a_me

In a Public Space

2009-01-04T00:35:00.000-08:00

"In a Public Space" is a website set up to organise some acts of urban guerilla activity. Basically you leave strange objects in public places and then record them on the website.

Is this just littering or creating "urban follies" (like the Shoefeti)?

Is this too organised for something that should be random?

All of these questions will get answered. The website is only new and the posted photos are of the items - but not in-situ, so it's not very entertaining yet. I'll be watching though ... let's hope it works out. It should be a lot of fun if it does.

Shoefiti and Shoes Trees

2008-12-21T16:34:00.000-08:00

According to Wikipedia, "Shoe flinging or "shoefiti" is the American and Canadian practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables."

I love shoes strategically tossed (especially on mass) so that they become urban follies. I like it when people write their own stories into the landscape through acts like this. Every-time you walk past that pair of shoes you threw up in a tree it will trigger your memory.

After the "shoe throwing incident" with Bush, there has been alot of interest in shoe throwing and what it means to us in the "western" world. Socyberty explores this issue and looks into the act of "Shoefifi" and Shoes Trees. Here are some of the featured pics:

Photo credit

Unslient Night

2008-12-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

Unsilent night happened in Melbourne and Sydney this year! Next year Brisbane?? I wish.

Unslient night is described as,

Phil Kline's free outdoor participatory sound sculpture of many individual parts, recorded on cassette tapes, CDs and Mp3s, and played through a roving swarm of boomboxes carried through city streets. Bring your own boombox and drift peacefully through a cloud of sound that is different from every listener's perspective.

Check out the website for more information.

These are some pics from Melbourne from the Unsilent Night Melbourne 07 Flikr!

Street with a View

2008-12-11T04:27:00.000-08:00

I love Google Street View, it really has helped in my job (although some Landscape Architects might get lazy and feel that don't need to visit a site anymore). I like that it reinforces what I've seen or enables me to find something I've missed.

There is, however one other thing I love about Street View and that is all the crazy stories you hear, like the man who was caught cheating on his wife, the house that was on fire ...

I think this is why I love this art project so much! "Street with a view" uses the Street View format (static images in a 360degree environment that you move through to get an idea of the place) but it adds some more excitement, some fictitious stories. They set up a marching band, a sword fight, a rescue and much more.

Check it out...

Next site my street pls?!

Wi-fi in our landscape

2008-12-11T04:07:00.000-08:00

As a Landscape Architect I cannot wait until the Built Environment Profession really acknowledges Wi-fi technology and embraces its potential. I think something like this is a start...

Desk by Life Goods found on Design Boom

In saying this I should note that there is one stand out structure in Brisbane that incorporates Wi-fi and that is the State Library of Queensland. City of Sound recently blogged about it. Hill comments that modern urban / industrial activity is quite invisible (Wi-Fi laptop use); it isn't like the thick black plumes of smoke that used to be associated with industrial activity.

Also while your reading the article make sure you scroll down and check out the 3D mapping of the Wi-fi's signal strength!

Herdshare

2008-12-08T23:34:00.000-08:00

Similar to the Landshare concept is Herdshare. The bonus of Herdshare is that it is in my home town, Brisbane!

The website explains the concept:

Consumers pay a farmer a fee for boarding their cow, (or share of a cow), caring for the cow and milking the cow. The cow share owner then obtains (but does not purchase) the milk from his/her own cow. This arrangement is similar to arrangements of owning a share in a crop, racehorse or a bull.

Found on Map Magazine: Street Editors

Now on Tumblr

2008-12-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

Check me out on Tumblr - http://a-me.tumblr.com/

Holidays

2008-11-08T01:08:00.000-08:00

Hi,

I won't be blogging for a little while. I'm going on a holiday to Thailand for 3 weeks.

I'll blog more when I get back. I'll try to twitter as much as I can. Check me out at http://twitter.com/a_me1

Cheers,

A_me

Landshare

2008-10-30T17:59:00.000-07:00

Landshare is a UK initiative. Basically you can nominate to have someone grow vegetables in your yard, grow vegetables in someone's yard, find land for planting or act as a facilitator.

The pictures tell it all ...

Thanks for finding this one Tessa! (check out her fashion blog here)

Moving Bench

2008-10-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

At work we've been designing some outdoor furniture that is moveable. These furniture items are usually for spaces that may have large events some days but can be used for day-to-day activities other times. Two birds, one stone that sort of thing. Anyway our furniture is all shmick and the wheels are hidden and locks are carefully place. However, I think this is a more appropriate solution... but that's just my opinion.

Found on Today and Tomorrow.

Rainbow patchwork: Tulip farm

2008-10-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

At first glance, it looks like a giant child armed with a box of crayons has been set loose upon the landscape.

Vivid stripes of purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green make up a glorious technicolour patchwork.

Yet far from being a child's sketchbook, this is, in fact, the northern Netherlands in the middle of the tulip season.

With more than 10,000 hectares devoted to the cultivation of these delicate flowers, the Dutch landscape in May is a kaleidoscope of giddy colours as the tulips burst into life.

Quote from Daily Mail.

Photos from Daily Mail.

Found on SwissMiss.

Yvette Molina

2008-10-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

These paintings by Yvette Molina remind me of petri dishes. To me it's like the mould has grown to form shapes we recognise as landscape elements.

