#and how urbanization/industrialization is making the land inhospitable

[peachphernalia]

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do you ever see yourself ?

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[dream by joku]

[raygoodwinmajournal]

101 - Psychogeography and Walking Photographic Practice

It is funny how ideas, thoughts and philosophies can eventually find themselves to meld together with one’s own practice - even from years ago. When I started taking photography seriously, I didn’t necessarily have an aim to where I was going or what I was going to shoot. I enjoyed the idea of just going out with my camera, and taking photos of things that I find within the environment that I would find myself in. This was heightened by my previous interest in street photography, which was mostly inspired by watching countless hours of DigitalRev TV videos on YouTube, with Kai and Lok wandering the streets of Hong Kong reviewing camera equipment with a comedic and sarcastic tone which I enjoyed. By watching these videos, I was inspired to just go out with my camera and see what I could find, almost as if I was hunting for that particular shot. What was different then, was that I was photographing people which is completely on the different end of the photographic spectrum that I undertake now. 

Man with Cat - September 2016 - Canon EOS 650, 50mm F1.8 STM - Ilford XP2 Super

Eventually, I would undertake this practice of going out with my camera to an undisclosed location with an old friend of mine, Thom. Before the lockdown ridden restricted world we live in now, I would hop on a train, travel to places such as Exeter, Teignmouth, Torquay, Newton Abbot and Plymouth to meet up with him and wander around to different locations, often accompanied with some VSOP fuelled coffee and miscellaneous ramblings about philosophy and pop culture. At the time, I didn’t realise what I was undertaking and that it was also being practiced by many other people, and there was a whole philosophy around it and where it all came from. It wasn’t until I researched more into what psychogeography was, I learned that it was Guy Debord that coined and refined the term - a person who I researched in my earlier work around The Society of the Spectacle, which focused on the society being a spectacle, commodity fetishism and loosely recycled ideas of Marxism. Another aspect which relates to psychogeography is the flaneur; one who saunters around and observes society. Sound familiar?

Psychogeography is the melding of psychology and geography, both things that would seemingly be unrelated, but by putting them together, we find a term which has its aim on how a particular space makes us feel and what the space really is upon inspection. Often, we drift from place to place without really taking in what we are seeing or feeling. These are often non-places, which Marc Auge hypotheses in Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. Auge sets out to describe how it is that our stage of modernity creates transitional and temporary spaces, particularly motorways, shopping centres and transportation terminals. These are just a few examples of spaces where time isn’t spent in large quantities, places where we are transitioning from A to Z, where these spaces are somewhere between B to Y, often of little notoriety and mostly anonymous in location. These non-places are sometimes barren, with no people around, quiet and uncanny. Feelings of being isolated, alienated, estranged and listless are just some emotions that can be felt in these depersonalised landscapes, but only if one can really take in their surroundings to just what it is they are surrounded by. 

It is of course no secret that I undertake a walking practice. More often than not, I don’t have a bulletproof plan for what it is that I am looking for. Usually, I head in a direction and see what happens. This is because I like to observe my surroundings and take in what is around me, and to see what invokes the feelings and emotions that I want to convey. This means that I end up in some strange places, with the feelings only heightened by what I am listening to through my headphones, or the deafening silence if not. On the odd occasion, I would trawl through Google Earth, dropping pins on potential locations which could work. This can only be found out if I walk to these particular locations and what I can find on the way, yet as Street View sometimes hasn’t been updated since 2009, some places simply either don’t exist or have been changed completely. But, this brings up an interesting area to psychogeography, which is the history of the place which can often turn into a palimpsest of itself. 

