News about Arco del Tiempo

Rendering of Arco del Tiempo, a large arch-shaped public artwork in Guadalupe Plaza Park, Houston

Arco del Tiempo (Arch of Time), a Land Art Generator artwork by Riccardo Mariano unites the terrestrial and the celestial. As a time measuring device the artwork engages park goers with a magical light display each hour within a comfortably shaded outdoor space. As a community solar installation it generates 400,000 kWh each year.

The announcement about the upcoming installation of Arco del Tiempo in Houston's East End has made a big splash in the media. Below are links to just some of the articles that have been generated about the project. For the full story, please check out our blog post about the project.

Arco del Tiempo Press: 2023

PRESS CONFERENCE & ANNOUNCEMENT

https://houstontx.new.swagit.com/videos/265601

TEXAS MEDIA OUTLETS

ABC Channel 13
Secret Houston
Houstonia Magazine
Houston Chronicle
Paper City Magazine
News Radio 1200 WOAI
Energy Capital HTX
Houston Style Magazine
News 18 Houston
Texas Updates NewsBreak
Culture Map Houston
La Prensa de Houston

NATIONAL AND GLOBAL MEDIA OUTLETS

WIRED Middle East
Tech Magazine
Designboom
Artnet
Travel Tomorrow
Dezeen
The Architect’s Newspaper
Architectural Record
Inceptive Mind
Popular Science
New Atlas
Future Zone
La Nueva
Trend Hunter
Nation World News
Innovation Map
Surface
Interesting Engineering
Head Topics
Wonderful Engineering
EnergyPortal.eu
Melbourne Herald Sun (Australia)
El Espanol

Winners Revealed for LAGI 2022 Mannheim Design Competition

Winning Proposals Announced for the latest LAGI Global Clean Energy Design Challenge!

Energy Circus by Chai Yi Yang incorporates solar photovoltaic, Vortex Bladeless™ wind turbines, piezoelectric energy harvesting, and anaerobic digestion to generate 1,200 MWh per module each year. The artwork provides additional social co-benefits including pollinator habitat, bird habitat, food production, educational experiences, sustainable waste management, and seed bank. First Place entry to the 2022 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition for Mannheim in partnership with BUGA 23.

To learn more and discover details of the winning projects read our blog post, Beautiful Forms of Energy.

Selected News Links:
Rheinpfalz
Stadt+Grün
Bustler Article
KAMP SOLUTIONS (see page 28)

Game developers from America create board game for Buga

Game designers Adam Hnatkovich (left) and David Knee from Tunnel Monster Collective are designing a board game for Buga 2023 in Mannheim.

Read more:
DER RHEINPFALZ


Download a PDF version of Kleingarten, the new roll-and-write game from the Land Art Generator Initiative: Kleingarten.

LAGI 2022 Is Open

LAGI 2022 Mannheim—Beautiful Forms of Energy—is your opportunity to design a beautiful renewable energy landscape at the site of BUGA 23 in Mannheim Germany.

Free to enter. $30,000 USD First Place Prize. Deadline for Submissions is September 4.

Click for more information

PennFuture Ecoart Panel

Ecoart in Action: Transformative Projects in Pennsylvania
Thursday, April 7, 2022
5-6pm EST

This inspiring and informative presentation will feature Pennsylvania ecoartists included in the recently published, “Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities.” The book represents 67 of the more than 200 members of the international Ecoart Network (ecoartnetwork.org). Ecoart is a hybrid, relational, and inter- or transdisciplinary art practice that is intended to shift culture and raise awareness through individual, collective, and/or local action. Each of the five presenters will discuss the project they authored in the book and provide an update on their current work.

Speakers
Amara Geffen (Meadville)
Stacy Levy (Spring Mills)
Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry of the Land Art Generator Initiative (Pittsburgh)
Ann Rosenthal (Pittsburgh).

Leading into the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, these artists will share models that can transform communities through engagement and hope.

Additional information about the book, speakers, and the Ecoart Network can be found at ecoartnetwork.org/ecoartinaction.

