2

Green My Favela, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2011-ongoing

Green My Favela (GMF) is an urban remediation project located in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. GMF works with favela residents to create sustainable green spaces inside Rio’s favelas. GMF remediates severely degraded lands and greens what we can through collaborations with individuals, families, NGOs, and the private and public sectors of Rio de Janeiro. We also work with a wide range of innovative and socially engaged international practitioners and academics from diverse arts, sciences, and technology disciplines and backgrounds. Our meta-goals are to help problem solve some of the critical issues in favelas, to form creative and meaningful relationships that increase food security; cultivate local sustainable production opportunities that link to local distribution and consumption; improve air, soil and water quality; and produce desirable, healthy, productive, and green public space. Balance/Unbalance International Conference: Future Nature, Future Culture[s], Noosa, 2013 International Symposium for Electronic Art, Sydney, 2013 Internacional Symposia Natureza - Arte e Ciência, Belo Horizonte, June 2012 Rio+20 United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, Rio de Janeiro, June 2012 Circuito/Vivo Arte.mov, Museu do Parque das Ruinas, Rio De Janeiro, March 2012 SWTX PCA/ACA Annual Conference, Albuquerque, February 2012 Green My Favela: An Act of Defiance, International Journal of Education Through Art, Vol. 8 No. 3 (2012): pp. 305-319 http://greenmyfavela.org https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenmyfavela/albums

3

Bifrost Online

Bifrost Online is an international, open-access channel promoting education for sustainability and climate change awareness. The website regularly presents and continuously updates a wide range of stories, reports, data, artistic engagements and insights from knowledgeable actors (individuals and groups) operating on the front lines of global environmental change.

www.bifrostonline.org

Bifrost is an environmental humanities intervention on climate change led by educators and researchers from the Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (NIES) working in close collaboration with numerous partners from civil society.

4

Análise de Solos e Plantas: 2012.

Soil and plant analysis are accurate ways to determine the degree to which land is damaged through toxic contamination. They also provide indicators as to what functions the land can or should perform. Samples of soil, lettuce, and tomato plants are regularly collected by the artist, and analyzed courtesy of EMBRAPA (Brazil’s federal soil research facility), to determine heavy metal bioaccumulator levels (in particular, lead) in favela gardens. This is especially important in favelas such as Manguinhos, where incidents of cancer and neurological disorders are 500 times higher in youth than in other parts of the city. (FIOCRUZ 2009) From an educational perspective, soil analysis studies have become a component of the artist’s field toolkit. They are used to assess sites and to expand ecology based, health related community knowledge.

Soil analysis of garden site: 2012. Heavy metals 4-point test samples, Rocinha+Verde site. Earth samples are the physical indicators of elemental matter. Within the context of art, however mineral substances are analyzed, catalogued, or displayed, they read as geological information rather than as pictorial representations of landscape. This signifies the capacity to recognize the land as biological matter rather than a representational composition. In an exhibition context, the work makes the point that there are many ways to research and understand the environmental sciences, and to provide geographic and elemental signatures for examining and ‘reading’ the earth.

Circuito Arte.mov, Museu do Parque das Ruinas, Rio de Janeiro, 2012.

5

DIY Microscopy Hacklabs use basic recycled hardware and software to demystify, inspire, and innovate. Workshops engage participants with sound and imaging concepts to expand ideas of perception and scale, allowing us to observe things outside the realm of our normative sensory experiences.

IMAGING WORKSHOPS: Participants create custom USB microscopes from hacking

consumer webcams.

AUDIO WORKSHOPS: Participants create contact mics and use them to capture sounds

from plants and trees. Microscopy Hacklabs are conducted as youth workshops in favelas. Children build and use their custom-made microscopes to capture QT.movs of plants and other biological organisms found soil and water that they gather from their environment.

Video still from Microscopy of Rocinha, 2012.

QT.movs of plants grown in a favela garden were captured by the artist using a custom-built microscope and montaged together with sound recorded using contact microphones attached to the plants. Video of Microscopy at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rxKUyX55zw&feature=youtu.be

6

Medicinal Seed Bank lecture / field trip series, Belo Horizonte 2012. Medicinal Seed Bank is a databank project, lecture series and field teaching program used for studying medicinal seed samples. It was designed in conjunction with the Medicinal Teaching Kit.

Medicinal Teaching Kit, 2012. Each medicinal teaching kit contains a microscope, beacons and slides, a medicinal plant catalogue, field identification guide, teaching guide, seeds, biomedicinal samples and soil test kit. The kits were distributed to Indigenous and local community leaders for use in schools and gardens in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia. The work was inspired by, and conducted in consultation with Maria das Graças Rodrigues Brant, coordinator of DataplaMt, the Natural History Museum of Minas Gerais, and the Minas Gerais Botantical Garden medicinal studies program. Field trips with arts professionals to the gardens, lab and the medicinal databank were also undertaken.

Workshopped at the Conservatório de Música para Simpósio internacional para Natureza, a Arte e Ciência, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2012,

7

Favela excavation, 2011. Within critical arts practice, the procedures of gathering unorthodox records challenge the boundaries of collection, identification, and classification that have been historically validated by natural history. This work is based on conducting pseudo-archaeological digs at sites that are considered historically insignificant by historians. This is an ongoing practice that occurs over time during the course of excavating the chronic trash buildup from favela sites as the precursor to creating gardens. The artifacts are a representative and symbolic byproduct of the process.

Trash collections from various garden sites in the Rocinha favela.

This collection of quotidian objects represents a sort of cultural economy of the favela. Cultural economy is based on the concept that culture is inseparably bound to the social and the economic. As a representation of a cultural economy, these artifacts present a glimpse into the socio-economic dimensions of favela life through material objects, and in addition, offer information about the way people are living on and using the land.

Trash collecting, Griffith University, 2014.

Documentary video footage and excavated trash from garden sites.

See trash collections at https://www.flickr.com/photos/greenmyfavela/albums/72157633252937556

8

Organic seed samples, food vivariums, microscopes, magnifying head sets,

biomedicinals, digital imaging technologies, barks, soil, beacons, test tubes, slides. Custom lab benches made from recycled wood. 2014.

