The ECHO Banners
Twenty-three large-scale 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”) banners were produced as part of the ECHO Banners collaborative project headed by UBC Associate Professor Barbara Zeigler, and carried out in conjunction with two third-year visual art courses. In total more than 225 UBC students, faculty and staff participated in this project during Winter Term II 2006-07.
Aimed at bridging aspects of the arts and sciences, this endeavour approached issues of biodiversity and sustainability critically, and combined visual explorations in the media of printmaking, drawing, painting and digital imaging. The project was undertaken as a Terry ( www.terry.ubc.ca ) Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund Project (TLEF) with UBC Sustainability, in conjunction with Dr. David Ng of the Michael Smith Laboratories and Heather Scholefield of the Campus Sustainability Office.
Zeigler combined this project with the curricula of two third-year visual art classes, intermediate courses in print media and drawing. Students attended in and out-of-class lectures and films, read related texts, and undertook research related to GVRD flora and fauna. The project included a public component that enabled students from the two classes to collaborate with students from the UBC community at large. At these sessions the flora and fauna the visual art students had researched were painted on wooden tiles, and issues revolving around sustainability and biodiversity were discussed. Additionally, 93 first-year students enrolled in an art fundamentals course each painted a tile depicting local flora and fauna that were used in the design of the banners.
To add criticality to the overall project and to reference the complexity of the issues involved in concepts of sustainability, as part of the design of each banner a word is featured that was chosen by the visual art students in group discussions. The banners were first displayed at the AMS Gallery in the UBC Student Union Building in April of 2007 and will displayed at other locations in 2007 and beyond.
Marijke Nap, the Print Media Technician, generously provided technical assistance throughout the project and led the digital printing of the banners at the AHVAT Print Media Research Centre.
1. View of three Echo Banners in the window of the AMS Gallery at the University of British Columbia, April 2007.
2. Installation view, AMS Gallery, with floor installation of painted tiles encircled by the banners on the gallery walls.
3. Installation view of the ECHO Banners, AMS Gallery.
4. Preserve , ECHO Banner designed by visual art students Jesse Nguyen and Robert Yau, 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”), printed on recyclable banner material.
5. Pollution , ECHO Banner designed by Barbara Zeigler and Marijke Nap, 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”), printed on recyclable banner material.
6. Plan , ECHO Banner designed by visual art student Kathryn Blair, 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”), printed on recyclable banner material.
7. Collaboration , ECHO Banner designed by visual art students Sally I Lang Song and Nancy Chang, 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”), printed on recyclable banner material.
8. Eco-nomics, ECHO Banner designed by visual art students Cynthia Eng, Stacey Randall, and Carol Lee, 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”), printed on recyclable banner material.
9. Colonization, ECHO Banner designed by visual art students Angela Sterritt and Stephanie Brown, 94 x 182.9 cm (36 x 72”), printed on recyclable banner material.