A Forest Year by Samuel Orr. How landscapes change over time

This Saturday Sustainable Diary does not have many words. It leaves pictures to tell the story today. A year long story, which you can see in three minutes. Photographer Samuel Orr for about 2 years in 2006-2008, lived just outside Bloomington, Indiana, at the edge of one of the more wooded regions in the midwest. He was there because at the time he was creating several nature documentaries on the natural history of Indiana for PBS. His house was into the middle of a large nature preserve.

Every day for 15 months, took photos out of the window of his house, then put the accumulated 40,000 photographs into an amazing time-lapse video, A Forest year.

Samuel explain:"Over 40,000 images were taken, and I made little movies of 5-8 seconds for each of the key days/events/seasons, and blended them together into the finished film at 30 frames a second. The audio was added to give another dimension. I tried to put in wildlife songs and calls appropriate to the season. For instance, the honking during what is late winter are Sandhill Cranes, which used a migratory flyway that passed directly overhead".  

At the moment Samuel has a new project, you can see, and help, here...

More info

website Samuel Orr

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Afghan Dreamers, a project book to break stereotype on a country

Afghanistan is probably best known in the world for its poverty, destruction, terrorism and oppression. But Afghanistan is not just a ongoing conflict. We are all half blind by the influence of the world of mass media, seeing only one part of a story. Against this backdrop, are the dreamers and visionaries. Artists, musicians, innovators, activists, media moguls, and politicians. Just like any other country – the dreamers and the free thinkers are often those whose stories are quieter than the stories of violence and anger that shout more loudly. That doesn’t make them less powerful.

Afghan Dreamers is a book project that seeks to tell these stories; the ones that draw a different picture of Afghanistan. A picture that shows the innovation and inspiration that can be born out of destruction.

The book will bring together interviews with 20 plus Afghan innovators and dreamers, these include: the artist Shamsia Hassani, the musician and filmmaker Ariana Delwari, the mayor of Kabul Muhammad Yunus Nawandish, the bass player for District Unknown, Afghanistan's first metal band, Abdul Qasem Foushanji and much more...

the artist Shamsia Hassani

Afghan Dreamers is a partnership between Sharp Stuff, an independent publishing project, working on new ways of storytelling and engagement, and Mountain2Mountain, a burgeoning nonprofit organization. This is a project that amplifies the voice of these dreamers. Forty years of war may have destroyed much in this region, but these stories, these dreamers, show that it hasn’t destroyed the pride and spirit of Afghanistan.

What is very important is that they need your help to make this book project a reality. You can help amplify these voices and show the world that stereotypes need to be challenged and our eyes and ears need to be opened. You can support this project and be part of the story. It takes the global community to hear these stories, believe in the dreamers, because it is the dreamers that will change the world!

More info

website Afghan Dreamers

Facebookpage

Photo credit © Afghan Dreamers

the musician and filmmaker Ariana Delwari

the bass player for District Unknown

the mayor of Kabul Muhammad Yunus Nawandish

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Soccket: the power of play. A magic soccer ball by Uncharted Play

It Is such a clever invention! You can envision a fun, portable source of energy that capitalizes on the popularity of soccer to address the lack of electricity in the developing world. 
The Soccket is a portable energy-harvesting source in the form of a soccer ball that captures the kinetic energy during game play and converts it into electrical energy, to charge lights and small batteries. After playing with the ball, the child can return home and use the ball to connect a LED lamp to read, study, or illuminate the home.

And in the developed world, the Soccket can be a great tool for teaching about clean energy and a better way to charge our gadgets.

The Soccket’s exterior is made of a custom waterproof EVA foam that is extremely durable while remaining soft to the touch and it is weighing only slightly more than a traditional soccer ball. Currently, 30 minutes of play provides 3 hours of LED light.

Prototypes of the ball first appeared in the media in early 2010, the mass-produced version of the ball is the brainchild of UnchartedPlay, a social enterprise.

Uncharted Play just launched the Kickstarter campaign, for implement the production (that now has been limited to a few hundred Soccket balls per week) in order to scale-up and purchase necessary equipment for the manufacturing processes and will be accepting pledges until 28 March.

