Matthew Mazzotta & Heather Clark P

Title: The Busycle Project

Location: Various cities across the US

The Busycle, a 15 person 100% pedal powered bus, runs solely on the energy of its passengers. Although driven by a Busycle driver, all passengers are required to pull their weight and pedal in their seats. The Busycle requires individuals to use their own will and physical strength to come together as a group to go from point A to B. By bringing the intersection of art and activism to the street, the Busycle asks the public to participate in a small movement. At the end of routes, story collection spaces have been constructed where everyone has the option of being a participant.  Storytelling is an extension of the unique dialogue that occurs between strangers as they pedal.

The Busycle was conceived by artists, Heather Clark and Matthew Mazzotta, during the summer of 2005 as part of an Artist in Research Residency at the Berwick Institute.  It has grown out of the efforts of over seventy volunteers.  Since then it has traveled the country. Its development, rides, and stories have been documented by videographers, Ann Adelsberger and Adam Cummins.

Heather Clark's (1978 - ) background in urban development and ecology is interwoven into her approach to sculpture, where she looks at urban infrastructure, making places, and the meaning of the built environment and its relation to nature. Her long term goal is to create neighborhood-scale art installations where people live in shelters that are 100% self-sufficient - producing all of their own energy and processing all of their own waste. Heather Clark holds a B.S. from Cornell University and a M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute for Technology.

Matthew Mazzotta (1977 - ) works almost exclusively with recycled, reused, donated and found materials in an effort to reveal the riches that lie around us. He has a long history of building bigger than life installations and often invites the public to help pull out the essence of an art piece. His current focus is building inhabitable structures that make zero energy accessible and aesthetic. Matthew Mazzotta holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is a Master's Candidate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Visual Studies.

Heather Clark and Matthew Mazzotta are both from Canton, New York, a small rural town in the North Country of New York State.