Plymouth is a good example of a geographic palimpsest, as Plymouth’s history is rich and varied, and being mostly destroyed during the many air raids undertaken by the Luftwaffe, the city had to be completely rebuilt with Sir Patrick Abercrombie and James Paton Watson setting an ambitious plan to make Plymouth a hive of activity and a city to marvel. The main city was surrounded by a loop, with a central spine running through. The remains of the historic buildings were replaced with concrete brutalist monoliths and limestone structures, with some traces of the past surviving the brutal attacks on the city. An example of this is Charles Church, which was mostly destroyed in 1941 from incendiary bombs, but now acts as a memorial to those that died during the raids, and takes pride of place in a roundabout, directing traffic across the city and also being mostly inaccessible due to the high rate of traffic. Yet, the church is surrounded by contemporary architecture which are often labelled as ugly or terribly designed, such as Drake Circus winning the first ever Carbuncle Cup, voted as the worst new building in the United Kingdom in 2006 (Designing Buildings, 2020).

At the core of psychogeography, is how the location plays upon one’s psyche, to really take in what it is that surrounds us and observing details about how it is created, what features within it and how being put together, it makes one feel. It is only by walking to these places we can truly exist in the temporary spaces, with Will Self describing the walker as ‘an insurgent against the contemporary world, an ambulatory time traveller.’ (Independent, 2011). Iain Sinclair is a notable name within the psychogeographical field, walking the entirety of the M25 which encompasses London and noting  what he felt and saw, noting the opening on the M25 was ‘the end of London and its liberties’ (Guardian, 2003), with the M25 replacing the Thames’ job of shifting contraband and illegal/legal cargo and acting as a circle road that doesn’t go anywhere, with people often getting stuck in their cars, trapped in traffic.

Chelson Meadow - December 2020 - Mamiya 7ii, 65mm F4 , Ilford XP2 Super

The M25 is often surrounded by obscenery, which is a scene filled with obscenity and things which are considered to be obscene. Sinclair cites the Beckton Alp as a good example of obscenery. Beckton Alp is a heap of old gas spoils from the Beckton Gas Works, creating a toxic and lurid ominous mound which found a brief second life as a ski slope for budding ski enthuiasts, and where Stanley Kubric filmed the battle scene at the end of Full Metal Jacket (Guardian, 2003). The Beckton Alp is just one of many inhospitably dangerous aspects that we have created since the industrial revolution, which mirrors Chelson Meadow. Previously reclaimed land and a horse racetrack, it later became a landfill site where it was tufted over with millions of tons of topsoil and turf, with gas escaping from the landfill beneath going back into the National Grid. Upon a quick glance, it looks like a naturally formed hill, but just like Beckton Alp, it is a toxic and harmful mass of detritus and hazardous waste which upon appearance seems like a lovely place for recreation. It is only by walking, acting as a flaneur and using a form of psychogeography can we see these spaces and the impact that they have, as without really looking at what our urban spaces are made of, they are just that; urban spaces. It is only when you deconstruct what it is that manufacturers these spaces, can we allow ourselves to feel and note how it affects our psyche. It also goes back into the space being a palimpsest, either showing parts of its history obviously or obscured by changes over time. This history of the site is as relevant as it is now, as it gives the location a context with how it was then, compared to how it is now. 

I have come to the realisation that I am a photographic psychogeographer, or photographic flaneur, with a similar practice to Iain Sinclair where I walk to locations, observe what is around me and how it makes me feel. The spaces that I often find myself by getting lost on the way are isolating from the usually busy streets of the city, mostly being quiet housing estates or derelict industrial estates. Most of the time, these are places where time doesn’t seem to exist, as if it stands still as the wind blows leaves and litter across the road. Without looking at the space with the gaze of a psychogeographer, the place is inherently anonymous and of little notoriety, frequently being unnoticed by the layman and rarely inspected. What I intend to do with my photography is to explore these locations by sauntering from place to place, and invoking feelings of estrangement, isolation, alienation and political malaise of which our system is responsible for, with the spaces reflecting these feelings due to the depersonalised and dehumanised landscapes. And similarly to Sinclair, I document my findings and experiences from the locations that I visit, but in a more catatonic and frantic fashion about how the location plays upon my psyche and reflects upon our state of supermodernity. What Epochal Territories is intended to do is to explore the relationship between these spaces and the feelings that modernity creates, and how modernity is often unfulfilling and laden with ennui. The starkness of the space is also reflected by the monochromatic nature of the photograph, as there is no colour and no joy to be seen, only the territories of the epoch.

