Public Engagement – littoral: sci-art project

Posted by jcb990 on April 26, 2022 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement

LOST

I am very pleased to be collaborating with Eden Court, Inverness with my new project, LOST. An immersive Climate Action Exhibition showing in the amazing space of the Memorial Chapel at Eden Court, Sunday May 15 – Sunday June 12 2022.

Eden Court and I are both keen that the exhibition and accompanying events will continue the COP26 #ClimateCrisis story in the Highlands. LOST aims to show how plastic pollution directly contributes to the Climate Crisis. The work will highlight the amount of lost energy that plastic marine litter represents and explain the unseen and often misunderstood links to fossil fuels.

The exhibition will feature a collection of 18 #LitterCUBES. Each cube was hand-stitched and woven together from thousands of pieces of collected plastic beach litter. Myself and project volunteers collected, stitched and wove during 5 public events held in coastal towns around Scotland including Shetland, Ullapool, Easthaven, Dunbar and Eyemouth. A rolling film loop projected into the gallery space, will cyclically illustrate the dripping-away of 100 litres of oil, visually representing the lost energy embodied in the #LitterCUBES. Thanks to the volunteers who assisted me with the mathematical calculations to find the energy values of each CUBE!

9 large CUBES will form a central piece surrounded by prints of each litter item contained within

Film credit: Paul Barton DOP Edit: Veronica Vossen

CLIMATE ACTION EVENTS

Alongside LOST, we will be facilitating a two exciting Climate Action events.

World Environment Day Event Sunday 5 June, Eden Court, 4-6pm

I will be leading a tour around the LOST exhibition and along with event collaborators and Highland Recycling Partners, Greenhive and Plastic@Bay, we will show the Ocean Plastic Skipping Ropes from the #Greenfitness project.

RECYCLE: This Climate Action event will include an exhibition talk, explaining the recyclability of types of single use plastic and a presentation by Julien Moreau from Plastic@Bay, Durness will share their innovative idea for Decentralised Community Recycling in the Highlands.

Andy MacVicar from GreenHive, Nairn, will explain the useful recycle-ability of different types of single use plastics.

We will make a map of where each single use plastic items are likely to locate and concentrate in the world. Participants will be able to suggest and identify any products we need in the Highlands, that could be made from recycled plastic. Booking:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recycle-world-environment-day-event-tickets-324806714627

World Ocean Day Event: Wednesday June 8 Cromarty Cinema Beach 4-6pm

MAKE: My newest work explores the potential of making alternative polymer materials from sustainable seaweed. I will be leading an exciting hands-on workshop on the beach, encouraging people to experiment making bio-plastics from seaweed.

Events are free and everyone is welcome. For more information, booking and access details visit https://eden-court.co.uk/

The World Environment Day, Climate Action event, RECYCLE is being supported through the Green Tease events series and network run by Creative Carbon Scotland. Find out more here: https://www.creativecarbonscotland.com/project/green-tease/

The exhibition and events are gratefully being supported by The Pebble Trust & Eden Court.

The LOST exhibition artworks were made with the kind support of individuals through Crowd Funding Project donations from Trusts: Schiehallion Group, Rag, JA Clerk, Ullapool Harbour Trust, Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape Partnership, North Light Arts, Easthaven Together. Company donations: Eyemouth Marine, Neighbourly TK Max, John Lawrie Group. In-Kind donations: Dunbar Harbour Trust, Ullapool Harbour Trust, Eyemouth Harbour Trust, Eyemouth Hippodrome, SPLASH, Shetland Marine College, JJ Jamieson, Shetland Museum & Archives, The Swan Trust, An Talla Solais, North Link Ferries. Grants: Arts & Business Grant (Shetland), Shetland Council.

Posted by jcb990 on September 9, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement, Uncategorized

Shetland Legacy

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My recent Shetland adventure sees the completion of 3 Shetland #LitterCUBES which will go on to be exhibited at Edinburgh Science Festival 2020. Many thanks to Dunna Chuck Bruck volunteers for collecting all the litter and Shetland’s fine Youth Ambassadors who worked with me on the construction of the #LitterCUBES and the delivering of my workshops across the islands. All fantastic young people!

Thanks to the Swan Trust for taking me on an special island odyssey on board The Swan. It was amazing to experience up-close the beautiful marine environment around the islands. Sailing from Lerwick North to Unst and Yell to deliver the #LitterCUBES and marine life/pollution sampling workshops to schools. Thank you to all the people that took part and supporters.

Many thanks for workshop/studio space provided by Shetland Museum & Archives, Lerwick and the Marine Centre, Scalloway, both brilliant places to have far reaching conversations with residents and visitors, discussing the energy value of plastic and changes planned and being planned to #BeatPlasticPollution both in the aquaculture industry and in the home .

Next stop Arbroath Coastal Festival 13-14 September. Arbroath Signal Tower/Harbour Beach, DD11 1AX . See you there!

Posted by jcb990 on August 19, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement, Uncategorized

SHETLAND:

It’s great to be back in beautiful Shetland! Many thanks for the continued support of the Dunna Chuck Bruck volunteers, North Link Ferries for safely shipping me up here and new exciting partnerships with John Lawrie Group, the Swan Trust, Fishing for Litter team and many Shetland friends.

Thousands of the items collected by the Dunna Chuck volunteers collected across Shetland in the annual ‘Voar Redd Up’ beach cleans.

Full speed ahead now washing and processing the ‘Bruck’ clear plastic drinks bottles, plastic strapping, cotton bud sticks in preparation for weaving together to make 4 Shetland #LitterCUBES.

