Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Giant carbon cube lands at Copenhagen conference


by Katie Day
NO it’s not from Mars. Nor is it an optical illusion.
Floating in St Jørgens Lake in Copenhagen, the ‘CO2 Cube’ is a stunning sculpture of light and sound, mirrored in the cold calm waters reflecting pictures of the Earth.
Constructed of 12 shipping containers stacked in an interlocking pattern on a custom-made barge, the cube is turning heads among joggers and visitors to the Danish capital.
Multimedia messages from around the world and solutions for reducing the planet’s carbon footprint will be displayed on the cube during the 15th UN meeting on climate change, COP15.
Millennium ART executive director Mia Hanak says the cube visualises the invisible – the size of one cubic metre of carbon dioxide gas emitted each month by an average person in an industrialised country.
“We wanted to engage the public on the effects of climate change and show what one cubic metre of CO2 look like,” Mia says.
“It is the size of a three-story building measuring 8.2m x 8.2m x 8.2m.
“What we hope to achieve in these two weeks is to impact as many people on the ground, capture what we have here and get it out to the rest of the world.”
Partner of the arts for the United Nations Department of Public Information, Millennium ART has also teamed up with artists, architects, scientists and technologists from around the world to create the CO2 Cube.
The interactive multimedia elements to the cube are powered through a partnership with Google and YouTube.
Google senior industry analyst Jonas Vang says the cube will connect visitors to climate change discussions.
“Through YouTube we are asking local citizens to upload video questions,” Jonas says.
“The questions will be featured on the cube and posed to a panel of climate experts on December 15. We are opening up Copenhagen to the rest of the world.”

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