Is it possible for energy infrastructure to be a work of public art? Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry think so.
The husband-and-wife team behind the Land Art Generator Initiative believes that by merging the line between public art and energy infrastructure, we can erase the notion of “not in my backyard,” creating communities that welcome and celebrate their energy infrastructure.
The couple spoke at Shelter Dubai, outlining the initiative, and looking forward to the 2012 competition, taking place in New York City.
The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) is an international design competition launched in 2010 in the United Arab Emirates. Contestants from across the globe competed to design proposals for three sites in the UAE: two in Abu Dhabi and one in Dubai.
Their mission was to create an installation that would “continuously distribute energy into the electrical grid, with each having the potential to provide power to thousands of homes.”
A panel of judges representing local and international energy providers and artists elected three winners. Prizes were awarded at the 2011 World Future Energy Summit. MASDAR hosted the ceremony and sponsored the prizes.
In its second iteration, the competition moves to Staten Island.
Working closely with New York City Parks and Recreation and the New York City Department of Sanitation, along with the Freshkills Park Alliance and other supporters, the 2012 LAGI participants will compete to design an aesthetic renewable energy project for Freshkills Park on Staten Island.
The park, previously known as the Fresh Kills Landfill, is a the final resting ground of sixty-plus years of the detritus of the great city, holding everything from broken-down washing machines to debris removed from the Twin Towers.
Landfill operations have been suspended at the site since 2001, and the former garbage heap – which once stood taller than the Statue of Liberty – is being converted into a public park.
When the reclamation projected is completed, the city hopes to construct the winning design.
The site provides opportunities as well as challenges to contestants. Despite the tonnage of potential biochemical energy trapped in the fill, city ordinances forbid tapping directly into the casement. Designers wishing to incorporate biological or chemical energy into their proposals will have to access the potential within the landfill from a series of pipes and vents radiating outwards from the central container.
Even for those contestants interested in above ground energy sources, the shallow foundation will provide a challenge for installing and anchoring structures.
In order to assist contestants in overcoming or out-maneuvering these challenges, the New York Sanitation Department has provided extensive blueprints of the landfill.
The 2012 competition is the second in what Ms. Monoian and Mr. Ferry hope will be a global movement. They are already working on plans for more competitions in North America and in Southeast Asia.
As the project grows, the mission of the Land Art Generator Initiative is expanding. The couple will publish a book of the first competition, which will be available in late February of this year. Furthermore, they are building educational components into the initiative’s offerings.
Already, college professors in the United States are using papers that Ms. Monoian and Mr. Ferry have produced on the topic of aesthetic energy infrastructure. And some architecture programs are requiring students to submit designs for the competition as an element of their studio work. All content produced by the initiative holds a creative commons license, meaning that educators and students have free access to the material and are able to adapt the information to fit their curriculum.
In the UAE, educational programming is taking the form of a children’s book. The team is working with a former intern to produce content for elementary students that can be used to teach renewable energy and sustainability concepts.
Back at Shelter, audience members encouraged the couple to push harder to get the designs built.
“Share the pricing information on your website,” one attendee suggested. “There are governments [China and India] who will be interested in these projects, and they will be willing to pay.”
In time, we hope to see the ideas generated from the competition evolve beyond sketches and CAD drawings and emerge into our daily lives. With increasing recognition and support from foundations, cities and governments, the Land Art Generator Initiative comes closer to answer the question:
“Can energy infrastructure be both beautiful and sustainable?”
“Yes.”
-Mary
mary@shelter.ae
Warehouse 30, Al Serkal, Al Qouz
Phone: +04-380-9040
Fax: +04-380-9041
Mobile: +971-55-653-2084
On January 19th, Shelter Dubai will host Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, founders of the LandArt Generator Initiative. Their lecture on “Aesthetic Renewable Energy Infrastructure” will be followed by a question and answer session with the audience.
About The Land Art Generator Initiative
The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) is aimed at advancing the popular acceptance of clean energy by integrating art and interdisciplinary creative processes into the conception of site-specific, solution-based public art interventions. The talk will give a background of the LAGI project and related design work under the Studied Impact Design practice. The narrative will encompass eco-art history, vernacular passive design, urban planning, and the carbon-neutral movement (with particular attention on the notion of “positive impact” construction and zero energy buildings and their application in the UAE). Both the 2010 LAGI competition for the United Arab Emirates and the upcoming 2012 competition for Freshkills Park in New York City will be presented.