More info

website project Kickstarter

website Uncharted Play

Facebook page

Photo credit © Uncharted Play

 

 

 

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The only hotel in the world without rooms: Faktum Hotel

Today we want to tell the story Faktum Hotel, the only hotel in the world without rooms. It is located in Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. With just $ 10 you can book a night in one of 10 different places at your disposal: a forest, an abandoned building, a park bench. These are all en-plein-air, so you can try to sleep as a homeless man.

A description of the hotel's "rooms" tells you everything you need to know: "A stay at the Skeppsbron wharf assures you a waterside vista in the heart of the city."

One of every six homeless people in Sweden live in Gothenburg, they are 3.400 circa. Most of them find a roof over their heads with a friend or at a refuge, but some sleep in the open air.

The brainchild of Faktum magazine editor-in-chief Aaron Israelson, the hotel plans to give its profits to support the magazine's charity work, aimed at raising awareness of Sweden's homeless population. Aaron told: “We don’t think politicians do enough. This is a reminder of poverty and a way to get involved in an easy manner."

There are a tonne of ways to think about Charity Campaigns, but this one is just a tad different.

There have been about 1,000 bookings so far. You can book one for yourself, or as a gift for somebody else. Either way the money goes to the work for homeless and socially vulnerable people.

More info

website Faktum Hotel

Facebook page

Photo credit © Håkan Ludwigson - Faktum Hotel

 

 

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Junk food kill more people than pistols

These are days when you continue to talk in the media of food scandals, horse meat masquerading as beef, donkey's meat in hamburgers, fake biological chicken eggs, etc. .. so when we found ourselves in front of the video Food Fight, by Earth Amplified we launched a large whistle!

The video is a urban gangster movie turned on its head.— instead of street thugs coming in to steal money and groceries, this films shows guys in suits put things on the shelf. It is the story of a young boy who lives in a world where the food at the local corner store is killing his neighborhood, literally. The real damage to the kids and America is from these men at the top; the crimes of Big Ag at a convenience stores is so much worse than what anyone could ever do during a stickup. Obesity and poverty co-existing side-by-side and a food industry that fights hard to keep us in the dark about the correlation between cancer and our diet.

It is a powerful and hard hitting reminder to us all that gun violence is just one symptom of a deeply dysfunctional economic system. And it's an argument that's making its rounds of the internet in a hard-hitting hip hop video that compares the food industry to gangsters and drug dealers.

 

Sugar is as addictive as cocaine. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Last but not least: support the movement for thriving communities by getting this into schools and donating to SoS Juice. SOS Juice, is a solar-powered for-profit/non-profit hybrid that will sell juice, smoothies, and compost in order to improve health, promote sustainable agriculture, and create green jobs for low-income youth and the formerly incarcerated individuals.

More info

website Earth Amplified

Facebook page

 

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Support Hariyo Chowk, a urban garden and outdoor community space in Kathmandu

The Sattya Media Arts Collective are creating a collaborative movement to transform the rapidly urbanizing city of Kathmandu, Nepal, with Urban Farming and Environmental Education.

They have set out to transform a vacant site into a modern adaptation of a traditional chowk, or town square. Dubbed Hariyo Chowk which means, "Green Commons" in Nepali, the project has served as a place to learn and share tips for urban greening and ways to create a socially sustainable future for Kathmandu.

Hariyo Chowk has been made possible with a multifaceted team of passionately dedicated people knowledgeable about sustainable architecture, design, organic farming, photography, and media. The 'green square' has come into fruition with help from dozens of volunteers that have supported them since they began in the Spring of 2012.

So many people have helped them bloom to where we are today, however now they need your help with a final round of fundraising for Hariyo Chowk. To support this initiative let's go on Indiegogo web campaign and donate!

Hariyo Chowk has has spent the last 8 months creating them own green space, a hub for the community to learn and practice sustainable gardening and building. They have been working resourcefully with existing contributions and will be celebrating our grand opening in March 2013. 

