Archive for the ‘news’ Category

Workshop on Visually Communicating Sustainability

Join the workshop I'm leading at Interaction12 (IxD12) February 1st in Dublin, Ireland. As part of the Interaction Design Association's annual conference, we'll explore how consumers interact with topics related to sustainability, and how can designers facilitate the understanding of, and interaction with complex sustainability data. Sign up on the IxDA website. 

Sustainable Summer School, Belgium

I'm excited to an advisor at REcenter's Sustainable Summer School this August in Limburg, Belgium. Join us to tackle themes of water, food and public space throughout the week-long course. More info on REcenter's website. 

"Seven days of Sustainable Summer School with Institute without Boundaries and Euregional faculty and international experts." 

In Mpls: Material Matters exhibit & American Swedish Inst. Fence

The fence is up at the American Swedish Institute! I designed a back-story, repeating banner for the construction fence to show what the upcoming addition’s ‘LEED’ certification means and to acquaint passer-bys with happenings at the museum and in Swedish culture. Although the museum is closed during the construction, the fence is there for you to visit. See it in the Phillips neighborhood.

 
Also, the ‘T-Shirt-that Tells it’s Own Story’ and some shawls I developed together with master craftsmen in rural India are on exhibit at ‘Material Matters’ now at MCAD.

Presenting at GreenID – Sustainable Info Design

Arlene will present at GreenID, an exchange forum on sustainable information design in Vienna, Austria in June. The forum is organized by the International Institute for Information Design.

This presentation will showcase a visual narrative approach to information design for the communication of sustainability. I will present examples from a variety of resources, including: how I use visual storytelling techniques with clients, students at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design sustainability program and in creative practice.

Measuring & Communicating Life Cycle course online

Registration is open for Sustainability: Measuring and Communicating Life Cycle online course through MCAD’s Sustainability program – taught by Arlene Birt.

This course teaches methods of communicating sustainability to consumers in an engaging, visual way – in order to help people understand the sustainability (or lack thereof) of products, and establish a personal connection to products’ environmental impacts.

More information on Minneapolis College of Art and Design’s website.

See Behind the Scenes at Västra Hamnen

Come visit the parascope to ‘see behind’ into the sustainability systems in the Västra Hamnen area of Malmö. The installation is accessible today through Monday Dec. 13 [map]. The project was done as part of a artist-residency at MEDEA Collaborative Research Initiative in Sweden. More information here.

The parascope itself was developed by a collaboration between Unsworn Industries and Malmö Stad.

PARASCOPE ON LOCATION IN VÄSTRA HAMNEN. MALMÖ

MEDEA Talk on ‘Visualizing Sustainability’

Arlene Birt presenting at MEDEA in Malmö, Sweden on Dec.10 (15:00-17:00 Central European time).

Arlene will present two projects that she’s done as artist-in-residence at MEDEA and a behind-the-scenes view on her work on how to visualize ‘background stories’. One project is a visual mapping of the sustainability-oriented systems at work within the Västra Hamnen area of the city through a collaboration with Unsworn Industries to show this information using the parascope technology they’ve developed. Another project visually communicates the benefits of bicycling – in terms of CO2 saved, money saved and calories burned.

Details on the talk here. There will also be a live-stream of the talk.

Artist Residency to Visualize Impacts in Malmö, Sweden

Arlene has begun an artist residency at interactive center for new media MEDEA, where she will develop work to visualize the impacts/benefits of bicycling for the Västra Hamnen area of Malmö in order to encourage and celebrate a culture of bicycling.

More on the progress of the project, which will run Oct-Dec 2010, is posted on the MEDEA site.

TraceProduct.Info exhibiting at the Spark Festival

TraceProduct.info is a prototype for an in-store, retail-wide system for displaying information on grocery product backgrounds at point-of-sale.

Exhibiting Sept. 29-Oct.2 at the Spark Festival.

Straw Bale Installation at MN Landscape Arboretum

A straw-bale bench and accompanying info-graphic is on exhibit all summer at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. As part of the Powerhouse Plants exhibit showcasing the super-human powers of plants.

Straw Bale bench with information graphic

Entitled ‘Waves of [Multifunctional] Grain,’ this graphic installation shows the life-cycle of grain crops like wheat, barley and rye – and how the waste product from the production of these food-grains (the straw) can be used as a local and sustainable building material.
With the information graphic, we wanted to communicate the potential for a closed-loop system inherent within this plant’s life-cycle: We grow a crop, eat the grain, and can use the waste straw for building and insluation. A perfect cycle.

INFO-GRAPHIC SHOWS THE PROCESS AND BENEFITS