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June 5, 2017  

Local focus, global challenges – The winners of a photography competition focused on global sustainability

Congratulations to the winners and shortlisted entries to this fabulous photography competition.

Particular congratulations to the public winner –  Bridey Borda from Plymouth College of Arts for her excellent winning picture Waste to Energy

Waste to Energy

Category: Public – Sustainable Plymouth

“My photograph represents a sustainable plymouth, as it shows the waste left over after the process that happens at Plymouth’s Incinerator. Incineration is helping reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, therefore lowering the amount of carbon emissions.” Brides Borda

You can see all the shortlisted photographs here: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/institutes/sustainable-earth/photo-competition

January 26, 2017  

Poland unveils glowing bright blue bike lane that’s charged by the sun

Poland just unveiled an amazing new bike path that glows bright blue at night! The path near Lidzbark Warminski is illuminated by phosphor, a synthetic material that lights up after it’s charged by sunlight. Studio Roosegaarde’s Starry Night bike lane inspired TPA Instytut Badań Technicznych Sp. z o.o to create the glowing bike path.

TPA Sp. z o.o. president Igor Ruttmar told Gazeta Wyborcza that the material in the bike path can emit light for around 10 hours. Each day the path collects the energy that enables it to glow at night. Board of Regional Roads in Olsztyn director Waldemar Królikowski said the luminous bike path is meant to improve the safety of people biking at night.

According to Next Nature Network, the luminophores, or “particles” in the bike lane material can emit a variety of colors, and the designers picked blue to best fit in with the surrounding landscape. They also researched the sustainability of the materials they utilized, and how to make the materials as cost effective as possible since the bike lane does cost more than traditional lanes.

While the Starry Night bike path provided inspiration, the technology utilized in the Polish bike lane is quite different from the Van Gogh-themed lane. Studio Roosegaarde’s bike lane drew on LEDs powered by a solar array and “light-collecting paint.” TPA Sp. z o.o.’s bike lane doesn’t require any power sources. The bike lane is still being tested, as it is not known how long the lane will last before it begins to wear out.

Via Next Nature Network and Gazeta Wyborcza

This article is by Lacy Cooke is a writer and journalist. Her work has appeared in The Millions, WeWork’s Creator, and OnFaith, among others. She’s a California native transplanted to Connecticut where she lives with her husband and cat. You’ll find her experimenting in the kitchen, reading in the backyard, or stretching on a yoga mat. She tweets and pins @lacygcooke.
January 12, 2017  

Blade by Nayan Kulkarni for Hull Capital of Culture

In a major commission for Hull 2017, artist Nayan Kulkarni has transformed the historic heart of Hull city centre with Blade, a massive, monumental artwork that will change the way people see and experience Queen Victoria Square.

Kulkarni has taken a 75–metre rotor blade – that you would normally see at the top of a wind turbine – to create this artwork, spectacularly interrupting this newly renovated public space.

Made by hand at the Siemens factory in Hull, these blades are the largest single-cast handmade objects in the world.

B75 rotor blades, made by hand at the Siemens factory in Hull, are the largest single-cast handmade objects in the world. It is one of the first blades to come out of the factory, made by hand by the men and women of Hull.

Multimedia artist Kulkarni, best known for his work with light, said: “Blade seeks to transform Hull’s streetscape through the imposition of a single wind turbine blade. This readymade artwork, 75 metres long, will divide the square forming a temporary impediment to a free flow. Carefully positioned, it will force us to drift around its arabesque edges, our sight taking the place of the breeze. The twisting wing, although inert and at rest in the street, speaks of movement, but not of freedom.”

Blade bisects the square, from Savile Street to Carr Lane, rising to a height of more than 5.5 metres at its tip, allowing double-decker buses to pass underneath. It offers a striking contrast to the familiar facades of the neo-classical Ferens Art Gallery, the Italianate Maritime Museum and Hull City Hall.