They are envisioning a new season to begin in April, in which they want to grow in two specific ways:

- First, to become financially self-sustained within Kathmandu. The team plans to make this possible by selling plants and seed at markets, forging relationships with local organizations, and hosting affordable workshops, events, film screenings and even parties.

- Second, the project seeks to make Kathmandu greener through guerrilla gardening, maintaining existing public green spaces, helping people start community gardens, and starting a seed bank and library of native plant knowledge.

More info

HarikoChowk campaign!

facebookpage

www.sattya.org

photo credit Sattya Media Arts Collective

 

 

 

 

 

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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 Tanja have chosen to use as ingredients only vegetables and fruits of the season because of their aesthetic inaccurate are rejected by large retailers and catering obeying strict criteria and aesthetic dimensions that determine a huge and unnecessary consuming food.

They collect veggies and fruits themselves and co-operate with two local organic farmers who let them have their abandoned harvest to a truly fair price- a substantial extra income for the farmers and a basis of business for Lea and Tanja.

With this second choice products Lea and Tanja create delicious dishes, minimizing waste and looking at the ingredients locally, thereby complying with the criteria of distribution at zero kilometers, without depriving their creations of quality and good taste.

After starting in early 2012, Culinary Misfits has at the moment a provvisory home in Kreuzberg. Now a crowdfunding campaign is underway to allow Culinary Misfits to have their own place for cooking, experimenting, lecturing and selling the little misfits.

More info:

www.culinarymisfits.de
Facebook page

photo credits Culinary Misfits

 

 

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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 on a concept introduced by Giorgio Agamben in his book Categorie italiane. Studi di Poetica (1996), in which the philosopher maintained that in order to interpret Italian culture, we must identify a “series of diametrically linked concepts” capable of describing its underlying characteristics – binomials like tragedy/comedy, architecture/vagueness and speed/lightness thus become original keys for reading the fundamental works and artists of our cultural history.

But with 600 000 euro provided by the institution - they say - you do not get to cover everything. The amount is certainly less than those handed out in previous years, but are even a little money from here a call for help.

To the idea curatorial background, Pietromarchi added a gimmick, cool in this period, which serves as a support for the work: it is called "crowdfunding" procedures blossomed within the underground, now also paid to public giants. It is the old method "Collect", reformulated in key 2.0: people recruited on the web, married a project and give a contribution, receiving in return a small benefit.

The crisis leads to the development of new formulas, in which solidarity, cooperation, creativity, networking, communication, make a difference.

Bartolomeo Pietromarchi during the press conference

The project will be launched by February 12th, the collection will have a period of ninety days and has set itself the target of at least fifty thousand euro. Everyone can participate and support the event, drawing an "advantage" of treatment, for example, the visit to the exhibition, plus the name of each supporter will appear at the entrance, in the catalog and on the website of vice versa with distribution folder with prints of the works in a limited edition , numbered and signed in original.

The crowdfunding, inspired by similar initiatives implemented at the Louvre with "Tous Mécènes" and "Let's build a GoddamTesla Museum" in the United States will be inaugurated with events in Rome, Milan, London and New York.

The ability to have these methods of generating consensus, participation, responsiveness and social feeling, is very high. And it is an absolute winner, from the point of view of cultural and ethical, even before the financial.

Destination of funds gathered through crowdfunding

Funds gathered through crowdfunding will be designated, in agreement with the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, for the financing of various initiatives for the exhibition vice versa at the Italian Pavilion at the 55th International Art Exposition, including:

- Additional funding for artists’ works and productions

- Cultural mediation and educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

- Promotional and communications activities, including a vice versa exhibition App

- Organization of encounters with artists and opinion leaders and a concluding conference on the themes of the Italian Pavilion

Possible financing targets and destination of relative funds

Based on the amount of funds raised, the following activities may be supported in different ways:

- €50,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

- €70,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

Cultural mediation/educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

- €100,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

Cultural mediation/educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

Promotional and communications activities, including the creation of a vice versa exhibition App

- €120,000 designated to support:

Additional funding for the artists’ work and productions

Cultural mediation/educational activities geared towards schools, universities and visitors

Promotional and communications activities, including the creation of a vice versa exhibition App

Organization of encounters with artists and opinion leaders and a concluding conference on the themes of the Italian Pavilion

More info

www.viceversa2013.org

55th Venice Art Biennal

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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 of resources within the cultural, artistic and social, both at local and national level.

