Porto, Portugal
Soiled your favourite shirt? No need to fire up that wasteful washing machine… with this lovely molded wash-tub (and a bit of elbow-grease) you can return to the age-old practice of hand-washing in style. Read more about it here—just one of many excellent designs by the talented Emanuel Barbosa, a designer and teacher at Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD) in Matosinhos, Portugal.
Midway Atoll (middle of the North Pacific)
Chris Jordan is a remarkable Seattle-based photographer/activist who uses his skills effectively to address challenging social issues and redress problems arising from our modern lifestyles. (I’ve often shown his thoughtful and impeccably crafted photographic interventions in talks I’ve given). Midway: Message from the Gyre is a stunning photographic essay that delivers an important message (about avoiding, reducing, or effectively recycling plastics) with uncommon punch—view the entire image collection here. View a moving six-minute slide-show on YouTube here. Following is the accompanying text by Chris…
These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September, 2009, on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.
To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles (3200 kilometers) from the nearest continent.
Keep up the great work, Chris! (thanks to friend Gregor Brandt for the link)
Heartfelt expressions regarding peace and hope and change are powerful—no matter what corner of the earth or in which back alley you may find them.
Thanks to Belgian statistician, philosopher, writer, and human rights blogger extraordinaire Filip Spagnoli for these images/links.
Recycled cycle… what goes around comes around—I like it.
(tell someone today)
Winnipeg, Canada
This year’s Annual General Meeting of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada/Manitoba Chapter will be held at the Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street in Winnipeg at 19:00 on Tuesday, 19 January 2009. In addition to the expected conduction of business maters, mingling, door prizes, snacks and drinks, the GDC will be screening director Gary Hustwit’s recently-launched documentary film Objectified—an exploration of our complex relationship with manufactured objects and the people who design them.
Free to all comers, GDC members or not…
Tokyo, Japan
The great graphic sensei Shigeo Fukuda passed into another realm a year ago this week… I still miss you dearly and think of you often, my friend.
Graz, Austria
Actually, it’s both, ideal for a small space (such as an apartment) where you might only occasionally need a dining table. It’s not completely original (Victor Papanek and James Hennesey floated a similar idea in Nomadic Furniture back in the 1970s, as per the sketch above), but clever nonetheless…
Ottawa, Canada
The anarchist professor Denis G. Rancourt argues quite compellingly that global warming, rather than being “the greatest potential threat to humankind and the planet,” is in fact a myth and a red herring that contributes conveniently to the hiding of what is the planet’s most destructive force—power-driven financiers and profit-driven corporations and their cartels backed by military might. He suggests that liberal tree-hugging activists (ouch—this stings) who buy into and feed the global warming myth have effectively been co-opted, distracted from more urgent causes, or at best neutralized. Read a piece on this that Denis wrote here. (Though I’m somewhat reluctant to admit it, I’m starting to believe the man might be right).
Rancourt’s real concern is that if/when Carbon Trade has been introduced and established (as a result of the current, wrong-headed, singular focus on global warming), this will continue to misinform and obfuscate—essentially creating a smokescreen for the genuine causal issues: unethical and unsustainable corporate and political practices.
Thanks to new e-friend Laila Rashidie for the heads-up re: Rancourt; thanks to old friend Gregor Brandt for the cartoon above (which makes me feel a bit better, should Rancourt be right).
Source: The New York Times
Today’s Times offers this ‘Op-Chart’ showing a comparison of American and allied deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2009 by means of a map and legend to illustrate details. Accompanying text speaks about the tragedy of the “loss of any American life” and explains that “the colors on the chart show the extent to which the Western allies are sharing the deadly burden,”—invisible and unmentioned are the fatalities among either the “non-Western” Iraqi Army or Afghan Army and security personnel, deaths among what the U.S. considers to be ‘enemy combatants,’ deaths among civilian populations of either arena, or statistics on the massive numbers of serious injuries (physical and psychological) or refugee displacements that these wars have brought with them.
