(small) creative initiatives that challenge (big) traditional ideas
• ( egoistic ) • activistic • architectural • audible • cinematic • conceptual • graphic • strategic • surface • urban • wireless
Posted by Sebastian on Jan 13, 2010
A Dutch character used in a TV program on climate change. Perhaps an idea for the next generation of comic heroes.
The Institute for Infinitely Small Things, a small performance troupe based in Boston, USA, proposes to not release at least 38,575 kilograms of CO2 into the air by not traveling to the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The amount of energy saved in fuel could feed 150 people for a year or power 325 60w lightbulbs turned on continuously for a year.
You help can help document this massive effort of local pleasure by contributing photos to Flickr with the tag "notgoingtocopenhagen".
• www.flickr.com/search/?q=notgoingtocopenhagen
The Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam recently came close to moving out of its historic building, designed by the legendary architect of the same name.
However, the plan (initiated by the academy's own management) was met with anger and was abandoned after students, x-students and other friends of the place, orchestrated a string of creative protests.
Some documentation is available on-line such as this visual petition, this t-shirt and this poster.
A blue line painted on the ground currently runs through Copenhagen's city center.
The line represents the capital's new waterfront if all the inland ice of Greenland were to melt, prompting water levels to rise by seven meters.
The line is a part of an art project called 'Water Knows No Walls' by the artists Haubitz + Zoche. The project takes part in the exhibition Rethink: Contemporary Art & Climate Change, which is one of many events taking place in Copenhagen these days as the city gets ready to host the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference.
If you want to know the potential consequences of rising sea levels in other parts of the world, you can use a map provided by Geology.com.
Posted by Sebastian on Nov 22, 2009
IdeAporting is a new online platform where users can share ideas and innovations that could be imported, exported or both between countries worldwide.
The platform promotes social sustainability and you can help shape and improve it by submitting cases from your own community. Something that may seem trivial to you could be a new and radical idea to someone else.
Cases collected so far range from Nike's ReUSE A SHOE initiative (picture) to a landsharing service in London.
TRASH: anycoloryoulike is a remarkable art intervention for urban beautification and environmental awareness.
The project is developed by the New York based artist Adrian Kondratowicz who created colorful trash-bags and distributed them to members of his local community.
By using the new bags instead of the traditional ones, the standard piles of trash on the streets were transformed into vivid sculptures of color.
The project has been a massive success and the community around it seems to be growing and spreading to other cities.
And naturally, the bags are 100% biodegradable.
A documentary-like video showing how to create sustainable graffiti.
As it says: "Fuck Roundup. Grassfitti can't be stopped."
"But what are we going to read?"
During Buy Nothing Day, adverts in a London tube train were replaced with white paper by The Space Hijackers - a group of anarchitects who oppose the way that public space is being eroded and replaced by corporate profit making space.
Related: Delete
The Canadian Center for Architecture in Montreal is currently running the excellent looking exhibition Actions: What You Can Do With the City.
The exhibition documents and presents 99 actions - or 'urban interventions' - that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world.
Common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition.
Two of my favorite actions included in the exhibition are (P)LOT by Michael Rakowitz and Football Field by Maider López (see images). The exhibition also includes the brilliant Camera Surveillance Players and the excellent PARK(ing) project by Rebar.
If you can't make it to Montreal, you can view the 99 actions on the exhibition website. The site also contains a user-generated section which makes it possible for anyone to submit their own actions. The most popular ones will be featured in the physical exhibition later on.
Simple DIY hack that solves a classic problem.
Contact: Sebastian Campion