How is it that over 75% of the iceberg lettuce consumed in Cleveland travels over 2000 miles from California, when it could just as easily be gorwn locally? It takes more energy to produce and transport such products than is obtained from eating them. Such waste is not factored into the economics of production because energy is so cheaply available; energy that comes chiefly from the combustion of fossil fuels, which is the leading cause of carbon dioxide emissions. Hiddden Costs is an interactive piece that explores the environmental damage incurred by such an economic system. Using real-time and statistical data, participants discover where and how daily consumption habits can be changed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This piece exists on the web as part of a larger installation piece. Most recently, this piece was shown at the Cleveland Ingenuity Festival of Arts and Technology. The Ingenuity write-up for Hidden Costs can be viewed at http://www.ingenuitycleveland.com/events/Lehto. Information about the 2007 Ingenuity Festival of Arts and Technology can be found at http://www.ingenuitycleveland.com/.
Other Information and Press CoolCleveland.com: http://www.coolcleveland.com/index.php?n=Main.IngenuityKarma2007 | WCSB: http://www.wcsb.org/forum/read.php?7,2177,2178 | Twitter411: http://twitter.com/ingenuity411 | The Cleveland Institute of Art: http://www.cia.edu/about/pressroom.php?sub=current&news_id=125 | Green City, Blue Lake (EcoCity Cleveland) http://www.gcbl.org/blog/marc-lefkowitz/whats-sustainable-at-ingenuity | MySpace.com TV http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.search&t=ingenuity | CoolCleveland.com http://www.coolcleveland.com/index.php?n=Main.Ingenuity2007SimplyIndispensable
Go to www.MichaelLehto.net