| Eco Media update
Immersion update
Sensory Navigation update
The 30 Year NOW: Future of the Lea Valley update
Eco Media by Graham Harwood, Richard Wright and Matsuko Yokokoji, proposes a new exploration of ecosystems as a communications networks that can allow exchanges of ‘viewpoint’ between the human and animal worlds. Their research developed during Bright Sparks will form part of their new work which will bring their international work in Ecologies: Power, Art and Media to the following international festivals: AV Festival in North East of England, March 2010 and the International Symposium of Electronic Arts 2010 in the Ruhr, Germany 2010, and also at Goldsmiths University London and Metal Culture. The new work presented which develops the initial Bright Sparks research will include the production of three Media Field Study Guides: easy to read guides to locate the potential for unusual media within the urban and natural environment; The Media Challenge: working with particular outreach groups to find an unusual way to send a signal around the urban or natural environment using the field guides as reference; this will take place in three regions across two countries. Some groups will progress to helping with the creation of Coal Fired Computers: exploring the site specific context of the Thames Estuary, North East England and the Ruhr Valleys relationship with the generation of power employing the methodologies within the field guides.
Immersion is a transdisciplinary project by artist Alex Murdin which aims to research the relationship between leisure and ecology in the UK to develop new uses for lidos, tidal pools and other water courses, exploring their potential as places and spaces for ecological education and recreation.
Immersion has developed into a contemporary art project with Aune Head Arts in Dartmoor, using the arts, sciences, and recreational and leisure activities to promote awareness and develop better understanding of both the ecological and social importance of water environments. Set within the hydrological cycle of Dartmoor, the project comprises a series of three commissioned projects, and a number of public outputs. Partnering with the National Marine Aquarium, the project begins mid-2009.
Three commissioned projects as part of Immersion:
Immersible, led by Nancy Sinclair, explores the deep relationship that people who live, work or play on or near water develop with it.
Immersed explores how can we use digital technologies to penetrate the surface of the water and learn what lies beneath. This project will commission digital artist Richard Povall to create a series of works that not only reveal what lies beneath the rivers and the oceans, but which uses the touch and feel of water as a sensual haptic interface. The end result will be some form of installation and an online or kiosk-based exploration.
Submersion, led by Alex Murdin himself who is directing the whole project, examines water from an architectural perspective, looking towards creating new public spaces or facilities as a temporary space for the enjoyment of water and its ecologies, and as a space for learning in more engaging, fun, exploratory, and hands-on ways.
During the R&D phase of Sensory Navigation, Terry Orchard felt that there was still a disparity between the sign language that his special needs children were using on a day to day basis while at school, and the signage within our public realm. This was evident in the parks and open spaces that Terry and Simon visited as part of their Sensory Navigation research.
Essex County Council, who part funded Sensory Navigation have subsequently commissioned Terry to address this issue further through a site specific pilot project. Working with the country park service manager at Great Notley Country Park and in collaboration with the children and staff from Edith Borthwick new model special needs school, Terry has been developing new signage for public spaces. Also involved are Parc Essex, a charity run organisation that offer out of school care and activities for special needs children.
Part of Terry’s innovative practice has been to bring an ‘action research’ process to the client which has involved the Open Spaces Management team from Essex County Council walking in the park with Terry and his colleague, special needs adult, James Venables. This has given open space professionals a new insight into the issues that Terry is addressing.
Greenhouse Britain by Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison and the Harrison Studio & Associates (Britain), which features their Bright Sparks research focused on the Lea Valley, addresses global warming from an artist’s perspective. The overall work proposes an alternative narrative about how people might withdraw as waters rise, what new forms of settlement might look like and what content, or properties a new cultural landscape might have in response to the Global Warming phenomenon The Bright Sparks research by the Harrison Studio & Associates (Britain), which explored the potential of rising sea levels along the Lee Valley has contributed a significant part of the Greenhouse Britian project, which completed it's tour throughout the UK in 2008. Venues included Greater London Authority City Hall; Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol; Holden Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University; Darwin Festival, Shrewsbury Museums & Art Gallery, Shrewsbury, Shropshire; Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, Exeter, and elements of the exhibition were also be shown at the London Wildlife Trust annual conference at the London Development Agency in 2007. The Harrisons work is currently represented in the Barbican Arts Centre, London as part of the Radical Nature exhibition.
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