Schools and community groups in India and Scotland have joined together to put their best foot forward in an effort to highlight the climate crisis.
The result of their work is a playful, interactive digital art installation disguised as an online shoe shop which has been launched by the National Theatre of Scotland.
Millipede.shop is a series of digital art exhibits, relating to shoes and feet, that are displayed for visitors to discover. The artworks have been created through film, photography, sculpture, spoken word, poetry and song, reflecting personal responses to climate change and the participants’ carbon footprints.
Creators from schools and community groups in India and Scotland have stepped up and crafted their ideas out of whatever materials they have around them – in their homes, their backyards, and the limits of their imagination.
Each shoe design has also been paired with special analysis from leading scientists at Edinburgh Science, Scotland and Science Gallery Bengaluru, India, examining its materials, its lifecycle, and the footprint it will leave on the world.
Through this the Millipede creators hope to encourage would-be shoppers to think differently about their own carbon footprints and fire their imaginations in taking those first steps towards shaping a better world.
Lead artists Shona Reppe and Andy Manley said
For us Millipede is a ‘first step’ towards reducing carbon footprints – an anti-consumerist fantasy shoe shop to visit from the comfort of your own home.
Our aim is to encourage people to stop and think about their carbon footprints without lecturing or chastising. It has been a joy to curate these personal, thoughtful and fantastically creative contributions.
Hopefully this will be the first step for many in addressing what we have to do to protect our planet.
On 6 and 7 November members of the Millipede team, artists Sarah Rose Graber and Ruxy Cantir will be at the Landing Hub, 220 Broomielaw, Glasgow from 12 to 4pm meeting passers-by and measuring footprints. Customers will be invited to browse the online Millipede.shop collection of new and innovative designs created by individuals and communities across Scotland and India.
Image: NTS