May 2012 – Page 2 – Kristen Baumlier

Month: May 2012

Gallery Tank: A Portable Jacket Gallery

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Kbaumlier

In the future, in a post apocalyptic time, what will the role of art be, and where will it be seen?

One possible answer to this question can be seen in the project called Gallery Tank, originating from Tallin, Estonia, which is a portable indie-gallery that is built inside of a jacket. It has been designed to host artist works, and to be delivered to the audience directly.

Called a “Jackery,” the creater of the project, Ott Pilipenko, created the art gallery jacket which he wore and showed at Camp Pixelache in Helsinki, Finland last week.

The grey jacket that Pilipenko wore was grey, seemed to be made of a durable fabric good for the outdoors. It had some zippers on it, and was covered with yellow and red caps.

He demonstrated how the jacket works, and invited us see the exhibition. He unzipped an arm sleeve and showed us the artist’s name and the name of the show which was printed on the inside of the unzippered pocket. We were invited to unscrew the yellow and red caps. Inside of each cap was a small printed images of a small drawings that were printed on fabric.

After we opened one of the caps, we were invited to carefully blow hot air onto the image. Some of the images would disappear – and some would not. Each of the 10 “cells” were 2 cm in diameter, and could be opened and closed.

The current show in the jacket gallery is the work of Estonian artist Britta Benno which opened on May 16^th. The artists’ works and theme coincided with the Acadmey of Arts fashion show which had a theme based on the end of the world “Blow away the bad stuff” concept which was clearly used in the design and execution of showing the art.

There also was a gift shop in Gallery tank, which when it was unzipped, held silkscreened pocket handkerchiefs that a number of us were able to get as a souvenir.

Pictures of the jacket, and a list of upcoming shows are listed on the Gallery Tank website, which also features a map that shows where the jacket and exhibition have been shown.

Image Source:
http://tank.kelder.ee
Links:

http://tank.kelder.ee

Historical, Useful, and Tasty Weeds – Weeds Walking Tour @ SPACES

Posted on May 21, 2012May 21, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Yesterday I went on part of the Walking Tour of Historical, Useful and Tasty Weeds which was led by Leslie Williams, Herbalist and Herbal Educator. The tour started at SPACES gallery, and we walked around the block for the tour.

As we would walk, Williams would point out weeds, bushes, and trees that could be used as food, medicine, and for other uses. We did not get very far – because surprisingly almost every weed along the way was something that was edible or useful. Williams would share historical stories, and I learned a lot about some of the weeds that I see everywhere in Cleveland.

Some of the things that we found on the walk were:

Mugwort – which can be used to help with sleep. It is put in dream pillows, and you can also make a tea.

Lamb’s Quarter – a weed I see everywhere and is tasty. You can eat it like spinach.

Dock – which is a “bitters.” You can use the root and boil it to make a bitters which is good for the stomach

Wild Grapes – you can eat the leaves and cook with them. Also the fresh tendrils growing are good to eat and are a tasty snack when hiking.

Burdock – they are a good tonic and the seeds are good to eat. Many years ago these were considered a “secret ingredient” for salves that people made to feel like they could “fly.”

Garlic mustard – a known weed in the Midwest – you can eat the small leaves or the seeds.

Aster – you can eat the flowers. They are said to improve your vision, but Williams said she has not experienced this.

Primrose – you can make primrose oil from the root which is rich in Omega -3 vitamins and really good for you.

Japanese barberry bush –the root is a good substitute for goldenseal. It makes a slightly bitter yellow tea and is good for allergies. This bush was first planted ornamentally – and now is invasive and spreading.

Catnip – good for stomach cramps, also good to induce sleep.

Milkweed – the fibers were used to make parachute cords in WWII. Some say you can boil the milk weed and then eat – others say you can just eat.

Blackberries – you can eat the leaves, they are a good tea. Similar to raspberries they are good for the muscles. You can crush them, dry them, then the ferment a little like black tea.

During the walking tour, Williams urged us to always try a little bit of a plant – and see how you react. She advised to not eat a whole bunch of something until you know it is safe to eat.

I was surprised to learn that so many weeds are edible or useful. It makes me see weeds in a new light. I still plan to pull them out of my flower beds at my house, but maybe will consider to use them for something before putting them in the compost.

