NEWS

Got Petroleum In You or On You?  This Weekend in Buffalo, NY

Got Petroleum In You or On You? This Weekend in Buffalo, NY

Petroleum is everywhere. From the shoes that we wear, to the zippers on our jackets, to the aspirin that we take for headaches – it all has petroleum in it.

This Saturday,  my interactive performance Petroleum In You or On You will be in Buffalo, NY as part of the opening weekend of the Buffalo Infringement Festival.

In a unique twist to the scavenger hunt, visitors will be invited to check their clothes, bodies and purses to see what they have on them that originate from petroleum and compete for a special souvenir prize.  Pictures will be taken of what people have on them and their count of items will be tracked during the event.

Do you see petroleum when you look in the mirror? You just might after you participate in this interactive performance.

Petroleum In Me and On Me will be at the Buffalo Infringement festival on July 28th.  Stop by between 7-9 pm at Barfly (162 Elmwood Ave.) and check yourself for petroleum.  Every 30 minutes will be a winner!

The location of the performance and the list of petroleum products can be seen on Google Maps at this link: http://awe.sm/h0GoM.

Location and time:

7pm – 9pm Buffalo Barfly  162 Elmwood Avenue Buffalo, NY

Links:

My Petroleum (On Me and In Me): Scavenger Hunt and Interactive Event

http://www.infringebuffalo.org/calendar.php?day=2

http://petroleuminme.tumblr.com/

http://awe.sm/h0GoM

 

 

 

Lifebox – Cardboard Ecosystems You can Ship

Lifebox – Cardboard Ecosystems You can Ship

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

See yourself?  A Blind Self Portrait Machine

See yourself? A Blind Self Portrait Machine

When is the last time you drew a self-portrait?  If you have not tried in a while, a easier way might be coming soon.

Two creative techies,  Kyle McDonald and Matt Mets have built a machine which can help you draw your own self portrait.  The ideas is that you keep your eyes shut while a a moving platform guides a pen in your hand to draw a self-portrait . A computer provides the “vision”  to track your face and generate a line drawing. The result is a machine-aided drawing of a self-portrait.

The device “Blind Self Portrait” was  installed for the first time at the NYC Resistor interactive show in May of this year which had a theme of Physical meets Digital.

You can see a video and read more about the device on Vimeo.

Image Source:
Blind Self Portrait Machine on Vimeo

Links:

Video of Blind Self Portrait Machine on Vimeo

Food Font @ The Green Corps Fairfax Farm Making Food Alphabets

Food Font @ The Green Corps Fairfax Farm Making Food Alphabets

Green Corps is a work/study program supported by the Cleveland Botanical Garden.  For the program, high school students work to transform vacant lots in the city into urban farms. The students are paid for their work and they develop work skills, leadership, and help build a healthier, greener community for themselves and their neighbors.  Green Corps students work 16–20 hours a week in their “home base” neighborhood farm.  They spend time planting, weeding, pruning, harvesting, and preparing crops for market.  Each week, students take turns selling the produce at farmers markets.

Today I worked with 13 Green Corps students from the ½ acre Fairfax Learning Farm which is located in a once vacant lot on E79th at Amos Ave. in Cleveland.  The students worked in teams to create 3 food alphabets for the Food Font project.

When I arrived, two students gave me a tour of the farm.  Rainbow Swiss chard, kale, eggplant, okra, radishes, watermelon, cucumbers and other vegetables were growing in the farm.  There were also herbs such as basil, rosemary, and thyme.  The student showed me their personal square foot garden boxes which are the size of an average backyard garden that each student maintains.

I gave an overview of the Food Font project, and each team worked together to make letters out of the Farm Food.  The first group worked with okra, peppers, and a few squash to make a vegetable letterset that had a fun, flirty feel to it due to the curly shape of the peppers.  The next group got creative with the rainbow Swiss chard and made the “Swissy” alphabet.   The last group worked with full and sliced potatoes to make a lowercase alphabet called “Potato Patato” with potatoes that were harvested yesterday.

When the Food Font tool is built, these Fairfax Farm Green Corps alphabets will be in the Food Font tool so we can all write things in Swiss chard, potatoes, peppers, and okra.  Thanks to everyone that participated and to Alex the team leader who worked with me to plan for the activity.

Image Source:
Kristen Baumlier

Links:

Green Corps – Cleveland Botanical Garden

 

 

A Unique Classroom-Free School : Vittra Telefonplan

A Unique Classroom-Free School : Vittra Telefonplan

Picture the school classroom.  Rows of desks with chairs, teacher in the front, everyone facing the front.  For many years educational experts have proposed that the traditional setup of school classrooms does not foster collaboration or creativity. In Sweden, the Vittra International school system, which operates 30 schools is changing the look and feel of the classroom.

Vittra schools work with three key words in everything that they do:  networks, skills, and language.  Students develop bilingual skills in English and Swedish and by creating international contacts through networks and and exchange program. Using computers and developing technological skills is a strong value of the schools.

One of the newest Vittra schools, Telefonplan, opened last Summer.  The architecture and space was designed by an architecture firms.  Room setup is arrange in more of a pod or island setup.  There is space designed for group work including a space called “the village” – which is a small house structure with a table.  The forms of the spaces vary from organic to more architectural in nature.

This unique design is intended to provide opportunities for both collaborative and independent work and to support curiosity and creativity.

When I was in grades 6-8 we were setup in “pods” – where 4 classes would be held in one large hexagonal room.  In the middle of the room were a set of couches where you could read, study or meet in groups.  I know that this middle area was one of my favorite areas to be in.  One problem with this setup is that you could often hear the other class across the room in the hexagonal space. I know that I would have loved being a more creative and collaborative atmosphere.  Too bad I didn’t grow up in Sweden – I would have loved the non-classroom atmosphere.

Image Source:
Vitra International Website

Links:

Vitra International Website