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Great article in the New York Times March 3,2008
Architecture Review
City on the Gulf: Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment in Dubai:
"It has been 12 years since the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas unleashed his concept of “the generic city,” a sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centered on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties. His argument was that in its profound sameness, the generic city was a more accurate reflection of contemporary urban reality than nostalgic visions of New York or Paris.
Now he may get a chance to create his own version.
Designed for one of the biggest developers in the United Arab Emirates, Nakheel, Mr. Koolhaas’s master plan for the proposed 1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City in Dubai would simulate the density of Manhattan....read the whole article
Architecture Review
City on the Gulf: Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment in Dubai:
"It has been 12 years since the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas unleashed his concept of “the generic city,” a sprawling metropolis of repetitive buildings centered on an airport and inhabited by a tribe of global nomads with few local loyalties. His argument was that in its profound sameness, the generic city was a more accurate reflection of contemporary urban reality than nostalgic visions of New York or Paris.
Now he may get a chance to create his own version.
Designed for one of the biggest developers in the United Arab Emirates, Nakheel, Mr. Koolhaas’s master plan for the proposed 1.5-billion-square-foot Waterfront City in Dubai would simulate the density of Manhattan....read the whole article
eDump- a documentary
Mar. 26th, 2008 05:03 pmTranscript for “eDump” (A Documentary About Electronic Waste Dumping) by Michael Zhao
Americans scrap 400 million electronic products per year, and generated 2.6 million tons of e-waste in 2005.
[NARRATION] At this electronic-waste drop-off event, Alameda residents dumped 35 tons of computers, TVs, cell phones and a host of other appliances. These machines were then dismantled in Hayward, also in northern California.
But what happens next? The short answer: a majority are exported overseas. This collector, eRecycling of California, pledges not to export its e-waste. However there are many other companies that do, and they are making money by polluting the environment and harming public health in China, India, Nigeria and other developing countries.
watch eDump here:
http://michaelzhao.net/
the better news: more US companies that really recycle eWaste fully and do NOT eDump:
Intercon Solutions in Chicago
Supreme Computer & Electronic Recycling, Inc in New Jersey
Americans scrap 400 million electronic products per year, and generated 2.6 million tons of e-waste in 2005.
[NARRATION] At this electronic-waste drop-off event, Alameda residents dumped 35 tons of computers, TVs, cell phones and a host of other appliances. These machines were then dismantled in Hayward, also in northern California.
But what happens next? The short answer: a majority are exported overseas. This collector, eRecycling of California, pledges not to export its e-waste. However there are many other companies that do, and they are making money by polluting the environment and harming public health in China, India, Nigeria and other developing countries.
watch eDump here:
http://michaelzhao.net/
the better news: more US companies that really recycle eWaste fully and do NOT eDump:
Intercon Solutions in Chicago
Supreme Computer & Electronic Recycling, Inc in New Jersey
Tags:
Manufactured Landscapes
Mar. 25th, 2008 12:45 pmThis documentary on photographer Edward Burtynski's work was perhaps the most important, relevant and mindboggling film I saw this year. Please see. I'm still struggling with comprehending scale and growth. SO much to think about. I've been trying to See something...and given glimpses.Don't even know how to talk about these things with others...because it is so complex...and beyond right and wrong. it is a future that we are all helping shape continually, daily...and we must figure out how to be more conscious in it. not blaming or demonizing companies or nations...but figuring out how to be connected for a sustainable planet and humanity. thinking about things on a larger scale. economies, resources, poverty, labor, happiness, health. What is the life I would want for myself AND everyone else? Being that my detailed tastes are personal, what are the main things I feel are important? We cannot be in denial about what is occurring...nor simply wish it were different without trying to visualize in what ways we might actually work in positive changes. Positive changes that take into account both the environment and the populations that are striving to survive and move out of poverty. Such a complex and necessary challenge. please help by giving it some thought and perhaps sharing or acting on those thoughts in some small ways. It is now 2008. wow. it's starting to feel like it.
