85701 Research Based Design WEEK 12b THE PERFORMER TAKES TO THE STREETS!

Couldn't help but put up one final post - yesterday we did an epic promotional and educational tour of the city streets, parading our Green Performer (Sam) around, handing out flowers and cards. It went really well, and we got some fab photos for our tumblr blog!

Bel and Adrian had an early morning at the Flemington flower markets, picking up our bouquets for the performer, then we met at my place to start the transformation of Sam into her alter-ego, Flower Woman.

First stop Oxford Street for some local publicity, then into the CBD where the crowds were thick for the opening of the Pitt Street Mall.

Befriending firefighters!

Shot of the day

Is my outfit as good as this?

Work it.

Quick touch-up!

Flowers were gone in a flash

85701 Research Based Design WEEK 12 A FUTURE FORCAST

Last week’s was the last formal lecture in the series, given by CSIRO Principal Scientist Dr. Stefan Hajkowicz. Dr Hajkowicz spoke on a global scale, discussing our future world, megatrends and megashocks.

One of the CSIRO’s recent projects is the compilation of a database from which trends all over the world could be recognized and analysed. This database is an online Wikipedia-style site, where CSIRO scientists and researchers could enter information on global trends. Once begun, a rapidly expanding pool of knowledge grew from the database, allowing primary and recurring trends to be recognized. Once analysed, the most prominently recurring of the trends were distinguished, and described as Megatrends.


MEGATRENDS

CSIRO Megatrends (2010, CSIRO)

MORE FROM LESS
A world of limited resources, a world in which we are quickly exhausting our natural resources such as coal and oil, and now must work to find other solutions.

Open cut mining in Australia (2010, Impact Lab)

A PERSONAL TOUCH
Personalisation of products and services – services and companies now tend to offer services they claim are tailored to the individual, targeting you and your sense of individual self and needs.

DIVERGENT DEMOGRAPHICS
Older, hungry and more demanding. The future holds the certainty of a tipping of the bell curve – an aging, dependant population, as well as huge food shortages; in order to feed the world’s future population, we must produce more food in the next 50 years than in the whole history of human civilization.

Statistical graph of Australia's projected demographic (2009, Australian Government)

ON THE MOVE
Urbanising and increasing mobility. Today and in the future, the number of people relocating to and living in the city is rising exponentially. Rising, too, are the amount of times each person changes jobs in their lives, or countries to live in. We are also physically on the move, globally linked by hundreds of plane routes ferrying people to and fro.

People are utilising fast and easy transportation around the globe more than ever (2009, Chris B.)

iWORLD
Digital and natural convergence. Today, we are experiencing a rapid technological advancement. We are online, plugged in and running out of IP addresses. Digital devices has become indispensible to our daily lives.

A digital world (2009, Blackberry Cool)

MEGASHOCKS

While researching, the CSIRO also identified a category of ‘Megashocks’ – dramatic events such as 9/11 which affect the world and the way we live. Megashocks are sudden, hard to predict and have major consequences. They pose serious global risk are capable of affecting the direction our future unfolds in.

Global Megashock of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center (2009, Eskenazi)

Megashocks prompt futuristic planning, and we now must consider; how do such events affect us?

Read the full CSIRO report here.










REFERENCES

23/4/2010, CSIRO, Our Future World: an Analysis of Global Trends, Shocks and Scenarios, CSIRO, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.csiro.au/resources/Our-Future-World.html

2010, Impact Lab, Megatrends and Megashocks that Will Change the Future of the World, WordPress, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.impactlab.net/2010/04/23/megatrends-and-megashocks-that-will-change-the-future-of-the-world/

24/4/2009, Australian Government: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 5. The Birth Rate, Cohort Size, Population Ageing, Commonwealth of Australia, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.facs.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/socialpolicy/Documents/prp13/sec5.htm

12/5/2009, Chris B., More Planes with Wi-Fi Flying to More Places than Any Other Airline, Delta Air Lines Blog, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://blog.delta.com/2009/05/12/welcome-to-the-wi-fi-club/

