Adventure Ecology – ARTiculating Environmental Issues
by Leonora Oppenheim, London, UK on 01.19.07
What we like most about Adventure Ecology, apart from their eye-catching graphics and slick animations, are their cool mission statements: “Relax! Adventure is not just about packing your expedition gear and living in a tent, and Ecology is not just about digging out your tie-dye flares and chaining yourself to a tree. The only prerequisite for becoming an adventure ecologist is passion.” These guys are hitting the mark with their motivating action talk. The flashy Adventure Ecology website was mentioned on Most Huggable a few months back for their video game that’s designed to educate kids about the environment.
Adventure Ecology was brought to our attention again recently for another environmental mission called Adventures in Waste, but this one isn’t an animated story, it’s the real thing. Next month four visual artists, Gabriel Orozco, photographers Adam Broomberg + Oliver Chanarin and film maker Dustin Lynn will travel to Ecuador on the first of several ‘mini missions’ to ‘ARTiculate™ some of the world's most environmentally trashed regions with the end goal of then presenting work in response to their findings.’
Adventure Ecology has set bi-annual themes which will be explored across the globe in a variety of ways. After the Ecuador field trip, code name: Toxico, Adventures in Waste will see missions completed in Africa – Living with Trash, India/Pakistan – High on Waste, USA – Climate of Waste. These missions will act as forerunners to the next bi-annual theme – Message In a Bottle. We’re loving these catchy code names. As the Ecuadorian trip sets off an exhibition opens in London today called Waste & The Natural World. It is being held at The Gallery @ Adventure Ecology HQ. ‘This exhibition showcases the work of four artists, selected from Saatchi’s Your Gallery website, who share Adventure Ecology's concerns about the environment.’
David de Rothschild is the owner of The Gallery and is one of the founders of Adventure Ecology. He is a dedicated ecologist who last year went on an expedition to the Artic to see the effects of Climate Change for himself. In a recent interview with Women’s Wear Daily he said some things that we TreeHuggers love to hear. "There's a natural affinity between creatives and ecology," It's about thinking outside the box and observing. In a sense, artists have always been predicting the future." And further more, "Traditionally, there have been two camps in the environmental arena — the very aggressive lot and then the tofu-eating, beardy-weirdies. I want to avoid making environmental issues green and fluffy. They should be sexy and engaging." We couldn’t agree more David. It’s great to see Adventure Ecology finding new and creative ways to ARTiculate™ climate change that are engaging and entertaining for all ages. We’re looking forward to seeing their missions accomplished. ::Adventure Ecology ::Your Gallery
Waste & The Natural World, 19 January - 1 March 2007, The Gallery @ Adventure Ecology, 125 Charing Cross Road London WC2H OEW.
You can read more about the Waste & The Natural World exhibition in Bonnie's post here.
Check out this interview with David about the mission of Adventure Ecology:
http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/13822
I know this might not seem immediately relevant but I was talking to my mother about Formula One motor-racing and we thought that, with our new preoccupations, it might be a good idea to try and get more publicity for that competition to get the maximum mpg performance out of cars rather than the maximum speed. Might that be useful?
thanks for listening (or reading!)