I think single-handedly, artist, photographer, and intrepid dirt pile explorer Alex Hartley has launched a new WUWT feature. A fine addition to his list of accomplishments I think.
His project: show the world that the arctic is melting by loading up the tiny island onto a barge and hauling it around. From nowhereisland.org:
THE PROJECT
nowhereisland is the winning Artists Taking the Lead project for the South West of England. As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, nowhereisland will arrive in July 2012.
Artist Alex Hartley will bring an arctic island to the South West of England. He discovered the island in the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard as part of the 2004 Cape Farewell expedition. The island was revealed from within the melting ice of a retreating glacier and Alex was the first human to ever stand on it. It is about the size of a football pitch, consisting of rubble and moraine around a small amount of bedrock. The Norwegian Polar Institute has recognised the island and it is named and included on all maps and charts subsequent to its discovery.
A portion of the island will be transported to South West England through international waters and whilst en route it will apply for micronation status. The new ‘micronation’, nowhereisland, will navigate the entire 702 miles of coast around the South West region, visiting its ports and harbours, accompanied by a travelling embassy support vehicle. nowhereisland will embark from Poole and arrive in Weymouth and Portland for the duration of the Olympic sailing events, before continuing west and ending its journey in Bristol, the same port from which John Cabot set sail to search for the fabled North West passage.
This artwork seeks to poetically explore issues of climate change, land ownership, national identity and the exploitation of the earth’s remaining natural resources.
Citizens will be sought to participate in all aspects of this virtual new nation.
At the end of the island’s journey around the south west coast, the winning entrant of an international architectural competition to design a small island habitation will be chosen. The small building will be erected on the island for Alex Hartley to live in.
Some time after the end of the Olympic year, nowhereisland will return to the Arctic to be made whole again.
Here’s what to expect when Alex brings it up the Thames:
Uh…just a few things ill considered:
- Do you have absolute proof you are the first human to set foot on it? What about the indigenous people? The Arctic has seen melting before you know.
- No mention of the carbon footprint hauling tons of dirt around might generate. WUWT?
- Is it OK to tear up Gaia to save Gaia?
- Permission from Norway to dig up their island and haul it away?
- Where’s the environmental impact report?
- What happens if you run out of money and can’t get the island back? Burial at sea?
T shirt sales should ensure success:
h/t to Tony B
Surely that is Pen Hadow isn’t it?
Well we had a group of Artists I believe a little while back. Putting a Fake Iceberg floating in the Wellington Harbour here in New Zealand as part of another moronic Climate Change Publicity Stunt.
So this guy is another Climate Change moron pulling another stupid publicity stunt.
If he’s so concerned about the lack of ice in the Arctic. Wouldn’t a better publicity stunt would be using some snow and ice making equipment and spending all his time trying to re terraform the Arctic. He might be doing something useful then. Of course he better watchout for one of those poor hungry drowning Polar Bears 🙂
From another contender in the Idiot of 2009 Competition:
“An artist plotting his own “field of dreams” has won a £460,000 grant – to create a full-size football pitch in a secluded part of a Scottish woodland.
Craig Coulthard, 28, has been selected to create one of 12 artworks across the UK to help celebrate the staging of the 2012 Olympics in London.
The artist, who lives in Edinburgh, will spend the best part of 18 months creating a football pitch in the Borders – which can only be seen from the Edinburgh-London flight path. But the pitch will only be in use for one day – just before the Games – before being left to be “taken over by nature”. The games will be played by volunteers who have gained British citizenship since the last Olympics.
Mr Coulthard said: “It’s not the kind of project you do without a substantial grant or subsidy, so I was delighted to hear I’d won.”
Half a MILLION pounds for ONE game of soccer??? WTF???
This guy is so 2005. Other folks have levitating islands: click
Congrats, British taxpayers and punters. Seasoned citizens can’t get a jab, but there’s seven million available for this stunt. That’s as crazy as Obama care.
I say there should be a sinking pool. We toss in a buck and predict the date she goes under. Closest to the date it swamps gets the pot.
The last person to leave Britain won’t need to turn off the lights because they would have been long since extinguished.
Real crazinness, Green Energy Policies Impoverishing the Brits,
Now 25% suffering from energy poverty, increase expected.
Filling Government and Corporate Pockets in the name of the Climate.
http://heliogenic.blogspot.com/2009/10/green-energy-policies-impoverishing.html
If you think that is good, just wait ’til you see what I have planned for the 2010 Winter Olympics; being held at Whistler. A scant 60 miles or so north of me. I intend to fly my compost heap over the coastal mountain range, stopping to refuel in Spuzzum on the way. (It’s just beyond Hope) I will also be Landing briefly in Squamish to take on provisions. (Mostly banana peels, egg shells and coffee grounds) I will circle the peak during the downhill events, showering the revelers below with the good, clean Earth of my loins. For the closing ceremonies, I will climb to 35,000 feet, put the heap into a steep dive and plunge headlong into Green Lake! Ejecting, of course, naked, at 3000 feet to deploy my chute which is painted in full Olympic colours. Then float down onto the stage to roars of appreciation.
