SUSTAINABILITY DOES MATTER. I just wish that it were in
closer agreement with two facets of my daily life. The first
is a hardcore reluctance to moderate my so-called carbon
footprint. The second is that my job is to write about artworks
whose creation involves a particularly hefty use of energy
and materials that hardly ever get recycled. But although a
majority of new-media artists and festival organisers seem to
be blissfully unconcerned by environmental issues, there is a
green light at the end of the tunnel.
Some artists not only invite us to take a more
participatory role in the transformation of the environment,
they also help discard the assumption that a ‘green’ lifestyle
is unsightly and punishing. ‘We can bring beauty and
synaesthetic pleasure to the “green” front, to touch people on
a more visceral and emotional level. These qualities can move
us to change, because we want to participate in a lifestyle
that embodies them,’ says Maja Kuzmanovic, the organiser
of Luminous Green, a symposium held in various locations in
Belgium earlier this year that invited creative people to reflect
on innovative and appealing ways to instil environmental and
ethical values at the core of their practices.
Myriel Milicevic’s Neighbourhood Satellites (2005) is
a good example of what techy-meets-treehugging might
look like. For this work the artist rescued dumped materials
and used them to craft portable sensing devices that monitor
people’s local environments and map air-pollution levels along
the parameters of a handheld videogame, translating the
data into a more intuitive visual language. ‘Far from making
light of a serious problem, it made some people talk about
air pollution for the first time in their lives,’ explains Milicevic.
‘I think this is the power of playfulness – that it allows people
to lower their guard and approach issues they would normally
find too taxing to deal with.’
Three years ago Milicevic’s thesis project made
her feel like some kind of lonesome cowboy. Today the
panorama is showing encouraging signs of change, and right
where they ought to be found: in media art schools and at
events that promote this kind of work. The ITP Interactive
Telecommunications Program in New York, for example, has
just started to push a sustainability discourse into its geekiest
classes. At Futuresonic’s Urban Festival or Art Music and
Ideas in Manchester this year the new thread was to explore
the sustainability of future arts and technologies. Of course,
preaching a more eco-friendly attitude is easy. I’m aware that
I am not the one who has to face such nagging problems
as the cost of solar-powered electronics or the lack of
robustness in some components. Still, I’m looking forward to
seeing more major media-art festivals dedicate a category to
environmental issues and to meeting media-art teachers who
encourage their students to adopt a critical stance towards
the media they use in their practices.
But who am I to throw stones? I still can’t be bothered
to acknowledge the fact that people managed to get along
fine without aeroplanes before the Wright Brothers.
Myriel Milicevic, Neighbourhood
Satellites, 2005. Courtesy the artist
p112-113 Mixed Media AR Jul07.in113 113 6/6/07 05:05:35
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