Student Environmental Photographer of the Week - Eric Chung!

Hi all, every week, UTIES will showcase a student environmental photographer's, artist's, or poet's profile as well as a few photos, paintings, or poems by them on our Facebook page and Blog! This week's student photographer is Eric Chung. 

Here is his profile!

My name is Eric Chung, and I’m a first year life sciences student. I first picked up my camera to do surreal photography a few months ago, because I have a background in digital illustration. After a bit of experimentation in different areas, I found that I particularly enjoyed taking pictures of the outdoors, especially of sunrises. Though subtle at first, with all the colours and interesting details around us, it's difficult to get bored as long as you know when and where to look. With the right coaxing, à la Andy Goldsworthy, the outdoors can yield some of the most beautiful designs; this is what nature should be valued for at the very least, of all things. My hope is that we can all appreciate this enough for future generations to enjoy this as well.

“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." - Maya Angelou

I also enjoy figure drawing, portraiture, waking up at 5 AM to go running.

Check out our Facebook for daily updates!
https://www.facebook.com/utiesbowtie

Thanks and have a great week! 
- the UTIES Committee

Afterglow, 8.5 x 11

"This picture was taken by the park of my house, early in the morning. 
I really liked the maple's long branch going along the side, especially 
with the sun peeking through the leaves, as it acted as a frame for the shot."

Burning, 8.5 x 11

Dew 8.5 x 11

Moonrise 8.5 x 11

River of Blood 8.5 x 11

Ed Burtynsky's Album

Mines #15 Inco Tailings Pond, Sudbury, Ontario 1985


Mines #16 Inco - Frood Open Pit. Sudbury, Ontario 1985


Mines #19 Westar Open Pit Coal Mine. Sparwood, British Columbia 1985


Mines #26 Silica Mine. Revelstoke, British Columbia 1985



Old Factories #2,Tiexi District, Shenyang City,
Liaoning Province, 2005

According to his personal website, "The city of Shenyang, located in China’s northeast Tiexi District, was until very recently China’s industrial backbone and home to the most densely focused concentration of heavy industry. Occupying Japanese forces built many of these factories in the 1930s as part of a Japanese military-industrial complex that was to serve as a platform for further Japanese advance into the rest of China. A few of the factories are still in use today.

Since the mid-1990s, 35 to 40 million workers in China’s State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have lost their jobs because of economic restructuring. This has occurred nationwide, but the Northeast, as the core of China’s state-owned heavy industry, has been especially hard hit. In Shenyang, SOEs are rapidly being demolished and rebuilt at industrial parks outside the city, along with many other new factories. Property once used by these immense old factories is now being designated as residential and commercial, spurring real estate frenzy in Shenyang.

In the late 1990s, China’s government came under intense financial pressure to turn around failing industries. Under Zhu Rongji, China’s then economic czar, tough decisions were made. Ensuing massive layoffs rocked the Northeast’s SOEs, inciting protests and riots by workers angry about inadequate severance promises and compensation packages. Factories once employing 20,000 now function at similar or increased productivity levels using 75 per cent less employees—a testament to the effectiveness of the government’s restructuring policies."



Old Factories #8,Shenyang Heavy Machinery Group,
Tiexi District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, 2005


Highway #1Los Angeles, California, USA, 2003

 

Suburbs #2North Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 2007




Oil Fields #31Bakersfield, California, USA, 2003



Oil Fields #19a Belridge, California, USA, 2003


Iberia Quarries # 1, Marmetal Co., Borba, Portugal, 2006


Iberia Quarries # 3, Cochicho Co., Pardais, Portugal,, 2006

Uranium Tailings No. 5, Elliot Lake, Ontario 1995

Nickel Tailings No. 34,Sudbury, Ontario 1996

Nickel Tailings No. 36, Sudbury, Ontario 1996

Oil Spill #1,REM Forza, Gulf of Mexico, May 11, 2010

Oil Spill #7,Ground Zero, Gulf of Mexico, June 24, 2010

Oil Spill #10,Oil Slick at Rip Tide, Gulf of Mexico, June 24, 2010

Oil Spill #9,Oil Slick at Rip Tide, Gulf of Mexico, June 24, 2010

Dryland Farming #7, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain, 2010

Dryland Farming #15, Monegros County, Aragon, Spain, 2010

Artist of the Week - Ed Burtynsky!

Hi all,

This week's Artist of the Week is Ed Burtynsky! According to his Wikipedia, "he is a Canadian photograpaher and artist who has achieved international recognition for his large-format photographs of industrial landscapes. He was born in St. Catherine's, Ontario. Burtynsky's most famous photographs are sweeping views of landscapes altered by industry: mine tailings, quarries, scrap piles. His early influences include Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and others. When he was 11, his father purchased a darkroom including cameras and instruction manuals, from a widow whose late-husband practiced amateur photography. In April 2006 Burtynsky was named Officer of the Order of Canada

According to his personal website, he states that " nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.
These images are meant as metaphors to the dilemma of our modern existence; they search for a dialogue between attraction and repulsion, seduction and fear. We are drawn by desire - a chance at good living, yet we are consciously or unconsciously aware that the world is suffering for our success. Our dependence on nature to provide the materials for our consumption and our concern for the health of our planet sets us into an uneasy contradiction. For me, these images function as reflecting pools of our times."
For more information on Ed Burtynsky, check out his personal website!http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/

Check our Facebook page for daily updates and new cool eco-art projects!

https://www.facebook.com/utiesbowtie

Thanks again and have a great weekend!

- The UTIES Committee

Fun Facts Friday - Electric Cars Could be Bad for the Environment

This week's Fun Facts Friday is that electric cars could be bad for the environment.

According to The Globe and Mail, "A reader alerted me to a published study by academics in Norway that argues that electric cars can be bad for the envir…

onment. One of the report’s authors, Guillaume Majeau-Bettez, is a Canadian who defended the report in a spirited e-mail exchange.

First, the report itself. The study was done by engineers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and was published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. Its main point is that the evaluation of electric cars has to take into account the “concerns of problem-shifting.” In other words, by solving one problem, do electric cars create another?"

For more information on this interesting news. see this link! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/green-driving/news-and-notes/are-electric-vehicles-bad-for-the-environment/article4618416/

Check out our Facebook for daily updates :)

https://www.facebook.com/utiesbowtie

Thanks again and have a great week :)
- The UTIES Committee

Jackie Brookner's Album

The Gift of Water, 2001, 3 x 5 x 8.5 feet, Grossenhain, Germany

Jackie Brookner, I'm You, 2000, moss, volcanic rock, plants, metal, polluted water, 67 inches x 112 inches x 50 inches

Jackie Brookner, Prima Lingua (First Tongue), 1996 and 2001,concrete, volcanic rock, moss, plants, agricultural runoff, 64 inches x 101 inches x 80 inches

"Brookner grew mosses on a giant volcanic rock and concrete tongue to create Prima Lingua, a biochemical filter that cleanses polluted water and air. The polluted water in its trough, which circulates over the biosculpture's back, was collected from agricultural runoff. The moss, together with the fungi and many millions of bacteria growing with each plant, use the pollutants as food sources, thus gradually purifying the water. A 500 cubic foot per minute ventilation system takes one week to come in contact with an ordinary room's 70,000 cubic feet of air."
http://greenmuseum.org/c/ecovention/prima1.html



Urban Rain, Roosevelt Community Center, San Jose CA, 2005-8



The Brookner Tongue Lounge™ 1993  42 x 31 x 55  Earth, Wood


The Brookner Tongue Chair™   1993   34 x 26 x 42” 

"Tongue Chairs:  Since 1992 I have been making Tounges out of soil.  Some of these evolved into chairs, where earth can embrace the whole body.  The tongue is a provocative image because it is a part of our selves where our physical and mental functions come together--a place where taste, sex and speech meet--where the dualism of mind and body clearly breaks down."
http://www.jackiebrookner.net/soil_chairs.htm


Laughing Brook, Salway Park Wetland and Stormwater Filtration Project, Cincinnati, Ohio  (2002-2009 in progress)

Artist of the Week Wednesday - Jackie Brookner!