Whether observing living organisms or inanimate objects, whether working in the field, in the lab, or in the gallery, it is important to recognize how any study is not an isolated subject but connects to a broader framework of cultural, social, economic, and/or scientific architecture. These frameworks are often influenced by context.

Soil, treebark, medicinals and seed studies at the Queensland College of Art, 2014.

Soil, treebark, medicinals and seed studies at the Rocinha favela, 2011.

9

The Picnic, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 2011

The Picnic was created both as an event and as a functional installation. Discarded materials were collected from the street and repurposed to assemble a portable kitchen designed to be used by homeless people who live at Cinelandia Plaza in the central business district of Rio de Janeiro. The installation served the community for more than two months until it was dismantled by police (ironically to make way for a Yann Arthus-Bertrand exhibition for the UN Summit on Sustainable Development). Though the kitchen created some initial conflict within individuals in a struggle for its control, it remained intact as a functional assemblage and fed hundreds of people over its short lifetime. The Picnic added a footnote to the long history of art/food/performance events, and represented a very real crossover between art and life that took place through the making and serving food. Materials for the portable kitchen included a wooden ironing board, styrofoam coolers, baskets, an umbrella, carnival decorations, wooden crates, a handcart, plastic containers, cloth, plates, cups, silverware, mats, a flashlight, plates, and cooking utensils. The kitchen also consisted of a wood-fired stove and makeshift bench-tops that were assembled on site in the Plaza. At the inaugural lunch, forty people were served a delicious meal of fresh bread with condiments, cheese, salad, water, chocolate cake and apples, followed later that day by a dinner of beans and rice and fresh vegetables. Tents were also provided to people for sleeping. Paper presented at theater/Performance Studies area, SWTX PCA/ACA Annual Conference, Albuquerque, February 2012 Video of The Picnic at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OysqkEZPAY

10

Rocinha Media School, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2010-ongoing

Rocinha Media School (RMS) is a free, non-profit media project located inside the Rocinha favela of Rio de Janeiro. RMS is a venue where favela residents who otherwise most likely could not participate in any media enrichment programming. RMS hosts the SPIN ROCINHA DJ program which promotes free expression of music, including funk carioca. RMS and the SPIN ROCINHA program were co-founded by the artist in late 2010 collaboration with DJ Zezinho, a local resident of Rocinha, who now independently runs the program. RMS encourages creativity and a sense of artistic play in an atmosphere in which participants of all ages and skill ranges— professional and amateur—interact and exchange musical and technological ideas and talents. RMS also welcomes international participants who flow through the program.

Artist’s installation of iPad with RMS student music on DJ app. for mixing/scratching.

Flatscreen playing stitched panoramas of the Rocinha favela, 2014. Originating in Rio, funk carioca music broaches topics such as poverty, race, sex, violence and social injustice. The glamorization of crime and the degradation of women are viewed as the negative consequences of some of the funk carioca produced. Authorities criticize the genre as being responsible for recruiting youth into organized crime, and for inciting violence. Baile funk refers to the parties at which funk carioca is played. As a strategy of the occupying police units inside ‘pacified’ favelas, baile funks have been made illegal. Cultural theorists claim this represses the authentic cultural expression of favela youth. RMS provides a safe space to experiment with any form of musical expression without fear of risk or reprisal.

Rio+20 United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, Rio de Janeiro, June 2012 International Conference for the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies, Miami, March 2012.

Video documentation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjodZv-31iA&feature=plcp

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/SpinRocinhaEscolaDeDJs/

11

Map of Rio de Janeiro coastline overlaid on satellite image, 5 April 2010.

249 confirmed deaths in favela housing collapses. Rio de Janeiro is a city prone to flooding. Each year, thousands of people die from landslides caused by torrential rains. The city was not designed to handle its population of almost 12 million people. Poor planning and the precarious structures of the favelas built on the steep hillsides and on landfills means homes are easily lost during floods. In addition, the city has a critical trash problem that compounds flooding when garbage and debris block drains. The video for Rain Map was recorded in 2010, when several hundred lives were lost in favela collapses during floods. This montage was captured by favela residents in Rocinha using their cell phones and assembled by the artist and favela residents in 2011 at the Rocinha Media School.

International Conference for the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies, Miami, March 2012

Circuito/Vivo Arte.mov, Museu do Parque das Ruinas, Rio De Janeiro, March 2012

Erosion Test Device, 2014.

Water, buckets, plants, bowls, video montage, recycled wood, aluminum pipe.

Erosion Test Device was a sculptural assemblage using buckets of soil planted with and without plants, to demonstrate how the roots of plants can mitigate erosion during floods.

Installed with Rain Map.

Video of Rain Map at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPha5GbePRc

12

Prototypes: Medicinal Roof Garden, Worm Bin, Grey Water System (left to right),

Created from upcycled, repurposed and recycled materials, 2014.

The gallery provides a context for prototyping and exhibiting designs for roof gardens, worm bins, grey water systems, vertical walls, and garden monitoring bots that can be

used in real-world applications.

Preparing a worm bin.

Working with residents to establish the vertical garden at the Eco-parque, Rocinha, 2012.

Concrete planters, compost, soil, plants. Dimensions 12ft height x 70ft length.

Realized in collaboration with residents of the Porto Vermelho neighborhood in Rocinha, with support from Brazil’s Growth Acceleration Program and architect Anderson Café.

13

DRIFT ROCINHA, Rio de Janeiro, 2011 This project was conducted for the Secretaria de Estado de Assistência Social e Direitos Humanos (Rio de Janeiro’s State Department for Social Development and Human Rights—SEASDH). I was asked to advise on how to implement two recycling programs in the Rocinha favela. The first project involved identifying areas to designate and develop as recycling and picking centers on roads wide enough to be accessed by vehicle. The process was conducted by ‘drifting’ through Rocinha and GPS-tagging areas as potential recycling sites.