11/8/2009, Blackberry Cool, Top 10 Themes for the Blackberry Tour 9630, Blackberry Cool, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://www.blackberrycool.com/2009/08/11/top-10-themes-for-the-blackberry-tour-9630/

17/8/2009, Eskenazi, J., 9/11 Truther Film Festival Brought To You By… The San Francisco Bay Guardian?, SF Weekly, viewed on 24/10/2010, http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/08/9-11_truther_film_festival_bro.php

85701 Research Based Design WEEK 11 GRASSROOTS: NEW GROWTH

Since mid-semester break, Grassroots has undergone various changes. After creating a helium balloon and suspended plant proto-type, we discovered that the weight of the plants was going to be a serious issue – one balloon held only 9 grams. However, the real problems were of council origin. According to the council, it will be impossible to tie or anchor anything to the walls of Foley St, even the bars and window grills. Furthermore, the council has prohibited the use of any more than 20 balloons, as they may escape, which effectively destroys our idea, forcing us back to square one.

We were a very dejected group as we tried to come up with solutions to our problems. We brainstormed forlornly for the duration of the class, and eventually came up with some possibilities that looked promising. However, these new ideas involved building a free-standing structure from which to suspend our plants and create the overhead canopy, which would involve time and could be quite costly.

Group brainstorm!

Using the measurements I took and our design specs, I managed to get some outside help in the form of my Dad’s company, who offered to engineer and build us a structure free of charge! And we are back in business!

Sketches of our proposed frame, rendered by Adrian

At the same time, I have been working hard to develop and complete the flower costume for our Green Performer to wear out in the streets and on the Open House night. It was a great excuse to peruse Style.com and other fashion-y things for inspiration!

Imagine these shoes with the flower costume...amazing! (2009, The Flower Spy)

Feeling floral. (2008, The Daily Mail)

Jean Paul Gaultier's nature/jungle themed collection. Wow. (2010, Style.com)

I began by patterning and making a basic pink shift dress, then the team pitched in with making hundreds of small fabric puff ‘flowers’ to cover the dress.

Fabric flower-making bee!

Then began the long and tedious job of sewing the flowers all over the dress...

The outfit in progress

When complete, the overall effect will look amazing – the dress will be a stunning, handmade piece that really reflects the values of Grassroots and will help in communicating our concept strongly and aesthetically.

We’ve also set up a Tumblr blog, which we will direct people to via cards handed out by the Green Performer.

Sam's fab design for our promo cards!

It will document the Green Performer’s excursions in the city and interactions with the public, as well as a visual history of our inspirations in artworks and greenspaces in Sydney and around the world. Check it out at designgrassroots.tumblr.com. Next week we will be going on the first of our excursions with the Green Performer. We plan to do several excursions, some in the Foley and Oxford St area and some in the CBD, exposing Grassroots via the Green Performer to a maximum range of places and people.

When researching Gaultier I came across a great article about a gardening artist of sorts - Patrick Blanc, who creates amazing vertical garden installations. They are virtual sheets of greenery carpeting walls, buildings - you name it, he greenifies it. His work is really eco-conscious architecture, alive and growing on a formulated no-dirt, self-watering and fertilising felt frame. What a powerful way to promote urban green space.

Patrick Blanc's amazing 'vertical gardens' (2006, ping mag)

REFERENCE LIST

2009, Flower Spy, Chaussures de Fleurs (Flower Shoes), Blogger, viewed on 16/10/2010, http://internationalflowerspy.blogspot.com/2009/03/flower-shoes.html

2008, The Daily Mail, Blooming Tasty , Associated Newspapers Ltd, viewed on 16/10/2010, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1020389/Fashion-news.html

2010, Style.com, Jean Paul Gaultier, Conde Nast, viewed 16/10/2010, http://www.style.com/

2006, ping mag, Vertical Garden: the art of organic architecture, Yes! Communications, viewed on 17/10/2010, http://pingmag.jp/2006/12/08/vertical-garden-the-art-of-organic-architecture/

85701 Research Based Design WEEK 10 REDEMPTION THROUGH PERMACULTURE

Tuesday’s lecture was given by guest speaker Nick Ritar, of Milkwood Permaculture. Before the lecture, I had only a vague idea of what Permaculture was, so it was great to be given an in-depth introduction to the topic and it’s impact on Sydney city.

