WE MUST RETHINK EVERYTHING!

The following images all have been added to my tumblr blog: seed capsules tonight... all except the final one ... as you'll see!

Michael Chase: area of interest tumblr

Cant help but think this event in Japan one week ago today that disrupted millions of lives (and has the potential to continue doing so in ways we can hardly bare thinking about) raises big questions and begs of us all we actually consider what is worth fighting for in terms of our collective future. The Uranium debate was running cold for years now... the climate change debate is still pooh-poohed in parts... Food security has been on the boil for some time now... but the event we are watching unfold somehow

asks us to think very carefully... and I think not wait for govts and big business but to be a bigger part of the change ourselves.

People in places like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have shown enormous courage and have taken centre-stage in the battle they believed was worth it. And we know the role social media played in that!!!

I've been painting since I was five...no matter what Ive always keep faithful to art somehow, through thick and thin! Yet five years ago I felt that it was looking foolhardy to approach life as an artist with the same kind of values and priorities that one might have in the past.I observed an increased focus on 'the getting of wealth', constant talk of superannuation, aquisition of property, taking care of personal portfolios, travel, status objects, entertainment and general consumption. None of these things are negative in themselves ...but the dialogue was swamped with this chatter ... attention veering away from all that is part of our true inheritance on this planet ...being the habitat and all living things ( which we are so dependant on if we only remembered where it mattered!) ... and our connection with community...and the well-being of the collective.

I just got sidetracked at twitter 10 mins ago and found this article at the Guardian:Is rampant consumerism ruining our lives? 

Tim Jackson live Q&A   click here

The author of Prosperity without Growth answers your questions about his theory that our obsession with economic growth makes us prosperous but unhappy – Friday 18 March, 1-2 pm
How fitting to find this as I write here! That constant noise about "having", "getting" and "aquiring" against the panorama of loss and lack all around really challenged me to find new ways to move forward that made more sense. As an artist and as a human being. Blogging puts me in touch with many like minds... people who dont think of rampant consumerism as a particularly good idea... people for whom sharing and foraging and gleaning, repurposing and bartering is a part of life ... an important part of life. Thank the heavens for that.
You know what ... I think we could all turn up the message a notch or two. Leadership has to come from many places ... top down has not been terribly inspiring in a long while! Come on bloggers ... lets use our art and creative gumption a whole lot more ... there's so many ways to make it a better world! There's room for all our intiatives and to pull together on this!

Treehotel, Sweden, 60 miles south of arctic circle:tumblr-polychroniadis

 Buckminster Fuller- tumblr-polychroniadas

Curated by Norman Foster and Luis Fernández-Galiano ‘bucky fuller & spaceship earth’ is an exhibition , which brings the different strands of buckminster fueller’s influential career together with original drawings and models and will be the first chance to see the recently completed recreation of the dymaxion car. 


Thinking outside the square...







DYnamic -- MAXimum - tensION

At the heart of Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion concept is the idea that rational action in a rational world demands the most efficient overall performance per unit of input. His Dymaxion structures, then are those that yield the greatest possible efficiency in terms of available technology. Here are a few examples:

Dymaxion House

Conceived and designed in the late 1920's but not actually built until 1945, the Dymaxion House was Fuller's solution to the need for a mass-produced, affordable, easily transportable and environmentally efficient house.Read more

Dymaxion Map

The Dymaxion Map is the only flat map of the entire surface of the Earth which reveals our planet as one island in one ocean, without any visually obvious distortion of the relative shapes and sizes of the land areas, and without splitting any continents. Read more

Dymaxion Car

The Dymaxion car was designed by Buckminster Fuller in early 1930s. The car could transport up to 11 passengers, reach speeds of up to 90 miles per hour, and ran 30 miles per gallon. Read more

Dymaxion Bathroom

Worried by the poor sanitation, inefficiency, and high cost of bathrooms, Bucky came up with a solution in 1936. Read more

Arup's bug hotel

Beyond the hive-Arup associates:tumblr Polychroniadas

London-based arup associates have won the top golden beetle prize for their design 
of ‘insect hotel’ in the competition hosted by british land and the city of london, ‘beyond the hive’. The brief called for a sustainable and creative insect habitat for the city of london parks.

mulleindown - hundertwasser - high-rise meadow house by manhardt…

well its only a model...but anyone who knows the work of Hundertwasser ... painter and 'architecture doctor' - knows that he actually had his plans for buildings realised. Its not for nothing he remains so well loved by so many... and interestingly ... children adore his work! 