Bibliography

Carbuncle Cup (2020). [Online]. Available at https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Carbuncle_Cup. [Accessed on 12/03/2021]

Sinclair, I., (25/10/2003). A circular story. The Guardian. The Guardian. [Online]. Available at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/25/featuresreviews.guardianreview27. [Accessed on 12/03/2021]

The Independent (17/09/2011). PsychoGeography: Will Self and Ralph Steadman take Manhattan. [Online]. Available at https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/psychogeography-will-self-and-ralph-steadman-take-manhattan-5339307.html. [Accessed on 12/03/2021]  

[architectnews]

Archiol’s 2021 Render challenge

Archiol’s 2021 Render challenge, Architecture Competition, Design Contest

Archiol’s 2021 Render challenge Competition

6 June 2021

Archiol Render Challenge Competition Winners

Archiol’s Render Challenge Winners Announced!

Presentation skills are just as important as designing; one of the best mediums to present your architectural designs is through rendering. Architectural rendering aims to create life-like experiences of the buildings before they are built. Rendering aids the designer to convey ideas, an image that represents the designers’ imagination most realistically.

Archiol’s 2021 Render Challenge received 113 entries, scroll down to see the finest of architectural graphics from participants from all over the world.

• First Prize Winner_ Jiaman Xu, Ruiheng Zeng & Xiaoxin Wang (China)

• Second Prize Winner_ Antonella Marzi, Chiara Marzi & Marta Dituri (Italy)

• Third Prize Winner_ MiroslavNaskov (UK)

• Honorable Mention_ Niu Yifan (China)

• Honorable Mention_ ZHIXIANG XIA (China)

• Honorable Mention_ Tim CheC (US)

Archiol Render Challenge Winners in Detail

First Prize Winner_ JIAMAN XU, RUIHENG ZENG & XIAOXIN WANG

Forest fires have always been a desperate topic. In the case of severe forest fires, it is difficult to protect the lives of animals. The Amazon rainforest in 2019 and the Australian forest fires in 2020 caused devastating damage. Countless wild animals died in the fire or were displaced, causing people’s attention. It is precise because of these facts that the rescue of wild animals in fires needs to be widely recognized, and we need to provide them with a temporary shelter.

The refuge site is in New South Wales, Australia, which is hot and less rainy, which is one of the places prone to forest fires. When a fire occurs, the building uses the collected water to spray water through a spray device to form a low-temperature environment and attract animals to take refuge.

In order for our animal shelter to be self-sufficient to the greatest extent possible without human intervention, the operation of the building depends entirely on natural forces. According to realistic theories such as energy conversion, we set up rainwater and fog collection devices to solve the water problem of the building. The fog is converted into water and rainwater is collected to the water storage device at the bottom of the building, which can provide a continuous supply of the ecological environment inside the building. Provide water resources.

The refuge restores the original living environment of Australian animals as much as possible and ensures internal ecological diversity. In order to reduce the damage to the natural ecological environment, we spiral up the ecological layer to reduce the footprint of the building and recreate different ecological environments on the spirally rising ramps and natural environments that can provide sufficient refuge space for animals. Including the basic natural environment such as pools, swamps, grasslands, woods, etc., so that it is divided on each layer but connected to each other.

For example, kangaroos like to run in the bushes, koalas will sleep on eucalyptus trees, wild dogs are used to hunting in the desert, platypuses usually hide in caves by the water, and ostriches with strong adaptability are suitable for most environments, such as open plains, forests or the desert doesn’t matter to them.

After the fire, the forest is slowly recovering, and the animals can return to the natural environment and rebuild their homes. Of course, the animals can continue to stay inside the building, and the food chain can maintain the relative balance of the ecological layer. Animals can enter and leave the building at any time to increase the sense of familiarity and belonging. Perhaps more lives can be saved the next time a fire occurs.

