Climate commons is a networked conversation space that creates a cross-disciplinary platform for planetary ecological concerns. Twelve people who research issues relevant to the arctic and climate change contribute the progress of their investigations and reflections from October 10, 2006 through January 10, 1007. These networked conversations can be read by and contributed to by visitors to the exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary art Boston or on the web at climate-commons.net.

Contributors:
Sally Bingham, Episcopal Priest
Jock Gill, carbon neutral by 2020
Mitchel Joachim, Architect
Jane D. Marsching, Artist
Larry Merculieff, Alaska Native science Commission
Robert Newman, Novelist and Comedian
Matthew Nolan, Glaciologist
James Overland, Climatologist
Russell Potter, Historian
Andrew Revkin, Environmental Journalist
Sarah Rich, WorldChanging
Matthew Shanley, Artist/Programmer
Juanita Urban-Rich, Windows Around the World

In the gallery at the new Institute of Contemporary art in Boston is the physical site of the networked conversation Climate Commons. This lounge creates a space that is modular (for individual or group interaction), portable, and relaxing (a space for contemplation, conversation, research, and thought among a group of viewers or alone). The furniture and flooring is built from materials upcyled from the construction of the new ICA building. Upcyling, a word coined by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart, completely reuses materials in ways that do not degrade their quality. This principle is in harmony with the conversation’s central concerns: the past, present, and future ecology of our planet in the light of human contributions to climate change, particularly as it affects the Arctic.

Project concept and design: Jane D. Marsching
With Mathew Shanley