About Carole

Artist, writer, PhD researcher and organic gardener. Twitter @carolekirk

Growth

growth n

1. the process or act of growing, esp in organisms following assimilation of food
2. an increase in size, number, significance, etc.
3. something grown or growing
4. a stage of development
5. any abnormal tissue, such as a tumour
(taken from Collins English Dictionary, via thefreedictionary.com)

fungal growth on a tree

“To say that a stable no-growth economy is impossible simply shows the poverty of our imagination.” Rod Dixon from Red Ladder Theatre Company shares his views on the necessity for the left to find sustainable alternatives to ‘growth’.

And theatre production Ten Billion directed by Katie Mitchell is a sell out, delivering a “dramatic warning about the planet’s future” – but will people listen?

It seems that theatre can deliver personal growth in terms of development of understanding, without requiring the production of more ‘material stuff’.  Perhaps our new economic model should involve more theatre?

Edit (11/10/12): Listening to Becs Andrews talking about her practice of Theatre Design this week, she highlighted that actually there is an enormous amount of waste in Theatre Design.  Despite her best efforts to recycle materials through resource centres, in reality the majority is skipped after each performance.  In her talk, she was mulling over whether digital sets would reduce this waste.  Although, as she pointed out, there is also waste from digital technologies – much of which is toxic – which is simply shipped and dealt with overseas.  So – does this leave us with the travelling theatre company, who keep their props in a bicycle trailer and re-use them?

 

Conjoined twins

I’m currently looking at a project that I’m calling ‘Conjoined’, and I stumbled across this video of two living conjoined twins.  I found it emotional, and full of questions about identity (for them, it’s not about ‘one person or two’ – they say just see us as we are).  It also raises questions about cognition, and seems relevant to what I’m thinking about right now – even though I don’t know exactly how yet.

Twittering

Gratuitious picture of baby ducks

I’ve been musing recently on Twitter, thinking of it as a sort of scrap book.  I get these randomly juxtaposed fragments of thoughts, observations, and images from widely disparate sources.  One minute I’m furious as some political activist has successfully managed to pull my chain; the next minute I’m reading 50 tips for controlling slugs.  I’m mulling over how this is shaping my thoughts and feelings, providing snippets of creative ideas.   What is the role of social media in creative processes and creative reflection?  Now, someone must have explored that one.

While I was looking for an image for this post, I found this article on ways that researchers can use Twitter.   Also found that you can use @HideTag to hide #tag chat from followers.