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EcoIron, the folks behind the idea of black google, have now created EMERGY-C a low wattage palette for the web (shown left). Of course if you don't want your site to look like tartan plaid, you may not want to use them all on the same page.
Like most long term war zones, Iraq is virtually littered with bombs. After two decades of war and fighting, there are more than a million tons of live munitions lying under foot. One out of five Iraqi's live within a mile of unexploded ordinances. That's closer than most American's are to a convenience store. When it comes time to clean up the country, Jonathan Olley's photographic essay details the efforts of the men who are called to carry away these deadly souvenirs.
This exhibit will contain work with an environmental theme or art utilizing environmentally-friendly methods or materials. The purpose of the exhibit is to inform, engage and entertain. All work will be considered, from painting to pottery, furniture to film we are looking to create a diverse and well-rounded exhibit.
All work should make a statement about reuse and recycling, conservation and preservation or be constructed using recycled/reused materials or environmentally conscience methods or materials.
The show will also include a printed booklet providing information about environmental issues. This booklet will give artists the opportunity to promote themselves, their materials or methods and the organizations or businesses that they may be involved with.
If you are interested in being a part of this show, please send your package postmarked no later than March 3, 2007 to:
The Showroom
GREEN SHOW
149 S. Daniel Morgan Ave.
Suite 2
Spartanburg, SC 29306
Submissions should include:
* Up to 10 images of your work (min. size 8x10 at 300 dpi, jpg, tiff or pdf format) on a CD. Clearly label each image with the title, dimension, and medium of the work. These works should be pieces that you would be able to include in the exhibit.
* A biographical paragraph and information on the relevance of your work regarding the Green Show. Additionally, any website information about your art, your studio, organization or business that may be included in the show's catalog.
* A list of any special technical requirements your exhibit requires.
* A self-addressed stamped envelope if you wish for your materials to be returned to you.
It turns out my prediction that the next logical step of car magnets was going to be ones shaped like silicone awareness bracelets was TRUE! Sadly I can't sue for royalties, since it seems to have happened a while ago, but I only just spotted one recently!
Swords Into Plowshares (AKA Plant The Piece) the collaborative art piece that I created with Christopher Humes, which features guns made from dirt and plant seeds, has been getting a bunch of blog attention lately. Thanks to the following folks for mentioning our work:
Yep the frontiers of advertising have been pushed just a little bit further with the announcement that you can put Your Name Into Space thanks to a fundraising initiative of MIT and Georgia Tech. Apparently inspired by Nascar, a student designed satellite will be sent into orbit in 2010 covered in logos and names. Luckily poor people can get their name on a DVD inside for free.
Political cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winning and always adroit Clay Bennett for Tuesday's Christian Science Monitor.
The principal objective of this series is to pay homage to these brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to withstand extreme conditions of labor in order to help their families and communities survive and prosper.
5 Things You Don’Äôt Know About Me1. I’Äôm a music junky.
I don’Äôt smoke, drink or do drugs, but damn I’Äôm hooked on music. I buy CDs on a near weekly basis (I gave up on buying vinyl a few years ago, which makes me kind of sad, but I still listen to it). I shop at an awesome local music store in Richmond called Plan 9 and when I’Äôm in NYC I always have to go to Other Music.
2. I’Äôm a Space Pirate in a comic book band from the future.
It’Äôs complicated, but you can get a hint of what League of Space Pirates is all about here and here. We’Äôll be posting some actual music tracks soon.
3. I spent a good chunk of the early 80’Äôs as a competition Roller Skater.
’Ķand I have the trophies to prove it. Mostly figure skating if you’Äôre wondering.
4. I played a Native American in a movie.
It was shown to visitors of historic Jamestown for many years. To my knowledge I was the only non-Native American in the film.
5. I don’Äôt want to be famous, I just want to be ubiquitous.
Here's my IMDB entry, now if only someone would write a Wikipedia entry for me!
Artist/designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies, a Zimbabwe national and professor of design at the Massachusetts College of Art, creates work that comments on human rights as well as social, political, environmental and health related issues. He also co-curated the excellent Graphic Imperative exhibition.
Environmental artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude (whose Gates, left, invaded Central Park last year) are coming to speak in Richmond, VA in a few weeks and I was delighted to read this statement in their press release:Christo and Jeanne-Claude do not accept grants, commissions, sponsorships, or collaborations, as they place a high value on artistic freedom. They refuse all commercial involvement, instead funding their monumental projects with proceeds from the sale of Christo’Äôs original works of art.Photo by Roinks via Flickr.
Submissions are due February 19 and there is no entry fee. Download entry packet PDF for more info.
Repressed II: Works on paper March 2007
The intent of this year’Äôs exhibition is to focus more, but not be limited to, philosophically progressive and/or socially provocative works.
We have far surpassed a cultural level of basic image making and find great importance in creating social programs helping to sustain a visual dialogue. As artists, we present new ideas or criticisms to the general public, helping perpetuate social evolution. With that in mind, this year's March show will be prompted with the intent to give back to our neighborhood.
We are searching for artists who seek a language that speaks to the people who experience an unfathomable amount of strife in their lives -- those who wish to provide their community with new dreams that have yet to show up on a t-shirt. We want people who strive to push the envelope and join the ranks of the socially aware avant-garde...
