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.