According to her website Yvette Molina "creates work that is both a celebration of nature as well as an invitation to consider its fragility." This is her current work at the Johansson Projects in Oakland.

Found on BldgBlog

Kongjian Yu interview

2008-10-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

There is a recent interview with Kongjian Yu on the ASLA website. He is such a positive advocate for Landscape Architecture. I really like his approach of creating spaces for survival not for ornament.

He says:

[Landscape Architecture] should address the issue of survival, not pleasure making, or ornament. It should be for survival, because we are now, as human beings, at the edge of survival. Especially in China, we are at the edge of survival. We have a serious shortage of water, and our water's been polluted. 70 percent of our surface water has been polluted. And the underground water is dropping. We are at the edge of survival, because we all have only 7 percent of natural resources - water, energy – but we have to take care of 20 percent of the world population. That's an issue of survival.

Healthy cities

2008-10-20T21:49:00.000-07:00

Density is important and I believe its key to a sustainable and healthy cities and so is the reduction of cars. Our polluted cities are having a great impact on our health. I’ve always known that pollution is causing more respiratory problems (I’m an asthmatic) and now I am reading it is having a negative impact on our smell and our hearing.

An article from Ruters talks about some research that scientists are doing at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM). The study is of how the pollution in Mexico City is negatively affecting the inhabitant’s sense of smell. Mexico City has 20 million people with about 4 million cars and its residents apparently cannot smell odors like coffee and orange juice as in comparison to residents of a nearby town (Reuters). Although this might be bad for coffee sales, the real problem is that these residents find it harder to detect the scent of rotten food. This is something that Hudson, the senior research scientist tested. She states, “We were able to see at what point … they would start to reject the contaminated sample, say ‘ew yuck! No! take it away please.’ ”

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders states that city traffic noise can be 85 decibels and that long or repeated exposure to sounds at or about 85 decibels can cause hearing loss. We are exposed to the sound of traffic and we are loosing our hearing.

The sounds of our cities are not just having an impact on our hearing but are affecting animals also. New Scientist (March 2008) had an article about the absence of the sweet sound of bird calls which have been replaced by “abrupt, high-pitched and sometimes ear-piercing” bird calls (New Scientist, March 2008). The birds have to adapt to the noise of the city by making louder more noticeable noises.

We need to make our cities more dense, have more reliable, efficient and cheap public transport and make necessary facilities a walkable distance. This will make it easier to rely on our cars less which will then make our cities less polluted and less noisy.

White House Redux

2008-10-20T02:55:00.000-07:00

I just received my copy of "White House Redux" sent from New York all the way to Brisbane, Australia. I really recommend it. The "White House Redux" was a competition run by Storefront for Art and Architecture. Entrants reflected on the statement "What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today?"

I had a look at the winning entries on the website, however they really didn't stand out for me until I saw them in print. The winning entry made no sense until I could sit down with a book in my lap and see it.

The only negative comment about the book is that it's pages are made from newspaper paper, which meant I got black finger prints all over the back cover! However the cost saving would have been great, making the book more affordable, it was possibly recycled paper and has made the book thinner than if it was other paper. So I guess what I am saying is making it out of newspaper paper has its pros and cons.

Barcode Designs

2008-10-15T00:44:00.001-07:00

From fubiz.

Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty

2008-10-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

I just found out its "Blog Action Day" today and the theme is poverty. I didn't know about it until today. I'm not really prepared, so I'll keep it simple with a quote:

A person who has plenty of food has many worries, a person who has no food has only one
- Chinese Proverb

Interactive lighting display

2008-10-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Photos by Dobpler Interactive LED system

"…pass through the pedestrian subway, notice the trace you leave behind. Stop for a minute, watch and play. Rediscover your own shadow, - do like the kids, play shadow theater, become an illuminated star for an evening. Two people approaching from opposite directions will experience their light shadows melting together, disappearing into a sc-fi inspired intimacy for a few seconds before reproaching." - Dobpler Interactive LED system

Also check out the video!

It's a shame its only in one little tunnel. Let's see it take up a whole wall!! However its a great solution to a (probably) unsafe area.

Banksy's Latest

2008-10-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Banksy's latest ...

"This one is not a mural but an installation: a mock pet supply shop, filled with animatronic creatures like a rhesus monkey and would-be creatures like fish sticks swimming in a tank. The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill, as the green awning reads, is Banksy’s first official exhibition in New York, his representatives say, and it will be open to the public daily through Oct. 31."
New York Times

Photo: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

Found via: New York Times.

My opinon:
I think this art show would be something that would maybe impact your kids and maybe get them to question their food, however for me it's just obvious. Maybe I'm just too "in to" organic food and yet aware that people chow down on the processed crap. It does show a bleak future (or even present) where our food isn't natural and the way we treat livestock is not right, however the exhibition doesn't feel edgy or new. However I am looking at photographs I haven't actually seen the exhibition.

I love Banksy's edgy street art, not such a fan of these pieces. I think he wanted to really make a statement about "our relationship with animals and ethics and the sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing." (Banksy said in a statement distributed by his publicist) It sounds cute, maybe not shocking. It's a good issue to address, but I'll be surprised if it changes any attitudes. (However I'll be really happy if it does!)

Tara Donovan - Installation Art

2008-10-14T01:07:00.000-07:00

New York Times writes:
Ms. Donovan, 38, who recently won a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation “genius” award, has drawn attention over the last decade for her ability to transform huge quantities of prosaic manufactured materials — plastic-foam cups, pencils, tar paper — into sculptural installations that suggest the wonders of nature. The retrospective will include many of the works that made her name, like the series “Bluffs” (2006), which she created by gluing hundreds of thousands of clear shirt buttons together into craggy peaks that recall white coral reefs or stalagmites.

Photo: Ellen Labenski/Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

Photo: Kerry Ryan McFate/Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

Photo: © Tara Donovan, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York

To see a slide show of Donovan's work go to New York Times.

Slides - My America Travels

2008-10-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up my desktop at work and I realised I've never really shown anyone the "slides" I put together from my trip around America that I went on this time last year.

I created them by doing a google image search for "slides" (I apologise, I can't find the original any more), then cutting out the original slide photos and then pasting in mine. I then hand wrote messages about some of the photos, scanned that and added them to the slides.

I like how it turned out. It has been a way for me to share the photos and to give people a quick download of where I went. I also love slides, my grandfather has such a huge collection, most of them of landscapes of places he's visited on his travels.

Galaxy Zoo

2008-10-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

I just found this website (I am sure to everyone else it's old news ...). It's Galaxy Zoo. Basically you help by classifing galaxies so that scientists can get results even faster!! It's another example of "Crowd Sourcing" put to good use.

How do you help?
Your job is very simple! All you need to do is look out for the features that mark out spiral and elliptical galaxies. In fact, as you're a human and not a computer, most galaxies should be easy to classify since they're obviously spirals or obviously ellipticals.

Unfortunatley the time has run out to look at new galaxies however you can still help by checking the results!!

Elliptical Galaxy

Spiral Galaxy

New Heading Image

2008-10-12T23:48:00.001-07:00

My new heading uses the font "Type the Sky" by Lisa Rienermann. I love it - I have a fascination with watching clouds and I love urban "terrain vague"-like spaces.

Found on SwissMiss.

Fantasy house?

2008-10-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

Anybody else dreamed of jumping off a balcony into your own pool?

Well (depending on the depth of the pool) this house comes close to fulfilling that fantasy; it features a pool on it's ground floor.

Arch Daily says:
The property, of 8×8 meters on two floors and an attic, has a single facade in a narrow and dark street facing north and a tight corridor of 2×2 at the end. And it is in that area at the end of the plot, at the height of the attic and facing south, where one can find the ‘the best’ part of the house: wonderful and bright views of the roofs of Madrid’s historic center. That will be the spot from which to bathe the house with sunlight; arriving from the street and into that space will be the reward. In this way, from the dark entrance one reaches a luminous lookout with privileged views.

Found on Arch Daily.

Zoe Murphy - Recycled Furniture

2008-10-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

From Murphy's exhibit at TENT London. Check out her website.

Inahbitat says:
Every item from Zoe’s collection is hand crafted and unique. By re-working and upcycling mid 20th century furniture Zoe offers a new lease of life to these otherwise forgotten gems. She then hand prints colourful images of her home town Margate on to scraps of wedding dress silk to give a fresh and contemporary aesthetic. Zoe graduated this summer from Loughborough University with a first degree in Printed Textiles.

Found on Inhabitat.

Greenhouse

2008-10-05T04:22:00.000-07:00

"Melbourne is set to witness an Australian first in sustainable design and innovation with the launch of Greenhouse by Joost, a temporary structure that will act as an exhibition and event space over the Spring and Summer period of 2008|09 and is built entirely from recycled and recyclable materials."

Check out Greenhouse by Joost.

Found on map mag.

Amazing Tattoo Paintings by Shawn Barber

2008-10-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

By Shawn Barber. Check out his website here.

Found on Abduzeedo.

Extremely Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB)

2008-10-05T03:41:00.000-07:00

Extremely Drug Resistant TB (XDR-TB). Stop the global pandemic. Go to http://www.xdrtb.org .

"This is a race between the ability of a deadly, mutated bacteria to spread, and our ability to spread awareness first. Health authorities know what needs to be done, but politicians and the public at large don't have XDR-TB on their radar." - http://www.xdrtb.org

Family tree for humanity

2008-09-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

Geneticist Spencer Wells was, "Invited to speak at the TED conference in 2007, Spencer explains how he has concluded that all humans, alive today, are descended from one single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 to 90,000 years ago."

You can see the TED talk at Street Editors.

... Spencer will head the National Geographic Society’s multiyear Genographic Project, which uses DNA samples to trace human migration out of Africa. This is a five-year research that aims to analyse genetic patterns in DNA from participants all over the world. This is the really exciting part – anyone can be a part of the experiment by ordering a kit. Proceeds from the kit will go to indigenous conservation and revitalisation projects across the globe.

The Test:
With a simple and painless cheek swab you can sample your own DNA and submit it to the lab. Genographic Project run one test per participation kit. It will test either your mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down each generation from mother to child and reveals your direct maternal ancestry; or your Y chromosome (males only), which is passed down from father to son and reveals your direct paternal ancestry. You choose which test you would like administered.

