Friday 6 August to Sunday 26 September 2010

An exhibition of air art photographs from the 1960’s with contemporary texts showing how the 'utopian' air structures of the time could have saved the world from global warming.

The 60’s Cultural Revolution was driven by a desire to change the environment with poetry, music, film, theatre and photographs integrated into architecture as multi-media.

Resistance came from politicians, lawyers and industry of the incumbent fossil society.

The ‘Atmospheric Raft’ (1968) was an art work which proposed changing the world’s energy supply from fossil fuels to ‘atmospheric’ sources of the sun, wind, rain and ‘Energy Farms’.

Air Art introduced popular participation in architecture and the environment with the ‘Waterbed’ (1966), ‘Bouncy Castle’ (1966) and other ‘Pneumatic Environments’ (1966-72).

The opportunity of this new approach to environmental design with climate was bypassed by fossil societies worldwide, with a few notable exceptions such as the European solar energy demonstration programmes.

There is evidence that scientific societies for renewable energies set up around the world were actively undermined in their attempts to develop sustainable science and technology to replace dependence on fossil fuels.

The photographs in the exhibition show experimental air structures and environments as art works demonstrating that atmospheric energy could replace fossil fuels for most human activities; providing water, food, fuel, shelter and industrial raw materials for a sustainable economy.

Picture Credit: Desert Cloud, Graham Stevens©