Author: Kbaumlier

Kristen Baumlier’s work spans the full spectrum of interdisciplinary media, including performance, interactive installation, video and audio works.
Hungry Planet: Biting Off More Than We Can Chew

Hungry Planet: Biting Off More Than We Can Chew

Posted on by Kbaumlier

How many calories are consumed each day by people in different countries around the world?  How much food do we throw out in the U.S. daily?  Did you know that on August 20th, 2013 we consumed all of the earth’s allotted resources for the entire year?

The answers to these questions and others are in the Hungry Planet Infographic published by International Business Guide.  The Hungry Planet infographic outlines the large amounts of food and energy that countries around the world consume, and how much garbage we produce in the process in both text and graphics.

This infographic features questions and answers combined with bright illustrated images, which paints current picture of food and energy use.  Once you read it, you might get a sense of how many calories you eat a day, how much food U.S. citizens eat, and how much energy we have used recently.

Consumption Around the Globe
Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.orga>

 

Image and Links:

http://www.internationalbusinessguide.org/hungry-planet/

FLOAT – An Open Source Kite Project Helps Monitor Air Quality in Beijing

FLOAT – An Open Source Kite Project Helps Monitor Air Quality in Beijing

Posted on by Kbaumlier

The poor air quality in Beijing, China is getting worse.  Recently a hospital in southwest China opened a clinic for people who are having health issues related to smog.  The smog levels are rising, and recently the Chinese government officials recently asked other foreign embassies to not measure and make public the air quality in Beijing.

In order to help Chinese citizens monitor their local air and environment, a team of graduate students have created a project created FLOAT Beijing.  The project combines the local tradition of kite-flying, activism, and science.  For the project, a kite is equipped with air quality sensors that allows citizens to actively monitor their local air environment.

This past August, there were a series of workshops in Beijing that helped instruct participants in how to build and fly their own air-sensing kites using simple materials and open-source technology.  The goal of the project is to empower citizens with information and the ability to access air quality information.

The kites have LED lights that are programmed to light up with different colors in order to show the best and worst air quality.  Green indicates the best air, and pink shows the worst.  The information is mapped using geolocation technology, and the data is collected and made public.

Images and Links:

http://f-l-o-a-t.com/

FLOAT – Workshop in Action Video 

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Day – A Maple Themed Food Truck for Social Justice

Snow Day – A Maple Themed Food Truck for Social Justice

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Drive Change is a non profit that was started to help create opportunities for formerly incarcerated youth to earn a paycheck as well as connecting to other people thorugh food. Founders Annie Bickerton, a social entrepreneur and Jordyn Lexton, a teacher wanted to create change and address the issue that in New York, criminals as young as 16 years old are recognized and tried as adults, and oftentimes emerge back into the world unsure of how to integrate back into society. What is a way to do this?  By creating food trucks that create opportunities for formerly incarcerated youth to get experience working and interacting with others.

The first food truck, called Snow Day, is getting ready to open in early January.  The food will be maple sugar themed with Pancake Poppers, Maple Grilled Cheese, Maple Braised Pulled Pork Sliders, Maple Bacon Brussel Sprouts, Sugar on Snow (sugar lollypops made on real snow), Maple Bacon Doughnus and other items.   The food will be made from locally sourced food.

The team plans to get Snow Day out on the streets during the first week of January, where it will alternate between three location in Chelsea, Lower Manhattan, and DUMBO.

Hungry for maple syrup food?  You can learn more about the project’s mission by watching the Drive Change Launch Film and checking out the Drive Change and Snow Day truck website.

 

Images and Links:

snowdayfoodtruck.com

Drive Change

Drive Change Launch Film

 

Yeastograms: Art and Science Imagery

Yeastograms: Art and Science Imagery

Posted on by Kbaumlier

In recent years art and science have continued to merge, with more imagery and art made with science  and art processes. This year, artist Lucas Czizek created a “printing process” using yeast, where Yeastograms are live images created out of yeast cells, and produced in a process similar to classic photography printing methods.   The images are created with UV radiation.  Areas that are not touched by the UV radiation are able to grow the white yeast His piece ANIMA was developed as part of bioart club pavilion_35, a close interdisciplinary collaborative series of projects between artists and scientists based out of Vienna, Austria.

This month, Czizek is giving a 3 day bioart workshop, where he will share the method of cultivating baker’s yeast, and then shaping the cultivation according to aesthetic and artistic decisions.  The workshop is being offered by the bioart club pavilion_35 and Pixelache.  For more information, you can read more and sign up on the Pixelache website.

You can see a vimeo video of ANIMA, Czizek’s piece in action, which gives a great overview of the yeastogram process.

 

Imags and Links:

www.pixelache.ac- Yeastogram Workshop

ANIMA – Yeastogram Video 

pavillon35.polycinease.com

Herbarium Taste: Informational Food Design

Herbarium Taste: Informational Food Design

Posted on by Kbaumlier

What does the inside of an artichoke look like?  What nutrients does it have, and what is the best way to cook it? Valentina Raffaelli created a project to present answers to questions like these, in his design project called Herbarium Taste.

In the posters that he created, you see technical drawings of a food combined with information that provides information about the health benefits and “technical info that you can taste.”

On the artichoke poster, called Carciofo the text reads,

“Artichoke contains bitter principles as cynarin and sesquiterpene-lactones. These compounds inhibit cholesterol synthesis and have overall cholesterol reduction in the blood.  Fresh artichoke is an excellent source of vitamin folic acid. Scientific studies have proven that adequate levels of folates in the diet during early pregnancy, help prevent neural tube defects in the newborn baby.

It is one of the vegetable sources for vitamin K that has potential role bone health by promoting osteotrophic (bone formation) activity. Adequate vitamin-K levels in the diet help limiting neuronal damage in the brain.  It is also rich in B-complex group of vitamins that are essential for optimum cellular metabolic functions.
Further, artichoke is rich source of minerals like copper, calcium, potassium, iron, manganese and phosphorus. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Copper and iron are required in the production of red blood cells.”

The project was combined with a series of pop-up events where visitors could read the poster and also smell, taste, and eat the featured food.   On Raffaelli’s website, an update has been posted that the project will be made into a book, published by Corraini.

 

Image Sources and Links:

 http://herbariumtaste.com/

Valentina Raffaelli – website