CLI-Mate
Mel Chin working with Joe Dahmen, Travis Franck, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Amul Goswamy and David McConville
Description of Climate Clock Proposal Our idea is to develop and implement a globally accessible widget, available to all languages through free-ware methods, that personalizes any individual’s connection to global climate change. The widget is called the CLI-mate and the program that is developed through the use of it is what is currently missing in the computations on global climate changes. The San José CLI-mate server will be ensconced within a structure supporting a canopy of photo bioreactor tanks, absorbing greenhouse gases and powering hundreds of suspended small displays, working 24-7 to process information of the compounded effects of human actions on global climatic activity. Climate information from scientific models will react to and reflect real-time human input gathered through the CLI-mate delivered to the San José climate computing station, and reprocessed to make it accessible there and to every cell phone, and computer that would have it.The San José Server Structure with the algae reactors will fuel floating mini-displays of a multitude of constantly refreshing comparables that individual users may be requesting or that may be randomly generated. Small scale allows personal review of individual requests.
CLI-Mate
Mel Chin working with Joe Dahmen, Travis Franck, Amber Frid-Jimenez, Amul Goswamy and David McConville
Bios:
Mel Chin is known for the broad range of approaches in his art, including works that require multi-disciplinary, collaborative teamwork and works that conjoin cross-cultural aesthetics with complex ideas. In 1993, for Eco-Tec International, he organized a multi-disciplinary team to assess an abandoned asbestos mine and former factory in Corsica, France. He continues to develop long-term works such as Revival Field (1989-ongoing), a project that has been a pioneer in the field of “green remediation.” A 10th anniversary implementation in Stuttgart, Germany featured dramatic advancements in the use of plants to remove toxic, heavy metals from the soil. In 1998, Chin completed two large-scale public commissions, the Seven Wonders project, for the Sesquicentennial Park in Houston, Texas and Signal for the Broadway/Lafayette Subway Station in New York City. Chin is one of 16 artists included in the first year of the PBS Series, Art of the 21st Century, 2001. He is the lead artist for the first joint university/public library in the United States in San Jose, California, completed in 2007.
Joe Dahmen is an architect dedicated to designing and developing sustainable construction methods. He has international experience designing and executing a variety of building technologies guided by appropriate technologies and fabrication methods. Dahmen is one of the three founders of a startup venture Bodega Algae LLC, a developer of a scalable continuous flow photobioreactor that grows large volumes of microalgae for use in the production of biofuel. He is the chief operating officer for Bodega where he works on business development strategy, prototype design and fabrication. Joe brings his knowledge of mechanical system design to Bodega. He received a Master of Architecture from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006, where he initiated original research on rammed earth, a sustainable alternative to concrete. Dahmen is also currently a consultant to Rammed Earth Works, of Boston, Massachuestts, where, building on research performed at MIT, devises custom strategies and equipment enabling clients to conserve resources while utilizing materials encountered on site.
Travis Franck is a Massachusetts Insititute of Technology climate change researcher and a trained software engineer. Currently, Franck is a research assistant and Ph.D Candidate with Massachusetts Institute of Technoloy’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. This research group brings together the physical Earth sciences along with the social sciences to generate an integrated picture of climate change and society. Franck studies how accelerated sea-level rise affects coastal cities and natural ecosystems. Franck has worked at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an inter-governmental organization with climate change research responsibility. During his work there, he worked with researchers on long-term climate change mitigation that concluded in a published work.
Amber Frid-Jimenez is an award-winning designer, artist, engineer and educator, whose uses her experience and knowledge of emerging technologies to design products, visualizations, experiences, installations and sites that confronts issues ranging from politics and surveillance to representations of women in media. Her recent work includes interactive video installations, performance-based participation from large-scale online audiences, visualization and interactive design, and traditional painting. Frid-Jimenez is currently teaching art, design and critical theory as a visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Visual Arts Program and an adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. Frid-Jimenez is a graduate of the MIT Media Laboratory where she studied with John Maeda in Physical Language Workshop. Prior to beginning her degree, she researched the aesthetic, social and economic implications of collecting, mining, and visualizing large databases of text and video in the Cognitive Machines Group at MIT.
Amul Goswamy is a digital media artist and former lead software developer at Apple Inc. Goswamy is currently studying Engineering Education at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts to educate the public about climate change and clean technology. He feels Climate Clock is an example of how art and software can make a positive difference for the environment. Goswamy served as an Arts Commissioner for the City of San José presiding over many environmental art and digital media projects. During his terms as a commissioner, he has gained an understanding of the complexities of large public art projects and the traits of successful public art installations. Deeply rooted in the environmental art field movement, Goswamy was an artist and partner with C5 Corporation creating digital media artworks about landscapes and mapping. Goswamy is also a compost educator for Santa Clara County, Goswamy discovered the complexities of people’s conception and treatment of the environment.
David McConville is a media artist and researcher specializing in the development of dome-based display technologies. He is co-founder of The Elumenati, a full service design and engineering firm specializing in the development and deployment of immersive visualization environments and experiences. The Elumenati provides systems integration, realtime software design, immersive content research, custom fabrication, and optical engineering for clientele ranging from art festivals to space agencies. McConville is currently based in Asheville, North Carolina, conducting independent research as a PhD candidate in the Planetary Collegium through the University of Plymouth in Plymouth, England. His research focuses on the history and contemporary development of dome-based environments in the construction and shaping of worldviews.