Shortlist 2007

The shortlisted entries for the Eco Prize for Creativity 2007 were:

Established Talent
Great Glen House Interactive Presentation by Screenmedia Design
The Man Who Planted Trees by the Puppet State Theatre Company
Other Flowers of Scotland by David Watson Hood
Spindrift by Roddy Mathieson

Emerging Talent
Ecological Footprints by Lisa Shaw
Garden for Global Warming by Meleri McEwan
Glasgow Eco Design Centre by James Connor
Solar Vintage by Elena Corchero

 

If you would like to contact any of the shortlist entrants, please contact the Eco Prize office in the first instance (do so under Contact Us) and we will forward your correspondence.

 

Established Talent

Great Glen House Interactive Presentation by Screenmedia Design
This interactive presentation reveals how sustainability was at the heart of the location, design and build of Great Glen House, the headquarters of Scottish Natural Heritage and winner of the BRE Office Building of the Year. This presentation by Screenmedia uses a rich mix of media including audio, video, animation and professional photography. It conveys how the Great Glen House provides a positive contribution to the physical landscape, the social environment and the environmental knowledge base, setting a new and sustainable standard for commercial development in sensitive rural settings. The multi-platform presentation is available online, on CD-Rom and is embedded on location in a touch-screen table designed by Nord Architecture using Scottish renewable oak.
www.screenmedia.co.uk

The Man Who Planted Trees by the Puppet State Theatre Company
This theatrical production is a stage adaptation by the Puppet State Theatre Company of Jean Giono’s environmental cult classic. It tells the story of how a French shepherd and his dog persevere to overcome various obstacles and transform the bleak landscape which surrounds them into a rich woodland ecosystem. It uses a unique blend of comedy, puppetry, storytelling and multi-sensory effects. Experienced puppeteers – Richard Medrington and Rick Conte – in association with colleagues Ailie Cohen and Elspeth Murray, have performed this inspiring adaptation and engaged audiences in theatres, festivals, conference centres, tents, forests and community gardens all over the UK from Campbeltown to Cambridge.
www.puppetstate.com

Other Flowers of Scotland by David Watson Hood
This photographic series is composed of kaleidoscopic digital images from close-up photography. The images are of the flowers of trees and plants, mostly of native origin, and with long standing Scottish economic or cultural significance. The work draws inspiration from ancient sources but also depends on the latest technology. The artist’s intention is to help counteract our current disassociation with nature and the biosphere on which we depend. The work engages both the art of photography and compositional techniques of painting and decorative designs to connect its audience to plant life and biodiversity in a visually unique way. 
www.twocrows.co.uk

Spindrift by Roddy Mathieson
Spindrift is a pewter sculpture which has been cast using charcoal and the calcium shells of cuttlefish for moulds engaging an environmentally friendly foundry technique. This sculpture was created by the artist’s foundry, Alchemy, a completely unique facility using traditional and environmentally friendly processes to create contemporary works of art and design cast in metal. The properties of fire, air, earth and water are exploited to realise ancient techniques using the prehistoric process of a charcoal-burning furnace that is blasted with air from two handmade double chamber bellows of medieval design. Recycled materials are used throughout, sourcing bronze from old engineering parts, aluminium from old car pistons and pewter from scrap metal merchants.
www.roddymathieson.net

Emerging Talent

Ecological Footprints by Lisa Shaw
Ecological Footprints is one of a series of windmill murals which transforms the base of wind turbines into huge artistic canvasses. The series, painted on the windmills based at the Findhorn Ecovillage in Moray, explores the connections between the paintings and green energy. It looks at ecological principles and practices from an emotional, spiritual and intellectual perspective. Supported by the Findhorn Wind Park, Lisa encouraged children and adults from the local area to engage in painting the footprints, each with an eco and a non-eco choice, so inviting people to consider the impact of their own energy consumption on the planet.

Garden for Global Warming by Meleri McEwan
This garden design shows how, even within the confines of a small urban courtyard, people can reduce their carbon footprint in beautiful, inspiring and satisfying ways. It responds to an Avant Gardens brief to design a small garden on the theme of ‘Sanctuary’ which is forward-looking, stylish and provokes a response in viewers. This garden features a drought-tolerant, wildlife-friendly border, raised organic vegetable bed, curved seating made from recycled vending cups, retractable washing line, a slimline water butt and sailcloth awning. The garden was voted the People’s Choice at the Avant Gardens Competition at New Hopetoun Gardens in the summer of 2007.
www.gardenforglobalwarming.co.uk

Glasgow Eco Design Centre by James Connor
This is a design for an Eco Design Centre positioned beneath Glasgow’s Royal Botanic Gardens, in a disused underground steam train station. The design was developed earlier this year by James, for his final project for the BA (hons) degree in Interior Design at the Glasgow School of Art. The purpose of an eco design centre is to inspire and promote invaluable ideas and practices for greener living, ecology and sustainability. The proposed design is built up of 'organic' forms and structures which demonstrate the potential of alternative eco materials and which fulfil various functions of a design centre such as exhibition stands. It also includes features such as a sustainable & organic produce café/deli, using fruit & vegetables grown on its indoor green roof, bench seats created from plant waste, unfired hand-pressed earth brick walls and prototype composite floor tiles formed from post-industrial waste.

Solar Vintage by Elena Corchero
Solar Vintage is a prototype collection of solar powered decorative accessories for the eco fashion-minded consumer. The collection explores delicate ways of incorporating solar cells into textiles in which technology meets tradition. Electronic components like solar cells, resistors and LEDs are integrated directly into antique and hand-embellished fabrics and wired together into working circuits using conductive thread.  The artist is a fashion and interaction designer with a fine arts background, an MA in Textile Futures and specialist knowledge of smart textiles through work as a research associate in MIT Media Lab Europe. Elena is currently a senior researcher at Distance Lab in Forres, Scotland which is sponsoring the project and where she is developing the prototypes further. This work provides a refreshing angle on ‘wearable computing’ disguising it in a beautiful and stylistic way.
www.lostvalues.com