Conversations with trash pickers revealed how and where areas for the separation of trash could improve the overall garbage problem, generate income for the informal sector, and ease their workloads. The pickers revealed what kind of trash was most valuable—primarily electronics that could be fixed and sold at the many used appliance stores, followed by furniture that could be sorted for resale—and where the recycling would work best (where there was a large enough area to recycle, and where pickers were already working). Photographic wayfinders linked to an online Bing map, which was presented to SEASDH together with feedback about each site.

In addition, trash from an historic, two story house that had completely filled with garbage and presented a critical vermin infestation was identified and subsequently cleaned by the state after community mobilizing. Ironically, the house had previously functioned as the Cultural Center for Rocinha.

The second program presented a plan for implementing a trash audit and recycling program in the four municipal schools and one state school inside the favela.

Elementary school kids upcycling discarded PET bottles to make take home terrariums.

14

No Gain In Any Direction, 2012

Sound installation and essay installed at the Mt. Wilson Observatory next to the entrance of the 100-inch Hooker Telescope, an instrument that profoundly altered humankind’s understanding of the nature and size of the Universe. The Hooker was the world's largest telescope for two generations.

Hooker Telescope, Mt. Wilson Observatory, California.

This audio sequencing of astronaut communications covers 40 years of American space exploration. It includes the Apollo 8 astronauts reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve, 1968, the Apollo 10, 11 and 16 liftoffs, the Apollo 14 lunar landing, Dave Scott’s first step, the landing of the lunar module challenger, and astronauts discovering orange soil on the moon. The piece was created for the Knowledges exhibition at Mt. Wilson Observatory in California in 2012. It was exhibited at the entrance to the Hooker telescope, together with a critical essay on the U.S. space program. Reconceptualizing Outer Space, Radical Cosmologies Daniel Langlois Foundation/Calarts Viralnet.net publication: pp. 109-119, 2012 Sound collage and essay at http://viralnet.net/radicalcosmologies/projects/rekow.html

15

No-Fly Zone, Los Alamos, 2009-10 Since its creation, the primary responsibility of the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico, has been to maintain the effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrent. Within its restricted perimeter lies Technical Area 53 (TA-53)—the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). LANSCE has one the most powerful linear particle accelerators (atom smashers) in the world. The atom smasher is a massive electrical device used to accelerate protons. LANSCE is sponsored by the Department of Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the Office of Nuclear Energy. LANSCE supplies these departments with intense sources of neutrons generated by the particle accelerator and used in national security research. The highly activated particle accelerator targets and other radiological waste products are disposed of in LANL’s Area G. Area G is a 63-acre site of pits and tent-like structures that hold an estimated eleven million cubic feet of hazardous and nuclear waste (including particle accelerator targets) generated from decades of nuclear research conducted at LANL. The plutonium-contaminated material that is stored in Area G is known to have migrated at least 200 miles through shale to threaten groundwater aquifers and the Rio Grande. There is a no-fly zone in place over these Los Alamos sites. Aerial video footage was taken by the artist from a light aircraft chartered to circle the perimeter of the no-fly zone to locate these sites. Geiger counter readings were taken on the ground at the restricted boundaries of the LANL sites and provide the soundtrack to the video. Watch No Fly Zone at http://youtu.be/EotQDBMFrfU

Circulatory System, 2009 Acid Canyon is a central Los Alamos park. Hazardous constituents have been released into the area since the inception of the Manhattan Project in World War II. Prior to 1951, chemical and radioactive liquid wastes from laboratories were discharged directly into the Canyon, before making their way into the Rio Grande. The potential health risks of Acid Canyon were assessed in 2000, and subsequently sediments with the highest levels of plutonium were removed, and the area restored. Environmental and nuclear watch groups remain alarmed that plutonium particles may be re-suspended by the wind and inhaled and ingested or migrate to drinking water supplies. Circulatory System is a reflection on how the body can be unknowingly “inscribed” by these radiological elements. Geiger counter readings were taken as the artist hiked along Acid canyon to monitor radiation levels. The resulting audio was translated into video to map a specific ecology that refers to the impact the external environment can have on the private sphere of the body. Video of Circulatory System at http://youtu.be/ZFXdw05ro4Q

16

Geography of Sacrifice, video projection, declassified LANL documentation (wall text),

and shale. Geography of Sacrifice was an installation that projected the Circulatory System and No-Fly Zone videos. The videos were juxtaposed against wall text that outlined declassified LANL documents and provide instruction for the removal and disposal procedure of radioactive particle accelerator targets and other radiological hazards from TA-53, and their transportation to Area G. In addition, information about Acid Canyon background radiation levels was supplied. Shale bedrock was also installed as a component of the installation.

Wasted Spaces: 10th Annual Conference, University of Virginia, 2012

17

Terminal landscape, CLUI Wendover residency, 2010. Terminal Landscape is the culmination of research into twenty environmentally degraded sites around the Great Basin region of Utah. In the resulting installation at CLUI Wendover, earth samples were displayed next to a legend/key describing each site, together with Google Earth images. A website was later assembled with basic site information. Two videos were also produced—Utah Toxicology Report and A Road Map to Civil Disobedience. Sites included Hill AFB, the nation's primary maintenance and logistics center for ICBMs; The Western Zirconium Plant, manufacturer and supplier of nuclear fuel products and services; the ATK Promontory Complex where Thiokol builds NASA space shuttle rocket motors and defense and propulsions systems; the Little Mountain Test Annex, where research and development of nuclear propellants is carried out; Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty which is under threat from exploratory oil drilling leases; the Great Salt Lake Minerals Company, with two major evaporation pond areas totaling 36,000 acres of complex chemical agent production; the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, one of the largest human-made excavations in the world; Alliant techsystems Bacchus Works, a munitions, propulsion, composites, and explosives development and manufacturing facility; the Tooele Depot (North Area), a 44,000 acre Army facility that makes up two million square feet of secured munitions storage space and an open burn area for the disposal of surplus and unstable munitions; and the South Area of the Tooele Depot, an ammunition storage facility that is home to 42.3% of the nation's chemical weapons, including nearly 30 million pounds of aging mustard and nerve agents; the Tekoi Test Range on the Goshute Indian Reservation in remote Skull Valley, where the only above-ground, high-level nuclear waste storage site in the nation is in planning stages; the Magcorp Magnesium Chloride Plant, the nation's worst air polluter which releases close to a hundred tons of chlorine per day from its stacks; and the Clean Harbors Hazardous Waste Incinerator which burns a minimum of 30,000 tons of solvents, paints, old chemicals, contaminated soils, and PCBs every year. Terminal Landscape website at http://learekow.com/terminallandscape

18

Utah Toxicology Report (UTR) UTR was a video montage assembled from the Google Earth images used to identify the 20 sites for ground research. Subsequently the images were juxtaposed against data assessing the toxicity levels of sites. This information was derived both from the field and from existing reports accessed. Field recordings were used as the audio track. Video Utah Toxicology Report at http://youtu.be/EAk5BfsoxN0

Road Map to Civil Disobedience Photographs and audio of site interactions with security, military personnel, Homeland Security and the local Indigenous community were subsequently edited into an audiovisual montage. Interactions include being followed, stopped, questioned and searched, having my phone confiscated, and images deleted from my camera, during the research being conducted at the legal boundaries of sites. Video Road Map to Civil Disobedience at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxx-pvK7CfQ

Under Western Skies III Conference: Environment, Community, and Culture in North America, Canada, 2014

CLUI Exhibition Hall II, Wendover, Utah, 2010

19

Extract, 2009-2013 Extract is the culmination of four years of research into the legacy of coal and uranium mining on the tribal lands of the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The research was carried out in collaboration with the Navajo Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation program (AML) and the Uranium Mill Tailings Remediation Action (UMTRA). It was conducted in parallel with a media empowerment project working with Indigenous and environmentally active groups and individuals to encourage engaged advocacy through democratized, digital storytelling. The research process included documenting regional, environmentally impacted sites by collecting soil and water samples, Geiger counter readings, and aerial photography from abandoned uranium mines, active coal mines, and coal-fired generating stations. From these materials, an extensive online audio-visual research archive was made for use by the staff of AML/UMTRA, the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE), and Green Energy Economy. The archive can be used as a public awareness tool for health and safety issues affecting regional communities.

Rijon Denetclaw, filming a meeting at the Shiprock AML offices for EXTRACT/Going Green.

See the EXTRACT archive at http://extract.learekow.com Going Green project at http://extract.learekow.com/content/goinggreen.php EXTRACT book chapter with Wilfred Laurimer Press

20

Extract at the California Institute for the Arts, 2010.

The EXTRACT installation was created consisting of a series of display objects each documenting an abandoned or reclaimed coal or uranium site. Each display object contains soil and water samples, a series of digitally cycling aerial photography, and historical Geiger counter readings housed under silk-screened glass that depicts the location and toxicity analysis associated with each site. The installation also includes a book, two-channel aerial video, Geiger counters, logbooks, and displays of other equipment used in field research. The work has been presented in lectures, at conferences, and been referenced in academic curriculums. Under Western Skies 2 International Conference on Environment, Community, and Culture in North America, Canada, 2012 11th Annual Biennial Ecologies Conference of the Colorado Plateau, Northern Arizona University, 2011 Aerial video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGTzJX5kp3M

21

Surveying the Terrain, Mongolia, 2010 From the time of Marco Polo, there are accounts of caravans in the desert that have heard mysterious musical sounds emanating from sand dunes. This phenomenon is known as singing or booming sands. In the Hongory Els (Singing Sands) region of the Gobi desert,1 the sand particles are a particular smooth and round shape, as opposed to a typical angular grain of sand. In dry weather conditions, when this type of smooth grain sand cascades down a dune, the sand particles collide against each other to produce acoustic energy that creates a booming effect. The dunes of the southern Gobi Desert extend for some 115 miles across, between Mount Sevrei and Mount Zuulun, as part of the Altali Range. One of at least 30 singing sand sites in the world, they are extremely sensitive to pollution, which can micro-coat sand grains and kill the sonic effect. There is evidence that these kinds of massive and widespread booming sand dunes of the Gobi date as far back as eighty million years. This document of the Singing Sands (aerial survey map, earth samples and sound recordings) taken at the Singing Sands was assembled from field research conducted in 1994. The sounds are played through a modified Mongolian musical instrument called a Morin Khuur. They are installed together with a 80” x 40” printed canvas of site aerial photography that was buried in the Gobi desert for the monsoon season. Mongolia360 Land Art Biennale, Ulaanbaatar, 2010 In the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Mongolia

1 The Gobi desert sits at an elevation between 910 and 1,520 meters above sea level. Conditions are harsh. Winds cause the Gobi to reach extremes of temperature ranging from –40°C in winter to +50°C in summer.

22

Cellular Disruption (Ebola), 2009-2010 Cell disruption is a method or process for releasing biological molecules from inside a cell. The disruption of cells and the production of molecules are produced through cloning and culturing methods for the study and manufacture of molecules of “biological interest”. Cellular Disruption is generated from research into the number of biohazard labs that sprung up around the United States after September 11, 2001. Many new and older biohazard laboratories around the country have been built in either volatile geographical regions2 or in areas close to large urban centers.3 Digital renderings of several biological systems, each representing the pathogen research of a particular lab, were created and screened as large-scale exterior projections and through a custom video kaleidoscope. Cube 37, Melbourne, 2010 Future Imaginary, Ben Maltz Gallery, OTIS, Los Angeles, 2009 Video excerpt of Cellular Disruption (Ebola) as viewed through kaleidoscope at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNLyiypfeHM&feature=youtu.be 2 An example of a lab built on geographically vulnerable territory is the Robert E. Shope Medical Laboratory, part of the Galveston National Laboratory on Galveston Island (also known as Ebola Island), in Texas. The lab, a national biological defense laboratory that opened in November 2008 at the University of Texas on the island, is designed for scientists to study viruses such as ebola, anthrax, tularemia, West Nile virus, drug-resistant tuberculosis, bubonic plague, avian influenza, Marburg, and typhus at the facility. The decision to place the bio lab on a barrier island that has suffered past flood damage during hurricanes has raised major safety issues. Each time a hurricane approaches the island, scientists have to stop their experiments and exterminate many of the viruses and bacteria they are studying. The construction of the lab was pushed (and financially supported) by the Bush administration after the September 11, 2001 WTC attacks. 3 Established in 1954, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), in Long Island, New York, runs between 22,000 and 35,000 diagnostic tests related to animal diseases per year. It develops diagnostic tools and preventatives such as vaccines and antivirals, and is the only laboratory in the U.S. that permits the study of foot-and-mouth disease. Plum Island, or Lab 257 as it is otherwise known, is just hours from New York City. Home to dozens of deadly and rare biological diseases housed on this bucolic island (close to some of the wealthiest homes in the area), it has a history of contagious outbreaks, poor security, and official denials.

23

Encoding the Belt, Arizona, 2010 Copper is a highly versatile material used in electrical equipment, construction, plumbing, industrial machinery, and to create alloys for the manufacture of guns, coins, and electrical wiring, and computer chips. The environmental waste produced by mining copper is deposited mostly along riverbanks. The combustion of fossil fuels also causes accumulation of copper particles in the atmosphere, which are transferred into soil when it rains. High concentrations of copper are found near mines, industrial settings, landfills, and waste disposals. Long-term exposure to high intakes of copper can cause headaches, stomach aches, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, liver and kidney damage, a decline in intelligence, and even death. In this field study, Geiger counter recordings were collected from abandoned copper mines in the Arizona copper belt and encoded onto sound modules made with copper circuitry. These modules were then placed in display for playback by users. Remoteness, a traveling group exhibition originating at the Frankston Arts Center, Melbourne, 2010

24

Medicinal Seed Bank, from the Post-Natural Economies series. 2009-2013

Digital Seed Bank was a research project that began with the digital imaging of seventeen varieties of medicinal plants. It was originally produced in 2009, in consultation with New Mexico’s Seeds of Change organic seed and soil research facility. The project has since been reconfigured into various formats, including digital imaging workshops, and has been used for creatively organizing biomedicinal image banks.

Detail of Spilanthes acmella: a flowering herb that contains an analgesic agent used to numb toothache.

Digital imaging technology was used to determine physical characteristics of seeds, such as size or stress cracks. Visual identification of seed attributes are useful in researching quality, for cataloguing purposes, and for identifying traits of a specific sample or collection, for example, in order to see what a contaminant seed looks like; to read the fine features of a small-seed crop (like a medicinal herb); or for identifying unfamiliar visual features (which is often the case with native species). These techniques open up ways to view botanical worlds and signify an important visual development in the long history of botanical representation and natural science studies. Balance/Unbalance International Conference: Future Nature, Future Culture[s], Qld, 2013 Video at http://youtu.be/MtomJLGk-f4

25

Colony, 2006-2009. From the Post-Natural Economies series This project was a response to studies in Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a term first applied to the drastic number of disappearances of commercial honey bee colonies from late 2006 on. The causes are not fully understood and are attributed to a wide range of causes that range from biotic factors such as mites and insect pathogens to environmental change-related stress, pesticides, and large-scale commercial beekeeping. Other possibilities include cell phone radiation, genetically modified crops with pest control characteristics, or the disproportionate amount of wheat and corn now grown and pollinated by the wind. It has also been suggested that CCD may be due to a combination of many of these factors and that there is no single cause. In this body of research, a singular bee colony was observed by placing a hacked web camera with LED and microphone inside a hive. The concept was reproduced and extended by exhibiting a colony in several contexts, including viewing through an interactive kaleidoscope.

CUBE 37, Melbourne, 2009 Future Imaginary, Ben Maltz Gallery, OTIS, Los Angeles, 2009 Gigantic ArtSpace (GAS), New York, 2008 Australian Embassy gallery, Washington DC, 2006 Video documentation at http://youtu.be/qYdTx8knnns

26

Where’s Your Power, 2009 Where’s Your Power was created in collaboration with Dr. John Fogerty, cofounder of New Energy Economy. The installation was composed of a video booth where visitors were asked to describe where their electricity comes from and where in the future they would like it to come from. In addition, dozens of citizens were asked these questions in the street. Their responses were recorded and edited into a humorous and enlightening video that was looped on a monitor that played on the exterior of the video booth. Of the 90+ participants that responded to the questions, only two could name where or how their electricity was delivered to them. Also included in the installation was a 3.5 tonne pile of coal, the average amount used by every American every year. During the course of the installation, the coal was placed in bags, marched from the exhibition site and delivered by individuals and community groups to State legislators in a protest against the health and ecological risks associated with contamination from fossil fuels. The action was performed on 24 October 2009 (International Day of Action on Climate Change) in a collective effort that included participation from Earth Care International’s Youth Allies, New Energy Economy, Santa Fe Critical Mass, United World College, UNM Sustainability Course, the Sierra Club, and hundreds of individuals. Specifically there was a call for legislation to immediately reduce C02 levels to 350 parts per billion or below. This action was performed in alliance with 350.org in the lead up to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, November 2009 Where’s Your Power video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQmmf46tfRU

27

Post Industrial Textures, 2009 Post-industrial visual rhythms are played against machine sound code in a repetitive audiovisual sequencing of curcuit board electonica that resonates with overtones of technological systems and factor floor production. This is a restrained, performative exercise that explores post-industrial textures and synthetic patterning. Performed to live score by Os Lindos Malucos,4 at High Mayhem, Santa Fe, August, 2009 Video excerpt at http://youtu.be/1SNJdNcKFOA

