Saturday evening there was an art exhibition in the Swedish embassy in Berlin, entitled Visual Voltage, the exhibition presents concepts and artworks to show that designers and artists have also have an important part to play in creating awareness and debate around this vital issue. This project is one of the contributions of the Swedish institute to the sustainability field.

This art perspective invites us to rethink of our consumption habits in order to avoid a global catastrophe, it does that mainly through interactive artwork in which the human behavior towards energy is reflected on the project.

One of the projects that caught my eyes is the Energy AWARE clock, which is a an electricity meter that resembles an ordinary kitchen clock, it is designed to make energy awareness a part of everyday life by visualizing the daily rhythms of the household. At a glance, you could see how much energy is consumed, and the new graphs are drawn on top of the ones from the day before, in order to compare the energy use from day to day.

– AWARE clock

The AWARE Laundry Lamp, on the other hand, attempts to use the usually-wasted heat energy generated from light bulbs in drying clothes! Basically, you can design your own lampshade which you will hang your clothes on. Not only that, but you could also go further and make a statement with the kind of laundry you put to display ;) Using this method instead of tumble-dryers which is one of the greatest consumers of electricity at home.

Another project is the Eco Awario War, or something like that :P I cannot remember the name exactly, but anyhow: it is a Nintendo wii game which aims to create awareness of resources consumption. The largest challenge, was to embed as much information as possible without compromising the fun for the players. Apparently, most of the traditional energy-saving workshops, speeches, .. etc have been observed by those who are already aware, those who are already saving energy! Therefore, targeting another group is important.

You could check the other projects at the following link: www.visualvoltage.se

I think the exhibition did a great job, myself I have been noticing the lights left on in empty rooms in the flat and turning them off, washing dishes the german way saves lots of water as well, and removing the laptop and mobile chargers from plugs when not used, those are energy thieves!

Why this exhibition was very important for me personally, is because I’ve been thinking for a while of career change. Well, I don’t know if career is the right word since I haven’t yet got a job. Anyway, having studied Computer Engineering I now feel it’s a bit too technical, and I’m not exactly enthusiastic about it, therefore, I started looking for Masters in some other field. BUT seeing those project that combine art, design and technology I felt like I could do something similar, finding a project in which I could marry my previous knowledge with interactive designs. That would be fantastic.

Well, I hope you would pay a bit more attention to your energy consumption, why to keep the lights on when you are not in the room, why to use the clothes dryer when there is sun outside, and why not to remove the chargers from plugs when you are done using them? :)

Cheers!

Raz