Yearly Archives: 2017

Maker Chris Wallace: Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

Creative Carbon Scotland, Fringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Each year Creative Carbon Scotland put a call out through Creative Scotland for a Scottish-based artist or maker to create a unique and sustainable award piece for the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice award. Here we find out a little more about the design process from our commissioned maker.

The commission based opportunity requests makers to experiment with the environmental, social and economic aspects of their work and reflect the inspirations and objectives of the award. This year the commission was awarded to Chris Wallace, a Glasgow-based crafter.

The ‘Green Man’

Chris used the image of the ‘Green Man’, a widely known ancient motif, as the main design element of his award. This commonly uses a face surrounded by leaves, composed of leaves or with leaves surging from the mouth and eyes. This image is commonly associated with natural rebirth and the cycle of natural growth.

Chris said of the image:

“I feel that the image’s link to the idea of recurrence makes it suitable for use in the Sustainable Practice Award. This is because recurrent or circular models of economics offer an alternative to prevalent linear models that currently serve our economy. A circular flow of materials that can be recovered and reused is a clear challenge to the narrow path that leads from manufacturing to disposability. The image acts as a reminder of our undeniable reliance on nature and its example of renewal.”

The core image was structured from reclaimed copper electrical wire which was sourced from a metal reclaiming business in East Kilbride. The wire was then made into the elements of the design and soldered together back in Chris’ studio at the Briggait, Glasgow, home to a host of Green Arts Initiative members. Once the image was complete it was fixed onto roof slate which Chris sourced from the cottage he stayed at in the Cairngorms. To finish the design, the lettering was soldered on once the award’s judges decided on a winner and partner logos were attached to the completed award piece by tin can.

This year’s award was won by Outland Theatre’s production, Towers of Eden, who loved the unique design concept of their award, and here at Creative Carbon Scotland, we were thrilled by Chris’ unique, detailed and thoughtful interpretation and implementation of the design.

You can see more of Chris’ work on his website: http://www.chriswallacework.co.uk/

The Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award is a collaboration between its founder, the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA), and Creative Carbon Scotland, working in partnership with the List magazine and PR Print & Design.

Each year the award is given to a production that exhibits high quality artistic integrity and engages the company and audiences with the issues of sustainability in all of its forms. It celebrates different approaches to sustainable practice both in content and in the production of shows, and rewards those that take responsibility for their social, environmental and economic impacts and think creatively about how the arts can help grow a sustainable world.

For any further questions please contact catriona.patterson@creativecarbonscotland.com or call the Creative Carbon Scotland office on 0131 529 7909.

 

The post Maker Chris Wallace on crafting the Fringe Sustainable Practice Award appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

 

About Creative Carbon Scotland:

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Harvesting Human Energy

Artists and Climate Change

This post comes from the Artists and Climate Change Blog

Calling all dancers! Ballet, jazz, tango, ballroom, Zumba, breakdance, tap, disco, swing, line, hip-hop, pogo, calypso, square dance, cha cha, jerkin’…

You are an incredible source of untapped renewable energy!

Each footstep, each cabriole, each moonwalk, each jerk produces kinetic energy. This kinetic energy can be transformed into electricity to light up the stage upon which you dance, to power the audio system in your theatre, to charge the LED lights in your dressing room, or even to feed into the larger grid.

The Dutch company Energy Floors has created the world’s first dance floor that harvests human energy. Welcome to the Anthropocene.

Power Of Dance (by Vice UK) from Energy Floors on Vimeo.

By “making energy fun”, Energy Floors is committed to raising awareness about energy production and consumption (note: we humans can do both!) in a way that is interactive, tangible and more accessible than, say, remote utility-scale solar or wind farms or hydroelectric dams.

“When you install an energy floor,” explained Energy Floors CEO Michel Smit to CNBC, “then the public is part of the solution, they are part of the energy contribution of that location, which makes them much more involved.” According to the company’s website, “We believe that consciousness about energy and the impact we have on it are the main conditions to create a sustainable world.”

renewable energy, dance, floors, energy

Photo courtesy of Energy Floors

Energy Floors wants people to understand the simple fact that “energy is everywhere” – it just needs to be harvested. Think about this: the average person takes about 150 million steps in a lifetime. “That’s a lot of steps, right?” says Sylvia Meijer-Villafane, Director of Marketing & Communication for Energy Floors. ‘Now multiply that by the billions of people on the planet. Harnessing all that kinetic energy and converting it into electricity creates an incredible opportunity to ensure access to sustainable energy for people across the world. Adding solar panels [starting October 2017] to our energy tiles makes this opportunity even more worthwhile.”

Energy Floors is not the only company experimenting with “smart floors” – UK’s Pavegen and Italy’s Veranu focus primarily on the built environment, with installations across the globe. But Energy Floors was the first start-up to promote the concept that human dancing is a potential source of renewable energy.

How does this technology work? The floor tiles produced by these companies convert the small vertical movement of human footsteps/dancesteps into a very high rotational motion (on the order of 1,000s of rpm) that drives a tiny internal generator to produce off-grid electricity. More movement, more energy; more dancers, more electricity generated. A diagram is provided in the following video beginning at 00:48.

Theoretically, almost anything could be powered through the simple act of a human footstep, multiplied hundreds of thousands times per day in heavy foot-traffic areas such as train stations, airports, museums, sports arenas, movie theaters, music festivals and exercise studios. As it turns out, there is a huge opportunity for harvesting human energy.

To date, renewable energy headlines are dominated by wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power. But human-powered renewable energy will surely become a “thing” in the not-too-distant future. There are many applications already. For example micro windmills – 1/15 of an inch wide – embedded into our clothing can generate electricity from the kinetic energy produced when we swing our arms or legs by walking, biking, running or dancing.

micro, wind, turbine, micro windmill, renewable, energy, kinetic

A micro-windmill is pictured on the face of a penny.

Alors on danse!

About Artists and Climate Change:

Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog

Tickets: The Green Arts Conference!

Creative Carbon Scotland

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Tickets are now available for this year’s Green Arts Conference! Taking place on 1st November 2017 in Glasgow, it’s the conference for Scottish cultural organisations aiming to increase their environmental sustainability.

Hosted by Creative Carbon Scotland at Partick Burgh Hall in Glasgow, this full-day conference will consist of a mix of plenary session, best practice show-and-tell from the Green Arts Initiative community, a supplier showcase and focused workshops. Confirmed speakers include Creative Scotland, Puppet Animation Scotland, Dundee Rep, and Starcatchers (Scotland’s National Arts and Early Years organisation).

The whole day will focus on how and why the cultural sector is creatively approaching environmental sustainability, and where organisations can go next in their sustainability work, as well as what is on the government, funder and grassroots horizons.

Building on the success of 50 Shades of Green: Stories of Sustainability in the Arts Sector (2015)and 51 Shades of Green: Action in the Arts (2016), this year’s conference will highlight and share the innovative steps the sector is taking to reducing its environmental impact, and challenge how the arts can contribute to a more sustainable Scotland.

Whether you’re a Green Arts Initiative member, a Regularly Funded Organisation working towards Creative Scotland’s ‘Environment’ Connecting Theme, an arts venue keen to find out what your peers are doing, an arts company who has been working on sustainability for years, or just coming to sustainability in the sector for the first time, there will be something for you!

Register for your ticket below, or on Eventbrite!

About Creative Carbon Scotland:

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland