Latest thinking

RETHINK Contemporary Art & Climate Change

Blog

10 Dec 2009

Study for Longing/Seeing by Kerstin Ergenzinger from RSA Arts & Ecology on Vimeo.

Climate change - excuse my ignorance

Blog

02 Dec 2009

Matthew Taylor

I have been getting so little response to my posts just recently that I thought I would write one that is bound to elicit a loud response (while I will also be pondering whether it is time to hang up my blogging boots).

Steve Waters' Contingency Plan and the Rubik's Cube of climate change

Blog

12 Nov 2009

Resilience, one of the two plays that form The Contingency Plan by Steve Waters

A Community Response to Climate Change?

Blog

16 Oct 2009

Jonathan Rowson

RSA thursdays fill a gap in our popular imagination of the working week, sharing the honour with manic mondays, pancake tuesdays, ash wednesdays and crunchy -be-thankful fridays. One of the best things about working here is ambling into an RSA Thursday event at lunchtime and having your mind informed, amused and expanded.

Renewable energy in the South West - a role for the RSA?

Blog

12 Oct 2009

Matthew Taylor

The independent Committee on Climate Change reports that the Government is a long way from having any credible account of how it is going to reach its target of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. This comes after Professor David MacKay, the Government’s Chief Energy Scientist pointed out last week that the UK exports up to half its energy use through its reliance on imported industrial goods. Meanwhile hardly a week seems to pass without more bad news about the impact of climate change.

Bill McKibben on the "torrent of art" about climate change

Blog

04 Sep 2009

Bill McKibben wrote recently on Grist.org about how, over the last few years, art has been shouting increasingly stridently about climate:

10:10 is great but what has really changed?

Blog

01 Sep 2009

Matthew Taylor

I’m delighted to say that the RSA has today signed up to 10:10, the new initiative to persuade organisations and individuals to cut their use of energy. The campaign, backed by a sparkling array of celebrities. is the brainchild of Franny Armstrong who was behind the film Age of Stupid which we launched here at the RSA.

Suffolk against the state

Blog

15 Jul 2009

Matthew Taylor

Suffolk County Council worked me hard last night. I wasn’t sure whether to give my speech about the pro-social council or do my cultural theory experiment, so I asked the audience and they told me to do both! An hour and half later I made my exhausted way back to Ipswich station.

Green policies, green papers and why it's worth listening to a dying Government

Blog

14 Jul 2009

Matthew Taylor

There are a number of reasons why it is hard for the Government to have its ideas taken seriously. It is unpopular, Gordon Brown is communicatively challenged, and its future policy plans are seen as irrelevant given it is unlikely to be in a position to enact them.