Ecocaching
Symposium:
Title:
- Ecocaching
Organiser/Presenter(s):
Statement:
Workshop Statement
In our daily movements from breakfast until we brush our teeth before going to bed, the everyday environment tends to become transparent. Climate change and local ecological degradation surround us, yet it seems difficult to find ways in which one can make an individual effort to change things. Ecocaching – a translocal game was created to address our everyday environment through local participation, small acts, and play. Please join the workshop, if you want to brainstorm and discover green spots, junctures between nature and the urban, wasteland and green pastures. You can join with a curious mind if you are from elsewhere, yet I hope majority of participants have local knowledge and interest to look at:
- urban biological diversity
- waste and local water systems
- commuting and traffic
- alien species (coastal areas, parks)
- energy consumption
- locally grown food
- wider environmental change (local history)
In the workshop, participants and the workshop + game host Tapio Mäkelä will create 15-20 ecocaches, “hidden treasures” within the city. These will be specific sites to which we embed a box (ecocache) that involves a story about the place, and a task for game players. Our workshop documentation will partly become material for the exhibition as well. Remember – this is a game; Ecocaching should work through humor and play, even if the topics we treat are serious. We are looking at discovery, experience, and change of perception through small acts and gestures… I would be most happy if the group would include at least one biologist and someone involved with the environmental politics or history of Istanbul.