PERMACULTURE
Permaculture basically means what it says – it is a goal to create a permanent culture, a sustainable human civilization that can continue and exist indefinitely, sustainably providing for human needs. Obviously, this is a huge goal, but the principles of Permaculture work well on any scale, stressing care of the earth, care for each other and setting limits on consumption and population.

Sunflower (2010, Milkwood)

THE CITY
Nick presented a view of the contemporary city, specifically Sydney, as a giant vacuum; sucking up resources and dumping it as waste somewhere else. The city is an intensified area of consumption and waste production.

THE STATS
•    Sydney has an area of 12,144 km2 and a population of 4.5 million people
•    The average world wide ecological footprint is 2.5 hectares, Australian average ecological footprint is 7.5 hectares

Australia striding out (2010, Keith)

•    Sydney consumes 15 million kilograms of food every day
•    7 % of our food goes over the pesticide limit, according to the World Health Authority
•    Sydney produces 1.386 billion litres of sewage every day

CLOSING THE LOOP
The most important elements needed for agricultural purposes are  phosphate and nitrogen, elements which sewage is rich in, but are wasted in disposal. Nick suggests a radical change of the linear system through a utilization of our own waste for agricultural uses. Obviously, on a large scale this would be problematic, but problems aside, I find this to be a sound theory. However, I am still put off – as I am sure most people are, by the thought of using our own sewage to generate our food.

CAN PERMACULTURE FEED THE WORLD?
5m2 of home garden can offset 1500m2 of conventional agriculture. Gardening is more than 300 times more efficient than conventional agriculture. Even urban agriculture is more than 12 times more efficient than agriculture in rural NSW, for example: Western Sydney uses 1% of total agriculture land, but produces 12% of our food.

MILKWOOD PERMACULTURE

Nick and Kirsten at Milkwood Farm (2010, Milkwood)

Milkwood Farm is Nick Ritar’s family run Permaculture farm in Mudgee, Western NSW. From Milkwood, Nick and his partner Kirsten run Milkwood Permaculture, a permaculture education, design and consulting business. ‘Milkwood is being developed using best-practice approaches to system design, natural building, land regeneration and food production to create an abundant, stable system that will provide for both our family and for the community beyond.’ (2009, Milkwood Permaculture)

While perusing the Milkwood blog, I also came across some great examples of urban gardening, ideas we could utilize in our own project Grassroots.

Home agriculture (2010, Milkwood)

Urban gardening system in North Sydney (2010, Milkwood)

REFERENCES

3/3/2010, Keith, Picture the Future: Australia, AcKnowledge Consulting, viewed on 15/10/2010, http://delarue.net/blog/2010/03/picture-the-future-australia/

2009, Milkwood Permaculture, Welcome to Milkwood Permaculture, Milkwood Permaculture, viewed on 15/10/2010, http://www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au/courses?gclid=CNe2-Nu88aQCFQjPbgodblTI1A

2010, Milkwood, Blog, WordPress.com, viewed on 15/10/2010, http://milkwood.net/

85701 Research Based Design WEEK 9 THE AUSTRALIAN TIMEBOMB

This week’s lecture, given by Tom Barker, was fascinating – even if a little expansive and digressive. Tom spoke about understanding Australia in terms of Australia as a ticking time-bomb just waiting to explode: our natural resources are rapidly being depleted, we are over-exporting and under-developing sustainable industry, we are not placing enough emphasis on intellectual capital and our current economic success is unlikely to continue after the inevitable decline of resource exports.