HELP! WE NEED MORE cotton bud sticks – a major litter offender, to be found on a beach near you. If you are walking on the beaches over the next 2 weeks please look closely along the strand lines. Please drop off at the Shetland Amenity Trust, Garthspool, Lerwick.

CBS 2 Many thanks

I look forward to seeing as many people as possible at the Public events planned at Shetland Museum on Saturday 31^st Aug and Thursday 5th September. More information on the Shetland Press Release

Posted by jcb990 on July 18, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement

Conversations

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While it’s certainly tough taking sculptures to beaches and harbours, my #LitterCUBE event days in Ullapool and Dunbar have reaffirmed my belief in the value of working outside of gallery settings, especially to trigger conversations about the link between pollution, sustainability and climate chaos.

‘So what’s that all about?’ ‘What are you doing there?’

were great openers from passers-by to start conversations that ranged widely from the materials the CUBES are made from to who is responsible and the link to the petro-chemical industry. I then encouraged people to become citizen scientists by weighing the #LitterCUBES and calculating the oil & petrol values (Embodied Energy content) represented by each one. embodied energy petrol image

The coastal locations aid discussion of where the materials were collected and originate. The next #LitterCUBES will be made and shown in:

Shetland: August/September (locations and dates to be confirmed)

Arbroath Harbour: Sept 13^th & 14^th

Eyemouth Harbour: Sept 26^th, 27^th & 28^th

With many thanks to Ullapool Harbour Trust, Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape,the Heritage Lottery Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage, and for donations from: individuals, Eyemouth Marine Ltd, rag, Sheihallion, Ullapool Harbour Trust and support in kind from Eyemouth Harbour, Dunbar Harbour Trust plus North Light Arts and An Talla Solais for their support with the #LitterCUBES events. Thanks also to volunteers and all those who donated money to make these events possible. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more/join the events.

Posted by jcb990 on June 13, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Firth of Forth shoreline, Public Engagement, Uncategorized

DUNBAR: changing scale

My preparation for my Dunbar event next week goes on at a pace, processing cotton bud sticks. the smallest litter tems that many beach cleaners have been picking up and sending. The vast majority of the cotton bud sticks I am joining together have understandably been collected along the Firth of Forth and Clyde estuary high tide lines. Shorelines closest to the densest population centres, flushing the sticks down the toilets.

Come and join me to see and weigh the #LitterCUBES at Dunbar Harbour 10.30- 12.30 & 1.30-5.30 on Thurs 20th, Fri 21st & Sat 22nd and help complete the next fishing net/rope #LitterCUBE on the south side of the Harbour.

On Thursday evening (20th June) I am taking part in the John Muir Open ‘Dialogues of Change’ series of conversations at the Town House community room. It’s free!

Posted by jcb990 on May 29, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement, Uncategorized

West Highland #LitterCUBES

Tomorrow I will be showing my first #LitterCUBES made from plastic beach litter collected from over 20 beaches in the West Highlands. This is the first of 7 interactive events, where I am asking people to join me to weigh the #LitterCUBES and calculate the energy value of each CUBE in terms of oil and petrol.

Come along and join in on West Shore beach Ullapool 10am-5pm (Thurs30th, Fri 31st and Sat 1st) of follow our findings @LittoralArt

#LitterCUBE start of making process. J .Barton

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The 3 West Highland #LitterCUBES are made from strapping woven together, drinks bottles laced together and prawn boxes sewn together. Everyone is welcome to have ago at tying together pieces of fishing net to begin making the 4th CUBE . Join me here in Ullapool or at one of my next locations. Please share this story .

Thanks to all my supporters and for donations from: individuals, Eyemouth Marine Ltd, rag, Sheihallion, Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Scottish Natural Heritage, Ullapool Harbour Trust and support in kind from Eyemouth, Dunbar, Arbroath, Lerwick, Ullapool Harbours, An Talla Solais, North Light Arts.

dates for blog

Posted by jcb990 on April 30, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement

PROCESS VOLUNTEER DONATE

This week the big processing job gets underway starting with the bags of plastic litter collected from West Highland beaches. The most recent from community litter picking events at Ullapool, Badentarbet, Isle Martin and Red Point.

PLEASE KEEP THE LITTER COMING the more items are collected, the bigger the sculptures. Plastic pollution is a massive waste of energy we can save.

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Please get in touch if you would like to volunteer and get involved. It’s always easier with helpers. Processing involves sorting, taking notes, photographing, washing and drying.

I am continuing to seek funding from small trusts, companies and individuals as unfortunately Littoral Art Project didn’t get further funding from Creative Scotland. Please spread the word that Donations are very much needed and can be made here by pressing the orange DONATE button at the top of the page

Press release: is available here. Please help by sending to a national paper or magazine.

Posted by jcb990 on April 15, 2019 in #LitterCUBES, Public Engagement, Uncategorized

#EDSCIFEST

Great week working with young people at #EDSCIFEST at Dynamic Earth. A chance to examine one of the most common litter items and common forms of plastic PET [Polyethylene terephthalate] that ends up in our seas.

Visitors joined me to calculate how much energy (petrol) we can save by recycling plastic bottle. Bottles weighed 11 – 45 grams and using an Embodied Energy formula for PET we calculated that the energy value of 100 bottles each weighing 30 grams would contain the energy/petrol equivalent to travel 84 km in a small car, or 385 calories, enough energy to walk 7km. Thought provoking images and values to share and make us all determined to make sure we don’t drop but recycle all our bottles. Thanks to everyone who attended, donated bottles and helped out with the event. Looking forward to bringing all the #LitterCUBES to #EDSCIFEST 2020.