Energy Crisis – The CSPA

MICRONATION/MACRONATION Democratizing the Energy

This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

How can a social cultural organisation take on issues that are creating social unrest? Earlier this year Indonesia experienced demonstrations and clashes between protesters and police over proposed price hikes in fuel. Â Indonesia, like most of the rest of the world, is highly dependent on fossil fuels. Â Whilst the immediate crisis was averted by a the Government withdrawing the price hike, the challenge remains.

HONFÂ (House for Natural Fiber) inÂ Yogyakarta,Â Indonesia has responded to the energy crisis and the results are presented at theÂ Langgeng Art Foundation. Â The project draws on local knowledge of plants as well as ways to use new media and technology. Â They have framed the project as follows:

The presentationâ€”as a sustainable design prototypeâ€”consists of 3 core components: a) Installation of a fermentation/distillation machine to process hay (raw material) into ethanol (alternative energy to substitute fossil fuel); b) Satellite data grabber: to obtain data related to agricultural production (weather, climate, seasons); c) Super-Computer: to process data (weather, seasons as well as ethanol production capacity), which is also capable of predicting when Indonesia can reach energy and food independence if this MICRONATION/MACRONATION sustainable project design were to be implemented as a public strategy and policy to achieve the condition of energy and food independence in Indonesia.

This presentation is a good opportunity for us to reassess basic performative premises of various practices combining science, technology and arts. HONFâ€™s projectâ€”as with their previous projectsâ€”actually blurs the boundaries that have thus far been setting apart science, technology and arts. They combine all three, which to us brings home the question: where is the boundary between aesthetic experience and function? What possibilities could the relationship among science, technology and arts bring when confronted to actual problems in todayâ€™s communities?

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.
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LAGI announces itâ€™s 2012 competition

This post comes to you from Green Public Art

In partnership with New York Cityâ€™s Department of Parks & Recreation, the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition is being held for a site within Freshkills Park (the former Fresh Kills Landfill) in New York City.

The competition is free and open to everyone. Designers, artists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, university students, urban planners, scientists and anyone who believes that the world can be powered beautifully and sustainably are encouraged to enter. Download the RFP here. Deadline: July 1, 2012

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian conceptualized the Land Art Generator Initiative in the fall of 2008 shortly after moving to Dubai. The project was strongly founded by the spring of 2009 and they continue to work tirelessly to nurture and promote the concept of aesthetics and renewable energy with the goal of seeing to the construction of the first large-scale public art works that generate utility grid electricity in clean and sustainable ways.

In January of 2010 LAGI put out an international call to artists, architects, scientists, and engineers to come up with both aesthetic and pragmatic solutions for the 21st century energy crisis. The 2010 LAGI design competition was held for three sites in the UAE and received hundreds of submissions from over 40 countries. View entries from the last competition.

Rebecca Ansert, founder of Green Public Art, is an art consultant who specializes in artist solicitation, artist selection, and public art project management for both private and public agencies. She is a graduate of the masterâ€™s degree program in Public Art Studies at the University of Southern California and has a unique interest in how art can demonstrate green processes or utilize green design theories and techniques in LEED certified buildings.

Green Public Art is a Los Angeles-based consultancy that was founded in 2009 in an effort to advance the conversation of public artâ€™s role in green building. The consultancy specializes in public art project development and management, artist solicitation and selection, creative community involvement and knowledge of LEED building requirements. Green Public Art also works with emerging and mid-career studio artists to demystify the public art process. The consultancy acts as a resource for artists to receive one-on-one consultation before, during, and after applying for a public art project.
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