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Putting people in the picture for a low carbon future

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Bioenergy students Nicola Wood and Samantha Sime accompanied James Mckay, manager of the CDT Bioenergy, to the British Science Festival in Hull on the evening of 12 September as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering INGENIOUS project ‘Low Carbon Technologies – the Art of a Sustainable Future’.

The evening festival events were being held in Humber Street in the docks area, with a different activity taking place in each pub/café/gallery in the street. James used his artistic skills to paint a vision of a low carbon future city, based on Hull, and based on the public’s suggestions as they passed by. Those who gave the best suggestions had their portraits incorporated into the picture!

This was intended as a novel way to raise awareness of climate change and the technologies of the future as they might apply to people’s everyday lives, and resulted in some fascinating (and occasionally downright bizarre) conversations, which were noted by the PhD students from the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) Bioenergy on a survey form to inform the rest of the project.

James will be repeating the exercise at the Ilkley Literature Festival on 13 October.

Image: engineering student Samantha Sime in front of James Mckay’s painting of people in Hull and their vision of a low carbon future