ARTiculating Regeneration: Art as Agent for Change

LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry will be presenting at the Plus Tate/IKT event focusing on blue/green infrastructures in cultural spaces.
ARTiculating Regeneration: Art as Agent for Change
Apri 5, 2022

Speakers will explore sustainable artistic practices with hands-on implication and direct impact on the environment & landscapes upon which they are situated.

www.artsail.info
www.iktsite.org

Pitea Science Park

Pitea Science Park
February 16, 2022
Find new opportunities with solar energy?
LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry were delighted to take part in this half day event of Arctic Solar, Intersective Innovation & NEIL

https://www.piteasciencepark.se/workshop-hitta-nya-mojligheter-med-solenergi/

College Art Association

College Art Association
Ecoart Strategies for Place-based Pedagogical Practices
Panel Discussion Chaired by Ann Rosenthal and Chris Fremantle
March 4, 2022

Mangrove Rescue in Bimini: Connecting Art, Restoration, and Community: Lillian Ball
Of A Personal Nature: Self-Interrogations for Ecological Artists: Brian D. Collier, Saint Michael's College
Art Meets Science in the Costa Rica Rainforest: Eve Andree Laramee, Pace University
Agency Through Ecoart Pedagogy: Eileen Hutton, Burren College of Art
Reimagining Our Energy Landscapes as Civic Art: Robert Ferry, Land Art Generator Initiative

Sustainability in the Creative and Cultural Industries Symposium

Sustainability in the Creative and Cultural Industries Symposium
Monday October 4, 2021 – Friday October 8, 2021
Location: ONLINE

Tuesday 5 October
16:00 - 17:00
Keynote with Land Art Generator Initiative
The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) is an international art, design and place-making meets renewables engineering programme> working through international open design competitions and bespoke local projects LAGI has engaged hundreds of teams to develop innovative approaches to energy generating art and design. This event will comprise a lecture by LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry followed by a discussion chaired by Chris Fremantle (Gray’s School of Art).

Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (RGU) is committed to delivering the knowledge and skills required to ensure a sustainable future for all. This symposium is free to access and explores sustainability across creative industry disciplines.

As part of RGU’s Creative Conversations for COP26, the Sustainability in the Creative and Cultural Industries symposium addresses issues of sustainability across architecture, art, communications, computing, data, design, events, fashion, hospitality, journalism, marketing, media, product development, and tourism.

Learn More >

Nevada Museum of Art: LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Book Event

Nevada Museum of Art
Book Release: Land Art of the 21st Century
January 22, 2022
11:00 AM

Welcome the founders of the Land Art Generator Initiative, Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian for a talk on the release of their new book, Land Art of the 21st Century. The creativity of Burning Man and the design innovation of the Land Art Generator Initiative responds to the climate crisis with a catalog of radical experiments in post-carbon living.

Set in the remote corner of Northern Nevada lies a magical stretch of land called Fly Ranch. With no access to the electrical grid or other public utilities, the Burning Man Project-owned site provides an opportunity to reinvent what human settlement can aspire to be in a world that has awakened to the impacts of anthropogenic climate change and the overconsumption of natural resources.

Land Art of the 21st Century presents creatively designed systems for energy, water, agriculture, shelter, and regeneration—a proof of concept for how to live in beauty and harmony with the Earth. The results are a glimpse into the near future of our sustainable landscapes, serving as a compendium of technologies and systems, a catalog of artworks, and a blueprint for other regenerative development projects.

Per local, State, and CDC health guidelines for Covid-19, the Museum requires that masks are worn while indoors unless actively eating or drinking.

Program support and free program registration for students from the Core Humanities Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Learn More >

CODAsummit 2021

LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry are thrilled to be Keynote Speakers at CODAsummit 2021.
CODAsummit The Intersection of Art, Technology and Place
November 10-12, 2021
Scottsdale, Arizona

From the event website:

CODAworx is thrilled to announce that we are partnering with Scottsdale Public Art, a division of Scottsdale Arts, to produce this year’s CODAsummit. This groundbreaking event will be both physical and virtual, using the latest technology to bring people together in person as well as online.

CODAsummit is the only conference focused on the exciting ways creative professionals are incorporating technology to create artwork installations that are changing the ways we experience our environments.

This year’s conference will be hosted by the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, and will take place during Canal Convergence, the premiere interactive light art festival at the Scottsdale canal. This year’s Canal Convergence theme: art and technology – in tribute to CODAsummit!

