Pete Hindle and I had attended a keynote by Australian scientist Tim Flannery on bio char.

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I had no idea what it was untill that stage, but described simply it is a way to make mineralised carbon that is resistant to degradation. How does that help us? Well, it doesen’t rot (or only very slowly), and so locks away carbon(which would become

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carbon dioxide,

methane etc), but the kicker is while you are making this, it is possible to extract oils/volatiles/tar that can be burnt to make electricity, or heat things.

So for me this seems an interesting way to power interactive artworks. There are two other hubs, one in Regina, Canada (Rachelle Viader Knowles) interested in Solar and the other in Bangalore, India  (Prayas Abhinav) interested in Biomass.

All of these fall under the banner of “powering new media artworks with locally relevant sustainable strategies”.

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This first stage event involved a modest nine people, and our thoughts are up at http://st.ation.in/wiki/projects:co-ordinated_ecodesign

So what did we discover, that it is fun to collaborate over timezones, that three way chats over skype work well (until the internet fell over), that doing it with others works.

Thanks to Pete, Helen, Ben, and Derick at my end for contributing.

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Why do the terms fishy and shit so negative?

I think it is a disengagement or disenfranchisement event. It is a word that connects with the intense olfactory reaction…..bus can we get past its olfactory unplesantness and explore what we could activate these terms for the betterment of ourselves.

I am still thinking….but my initial thoughts (influenced by people at the urban climate camp and luminous green as part of ISEA2008, Singapore) is that there is something strange going on. These terms describe an ecological approach to food/energy production and an awareness  of diversity. So when we talk about food/energy production…. through the reintroduction of biomass to the land, or burning biomass for generation of  energy… we are talking about shit, a totally natural part of life.

Fishyness is a connection with the underwater world, and through this ourselves. Fish in their water world are a metaphor for our own. We want to use the power of uniqueness against the tide of monoculture. In some ways something that unique/endangered is now valuable…..so why are we replacing what is unique (through draining swamps, growing monocultures for biomass production etc) with what is a unsustainable monoculture?

Diversity is both shit and fishy….It is frugal, but generates wonder, through careful hand to hand passing of a small packet of energy/information through a number of membrane systems.  Rainforests and  Coral reefs, frugal mass producers of diversity. One link (energy return system) is shit…. how wonderful is that?

Monoculture on the other hand, asorbs energy at a incredible rate, for a small output,requires constant maintenance. High energy use translates into economic transactions, which become a losing battle as non-renewable resources are consumed….