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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Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air

Today we talk about Tree Houses, buildings that stimulate our imagination, to live in symbiosis with trees. "The idea of climbing a tree for shelter, or just to see the earth from another perspective, is surely as old as humanity. Tree houses are chronicled in ancient civilizations and their lore crosses through the history of every part of the world where trees grow."

It is a couple of weeks ago that in Sagron Mis, near Dolomites, there will be the first Italian village of tree houses.

Among the deciduous and coniferous trees at the foot of Mount Piz Sagron will be built the village of tree houses, made using only natural and bio-compatible materials.

On 2 February, in the Hall of the Community of Primiero of Tonadico, there was the presentation of the project, the idea was born two years ago, when the council of the small town of Sagron Mis, located in the eastern part of Trentino Alto Adige, welcomes the proposal of the Study of architecture MQAA, to create a permanent laboratory of architecture 'rampant': "To develop new ideas and living spaces more environmentally friendly."

During 2013, some projects will result in a series of early prototypes to be achieved by the year in the municipal area, the meditative retreat to the shelter rampant.

Tree Houses Village, Sagron Mis, model of the final project

And, coincidentally, on this subject came out a couple of days ago a Taschen's new book Tree Houses: Fairy Tale Castles in the Air features stunning images of 50 of the world's most amazing tree house designs. Structures range from traditional A-frame homes in miniature, to bulbous, futuristic dwellings that cling to behemoth branches. There is a true wealth of images to be savored in the glossy photos captured of each arboreal abode in Taschen's 352 page book.

More info

website MQAA

Photo credit © Taschen, MQAA

 

 

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Liberos, the community of readers of Sardinia

Liberos is a social network built by some writers, publishers, booksellers, libraries, cultural institutions, festivals and other publishing professionals in Sardinia.

Liberos won yesterday, January 29, the "Prize cheFare" The jury, after studying the proposals of the six finalists, decided to award the victory to the network that enhances the value chain of the book, and the protagonist of cultural projects.

The reasons are:

• recognizes the reading value economic, cultural and social, individual and collective;

• involves an original way all the actors in the chain of the book;

• develop a model capable of balancing instances commercial and cultural;

• Balance physical and virtual network in the process of building community;

• the promoters were able to act in a highly reactive and have used the announcement as an opportunity for learning and focus the project efforts.

The project is now firmly anchored in the reality of Sardinia, but the problem is that addresses national concerns in the first place and the less populated areas of the country and those who do not have a bookshop or a library. The Jury recommends that, during the maturation phase of the project, the winning group to address explicitly the issue of the growth of the idea beyond regional borders.

Liberos born as a working group in July 2012 and was officially presented at the Festival “Isole delle Storie" in Gavoi. The Association is formally established September 18, 2012 by seven founding members who each represent a segment of the chain of the book. The social network has now registered the satisfaction of the readers and operators, who approached with a curious attitude and full of expectations.

Turning point in the conference "Stile Liberos" organized in Fordongianus on 13-14 October, with the participation of publishers and writers of national importance.

Liberos make of the interaction its strong point. Users - in addition to the normal functions of the forum - have the opportunity to sign a card (card VIR - Very Important Reader) and to accumulate points that will enable them to have easier access to presentations, festivals and initiatives related to the book. These points will be accumulated through actions in line with the ethical manifesto of the project, such as the purchase of books in-store associates and constructive participation in the community. Readers will have the opportunity to receive automatic updates regarding publications and initiatives in which they are declared explicitly concerned; publishers and authors to propose thus its novelty, and booksellers to communicate presentation events and new arrivals in the catalog, as well as libraries.

So explain: "The crisis that we were doing to die one by one, has come to show us that we are not exploiting the potential: the common strength of our relationships and expertise."

More info

www.liberos.it

PremioCheFare

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The Daily Talk describes a hopeful Liberia in the process of renewal

The Daily Talk is an English-language news medium published daily on a blackboard on Tubman Boulevard a main thoroughfare in the center of the Liberian capital Monrovia.

It is "the most widely read report" in Monrovia, a city where radios and televisions are luxuries most people cannot afford, and so many Monrovians lack the access to the conventional mass media.

The founder, managing editor and sole employee of the Daily Talk is Alfred J. Sirleaf, who founded his blackboard newspaper in 2000, in the middle of Liberia’s fourteen-year-long civil war, because of his belief that a well-informed citizenry is the key to the rebirth of Liberia after years of civil war. In post-war Liberia, Sirleaf sees access to information as the key to peace. He compiles his stories daily from newspaper reports and messages from volunteer correspondents. The Daily Talk is free to read and is funded by occasional gifts of cash and pre-paid cellphone cards. It even has its own suggestion box for readers and followers.

Once he has decided what he wants to post, he goes into a little shack he calls the “newsroom” and writes neatly on the blackboards, a meticulous process that can take a couple of hours. To reach those who cannot read, Sirleaf has devised a series of pictures and objects to symbolize the news, including a blue helmet for the UN and its peacekeeping force, a white handkerchief for Obama, and a hubcap for President Sirleaf, known as the Iron Lady of politics. In place of photographs he uses old campaign posters and other free handouts.

During the rule of Charles Taylor it was destroyed by government soldiers after The Daily Talk published criticism of the Taylor regime, and Sirleaf was briefly jailed, and he finally fled into "exile" in Ghana. When peace returned he arrived back and with help from his fellow Monrovians, Sirleaf rebuilt it a week before the 2005 election of president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (not a close relation) and resumed publication of the Daily Talk.

Today it is one of the most read News Sources in the capital with thousands everyday taking the time to stop as they walk or drive by to get the breaking news.

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Little Free Library

LittleFree Library is a nonprofit community movement in the United States and worldwide that offers free books housed in small containers to members of the local community.

It was founded in Hudson, Wisconsin. The idea was conceived by Todd Bol as a tribute to his mother, who was a book lover and school teacher. He mounted a wooden container designed to look like a school house on a post on his lawn, he put a dozen or more books and has invited its neighbors to borrow for free.

The idea spread rapidly. Today there are almost 2.600 library around the world, you can found them on the map.

Library owners can create their own library box (or buy one on the web-site) and receive a sign that reads "Little Free Library". Each library is uniquely built incorporating materials from the community it is located in. Each one is different, customizable, but all are based on a simple concept: "take a book, leave a book", which everyone is invited to borrow a book completely free of charge, to read it without having to meet precise deadlines and return it. You can also return a book different from that taken or fit ones that you have available.

Libraries may be registered and assigned a number at the organization's website. Your registration not only helps cover the cost of materials and postage. It also supports programs such as Little Free Libraries for Small Towns, outreach to isolated elderly adults, Celebrating Healthier Communities, and the international Books for All.

Share your books increases the sense of belonging to the community, to create new relationships with neighbors and spread the love of reading among those who do not have the resources to buy books. This is the potential of Little Free Library.

More info

www.littlefreelibrary.org

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What Did I Buy Today? A journal about Obsessive Consumption.

Kate Bingaman-Burt’s artful new mini-ledger, invites readers to answer that question every day, promoting frugality. Kate Bingaman-Burt is an illustrator and educator. She has been making work about consumption since 2002. Her first book, ObsessiveConsumption, was published, by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010. The new pubblication What did I buy today. Obsessive consumption introduces new charts, graphs and illustrations of items worth saving for.

“Obsessive Consumption is repulsed and grossly fascinated by the branding of consumer culture,” her site explains. “It wants to eat the entire bag of candy and enjoy the sickness that it feels an hour later. It doesn’t want to be an outside critical observer. It wants to be an active participant.” Her hope, she says, is to engage an audience on a more conceptual level, inviting them to think about consumption and obsession.

Bingaman-Burt has famously hand-drawn her daily purchases for years. The daily drawings were born out from drawing her credit card statements in 2004. Today she is in the seventh year of that. Soon she started collecting those images on a Web site. And this turned out to be the first iteration of something that continues to this day: “I basically built a brand out of Obsessive Consumption,” she says, “and ran with it.” It behooves us all to monitor our spending.

She started drawing something that she had purchased each day on February 5th, 2006, and of course she still drawing, "until the hand cramps!".

Kate Bingaman-Burt is an assistant professor of graphic design at Portland State University. She is a founding partner of the Public Design Center. Her work has been featured in the New York Times; in numerous magazines, including Print, Adorn, Dwell, and How; and in books including Hand Job and Handmade Nation.

More info

www.katebingamanburt.com

www.theokbb.tumblr.com

www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781616891367

www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781568988900

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Krisis: An Archive for disorientation

Archive for disorientation

Krisis Magazine is a project which underlying’s aim is to suggest a reflection about different aspects of the permanent crisis and about the responsabilities which come from operating as designer, that is to say as the ones who shape things, both material and immaterial, within this contemporary scenario. 

The theme of the last issue is Orientation. From time immemorial, mankind has tried to constitute their own orientation within the world in which we dwell by using different tools for discerning information: linear language (in the shape of narrations and myths), by systems of classification (mainly of taxonomical type), by graphic representations (atlases, guides and maps), etc. During the last decades these models entered a crisis. The crisis of orientation was born from the complexity of correlations between numerous different emergencies, which most visible effect is a total tendency to fragmentation, to individualisation, to selection, to separation, to the monetarisation of the social and environmental context. In this scenario it becomes crucial to think over disorientation as an experience that may be a source of renewal for new practices of orientation. 

From this point grow up the new project Archive for disorientation, an online visual archive about disorientational paradigm. 

Krisis is a project by the collective Unità di Crisi, which consists of communication designers, professors and theorists.

More info:

http://www.krisismagazine.com/

http://disorientation-archive.tumblr.com/

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Sustainable Diary

Date of Birth: December 2012, Milan

Sustainable Diary is a blog about day by day sustainable good ideas.
Here you can find news on architecture, design, art, fashion...
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