Announcing the Economics of Happiness Conference 2013 in Byron Bay, Australia

After the success of the first conference held in March 2012 in Berkeley, California, the not-for-profit organization ISEC - InternationalSociety for Ecology and Culture - is hosting the second international Economics of Happiness Conference in Byron Bay, Australia - March 15-17, 2013. The conference is an annual event of the global grassroots movement whose mission is to promote systemic solutions to today’s environmental, social and economic crises led by ISEC, which has also led to the production of the corresponding documentary in 2011.

"The Economics of Happiness conference will focus on the multiple benefits of localisation, an economic strategy that can take us away from jobless growth towards sustainable livelihoods; from giant, unaccountable corporations towards human-scale business; from self-recrimination towards empowerment; from competition to collaboration; from a globalised system of exploitation and pollution towards an economics of human and ecological well-being, or 'an economics of happiness'".

The interactive program will consist of plenary sessions, workshops, and social and creative time, participants will have a rare opportunity to learn from and share with some of the foremost leaders in the worldwide localization movement. The conference also offers the chance to make new connections, build on current projects and find new inspiration.

This event will bring together a unique international group of speakers, each one acclaimed for their vision, activism, wisdom, and leadership. These include:

Vandana Shiva (India), activist, physicist, feminist and the author of Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace and Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development.

Bill McKibben (USA), founder of 350.org and author of numerous books, including The End of Nature and Deep Economy.

Donnie Maclurcan (Australia), co-founder of the Post Growth Institute, and author of Nanotechnology and Global Equality.

Michael Shuman (USA), the author of Local Dollars, Local Sense and one of America’s leading localists.

Christian Felber (Austria), author of numerous best-selling books, and a leading theoretician of the Common Welfare Economy.

And more, you can see the program here.

The 2012 conference was a life-changing event for many involved, and the Economics of Happiness Conference 2013 promises to be even better.

More information

theeconomicsofhappiness.org

ISEC- International Society for Ecology and Culture

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A dialogue between architecture and nature, in interaction with the Northern Lights

The Northern Lights Cathedral (Norwegian: Nordlyskatedralen - AltaKirke), situated in the Norwegian Alta Municipality approximately 500 km north of the Arctic Circle, was even before the inauguration perceived as a symbol and an architectural landmark for the entire area. It appears as a solitary sculpture in interaction with the spectacular nature.

In 2001, when the architecture competition for the Cathedral was arranged, the city council in Alta did not just want a new church: they wanted an architectural landmark that would underline Alta’s role as a public venue from which the natural phenomenon of the northern lights could be observed.

The church was built in 2012-2013, it was consecrated on 10 February 2013. It is the latest in a row of cultural projects designed by schmidt hammer lassen architects. 

“The Cathedral of the Northern Lights is in its design a result of the surrounding nature and local culture. The building is a landmark, which through its architecture symbolizes the extraordinary natural phenomenon of the Arctic northern lights,” explains John F. Lassen, Founding Partner at schmidt hammer lassen architects. He continues: “The cathedral reflects, both literally and metaphorically, the northern lights: ethereal, transient, poetic and beautiful. It appears as a solitary sculpture in interaction with the spectacular nature.”

The significance of the northern lights is reflected in the architecture of the cathedral. The contours of the church rise as a spiralling shape to the tip of the belfry 47 metres above the ground. The façade, clad in titanium, reflects the northern lights during the long periods of Arctic winter darkness and emphasizes the experience of the phenomenon.

Inside the main area of the cathedral, which can accommodate 350 people, the church room creates a peaceful contrast to the dynamic exterior of the building. The materials used, raw concrete for the walls and wood for the floors, panels and ceilings, underline the Nordic context. Daylight enters the church room through tall, slim, irregularly placed windows. A skylight lights up the whole wall behind the altar creating a distinctive atmosphere in the room.

More info:

schmidt hammer lassen architects

Nordlyskatedralen - Alta Kirke

photo credit © schmidt hammer lassen architects.

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Baguette table by Studio Rygalik

Two days ago was pubblished a post about the start-up Culinary Misfits, today take again the topic "food waste" with Studio Rygalik of Warszawa, Poland.

They realized a new project, the starting point is a statistical fact: food thrown away in Vienna could feed half of the population of Graz. This was presented for the first time at the Vienna Design Week.

"It was also to show that the materials to build from are all around us. The tables were made from stale baguettes that were supposed to be thrown away".

These bread structures were part of a "bread experience" created by Gosia and Tomek Rygalik, the founders of the Studio, at the Design Week Laboratory, where people were surrounded by bread, eating bread dishes from bread tables.

In their series of "Baguette tables", they cut the french bread to varying lengths, their exposed ends leveled to create the table tops, the longer pieces providing support and stability, functioning as multiple legs, as well as providing some tasty, visual appeal.

Studio Rygalik aims to develop a wide variety of limited edition projects for companies, that maintain a good balance between the commercial and the experimental.

Studio Rygalik develops a wide variety of comprehensive projects. The focus is on furniture, products and spaces. The scope is wide – from design, development and implementation of new products to site-specific installations and production of limited editions, as well as objects, dining experiences and workshops that explore the relations of design, food and eating.

More info:

www.studiorygalik.com

www.viennadesignweek.at

photo credits © Nick Albert /Kollektiv Fischka

 

 

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Sunday's Tale - Kaarina Kaiakkonen: memorable suspended clothes installations

Sunday's Tale: a post from the past
Using hundreds of second-hand shirts Finnish environmental artist KaarinaKaiakkonen creates site-specific installations suspended above roadways or inside large warehouse spaces.

Her last work “Are We Still Going On?” was conceived in 2012 at Collezione Maramotti, a private collection of contemporary art in Reggio Emilia, central Italy. The large installation follows and accompanies the compositional structure of the building, a former clothing manufacturer Max Mara now the seat of the collection, an interesting example of brutalist and organicist architecture from the 1950’s. The artwork involves hundreds of children’s shirts hung in rows, it consists of two symmetrical structures that evoke the skeleton of a large boat. For the selection of colors that define the two complementary structures, the clothes suggest a symbolic dialogue between the masculine and the feminine.

Kaarina Kaiakkonen has always been sensitive to environmental issues, the distinctive feature is the use of simple materials, such as molded kraft paper, and second-hand clothing. She says: "Usually I use even bad things that people throw away because no longer required. This is important in my work, I do not want to use expensive materials and precious because I think that anything of value. It is a form of respect for life and especially the poor. I also believe that not throw what belongs to us also means do not throw away their roots. "

In Kaikkonen’s works, objects become alive and speak to us of stories, of people. They also – and specifically – talk of her. They evoke frailness, but also hope and regeneration. They seem to evoke in viewers an emotional, personal experience, and at the same time a sort of mirroring, an identification in the community. The big installations represent a community of passing-through voices, in a dialogue with nature and social spaces, in their being the story of each and every one; a story openly conveying a universal feeling each of us may identify with, and draw what is perceived most intensively.

Alongside the monumental features of her works – always strongly imbued with the environmental and architectural elements surrounding them – there is also a core linked to the impermanence and frailty of materials somewhat pointing back to the frailty of human beings.

More info

KaarinaKaiakkonen

www.collezionemaramotti.org

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