Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.
295 Posts Later : tinySplash bigView is Over One Year Old!

295 Posts Later : tinySplash bigView is Over One Year Old!

Last Fall I was on sabbatical from work, and spent part of the time rebuilding my website.  I decided that I wanted to make a blog that focused on art and innovation related to alternative energy, food, and design.  I made a commitment to post at least 4-5 things each week.

I am pretty amazed when I look back on all the interesting things that I found, visited, or experienced and wrote about.  I also am proud that I have kept up with  the commitment to posting on the blog.  I have posted every week except for my one week vacation (which was last week), when I did not post, tweet, or share on any social network or website.

The first post on tinySplash bigView was on October 21, 2011 and was “The only thing you can’t buy used is food.” Film Screening: Urban Roots.  I had gone to a local screening of the movie, and wrote a synopsis and brief review of this movie which focuses on urban farming in Detroit.

When I look back on the posts on this site – I see that I am increasingly writing about things related to food, community and creativity.  There still is an occasional interesting eco-friendly packaging idea or alternative energy design post, but less than a year ago.

Goals for this year – are to go through and organize things better by tags, so it is easy to find things in categories.  Also, update some aspects of the site.

Many of you get my weekly/bi-weekly newsletter – which highlights the new posts on the blog.  Thanks for reading my posts and for the occasional post and email.  I look forward to seeing how the blog evolves by the next birthday.

Happy birthday one year old!

The Pantry Shelf: A Play About Food where Food Speaks Up

The Pantry Shelf: A Play About Food where Food Speaks Up

Ever wonder what the food in your pantry would say if it could?  Mark Prebble and Marion Shortt, also known as Team M&M, are a husband and wife team who have created a play called The Pantry Shelf where food comes to life… with an attitude. The piece is described as “a satirical comedy where all the characters are food products. It explores branding, genetic engineering and consumerism, but mostly it’s a love triangle between a rebellious muesli bar, a shy bag of porridge and a sexy block of dark chocolate.”

Characters in the play include Carlito Cornchips , Washibi Punch!, Queenie the Quinoa, Black Velvet Chocolate, Genetically-Engineered Organic Tomato and other foods.

The synopsis of the play on the project website is described as:

“A satirical comedy revealing the micro-society of branded egos living on your pantry shelf.  Queenie is a revolutionary new snack – The Quinoa, Date and Bark Bar. Like every food product all she really wants is to be loved. However, her world collapses when she realizes her healthy branding is a lie.  Can Queenie live with this hypocrisy or will she revolt and become a “rogue brand”?

The Pantry Shelf explores branding, consumerism and corporate control of our diets, but mostly it’s a love triangle between Queenie, a bag of Scottish Porridge and a sexy block of Dark Chocolate.”

You can see clips of the play on their website and vimeo site.

I wonder what my oatmeal that I ate for breakfast today would say if I could hear it?

Image Source:
www.basementtheatre.co.nz/whats-on/the-pantry-shelf/

 

Links:

http://www.teammandm.co.nz/index.html

http://www.basementtheatre.co.nz/whats-on/the-pantry-shelf/

https://vimeo.com/43661092

 

 

Little Free Libraries:  Popping Up Across Cleveland and Other Cities

Little Free Libraries: Popping Up Across Cleveland and Other Cities

Have a book to share or want to borrow a book?  Instead of going to your regular public library, you can check out one of the Little Free Libraries that have been showing up around Cleveland and other cities across the U.S.

A friend of mine recently told me about a large birdhouse like structure that he saw that had books in it that he saw while jogging in Cleveland Heights. Turns out that this was part of the Little Free Library Movement, which in recent years was created to get the community excited about reading and to promote literacy.

Basically a Little Free Library it is a bookshelf in a waterproof house structure. Anyone can take a book or leave a book, without signing in or checking anything out.  The project started in Wisconsin in 2009, and has now spread to many states in the U.S. including Ohio

This summer, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library installed the first of three Little Free Libraries that are to be created in the community.  An article in the Plain Dealer this past weekend reported that Bob Cheshier, a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights recently raised money to build and install a Little Free Library near Miles Park School.

