CARBON ARTS | creative solutions for a changing climate find us on: 
Monometers, by Michael Pinsky
Michael Pinsky transformed Belgium’s four largest wind turbines into an ecological monitor or meter displaying the energy and water consumption and noise and waste generation of a night-time festival. These were indicated by the movement of rings of light up and down the turbines communicating the ecological pulse of the festival to the surrounding region.
Co2penhagen was the world’s first festival run entirely on renewable energy generated on-site. The festival is the brainchild of journalist Katrine Vejby and architect MAA Nina Louise Jensen, and was a collaboration with business, local and international artists and Danish students.
Seven Thousand Oaks is a Melbourne-based organisation aiming to become a repository of information of and for artists addressing the issue of sustainability in their work, as well as a place to celebrate artists work in this field and connect artists with sustainability professionals. 7KO also ran a festival in July 2010 in Melbourne, hosting over 20 artists exploring the issue of sustainability through music, visual art, performance and installation. This included a catalogue of essays and a field trip to plant trees.
Shift Festival, UK 2010
The Shift Festival was an event of the Cape Farewell Project which took place in London in January 2010, and played host to musicians, comedians, all responding to their Arctic experience and reflections on climate change.
In 2009, the Chalk Urban Art Festival in Sydney took the theme of climate change. Artists created works on the pavement in Chapel St, Paramatta, responding to the subject, engaging people on the streets in the discussion. A big success, the festival returns to this working class neighbourhood in 2010, with a different theme. This is an excellent example of how climate change can be inserted as a theme into an existing festival, and of an effective engagement model using street art.
The San Jose Zero One (SJ01) biennial festival of art and technology took on the theme of Build Your Own World in 2010 and featured an impressive offering of symposia, talks, events, exhibitions, street parades, workshops and concerts all on the theme of sustainability and personal responsibility/ imagination. San Jose being home to Silicon Valley, the biennale, organised by Zero1, is about featuring the smarts of the area and showcasing how the arts are harnessing new technology for civic engagement. One hundred artists gathered from 22 different countries between 16-19 September to experiment with the public – a treat!