The Color of Crude

Headed to Brown University’s International Advanced Research Institutes #BIARI to give a talk on solar and water work.  I'm apart of Connections and Flows: Water, Energy and Digital Information in the Global South.  25 engineers from 18 different countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. 

The questions considered by a multidisciplinary group of scholars (and me)

1. What would make for more “socially-robust” engineering design and development in the Global South?

2. What engineering innovations in the Global South—whether prompted by emergencies and disasters, or by the inventive curiosity of the rural and urban young — have potential for providing new solutions  useful to both “societies of wealth” and communities in need?  And how can we bring those to market sooner?

3. How might engineering design and development in the Global South take advantage of an embeddedness in local cultures, societies, and intellectual traditions, but also increasing connectedness to globally-circulating technologies and engineering knowledge?

Check it

I’m at Reed Collage as a visiting artists.  I’m here to engage Reed Canyon, a 28 acre water shed running East and West through Reed’s campus.  The Canyon is a host to the head waters of Crystal Spring Creek which runs into Reed Lake and further west into Crystal Springs Lake and further west  (through Oregon)  to the Pacific Ocean. 

The story I found interesting:  in 1925 Reed build and outdoor swimming pool on the east end of the spring in the middle of campus.  To install the pool the architects re-routed the natural spring to accommodate its 40’ x 60’ size.  In 2000 the pool was removed and a restoration plan began. 

I’ve posted on Tue Greenfort work before.  His show at the Sculpture Center is great example of what happens when research and aesthetics meet really effectively in an art space.  Great show at the sculpture center.    See catalog and video here: