The Cloud Project is a modified ice-cream van that presents a series of experiments to make clouds snow ice-cream. Inspired by developments in nanotechnology and planetary-scale engineering, it points to new possibilities where we develop the means to conform the global environment to our needs.
Developed in collaboration with Zoe Papadopoulou, we see it as a tool for public engagement, performance, and spectacle, with the goal to amaze and inspire people to think critically about their relationship to emerging technologies and weather modification. Merging popular culture and science, the van also hosted a series of talks from scientists, artists and designers during the degree show at the RCA to offer the public various, sometimes conflicting views on what the future may have in store for us. It will be exhibited at the Science Gallery in Dublin from October to December 2009.
Living alone I find it difficult to finish all the food that I buy. A study by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) “found that £9bn of avoidable food waste was disposed of in England and Wales each year”. Every time I throw food away I’m frustrated by the thought that it will decompose in a landfill surrounded by toxic materials, ruining any potential for returning valuable nutrients back to the soil.
Hence, the Urban Grazing foodbox was an experiment I made while exploring ways to achieve zero food waste. Basically, I hung the box out of my window with excess food in it.
The first day I recorded any movement around it with a webcam to see how people would interact with it. Quite a few people were curious, and seemed to enjoy the discreet spectacle. I offered something easy; clementines and chocolate biscuits. However, in the following days my offerings progressed into things that aren't instantly consumable such as lemons and onions, which were also gone by the time I came home in the evenings.
The box has the potential to become an informal model for food waste reduction, and could expand into a network for sharing excess food.
As we shape our surroundings to create urban spaces, we are not its lone inhabitants. A vast array of other species adapt to the new surroundings as their previous habitats are encroached upon. We participate in a large web of interactions inextricably linked to natural systems, depending on the same nutritional resources as pigeons, deer, snails, fish, etc. Hence, to celebrate bio-diversity and nurture our curiosity of exotic tastes, I invited a number of local characters and international guests to a picnic.
The picnic took place in Stavanger, Norway, as part of the exhibition "Temporary capital of subculture" in correlation to a Trans Europe Halles conference hosted by Tou Scene.
"Cohabiting with animals, playing with them, sharing territorial and nutritional resources, understanding the tremendous environmental services they provide, is the way to imagine a viable and tasty future." N. Jeremijenko