Learn More >

PRAKSIS Presents

The Land Art Generator is thrilled to participate in the event:
PRAKSIS Presents
An Urgent Situation: Rethinking Tourism through Architecture, Art and Community
Week 2: Creativity and tourism: Benefiting local community

Wednesday October 6, 2021
6:00 Oslo, Norway

This event series proposes that architects, artist and creatives can play an important role in rethinking tourism. It will ask what the futures of tourism might be, what is needed to get there and if/how creative people can help transform relationships between the tourist industry, tourists themselves, and the communities and places that form popular travel destinations. It will seek solutions, and examine possible models to build positive, inclusive, sustainable and resilient future tourism.

Learn More >

PRAKSIS focuses on the ideas behind creative practice. Local and international arts and culture professionals come together for periods of intensive research and exchange, opened to the public through a range of events and opportunities.

SHOUTOUT LA

SHOUTOUT LA
Meet Elizabeth Monoian & Robert Ferry
August 19, 2021

Question
What should our readers know about your business??

Answer
Like most businesses, we saw a challenge that could be reframed as an opportunity. In 2008, we were witnessing obstacles to the rapid deployment of renewable energy, especially near population centers where it is most urgently needed... Read More >

Renewable energy can be so beautiful: US artists initiate ideas competition

Die Rheinpfalz (Mannheim, Germany)
Renewable energy can be so beautiful: US artists initiate ideas competition
By Marco Partner
July 8, 2021

Huge bird nests or pink ribbons that seem to float through the air: And yet they are not art installations but elegant power sources. The artist Elizabeth Monoian and her husband Robert Ferry from Seattle combine renewable energies and design and cause an international sensation. For the Federal Garden Show in Mannheim in 2022, the couple will also initiate an ideas competition for the best visions for a green future in the city of squares.

Read More >

Art of Dynamic Competence Podcast: Co-creating a New Future


Art of Dynamic Competence Podcast
July 14, 2021
Season 2 Episode 19
Land Art Generator Initiative. Co-creating a New Future.

Tune in to our chat with Susan Clark where we talk about the origins of LAGI, and the reasons why we can't afford not to engage communities and young people with the design and planning of our energy infrastructure.

Conde Nast Traveller

Conde Nast Traveller
THE BURNING MAN PROJECT: SUSTAINABLE DESIGN IN NEVADA’S BLACK ROCK DESERT
by TOBY SKINNER
23 June 2021

Last year the Burning Man Project, which has stewardship of the ranch, ran a competition with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), shortlisting 10 bold innovations that could now become actual prototypes. Recently unveiled, they include an orchard inside a rammed-earth spiral, with fruit walls home to insect hotels; biophilic, tent-like structures made of Ferrock, a concrete alternative that absorbs CO2; and a serpentine public loo that turns human waste into fertiliser for hydroponic gardens. ‘The aim of the competition has been to work with the Burning Man community and others to bring a collective creative energy to solving real-world issues,’ says Robert Ferry, who founded LAGI with his partner Elizabeth Monoian, holding previous competitions in locations including Abu Dhabi, Copenhagen and California’s Santa Monica. ‘But we didn’t want to impose a neocolonial vision.’

Read More >

BUGA 23: Platform

Join us on June 24 at 6:00 PM Germany!

The "BUGA 23: Platform" is a place of encounter, networking and the exchange of experiences. Experts speak here on the key topics of BUGA 23 - climate, environment, energy and food security. Under the title “Beautiful Forms of Energy”, Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry from the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) will present exemplary projects on Thursday, June 24th, 2021, at 6 p.m., as part of BUGA 23: Platform.

"With the platform event, we want to give space to an extraordinary initiative and arouse curiosity - especially among potential project participants," explains Michael Schnellbach, Managing Director of the Bundesgartenschau-Gesellschaft Mannheim 2023 gGmbH.

BUGA 23: platform
Thursday, June 24th, 2021, 6 p.m.
Beautiful Forms of Energy
Online lecture with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI)
Lecture via zoom. Link and further information at www.buga23.de
In English
https://www.buga23.de/pm-160621/

Photovoltaics | Forms | Landscapes

Join us in celebrating with us the 10th year anniversary of Photovoltaics | Forms | Landscapes. LAGI Founding co-directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry are looking forward to joining a discussion on June 22, 2021.

Section Resilience, Art and Landscape, Resilient Communities,
Italian Pavilion, at the next XVII Architecture Venice Biennial.
Hybrid Event | Venice / web streamed.

