Bldgblog

BLDGBLOG: Literary Climatology

December 8, 2011newsAirplanes, Bldgblog, Blue Angels, Car Alarms, Climatology, Clouds, Conversations, Dislocation, Excerpt, Fleet Week, Flight Demonstration, Forensics, Haze, Historians, Love, Parked Cars, Performance Art, Planes, Quantum, San Francisco, Scale Demonstration, Synch, Trajectories, Twenty Years, U S Navy

Some fascinating ideas from BLDGBLOG in excerpt form a little while ago, which relate to ideas of ecodrama:

1)Â Performance PhysicsÂ

It was, we might say, not performance art butÂ performance physics: an immersive, urban-scale demonstration of quantum dislocation… constantly out of self-synch in a single setting… the skies of San Francisco temporarily modeling an inter-dimensional event.

2)Â Sky Forensics

…the passage of the Blue Angels had been setting off car alarms all over the city… the locations of the car alarms always coincided with the physical passage of the airplanes… you could actually reconstruct the aerial trajectories of the planes through entirely indirect means.

In twenty years’ time, then, forensic historians could reconstruct the skies of Fleet Week 2011 using nothing but data from parked cars.

3)Â Literary Climatology

…we briefly got onto the subject of skywriting…Â The idea ofÂ blogging in the skyÂ through the medium of artificial weatherâ€”chemically produced, aerodynamic clouds draping the city in a haze of literary climatology…

Of course, it’s worth the whole post….

via BLDGBLOG: Literary Climatology.

BLDGBLOG: Tar Creek Supergrid

October 16, 2011ecoartscotlandBldgblog, Curators, Ecology, Edge Research, Energy Infrastructure, Fremantle, International Networks, Phd, Renewable Energy, Research Associate, Robert Gordon University, School Of Art, Scientists, Tar Creek, Theoretical Texts

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

BLDGBLOGâ€™s most recent post relates to a PhD focusing on re-purposing abandoned mines as renewable energy infrastructure.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established byÂ Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate withÂ On The Edge Research,Â Grayâ€™s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
Go to EcoArtScotland

A + E Conference at the Nevada Museum of Art: Day One

September 30, 2011A + E, Conferences, news#Aeconf, A + E, A+E, Backup Generator, Bldgblog, Chris Jordan, Climate Change, Ecological Disaster, Exhibits, Fritz Haeg, Giant Figures, Greenhouse, Harrisons, Kumbaya, Lecture Hall, Museum Art, Museum Of Art, Nevada Museum, Nevada Museum Of Art, New Books, NMA, Paradigms, Powerpoints, Silo, Storytelling, Sums

Can a thing be both cuddly and epic? So far, the A + E Conference is. For while the lecture hall at the Nevada Museum of Art is intimate, folks are friendly, and there’s that slight taste of eco-art kumbaya in the air, there’s some giant figures in the room. Chris Jordan is one of them: you’ve seen his photos everywhere. The Harrisons are two more. Greenhouse Britain sums up their combination of systemic thinking and storytelling.Â Fritz Haeg and his Edible Estates. Geoff Manaugh of BldgBlog. And while you might be so familiar with the work of the presenters you could have practically done their powerpoints for them, it’s still a bit dizzying. In fact, the lights went out towards the end of the day and a backup generator kicked on. They say it was lightning but I’m betting on a joyous collective mental short-circuiting.

However epic the conference, the issued raised today were not unique. They were issues that might be discussed at a conference about Climate Change and Journalism, for instance. Or a conference about Healthy Parks and Healthy People. Or about Theater and Sustainability. I kinda know because I’ve attended conferences on all those themes in the past year. The issues being raised include: how do we comprehend the vast level of ecological disaster we are now experiencing? How do we organize information in a manner that is digestible, accessible, valid and thought-provoking? How do we culturally deconstruct the paradigms that got us here– especially when we live ‘here’? How do we move forward to create a healthier population and planet?

This speaks more to the level of disciplinary blending and silo-destroying that’s happening all over. In the meantime, there’s no shortage of voices exploring answers, not here, not this weekend. There are three floors of installations and exhibits. There are new books and archives of those exhibits. And there is a whole second day of talks still. More to come, stay tuned. Should be cuddly. And epic.

BLDGBLOG: California City

December 19, 2009newsAirplanes, American Response, Bldgblog, California City, California Desert, Chartres Cathedral, City In The Desert, Geoglyph, Gravel, Labyrinth, Land Art, Nazca Lines, Neighborhood West, Paved Streets, Suburb, Thriving Community, Tracts, Uninhabited

Here is a article about the beauty of what wasn’t build in the California Desert over on BLDGBLOG. It reminds me of the tracts you can see from the unbuilt neighborhood west of LAX. On my way to COP15, I drove around the back of the airport in Los Angeles and it’s bee on my mind.

In the desert 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles is a suburb abandoned in advance of itselfâ€”the unfinished extension of a place called California City. Visible from above now are a series of badly paved streets carved into the dust and gravel, like some peculiarly American response to the Nazca Lines (or even the labyrinth at Chartres cathedral). The uninhabited street plan has become an abstract geoglyphâ€”unintentional land art visible from airplanesâ€”not a thriving community at all.

via BLDGBLOG: California City.