For Earth Day 2017, we delved into The Dots' pool of creativity to curate 5 projects with a conscience for the climate or the will to combat our Earth's problems with creative solutions. Take a leaf out of these environmental projects, from spinning pandas to real life Asteroid-hunters, be it art installation, photography or film.
5. The Disaster Playground (Film/Mega-Project)
Nelly Ben Studios
Nelly Ben Hayoun (NBH) Studios designs extreme experiences like being an astronaut in your living room whilst brewing up dark energy in your kitchen.
In 'The Disaster Playground' NBS ask Bruce Willis to move over, so as to explore the asteroid-halting heroes of real life, emegency procedures for meteor showers and the adrenaline-filled jobs that people carry out day to day (external to Hollywood and an Aerosmith backing track).
"Disaster Playground is a creative platform, with many outcomes: there is a feature film (documentary ), an exhibition, an immersive experience, a book, debates… I like to call these mega-projects" -NBH
Described as "Pretty Nuts" by Janet Pierson, 'The Disaster Playground' has won buckets of praise from the likes of the BFI and SoundOnSight. If this project is your space jam, click here.
4. Saving The World with VICE (Print Feature)
Bruno Bayley, Editor at VICE
Bayley shares a feature that explores some of the most important questions of our generation, making the topic accessible for today's youth with VICE's approachable yet provoking tone.
Should we have fewer kids? Improve our farming techniques? Reform the energy market? Or just get better at helping one another?
The feature brings together writers and experts on climate policy, climate history and agriculture such as; David Keith, Alan Weisman, Michael Pollan, Naomi Oreskes and Lauren Markham.
All the while, the academic segments are gelled together by gorgeous technicolour photographs from David Benjamin Sherry, with his monograph 'Earth Changes' published by Mörel Books.
Images courtesy of the artist and Salon 94, New York City. See all and read all here.
3.Panda Eyes (Interactive Art Installation)
Jason Bruges Studio.
Formed in 2002, Jason Bruges Studio are behind the design and the building of interactive art installations that create innovative and engaging spaces which connect people with their environment. Past clients include The Shard, V&A and York Minister.'
'Panda Eyes' was created for and plays on the symbolic logo of client WWF, World Wide Fund. The installation, based in Woking, responded to raise awareness for climate change, comprising of 100 miniature money-box-bamboo-nibblers, rotating autonomously and tracking the presence of visitors at the museum.
A project too loveable to ignore, like the real deal bears on the brink of extinction.
3.The Most Destructive Project on Earth (Photography)
Stuart Hall, Photographer, Published by JSR
In this series, award winning Landscape Photographer Stuart Hall, documents the Giga-Project, the largest industrial project in human history. This vast horizon of Tar Sands, based in Fort McMurray, Canada, has formed from a process that extracts Bitumen- an activity amongst the most damaging to our natural world.
This particular area is so huge that it can be seen from space. This is all the more hard hitting when its considered that the oil embedded in the sand is under 140,000 km2 of forest, which is around the same size of England.
Hall plays with perspective in his photographs and turns this harrowing project into absorbing, bird's-eye imagery. Since these photographs were taken in 2011, Hall has revisited the site, armed with his lens, to continue capturing the sheer destruction.
1.The Real Happiness Project
Nathalie Gordon, Creative
A winner, not just because everybody loves sloths, but because Nathalie Gordon, BBC Earth and Berkley University have scientifically proven that watching natural history content makes humans feel happier.
"The research conducted with Professor Dacher Keltner, an expert in the psychology of emotion at the University of California, Berkeley, found that watching natural history programming, like Planet Earth II, can lead to a significant increase in positive emotions like awe, wonder and joy. It can also lead to significant decreases in negative emotions like nervousness, anxiety, fear, sadness and depression" - Nathalie Gordon
This research project reveals that sitting on your sofa and listening to the soothing voice of David Attenbrough over the dazzling visuals of our natural planet, is actually good for our mental health.
In 2016, Planet Earth's popularity amongst younger viewers was revealed by the BBC. This signifies that young people are not only in tune with the importance of the natural world, but that such grand scale projects are having a positive impact on people's emotion.
That's one reason to smile this Earth Day. To read Nathalie Gordon's full project, click here.
For details of Earth Day events in your area, visit www.earthday.org .
Feeling green with inspiration? Upload your own Eco Creativity to The Dots
Words: Robyn Sian Cusworth