Environment – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Environment

Ghost Food – Experience How We Might Eat After Global Warming

Posted on October 24, 2013October 28, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Two years ago, the cost of peanut butter went up, due to a lower supply of peanuts due to severe heat and drought. In the discussion about climate change, our food supply and food security are named as a growing problem, and that 2050 is the tipping point for when our supply will not meet our demand.

GhostFood is an interactive art project created by artists Miriam Simun and Miriam Songster which presents an experience of how we might eat in the future. For the project, a food truck offers a menu with food substitutes for 3 foods that would be affected by global warming. The menu lists cod, chocolate, and peanut butter. A visitor can order a food sample, which comes in a white tray and a thin tubelike mask that allows you to smell what you are supposed to eat.

Once the mask is on, the visitor is able to smell the food that they ordered, in a small round piece that is soaked in synthetic chocolate, cod, or peanut butter.

Both Simun and Songster have done past projects with food and smell. GhostFood is meant to present a simulation of how food might be experienced if it is no longer available.

The press release for the project describes the experience as:

“When you get to the front of the line, ask for the cod, and rest assured that the food substitute served is fish-less and made from climate-change resilient ingredients. Your flavor experience will be delivered by a GhostFood server.

If you inquire, you might learn that the potential future of the codfish as an ocean ghost is the result of a future mass drowning. Cod eggs that the female fish release into our oceans can no longer float in surface waters due to decreasing salinity levels in an Atlantic that is warming.

GhostFood serves this post-extinction sidewalk snack hoping that when you float in the ocean next summer you will consider that buoyant feeling a little differently.”

The project premiered as part of the DesignPhilly event on October 9, 2013.

Image Source and Links:

steamworkphilly.com/ghostfood.html

www.designphiladelphia.org/

Vandana Shiva and Seed Libraries

Posted on October 2, 2013October 7, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Today many seeds are considered “intellectual property” by large companies who own the patents, which lead to monopolies of food production and profits. Vandana Shiva has become a leader for the global battle over genetically modified seeds. Shiva and others challenge the safety of genetically modified seeds, with claims that the seeds harm the environment, cost more, and can leave local farmers deep in debt and dependent on suppliers.

I recently checked out Shiva’s website which has news and resources about “seed freedom” as well as updates and pictures about current projects. One of the resources on the site includes a “seed kit,” which has resources to help you create a seed bank, a network of seed saving and exchange in your region.

Seed banks are often also called seed Libraries, where individuals can give and borrow seeds. So far Navdanya and her team have set up over 80 community seed banks.

The website gives suggestions about how to get started, and it starts with collecting seeds:

“First, start collecting the seeds in your region. If you are saving seeds in pots, keep it in a cool and dry environment to prevent any damage. Similarly it is important to label the pots with the details of the seed variety contained in it (like the name of the variety, particulars of the variety-for ex, drought tolerance etc). If you are planting the seeds, make sure you are able to identify the varieties cultivated (for instance, by labeling the plants). Similarly, save a portion of the seed before replanting the variety.

If you are a school, start saving seeds by setting up a “garden of life” to save seeds of freedom. If you are in a community, start a “garden of hope” as a community seed bank. If you are associated with a temple, church, mosque, gurudwara, start a seed sanctuary or distribute seeds as a blessing.”

You can read more about Vandana Shiva and her work on vandalashiva.org, and I recommend checking out the video of Banda Shiva being interviewed by Bill Moyer.

Images and Links:

www.vandanashiva.org/

Interview with Vanda Shiva – by Bill Moyer

Build It Naturally: A Green Building Store

Posted on March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 by Kbaumlier

When I was in downtown Asheville, NC this week, I stopped by to check out Build It Naturally, a green materials hardware and resource store. The store carries non-toxic paint, hardwood plywood that is formaldehyde-free, and materials such as cork, linoleum, bamboo and other materials.

I checked out the showroom, and spent time talking with the owner Jennifer Woodruff and talked to her a bit about the business. She summarized the store as having, “non-toxic, renewable, or green” materials, and mentioned that they both sell materials and sources as well as doing contracting work.

