Kbaumlier

Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.

Food Through the Ages: A Unique Timeline of Food

Posted on June 25, 2013June 28, 2013 by Kbaumlier

I recently navigated to the Ending Hunger website, an information and advocacy website that is part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The site has lots of information about hunger in the world, and provides lots of information, links to petitions, and opportunities to get involved.

The Mapping Hunger area of the site has as various visual images about hunger, food security, and other food issues, and I found a recently post with an amazing interactive timeline of food.

Created by the Food for 9 Billion Project, the Food Through the Ages timeline allows you to navigate through the history of food and see some of “the human struggle to put food on the table, from the birth of agriculture to the birth of the 9 billionth human.”

The timeline is broken up visually into separate 5 timelines: Agriculture, Demographics, Health and Nutrition, Hunger, and Politics, so you are able to get an overview of a time period from various perspectives.

I found it interesting that in 1933, the year the Twinkie was first created, there was a famine in the Soviet Union, and the population on the whole was becoming wealthier and more secure, creating a stable population.

I navigated to today, and saw that the last hunger statistic was 925 million people were hungry, and life expectancy overall is 67 years.

You can play with the timeline on the Ending Hunger website, and also see other visualizations about food and hunger.

Food for 9 Billion, is a collaborative project of Homelands Productions, the Center for Investigative Reporting, American Public Media’s Marketplace, and PBS Newshour.

Image Source:
www.endinghunger.org

Links:

www.endinghunger.org/en/mappinghunger/hunger_timeline.html

cironline.org/projects/food-9-billion

Did You Miss the Games for Change Festival? View the Keynotes Online

Posted on June 23, 2013June 28, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Games for Change (G4C) facilitates the creation and distribution of social impact games that serve as critical tools in humanitarian and educational efforts that aim to leverage entertainment and engagement for social good. (akaGames for social good and change.)

Last year I had a great time attending talks and keynotes, playing the games that were nominated for awards, and meeting people from the digital games industry, gaming enthusiasts, educators, policymakers, activists, foundations and others.

I was not able to attend this year due to my recent move to North Carolina, but I recently took some time to check out some videos of some of the keynotes which included sessions and keynotes that you can watch online. Currently the videos are not tagged or labeled that clearly, but if you scan through you can view most of the talks from the first day.

I took some time today to watch a couple of the keynotes including:

Opening Keynote by Michael T. Jones from Google
(talking about local search, google maps, and other tools by Google’s Tech Advocate. He talked about redefining what a game is, and how games can affect the behavior of people on a global scale.

http://new.livestream.com/g4c/events/2136076/videos/21772941
(starts at 11 minutes in to the video)

Half the Sky Movement: The Game – Design and Impact

(A panel of experts from Frima Studio talk about the development of Half The Sky, a project made by Facebook, Zynga.com, and Games for Change that raises awareness and funds to empower women and girls across the world. The talk (which is 2 hours!) talks aobut the process and challenges of making a game that can raise money for girls and women.) The talk talked about how the majority of design focuses on products and services for the richest 10% of the population.

http://new.livestream.com/g4c/events/2136076/videos/21840199
(starts around 46 minutes into the video)

Another major component of the festival is the Games For Change festival is awards for the games with the best gameplay, most innovative, and most significant impact. I haven’t had time to check out the winner, but I will do so next week and post what I find.

Image Source:
http://www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013/

Links:

http://new.livestream.com//g4c

http://www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013/

http://www.gamesforchange.org/festival2013/games/

The Tactile Dome: A Navigation Experience With Touch

Posted on June 20, 2013June 24, 2013 by Kbaumlier

The Exploratorim, located in San Francicsco, CA is a hands-on museum of science, art, and human perception. Today most cities have a science museum where you can interact and touch things, but the Exploratorium is unique because they have artists and scientists working side by side to create the exhibits. Play and fun are part of the mission, making it a dynamic and changing place since it opened in 1969.

The museum recently moved to a new space, three times larger than their last one, so some new and refurbished older exhibits have been introduced. One exhibit that on display again is the Tactile Dome, which is an interactive journey through total darkness where you can navigate the space using only your sense of touch and perception.

The Dome was created in 1971, and is a geodesic dome where visitors can enter into a totally dark path full of chambers. To navigate, visitors bump, slide and crawl through and past hundreds of materials and shapes. Only a few people are allowed in the exhibit at a time, and it has not been on display for a number of years.

The original press release, written in 1971 describes the exhibit experience:

“The purpose is to disorient the sensory world so that the only sense the visitor can rely on is touch. The sensation is so outside ordinary experience that a few people panic. An attendant in a control panel can reach every part of the ant-hill like maze almost instantly. Pre-opening visitors have compared the experience to being born again, turning yourself inside out head first, being swallowed by a whale, and inevitably, being enfolded in a giant womb.

Seemingly the tactile equivalent of a light show, the tour is actually a carefully planned and structured succession of shapes, temperatures and textures which require the full range of the touch sense to perceive.”

