Kbaumlier

Author: Kbaumlier

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

Tonight – Free Dial in Conference Call about Climate Change with 350.org

Posted on December 6, 2011December 6, 2011 by Kbaumlier

350.org is a group that online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions through volunteer organizers in over 188 countries. The name of the group comes from the CO2 number of 350 parts per million, a number that scientists have said that we need reach. Currently it is at 392 parts per million, and the number 350 has become a symbol of where we need to head as a planet.

Last week, there was a nationwide brainstorm session about ideas of the future. This collaborative “movement strategy session” was held in various institutions, living rooms, and community centers across the country. These ideas were discussed either online or in person.

Tonight there is a conference call with Bill McKibben of 350.org to go over the best ideas that emerged last week. He also give an update about the latest political developments on the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Last week, a few Senators and Representatives in Congress introduced legislation to fast-track approval of the pipeline.

It is a one hour free phone call – and anyone can dial in.

The details for the call:

What: Climate Movement Strategy Sessions Debrief Call
When: Monday December 5th, 9 PM Eastern Time
To join: Call (712) 432-1001, and enter the access code 485501597#
On the web: There will be a online discussion chatbox so that indivudals can discuss what’s happening on the call without talking over each other: www.350.org/strategy-chat

Image Source:
350.org

Links:

350.org

www.tarsandsaction.org

Try Something New For 30 Days

Posted on December 5, 2011December 5, 2011 by Kbaumlier

We finally did it. Last month we got a new HD tv with streaming capability. Now we have Netflix, Hulu Plus, and can add other websites/channels like TED talks on the television. The other day, after I streamed an episode of Gossip Girls off of Netflix on the new tv, I thought about what would happen if I watched TED talks (videos of inventors, thinkers, and people who are “inspired” rom the annual TED conferences) regularly instead of junky television shows?

Since then, I can’t say I have watched TED talks every day, but by watching some of the talks it has given me some new ideas and new perspectives to ponder. One talk I watched last week was by Matt Cutts entitled “Try Something New for 30 days.” In the video he shares about feeling stuck – and deciding to try something new for 30 days. He biked to work for 30 days in one challenge, and during one November (which is National Novel Writing Month) he wrote a novel.

I recently have been feeling like I am not sure what to make next for my research and artwork. I recently completed two bodies of work. I started to work with some images that I shot in the studio a few months ago but things were not going the way I wanted, and I felt frustrated. I decided to take a break and focus on research. Research for me includes reading, taking notes, and sketching ideas – not focusing on the end result.

I find that the older I get – the more pressure I put on myself to think about what will the end result be, where will the pieces show or function, and what will people think. This focus on the end result is not helpful – but it is a habit I easily slip back into. What gets me out of it? Reading, research, sketching, and experimenting.

My current interest is on food and food equity. I have ideas about making a new series of photographs, and also making a public online tool (or app?) available to others to support the creation of making images of food.

After watching the TED talk about trying something new for 30 days, I have decided that I am going to generate one image a day of food. Good, bad, and even on some days uninspired, but I’m going to make one every day to see where it goes – and to see if my work gets more direction.

My studio setup is ready to go. I start today. Not sure what I am going to photograph yet today. I am thinking about buying a piece of fried chicken or carrots to photograph today. I also have six books on reserve for me at the library to pick up.

Is there something you have always wanted to do – or are you feeling stuck? Why not do something for 30 days?

LINKS:

TED Talk: Matt Cutts – Try something new for 30 days

Networking tools for Farmers, Planners and Activists

Posted on December 4, 2011December 4, 2011 by Kbaumlier

One of the best ways to preserve farmland is for family farmers to understand and use market opportunities to support agricultural production.

In November of this month, Mike Hogan, an Extension Educator and Professor at OSU presented at the 12th Annual Ohio Farmland Preservation Summit and shared some tools and ideas to help support Ohio farmers, planners and activists. He is the Ohio Coordinator for the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, and he specializes in sustainable agriculture and small farm issues including direct marketing, local food systems and alternative crop and production systems.

Hogan promotes the idea that farmers shouldn’t get hung up on the definition of “local,” and that different buysers define buying locally different. Sometimes it can be home county, but it often can be expanded into neighboring counties or being statewide. There might be a demand outside of what you think is “local” yourself.

Hogan promotes three tools that can be used by farmers, farmers market managers or other local food activists which include: Ohio MarketMaker, Ohio MarketReady and Meet the Buyers.

MarketMaker, a free on-line resource was developed as a way for Illinois farmers to gain greater access to regional markets by linking them with processors, retailers, consumers and other food supply chain participants. The site has expanded and is currently one of the most extensive collections of searchable food industry related data in the country. It has almost 500,000 profiles of farmers and other food related enterprises in sixteen states. On the site, a farmer can build a profile and enter information about his/her farm, crops, and livestock – and indicate what is for sale. Buyers can set up similar profiles – but with what he/she wishes to purchase. The site provides a networking tool, and users can map their data and searches, which provides the ability to find local, regional, or nationwide sources and suppliers.