Learn More >

Life After Carbon: Imagining the City of the Future

Panel Discussion
Life After Carbon: Imagining the City of the Future
Arizona State University
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
9-10:30 a.m. AZ time, via Zoom
Learn More >

Malka Older
Faculty associate at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society

Andrew Dana Hudson
Speculative fiction writer and sustainability researcher

Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry
Founding co-directors of the Land Art Generator

Joey Eschrich
Editor and program manager for the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University

Clark Miller
Director of ASU’s Center for Energy & Society
In "The City in History," Lewis Mumford argued that “The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.” Yet, when we imagine the post-carbon city, we often focus solely on the technological foundations of its future—the streets, the cars, the power and water systems—instead of its forms of living, culture, and creativity. In this webinar, some of today’s most ambitious thinkers about the future of techno-human societies will share their insights into how we can go further to systematically explore what it might mean to be human inhabitants of divergent technological futures, and how we can learn from those explorations to better navigate the paths from the present toward futures that might be worth inhabiting.

Series sponsored by:
Center for Energy & Society
School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies Center
Sustainable Cities Network
Tuesday, April 13, 2021
9-10:30 a.m. AZ time, via Zoom

Ness Magazine: Brave New World—LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge for a sustainable future.

Ness Magazine
Brave New World: LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge for a sustainable future.
April 1, 2021

As the world contends with the climate emergency, a beacon of hope emerges from the Black Rock Desert of Northern Nevada. Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative collaborated to create the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge, inviting innovators and creatives to propose regenerative projects for Fly Ranch, an off-grid ranch in the Great Basin. Teams were asked to integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into works of art in the landscape. The aim is to build the foundational infrastructure for Fly Ranch, support Burning Man Project’s 2030 sustainability goals, engage a global audience to work together towards systemic transformation, and serve as an inspiration for the developing field of regenerative design.

Read More >

2021 Working Internationally Conference: Shifting Landscapes, Shifting Perspectives

March 2021
Land Art Generator directors were thrilled to provide a recorded video presentation for 2021 Working Internationally Conference: Shifting Landscapes, Shifting Perspectives

Each year ICOM UK, in partnership with NMDC, organises the one-day Working Internationally Conference. 2021 will be a little different. The Conference is a 3-day online event, with each day focussing on a major global issue:

  • Social Justice: Museum responses to decolonisation, restitution, Black Lives Matter, representation and youth
  • Museums and Sustainability: Challenges of working in and responding to a changing climate
  • The Future of Museums: Where are we now, and where do we go from here?
  • The 2021 Working Internationally Conference: Shifting Landscapes, Shifting Perspectives takes place in March 2021 at a time when major global issues such as the impact of Covid-19, climate crisis, Brexit, and social justice will see museums continuing to reconsider and reimagine their roles in a global and local context, and establish new ways of working.

    The conference brings together speakers from the UK and across the globe to share their insight and experience of responding to changes in the sector and the world around us.

    The 2021 Working Internationally Conference is organised by ICOM UK in partnership with NMDC and with curatorial support from Barker Langham.

    Learn More >

    OUR PLANET | OUR FUTURE

    The Box Gallery
    OUR PLANET | OUR FUTURE Exhibition
    Florida
    March 22, 2021 through May 16, 2021

    An exhibition of works by local, national and international artists, designers, engineers, and architects created to educate, inspire, celebrate, and raise our level of commitment as stewards of the environment. *Additional support recommendations of Films and Programming.

    Participants: Land Art Generator Initiative, Energy-Reality | Public Energy Art Kit (P.E.A.K.), Greg Matthews, Anthony Burks Sr., Rolando Chang Barrero, Ingrid Barreneche, Kimberly Heise, Ilene Gruber Adams, Plant(s): Xavier Cortada, and Carin Wagner.

    Learn More >

    Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures

    March 23, 2021
    Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures
    Remarks by the President on Opening Day of Expo 2043, the Chicago World’s Fair

    LAGI Directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry are delighted to have their essay Remarks by the President on Opening Day of Expo 2043, the Chicago World’s Fair included in the collection of short stories and essays, Cities of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures, Edited By Joey Eschrich and Clark A. Miller and released today by Arizona State University.

    The project is the outcome of a multi-day workshop held at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado at the end of February, 2020 just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

    We hope that you will find this vision from two decades into the future to be inspiring and a reminder that we have it within our collective power to do right by all people and the planet if we choose through policy to implement technology in ways that are socially and environmentally just.

    Visit the Cities of Light website today and download your own copy of the complete book! It’s available as PDF, e-book (all kinds), and print-on-demand.

