Previous Winners
The Winners of the Eco Prize for Creativity 2006:
Bowmore Chair by David Trujillo-Farley
This chair was designed and made to explore the possibility of creating a sustainable industry on Islay from a native industrial waste material. It engaged a sustainable design ethos, using the high quality waste material of spent whisky barrels and minimal energy, to create an aesthetically pleasing mainstream product which would eventually be completely biodegradable. The resulting elegance distilled in the Bowmore Chair has a potential global market including whisky enthusiasts, interior designers and discerning consumers.
The Artist: Originally from California, David Trujillo-Farley grew up amidst a strong environmental standard. His design ethos resides in what he terms the ‘sustainable design ecology’. As a result, he dedicated his postgraduate study to exploring the uses and commercial viability of biodegradable materials, and continues to do so as a multidisciplinary designer in Scotland.
Green Roof 294by Beth Hamer
This is a prototype urban roof garden. Farming organic vegetables on top of a nightclub in the heart of Glasgow may seem outlandish. But this ingenious and multi-layered work, covering one area of a larger roofscape, illustrates the potential for the conversion of urban roof spaces into rich bio diverse eco-systems becoming, for example, wildlife gardens, forest roofs or wheat roofs. This work engages local residents inviting them to develop the prototype into a permanent installation for the benefit of both the environment and the community.
The Artist: Beth Hamer recently graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, Environmental Art Department. Beth’s artworks are designed to inspire and assist people to take small steps to overcome an enormous challenge – how to live sustainably and ecologically in an urban area. She is interested in low-cost, low-tech, resourceful ways of presenting and elaborating artistic work which engages its viewers. Green Roof 294 is just one of the ingenious solutions which she proposed this year at her degree show exhibition.
The other shortlisted entries for the Eco Prize 2006 were:
Ecoella by Sciennes Primary School
Green Team
This is a positive, life-affirming and fun-loving version of the traditional children’s fairy tale, Cinderella. In performing the play, the Sciennes Primary Green Team introduce the audience to Ecoella herself, her ugly sisters Landfillella and Disposella, the dashing prince R. E. Cycle, and the Green Fairy Godmother. Amazingly, the Green Fairy Godmother casts her spell and recycled bottles become sparkling glass slippers – how eco-friendly is that! - and the stately carriage to the Prince’s Ball is replaced by a mountain bike to his grand opening party for a new wildlife centre.
The Artists: The Green Team began in 2005 as an after-school club. The group is made up of primary school children from primary 1 to 7 passionate about helping save the planet. Activities range from: campaigning against plastic carrier bags, doing litter pick ups, making mini beast homes with reused cans and straws, fundraising for a wind turbine, energy efficiency surveys, initiating an eco-friendly award scheme for teachers, to creative writing. The team have also just completed the RSPB Wildlife Action award programme and received their Gold Award.
It’s
a Wasteful Life by Nick Fearne
This is a thought-provoking, imaginative play using the powerful medium of drama to engage its primary school audience. The Arts Development Team of Moray Council have developed a tailor-made touring play designed to be immediate, relevant and ‘real’ – no superheroes, aliens or helpful animals! – which inspires and raises issues around waste disposal and our own personal role in greening the environment.
The Artist: Nick Fearne, the writer and producer of the play, is Moray Council’s Arts Development Officer - posts he held with Highland Council and Banff & Buchan District Council. Tim Flood, Musical Director and Alan Cameron, Director, are the other two principal creatives who have been engaged for this production through Dogdazetheatre, Moray Council’s occasional Theatre in Education project. Nick Fearne was Director of Aberdeen Alternative Festival 1998 – 2000, has written and directed Community Plays in Scotland and England and has had commissions from Cumbernauld Theatre and the Stirling Festival.
Shades
of Green by Tessa Ransford
This lyrical and compelling sequence of poems is selected to give a taster of a full series of 40 poems written under eight headings on environmental themes: transport, tourism, oil, health, housing, pollution, the sea and trees. Each theme was originally linked to a shade of green: racing green for transport, grass green for housing, apple green for health etc. The inspiration for this collection arose primarily from the author’s experience as a writing fellow at the Centre for Human Ecology.
The Artist: Tessa Ransford is current president of Scottish PEN. She is an established poet, translator, editor and cultural activist on many fronts over the last thirty years. Her activities include founding the Scottish Poetry Library in 1984 and initiating the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. Tessa initiated Scottish pamphlet poetry, its fairs and online sales website: www.scottish-pamphlet-poetry.com. She is Royal Literary Fund fellow at Queen Margaret University College. Her website is at www.wisdomfield.com.
