"The difficulty that had to be overcome... was to avoid all geometrical evidence. In other words, I had to start with a sort of intimacy of roundness."
-Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

COLLABORATORS:

Tim Corrigan: Electrical Engineering Advisor

Tim Corrigan is electrical engineer with a B.E. from City College where he focused on robotics and control systems, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in power engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In a past life he worked in IT as a system integrator and project manager for 12 years. Tim works with Green Power Solutions, a NYC based renewable energy integrator. He is also working on various permaculture projects at his family’s farm in Albany County, including microwind and microhydro power generation, ground source heat pumps, electric vehicles and straw bale structures.

Veronica Flores: Flock House Lead Builder
Veronica Flores was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. Flores’ is an emerging artist working between Guadalajara and NY. She studied Architecture in Guadalajara and completed a degree in sociology and development in London at Roehampton University. In 1997 she discovered an interest in carpentry while working in a wood workshop in London and has since designed and produced several pieces of furniture. Flores’ background in architecture and sociology informs her newly found interest in art. She started her art practice at the end of 2005 and has since been involved in alternative plastic tecniques. She was an artist in residence at Braziers workshop 2007 in Oxfordshire, England. She has exhibited at the Raul Anguiano Museum and in the City Museum of Guadalajara. Her artwork is represented by the Curro y Poncho Gallery in Guadalajara.

Lonny Grafman: Sustainability Advisor

Lonny Grafman is an Instructor of Environmental Resources Engineering and Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University; the co-founder and instructor in a summer abroad, full immersion, Spanish language and appropriate technology program in Parras, Mexico; and the executive editor of the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering. In addition, he is the President of The Appropedia Foundation, sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives. Academically, Lonny seeks ways to increase knowledge of the world through exposure and synthesis, highlighting that science, culture and language are inextricably linked. He seeks to demonstrate this connection through service-learning based education, working to improve existing conditions by leveraging local knowledge, materials, wealth and labor through transparency and stakeholder participation. Lonny supports and develops tools to catalyze and strengthen networks of positive change, to help us be better ancestors.

Brian House: The Rhythmanalysis Lab
Flock House is collaborating with The Rhythmanalysis Lab on a sensor system that will monitor the activity of each habitat unit. Data are continuously recorded via a network of wireless, low-power sensors, and are mapped temporally to reveal diurnal patterns and the rhythmic counterpoint among the unit's living systems and the surrounding environment. The Rhythmanalysis Lab is a project of Eyebeam resident Brian House. Link > http://rhythmanalysislab.org

Md. Sarowar Jahan: Living Systems Advisor
Sarowar Jahan Mithu is a photographer and entrepreneur from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sarowar studied English literature, practices fine arts photography, and is an official tour guide for Bangladesh with the firm Guide Tours, Ltd. He is working on a sustainable shrimp farm in southwest Bangladesh. Being a tour guide, he has traveled extensively over the country. http://tinyurl.com/7n3nbjq

Gabriel Krause: Designer
Gabriel Krause is a designer and entrepreneur and has spent the last seven years designing a diverse array of artifacts and processes, such as workplace automation systems, custom architectural millworks, low power designer lighting, grey water treatment systems and other appropriate technology projects. His fascination for design, aesthetics, and our relationship with the environment, first manifested in the creation of SEED (Students at Evergreen for Ecological Design) in Olympia, Washington. Gabriel completed his B.A. in applied mathematical modeling, with a minor in dance, at Humboldt State University. As a designer, creator, and conservationist, he has discovered that modeling a concept reduces design flaws and wasted resources, while providing foresight on the building process and insight into end-use functionality. Gabriel is an active member of the Appropedia Foundation technical team, supporting collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development.

Greg Lindquist: Aesthetic Advisor and Editorial Consultant
Greg Lindquist is an artist and writer. His recent show of paintings "You are Nature" opened at Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC. Recently, he has participated in the group shows “Planet of Slums,” co-curated by La Toya Ruby Frazier and Omar Lopez-Chahoud and “No One is an Island” at LMCC’s exhibition space on Governor’s Island curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud. He also is the Art Books in Review Editor at The Brooklyn Rail, contributing editor to artcritical.com and contributing writer at ARTnews. Lindquist is interested in the model of artist-consultant that Robert Smithson developed in the late 1960s in which he gave aesthetic advice on large development projects, such as airplane terminals. He will approach Flock Houses with the concern of translating ideas into specific and appealing form in these self-contained living environments.

Mary Mattingly: Founder

Mary Mattingly’s work proposes a peripatetic world where populations depend on both migration and integrated communities. She creates autonomous living systems, from wearable environments called Wearable Homes to water-based habitats such as the Waterpod that explore the intersection between autonomy and interdependence. Her work has been exhibited at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the International Center of Photography, Palais de Tokyo, the New York Public Library, the Neuberger Museum of Art, Robert Mann Gallery, Seoul Art Center, LianzhouFoto, and Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. Her work has been featured in ArtForum, Cabinet Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Financial Times, Le Monde Magazine, ICON, Sculpture Magazine, Aperture, BBC News, and MSNBC.