Area of Interest: Programming and Events Management
Location: Al Quoz, Dubai
Weekly Hrs: 40-48 hours/week
Position Type: Full time
Organization Description: Shelter is a flexible and free community workspace. We provide an open office infrastructure aimed at nurturing entrepreneurship in Dubai and the region. As an intellectual haven, Shelter offers the ideal environment in which to convert social interaction into successful business.
Shelter endeavors to provide practical support to the entrepreneur community in Dubai. By creating free, educational events, we encourage small businesses, investors and entrepreneurs to come together to meet, learn from one another and work towards building their ideas.
Shelter is currently hiring a sales associate.
Key Responsibilities:
Follow up with sales leads providing information, proposals and site tours.
Respond to phone inquires about Shelter.
Help Shelter team draft proposals for prospective clients.
Coordinate logistics of Shelter events.
Coordinate logistics of implementing sponsorship programs.
Play a key role in helping to define and build Shelter product offerings for clients.
Develop supporting materials to help explain and promote Shelter product offerings
Develop and draft marketing collateral to support the sales process.
Knowledge:
Interest in entrepreneurship, business development and community programming a must.
Understanding of sponsorship and advertising a plus.
Understanding of events planning, promotion and production a plus.
Strong interest in sales a must.
Skills:
Excellent communication skills: Written, spoken, phone, etc.
Strong familiarity with Microsoft Office – Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
HTML and CSS a plus.
Ability to juggle multiple projects and to continually shift priorities.
Intense commitment to following-through on all projects until completion.
Strong orientation toward customer service and satisfaction.
Strong orientation to detail.
Education/Experience/Other Requirements:
Preferred to have college degree (any field is OK).
2-5 years working experience in sales, event production, marketing, PR or communications.
Experience working in sales.
High energy, open mind and eagerness to learn.
Must have own computer and Internet connection at home.
Must have a car.
Team player looking to be part of a growing organization.
Salary: Please enclose your salary requirements.
To apply: Please submit the following materials to Christopher Batchelder (chris@shelter.ae) by January 30, 2012. Early applications preferred.
Resume
Cover letter
English writing sample
1-2 recommendations and/or references
Please enclose your salary requirements
-Mary
mary@shelter.ae
Warehouse 30, Al Serkal, Al Qouz
Phone: +04-380-9040
Fax: +04-380-9041
Mobile: +971-55-653-2084
Shelter Dubai kicked off the holiday season with an evening conversation with Joichi Ito, the lifelong entrepreneur and renowned Internet pioneer, investor and advocate. Joi delivered an enlightening presentation on “Innovation in Open Networks,” where he introduced us to and the history of the Internet as it was shaped by open networks and sharing. He also provided insight to the world of the Internet venture investor, including tips on what investors might look for in entrepreneurs. Joi doubles as head of the MIT Media Lab, and mixed into the evening was a whirlwind tour of the Lab’s 300+ projects ranging from robotic limbs to foldable cars to kid-friendly programming languages. Tune in below for the lecture and may all your synapses start firing!
Stay tuned for an interview for Joi, coming in the new year!
-Mary
mary@shelter.ae
Warehouse 30, Al Serkal, Al Qouz
Phone: +04-380-9040
Fax: +04-380-9041
Mobile: +971-55-653-2084
Here at Shelter, we are constantly inspired by the work of the Shelter community. To recognize the enterprising ideas taking shape at Shelter, we are launching and interview series named, appropriately, “Shelter Interviews.” We are kicking of the series with an interview of a long-time Shelter user, Valencio Cardoso. Valencio and his business partner, David, are the co-founders of the media start-up, Press Pass. Watch the video below to find out more about what Press Pass does, and how working at Shelter has helped Valencio and David grow their business:
Stay tuned to see who’s next!
-Mary
mary@shelter.ae
Warehouse 30, Al Serkal, Al Qouz
Phone: +04-380-9040
Fax: +04-380-9041
Mobile: +971-55-653-2084
On December 16th, Shelter Dubai will be hosting the open-source-social-media-lab-MIT-global-business-entrepreneur-guru-hacker-investor-scuba-instructor-guild-custodian Joichi Ito for a conversation on “Innovation in Open Networks.” The event will be free and open to the public. Doors will open at 7pm. Following a brief, 30 minute presentation, Joichi will take questions from the audience on any topic falling under his realm of expertise (which is, well, just about everything).
In preparation for the event, I invited Mr. Ito, known to friends and fans as “Joi,” to submit a brief biography of his accomplishments. The bios of such well-travelled and well-recognized men or women are often quite extensive, and Joi’s was no exception. I was surprised to find, however, that Joi’s biography, in addition to being chock-full of remarkable accomplishments, was also a glimpse in the humorous anecdotes of life as a Renaissance (or Millennium?) Man.
Copied below is the submission I received from Joi. How many of the services that you use every day are included in the list of business that Joi has had a hand in?
“Joichi Ito is the Director of the MIT Media Lab (http://www.media.mit.edu/). He is also General Manager of Neoteny Labs, a startup fund focusing on Asia and the Middle East. He is the Chair of Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org), co-founder and board member of Digital Garage JSD:4819 (http://www.garage.co.jp/), and on the boards of CCC TYO:4756 (http://www.ccc.co.jp/eng/) and Tucows AMEX:TCX (http://www.tucows.com/). He is a Senior Visiting Researcher of Keio Research Institute and the Internet & Society Lab ( http://www.kri.sfc.keio.ac.jp/en/lab/society.html ) at Shonan Fujisawa Campus in Japan. He is an affiliate of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/jito ). He is on board of a number of non-profit organizations including The Mozilla Foundation, WITNESS (http://www.witness.org/) and Global Voices (http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/). He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan and was an early stage investor in Twitter, Six Apart, Wikia, Technorati, Flickr, SocialText, Dopplr, Last.fm, Rupture, Kongregate, Fotonauts/Fotopedia, Kickstarter and other Internet companies. He is an adviser to Twitter, Zynga and DeNA. He maintains a weblog (http://joi.ito.com/) where he regularly shares his thoughts with the online community. He is the Guild Custodian of the World of Warcraft guild, We Know (http://weknow.to/). He is a PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor, an Emergency First Responder instructor and a Divers Alert Network instructor. Ito was listed by Time Magazine as a member of the “Cyber-Elite” in 1997. Ito was listed as one of the 50 “Stars of Asia” by BusinessWeek and commended by the Japanese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications in 2000. He was selected by the World Economic Forum in 2001 as one of the “Global Leaders for Tomorrow”, chosen by Newsweek as a member of the “Leaders of The Pack” in 2005, and listed by Vanity Fair as a member of “The Next Establishment” in 2007. Ito was named by Businessweek as one of the 25 Most Influential People on the Web in 2008. In 2011, Ito received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oxford Internet Institute in recognition of his role as one of the world’s leading advocates of Internet freedom.”
We look forward to an evening of conversation with Joi when he stops through Dubai on his never-ending world tour. To join us for this unique event, please RSVP on Facebook.
-Mary
mary@shelter.ae
Warehouse 30, Al Serkal, Al Qouz
Phone: +04-380-9040
Fax: +04-380-9041
Mobile: +971-55-653-2084
Shelter Dubai will be hosting a “Social Enterprise Weekend” December 9th – 10th.
The two-day event will offer entrepreneurs with an interest in social enterprise in Dubai the opportunity to participate in one-of-a-kind educational events aimed at preparing young businesses to tackle the challenges of launching a successful social enterprise.
The first day of events will feature a “Speed Consulting” session for young entrepreneurs. Shelter has partnered with Consult and Coach for a Cause and Baraka Ventures to offer free consulting sessions to start-up social enterprises. Participants will also have the opportunity to network with each other and the volunteer consultants before and after the event.
On Saturday, December 10th, Shelter will host a Social Enterprise Simulation, the first event of its kind in Dubai. Shelter has partnered with Dubai + Acumen to design and plan the event. Participants will receive a social challenge and will be given two hours to work in teams to create a social initiative to combat the problem. Participants must also adapt their plans in response to “game changers” introduced throughout the simulation. The simulation will conclude with group presentations and a discussion of the challenges faced by social enterprises.
Both events are free and will run from 4pm – 6pm. Entrepreneurs interested in participating in the consulting event are required to fill out an application form. Participants in the simulation event are encourage to arrive early to get a jump-start on the planning process.
In addition to the weekend events, Shelter will be hosting an “Open Diversity: Financing Social Enterprises” forum discussion on Tuesday, December 6th. Heather Henyon of Balthazar Capital will lead the conversation, covering topics including “how to raise money for a social enterprise” and “what is a social enterprise?”
The Open Diversity Forum event – which is also free – will take place on December 6th from 7pm – 9pm.
Anyone interested in attending these events is encouraged to RSVP on Facebook.
-Mary
mary@shelter.ae
Warehouse 30, Al Serkal, Al Qouz
Phone: +04-380-9040
Fax: +04-380-9041
Mobile: +971-55-653-2084
