Published by <ADMINNICENAME> April 8th, 2008
in Ecoviz Artists.
Please participate in my new artwork that counts carbon promises!
World Offset is an interactive website which allows individuals to pledge carbon offsets that alter the visuals in the eco-visualization.
The animation launched on March 22, 2008 with no carbon offsets. All of the spinning disks were then filled with devices that consume energy: hairdryers, toasters, cars, and airplanes.
The piece begins with no carbon offsets and all of the spinning disks are filled with devices that consume energy: hairdryers, cars, and airplanes. When the first 75,000 pounds of carbon are promised, a change occurs in the animation: trees replace hairdryers.
The initial goal of the animation was to offset at minimum 15,000 pounds of carbon, the amount that the average American consumes per year. The fact that so many real promises are required to offset the impact of one individual is in itself a demonstration of the enormous challenge of modifying human behavior to slow climate change. This initial goal of 15,000 lbs was met during the exhibition opening.
Presently, more than half a million pounds of carbon must be offset to fully “green” the animation at the ECOVIZ link on the site.
Published by <ADMINNICENAME> March 22nd, 2008
in Ecoviz Artists.
EcoAesthetics opens today at the <>TAG platform in the Netherlands; it is a new exhibition featuring the recent works of contemporary media artists exploring environmental data visualization: Scott Amron, Ben Arendt, Jurian Booij, Beatriz da Costa, DIY Kyoto, Yolande Harris, Tiffany Holmes, Lucid Design Group, Michael Mandiberg, Eve Mosher, Brooke Singer, and Tjerk Stoop.
The ecoAesthetics program invites viewers to examine traces of information presented in various “translated” forms as creative expression, and consider whether art and technology can help us look at our environment in a potentially more meaningful way.
Here are the questions the curators, Hicham Khalidi and Tiffany Holmes put to the audience: How can an artist visually or sonically translate everyday information? What are innovative artists and designers doing to promote conservation of resources using innovative technology and creative thinking? How can art make us more aware of the kilowatts we consume or the carbon we emit? And can artists significantly inspire viewers to be more environmentally sensitive by giving information a particular form or sound?
Saving energy is really simple according to designer Scott Amron. Amron has created a whole line or urgently funny objects that are crafted to fit into common household outlets but not draw any electricity. The notion is to block the plugs to prevent the household from drawing additional power. See Amron’s website, dieelectric.org, for a whole slew of ironic products.
Published by <ADMINNICENAME> January 16th, 2008
in Ecoviz Artists.
The Studio for Urban Projects has created a visualization of popular eco-jargon: In Popular Terms. The text is interactive; clicking on the term “sustainable” for example, searches a series of ten websites to track the relative frequency of usage from January 2004 to the present. Trendy terms like “green” and “sustainable” peak in the last two years while more fuddy-duddy terms like “wilderness” show a consistency of low usage. While the developers poll only a smattering of news sites, the piece is incredibly telling. The language of the environmental movement is as changeable as hem length is in the world of fashion. This piece won one of the $2000 Eco-Vis Design Challenge prizes and is presently being exhibited at Eyebeam as part of the Feedback exhibition.
For all you creative types, here is a great way to showcase your talents and do something earth-friendly.
Not only is there an environmental crisis, but an environmental data crisis. Viewing statistics on environmental change is usually overwhelming, unintelligible, hidden and dense. Eyebeam invites artists to collaborate with technologists to redefine what the future of tracking and visualizing the environment could be.
The Eco-challenge is composed of two parts:
Challenge 1: Eco Icons invites participants to create one or many information graphics that could be used to make visible environmental/ecological concerns.
Challenge 2: Eco Vis focuses on the creations of an eco-visualization based on at least one set of ecological impact data.
Winning designs will be awarded cash prizes and, along with finalists, be included in an upcoming Eyebeam exhibition. Detailed guidelines were released on September 15, in conjunction with the Conflux Festival.
This challenge is an initiative of Eyebeam’s Sustainability Research Group and has been crafted by Research Group members and Eyebeam Alumni, Michael Mandiberg and Brooke Singer.
Published by <ADMINNICENAME> October 5th, 2007
in Ecoviz Artists.
Bart Woodstrup recently launched his MFA thesis show at RPI titled “Climate Change.” In the show, he has several interesting pieces featured. In The Hottest Year on Record, Woodstrup makes use of the Global Mean Temperature Anomalies from 1880 - 2006 to make the sound of global warming audible to the gallery audience. Woodstrup designed custom software that uses appropriated “loops” from the song “Here Comes the Sun” and plays the loop faster or slower depending upon how hot the particular year was (each loop represents a year between 1880 - 2006). 2007 plays particularly fast; it is 88 degrees here in Chicago today.
Click for Woodstrup’s website.
“Superfund365, A Site-A-Day” is an online data visualization application with an accompanying RSS-feed and email alert system. Each day for a year “Superfund365″ will visit one toxic site currently active in the Superfund program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Conceived by artist Brooke Singer, the project launched September 1, 2007. The journey begins in the New York City area and moves cross-country in the continental USA, ending in Hawaii. In the end, the archive will consist of 365 visualizations of some of the worst toxic sites in the U.S., roughly a quarter of the total number on the Superfund’s National Priorities List (NPL). Content changes every day so be sure to visit often or use the subscribe tools to have content delivered to your inbox or favorite RSS reader.
Imagine if you biked or walked to work instead of driving your car one day a week. How much carbon would you prevent from going into the sky?
The World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) launched an ambitious media campaign in China to visualize smog savings. A car towed around a giant black cloud with the text: “Drive one day less and look how much carbon monoxide you’ll keep out of the air we breathe.”
The Black Cloud media blitz officially kicks off the WWF’s “20 Tips for Sustainable Development” program that is supported by a new website in Chinese: 20to20.org.
