Projects

Below we present a showcase of recent initiatives
of connecting to nature through art.
We welcome your suggestions.

United States

The film features contributions from musicians including Laurie Anderson, Jarvis Cocker and Beth Orton; enlightening and often startling analysis from some of the world’s most eminent birdsong scientists; a literary guide to birdsong in poetry; a bizarre birdsong-themed art ‘happening’; the creation of a new musical composition from the Afro-Celt Sound System, entirely made up of manipulated birdsongs; and a strange musical duet at New York’s Bronx Aviary, featuring humans and birds.

Filmed in the forests, aviaries, studios and laboratories of England, Germany and the USA, this is a colorful, entertaining, informative and occasionally weird journey through the songs of nature that have enchanted and perplexed humans for thousands of years.

United Kingdom

Murmuration

During a trip by canoe on the river Shannon in Ireland, Liberty Smith en Sophie Windsor Clive are surprised by the movements of thousands of starlings in the sky. A collection of starlings is called a Murmuration.
The video first has a few still images before the dance of birds begins.
 

http://vimeo.com/31158841

United Kingdom

BEE BOX

A swarm of bees going nowhere, pollinating nothing.
Bee societies face many of the problems faced by human society, including maintaining public health, organising efficient information and transport systems and maintaining harmony in the group. This new work relates to the increasing tensions in both societies and questions what happens when the harmony is brought under threat.

Anne Brodie, 2011

http://epac.c-lab.co.uk/#artwork

United States

Aidan (13 years old) and Secret of the Fibonacci Sequence in Trees

"My investigation asked the question of whether there is a secret formula in tree design and whether the purpose of the spiral pattern is to collect sunlight better. After doing research, I put together test tools, experiments and design models to investigate how trees collect sunlight. At the end of my research project, I put the pieces of this natural puzzle together, and I discovered the answer. But the best part was that I discovered a new way to increase the efficiency of solar panels at collecting sunlight!"

Read the full story here,
and more information here as well

Encounters focuses on creating spaces and processes for people from all walks of life to re-look at who and how they are in the world at this time of ecological crisis and opportunity.

From the blog of Encounters:

"In London, we spent time thinking about and experiencing patterns in nature in different ways. People chose a picture, such as a bolt of lightening or a snails shell, which had a pattern within it. From this, everyone found something in the patch that echoed or had the same pattern. People then spent time drawing what they found. For example, someone chose the pattern lightening can make in the sky, and found leaves that had veins in the same pattern as the lightening and drew these leaves. We also thought about what else in nature follows the pattern we had individually chosen. For example, the veins in the leaves were found to be like the veins in our hands."

Read more here: www.encounters-arts.org.uk

	Looking for 'patterns in nature' in the patch and drawing them, London

United States

Aesthetic Species Maps

A time-based detail of the range of shapes and patterns within several species of flora and fauna. Genetic diversity visualized by forms which simultaneously reflect balance, symmetry, and an infinite potential for variation.
 

Animation - David Montgomery
Sound - "Everyday" by Otters Making Music
http://vimeo.com/9017519
www.silverfishcloset.com

(Story by Bonnie Alter)

It's the first living painting in London's Trafalgar Square, and maybe the first anywhere. A Van Gogh picture has been turned into a green living vertical wall. Depicting Van Gogh's painting, A Wheatfield with Cypresses, it's a new way to draw people into the National Gallery to see the real thing.


Photo (B. Alter)

The living painting has been constructed by a horticulture and design company which specialises in green walls and roofs. They also did the recently installed living wall in the hotel which bills itself as the "largest vertical wall in Europe." They used over 8,000 plants of 25 different varieties. In order to recreate the strong bands of colour in the painting, plants were selected to match the tones. They were then hand-planted into a modular system according to a numbered drawing. The 640 modules were grown vertically at a nursery, ready for installation.


National Gallery: Van Gogh: A Wheatfield, with Cypresses 1889

It took 3 days to install the wall which forms part of a hoarding outside the gallery. It will remain there throughout the summer and autumn, until the end of October, 2011. Given the range of plants; some flowering now, some later, it will be interesting to watch how it grows and changes over the coming seasons.


