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December
28
2012
hi everyone, it has been a while. I recently made a ecojar for a friend. He goes to uc berkeley in norcal. it’s cold and cloudy there all the time, so he wants a piece of tropical rainforest on his dinning table.
the ecosystem was established and calibrated in june this year, and it was transported to berkeley … but in the last 6 month-ish, crazy stuff happened in there and the ecological dynamics slowly changed in this ecojar. it eventually turned into a swamp. so it is again, re-established and sealed. we will see what it will change into this time.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :- )testimony from a happy costumer:“Thank you for … the ecojar! It brings joy and light (literally) into our lives.”oh, the norcal weather haha- Permalink
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September
2some thoughts and a quick update
hi everyone,it has been a while since last time I updated you on everything. A lot happened lately, and so I didn’t put enough efforts into this organization. ecojar is failing … It’s a shame.For those of you who know me, I used to conduct research in plant physiology and that was how I developed ecojar. A few months ago, I switched to another field that directly engages various climate change issues and actively seeks solutions. During this major change, I did a lot of reading, thinking, and ted-talk-watching; not just about where this new path would lead me, but also about humans and our place in nature, how we got ourselves in this position today, and where we were heading to. There’s one thing that I have begun to fully understand, which I didn’t give much thought in the past, was that we got ourselves into the climate change mess today is because humans do not have the capability to foresee long-term consequences.In 1944 during world war ii, us coast guards established a radio system on st. matthew island and released 29 reindeers as emergency food. when the war was over, the soldiers left the island and it was no one’s responsibility to collect the reindeers. there were no predicators to the reindeers on the island (besides the soldiers) and it was full of their favorite food, lichen. Now forwarding to 1957, 13 years after the coast guards’ operation, biologist dave klein stepped onto the island and found roughly 1,300 reindeers. He returned 6 years later and found about 6,000 reindeers (that’s about 47 reindeers for every square mile). for those of you who still remember a concept from high school biology, carrying capacity of an ecosystem has its limits. so in 1966, when prof. klein returned to the island, he found 42 reindeers. In the next decade, reindeer was extinct on st.matthew island. The moral of the story is that no one blamed the reindeers for their inability of developing birth control methods or constructing canoe to move to another island … well, that’s because they are reindeers.
Now you might think, wait a minute I see where you are going with this, but we are humans… but perhaps we are just that stupid. History has shown us; that dude who chopped down the last tree on eastern island still did it, even though he probably could see the entire island at the time. we over-fish our ocean, we put a huge amount of greenhouse gases in the air, we emit air pollutes, we overpopulate the earth, we massively consume nonrenewable natural resources … we over-do everything to an extreme that the numbers we use to describe these things are incomprehensible to our mental capacities. it’s called “tragedy of the commons.”The solution to this problem is rather simple. all we have to do is fully realizing the long-term consequence of our action. so when the next time we decide to leave the front yard light on, we should relate that to arctic glacier melting, or how much warming it causes globally, or how much sea level rise it contributes… but it’s not easy to do. our current method of teaching ecology and ecosystem biology in k-12 is not effective in connecting our actions to the big picture, it does not show the long-term consequences. in a standard high school biology class, students do fun dna experiment, test their own blood type, study fossils of ancient organisms, but there’s hardly any education tool that could effectively convey the concept of ecology, the very concept that could guide us out of our current climate crisis mess, if we achieve a good understanding of it. currently the students are stuck with boring videos and figures for studying ecology.
each ecojar is a miniature ecosystem, it has all the basic but also important ecology concepts built in them. I have been making ecojar for almost 4 years and I think it’s time to put what I do the best to where it is needed the most. I will combine my skill in science communication with this organization to form a new branch. currently, ecojar is undertaking a major change and that is incorporating an educational tool branch into this organization. ecojar, from now on, is known as a form of art and an educational tool.
thanks for your attention.(Source: ecojarlab.blogspot.com)
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27
2011
e-catalog
the electronic catalog is here, check it out
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20
2011
new ecojars post #3
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20
2011
new ecojars post #2
to be continued
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20
2011
new ecojars post #1
to be continued
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20
2011
a special donation to the office of asuci.
front desk center piece.
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24
quick price list
every ecojar is different. the price depends on the complexity and size of each customized ecojar. please use the following price list as a reference when you make a purchase. for more information, please contact us at: ecojarlab@gmail.com
===> *click here for the quick price list* <===
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10
2011
“your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. they somehow already know what you truly want to become.”
— mr. steve jobs
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9
ecojars from the santa ana art walk
we want to take this opportunity to thank joni (http://www.jonirenee.com/) for inviting us to this awesome event. and thank you for those that showed up at our table.here are the ecojars we displayed at the event, hope you enjoy:
jack’s bottle
standard moss chamber #1 & #2
ecojar mini & eco mini-chamber
the temperate forest
the crystal layer
the treasure bottle
sand bowl
sand cylinder
sand dish
sand tube #1, #2 & #3
the island
the illuminance
twilight
the tall bottle
sand cup
santa ana art walk
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art walk in santa ana
ecojar by pan’s lab will be featured at the art walk in downtown santa ana
this saturday (augest 6th), we will be in
204 north broadway
santa ana, ca 92701
@ 7:00 p.m.
we will upload more pictures of the new ecojars. meanwhile in our lab, these ecojars are being closely monitored/calibrated for their last stage of the survival examination period.
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4
another round of ecojar making
here are some pictures from our current work space, keep your schedule open for this Saturday evening (august 6th). we will be selling ecojars at downtown santa ana. more specific location/time will be updated soon.
http://www.downtown-santaana.com/Event/first_saturdays_art_walk_-_august_6th
we purchased these phenomenal tropical pitcher plants tonight, yes, they are carnivorous …
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22
the reforestation festival
i want to thank joni r. for inviting me to her event and giving me this wonderful opportunity. and also thank you all who showed up at this event and stopped at our table. i’m a science guy who hangs out on the science side of our campus and so hanging out with very legit artists for the first time is very very cool to me.
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9
forests, faeries, and mudberries: a reforestation festival
we will be featuring our top-of-the-line terrariums at an upcoming event: “forests, faeries, and mudberries: a reforestation festival.” this event will also feature many other artists’ work, live music, free giveaways, and much more. the purpose of this event is to raise awareness and funding for reforestation of our planet. come to join us and have an awesome time for a good cause.
who/what/when/where:
Saturday, June 18 · 6:30pm - 11:00pm
Santiago Art District Art Walk
656 N Santiago Street, Santa Ana, CA 92701
(on the corner of Santa Ana Blvd and Santiago Blvd (park in the train station parking lot across the street - it’s free all night!)check out the event page on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185730848139978
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9
newspaper …
remember that art auction we went to a couple of weeks ago? … apparently we were reported by a college newspaper, many thanks to writer autri baghkhanian:
Jack P., a second-year earth and environmental sciences major and featured artist, describes himself as a “non-traditional artist.” Jack blends art and science to create self-sustaining terrariums – sealed ecosystems that contain the correct balance of plants, decomposers and water. When asked why he was selling his artwork, Jack replied “I had to move out and I decided, ‘hey, why don’t I just sell it?’” Although the materials and research for the terrariums were very costly, Jack set the asking price low because he recognizes the average student’s budget.
here’s the full article: http://www.newuniversity.org/2011/05/news/creative-compassion-through-art/
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