Tag: Participation

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Cockington Court – UV Moths

In November 2020 the Art and Energy Collective created a UV installation composed at Cockington Court in Devon. #CourtMoths was made of hundreds of hand-crafted moths cut from plastic milk bottles, and decorated with black and UV marker pens.

We began by setting two moth traps at Cockington Court in order to find out more about local moths. We also asked the local community to share their moth stories with us, and to create their own plastic moths to add to the installation. 

Check out the videos below to find out more…

The finished installation!

Instructions to make your own moths!

Art and Energy in residence at Cockington Court making moths!

This video shows us setting up two mothtraps at Cockington Court, and then returning in the morning to reveal our moth visitors… great inspiration for our milk bottle moths!

Do you have any stories or photos of moths visiting Cockington Court?
We would love to hear from you! Email us at hello@artandenergy.org, or pop a note through the Cockington Court front door letterbox, f.a.o Moths To A Flame.

For more info keep an eye here, on the hayloft windows and @CockingtonCourt on Facebook.

Download your copy pf the template sheet here

Download your copy of the template here!
ArtAndEnergy_Moth Template
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Moth’y weekender!

After month’s developing within our Covid-enforced cocoon, this coming weekend our ‘Moths to a Flame’ project will emerge in splendid glory. There are many ways to get involved….

Watch Moths (to a flame)

Join us via Zoom for our monthly double-bill ‘Watch Moths’ event. 

Friday 25th 8-9pm & Saturday 26th 8-9am

This month we will visit Plymouth Energy Communities solar array at Ernesettle, finding out more about the technology and ecological diversity. We will also visit our moth experts across Devon as they set up their traps, and return on the Saturday morning to see their stunning mothy visitors!

Book your tickets here!

Plymouth Art Weekender

Visit us at The Plot on Union Street, 11am – 4pm.

We will have an installation of UV lit moths and AR Moths, solar artworks, and free activity packs and moth-friendly plants to take home with you.

We’re collaborating with Pollenize CIC and Plymouth Scrapstore to promote the importance of pollinators, and with Plymouth Energy Community to generate conversations about our relationships with energy. Pop along to find out more!

Our hosts, Nudge Community Builders, will be carefully controlling numbers in the venue to ensure safe social distancing. Please wear a mask or face shield.

Plymouth Art Weekender is a city-wide event with lots of venues to visit. Find out more at www.plymouthartweekender.com

Plymouth Art Weekender 2020. 25th-27th September

Other ways to get involved with the #MothsToAFlame project include:

  • Writing a moth or energy themed poem and submitting it to our poetry slam…. there are some rather lovely prizes! Deadline 16th October. More info here.
  • Decorating your AR moth colouring sheet, bringing it to life using the app, then sharing your recording with us. More info here.
  • Ordering your copy of ‘The Moth’s Whisper’ illustrated story book, here. 
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International Day of Cooperatives

Did you know that Saturday 4th July 2020 is the International Day of Cooperatives? We think that our Moths To A Flame project is a great example of a cooperative in action, one which has grown significantly over the last few months as we’ve nudged the project to include more digital content.

The Art and Energy business model is a fairly informal collective. We have members and partners with knowledge and experience in all sorts of areas: from Plymouth Energy Community who are proactively seeking change in our domestic energy situations, to Dave and Jo at Lasercutz who are helping us cut solar cells to re-imagine solar panels as beautiful solar artworks, and Miranda who has written and illustrated a beautiful children’s book for Moths to a Flame. One thing that we have in common is a growing concern about the climate crisis, and a desire to see change to benefit our environment. Together we hope to make a difference.

Over the last few months Covid-19 has meant that our meetings have all been held through a computer screen. We have become increasingly confident and fluent in conversing by email and Zoom, but we’ve really missed being able to get together to create and catch up over a solar artwork project and cup of tea! When our partners at PEC told us that the International Co-operative Alliance had chosen the theme of ‘Climate Action’ for 2020, we wanted to do something fun to celebrate and join in… the International Day of Cooperatives has given us the perfect opportunity to get creative  again!

Jenny put together little creative packs that went out in the post to eight of our collective. We then met up one evening via Zoom for a project update and a bit of a tutorial. Each participant painted a moth onto a square of glass, then returned them.

The next stage is to add solar cells nestled within the moth paintings, then combine them to create a single large interactive solar artwork. In the next week or so Jenny will send creative packs out to more of our collective… if there’s one thing it’s made us realise it’s quite how many amazing people we’re working with, this cooperative artwork is set to grow!

As with most of our projects the final piece is already evolving, but that’s the joy of having lots of lovely people cooperating together creatively!

This mini-project was inspired by a conversation with Plymouth Energy Community, who have funded the short film to be released on International Day of Cooperatives, 4th July 2020.

 

Development of the project has been funded by Arts Council England through Jenny’s individual grant. We have found a way to work at a distance, plus Jenny’s using this opportunity to experiment further with the electronics powered by our cooperative solar artwork… keep an eye out here for further progress reports!

#Coops4ClimateAction

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EcoFest Tavistock – We made a solar panel artwork in a day!

Following popular demand, we’ve been exploring ways that we can make solar panel artwork making accessible by lots of people in one day.

We tried out our approach to involving large (ish) numbers of participants over the course of the wonderful EcoFest in Tavistock, and throughout the day, around 75 people aged between 4 and 70 helped us in a variety of ways to make a solar panel artwork live!

The resulting artwork ‘Eyes to the Future’ is able to  charge mobile phones and we’ll be looking for an appropriate home for it later this autumn.

Participants were able to paint, glue, cut, choose, solder, tab up solar cells, build the electrical circuit and then connect everything together.

We would LOVE to do this sort of participatory demonstration again at festivals or events, so if you can think of somewhere appropriate for this sort of activity, please let us know.

Thank you to everyone who got involved, and thanks particularly to Ursula and Trudy for organising such a brilliant event!