4 Os Lindos Malucos: Hank Schroy, bass; Chris Jonas, saxophone; Milton Villarrubia, drums; Leon Gruenbaum, samchillian.

28

Systems Failure, 2009 Should we draw a line limiting genetic manipulation? If so how, and on what grounds? Which potential benefits, if any (an obvious example is medicine), would justify biochemical manipulation, which would not? What criteria might we apply to decide? What constitutes proper and improper human research on animals? Should we eat foodstuffs that had been genetically manipulated using human genes? Should anyone be able to patent a genetically modified animal or plant? Is the profit motive too dominant a driving force in research in biotechnology? Are we reducing animals, and nature in general, to the status of pure commodity? How great are the potential risks involved in releasing genetically modified organisms into the biosphere without knowing all the possible consequences? Is genetic engineering in order to make staple crop more resistant in marginal conditions a potential boon for Majority World agriculture, or does it produce another danger of increased system collapse? How should we handle an emotive issue about which opinions are apt to be polarized at a very fundamental level? How do we make “expert technologies” accountable to society? How can corporate and governmental responsibility in regulating GMOs? How should the public be informed in regard to how their food and medicine was produced, and as to the potential health risks? How do we handle issues of information and misinformation, the media and lobbying? How far should commercial secrecy be allowed, and how far should a firm be obliged to publish? How are the motives behind genetic engineering made visible? Are there better medical or biotechnical things to be doing with research money other than genetic engineering? Systems Failure opens up these questions for consideration in various visual configurations of video kaleidoscopes made from repurposed materials. Design by Stephan Von Muelhen. Future Imaginary, Ben Maltz Gallery, OTIS, Los Angeles, 2009 Video documentation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-uLLBgD-WI

29

la·ment/ləˈment/ Noun: A passionate expression of grief. Verb: Mourn a person’s loss or death.

The voice of ritual lament resonates through weeping, wailing, music, poetry, prayer and chanting. In many oral traditions, the lament is performed by women. This proclamation of grief results in a letting go, and ultimately the ability to heal. Lament and Reflection was created for the Lament Project for viralnet.net 2007-2008.

Viralnet.net, Los Angeles, 2008 Listen to Lament and Reflection at http://viralnet.net/lamentproject/each_lament.html?artist=rekow

30

Burma: A Forgotten War, 2003-2006 Burma (Myanmar) is a Southeast Asian country of approximately forty-seven million people consisting of eight major ethnic nationalities. Burma has been ruled by a brutal and repressive military dictatorship for more than four decades, resulting in widespread, systemic violations of basic human rights and high levels of political and economic insecurity. The country has been ravaged by military confrontations since World War II, with distinct conflicts between the military junta—the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and the pro-democracy movement—the National League for Democracy (NLD), and between the SPDC and over 200 minority ethnic groups. The SPDC’s Burmanization campaign attempts to eradicate minority ethnic culture through forced marriage and pregnancy, prohibition of teaching minority ethnic languages and history, and state violence and systematic murder against minority peoples. In 2003, armed with a spy camera and posing as a school teacher, I secretly crossed the border of Thailand into Burma to record oral histories of the Burmese people who have survived for more than 50 years of civil war and oppression from this corrupt junta. A comprehensive oral histories project entitled A Long Struggle, and 30 minute documentary entitled BURMA: A Forgotten War chronicle the impact of landmines and the government’s use of forced labor, torture, rape, and drugs on the various ethnic minorities that continue to survive in the Southeast region of Burma. These projects were an effort to give a voice to nearly forgotten people who are rarely able to tell their stories to the outside world. The research includes interviews with ethnic leaders and Internally Displaced People (IDPs) living in temporary settlements inside Karen territory hiding from the Burma Army. The encounters with the Karen ethnic group, and other ethnic minorities focus on personal accounts of political conflict, forced labor, forced relocation, narcotics, displaced persons, and continuing diplomatic struggles. Amnesty International, India, 2008 Taipei International Film Festival, 2007 Lens Politica film and media art festival, Helsinki, 2007 Angelica Film Center, New York, 2007 Lowes Cinemas, national theatrical release, 2007 6th Watch Docs Human Rights International Film Festival, Warsaw, 2006 One World Film Festival, Ottawa, Canada, 2006 U.S. academic tour, 2006 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Lawther/Graff Award, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, Lowes Midtown & Battery Park cinemas, New York showcase, 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival, 2006 U.S. Campaign for Burma National Conference, Presented to U.S. Congress, Washington DC Financial support awarded by the Center for Peace & Human Security, New York. View oral histories of Burma’s ethnic leaders at http://burma.learekow.com/oral-histories.php Watch short film at http://burma.learekow.com

31

GSDS, 2009 Impact from industry, unsustainable farming practices, deforestation, water diversion, overgrazing, and rapid population growth, have left land barren and laden with toxins. Because of this, dust storms carrying millions of tons of sand are now annual phenomena in all regions of the world that border major deserts. Dust storms are a type of meteorological disaster that contribute to atmospheric pollution, harvest collapse, increase of infectious disease, and other health issues. They have occurred since the earliest recorded history, and affect most regions of the earth. The Great Sydney Dust Storm of 2009 is one the most thoroughly documented storms in Australian history. The storm originated in the center of the country, pluming out to cover half of New South Wales and Queensland. The earth-saturated atmosphere drove air pollution to 1500 times standard levels, the highest ever recorded.5 GSDS was a live photographic barcode created from a Javascript feed that pulled images of the “Great Sydney Dust Storm” from the web for 24 hours following the storm.6 GSDS is a documentation of the photographic visualizations that completely overwhelmed public dialogue regarding the effects of the immense transfer of phosphates and nitrogen as the massive dust cloud traveled 1,500 kilometers to Sydney and deposited 4,000 tons of desert soil particulates into the harbor, causing phytoplankton growth to increase three-fold.7 The project was an attempt to map the dominant cultural signifiers the event produced. Video excerpt at http://youtu.be/L5BvqYqM0ss

5 Chris Eiser, manager of atmospheric science at the NSW Department of Climate Change and Water, confirmed measurements taken showed the highest level of particle concentration on record. In an interview for the article entitled Sydney dust blanket causes highest air pollution on record, by Arjun Ramachandran, for the Sydney Morning Herald, September 23, 2009.

6 Images were pulled from the web using JavaScript to parse and display them. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) was the data format used to pull in images through the feed (JSON is language-independent, so it can be parsed using any programming language). 7 The cloud also cloaked temperatures, crippled transportation systems, arrested construction, triggered over 500 fire alarms in a four-hour period, and temporarily increased respiratory illnesses.

