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.
Climate Bubbles was a playful, participatory, mass data collection project in Manchester which engaged citizens in collecting information on air flow, thereby informing the Met Office about the Heat Island Effect. Futuresonic and Landcaster University teamed up with the Met Office to work with artists and scientists to devise an inventive, engaging way to collect this otherwise elusive data. Lead artists were Drew Hemment, Alfie Dennen, and Carlo Buontempo.
Rekindling venus is an augmented reality project that uses digital platforms – the web, the smart phone – to connect us to the world’s coral reefs and their plight in a changing climate, drawing on real-time data, video and imagery. It is the work of Australian installation artist Lynette Walworth, who has collaborated with marine biologists, climate change modellers, underwater cinematographers and meteorologists, to bring focus to the complexity of coral ecosystems as they attempt to deal with increasing environmental stresses. The work will have a second phase in 2012 to show at planetariums around the world.
In the exhibition of ‘A Map of a Dream of the Future‘, 400 native Tasmanian plants map out the dreams and attitudes of young Tasmanians about climate change in a three dimensional hanging garden as graph. The exhibition formed part of a broader education and visualization project led by artist, Nick Low in collaboration with programmer Richard Procter. Surveys administered with education kits to secondary school children positioned each child along three axes: Libertarian-Authoritarian, Technology-Nature and Libertarian-Authoritarian. In addition to the exhibition, the data was also used to generate virtual cities across Tasmania based on what each student would like to see in response to climate change.
In the Air is a project which visualises environmental pollutants in the urban environment, as a platform for collective awareness, decision-making and political action. Initiated in Madrid, by Media-Lab Prado, it has since been replicated in Santiago de Chile and Budapest.
One Ton Tree was a collaboration of the SEED collective and Tactical Aesthetics to increase public awareness of carbon sequestration through urban forestry. Using wireless interface technology and partnering with Seventh Generation, Whole Foods and Replant New Orleans, participants virtually planted trees through their keyboards, which were matching with real trees that were edible and provided a community garden.
Distracted, a poetic interpretation of scientific ice core samples taken in Antarctica, is the work of Brisbane-based art, design, and media production collective Kuuki. An installation of acrylic tubes housing LEDs, resin bubbles, found organic matter and sensors, Distracted is an evocative and interactive experience, evoking ice, fluids and the notion of change. A number of data sets are used to create the abstract visualisation and sonification in the work, creating a unique context for understanding human presence and impact on the planet.
Live Forever is the work of artists Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess whose practice Infranatural seeks to tie the built environment to the natural pulse of a living city. A Los Angeles fire station is host to the public art work, which acts as a barometer of the county’s fire risk through a web of humidity & temperature sensors stretched across the facade like a a growing vine. LED lights at each node flash across the building in shades of blue to red, making people aware of their environment, frequently warning them to take care with sparks and cigarettes.