The Tactile dome was the first commissioned artist-in residence projects, and was created by Dr. August F. Coppola and Carl Day. The exhibit was designed by Coppola, (Yes, related to the Coppolas who work in film) who became interested in perceptual prejudice while directing interdisciplinary studies as head of California State College’s Honors Program. He believed that philosophy, physics and even psychology have always relied overwhelmingly on visual evidence to interpret the world.

He created the Tactile dome as a way to make others aware of what a complex and under used our sense of touch is. Coppola believed that people are actually prejudiced against the touch sense. “It’s development gets off to a bad start,” he was quoted in the original press release, “for as soon as we’ve stopped chewing our toes, the first commandment in life is given: “Don’t touch”.

You can read more on the Exploraorium’s website, or read an account of visiting the tactile dome last time it was on exhibit.

Image Source:
www.exploratorium.edu/visit/west-gallery/tactile-dome
itotd.com – Article Describing a First Hand Experinece In the Tactile Dome
Links:

www.exploratorium.edu/visit/west-gallery/tactile-dome

itotd.com – Article Describing a First Hand Experinece In the Tactile Dome

Ballroom Luminoso: Chandeliers made of Recycled Bike Parts and LEDs

Posted on June 17, 2013June 21, 2013 by Kbaumlier

In Cleveland, where I last lived, there were several bridge underpasses that were dark and uninviting, that I always tried to avoid at night, since they were dark and seemed unsafe. They also tended to be dirty, and had puddles and mud underneath. I recently read about a public art project that was not this year in San Antonio, Texas that transformed an underpass area with unique color changing chandeliers.

Ballroom Luminoso is a series of six globes, each of which is 48” in diameter, that are made of a custom-designed LED light fixture, upcycled bike parts, and steel. The piece uses shadows and colored light to transform the underpass space into a dramatic shadow space. The images cast iclude repeating circles and sprockets and gears, and the chandeliers transform an ordinary underpass into a unique colorful space filled with light and shape.

The project references the area’s past, present, and future and imagery that includes the community’s agricultural history, strong Hispanic heritage, and growing environmental movement are included in each piece. The medallions are a play on the iconography of La Loteria (a board game with cards), which has become a icon of Hispanic culture. Utilizing traditional symbols like La Escalera (the Ladder), La Rosa (the Rose), and La Sandía (the Watermelon) in the work, the piece alludes to the neighborhood’s farming roots and horticultural achievements. Each character playfully rides a bike acting as a metaphor for the neighborhood’s environmental progress, its concurrent eco-restoration projects, and its developing cycling culture.

I was looking at some websites with my niece, and her and I were both drawn to this piece, which can be seen at the intersection of Theo and Malone with I-35 in San Antonio. The artists behind the work Joe O’Connell and Blessing Hancock have done other interesting public art pieces, and you can check out Ballroom Luminosos and their other works on their site.

Image Source:
http://www.jbpublicart.com/portfolio/ballroom_luminoso

Links:

http://www.jbpublicart.com/portfolio/ballroom_luminoso

Landfill Dogs: Photographs of Dogs Without a Home

Posted on June 13, 2013June 21, 2013 by Kbaumlier

I recently came across the photography of artist Mary Shannon Johnstone, in doing research about artists in the Raleigh, NC area, where I recently moved. Johnstone’s current project, called Landfill Dogs is a yearlong project where she photographs dogs from the county animal shelter at the local landfill.

Each image of the different dogs is unique, and the expressions of the animals vary from image to image. One of my favorite images is taken near the time of sunset. With red clouds behind, the dog is hopping up into the air, as if he/she is about to catch a Frisbee (or a treat) in the air.

The image of the dogs are beautiful, but also quietly haunting once your learn that each dog is close to euthanasia if they do not find a home. Each of the dogs have been homeless for at least two weeks before they are photographs. Each week for 18 months (late 2012–early 2014) the artist is taking one dog from the county animal shelter and photographing him/her at the local landfill. The landfill site is used because this is where the dogs will end up if they do not find a home, and the dogs are photographed at the site of their potential end.

Johnstone also uses the site of the landfill because the county animal shelter is managed under the same management as the landfill. The artist writes, “This government structure reflects a societal value; homeless cats and dogs are just another waste stream. However, this landscape offers a metaphor of hope. It is a place of trash that has been transformed into a place of beauty.”

As part of her photographic process, each dog receives a car ride, a walk, treats, and about 2 hours of d individual attention. The artist writes that her goal is to,”…offer an individual face to the souls that are lost because of animal overpopulation, and give these animals one last chance. This project will continue for one year, so that we can see the landscape change, but the constant stream of dogs remains the same.”

To see more images of the Landfill dogs, you can check out the Facebook page, where you can keep up with the project.

Image Source:
www.shannonjohnstone.com/landfill_dogs/landfill_dogs.xml

Links: