The Land Art Generator Initiative International Design Competition

http://www.landartgenerator.org/
http://www.landartgenerator.org/competition.html

The Land Art Generator Initiative is the artworld’s responsible answer to the question:

“what comes after oil?”

The long-term goal of the Land Art Generator Initiative is to design and construct a series of land art installations that uniquely combine aesthetic intrigue and artistic concept with clean energy generation. The LAGI viewing platforms will be tourist destinations, drawing people from around the world to experience the beauty of the collaborative artworks. At the same time, the art itself will continuously distribute clean energy into the electrical grid, with the sculptures having the potential to provide power to thousands of homes.

We are living in a world in which the climate is deeply affected by the burning of fossil fuels for energy generation and in which it is estimated by the oil industry that petroleum reserves will be mostly used up by the time children born today reach middle age.

So what can the artworld do in order to stimulate change at an even faster pace? Why not create works of art that themselves provide clean, infinitely renewable energy to the world? These artworks can be large-scale installations related to the genre of land-art. They can be profound and lasting statements of purpose. Their message can reach across generations and continents.

The time is now to do whatever we can to make the shift to cleaner forms of energy.  Art has the power to reach the hearts and the minds of the world, and it is this power that we must tap into if we are to see substantive change.

This open call to interdisciplinary teams is the first step in the process of inititating this change. The winning proposal will be the first in line to be constructed. Once completed, it will be the first of its kind in the world.

An exhibit of all qualified proposals will be held at the conclusion of the competition. This exhibit will provide a forum for a public presentation and discussion of all of the works. It is the intention of LAGI to have this exhibit travel to as many venues as possible in the time after the competition period in order to broaden the audience that is a part of the dialogue.

The designs should be considered first and foremost as Land Art Installations. The considerations for energy generation should come in a close second. What this means is that the installations are art first, power plants second. There will most-likely be sacrifices to be made in terms of efficiency of energy generation in order that the design function primarily on a conceptual and aesthetic level. The objective is not to design and engineer a device that provides the cheapest KWh or the most energy per square meter of land.