GreenSCIES helps inspire artists at Megacity

Megacity London: Engineering our Future series of events, created by arts group Guerilla Science, took place in September 2020 and explored the future of London, as the city’s population approaches 10 million, through the lens of engineers and artists.

Guerilla Science is a unique organisation with a mission to revolutionise how people connect with science through transformative experiences. The Anglo-American collaboration has already directly reached over 100,000 adults across the UK and US via live events, which stretch the traditional boundaries of how people engage with science, inspiring them to examine the everyday and the spectacular with an alternative perspective.

The Megacity events brought together a team of graduate engineers from Mott MacDonald and Buro Happold, researchers from Imperial College London and GreenSCIES partner organisations London South Bank University and Cullinan Studio with artists Sprankenstein and Stephanie Bickford-Smith to explore the challenges facing London as it becomes a megacity.
Inspired in part by ideas from the GreenSCIES smart local energy system being developed in Islington, Artist Sprankenstein developed an installation called Tunnel Vision (see video clip opposite), focusing on how London is changing below ground from the past to the future.

After participating in a podcast, where artists and engineers talked about their collaboration and the creative process, Carol Costello, from GreenSCIES partner Cullinan Studio, commented ‘Guerilla Science is an inspiring organisation, and I loved hearing about the experiences of the engineers and artists collaborations. The event concluded that future cities need to strive toward re-use of materials, buildings and infrastructure to reduce reliance on carbon intensive systems.’

Watch the panel discussion video.