| Climate change experts predict that in as little as 30 years, the ocean levels surrounding mainland Britain will have risen significantly, causing a dramatic relocation of our low land towns and cities. How will we react to this? What precedent is there and what planning is in place? As our attention to climate change becomes increasingly urgent, no longer allowing a passive interest, we need to consider if we will withdraw gracefully to higher ground, or begin to defend and protect our current and developed positions against the forces of the sea. Renowned American eco-artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison have been exploring issues associated with climate change and specifically rising sea levels around mainland Britain. Their Bright Sparks research looks specifically at the Lee Valley basin, where Gunpowder Park is located, as one of the key vulnerable areas in the UK to be affected. Through field trips, workshops and discussions, the Harrisons with artist David Haley and cultural historian Chris Fremantle, are generating the new thinking, design and understanding that will be necessary to react to the rising sea levels. This creative investigation relates to the Harrisons’ larger nationwide project ‘Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom’, funded by DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), which is designed to express what the rising of waters will mean to the landscape of mainland Britain. “We suggest that existing plans for greenhouse emissions control will be insufficient to keep temperature rise at 2º or less. In fact, we believe that the tipping point is past. In this context, the rising ocean becomes a form determinant. By ‘form determinant’ we mean that the rising ocean will determine many of the new forms that culture, industry and many other elements of civilisation will have to take.” Newton Harrison and Helen Mayer Harrison The Harrison Studio & Associates (Britain) Ltd develops and produces projects within the UK with Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison, David Haley, Chris Fremantle and Gabriel Harrison. As leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, the Harrisons have worked for over 30 years with biologists, ecologists and urban planners to initiate collaborative dialogues which uncover ideas and solutions to support biodiversity and community development. The Bright Sparks project is being managed by UK ecological artist, David Haley, Research Fellow in MIRIAD (Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design) at Manchester Metropolitan University, and by UK cultural historian and arts project manager Chris Fremantle.
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