THE COOPERATIVE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND ALTERNATIVES - CECA
TEAM: Valerio Franzone, Linda Schilling Cuellar, Dawn Han
CLIENT: Reimagining Museums for Climate Action
LOCATION: Earth
STATUS: International design competition, 2020
The Cooperative for Environmental Consciousness and Alternatives challenges the limits of museums, where exhibits are often far removed in time and places from their original contexts. Recontextualizing the museum, its exhibits, and its functions is crucial to carrying out its mission to restore the Earth’s natural and social balance. The CECA is a body of networks that re-links the human race to the core of its terrestrial existence. Re-establishing an intimate relationship between the planet and its inhabitants reminds us that Earth’s fate is the essence of humanity, even beyond the urgency to overcome our climate crisis. The CECA is also a system, a machine that helps us envision and achieve better alternative futures through various sustainable developments.
CECA units are icosahedrons that travel the world to monitor the planet’s health and rebalance the environment. Each icosahedron envelops processes and systems composed of nature, humanity, and technology, summarizing the planet’s complexity that can be visually retraced on the structure’s interior. The units are scalable and specifically made to answer the crisis environments are facing: a massive correcting device in polluted scenarios, whereas in virgin ecosystems, the icosahedron diminishes in size, becoming just a sensory system to monitor the environment.
The CECA is a network of Icosahedrons comprising many different natural environments, communities, raw data, technologies, and research. It is an extensive network that weaves around the globe to identify environmental crises, raise awareness of them, and call for solutions. Through the icosahedrons, the network can research and take action to fight climate change by environmental monitoring and healing, developing sustainable energies and agriculture, and knowledge sharing. The CECA network provides a social platform where participants can share their experiences and data, opening up dialogues on the repercussions of capitalism on Earth. As a result, the participants can rethink their responsibilities, roles, and duties to the communities most affected by the crisis. This multi-way exchange within the CECA network enriches all participants with new and different perspectives through communication, education, and participation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forged a short pause in our mindless consumption way of life and has let our planet catch a quick break from enduring our wants and our industries. Yet, why aren’t we treating the climate crisis with the same urgency as finding a cure or vaccine against a disease outbreak? The planet we’re inhabiting is killing us with our wrong-doings. It’s time to act. It’s time to set aside the Capitalocene lens that obscures our sights and minds. It’s time to advocate for nurturing strategies and innovations to save us and our planet. It’s time we see the planet’s needs as our own and find a way out together. It’s time to connect.
CECA
presents
The Travels of an Icosahedron
presents
The Travels of an Icosahedron
My name is MISS.MCA.
I work for The Cooperative for Environmental Consciousness and Alternatives.
And I’m a traveling icosahedron.
It all started last week during my first museum visit; a human approached me and asked, “Don’t you think Greece would be a more suitable host for these marbles that came from their Parthenon?” I immediately summoned the Cooperative’s network for assistance to satisfy this human with a perfect answer. Finally, I said, “Yes, I can see this museum experience is failing you. I’m very sorry.” And that was how my mission was born.
The next thing I knew, I was somewhere in India. The sensory device inside me started chirping wildly. The obnoxious sound made me realize that the air around me was very bad, very polluted. I sent the data my sensory device collected to the network for analysis. Meanwhile, I thought I’d do some sightseeing, but the smog there didn’t make the “seeing” part easy. On a busy street, I ran into a fellow icosahedron, one that was probably 20 times my size. Its name is IND.CCS, an icosahedron incorporated with a large carbon control and sequestration system. It captures and stores carbon dioxide for various types of uses. Impressive, my friend.
At night, on the network, I listened to the local participants in India sharing experiences about living with polluted air, land, and water. Then I thought about my quiet afternoon visit to the museum a little less than 7000 kilometers away in England; what a different world. The data I collected earlier ignited an in-depth discussion among the humans on the network, but I was running out of power. It was time for me to recharge. Hang in there, humans!
My next stop was the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, about 1.6 million square kilometers, three times the size of France, a massive dump of garbage and plastic in the Pacific Ocean. Hundreds of huge Icosahedrons containing plastic-eating fungi were deployed there to help rid the plastic in the ocean. The network wanted me to check on my fellow icosahedrons to make sure if any of the units required maintenance. I guess my job was easy, but the experience was hard to stomach. Wait a minute! I believed I just mistook a sentiment expressed by a human on the network as my own since I don’t have a stomach. But my question remained: why was so much trash made of plastic?
A few days later, I followed the network’s request and arrived in the Amazon rainforest. I met up with several other icosahedrons to share data on the environment. They had been closely monitoring the rainforest’s health with the local communities. And I just noticed my sensory device stopped chirping up a storm here, contrary to what happened in India.
Before moving to my destination, I spotted a fellow icosahedron sitting quietly in the jungle. It invited me to take a look inside it. INSIDE IT? Alright. I needed a place to recharge myself anyway. The interior of this icosahedron was a vivid depiction of everything on this planet. There were so many colors, so many lives, so much progress, so many dreams… I was touched. It made me want to be terrestrial! Am I terrestrial? Can an icosahedron possibly feel touched? Hmm…
At last, I reached the Glasgow Science Centre. To fulfill the mission the Cooperative assigned to me, I, an icosahedron, unfolded and transformed myself into a Dymaxion map to share my travels with you. Yes, you! The one who’s staring at me so intensely. I feel naked—naked in a good way, though—the way nature makes me feel. Thank you for staring.