Amy Balkin

balkin_portrait.jpg

Photo: Amy Balkin

Amy Balkin utilizes critique and cross-disciplinary research in projects that consider how humans create, interact with, and impact the social and material landscapes they inhabit. Her recent projects include Public Smog, Invisible-5 and This is the Public Domain.

Public Smog is a public park in the atmosphere that fluctuates in location and scale. Built through financial, legal, or political activities, Public Smog is subject to prevailing winds and the long-range transport of aerosols and gases. When built through the economic mechanism of emissions trading, the park opens above the region where offsets are purchased and withheld from use. Public Smog first opened briefly to the public during 2004 above California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District, and is now open over the European Union through 2008.

Invisible-5 is a collaborative environmental justice/ critical audio tour along California’s Interstate-5 corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The project investigates the stories of people and communities fighting for environmental justice along the I-5, through oral histories, field recordings, found sound, recorded music, and archival audio documents. The project also traces natural, social, and economic histories along the route. This project was developed in collaboration with artists Kim Stringfellow and Tim Halbur, and the organizations Pond: Art, Activism, and Ideas, and Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice. The project is available to listen online or download from invisible5.org.

This is the Public Domain is an ongoing project to create a permanent international commons, free to everyone, and held in perpetuity for that purpose. In 2003, a 2.5 acre parcel of land was purchased near Tehachapi, California, to serve as the site for the proposed public domain. Sharing of the commons will be initiated when a juridical solution for public handover is found.

www.publicsmog.org
www.invisible5.org
www.thisisthepublicdomain.org

Amy Balkin
PUBLIC SMOG
Photo: Amy Balkin

Amy Balkin
INVISIBLE-5
Photo: NASA World Wind

Amy Balkin
INVISIBLE-5
Photo: Kim Stringfellow

Amy Balkin
INVISIBLE-5
Photo: Greenaction for Health and Envionmental Justice

Amy Balkin
THIS IS THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Photo: Amy Balkin