LIU Panel tonight on Social Networking; let's give them something to talk about

Speaking of social networking, I have been experimenting with using FB for a studio visit cum exhibition. This was something I posted last night (Nov. 15, 2012). FB allows some of us a very peculiar but interesting means to straddle venue and party.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of my friends and very pleased to be part of tomorrow's (Nov. 16, 2012) panel with Dennis Broe and Buck Moorehead, moderated by Claire Goodman, "Using Media to Make Change." Our discussion will be about how we can use media and technology to bring about social change. It's for the 11th Annual Big Mini Media Festival www.bigminimedia.com, Friday, November 16th, Long Island University, (LIU), Brooklyn, NY. Festival screenings start at 6: pm, with the panel taking place from 6:40 pm -7:40 pm in the Spike Lee Screening Room. It will be recorded and the recording can be accessed on the website:

http://www.bigminimedia.com/

I am convinced that social media is the greatest thing since swiss cheese to change thinking and ultimately, behavior about our social and environmental problems. I think it's the glue of hope and community, as powerful as the media revolution that began with video in the seventies, not for itself, but as a means to mobilize events on the ground. An example since the hurricane is the moving work of Occupy Sandy:

http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/

On the FB screen shot above, my hard to read text with reads:   

I have been pulling up documents from the creation of Ghost Nets to explain the thinking behind Trigger Point Theory for my dissertation. It's very emotional for me to read passionate letters of endorsement from my supporters, for funding t

hat rarely came thru at all. This image from 1993 shows the trajectory of ritualized walks I took daily for ten years on the site, as I transformed it from a pile of barren rubble to wetlands and uplands gardens.

Call me Pollyanna. I refuse to dwell on the falling sky. I insist on worrying about the dying fish. I have every expectation that good will triumph.

Restoring wetlands, Tampa, Florida

I'm winding down Day 1 of 5 at the Restore Americas Estuaries conference (RAE) here in Tampa, Florida:

https://www.estuaries.org/conference/

and I had a fabulous time today with the RAE Tampa Bay Watch:

www.tampbaywatch.org

In a few hours, about 80 of us planted about 10, 000 spartina alterniflora plugs in a restoration workshop. Apparently it was the last plug planting for the Cockroach (named for what the first settlers thought blue crabs look like) Bay project. Cockroach Bay began their restoration work in 1987. When they began, it was an ugly sand quarry and a moonscape. Today's work completed a big milestone for this most major piece in the restoration of Tampa Bay's 400 square miles of open water and 2000 miles of shoreline, so actually an interesting example of what I would call applied trigger point theory.

Blue crab carapace

This evening I am heading out to a special estuaries workers yoga class and then I'm off to the glamourous task of doing my laundry- I fell out of the canoe, slipped in the black mud 3 additional

 times).  And remarkably, I have preserved my manicure.

On the bus out to & back from Cockroach Bay, I sat next to Jeff Benoit, Pres of RAE and learned a lot about this important organization and how they have survived the shrinking federal budget for wetlands restoration, despite their essential role in so many environmental issues today. We also talked about engaging ecological artists in restoration and using social media for outreach. I told him that what I think ecological artists offer land managers includes imaginative framing and a captivating narrative. We approach & organize restoration work totally differently than land managers. I didn't add but will presume it will be obvious in my Wednes. presentation here, that we also make unique connections. About social media, I suggested he not try to make it perfect, just leave it raw. Raw is it's own style, most economical and actually, most accessible an has worked well for me without any marketing. The Gulf to Gulf webcasts on vimeo have been download from 58 countries..