Flights on paper

I've written an article about my work visualising bird flights using 3D printing, which has been published in a special Arts & Ecology issue of Digital Creativity (26:1). It tracks the processes I undertook and looks at what I learned from my attempt to make a seamless transition from action to data to object.

It can be read free for a limited time through this link.
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Tnpb5MIce57HmCdrtAd3/full

A model future

Gabrielle Hoad | The Grid and the Mesh (detail) | 2015

My exhibition is now up and running at the Environment & Sustainability Institute in Cornwall. It concludes a year-long collaboration with Dr Jonathan Bennie under the ESI/RANE Creative Exchange Programme, during which we made a study of microclimates on a Devon farm — with a view to growing bananas.

Attempting to grow a tropical fruit such as bananas outdoors in the UK demands a leap of faith and an act of imagination. The project has been focused on envisaging alternative versions of our everyday growing and eating practices. 

Foreign Soil, Environment & Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR10 9FE 

11 March – 15 April 2015 Mon – Fri 9am – 5pm

Foreign Soil was supported by the ESI/RANE Creative Exchange Programme and developed in partnership with OrganicARTS and West Town Farm. Technical Consultant: Tim King

Caught red (and yellow and pink and blue) handed

Peter Osborne 'Rainbow Gate' Rougemont Gardens, Exeter. Photo: Matt Burrows

Exeter City Council has been caught in the act installing yet more dubious public 'art'. Costing between £16,000 and £25,000, this decorative metal gate appeared unannounced in a high-profile location in the city last week. It connects the city's prestigious 'cultural quarter' (including a recently refurbished library and award-winning museum) to an important city centre park. 

It was commissioned and installed without public consultation, with zero input from experts in the city's cultural organisations, and without any kind of competitive bid. At a time when local authority budgets are under extreme pressure, the community's tolerance for this kind of nonsense is wearing thin. On Facebook, Matt Burrows, Curator and Gallery Manager at nearby Exeter Phoenix calls it "a horrible, retrogressive piece of bad design...the wrong thing, in the wrong place". He goes on to say: "The question is, at a time of dwindling resources for the arts, how this decision was taken and why [...] There seems to have been a breakdown in consultation, communication and aesthetic decision-making."

Councillors claim to be embarassed and upset by the ensuing media fuss. Yet they've been intent on blaming those who noticed rather than those who were involved in the dubious and far from transparent decisions that led to the gate's appearance. They claim it was commissioned two years ago, but that's hardly an excuse. They tried a similar trick back in 2008 with the hugely unpopular 'Voices of Heavitree' which was made by a team including the same artist-blacksmith Peter Osborne. At that time, Paul Osborne (any relation?), Environmental Improvements Officer at Exeter City Council, was left in no doubt about how the public felt.

Spending on the arts is quite rightly a sensitive issue in the current economic climate. Which is even more reason to use what we have wisely and well. As Matt Burrows says: "This city has a wealth of fantastic arts organisations, staffed by experienced arts professionals who are trained (and funded) specifically to deliver excellent, high quality creative projects." They're also used to squeezing exceptional value from every penny.  £16,000 - £25,000 would have gone a long way in their hands. Like many, I'm gutted and angry at the waste. And deeply concerned about the negative public reaction to arts spending that might result.

Imaginary landscapes (with bananas)

Gabrielle Hoad | Banana squared | 2015

I have a new exhibition opening in Cornwall on 11 March.  It comes at the end of a year-long collaboration with Dr Jonathan Bennie, an Associate Research Fellow at Exeter University's Environment & Sustainability Institute. It's part of Foreign Soil,

my documented attempt to grow edible dessert bananas outdoors in the UK. Although it provides an opportunity to reflect on our work together, the exhibition acts as a point of focus rather than resolution.

Centred on a pilot growing site, a south-facing pasture at West Town Farm near Exeter, we've mapped and modelled biologically relevant microclimates to make an informed assessment of the feasibility of banana cultivation – now or in a future climate scenario. Ways of enhancing the heat and humidity of microclimates through physical manipulation of the growing site have also been considered.

The work I’ve made for this exhibition looks at the notion of the model, both as a representation of something that might be built in the future (such as an architect’s model or an artist’s maquette) and as a simplified description that assists with predictions (such as computerised climate models). 

  

Foreign Soil exhibition - ESI Creative Studio 

Open 11 March – 15 April 2015

Monday to Friday  9:00am to 5:00pm

Foreign Soil seminar - ESI Trevithick Room 

11 March 2015  1:00pm – 2:00pm

We discuss our collaboration. Free. All welcome.

Environment & Sustainability Institute,

University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE   

Foreign Soil was supported by the ESI/RANE Creative Exchange Programme and developed in partnership with OrganicARTS and West Town Farm.