Photo (B. Alter): up close photo

'A Wheatfield, with Cypresses' was painted in September 1889, when Van Gogh was in the St-Rémy mental asylum, near Arles.

Read more

Vliegkunstenaars - Flight Artists

The effective and effortless wing movements of plants and animals inspire researchers, aircraft engineers and nature enthusiasts of all ages. Our eyes aren’t capable of perceiving the (lightning fast) art of aviation from nature. We, the Vliegkunstenaars, are going to change this.

Photo Jorrit Vlot

The state-of-the-art high-speed video technologies enable us to capture the art of aviation in detail. High-speed video cameras that film in color are very expensive, but we have the opportunity to offer everybody who is interested, the possibility of taking such an extraordinary camera into the field, to shoot one-of-a-kind footage. For this amazing experience, you don’t have to fly to some distant, exotic place, because a high-speed camera can even turn the flight movements of a common house sparrow into a spectacular sight. The lightning fast High-Definition video camera provides us with unprecedented images of spectacular flights in Dutch nature or your own backyard.
Be surprised by the unexplored beauty of the flying nature!
 

www.flightartists.com

Diego Stocco - Music from a Tree
 

"In the garden of my house there's a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it. To tune the tree I picked a fundamental note and tuned the twigs by trimming them with a pencil sharpener. I used two Røde NT6 and a NTG-2 as microphones, combined with a customized stethoscope. I recorded the tracks live on a Pro Tools LE system. I didn't use any synthesizer or sampler to create or modify the sounds. All the sounds come from playing the tree, by bowing the twigs, shaking the leaves, playing rhythms on the cortex and so on.

At this link you can see some pictures with more detailed descriptions:

http://www.behance.net/Gallery/Music-from-a-Tree/263872

Richard Skelton: music making en plein air

Since 2006, UK artist Richard Skelton has been releasing small run documentations of his own musical explorations through his Sustain Release label. These recordings are always exquisitely packaged, in materials and imagery that really invoke the feel of the recordings locked away on the discs. Place and space play a big factor in Skelton’s creative process, transporting the listener to the environment in which the music was originally recorded. The visuals and tactile objects that are always included with the discs facilitate in entrenching the listener further in Skelton’s magical world that is brimming with sensation and history, as its not only Skelton’s music that the listener is experiencing, but how, in fact, he is able to maintain a deep and engaging conversation with his surroundings.

http://some-landscapes.blogspot.com/2011/03/threads-across-river.html

http://typerecords.com/artists/richard-skelton

Watershed: Art, Activism, and Community Engagement

Colleen Ludwig “Shiver”

Shiver is an immersive, interactive environment. The title refers to the chill or slight tickle felt on the skin if activated from a light touch or closeness. When entering the artwork, visitors initiate trickling flows of water. These flows cling to, and seek paths along, the walls’ minor topographies. Skin is used as a mechanism and a metaphor for shifting boundaries between self and space. The connection between inner and outer ecosystems is made palpable, bringing into focus the critical importance of clean water sources for the health of our planet and ourselves.

http://watershedmke.wordpress.com/exhibition/

See an interview with the artist:

United Kingdom

Workshops Painting with the Earth

The Workshops are designed to allow the participants an opportunity to explore and experiment with natural and locally found earth pigments, giving an experience which may bring insights into the origins of pigments and paint making as well as a deeper relationship with our environment. A simple form of the workshop has been used with younger school and special needs groups but is equally valuable to artists of all ages, offering the possibility of field trips to discover your own local colours and spending time making your own paints and pastels or to fit in with curriculum requirements. The workshop was used by the Museum of Barnstaple & North Devon as part of their ‘Devon Rocks’ project and as part of the Appledore Arts Festival 2008.

http://peterward-artist-illustrator.co.uk/workshops

Windharp

Wind Harp from andy mackinnon on Vimeo.

Rhodri Davies performance with harp at Barpa Langass, Isle of North Uist. Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre on North Uist, Outer Hebrides, Scotland

www.taigh-chearsabhagh.org