The goal of the Land Art Generator is to accelerate the transition to a post-carbon world by providing exemplary models of renewable energy infrastructures that engage communities in their creation, add value to public space, inspire, and educate.

Land Art Generator has five main areas of focus

 

Design competitions and participatory design

LAGI design competitions bring forward innovations in sustainable design that capture the imagination of the world. Land Art Generator co-design projects and Solar Mural installations demonstrate the benefit of applying best practices of creative placemaking, community co-design, urban planning, and civic art to renewable energy projects.

 

Education, outreach, and publications

The innovative and artful applications of sustainable technologies can spark the imaginations of young people and trigger curiosity in science, technology, engineering, and math. Land Art Generator educational programming is a great example of STEM-to-STEAM and project-based learning. Participants in LAGI educational programs show applied understanding of concepts like energy conversion efficiency, capacity factor, and become familiar with using kilowatt-hours. At the same time they are applying knowledge of form, shape, color, and composition while learning concepts of urban planning and whole systems design. These are exactly the kind of skills that researchers tell us will be important for jobs in the twenty-first century.

 

Construction

Carrying LAGI projects forward from concept to detailed design and implementation is one of the core missions of the Land Art Generator. The Arch of Time is advancing a submission to the LAGI 2019 Abu Dhabi design competition by Riccardo Mariano that was chosen by the City of Houston through a competitive process.

 

Research, policy innovation, and communication of emerging clean technologies

LAGI Directors contribute to publications such as the Routledge Handbook of Energy Transitions and Issues in Science and Technology, challenging policymakers and energy developers to better engage communities in the design and deployment of new energy landscapes.

 

Consulting

The Land Art Generator participates on consultant teams for projects seeking to maximize onsite renewables in ways that also enhance design and activate public spaces.

 

The Land Art Generator helps design places for people that share land use with distributed renewable energy generation. Works of art in civic space distribute clean energy and provide other sustainable services to buildings and the utility grid while beautifying the built environment.

Presenting the power plant as public artwork — simultaneously enhancing the environment, increasing livability, providing a venue for learning, and stimulating local economic development — is a way to address a variety of issues from the perspective of the ecologically concerned artist and designer. By nature of its functional utility, the work also sets itself into many other overlapping disciplines from architecture and urban design to mechanical engineering and environmental science. This interdisciplinary result has the effect of both enhancing the level of innovation and broadening the audience for the work.

 

 

Selected Essays

Land Art as Climate Action (2022)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

 

Land Art of the 21st Century (2020)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

Return to the Source (2019)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

 

Civic Art for a Circular Economy (2018)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

Powering Places (2016)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

 

New Energies (2014)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

Regenerative Infrastructures (2012)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors

 

Public Art of the Sustainable City (2010)

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian

Land Art Generator Founding Co-Directors