Users can see, for example, which federal regulators are now working for the industries they once oversaw and which lobbyists might be capitalizing on their past employment with congressional committees that award government contracts, subsidies, earmarked appropriations and tax breaks.You can start digging up the dirt here.
About 70% of the individuals in the Revolving Door Database are registered lobbyists. The remainder currently work at law and public relations firms, industry trade associations or unions, where their jobs may entail lobbying, formally or informally. Although the movement between the public and private sectors is commonly described as a revolving door, the database demonstrates that the phenomenon could be more aptly described as a one-way exit.
There's a fascinating letter posted on WFMU's blog from a soldier that spent time in Iraq and used music (specifically the music of Happy Flowers) as part of interrogation:We are not allowed to harm a prisoner and I have absolutely no problem with that, but you have to be creative to get information. That's Psychological Warfare comes in. It doesn't work on the hardened terrorist, but it does work on the guy who knows who the terrorist is, or is involved but not in a major way.He goes on to describe a specific instance with a non-combatant:
After about an hour of Happy Flowers and being told that we don't want to take him, and that if he would tell us what he knows we will take him back home, he finally tells us who the triggerman is, where we can find him, where other bombs are hidden and ID's 3 corrupt policemen. All without having to threaten, imprison, or break any of our rules of conduct.
Research has shown that tea improves blood flow and the ability of the arteries to relax but researchers at the Charite Hospital at the University of Berlin in Mitte found milk eliminates the protective effect against cardiovascular disease.
"The beneficial effects of drinking black tea are completely prevented by the addition of milk, said Dr Verena Stangl, a cardiologist at the hospital.
There was no word on whether soy milk is OK.
Read the entire article here.
Hello, Hilarious is a great blog about women performers, written by women, but they've made an exception this week and asked some dudes to contribute. My entry "Six reasons I want to be a girl" is up now.
Ode Magazine's issue 39 has a fascinating article on the potential of algae as a source of biofuel:Using algae for rather than soybeans or other crops means that millions of acres of farmland will not be taken out of production for food and fibre. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’Äôs National Renewable Energy Laboratory, enough algae-based biodiesel can be produced each year to power the current U.S. fleet of vehicles (140 billion gallons or 550 billion litres) using a mere 9.5 million acres [3.8 million hectares] of cultivation space. That may sound like a lot of real estate, but it’Äôs a tiny fraction of the 3 billion acres of farmland needed to produce the same amount of oil from soybeans.Read the entire article here.
Professor Pollkatz Pool of Polls has a great selection of poll data visualization charts relating to George W. The "approval" ratings from January '01 to today (left) is a great place to start, though it's worth delving further and checking out items like the approval ratings vs. gas prices and Nixon/Bush comparison chart.
The New York Times has a nice article on the greenwashing of natural food product package design:The kind of greenwashing I’Äôm talking about is not just a fake environmental ethos. Greenwashing, it seems to me, can also describe a pervasive genre of food packaging designed to make sure that manufacturers grab their slice of the $25 billion that American shoppers spend each year on natural or organic food.Read the entire article here.As a design shorthand, it makes subtle use of specific colors, images, typefaces and the promise of what marketers call ’Äúan authentic narrative’Äù to sell food. Especially in recent years, greenwashing has spilled out well past the organic section of the grocery store. Even the snack aisle at the gas station isn’Äôt immune.
The current (Jan/Feb) issue of Mother Jones has a great little overview of the current (sad) state of product placement. Here are a few lowlights...Worldwide product placement in all media was worth $3.5 billion in 2004, a 200% increase from 1994.
In 2005, there were 108,000 instances of product placement in television programming’Äîup 30% from 2004.
When Dateline NBC recently asked children to choose between a banana and a rock with a Scooby-Doo sticker on it for breakfast, nearly all chose the rock.
Nike logos and General Motors cars were drawn into recent DC and Marvel comics. DC says its superheroes will start pushing "a lot more health and beauty care" products.
In Instant Def, an online movie made by Snickers, members of the Black Eyed Peas work in a Snickers factory and battle an evil rapper who is a "fabrication justification of some corporation's imagination."
US Airways makes $10 million a year selling ad space on tray tables and napkins, and is negotiating selling ads on its airsickness bags.
We are looking to help startup for-profit businesses that have social and/or environmental goals and methods, in addition to the traditional financial bottom line.
For example, past entries have focused on green building consulting, providing organic products, and economic development tied to the needs of an under-served community. Or it could be a regular business that makes the effort to involve social or environmental processes in its work.
The competition is totally free -- each qualified plan will receive feedback from experts, and plans that make it to the final round stand to receive significant prizes.
The deadline for executive summaries (3-5 pages) is Friday, January 26th.
Activist illustrator Peter Kuper (World War 3 Illustrated, Spy vs. Spy(!)) moved his family to Oaxaca, Mexico just in time for the teacher's strike/riot this year. His online journal features his unique take on the events via his comments, photos, and illustrations. His most recent entry includes a post-riot/Christmas poem along with photos of the annual Night of the Radishes (shown left).
Dutch artist Helmut Smits creates art that is both made from and comments on consumer products.
The decision is not likely to create a flood of cloned livestock in the short term, several analysts say. The assessment, from the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine, must still endure 60 days of public comment. And the FDA still must weigh issues, such as whether to label meat products from the offspring of cloned animals or track the clones themselves if they move into the food system after their usefulness as breeding stock ends. It may take a year or two after the comment period ends for breeders to start using clones.
