Today in Europe, some bloggers have declared a day of silence in honor of Japan. We think the opposite, NOT SILENCE; what we need to do is be writing about it. All week long, as we’ve watched the horrific news from Japan, we’ve wondered where even to start. We know now.
We’re going to start with something hopeful to remind ourselves, that even with all the devastation and horror, there is life, and where there is life, there is hope, tiny miracles that remind us of the strength of the human spirit. So we open with this CNN video of an elderly Japanese woman’s escape from the Tsunami on a bicycle.
And then there is how we can help. Many artists have made and donated work to raise money for disaster relief organizations. read more…
The Interventionist’s Toolkit, Mimi Zeiger’s long and illuminating essay in Design Observer, tracks the effect the recession has had on inspiring frugal, improvisational strategies for urban spaces around the world. When there’s no money for traditional architecture projects,” Provisional, Opportunistic, Ubiquitous, and Odd Tactics in Guerilla and DIY Practice and Urbanism” take root. We’ve excerpted the sections of Zeiger’s piece that are chock full of examples, with links to explore.
“These days vacant lots offer sites for urban farming, mini-golf, and dumpster pools. Trash recycles into a speculative housing prototype (see the Tiny Pallet House). Whether it’s The Living’s Amphibious Architecture or Mark Shepard’s Serendipitor, the built environment speaks through mobile devices. Retail spaces hit by the recession are fodder for reinvention, as the art organization No Longer Empty transforms unleased storefronts into temporary galleries. Even the street itself is reclaimed. REBAR’s annual initiative, Park(ing) Day, urges global participants to use a pranksters wit to turn parking spaces into pocket parks, one quarter at a time. (If you don’t feel like reading much, just click on the links, or scroll down for our favorites…) read more…
Events in Egypt are shifting moment by moment in what Huffington Post is calling the ”Battle for the Future”. Al Jazeera‘s ongoing reporting covers both immediate events in Egypt as well as the wider region and neighboring countries, as pro-democracy demonstrations seem to be igniting from one country to another. Although the news outlet is only sparsely available on American television, you can livestream it here. Video reports on CNN make vivid the danger journalists are in, as they attempt to report from the center of the action. Ben Wedeman, reporting on the widespread “rain” of rocks as terrible and effective improvised weapons, said “there’s no place to take cover out here.”
We sit and watch, at once riveted and heartsick and hopeful, at the change taking place before our eyes. read more…
Last Wednesday, January 12 marked a year since Haiti was struck by its devastating earthquake. We recommend checking out The Big Picture’s amazing photo essay about where the country is now. Although there are images of great beauty and triumph, it is clear that great need exists in all quarters there. Witness the photos above of the same neighborhood, before and after.
Even more vivid is Haiti-born writer Edwidge Danticat’s beautifully written and nuanced Comment in this weeks New Yorker, called A Year and A Day (The brief, potent, layered piece will available online to non-subscribers for only a short time.).
“In Haiti, people never really die,” my grandmothers said when I was a child, which seemed strange, because in Haiti people were always dying. They died in disasters both natural and man-made. They died from political violence. They died of infections that would have been easily treated elsewhere. They even died of chagrin, of broken hearts. But what I didn’t fully understand was that in Haiti people’s spirits never really die. This has been proved true in the stories we have seen and read during the past year, of boundless suffering endured with grace and dignity: mothers have spent nights standing knee-deep in mud, cradling their babies in their arms, while rain pounded the tarpaulin above their heads; amputees have learned to walk, and even dance, on their new prostheses within hours of getting them; rape victims have created organizations to protect other rape victims; people have tried, in any way they could, to reclaim a shadow of their past lives. read more…
We just discovered BBC’s World Routes, a new archive of world music, an eclectic and unusual collection of indigenous music. You can sample the sounds of more than 40 countries, from Brazil, Corsica, China, Cuba, to Iran, Mozambique and Turkey. We’ve just spent an hour listening to Appalachian music, much of it acapella, and the Bambara Blues of Mali.
Commentators from BBC Radio 3 traveled through each country, including several conflict zones, to record the music. They set the scene with cultural details and history of the music you’re listening to. If you’re not in the mood to hear the interspersed descriptions or interviews, you can just move the music player’s slider to jump to the music.
This is an exceptionally rich archive, perfect for listening to when you’re driving, cleaning, cooking, crafting, hanging out on a weekend…
We have a THING for new materials, and have, until today, mostly just imagined what they could do. We couldn’t lay our hands on samples since we’re not a big commercial entity; suppliers didn’t want to bother to sell small quantities or answer our novice’s questions. So we’d read descriptions in Transmaterials, the compendium of new technology for use as walls or floors or textiles, that is our idea of pornography. We’d fantasize, our brains heating up with ideas and possibilities.
