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Painting Connections: Sharing Economies in the Creative Wick
A Grand Challenges small grant examined the sharing economy in Hackney Wick, East London
7 February 2016
Painting Connections was supported by a Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities Small Grant. The project worked with Creative Wick and Affordable Wick to explore and showcase the Sharing Economy in Hackney Wick and Fish Island (HWFI), East London. The research group brought together visualisation and outreach from CASA, models of prosperity from the Institute for Global Prosperity, and systemic approaches to understanding microeconomies from the Institute of Sustainable Resources.
Sculptural installation by Marie Brenneis. Captivated by experimental psychology of space and colour, Brenneis tests theories out by creating unconventional spaces and displays. In particular she considers how today’s utilitarian spaces and the built environment increasingly condition our visual freedom and imaginative potential.
A complex network of drawn lines responds to a map showing concentrations of creative activity in buildings within Hackney Wick and Fish Island (HWFI) by Natalie Ryde. Her abstract, systemic drawings contemplate the theoretical workings of the universe while searching for connections in physical world she observes.
Image by Ansell Cizic. His art work deals with the occupancy and utility of space, its use and possible misuse. The idea of a sharing economy in this context is theoretical and utopian – the artist questions whether it is quite the opposite and he is really ‘Ansell in Wonderland’?
The project is led by a UCL team made up of Martin Zaltz Austwick in The Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, Emma Terama at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, Hannah Sender at the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, and Carina Schneider at The Bartlett School of Architecture / Urban Dynamics Lab; and Will Chamberlain from Creative Wick and Richard Brown from Affordable Wick.
Painting Connections received support from the UCL Grand Challenges Sustainable Cities Small Grant scheme and Public and Cultural Engagement in collaboration with the Forum for Future London.
