CitySol: Music, Art and Solar Fest this weekend in NYC!

by Moe Beitiks

It’s officially summertime, and that means that the sustainability music/event smorgasboard CitySol is in full gear this weekend in NYC’s Stuyvesant Cove Park! Intended as a creative, multi-disciplinary coming-together of alternative ideas, as well as an educational outlet for sustainability solutions, CitySol features workshops, panel discussions, live concerts, and comedians listed alongside green art installations. Of the three panels to be conducted this weekend, two focus on sustainable design and the future of NYC: “From Temporary to Permanent: Sustainable Design for Solar One” and “Interactivism: A Conversation about the Practical Intersections of Design” on Sunday, June 29, which will break down the morphing combination of grassroots advocacy and interactive design.
If you are in town this weekend, do not

Besides observing and discussing sustainability and design, participants will be able to take workshops on skateboarding, green roofing, canning, or go on an Energy and Environment Exploration with Green Maps NYC. And of course, throughout the entire weekend there will be concerts and performances like So Percussion’s new work 16 words, which transforms the most recent additions to the Merriam-Webster dictionary into percussive drum-sound. Amongst the new words that you might recognize are aquascape, biodiesel and wave pool?
CitySol festivities are being held in Stuyvesant Cove Park, near the East River and 23rd Street, and run though Sunday, June 29. Come join us and support the future of sustainability in our city!
+ CitySol 2008+ Map and Directions to City Sol 2008

Artist Eve Mosher, who has appeared at previous CitySol fests, will be ever-present this weekend, demonstrating her green remediation work Insert _Here, as well as presiding on the Interactivism panel and conducting a workshop of her own. Insert _Here is Mosher’s latest enviro-installation work in which participants identify a site in need of remediation with a little yellow sign. Each site has a unique url where participants are asked to photograph the highlighted location and upload an image. Mosher (or another artist) then alters the submitted photo in order to illustrate how the site might look if bioremediated. “The project is intended to capitalize on community awareness of place/environment and optimism in the face of climate challenges.” Also featured are installations and eco sculptures by Tova Carlin, Kerry O’Connor, Evan Wheeler, Aurora Robson, Brian Zegeer, and a fantasy viewfinder of Brooklyn from Adam Eckstrom and Lauren Was

NYC sprouts waterfalls thanks to Olafur Eliasson

by Abigail Doan

Danish Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson advocates that folks learn to Take Their Time, either at his current MoMA retrospective or for the viewing of his upcoming NYC Waterfalls project. With all spigots finally a-go, this $15 million dollar environmental installation project is set to launch on the banks of NYC’s East River and NY Harbor this Thursday, June 26. The wunderkind artist plans to have four freestanding waterfall sculptures awash in cascading water that will fall from heights of 90 to 120 feet. Touted to be the next best thing (economically) for the city since Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s saffron-colored Gates Project in Central Park, we will leave up to you as to whether you think that ‘waterfall chasing’ merits extra points for NYC’s Mayor Bloomberg as he moves to green our urban shores.

Olafur Eliasson views his monumental project as being an ideal way to draw attention to the power and potential scarcity of NYC’s seemingly limitless natural resource. “Here in New York, water is everywhere. We take the water for granted,” Eliasson recently stated in an interview. “I want to suggest - now, it’s not about the land, now it’s about what’s between the land.”

Visitors will have the opportunity to take in the sights at four locations: Pier 35, under Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Piers, and Governor’s Island. Metal scaffolds will provide the framework for each waterfall while engineered pumps will carry water up to a trough, where approximately 35,000 gallons will cascade down every minute for all four falls. Onlookers will be able to see the spectacle every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and each site will be illuminated after sunset. The project is scheduled to be on tap until October 13, 2008.
Even though Eliasson’s vision costs about $15 million, it is expected that it will generate close to $60 million in tourist revenue. The project is presented in conjunction with The Public Art Fund and Tishman Construction Corporation. Yes, indeed, there might be better, more sustainable ways to address water quality and supply in and around NYC’s waterways, but nothing moves glacial mindsets about the environment like a nice green wad of cash for a future rainy day.

http://www.olafureliasson.net/

http://www.nycwaterfalls.org/

http://www.publicartfund.org/

http://circlelinedowntown.com/waterfalls.asp

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/06/12/first_photo_of_an_nyc_waterfall_turned_on.php

by Jorge Chapa
Hungary is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about cutting edge green vehicles, yet. If the creators of the Antro Solo have their way, the country will be synonymous with green machines by 2012. The Antro Solo is a solar, human and gas-electric hybrid vehicle. It looks like nothing else out there, and has a fuel efficiency of more than 150 miles per gallon!

The Antro Solo is a three seat gas-electric hybrid prototype made entirely out of carbon fiber. This material choice allowed the graphic designers to lower the weight of the vehicle to a measly 270kg. This also allowed them to achieve phenomenal fuel efficiency and a pretty decent top speed of 87mph. All of this is impressive enough, but the Solo’s designers were not content to stop there

In order to maximize the efficiency of the vehicle, the designers installed solar panels on the roof. These solar panels store energy in the car’s batteries which can be used for short 15-25km trips. If there hasn’t been enough sun to power the batteries, each passenger’s seat comes equipped with pedals that can power the vehicles generator. If you are by yourself, or everyone gets tired, the car can switch to its small combustion engine that is capable of running on petrol or ethanol

The prototype was shown at the Budapest Museum of Transport. It is set to go into production in 2012, and expected to cost around $20,000 dollars

http://www.solo-duo.hu/

http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/2008/06/antro-solo-seats-three-gets-117-mpg-city-157-highway/