The artist as visionary contributes to ecological sustainability through interventions and engaging with public and private sectors. This can be as part of a design team, bringing in an aesthetic and creative vision, such as Reiko Goto and Timothy Collins in Nine Mile Run in which they reclaim a section of the Pennsylvania River through research, participatory workshops and legal action, or in organizing an event that brings together inspiring speakers and artists with the general public, such as Dalziel and Scullian’s More Than Us in Inverness 2007, or by using metaphor and creative conceptualization to solve real problems such as The Harrisons in their recent project Greenhouse Britain. As an artist working in the field of ecological design I have come across the artist Michael Singer and been inspired by his way of bringing art and his unique creative vision to large industrial projects.
Michael Singer lives in Southern Vermont on a large piece of land with many studios blended into the landscape. I personally have met him and talked with him about his art. His work embraces not only sculpture but also photography, painting, monoprinting and publishing. Many of his sculptures are twenty to thirty feet long and made from granite, wood and metals. Much of Singer’s time is spent as a municipal artist. Many projects in the built environment set aside one or two percent of their budget for art. Singer has persuaded project directors to see the artist as central to the design process. You can see his six hundred foot retaining wall on the riverbanks in Grand Rapids, Michigan built between 1988 and 1995 as a piece of engineering or a massive sculpture.
Michael Singer played a central role in the design of a solid waste transfer station and recycling facility in Phoenix, Arizona, which was built between 1989 and 1993. He claims that instead of an artist hanging a painting in a building, they can also be using the same skills they use in the studio to help with the design process and overall appearance of the building. They should be asking questions and bringing their unique perspective to help problem solve. A big question he asked when working on the recycling plant was “how can we make this a place that the public can understand?” He is interested in changing people’s attitude towards waste. Thus, “transforming infrastructure into something that works with the community.” By making this project one of beauty with many courtyards and places for people to sit, as well as an educational area and an amphitheater where they can view the sorting of garbage, he turned a solid waste management project into a public park where people go on a Sunday. In Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape John Beardsley wrote about this project, “The whole effect is at once archaic and futuristic, suggesting an ancient temple consecrated to a postindustrial phenomenon – the culture of excess and obsolescence.” In 1993 the New York Times chose the design as one of the eight most important architectural events of the year.
In a sense, Michael Singer’s ideas are also redefining the role of the artist. Instead of an artist being an added extra, who applies a decorative finish to a project, he is a primary figure in every aspect of the project. Michael Singer adopts a holistic approach to a project thus integrating aesthetic site design, architecture, public access, utility, and natural elements.
Many of the projects, on which Michael Singer works, embrace the new field of Industrial Ecology. The design of industrial processes is modeled on the systemic design of natural systems. The goal of industrial ecology is to design engineered processes or a building on the same principles and as adaptations and interpretations of natural systems. These processes are seen as part of the greater bioregional ecosystem with balanced flows between nature and industry, as opposed to industry treating ecology as a source of expendable materials and a sink for wastes. The result is often great beauty. Dr. John Todd, who is a biologist, collaborates with Singer on some projects that involve Industrial Ecology. He designed a system for treating wastewater using no chemicals but natural ecosystems of plants, bacteria and fish. These accelerate nature’s ability to cleanse herself, thus creating clean water. John Todd won the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design for his pioneering work in ecological and industrial design 1994.
Singer has worked on the design for two power stations in New York. One is in Astoria, Queens and the other in Green Point. He has also completed design elements for the AES Power Station in Londonderry, New Hampshire. The waste heat generated by the New York plants will be used in greenhouses to heat water for aquaculture and create the perfect climate for horticulture. The greenhouses will be aesthetically beautiful, employ local people and create revenues through the sale of fish and produce. They will also be open to the public.
Singer has had a long career as an artist with a strong relationship to the natural world. In the 1970’s his art was much smaller scale and based on a specific natural area such as a local pond in Vermont. This work was more in the genre of Andy Goldsworthy. He described these pieces as meditations. Singer’s interest in rituals and site specific projects still enters his work today. Often his gardens have winding pathways or small enclosures that draw the public into the sculpture. In 1993, he was commissioned to design a garden in Stuttgart, Germany for an international garden exposition. The site had been bombed in World War Two so Singer created a memorial to war and the survivors. He called it, Ritual Series/Retellings: A Place to Remember Those Who Survived
“The gardens function as the lungs and kidneys of the building, cleaning air and gray water as well as providing comfortable climate control without air-conditioning. Water is first diverted to an outdoor constructed wetland and pond. From that point it is piped into the first atrium garden pool next to the buildings library. This pool contains fish and plantings that absorb toxins...The water drips into a deep cistern for storage and recycling in the buildings irrigation system.”
