PIP’S PLANT PARLOUR BY MILEECE

A mobile Interactive living musical landscape to relax and explore

Date
Parlour open 23rd October - 3rd November 2019

Talk at Tate Modern Friday 1st November (details below)

Locations
Various locations along Blackfriars Road and surrounding area including Marlborough Sports Garden, Stones End Day Centre and Tate Modern

Supported by
Kindly supported by Southwark Council as part of Blackfriars Stories, Missen Acoustic and Fourth Day Public Relations

This bio-reactive, plant-controlled installation aimed to open pathways to relaxation and emotional healing through nature, art and sound.

Designed by critically acclaimed artist Mileece, the installation enabled participants to create original quadrophonic sound, based on their interaction with plants.

As you first entered the Parlour, a series of colourful plants acting like little antennae, picked up your bio-electrical energy and triggered gentle flurries of mycelia-inspired lights and a variety of bio-acoustic sounds recorded from various habitats across the planet. As you walked past them, you were greeted with plants fitted with Mileece's EBG 'electro-botani-graph’, affectionately known as PiP (Peoples’ interface for Plants), it works in much the same way that an EEG amplifies brain waves, but for plants! This ‘excellent thing' used small electrodes attached to leaves to amplify bio-electrical micro-voltages, sending the information as binary data to animate custom designed audio and light generators creating a unique, ‘organic electronic music’ soundscape and luminal bath that undulated with living interactions.

Pip’s Plant Parlour was designed to mobilize art experiences and bring nature and culture to people in areas that are ecology poor and to people that are unable to travel far due to mobility or time constraints.  Through participation the installation aimed to enhance visitors psychological well-being by decreasing their negative and enhancing their positive emotions, whilst inspiring and teaching ways of integrating nature and nurture.

Participants of all ages are invited to explore the installation.

In conjunction with PiP’s Plant Parlour by Mileece and in partnership with Art on Air, a pop-up radio studio by Resonance FM at Tate Modern.

Title: The BioPhiloSpherere - ‘Think Like a Mountain’

Date: 6pm - 8pm. Friday 1st November 

Address: The McAulay Studio, Tate Modern

Our species has a singular common, core identity - it is biophilic.
Through our human story from ecology to technology, Mileece took us on a journey of how accessible, practical innovative art and technologies such the 'Moon Cell’, a negative-carbon capable technology designed to provide clean, cheap power to communities, can reconnect and reorient us towards a biophilic future; all we really have to do is choose it.

To follow, how biophilic systems can guide the formation of sustainable cultures, was explored by a panel of distinguished guests working in renewable energy technology, art, branding and community activism.

Led by artist/technologist Mileece, the panel included: Julia Kaganskiy, founding editor of The Creators Project and NEW Inc., the New Museum's incubator for art, design and technology, who recently turned her curatorial work and research towards environmentalism, Oliver Wayman of BOTTLETOP, who recently launched the world’s first 3D printed store made from recycled plastic on Regent’s Street, Miles Messenger who leads novel and innovative programmes designed to implement and demonstrate how to deliver net zero carbon across the built environment, including the largest solar installation in the UK and William Skeaping who is a specialist in campaigns that connect audiences through culture and technology to the future of ecology.

About Art on Air:

Art on Air was an innovative collaborative radio project curated by the Community Partnerships & Regeneration Team in partnership with Resonance FM. From Mon 28 Oct-Sun 3 Nov, they transformed the McAulay Studio into a radio studio, bringing Tate Modern into dialogue with gallery visitors and featured guests, in person and live on air. The Clore Hub will be open to members of the public to observe and participate in the live broadcasts. The programmes offered a week of discussion, performance, artist interviews, sound art, media art, transmission art and radio as art.

Open to all, Resonance FM challenges, inspires and transforms listening experiences. Hailed by The Guardian as "the best radio station in London", Resonance FM broadcasts to listeners in London, the UK and beyond.

Art on Air offered a week of discussion, performance, artist interviews, sound art, media art, transmission art and radio as art. An acousmatic extravaganza and a feast for ears of all ages.  Listen on 104.4FM, on DAB digital radio or online at resonancefm.com.

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/festival/art-on-air

About the Panel:

Chaired by artist Mileece

Mileece is a biophilic technology and environment designer and pioneer in spacialised, generative and bio-responsive sound.  

Her message of ‘promoting ecology through technology and the arts’ has reached over 10 million people through primetime features, campaigns, documentaries and presentations (including: ‘Grow Something Greater” campaign,‘Sonic Garden’ at Sonos Studios installation and the VICE motherboard episode).

As a composer and recording artist, her debut work ‘Formations’ was internationally critically acclaimed, heralded by the BBC as an “outstanding release, real musical science”. She has toured an array of prestigious museums, festivals and venues (including: MoMA, NYC, BHIF Festival, Bhutan, Kew Gardens, London) with her hand-coded ‘aesthetic bio-sonification’ system, interactive sculptures, hand crafted instruments, live and composed music and field recordings as immersive installations and performances. Mileece is Founder and Director of her collaborative, negative emission energy, network-based urban wilderness sanctuaries project, aimed to help balance our modern lives with the needs and benefits of our biosphere.

Oliver Wayman co-founded BOTTLETOP, the premium ethical fashion company with Cameron Saul in 2002, with the goal of using sustainable luxury design to alleviate poverty by empowering artisans. Oliver’s strategic approach to development led to the creation of the BOTTLETOP Atelier, which has supported the development of their signature materials and production techniques. Oliver spoke about this work and the pioneering development of Amazon Zero Deforestation leather at the COP 21 talks in Paris alongside Ban Ki Moon and John Kerry. He recently devised the world’s first 3D printed store made from recycled plastic.

Julia Kaganskiy is an independent curator and cultural producer working primarily in digital culture and media art. She was previously the founding director of NEW INC, the New Museum's incubator for art, design and technology where she developed a ground-breaking professional development program that serves more than 100 multi-disciplinary creative practitioners annually. She was also the founding editor of The Creators Project, a media platform co-created by VICE Media and Intel that focused on creativity and technology. Her current curatorial work and research are concerned with environment and ecology, with an emphasis on speculative design and activist interventions. 

Miles Messenger is Head of Energy Performance Contracting at Bouygues Energies & Services UK. He has 15 years experience leading energy engineering and systems integration, working with various public sector organisations and private companies to deliver significant carbon reduction projects across the UK. His team is heading novel and innovative programmes, designed to implement and demonstrate how to deliver net zero carbon across the built environment.

William Skeaping, when he is not haunting meetings and social occasions as the ghost of climate and the future of ecological, he specialises in integrated, scalable, creative brand development; building platforms and campaigns that connect with audiences through culture and technology.

Mileece can be heard being interviewed in a hour-long broadcast on ResonanceFM. The interview – is alongside her father, fuel cell pioneer and ex-music video director, Nick Abson.