Nature – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Nature

Lifebox – Cardboard Ecosystems You can Ship

Posted on July 22, 2012July 26, 2012 by Kbaumlier

This year we joined Amazon Prime which has increased our online shipping as well as the amount of cardboard that comes into the house. We recycle it each week, but I feel bad when I see the pile of boxes that come into the house regularly. There is a lot of water and energy that goes into making the cardboard and getting my purchases to my house.

Lifebox is a company that has figured out how to make cardboard into a packaging material as well as a designed ecosystem. The person behind the project is Paul Stamets, mushroom and fungi expert. Cardboard is a perfect growth medium for encouraging the growth of fungi and plants to symbiotically grow together. Each Lifebox contains around 100 different tree seeds and also is dusted with mycorrhizal spores that “protect and nurture” the seedlings. Stamets asks people to rip the box into large pieces, soak them in water, place the pieces in a plastic bag for 6-12 weeks, plant the cardboard panels, water and watch your Life Box sprout tree seedlings.

The seedlings will sprout a miniature forest. In about two years you can plant the trees or take them to a local nature preserve or park. The big picture with the project is to work with organizations like the forest service or non-profit agencies to direct people to public lands where their trees are most needed. The seeds selected are non-invasive species and also have the biggest impact on reducing carbon in the atmosphere.

The Life Boxes are made in various sizes, and some of their partners include Whole Foods and other retailers.

The story behind the box is written on the site-

“ While growing many wood-decomposing mushrooms, my friends and I discovered the ‘wonders of cardboard’ for growing mycelium. Silky, diverging forks of mycelium would happily race down the valleys within the folds of corrugated cardboard. Having myco-mulched with cardboard for many years, I realized that cardboard could become a growth medium for encouraging guilds – communities – of fungi and plants symbiotically working together. Then, the epiphany hit me like a lightning bolt. Why not re-invent the cardboard box so each box becomes a designed ecosystem? “- Paul Stamets

Stamets sees the project as a simple way to “regreen” the planet, one box at a time. So far, I have not gotten one of these in the mail, but I plan to ask at Whole Foods about this next time I go – to see if they use them or sell them.

Image Source:
www.lifeboxcompany.com

Links:

www.lifeboxcompany.com

A Park Underground, The Delancey Underground Project

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Where can you put another park in Manhatten? In a city where space is at a premium the team behind the Delancey Underground project has the goal to convert an underground unused trolley terminal beneath Delancey Street into a public park that has been nicknamed the “LowLine.”

The location of the new park is the Williamsburg Trolley Terminal that opened in 1903 and was in service until 1948 when streetcar service was discontinued. It has been unused for over 60 years and is next to an existing subway track – so that future park visitors and subway riders will interact daily. The project has been inspired by the success of another unusual park called the High Line, which is a public park built on an historic freight rail line and is elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side.

Plans for the park are to transform the 60,000 square feet (1.5 acres) of terminal space into a park space by using new green. Central to the design is the use of solar technology that uses innovative fiber optics to reflect light underground which saves electricity and reduces carbon emissions. It also creates an environment where plants, trees, and grasses can thrive indoors.

Digital rendering of the space shows a unique space where trees, cobblestone floors, and state of the art fiber optics create a unique environment. Currently the project is seeking funding to develop a demo of the solar technology and to create a model of the community park. The team behind the project did a Kickstarter campaign and raised $155,186 by theirgoal date of April 6^th.

Plans for the park are to have community events in the space including art exhibitions, farmers’ markets, lectures, and events. More images of the project can be seen at the Delancey Underground website and also at the Kickstarter project page.

Image Source:
delanceyunderground.org

Links:

Kickstarter Page – lowline-an-underground-park-on-nycs-lower-east-side

delanceyunderground.org

http://www.thehighline.org

Engineered Corn and Sea Monkeys: The Center for PostNatural History

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Kbaumlier

The Center for PostNatural History opened in its permanent exhibition facility in Pittsburgh earlier this month. The Center for PostNatural History (CPNH) is a center that is dedicated to the research and exhibition of lifeforms that have been altered by humans. The CPNH has examples of diorama, taxidermy, photography and living exhibits. Some exhibits have included engineered corn, Sea Monkeys, modified Chestnut Trees, and BioSteel Goats.