The Cleveland Public Library installed two Little Free Libraries in Cleveland, and the community was invited to help decorate them on September 15th of the Main Library. The Little Free Libraries were installed near Dave’s Supermarket located at 3301 Payne Avenue, Cleveland and at West 25th & Clark, where the organization Esperanza and Seeds of Literacy are located.

If you or community is interested in building a Little Free Library, there are direction on the Little Free Library website.  There are variety of designs which range from looking like a barn, a house or schoolhouse.

When the rain lets up today, I am going to go to bring one of my Harry Potter books to the Little Free Library – and see if there is anything for me to read.

Image Source:
Cleveland Heights Patch
www.littlefreelibrary.org

 

Links:

http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/

 

Thank You For Coming: A New Food + Community Space

Thank You For Coming: A New Food + Community Space

This summer I backed a project on Kickstarter called Thank You For Coming,  a collaborative and participatory restaurant/meeting space in Los Angles, CA “where everyone can be a cook.”  The vision is for participants to be actively engaged in the space in various forms including by cooking the meal themselves, foraging or harvesting their own ingredients, or by  eating with a new tool.

Thank You For Coming raised money through Kickstarter to cover start-up costs for renovations, permits, materials, and equipment to get the space up and running.  The space is designed to be able to hold events and to be a restaurant.  Container gardens will be near the kitchen at the  3416 Glendale Blvd. location in Los Angeles.

Behind the project is a four member team consisting of Laura Noguera, Jonathan Robert, Jenn Su Taohan, and Cynthia Su Taopin, who will oversee the residency program and general operation of the space.  The space will open in June, and an ongoing residency program program will give “citizens with varying interests, desires and skills, an opportunity to cook for the public, be a farmer, play with a space, and experiment.”

Recently the Thank You For Coming space got approval from the city to operate as a restaurant.  They also bought some equipment (refrigerator, freezer, induction ranges, shelves, etc.), built furniture, removed 5 layers of paint from the cement floors of the space, and began work on plumbing and electrical upgrades.

A call for proposals for the residency program went out earlier this fall and everyone (Artists, Cooks, Plumbers, Park Rangers, Moms + Granddads, and others) have been invited apply to do a project and explore new and old ways of sharing food with people in the space.

All residents would be able to use the kitchen and space as a platform for public engagement and creative experimentation and presentation.  To start, Thank You For Coming plans to be open from Wednesday-Sunday for Lunch & Dinner.

If you are interesting in being a resident, you can email them at hello@thankyouforcoming.la and read more about the application guidelines on the Kickstarter update page.

Image Source:
http://thankyouforcoming.la/

Links:

http://thankyouforcoming.la/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1406166588/thank-you-for-coming/posts

 

Karma Kitchen: Paying a Meal Forward

Karma Kitchen: Paying a Meal Forward

What is the value of something without a price?  Each week this question is raised at Karma Kitchen, a volunteer-run restaurant in Berkeley.  As an experiment in generosity, guests are given a 0$ bill at the end of a meal.  They are invited to pay for the next guest’s meal, and to pay ever amount they choose.

The restaurant opened in 2007 and is volunteer-run, open on Sundays, and is located in a restaurant that allows them to use the kitchen and restaurant one day a week.   The food looks amazing (all Indian food), and after guests eat their bill reads, “Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. We hope you will pay-it-forward however you wish.”

The project is an experiment in generosity and the founder Nipun Mehta hopes that his project will help build compassion and community by people being given the opportunity to “pay it forward.”

The project explores ideas related to the gift economy,  where goods and services are given without any expectations of return.  Mehta hopes that this and other gift-economy projects he is involved in will  create a “shift from consumption to contribution, transaction to trust, scarcity to abundance, and isolation to community.”

The project has expanded to multiple locations in different cities which includes Washington D.C., Chicago, India, and Tokyo.

 

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

 

Links:

http://www.karmakitchen.org/

Video about Karma Kitchen on Vimeo vimeo