Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Natalie Jereminjenko

I attended the presentation by Natalie Jereminjenko on November 19, 2013 in DPC. Natalie Jereminjenko is an engineer and artist who focuses mainly directing the xdesign for the Environmental Health Clinic. Natalie Jereminjenko was born in 1966 in Australia.  Jereminjenko received her B.S. in Neuroscience and Biochemistry in 1993 from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. She then received her PhD in 2008 from the University of Queensland, Australia. Currently, Jereminjenko is an Associate Professor of Art and Art Education at New York University.

The Environmental Health Clinic is a unique project at NYU. This health clinic is quite different from others; instead of giving people medicine for each individual health problem, the environmental health clinic strives to make the environment a healthier place.

One of the projects set up by the Environmental Health Clinic is called "Drawing in Air." This project aims to reduce the amount of particulate matter in the air. This can be done by creating a passive solar chimney that captures black carbon from the air. These "passive chimneys" are engineered fabrics that can be draped over buildings in order to increase the surface area for capturing carbon particles. The captured carbon is then accumulated into a carbon-pencil whose length corresponds to the amount of carbon captured from the air. drawinginair1_web

A project created by Jereminjenko, called "Moth Cinema" is one of my favorites. The Moth Cinema is a large silver screen that is illuminated during the night and that is located outside of New York City . Behind the screen is a large moth and butterfly sanctuary loaded with nectar plants for them to feed upon. While the moths are feeding, their movements are amplified onto the silver screen and a beautiful living-art piece results. This project allows us to appreciate the beauty in a moth's movement while simultaneously benefiting the moth with a healthy environment, instead of the unwelcoming environment of the city.

Overall, I find Jereminjenko's work very interesting. Her projects are innovative an have a lot of potential to become mass-produced. Her ideas are energy-efficient while also being aesthetically pleasing. If her projects became wide-spread, many issues in the environment could eventually be solved.