The results:
Will reveal your deep ancestry along a single line of direct descent and show the migration paths they followed thousand of years ago.

I was drawn to this TED Talk because a friend recently told me that there is a new theory out – that everybody is from China. Was this Olympics hype, fiction or fact? With no expertise on the subject, I’ve started to do my own research and Spencer’s Ted Talk was a good start. This is an amazing project and in the near future, I will definitely be ordering my kit and will keep you informed of the results. It just shows, in all our diversity, we are truly connected.

See more at Street Editors.

I want to buy a swab for my brother to trace my family's Y chromosome, do you think it would make a good gift?

Fictional Travel Posters

2008-09-29T01:47:00.001-07:00

by Steve Thomas

by Amy Martin

From Ministry of Type.

Catching Cow Gas

2008-09-29T01:40:00.001-07:00

Like all of my links, this is one that I have been talking about with friends and family. I think I was talking about it to mum, so this one is posted for her.

Photo from Inhabitat.

The methane collecting tanks were utilized by Argentina’s National Institute for Agricultural Technology as part of a a study to determine the atmospheric impact of methane released by cows. The findings were startling, as researcher Guillermo Berro estimated that “30% of Argentina’s total greenhouse gases could be generated by cattle.”

From Inhabitat.

Although I don't think we'll see a field of cows with pink backpacks, apparently you can see a field of cows all facing in a north-south direction. According to Neatorama cows follow earth's magnetic lines and Google Earth is the reason we've found this!

Spans exhibition

2008-09-29T01:38:00.001-07:00

Some images from the Spans exhibition, London, as featured on Design Boom.

'Crossings’ (Hooke Park, Dorset) by Architectural Association Custerson Award

Image credit: Sue Barr

'Eel Net Bridge’ (London) by Hakes Assoiciates

Image credit: Hakes Assoiciates

‘Blue Boar Creek’ (Rochester Riverside, Kent) by Birds Portchmouth Russum

Image credit: Birds Portchmouth Russum

Skipwaste

2008-09-29T01:35:00.001-07:00

Skipwaste by Oliver Bishop-Young @ Deezeen website

Most of these photos are from Oliver's second project involving skips. In this project he turns skips into parks. Inspiration for PARK(ing) Day next year??

Photos from Dezeen.

Golden T-shirt

2008-09-29T01:21:00.001-07:00

I want this so bad!! Friends, family go to Rumplo.

Questions about earth

2008-09-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

Newscientist has an article Unknown Earth: Our planet's seven biggest mysteries . The seven mysteries are:

How come Earth got all the good stuff?

What happened during Earth's dark ages?

Where did Earth's life come from?

Why does Earth have plate tectonics?

What is at the centre of the Earth?

Why is Earth's climate so stable?

Can we predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?

Brisbane Girls Grammar Facade

2008-09-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

This is the Brisbane Girls Grammar building off the Inner City Bypass. Whenever I am traveling on the ICB the building distracts me and I can imagine that it will (if it hasn't) cause some accidents.

However I don't know anything about the facade - the website City of Sound has a bit of information about it.

Photos from City of Sound.

Earth not a perfect sphere ...

2008-09-29T01:01:00.001-07:00

I just listened to an interesting show from the ABC Science Show on Radio National.

Marek Ziebart spoke about the implication of Earth not being a perfect sphere. The summary of the show states:

The Earth isn't a sphere. It is flattened at the poles. These days, the Earth is measured from space. Sea level is measured by radar altimetry. The level of the sea changes by different amounts in different places. Some areas of Sumatra have seas which are rising at a rate of 30mm/year. Other areas in the Pacific are dropping by 20mm/year. A new mission, to be launched in October 2008 aims at measuring the Earth's gravity field from space in very fine detail. This will provide a reference point from which future changes can be measured.

Also check out Lawrence Krauss who talks about a number of current interesting science issues.

Michel de Broin

2008-09-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

Art by Michel de Broin

Superficial

Dead Star

Black Whole

Found on Neatorama.

Giant Spider - Liverpool

2008-09-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Photos from Mail Online

ABC's Science Show talked about this giant spider an engineered art piece, on their 21 September show. Check out the show click here.

Facts about the spider (from the Mail Online article):
- 50ft high, 37 tons
- Made from wood and steel
- It took 1 year to make and cost £1.8million
- Its top speed is 2mph
- It took a cast and crew of 340 to make it
- 100 of which were engineers
- It has 7 different effects such as flame, smoke, wind, snow, light and sound

PARK(ing) Day Brisbane 2008

2008-09-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Emerging Professionals group at work participated in this years PARK(ing) Day on 19 September. PARK(ing) Day is an annual event which started in San Francisco in 2005. This year was its first year in Brisbane and there was an impressive 47 parks throughout the whole city.

PARK(ing) Day history: The event dates back to 2005, when REBAR (a San Francisco-based art collective) transformed a metered parking spot into a park. The group installed a temporary park that provided nature, seating, and shade and provided 24,000 square-foot-minutes of public open space for an afternoon. What began as a simple, playful idea has become a lively and visible symbol of the desire to reprogram the street and increase public open space in cities all over the planet.

