Browsing by Author "Östman, Sanna"

This interdisciplinary study seeks to raise awareness of and generate interest in projects that combine science and art. A number of such projects are discussed and analyzed with the help of the concept 'Ecovention'. The concept is operationalized to include works of art that ecologically restore, reclaim, and remediate damaged ecosystems by physical actions and inventions. They transform the ecosystem and often slowly disappear into the environment, contributing to the overall wellbeing of the ecosystem. These works of art are long-lasting and site-specific. They are built outdoors by using material that is already available in the ecosystem or by bringing in environmental-friendly material into the ecosystem. The central research question for the study is as follows: How significantly does environmental art affect the local ecosystem when the starting point is ecological restoration? This is a qualitative study. The data for the study consist of interviews with experts together with analyses of the historical, cultural, and ecological background material for two Finnish environmental artworks. The two artworks are Agnes Denes's Puuvuori (Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule, 1996) and Jackie Brookner's Veden taika (The Magic of Water, 2007- 2010). These works of art were chosen because of the availability of historical and natural scientific research data about how they were planned and how they were constructed. The availability of this kind of data related to environmental art is rare in Finland. The Magic of Water consists of three floating islands in Salo. They are situated in a lagoon that was formerly used as a clarification pool at the Salo Municipal Sewage Treatment Facility. The artwork has succeeded in supplying a peaceful nesting habitat for the birdlife in the area. It has been shown that a colony of black-headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) is a new species nesting in the islands. The Magic of Water did not provide a significant improvement of the water quality by phytoremediation since the islands are relatively small in relation to the area of the lagoon. Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule is to be found in Pinsiönkangas, at the most important groundwater area in Ylöjärvi. The artwork reclaims a former gravel pit. Tree Mountain is a 28 meter tall hill in an area of elliptical shape that spans nine hectares. 10,600 pine tree saplings (Pinus sylvestris) and about 40,000 cubic meters of soil from the area was used to build the artwork. Tree Mountain is nowadays owned by the town of Ylöjärvi and Pinsiönkangas is principally a conservation area. The Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule is argued to fit well in the regionally precious ridgescenary since the work of art has enough of biological values. Most likely the building of the artwork has had a preventive effect on possible ecological harm and it has made the community take responsibility for taking care of the reclaimed environment in the long term. In the face of high-quality ecological restoration plans it is important to approach the restoration of ecosystems from a holistic perspective. The artist s vision of how an ecosystem can be restored adds a surplus value to ecological restoration work since also the aesthetic and ideological dimensions are reconstructed. The probable positive view of the community towards the restored ecosystem can promote not only the attendance by the community to that particular area in the future, but it can also promote the attendance of a community to other areas as well.