Second Prize Winner_ Antonella Marzi, Chiara Marzi & Marta Dituri

ICE TOWERS “A powerful and evocative gesture, a reinterpretation of the monument in a modern key.” Our concept design is stemming from abstract ideas and shapes in inhospitable environments that become an architectural project. The site context aims to stimulate people’s thoughts on the consequences of human intervention in the living environment and adaptation to architecture.

Two crystalline monoliths emerge in the Arctic landscape. The building’s volume explores the sense as an ice sculpture on the rocks, by means of materials, textures, and colors. As generated by tectonic forces, they guard and conceal an entire underground world. The towers rise from a submerged area, bursting through the surface, which integrating into the landscape – between the cliff and ocean waves.

Third Prize Winner_ MiroslavNaskov

The Forest House, nestled in the serene verdure of the Northern Italian countryside provides its visitors a unique experience. It is nonconformist yet resonates with the rawness of the nature around it.

The stilted housegives one the feeling of being lifted and placed in Nature’s lap, capturing breath taking views of the lush green clad mountains as well as the calm lake set between them. The fluid design and soft volumes of the space add to the tranquillity of the space. The transparency provides panoramic views, inviting nature to become part of the space. Blurring the boundary between the interior and the exterior, the house and nature are in perfect symphony with each other.

The structure uses prefabricated 3D Printed structural elements. This not only eases the process of fabrication and significantly reduces cost but also has least impact on the natural environment. Bespoke furniture designed for the space uses a similar language in design and materiality providing a wholesome yet luxurious experience in all.

Honorable Mention_ Niu Yifan

The globalized new coronavirus epidemic has thrown architectural problems with meaningful thinking to architects. Now in the post-epidemic era, how should architects rethink and define the contemporary attributes of physical public spaces? How to tap and strengthen the quality and value that cannot be replaced by virtual space, and make a targeted response in the design?

My work intends to show the current social situation in a warmer and more hopeful post-epidemic era. Through the architectural vision of the post-epidemic era. I designed a city with extremely prosperous traffic, because traffic is a prerequisite for urban development.

I also designed a public transportation transfer station that can be rotated to facilitate the transfer and transfer of people. This rotation takes five minutes. When the turntable returns to its original position, the station will welcome the next wave of people, and people will meet in this regular and random space. The transmission lasts ten minutes. Then continue to spin for the next five minutes.

This work shows the sense of science and technology that people yearn for in the post-epidemic era and the warm connection between human. The sun shines into your sight through the movable buildings built under traffic, and everything is under the radiation of the sun, with a sense of post-modernity and technology. Everything is very peaceful and full of hope, expressing the prosperous industrial and social development after the epidemic.

Honorable Mention_ ZHIXIANG XIA

The image indicate an architecture which is driven by our minds. I’m always thinking about creating an architecture embodying our souls. The main structure of the architecture can grow and expand as our mind keeps developing. From bottom to top, every part of the structure shows the different stages of our mind, which in the image I visualize it by the people’s activities.

And the connectivity is infinite and continuous; everything is intertwined and bounded together with an invisible force which can be described as the inner inspiration of every thought. Finally, architecture becomes an extension of our minds and it fully shows our inner space.

Honorable Mention_ Tim CheC

The distance between Mars and the Earth is approximately 225 million kilometers, making it the closest “livable” planet to the Earth. Whether the movie” The Martian”, the landing news of the NASA’s “Perseverance”, or even the “SpaceX” company founded by Elon Musk, they all showed us the mysterious appearance of Mars. I am the person who love future technologies and science fiction pretty much. I can’t help but think, when I am 50 years old, will I be able to live on Mars at that time?

In this artwork, I tried to imagine what it might look like when people live on Mars in the future. I took Transit-Oriented-Development (TOD ) as my main concept. The various facilities are connected by channels. The center of the facilities is a big rocket, which will carry the residents transport between different planets.

The main residential facility large greenhouse buildings, which are filled with plants and oxygen. It creates a suitable space for people to live in. On the outer side, there are some Industrial facilities which can mine buried ice and create energy for residents to use.

Is it possible to build a self-sufficient city on Mars? How does it feel like when living on Mars? Are there other planets that can be explored by humans besides Mars? I am curious and excited in the technology and lifestyle of future. I hope through this artwork, everyone can share their imagination about the future living lifestyle.

Shortlisted Entries

• Reality is merely an illusion _ Aditya Bhole

• Echoes of Nirvana_ Chang Wu

• In the middle of Mediterranean sea_ Patricija Gjugjaj

• Parallel 2077_ Lingfang Shao

• House on a Pavilion _ Tanvi Daga

• What is a vertical city _Xinyu Li

• _ Davide Cannone & Ilaria Impagnatiello

• The Blurred Forest _ HAOXIAN CAI

• Residential Energy Gathering Ring _ Wenqi Fan

• Non-To-Scale Megastructures: Where Man Meets the Machine _ Mohamad Alamin Younis

• Gaotai Residential _Bó Hú & Yixuan Yang

• “parts of a whole”_ Lingjing Shi

• A roundabout near the entrance of a small city_ Ioulianos Angelos Karantzios

• _ Shreyash Gupta

• _ Florian Mladek

Archiol Render Challenge Competition Jury

Competition Jury:

• Randy Sovich, AIA Randy M. Sovich, AIA, is co-editor of T3XTURE, an international architectural and design publication exploring texture, ornament, and pattern in a new architecture. He is the founding principal of R. M. Sovich Architecture, Inc., a socially-conscious practice located in Baltimore, Maryland, creating nurturing places for communities, the disenfranchised, and vulnerable populations.

• Nicole Cullinan Nicole Cullinan is an Australian born European writer who has an established career in the architecture and arts industry. Sheenjoys the privilege of working with a number of prominent creatives, discovering what it is that makes their work unique. With a passion for place making and the built environment. She is a published academic author and an alumnus of The University of Melbourne.

With a side hustle in photography, her images have been featured on the National Gallery of Victoria and Heide Museum of Modern Art websites and socials. Recently she exhibited as part of the Photo 2021 collaboration with French artist JR at Federation Square. She believes the architects work can be more than what the eye can see; ‘allegoria dei sensi’. A trinity of function, form and feeling.

• Igor Neminov Igor is an Art Director at Shimahara Visual, based in Los Angeles and has produced an innumerable amount of marketing and competition images for a some of LA’s award winning Architecture firms, which includes Morphosis, P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, Tom Wiscombe and Frank Gehry Architects. Igor is an award winning artist with over 10 years of professional design experience. He is also a gifted leader who is able to raise the artistic bar of everyone around him.

Organiser: Artuminate: https://ift.tt/3fYIb2H Winners Announcement: https://ift.tt/3uXtrp2

Previously on e-architect:

post updated 29 Apr 2021

Archiol Render Challenge Competition

Due to some technical issues in the initial registration period the organisers were asked to extend the registration dates of the Render Challenge Competition which was announced earlier.

Extended timeline is as follows:

Registration Deadline: 5th May 2021

Submission Deadline: 7th May 2021

Result Announcement: 5th June 2021

All deadlines are 11:59 PM UTC (Coordinated Universal Time).

8 Mar 2021

Archiol’s 2021 – Render challenge Contest

Introduction Presentation skills are just as important as designing; one of the best mediums to present your architectural designs is through rendering. Architectural rendering aims to create life-like experiences of the buildings before they are built.

Rendering aids the designer to convey his or her ideas, an image that represents the designers’ imagination most realistically.

Competition Brief Create one rendered architectural graphic design that says it all. As this competition aims at exploring and understanding rendering (a medium of conveying designs) to an unimaginable extent, so you are free to choose the type, location, scale. The Rendering can be hand-drawn or digital.

Specific Requirements: A single rendered Image A description of not more than 500 words (100 words minimum)

Awards Interview Interview of the all the winners ( top 3 + honourable mentions) Photos, articles and news will be published on our platform

Publication All the winning entries will be published on our platform.

Certificate: Top 3 entries will receive certificates All our winners will receive e certificate. All the participants will receive a participation certificate.

