Marko Peljhan (co-founder of M.A.R.I.N.) & UCIRA /UCSB, in collaboration with F0AM, Brussels, hosted a Luminous Green workshop in Pam Springs Desert, February 13-17th, 2009. The setting was Boyd Deep Canyon Desert research center, surrounded on the one hand by pristine desert landscape, and a posh golf course on the other. Discussions reflected art and design practices on ecology, interdisciplinary collaboration, ways of interacting with audiences, and similar.
The event continued as a workshop on UCSB campus on Feb 19th-20th, discussing also ways in which student and other initiatives on the campus could integrate luminously green concepts. Tapio Mäkelä gave a talk titled Art, Ecology and Information Design, which included a preview into the M.A.R.I.N. project.
“Luminous Green is series of gatherings, workshops and play-spaces dedicated to a community of people who care about the world. About the world that supports life today and about the possible worlds, that may support a cleaner, greener and more fulfilling life in the future. The Luminous Green community is composed of creative thinkers, doers and makers, deploying their imagination and ingenuity to shape a brighter future, disentangling from the unsustainable and unnatural.”
M.A.R.I.N. + API brainstorm at the sea
After the Luminous events, Marko Peljhan, Matthew Biederman and Tapio Mäkelä, accompanied by Marko’s son Boris, went out to the Pacific Ocean to brainstorm on M.A.R.I.N. infrastructure, and collaboration with the API (Arctic Perspective Initiative). We discussed how to interface work on remote locations with exhibition audiences, and what kinds of tool sets one could use in workshops. We came up with a few good workable ideas, and as on any outing to the sea, had some lunch.
During the outing we saw plenty of pelicans fishing, seals going for their catch, and dolhpins playfully joining our short ride. Sea lions climbed on top of buoys, and even units run by the local oil drilling companies. This area had been a site for a major oil spill that was a catalyst for Californian green movement in 1969.