     Stephane Couturier Tumblr: polychroniadis

'Usine Toyota n°1’, Series: Melting Point by Stéphane Couturier from the exhibition for the shortlist of photographers in the 2011 prix pictet photography and sustainability competition.

I had to stop and consider this work carefully - its from a series called Melting point - given the last week I wanted to make sure what I was viewing. Below are inks to the site where you can read more on this photographer... this series taken inside the Toyota assembling plant in France in 2005.

Biography
Stéphane Couturier: The Artist’s Path In 1994, Stéphane Couturier showed the first works in a series called Urban Archaeology. Viewing the city as... more

Artist statement
Stéphane Couturier – Melting Point - Toyota The series of twenty large photographs depicting the Toyota assembly plant in Valenciennes (France)...more

Tunisian kitchen; Tumblr:roam cold highway

I look at this and am reminded of so many kitchens the world over where pride is taken in prized cooking vessels and keeping the simplest of spaces tidy, practical and pleasing to the eye.

It makes me wonder about the western preoccupation, rampant in some parts more then others, of continually gutting kitchens for state of the art sets ups with all the trappings of success... and very often barely used and barely appreciated.

When I think of landfill I think of all that waste ... and it contrasts with the images of spaces above like this where hospitality and careful maintaining of cultural traditions and relationship to where the food comes from is a shared experience and a celebration of life.

Lest we forget!

from roam cold highway tumblr

50 JAPANESE NUCLEAR ENGINEERS ARE STAYING BEHIND AT THE FUKUSHIMA POWER PLANT TO TRY AND PREVENT A NUCLEAR MELTDOWN. THEY ARE GETTING THE SAME AMOUNT OF RADIATION PER HOUR THAT A NUCLEAR ENGINEER RECEIVES IN HIS/HER ENTIRE CAREER. GET THESE HEROES ON THE FRONT PAGE.

viasquaredd:

via REDDIT, nzherald

prayerflags:

(by Ornella Bagnato)

Posters for Japan I found at tumblr 'rery likes' with this note below:

poster by Steven Jodistiro

Japan was devastated by an 8.9 earthquake and tsunami today, causing widespread damage. They need our help. Donate to the charitable organization of your choice to do your part with relief efforts

• Canadian Red Cross
• American Red Cross
• Doctors without Borders
• The Salvation Army
• Oxfam
• Global Living
• Care
• ShelterBox (…)        
Haven’t decided yet through which organization my contribution should go and know that it might not be consequent. But as a dear friend said very well:        
"No contribution is insignificant, because all together makes a lot, maybe not enough, but one must do what is possible."

I wish to finish off with a note from a dear blogger friend in LA Mlle Paradis whose post today was one I wish to share.. she writes at her "Day of Speaking Out" post:

I don't mean to be awkward but watching the BBC News has made me feel that it is time to do exactly the opposite.  I know the bloggers who have organized the Day of Silence below have their hearts in the right place, but watching BBC TV tonight I feel that we have been silent for TOO LONG!

I've left this note on several blogs this evening and will leave it on many more.  I've called Japan Consulates in L.A. and Honolulu, the American Consulate in Tokyo and have left emails for President Obama and my Congresspeople.  Perhaps you would like to do the same.  

