I was really delighted to hear this week, the winners of the 1minutetosavetheworld Climate Change Film competition and congratulations to all the organisers behind the scenes – the works are now spreading across the internet. I had only entered in the last week so didn’t expect to be placed but more importantly it gave me a very good excuse to make a new piece of work for Copenhagen, which I had been putting on the long finger. Thanks all for writing in and rating my bird film so highly – I was really touched.

The competition had been going since early 2009 so in the end I think 170 films were submitted from around the world. Why I’m really delighted is my favourite was also the judges favourite – My Paper Boat made by Indian film-maker, Arun Bose. In fact, I had written a couple of times to Arun over the last weeks of the competition, saying how fitting I thought his piece might be for Copenhagen- it has no dialogue. ‘Your film, particularly as it conveys its message without words and incorporates the people and lands who will be most affected in such an imaginative, poetic way is really great and I think it’s a great strategy for the international audience who will not have to have the work translated. I think myself that slow, poetic means can be a rather subversive act in these days of so much images and noise’.

Anyway, it was brilliant that the judges also agreed so here it is for you to enjoy.

I’ve also added the runner-up, which was my Martin’s favourite, Bear in Mind and I expect it’s a favourite with many others. Then, there is the Talking Cat video – Cat’s Against Climate Change– I couldn’t for the life of me understand why it was short-listed but apparently it was being viewed as a good example of a viral video. I’ve since found out that  it has already been viewed by 108,756 viewers on YouTube!! Silly me, I had forgotten, when I first started looking at YouTube, how it is littered with funny cat video’s – so the maker cleverly played on this strategy to engage internet audience on climate change and I have to agree, it is a very nice looking cat. There are other winners, do see the 1minutetosavetheworld site and do share your favourites along your networks before the Climate summit.

Anyway, I hope to see some of these films in Copenhagen, as I now find myself in the very fortunate position of being able to attend an international 3 day Art and Ecology policy symposium Cultures/Futures*, held during the climate talks. Culture, as well as politics, will be important in bringing about awareness of climate change issues across the world. I will be reporting back in between snacking on Danish pastries 😉 and looking as much art as I can.

* Culture | Futures: The aim of the is to address the strategic role of culture in delivering an Ecological Age. This will be explored through engaging with new ideas and concepts; sharing lessons learned, best practices and policies; and exploring visions for innovative collaborations, action research and development.

Culture|Futures will provide the global platform for communication and dialogue between cultural actors. It will also encourage cooperation between leading cities on ways to develop comprehensive cultural actions as our world population becomes increasingly more and more urbanized. Finally, Culture|Futures will engender a collaboration between research centres and networks supporting the creation of an evidence base of best practice to support the work of cultural practitioners.