Culinary Misfits, a special catering service from Berlin

CulinaryMisfits is a design start-up born in Berlin, exploring the intersection of design and sustainability with a primary focus on food culture and how we can be inspired to rethink how we approach natural foods. The founders are Lea Emma Rosa Brumsack and Tanja Krakowski. They create the first catering service to make its dishes using only ingredients discarded by supermarkets, farmers and restaurants The idea is already explained in its name: misfits in fact means both "freak of nature" and "inappropriate", this word was chosen to challenge the widespread belief that the food is good only when it is looking good. While it is true that the eye wants its part, it is equally true that appearances often deceive. So Lea and...

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Terra Stools: Adital Ela makes products from compressed earth

AditalEla, Israeli-born eco designer, in her new line "Terra" uses natural materials 100% organic to create pieces of furniture. The main raw material is pressed earth and natural fibers, hence the name of the project, the first product for her line Terra is "Terra Stools". They are made using a unique compression process that was developed based on a long term study of materials and of ancient building methods, inspired craftsmanship techniques commonly used in India or the Middle East. On this process she learned from Daphna Yalon, Tal Bashan, Um Ajaj, her Iraqi grandmother (that made her own oven from dirt turned to clay) and many more. In this project she acts as a “designer-gatherer”, all materials were gathered from construction...

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Italian Pavillon in the 55th Venice Biennale: vice versa, exhibition and crowdfounding project

Padiglione Italia, ph RobertoGalasso It was presented yesterday in Rome "vice versa," the exhibition curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi that will be the Italian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennial, from June 1 to November 24, 2013. vice versa will consist of seven rooms (specifically: 6 adjoining rooms plus a garden of thousand square meters) set up inside the Italian Pavilion, with seven pairs of artists, sometimes also combined between generations distant. The names: Fabio Mauri and Francesco Arena, Luigi Ghirri and Luca Vitone, Marcello Maloberti and Flavio Favelli, Gianfranco Baruchello and Elisabetta Benassi, Francesca Grilli and Massimo Bartolini, Piero Golia and Sislej Xhafa, Giulio Paolini, Marco Tirelli. vice versa picks up...

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Please take a seat. Chairs for Abu Dhabi by Tadashi Kawamata

In November 2012 Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata created the soaring 20-foot-high a kind of like a rotunda, a round tower, made by 1000 chairs and to construct with 20 people at the site. Called "Chairs For Abu Dhabi", the ephemeral construction invited people to walk through it and take a rest in one of the comfy seats inside it. The work is not limited to an architectural study: it is concerned with the social context in which it is presented. "This time I did it, it's not a specific chair at all," said the artist. "It's more of a mixture of all kinds of wooden, metal, colorful chairs - everything. Because here in Abu Dhabi it's such an international city and a lot of people come from all over the world, and I wanted to put a mixture...

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Sunday Soup, contemporary, tasty and creative idea for fundraising

The initiative was born in the United States as of Sunday Soup and the formula is that a group of people come together to share a meal and that meal is sold for an affordable price, and in the while there is presentation of several projects to start or already started. The result, once covered the costs of spending, will give as a grant to support a creative project, everyone who purchases the meal gets one vote to determine who receives the grant.  The Sunday Soup is therefore a basic model for the funding of creative projects of small and medium size through a meal as a group. The creation of a group that uses the basic model of the Sunday Soup generate independent funding and dialogue on the availability and distribution...

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AfriGadget arrives to the larger screens of broadcast television

AfriGadget is a multi-authored blog created by tech expert Erik Hersmande, dedicated to simple, sustainable inventions in Africa. It is a testament to Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome life’s challenges. AfriGadget in these days have decide to implement itself, with a passage from the small screens of laptops to the larger screens of broadcast television. The production company Made in Africa TV is taking AfriGadget to the East African airwaves to inspire millions of viewers to become active creators of new and ingenious products, themselves. Made in Africa TV plans to produce AfriGadget as separate programs in each of the Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan television markets. A local presenter...

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Sunday's Tale - Maker Faire Africa: schoolgirls create an urine-powered generator

Sunday's Tale: a post from the past. This story comes from Maker Faire Africa 2012, in Lagos. This is a popular event across the African continent, drawing thousands of participants who travel to Lagos to show their inventions and other practical creations. As the Next Web describes it, the Maker Faire is intended to highlight creations "that solve immediate challenges and problems, and then works to support and propagate them. Put another way, this isn't just a bunch of rich people talking about how their apps are going to change the world." Possibly one of the more unexpected products at Faire is a urine powered generator, created by four young students. The girls are Duro-Aina Adebola (14), Akindele Abiola (14), Faleke Oluwatoyin...

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