Granting projects affiliated with Sunday Soup in different cities operate based on their own needs and context, you can see online the map of thenetwork. The meals are more or less elaborate in different places and some people have presentations by potential grantees or past grantees as part of the event.

The founders explain the things with these words: "This enables us to stimulate and promote experimental, critical and imaginative practices that may not be eligible for formal funding. The Soup grant, while raising money, also serves as a way to build a network of support and community that reaches beyond purely monetary assistance. We like to think of it as an open platform to discuss ongoing projects with new audiences, meet new collaborators, and share ways of working. "

Sunday Soup is therefore a participatory manner with the times in order to achieve the financing of projects in every field of art through food and sharing a platform, but there are many others, maintained by the users to solve problems that feel important without expect solutions defined and financed from above.

More info

www.sundaysoup.org

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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 will host the program and introduce the correspondents and their stories.

Each episode of AfriGadget TV will consist of five thoughtful stories from around the region, highlighting remarkable and unexpected hardware innovations by East Africans. These stories are inspiring mini-documentaries, portraying young and old, men and women, as well as high and low-tech innovators and their products.

"Made in Africa TV is an East African social enterprise producing mass media with a social impact. We are in the process of setting up a network of video journalists from across Africa to produce the stories, which will be made available on the website as well. As an AfriGadget TV-correspondent you explore your local surroundings to find and capture the innovators and their AfriGadgets. If you are a videographer willing to become a correspondent for this program, or if you know of great AfriGadgets that should be considered for inclusion, please send an email to afrigadget@gmail.com"

More info

www.afrigadget.com

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Enabling Urban Progress - Financial Times and Citi call for entries for 2013 FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards

In the last two days we talked about winners, today we talk of a premium, unique in its kind.

The 2013 FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards: Urban Ideas in Action are all about recognizing the freshest, brightest, most innovative ideas, wherever they come from that help ensure cities remain centres of creativity and progress.

With more than half the world’s population lives in cities, their leaders, and inhabitants will have to find new ways to thrive. The explosive growth of urban communities is one of the most significant demographic trends of the 21st century. The competitiveness and vitality of the world’s cities depends on the decisions and innovations of all urban stakeholders, from citizens and communities to organizations, corporations and municipalities. This global programme was developed by the Financial Times and Citi, in collaboration with INSEAD, to recognize those promoting urban progress.

In 2012, the Awards featured a broad global representation, with entries from over 40 countries, and from city authorities, community groups, charities and companies. The most important criterion: the winning projects needed to be enduring. Category winners were announced in the fields of Energy, Education, Infrastructure and Healthcare.

The overall winner of the 2012 awards, and winning in the Energy category, was the Community Cooker – based in Kenya, an innovative and practical waste-burning stove, with tremendous potential for environmental, economic and social change in low resource environments. It operates on a simple principle: young locals collect rubbish, which is burned in the cooker at high temperature levels. The heat generated is used for cooking, sterilizing and industrial purposes.

This is an invention that works across a plethora of problems and enhances life for some of society’s poorest. There is no reason why similar technologies might not be applied elsewhere.

CollegePossible won the Education category.

Winning the Infrastructure category was the Vélib’ project, launched by JCDecaux.

The GlaxoSmithKlein New Citizen Health Care Project won the Healthcare category.

In 2013, the FT/Citi Ingenuity Awards will recognize urban ingenuity in a wide range of areas — from city administration, transport systems, energy and utilities, education and resource management, to housing, health, public safety, social services, mobile technologies and community engagement. To be considered, solutions should:

- Have been implemented between 2007 and 2012

- Address a serious social, economic, environmental or health-related challenge

- Improve the quality of urban life

Submissions will be accepted online from January 28, 2013 to March 31, 2013. Winners will be chosen by region and a global winner will be announced at an awards dinner in New York in December 2013.

More info

www.ftcitiawards.com

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