    Erie Arts & Culture: Exploring the Intersection of the Arts and Social Impact

    Join the LAGI Directors at the:
    Erie Arts & Culture: Exploring the Intersection of the Arts and Social Impact
    Monday, April 12, 2021
    6:00 PM

    For more information >
    In a time when communities are facing ever-changing needs and an increased urgency for creative problem solving, interest in arts-based solutions to community development challenges is growing among both arts and non-arts stakeholders. Erie Arts & Culture invites you to attend a week's worth of virtual presentations and discussions designed to provide direct examples of the ways artists and arts organizations from around the world are serving their communities as advocates and activists.

    Presentations will explore how the arts and humanities are being used to address systemic inequalities and injustices representing a wide variety of issues. Presenters will share how they've leveraged their talents, abilities, and resources to develop and implement strategies that promote social change.

    All presentations are free and will include a Q&A session.

    Full presenter bios and registration information to follow.

    Objectives
    Provide national examples of the arts and humanities being used as a tool for combatting injustices, inequities, and oppression.
    Empower Erie-based artists, cultural organizations, and advocacy groups to think about ways the arts and humanities can be used to address systemic issues relevant to our community.
    Encourage collaboration between artists, cultural organizations, and advocacy groups.
    Increase vocabulary, skill sets, and knowledge bases to build the capacity of artists and cultural organizations so they can see the arts and humanities as tools to be used in advocacy, activism, and social change.

    For more information >

    Inhabitat: Burning Man and LAGI unveil best eco-friendly proposals for Fly Ranch

    Inhabitat
    Burning Man and LAGI unveil best eco-friendly proposals for Fly Ranch
    March 19, 2021
    by Lucy Wang

    The Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) have announced the top 10 proposals in the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge, a global ideas competition that invited innovators and creatives to reimagine an off-grid ranch in the Great Basin as a sustainable, year-round incubator for Burning Man culture. MIT designers Zhicheng Xu and Mengqi Moon He took top rank with their ‘Lodgers: Serendipity in the Fly Ranch Wilderness’ proposal, an eco-friendly design that combines high- and low-tech sustainable strategies while enriching Fly Ranch’s biodiverse landscape.

    Read more >

    SolveCast: Sustainable Design + Implementation with The Land Art Generator

    SolveCast
    Sustainable Design + Implementation with The Land Art Generator
    Interview with Karrah Krakovyak
    Sustainability Innovator

    We were thrilled to chat with Karrah Krakovyak for this issue of SolveCast!
    Watch here >

    SolveCast is news that solves. We are reimagining how individuals and businesses stay informed. Original content that is designed to look ahead to what's possible. A platform that makes it easier to focus on what's important.

    Archinect: Burning Man plans a permanent, sustainable location, with a design team from MIT leading the vision

    Archinect
    Burning Man plans a permanent, sustainable location, with a design team from MIT leading the vision
    By Katherine Guimapang
    March 9, 2021

    The Land Art Generator Initiative collaborated with the Burning Man project to develop a design challenge that invites creative proposals for regenerative projects for Fly Ranch, an off-the-grid ranch in the Great Basin.

    The competition brief asked for designers, creatives, and inventors to "integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into works of art in the landscape. The objective is to build the foundational infrastructure for Fly Ranch, support Burning Man Project's 2030 sustainability goals, engage a global audience to work together towards systemic transformation, and serve as an inspiration for the developing field of regenerative design."

    From regenerative venues, spaces for habitation to energy infrastructure, the design competition received nearly 200 design proposals. Out of those submissions, ten were selected as top proposals for the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Design Challenge. "Art and creativity are the connective strings that weave these systems together in regenerative cycles of energy flow, material reuse, and productivity, aspiring to the synergies present within flourishing natural systems" shares LAGI coordinators. "Together the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch projects offer a beautiful example for how to live in sync with nature in a decarbonized world."

    Read More >

    Bustler: LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Global Regenerative Design Challenge Announces Top Proposals

    Bustler
    LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch Global Regenerative Design Challenge Announces Top Proposals
    By Katherine Guimapang
    March 9, 2021

    Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative collaborated to create the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge, inviting innovators and creatives to propose regenerative projects for Fly Ranch, an off-grid 3,800-acre ranch in the Great Basin. Teams were asked to integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into works of art in the landscape. The objective is to build the foundational infrastructure for Fly Ranch, support Burning Man Project’s 2030 sustainability goals, engage a global audience to work together towards systemic transformation, and serve as an inspiration for the developing field of regenerative design.

