UCL Environment Institute

Environment Institute

• About Us
  • Biodiversity
  • Climate Change
  • Cultures of Sustainability
  • Environmental Governance
  • Migration & Settlement
  • Sustainable Cities
  • Water Security
  • Artist & Writer in Residence 2011-12
  • Artist & Writer In Residence 2010-11
  • Artist & Writer In Residence 2009-10
  • Artist & Writer In Residence 2008-09
  • Other UCLEI Members
• About the Institute
• Research Themes
• Research Reports
• Consultancy
• Teaching
• Public Engagement
• UCL Sustainability
• News
• Past Events
• Forthcoming Events
• Intranet
• Links

Artist & Writer In Residence 2008-09

Artist in Residence - Martin John Callanan

Martin John Callanan is a European artist and researcher exploring notions of citizenship within the globally connected world. Concerns include information, data, and knowledge.

"Borges' map, described in "On Exactitude in Science", imagines an empire where the science of cartography has become so exacting that only a map of the same scale as the empire itself is sufficient. This seems prescient of the increasing digitization, both of the world about us and correspondingly of our own lives. The world¹s fastest computer in 2006, IBM's Blue Gene L, has more processing capability than the 500 most powerful computers of 2001 combined. Blue Gene L is 15 times more powerful than its predecessor: within five seconds it can produce a volume of data equivalent to the total information held in the British Library². The data collected by our networks, in data warehouses and elsewhere, vastly exceeds that which could be recorded about our world and knowledge on the 1:1 scale Borges imagined."
Martin John Callanan, December 2006.

Writer in Residence - Richard Hamblyn

Richard Hamblyn is the author of The Invention of Clouds, which won the 2002 Los Angeles Times book prize, and of Terra:Tales of the Earth, a study of natural disasters. His Cloud Book: How to Understand the Skies was published in association with the Met Office in April 2008, and he is currently working on a follow-up volume entitled Extraordinary Clouds (see below). Longer-term projects include a cultural history of volcano tourism, an account of the exile of Joseph Priestley, and a study of man-made landscapes. Richard has also written for a variety of newapapers and magazines, and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. Click here to view their joint exhibition "A Planetary Order"