Important dates and judgement criteria Registration deadline: 28th April 2021 Submission deadline: 30th April 2021 Result announcement: 31st May 2021

After completing the checkout, you will automatically receive a confirmation e-mail. If you can’t find the e-mail in your inbox, please check your spam folder.

Fees A standard registration fees of ₹1200

Jury To be announced

For more details please visit our website archiol.com Competition link: archiol.com/archiol-competitions/render_challenge_2021

Subscribe to our news letters for regular updates. Learn more on: https://ift.tt/3ry2lUE Facebook: https://ift.tt/3chsWim Instagram: https://ift.tt/38kbAzQ https://ift.tt/3qzNQOR Pinterest: https://ift.tt/3l1U8p5

Archiol’s 2021 – Render challenge images / information received 080321

Korea Architecture Competitions

Recent Korean architecture contests on e-architect:

3rd Generation New Towns in Korea Design Contest 3rd Generation New Towns in Korea Architecture Competition

Main Library Gwangju Design Contest Main Library Gwangju Competition

South Korea Architectural Designs

South Korean Architecture Designs – architectural selection below:

Hankook Technoplex, Pangyo, outskirts of Seoul Design: Foster + Partners photo : TIME OF BLUE Hankook Technoplex Pangyo Top-level executives are co-located with their teams on different levels, which promotes interaction between the key members, and enables a more fluid flow of information within the company.

Amorepacific Head Office, Yongsan-gu, Seoul Design: David Chipperfield Architects photograph © Noshe Amorepacific Headquarters in Seoul This new rectilinear building is located between the site of a spacious public park currently under development, and a business district of high-rise towers.

Architectural Competitions

Current / Recent architectural contests on e-architect:

Bcome 2020 Competition

2020 Bcome International Ideas Competition

2A Continental Architectural Awards 2020 2A Continental Architectural Awards 2020

Re-imagining Stations Competition Network Rail Re-imagining Stations Competition

London Architectural Competitions

24H Architecture Competition

Flexible Housing Competition for Great Places Lakes & Dales Partnership

Architecture Competition

Comments / photos for Archiol’s 2021 – Render challenge page welcome

The post Archiol’s 2021 Render challenge appeared first on e-architect.

[photodustorg]

LISS FENWICK: WROUGHT

Liss Fenwick chats to Photodust curator Ariel Cameron about her photographic series ‘Wrought’. Exhibited at Testing Grounds (Melbourne) in 2017, this ongoing project explores the extractive industries and the tension between growth and destruction in humanity’s relationship to the land. Motivated by a deep ambivalence towards the idea of Progress, Liss spent months living on the road in central Queensland’s coalfields witnessing firsthand the quandaries of development (or the lack thereof) and the double-edged sword of Capitalism.

Liss Fenwick, Rural woman with ore, 2017 

You describe the project as being set in an ‘obscure location in rural Queensland’ - what first brought you to this location and kept you coming back over the years?

I heard about it when I was living in a small town in Western Queensland researching an art project on the extractive industries. As part of the project, I worked for a couple weeks at the local newspaper (the Chinchilla News) to get first-hand insight into how the mining and gas were impacting the local economy and people. I mostly drove around talking to melon farmers and eating tonnes of watermelon though. After I did that, I headed for Mount Morgan [where Wrought is photographed] and so it goes! 

I kept coming back because the mining industry is sexy and glamorous. Not! I don’t know, perhaps I’m a sucker for sad, lonely, outposts of humanity, where the tide of development has turned and the built environment is crumbling back into the earth. But seriously, it’s all the odd and wonderful people that inhabit Mount Morgan that brings me back. Also the fact that the mine site is still heavily polluted, and tailings dam unstable - there were multiple uncontrolled releases of acidic tailings water into the Dee river between 2011-13.

Liss Fenwick, Dee river after uncontrolled release from tailings dam, 2012

Much of your practice is focused on rural or regional landscapes and communities - what are the connections between your other work and this particular project?

I’m from the bush near Darwin in the north of Australia. When my parents settled in an area they were among the first non-indigenous inhabitants.

