Symposium - Tim Collins
Tim Collins
Artist, Associate Dean designate, Wolverhampton University -
3 Rivers 2nd Nature: the threat and reaction to ideas of diverse authority
Using examples from his long-term programme of projects in Pittsburgh, Tim explained that his work as an ecological artist and researcher focused on asking questions and gathering strategic knowledge – ‘art and radical planning’. He valued a lyrical approach to creative change and the critical rigor of scientists such as the ecologist Professor Tony Bradshaw, to bring about an aesthetic transformation from infrastructure to ecosystem – ‘artists create spaces for new systems to emerge’.
In a practical sense, his programme had enabled communities within a whole watershed to value and manage (‘ubiquitous – you only miss it when its gone’) water. This was a form of ‘radical ecology’, native to this place, transformed by its citizens through a community dialogue. And such a transformation by the ‘silent participants’ takes time. Perhaps, ‘we are not evolved enough’?