Wed
Sep
1
I’m in the midst of getting my head (& body, I suppose) back into the bizarre ecological niche that is North Brooklyn. I’m doing research for a project I’d like to carry out involving bioremediation and water from English Kills (the closest thing to a creek or river to be found in this neighborhood). After spending time at Signal Fire with some awesome activism-oriented artists like Katherine Ball and organizers Amy & Ryan, I’ve been considering/re-considering the role of activism in my own work. I just came across a great blog post by current iLAB residents River to Creek that covers a lot of what I’ve thinking about lately:
Art, Science, Activism, and Bicycles
Their upcoming River to Creek Bike Tour sounds intriguing too. After spending time in Portland, I’m feeling more than a little bike-culture withdrawal.
Mon
Aug
9
I just completed a week in the Mt. Hood National Forest with Signal Fire. This was a really unique & inspiring residency. More coming soon!
Mon
Jun
28
We had an interesting installation session for Chrysalis on Friday. Here are some shots from a bustling evening on Bedford Avenue. Documentation from the finished installation (video and stills) to follow!
Thu
Jun
24
I’ve got plenty of summer reading to do. Still I keep looking around for more. Just downloaded this journal, via a tip from ecoartspace. I haven’t had time to read any of it yet, but looking over the article titles, it sounds intriguing. Check it out here.
Fri
Jun
18
Trade School has almost reached their $9000 fundraising goal on kickstarter. Only 8 days to go, and they need $1500 more! Check out their kickstarter page. Plus, there’s a neat photo from Andrea and my drawing class on their most recent update page :)
From kickstarter.com:
“A pan of Ellie Iron’s class, “Drawing for Pleasure and Relaxation”. Ellie led students through several drawing exercises — in the dark, with sticks, with wire and with their own shadows. You can see more photos from Ellie’s class at our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourgoods/sets/72157623391669809/”
Wed
Jun
2
It’s coming up! June 9-12 I’ll be working outside, on the banks of the Schuylkill River, as part of Philadelphia’s first Art in the Open festival. I just came across a nice blog post about the festival here. If you have any Philadelphia recommendations, ecological or otherwise, send them my way!
Sun
May
16
After a week of hard work out in Paterson, Great Fallings opened successfully last night! I think my melting/dripping Passaic River water piece (“Proglacial Hydrating Structure”) ended up being a successful experiment. More documentation coming soon, but for now, here are a few photographs Dan snapped during the evening. More (and larger) on flickr.
Sun
May
2
This is a good (in a depressing way) article from the times on the wetland ecosystems being threatened by the oil spill in the gulf. For some reason I’ve got a particularly soft spot for grassy, marshy landscapes. I wish there was something I could do to help. Do they need someone to clean pelican feathers, perhaps? Sigh.
The article describes how normal, healthy marsh grass would recover fairly quickly from oil inundation, but the gulf coast marshes are already in a fragile state, and this could be “the last straw”:
Normally, these grasses have great resiliency. They are similar to a lawn, said Irving A. Mendelssohn, a professor at Louisiana State University who has done studies oil’s effect on the local ecology. If they are damaged only above the ground, they will grow back swiftly. But if the roots die, the plant dies and the ground underneath it sinks into the sea within a year.
A coating with a sheen of oil would do little harm, Dr. Mendelssohn said. But, he said, “if you have oil coming in consistently, the cumulative effect could be severe. If the plants keep getting reoiled, you get a smothering effect. The vegetation could no longer do photosynthesis, and then it can’t sustain itself.”
It’s strange to go about my life with this disaster progressing in the back of my mind. Regardless, it’s been generating some terrifyingly gorgeous photographs. From the Big Picture:
Fri
Apr
30
I’m working on a new collaborative project. It opens next Friday, May 7, 7-10. Much circuit building and branch sculpting to be done before that! More details here.
Thu
Mar
25
I’ve been struggling with the effects of a ambient city noise invading my urban home over the past few months, but I’ve never thought that closely about what influence this might have on my avian neighbors (there are barely any in our current part of Bushwick!). Apparently, the constant noise from human industry and transportation affects birds as well, causing decreased ability to communicate through song. Given the fact that many songbirds depend on this kind of communication to establish territories and find a mate, increased noise results in less successful pairings, and thus decreased population growth. Here are two articles that summarize some of the recent research on this issue. Both these articles were posted a few years ago, so I’m digging around to see if there is more research underway:
Live Science: Noise Pollution Threatens Birds
Greenchange: Noise Pollution Makes City Songbirds Change Their Tune
Also doing much singing, but apparently not bothered by all our noise…this guy (European Starling) is by far the most common songbird in our neighborhood:
