Category: Installations

This is how good sustainable living goes

Tom Albrecht: This is how the good sustainable life goes. Installation, 2023, Berlin, language five min., audio player, fragrant regional flowers, LED spotlight.
Tom Albrecht: This is how the good sustainable life goes. Installation, 2023, Berlin, language five min., audio player, fragrant regional flowers, LED spotlight.

This is how good sustainable living goes

Text spoken by Tom Albrecht (5 min.)

Social

Democracy has citizens’ councils, citizens’ initiatives. People vote for democratic parties.

People pay cash and digitally.

The Western lifestyle respects planetary boundaries.

The work serves more self-made, repaired, forces less to earn money

People have time for work and care work in the non-formal system such as family, relationship.

People cultivate time and relationship wealth.

Self-help is promoted through education, craft is upgraded compared to study

Medicine focuses on quality of life style.

The artists receive a guarantee for their social participation.

The Internet is data-saving and powered by green electricity.

Ecology

The forest is rebuilt, rich in species, suitable for the climate. Forestry serves the COâ‚‚ sink. The extracted wood stores COâ‚‚ in buildings.

Agriculture is grandchild-friendly, builds soil life and nutrient humus, COâ‚‚ is stored in the soil.

The bogs are wetted again.

One eats organic, whole foods, high fiber, vegetarian or vegan. Meat eaters eat only Sunday roast. Leftover food is “saved”.

The built-up landscape is unsealed.

The arable land is withdrawn from speculation as a livelihood.

Species extinction has stopped. The species are preserved.

The garden is rich in species, has meadow instead of lawn, serves the self-sufficiency.

The country is upgraded compared to the city.

The streams are renaturalized

Rainwater is infiltrated instead of drained, stored and reused.

Wastewater is separated from rainwater, its heat is recovered.

The toilet, where possible, is a composting toilet. Recyclable materials in sewage sludge are recycled.

The gray water and its heat from the shower and kitchen are recycled and reused.

Economy

The world economy is economically selective de globalized. (Hartmut Rosa)

Degrowth or post-growth has been expanded in Germany to include the perspective of climate-friendly global growth.

The Supply Chain Act shows transparency from source to consumer.

The goods are durable, repairable, modernizable, shared with community.

The waste is avoided, recyclables are kept in the circle, packaging is avoided.

Fewer fashion and status items are consumed. Clothing is more durable, recyclable or reusable.

The energy turnaround is complete. The sources are regenerative instead of fossil and nuclear, more decentralized. Consumption is more economical. The race against time “to become climate neutral”, is won.

The traffic happens on foot, by bike, by public transport. Motor vehicles are shared.

Traveling pays attention to resource consumption. Flying is done with green fuel.  Cruising has ended or is regenerative, avoiding waste in the process.

Urban mining supplies raw materials instead of importing them.

COâ‚‚ is saved in construction, and wood as a building material is a COâ‚‚ reservoir. The building stock is being modernized in a climate-friendly way instead of being demolished.

The buildings are zero or low energy houses, have solar panels on roofs, facades. Solar panels are located along highways, in fields above fields.

Housing is happening on less land.

The city is climate-friendly, green, roofs and facades are greened.

Urban trees are diversified, site and climate appropriate, have canopy closure

The lighting is done with LED, where you are or it is socially necessary.

The light pollution of the sky has ended, all stars are visible again.

Berlin, May 2023

This requires a large ecological handprint and a small ecological footprint.

The light is on

The light is on. 2022, Berlin. Installation, 8 RGB LED spotlights, small computer, DMX radio control, twilight switch.
The light is on. 2022, Berlin. Installation, 8 RGB LED spotlights, small computer, DMX radio control, twilight switch.

In the shop windows of WerkStadt Berlin, LED spotlights shine according to a mysterious choreography for a quarter of an hour each at changing times of day. “The light is on!” is an exclamation, with a reminder to turn off the electric light in an unused room. Christmas is the celebration of light, which is increasingly clouded by the effort to save fossil energy and expensive electricity. The installation celebrates and saves with light at the same time.

Oh fir tree

Oh fir tree. Berlin, 2022. brown Nordmann fir from 2021, stand, 12 toy cars from flea market / 1.10 x 0.95 m.
Oh fir tree. Berlin, 2022. Brown Nordmann fir from 2021, stand, 12 toy cars from flea market / 1,10 x 0,95 m

A withered fir tree with brown needles placed in the shop window is hung with 12 model cars. In our forests, trees are dying from drought caused by the climate crisis. At the same time, many people are attached to their accustomed lifestyles, and cars are a natural part of that. The cars on the tree represent the annual wasteful abundance of gifts that consume fossil resources, the CO2 product of which destroys our livelihoods. The traditional Christmas carol “O Tannenbaum” is now called “Oh Tannenbaum”.

To-have-space

Sein-Haben-Raum, 2014, Berlin GG3, action with guests, two times two chairs, sign, book
To-have-space, 2014, Berlin GG3, action with guests, two times two chairs, sign, book

Instruction

To-have-space

You can:

  • go in,
  • sit down on a chair “being” for three minutes, close your eyes and watch yourself see what you see,
  • sit down on a chair “having” for three minutes, close your eyes and watch yourself seeing and
  • write down what you have seen anonymously in the guestbook.

Being-Having-Room

  • You can go in,

  • sit three minutes on a chair “being”, close your eyes and watch yourself, what you see,

  • sit three minutes on a chair “having”, close your eyes and watch yourself, what you see and

  • may note what you have seen anonymously in the guestbook.

Result

Anonymous 1, Being-Having-Space, 2014, Berlin GG3
Anonymous 1, Being-Having-Space, 2014, Berlin GG3
Julia
Julia
Anonymous2
Anonymous2
Anonymous3
Anonymous3

 

Global stack

2015, Storkow (Mark), 170 x 110 x 110 cm, wooden beam,
2015, Storkow (Mark), 170 x 110 x 110 cm, wooden beam,

Remnants from construction, exposed to moisture by fate for many years, stored, rotted, discovered, estimated, cut and stacked into the Global Stack.

The view of him connects inside and outside, curiosity and interest. It is the look at the foreign that can attract.

A linking action with http://www.globalstacks.de/de/index.html.

Mounted wooden beams, different, remains from construction, exposed to humidity by fate many years, decomposed, discovered, valued, cut and stacked for Global Stack.
The view of him connects inside and outside, curiosity and interest. It is the view to strangeness, which can attract.

Market Light

Marktlicht light installation in the former Schleckerhaus on the historic market square in Storkow (M) Duration 2019/2020 Light choreography “Geschichte vom Aufschwung” From the series “Das belebtte Haus” 7 RGB LED spotlights, 1 white LED spotlight, Raspberry PI minicomputer, lighting control software, DMX interface, wireless controller, power bank, various Power supply units, 8 radio links, 2 push-buttons with transmitters and receivers for special program, twilight switch, cable, housing

With the artistic light installation Marktlicht in a vacant house at the market place in Storkow (Mark) I would like to increase the attractiveness of the historic market place through art that is generally accessible. Passersby might wonder what is suddenly happening in the house and stop.

Instead, the former Schleckerhaus at Markt 20 shines again with light in the windows. The theme is the story of the upswing, the vision of a lively marketplace in Storkow with residents, stores and people.

Video market light opened (c) T.A. Marktlicht
Video market light opened, (c) T.A.

 

This installation is intended to help  revitalize the beautiful old market square. The rooms, which were dark for a long time, glow again stylishly in changing colours light and dark depending on the season with the beginning of dusk. The light choreography shows the life of a small family in the house on two days, where the man goes to work, the child to school and the woman runs a cafĂ©. Passers-by can influence the show by pressing two buttons at the entrance. The light show begins daily at dusk and lasts for two hours. I developed and built the light installation. Ulf Reinhard programmed the lighting control. The photos show the test with two spotlights and the opening on 28.11.2019.

Logos of the sponsors market light
Logos of the sponsors
The light installation is financed by the town of Storkow (Mark), the disposal fund in the “Active Town Centers” (ASZ) funding program and the Storkow (Mark) SME Association. The project was part of “Storkow lights up” on November 21 & 28, 2019.