32

Living and Dying in Faith, 2006. Up to a billion people in Asia could be adversely affected by global climate change over the coming decades through acute water shortages and rivers running low. One of the major rivers under threat is the Ganges, one of the great rivers of the Indian subcontinent and the source of life for hundreds of millions of people. But the Himalayan glaciers that are the source of the river’s water are melting fast and could vanish in the coming decades.8 The worst predictions say water flow in the Ganges could drop by two-thirds. Experts predict that eventually the Ganges will become a seasonal river, largely dependent on monsoon rains. More than a 100 cities and countless villages which are situated along the 1,568 mile river, which stretches from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, will be seriously imperiled in the next several decades. This means that 400 million people would struggle to find drinking water, farmers would not be able to irrigate their land, and hydroelectric power stations would generate much less electricity. Few villages now have sewage treatment plants, and many corporations dump toxins into the river, so until now, most environmental concerns have focused on the pollution of the Ganges. However, the Ganges could also be the first place where global warming also threatens the religious rituals of 800 million Hindus. This research documents the at-risk religious rituals that take place on the banks of the “Ganga Ma” the river that is revered as a goddess. In the 3,000 year-old holy city of Varanasi, which is known for its intense religious devotion, temples line the banks of the river, and thousands of people bathe in its waters every day. Yet the prayer rituals carried out at the water’s edge may not even survive for another generation. Climate change could throw into turmoil something many devout Hindus thought was immutable: their most intimate religious traditions. Exhibited at the International Resource Center, Queens Library, New York. International Research Center Library, Queens, New York

8 The Gangotri glacier, which provides up to 70 percent of the water of the Ganges during the dry summer months, is shrinking at a rate of 40 yards a year, nearly twice as fast as two decades ago.

33

After The Bombs, 2005 This research maps a section of Sharm el Sheikh in the South Sinai after a series of bombings perpetrated by a Wahhabi organization9 which targeted the Egyptian city in 2005. Eighty-eight people were killed and over 200 were wounded, the majority of them Egyptians, making the attack the deadliest terrorist action in the country’s history. Egypt responded by erecting a separation barrier around the city, cutting it off from possible attacks and the Sinai Bedouin community, many of who were arrested for allegedly aiding in the attack. This topographic map and series of photographic projections of the region charts the ongoing threat of enclosure facing the nomadic Bedouin people.10 Mediawave International Film Festival, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, 2005

9 Wahhabi is a conservative arm of Sunni Islam. 10 The map depicted Sharm el Sheikh, including a five-meter square section of the marine reef bottom (scale 1:100; reference point at 27°49.55’N, 34°16.14’E).

34

Name: Gordon McCannel Aamoth Jr. City: New York State: NY Country: USA Age: 32 Occupation: Investment banker Employer: Sandler O'Neill Last Known Location: World Trade Center Name: Edelmiro "Ed" Abad City: Brooklyn State: NY Country: n/a Age: 55 Occupation: Senior vice president Employer: Fiduciary Trust Last Known Location: World Trade Center Name: Maria Rose Abad City: n/a State: n/a Country: n/a Age: n/a Occupation: n/a Employer: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Last Known Location: World Trade Center Name: Vincent Abate City: New York State: NY Country: USA Age: 44 Occupation: Bond trader Employer: Cantor Fitzgerald Last Known Location: World Trade Center Radical Forgive, 2001 A week after the trade towers fell and New York was totally “dark”, the Culture Project opened its doors for me to curate a Radical Forgive performance. The evening opened with a live score by the History of Unheard Music to a 30-minute Super 8 film I had assembled from footage shot in New York over the preceding four-year period. This was shown together with a scrolling video of the 3000+ names that at that time appeared as the list of people considered missing or dead. Other performers included Shelley Hirsch, David Watson, The Necks, and Jim O’Rourke, then of Sonic Youth.11 Bleecker St. Theater, Manhattan, September 2001 Ocularis @ Galapagos, Williamsburg, New York, 2002 Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 2002

11 The event was held on September 18, 2001.The names were as published in USA Today and were projected throughout the evening’s performances. 911 Response TRT 4 hours 50 minutes / Memory Symbol Memory TRT 30 minutes.

35

Beyond Territory, 2001 Straddling the border between Bolivia and Peru, Titicaca is 120 miles long, 50 miles wide and has an average depth of 500 feet. The lake is located more than 2 miles above sea level on the Altiplano, or High Plateau, of the northern Andes Mountains. The Altiplano is like a giant cup, and Titicaca is the deepest point in the vast plateau. As a result, most of the precipitation in the Altiplano drains into the lake. Because very little water drains out of Titicaca, the lake serves as a reliable archive of rainfall patterns over many centuries — not just of the Altiplano, but of a large portion of tropical South America. Titicaca is the only large and deep freshwater lake in South America, and in deeper portions of the lake, sediment has accumulated continuously for at least the past 25,000 years. By analyzing lake bottom samples, scientists have concluded that the lake — and therefore the entire Altiplano — has undergone a series of dramatic changes since the Ice Age was at its peak between 26,000 and 15,000 years ago. Scientists do not have a complete explanation for these periodic climate changes. For example, no one knows why the water level of the lake suddenly plunged to its lowest level 6,000 years ago. The drop occurred very suddenly in just two or three centuries, suggesting that there can be rapid changes that occur in nature that we don’t know much about. In this installation, filtered lake-bottom samples were arranged next to analysis reports, and a map identifying sites where each of the samples were taken.

Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, 2001

36

The Property of Water, 2000 Access to clean water and sanitation in El Salvador are low. This leads to negative impacts on productivity and health, in particular, the health of the poor. Water resources are heavily polluted and the great majority of wastewater is discharged without any treatment into the environment. It is estimated that 90 percent of surface water is contaminated, and nearly 98 percent of municipal wastewater and 90 percent of industrial wastewater is discharged directly into rivers, creeks, and the ocean without any treatment. In addition, the country suffers from water scarcity during the dry season. Over the past 20 years, water yields from springs have declined by 30 percent due to deforestation. This has reduced water availability for the rural population, in some cases obliging them to rely on more expensive well-pumping from aquifers whose water table has declined by as much as one meter per year in some localities. Low quality drinking water is available for sale in San Salvador in small plastic bags, provided by a controversial public institution which sets both policy and is the main service provider. During my time living in downtown San Salvador, I collected drinking water bags from locations around this poorer area of the city as I recorded conversations with people about their lack of access to clean water. I subsequently played people’s comments through small speakers placed under each bag which tagged the various locations. The bags of water muted the individual conversations but at the same time created a river of sound. Bit by Bit Digital Media Festival, Colorado, 2000

37

Talking About Revolution, 2000 Super 8 footage shot over an eight-week period in Cuba was edited with field recordings, including Fidel Castro speaking at the mass rally on International Labor Day at Revolution Square in Havana on May Day, 2000. The piece was made during the Elian Gonzalez affair, and reflected on U.S./Cuban relations and the effects of the long-standing U.S. embargo. The work sets an ambient mood that sits in stark contrast to the media being generated at the time in the United States about this international incident. AOS show, Communications & Digital Design Gallery, Puck Building, Manhattan, 2000 Forumdesimages Fesitval, France, 2000 Seoul International Film & Video Festival, Korea, 2000

38

An Edge to the Trip of Nowhere, 1998-99 This interactive CD-ROM maps a mostly overland journey, southwest through the Andes, at an altitude of between three and six thousand meters, from northwestern Peru to the southern tip of Bolivia and into northern Chile in 1998. THAW Digital Media Festival, University of Iowa, 2000 Citymorph Digital Media Festival, Buffalo, New York, 2000 Festival of Cinema and Technology, Los Angeles, 2000 Pratt Institute, 1999

39

Journal of an Arid Environment, Botswana, 1997 This was a study of savanna ecology that examined differences in diet and patch choices of African elephants (Loxodonta Africana) according to sex and herd structure. The study took place during the dry season in a savanna-woodland ecosystem in the Chobe National Park of northern Botswana. The evidence suggested that high elephant densities in nature reserves cause the over-utilization of woodlands, resulting in a loss of sustainability and unsustainable herd capacities. This work was shown in combination of projected satellite imagery, log books, and other archival material. THAW Digital Media Festival, University of Iowa, 1999 McKinney Contemporary Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1998

40

Signs of Disappearance, Cambodia 1997 First introduced to Cambodia in 1936, the cyclo soon became an iconic part of Phnom Penh’s cityscape. Cyclo culture still has a small, loyal following of mostly elderly customers, but have mostly cyclos been pushed aside amid a sea of cars and scooters introduced into the country in the last fifteen years. These symbols of a past decade are struggling to remain relevant as Phnom Penh powers into motorization. This exhibition was composed of 240 rotating slides that cycled in three projectors to create impressions of Phnom Penh streetscapes. Contact microphones amplified the sound of the projectors, which mimicked the clacking noise of the cyclos. The images were accompanied by Khmer radio broadcasts that played though a series of monitors. The photography and broadcasts were recorded in Phnom Penh in the mid-1990s. Euro Underground. Berlin, Sophia, Brussels & Krakow, 1998 Pratt Institute, New York, 1997

41

AUM, Thailand, 1996 In 1909, Jung asserted that myth and dream were linked, but this has long been accepted in Asia, and is implicit in the syllable OM, or AUM. According to the Mandukya Upanishad,12 waking consciousness is identified with the letter A of the syllable AUM; dream consciousness with the letter U; and deep sleep, the state symbolized in the center of the mandala, with M. The soul is propelled both by and from this syllable into silence, and the silence rises and sinks when pronounced slowly and rhythmically — as in AUM, AUM, AUM. You hear this sound when you cover your ears, and though you are hearing the blood in the capillaries, it can also be interpreted as the sound of AUM. Joseph Campbell states simply that AUM is the sound of the radiance of God. This soundscape was amplified in real time using ECG recordings to monitor various states of meditation. THAW Digital Media Festival, University of Iowa, 1998

12 The Mandukya Upanishad is an exposition of the syllable AUM, and the shortest of the Upanishads – the scriptures of Hindu Vedanta.

42

Here, there and Elsewhere, Taiwan, 1992-5. The Republic of China (ROC) today consists of the island of Taiwan, 100 miles off the Asian mainland in the Pacific. Hsin Chu is a medium sized city of around 500,000 people, about an hour southwest of Taipei, the capital. Its science park is known for computer and telecommunications manufacturing; in essence, it is Taiwan’s Silicon Valley. I was based in Hsin Chu for three years in the early 1990s. At that time, Taiwan was suffering from the environmental fallout associated with this manufacturing, and the country was considered unfit for human habitation due to massive pollution. This installation consists of religious and secular sound and video bites gathered over this three-year period and organized and exhibited as an audiovisual installation that users moved through via an interactive cdrom, video projection, and listening post. L’immagine Leggera, Palermo International Film & Media Festival, Italy, 1998 Pratt Institute, New York, 1997

43

Waste Heat, Japan, 1994 This project was motivated by the heat island phenomena in Tokyo. An urban heat island is essentially a ‘bubble’ of hot air which can engulf an entire city. It is generated by the radiant heat emanating from paved areas and buildings. This research documented heat emissions in Shinjuku during the winter. The heat island is evident during the winter because of the weakness of sea breezes from Tokyo Bay and the low impact from shortwave radiation.13 The research revealed that in the evenings, several high temperature peaks appeared in Shinjuku, the area with the largest anthropogenic heat fluxes. Temperatures and images of Shinjuku were recorded from the S tower of Shinjuku Paku Tawa (Shinjuku Park Tower), the second tallest building in Shinjuku, Tokyo, which stands at a height of 235 meters. 11th Annual MIX Experimental Film & Media Festival, New York

13 Shortwave radiation refers to the sum total of all shortwave electromagnetic energy, or sunlight, at particular wavelengths that escape from the top of the Earth’s atmosphere back into space. In winter the shortwave radiation is weak and the influence of anthropogenic heat is relatively large.