A few weeks ago I spent a weekend at the mysterious Hotel Amour, rumored to be a former rent-by-the-hour hotel in Pigalle, Paris' red light district.

The history of the place now serves as Amour's theme - from the name and interior to its philosophy. In their own words: "Even though we love kids; Hotel Amour is indeed a more appropriate place to make babies rather than bringing them".
Like art hotels such as Winston, Fox and Des Arts, each of Hotel Amour's 20 rooms are different and have their own character, most of them styled by co-owner and street artist Monsieur André.

Some notes: Rooms must be booked in person or by phone. In the age of doing everything via the web, this can be quite a challenge, especially in French. Furthermore, you won't find much (any) information on their website thus fueling the mystique and myths about the place. Actually, the one-page website has been down for the past 4-5 weeks - perhaps they don't mind, because guests appear to be regulars and information about the hotel is virally distributed anyway (word of mouth). Rooms do not have conventional hotel-stuff like: TV, hairdryer, table, chairs, minibar and telephone, all of which urban travelers don't really need anyway. Besides the atmospheric decor, rooms are basically just fitted with queen-sized beds, an i-Pod base and a bathroom with Kiehl's skin and hair products. During my stay, a jazz quintet was playing live in the neighboring room. The SM/erotic picture on my wall didn't match the rest of the room's colorful cartoon-like style and for some Lynchian reason, the picture wouldn't hang straight. The restaurant/bar is frequented by local non-hotel guests, which is a total plus because it generates a lively non-hotelish atmosphere. Amour is not just a 'hotel with personality' but also a 'personal hotel' where basic human interactions seem to be in focus. Despite its somewhat hip reputation, it is quite relaxed and unpretentious.

• hotelamour.com (currently/permanently down)

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

Between April 9-12, the Flemish cultural institute Brakke Grond in Amsterdam celebrates 'Don't-Do-It-Yourself Days' during which creative minds get together to help each other solve problems instead of trying to do everything themselves.

At the first evening, participants will be going through a series of speeddating sessions in order to match the perfect couples. All sorts of problems and questions are welcome - a huge problem for a designer might be an easy task for a project manager and vice versa.

DDIY is organized by Marcel Van Der Drift and held in conjunction with the Victorian Circus Festival.

• doehetnietzelf.org

The (excellent) free cultural paper Amsterdam Weekly has launched a fundraising campaign in which they've taken their own editorial content hostage. Readers must collaborate and pay a ransom if they want the content to be printed or else, Amsterdam Weekly will consist of blank pages.

It works like this: Each of the paper's upcoming pages has been divided into blocks and each block is being sold for €5. Readers can buy one block or as many as a full page.

Only blocks that are being sold will be printed. If the sale is not successful, readers will receive a paper missing individual blocks of content.

Nb: if you buy at least 3 blocks you'll get an invitation to a fundraising party on Saterday 26 April.

• www.amsterdamweekly.nl/forsale

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

Karriere is a newly opened and much hyped (rightfully so) bar in Copenhagen where everything from the name to the interior has been designed by a long list of artists, such as Olafur Eliasson, Ceal Floyer, Douglas Gordon, Jesper Just, Robert Stadler, Dan Graham etc.

Now, the price on selected drinks at Karriere Bar has been turned into a work of art by artist Kenneth A. Balfelt, who created a 'price policy' that experiments with the relation between price- and social structures.

The new prices are determined by your look and circumstances related to your person. It is the waiters and bartenders who decide if you qualify for the special prices

Some price examples: Yuppies pay extra for beer. Hippies and activists pay extra for organic soda. The homeless get a discount on cafe cortado. Gay couples who French kiss for 30 seconds get a discount on apfelschorle. Immigrants, asians who speak Danish as well as blacks in company of whites get various discounts. And so on.

Probably not politically correct, but it should generate some unexpected and interesting situations!

• karrierebar.com

The designers Miss Geschick & Lady Lapsus have come up with some new playful accessories.

The new designs include a set of relational tattoos that you can place on your body to add a narrative element to your scars and other bodily characteristics.

Check their virtual shop for other quirky products.

• missandladysboutique.de

The Williamsburg gallery Cinders has put together an imaginative show currently on display at Space 1026 in Philadelphia.

Through sculptural installations, drawings and paintings the show explores the notion of 'spaces': from outerspace to physical space, cramped spaces etc.


There are some intriguing interpretations, such as the tactile flash light by Sto (image).

A review and more photos available here.

Related: Graphical User Interface in 3d + Analogue Screenshots

• Spacing Out! Cinders @ space

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)

The New York based prankster collective Improv Everywhere has been busy again.

For their latest mission, three 'agents' entered a Starbucks one by one with their own giant desktop computer, monitor and keyboard. They bought coffee and worked at their computers as if they were laptops.

As usual, their mission is well documented!

Related: Operation Best Buy

• Mobile Desktop

As mentioned here before, knitting has been going through quite a renaissance in recent years. Partly because old things sooner or later come back into fashion, partly because new technologies has made it possible to create new kinds of knitting products and services.

Belonging to the latter category, is the Swiss website Net Granny where users can buy sock, personally knitted by a granny of own choice. The site contains a gallery of grannies, each of whom has a profile with an overview of the socks they make.

The service is provided by a small apparel company called Tarzan, based in Basel.

Related: SCHALALALA! + Generative Knitting

• Net Granny

The Danish music-poetry duo Bo hr Hansen & Nils Lassen has come up with a novel - and potentially very time consuming - way to promote their latest CD "Hvem er jeg?" (Who am I?).

Those buying the CD are offered a free private concert - via telephone.

In order to qualify for the concert, you need to send them an MMS (a photo via mobile phone) of yourself holding the CD, preferably with the receipt. Upon receiving the documentation, the duo will do their best to find a concert date and time that suits all of you.

Thanks Mogens for the link.

Related: Bubble Star At Home

• Private Telephone Concerts (Danish)

Failure Support Group is an event that focus on failure in artistic projects.

The event involves a series of 5-minute presentations of failures and discussion of issues such as: Why do art projects fail? Is there a recipe for failure? Are certain methodologies more prone to failure than others? What is at stake in acknowledging failure?

Failure Support Group will take place Friday Feb 29th at Democracy Center, Harvard Sq, Cambridge, MA (space is limited).

Hopefully, the presentations will be documented online. Should be interesting, inspirational - and potentially fun!

• Failure Support Group