About this Event
Online panel discussion that asks how can artists, scientists, agencies and politicians come together to support individuals and communities living in Victorian housing stock to become more energy efficient?
Panel includes: Steve Rotherham, Metro Mayor, Liverpool City Region; Stephanie Wynne and Steve McCoy, Photographers in Residence at Energy House, University of Salford; Dr Richard Fitton, Reader in Energy Performance of Buildings, Energy House, University of Salford; Jon Hutchinson, Programme Director, Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire, Merseyside. Moderated by Sarah Fisher, Director, Open Eye Gallery.
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About Salford Energy House:
Salford Energy House is the world’s first full sized, two bedroom, brick built terraced house constructed inside an environmentally controllable chamber. This unique facility enables research into products to improve energy efficiency of our homes and address the problem of retrofitting existing housing to reduce energy consumption.
Photography partnership McCoy Wynne were selected as Artist in Residence in early 2021 for the University of Salford Energy House project, in collaboration with University of Salford Art Collection and Open Eye Gallery. Through visiting the Energy House and conversations with the scientists, McCoy Wynne sought to interpret the research to make it engaging and accessible to the public.
Are you living comfortably? is an example of how the imagination of artists can interpret scientific research. The Energy House is fitted with wires, sensors and equipment to detect every temperature and atmospheric change. Anyone working in the house, including the two photographers, became part of the monitoring process — recorded by the heat they radiate and the CO2 they exhaled. Using a thermal imaging camera, McCoy Wynne visualised the heat they emitted and incorporated this into the images, with temperature scales referencing the thermal colours.
Panelists Bios:
- Mayor Steve Rotherham
Raised in Kirkby in a family of eight children, Steve left school at 16 to pursue a career as a bricklayer, starting out as an apprentice. In later years he went on to work for the Learning and Skills Council.
Steve began his political career when he was elected to serve as a councillor in 2002, representing Fazakerley ward on Liverpool City Council and held the ceremonial title of Lord Mayor of Liverpool through the city’s European Capital of Culture year in 2008.
In 2010, Steve was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Liverpool Walton constituency. While in Westminster, he led campaigns for justice for the Hillsborough families; in support of blacklisted workers; for compensation for those suffering from mesothelioma and asbestosis; and to change the law on the use of old tyres on buses and coaches.
In 2017, Steve was elected as the first ever Liverpool City Region Mayor, representing 1.6m people across the boroughs of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and the Wirral. In his first term, he helped deliver 9,000 new jobs and 5,500 apprenticeships, set out plans for an integrated London-style transport system and set a target for the region to become net zero carbon by 2040.
On 6 May 2021, Steve was re-elected to serve a second term as Mayor with an increased majority of over 132,000 – winning almost 60% of the vote across the region. On day one of his new term in office, he delivered a £150m COVID recovery fund to create jobs and support businesses as the region emerges from the pandemic.
- Jon Hutchinson
Jon Hutchinson is the Director for Communities at Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside. He has worked in the Community and Environment sector for 12 years. Groundwork’s Green Doctor programme is delivered across the UK and helps households stay warm, stay well, save money on their household bills and reduce carbon. Our aim is to support the people who most need us and help to lift households out of fuel poverty.
- Richard Fitton
Richard holds a PhD in Building Physics and is also a chartered building surveyor. He leads a task group for the development of international standards around energy performance. He is also active in the International Energy Agency studying the use of smart meter data to provide energy efficiency data for dwellings. He holds a place on the SAP Scientific Integrity Group at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) which oversees the domestic energy model used in the UK. Richard is also the technical lead for the new Energy House 2 project, a building physics test lab.
- Stephen McCoy and Stephanie Wynne
During their residency with Salford Energy House, McCoy Wynne diversified their own practice beyond the purely visual: measuring their carbon footprint whilst working as photographers; planting their own vegetables from seed and further researching issues of sustainability, the importance of trees and green spaces in the urban environment. Each area of their research is cited in the final artwork whilst they also explored beyond the Energy House for information and ideas.
Understanding that homes should be synonymous with comfort and safety, they decided to make the unlived in laboratory space of Energy House a colourful, recogniseable and loved home. They introduced gardens, an urban view with city street trees and milk on the doorstep; a signifier of community that is regaining popularity for its recyclable credentials. All the interior pictures include a temperature scale from an infrared camera, that indicates heat in an image by virtue of its colour. The pictures are layered with these corresponding colours; the cold of blue visible across the apex of the roof whilst the warmth of the yellow bursting through the hatch from the room below.
For many years McCoy Wynne have photographed property awaiting re-development or for sale. In this context the Energy House felt familiar, like another empty property awaiting refurbishment and new residents. McCoy Wynne have given the house a new imagined life, dressed as if ready for sale or rent, with views from its windows and set within its own gardens. The details of this imagined world are semi-opaque to give a new sense of reverie to scientific study. By carefully assembling details from the photographs they took of the Energy House, with photographs of other domestic interiors, exteriors and specific furnishings, they have made the laboratory house recognisable as a home.
Image: Are You Living Comfortably? series by McCoy Wynne, 2021
Event Venue
Online
GBP 0.00