An aspect of this that I find extremely troublesome is the portrayal of an American or Western life (or death) as somehow being more valuable than that of another human being from a different hemisphere. This is consistent with a disturbing trend appearing in mainstream media over the past few years (the de-humanization of “the other”), creating further rifts between “them” and “us.” I choose to continue to believe that each life is worth as much as every other life.
Conservative estimates of total human death-tolls to date resulting from U.S.-led wars on/in Iraq (2003-2010…) and Afghanistan (2001-2010…) are in the hundreds of thousands. Canadian combatants are also engaged in Afghanistan (recent deaths shown in red) much to my chagrin and shame…
Porto, Portugal
Colour blindness, a vision deficiency, involves the inability to perceive differences between some of the colours that others can distinguish. An estimated 10% of human beings suffer from some degree of colour blindness, an inherited deficiency with no cure.
Miguel Neiva, a Portuguese designer and educator, has conceived and developed a complete coding system for the colourblind, ColorAdd®. Read the full story of this important undertaking (a significant contribution to the world’s visual vocabulary) in an Icograda news story here; visit the project’s official website here. Congratulations, Miguel!
Images above: Codes used on coloured pencils (e.g. at school); b/w icons representing the full colour spectrum; colour coding of hospital bracelets made more universally discernible—the potential range of effective ColorAdd® applications is practically limitless…
Copenhagen, Denmark
This is the effective poster designed by Fabrica on behalf of the World Health Organization for deployment at the Conference on Climate Change last month. At a glance, it conveys the key message that climate change has devastating effects on human health. Art direction by Alexandre Demers Saumier; Creative direction by my friend Omar Vulpinari.
(meme-fighting greenwashing)*
*See Eddie Adams’ 1968 Pulitzer Prize-winning photo here of the (then U.S.-backed) Republic of Vietnam’s Chief of National Police, General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan, executing handcuffed Vietcong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém on a Saigon street—a history-changing image that became an anti-war icon and is now a powerful meme.
Camden Town, London (UK)
The renowned street artist’s latest(?) intervention, as seen along the Regent’s Canal… from a Flickr set, found here.
An insightful piece by Stephen Hansen… (source).
Copenhagen, Denmark
Leading up to the Copenhagen global climate negotiations that start next week, Greenpeace is currently running a clever ad campaign in the Copenhagen airport. Adverts feature digitally aged images of sad-looking world leaders apologizing for not addressing climate change when they had the chance. (Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks like “the saddest hockey coach in the land” according to one pundit).
I, for one, am not holding my breath in expectation of meaningfully positive outcomes from the upcoming talks… and I must say, with our country’s shamefully deplorable environmental record (and total lack of leadership) in recent years, this is one of those (thankfully rare) times I’m truly embarrassed to tell folks that I’m a Canadian.
Bhopal, India
Shortly after midnight on 2 December 1984 (25 years ago yesterday) dozens of tons of lethal chemicals leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Nearly half a million people were exposed, roughly 10,000 of whom died in the immediate aftermath. It is estimated that another 15,000 have died in the following two decades, and over a hundred thousand more continue to suffer debilitating health effects.
This remains a monstrous and unresolved human rights tragedy to this day. Union Carbide ducked responsibility for nearly two decades. Dow Chemical, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, continues to deny culpability with impunity… (I’ve posted about this unresolved tragedy previously, here).
Watch a short, concisely narrated video produced by WITNESS and Amnesty International here.
Glasgow, Scotland
SWING was created from discarded items of clothing collected from the back alleys and bin areas of tenements in Glasgow. The clothes were then laundered and dried, cut into strips, and woven together to fashion ropes, to which parts of chairs (also found on the streets) were attached to form swings. These were hung from the guardrails on the Botanic Gardens Bridge that crosses the river Kelvin and forms part of the busy Kelvin Walkway.
The clothes that were collected and used for this project were imbued with a personality and invoked very powerfully notions of the abject, each piece telling a story of sorts, albeit ambiguously, about its previous owners and their lives and experiences. The cutting and braiding together of these items seemed almost like weaving together small fragments of narratives from the lives of a myriad of unknown people, creating an object that at once juxtaposes these fragments while creating a new narrative of its own.
A project by Jen Grant—I like it!