Although I disagree with some of Tom’s points about Australia’s future, I agree that one of the most significant problems we face is the decline of resource industries such as mining, upon which our economy is based and flourishes. Now is the time to direct our energies in new and different directions in order to set up a basis for a successful Australia in the future.

I was very interested in some of the statistics Tom presented; only 3% of Australian GDP is in creative industries, compared to a European average of 7%  and a huge 17% growth rate in creative industries in China according to the UN Creative Economies report. To pave the way to a flourishing country in the future, I think it is important that we concentrate our efforts in creative fields – emphasizing problem solving, designing solutions and sustainable answers.

Graph of the role of creative industries in the economy (United Nations, 2008)

Looking at a national scale and considering the future, Richard Florida’s Creative Cities theories comes to mind. Although his theory may be problematic, Florida is heading in the right direction by linking creativity and design industries to a progressive economic future.




REFERENCES

United Nation, 2008, UN Creative Economy Report, United Nations, viewed on 10/10/2010, http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditc20082cer_en.pdf

85701 Research Based Design WEEK 8 RELATIONAL AESTHETICS

In Relational Art, the artist is no longer at the center. They are no longer the soul creator, the master, or even the celebrity. The artist instead, is the catalyst. They kick-start a question, frame a point of consideration, or highlight an everyday moment. And then, they wait. They wait for a response from the random stranger, the passer-by, the usual suspect – you and I.

No formal classes over our 2 week uni break, so I thought I would explore Relational Aesthetics, a topic introduced to us in Week 4. In one of our most engaging lectures of the semester, artist Lucas Ihlein gave us a broad overview of Relational Aesthetics and Art. Lucas’s charisma, humour and obvious passion for the subject all helped to draw a definitive picture of the meaning of Relational Aesthetics, how it can be interpreted and understood, and how it is relevant today.

Lucas Ihlein (2004, MCA)

Relational Aesthetics is an approach to fine art practice which emerged in the 1990s, first observed and definitively explored by French theorist, curator and critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Relational Aesthetics was a new definition of art – encompassing the artist, world and audience as integral to the artwork instead of judging the artwork as a singular and isolated object. Relational Aesthetics is an approach to art based in human relations and social context, artworks are interactive and connecting, in which encounters between artist, audience and engagement in the artwork can change or define the artwork itself.

Relational Aesthetics refers to artwork that is open-ended, interactive and resistant to closure. Relational Art takes place in time and space and creates interactive communicative experiences and intersubjective encounters in which meaning is elaborated collectively.   

– Legier Biederman (2006, Biederman)

While speaking with us, Lucas touched on a host of interesting examples of artworks, performances and projects in order to visually and verbally communicate the meaning and intentions of Relational Aesthetics, ranging from his own projects and work with NUCA (Network of Un-Collectable Artists) to local and international artists, historically and currently practicing.

NUCA collectable and swapable artist cards (2004, Lowe)

One of the examples I found particularly interested was San Francisco based artist Mark Horowitz, who uses humour in performance art to translate his ideas. A great example of this is one Lucas mentioned – Horowitz’s ‘Errand Feasibility Study’. Horowitz describes this project as an attempt to solve some of the common problems encountered when going about everyday activities, such as ‘loneliness and alienation, boredom, impatience, anxiety, frustration, lethargy, hunger, flatulence, humming a Neil Diamond song, encountering stinky children, head bumps, and thoughtlessness.’ (2010, Horowitz)

This was attempted in two ways, which Horowitz termed Phase I and Phase II – one: Horowitz accompanied strangers on their errands, offering advice and helping out, two: he repeated the exercise, but rode a pack mule. Horowitz documented the hilarious outcomes of his study, attracting media attention as he performed tasks such leading his mule ‘Hail’ into Wal-Mart to return a purchase.

