Kristen Baumlier

NEWS

Cowbird: A New Online Storytelling Tool

Posted on December 23, 2011December 28, 2011 by Kbaumlier

On November 28th, Cowbird launched a new online storytelling tool called Cowbird. Cowbird is a community of storytellers – who have a goal to tell deeper, longer-lasting pieces than what is on the web. The site started with an online piece called The Occupy Saga and the Story of the 99%, and the team behind the site writes that the tool is meant to provide a “slower” space for self-reflection and a place for personal connections.

I checked out the Occupy Wall Street story- and the images and amount of information and stories on the site provides a broader and bigger view of the Occupy movement. With full size photographs and individual accounts of Occupy events – it was an easy to use interactive platform where I could read about events in Zuccotti Park, Portland, Oakland, and other locations on one site. I also could choose to experience the stories through images or by reading the stories.

The website allows users to create a audio-visual diary, and to collaborate in documenting stories or what the site calls “sagas”. Sagas would include events like the Japanese earthquake, the war in Iraq, and the Occupy Wall Street movement – things that affect millions of lives and human history.

The project aims to make a new participatory journalism which focuses on collecting individual stories behind news events and large themes. The site aims to create a “public library” of human experience so that the information, knowledge, and experiences are available in an area called the commons, for future generations to be able to experience and learn from.

The online tool is unique, in that it provides a platform for full-screen photos, modern typography, infographics, hand-drawn iconography, and a non-distracting environment to support the viewer to be able to experience stories in a “360 degree” perspective. Viewers can view the stories in various views including by timeline, places, “characters,” and stories.

To start a Cowbird diary, you can request an invitation by submitting information about yourself, proposing the stories you would like to tell, and links to any of your past work.

Links:

Cowbird – cowbird.com

The Occupy Saga— the story of the 99% on on Cowbird

The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang : Collaborative Gunpowder Drawings

Posted on December 22, 2011December 22, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Drawings with a bang? Cai Guo-Qiang is an artist who was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China, and has a background in stage design. While living in Japan, he explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings. This led to experimentation with explosives on a massive scale and creating explosion events. The projects explore ideas of Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues, and create a site-specific approach to culture and history.

Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab (“mirage”) is a large exhibition of more than 50 works at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar. The show includes his signature gunpowder drawings, large-scale site-specific installations and a large explosion event of Black Ceremony. The works in the show explore the historic and contemporary symbolism of the Arabian Gulf and its seafaring culture, as well as Islamic history.

In October 2011, with the help of 200 local volunteers, Cai Guo Qiang produced a series of large-scale gunpowder drawings that trace the maritime route from ancient Arabia to Quanzhou. Volunteers helped with the production of the works which involved placing large pieces of paper on the floor, positioning stencils, and dusting gunpowder on the pieces. Boards and bricks were put on top of the paper and the artist and his trained team would light the pieces with the volunteers watching the explosions.

The process was open to the public, and the final drawings are images reminiscent of the botanical patterns seen in Islamic decorative art. A video is online that documented the production of the piece.

Links:

Video of 200 Doha Residents work with Cai Guo-Qiang to make Explosive Art

Cai Guo Qiang Website

Mathaf Website

Light: a “supernatural” short film about energy waste

Posted on December 21, 2011December 21, 2011 by Kbaumlier

“Light” is a short film directed by David Parker that is intended to bring awareness to energy waste. In the piece, we see lights that are dripping and oozing which parallel the way in which we waste our natural resources without much thought. The film is a poetic piece which provides eerie images of lights in the urban environment.

The film was shot during 2 nights in Los Angeles by two friends driving around the city with a camera exploring the architecture and abandoned landscapes.

In the future, the film will be projected in selected US cities in vacant storefront windows and onto walls in alleys as a moving piece of public art.

David Parker is part of the team Sunday/Paper whose goal is to create evocative, beautifully crafted images, that showcase stories that are thoughtful and compelling. “Light” was directed by David Parker with effects and production done by a team of support from places including the Mill and MassMarket NY.

Links:

Light – the film on Vimeo

David Parker and Sunday/Paper

2012: The Year for Local Food in Cleveland

Posted on December 20, 2011December 20, 2011 by Kbaumlier

In August 2009, the first Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit was held by Mayor Frank G. Jackson bring together hundreds of people interested in applying the principles of sustainability to the design of the local economy. The goal of the summit was to create a vision for a 10-year campaign for “building an economic engine to empower a green city on a blue lake” by the 50th anniversary of the infamous Cuyahoga River fire, which will be in 2019.

One outcome of the summit was to create “Celebration points” for each year, so that the community can participate in making sustainable changes and choices in our households, neighborhoods, businesses, and institutions. The points are also designed to align with city initiatives and other community events.

For 2012 the theme of Local Foods is the Celebration Point which corresponds with the 100^th anniversary of the West Side Market.

There are several groups that formed out of the Sustainable Cleveland Summit that are working to support local food. One of these is Growhio, a non-profit group whose mission is to strengthen and support the local food economy in NE Ohio through branding, marketing and collaboration. Another is the the Community Kitchen Incubator Project, which aims to create community kitchen(s) and a incubator to foster entrepreneurship, educational opportunities and promotion of sustainable food production and preservation at a shared commercial kitchen incubator facility. One ambitious project is called 10,000 farmers, which is a initiative to support and mobilize 10,000 new farmers in 10 years in Northeast Ohio.

2012 will be the year of Local Foods with lots of workshops, community events, and activities in the Cleveland area. To get involved, or learn more about the 2019 Local Food projects you can goto localfoodcleveland.org.

Image Source:
Local Food Cleveland

Links:

Local Food Cleveland

Local Food Cleveland Working Group

Make your own Snow Machine

Posted on December 19, 2011December 19, 2011 by Kbaumlier

Want to cover your yard with white fluffy snow?

On the DIY website, Instructables, there is instructions on how to build your own snow machine that will make a unit you can hook up to your hose and make powdery white snow as long as the weather is cold enough to keep the snow from melting on impact.

To build your own, you only need around $100 dollars and a trip to the hardware store. The machine works by mixing air and water together – which is then blasted through nozzels, turning the water into snow.

The directions are available through the website instructables.com, where users create and share DIY projects, and there are weekly challenges.

Image Source:
MakeSnow

Links:

Make a Snowmaker – on instructables.com

Snowmaker Plans