Albany, on the SW coast, is the latest to receive a make-over!
FORM’s PUBLIC Silo Trail is putting regional Western Australia on the map, bringing world class murals to grain silos, transformer boxes and other iconic infrastructure in unexpected towns right across the state. The project will create a trail, drawing visitors to regional WA, raising its profile and boosting cultural tourism.
Albany, on the SW coast, is the latest to receive a make-over! For the last 16 years, primary students in the Shire of Mundaring have participated in the Environmental Art Project, a process of creative discovery about the environment - then translating their new knowledge into fun and educational artworks. In 2017, over 1000 students investigated life in the leaf litter, to better understand food webs and the importance of small creatures in ecosystems. The project enhances awareness of local global environmental issues and provide creative opportunities for young artists.
Great to see this creative involvement of local kids in their own environment! In better news, this small marsupial 'kangaroo rat', formerly numerous, and now on the verge of extinction, has been saved by a far-sighted rescue programme begun in 1994. By 2015, fox and feral cat predication had left only 20 wild potoroos, in dense virgin bush on Mt Gardner, Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, near Albany, W.A. There, devastating November 2015 fires destroyed 90% of habitat and killed 15 of the potoroos, with the remaining 5 being rescued. Fortunately, a small colony was previously transplanted offshore to Bald Island, where they are thriving. There are now 90-100 Gilbert's Potoroos in the colony.
An update on this critically endangered little parrot, from its last remaining home in the Cape Arid region - where it recently lost 90% of its habitat in the November 2015 Esperance fires:
From Today Tonight, 25th March
Nice to see good use being made of renewables.
Now if the rest of the world would just catch on - Mr. Tony Abbott in particular. I personally struggle to see how wind farms are uglier than a coal-fired or nuclear power-station.... Back on track...After several major health issues, I'm finally back on my feet again. Just finished updating Gail's Gallery, which was quite a job in itself - although I'm finding the re-vamped Weebly site much easier to work with. Will try to keep on top of things from now on, and get back into my environmental research !
Just found this great TED talk by Alastair Parvin on housing design and building for the 21st century, and had to share. Open source design, 3-D printing, laser-cut frames, DIY, cost-cutting - mind-blowing stuff, yet so practical . . . On the plus side, my Open University studies are still going well - despite a definite minus-side last month, when I was whipped in to hospital for cataract surgery. Not much of a problem in itself - but I hadn't realised how light-sensitive the eye would be afterwards [ N.B. It is very difficult to work on a digital art unit in Photoshop with only one functioning eye! Not to be recommended....!!] Anyway, the results of all the pain and toil are posted in my new Digital Art section. The other eye is to be done next month, so the OUA course now has to go on hold for one Study Period (3 months). ** Plus-side - it will be very nice to have a holiday :) Well, that took a bit longer than I thought! Life just falls apart sometimes, I guess.... Now living in beautiful Albany, Western Australia - an ideal spot for an eco-friendly individual. Just a quick notification that I'll be off-line for some time.
Please feel free to post comments here for me, and to check out my other @u3astudent web creations from the links on the right, and throughout the site - the new EcoWorks Facebook Page, some excellent links and info in Twitter, and my book-marks in Delicious and StumbleUpon. I'll be back asap :) The first aspect of Environmental Art we shall look at is Ecovention, as this is also a part of eco-art (told you it was confusing!) Basically, ecovention is the activist, collaborative side of eco-art: eco(logical)(inter)vention. In many cases, ecovention can be classed as political; there is often a very fine line between whether it is seen as art, or environmental activism. "Ecovention: Current Art To Transform Ecologies", is an excellent book on the subject by Sue Spaid, written in 2002 to accompany her exhibition in Cincinnati, USA.She details the early artists involved in ecoventions, and states: "Coined in 1999, the term ecovention ... describes an artist-initiated project that employs an inventive strategy to physically transform a local ecology." I can't think of a better contemporary example of that definition than the epic work by artist Vik Muniz, "Wasteland". This project involved Muniz collaborating with the catadores (pickers of recyclable materials) at Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Wasteland (May,2011) resulted in the closure of the Rio city dump, restoration of the site, and escape from poverty for the workers - an entire eco-system rehabilitated by the artistic vision and ecovention of one man.
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EnviroBlog explores our Environment; links to environmental issues and art are posted here.
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