June 2014 – Kristen Baumlier

Month: June 2014

Writing with Plants

Posted on June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 by Kbaumlier

This summer, some small plants started to appear on the side median of the street on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, NC. At first glance, they look like random tufts of greenery. However, if you walk by slowly you are able to read words made of plants that line the street medians.

PLANT

PLAY

ROOT

MADE WITH

NOT L8R

are some of the plant words that were planted in areas that do not have any bushes or greenery.

I tried looking online to see if there was any information about the plant writing- but to date I have not found anything online.

Seed bombing? Public art? Social intervention? Gardening? Poetry? If you are in the Chapel Hill area – make sure you walk sideways as you go down Franklin street, to check out the writing with plants.

Fooling the Nine Billion: Why We Need Good Food, Not More Food – Ricardo Salvador

Posted on June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 by Kbaumlier

This spring I was able to attend an amazing lecture by Ricardo Salvador called, “Fooling the Nine Billion: Why We Need Good Food, Not More Food.” Salvador is the senior scientist and director of the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. This group is working with citizens, scientists, economists, and politicians to transition our current food system into one that grows healthy foods while employing sustainable practices.

His lecture gave an overview of the history of our food system in the U.S., the role of government and citizens in this system, and talked about how our current system was a vision or project that came into fulfillment. It was one of the best presentations I have seen in quite a while. Savador was a dynamic speaker, and had not just slides but animations that supported what he was presenting.

He began by talking about how we experience the system by eating out (and imagining what we want to have) and usually getting what we want in 5-20 minutes, whether it is season or not, or local or not. We also go to the super market and browse over 50,000 items and ususally use the criteria of choosing things that we can try to assemble into a meal in 5-20 minutes. Behind this is a system with great power which uses materials and energy.

“The Future of Food is a question that can be approached using direction and prediction, but it is up to people to decide what the future of the food system will be,” he stated in his introduction. He went on in his talk to talk about the history of our food system, the overproduction of food and how this is used and how our system is supporting diabetes and obesity. “Diabetes – has a public cost of 92 billion, Obesity $147 billion, Cardiovascular Disease – $444 billion and is the #1 killer. We pay for the production and cost of this disease

He then had images and a recent example of the price of purchasing traditional versus healthy food at McDonald’s which showed how our current food system makes it so it is not possible for McDonald’s to offer the healthier choices at a equal price. The healthy foods also do not add up to many calories.

The last part of his lecture called for a shift in our food system, and he mentioned a current project called “An Apple a Day” – which is a education and advocating for how our current food system is wasting government money, wasting lives, and wasting medical costs. Promoting the food problem as a system that is wasting government money, wasting lives, and wasting medical costs is something that can go across government parties.

I recently got the link of Recardo’s recorded lecture which can be seen online. It is good quality audio and video – and I strongly recommend that you watch it to get a new perspective on our food system and the future of food (and you can eat an apple while you watch.)

Image Sources and Links:

Ricardo Salvado – Watch the Lecture Fooling the Nine Billion – Video

An Apple A Day – Video

Union of Concerned Scientists

Ricardo Salvador

Caring for the Commons: A Print Multiple Project

Posted on June 17, 2014June 17, 2015 by Kbaumlier

I am proud that I was invited to be part of a project that explored printmaking in the digital age. For the project each artist had to create an edition of 25 prints. As part of the project, the artists created an online image repository, where digital images could be shared. I ended up using several images that others had put into the shared folder, as well as a selfie image that my niece had taken of herself.

My piece was entitled “Happiness.” For this work I combined a symbol for happiness, a landscape image, and an image of my niece, which were taken from the project Dropbox. Part of this image incudes a scan of Arches paper, providing a texture and context for traditional print processes. I wanted to create a ghostlike image with the word Happiness – parts of the letters H, A, and S are used as image elements.

About the project:

“It is easy to share as a Printmaker. Print processes allow for the creation of multiples and, of course, dissemination is fundamental to its culture. However, as artists our work is often personal, it’s content derived from a variety of sources (sketches, photographs, art history), and these raw materials are rarely made available to others. With our Portfolio artists make their source material available to one another through a shared cloud-based Dropbox folder.

