Urban Rivers (USA) Can we game our way to a cleaner world? Take control of our garbage-eating robot either in person or online! Created by Chicago-based collective Urban Rivers, Trash Robot will be trawling Melbourne’s Yarra River collecting rubbish outside of the City’s existing litter traps. And Melbourne’s waterways really need the help – in 2017, they were filled with…
Arne Hendriks (Netherlands) & Mike Thompson (United Kingdom) Do we really understand fat? In November 2017, the 130-tonne ‘Monster of Whitechapel’ was ejected from the bowels of east London. This fatberg – a congealed mass of fat, wet wipes and nappies – stretched the length of nearly two AFL footy ovals, taking workmen armed with shovels and high-powered jets…
Would you wash your hands with soap made from sewage? Catherine Sarah Young (Philippines) Sewer Soaperie turns raw sewage and fat into luxury soaps. Extreme storms now frequently overwhelm drains, pipes and sewerage systems, causing flooding in major cities. Large lumps of coagulated grease, known as ‘fatbergs’, clog the system and create flooding. These greasy beasts are created…
Science Gallery Melbourne throws down the gauntlet and sets an ambitious challenge: can we find a new plastic-eating bacteria in Australia? This project asks citizen scientists to culture bacteria in the search for a new species that could solve our plastic waste dilemma. The lid has been lifted on human wastefulness, but what next? Science…
Janna Ahrndt (United States of America) Will you truthfully track your environmental goals? Like a Fitbit for your ethical performance, P@tch is a textile-based new media project inspired by punk and DIY culture. Each homemade P@tch uses self-reporting and environmental sensors to allow the user to track their personal and surrounding pollution. P@tch participants will set…
Sandra and Gaspard Bébié-Valérian (France) and Professor Peter Scales (Australia) Are you flushing a valuable wee-source? Urinotron is a large-scale installation that takes our organic waste (urine) and transforms it into power for your mobile phone, before recycling it back to pure water. Contribute your urine and then put your feet up as the salts in your liquid gold turn into sustainable pee power. Why are we flushing such a valuable resource? Urinotron combines scientific equipment,…
Artist Oliver Kellhammer’s work allows you to watch the mealworms as they dine on polystyrene. Oliver Kellhammer (United States of America) Do solutions to our recycling crisis exist in nature? Nature is outsmarting us. Solutions to our enormous waste problems are often right in front of us. Polystyrene is a non-biodegradable material that is…
Science Gallery Melbourne’s pop-up program DISPOSABLE will highlight experimental and creative ways to tackle our ever growing excess of waste. DISPOSABLE locations will include The University of Melbourne’s Parkville and Southbank campuses, along with unique sites throughout Melbourne. The lid has been lifted on human wastefulness, but what next? Following the lead of Australian cult-hero,…
Come celebrate the first Friday of the month at Southbank’s Testing Grounds with DISPOSABLE artworks Fatberg and Sewer Soaperie. It’s the first Friday of the month again and Testing Grounds is bringing you installations, exhibition openings and performances, including DISPOSABLE artworks Fatberg by UK artists Mike Thompson and Arne Hendricks and The Sewer Soaperie by Catherine Sarah Young. Plus there’s fire pits to keep you warm…