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Mar. 22nd, 2008 12:47 am"If success or failure of the planet and of human beings depended on
how I am and what I do ... How would I be? What would I do?"
— Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller's prolific life of exploration, discovery, invention and teaching was driven by his intention "to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone".
Fuller coupled this intention with a pioneering approach aimed at solving complex problems. This approach, which he called comprehensive anticipatory design science, combined an emphasis on individual initiative and integrity with whole systems thinking, scientific rigor and faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles.
After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing humanity – he issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all.
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge seeks submissions of design science solutions within a broad range of human endeavor that exemplify the trimtab principle. Trimtabs demonstrate how small amounts of energy and resources precisely applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.
http://challenge.bfi.org/main.php
how I am and what I do ... How would I be? What would I do?"
— Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller's prolific life of exploration, discovery, invention and teaching was driven by his intention "to make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or disadvantage of anyone".
Fuller coupled this intention with a pioneering approach aimed at solving complex problems. This approach, which he called comprehensive anticipatory design science, combined an emphasis on individual initiative and integrity with whole systems thinking, scientific rigor and faithful reliance on nature's underlying principles.
After decades of tracking world resources, innovations in science and technology, and human needs, Fuller asserted that options exist to successfully surmount the crises of unprecedented scope and complexity facing humanity – he issued an urgent call for a design science revolution to make the world work for all.
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge seeks submissions of design science solutions within a broad range of human endeavor that exemplify the trimtab principle. Trimtabs demonstrate how small amounts of energy and resources precisely applied at the right time and place can produce maximum advantageous change.
http://challenge.bfi.org/main.php
City of the Future
Mar. 22nd, 2008 12:29 amcheck out City of the Future: A Design and Engineering Challenge and vote for your favorite.
I love Hydro-Net!
flickr set on Hydro-Net HERE
I love Hydro-Net!
flickr set on Hydro-Net HERE
Dubai World Islands
Mar. 14th, 2008 01:35 amthis seems just like an ad for private islands in the virtual world of SecondLife, but in fact it's very real...another development in the rapid expansion of Dubai. Very surreal Hybrid happenings...
now in First Life.;)
??!!??
Island for Us
ok, now what is the Best thing that can be done as this game board is layed out? There is obviously no lack of funding in the world, just a really bizarre inequity. Are funnels integrated to support/achieve the Millenium Goals? If not, how can they be?
Wikipedia on Dubailand
my Dream of Pier 10
Second Earth
Mar. 11th, 2008 09:08 pmBreathe.
I'm having that feeling again...
need to know it's all right...and that I'm not messing something up.
Continuing to watch/see that everything is coming together so amazingly...just like the old vision/dream (Pier 10)...but will the 10% be in there?
Will we all evolve this benevolent organism that can so easily solve many realworld issues/challenges? Am I supposed to be doing something very specific that I'm not? Are you? thoughts and questions. I think it's going to work out. Little things will add up to a tipping point. Memes and Empathy and small actions we can all do to help.
related thoughts worth registering to read: Second Earth
The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth.- by Wade Roush, Technology Review, MIT press
I'm having that feeling again...
need to know it's all right...and that I'm not messing something up.
Continuing to watch/see that everything is coming together so amazingly...just like the old vision/dream (Pier 10)...but will the 10% be in there?
Will we all evolve this benevolent organism that can so easily solve many realworld issues/challenges? Am I supposed to be doing something very specific that I'm not? Are you? thoughts and questions. I think it's going to work out. Little things will add up to a tipping point. Memes and Empathy and small actions we can all do to help.
related thoughts worth registering to read: Second Earth
The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth.- by Wade Roush, Technology Review, MIT press
Abandoned Futures
Mar. 9th, 2008 10:27 aminrepose alerted me to these amazing flickr photos of UFO PodHouses in Taiwan.
This is an abandoned resort in Sanjhih on the north coast of Taiwan that locals call "UFO House." It has been abandoned for more than 20 years - most likely the damage to the buildings has been caused by the strong winds of the summer typhoon season.
blogpost on Riot on an Empty Street: "Some people believe that it was abandoned because it's haunted. In some version of the story, someone died in an accident in one of the buildings..." continue reading
Questions abound!!!!
