May 2012 – Page 4 – Kristen Baumlier

Month: May 2012

Stretch Your Euro Paycheck – Heading to Helsinki, Finland

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Kbaumlier

This week I made a new large stretchable image for my Stretch Your Paycheck interactive performance. The new money image is a Euro paycheck that features a 100 Euro bill.

I am heading to Helsinki this weekend for Camp Pixelache, a festival/conference event where I will be presenting my work, and also plan to invite others to stretch their paycheck. The event focuses on the main theme of “DIWO” – or Do It With Others – and I am interested to see how stretching the Euro translates and is received and interpreted. This year, the Euro has been critiqued and discussed, and it will be interesting to see what meaning the piece has to others. There are others coming to the festival from Spain, England, France, Finland, Sweden, Hungary and other countries – so it will be interesting to see what money slogans and sayings other countries have.

Stretch Your Paycheck is a interactive performance where individuals are invited to stretch a large latex image of money, get their picture taken that they can later download as a souvenir picture online. The pictures can be saved or sent to a bill collector, Senator, or your boss.

Links:

http://stretchpaycheck.tumblr.com/

Pump up Your Bike Tires – It’s National Bicycle Month with Ride to School and Work Days

Posted on May 8, 2012May 8, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Do you hear bicycle bells ringing in the air? You might see more kids and teachers on bicycles tomorrow on May 9th on the first National Bike to School Day. Schools, cities, bicycle groups, and public health organizations are organizing bike rides and bike rides to school to highlight and celebrate the benefits of choosing bike transportation to school. More than 700 Bike to School Day events in 49 states and the District of Columbia are registered on the official website. Here in Cleveland Heights, the city is promoting the Bike to School day.

May is National Bike month, and there are lots of of bike activities, rides, and events including the national Ride to Work day on May 18^h – where everyone is encouraged to bike to work, and the Ride of Silence on Wednesday May 16^th, where cyclists do a silent slow-paced ride in honor of those who have been injured or killed cycling on public highways. Check the air in your bike tires, and check out your local bike site to get riding!
Image Source:
Thurston County Bike Commuter

Links:

www.walkbiketoschool.org.

bikecleveland.org/month

Connect the Dots: 350.org Climate change

Posted on May 5, 2012May 5, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Today is Climate Impact Day, an international day that 350.org organized where various groups gathered to help “Connect the Dots” between climate change.

The idea was for people to organize rallies and events in order to generate images in places that have been affected by climate change or that create climate change. All of the events included taking a picture of a dot in some way. A huge black dot on a white banner, a “dot” of people holding hands, encircling a field where crops have dried up, or a “dirty dot” of something that is contributing to the high levels of CO2.

Today I participated in an event at 12 noon. Since Cleveland is one of the top producers of coal we met up near the First Energy Coal plant, and held up two “dirty dots” in front of the gate of the coal plant which said CO2 and the amoint of coal burned each year at this plant.

I sent in the image to 350.org, and the image will be added to the slideshow of events from today that is on the 350.org site. Check out the slideshow which already has images from India, Bali, the U.S., and other countries.

Links:

www.350.org

Transparency Camp: an Unconference about People, Government, and Technology

Posted on May 4, 2012May 3, 2012 by Kbaumlier

So I heard from a friend of a friend about TransparencyCamp, an “unconference” where journalists, developers, technologists, policy-makers, government officials, students, academics, and everyone in between meet to share and exchange knowledge about how to use new technologies and policies to make the government work better for the people — and to help people work smarter with the government.

In the form of an “unconference,” the schedule, sessions, workshops and events at TransparencyCamp are created by all of the attendees who all contribute to making the schedule for the conference with many attendees leading some of the sessions.

In past years, outcomes of this unique event that explores technology and government have been unique, globally recognized initiatives, including CityCamp, another technology and government unconference and CrisisCommons, a site to connect people and resources in times of crisis.

This year the 2012 TransparencyCamp proposed that it would explore questions about government transparency, openness, and accountability.

On the site, I read a tweet by someone who said that the event was like, “drinking a red bull for government accountability.”

The site lists the schedule of sessions and workshops from this past weekend which included sessions such as Your vote. Your world, How to understand the corporate world, Civil servants and civil society, Tweet Tsunami, and How to make civil engagement SEXY!

A recap video for 2012 is not up on the site yet, but you can check out the video from 2011 which gives a great overview for what goes on at this unique event. In 2011, there were 250 technology activists, reporters, bloggers, technology representatives, and representatives from non-profits that attended. The power of citizens, the relationship of citizens and government, and making positive change were at the core of the discussion.

Image Source:
Transparency Camp 2011 Recap – Video

Links:

Transparency Camp 2011 Recap – Video

transparencycamp.org

Big Polluter Dot Activity: Frame the Coal Plant in Cleveland Saturday 5/5/12

Posted on May 3, 2012May 3, 2012 by Kbaumlier

350.org, the group that is working to create a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis has organized another climate change event for 5/5/12. Called the Climate impacts day, 350.org is encouraging people to participate in this day to help “Connect the Dots” between climate change.

The idea is to have rallies, events, and to generate images in places that have been affected by climate change, or that create climate change. On the site you can setup an event or find one to join. All of the events will include taking a picture of a dot in some way. This could be a huge black dot on a white banner, a “dot” of people holding hands, encircling a field where crops have dried up, or a “dirty dot” of something that is contributing to the high levels of CO2. All of these images will be shown to help present a human face on climate change on the 350.org site.

Yesterday I created a new event on the 350.org site for this Saturday at 12 noon. Cleveland is one of the top producers of coal in Cleveland and me (and hopefully some other people) will be taking pictures near the First Energy Coal plant, making the power plant a “dirty dot” in the picture. If you want to participate, bring black paper, a banner, or anything else you want to hold up in the picture to frame the power plant into the “dot” in the image frame.

I’ve got some coal in my attic that I will be bringing to hold up in the picture. If you are free on Saturday at noon – come on out to make an image of the “big dirty dot” that is still burning coal.

Event information:
This Saturday: May 5, 12:00 PM
First Energy Lakeshore Plant
6800 South Marginal Rd, Cleveland, OH 44103

To signup for the event goto: http://act.350.org/event/impacts_en_attend/3219

Image Source:
http://www.350.org

Links:

Event link: act.350.org/event/impacts_en_attend/3219