It’s very exciting that we’ve already booked ALL the tickets for the unveiling of our first solar panel artworks at Mikro Fest in Kaleider’s Studios on Friday the 15th March.
BUT…..
You don’t need to miss out!
Please come along on SATURDAY 16th MARCH – 12-4pm
45 Preston Street, Exeter
Chloe and Naomi will be around all day and look forward to talking about these new pieces with anyone who’ll listen!
Art and Energy CIC is an artist-led energy company reimagining solar panel technology as an art material for the future to open doors for imagination and a creative respond to the climate emergency.
You may think you know what a solar panel looks like; rows upon rows of inky rectangles, but these pioneering pieces illuminate the possibilities of a new cultural exchange with our energy infrastructure.
Art and Energy has been working with esteemed partners at The University of Exeter, LaserCutz in Honiton, The Fab Lab in Plymouth and The RSA in London to explore the aesthetic versatility of the solar photo voltaic technology and develop this new craftivist approach to generating green energy.
On display for the first time anywhere ever, Art and Energy are delighted to unveil these new artworks on:
In January 2018, Chloe, Art and Energy’s founder presented the idea for solar panel artworks to Kaleider residents at one of Kaleider’s famous Lunchtime Talks and it was with feedback and guidance from the people in attendance that the idea took root.
It is with sincere gratitude to Exeter City Futures Velocities programme for nurturing the idea in those early days.
Kaleider has been busy renovating a really old three storey building in Exeter in order to fill it full of makers and making. In the process they’ve fallen in love with it, despite the bits that they can’t afford to renovate yet. And they want to mark the moment.
So on 15th and 16th March they’re opening the doors of their new home, Kaleider Studios, and putting on some art in the building and around the city. They’re calling it Mikro Fest.
It will be a modest celebration. There will be several artworks to experience in the city and around the building from our Residents, collaborators and SWCTN Immersion Fellows. They will release programme information and booking details for these nearer the time.
It is with huge excitement and anticipation that Chloe Uden and Naomi Wright invite you to attend the unveiling of our first solar panel artworks.
This private view will take place just before MikroFest at 3:30 – 5:00pm on Friday 15 March at the new Kaleider studios, so you will also have an opportunity to see their new space as well.
If you can’t make it on Friday the space will be open all day on Saturday 16 March as well, so please drop in.
Although this is a free event, booking is essential as space is limited.
Over the past year we have been pioneering and testing a number of new techniques in designing and constructing artworks that generate power and we would like you to be one of the first people to see them.
We are deeply grateful to the wonderful people who have supported us in our journey to this point and would like to say a special thank you to:
Last night Exeter Community Energy held a community benefit fund allocation event.
We pitched our idea of buying kit so that we can run workshops for people who want to learn how to make their own solar panel artworks. We then took part in a participatory decision making process.
It was really exciting to be involved in such a unique and engaging decision making process, and we are so happy that the group decided to award Art and Energy the funds to do this work
Over the next few weeks we plan to get the kit we need to run the workshops and then to start programming in the workshops for the latter part of 2019.
So, if you think you might like to support, host or attend one of these workshops, please get in touch and/or keep an eye out on our website over the next few weeks.
Here is a link to a page on ECOE’s website where you can find out more about the other applicants and winners
Early in January Art and Energy applied to Exeter Community Energy’s community fund for money to pay for the tools and equipment we need to run solar panel making workshops for people in and around the city who want to
We are delighted to have been shortlisted and invited to participate in a pitching event to win your hearts and votes and hopefully the support from ECOE.
Please put this date in your diary and come along and lend us your ears!
30th January – 6:30 – 8:30pm at Stephens Scown offices in Exeter
There will be a number of other fabulous energy projects in the city that you might also be interested in!
“Recently, we have been doing a project [with art and energy] on making solar panels to help save the world. We have been making our own so we can charge our electronics at home. I am passionate about our planet…We hope you like it.” Izzy age 11
Following feedback from people we’ve worked with in Plymouth with Plymouth Energy Community, we’ve been busy talking about the next steps towards building some solar art that also provides a function. We hope that you would like to be involved.
One idea we’ve been talking about is forming a link to the Mayflower 400 celebrations. For example, we could decide to design and make a garland of solar flowers that bloom in May to provide the power for either a light sculpture, or recorded commentary at historic sites. But…we know that the best ideas will come from you! So we’d like to explore these more. Would you like to come along to a third PEC Pals ‘Pretty Useful’ session to discuss ideas and ambitions?
We hope that by the end, we can form a working group to really get things moving. You can be involved as little or as much as you’d like. During the project, there will be lots of roles available to:
If you are interested, please complete this online survey by clicking here by the end of December so that we can send out invitations for a workshop in January
Cutting solar cells is tricky.
They are incredibly fragile – rather like handling eggshell….but brittler.
The thing is, a solar cell doesn’t have to be square shaped in order to generate electricity.
So, if you can cut them, then you have the reward of being able to create different shaped panels and we are looking forward to showing you some of these in the new year.
So cutting cells is a challenge. As you will know from our various forrays into this in the past, we’ve tried all sorts of methods and all sorts of cutters – But Dave and Jo at LaserCutz in Honiton have helped us to find a solution.
I hope you’ll be impressed by the results!
With help from Ian Hankey at The Fab Lab in Plymouth and his talented code writing son Jamie Kaye, we’ve designed a spectrum of different shapes all with the same area so that we can see whether or not the shape of the cut cell has any impact on the energy generated by the cell.
So, it’ll be back to the solar lab in Penryn in the next few weeks to get results from this latest set of tests.
“We love this project as it so much fun but has a very real and practical aim” Dave and Jo at LaserCutz
“What an awesome group this has been, amazing project thankyou! ” Parent
The final two hour session with our Blue Peter Solar Panel project team was very busy bring everything together!
solar cells were glued to the etched glass, the tabbing together was finalised before we fully encapsulated the cells, wired them up to a transformer and and put them into their frames.
It was a nerve-wracking moment wondering if they actually worked and given it was dark outside we couldn’t test them! But fortunately Poppy’s tortoise came to the rescue lending us its heat lamp which was just right for making sure the kids had done the job.
Fingers crossed that Blue Peter will like the one the kids made for them and hopefully they will get their Blue Peter Badges soon.
“So inspiring and exciting!” Parent
Week 2 of our kids solar panel workshop and the participants have made their frames and learned how to solder tabbing wire to the solar cells.
We’ve been using waste cells that have been donated by our partner GB-Sol, so the young people are delighted to be re-cycling the materials!
Although soldering was very tricky, we still managed to get it all done and the steam coming off the iron impressed some of the kids.
We’re learning lots about how best to do this with young people and are grateful to each of our guinnea pigs for helping us learn how we can run similar workshops for others in the future.
