RAFT :: being held hostage in gallery

Conceived as a floating structure, built mostly of salvaged materials, the project component of my thesis (RAFT) is used as a way to test and work through the creative possibilities that surround slow design. I use RAFT as a research tool – a conceptual and physical sounding board to uncover and develop a template for practicing slow design. The method was conceived primarily for industrial designers, and therefore more often than not includes a physical product output. It has the ability to transfer to other forms of sustainable design and production.

RAFT as platform

Updated sketches coming soon to a scanner near you. and who is YOU? aha I get a kick out that question. It's very Modest Mouse.

evo lives on

I entered evo (my carleton ID grad project) into the core 77 / inhabitat / greener gadgets design competition. and received a notable mention. Cool! So did terry and shane. go carleton. Check it out over here. I'm flattered that 4 years later, the same design could even qualify for being green. Approaching emotional durability.



Eternally yours,
Sarah

i want to build a windmill

yesterday morning i got up early and spent some time watching Bruce Sterling and TED talks. wasn;t the smoothest stream but it was worth it. got me thinking again how burning man is a festival for the privileged. no doubt about it. we go there, we build it, we tear it down and then we go back to join every one else. point is keeping it local is great but we must!, (rather i don't want to) forget about out there. this is the most inspiring thing i have ever seen.

future histories: burning man 2007

Burning Man 2007 was fantastical cosmic dream. Described in three words: another world experience. This years theme, the Green Man asked us to think about our relationship to nature, and then proceeded to bring us a lunar eclipse, a meteor shower and a full on double rainbow which emerged after a severe desert sand storm. Was the weather trying to answer this questions for us? Was it trying to tell us that this complex relationship is evolving before our senses and that just like any relationship, it is reciprocal and it needs us more than ever?



I went there for a number of reasons.. some personal some professional. the latter was meant to be an investigation into people’s attitudes towards the mainstreaming and marketing of social responsibility and sustainability, both in Black Rock City and the everyday. My questions were quickly answered on the Monday night when Paul Addis preemptively burned down the man in the name of shaking things up Gonzo style. I decided from then on to simply immerse myself in the present and enjoy the culture of Black Rock City for exactly what it is. I was blown away by all of the incredible art work, burners had clearly spent much time and energy on this event. Back home, I found an article in business magazine talking about rising corporate involvement (page 66) at Burning Man. Others liken it to an inevitable disneyfication of the event. Nevada's next tourist destination. But my favourites are still the trustafarian peacocks. They pretty much rule.

Let me get this out.. . the most disappointing fact of the whole event was the poor design of the events calendar. Called the What Where When guide it was more like the What guide making it nearly impossible to locate any of the wonderful workshops being hosted on the playa for even the most skilled cartographer. Being the optimist that I am.. a combination of a 'word of mouth', 'keep it local' and the situationists 'drifter' approach to city life helped me get over this sad sad piece of design. I have decided to save the calendars for next level arts n crafts inspiration ( :


I did attend a the 4th Annual Black Rock City Gathering of the Tribes held on the day of the burn, and facilitated by my friend Sobey. The central theme looked at how we can collectively take the Green Man consciousness into the future. After a round of introductions and words by west coast movers and shakers we broke off into groups to explore this idea of our future histories. The concept is this: suggest topics on which to build the story of our future in the past tense as if telling it to our children. Topics that emerged were social networks and media, forestry, food security and toxicity, community rituals, education, safe healing spaces, gender issues, and space travel. I joined the space group which ended up getting paired with the forestry group. We all immediately agreed that this made sense. Forests in space? Why not. Here we go. Wasn’t it a grand day when we leapt up into space from BRC bringing with us infinite energy and a perfectly contained and thriving ecosystem, Ahhh voyeurism of epic proportions bringing new perspectives and notions of regeneration. I made quite a few strong connections there mostly with people from LA, and fully intend on following up with them. I would be incredibly foolish not to. General feeling is a huge push for permaculture and guilds in a very forward thinking, technically innovative and highly sustainable ways.