The potency of Michael Singer’s art lies in its ability to appeal to all one’s senses. One can walk through his sculptures following their twists and entering the enclosures of creeping vines, granite and wood. One smells the plants and flowers and hears the sound of water running over patterned concrete slabs. At the same it appeals to the mind with its environmental consciousness and desire to merge functionality and beauty, while making the most unexpected places, such as waste transfer stations, artful.
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Monday 16 June 2008
Wild Scotland Versus Tame Scotland
Living in Scotland it is hard to avoid the controversy over a new golf course planned by Donald Trump in Aberdeenshire. It is both very real and symbolic of one of the largest conflicts of our time: big business versus the environment. The aggressive money man himself is here to build the “the world’s greatest golf course” which happens to be on rare and protected dunes. Here our greed battles our love of our land; the elite world of the rich, combat the rare elite of the plant and wildlife kingdom. It is a battle of values and also of economics.
Contemporary economists, acknowledging that global warming and the degradation of natural resources are no longer fringe issues but are confirmed by science and make front cover news, must take into account the idea of natural capital. Lester R. Brown writes in Plan B 3.0, “the market has some fundamental weaknesses, however. It does not incorporate into prices the indirect costs of producing goods. It does not value nature’s services properly. And it does not respect the sustainable yield thresholds of natural systems. It also favors the near term over the long term, showing little concern for future generations” (Brown 7). We must take into account these indirect costs and the value of wild nature. What is the natural capital of rare and endangered wildlife? Can we put a price on the endangered dune bryophytes warne’s thread-moss and blunt bryum?
It is symbolically appropriate that the conflict is one of golf vs. wilderness. Nothing could be more iconic than fake nature vs. the real thing. In her book Wild Jay Griffiths writes about golf courses,
“Golf epitomizes the tame world. On a golf course nature is neutered. The grass is clean, a lawn laundry that wipes away mud, the insect, the bramble, nettle and thistle, an Eezy-wipe lawn where nothing of life, dirty and glorious, remains. Golf turns outdoors into indoors, a prefab mat of stultified grass, processed, pesticided, herbicided, the pseudo-green of formica sterility…Worldwide, golf is an arch act of enclosure, a commons fenced and subdued for the wealthy, trampling serf and seedling. The enemy of wildness, it is a demonstration of the absolute dominion of man over wild nature” (Griffiths 5).
If golf symbolizes our control over nature, wild species symbolize our wild spirit and creativity. We are all interconnected and the wild and the tame are a part of each of us. In this debate I find myself drawn to the characters. What are the plants and wildlife that are at risk? what are their qualities? their uses in the cycle of life? Other than golf what are the threats they face? I am interested to research the rare and threatened plant species in Scotland and to paint them. By painting their unique colors and shapes, seeds and roots I hope to bring them more into the spotlight and increase understanding and interest in these fragile neighbors. In Scottish Wild Plants Lusby and Wright explain, “The conservation of individual species demands an understanding of their biology, ecology and habitat. For long-term survival it is often not enough to maintain the appropriate habitat type, but to keep it in a condition which allows particular species to regenerate and compete successfully with associated vegetation” (19).
If we are to turn down the big business offers from the likes of Donald Trump I believe it will be because we understand and appreciate the natural capital at our doorsteps.
"The world may be caged by a defect of the entire economic profession-namely, the idea that we can assess value in banknotes, or that we can understand our relationship to the material world using an abstract metric rather than a biological one. The extraordinary advances made by Western societies will, in the end, be subservient to the land and what it can provide and teach" (Hawkins, Blessed Unrest).
Contemporary economists, acknowledging that global warming and the degradation of natural resources are no longer fringe issues but are confirmed by science and make front cover news, must take into account the idea of natural capital. Lester R. Brown writes in Plan B 3.0, “the market has some fundamental weaknesses, however. It does not incorporate into prices the indirect costs of producing goods. It does not value nature’s services properly. And it does not respect the sustainable yield thresholds of natural systems. It also favors the near term over the long term, showing little concern for future generations” (Brown 7). We must take into account these indirect costs and the value of wild nature. What is the natural capital of rare and endangered wildlife? Can we put a price on the endangered dune bryophytes warne’s thread-moss and blunt bryum?
It is symbolically appropriate that the conflict is one of golf vs. wilderness. Nothing could be more iconic than fake nature vs. the real thing. In her book Wild Jay Griffiths writes about golf courses,
“Golf epitomizes the tame world. On a golf course nature is neutered. The grass is clean, a lawn laundry that wipes away mud, the insect, the bramble, nettle and thistle, an Eezy-wipe lawn where nothing of life, dirty and glorious, remains. Golf turns outdoors into indoors, a prefab mat of stultified grass, processed, pesticided, herbicided, the pseudo-green of formica sterility…Worldwide, golf is an arch act of enclosure, a commons fenced and subdued for the wealthy, trampling serf and seedling. The enemy of wildness, it is a demonstration of the absolute dominion of man over wild nature” (Griffiths 5).
