In the Category interesting
is this your luggage?
Posted May 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pm. There are 0 comments.
WHEN A BAG GETS LOST THE AIRPORT OR AIRLINE WILL STORE IT FOR A WHILE AND TRY TO FIND THE OWNER.
IF THEY CAN’T IDENTIFY THE OWNER OF THE CASE THEY SEND IT TO BE AUCTIONED OFF WITH THE PROFIT GOING TO CHARITY.
I GO TO THESE AUCTIONS AND BUY THE CASES SO I CAN PHOTOGRAPH THEM FOR MY WEIRD VOYEURISTIC PASSION.
THE REASON FOR THE WEB SITE? I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO TRY TO FIND THE PEOPLE WHO OWN MY SUITCASES, SO IF YOU HAVE ANY FRIENDS WHO HAVE LOST A CASE PLEASE GET THEM TO HAVE A LOOK.
recycled ad for recycling paint
Posted May 1st, 2009 at 1:20 pm. There are 0 comments.
(via)
On the Grid
Posted April 30th, 2009 at 7:17 pm. There are 2 comments.
On the Grid is a project documenting the space created by the vast nationwide network of powerlines and the land underneath them. Undeveloped except for the powerlines them selves they carve through the landscape, connected the most rural with the most urban. The shared space, buzzing with the hum of excess electricity, is at times a pristine and beautiful meadow surrounded by forest and others, the uninhabitable tract amongst suburban banality, beautiful in its own right.
On the Grid, a project by Adam Ryder and Brian Rosa, explores the landscape immediately surrounding high-tension electric transmission lines in Rhode Island. Starting near the Ocean State Power facility in Burnllville, Ryder and Rosa spent several days walking along various sites of this arterial infrastructure. Sites were chosen though surveying publicly available aerial photographs and land use maps, and all photos were geotagged with handheld GPS units. In combining the rigid technical process of digital mapping with the subjective practice of landscape photography, this project explores the state as a collection of differentiated spaces that, though seemingly isolated, are networked.
The resulting photographs showcase the topographical diversity surrounding these structures, whose own narrow terrain remains virtually unchanged throughout their straight, incisive paths. The path of the power lines functions as a rural to urban transect, cutting through farmland and commercial parks, cul-de-sacs and strip malls, used car lots and interstate highways.
As human intervention in the natural landscape sprawls to the most remote areas of the state, our lived space becomes increasingly regulated and our encounters with equivocal territories are especially rare. In more urbanized areas, we lose our relation to places which seem to exist unto themselves, where one can feel alone and unhindered. The ambiguity of the land occupied by high-tension power offers the possibility of experience outside of regulation. Despite being part of an infrastructure that is highly regulated and bureaucratized, the physical space inhabited by these power lines remains easily accessible though its sheer ubiquity. Thus, paradoxically, the realm of power lines seems to exist not only outside of regulation, but also outside of the normative properties of the native landscape. Whereas an area half of a mile away from a high tension line may be densely wooded, the space occupied by the wires will be clear-cut, devoid of trees and exhibiting, at most, low shrubbery and grass. The uniformity of this narrow swath as it cuts through the landscape reveals as much about its own spatial utility as it does of the landscape it bifurcates across the state (and beyond). It is this topographical sameness that makes the power lines amazing sites of contrast against both development and the natural landscape.
On the Grid invites reflection on the blurred relationship between networked technology, the built environment and nature through these buzzing monoliths.
– Website Text (An image on the original website)
They did a nice interview on the NPR show Living on Earth (mp3 link).
Quoting here,
Yeah absolutely, it’s a really unique tract of land that doesn’t have any development on it except for itself. So, it’s kind of, in a way its really pristine and untouched and…virginal, its kind of, kind of like, romantic and magical in that way.
-Adam Ryder
and
What’s really – I think actually awesome, is the best word I can use to say it – what’s really awesome about seeing this parade of power lines through the landscape, especially in rural areas is that we’re kind of seeing these, these tendrils connecting humanity as one large organism and it’s a cool way of looking at us, you know what I mean?
-Adam Ryder
Locate powerline grid infrastructure near you via this previous post
NPR maps the Energy Grid
Posted April 29th, 2009 at 2:29 pm. There are 0 comments.
NPR has some very nice visualizations of the United States electrical grid, including views for solar power and wind sources, including the the below which shows the realationship between where the good wind is, darker colors, and where the power grid is, not usually all that nearby.
kevin slavin interview
Posted April 17th, 2009 at 6:58 pm. There are 0 comments.Nice short interview with Kevin Slavin of Area/Code at Fabrica Blog from last year. Two striking quotes, but go read the whole thing
Regarding an very small anti-war protest in 2003, emphasis mine. –
And I realized that they had earpieces, and were connected to spotters, who were also in the city. And I saw that, and thought that it was unlike anything that we had ever seen before. The technologies of communication that are usually associated with authority start to be used in a million other ways. I saw that their ability to communicate was going to enable totally different ideas of how we actually use space. By 2003, the mobile phone was already common, but the ideas of groups and more sophisticated interactions other than ‘I’m calling you’ hadn’t really been popularized.
But a big question mark had appeared over Broadway for that moment.
Regarding PacManhattan, again emphasis mine –
The things that have happened over the last ten years point to the need to restore the idea of thinking of the city as a system upon which things can be run. That the streets are not purely for commerce or transportation, but that they have a number of layers. To think of the city as hardware that different software can be run on. Some of that software is an entertainment software, one of the titles could be Pacman. To think of the city like that seemed like a new idea, and at the same time, a very old one. It’s also one that can be rethought with new technologies. Mobile technologies allow us to do it in ways that we may have never been able to do.
tokyo jogging
Posted April 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pm. There are 0 comments.
Try to run on the google street view like a jogging game of wii fit from katsuma on Vimeo.
tokyo jogging is a mashup of wiimote and google streetview. Lets you “run” in Tokyo, in your web browser.
The possibilities of this are pretty interesting. Combined with the tv screen on the treadmill or exercise bike at the gym you could run world famous marathon routes and in places where running isn’t usually feasible, say, run the length of the New York Thruway.
via @oliver76
just-in-time just-in-place interface
Posted April 15th, 2009 at 11:12 am. There are 0 comments.
From Pasta & Vinegar, a notepad hanging outside a beauty shop window meant for clients of the salon to leave their name and contact info for the, presumably busy, owner to call them back to make an appointment. Yesterday on my way home I walked by the shop where I sometimes get my hair cut, and knowing I needed a haircut (badly) I turned back around and went in to chat with Carla and make an appointment. This happened because the shop was still open but if she was already closed, I would be putting off getting a haircut even longer. A hanging notebook would provide this just-in-time just-in-place interface for setting up a haircut appointment. I would love to have more ways to interact, however simply or asynchronously, with objects or places that are for all intents and purposes, asleep or otherwise unavailable.
minibar
Posted April 8th, 2009 at 7:14 pm. There are 0 comments.
You and your friends can check in with our concierge who’ll provide you with a key to one of our 45 MiNiBAR fridges. Our fridges are stocked with premium quality beverages and snacks. Each MiNiBAR contains all the classics like beer, wine and spirits, as well as a few surprises.
collective remembering
Posted April 7th, 2009 at 11:15 am. There are 0 comments.Russell Davies on how the services we use today can serve as a collective family photo album to reminisce about things gone away.
I’m certainly not the first to realise or write about this effect but doing this really struck home how powerful things like Street View and geo-tagged Flickr will be as remembering tools. Not just remembering things you’ve got pictures of, but the things implied and stirred by the pictures. So they’re not just tools for locating yourself or your objects, but for locating your memories and exchanging them with others.
traces of an imaginary affair
Posted April 7th, 2009 at 10:23 am. There are 0 comments.
Highly specialized tools that you can use to add some significant drama to your life.
Traces of an Imaginary Affair designed by Björn Franke is a kit containing a set of nine tools which can be used to create an imaginary affair. These tools leave marks on the body, such as bite marks, carpert burns, bondage marks, love bites, scratches and bruises. In addition, probes of perfume, lipstick and haïr can be applied to either the body or clothes. It was inspired by stories of people who used to fake évidence of victimisation or illnesses to receive attention from others.
via dezeen
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