What is Landscape - Will Sandy

Will Sandy - Three Green Dots

• Focus on social theory & communities

Will talked about how the world today is changing for the bad, he used several examples to show how this is happening:

• Automation: this is taking away social interaction; the use of things such as oyster cards, self service checkouts, online banking, all of these which reduce the need for human interaction. Soon it will be possible for us to go through a whole day without needing to talk to anyone.

• Reduction of public trust: public spaces are no longer really "public" due to constant CCTV coverage watching everyones every move, private security companies patolling public spaces with the authority to ask people to leave without question. All of these things reduce the enjoyment & feel of trust that we have as a "public" body

• Tesco vs. Denmark: Will showed a clip of a video that has been produced as a comical, but true representation of companies becoming monopolies, reducing the ability for small businesses to become successful.
  
  
  
  
  

How Many Stops??
This was one of the projects Three Green Dots did in London. It was a observational project to see if they could influence the way people use public transport vs. walking. They wanted to see if they could change peoples' daily routines by simply adding signs to the bottom of bus timetables. The installations were cocky & could be considered rude by some, but I think they were very clever & hopefully did encourage some people to choose to walk instead of hopping on a bus. The stickers lasted about 2 months in central London (along Oxford Street & nearby streets), & some in other areas lasted more than 6 months

Parking Tickets
Another of their small projects was "parking tickets". They produced 200 "tickets" & placed them on cars around the Kensington area. The tickets looked legit, they were contained in a plastic sleeve & had the same text & print as normal parking tickets, however when the car owners opened them, instead of being faced with a fine, they were congratulated for their good parking, & other things. The project was done to bring a surprise smile to people's faces when they would normally suspect the worst. We are constantly being condemned for doing things wrong but we are never congratulated for doing things right. Three Green Dots are trying to turn this around for the few people that have experienced their projects.

Three Green Dots encourage people to think outside the box & be creative in a way that will make people smile!!

TREELIFE

The Cool Hunter website claims to be "the world's most-read culture & design site, a leading authority on all things creative & a truly global hub for what's cool, thoughtful, innovative & original."

The site has organised its first offline event called 'TREELIFE'. This event is set to take place in 2011 in London & is based around showcasing creative, innovative & sustainable architecture , proving that green can co-exist with urban city life.

Below is a list of some of the exhibitions & events that will be occuring during TREELIFE:

Life in the trees: there will be the world's first major public exhibition of tree houses from world renowned designers.

Art Life: Organic, green-themed art installations will surround the treehouses

Silent Cinema: Public, open-air movie screenings, using wireless, sound proof headphones.

Free bikes will be available at each venue to enable eco-friendly transport between sites

Hi-Tea: Green building constructed for refreshments

The Green Room: Off-site hospitality venue

Sleep overnight in a treehouse!

Illuminating Treelife at Night: LED lighting will be used to illuminate trees & there will be a nightly show


The Ecotarium: showcase of new green technologies

Graphic Art Exhibition: 100 Treelife posters, desiged by 100 of the world's best designers

MARKS & STENCILS EXHIBITION

This little exhibition at 1 Berwick Street, Soho was held by POW, Pictures On Walls, a new groundbreaking printhouse who brought to the world's attention the likes of Banksy & Paul Insect. Marks & Stencils is their Christmas exhibition, showing street art from a variety of artists, inlcuding some work of Banksy & Dran.


Banksy is the pseudonym of a unknown British Graffiti artist from Bristol. Banksy's work is often very controversial & satirical, pointing towards current political issues & controversies. His work reflects a variety of social & political themes, including; anti-war, anti-fascism, anti-capitalism, anti-authoritarianism, & anarchism. The locations of his work are also controversial, including inside the penguin enclosure at London Zoo, on the walls of sexual health clinics, the Berlin Wall, the West Bank barrier in Israel & many more. The following three images are works on canvas of his at this exhibition.