How come an Island appears when the arctic melts? Arent the islands supposed to drown with the rising sea levels? Is this message right for global warming?
Maybe he should take his pet dog along and eat it to the cheering crowds watching from London Bridge, then have some poor starving Polar Bear come up and eat him, to the roars of the crowd, as grand Finale.
He must have gone out in the mid-day sun …
Brian Johnson uk (14:51:45) :
“Surely that is Pen Hadow isn’t it?”
Looks more like Martin Hartley.
Both associated with Rochdale, they may be brothers.
INGSOC (17:54:40) :
“If you think that is good, just wait ’til you see what I have planned for the 2010 Winter Olympics; being held at Whistler. A scant 60 miles or so north of me. I intend to fly my compost heap over the coastal mountain range, stopping to refuel in Spuzzum on the way. (It’s just beyond Hope) I will also be Landing briefly in Squamish to take on provisions. (Mostly banana peels, egg shells and coffee grounds) I will circle the peak during the downhill events, showering the revelers below with the good, clean Earth of my loins. For the closing ceremonies, I will climb to 35,000 feet, put the heap into a steep dive and plunge headlong into Green Lake! Ejecting, of course, naked, at 3000 feet to deploy my chute which is painted in full Olympic colours. Then float down onto the stage to roars of appreciation.”
What!? No parrot on your shoulder? Well, well. I just don’t know if that will do at all with no parrot…
Douglas DC (11:20:57) :
Being a Python fan I give Anthony four “dead Parrots” award on this one.
Ah, but not just any dead Parrots! If you remember the skit, it’s Norwegian Blue Parrots…pining for the fjords. How appropriate!
http://www.nonstick.com/sounds/Foghorn_Leghorn/ltfl_006.mp3
Is it true that there were Big Mac wrappers in the uncovered moraine?
On the emerging Monty Pyhton theme I expect the Graeme Chapman ‘General’ character to burst into the Climate conference in Copehagen and send everyone on their way wth the words:
“This is a very silly sketch- stop it immediately!”
As the delegates hurry away shame faced one or two can be heard muttering wistfully:
“Well it was really good fun while it lasted” and
‘But we felt ever so important. My wife will expect me to wash the dishes now.”
AGW is indeed a very silly sketch that has gone on far too long
Tonyb.
What is his immigration policy? I may be interested in living there. Do I need a visa to visit? What about schools, infrastructure? I’ve heard the weather’s variable.
Did you know that you too could get Arts Council funding for your ‘project’? All you have to do is apply here:
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/
It’s really easy, you just fill in the details in the box, and they’ll send you a cheque!
Here’s my application:
“Re; money for the Arctic Island.
Hello. I would like some money, actually quite a lot please, actually £500,000. My ‘project’ is to purchase an Aston Martin DB9 Volante. I also want to hire Katherine Jenkins to be seated in the passenger seat. My plan is to drive it around a great deal. Obviously, you will have already realised that this is to be a roving exhibition of beauty and refinement – and the car might get some looks too. I just know that you’ll see the artistic merit in this, and being as you’ve given more than this amount to some bloke who is boating around with a pile of dirt then I feel sure that you’ll also see how this DB9/Jenkins Moving Exhibition will greatly add to the public’s conception of art in the UK today. Thank you.
PS. Cash or cheque is good for me.”
I would urge others to apply while there’s still money left. I don’t think it matters if you’re not a UK citizen, as we give money to governments all over the world in aid – even Zimbabwe and China. No, I’m not joking we actually do give money to China – £37 million in 2007 when China spent £20 billion on their Olympics. So, as you can see, we’ve evidently got so much money that your application is bound to pass. Please enjoy our money.
Hell_Is_Like_Newark (10:55:55) says –
What happens if they dig up the island and discover oil and / or natural gas?
They will, they will. Under the crapper.
I hope that dirt goes through quarantine before being hauled around internationaly. It’d be a real dumb act to transport bugs to other shores.
Britain is such a very rich country it can afford to waste 7 million quid on ‘art’. We are so rich we can afford to give money to all sorts of other nations. Each individual Briton is filthy, stinking rich. I’m so rich I’m going out in a minute and, damn the expense, I’m going to buy a newspaper!
It was really sporting of us to give aid to India too, so they can have enough money to have a space program. Something we could never afford. Really sporting.
MStewart: ‘I say there should be a sinking pool. We toss in a buck and predict the date she goes under. Closest to the date it swamps gets the pot.’
I’m waiting for the sweepstake on the date the Plastiki’s 12,000 plastic bottles break loose and get recycled as part of Great Pacific Garbage Patch the Plastikinauts are protesting about.
Maybe they could make an island out of the trash that China pours into the ocean.