Carbon Arts

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Natalie Jeremijenko

Feral Robotic Dogs

Feral Robotic Dogs is a project initiated by artist, Natalie Jeremijenko, who heads up xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at New York University. Robotic dogs, desperate to perform more useful tasks than the ones they were programmed for, are released into contaminated environments where they can ‘sniff’ out harmful chemicals and communicate this information to interested community members via an open source platform. A playful introduction to a serious topic, feral robotic dogs is one of a series of projects by Jeremijenko that explore the use of art and technology to effect social and environmental change.

Amphibious architecture

Amphibious architecture was a project in collaboration with artist Natalie Jeremijenko that consisted of a floating installation of water quality sensors, motion sensors and LED lights in New York City waterways. Lights changed colour depending on water quality, such as dissolved oxygen, and flashed when fish passed by. As a way to engage New York citizens in the health of their river, the work was an innovative and educational public art work.

Cross(x) Species Adventures in Melbourne

This Carbon Arts event hosted Natalie Jeremijenko and her Cross (x) Species adventure club for the first time in Melbourne. Edible cocktails provided wilderness adventures for the palette featuring tales of bats, bees, frogs, Tasmanian devils and real life encounters with garden snails in a new cross-species betting ring! Lifestyle solutions were offered in the form of ag-bags and pollen fairy floss. With the event well received by the media, Carbon Arts is busy recruiting for the next culinary adventure with Jeremijenko to reinvent food systems in Australia.

xAirport – prepare for wetland-ings!

Getting ready for flight

Natalie Jeremijenko’s xAirport project for the SJ01 festival is on the surface a fun zipline flight for participants to fly like a bird within a 10 foot wingspan over a constructed wetland. But of course, there are a host themes being explored through this participative performance. The recent decision by the FAA to ease the passage to personal sport-piloting threatens to put further stress on the environment, unless those small craft are encouraged to make ‘wet-landings’. Whereas air flight has contributed to date to major wetland loss through airport construction, small personal craft owners have the option to build wetland landing strips, and turn this trend around. Can we re-imagine flight and make personal airborne travel a viable alternative to infrastructure-heavy options?

Cross (x) Species Adventure Club

The Cross Species Adventure Club is an exploration of the complex inter-dependencies between ourselves and natural systems, experienced through art, ecological science and gastronomy. Natalie Jeremijenko, Mihir Desai (gastronomist superstar), Emilie Baltz of Fork & Design (design oversight), and other collaborators prepare a 5 course meal, cocktails and a take home each month in New York (and soon Boston and Washington DC) in the guise of a supper club that explores food webs, community structure, chemistry, nutrient cycles and the behavior of organisms.