Ohio Market Ready is a program currently managed by the OSU Extension that started Kentucky to great success and is currently getting support in Ohio. The program is a set of workshops and tools for producers to develop their best marketing practices. Market Ready begins with farmers analyzing their business goals and lining them up with a potential customer base. In one-day workshops, family farmers learn the basics of marketing including subjects ranging from product selection to signage, delivery, promotion, regulatory and insurance issues and how to get to know your potential customers. To find out about upcoming workshops or to schedule one, check out Market Ready on the Web.

Meet the Buyers is a program that will sponsor events where institutional or wholesale buyers set up booths and displays in a trade show setup, and producers can interact with the buyers to find out more about how to sell to large food service distirbutors such as Sysco or OSU’s cafeteria system. Currently due to budget constraints, there are fewer events and fewer buyers participating.

Starting a farm, or want to connect with others in the agriculture area? These tools might get you started.

Image Source:
msue.msu.edu

Links:

MarketMaker

Market Ready

Ohio Farmland Preservation Summit Conference – Presentation and Podcasts

Reverse Graffiti Cleaning up the Street: Street Artist Moose

Posted on December 3, 2011December 3, 2011 by Kbaumlier

A shoe brush, water, old socks, cleaning fluid, and elbow grease are the tools of a British street artist known as Moose, who creates graffiti by cleaning dirt from sidewalks and tunnels. Some authorities call it vandalism, but Moose, whose real name is Paul Curtis says that what he is doing is cleaning up the street, and that he is leaving no real marks and is cleaning up the dirt of urban life.

Moose says that he got the idea watching people write their names on dirty tunnel walls using their fingers in his hometown of Leeds, in the U.K. This form of street art is called “reverse graffiti,” and other artists including Brazilian artist Alexandre Orion and street artist Banksy have also used this technique.

Moose usually does work on tunnels, signs, and retaining walls. One of his best known pieces was in the Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco. At the time he was working for a record label, and they wanted to promote a new album. Lacking the funds for advertising, they scrubbed their message into the walls of tunnels around his hometown of Leeds, England.

A few years ago, he worked with a group of Greenpeace eco-warriors. They piled into a zodiac raft, armed with pressure washers, and buzzed across the Thames River to a blackened retaining wall near the House of Parliament. When they’d finished their work, the wall was emblazoned with the message: “DON’T CHANGE THE CLIMATE. CHANGE THE POLITICS.”

“The environmental message [in my art] is unavoidable, “Moose says. “I’m writing in grime….If I can intrigue people to look closer, and then shock them with the contrast between where the wall was cleaned and where it was dirty … It’s just a quirky little way of getting the point out to people.”

Links:

Video of his work

Moose’s websit

NPR Morning Edition – Moose and his work

KBaumlier – Work showing on Digital Billboard Today in San Bernardino, CA

Posted on December 2, 2011December 2, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Today I have work in the Digital Billboard Art Project – on a billboard in San Bernardino, CA. The work started at midnight – and goes until today 11:59 pm (24 hours.)

To participate, you send in an application, and formatted files that are then arranged in a cue to play on the digital billboard. I submitted slides about energy and resources – and used poems, wordplay, and lyrics from some of my past songs and projects. I am excited for words like – GOING FAST, GONNA LAST?, MY FUEL MY FIRE, ALL OIL DESIRE, etc. to be put near the highway.

There is a schedule that says what time each artists work will be shown – and my pieces run for 4 minutes within the schedule. The billboard is located off I-15 southbound before the E Ontario Ave exit. The actual billboard is next to the Spring Hill Suites Corona-Riverside hotel.

The Billboard Art Project is a project that acquires digital billboards normally used for advertising and repurposes them as roadside galleries – showing images from artists. Types of work that may be displayed include images created specifically for the billboard as well as images of previously made art adapted to the format. No two Billboard Art Project shows are alike; each city features new work.

The project was started by David Morrison, who got interested in this venue when seeing test images on a new billboard being played in 2005. He writes, “ Advertising is so epidemic and pervasive that people pay good money for clothes so that they can advertise corporate entities like Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, and their favorite sports team… So, when you see a billboard that isn’t telling you what to buy or who to trust, it carries the impact of the unexpected.”

In 2010, he acquired 24 hours of time from Lamar Advertising in October 2010. The billboard time was purchased and a date set. When he was discussing the project with a friend, he immediately asked to participate, and soon a call for artists was sent out through email. At this first project, the Richmond Virginia Art project had over 30 participants with images that ranged from being serious to comical.

This year there have been shows setup across the country including Duluth, Chicago, Reading, New Orleans, Baton Rouge and San Bernardino.

If you are in San Bernadino driving on I-15 southbound – look for a billboard that looks different – and you have found the show.

Links:

Billboard Art Project

Follow the Billboard Art Project – Live Event on facebook

Billboard Art Project flic kr site

Billboard Art Project YouTube videos