Artist Mary Ellen Carroll to rotate house and property 180 degrees live on the Internet

CONTACT: David Ruth                                                                                                    
PHONE: 713-348-6327                                                                          
EMAIL: druth@rice.edu

Artist Mary Ellen Carroll to rotate house and property 180 degrees live on the Internet

“prototype 180,” a work of conceptual art by Rice University artist Mary Ellen Carroll, will rotate an entire property – the house, outlying structures and landscape – in Houston’s aging, first-ring suburb Sharpstown. In planning for 10 years, “prototype 180” is a reconsideration of monumentality that combines live performance, sculpture, architecture and technology.

The project will be streamed live online Friday, Oct. 8, in high-definition video using Rice-developed technology at www.prototype180.com. Carroll worked directly with William Deigaard, director of networking, telecommunications and data center operations at Rice, to develop the system. Viewers will see the transformation from many angles, including that of the house itself. The long-vacant home will be retrofitted as a model/laboratory for the application of innovative building and communication systems.

“prototype 180” is the centerpiece of Carroll’s Innovation Territories, an initiative co-sponsored by the Rice University Building Institute. Her desire is to give the project’s neighbors – in Sharpstown and, via the Web, around the world – an inside look at what it means to make architecture and building systems perform but where the process is a conceptual work of art.

“The structure will act as the protagonist,” Carroll said. “We will see the reaction to the process from the building’s perspective.”

Who: American artist Mary Ellen Carroll, a lecturer at the Rice School of Architecture, in collaboration with the Rice University Building Institute.

What: “prototype 180,” a ground-shifting exercise in monumental land art, architecture and performance.

When: Friday, Oct. 8, beginning at 4 p.m. CDT.

Where: 6513 Sharpview Drive, Houston. Live on the Internet at www.prototype180.com.

What viewers won’t necessarily see is the hard work Carroll and the community, which includes her students, have done over the years to prepare for this catalytic moment.

Carroll has worked extensively to bring the area to the attention of city, county and federal officials for the development of policy and the implementation of retrofitting programs for energy savings and communication technology. A hydroponic curtain wall, solar panels, geothermal heating and rainwater recycling are all part of the plan for 6513 Sharpview, and she hopes others will jump on the chance to turn their homes into energy-neutral, if not energy-negative, properties and revive Sharpstown’s standing as an innovative community.

The house, which will be renovated after the rotation and remain as a single-family home for possible use as a satellite of a new institute, will be fitted with cameras in the eaves so project partners at Rice, the Columbia University School of Architecture and the public can see the process from the building’s point of view and interact with it through a computer program that will be able to remotely control some elements. The area will eventually incorporate technology developed by Edward Knightly, a Rice professor in electrical and computer engineering and of computer science. Knightly’s Rice Networks Group is developing techniques for the deployment and management of large-scale urban mesh networks in underserved communities.

For information or to speak to Mary Ellen Carroll, contact David Ruth at 713-348-6327 or druth@rice.edu.