Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 219 – Artists Interpret Climate Change

Still from “Beekeeping for All” by Myfanwy MacLeod and Janna Levitt at the Royal Ontario Museum January 26 2014

On January 26, Special K and I were scheduled to participate in an event at the Royal Ontario Museum called Carbon 14 – A Day of Dialogue – The Changing Arctic Landscape.  The Arctic government and policy makers are very concerned about the changes they anticpate in the arctic latitudes and have seen over the last several generations.  As a prelude to this, I visited the exhibit Climate is Culture at the museum where I viewed installations inspired by climate change.  My podcast today is a soundscape of my visit to that exhibit.

0-1:09 – Intro

1:09-5:01 –  What is the Polar Vortex?  Andrew Freedman on PBS Newshour from Climate Central

5:01 – 23:54 – Soundscene at the Climate is Culture exhibit

23:54 – 29:30 – Heidi Cullen’s Senate Testimony on Climate Science

29:30 – 31:32 – Outro

Download at:  Hotfrm 219 (59 mb 31:32)

Listen here directly:

Still from “Beekeeping for All” by Myfanwy MacLeod and Janna Levitt at the Royal Ontario Museum January 26 2014

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Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 211 – I End With the Bees

The Black Solitary Bee that Sarah Found

In my fourth and final installment of sound and visual art and artists I recorded at the Toronto Electro-Acoustic Symposium this summer, I end with the bees.   After-all  I started the series with bees for Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters number 208.  In this show I learn a lot.  For example – that there are at least 800 varieties of bees in Canada.  Bees evolved from wasps.   And so did ants.  Many of these are solitary bees.  There are many varieties of solitary bees.  These are bees that do not live in hives, but instead burrow into discarded dead stalks and wood. They are not the least bit interested in us, just collecting pollen and nurturing their young to maturity.  I catch up with Sarah Peebles and learn all about one of her prototype  Audio Bee Booths – a habitat she created for solitary bees.   (In the background of this soundscene/interview you can also hear the sound of children playing and airplanes flying overhead.)

One Side of the Audio Bee Booth 2010 Prototype

Listen up:

Or right-click to download:  HotFRM 211 (75mb 40:00)

Equipment used:  Apex 415 for intro.  Zoom H2 and Roland – CS-10EM – Binaural Microphones/Earphones for soundscape and interview.

Another View of Sarah’s Solitary Black Bee

Hot Fossils and Rebel Matters 208 – Let’s Begin With Bees

(Photograph by Ken Duret) http://kenduret.com/

This show is the first in a series of soundscapes and interviews conducted during the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium this year.

On my way to view the sound installations at the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium  on a hot humid night in August,  I found myself in conversation with a man named  John Board.  Now you may know who John Board is, but I didn’t.  If you can look him up on IMDB, you’ll see he’s been working in the film industry, primarily as an assistant director,  for more than 40 years.  Among the many films he’s worked are  Videodrome, The Fly, Dead Ringers and other  David Cronenberg movies.    In 2010 John was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.   An advocate of homeopathy, he recently started using bees as part of his cancer treatement.  Last spring (2012), he won a $1000 prize from pUNK Films to document his story.    In this spontaneous interview with me, he tells me more.

Links:

The Hollywood Survival Kit

pUNK Films.ca Feature Film Challenge

John Board on IMDB

Me, The Bees and Cancer

Homeopathy World Community

Listen to the show:

Or right click to Download HotFRM 208 (21mb 11m23sec)