People Powered
People Powered
Brief Outline: People Powered is a US based organization that designs experimental projects that brings together art, environmentalism and communities. Projects are presented in exhibitions and public locations in 'cities' (presumably Chicago where they are based). People Powered claim to be creating a 'platform for discussing how these practices may intersect'. People Powered currently present four projects:
Soil Starter: an exploration into how domestic waste can be recycled as compost.
Loop: recycling unused latex paint.
Pocket Gardens: the utilization of small, vacant and unused spaces for intensive organic micro-farming.
Shared: salvaging bicycles and transforming them into a fleet of public bikes for use in Chicago.
Creative Contribution
What was the significant innovation in approach or thinking behind the project/artwork? How can this be recognisably attributed to the involvement of creative practice?
People Powered seek to develop new ways in which recycling can be performed. Based on the premise that there is an abundance of already existing resources (bicycles, paint, waste and so on) the group utilize design, such as transforming usage, repackaging and salvaging as a way not only to bring attention to issues to do with sustainability but also to provide small-scale solutions.
Collaboration
What were the disciplinary contributors to the project? What model of research / development was followed? What were factors leading to success / problems?
Values
What were the outcomes of the project? How were these disseminated to outside stakeholders? What models of value are implied by this project? What was the Impact of the work?
Proposals for:
Products.
Services.
People Powered exhibit their work as art work. For example in the exhibition Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art. Co-organized by the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, and ICI (Independent Curators International), New York.The models of value are mixed. On the one hand the outputs are presented as art, however on the other hand the outputs are designed as practical solutions and responses to personal and household waste management, the recycling of goods and the re-use of spaces. Consequently, the outputs are inserted into discourses and contexts of art whilst relying upon what might be considered to be design practices associated with practical and instrumental responses to problems of utility.
Links and Resources
http://www.peoplepowered.org
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/exhibitions/