All week as I cycled around the playa, I kept thinking Bucky Fuller would have been proud of us seeing all of the geodesic structures out there in the temporary autonomous city, protecting us from the harsh desert elements. I was stoked to help assemble a few of them... 3 different sized steel rods that come together in 5s or 6s which form triangles which in the end forms a perfect dome. The question of bottom up or top down construction is a pertinent one and depends on the number of people there to help.

The Crude Awakening was probably the most epic art installation of the festival. A 4 story wooden reconstruction of an oil derrick with giant welded human figures worshiping the structure that saw a steady flow of curious citizens slowly climbing the stairs to take in a view of the city and desert from above. Immediately after the burning of the man, BRC experienced the largest pyrotechnic show in human history with tales of 900 gallons of jet fuel donated by NASA, 2000 gallons of propane at hand, and the full moon over head. A social sculpture emerged to simultaneously represent utopia and apocalypse and to allow us to rethink our dependence on fossil fuels in this 21st century. The next day I visited the ashes and embers, and the whole piece came together for me when I saw a crane attempting to plant a single red cedar in place of the derrick. WIRED's blog the Underwire writes about it and what follows is a conversation on the ironic or somewhat contradictory nature of this installation. Read it and decide for yourself.

Since returning to Vancouver.. besides coughing all the playa dust out of my lungs, I've been able to research the festival.. its history, politics, culture, the polemic views from both those who were present and not yet present. To me Burning Man was a chance for to redefine the paradigm, to expand and strengthen my ideas on what is and isn't possible. to experience first hand what it feels like to create something from nothing but time and energy. . to grow our tribes. It is where cultural producers and creators take responsibility for redesigning all facets of everyday life. It is a cultural vehicle for radical self reliance and expression which I fully intend to ride again.



Woot woot!

on lasers, surrealism, jets, and XYZcorp

dear walid,

i know you know.. . but. today at Ci, i'm sifting through magazines.. ID january 07 has some great features on design collectives. Pleix and Plan01 are 2 of them that stuck out at me. also.. i really hope stuff like the eco-jet keeps developing. notice the underline.

re: XYZ corporation... i don't know about you but anything like corporation combined with philanthropic (word of the day) housing projects combined with branding it makes me uneasy.
have a nice day ( :

and he writes back: Hey this is good stuff!

So..... you know .... floating. The sea is salty and flat as a rug. and crystal clear. I practiced floating. After a while you're breathing become slow and you practically fall asleep...

oh ya. easy jet. i love it. "come on, let's fly"! ha! cooooooooooooooooooooome on!!!

re: XYZ corp. I don't know! Maybe they're trying to play grown up ... reinier is coming next month. good stuff, somebody will witness this insanity. you know what's its like? Its like everybody is a fish here. fish!!! like the driving for example. picture NO rules. people just drive where its open. right way. wrong way. reverse on the highway. if its clear, you go, until a bigger fish clear the way...



ummmmmmmmm. miss you!

playa soropta

well i did it.

i bought a ticket to panama.



to volunteer on a turtle conservation project on playa soropta for 5 weeks. ( :

http://www.turtleprotection.org/

soropta is on panama's carribean coast mid way down the horn. very close to an area called San San Pond Sak which is recognized by the UN as a globally important wetland based on it's uniquness and bio-diversity. i'm terribly excited although i have no idea what lies before me. haven't done my research yet but are you surprised? and who is you? i'm looking forward to being somewhere else. change of scenery. for scenery's sake. its temporary. i hope to come back with a renewed perspective on the great life cycle inquiry. i've proposed to my teachers that this trip is about biomimicry, immersion, invention, curiousity, transferable skills, biodiversity, community development. my passion lies in mobile-ness, culture and the environment. how to travel and be a researcher / designer / journalist concerned with the fate of our generations.. . pretty broad.. i know.



matt and jen, who i will be working with down there, have also been blogging about the soropta project. they are already down there walking the beaches at night and taking care of things. i met them at julian's birthday. enough said!

stay tuned internet. ( :

and, happy birthday mama!

the big one

its funny to learn what people hear about and associate with vancouver who do not live here. mostly, i think, it has to do with our bizarre weather, urban planning, and west coast life style. it was brought to my attention last night that over the next two weeks, the likelihood of our long overdue earthquake is significantly heightened.

now here's an opportunity for some what would happen if? analyseez.

one word > water.