Sunday, February 08, 2009

Reporting in on Elemental Interactions - WATER

Zach Rukstela, Harley Dubois, David Zetland, Linda Gass, Henry Kaiser and our very own BRAF Executive Director Tomas McCabe

In this, the last of our Elemental Interactions series, our guests spoke on the topic of 'Water'. We brought together an eclectic mix of speakers, artists, scientists, social historians and others from our extended community and beyond. They speakers educated, entertained and enlightened us with facts, figures, history, economy, art and the rock and roll of water!
Our host, Harley Dubois, is a founding member of the Black Rock Arts Foundation and the Burning Man Board. Harley spoke of her personal attraction and experiences with water and then introduced our first speaker.

Our first speaker, a water economist, David Zetland, had lots of information to share with us about how water economics works now and changes that could be made to the water economics system to improve the sharing of water. He emphasized that if we went away with only one idea, it should be that water rationing doesn't work. David proposes a flat cost of water at the very first level of water usage, flat across all users, and then a steep step up in price at various levels above that flat rate, or, if you want more water, YOU SHOULD PAY A LOT MORE FOR IT.

Abendigo Reebs of LeakBird made a podcast of David's talk at BRAF, and if you want more information about David's point of view checkout his aguanomics blog.

Zachary Rukstela artist and "dad" of the Kinetic Steam Works, spoke about his love of all things "steam". Zach's vision includes supporting art like The Steampunk Treehouse and Zach looks forward to supporting artists through the use of steam.

Linda Gass makes art informed by her activist passion. She spoke of her love of nature and backpacking and how it inspires her to create her meticulously create painted silk quilts of waterways. She spoke about the history and practice of water management and how she hopes to use the lure of beauty in her work to encourage people to look at the hard issues confronting us. I especially enjoyed her discussion of the process of creating her quilts.

And then we heard from Henry Kaiser, Diver, Musician, and Cinematographer. He screened Hi-definition footage of diving under ice in the Anartica and he accompanied the footage with incredible music on his guitar. It was a wonderful way to end the evening. If you are interested in seeing more of his underwater photography, Encounters at the end of the World, is coming to the Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco in February as part of an Oscar Documentary Film Festival. We will be there, come check it out. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producerevent/55473?prod_id=12573

We had a large enthusiastic crowd to share this delightful evening, and although it was the end of the Elemental Interaction series we look forward to spending other evening sharing art and all of its impact with you.

Loren Carpenter, Will Roger, Laura Kimpton

Josie Shimke and "Jewel" Sue Bishop

Dana Ullman hanging out with newlyweds, Frillypants and TradeMark G.
To see a few more photos:
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