Then we discovered Inventables, Zac Kaplan’s brilliant online database of cutting-edge materials where you can actually order samples to fool around with, something that was previously impossible for lay-inventors (no pun intended ) to do.
You’ll also find extraordinary short-subject documentaries (a category of Oscar that are all but impossible to find) like A Story of Healing, and Warhol Cinema… not to mention feature length treasures like Buena Vista Social Club.
Over the years, we’ve gotten A LOT of stuff second-hand, from thrift stores, flea-markets, Ebay. It’s a way to get great things MUCH cheaper than retail. (Our most recent purchase: a tag-still-on, in-warranty Eames Soft-Pad Management Chair, for a fraction of what it would cost new.) We appreciate Apartment Therapy’s national survey of Best Thrift Stores and Flea Markets of 2010. (It’s also a great last-minute resource for gifts.) A new one for us: Etsy, which has become one of the largest online retailers of vintage goods, with hundreds of thousands of sellers. Select “Vintage” from Categories and hone in on treasures from there, like this Bertoia side chair.
One of our favorite blogs these days is Made by Joel, the toy and craft projects that artist Joel Henriques makes for his kids. He manages to make A LOT out of ‘nothing’: dollhouses out of Cheerios boxes, puppets from paper clips and cardboard, cities from paper. The thing that we love is how Joel’s creations affect our thinking. We find ourselves mentally applying his ideas and his spare, modernist sensibility to our grown-up lives, looking at ordinary stuff as art materials, and solutions. We want his paper dollhouse furniture made life-size… read more…
Want a place to read Design/Interiors/Home/D-I-Y blogs all in one place? Check out Remodelista’s Design Newsstand, which brings their great, curated selection of blogs together, organized by general categories, like Fabulous Femmes, Hipster & Minimalist, Exotica, Design Magazines Online…
Like a great newsstand, it invites browsing (it’s in beta, and is a bit wonky on Safari still)…
We’re pleased to be included in Renovators & DIYers, though we were thinking the category a little limited and concrete for what we do. Maybe not though…we ARE about renovating, inside (our heads) and out…
Tara Mann alerted us to Mashable’s slide show of unusual offices. We especially like this impromtu cardboard office designed by Paul Coudamy, who cleverly used corrugated cardboard as walls and shelves (more photos follow). Of course we instantly started hunting down that really thick cardboard that’s so perfect for making furniture like this chaise… read more…
“The World Is Full of Interesting Things“, an online slideshow created by Google’s Creative Labs, gives you a compelling glimpse of the imaginative ways technology and the internet are being used (much of it in collaboration with Google technology). There are revelations in the realms of Audio, Movies, Vizual, Art, Physical, Light, Tech, Sport, Books, History and Advertising. The Advertising section that starts at #110 is a must for anyone trying to get a sense of crowd-sourcing and commercial uses for social media.
For us, the best stuff started a good ways into the show (at the bottom, left of the site, there’s a navigator that will take you to any of the 119 slides). Here are some of our favorites: read more…
When I was a kid, the foyer of my family’s GreenwichVillage house was papered with blueprints of the building, the inspiration of our friend David Barrett, an interior designer, who always had amazing ideas. In those days, house plans were really blue, with white type and design, and came in big glossy folded sheets or rolls. They could be applied to the wall just like wallpaper.
This picture posted on Desire To Inspire reminded me how beautiful vintage blueprints can be used as wall coverings. When I poked around Ebay, I discovered that all sorts of vintage blueprints are available, including ones for railroad bridges and boats, even Yankee Stadium. Use the search term “blueprints” or “vintage blueprints.” read more…
Map Envelope is a free online app that allows you to print paper envelopes lined with a Google Maps location of your choice, tagged with your message. You print the envelope, cut it out, fold and send; and whomever you send it to gets to open a lovely surprise.
We thought Map Envelope would be perfect for invitations or announcements of events…and our friend Leslie Koch, the visionary director of The Trust for Governors Island came to mind. Over several years, she’s led the development of the 172 acre island in New York Harbor into a unique public space, with bicycles and hammocks, stupendous views, an organic farm, and mind-expanding interactive events and art happenings. Since the island was a naval base and off-limits to the public for many years, a lot of people STILL don’t know about it. We’d love to do a giant mailing of this Governors Island map-envelope to spread the word.
BTW: Governors Island’s 2010 season ends of October 10th (it will re-open for visitors next June). There’s a free ferry…