This year our park celebrated public space. It was a place people could spontaneously enter, sit in, chat in, eat in … and it stood out! The whole park was made from recycled yellow trace that had been scrunched, torn, crumpled and collaged to create the features of the park.

The Emerging Professionals have been trying to find a way that yellow trace can be recycled in Australia; currently our research has not yielded any results. So the yellow trace was re-used to create the park and the seats and cushions are still being used in the Brisbane office.

PARK(ing) Day Brisbane - we paid for our parking so we are using the parking space however we want.

Visitors to the park

Our parking space getting chalked by the very nice Parking Inspector (we asked him to chalk our park just for fun).

A car parking behind our space.

Eating fish and chips in the park.

At the end of the day the Emerging Professions had a great time chatting to curious onlookers, being approached by very friendly parking inspectors and relaxing in a space that would ordinarily be used by a single car for only some of the day. We learnt a lot from the experience and we look forward to participating in future years.

I would like to thank all of the EDAW Brisbane office for their support.

I would also like to thank Yen (Brisbane PARK(ing) Day organiser), Mrs. Bergs, Jim Grey, Ryan Deslandes, James, Tallulah Grey, all of the QUT students that sat in the park and the Queensland Government staff who are interested in making PARK(ing) Day bigger and better next year.

To find out more about all the parks in Brisbane go to http://brisbaneparkingday.blogspot.com/

New Orleans 100

2008-09-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

Good things that have happened since Katrina ... Link.

Guerilla Street Signs

2008-09-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

There's gurellia gardening, knitting, art ... now there's guerilla street signs. The Glenn Group placed signs such as this all over downtown Reno.

Link via Neatorma.

Book art

2008-09-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

Again more book art. I love it!

This week both Environmental Grafitti and Weburbanist has articles about Book Art.

from Environmental Grafitti

from Weburbanist

Architectures of Control

2008-09-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

Image from Boing Boing.

This blog about "Discriminatory Architectures" is a fantastic resource.

I'm always apauled by the seats in my home town that were specifically installed with arm rests that stop anyone from sleeping on them. It's down right inhummane!

The blog has some interesting other cases such as the steps in Surey, Sutton that are being made more "uncomfortable" to stop the youth hanging around.

The news article says:

An area in Rosehill, known locally as “the steps”, is to be re-designed to stop young people sitting there.

Not only will the steps be made longer and more shallow to make them uncomfortable to sit on, but no handrail will be installed just in case teens decide to lean against it.…

Explaining the need for the changes, St Helier Councillor David Callaghan said: “At the moment the steps are like ready-made seats so changes will be made to make the area less attractive to young people."

But if that's made you feel sick like me, go to Project for Public Spaces and see what the right actions are for creating public spaces!

Kinetic Wind Sculptures

2008-09-03T05:40:00.001-07:00

Theo Jansen's sculptures. See article @ Inhabitat.

Windshape - by nArchitects

2008-09-03T05:30:00.001-07:00

Find out much more @ Arch Daily

LED lights in a jar

2008-09-03T05:24:00.000-07:00

Quick, easy, functional and cute! Found out how to make one @ Evil Mad Scientist.

Sea urchin

2008-09-03T05:05:00.000-07:00

Sea urchin made from pencils.

By Jennifer Maestre.

Found @ Boing Boing.

Guerrilla Gardening Guides

2008-09-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

WebEcoist has two great articles about Guerilla Gardening:

Beginner's Guide to Guerilla Gardening

12 Steps to Guerilla Gardening

La Tomatina

2008-09-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

These are some fantastic images of the La Tomatina - via WebEcoist

WebEcoist says:

Once a year, tens of thousands of tourists gather in a town in Spain to hurl over one hundred tons of overripe tomatoes … all in just one hour. When the festival is called to a halt fire houses are used to clean the streets as well as the participants. For this brief but amazing food fight the size of the town quadruples, drawing visitors from all over the world to participate in the largest spaghetti sauce bath of all time.

Check out more about it at the Wiki Page.

Alphabet Trucks

2008-08-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

From a book by Eric Tabuchi. Link here.

Found @ Swissmiss.

HOTLINKS

2008-08-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Each week at work a different "Emerging Professional" puts together a publication of the websites collected for the week by people in the office. This week was my turn ...

This is how it looked overall as a pdf. The viewer could then zoom in and click on the image to take them to the website. These are the zoomed in letters ...

You can click here.

You can click here for the top one,

and click here for the bottom one.

You can click here.

You can click here.

You can click here.

You can click here.

You can click here for the top one,
and click here for the bottom one.

Banksy

2008-08-26T20:56:00.001-07:00

Just 'cause I love Banksy.

From Art of the State.

Privacy

2008-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

Hasan Elahi in his 2007 interview on Studio 360 said, in regards to sharing information over the internet;

If we do not take control of our information and define ourselves, other people will define us, for us.

I know this is one reason I have a facebook account and a blog, I want to define myself, before someone else does. But it does take away the anonymity a person has - but with "Big Brother" watching who is anonymous?

This all reminds me of a piece by Banksy which has always stuck in my head, it's from his Barely Legal exhibition and found on Vinyl Pulse. It plays with the saying coined by Wahol - "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."