The center explores the intersection of humanity and biological sciences through changing and traveling exhibits. Currently on display is a poster series produced by the Center for Genomic Gastronomy which catalogues the diversity of genetically modified fruits and vegetables available in the US and European Union. Other exhibitions included a show about the transgenic mosquitos of Southern California, and a show that explored a selection of techniques and technologies that have been used to prevent organisms from reproducing. In May there will be an exhibit about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault which was produced by a group of American and Norwegian researchers who visited the worlds largest repository of domesticated food crop seeds.

There is a Center for PostNatural History Introduction Video that is worth checking out on Vimeo and if you happen to be in Pittsburgh, the Center for PostNatural History will be open Sundays 12-6 and also for select events. Appointments may be made by contacting the CPNH by email: rich@postnatural.org.

Image Source:
The Center for PostNatural History Website

Links:

The Center for PostNatural History Website

The Center for PostNatural History: An Introduction – Video

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Posted on February 24, 2012February 24, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Photographer and illustrator Lisa Rienermann was in Barcelona in 2005 studying abroad, and looked up to see houses, the sky and the letter “Q.” The negative space between the houses formed a letter.

She spent the next few weeks running around, looking up, and finding more letters in the alphabet formed by architecture and sky. The project culminated in a booklet and poster of the sky alphabet, and the poster which said on the front, “Will you look at me? And “Yeah!” on the back.

Rienerman’s type is a reminder to look up to see what is being formed by the framing and negative space of our urban environment. The project was awarded a certificate of typographic excellence by the Type Directors Club New York 2007.

Image Source:
www.lisarienermann.com/

Links:

www.lisarienermann.com/

jpgmag.com/photos/205473

Biophilia – Bjorks’s New Album of Nature +Music Ipad apps

Posted on January 24, 2012January 22, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Biophilia, a album and project by Bjork is the first album to be released as a suite of iPad and iPhone apps, and is intended to be experiential educational project that uses sound, texts and visuals that focus on natural science topics including plate tectonics, genetics and human biorhythms.

The project took over 3 years to develop, and Bjork, her record company, Apple, and National Geographic contributed to making an album that is the first album releases that worked with Apple to produce a series of iPad apps as an album.. Some key collabators to the project were made by David Attenborough, who does narration on the project and Dr Nicola Dibben, a senior lecturer in music at Sheffield University, who wrote the essays that accompany every song. Also part of the team was a mathematician, British scientist and film-maker, and a robotics company’s director of engineering.

I downloaded the app, which currently has 9 song/apps that are available for purchase. The application opens with an interactive view of star constellations, with bright stars labeled with names like sacrifice, thunderbolt, and virus. A voiceover begins that talks about where me nature, and that much of it is hidden, we can not see or touch it , such as sound which is usually hidden. The idea behind Biophilia is that nature, music, and technology come together- and you can listen, interact, and create.

I paid to download the song/application Virus, which said it was about the biological virus and the host. In the song notes, the piece talked about how Bjork was fighting a “candida issue” in her throat, and was learning to live with and get rid of a fungus in her. The piece is about fungus inside of us, and living to live with it.

When I played the piece, the piece had images of cells that I could interact with while I could hear the song, and lips appeared inside of the cells. I read that I am supposed to try to stop the attack of the virus (which were green.) The directions did not tell me what to do – so I did what my four year old nephew would do – I just tried to touch and click everything. I don’t think I was successful – since the piece is supposed to stop if I was successful, and it never stopped. I kept swiping my ipad and watched as more green virus organisms surrounded the large cell, then green strings came in to surround the nucleus, and the song progressed into different keys. Eventually the big cell disappeared – and the virus remained.

After the song ended – I was left with a cell/virus synthesizer of sort – where I could click and get different sounds which included bells, synthesizers, zylophones, etc.

Overall I was disappointed with the application. The interface was unclear, and I did not feel that I got a meaningful experience with the music or ideas through the piece I downloaded. The graphics and text of the main interface seem like something I would have seen 10 years ago, and I would have liked the option to read some direction or F.A.Qs about the piece.

At 1.99 a song – I’m not going to by the other 8. Interactive mediums are always a challenge – but my experience with Biophilia did not seem like anything new except it was made by Bjork and her collaborators.

Image Source:
Creative Applications – Bjork Biophilia

Links:
Creative Applications – Bjork Biophilia

Bjork’s website

Biophelia application on Itunes