Date: Thursday 28 July
Time: 7pm
Available at:
This online discussion is free to attend and you do not need to register in advance
In the third of our series of discussions on the subject of climate change and sustainability, we’re asking the question:
Is streaming music always the greener option?
Due to live events being put on pause throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many event organisers and artists turned to digital methods of creating and sharing their art. This is a timely shift in approach during this period of global climate crisis, when we’re often told that digital is better for our carbon footprint – but is this definitely the case?
Panellists:
Laura Bowler
A Composer and Vocalist, Laura’s most recent works include Houses Slide, an off-grid work for London Sinfonietta powered by bicycles, as well as Distance, which was performed live on stage in London with Vocalist Juliet Fraser with the Talea Ensemble from their studio in New York.
Des Agyekumhene
Co-founder of world leading Web3 creative agency Soga World, Des finds himself in the unique position of being an academic undertaking doctoral legal research at the University of Edinburgh and a blockchain enthusiast working in the music business. He has committed himself to leveraging his experiences to support artists to engage with fans in today’s Web3 landscape. Soga World held the first NFT ticketed music event in the UK, as well as the first festivals NFTs (before Coachella) where they partnered with Strawberries and Creem festival to tokenise festival experiences for fans.
Catherine Baxendale
Catherine Baxendale is the Executive Producer for Invisible Flock, an award-winning interactive arts studio based at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and The Hub at Wellcome Collection, operating at the intersection of art and technology. Invisible Flock explore the environmental crisis in all its forms and dedicate their focus to exploring this issue through digital art practices.
Richard Phillips
Richard joined Julie’s Bicycle in January 2022 as a Climate Change and Sustainability Specialist for Music. Previously, Richard worked as a Sustainability Consultant delivering impactful projects in the areas of community investment, environment and strategy for multinational companies across a range of sectors. He also has in-house experience within the retail industry, focusing on environmental charity partnerships and emissions reduction in the supply chain through circular economy initiatives and research into sustainable materials.
Richard began his journey in sustainability studying human responses to environmental risk as part of his BA in Geography at the University of Cambridge. He is motivated by collaborative action on the climate crisis and unlocking the potential of the creative industries to inspire societal change.
About the Current Climate:
Earlier this year, we launched The Current Climate, a new season of creative work focusing on climate change and sustainability in the music industry. Through a range of discussions, performances, workshops and commissioned projects that ask questions about the challenges we face in making culture greener, we’ll be inviting our community to explore our relationship with the environment.
The Current Climate will run throughout our 2022 and 2023 festival programmes, and will also be a prominent feature of our year-round activity. These events will be collaborative and explorative by design; we’re not claiming to be an authority on environmental sustainability, and we’re not aiming to settle a conversation. Instead, we want to bring in voices, identify issues, ask questions and share ideas with artists, audiences and other organisations. Through this season of work, we’ll imagine what change in the music industry might look, and sound, like.
This event is part of the Kirklees Year of Music 2023 Music Industry Programme.