Permanent Breakfast is a continuous social experiment that can be executed by anyone, anywhere.

The experiment was conceived in 1996 by the Austrian artist Friedemann Derschmid and the basic idea is to bring people together to have breakfast in public spaces that are not necessarily obvious picnic spots, thereby modifying the way we think of these spaces as well as stimulating social interaction in them.

Naturally, anyone can do this without it being an art project, so to be an authentic Permanent Breakfast event, there are some rules that participants must follow: The organizer must invite at least four people under the condition that each one of them subsequently invites four other people for a new breakfast to be held somewhere else. And so on.

Permanent Breakfast recently came to Copenhagen in relation to the exhibition Instant Urbanism at the Danish Architecture Center.

• Permanent Breakfast

A garden enthusiast in Chicago has put together a colorful resource page on Flickr documenting how he and his friends grow vegetables on their rooftops using a self-watering container system that use less water than normal, while keeping maintenance down to a minimum.

In case you are not so fortunate to have a rooftop, the site also contains links to other resources such as the fantastic project Container Gardening by Willem van Cotthem, who grow plants in difficult conditions using plastic bottles. For more inspiration, see also the community project Rooftop Garden Project in Montreal.

• Rooftop Garden on Flickr

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)

• Video on YouTube

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

• Cascoland

I picked up this 2008 calendar at my neighborhood grocery store in Vesterbro (Copenhagen, Denmark) - not so much because I need a calendar but because it contains small narrative portraits of local residents.

Besides the portraits, every second week/spread is complimented by an ad from a local store, each offering a special discount to calendar owners in the week the ad is appearing. Meaning, now I can use my calendar as a neighborhood shopping guide and discover things like, my butcher offering a 20% discount on chickens next week. Pretty multifunctional.

The calendar is published by "Verdens Mindste Bladhus' ('The World's Smallest Publishing House') that also publishes of a modest monthly print/newspaper called "WestEnd and Omegn", which contains small personal stories and street gossip from the core of Vesterbro.

The publishing activities are not just someone's hobby or spare time project, but apparently a successful business initiated and run by two journalists. Perhaps one of many signs that people are increasingly shifting interests from the super global to the micro-local. At least in Copenhagen.

• Verdens Mindste Bladhus (Danish)

An art project by Danish artist Astrid Winsløv Hammer who put up four signs designed as official looking street signs in the city center of Aarhus.

The signs read 'Slap af' (Relax) and 'Skynd dig; (Hurry up).

Unlike most other culture jams, such as the notorious Jagtvej hack, Stress was a fully legitimate intervention carried out in collaboration with the culturally proactive city of Aarhus.

• Stress (in Danish)

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.

• Parking For White Cars Only

A billboard with a picture of a clear blue sky rotated 180 degrees. Placed in what looks to be a somewhat dull residential area.

The installation was made by Helmut Smits for the exhibition Rock My Religion, OdaPark Venray.

Related: Tree in Front of Billboard.

• Clear Blue Sky

The Dutch town of Drachten has got itself a spectacular installation that resembles recent temporary color interventions like Delete in Vienna and in Beukelsblauw in Rotterdam that managed to generate small-scale Bilbao effects.

The installation called WATER IS LIFE (Water is Leven) is made by Henk Hofstra who had 1000 metres of road painted blue in reference to the waterway that was once running where the road is now.

Apparently, the installation is not just a reminder of the past but also an indication of the future as the waterway will be re-establish some time during 2008.

• Water Road / Via Wooster Collective