If golf symbolizes our control over nature, wild species symbolize our wild spirit and creativity. We are all interconnected and the wild and the tame are a part of each of us. In this debate I find myself drawn to the characters. What are the plants and wildlife that are at risk? what are their qualities? their uses in the cycle of life? Other than golf what are the threats they face? I am interested to research the rare and threatened plant species in Scotland and to paint them. By painting their unique colors and shapes, seeds and roots I hope to bring them more into the spotlight and increase understanding and interest in these fragile neighbors. In Scottish Wild Plants Lusby and Wright explain, “The conservation of individual species demands an understanding of their biology, ecology and habitat. For long-term survival it is often not enough to maintain the appropriate habitat type, but to keep it in a condition which allows particular species to regenerate and compete successfully with associated vegetation” (19).
If we are to turn down the big business offers from the likes of Donald Trump I believe it will be because we understand and appreciate the natural capital at our doorsteps.
"The world may be caged by a defect of the entire economic profession-namely, the idea that we can assess value in banknotes, or that we can understand our relationship to the material world using an abstract metric rather than a biological one. The extraordinary advances made by Western societies will, in the end, be subservient to the land and what it can provide and teach" (Hawkins, Blessed Unrest).
Wednesday 11 June 2008
Disconnect
Where in our lives do we feel least in our essence? Where and when are we disconnected from who we really are? In Essence I looked at the places and qualities that make us feel fulfilled; make us feel we are in our essence and being real. Be it in spiritual practice, creativity, loving relationship or connection with nature, when we are connected with our essence we are present and we feel peaceful or joyful. I believe this presence brings clarity and purpose. By looking at where we are disconnected and asleep in our lives I believe it is possible to gain both personal insights and understanding of societal problems and dysfunctions. Much of our lives and the state of the world is not peaceful and joyful and I think there is a connection between our disconnection with self, others and the Earth and the environmental crisis, depression and fear. Stephen Batchelor writes about this connection in Buddhism Without Beliefs:
“The contemporary social engagement of dharma practice is rooted in awareness of how self-centered confusion and craving can no longer be adequately understood only as psychological drives that manifest themselves in subjective states of anguish. We find these drives embodied in the very economic, military, and political structures that influence the lives of people on earth. Harnessed to industrial technologies, the impact of these drives affects the quality of the environment; the availability of natural resources and employment; the kinds of political, social, and financial institutions that govern peoples’ lives”.
Our economic society dependent on never-ending growth creates a culture obsessed with more; this leads to addictive behaviour and prevents us from being in our essence and who we really are. Psychologist Bruce E. Levine writes in his article Mass Society and Mass Depression:
“Industrialised societies encourage rising expectations that consumption will make us feel better, happier and more powerful…when expectations outstrip real outcomes, we feel either aggressively resentful or depressed."
Advertising, isolation, lack of spiritual fulfilment, and an abundance of products create a cycle of desire and leads to addictive behaviour. This cycle of desire, consumption, being unsatisfied, wanting more, depression, needing more, desire, prevents us from living up to our full potential. We get caught up in consumerism and addiction. It also creates a strain on the environment. We only have one planet and so there are finite natural resources; the more we consume the less natural beauty and the more pollution and global warming. There is a direct relationship between our addictive culture and the destruction of our ecosystems. We are out of balance. In writing about global warming John Naish author of Enough: Breaking free from the world of more writes:
“An answer may lie in not talking about global warming and sustainability, but in personal warming and personal sustainability. Because amide the global warming we are seeing more personal warming: more anxiety and depression; more melting of our circuits; more diseases of excess such as obesity and drug dependency. People complain their lives are too harried and stressed; they are unsustainable. Enoughness is about a personal ecology, about finding our own optimum sustainable balance. It’s about saying, ‘That’s enough for me'."
Recently Scotland has been waking up to the Nations drinking problem. In the Scotsman on May 6th 2008, there was an article entitled Scotland’s Crippling Addiction with frightening statistics that demonstrate the extent of the problem such as, every six hours a Scot dies from alcohol misuse, 50% of men and 30% of women thought to drink above recommended limits, 50% of Scotland’s prison population say they were drunk at the time of their offence, 40,000 alcohol related discharges from hospital per year etc.. When we are unsatisfied or engaged in quick unhealthy habits to bring temporary satisfaction such as overeating, over-drinking, drug use, shopping, gambling, and watching TV, we are avoiding tackling the pain and the emotions, or making long term changes to our lives. We are also often creating more problems for ourselves be it debt, health challenges, or guilt.
Taking this to the personal level I want to ask people to choose the place that for them symbolizes disconnection and photograph them in this scene and then interview them on video. For some people this may be engaged in addictive behaviour, in our avoidance strategies such as watching TV or drinking. Or even in the places where we get comfortable and therefore zoned out, such as driving to work without ever noticing the surroundings. In some ways the action itself is less important than whether or not the person is present or disconnected and unconscious. When presence is there we can be aware of our patterns and thus dissolve them. Batchelor writes:
“We can discern when a reactive habit kicks in and prompts us to adopt the familiar path of least resistance. We can notice when empathy capitulates to fear or self-interest. We can be alert for face-saving words and gestures that give an impression of empathy while letting us off the hook.”
“The contemporary social engagement of dharma practice is rooted in awareness of how self-centered confusion and craving can no longer be adequately understood only as psychological drives that manifest themselves in subjective states of anguish. We find these drives embodied in the very economic, military, and political structures that influence the lives of people on earth. Harnessed to industrial technologies, the impact of these drives affects the quality of the environment; the availability of natural resources and employment; the kinds of political, social, and financial institutions that govern peoples’ lives”.
Our economic society dependent on never-ending growth creates a culture obsessed with more; this leads to addictive behaviour and prevents us from being in our essence and who we really are. Psychologist Bruce E. Levine writes in his article Mass Society and Mass Depression:
“Industrialised societies encourage rising expectations that consumption will make us feel better, happier and more powerful…when expectations outstrip real outcomes, we feel either aggressively resentful or depressed."
Advertising, isolation, lack of spiritual fulfilment, and an abundance of products create a cycle of desire and leads to addictive behaviour. This cycle of desire, consumption, being unsatisfied, wanting more, depression, needing more, desire, prevents us from living up to our full potential. We get caught up in consumerism and addiction. It also creates a strain on the environment. We only have one planet and so there are finite natural resources; the more we consume the less natural beauty and the more pollution and global warming. There is a direct relationship between our addictive culture and the destruction of our ecosystems. We are out of balance. In writing about global warming John Naish author of Enough: Breaking free from the world of more writes:
“An answer may lie in not talking about global warming and sustainability, but in personal warming and personal sustainability. Because amide the global warming we are seeing more personal warming: more anxiety and depression; more melting of our circuits; more diseases of excess such as obesity and drug dependency. People complain their lives are too harried and stressed; they are unsustainable. Enoughness is about a personal ecology, about finding our own optimum sustainable balance. It’s about saying, ‘That’s enough for me'."
Recently Scotland has been waking up to the Nations drinking problem. In the Scotsman on May 6th 2008, there was an article entitled Scotland’s Crippling Addiction with frightening statistics that demonstrate the extent of the problem such as, every six hours a Scot dies from alcohol misuse, 50% of men and 30% of women thought to drink above recommended limits, 50% of Scotland’s prison population say they were drunk at the time of their offence, 40,000 alcohol related discharges from hospital per year etc.. When we are unsatisfied or engaged in quick unhealthy habits to bring temporary satisfaction such as overeating, over-drinking, drug use, shopping, gambling, and watching TV, we are avoiding tackling the pain and the emotions, or making long term changes to our lives. We are also often creating more problems for ourselves be it debt, health challenges, or guilt.
Taking this to the personal level I want to ask people to choose the place that for them symbolizes disconnection and photograph them in this scene and then interview them on video. For some people this may be engaged in addictive behaviour, in our avoidance strategies such as watching TV or drinking. Or even in the places where we get comfortable and therefore zoned out, such as driving to work without ever noticing the surroundings. In some ways the action itself is less important than whether or not the person is present or disconnected and unconscious. When presence is there we can be aware of our patterns and thus dissolve them. Batchelor writes:
“We can discern when a reactive habit kicks in and prompts us to adopt the familiar path of least resistance. We can notice when empathy capitulates to fear or self-interest. We can be alert for face-saving words and gestures that give an impression of empathy while letting us off the hook.”
Tuesday 10 June 2008
Essence
. I am intrigued by the big questions: Who are we really? What is our essence? What is the meaning of our lives? and I am engaged in how to express this essence in art. I am interested in exploring issues of cultural identity with self-portraits. I create opportunities for people to photograph themselves in psychologically revealing roles. I used the mediums of photography and video for this project. I helped people to take their own self-portraits where they felt most who they really are and I interviewed them directly after the self-portraits had been taken on video. I asked in the interview: Why did you decide to have your self-portrait be in this location? How did you decide on the moment to take the picture? and Who are you really in your essence? It was fascinating to hear people’s insights and to see the passion that lights up their faces when they feel their best or talk about what really turns them on. In a time of mass depression and isolation I am interested in community, spirituality and in the ways that people stay sane. The final work is twenty A3 size photographs and a fifteen-minute DVD.
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