The project “Generation Y” deals with the issues around the role of art in the current environmental crisis. By selecting a series of art projects and presenting them via the online medium Instagram, curator Michele A wants to create a prolific ground on which build a new understanding of the use of technology towards finding new sustainable solutions.
The exhibition aims to bring the city of Manchester right at the center of the conversation about the implications of art within the environmental crisis and what contribution artists can make to the cause. The work of artists and professionals involved is contributing in expanding the discourse around art and the environment through a creative use of the latest technological achievements.

VARIATION GAMES in GENERATION Y:
The work of AnneMarie Maes is found at the intersection between technological research, environmental humanities and poetics. Variation Games (2018) is the result of a year long of recordings monitoring the activity of a honey bee colony from an unusually close perspective, one that makes the viewer take part in the always so diligent work of the honey bee workers. Years of close monitoring and collaboration with the bee colony culminated in the creation of The Intelligent Guerrilla Beehive, a safe nest for city honey bees that also interacts with its environment by measuring the level of pollution in its surroundings. The research carried out by Maes demonstrates just how beneficial a balanced relationship between natural and technological agents can be, for both human and non-human species. Art and science are closely-knit towards a future where collaboration and advancement become synonymous.

The work of AnneMarie Maes is hosted by APIAN, a machine for exploring the age-old interspecies relationship between bees and humans. Take a look at their incredibly beautiful and interesting website: http://www.apian.ch and on Instagram: apian.ch