This is an abandoned resort in Sanjhih on the north coast of Taiwan that locals call "UFO House." It has been abandoned for more than 20 years - most likely the damage to the buildings has been caused by the strong winds of the summer typhoon season.
blogpost on Riot on an Empty Street: "Some people believe that it was abandoned because it's haunted. In some version of the story, someone died in an accident in one of the buildings..." continue reading
Questions abound!!!!
The Earth experiment seems to be doing well (considering our predictions)and the little earthlings might just learn to replicate life on their neighboring planets in time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming
Many hands make light work
Jan. 31st, 2008 06:56 pmwell put in the flickr blog:
Many hands make light work
"Have you ever tagged someone else’s photo? I know I have. A describing word, or perhaps even two joined together; a ‘lasso’ to group photos together from an event; identification of a subject in the photo; a colour; a season…
All that work that we’ve put in has contributed to making something greater than the sum of its parts: an organic information system, derived of descriptive words and phrases made entirely from individual contributions. You can see what’s going on in the world by watching hot tags fly by on our main tags page. You can even see what’s going on now in some of the bigger cities in the world on our new Places pages. All thanks to the determined effort of you, you nerdy taggers, you.
There are about 20 million unique tags on Flickr today. 20 million! They are the bread and butter of what makes our search work so beautifully. Simply by association, tags create emergent collections of words that reinforce meaning. You can see this in our clusters around words like tiger, sea, jump, or even turkey.
What if we could lend this wonderful power to some of the huge reference collections around the world? What if you could contribute your own description of a certain photo in, say, the Library of Congress’ vast photographic archive, knowing that it might make the photo you’ve touched a little easier to find for the next person?
Well… you can. ..read more
"Have you ever tagged someone else’s photo? I know I have. A describing word, or perhaps even two joined together; a ‘lasso’ to group photos together from an event; identification of a subject in the photo; a colour; a season…
All that work that we’ve put in has contributed to making something greater than the sum of its parts: an organic information system, derived of descriptive words and phrases made entirely from individual contributions. You can see what’s going on in the world by watching hot tags fly by on our main tags page. You can even see what’s going on now in some of the bigger cities in the world on our new Places pages. All thanks to the determined effort of you, you nerdy taggers, you.
There are about 20 million unique tags on Flickr today. 20 million! They are the bread and butter of what makes our search work so beautifully. Simply by association, tags create emergent collections of words that reinforce meaning. You can see this in our clusters around words like tiger, sea, jump, or even turkey.
What if we could lend this wonderful power to some of the huge reference collections around the world? What if you could contribute your own description of a certain photo in, say, the Library of Congress’ vast photographic archive, knowing that it might make the photo you’ve touched a little easier to find for the next person?
Well… you can. ..read more
Photosynth Demo- TED talks
Oct. 29th, 2007 12:32 amIt's heeeeeeeere......part of the memorypalace tech:
"Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. "Perhaps the most amazing demo I've seen this year," wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.
About Blaise Aguera y Arcas
Blaise Aguera y Arcas is an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, architect of Seadragon, and the co-creator of Photosynth, a monumental piece of software capable of assembling static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces."
originally from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129
"Using photos of oft-snapped subjects (like Notre Dame) scraped from around the Web, Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking multidimensional spaces with zoom and navigation features that outstrip all expectation. Its architect, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, shows it off in this standing-ovation demo. Curious about that speck in corner? Dive into a freefall and watch as the speck becomes a gargoyle. With an unpleasant grimace. And an ant-sized chip in its lower left molar. "Perhaps the most amazing demo I've seen this year," wrote Ethan Zuckerman, after TED2007. Indeed, Photosynth might utterly transform the way we manipulate and experience digital images.
