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April 18th – 25th 2018
A series of domes simulates the pollution from London, Beijing, São Paulo, New Delhi and Tautra in Norway. Forming a ring in the centre of Somerset House courtyard, visitors pass through climatically controlled pods to compare the quality of polluted global environments. All five Pollution Pods are linked, so that one has to pass through all of them in order to exit the installation. This visceral experience encapsulates the sense that the world – and our own impact on it – is interconnected.
The entry pod, emulating a peninsula in Norway uses an Airlabs filter to remove all harmful gases to create fresh air. A smorgasbord of metropolises follow, each with their own specific and nuanced polluted environments; from London’s invisible but deadly output of nitrogen oxides to New Delhi’s suffocating haze of airborne particles. The environments have been created in collaboration with chemists and fragrance experts including: Odette Toilette, International Flavors & Fragrances, Iscent and the Norwegian Institute for Air Research.
Pollution Pods was originally commissioned by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology for Climart and has been built with the support of BuildwithHubs. Pollution Pods has received funding from Arts Council England.
Photo credit: Peter Macdiarmid for Somerset House.
Film Credit: Sam Bevitt for BuildwithHubs
Pinsky will be part of a cross-disciplinary team of engineers, planners and consultants. The West Bay work is part of the wider Dorset Coastal Connections portfolio of 18 projects. The portfolio is funded by the Coastal Community Fund and coordinated by the Dorset Coast Forum. The Arts Development Company is working collaboratively with Dorset Coast Forum and the individual project teams. The project will continue until Summer 2019.
Cleo Evans, Art and Environment Lead at the Arts Development Company, said:
‘It’s fantastic to have an artist of this calibre working on West Bay. His work is internationally renowned and exceptionally high quality.’
The project a covers a new central ‘Hub’, the construction of a boardwalk and viewing platform on East Beach, enhancements to the West Beach promenade and the creation of a cycle path between West Bay and Bridport.
June 18, 2017 – July 7, 2017
A series of domes containing pollution from cities around the world will be placed in the Norwegian city of Trondheim as part of an investigation by psychologists to ascertain whether art can really change people’s perception of climate change.
Five interconnected geodesic domes will contain carefully mixed recipes emulating the relative presence of ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide which pollute London, New Delhi, San Paolo and Beijing. Starting from a coastal location in Norway, the visitor will pass through increasingly polluted cells, from dry and cold locations to hot and humid.
The release of toxic gases from domestic and industrial sources both increase the rate of global warming and have a direct effect on our present-day health. In the West, in cities such as London, one in five children suffer from asthma, whilst in the developing countries such as Delhi, over half the children have stunted lung development and will never completely recover.
Whilst those in the developed world live in an environment with relatively clean air, people in countries such as China and India are being poisoned by the airborne toxins created from industries fulfilling orders from the West. The experience of walking through the pollution pods demonstrates that these worlds are interconnected and interdependent. The desire for ever cheaper goods is reflected in the ill-health of many people in world and in the ill-health of our planet as a whole. Within this installation we will be able to feel, taste and smell the toxic environments that are the norm for a huge swathe of the world’s population.
Pollution Pods has been commissioned by NTNU as part of Climart a four-year research project that examines the underlying psychological mechanisms involved in both the production and reception of visual art using these findings in an attempt to unite the natural sciences to the visual arts. The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and is housed at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.
Pollution Pods will be shown as part of the STARMUS festival in Trondheim, Norway. The STARMUS festival is an international gathering focused on celebrating astronomy, space exploration, music and art. Scientists and astronomers including Stephen Hawking and Buzz Aldrin will be speaking as part of this festival.
Norwegian Research Council
Build With Hubs
The Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)
Airlabs
University of East London
If you would like to attend the launch event please email here for more information.
Pollution Pods is located on Festning, 7014 Trondheim. 63°25’42.0″N 10°24’44.1″E
https://goo.gl/maps/LfDHpmG9TfN2
Opening hours
Tuesday -Saturday 12.00 – 20.00
Sunday 12.00 – 18.00
The City Speaks, a major new commission for HULL 2017, functions as a 21st century Speakers’ Corner in which open-air public speaking takes on epic proportions as spoken words are translated to text and relayed on one of the towers supporting Hull’s tidal barrier.
A steel lectern located on the quayside of Humber Dock offers a platform for members of the public to broadcast their thoughts and feelings. A hidden microphone captures their words and sends them to a data processing cloud which transcribes the phases into a scrolling dot-matrix text ascending the tidal barrier. The plinth and the tidal barrier perfectly align at each end of Humber Street, allowing the speaker to see their own speech being emitted across Hull, not though the digital screens of telephones, tablets and computers, but as an embodiment of the Hull’s architecture itself.
The Hull surge tidal barrier plays a significant role in protecting Hull from flooding, as climate change increases the number of extremely high tides. Since its construction in 1980 it has saved over a 100,000 homes. In many ways this barrier has become the gateway guarding the future of Hull, replacing Beverley Gate where, in 1642, Sir John Hotham refused Charles I entry to the city, an act of defiance widely acknowledged as the spark that ignited the English Civil War.
These principles of resistance and protection lie at the core of The City Speaks. This installation gives voice to the diverse range of ideas and opinions expressed by the people of Hull and in doing so celebrates the intellectual and political resilience of the Hullensians.
For general information about Hull UK City of Culture 2017, please contact;
Ben McKnight – ben.mcknight@hull2017.co.uk / 07718 100 793.
The City Speaks plinth is located on the intersection of Humber Dock Street and Humber Street, Hull.
Lurking deep below the surface of Ourcq Canal jettisoned objects await recovery. Over the years their surfaces have gained the complexion of aquatic wreckage. For L’eau Qui Dort, the artist Michael Pinsky has used divers and cranes to dredge the canals and extract this debris.
Forty of these ghostly objects have mysteriously appeared upright on the surface of the canal water, bathed in aquamarine light. Again visible, these bicycles, shopping trolleys, signs and fridges confront their owners, demonstrating that society’s desire for the new can only be supported by rendering the old invisible.
A strange and beautiful soundtrack has been generated from these objects played by those who live around the canal. Each night this eerie composition emanates from spaces around the canal to form an intricate three-dimensional soundscape.
L’eau Qui Dort has been commissioned by COAL for La Villette during COP21 in Paris. The installation can be visited from November 25th 2015 until January 3rd 2016 and is free to the public.
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