The Windpump that Teaches Us Innovation

by Michelle Albinson

Today was one of those days where innovation, creativeness and uniqueness were everywhere to be found, even in the living room. When looking around us, we can often find artwork everywhere. Nature is in itself an artwork, but there are also the manmade artworks. Some of these manmade artworks have a way to surprise people with how simple the idea is, how little things it takes to make and how impressive the outcome is.

Many people are creative, but many people just keep it to their own websites or homes. Yet there are those who take their talent to the streets. When driving around Johannesburg, we often find highly talented dancers, mime artists and others with rather unique talents. Innovative art can also be found in Hartebeespoort Dam, on the way there and within it at the well-visited Chameleon Village. And then.... there are those artists who dwell in the 'other' nearby towns - Parys, Sasolburg, Vaalpark and Vanderbijlpark. These towns hold unique places, events and artwork. It was in Vanderbijlpark that I found a specific little gem of inspiring innovation.

A particular man was selling a 'windpomp'; an object of admiration for several people who were taking it apart to see how he managed to create it. The main parts of the pump were simply crafted from a tin. The rest was skilfully done with strong, thick wire. The bird that is so happily sitting in front of the tap, waiting for its water, was craftily made from a fallen conifer cone (better known as a pine cone). This is an artwork that took a lot of skill and time, but little resources.

There are plenty of tins lying around and many of nature’s own little pieces, which make this a financially practical and environmentally friendly artwork. It's impossible not to have respect for the way struggling or less fortunate people can often come up with the most innovative and unique ideas. We can all learn from their resourcefulness and about how not to waste, rather using and re-using what is available to us at the time. They don’t run to the shops the moment they don’t have canvas, they create their own canvas with what they see around them.

Look for your next artwork around your house, around your street and in your dustbin. You might find your light-bulb moment in something as simple as a dirty tin and some wire. This can be considered as proof that you can never say you’re too poor to make art. Art is inventing, art is seeing potential even in unlikely places.

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Further browsing - some more links for Art from Waste:

• Watch this video of artist Mbogeni Buthelezi using plastic to create his art, featured on CCTV news.
• Such Initiative's artwork 'Tomorrow's Joy' was a large-scale public artwork created from approximately 90 200 discarded plastic bottle tops
• Too Good To Waste is a co-operative of like-mined artists and crafters utilising recycled materials

Better Living Challenge

Have an idea that relates to access to electricity, water and sanitation, water/flood-proofing, fireproofing, ventilation, heating, cooling, space constraints, safety or privacy? The Better Living Challenge is a call to designers and innovators; manufacturers and retailers; students and professionals; self-taught designers and tradesmen; architects and engineers; to develop home improvement solutions that support a better quality of life for all.

The continually growing need for homes outstrips the capacity and resources of the government to deliver. There is a need to find home improvement solutions that are affordable and allow people to incrementally improve their dwellings at their own pace. Such solutions will contribute towards improved living conditions and quality of life. The Better Living Challenge has three entry categories.

STRUCTURAL HOME

• Innovative products and materials used in the construction of homes.

• Innovative approaches and components for self-built homes and structures.

• Systems and products that allow for incremental expansion of existing structures.

COMFORTABLE HOME

• Products, services and systems which create a more liveable and enjoyable internal environment, including improved temperature control and internal air quality, as well as light, energy and water efficiency.

• Products and systems that address fire risk.

• Modular and space saving furniture and storage ideas.

• Solutions to create flexible public/private space for homes where a single space may have multiple uses throughout the day.

CONNECTED HOME

• Products, services or systems that digitally and physically connect a home to its surroundings and beyond.

• Solutions that connect a home to the physical environment, including food production and waste water systems.

• Off-grid solutions for individual households.

VERY IMPORTANT:

• You need to show you have considered the environmental impact of your products, and explored environmentally-friendly materials and efficient production techniques.
• Solutions need to be financially accessible to the low-income market. You need to demonstrate how scale, production and material costs impact on price, and show you have thought about how to get your product, system or service to market in an affordable manner.
• A sustainable business model will touch on how your solution can be replicated at a local level. What can be done to enhance what is already produced locally? Has thought been given to working with existing low-income housing providers?

ENTER your product or idea at betterlivingchallenge.co.za

read these roads and see the water flow...

read these roads. Kai Lossgott. 2010. Experimental Film.

This morning, artist Janet Ranson sent me a link to Kai Lossgott's video 'read these roads', and watching it I am feeling a spark of new inspiration for my own artmaking. Drinking in the words, lapping up the visually intriguing water patterns and shapes that evaporates along with each syllable and nuance of Kai's voice, I am taken to the streets of Cape Town, where Camissa is rushing, wasted, to the sea. The griminess of the tarred roads seem in direct contrast for me to the gentle liquid state of the water. Here's the synopsis for the video:

Fresh water, one of South Africa's scarcest resources, is currently in drastic decline due to climate changes and pollution.  In 2008, a top WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) official called the SA water crisis "a ticking time bomb" waiting to explode. 

The soundtrack of the video is taken from Adderley Street in the Cape Town CBD, above the underground storm water drain where, since 1957, 3 million cubic tons of untapped fresh spring water has run into the sea daily. Underfoot, the now forgotten Varsterivier, among others, is a seminal unacknowledged site of national heritage, one of the rivers which gave Cape Town its original Khoi name: "Camissa", meaning "place of sweet waters".  This was the fresh water that originally drew Portuguese explorers to stop at the Cape on their journey to India, and set in motion the colonisation of the region and the conflicts that followed. 

Natural time versus city time is emphasized in this stop frame animation, intended as a projection on the floor.  Water dries in time lapse photography on the pavement.  Running in and out of drains and gutters, it spreads into tentative images, which evaporate as they morph into other shapes.  These forms hint at the living systemic relationship between Table Mountain's hydrology systems, the City of Cape Town's water system and the biological systems of the human body.  In contrast with the evaporation (a metaphor for both waste and scarcity), a mysterious tunnel world of abundant water is periodically glimpsed beneath the streets.  With many of our rivers now being the equivalent of drains, re-claiming the symbolic power of the river under Adderley Street confronts us with an emotional connection we have lost.  This is the link to life-centred awareness, currently the most critical challenge to Western culture, with its legacy of human-centredness. "read these roads" is a video poem of unfulfilled desire for a personal relationship with the natural world.  

In association with Reclaim Camissa - http://www.reclaimcamissa.org
For more visual art and poetry by Kai Lossgott, visit http://www.kailossgott.com

COMPETITION: Elle Decoration Solve New Talent Search

Elle Decoration Solve - Pick n Pay

Design an innovative, multi-functional object that incorporates a plant, or several plants, in order to green urban balconies and small indoor/ outdoor spaces. It's a call to address the challenging issues of greening in urban environments, where gardens are limited to balconies or small gardens and courtyards. This can be anything from a modular system, an item of furniture or any other design element that addresses the 'growing' need to green our spaces. The overall design dimensions should not exceed 1 cubic metre (length x breadth x height). However, if the design is part of a modular system, then one component must not exceed this size, but the overall size would be larger when the components are assembled.

Check the competition out!
DEADLINE: 19 July 2013