Shipping Container Homes

2008-08-26T20:13:00.000-07:00

Weburbanist has a great article all about Shipping Container Homes - it's almost an "how to guide". Something interesting from the article:

... most containers are made of metal which makes them sturdy even when stacked - not to mention resistant to weather, fires, and other natural (and unnatural) elements.

Check it out.

Lightmark and QUT design talks

2008-08-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke of Lightmark have the most amazing photography on their website. Found via Neatorama.

And while I am on the topic of phenomenal photography, last night I attended QUT's Tuesday night lecture series and Ian Weir spoke about "Camera Obscura". I'm still trying to get my head around it, so I've been reading an article by Jack and Beverly Wilgus.

Anyone who is in Brisbane over the next few months should check out these Tuesday night talks! Details are on the SLQ website and QUT website.

Wind Turbine - the New Fashion Must-Have

2008-08-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

An article by New York Times states that the Wind Turbine is "fashionable". It states that,

You can almost hear Heidi Klum telling the “Project Runway” contestants, “Your next challenge, designers, is to create an outfit for a wind turbine, fashion icon!”

It just goes proves that going green for some is just fashion. Hopefully the message of sustainable design continues long after the next fad comes along.

Personally I'd like to see wind turbines reflecting the cultural vernacular of the place they are situated. Why can't we see a version in Australia that is inspired from the old steel wind turbines we used to see on farms?

Photo by A Mad Farmer on Flickr

Sunrise or Sunset

2008-08-20T05:10:00.000-07:00

Adam West from Map Mag has published an article querying whether you can tell if its sunrise or sunset from photographs. I can tell you, that I can't tell from the pics.

I wonder if it's the same in real life. Maybe you could catch a plane to some obscure country in the world, not look at the time when you arrive and step out and have to guess if its sunrise or sunset. Hmmm ...

Check out the article and pics @ Map Mag

Melting Men

2008-08-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

Photo: Nele Azevedo

Photo: Lemoox [Flickr]

Art installation by Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo.

Found @ Neatorama

Filming the Diving

2008-08-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how they film the diving? - they drop the camera. Find out more @ The Wall Street Journal.

Found @ Neatorama.

The Daily Figure

2008-08-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Check out these beautiful figure drawings by Kyle T Webster @ The Daily Figure

Also take a look at his prints, t-shirts etc. for sale @ Kyle Webster.

Found @ Swissmiss.

"Eat the View"

2008-08-16T18:26:00.002-07:00

" "Eat the View" is a campaign to plant healthy, edible landscapes in high-impact, high visibility places ..."

They are even hoping the next President will plant a vegetable garden in the front lawn of the White House.

There is actually a history to agricultural pursuits in the White House lawn -

John Adams, the first president to live in the White House, had a garden to feed his family; Woodrow Wilson had a Liberty Garden and sheep grazing during the First World War and the Roosevelts famously had their Victory Garden during World War II, a time when 40 percent of the nation’s produce came from citizen gardeners.

Next Nature

Find out more @ Eat the View

Found via Next Nature

Geometric Hot Springs

2008-08-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Architects: German del Sol
Location: Villarica National Park, Villarica, Chile
Project team: José Luis Ibañez G., Carlos Venegas, José Instroza

Found @ Arch Daily

A human being should be able to ...

2008-08-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- robert anson heinlein

Found @ Swissmiss

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

2008-08-14T05:50:00.000-07:00

Found @ Laughing Squid

Noriko Ambe

2008-08-14T05:20:00.000-07:00

Noriko Ambre, another artist cutting into book to make beautiful, topographic-like sculpture. Amazing.

She says,

So to speak, I have been mapping the mysterious land between physical and emotional geography.

When I am drawing or cutting lines, I am interested in observing the power of the changing growing shape. This dynamic shape becomes an entity in itself, "Another geography." In a sense, the empty space is myself, and the materials represent the present world.

Found @ swissmiss.

"I met the Walrus"

2008-08-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Studio 360

2008-07-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

Did you know that it is really painful for butterflies when they are changing during metamorphosis? Isn't it interesting that I always thought it would be painless to become something more beautiful. Hear more about this discovery and the art inspired by it at Studio 360.

And while I am talking about it I am very addicted to Studio 360 international radio. I've been listening to the archives. I've only just finished listening to the shows of 2008. Some outstanding talks of 2008, to me, are:

- Being a romantic I love hearing how Kurt came to NY and met his wife in "Willing to be lucky". (from the 18 July 2008 show).

- "Bell Labs" (from the 4 July 2008 show).

- "Cityside Waterfalls" - about the waterfall 'installation' in NY (from the 27 June 2008 show)

- Also from the 27 June 2008 show I was really interested in the "Holy Viral Marketing, Batman!" and "Vanity Cardshark"

- "Edible Estates" (and I'm reading the book right now) (from the 13 June 2008 show)

- Who isn't interested in the Hadron Collider?? - Find out lots more from scientists and fiction writers at the 23 May 2008 show.

- Haha "My Speech to the Martians" was hilarious, however strong language warning (from the 16 May 2008 show)

- All of the "Creative Minds Go Green", the 18 April show (William McDonough speaks!), all of the "Art and Autism" show, the 28 March show and particularly all of the "Nikola Tesla: Strange Genius" show - Tesla sounds like a mad scientist (from the 25 Jan. show).