Marc and Hail running an errand (2010, Horowitz)

Horowitz’s reknowned blog, ‘I need to stop soon’, is a treasure trove of Horowitz’s thoughts, past and current projects, ideas and oddities. Another more recent project documented on the blog (and linked flickr site) is Horowitz’s ‘Recessionator’, a scheme to solve America’s financial crisis. Horowitz, dressed in a white plastic onesy, bounces on a trampoline while his assistant sprays him with paint. He then jumps off, landing on the canvas to create artworks with his body. Horowitz then gave the paintings to banks free of charge ‘so they could sell them and use the money to bail themselves out of the fiscal crisis, thereby taking the burden off the taxpayers.’ (2010, Horowitz)

Horowitz creates original artworks using the Recessionator (2010, Horowitz)

I see this project as a hybridization between conceptual artist Yves Klein’s ‘blue’ series of work, impressions of female figures transferred to the canvas via the body, and Napoleon Dynamite.

Yves Klein's artworks, created by painting the female body then laying the body on canvas, leaving a blue impression (2008, Wunderlich)

Uber-geek Napoleon, from cult classic film 'Napoleon Dynamite'. Not only does Horowitz echo his bizarre, off-beat antics, but even bears a resemblence to him...(2010, Funny Mormans)

In other words, a hilarious play on the value and appreciation of art. Perhaps Horowitz’s artworks will actually be able to bail out America once he is dead…

Currently, Horowitz is preparing for a new project set to begin on the 1st of November. The project, titled ‘The Advice of Strangers’ is Horowitz’s idea of figuring out what to do with his life – based on the decisions of others. The public will be able to vote in real-time on-line, on every decision Marc makes for one month, from boring to serious to intimate.

The Truman Show, Marc Horowitz style. Cast your vote here.

Work like Marc Horowitz's that can be loosely clarified as Relational Art is really inspiring - I think performance is something that really has an impact, something we could utilise in the Foley St event. The idea of Relational Art is a strong undercurrent in our Grassroots concept, which is based around the Green Performer getting out into the streets and talking to people, making them aware of our concept and what they can do to help. We will also set up a blog for people to follow over the weeks leading up to Open House - Marc Horowitz's blog illustrates just how effective this method of communication is - even if you weren't there to experience the event, you can still live it vicariously.

My illustration of the Grassroots Green Performer

It is great to build/make/create installations for events like this, but with an interactive, performative element it can become something much more - an experience as well as a visual presentation.







REFERENCES

2002, Bourriaud, N., Relational Aesthetics, Les presses du réel, France

2006, Biederman, L., A Global Art World: Relational Aesthetics, New Media Arts and Biennialization, Duke University, viewed on 11/9/2010, http://lbiederm.bol.ucla.edu/Site/

2004, MCA: Museum of Contemporary Art, Artist Talk: In the Balance, MCA, viewed on 11/9/2010, http://www.mca.com.au/default.asp?page_id=14&content_id=7015

16/6/2004, Lowe, K., NUCA (Network of Un-Collectable Artists) Card Set Swap Meet – Sydney, Chaos Generation Weblog, viewed on 11/9/2010, http://www.chaosgeneration.com/2004_06_01_archives.htm

2010, Horowitz, M., I Need to Stop Soon, WordPress and Semiologic CMS, viewed on 12/9/2010, http://www.ineedtostopsoon.com/

20/10/2010, Horowitz, M., marchorowitz’s photostream, Flickr, viewed on 12/9/2010, http://www.flickr.com/photos/marchorowitz/

23/1/2008, Wunderlich, Forum: drawing tutorials, link to some helpful tutorials, The Carving Path, IP. Board, viewed on 12/9/2010, http://www.thecarvingpath.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=1282

2010, Funny Mormans, Napoleon Dynamite, WordPress, viewed on 12/9/2010, http://funnymormons.com/2010/09/napoleon-dynamite/

2010, Horowitz, M., The Advice of Strangers, Creativetime, viewed on 12/9/2010, http://www.theadviceofstrangers.com/