(found at Wooster Collective, presenters at the upcoming OFFF Paris 2010)
Washington, USA
Full-spectrum dominance is a military concept whereby a joint military structure achieves control over all elements of the battlespace using land, air, maritime, and space based assets. Full spectrum dominance includes the physical battlespace; air, surface, and sub-surface, as well as the electromagnetic spectrum and information space. Control implies that freedom of opposition force assets to exploit the battlespace is wholly constrained.
The United States military’s doctrine has espoused a strategic intent to be capable of achieving this state in a conflict, either alone or with allies, by defeating any adversary and controlling any situation across the range of military operations. The stated intent implies significant investment in a range of capabilities; dominant maneuver, precision engagement, focused logistics, and full-dimensional protection.
The United States armed forces boast over 800 military bases around the world, a “defense” budget greater than those of the rest of the world’s nations combined (and growing each year), as well as a nuclear arsenal large enough to blow up the world many times over. Coining a concept such as the unending War on Terrorism provides rationalized justification and opportunity for expeditionary warfare, feeding the aspirations of those with dreams of an American Empire, while at the same time entrenching the world’s viewpoint of the USA as a hegemonic aggressor.
My heart goes out to the many millions of American citizens (among them hundreds of good personal friends) who do not wish this to be so… and yet seem powerless to bring about change—in large part due to the controlling dominance of the profit-motivated corporate sector (who continue to capitalize on the concept that “war is good business”) backed by the support of a fear-ridden populace. Thanks to the entrenchment of the USA PATRIOT Act (the contrived acronym stands for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) it seems doubtful that meaningful change will emerge any time soon…
Image: American Dick by Scott Reeder, 2007 (as seen in the current issue of Adbusters, Number 6, Volume 17, #86, November/December 2009)
Winnipeg, Canada
This day of remembrance, gratitude, and reflection also seems like a suitable time to (re)consider pacifism… following is an excerpt drawn from a useful and more in-depth online posting, here.
+ + + + +
Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence as a means of settling disputes or gaining advantage. Pacifism covers a spectrum of views ranging from the belief that international disputes can and should be peacefully resolved; to calls for the abolition of the institutions of the military and war; to opposition to any organization of society through governmental force (anarchist or libertarian pacifism); to rejection of the use of physical violence to obtain political, economic or social goals; to the obliteration of force except in cases where it is absolutely necessary to advance the cause of peace; to opposition to violence under any circumstance, including defense of self and others.
Pacifism may be based on moral principles (a deontological view) or pragmatism (a consequentialist view). Principled pacifism holds that at some point along the spectrum from war to interpersonal physical violence, such violence becomes morally wrong. Pragmatic pacifism holds that the costs of war and inter-personal violence are so substantial that better ways of resolving disputes must be found…
Winnipeg, Canada
I recently contributed a two-page piece to the current issue of Geez magazine (#15: The Slippery Issue) on “Good design,” featuring and commenting on several winning posters submitted to Good 50×70, an independent, non-profit initiative that aims to promote the value of social communication, provide charities with a free database of communication tools, and inspire the public via graphic design. (Designers submit their works on a pro bono basis, thereby offering their talent to charities such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund or anyone who wishes to use the posters to further the featured causes).
An effective poster engages (by arousing interest) and informs (by conveying a message) within seconds, though only if the context is conducive to the audience’s understanding. This dramatic poster entitled “It’s High Time” (designed by Pamela Campagna and Thomas Scheiderbauer of Seville, Spain) captures our attention by means of the seemingly absurd juxtaposition of imminently rising sea levels and a long-necked giraffe, allegorically the animal with the greatest chance of “surviving this mess,” as the designers put it.
The decontextualized giraffe draws our immediate empathy. We share the anthropomorphized fear and disquietude of a threatened “figure” removed from its natural “ground,” even as the urgency of a timely intervention ticks on. The poster refers to the upcoming UN conference on climate change. In December, the global community will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to work out a new global climate deal aimed at protecting the future of our planet. The poster’s call to action is for global leaders to heed the warning signs when they meet in Denmark.