Blade is being installed with the support of Hull UK City of Culture 2017 Major Partners Siemens and Green Port Hull and has been made possible by a range of other organisations. It is first in a series of major art commissions that will be installed in public spaces around Hull as part of Look Up, a year-long programme for Hull 2017 that will see different artists creating temporary artworks designed to make people look at and experience the city in new ways.

Despite its size, what is striking about the sculpture is its elegance.

Martin Green

Martin Green, CEO and director, Hull 2017, said: “Nayan Kulkarni’s Blade is a dramatic, yet graceful addition to Hull’s city centre. Despite its size, what is striking about the sculpture is its elegance. Putting this example of state– of– the–art technology against the historic charms of Queen Victoria Square makes you look at this fine public space differently. It’s a structure we would normally expect out at sea and, in a way, it might remind you of a giant sea creature, which seems appropriate with Hull’s maritime history. It’s a magnificent start to our Look Up programme, which will see artists creating site-specific work throughout 2017 for locations around the city.”

Blade will remain in Queen Victoria Square until 18 March. More installations will be unveiled at locations around the city throughout Hull’s City of Culture year as part of the Look Up programme.

Siemens UK chief executive Juergen Maier said: “We’re hugely excited to have worked with Nayan Kulkarni and the City of Culture team on this dramatic, unique installation. This collaboration reflects our desire to make a positive impact as a Hull UK City of Culture 2017 Major Partner. Blade brings to life the engineering and manufacturing excellence of which we are so proud, and makes it tangible for the people of Hull and visitors to the city.

“It feels perfect that Blade – one of hundreds of 75– metre blades we will manufacture in Hull every year – will be a prominent feature during the City of Culture Made In Hull season. We hope people enjoy it. When people see our blades close up, they often comment on how beautifully crafted they are. This installation will enable many thousands of people to appreciate that beauty and scale, in the very heart of the city.”

Following Blade, further details about Look Up, the programme of major public art commissions for Hull 2017, will be announced over the next weeks and months. The next installation, a large-scale work by artist Michael Pinsky, is set to appear at the start of February. Other artists include Bob and Roberta Smith; Tania Kovats; Claire Barber; Chris Dobrowolski; Claire Morgan; and Sarah Daniels. Look Up has been developed in partnership with a number of organisations and companies including The Deep, GF Smith, Hull School of Art and Design and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Hull City Council has also commissioned new work in the public realm, including work by two of the Look Up artists Michael Pinsky and Nayan Kulkarni, who is creating The Golden Hour, a series of light installations across the city centre that will appear during 2017.

October 21, 2016  

Art and Energy inspires a drawing class in Crediton, Devon

by Naomi Wright

 

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It is the beginning of term and we stand about discussing our theme for our classes ahead. I suggest art and energy, it interests me for all sorts of reasons. I say I am helping with similar themed workshops with some college students outdoors as part of Regensw’s art and energy programme. I wonder whether it will interest the class. We think about the wide range of meanings for energy. Energy is everything, I say, remembering a recent workshop. In a physical sense, binding the molecules of our being, energy fixed from the sun, in the movement of a river, the heat from a fire, in our food, in the every-day. We have our own energy, in the spirit of the land, in leylines, in happiness, in despair.

 

So the term at Crediton arts centre has taken this as a theme…. A couple of us are working with an old luccombe oak that has had to be cut down in the local park. We think of the power within, the height and weight of it, the history in it, the energy held beneath in the ground. The dying energy, used by fungus, the last of the leaves to be photosynthisising.

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The tree………..

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Eileen’s tree

Others in the class discuss their drawings through the eye of an energy lens. Lines are energetic, directioned, growing. The still life is far from still as vegetation takes on a new meaning, pots spin, and all the senses are enlivened.

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Rebecca’s pots

We’re all curious in how this will progress…  Pat especially, as she has ideas for some new installations.

 

Naomi Wright is an artist who collaboratively researches the benefits of being outdoors in the elements.  In sunshine, wind, or rain she maps and constructs places, things and conversations that make the most of our ecological interplay.

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