The Relate project builds on previous artistic
work produced by partners in the area of energy resources and climate change,
known as ‘A Conversation Between Trees’.
Relate aims to develop sensor kits and an
online social platform that will support remote communities in reflecting about
the relationship between energy and climate change. The platform will facilitate
mass participation in citizen science activities. It will allow for communities
to collect, share, relate and interpret data gathered through environmental
sensors and energy monitors.
The data gathered will be from temperature,
humidity and CO2 sensors that will be provided with tools such as solar and
wind power chargers. These will enable different forms of energy provision and
communication to further our understanding of the relationship between energy
and climate change.
The platform will support a range of
activities, including building data maps, constructing and sharing new
interpretations and artistic visualisations of the data, and facilitating
discussions and questions about our understanding of energy and climate change
between schools, communities, artists and researchers in humanities and
sciences.
Relate is a collaboration between the artist
company Active Ingredient, Dr Carlo Buontempo from the Met Office Hadley Centre,
Brazilian curator Silvia Leal, staff in Computer Science, Psychology,
Performance and New Media from Horizon Digital Economy Research (The University of Nottingham and The
University of Exeter), and a number of communities in Brazil and the UK.