Public Potluck Picnic

Spinning off from the last Design Nerd Jam which focussed on the convergence of a green and creative city, our group decided to organize an informal unstructured potluck picnic on the luscious grassy hill beside Science World. Fredrick who I met randomly in my group was keen to help organize and he put together the invitation. I sent out some emails and facebook invites and prayed to the weather Gods. They listened. It was lovely afternoon with a great little spread of tasty food and delicious conversation. Next time, more activities like kite flying, music playing, croquet and Frisbee. One highlight was Bruce showing up with his electric bike and mini sound system. Nerdtastic.

Feeling tiny, yet connected

Well.  

Here we are coming around the southern tip of San Juan Island druing the first leg of Round the County 2008.  Can't get much closer to weather than this, for now.

Far away, however, I read about the Asian skies.  Poisoned with soot, smog and toxic chemicals, the by product of massive developments in all industry categories - transportation, agriculture, building, cooking, and general mass production and export to the west.

''The imperative to act has never been clearer,'' said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, in Beijing, where the report, titled ''Atmospheric Brown Clouds: Regional Assessment Report With Focus on Asia,'' was released.

Story via World Business Council on Sustainable Development.  Link here.

Eep.

Talk nerdy to me

 
Amazing Czech biking history from Fransisco.  What a nerd.

raftacular

It was always my intention to keep the RAFT project going after school. It was always my intention to develop a simple design that could be scalable, adaptable, modular and work with materials at hand. I am so grateful for having met the fantastic people at eatART who are now supporting (and storing) this project at the hangar. Our mutual love for the sea as well as things like civil disobedience, energy awareness, creativity, invention, and general mayhem brought us all together this weekend, dressed like pirates, armed with a potato canon and ready for adventure. ( : So fun!!!

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.

moon rise

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

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!

slow is beautiful.

i'm going home in less than 3 days! just cruising through the world that is facebook and came across a video that walid posted starring kevin yip. M2 Test and Art film shot in 5 minutes by Jon Hyatt. it's beeeee-you-tee-full.



see you soon party people!

everything everywhere all the time

i asked ryan lukas why he doesn't come out to vancouver? you can sail, hike and snowboard all in winters day. one day! he responds that's not enough. he needs surfing in that day in order to survive! there was a crazy storm in NYC this week. trees crushing cars. subways flooding. and the headlines are all familiar. but familiar from a movie i haven't yet seen or is this for real?



my thesis is taking form. time, design (process of), culture (of design), and perception. all within a global and local context. what's the local? well it might be the producers and it might be the consumers. and maybe its looking at between the locals. whatever it is.. it is taking form. in the studio sense, i am thinking of exploring a few sustainments, conceptually of course.

playa soropta

hola! i´m writing today from changuinola panama. took a boat into town to check in with the internet world, and to pick up a few key provisionals namely chocolate and a hammock! i had no idea what this adventure would entail. so far i have not felt alone even though i have been travelling solo. lonely planet has really changed the nature and culture of travel. there is always someone going the same direction. i have not lost trust in people. in fact i am gaining it.



on my 4th night, i witnessed my first mama leatherback. we got to her just as she was laying her eggs, nest already dug, 153 cm in length (just the shell). Cesar, one of the locals working with us, was asking me about a few questions after a very silent 4 hours of walking under the rising moon and millions of stars.. do you have a boyfriend? si. do you have a son? no. do you have a sister? no. i have a brother.. he plays music... electrico guitar. and then he turns to me and says something like welcome to your first tortuga. o i got emotional for a number of reasons.. atlas shrugged, human nature, endangered species, dan and his audience, the gift of making music for people and its enormous potential to move the world. in a conscious direction. or is that conscientious? the best part for me was watching her slip back into the ocean.. where she goes.. no one will really know until she turns up again. could be in a few weeks.. could be in years.. could be never again.



i had this thought the other night.. if $ were no object, i would throw a music festival.. inviting all the musicians that i know and love. the fully down, trevor strange, keep yourself good company, milky way travellers, and of course franky! if more wanted to come.. great. bonobo? cat power?

i am realizing what i came here to do. and that is to gather strength... in order to face the world that i love. if that is all i do here, then that is enough.


ciao for now. xos.

convergence

Something(s) From Nothing But Time
salvaged materials, time and energy
spring 2007

what happens to an object, a relationship, a community in disarray when you put something as simple as time and energy back into it? simple actions reproducible by anyone with access to the proper tools offer opportunities for new life, and another story.

the table and chairs.
because my research is focused on notions of collaborative and ecological design, the table, for me, is where it all happens… the table here was restored and assembled from salvaged materials: the base was found in a Mount Pleasant alley and the surface was found in a very old and scary Strathcona basement. the chairs were adopted, used, broken and are now in the process of being repaired and therefore diverted from the landfill. the table invites us to slow down and appreciate. conversations. the exchange of ideas. the mapping of information. the sharing of food. it may simultaneously connect us to - and differentiate us from - other creatures, places, and times.

the nests.
each nest above you was woven not by a bird, but by a student or faculty member from the Emily Carr Institute for a workshop called Finding Home, which took place at the SFU WOSK Centre for Dialogue on February 22, 2007. a truly collaborative effort, the materials were gathered from various locations around Vancouver, the North Shore and the Gulf Islands -- many from the fallen trees hit by this winter's storms. Through the act of weaving, of adapting, of working with the physicality of natural materials, these nests served as a metaphor for each of our own journeys in creating a sense of home for ourselves, our families, our communities, our world. The metaphor extended to being playful, local and resourceful.

How About That Weather
digital print, cardboard
spring 2007

this time map delineates the two years I will have spent at Emily Carr. It is a work in progress designed to help me see where I am, where I’ve come from and to suggest where I might be going… . . evolving concepts and influences such as new genre public art, the spime and the changing role of time within the design process are plotted on the bottom forming the foundation which supports my work, my community involvement, my experiences, my everyday observations, my life.

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.