Want to learn more about weeds? Williams belongs to the American Herbalist Guild, and will be doing historical artisan work in the Cuyahoga National Valley Park near Cleveland this summer on herbal medicine, ethnobotany and native herbs for dying fabric. You also can look up on various wild food sites, which list different plants and their uses.

Links:

Leslie Williams Website

Forager Harvest Site

SPACES Walking Tour Information

The Hexayurt Sauna @ Camp Pixelache

Posted on May 20, 2012May 21, 2012 by Kbaumlier

One of the kick-off activities at Camp Pixelache in Helsinki, Finland was a group activity to build a hexayurt structure that would later in the evening become a sauna.

A hexayurt is a 6 sided structure that can be built out of any materials including plywood, has little waste in its construction.

To make the simplest hexayurt, you make a wall by putting six sheets of plywood on their sides in a hexagon. Nex, cut six more sheets in half diagonally, and screw them together into a shallow cone. Finally, you lift the roof on to the wall with a large group of people, then fasten it down with more screws. You can seal and paint it for durability – and the hexyurt is done.

For the sauna design, Justin Tyler Tate and Ernest Truly were commissioned to build a mobile stove (kiuas in Finnish) for the Hexayurt Sauna. They built the stove in a shopping cart, and created a chimney from a long box like metal piece that came from a local factory. The outside of the hexayurt was a local material, also from a local factory. The stove design was made by putting ghte chimney structure in the center of the cart, and then putting rocks around this. The fire was made in the chimney, which then lit up the rocks.

It was rainy when the stove was lit, but we all stood around getting warm near the stove, and also took turns checking out the hexayurt structure. I did not wait for the stove to make it into the hexayurt since my feet were wet, but I heard the rocks did get warm – and people stayed up til 3 am in the sauna hexayurt structure.

The hexayurt shelter is meant to be an easy to build shelter, and is inspired by the Buckydome geodesic dome structure. The designs of the hexayurt are online and are open source. Since the design was put on the web 10 years ago, there are now more variations on the designs, one of which has expanded headroom and a full-height doorway.

The hexyurt design has no copyright or patent, and anyone can build it for free. It is meant to enable areas to create shelter, and in a crisis these could be made quickly and efficiently when shelter is needed.

A Hexayurt has been built in Haiti, were used at Occupy in Pittsburgh, and many hexayurt structures popped up at Burning Man this year (over 500!)

They goal is to get hexayurts all over the world – and I plan to see if we can build one where I work – maybe to use as another classroom, mediation room, clubhouse, or a sauna?

Links:

hexayurt.com/

Video about the Mobile Stove for the hexayurt at Camp Pixelache

Vinay Gupta at Camp Pixelache: Tools and Language

Posted on May 19, 2012May 21, 2012 by Kbaumlier

As the opening lines of Do-Re-Mi from Sound of Music go, “Let’s start at the very beginning…” I have many things to write about from my experience at Camp Pixelache in Helsinki last weekend – and I am going to start at the beginning.

The beginning of the festival started with a keynote talk by Vinay Gupta, who is one of the world’s leading thinkers on infrastructure theory and managing geopoltical risk. He is an environmentalist and a sustainability activist. He developed the Hexayurt, the free/open source emergency shelter and recently published the book The Future We Deserve.

His talk was called Tools and Language – Why government can’t manage the 21st century, but we can. In his talk he talked about the shifting balance of power between the State and Corporations, which is a huge part of the problems our democracies face in responding to issues like climate change.

He started the talk by talking about some lessons that he had learned, and by sharing some of the tools and projects he has developed that address issues of future survival and climate change.

He talked about the hexayurt structure, which is a six sided structure that can be built for cheap, is made out of plywood or similar materials, and can cost less than a relief. It can be built anywhere in the world at any scale, and is an open source design. The hexayurt started when someone asked Gupta if he could build a 6 sided structure based on the BuckyDome ( a geodesic dome) structure. He worked on this – and came up with the first hexayurt structure. He shared it with a few friends, and each year since then there have been more and more people building these structures. It took 10 years for the hexyurt to be used on a larger scale.

