Green Expectations - © Lloyd Godman

About Green Expectations

Green Expectations is a three year program aimed to allow the community of Latrobe the opportunity to examine, explore and discuss the issue of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.  The project has three themes, firstly an exploration of the history of the Latrobe Valley and how coal was created in the area; secondly a navigation of the current situation in regards to greenhouse gases and climate change and lastly an opportunity to play with ideas for our future in regards to energy generation and use. 

Green Expectations is a unique project as it gives the community of Latrobe Valley as well as outsiders, an opportunity to express often complex feelings about power generation and climate change in a creative and engaging manner.  As the centre for power generation for Victoria, the Latrobe Valley has a strong reliance on coal mining for employment and economic security.  It is also the centre for greenhouse emissions for the State of Victoria who are the consumers of the energy.

Project Theme - The Grid – We Are All Connected

The grid is an integral foundation of our community, economy and society.  The grid delivers energy to us in ways that are seen and unseen.  In different ways, we are all connected to the grid.   The grid moves from huge high voltage power lines down to microscopic light filaments.  When we plug into a power point, we connect into a massive infrastructure of power lines, wires, poles and complex engineering. 

The grid weaves its way around our society and supports our lifestyles and yet some people choose not to be connected to the grid whilst others develop their own generation systems such as solar and feed back into the grid.  A range of other generation sources also feed into the grid.  When the sun shines, solar panels feed into the grid, when the wind blows they do the same.

Coal mines act like a heart of the grid and are the biggest generators of both power and carbon emissions in Victoria.  When you connect to the grid, you connect in with the heart and to the benefit of cheap electricity and the dangers of climate change.  You also connect to the Latrobe Valley and a myriad of issues that are associated with the costs and benefits of coal mining for the local community.

The grid concept aims to generate awareness within the community of everyone’s connection to this massive infrastructure and to the complex social, economic and environmental issues that it raises.  It also puts the focus on everyone’s capacity to influence climate change by the ways in which they connect into, and use the grid.

The Commission

A temporary installation will be commissioned to complement the Sustainability Festival at Kernot Hall, Morwell for the 9th and 10th of May 2008.

The installation should reflect, in any appropriate way, the Grid concept.

The work, however, will be assessed on its merit as a contemporary work of art and therefore this concept can be interpreted broadly. Preference will be given to works that address the work as a symbolic and innovative interpretation rather than a figurative and literal treatment of some aspect of the Green Expectations brief.

The work may be in any suitable and durable medium for an outdoor/indoor site. The inclusion of components that would enhance public interaction –lighting, water components or a kinetic component – are desirable but not mandatory.