Taking an ecological approach to observing patterns in time and space systems is a very current direction to tackle environmental issues. This discussion focuses attention on observations of an historical nature as well as considering emerging patterns in our individual and collective attitude to Nature, ecology and the environment. Recently, several projects – highly evolved in both concept and process- emerged. Some of these case studies are used as primary foci of exemplification in order to explain the dialectics between Humanity and the environment through artistic capture. These dialectics also bring into relation the significance and future implications of fledgling initiatives in regions where cognition of environmental activism by artists is less advanced. Consequently, this exploratory essay has a long, complex and sometimes elastic time-line, yet nevertheless proposes an underlying correlation tying the diversity of perspective together as a way of indexing Humankind’s relation to Nature on a social and cultural basis. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the main goal of Eco-activist art to re-Frame complex issues so that they maintain essential meaning while the process itself facilitates attitude changes to the environment – mainly through positive social innovation leading to social change.
This special session of 3rd nature involves six presentations from Europe. It occurs on Friday, February 1, 2013 8-9 pm, from Belgium, Germany, Spain and Austria and simultaneously Saturday, February 2, 2013, 8-9 am in Taranaki, Aotearoa New Zealand. This session occurs immediately after the Tomo Whakaari (Dawn Opening) for the 3rd nature exhibition has completed.
Authors
Maja Kuzmanovich
Verena Kuni
Lorena Lozano
Reni Hofmuller
Annemie Maes
Lenka Dolanova and Michal Kindernay
City Bee Monitoring
Annemie Maes, Brussels, Belgium
http://opengreens.archive.okno.be/category/opengreens/city-honeybees
It is remarkable to see how a bee population functions and evolves in accordance to the human activites we are developing around them: gardening and urban agriculture. Honeybees are very responsive to the different biotopes that we share they are good bio-indicators. Therefore we want to gather insight into what constitutes the diversity of our surrounding living place and research this on a deeper level. We developed yet different tools for identifying the specificity and relatedness of plants, insects and human activities. Adding new sensor networks to our Connected Open Greens distributed garden database, we hope to portray the surround Brussels Canal Zone, as it is changing over time into a continuous productive urban landscape. With this new project, Corridors, in which city honeybees play the leading role, we want to research how the sustainability of cities can be increased in the future, and how citizens can be actively involved.
http://www.intercreate.org/2012/12/scanz2013-skype-bridge/
Bio
Annemie Maes, media artist and activist, holds master degrees in fine arts and cultural studies. Her artistic research and cultural activism projects are publicly presented as ‘politics of change’ with a focus on actual topics as ecology and women empowerment. Most of the projects are linked to the problematization of new art in public space, from a socio-cultural background. Annemie Maes is co-founder of Okno, an artist-run organization working with media art and ecology. Her recent research work focuses on Corridors & Connected Open Greens, both transdisciplinary projects at the intersection of art, biology and green technology.