- I also very very much enjoyed "Synethseia" (1 Feb.), "Heddy Lamar" (20 June) and "Teddy Cruz" (13 June) and I want to explore these all in other blog entries.

Weburbanist - Abondonded spaces

2008-07-28T23:42:00.000-07:00

The Weburbanist blog has been publishing some great stories about abandoned spaces including:

20 Astonishing Abandoned Buildings, Property and Other Places from Around the World
20 Abandoned Cities from Around the World: Deserted Towns and Other Derelict Places
Abandoned Buildings, Places and Property
Also see Weburbanist's archive of "abandoments".

The photos and stories are amazing! Here are some great photos.

Russian mannor

Kowloon walled city

Wittenoom, Australia (yes Australia! I had no idea).

Felice Varini

2008-07-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

Amazing art forms on buildings that play with perspective.

These shapes only make sense when you witness them in the right perspective. Varini's website illustrates a truely dedicated artist to this style.

Thanks for finding these Lorna.

Zulmira

2008-07-28T05:14:00.001-07:00

I love this artist(s?) depiction of cities/urban forms and their use of negative/positive space, bleeding depictions, insane detail and play between fiction and reality.

The site is zulmira.

Wired Photo Contest: Cities

2008-07-28T05:14:00.000-07:00

Wired writes, "For our photo contest this week, we want to see photos from the grid. From dirty streets to pristine cityscapes, your assignment is: the city." These are my favs so far.

by Jim Merithew

"The Visitors" by Gordon Webster

"Baltimore Null 1" by Anonymous

"Seoul intersection" by Rune Boserup

Link Wired.

2008-07-28T05:07:00.000-07:00

os00 series by Onsite Studio.

Found @ girl in the green dress.

2020 Olympics

2008-07-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

It's nearly time for the 2008 Olympics. Here is a preview of the 2020 as predicted in 1979.

Link Paleo-Futures.

Paleo-future Cities

2008-07-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy the blog Paleo-future: a look into the future that never was. I particularly enjoy the cities of the "future" (as predicted in the past).

I think there are still some possibity in the sea-cities and space colony cities like these.

1954 undersea city prediction. I love the ocean life interacting and the little underwater cars.

1984 image illustrating the predicted future of agriculture.

However I find the cold, technological, automobile focused cities predicted chilling and sad. Why didn't we consider the value of open space and human interaction? One such example on the site is this "Experimental City":

1967 prediction of cities.

The Metropolis of Tomorrow. This looks alot like Gotham City. The smoking polluted depressed atmosphere and the hint of a dome structure simply scares me.

However no matter the prediction I think it is healthy to approach the design of future cities from an almost science fiction perspective. I take delight in such cities as the city predicted 10000 years from 1922.

Art from tape

2008-07-01T00:09:00.001-07:00

Mark Khaisman makes art from tape! It is certainly a unique style and he quite meticulous with detail.

Finding a way

2008-06-30T23:50:00.001-07:00

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz
It Finds a Way, 1996

Link.

It finds a way ...

This piece is really making me think of how we painstakingly design a place and people still "find a way" to use it differently - make it their own.

It makes me think of my favourite urban analyst William H. Whyte and his documentary The Social Life of Public Spaces. I remember there is a scene where moveable seats have been set up in an urban space and people start moving them, some people just move them a little, others distances away. One person is tracked and they move their seat multiple times until the end up at the beginning again. Nothing changed but they had to find a way to make the place their own, change their surroundings.

This piece reminds me of those desire line photos I posted. People find a way to take their preferred route.

Hmmm makes you think - should clever designers design urban spaces so that people can find their own way to make the space their own. Have people been already been doing this? How has it been done? Will we ever know? Could we be smart enough to design like this or will it always just be out of our control?

Foodscapes

2008-06-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a bit of fun. Landscapes made entirely out of food.

By Carl Warner.

Link Design you trust.

Life in flooded London

2008-06-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

Squint Opera explores the possibilities of life in the future if climate change does cause the sea levels to rise. They pictorially depict London flooded with it's occupants enjoying their life.

Link Inhabitat.

Water / Air context

2008-06-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

"Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc.

Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth."

Link via Boing Boing.

I think this is ingenious - it's amazing to see our precious resources in context ...

Walkway glimpse

2008-06-30T23:12:00.002-07:00

"A straight walkway, running alongside the railroad tracks, is surrounded by a landscape of native species that once grew spontaneously on the High Line, interspersed with new species that ensure bloom throughout the growing season."

Link to the New York walkway.

Thanks to Tessa for that find!

Origami for busy people

2008-06-30T23:12:00.001-07:00

I love origami - but this is about all I have time for these days ...

Great site.

Link Swissmiss.

Drain gardens

2008-06-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

These drain gardens are fantasic. There are located in West Village, New York. Link Boing Boing.

I attempted something like this but it didn't go so well - it needed a little more TLC, but with some modification (with suggestions from knowledgable neighbours) hopefully I can get something looking as good as this.

See my drain garden here.

MagCloud

2008-06-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

"Did you know the average sell-through rate for a magazine is about 30%? The sell-through rate is the rate which a given issue of a magazine will sell from a store. That means 70% of all printed magazines are just stopping by the newsstand on their way to the garbage dump or recycling center. All that time, work, and energy, just to make trash."
Quote's link.