Vinay used this as a way to demonstrate the lesson that “change is slow” and “lasting change chages people.” He also talked about passive cooperation, and that the hexayurt structure was passed on from person to person, and the documentation and free licenses made it easy for people to use and access.

Vinay also shared a model he developed to support crisis management called Six Ways to Die. (6WTD.) This model helps explain what needs to get done in a crisis. Basically the six ways to die are: Too hot, too cold, thirst, hunger, illness, and inury. If you map out estiamtes of the thtreat in each area and any spystems or behaviors that need to be added to the situation to keep people safe, you can plan for emergencies. He also talked about the crisis in Haiti, and how when you have different type of organizations trying to work together – it can be a “goat rodeo” or a mess – since the groups have different methods to get to the same goal of helping those in need in a crisis.

One last lesson that Gupta talked about that I found interesting was that having a controlled vocabulary and precise language is important. Our language affects our thinking – and it is important to have a shared understood vocabulary. Gupta talked about how the Occupy movement at first did not have this – and it was a bit of a mess when Occupiers would be on the news interviewed, etc. Currently, Occupy is working on making a controlled vocabulary. This vocabulary maps and shapes our thinking. And Gupta refered to the Whorf theory – which is the linguistic principle that the structure of a language affects how we are able to concpetualize the world.

Gupta’s ideas are easy to access. He has a blog, a wiki website, and many of his lectures and talks are on his sites.

They also taped and posted his lecture on Vimeo. I recommend watching this –there is a part 1 and part 2 – and check out his lecture at http://vimeo.com/pixelache.

Links:

Vinay Gupta Talk at Pixelache – Vimeo Video Part 1 and Vimeo Video Part 2

hexayurt.com – http://hexayurt.com/

6 Ways to Die

Camp Pixelache in Helsinki – A Weekend of Art, Activism, Sustainability and Technology

Posted on May 16, 2012May 16, 2012 by Kbaumlier

When I read the description about Camp Pixelache this Winter, an event where technology, art, activism and subcultures meet each year in Helsinki, Finland, I said to myself, “These are my people.” I submitted a presentation topic, and went to present at the event. I just came back from Helsinki, and have came back with lots of thing to write about, and with lots of friends and new contacts who are doing projects related to building community, cultural production, art technology, sustainability, and activism from various countries.

This year, Camp Pixelache had a core theme of “Do It With Others” (D.I.W.O) and explored the question of “How can artists, makers, cultural producers, researchers and activists work collaboratively with each other and audiences, to create new co-production models for artifacts/events with sustainability as the core goal?”

A series of presentations around 4 core themes were organized which include Do It With Others (D.I.W.O), Creative Neighborhood Skills, The Art of Gathering Environmental Data, and Social Identity and Augmented Reality. There also were demonstrations of electronic art and design including various open source, re/upcycling, and other “trashlab” and “hacklab” projects.

Other events at the festival included a keynote presentation, a live performance club event, and a series of professional workshops. The events were held at Arbis, a Swedish-language adult education center that is located close to the Finnish National Museum, in central Helsinki.

I gave a presentation in the early afternoon titled Powerformance which was in the festival’s track, Do It With Others (D.I.W.O.) In my talk, I talked about the potential that interactive performance has to generate awareness and promote social change. I made a special stretchable Euro paycheck –which we stretched at the end of my presentation.

The weekend was amazing. I met so many interesting people and talked to others about art, technology, hope for the future, and other topics. I met others from Sweden, France, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Portugal and England at the event.

Some of the main speakers and facilitators of the conference tracks included Marc Garrett, (Furtherfield.org, London), Pedro Soler (root.ps, Barcelona) Jennifer Gabrys, (Goldsmiths University, London) and Owen Kelly (Arcadia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki) and members of the Bio Art Society of Finland.

The dialogue and presentations were engaging and exciting. I will be posting for probably several weeks about the people, projects, and presentations that I met, experienced, and saw. I am currently unpacking, doing laundry, and preparing my receipts. Tomorrow I will start typing up my notes, compiling the information I got, and also connecting with others that I met at the conference. Get ready to hear more about Camp Pixelache in future posts!

Image Source:
Pixelache website

Links:

Camp Pixelache Website

Pixelache website

Camp Pixelache Video: