Carbon Arts

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Handcar: On the Grid

Maria Michails is a Canadian artist working at the intersect of ecology, technology and society. Her Handcar Projects are interactive works that employ the dynamism and historical context of the handcar to literally take the viewer on a journey to explore themes such as energy, industrial processes and mining. Through activating the human powered handcar (and in another project a rowing machine) the installations provide a direct relationship between energy consumption and expenditure. In On the Grid (pictured), the work examines the conflicts between competing uses of land for energy, housing and food.

Curating Cities: A Collaborative Arts Research Project led by UNSW

Carbon Arts is partnering with UNSW’s National Institute of Experimental Arts [NIEA], City of Sydney and Object Gallery—to advance a cutting-edge arts-driven approach to ecological urbanism, in which “curators” move beyond designated cultural spaces such as galleries and museums to “curate” (literally “care for”) the city as whole, developing eco-sustainable public art to transform both public space and patterns of water, energy and food consumption.

For this project, we’ll be evaluating case studies of eco-sustainable public art projects in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia, with a view to providing a database available to the cities, developers and researchers. The project will also deliver a dynamic range of outcomes including exhibitions, workshops, public programs and major publications.

The project is supported by a Cooperative Research Council Grant and will run from 2011-2014.

Links:
http://www.niea.unsw.edu.au/projects/curating-cities

Integrating Arts and Sustainability: A Strategy for the City of Melbourne

Carbon Arts is advising the City of Melbourne on how the arts can play a greater role in achieving the sustainability goals of the city as laid out in the Eco-City Melbourne vision. The strategy paper will provide case studies on urban art and sustainability that draw on and evaluates existing analysis and provide recommendations for program elements essential to facilitate art programs that engage the community in sustainability challenges and opportunities.

Echology: Making Sense of Data

Presented by the Australian Network of Art & Technology (ANAT) and Carbon Arts, ECHOLOGY: making sense of data is a three year project that will culminate in the production of a new public work of art utilising real-time data. The project is comprised of a number of integrated activities, with each to be supported by a mix of government and private sector partnership. Seminars will be held in three state capitals to introduce Australian artists to the rapidly developing field of data-driven arts practice. The seminars will be led by six local and international artistic innovators, who will present and discuss their work. Property partners will identify sites for potential works, which will become the focus of multi-disciplinary mixer workshops, leading to commissioning of successful works in 2013. One public artwork developed during the Lab will be produced and launched at ISEA2013.