My work broadly is trying to make sense of this history or situation through photography. When my parents arrived where I grew up in the NT, there were no schools or shops, water, power, and only rudimentary roads. This project is on the extractive industries, which are tied to settling the land - they underpin rural economies. I have ambivalent feelings about this process, the history of colonialism and capitalism have wrought both terrible and beautiful things on the land.

You worked on this project over a span of five years. During that time did you notice any shifts in the community or the story you were documenting?

Yes! Depending on rainfall the river is vastly different, and certain characteristics I wished to photograph (when it’s most barren) would change quickly. It made the project challenging - it’s a 600km drive from Brisbane to Mount Morgan, and I would drive that distance and find things were not as I’d hoped on a number of occasions, despite calling ahead and quizzing the locals (hey Dave, is the river blue today? What about today? Today?). But hey, that’s photography! Sometimes what you don’t expect can be better anyway (but not usually).

Liss Fenwick, Dee river after uncontrolled release from tailings dam II, 2012

Liss Fenwick, Mount Morgan Fire Brigade helmet (late 1800s), 2017

Can you talk more are about the globally connected history of the site?

William Knox D’Arcy was involved in the discovery of gold in Mount Morgan and made fortune through the mine, which financed oil exploration in Iran (Anglo-Persian Oil) and led to the formation of what is now BP (or British Petroleum). Another of the founding partner’s relation, Eliza Hall, donated her inherited fortune to a fund which established the prominent Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, the first research institute in Australia. The mine was open for 99 years, and at times contributed a significant proportion of Australia’s GPD and the mine was also believed to be the largest open cut gold mine in the Southern Hemisphere.

There is a sinister feeling to the images of the town that really contrasts with the bright, almost blinding images of the river, can you talk more about your approach to the different subjects?

In the images of the river, I sought to convey the unnatural, surreal quality of a barren, acidic river. The toxic sludge fumes make your skin clammy and itchy, and you feel as though you can’t breathe. It’s this stark and inhospitable nature I wanted to get at.

With the images in the town, I’m interested in a fundamental paradox of humanity - we destroy to create. The first regional School of Arts in Australia (that existed to serve the working class) - that the funds that came directly from mining. There are many beautiful outcomes, but they are shrouded in the darkness of the destroyed landscape.

Liss Fenwick, Rockhampton School of Arts (1894), 2017

Liss Fenwick, Dee river after uncontrolled release from tailings dam III, 2012

Liss Fenwick, Memorial to a copper miner erected by fellow employees 1909, 2017

You had an exhibition of the works at Testing Grounds, in Melbourne, which included installations with crystals growing on top of the photographic prints, a simultaneous growth and decay of the image. Was this a mirror of the environment you were capturing?

Yes, it was, the Dee river is being poisoned by tailings leaching from the 300m deep acidic-filled dam (which was originally a mountain). I majored in Chemistry at uni and it’s finally become useful to me… only ten years after graduating! I did some reading and I think that the increased acidity of the river is causing precipitation of minerals, which settle as sediments in the river. So I recreated a mineral solution using hydrochloric acid and various minerals, including copper, aluminium and magnesium and then soaked the prints, and slowly over time they eat away and are destroyed.

Liss Fenwick, Rockhampton School of Arts (1894), 2017, Testing Grounds installation detail: pigment print on platine fibre paper, waxed thread, aluminium and copper solution.

I had this moment of insight at a talk by neuroscientist David Eagleman when he talked about human creativity creating both beautiful and terrible things. What happens when we work the land as intensively as modern capitalism encourages? You build Schools of Art and fund medical research institutes, but where is the line when that pursuit tips into greed? Is it that we are evil bastards, blindly chasing our dreams and feeding our greed… which also (inadvertently) set up the conditions in which we flourish? By effectively destroying my photographs (which are products on the excesses of capitalism themselves) with the acids and chemicals that also destroy the river I hope to recognise a level of hypocrisy and absurdity of our modern situation, something that is easily forgotten in the art world’s urban enclaves in inner-city Melbourne.

