Month: February 2012

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Photographer and illustrator Lisa Rienermann was in Barcelona in 2005 studying abroad, and looked up to see houses, the sky and the letter “Q.”  The negative space between the houses formed a letter.

She spent the next few weeks running around, looking up, and finding more letters in the alphabet formed by architecture and sky.  The project culminated in a booklet and poster of the sky alphabet, and the poster which said on the front, “Will you look at me? And “Yeah!” on the back.

Rienerman’s type is a reminder to look up to see what is being formed by the framing and negative space of our urban environment.  The project was awarded a certificate of typographic excellence by the Type Directors Club New York 2007.

Image Source:
www.lisarienermann.com/

Links:

www.lisarienermann.com/

jpgmag.com/photos/205473

Can you tell a story in 6 words?

Can you tell a story in 6 words?

Posted on by Kbaumlier

SMITH magazine believes that everyone has a story. Can you tell yours in six words? SMITH Magazine, which publishes the Six-Word Memoir series wants you to send in your six word story.

SMITH was founded by Larry Smith and Tim Barkow in 2006.   Smith and Barkow believe that everyone has a story, and everyone should have a pace to tell it.  SMITH was created as a place for professional and never-before-published writers, artists, and anyone with a passion for storytelling.

SMITH Mag, and its younger cousin, SMITH Teens, are homes for storytelling of all forms, with a focus on personal narrative. SMITH is best known for the Six-Word Memoir® project, which has led to a bestselling book series, including Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, and Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure

On the website, you can submit your story in six words including topics such as:

Love:   Share six words on love & heartbreak.

Questions :  Ask a question in exactly six words.

Resolutions : Hopes, dreams, motivations, and mistakes to avoid in the coming year.

Happiness : Share your six words on the secrets to happiness.

Each Monday there is a six-word question of the week that is posted.

So why it is called SMITH? As you probably know, Smith is the most popular surname in the U.S. Smith and Barkow felt that the name “represents us all, each of us living our extraordinary lives—day by day, story by story.”

On the site, I checked out some of the stories listed under Green Life.
Some of my favorites include:

Seventh generation? try saving this one.
and
Saving paper not doing homework.

What can you say in 6 words? Check out the SMITH website, and see if you find a topic/challenge that you want to write about.

 

Links:

smithmag.net – SMITH Magazine

Construction and Destruction: Marjan Teeuwen’s Abandoned Building Art

Construction and Destruction: Marjan Teeuwen’s Abandoned Building Art

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Dutch Artist Marjan Teeuwen changes abandoned buildings into art by working with debris and upcycled building materials.  Her technique involves layering fragments of debris, then taking photographs and films of the final constructions.

Her project Destroyed House done in 2008, was created in a house that had an adjoining ice cream parlor.  The work was done in close cooperation with a contractor in order to remove ceilings and floors, move walls, and to create viewing holes in the structure.  She calls the works architectural sculptural installations.   Many of the materials used in Destroyed House were from the house itself .

In writing about her work, Teeuwen writes, “The literal breaking away of parts of floors, walls and ceilings signals a further accentuation of the polarity between destruction and construction. There is a balance between order and chaos, balance and imbalance, aesthetics and anti-aesthetics, refinement and crudeness.

The photographs of her work emphasize the careful layered materials in contrast to the frame of the buildings, which appear to be on the verge of collapsing.  The effect is an image of order and disorder and the relationship of construction to destruction.

Images of her projects can be seen on her website at  http://www.kw14.nl/

Image Source:
Marjan Teeuwen Website

Links:

Marjan Teeuwen Website – http://www.kw14.nl/

The Pothole Gardener: Filling up Potholes One Small Garden World at a Time

The Pothole Gardener: Filling up Potholes One Small Garden World at a Time

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Steve Wheen started doing guerrilla gardening in potholes for a project while in college.  He began  creating small garden worlds in potholes in part as a reaction to the poor conditions of the roads in London.  The project has grown to be a blog and website, where photos and videos of his gardening activity are posted.

Working with soil, plants and props,  Wheen makes tiny worlds that bring attention to road conditions, and also create a unique small world within our world.  He puts the props in the gardens for the photo shoots only, and tries to make the gardens on quiet streets with footpaths and dead end lanes.  He has created a small cricket match scene, and a red telephone booth garden in a pothole in front of London Bridge.  Often his gardens get attention, and on the Pothole Gardener blog you can see videos and photos of people taking pictures, and bending down to get a better look.

A recent garden scene he made is comprised of soil, green moss, a miniature chair, a tiny Easter basket, and a blooming plant – all located in a pothole on the street.  Wheen describes his project as, “ Part art project, part labor of love, part experiment, part mission to highlight how sh** our roads are – the pictures and gardens are supposed to put smiles on peoples faces and alert them to potholes!”

His blog has links to other Guerrilla Gardeners, and he writes that he is part of a community of guerrilla gardening.  Tired of the pothole on your street?   Check out thepotholegardener.com and see pictures of videos of Wheen’s gardens and get inspired.  I’ve got my eye on a big pothole that is getting bigger and bigger and is just around the corner from my house.

Image Source:
thepotholegardener.com

Links:

thepotholegardener.com

www.guerrillagardening.org

 

Carbon Offsets for Travel: Where Does it Go?

Carbon Offsets for Travel: Where Does it Go?

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Yesterday I bought a plane ticket to North Carolina to visit my brother and his family.  When I was doing the final payment review, I saw the carbon offset option labeled “Leave the World a Better Place™ – Carbon Offsetting Option.” The amount of money that was estimated to offset my amount of CO2 from this itinerary ( for around 1,140 miles of air travel from OH to NC), was estimated at  $2.90, and I could opt in to pay this for my ticket, and the money would go to Sustainable Travel International (STI.)

I was surprised that the CO2 offset was so low, and I wondered where the money would go if I opted in. I checked out the website of STI, a non-profit organization that Continental, United, Enterprise and other businesses partner with.  When you make a contribution to Sustainable Travel International for the purpose of purchasing carbon offsets, you are directing STI to buy the amount of carbon offsets that you want on your behalf.

You don’t own the emissions offsets your pay for as your property, but they are used for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.  Current projects in the carbon offset program include one project in Madagascar, and six wind farm projects in the United States.

One project is protecting Madagascar’s Northeastern Forests, where carbon offset credits are used to help reduce deforestation rates.  The goal is to get the deforestation rates down to 0.07 percent, or the rate found in nearby national parks.

The wind farm projects are overseen by Bonneville Environmental Foundation who provide renewable energy carbon offsets in the United States.

BEF Wind Energy Projects Include:

Sherbino Wind Farm, Texas
Forest Creek Wind Farm, Texas
White Creek Wind, Washington
Wilton Wind Energy Center, North Dakota
Tatanka Wind Facility, North Dakota and South Dakota
I was surprised to see that the majority of projects for carbon offset was for windfarms.  I thought it would be about planing trees, or improving the natural environment in some way.

I did not purchase my carbon offset credits for my ticket.  I would rather take the $2.90 and plant a tree.

Images:

http://ecolibrary.org/
http://101mobility.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/jet.jpg

 

Links:

http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/

http://www.b-e-f.org/