What combination of images artists use to create a new print for the portfolio is up to that individual artist. Unlike the anonymity of a Google image search the digital commons brings with it the responsibility to respect these shared resources. In doing so our portfolio responds to the theme of conference as an intersection between traditional and emerging technologies and using this virtual space to create meaningful and critical discourse.”

Organizers: Margaret Denk-Leigh and Troy Richards

Participants: Kristen Baumlier-Faber, Karen D. Beckwith, Charles Beneke, Christi Birchfield, Jerry Birchfield, Denise Bookwalter, Clarke Curtis, Margaret Denk-Leigh, Alexis Granwell, Zach Lindenberger, Michael Loderstedt, Katie Loesel, Michael Marks, Liz Maugans, Michael Merry, Troy Richards, Tricia Treacy & Ashley Pigford, Rebekah Wilhelm

The Dream of Flying – A Gastro Geographical Aerobanquet

Posted on June 17, 2014June 17, 2014 by Kbaumlier

I recently got an invitation to a unique banquet – of sights, sound, and taste. I could not attend, but found this event to be an interesting combination of performance, site, and food.

The event was part of The Wind Tunnel Project, which is a series of events that brings together new commissions and performances by artists in the UK and other international artists. The events all take place at the flight testing center buildings, which were used to advance British aviation techniques, and have been closed for over 40 years.

On Friday June 20^th and 21^st will be the Dream of Flying – A Gastro Geographical Aerobanquet, which will be held in the air return duct of the 24ft, 1935 wind tunnel. (Unfortunately – I can not attend. Can’t make it to England by then..)

Artist Caroline Hobkinson will host an aerobanquet that tells the story of the dream of flying in 7 courses. Hobkinson’s work can be seen on her Stirring with Knives site. Past banquets she has created have incluced high protein rolls made with insect flour, a fur lined cup filled with liquid, a whole alligator served up on a table, 3d printed food, and spherified liquids.

Her work combines not just unusual food but touch and sound. The artist calls it cross modal stimulation, and for this event she is using locally sourced food. Her work curates dining experiences that encourage diners to reassess the way they eat.

Her work looks at the world through food: its history, the rituals how we eat and the traditions of how we prepare it. She is obsessed with the spectacle of eating and how we can modulate flavor by using different sound frequencies.

Her three favorite ingredients are fishing wire, helium and liquid nitrogen.

Image Sources and Links:

http://thewindtunnelproject.com/

http://www.stirringwithknives.com/

The Event – Eventbrite

Kbaumlier is featured in The Artist’s Library – A Field Guide

Posted on June 17, 2014June 17, 2014 by Kbaumlier

A couple of years ago I participated in a project called the Library as Incubator Project. Over 100 artists were asked to answer the question, “What does the phrase ‘library as incubator’ mean to you?” I sent in a statement about my love of libraries and their role in my making process.

The cofounders and editors of the project, Erinn Batykefer and Laura Damon-Moore continued with the project and created a book that features some of the artist stories that they collected in order to suggest new ways that others can use the library to increase productivity, inspire new work, and support a creative life.

I am so honored to be in this book, and to have my writing and images featured in Chapter 3 – Using the Library for Creative Research. What is so cool is that there are exercises with my section – that are meant for the reader to try. (Or I might just try them for a new side project I want to start.)

Here is the official description of the book from the book website:

“Creativity, like information, is free to everyone who steps into a library. An offshoot of the Library as Incubator Project, The Artist’s Library offers that an artist is any person who uses creative tools to make new things, and provides the guidance and resources to make libraries come alive as spaces for art-making and cultural engagement. The book draws attention to the physical and digital collections and resources that may be of particular use to artists and writers, provides ideas for art education opportunities within libraries, and offers practical how-tos for artists and libraries alike. From the crafty (pop-up books) to the community-minded (library galleries); the documentary (photo projects) to the technically complex (“listening” to libraries via Dewey decimal frequencies), the case studies included in the book feature artists, writers, performers, and libraries that embody the “library as incubator” spirit.”

Take a peek at the writing or exercise page below:

Image Source and Links:

The Artist’s Library – A Field Guide – Coffee House Press

Youtube Video of the authors – The authors talk about libraries and artists

The Artist’s Library on Amazon