Arlene Birt
Visualizing Grocery Impacts
Visualizing Grocery Impacts is a data-driven and interactive installation that will help individuals better understand how their daily purchases have global social and environmental impact. In an installation which mimics a super-market, products with custom labels can be collected from the shelves by visitors, and scanned with a barcode reader that will project interactive and visual information on the productʼs background impacts (including global, ecological, political, social and cultural impacts) onto a nearby wall. The variety of visual background stories presented will display information with an activist intent as well as in a positive light to motivate consumers toward more conscious purchasing decisions. The installation will provide an innovative approach to understanding sustainability: as an intersection between digital data and the physical world.
Artist statement (extract)
I am fascinated by the idea that we are endlessly tied to the world through the objects that we consume. Small, seemingly inconsequential objects populate our every-day, and yet the intricate lifestories of these objects are hidden from the eyes of their present consumer.
I refer to my work as “visual storytelling” because I seek to visualize the narratives behind the seemingly ubiquitous everyday objects that we interact with as consumers; focusing on the larger influence that these interactions hold on the world. By bringing the attention of the viewer to the detailed, factual and sometimes even fantastical background narratives of objects and ideas, my intent is to inspire people to understand how their everyday choices impact global environment and society.
Arlene Birt
Arlene Birt is a visual storyteller, artist and information designer. Her work focuses on visually communicating sustainability by highlighting the cultural, environmental and political stories behind products. Arlene’s work visually explains the significance of the every-day within the context of the big picture in order to engage people in their role as consumers.
Arlene graduated in Visualization at MCAD, and shortly thereafter received a Fulbright grant to research visual communication methods to explain sustainability. Arlene received a Masters in Design in the Netherlands, and is adjunct faculty in MCAD’s Sustainability Certificate program. She has consulted with the UN’s Environment Program and her work on sustainability, which rides the line between art and communication, has been featured in Creative Review (UK), U.S. News and World Report, BusinessWeek.com, worldchanging.com, SEED Magazine, and at the Barcelona Design Museum.
Most recent work (sumbitted)
Track your water (screenshot), 2009
website (mock-up)
Screenshot of a website mock-up. Site builds on google-maps and pulls data from a local watershed organization to help Twin Cities residents understand where their water comes from and goes to. Site also shows users their individual share of pollutants from their neighborhood in real-time.
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