New York, New York
Few in modern times have been as engagingly direct in pointedly speaking truth to power as the late George Carlin. Throughout his illustrious career as a stand-up comedian he was an outspoken critic of the United States’ war-mongering tendencies—e.g. here and here (filmed decades apart, both with explicit language warnings) are excellent samples of his pacifist Leitmotif. You certainly can’t accuse the man of being subtle…
Be present. I would encourage you with all my heart—just to be present. Be present and open to the moment that is unfolding before you. Because, ultimately, your life is made of moments. So don’t miss them by being lost in the past or anticipating the future.
Don’t be absent from your own life. You will find that life is not governed by will or intention. It is ultimately the collection of these sense memories stored in our nerves, built up in our cells. Simple things: a certain slant of light coming through a window on a winter’s afternoon. The sound of spring peepers at twilight. The taste of a strawberry still warm from the sun. Your child’s laughter. Your mother’s voice.
—Jessica Lange’s 2008 commencement address to the graduates of Sarah Lawrence College
(photo: Ernest Hemingway kicks a can…)
Kabul, Afghanistan
It’s eight years ago today(!) that the United States, backed by coerced “coalition partners,” launched its war in/on the hapless nation of Afghanistan under the moniker Operation Enduring Freedom. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost, and tens of thousands more have been seriously injured. There are no clear indications of what it would take to actually “win” this particular war (which suits the hawks and those who continue to profit from ongoing conflicts such as this manufactured, never-ending “war on terror”)—in fact it’s unclear such a misadventure even can be “won” or how one would measure such a victory. The majority of the world (including most U.S. citizens, of late) is firmly opposed to the ongoing military operations and occupation of Afghanistan. It’s time to finally end this senseless conflict!
(I know my expressing a pacifist stance here, on my blog, is “safe” and does not involve a lot of effort or courage—yet it is at least something that I can do. I hope that many of the two-hundred or so of you who visit this blog each day will, if you agree, also take action and lend your voice in opposition to this inane war—and I welcome you to let me know what you are doing in this regard… please do contact me. While a solitary voice here and there may seem quiet and weak, many voices joined together can have the powerful and moving influence of a mighty choir).
“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”
—Jeannette Rankin
San Diego, California
California is talking about high speed transit systems—and governor Arnold Schwartzenegger is passionate about the estimated 133,000 new jobs that implementation could stimulate.
The Design Innovation Institute (aka Dii, of which I am an Advisory Board member) is hosting the TRANSITions | High Speed Transit Forum event (which will look at innovative, alternative transit modalities) on 12 November. Arnold is expected to speak, along with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Dii Founder and Board Chairman Calvin Woo, and a blue-chip panel of architects, urban planners, professors, and transportation industry leaders.
You can find more information here.
GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.
St. FRANCIS: It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.
GOD: Grass? But, it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It’s sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?
St. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.
GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.
St. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.
GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?
St. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.
GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?
St. FRANCIS: No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.
GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?
St. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.
GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.
St. FRANCIS: You aren’t going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it…
GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It’s a natural cycle of life.
St. FRANCIS: You’d better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.
GOD: No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?
St. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.
GOD: And where do they get this mulch?
St. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.
GOD: Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?
ST. CATHERINE: Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It’s a story about….
GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
(as conveyed to me by my brother Jim: original source unknown)
France, and elsewhere…
Botanist Patrick Blanc builds engaging vertical forests and vegetal walls. I like the concept and the cooling effect in summer is undeniable (my own low-energy home in the woods has featured a vine-covered west-facing facade for nearly three decades—with strictly indigenous species however)… yet I’m not sure how practical and sustainable these would be in an urban setting. Still, I like what he’s doing and I do find it inspiring… see more here.
(thanks, Nola)
Uppsala, Sweden
I’ve encountered Hans Rosling a number of times (first on TED Talks, then elsewhere). Yesterday I received an unexpected e-mail message from Robert Nijssen (who blogs at www.gibburt.com) and a perusal of his blog brought Hans back to mind. Watch a lovely documentary on this fine man (a global health expert and data visionary who wields informatics with great verve and also swallows swords) here.
Thanks Robert.