    When selecting the top proposals, the design competition jury invited members of the local community for their feedback. The design competition shared, "leaders from local Indigenous communities and experts in the fields of art, science, sociology, architecture, landscape architecture, design, engineering, education, environmental conservation, and the circular economy."

    Read More >

    The Architect’s Newspaper: Check out these ten wild proposals for a permanent Burning Man in the Nevada desert

    The Architect's Newspaper
    Check out these ten wild proposals for a permanent Burning Man in the Nevada desert
    By Audrey Wachs
    March 8, 2021

    Every summer, photos of otherworldly pavilions, tricked-out steampunk cars, and dusty hula-hoopers ingesting empathogens slide onto Instagram feeds worldwide thanks to Burning Man, the nine-day worldbuilding experiment in the remote Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Soon, though, burners won’t have to wait all year to meet up as Burning Man organizers have released design proposals for a permanent home near the festival site.

    The proposals were gathered via an international design competition organized by the San Francisco-based nonprofit behind Burning Man in collaboration with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), an art nonprofit based in Seattle.

    While the top designs were revealed to the public last week, Burning Man purchased the 3,800-acre Nevada property those designs will be tested on back in 2016. The site, dubbed Fly Ranch, is meant to be a year-round incubator for burner culture—a place where community members can create an artful settlement that vibes with desert ecology. First held in 1986 as a modest summer solstice event held at Baker Beach in San Francisco, Burning Man has since grown into a global phenomenon with attendance for the 2019 festival topping 78,000 people. The 2020 festival was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic although a significantly smaller fête was held in San Francisco.

    Read More >

    Surface: At Long Last, Burning Man Is Building a Permanent City

    Surface
    At Long Last, Burning Man Is Building a Permanent City
    By Ryan Waddoups
    March 08, 2021

    Last year, the coronavirus pandemic forced Burning Man to cancel its highly anticipated annual event near Black Rock City, Nevada. The festival, which sees more than 70,000 attendees (“burners”) build a temporary city in the sweltering desert and which culminates the burning of a large wooden effigy known as “the Man” in a symbolic act of self-expression, still faces uncertainty this year as questions about in-person gatherings remain. That hasn’t deterred the event’s organizers, who are now planning to build a sustainable city in the desert.

    In 2016, Burning Man organizers bought Fly Ranch, a 3,800-acre compound near Black Rock City with the idea of creating a year-round sustainable space. They soon partnered with the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) and launched a global competition for burners to share their own visions for Fly Ranch. Teams were asked to integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into what the organizers deem “works of art in the landscape” that support the event’s 2030 sustainability goals.

    Read More >

    dezeen: Top ten designs for Burning Man’s off-grid desert outpost Fly Ranch revealed

    dezeen
    Top ten designs for Burning Man's off-grid desert outpost Fly Ranch revealed
    By India Block
    March 17, 2021

    The top 10 designs for Fly Ranch, a permanent outpost of the Burning Man festival, include an orchard planted in a rammed earth spiral and thatched composting toilets.

    LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch is a collaboration between Burning Man and the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), which plans to build sustainable structures on a 3,800-acre ranch in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

    Read More >

    STIRworld: LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch unveils top 10 proposals for the design competition

    STIRworld
    LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch unveils top 10 proposals for the design competition
    March 6, 2021
    By Devanshi Shah

    Meticulously planned, the overall layout is set up as a sundial, with the effigy as the gnomon. The radial streets indicate times of the day while all the annular streets are named. Since its foundation, the Burner Community has had a few core values - listed by Larry Harvey, the artist that began all of this and the main co-founder of the event, along with Jerry James - such as that of ‘radical self-reliance’. These principles laid the foundation for the design challenge launched by the Land Art Generator Initiative and Burning Man Project, titled LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch.

    Read More >

    Hypebeast: Futuristic Designs for Burning Man’s Permanent Event Space Released

    Hypebeast
    Futuristic Designs for Burning Man’s Permanent Event Space Released
    March 5, 2021
    By Rosie Perper

    The top design proposals for Burning Man‘s permanent art and event space were released on Wednesday.

    Multidisciplinary creatives from around the world were invited to design mockups as part of the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge. The competition was a collaboration between the Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative to create the foundational infrastructure at a Nevada nature site that hosts Burning Man Project events.

