(small) creative initiatives that challenge (big) traditional ideas
• ( egoistic ) • activistic • architectural • audible • cinematic • conceptual • graphic • strategic • surface • urban • wireless
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 13, 2008
www.aliensvote.org is a newly launched website that gives non-US Americans living in the US a chance to vote at the upcoming presidential election.
At least one out of every ten people living in the U.S. today is an alien. That’s approximately 29.1 million people; equal to the entire population of New York & New Jersey combined. But Despite contributing as much to society as most other Americans, they can’t voice their opinion in government elections.
In order to vote at aliensvote.org, you must live in the US and be able to verify your existence, which - like so many other things nowadays - is done via a cell phone number.
Related: Sell Your Vote A somewhat more conceptual and radical approach to the same topic.
Conflux:2008 #1
Sit Projects by Paola Mojica and Daniel Clapp is a series of service-oriented installations inspired by the pressing need for seats at bus and subway stops in New York.
The installations are based on disposed chairs that are recycled and placed at selected bus and subway stops.
By adding something practical and at the same time unique to the otherwise generic world of public transportation systems, the idea is not just to meet commuter's practical needs but also to create a situation for surprise and social interaction between commuters.
Conflux:2008 #2
For the Conflux Festival Lucas Murgida will construct a cabinet on wheels and leave it on the sidewalk. The artist will hide inside and not reveal himself until someone assumes possession and brings the cabinet to their home.
The cabinet will be in place west of the Center for Architecture and south of Washington Square Park on Saturday, September 13th, from noon onward. While in the cabinet he will be loading live feeds from his cell phone to Twitter.
Following the happening live could be an interesting and potentially nail-biting experience!
Nb. The cryptic title 9/10 refers to a quote-phrase saying that possession is 9/10 of the US-culture. And so, the project plays with the notion of ownership in public space.
• 9/10
Conflux:2008 #3
They raised $100 each.
Together they had $1000 in cash.
Then they gave it all away in the park.
The Generosity Foundation is a project that aims to re-inspire creative thinking and action in everyday people by removing a small barrier and providing encouragement.
10 members of the Foundation met random people in a park and gave away small grants (10-60$) for creative projects thought up on the spot.
Instant grants were given to a merchant marine, two 10 year old girls, a US soldier on leave from Iraq, an accordion player from Alaska and around 40 others.
The grants helped people make paintings, drawings and other creative projects that may not have happened had they not accidentally bumped into the Generosity Foundation in a park.
Platform21, BRIGHT and Superuse has a call for creative IKEA hacks.
---
Hack an IKEA flat pack – a product you buy in a package and have to assemble at home. Make small alterations, or forget the instructions – let your imagination run wild and make something totally different out of it.
Deadline = september 15.
The winning design will be exhibited at the 2009 Montreal Biennial and at the BRIGHT stand during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.
---
Check out ikeahacker.blogspot.com for inspiration.
In conjunction with next year's UN Climate Conference to be held in Copenhagen, an initiative called Co2penhagen will host a carbon neutral festival, supposedly the first of its kind.
The festival will be comprised of events ranging from concerts, installations and exhibitions and the idea is not just to let festival goers have fun with a clear conscience but, more importantly, to use the festival as an experiential showcase of local know-how, imagination and innovation within the field of sustainable energy.
Danish based companies, organisations, inventors and researchers are thus invited to support the festival through active participation.
One of the plans already in mind, is to employ the energy created by competing teams of bike riders to power up the festival's sound and lighting system. The team generating the most power will win.
Related: Carbon Neutral Community
• co2penhagen.com (so far in Danish only)
A group called Vandals Against Violence (Vandaler Mod Vold) has launched a post-it campaign in response to recent violent incidents in Copenhagen.
The post-it notes are placed throughout the city and carry handwritten statements and reminders such as "only the weak resort to violence".
Probably not a campaign with much impact but at least a creative alternative to CCTVs etc, which seems to be the only antidote that politicians come up with nowadays.
More here (in Danish)
Cascoland is a Dutch organization promoting interdisciplinary art that inspire communities to shape their own public spaces through dialogue and participation.
Like the previous two years, Cascoland again this year mobilized a group of Dutch artists and designers and travelled to South Africa to work on community related projects - probably a dream spot for the Dutch who have limited space to play with themselves.
This time the trip went to Durban and documentation is now available online. While some projects appear a bit too much like plop-art for my taste, there are also some quite refreshing ones.
Among my favorites are Jair Straschnow & Gitte Nygaard's "Yellow L" which is a table-like object that can be used as a blackboard for personal communication. The duo also came up with a series of simple sitting hammocks/swings to make a dull park area a little more human-centered.
Another collaborate project experimenting with traditional objects is Pimp my Bin by Jan Korbes & Mantas Lesauskas, who transformed garbage bins into playful vehicles.
Check the Cascoland website for updates and more projects.
Related: Bench in a fence
Yet another entry dedicated to Helmut Smits and conceptual color installations.
Parking For White Cars Only is a temporary project by Helmut, which took place in a parking garage in 2006. The best parking-spots were accessible for white cars only.
Remotely-related: Natalie Jeremijenko's concept Park-Information in which cars are arranged according to color with the purpose of transforming the mundane act of car-parking into a large public spectacle.
During the Conflux Festival, the artist Steve Lambert (the maker of AddArt) will carry out a mysterious project.
Steve Lambert plans to use the simplest of tools to shut down (albeit briefly) over 85 Manhattan outlets of an undisclosed multi-national corporation without breaking any laws.
The Top Secret Steve Lambert Project is open for participation, so if you're in New York City on September 15th you can be a part of the project/performance/hack/event (which, according to Steve, is likely to get on the news and make people smile).
For more information visit the project site.
-----
Update: What was temporarily called the Top Secret Steve Lambert Project is no longer top secret. The project can now be known for it’s real name, Ronald’s Crisis.
-----
• Top Secret Steve Lambert Project
Contact: Sebastian Campion