About Blaise Aguera y Arcas
Blaise Aguera y Arcas is an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, architect of Seadragon, and the co-creator of Photosynth, a monumental piece of software capable of assembling static photos into a synergy of zoomable, navigatable spaces."
originally from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129
"This an amazing talk about brains and brain theory from the guy who invented the PalmPilot. Totally worth 20 minutes of your life."- Jordon of cogsigh.blogspot.com
agreed. and I actually think I may be a bit in love. there's something so thrilling about an absurdly rapid yet completely comprehensible speaker on a topic of major personal interest. My heart was beating faster and I want to be him and eat him at the same time. that's love on your planet, right?;)
Took an early evening walk on the magic bay with Brent...the air was chilly and we went about looking at stones and shells and such wonders.
these horshoe crab guys have always fascinated me. "They evolved in the shallow seas of the Paleozoic Era (540-248 million years ago(!!?) with other primitive arthropods like the trilobites. Horseshoe crabs are one of the oldest classes of marine arthropods, and are often referred to as 'living fossils', as they have not changed much in the last 350 to 400 million years." um..that's a long time. and here we both are.(?)
Walks on the bay always get me to thinking about time...this itty bitty moment I'm standing in and all it took to get here and all it took for these stones and other things to become what I'm looking at. Quite mind-boggling really.
Earlier at home I was playing with a little sow bug (or pill bug or woodlouse, whatever you may call it)...Also thinking about its resemblance to trilobites and other strange wonders of time...
Wonder where we are headed...this lil human species...with our endoskeleton that makes us so fleshy and fragile on the outside..so we make carapace-cars and houses out of metal and wood...and our big funny brains that help us to understand things about longevity and sustainability that we are hopefully trying to incorporate into our behaviors.....
Um, it seems we missed this lil development in SL.(!)
Look like anything we'd be interested in?;)
AND HE REZZED A CROOKED HOUSE in New World Notes about a Tesseract House constructed on an island called The Future (appropriately enough). boy oh boy look at all the lil filling-in steps...:)
and you know...
file with self-assembling memory palace...
and SiteMap(MemoryPalace)
Look like anything we'd be interested in?;)
AND HE REZZED A CROOKED HOUSE in New World Notes about a Tesseract House constructed on an island called The Future (appropriately enough). boy oh boy look at all the lil filling-in steps...:)
and you know...
file with self-assembling memory palace...
and SiteMap(MemoryPalace)
Feb 13th. (2:00PM PST/5:00PM EST)
Discussion on Memory Palaces, Artifacts and Icons for the Future
hosted by Ava Dougall and Mnemosign Nemeth.
at NMC campus, Outreach 110,177,24. As part of NMConnect in SecondLife.
Ava and Mnemosign..preparing our talk....our very first collaboration...:)!
with many other browsers and wikis open....trying to multitask and focus.
big learning curve.
Finally it's time and IN Kenzo gives us a ride to Outreach
on these magic flying chairs- great fun.
We set up in front of the backdrop boards I made..and start our dialogue...
cutting and pasting into the chatbox from our notes and wiki work..
.( read/see more pics and text )
Call for Artists!
Participate in an interactive media arts symposium within the virtual world of Second Life!
Any art that can be translated and created within Second Life may be considered for installation; please inquire by email if you would like to share your work inworld. Groupings of 2D, 3D, video and interactive elements will be combined to tell stories on six major themes: Love, Peace, Beauty, Truth, Chaos, Wisdom. Performances and discussions around these common themes will bind us into new collaborations as we participate in these networks of creative illumination.
Over three days the NMC Campus will host seven forums on the structures of creative social networks building within these emerging new media. Sessions include:
*Better World Building: Real World Action
*Flow and Nurture: Creating Healthy Systems
*Organic Architectures and Sustainable Design
*Art and Energy
*NMC and the Collaborative Educational Community
*Social Interactives and New Networks
*Memory Palaces, Artifacts and Icons for the Future
Invited speakers and special features will be announced here as the calendar and list of participants grows.
PDF Call for Artists
Wiki page HERE.
spread the word!:)
Brought to you by AMO studio and the New Media Consortium.
