages us with misery. Murder, war, sexual perversion, Boris for London Mayor, plane crashes, Amy Winehouse. Perhaps we are meant to feel better because whatever else at least we are not Amy Winehouse. Plus, we don’t live in London, which is surely a win-win situation for us all. But then, equally, it gives us the view that everything is depressing as well.

But if we can’t buy happiness, where is fulfilment? Inside us or somewhere else? Speaking as someone who works, albeit vaguely, in the field of psychology I always find it difficult to place my own happiness in the hands of someone else. My happiness and sadnesses are completely illogical – a bit of sun or a song can make my heart full, a person not saying thank you when I hold the door for them can bring me down. But then surely making happiness entirely internal is equally as worrying; if I do not let others effect me then I risk becoming a psychopath. But then with empathy comes sadness. The murder victim, the starving child, the limbless bomb victim. To have the good points of others we must accept their sadness, perhaps, also.

Surely life - whether in a capitalistic society - or not is about a gambit of emotions. I myself have had one relationship that made me exceptionally happy at one point and deeply, deeply depressed at the another. My relationship with my football club is the same – the good is good because I have felt the bad, cried the tears. Sad clarifies happy? Defines it? Maybe they are the two sides of a coin; one does not exist without the other.

Is the trick to avoid the extremes of one or the other? The highest high, the lowest low – often the two are coupled together. Perhaps we should all make like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty and smile at the plastic bags that blow in the wind?

April 26th, 2008

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