Hi all,

This week's Artist of the Week Wednesday is Jackie Brookner, an ecological artist, writer, and educator who creates water remediation/publi art projects for wetlands, rivers, streams, and stormwater runoff. According to Wikipedia, "she completed all work for a Ph.D. in Art History from Harvard University, except the dissertation, as her focus shifted to making sculpture in 1971". According to her personal website "she demonstrates how the undervalued resourecs of stormwater and other polluted water can be reclaimed and used to create lush environments, expressive and multifunctional public spaces."

According to Wikipedia, "her " Biosculptures" were inspired by her research for this issue  to develop a practice that could provide ecological benefits and help to transform cultural values". According to her personal website, her Biosculptures "are living sculptures that use the capacity of carefully chosen plants to clean and filter water. Made of mosses, ferns and other plants growing on stone and concrete structures, they provide ecological and aesthetic solutions to water quality and water quantity problems. These vegetated sculptures are intended to seed a sense of connection to worlds beyond the human and to encourage understanding that is it possible to sustain human life in ways that benefit natural systems, rather than degrade them."
For more information on Jackie Brookner, check out her personal website!
http://www.jackiebrookner.net/

Check our Facebook page for daily updates and new cool eco-art projects!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/utiesbowtie

 

Thanks again and have a great week!

- The UTIES Committee

Fun Facts Friday - New Solar Cell Sets the World Record for Efficiency!

Hi all! According to U of T's School of the Environment's news, a new solar cell set the world record for efficiency!

To read more, see their website!
http://www.environment.utoronto.ca/News/SargentNewSolarCell.aspx

Thanks and have a great weekend!
- The UTIES Committee

Marco Casagrande's Album

Architect: Marco Casagrande
Location: Wenduine, Belgium
Project Manager: Nikita Wu / C-LAB
Organizer: Beaufort 04 Triennial of Contemporary Art 
Built Area: 320 sqm
Completion: 2012
Photographs: Nikita Wu



1000 White Flags, Casagrande & Rintala/Koli National Park, Finland 1999









Bird Hangar, Casagrande & Rintala/ Yokohama Triennial 2001
According to his personal website, "Bird Hangar is an architectural installation for the Yokohama Triennial 2001 by Finnish architects and artists Casagrande & Rintala. A cone shaped steel frame building covered with hemp rope sending up balsa -made birds attached to meteorological balloons up to 10 km where the balloon would explode and the bird start gliding landing either in the Japanese islands or to Pacific Ocean. The bird carries 5 seed of basic Japanese vegetables and a note asking who ever finds the bird to contact Casagrande & Rintala and plant the seeds. Bird Hangar, along with Yoko Ono’s Freight Train, was widely regarded as a highlight of the Yokohama Triennale."


Black Square and Red Square Danshui Taiwan 2005
Design Marco Casagrande
Metal work Martin Ross
Assistant Frank Chen
Homage Kazimir Malevich 
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/kazimir-malevich/black-square-and-red-square-1915



Hanging Forest by Casagrande & Rintala/Roots - Helsinki Kunsthalle 2002







Floating Sauna 
Marco Casagrande, Sami Rintala
Christel Sverre
Students: Kristin Lian Berg, Mona Brekke, Simen Dyrhaug, Jenny Therese Eriksson, Mahlet Ogbé Habte, Marja Ristiina Nickel, Ragnhild Ohma, Anne Marte Ruud, Mona Aspen Simonsen, Thomas Aspeland Sivertsen, Elin Solvang, Sverre Strandberg, Karolin Tampere, Sveinung Unneland, Elisabeth Wahlström.

Bergen Academy of Art and Design

Constructed in Hardangerfjord, in Rosendal village during 2 - 13 Sep 2002







Human Layer, Helsinki, Helsinki Festival 2004
According to his personal website, "attic is the memory of a house. In attic time is different. Attic is not routine, attic don´t have stress. All the objects are tied to stories. Attic is a narrative space. Also a city can have an attic. A public attic to reflect the collective subconscious."

For more of his album, check out his artwork at http://marcocasagrande.fi/

- The UTIES Committee