Open Studio

Livelihood and Lively Walls

Images: Non-Hydroponic Vertical Wall Gardens. Image 1: Installed by myself and Brett Moody (Private residence, Chicago), Images 2, by Patrick Blanc

My thesis outline is done and since I've been knee deep in research since July, I feel well on my way. In short, things are feeling good. Now for the 'looking' aspect, which is in the works.

My thesis is divided into three "tiers", and the second tier, though containing conceptual and community aspects, has to do with proposing the installation of a hydroponic vertical wall garden in Ann Arbor's own 'Silvio's' (here).

So where do I start? The design and proposal (in process as of today), but to be honest, I haven't seen (ever) a hydroponics vertical wall garden that visually meets my needs as an artist. These systems tend to me uber geeking looking (see here).

And of course, looking to relevant projects created by others!

Vertical garden wall super star, Patrick Blanc, and his company ELT make these fantastic living walls. (see here). I can't help but wonder, who maintains them? Obviously there is a success rate, but to which end, some of them fail miserably.



Also known as 'BIO WALLS', there are supposedly only 10 "bio walls" in the world (though I really doubt this), and 7 of those are claimed to be in the US. Urban gardening bloggers 'Inside Urban Green' have a few things to say about this (here)

I see this work as a hot (futuristic and optimistic) intersection of art, design, horticulture, and environmentalism.

Away we go.

The 'Food Probe'

This is sweet and incorporates the concepts I've been working with. Inhabitat just posted renderings of a Philips Design home farming unit, what they are calling the 'Food Probe'. It integrates aguaculture, hydroponics, and high tech food preparation techniques. Check out the full article here.

Sustainability Series: Artprize Installation Photos

Photos taken by Alex Nagle

Sustainability Series: Artprize Installation Photos

What is Sustainability?

As I begin to outline my thesis, it is vital for me to define related terms. First, exactly was is sustainability? I have been toying with this question, these ideas, for some time time now. What does sustainable mean? What does sustainable look like? Where is sustainability?

I didn't choose to investigate sustainability because it is cool (and it is). I don't care much for the fact that the term "sustainability" has become an all encompassing buzz word for selling things and looking good... I suppose in the same way that 'going green' has become chic and hip. Don't get me wrong, the more the merrier, but what we need to be thinking about are the key issues and reasons for going green and for looking at sustainability. I am, after all, member to the first generation at has to thinking about global issues. We live in a global world now. With a fast pace and pushing global economy. What I do, or don't do, effects others.

Sustainability is a simple concept that is contextually and socially complicated. It can be dizzying. Even Wikipedia warms its readers (when looking up the definition of sustainability), "this article may be too long to comfortably read and navigate"(LINK). Indeed Wikipedia, sustainability is too complex to short-hand and quickly summarize. Though, I still long to get to the heart of the matter. Why did I choose such a complicated topic? I can answer this question!

I chose to investigate sustainability as a theme in my research and creative work because it is a concept of utmost importance for the continuation of our species on this planet. How else will we survive? We are depleting resources... we are running out of things, taking too much too fast. Our children and children's children will have to know sustainability. They will have to, to survive. The peoples inhabiting this planet are facing very pressing and complex issues; natural resource depletion, increased energy demands, population growth, the rise of the middle class on a global scale, biodiversity loss, collapse of fisheries, dead zones, water issues, rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere and oceans, causing global climate change, and well... that is just to name a few. How we define (and redefine) responsibility or lack of responsibility for these pressing and complex issues will effect the stability of the 21st century, what many have begun to call the Energy Climate Era.

Okay, back to the main topic here:In the broad sense sustainability is the capacity to endure. ...the capacity to endure.

Sustainability, as a shared concept, is still relatively new. According to the EPA, the most widely quoted definition is the "Brundtland definition" of the 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development; "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, " (LINK).

People I realize I can't save the world, plus the world has all the time in the world. My work can't save the world either, or even get the en masses to change their non-sustainable habits. Again, I am bunting up again issues much larger than myself. I can however, and will, push boundaries and challenge established systems that degrade people and the planet. Many of the systems that we depend upon today for our consumer and economic "needs" degrade people and the environment. Plain and simple.

Secondly, my work is not a design problem. It is essentially experiential and demonstrative of sustainability and natural biologic processes that we tend (as a whole) to overlook. I want to point out the wonder and beauty of the world with grace and dignity. It is my social responsibility to remain honest.

It has been my intention, as an artist, to give the viewer an opportunity to reflect on the living whole, our human condition, and the delicate ecological balance that surrounds us all.

Are we connected to everything? We are. We live in a closed ecosystem planet earth. We can't continue with many of our current ecologic and economic models because they treat the planet as if it is infinite (growth expansion, growth expansion), and the planet is finite people. We just don't see and feel this everyday because we have been blessed with such abundance and have built our cities to create the illusion that we are separate from nature.

We are not separate from nature, we are nature.

The Sustainability Series

COME OUT AND SEE MY NEW WORK!
WHERE: The Brass Works Bldg., 648 Monroe Center NW, 5th Floor (take the elevator up) Grand Rapids, MI.
WHEN: SEPT. 23-OCT 10
TIMES: M.-Th. 5-8p, F.&S. 2-10p, Sun. 12-6p
VOTE: VIA TXT: text "25191 vote up" to 878787
INFO: www.artprize.org