(small) creative initiatives that challenge (big) traditional ideas
• ( egoistic ) • activistic • architectural • audible • cinematic • conceptual • graphic • strategic • surface • urban • wireless
Here is an ambient advertising stunt with some basic qualities that should make most people smile and perhaps even eat more carrots.
Designed by a Portland based agency for Gorge Grown Farmers Market.
Related: Giant Adidas Shoe Box and Giant Lego Bricks.
Posted by Sebastian on May 18, 2008
If you are in Copenhagen the coming two weekends, you have a chance to experience the excellent Mellemrum micro-festival dedicated to reviving known, hidden and forgotten aspects of the city.
Mellemrum (translates to 'in between space'/'gap') is comprised of 3 sensorial walking-tours (Mellemrum 1-3) in the inner city, each of which includes 3 site-specific performances at different parts of the route. The tour takes two hours and details about the route as well as the performances are kept secret beforehand.
The absolute highlight of Mellemrum 1 was a brilliant conceptual performance by dancer and choreographer Erik Pold, who welcomed the audience in a building at Kultorvet, one of Copenhagen's busiest squares and pedestrian zones.
Inside, audience were seated in rows facing a street window covered with a red curtain. After a brief introduction underlying music faded in and the curtain was pulled, thereby transforming the square outside into a cinematic stage and the people into cast members in a story loosely directed by Erik, who himself - wearing a microphone - went outside to interact with people passing by.
The two other captivating performances in Mellemrum 1 took place in an underground parking lot and on a rooftop with the audience watching from a chemistry-lab on the opposite side of the street.
Posted by Sebastian on Apr 16, 2008
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.
Posted by Sebastian on Apr 10, 2008
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.
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
Posted by Sebastian on Mar 22, 2008
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)
Posted by Sebastian on Feb 10, 2008
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.
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.
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Contact: Sebastian Campion