OK, just one more…
This would seem to be a fitting commentary on the stalled-out debate re: universal health-care being undertaken by our rich Southern neighbours (where the mighty[?] U.S. Dollar continues to trump humanity).
Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba
Evelin Richter’s sculpture ‘Peer Pressure’ has been selected as one of 20 pieces of art to be shown in the Manitoba Crafts Council 2009 Juried Exhibition. The show vernissage is 17 September at 19:30 at the Outworks Gallery, 290 McDermot Avenue in Winnipeg—then continuing on display until 29 September. From 1-29 October, the exhibition travels to the Viscount Cultural Centre in Neepawa.
‘Peer Pressure’ is a slab-built stoneware piece with low-fire glaze and assemblage (an antique bottle capper) on a waxed wooden base, 395mm x 200mm x 520mm. It’s a social commentary of sorts re: the failure of corporatism and the workaholics who drive themselves down along with sinking enterprise.
In her artist’s statement, Ev (my talented girlfriend) writes:
“I love creating with clay, making “something” from “nothing.” I love clay because of its sensuous pliability. My favorite tools are my hands—I experience and learn so much through the sense of touch. Figurative sculptures are particularly satisfying—I enjoy meeting new characters as they emerge out of the clay. I begin by visualizing, then wait for the shape to materialize through my hands. I know my work is going well when I lose track of time. I know a work is completed when it matches the image in my head, and when I can think of nothing else to add.”
See more of Ev’s work here.
Winnipeg, Canada
Driving into the city this morning, I heard a great interview with prominent American social critic Chris Hedges on CBC’s The Current. Chris was expounding on ideas and observations expressed in his new book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, in which he argues that western society (led by the U.S.) is being eroded by a celebrity-obsessed culture that encourages a form of narcissism that clouds our sense of reality (reminded me of similar thoughts I expressed six years ago in a HOW Magazine editorial).
Chris is an American journalist and author, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans, has reported from more than fifty countries, and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News, and The New York Times, where he was a reporter for fifteen years (and was part of team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism). That same year, he received the Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Chirs has taught at Columbia University, New York University, and Princeton University, and is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute in New York City. Read more about Chris and his weekly contributions to truthdig (where he is also a columnist) here.
Today marks 64 years since the first deployment of a nuclear weapon (by the U.S.—the only nation to ever do so) on human targets in Hiroshima, Japan.
Technology may make us more powerful, but not wiser.
Hiroshima, Japan
For those involved in the peace movement around the globe, thoughts this week turn once again to the horrors of Monday, August 6, 1945—when at 08:15 the first nuclear weapon ever deployed on human beings (a bomb named Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay. Three days later, at 11:02 on Wednesday, August 9, Nagasaki was the target of the world’s first plutonium bomb (named Fat Man) dropped by the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Bockscar, flown by the crew of 393rd Squadron.
In 2005, I was one of 24 designers invited to contribute posters for Lest We Forget: Canadian Designers on War, an initiative marking the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (I’ve posted on that previously, here). Michael Surtees attended that show opening at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton—see his flickr photo gallery from the evening here.
Image above: a moving poster designed by the late great Yusaku Kamekura, considered by many to be the father of graphic design in Japan. The poster “depicts a cluster of multicoloured burning butterflies falling from the sky, caught in the flash of an atomic blast, their wings alight with hot red and orange flames burning like streaks of blood from their delicate wings—the beauty and grace of the image serves to undermine the horror and tragedy of war.” Hiroshima Appeals is a poster series that appears annually, initiated by Japan Graphic Designers Association for the Hiroshima International Cultural Foundation.
Give the same creative brief to three different designers and you’re likely to get back three different solutions. Take for example the poster competition sponsored by the Canadian Council on Learning and the Canadian Commission of UNESCO to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and mark International Adult Learners’ Week last March. Sixty designers across Canada submitted their portfolios; three were commissioned to design posters around the theme “Learning is a Human Right.” (Read what the three designers had to say about their individual approaches in the @Issue article here).
Posters by Andrew Lewis, Sergio Serrano, and good friend David Coates. Thanks to Oliver Oike for the link…