Check out MagCloud.

"MagCloud enables you to publish your own magazines. All you have to do is upload a PDF and we'll take care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management, and more."
Quote's link.

Via swissmiss.

"The Battle over Central Park"

2008-06-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

There is a thought provoking article by the New York magazine. View it here.

The article is about the user conflicts in Central Park. The conflicts usually occur between the pedestrians, cyclists and dogs (and their owners). The poetic character of the article exclaims Central Park has become a "type-A battleground" and it generally sounds like everyone is blaming everyone else.

It is a very serious issue, in 2005 a homeless man was accidently hit by a cyclist and killed. I wonder if Olmstead would be blamed if he was still alive, today?

However what can really be gained from the article is an appreciation of the value of truly public open space in highly urbanised areas and the need for more of it.

Watch the plants grow ...

2008-06-24T17:07:00.000-07:00

ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) have built a green roof on their Washington, DC, headquarters.

They say:

“Because landscape architects are leading in the design of green roofs across the country, it was important for us to build a demonstration project and measure the impact green roofs have on their surrounding communities,” said Nancy Somerville, Executive Vice President and CEO of ASLA. “The findings show that our green roof delivered significant economic and environmental benefits.”

In 2006, ASLA replaced the conventional roof on its downtown Washington, DC headquarters with a green roof, installing equipment to gather data on stormwater runoff, water quality, and temperature.

Link

But what I find really interesting is that you can watch a live web cam of the plants growing. Check it out here. I couldn't see any time lapse pics though... so here is what I saw today ...

Also the 360 degree tour is lovely.

To continue the theme ...

2008-06-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

Walter Martin and Palima Munoz's

From the Island series:

Meanwhile Further South, 2007

The Orchard at Night, 2005

From the Travellers series:

Travelers, 2000-2006

Traveler 48 at Night, 2003

Link martin-munoz.

Inner city snail

2008-06-19T04:57:00.001-07:00

From the makers of little people comes - Inner city snail: A slow moving art project.

Little People.... a tiny street art project.

2008-06-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

Link to little people.

Found @ I like.

Clean Graffiti

2008-06-19T02:00:00.000-07:00

Link Reverse Graffiti Project

Jaunā Gaita

2008-06-19T01:49:00.000-07:00

Link Jaunā Gaita

Meanings and wiki

2008-06-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

Found two words I hadn't heard of before and I would like to use them one day ...

Ekistics - which applies to the science of human settlements. See wiki entry here.

Chiaroscuro - which means clear-dark in Italian and is an art term for teh contast between light and dark. See wiki here.

And yes I use wikipedia, I am a supporter of peer reviews (I am a blogger so that shouldn't be surprising). BUT everyone should see a great TED talk by Yochai Benklerm about Open-source economics!!

Curved bookcase

2008-06-13T23:26:00.001-07:00

Brazilian design firm Triptyque created for a private apartment in Sao Paulo.

Link Boing Boing.

Patching a wall with lego

2008-06-13T23:19:00.001-07:00

Jan Vormann went around an Italian town and patched walls with lego.

Link Boing Boing.

Wind Lighting

2008-06-13T21:27:00.001-07:00

Wind-Lit Solar LEDs by Yoshihiro Shimomura.

Link Inhabitat.

by Firewinder.

Link Inhabitat.

Botanical Gardens Medellin, Colombia

2008-06-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

Botanical Gardens at Medellin, Colombia

Links Inhabitat.

San-Zhr Pod Village

2008-06-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

San-Zhr Pod Village is an abandoned hotel development in the north coast of Taiwan constructed in the 1960s.

"The site was commissioned by the government and local firms and there is no named architect. Local papers at the time reported that there were numerous accidents during construction which caused the death of some workers. As news of these accidents spread, no one wanted to go there, even to visit, and the project was subsequently abandoned. The ghosts of those who died in vain are said to still linger there, unremembered and unable to pass on. The complex was left in its unfinished state because no amount of redevelopment will bring people to the area due to superstitions about ghosts, and it can’t be demolished because destroying the homes of spirits and lost souls is taboo in Asian culture." - File - A Collection of Unexpected Photography

Photographs by Craig Ferguson

2008-06-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Fred Astaire influenced Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal". This video remixes the song with dance sequences taken from the films The Band Wagon and Daddy Long Legs.

Link via Boing Boing.

Typographic / Topographic

2008-06-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Sarah King's Seven Foot.

Link Swissmiss.

Googlegängers

2008-05-28T01:14:00.000-07:00

The New York Times published an article about Googlegängers which are people who share your name (who you look up on Google). We all seem to have a facination with our name sakes. According to the article this facination this is because we are drawn to people and things that remind us of ourselves.

The article says:

"In “Finding Angela Shelton,” a book published this month, a writer named Angela Shelton describes her meetings with 40 other Angela Sheltons. Keri Smith, an illustrator, has posted drawings of six of her Googlegängers on her blog. There are name-tally Web sites like SameNameAsMe, and Facebook coalitions including nearly 200 people named Ritz (their insignia is a cracker box logo) and a group aiming to break a world record by gathering together more than 1,224 Mohammed Hassans."

Angela Sheltons (the writer is second from the right).