    Designers were tasked with integrating sustainable systems for food, energy, water and shelter into their artistic designs. Nearly 200 teams submitted proposals, and 10 were chosen by a panel of local indigenous community communities and experts in the fields of art, science, architecture, landscape design, conservation and engineering.

    Read More >

    designboom: burning man is planning a sustainable, permanent space called fly ranch

    designboom
    burning man is planning a sustainable, permanent space called fly ranch
    March 5, 2021
    By Juliana Heira

    Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic required burning man to cancel their annual event in black rock city nevada. the gathering, which sees 70,000 burners erect a city in the middle of the desert and explore various forms of artistic self-expression, is still uncertain about its luck this year. the good news is that its organizers have been working on a new permanent space — the fly ranch.

    Back in 2016, the burning man project bought fly ranch, a 3,800-acre ranch a few miles away from black rock city with the idea of creating a year-round sustainable and awe-inspiring space. in 2020, they partnered with the land art generator initiative (LAGI) and launched a competition asking the burning man community to join in co-creating this space.

    Read More >

    Reno Gazette Journal: Future of Fly Ranch: Burning Man releases top development proposals for wetland property

    Reno Gazette Journal
    Future of Fly Ranch: Burning Man releases top development proposals for wetland property
    By Jenny Kane
    March 4, 2021

    The mystery surrounding the future of Fly Ranch is starting to peel away after Burning Man Project released details of its top development proposals on Wednesday.

    The 3,800-acre wetland property has been marketed as a future, year-round rural incubator for Burning Man culture. It will also ideally be a zero-emissions oasis where creativity and sustainability intersect by way of on-site architecture, art and activity.

    "Burning Man Project mobilized the desert-tested ingenuity of the Burning Man community and the inspiration of a greater creative culture," stated a Burning Man press release Wednesday.

    The San Francisco-based arts nonprofit, best known for the 80,000-person arts festival held annually on the nearby Black Rock Desert playa, is partnering with the Land Art Generator Initiative in Seattle. The initiative specializes in sustainable art and architecture.

    Read More >

    Forbes: The Future Of Burning Man Emerges At Fly Ranch, An Outrageous New World In The Black Rock Desert

    Forbes
    The Future Of Burning Man Emerges At Fly Ranch, An Outrageous New World In The Black Rock Desert
    March 3, 2021
    By Jim Dobson

    Deep in the dry, windy desert of Northern Nevada is a great basin filled with playas, hot springs, and lava beds, surrounded by numerous volcanic and geothermal features.

    Every year since 1986, right before Labor Day, almost 80,000 people gather to celebrate Burning Man, the legendary assembly of spirited people guided by the founders ten principles: “radical inclusion, gifting, decommodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy.”

    With the pandemic eliminating the annual bohemian gathering in 2020 and possibly in 2021, a new frontier has started. Without the enormous experimental structures and mutant vehicles reminiscent of “Mad Max,” the now-aging devoted followers of Burning Man are focused on creating something even more dramatic, revolutionary, and above all sustainable. Welcome to Fly Ranch!

    Burning Man Project and the Land Art Generator Initiative collaborated to create the LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch design challenge, inviting innovators and creatives to propose regenerative projects for Fly Ranch, an off-grid 3,800-acre ranch in the Great Basin.

    According to LAGI, “Teams were asked to integrate sustainable systems for energy, water, food, shelter, and waste management into works of art in the landscape. The objective is to build the foundational infrastructure for Fly Ranch, support Burning Man Project’s 2030 sustainability goals, and engage a global audience to work together towards systemic transformation, and serve as an inspiration for the developing field of regenerative design.”

    Read More >

    Centerpoint Now, “Are we there yet?”

    The Land Art Generator is thrilled to be included in Centerpoint Now publication.

    CENTERPOINT NOW, “Are we there yet?” publication presents an unexpected take on the United Nations’ 75th anniversary, reflecting on the immense scope of the UN’s mandate through topics as diverse as the implications of space exploration, ethics for human health, the impact of peacekeeping, women and finance, traditional medicine, global migration, gender and climate change, architecture and energy solutions for the future, AI and humanism, the neuroscience of bias, overcoming the challenges of multilateralism, and more. The strong emphasis on art invites the reader to engage with the subjects on various levels. Centerpoint Now is a publication of World Council of Peoples for the United Nations. This special issue was produced in collaboration with Streaming Museum.