The following images are a combination of artists, mainly by another controverisal artist, Dran. His part in the exhibition is named "My Everyday Life", mainly featuring Scribouille, a homeless puppet . The French artist, by the name Dran, is known for his cynically corrosive viewpoint, which he portrays in his artwork. His work is dark, however comical & reflects on what he thinks of the capitalist world that we live in. His work varies from taxidermy animals to delicate, intricate pencil drawings. Often the images seem harmless & show a normal scene, however if you look closer there is always a cynical twist to the art.

A lot of his pencil drawn work is canvassed on cardboard boxes; the images drawn always relate to the text already on the box

Below is an example of his taxidermy work; a badger wearing a Mexican Wrestling mask

The exhibition allowed visitors to commit their own "graffiti" acts by providing pens around the space for people to use & make their mark

The most controversial of all the pieces at this exhibition was by Mark Sinckler, a former 'tube graffiti vandal' . The artist has created a painting, titled 'The Age of Shiva', which incorporates renaissance-style angels flying out of the wreckage of the bus blown up in the London 7/7 bombings. Obviously this image has drawn a huge amount of attention, mainly negative, due to the hugely controversial issues that lie within it. Sinckler made these comments about his painting: "What I'm trying to do is to make anyone that has a faith, a belief, or an idea they hold close to their heart to think about the impact of these ideas when they leave their heads. I wanted to jolt people into seeing the results of these thoughts put into action." (BBC News article) Banksy, who is not adverse to a little controversy himself, has made comment on the painting also: "People enjoy shopping more than they enjoy art. So it makes sense to try and disguise your gallery as a home furnishings store. It is a chance for the public to see some less-refined culture after they’ve finished browsing Soho’s adult bookshops". (Sky News article)All in all this was a very interesting exhibition; set in a derelict former shop in Soho, adding further character to the already intriguing & controversial exhibition.

Here is a video of the exhibition's Private Viewing evening:

Marks & Stencils Private View from Butterfly on Vimeo.

Burning Man Project

Aerial view of the "temporary city" of Black Rock (the city is arranged in a series of concentric streets in an arc formation, using 2/3 of a circle, with the Burning Man exactly in the centre)

The Burning Man Project is an annual event (festival) held in the Black Rock Desert, North Nevada, USA. It starts on the monday before & finishes on the American Labour Day holiday (end of August). The name is taken from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on the saturday night. It is a hard event to describe (even the organisers says this), it is a very free, liberal art festival I would say, others have described it as an experiment in community, radical self expression and radical self-reliance.... I think this sounds a little over the top hippy-ish....I think it is a festival in which you can be however you wish to be (even clothing is optional!). The only criteria is that you contribute in some way to the event, whether it be in a radical way of dressing, an art installation, you must create a world for yourself in that week that you are stranded in the blood boiling heats of the desert. In as much of the event as possible sustainable resources, materials & power is used; there is a no car policy (except for "mutant cars"), no cash transactions are allowed (rely on gift economy), reclaimed cooking oil is used to power many of the generators, participants are commited to a 'leave no trace' event, meaning they should strive to leave the place in a better condition than it was previous to their arrival. It started on a beach in San Francisco with 20 people buring a wooden man on the summer solstice in 1986, now it attracts over 40,000 people & is in a way on one of the largest beaches in the US (if you compare sand with sand...!) I find it really fascinating, however very daunting, & would like to try to go one year, maybe it is something you have to experience one time, it is a one of a kind event.

Here are some of the art installations people have taken with them as their contributions to this pretty unique & unusual event.

The Babylon Art Installation in 2008 was a 100 ft tall steel tower, with a photo booth at the bottom, that projected images taken during the day onto the tower during the night (reusable, recyclable & multi-purpose)

Foraging alien-like creature

Conexus Cathedral, over 200 ft long & 50 ft high, in 2006

Floating astronaut for 2008 American Dream theme

Participants dressed as Pan-like creatures on stilts

Installation constructed from 2 large trucks

Rotating installation that projected fire into the night sky from 4 jets

The Temple of Honour created by sculptor David Best in 2003