Trash
Fashion Show by Falkirk High School Eco Group
This event consisted of three catwalk-themed sections – reduce, re-use and recycle – the creation and designs of each section reflecting its theme. The show was designed to challenge perceptions of consumerism, promoting recycled goods as a much more desirable commodity. All the outfits were created by pupils themselves from the most unlikely materials: carrier bags, bubble wrap, lampshades, bin bags, motorbike parts, curtains and old clothes; hair styles from juice cans and plastic bottles; and, jewellery and accessories developed from newspaper and plastic. In between the catwalk sessions, dancers and two of the school’s bands – The Samba Band and Apollo 13 – performed. The audience ranged from pupils, parents, and teachers to local council representatives.
The Artists: The Eco Group gives
young people a unique opportunity to learn about sustainable development
and to put it into practice in their local environment. The show
was produced and directed by pupils and geared towards raising environmental
issues in their local community. In this imaginative and inclusive
event, the Group and fellow pupils was responsible for stage management,
lighting, choreography, fashion design, stage make-up and hair styling.
The project enabled pupils to work with local businesses and an award
winning fashion designer – Claudia Escobar who introduced pupils
to the creative possibilities of salmon skins and creating a salmon
skin kilt!, and an animator – Tessa Dunlop, a media company – Small
Majority, and a lighting company, M&M lighting.
The Winner of the Eco Prize for Creativity 2005:
Breath Taking by Louise Scullion and Matthew Dalzell
Breath Taking is a photographic work by Louise
Scullion and Matthew Dalziel of the Dalziel + Scullion partnership.
It was made for national billboard display. In the summer of 2005
it could be seen on prominent billboards in Aberdeen, Birmingham,
Cabrach, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Manchester
and Newcastle. It took as its starting point the current debate surrounding
planning proposals for over 200 new wind farm installations through
rural Scotland. But this is a neutral image that subtly invites us
to go beyond polarised positions for or against wind farm development.
Working on different levels, it uses tricks of scale and of perspective,
inviting us to question the implications of our current levels of
energy consumption and the impact on future sustainability. It is
a trigger for thinking about energy consumption and about our relationship
with the landscape.
Further details about the work of the Dalziel + Scullion partnership can be
found at www.dalzielscullion.com.
The Highly Commended entry was:
Exodus
by Julie Bertagna
A novel about global warming written for children and teenagers.
The author sets it in a plausible future world of extreme climate
change. Young readers demand a gripping story, with a credable
cast of characters. Exodus provides this in the context of an environmental
drama. The author invites young readers - and not-so-young readers – to transport themselves into a future world
that they believe is possible caught up in a story that sparks their imagination,
and with characters they care deeply about. Without preaching, the book illustrates
the personal and social, as well as the environmental catastrophes, threatened
by global warming and sea level rise. It’s positive subtext is that personal
and collective action can make a difference.
Further details about Julie Bertagna’s work can be found at www.juliebertagna.com.
The other shortlisted entries for the Eco Prize 2005 were:
Citrus Sinensis by Ruth Maxwell
An innovative photographic composition inspired by the sighting
of a telecommunication mast disguised as a tree on the A9 road from
Perth to Stirling. This work raises important questions about landscape
and authenticity in the face of new technology. It invites us to
consider the visual impact of current technologies and lifestyles
on our environment.
Expansion by Martyn Gutteridge
A short and spiritual film exposing the destructive impacts
of continued growth and consumption. It creates a fantasy world personifying
our urban presence and our environmental habitat. This moving piece
challenges use to take personal action rather than following the
herd. It shows us that the actions of each individual make a difference,
and one greener lifestyle means a greener planet for all.
Lay of the Land by Jaimie MacDonald
Jewellery evocative of Scotland’s landscape, recycled
from the unlikely material of used plastic film cannisters. This
work challenges our perception of plastic material, making it more
desirable and changing its value. This jewellery would be very much
at home on the fashion catwalk challenging that industry to reflect
on the way it drives consumerism and waste generation.
For further information on Jaimie MacDonald's work see http://www.jaimgem.com.
Our Home by Rowan Dewar
A short and punchy animation using recycled fabrics to construct
an engaging tale about the ongoing impacts of rainforest loss. The
film contrasts a contented, rich and green life in the jungle, with
the startling clearance of habitat, leaving the audience shocked
at the speed and impact of this development. This film makes its
point sharply, and challenges us to act collectively to help solve
the problem.
For further information on Rowan Dewar's work see http://www.rowanimation.co.uk.
