POWER involves setting up:
A dynamic micro grid of energy
Establishing a co-operatively owned solar power station across the rooftops of Waltham Forest – beginning with local schools in collaboration with Solar for Schools and Energy Local and our street as a ‘future street now.’
A dynamic micro grid of cultural production
In order to set up this power station we are setting up a microgrid of cultural production in domestic and public facing sites/’sub stations.’ Local people will print the ‘greenbacks’ – a new currency that literally fuels POWER showing a grassroots, arts led Green New Deal now in action through ‘thinking through making’ and sharing knowledge and power through training and employment.
The green backs are currency/art sold to:
a) Support the bulk purchase and installation of solar panels.
b) Support local organisations working for a grassroots Green New Deal and the social justice integral to this.
The very act of making the greenbacks is an act of mass public engagement, an opportunity for employment and education and a chance for people to sign up for further action demanding that every building becomes a power station. Everyone becomes a green backer . The currency/art will be produced using crossover science/art techniques using hidden UV design motifs and holographic print. The aesthetic and processes are driven by ideas of solar punk and a visioning of the future where technological and artistic action counters and breaks down the current ‘fossil imagination.’
POWER not only tackles the challenges of the transition to renewable and specifically community powered energy – it shares these with a diverse local, national and international community built around the project. The project’s implementation of a POWER STATION across the rooftops of our own borough and the questions and contagious action it provokes will be part of:
a) A documentary feature film shared expansively via theatrical release, community screenings and an innovative online distribution model (see the teams previous Bank Job feature film’s journey from cinema release to community screenings to nomination for a Grierson Award – www.bankjob.pictures)
b) A paid membership site financially fuelling the project, increases its reach and impact and building a community by immediately sharing practical knowledge via demonstrations, interviews, book clubs and regular updates to ‘The Powerful’ members.