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Conflict Kitchen: A Take-out Restaurant Serving Cuisine from Countries that the United States is in Conflict With

Conflict Kitchen: A Take-out Restaurant Serving Cuisine from Countries that the United States is in Conflict With

Posted on by Kbaumlier

What does Venezuela, Iran, Afghanistan, Cuba, and North Korea have in common?  All of these are countries that the U.S. is currently in conflict with.  Conflict Kitchen is a take-out restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA that only serves cuisine from countries with which the United States is in conflict.

Every 6 months, the restaurant highlights another country, and the food is served out of a take-out style storefront.  With each change, there is a series of events, performances, and discussion that occur about the culture, politics and issues at stake with each country.

Currently Conflict Kitchen is in its third version, and is working with La Cocina Arepas, a Venezuelan take-out restaurant that serves homemade arepas, grilled corncakes served to order with a variety of fillings.  The arepas come packaged in a custom-designed wrapper that includes interviews with Venezuelans both in Venezuelan and the United States on subjects ranging from Venezuelan food and culture to issues of geopolitics.   The wrappers were developed in collaboration with members of the Venezuelan community.

The wrappers designed in bright colors and with modern typography and the interviews range in topics ranging from from street food and popular culture to debates about President Hugo Chavez and the geopolitical dynamics of the region. The variety and contradiction of thoughts and opinions reflect the range of thought within the country and serves to instigate questioning, conversation, and debate with our customers.

The project combines food, personal stories, and design resulting in sparking many interesting conversations.  Conflict Kitchen is a project by Jon Rubin, and Dawn Weleski with graphic design by Brett Yasko and architectural design by Pablo Garcia/POiNT.  The project is supported by The Waffle Shop, The Sprout Fund, School of Art, Carnegie Mellon University and Center for the Arts in Society.

Currently Conflict Kitchen is open for winter on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30am to 2:30pm, and  will reopen 7 days a week on April 1st, 2012.

Image Source:
www.conflictkitchen.org

Links:
www.conflictkitchen.org

“This Winter has not been that bad. I have to say, I don’t mind global warming.”

“This Winter has not been that bad. I have to say, I don’t mind global warming.”

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Here in Cleveland, we have only had a few snowfalls, and only a handful of times when snowfalls were more than 2 inches.  The temperatures overall have been warmer, and I usually head out the door without gloves and a hat.  In the last few weeks, when discussing the weather with others – I have heard more and more people say that, “This Winter has not been that bad.  I have to say, I don’t mind global warming.”

This makes sense – since people hate the cold weather here, but it is short-sighted, since on the other side of the world, warmer temperatures are causing weather conditions that is causing death and starvation.

“2011 has been a year of extreme weather, the WMO reported. Drought in East Africa has left tens of thousands dead; lethal floods submerged large areas of Asia; the United States suffered 14 separate weather catastrophes with damage topping $1 billion each, including severe drought in Texas and the southwest, heavy floods in the northeast and the Mississippi valley, and the most active tornado season ever known.” – Huffington Post.

Here in Ohio it is hard to see the changes that are happening around the world.  What I have noticed is more rain, warmer temperatures, and plants blooming longer due to the warmer weather.

I find that my students don’t really care much about the issue of global warming, feeling like scientists will figure it out, and they can’t have much effect on what will happen in the future.

How can the bigger picture of the effects of global warming be present on a larger scale in our daily life?  I’m not sure – but I’m thinking about it.

 

Links:

Huffington Post – 2011 was the hottest year Global Warming

Scientific Report on Global Warming- .pdf download

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Type the Sky: Letters Made of Sky

Posted on 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

Can you tell a story in 6 words?

Can you tell a story in 6 words?

Posted on by Kbaumlier

SMITH magazine believes that everyone has a story. Can you tell yours in six words? SMITH Magazine, which publishes the Six-Word Memoir series wants you to send in your six word story.

SMITH was founded by Larry Smith and Tim Barkow in 2006.   Smith and Barkow believe that everyone has a story, and everyone should have a pace to tell it.  SMITH was created as a place for professional and never-before-published writers, artists, and anyone with a passion for storytelling.

SMITH Mag, and its younger cousin, SMITH Teens, are homes for storytelling of all forms, with a focus on personal narrative. SMITH is best known for the Six-Word Memoir® project, which has led to a bestselling book series, including Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, and Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure

On the website, you can submit your story in six words including topics such as:

Love:   Share six words on love & heartbreak.

Questions :  Ask a question in exactly six words.

Resolutions : Hopes, dreams, motivations, and mistakes to avoid in the coming year.

Happiness : Share your six words on the secrets to happiness.

Each Monday there is a six-word question of the week that is posted.

So why it is called SMITH? As you probably know, Smith is the most popular surname in the U.S. Smith and Barkow felt that the name “represents us all, each of us living our extraordinary lives—day by day, story by story.”

On the site, I checked out some of the stories listed under Green Life.
Some of my favorites include:

Seventh generation? try saving this one.
and
Saving paper not doing homework.

What can you say in 6 words? Check out the SMITH website, and see if you find a topic/challenge that you want to write about.

 

Links:

smithmag.net – SMITH Magazine

Construction and Destruction: Marjan Teeuwen’s Abandoned Building Art

Construction and Destruction: Marjan Teeuwen’s Abandoned Building Art

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Dutch Artist Marjan Teeuwen changes abandoned buildings into art by working with debris and upcycled building materials.  Her technique involves layering fragments of debris, then taking photographs and films of the final constructions.

Her project Destroyed House done in 2008, was created in a house that had an adjoining ice cream parlor.  The work was done in close cooperation with a contractor in order to remove ceilings and floors, move walls, and to create viewing holes in the structure.  She calls the works architectural sculptural installations.   Many of the materials used in Destroyed House were from the house itself .

In writing about her work, Teeuwen writes, “The literal breaking away of parts of floors, walls and ceilings signals a further accentuation of the polarity between destruction and construction. There is a balance between order and chaos, balance and imbalance, aesthetics and anti-aesthetics, refinement and crudeness.

The photographs of her work emphasize the careful layered materials in contrast to the frame of the buildings, which appear to be on the verge of collapsing.  The effect is an image of order and disorder and the relationship of construction to destruction.

Images of her projects can be seen on her website at  http://www.kw14.nl/

Image Source:
Marjan Teeuwen Website

Links:

Marjan Teeuwen Website – http://www.kw14.nl/