Sophie Nichols: Living Systems Designer
Sophie Nichols currently works with the Buckminster Fuller Institute.  She's worked on several small farm development projects, large scale art installations, completed an apprenticeship as a tattoo artist, and worked in the office of Diller Scofidio and Renfro. She studied visual art and design at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University.

Barak Pliskin: Architectural Signatory

Barak Pliskin is an architect with Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects.

Sara Reisman: Flock House Curator 

Sara Reisman is Director of Percent for Art at the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs where she oversees the City of New York’s permanent public art commissioning program. As an independent curator, Reisman has curated exhibitions in New York City and elsewhere that have focused on public and social practice, site-specificity, and modes of cultural and political identification.

Melissa Umberger: Urban Planning and Mapping Collaborator
A strong advocate for planning for a sustainable New York, Melissa Umberger is pursuing a M.S. in City and Regional Planning at Pratt Institute. For the past two years, she has worked at the Pratt Center for Community Development as an Environmental Justice Fellow and GIS specialist.  She currently works as a Planning Fellow for Brooklyn Community Board Six, specifically on the Gowanus Canal Corridor Brownfield Opportunity of Area (BOA).  This project aims to revitalize brownfield sites surrounding the canal through economic development proposals that will encourage green industrial growth. Some of her strengths include graphic design, demographic analysis, and proficiency in GIS. Her thesis is focused on disaster planning and the role of mapping and information graphics play in communicating preparedness.

Robert Wall: Design/Build
Rob Wall is an architect at the design-build firm Peter Gluck & Partnersin Harlem. Other work has included assisting artists and arts organizationssuch as Sens Production, andcompany&Co, Noah Fischer and others on site specific installations and performances in under-used or vacant spaces in New York City and Montreal. Wall also has designed and built sets for theater/dance productions and is an occasional guest studio critic at Pratt Institute School of Art & Design in Brooklyn. A series of portable architectural studio kits he designed are currently being used by the Lower
Manhattan Cultural Council for arts production and performance at sites throughout New York City including the Governors Island Art Center.

Amelia Woodside: Building Collaborator
Amelia Woodside is a Portland, Oregon native and a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. She harbors a passion for sustainability, writing and art. During college she studied ecological art, international development and ecology. Presently, Amelia writes for iCrates, an online music magazine based in Berlin. In the future, she plans to continue photographing, writing and traveling without an itinerary.

RESIDENT ARTISTS:

Amelia Marzec is a Brooklyn-based artist focused on enabling activist communities through innovative uses of technology. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from the Parsons School of Design, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from RutgersUniversity, and was awarded a residency at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. She is a recipient of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center Award. Her work has appeared in the Conflux Festival, Rhizome ArtBase, Flux Factory, Neural Magazine, Metropolis Magazine, Gizmodo, Wired, Make, and on NPR. She is also a member of the Huffington Post Media Group, and won an award for leading a team through the AOL redesign. She has launched projects for BBC America, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Nickelodeon, Lifetime, and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

Christopher Robbins works on the uneasy cusp of public art and community action, creating sculptural interventions in the daily lives of strangers. He uses heavy material demands and a carefully twisted work-process to craft awkwardly intimate social collaborations. He built his own hut out of mud and sticks and lived in it while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin, West Africa, spoke at a United Nations conference about his cross-cultural digital arts and education work in the South Pacific, and has lived and worked in London, Tokyo, West Africa, the Fiji Islands, and former Yugoslavia. He has exhibited at the New Museum Festival of Ideas, Trade School at the Whitney Museum,the National Museum of Wales, PERFORMA 07, Nikolaj Kunsthallen/ Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, and been awarded residencies/ fellowships from Skowhegan, MacDowell Colony, Haystack, Penland, and Anderson Ranch, among others. He is on the sculpture faculty at SUNY Purchase College. The Ghana Think Tank, a project he co-founded in 2006, was a finalist for the Frieze Foundation Cartier Award in 2010, and was awarded the Creative Time Open Doors commission for Public Art at the Queens Museum of Art in 2010. http://www.christopher-robbins.com http://www.GhanaThinkTank.org June 15 - 30: Queens FMCP, Fountain of the Planets (123-01 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing, NY 11368)

DESIGN CHARRETTE PARTICIPANTS:

Kate Cahill: Architect
Ian Daniel: Curator, Filmmaker
Anna Kunz: Artist
Lonny Grafman: Sustainability Advisor
Gabe Krause: Small Space Designer
Kelly Loudenberg: Filmmaker
Mary Mattingly: Founder
Christopher Robbins: Artist
Barak Pliskin: Architectural Signatory
Matthew Williamson: Architect
Raphael Zollinger: Advisor