Woodruff has had a lifelong interest in natural. Her parents did recycling, composting, had an organic garden, did canning, and did natural dying the wool of the sheep they raised on the farm years ago before it became trendy. In 2005, Jennifer met Susan Bahl who started the Natural Home Design Center, and ended up working for and being inspired by her passion for only having natural ingredients in all the products.

She decided to make her own green business in Asheville, and continues to bring new products into the store. We talked about wool carpet, a new hemp product used for building, and milk paint, which is a natural paint made of pigment.

I found the samples of cork to be interesting. They varied in textures and patterns, and are often used for floors and also as counters in cafes. The display of natural linoleum was impressive. I recently learned that linoleum is bio-based, durable, non-toxic and also anti-microbial, and comes in more than 100 colors. Other materials they have include stains and finishes, insulation, and sealing and caulking – making it possible to get most building materials at one store.

On the website, you can read about many of the materials, and there is also valuable information about health, fabrication tips, and other information.

Image Source:
Kristen Baumlier
Links:

http://builditnaturally.com/

Oyster Beds in the East Bay – Daniel McCormick at the Headlands

Posted on December 16, 2012December 23, 2012 by Kbaumlier

I recently got an update from the Headlands Center for the Arts, a artist residency center located in Sausalito, CA. I was an artist in residence at the Headlands in 2005, and it is interesting to learn about current projects and events. This year a new Alumni New Works program was created, where past artists in residence could apply to do a project for a month.

One of the recipients of this program is Daniel McCormick, who is an environmental artist. In his recent projects, he has collaborated with scientists, conservation organizations, and regional regulatory commissions to create sculptural pieces that improve watersheds and locations of water.

McCormick is a former student of James Turrell and has a degree in environmental design from UC Berkeley. Some of his past work has been in the form of woven basket forms made of green willow and found materials that are placed in eroded gullies and on the banks of rivers.

These sculptures are designed to “fit into the curves of the streams and gullies where they fill with leaves and twigs, collecting sediment that would otherwise suffocate the salmon and steelhead eggs in their spawning areas.”

At he Headlands, he will be installing some innovative San Francisco Bay native oyster beds throughout the East Bay Regional Park System and Merritt Lagoon. By adding oyster beds, it is a way to help restore the bay’s ecosystem. Oysters have to be grown in the top third of the water, where there is sunlight and oxygen. After being installed, oyster beds need to be serviced in order to prevent algae growth which can kill the oysters. Project updates will be posted on his website.

Image Source:
http://www.headlands.org

Links:

http://danielmccormick.blogspot.com/

Sounds of A Healthy Landscape – The Work of Bernie Krause

Posted on June 4, 2012June 6, 2012 by Kbaumlier

A park, forest, or landscape might appear to look healthy, but what does it sound like, and how can this sound reflect the health of the wildlife? This question is at the core of Bernie Krause, who has recorded thousands of places making what he calls “biophonies” to describe these recordings.

His natural sound recordings, also called soundscapes can show what happens to animals in stressful environments, and also show where our language comes from.

He started as a classic musician, and later became famous for introducing the Moog synthesizer in the 1960’ to bands such as George Harrison, Simon & Garfunkel and The Doors. Each band learned how to use the moog from Kruase and his partner Paul Beaver.

When doing a recording for a album called ‘In a Wild Sanctuary,’ Krause recorded a natural soundscape as part of the orchestration of the album. This experience inspired him to continue to record natural landscapes and sounds from that point forward.

Since 1968, he collected over 4,500 separate soundscapes from all over the world. Many of these are considred rare, in that the locations and natural locations have disappeared since he recorded them;.

He is able to compare some of his recordings, to show the impact that our society has on nature. For example, he recorded an area in Northern California before and after logging activities took place. The recordings show the differences visually in a spectrogram, and also in listening.

He has recorded in the Artic, in Borneo, Zimbabwe, and the Amazon. He also has recorded underwater, and recorded animals such as shrimp (which are very loud), and a sea anemone. Sounds of a glacier cracking jaguars purring, and the sound of desert, forest, and other ecosystems have been recorded by Krause.

Do you hear what I hear? You can listen to some of his recordings in the Great Animal Orchestra Youtube video, and also hear soundscapes on his website.

Image Source:
www.wildsanctuary.com

Links:

The Great Animal Orchestra – Natural Sounds by Bernie Krause Youtube Video