I was brought up in the Asian culture to behave nicely and stay quiet until called upon to put my two cents in but I feel, that a week into the crisis in Japan, more must be done and it's not enough for ordinary people watching this happen to sit home in silence.  If the Japanese government/people are anything like the Asian people I grew up with, they are very good at offering help, but have a very hard time asking for it themselves.  Here is what I'm saying:

i’m asking you to add your voice to those who are calling for an airlift/drop of food into northeast japan. by a non-japanese entity, if necessary. within 24 hours. it seems that the japanese government are overwhelmed and it is just heartbreaking to think that people are now starving there after all that they have been through. it has been six days since some of them have had a proper meal and those who are being fed are sharing one riceball between two people!

thanks if you can. it’s terrible to stand by and to feel we can do nothing to help.

well ... my post is in large part inspired by Mlle Paradis and her "Day of Speaking Out" She pondered Japan being a country willing to come to the aid of others but perhaps no wanting to be seen as overwhelmed, needing support, not managing well... stoicism has its downsides as any of you with that tendency knows! 

I'd meant to go to Green drinks tonight...but was out much of the day at a wonderful event that some time I will post on. Great conversations with some wonderful people. Came home most inspired!

So if I didn't get to Green Drinks then at least I can offer this post to start some conversations or prompt your thoughts on these various matters.

Have a good and safe weekend all as we offer our best thoughts and prayers to all in the land of the cherry blossoms!

PS two creatives using their artistic talent to raise funds for Japan... read here - catkin and teasal and hello sandwich!Hello Sandwich on twitter.

JUST ADDED:
Mlle Paradis has updated with further info on:
Emergency! Japan Needs an Airlift: Here's Why Be sure to read this update from her if you wish to understand this most pressing situation for the people north of Tokyo who are cut off from supplies!

NB: if you try to comment and it falters... try second time...  it seems to work. S x

Something to think on: "The exciting absence of certainty"

Another turning point ... this is a golden age of error. Photograph: Paul Hardy/Corbis

"The exciting absence of certainty" is a post from Jonathan Jones on At Blog - Art critic with the UK's Guardian. Its a concise comment for the curious who might from time to time ponder String theory or other contemporary fields of scientific thought.

In fact... worthy of sharing for the seeds of thought it ponders on a number of matters in contemporary life. Take a look:

January 20th he writes:

I recently read a book called The Trouble With Physics, by physicist Lee Smolin. I was also reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. No need to worry – this is not one of those blogs where I sound off about a subject like string theory from my unique perspective as an art critic, and enraged string theorists line up to put me right. My theme today is not science but certainty, and the exciting absence of it in our world.

Smolin questions the most ambitious contemporary theories in science. Greene is a champion of those same "string" theories. It looks as if the state of physics is at an interesting point, if it is simultaneously close to the definitive grand theory of everything and – claims Smolin – simultaneously at the edge of an abyss of unknowing.

Which makes it a good image of these times. Ours is essentially a tragic age, wrote DH Lawrence in the early 20th century, so we refuse to take it tragically. Of the early 21st century one might say: ours is essentially an ambiguous age, so we refuse to take it ambiguously.

To look around the world today is to see conflicting certainties everywhere, from the bitter American political discourse blamed by somefor the Tuscon shootings to ... Well, to right here, right now, where online argument sometimes – though far from always – seems like an unwinnable contest between different positions.

In reality, the virtue of blogs and the comments they attract lies in the diversity of opinion in itself: so does the value of democracy. This is surely obvious, yet we do not say it often. It seems it is very difficult to acknowledge that (a) we may be wrong, and (b) the most valuable quality of our culture is the right to be wrong, loudly.

The Russian cultural theorist Mikhail Bakhtin was brave enough to praise the mess of reality. He espoused dialogue and multiplicity of viewpoint – a "carnivalesque" freedom – as a value in art and life. He wrote in an age when physicists were discovering some perturbing things about the universe, such as the fact that electrons can be in two places at once.

Debate has never been so popular, online and even in the flesh. We may disagree passionately, but what we need to recognise is that it is the free flow of opinion and contradiction that is the cultural achievement. Certainties abound, but they die on the rocks of doubt. Let's be glad that we live in the golden age of error.

