Are your show tickets swirling in your gas tank? Afrologica editor Anna B Scott, the Doctoradancer, has spent the last week in think tanks considering the impact of the arts on the environment. It ain't always pretty.
Appearances
With gasoline now "cheap" at $3.99 in LA, and actually averaging $4.17 for gas that does not make my car go "are you crazy!" I find myself self-sidelining. I was not really aware why I kept missing shows, or just ignoring certain invites where normally I would make a way to show up for at least a bit of it. You know how your subconscious always shows your behind? Well, as a mother of two, mine went into survival mode, which for me translates as, almost all art consumption has to either serve the three of us, or save their little lives once a week. We are down to community arts experiences and two weekly master dance classes that I take, and one dance class that I give. Weird.I am astonished at the number of magnificent things I just decided I would not see. But yesterday, when I went to put that gas in my tank and realized that since I was waiting for some payments to come through on Monday, I would need to only pt in a 1/4 of a tank, everything slid into place. Awareness found me: I am not going because going costs me before I even buy the ticket. Obviously this has always been the case, but now, it is exceptionally clear. After sitting with this realization, other connections made themselves known. <insert personal art infographic here>
I am reading The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, The Environment and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. This was an assignment given to participants of "Arts and Environmental Dialogue" sponsored by the California Lawyers for the Arts. The event was on April 17. I was added to the guest list on the 16th, so I only deeply read chapter 1 and skimmed the rest. I am now going back over it. I want to invite those of you so moved, to read this with me. Here's why: according to Debra Deets, landscape architect with LA City Dept. of Public Works, there are 400 SQUARE MILES of city here and 8,000 SQUARE MILES of street. If you go and check out the Dance Ninja's interactive map of just dance studios and then the recently released SpaceFinderLa interactive map of performance-centered space, you'll notice that "space" is flung across various locales in LA, with normally significant distance between your audience and your stage or you and your rehearsal space or you and the cool community art event or...We are very quickly about to experience an oil-fueled crisis in the arts. Each time we crank up our gas-fueled car or truck we had some carbon to the air. once we get on the freeway, driving at a clip, we add particulate in the air. When you get close to all the amazing art places downtown and begin to idle your car while you impatiently wait to make the transition from the 10 to the 110, you really dump a lot of carbon on the heads of folks who live in Adams. Are we asking certain neighborhoods to bear the health cost of our art making/consumption? Last night I announced to the kids that they were going to give up chips, beef and juice. These foods are too expensive in more ways than one. I was listening to a radio interview on Pacifica where the speaker talked about water getting exported int he form of grain. Something like every ton of grain has at least 100,000 gallons of water in it?!? What this comes down to is that my kids' diet contributes to water crises in other parts of the state and the nation, but also to the oil crisis, which means it creates an art crisis. Our food consumption creates an art crisis?Our desire to drive to go and see more than one event in a day creates a health crisis?Kicking the Habit or the Can Down the Road?
I am very excited about the new train lines. I do not think they are coming fast enough, but I want them to be safe and well built, so I work on my patience. But when you check out a Metro map of Los Angeles, you'll see that the trains are not really going to do all that much for most of us living here. Trains at grade should go in on Venice, Pico, and Santa Monica Blvds. for their entire lengths. Perhaps we'll see that in the next en years. But right now, we are going to need to make a way to get the art adventurer mobile without feeling like an ecoterrorist (and yeah, that term has been used against people who are working to save the planet, but I think it should be applied to people who keep doing the same ol' thing with their oil, water and food consumption).
With gasoline now "cheap" at $3.99 in LA, and actually averaging $4.17 for gas that does not make my car go "are you crazy!" I find myself self-sidelining. I was not really aware why I kept missing shows, or just ignoring certain invites where normally I would make a way to show up for at least a bit of it. You know how your subconscious always shows your behind? Well, as a mother of two, mine went into survival mode, which for me translates as, almost all art consumption has to either serve the three of us, or save their little lives once a week. We are down to community arts experiences and two weekly master dance classes that I take, and one dance class that I give. Weird.I am astonished at the number of magnificent things I just decided I would not see. But yesterday, when I went to put that gas in my tank and realized that since I was waiting for some payments to come through on Monday, I would need to only pt in a 1/4 of a tank, everything slid into place. Awareness found me: I am not going because going costs me before I even buy the ticket. Obviously this has always been the case, but now, it is exceptionally clear. After sitting with this realization, other connections made themselves known. <insert personal art infographic here>
I am reading The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, The Environment and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. This was an assignment given to participants of "Arts and Environmental Dialogue" sponsored by the California Lawyers for the Arts. The event was on April 17. I was added to the guest list on the 16th, so I only deeply read chapter 1 and skimmed the rest. I am now going back over it. I want to invite those of you so moved, to read this with me. Here's why: according to Debra Deets, landscape architect with LA City Dept. of Public Works, there are 400 SQUARE MILES of city here and 8,000 SQUARE MILES of street. If you go and check out the Dance Ninja's interactive map of just dance studios and then the recently released SpaceFinderLa interactive map of performance-centered space, you'll notice that "space" is flung across various locales in LA, with normally significant distance between your audience and your stage or you and your rehearsal space or you and the cool community art event or...We are very quickly about to experience an oil-fueled crisis in the arts. Each time we crank up our gas-fueled car or truck we had some carbon to the air. once we get on the freeway, driving at a clip, we add particulate in the air. When you get close to all the amazing art places downtown and begin to idle your car while you impatiently wait to make the transition from the 10 to the 110, you really dump a lot of carbon on the heads of folks who live in Adams. Are we asking certain neighborhoods to bear the health cost of our art making/consumption? Last night I announced to the kids that they were going to give up chips, beef and juice. These foods are too expensive in more ways than one. I was listening to a radio interview on Pacifica where the speaker talked about water getting exported int he form of grain. Something like every ton of grain has at least 100,000 gallons of water in it?!? What this comes down to is that my kids' diet contributes to water crises in other parts of the state and the nation, but also to the oil crisis, which means it creates an art crisis. Our food consumption creates an art crisis?Our desire to drive to go and see more than one event in a day creates a health crisis?Kicking the Habit or the Can Down the Road?
I am very excited about the new train lines. I do not think they are coming fast enough, but I want them to be safe and well built, so I work on my patience. But when you check out a Metro map of Los Angeles, you'll see that the trains are not really going to do all that much for most of us living here. Trains at grade should go in on Venice, Pico, and Santa Monica Blvds. for their entire lengths. Perhaps we'll see that in the next en years. But right now, we are going to need to make a way to get the art adventurer mobile without feeling like an ecoterrorist (and yeah, that term has been used against people who are working to save the planet, but I think it should be applied to people who keep doing the same ol' thing with their oil, water and food consumption).
- SuperShuttle for the Arts?
- Dance Van?
- ARtBUS?
- Can we buy carbon offsets along with season tickets?
No comments:
Post a Comment