    Foreword In Pursuit of Peace: A Call to Action

    The United Nations’ 75th anniversary occurs at a time of polarization and struggle when multilateralism is being tested to its core. The more interconnected the world becomes, the more we witness efforts to counter this tendency and promote discourses of “us versus them.” It is therefore the responsibility of all who believe in multilateralism to prove that the path chosen in 1945, with the signing of the UN Charter, was indeed the right one to take.

    Milestone anniversaries beckon us to review the experiences of the past, draw lessons, and apply them, where possible, to prevent new crises from occurring. However, defending the values of the United Nations does not imply remaining trapped in a bygone era. As UN reform processes have shown, the UN as an organization must–and can–evolve with the times. This is evidenced in the transition from a purely military understanding of Peace and Security, to a much more holistic vision recognizing that many of today’s challenges–such as pandemics, or the existential threat caused by climate change–cannot be solved by force. It is now urgent that budgetary considerations reflect this recognition, and that nations allocate the necessary resources to Development and Human Rights.

    New thinking, brought about by the increased participation of women and young people in the UN, gives me great hope and should grow in influence. Further, as technology enables ever more transparency and accountability, it is critical that leadership embrace the principle of “Responsibility to Protect” and put an end to the indefensible humanitarian crises that continue to hold entire populations in their grip.

    Lest we should cower before these daunting tasks, it is useful to recall the words of UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who said that “The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.” This commitment to persist in our efforts is a promise to the people of the world and a call to action for everyone who is convinced that international cooperation is inseparable from national interest. I invite you to heed this call.

    — Jan Eliasson

    Read the entire issue >

    5 Questions for Elizabeth Monoian MFA ’00

    Carnegie Mellon University
    School of Art
    Friday, February 5, 2021
    Interview between Andy Ptaschinski and LAGI Co-Director Elizabeth Monoian

    “5 Questions” is an ongoing series by the School of Art that asks alumni who are transforming art, culture, and technology about their current work and time at Carnegie Mellon.

    Why is it important to incorporate artists and creatives in designing renewable energy infrastructure, an area that is typically thought of as belonging to the realm of engineering and technology?

    Last year the United States broke records by installing 19 gigawatts of solar power. In order to win the war on anthropogenic climate change, organizations like the International Renewable Energy Agency estimate that we will require tens of thousands of gigawatts of solar capacity installed over the coming decades. Meeting that challenge will radically transform our cities and landscapes and it is critically important that we engage creative minds to imagine how this transformation can occur in the most equitable, aesthetic, cultural, and resilient ways that provide opportunities for everyone.

    There are lessons to be learned from past infrastructure implementations—from the interstate highways and the failures of mid-century “urban renewal” to the WPA era projects that left a beautiful legacy of public art and historic architecture. While it is important that we don’t repeat past mistakes, we also have an opportunity this decade to create new landmarks of infrastructure art that future generations can visit and remember this important time when we acted collectively to right the balance of Earth’s natural systems.

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    Creative Disturbance: MAP Radio Hour

    MAP Radio Hour
    Art and Renewable Energy: A Conversation with Land Art Generator
    January 2021

    Janeil Engelstad talks with Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, founders of Land Art Generator about the social impact, politics and aesthetics of renewable energy, and the role of art in providing solutions to climate change.

    Listen Here >

    SolveCast: How to Make Sustainable Energy Infrastructure Beautiful with the Land Art Generator

    Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry spoke with Karrah Krakovyak for the SolveCast podcast to talk about how the Land Art Generator is advancing innovative, artistic, and sustainable approaches to a clean energy transition. We really enjoyed our conversation, which was carried forward by insightful questions from Karrah.

    Robert and Elizabeth want to make clear that energy, an integral part of all human life, should be understood and celebrated by all. Our communities should be involved with advances in clean energy without those solutions being an eyesore. The Land Art Generator offers open-call competitions with cash prizes to incentivize everyone from forward-thinking designers and landscape architects to scientists and engineers so that we can all contribute to a better future.

    This initiative takes lessons from the mistakes of past energy movements and reveals just how important it is that we get it right this time around. In doing so, they show how sustainable energy goes beyond stereotypical solar panels and how young people will be at the front lines when it comes to designing and implementing a superior, sustainable future.

    Listen and watch the episode here: How to Make Sustainable Energy Beautiful

    You can follow and subscribe to more SolveCast episodes here: SolveCast