Active energy (2007 - 2020)

Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 Active energy (2007 - 2020). [Portfolio/Project/Collection]

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Abstract

Active Energy is a conceptual arts-led research project involving interdisciplinary and intergenerational engagement. A creative arts facilitation process has been used to tap into community expertise and support seniors and young people in exploring how renewable energy can benefit their East London community.

The project was instigated twelve years ago by artist and researcher Dr. Loraine Leeson to explore why the life experience of older people had been failing to inform new developments in technology. Work with a seniors group The Geezers at an AgeUK centre led to a focus on renewable energy identified by the group since older people could often not afford to heat their homes, while the tidal River Thames nearby was not being tapped for its energy potential. Initial work included low-cost turbines developed for tide and wind, together with exhibitions and conference presentations in the UK and USA. Each stage in the project used the arts to draw out local knowledge and bring these ideas to public attention to inform wider discourse.

Since 2016 work has focused on the creation and installation of floating water wheels in a Thames tidal basin and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, supported by AHRC and Lottery amongst other sources of funding. Tidal flow has been harnessed to drive a pump that oxygenates the water to keep fish alive at times of high pollution. An educational programme for secondary school and college students has run alongside this work and celebrated at a public event in the Park in 2019. Canal and River Trust are proposing taking over the latest wheel and replicating it for other sites. Both this organisation and the secondary school wish to incorporate the learning materials from the project into their future curricula.

Active energy - a socially engaged project, process-based with a series of interconnected outputs.

Item Type:	Portfolio/Project/Collection
Research Areas:	A. > School of Art and Design A. > School of Art and Design > Visual Arts A. > School of Art and Design > Visual Arts > Socially Engaged Practices cluster
Item ID:	28504
Components:	Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2020) Active Energy: Communities countering Climate Change. Women Eco Artists Dialog - Magazine & Directory (11) . [Article] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2020) Geezer power: the Active Energy project. In: Culture, community and climate: conversations and emergent praxis. Povall, Richard, ed. art.earth, Dartington, UK. ISBN 9780995719644. [Book Section] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2020) Active energy - visual narrative. [Digital artefact] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2019) Active energy: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - communities countering climate change - project installation. [Artefact] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2018) Water power: creativity and the unlocking of community knowledge. In: Water, meaning and creativity: understanding human-water relationships. Roberts, Liz and Phillips, Katherine, eds. Earthscan Studies in Water Resource Management . Routledge, pp. 23-35. ISBN 9781138087668. [Book Section] (doi:10.4324/9781315110356-2) Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2018) Active energy: pedagogy as practice. In: Provocations, pedagogy, and other strategies for teaching ecological art. Geffen, Amara and Pindell, Deanna, eds. New Village Press, New York. . [Book Section] (Accepted/In press) Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2017) Active energy: Three Mills - project launch. [Artefact] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2016) Active Energy. In: Feeding the Insatiable: a creative summit, 09-11 Nov 2016, Dartington Hall, Devon, England. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2015) Case study: engaging older people in creative thinking: the Active Energy project. In: Oxford Textbook of Creative Arts, Health and Wellbeing: International perspectives on practice, policy and research. Clift, Stephen and Camic, Paul M., eds. Oxford University Press, pp. 245-250. ISBN 9780199688074. [Book Section] (doi:10.1093/med/9780199688074.003.0030) Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2015) Active energy - London: capital / climate / culture. In: Deadline@Tate, 4-6 Dec 2015, Tate Modern. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 and Light, Ann (2014) Citizen innovation: DIY design and the Thames water turbine. In: Creative Citizens, 18-19 Sep 2014, Royal College of Art, London. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2014) Active Energy - where art and engineering meet. In: CAA 102nd Annual Conference, 12-15 Feb 2014, Chicago. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2017) Active energy - Three Mills water wheel. [Artefact] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2013) Active energy: turbine on the Thames. [Artefact] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2007) Active Energy web site. [Digital artefact] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2019) Social action and the arts - in statutory, further and higher education, 1992 – 2019. In: Social Action and the Arts, 09 Oct 2019, WE Schools, 14 Bowden Street, SW11 4DS. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2019) Art as a tool for social change: The Docklands Community Poster Project and its legacy. In: Royal l Docks l Works, 22 Jun 2019, The Good Hotel, Royal Victoria Dock, Western Gateway, Royal Docks, London E16 1FA. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2019) Participation and collaboration in contemporary art practices. In: Construir complicitats: Pràctiques artístiques col·laboratives [BUILDING COMPLICITIES: Collaborative artistic practices], 30 May 2019, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2019) From photo-murals to water wheels: a role for art in strategies of change. Kenna, Carol and Lobb, Steve, eds. For Walls with Tongues: An oral history of street murals 1966 - 1985. In: For Walls With Tongues Seminar, History of Street Murals 1966-85, 14 May 2019, University of Greenwich, London, UK. pbk-ISBN 9781870100076. [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2018) Situated art practice and strategies for change in London’s East End. In: Symposium: Communalities, Urbanities and Artistic Commonalities, 05 Jun 2018, Birkbeck University of London, London, UK. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2018) Co-creation as a strategy for change. In: Co-Creation: Creativity-Based Methods to Engage with Communities, 24 May 2018, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2017) Confluence: Public Art and the Thames / A Conversation with Six Artists. In: Totally Thames Festival, 11 Sept 2017, Thames Tunnel Shaft, Brunel Museum. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2016) The Docklands Community Poster Project and other creative approaches to regeneration. In: Top down meets bottom up in post-industrial regeneration: Good practice and challenges in participatory approaches to community engagement in city planning, 20-21 Jan 2017, Riverside Museum, Glasgow. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2016) Collaborative art activism – a UK perspective. In: Public Exposures: the art - activism of Condé + Beveridge (1976-2016) - Symposium, 27-29 May 2016, OCAD University, Toronto, Canada. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2015) Community collaborations 1978-2015. In: Community arts? Learning from the legacy of artists’ social initiatives, 01 Nov 2015, The Black-e, Liverpool, United Kingdom. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2014) Re-thinking (e)valuation. In: Art, Recognition and Social Science: Re-Thinking (E)valuation, 16 May 2014, Central Library, Liverpool, UK. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2014) Art as a force for change. In: Curating Community? The Relational and Agonistic Value of Participatory Arts in Superdiverse Localities, 01 May 2014, Centre For Creative Collaboration, London, UK. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2014) Some lessons learned on the art and politics of social engagement 1978 – 2013. In: The Tetley Feast, 08 Jan - 12 Feb 2014, The Tetley, Leeds, UK. . [Conference or Workshop Item] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2016) Active Energy: Three mills - hydrocitizenship open workshop. Hydrocitizenship. [Other] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2009) Active energy. SPACE Studios. [Other] Leeson, Loraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6684-3911 (2007) Active Energy web site. [Digital artefact]
Useful Links:	Project Middlesex University Expert Profile Middlesex University Expert Profile Data or Supplementary Material Data or Supplementary Material
Depositing User:	Loraine Leeson
Date Deposited:	03 Dec 2019 21:10
Last Modified:	30 Nov 2022 03:48
URI:	https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/28504

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