The Earth Hour last Saturday had a noticable effect on the energy consumption in Helsinki area, saving electricity an amount equal to power generated by 5 windmills.

Some of the press articles were saying that this was a 'weak' result for this campaign. Maybe they missunderstood the point of the event (a symbolic, collective ritual rather than a concrete solution to our energy issues) or perhaps they are wishing for an event with more impact - such as 'Turn of Your Heating Day'. In Helsinki area, heating takes 3/4 of all energy consumption and electricity 1/4. Out of electricity consumption, lighting is usually only 15-17%. So saving 5 windmills of power is perhaps not that bad result after all.

Pixelache09 is this year collaborating with Helsingin Energia, the largest energy company in Helsinki, and third largest electricity provider in Finland. We are looking for artists and designers to propose artworks that would utilize the real-time data provided by Helsingin Energia, or would address the energy consumption issue in some other way. We would like to help in realising an artwork that would be permanently (or semi-permanently) visible in  public space in Helsinki and/or as an online project.... Or would have some other form, we are completely open for suggestions. The Pachube workshop tomorrow on Thursday can provide some useful tools for this.

You can come and meet our collaborator Martti Hyvönen (environmental director of Helsingin Energia) on Friday 3 April (the opening event in Lasipalatsi, 17-19) or in the Art, Science & Ecology seminar on Saturday 4 April afternoon.