Lovely Weather: Art & Climate Change Projects 2010

Leonardo/Olats and Donegal County Council present the five projects for Lovely Weather: Art and Climate Change a ground breaking art & science project that examines the issue of climate change in Donegal, Ireland.

The selected artists are:

Peter d’Agostino (USA) "WorldWide Walks/between earth & sky/Dún na nGall" - Glenties
Seema Goel (Can) - "Carbon Footprint," Inishowen
The League of Imaginary Scientists (USA) "The Irish Rover: Looking for Mars Off the Northern Coast of Ireland" - Letterkenny/ Milford
Antony Lyons (UK) "Weather Proof" - Ballybofey / Stranolar
Softday (Ire) "Marbh Chrios (Dead Zone)" - Donegal Town

The selected artists have taken an interdisciplinary approach to their work and have actively involved citizens from their respective areas in their projects to consider questions about climate and its changes on a practical level. The final projects will be featured in an exhibition at the Regional Cultural Centre (Ireland) in November 2010, and will be accompanied by an international conference and publication.

PETER D'AGOSTINO, DEIRDRE DOWDAKIN, DAVID TAFLER
WorldWide Walks/between earth & sky/Dún na nGall
Glenties Electoral Area
http://www.peterdagostino.net

Project Description: This project is based on a series of World-Wide-Walks, video / web projects that combine elements of natural, cultural and virtual identities. The complimentary realities of actually walking through a physical environment and of virtually surfing the web are key components of these projects that began with The Walk Series, video documentation / performances in 1973, and have continued to the present. The project intends to explore issues of the natural environmental sciences with an emphasis on cultures and histories, including examining climate reconstructions; the science of climate; societal impacts of climate change; and cultural analyses of climate history.

Biography: Peter d'Agostino is an artist who has been working in video and new media for three decades. His pioneering projects have been exhibited internationally in the form of installations, performances, telecommunications events, and broadcast productions. Recent surveys of his work include: Interactivity and Intervention, 1978-99 exhibited at the Lehman College Art Gallery, New York; and Between Earth & Sky, 1973/2003 at the University of Paris I Partheon-Sorbonne. Major group exhibitions include: The Whitney Museum of American Art (Biennial, and The American Century-Film and Video in America 1950-2000), the Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil, and the Kwangju Biennial, Korea. His work is in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art and is distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York.

SEEMA GOEL
Carbon Footprint
Inishowen Electoral Area
http://carbonfootprintproject.blogspot.com/

Project Description: Carbon Footprint is a process-based artwork linking local phenomenon to global climate change. While the scientific data and analysis are imperative to our understanding of climate change, the project will also consider the hijacking of the term "climate" as in "the economic climate", the concept of "low-carbon" economies, a statistical correlation analysis of Malin Head meteorological data with Irelands gross domestic product (GDP) and green house gas emissions, and a substantial consideration and use of local materials, knowledge, iconography and personal industry on a human (rather than industrial) scale. The project will attempt to make the science and issues of climate change accessible by rephrasing them in materials and contexts, which are part of the everyday experience, as well as working to reclaim local iconography.

Biography: Seema Goel is a Canadian artist and a MFA Graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and is currently completing a MA.Sc. (Interdisc) at the Fine Arts / Environmental Engineering dept, University of Regina.

THE LEAGUE OF IMAGINARY SCIENTISTS (LUCY HG & PARTNERS)
The Irish Rover: Looking for Mars Off the Northern Coast of Ireland
Letterkenny / Milford Electoral Area
http://www.imaginaryscience.org

Project Description: The project focuses on and takes its inspiration from the legendary voyage of 'The Irish Rover' and the current work being carried out by NASA on Mars. The idea is to develop a scientific expedition along the Fanad / Swilly peninsula's that will mirror the work currently being undertaken on Mars. In combining planetary storylines, the League hopes to draw a reverse timeline from Earth to Mars and question whether the Earth could end up with a Martian like climate in the future. In examining these seemingly opposite planetary climates, we hope to understand the effects of climate change on Donegal.

Biography: The US based League of Imaginary Scientists is a group of artists and scientists who engineer hybrid art works in the cross-section of their worlds, in collaboration with local communities. The League's previous history aboard boats, barges and ferries prepares them of their Irish expedition. This includes works with the NY Water Taxi, a League residency on the Waterpod (a floating sustainable habitat).

ANTONY LYONS
Weather Proof
Ballybofey / Stranolar Electoral Area
http://www.antonylyons.net

Project Description: 'Slowness' is the key to Antony Lyons' project. In the Ballybofey / Stranolar area, a look- out point, which is also an existing field-gate, will be selected. The site will be close to a location where scientific weather measurements (rainfall, humidity, temperature, pressure, wind speed, wind direction) are already being taken. This will become the site for year-long observation (by the artist and some observers). At the gate / look-out site, the artist's recordings will be highly personal weather-words/ weather-diaries recorded on paper and digitally with photos and sounds. The programmed visits by the artist will be supplemented by daily/weekly visits by members of a small volunteer observation team. Furthermore, there is the potential to extend the observer participation into the idea of a geo-caching trail, with weather-proof boxes located at points in the landscape.

Biography: Antony Lyons is an artist, landscape designer and environmental scientist based in Bristol, UK. He was the lead artist for NOVA's 2005/6 'Brunel 200' commissions in Bristol. Co- founder of Deiseal - formed in 2006 to develop sculptural and land-art projects in Ireland.

SOFTDAY (SEAN TAYLOR & MIKAEL FERNSTROM)
Marbh Chrios (Dead Zone)
Donegal Electoral Area
http://www.softday.ie

Project Description: In 2008, Virginia Institute of Marine Science Professor Robert Diaz showed that the number of "dead zones"-areas of seafloor with too little oxygen for most marine life-had increased by a third between 1995 and 2007. Diaz and collaborator Rutger Rosenberg of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden found that dead zones are now "the key stressor on marine ecosystems" and "rank with over-fishing, habitat loss, and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems." The study, which appeared in the August 15, 2008 issue of the journal Science, tallied 405 dead zones in coastal waters worldwide, affecting an area of 95,000 square miles, about the size of New Zealand. It is currently estimated that there are 20 such 'dead zones' in Ireland and two were identified in the study at both Killybeg's Harbour (1999) and Donegal Bay (2000). Geologic evidence shows that dead zones are not a naturally recurring event in marine ecosystems; dead zones were once rare, now they are commonplace and increasing, which poses a serious threat to indigenous marine habitats and the human food chain. Softday proposes to examine the available data from the Irish dead zones and work collaboratively with three distinct partners, local traditional musicians from An Charraig/Amhainn a'Ghlinne (Cairdeas na bhFidil´iri) in Donegal, Met Éireann (the Irish Meteorological Service) and The Marine Institute of Ireland, to address the relationship of climate and culture to sound.

Biography: Since 1999, visual artist Sean Taylor and computer software designer Mikael Fernstrom (aka SOFTDAY) have collaborated on a number of high profile science/art projects. Both artists are interested in exploring 'the cracks' between various media such as expanded theatre, sound art, sculpture, music, dance and the application of new technologies. In 2000 they presented a computer generated musical composition entitled Blian le Baisteach (A Year With Rain), with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. The project was constructed using rainfall data supplied by Met Éireann (The Irish Meteorological Agency) for the year 1999-2000. This rainfall data was converted into music using a series of specifically designed neural networks and algorithms, trained by a database of traditional Irish melodies and folk tunes. In 2002, they developed a collaborative project Coisir an Tsionann, with The Irish Chamber Orchestra, Daghdha Dance Company and the Berlin based choir 'Der Brullchor'. The composition used data from The Electricity Supply Board from the power station on the River Shannon at Ardnacrusha and salmon stocking information from the salmon hatcheries.

For more information about the Lovely Weather art projects, exhibition and related events, visit the Regional Cultural Center web site.

Updated 28 October 2010