Melbourne has won the right to host The Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) in 2018, a world-renowned event that provides a platform for the likes of artists, architects and other creatives working in conjunction with engineers and scientists to design sustainable energy infrastructures.
The overall purpose is to create what is known as ‘land art generators’ – works of public art that capture energy from nature and convert that energy into electricity in a sustainable manner.
The installations are also designed to lower their own environmental footprint by producing kilowatt-hours of energy that offset existing users and create unique experiences for the public, while at the same time designing places for both leisure, pleasure and learning.
While also designed to increase the liveability of communities, another goal of these designs is to show how renewable energy installations, like solar and wind, can be integrated into the culture of a region.
As part of Victoria’s Renewable Energy Action Plan under Action 13, which calls for “supporting important artistic and cultural sustainability events,” LAGI2018 will bring together creatives from around the world to submit designs tailored to large-scale installations that add to the beauty of their surrounds while also generating clean energy
From the last LAGI in 2016, the top three winners were teams from Japan, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
According to the organisers, the last four competitions – Dubai/Abu Dhabi in 2010, New York City in 2012, Copenhagen in 2014, and Santa Monica in 2016 received over 800 submissions from more than 60 countries.
