Wednesday, July 21. 2010
Via ArchDaily
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The work of Los Angeles-based artist Megan Geckler lies somewhere between art and design, with architectural installations that are assembled from thousands of strands of multicolored flagging tape, a plastic ribbon typically utilized by surveyors to demarcate space on construction sites.
The end result resembles an updated three-dimensional version of string art that shares the seemingly kinetic territory of the Op Art and Light+Space movements. These site-specific projects are also strongly influenced by minimalism, but retain a sense of play and delight.
The exhibition will be on display at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, 490 E. Union Street, Pasadena CA , from July 17 till October 31. More information can be found here.
Tuesday, July 20. 2010
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by Patrick James
Tech Crunch notes a sign of changing times:
[B]ooks sold on the Kindle are now outpacing the hardcover books Amazon sells. In the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books sold, Amazon.com has sold 143 Kindle books, they say. And that gap is getting wider. In the past month, for every 100 hardcover books sold, there have been 180 Kindle books sold through Amazon. This is across Amazon’s entire U.S. book business and even includes hardcovers that have no Kindle version. Plus, free Kindle books are not included, or the numbers would be even higher.
Part of the sales growth can be attributed to the Kindle's price drop—from $259 to $189—which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos credits as a tipping point for the device.
Do you think we're closing in on a time when the majority books will be published exclusively as e-books?
Photo via Tech Crunch
Via ArchDaily
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by Karen Cilento
It is easy to take for granted the things you grow accustomed to, but ever since the initial idea of revitalizing the High Line began sprouting up, New Yorkers have been taking full advantage of the project and loving every second spent strolling, relaxing and gazing at the West Side’s newest addition. The project has truly piqued locals and tourists’ interests as the elevated promenade is enjoyed as much today as it was on opening day over a year ago.
With such success, it is no surprise, as Kate Taylor reported for the New York Times, that the small office of the Friends of the High Line has received countless calls asking how their cities can also enjoy the High Line effect.
After seeing New York’s success, cities across the United States, such as Jersey City, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago, are interested in transforming their deteriorating infrastructure into new public spaces. “There’s a nice healthy competition between big American cities,” Ben Helphand, who is pushing to create a park on a defunct rail line in Chicago told Kate Taylor for the New York Times. “That this has been done in New York puts the onus on us to do it ourselves and to give it a Chicago stamp.”
But the High Line’s influence has also attracted international cities’ attention. Developers from Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Rotterdam and Singapore have been either in contact with Field Operations or have been scouting out the Gansevoort structure, observing and analyzing the bustling park.
Since the park’s opening, the project has further activated the growing area of the Meat Packing District. Plus, the park fits in nicely with its new architectural neighbors designed by Frank Gehry and Jean Nouvel, and the soon to be Whitney Museum extension by Renzo Piano.
The High Line’s success has restored confidence in urban renewal projects and as the years progress, it will be exciting to see other cities’ variations of the project. In almost every urban context, there’s an under-used section just waiting to be restored to its original luster or re-conceived as something entirely new. Either way, the idea of reviving any portion of these cities will result in a great variety of projects that will capture each city’s esence and character a little bit differently.
Personal comment:
We posted a year ago about the High Line project in Meet Packing District of NYC. As it seems to be a success, it's natural to post about it again and underline the fact that a innovative public space (and in this case, the transformation of an abandoned industrial infrastructure) has really the potential to transform one part of the city (and further away, by contamination).
And by the way, the picture used here is a picture from the inauguration day (if you check the previous post)...
Monday, July 19. 2010
Via Dezeen
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by Brad Turner
Here’s another video shot by Brazilian photographer Pedro Kok, this time the Marquise do Parque do Ibirapuera in São Paulo, Brazil, designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1952. (more…)
Personal comment:
I don't know why, but I like modern architecture under the tropics... and big public architectures. This video reminds me a little bit of the ones Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster can shoot in the same locations, under the tropics. In fact, I wonder if she shot her "marquise" video (Double Terrain de Jeu --Pavillon-Marquise--) in this location. I guess so.
Pedro Kok's video is very good too though.
Friday, July 16. 2010
Via TreeHugger
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by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt standing next to boulder at Taurus-Littrow during third EVA. Photo: NASA, Public domain.
Our Savior in the Sky
While Japan would like to build a solar power station on the Moon, the European Space Agency is thinking even further ahead: What if some terrible catastrophe (for more info, read about existential risks) were to wipe out a large fraction of humanity? A lot of knowledge would be lost, many species could be completely wiped out, and the survivors would have to almost literally reinvent the wheel. How would a a base on the moon help them get back on their feet? It's pretty clever. Read on for the details.
Photo: Flickr, CC
The construction of a lunar information bank, discussed at a conference in Strasbourg last month, would provide survivors on Earth with a remote-access toolkit to rebuild the human race.
A basic version of the ark would contain hard discs holding information such as DNA sequences and instructions for metal smelting or planting crops. It would be buried in a vault just under the lunar surface and transmitters would send the data to heavily protected receivers on earth. if no receivers survived, the ark would continue transmitting the information until new ones could be built. (source)
So the goal would be to have a kind of Wikipedia accessible to the survivors, except that this Wikipedia would try to make it as easy to understand things and follow instructions to reacquire various technologies. It would also contain DNA information to eventually allow the revival of various species of plants and animals that might have also disappeared. It's a bit similar to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, except in an even more robust location.
Photo: NASA, Public domain.
The databank would need to be buried under rock to protect it from the extreme temperatures, radiation and vacuum on the moon. It would be run partly on solar power. The scientists envisage placing the first experimental databank on the moon no later than 2020 and it could have a lifespan of 30 years. The full archive would be launched by 2035.(source)
The information would be in many languages (such as Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish), and there would be at least 4,000 "Earth repositories" that would provide shelter, food, a water supply for survivors.
Of course, it's still much better to prevent catastrophes from happening in the first place (which is why we need a better system to monitor asteroids and comets, as well as super-volcanos, and we need to make the likelihood of thermonuclear war as small as possible), but it can't hurt to plan for the worse case scenario. Right now, all of our eggs are in the same basket. After all, existential risks might be unlikely, but they only need to happen once.
Via Daily Galaxy
More Green Space Tech
Luna Ring: A Giant Solar Power Plant on the Moon
Japan's Moonshot? $21 Billion Invested in Space-Based Solar Power
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