"the free flow of opinion and contradiction that is the cultural achievement"

That I think is a good thought for the day.

posted at seed capsules - my new tumblr site

read more here.

Jason Karolak - read more here.

click here

Art does not lie down on the bed that was made for it; it runs away as soon as one says its name; it loves to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what it is called.

Jean Dubuffet

(via ilobanna)

read more here

Marian Bijlenga - read more here.

andren - read more here

so... ambiguity... all these images are posted at seed capsules - my new tumblr blog.

read more here.

On a more personal note.... have been flat out doing a major overhaul of office/studio and living spaces.

Why have I got warranties saved from things that are 25 yrs old and and I no longer own? And and account book from an art-related business I had from 17 years ago? Some of these things I saved from a house fire, endless relocations ... you name it. 

So out with the old and in with the space.

love this quote 

Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it.

Leonardo da Vinci, from Journals, p. 509. (via aubade)

It happens that I presently live in postage-size rooms ... so of course I love this quote. OK ...postage size is an exaggeration.  But there's cerrtainly no room for all the things Ive saved so a radical attempt at decluttering is ongoing till I achieve  a feeling of knowing what exists in every nook and cranny of my abode.

and before I go check out this wonderful story... started by a blogger... with a friend on board and social media thrown in to the mix...

2 days ago I signed on to Baked Relief to offer some help. Started by Danielle Crismani of 

DIGELLA EMPORIUM

ASPIRING MARTHA STEWART STYLE DOMESTIC GODDESS' {WITHOUT THE JAIL SENTENCE}

Danielle, or Digella...yes she's a big fan, decided to bake some cupcakes for volunteers working to sandbag the area near her home before the river rose to flood the city. She blogged about it, and then others came forward offering help. 10 days or so  later she thinks maybe a thousand people are baking and delivering food... plus they started an initiative for people to volunteer to feed a family once a week for months to come. Through twitter, blogging, facebook etc...its created waves of response...and they keep noticing suburbs further out that have been ignored... then finding people to go there with food.... and other things. There is nothing like grass-roots.... and not  waiting for authorities "to do something"! 

Read more by Mel Kettle, the other organsational whiz, on  baked relief  and how this initiative spread like wildfire across Brisbane and beyond. 

Baked relief volunteers going to recovery sites with lunch.

from bakedrelief.org:

Lockyer Feed-a-thon

I took down contacts for the project and will touch base with them in the coming weeks once the roads are open and we can get their safely.

In short, the Lockyer Feed-a-thon project will provide ongoing support to Esk area and Lockyer valley by way of home cooked meals.  With the ongoing support of chefs in commercial kitchens, Baked Relief volunteers and chefs will be cooking and safely storing meals for transportation in refrigerated trucks out to these areas.

For as long as we have finances and for as long as I can run this project I will continue to manage this work. I am hoping for at least 6 months.

Providing a meal to a family affected by floods might not seem like enough, but it shows that we care and it gives them a night off from cooking.

As I always say “Food always tastes better when someone else cooks it”

If you would like to be involved in this project or our other project supporting the Metro areas called Adopt a Family, please go to the website and follow the links.

Some interesting posts I thought you might like

http://digella.blogspot.com/2010/10/country-happens.html

http://digella.blogspot.com/2010/08/farm-life.html

Remember go to website HERE

Ive been emailing another volunteer called Lisa who I've never met - she and I are making lunch for a volunteer spot on sunday. We'll meet at the delivery site. Somehow I think a lot of connections are being forged at the otherwise very difficult time for many ... some amazing volunteer efforts are going on daily... and so much creativitiy. I read of Fisher and Paykel - washing machine manufacturers yesterday setting up temporary washing machine units for the flood affected to wash all their things.

All I hope is that the initiative and involvement thats kicked off here is something we see more of well into the future... So many people said they could not watch any more TV ... they had to go do something.

Well... here's to life beyond TV!

cheers all,

Sophie x