Liss Fenwick, Acid Fern and white mineral precipitates, Copper Creek, 2017

Liss Fenwick is an Australian visual artist whose work combines documentary-style photography with long-term conceptual underpinnings and aesthetic visions.

https://www.lissfenwick.com

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[nakedconversations1]

Environmental Protection Should Be Everyone’s Priority

The planet is home to a diverse group of plants and animals that live on land, in the water, and up in the air yet we all manage to live harmoniously most of the time. Unfortunately, the beauty of nature is slowly fading as human activities continue to wreak havoc on the environment. Pollution is at an all-time high and numerous species already went extinct because of irresponsible hunting and poaching. You can’t even recognize the world we live in now from the world where our forefathers lived in. Forests are receding as cities keep on expanding. If we don’t stop now, the future generations may miss out on many of the things we take for granted now.

Over the years, environmental conservation efforts have doubled because activists see the extent of the damage to our planet. And you don’t need to be reminded of it every day in the news because you can see and experience it for yourself. Weather systems and phenomena have changed and countless lives and properties suffer from the wrath of Mother Nature each year. Reducing your carbon footprint is one of the ways we can contribute to protecting the environment even in your own little ways.

Additional environmental projects being run by the mine include conservation farming as local farmers are learning the benefit of farming methods which preserve the soil’s fertility and improve crop production. “Conservation farming is one of the livelihoods that we are encouraging people in Kalumbila to adopt and practise for obvious reasons. We want to protect our environment,” Trident Foundation agriculture field supervisor, Christopher Chenga said. Out of the different methods of agriculture, they believe conservation farming takes care of the environment as once a field is opened up, a farmer continues using that piece of land throughout their lifetime and for generations after. He said by staying in one place, a farmer avoids cutting more trees and opening up more fields.

(Via: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/making-environmental-protection-priority/)

Certain industries like lead mining have a profound effect on the environment. It’s what happened to this Zambian town, which was dubbed as the world’s most toxic town in terms of pollution just this previous month. Mine waste disposal is one of the major concerns for obvious reasons aside from that of water and air pollution. We all know how big of a threat global warming and climate change is and you are not safe wherever you are in the world. However, things are starting to change for the better for them and it’s all because they decided to do what’s right after all.

The Government has taken a slew of measures to deal with climate change and curb environmental pollution. In line with the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, India too set its sustainability goals and solemnly pledged for a safer environment. However, action at the grassroots level has been slow with delays in implementation and economic prosperity taking precedence.

In light of the absolute urgency to preserve the deteriorating environment and resources, what should India do?

While the government has established concerted measures to conserve both water and energy, little action has been taken so far, even as India continues to witness recurring droughts, extreme temperatures and rising pollution.

At present, India is sustaining an estimated number of 63.4 million people living without access to clean drinking water. One of the primary reasons for this paucity is uncontrolled abstraction of water for industrial and agricultural use. It is therefore imperative to focus on promoting recycling and reuse of water and waste water treatment as part of the national agenda to create value.

(Via: http://www.business-standard.com/article/b2b-connect/why-environmental-protection-in-india-is-the-need-of-the-hour-117060200583_1.html)

Many nations all over the world are experiencing rapid urbanization. Technology is a big part of our lives, which is not always environment-friendly. It’s the main reason why climate change has arrived quite early than expected because the planet is changing at a rate never seen before in the past. The population has also exploded exponentially. Several billions of people compete for the world’s natural resources that are sadly finite. The time will come that we’ll run out of non-renewable energy sources and live in an inhospitable planet that makes daily living doubly more challenging.

Most progressive countries use fossil fuel because they are convenient to use but there are other renewable sources we can also tap that won’t harm the environment. Not only are they safe to use, they are sustainable too. The environment should not always suffer for the sake of economic prosperity but one sector can’t do it alone. Environmental protection requires the collaborative effort of both the public and private sector as the damage is already extensive and we need all the help we can get to turn things around for the better.

Environmental Protection Should Be Everyone’s Priority was originally published to NakedConversations.com

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