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Winter solstice falls on North America this coming weekend, bringing about the longest night of the year. Amidst the darkness, from Dec. 20 through Dec. 22, the digital display atop San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower will be illuminated by images of colorful geometric shapes rhythmically moving in sequence, telling a significant story about this place we call home.
Each cone, orb, line and wave floating around the crown of the tallest building in the city will symbolize vital information from the Bay Area, ranging from the change of the tides to the number of people taking BART rides.
Prepare to be in it for the long haul. Make sure to start at home and build from there. While climate change is a global challenge, solutions always will be local. Climate change produces different challenges for different people. All these experiences are valid. If you’re young, make climate friends teams early and work together, don’t wait for adults to approve. My daughter is active in the Sunrise movement, which engages a whole new generation in direct actions. It’s essential that climate action is a “together” thing, not an “us versus them” thing.
Leading Swiss newspaper “Tages Anzeiger” published a longer profile of Niemeyer’s work in German.
Artists Chris Chafe (music), Nikolaos Hanselmann (visuals) and Greg Niemeyer (cook) have collaborated on the project, a weirdly compelling piece that consists of five plastic cases that look a bit like old-fashioned covered cake stands with wires and tubes attached. In each case is a plate with a pile of tomatoes -- several varieties, sizes and colors. As the tomatoes ripen, they emit CO2 and the instruments measure the changing gas levels.
Games are not supposed to be serious; that is why they are called games. Or, at least, that is what conventional wisdom tells us. But UC Berkeley new media artist Greg Niemeyer is tweaking that convention, if not turning it on its head. Games are fun, he says, but they can also do important work.