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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Nanohana Heels - Healing Fukushima
Sputniko!
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_Nanohana Heels_, created in collaboration with shoe designer Masaya Kushino, is a pair of shoes that plant rapeseed (Nanohana) in the soil through their mechanical heels. Using the heels, rapeseed is automatically planted as the wearer walks.
Experiments by Belarusian scientists have shown that rapeseed flowers absorb radioactive substances such as caesium-137 and strontium-90 from the soil. These radionuclides are stored in the flowers’ stalks and seed coats, but not in the seeds themselves—which is fortunate, because the seeds can safely be turned into canola oil, the most popular source of biodiesel. In the 2000s this discovery led to the planting of rapeseed by the Ukraine and Belarus governments in over 50,000 hectares of Chernobyl-affected land, in a move to revive the area’s agriculture industry, which had been wiped out by the 1986 nuclear accident.
In March 2011, Fukushima, Japan, also suffered a devastating nuclear power plant accident, which is hugely affecting the lives of many local residents today.
Since the earthquake, there have also been movements to plant rapeseed in Fukushima, to de-contaminate the affected land. For example, the _Nanohana Project Network_ is actively holding summits and workshops in Fukushima on the topic. The _Nanohana Heels_ project has been developed in the hope of being a catalyst to further spread discussion on the rebuilding of Fukushima and on the future of nuclear energy.
Links: http://www.sputniko.com/?p=1519631
Experiments by Belarusian scientists have shown that rapeseed flowers absorb radioactive substances such as caesium-137 and strontium-90 from the soil. These radionuclides are stored in the flowers’ stalks and seed coats, but not in the seeds themselves—which is fortunate, because the seeds can safely be turned into canola oil, the most popular source of biodiesel. In the 2000s this discovery led to the planting of rapeseed by the Ukraine and Belarus governments in over 50,000 hectares of Chernobyl-affected land, in a move to revive the area’s agriculture industry, which had been wiped out by the 1986 nuclear accident.
In March 2011, Fukushima, Japan, also suffered a devastating nuclear power plant accident, which is hugely affecting the lives of many local residents today.
Since the earthquake, there have also been movements to plant rapeseed in Fukushima, to de-contaminate the affected land. For example, the _Nanohana Project Network_ is actively holding summits and workshops in Fukushima on the topic. The _Nanohana Heels_ project has been developed in the hope of being a catalyst to further spread discussion on the rebuilding of Fukushima and on the future of nuclear energy.
Links: http://www.sputniko.com/?p=1519631
Shoe Design: Masaya Kushino (JP)
Film: Visitor Studio (UK)
Model Making: KIMURA (JP) / Naoki Kawamoto (JP)
Photography: Naoki Ishizaka (JP), Takuya Shima (JP)
Film: Visitor Studio (UK)
Model Making: KIMURA (JP) / Naoki Kawamoto (JP)
Photography: Naoki Ishizaka (JP), Takuya Shima (JP)
Sputniko! (JP/UK). Her multi-media artworks explore the intersections of technology, feminism and pop culture. Produced through research and investigative cooperation with scientists, her works are critical speculations on possible futures of humanity and technology. She is currently a guest professor at Kobe Design University and is the youngest advisor for the METI (Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry) Cool Japan project, representing the voice of young creatives in Japan. Sputniko! also advises for Recruit’s Media Technology Lab and is currently directing a project commissioned by Adachi ward, which has the highest rate of poverty and crime of all 23 wards of Tokyo, aimed at reinvigorating the creative scene of the Adachi area.