News about projects of the Still Water lab at the University of Maine
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Consumers are increasingly eager to eat local produce, but farm-to-table options in the cold season aren’t always easy to find in a northern state like Maine. That could change thanks to a new mobile app designed to help farmers optimize greenhouse conditions in the winter months, from a team led by Still Water co-director Joline Blais.
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Tags: app, data, farming, GreenHouse, Maine, network, New Media, permaculture, press, sharing, Still Water, students, University of Maine
In an article on the growing cohousing movement, National Geographic magazine interviewed Still Water Co-Director Joline Blais about her research on these “living laboratories for sustainability.” Blais spoke to the sharing economy at the heart of Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage, an intentional community on the coast of Maine founded by people seeking a greater connection with the environment and each other.
Tags: Belfast, cohousing, ecotech, ecovillage, GreenHouse, LongGreenHouse, permaculture, press, sustainability
It’s hard to articulate ecological values with a vocabulary inherited from the industrial age. The Lexicon of Sustainability, an exhibition co-curated by Dan Dixon and Still Water’s Joline Blais, aims to change that. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: art, Belfast, class, design, food, GreenHouse, orono, permaculture, presentation, sustainability
Many of us have important relationships with animals, be they the beloved family dog or the meddlesome raccoon that keeps getting into the garbage.
But what about plants? Their relationships to humans may be much less visible in popular media, if it’s conscious at all. Yet some people’s connections to a particular medicinal herb, houseplant, or tree have “deep roots.”
Tags: art, Belfast, ecotech, food, GreenHouse, LongGreenHouse, performance, permaculture, sustainability
The Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage is featured on Ron Beard’s live call-in show Talk of the Towns on radio station WERU on the 25th of January.
Still Water Co-Directors Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito are partners in building this innovative community, whose net-zero energy homes and consensus governance aim to be a model for sustainable development.
Tags: Belfast, food, GreenHouse, indigenous, LongGreenHouse, LongHouse, permaculture, sharing, Still Water, sustainability
A surge in new members this summer and fall has put Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage in position to build its Common House and complete its ambitious project to build a sustainable community on the coast of Maine.
Tags: Belfast, governance, GreenHouse, LongGreenHouse, permaculture, sharing, Still Water, sustainability
According to Streetsblog Los Angeles‘ Sahra Sulaiman, Still Water Fellows Vanessa Vobis, Craig Dietrich, and collaborators are “saving the world, one garden at a time.” Their project LA Green Grounds continues to dig up both lawns and publicity on its mission to turn Los Angelenos into gardeners.
Tags: activism, food, GreenHouse, LongGreenHouse, permaculture, press, sharing, Still Water, sustainability
 Figure 1. Vanessa Vobis, Crystal World (2008), Legion Arts-CSPS, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA |
 Figure 2. Vanessa Vobis, Mars Attacks Fragonard (2009), (106) Gallery, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA |
 Figure 3. Julian Epps, The Cave (2008), FreesePop, Bangor, Maine, USA |
Still Water Fellow Vanessa Vobis has a history of combining installation art and ecology. In 2007 she filled sandwich bags with tap water and after a couple weeks they burst with algae growth under natural light. This discovery led to her MFA thesis show, Nitpickers, at Legion Arts-CSPS in 2008 (Figure 1) and gallery shows including Mars Attacks Fragonard at Grand Rapids’ (106) Gallery (Figure 2). Later in 2008 she taught the inaugural installation class at UMaine’s Intermedia graduate program, prompting a student show at Bangor’s historic Freeses Building featuring a community theme and materials including pancakes, wheatgrass, and projections inspired by bioluminescence (Figure 3).
After moving to Los Angeles in 2009, Vanessa is continuing to connect people and natural resources, helping found the volunteer corps LA Green Grounds, working as a gallery interpreter and Master Gardener at LA County’s Natural History Museum, and creating an edible and native garden in her South LA backyard. Vanessa’s activities were toured last week by Still Water co-founders Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito, in Los Angeles for an ecology-themed set of activities at nearby University of Southern California.
Tags: education, Los Angeles, permaculture, research, sharing
This week Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito join forces for a series of presentations at USC organized by Craig Dietrich, Still Water Senior Researcher and co-creator of Scalar.
The week culminates on Friday 2 March at the School of Cinematic Arts with Redesigning Reality, a hands-on session in hacking the “scripts” that govern us to make everyday life more sustaining and sustainable.
Workshop participants redesign their favorite foods and Web sites, looking to nature as a model for the victual and virtual.
Tags: Craig Dietrich, education, GreenHouse, hacking, LongHouse, Los Angeles, network, New Media, permaculture, presentation, sharing, software, Still Water, sustainability
How can rural economies and ecologies benefit from wired citizens? Still Water Fellow Miigam’agan and co-director Joline Blais tackle the subject along with New Media colleague Bill Kuykendall at two conferences organized by Maine Rural Partners and Portland Maine Permaculture.
Tags: governance, GreenHouse, permaculture, Portland, presentation, press, sharing, sustainability, Wabanaki