The phrases “melting polar ice caps” and “rising water lines” are so ubiquitous now that they’ve almost lost their meaning. It’s all too easy to think “it will happen to that city, not mine.” Well to give us a bit more perspective, Studio Lindfors has presented us with these hauntingly realistic post-flood visions of New York and Tokyo. In a future partially submerged by melting glacier water, gondolas reemerge as a form of travel, riverside plants nestle up against neon street signs, and aquaculture blooms under bridges. It’s Water World without Mel Gibson to ease the blow – scary.

Read the rest of Studio Lindfors’ Haunting Visual Prediction of Our Flooded Future World

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Post tags: Aqualta, BLDGblog, Climate Change, flooded cities, global warming, melting ice caps, Rising Tides, rising water lines, Studio Lindfors

The beautiful thing about upcycled materials is that the end results often bear no resemblance to the original items. Such is the case with sculptor Kris Kuksi’s toy sculptures, which are constructed out of old toys, statues, and mechanical parts.

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Post tags: Art, Artist, eco-art, green design, kris kuksi, recycled toy sculptures, sustainable design, toys, upcycling

It’s a ghost highway in the middle of LA! Not the result of road closures, the apocalypse, a zombie scare, or a massive increase in the price of petroleum, this series of car-less highways are the brainchild of photographer Tom Baker. Curious as to what a traffic-less Los Angeles would look like, Baker went ahead and created this vision through the wonders of photoshop. The result is a series of images that are eerily calming.

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Post tags: eco-art, environmental art, green design, La without Traffic, los angeles without traffic, sustainable design, tom baker

If the earth could make music, what kind of songs would it sing? This crazy contraption, called the Terrafon, actually lets us find out the answer to that question! Designed as a huge turntable tone arm and transducer, this musical instrument plays the earth like a big gravelly vinyl record. Artists Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke premiered it as part of a performance entitled “Harvest” at the Volt Music Festival in Sweden. Read on to check out the video of these determined choir musicians as they drag the big wooden tool-of-music through the Swedish countryside.

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Post tags: eco-art, Harvest, Martin Lübcke, Olle Cornéer, performance, site-specific, Terrafon

It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but architects at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have a plan to build a massive digital cloud above the London skyline. The Cloud, which has been shortlisted in a competition to build a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park with a lasting legacy, would feature 400 foot-tall mesh towers topped with solar powered plastic bubbles that show images and data — i.e. weather information, Olympic race results, and spectator numbers. If built, the cloud could also be used as an observation deck and a park.

Read the rest of Zero-Power Digital Cloud Shows Images and Data in the London Skyline

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Post tags: green design, London, MIT, olympic games london, olympics, Solar Power, sustainable design, the cloud, Zero energy

One of the main principles of permaculture is that “the problem is the solution.” Problem: tons of waste cups created by attendees of the OutsideLands concert in San Francisco. Solution: a fabulous recycled cup canopy. BIOS Design Collective tapped a keg and invited their friends over for a canopy party, building a gorgeous wave of concave color at Stable Cafe just in time for Architecture and the City.

Read the rest of re:Use Canopy Upcycled from Plastic Cups by BIOS Design Collective

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Post tags: aiasf, beer keg, BIOS, Canopy, eco-art, OutsideLands, Recycled Materials

Seoul, South Korea is filled with blinding light-up displays and headache-inducing neon screens. But residents of the city who want to see these displays put to good use need only take a trip to the World Cup Stadium’s Peace Park, which is where this beautiful Living Light sculpture blooms. The permanent outdoor pavilion and glass canopy projects up-to-the minnute information about local air quality, and locals can send it a text message to receive a report from anywhere.

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Post tags: Air quality, Art, environmental art, green art, light installation, living light, seoul, south korea, sustainable design

It never ceases to surprise us that much of good, sustainable design is also deliciously fun. Take Debbie Wijskamp’s paperpulp cabinets, for instance. They are what their name implies: drawers and shelves made out of pureed paper mache. And while I want to write sophisticated sentences with phrases like ‘materials reuse’ and ‘resource conservation,’ I just can’t help thinking about how glorious it must be, in a third-grade sort of way, to mash paper into furniture. Wijskamp’s process validates these daydreams.

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Post tags: "green furniture", cabinet, Debbie Wijskamp, eco furniture, eco-friendly furniture, furniture recycled materials, paper mache, paper pulp, Sustainable Materials

Spoiler alert: The Yes Men do actually fix the world– but only on paper. For years this two-man team has been pranking conferences, newscasts, and exhibitions by posing as representatives of the world’s biggest environmental transgressors. While speaking as DOW Chemical, they publicly apologized for the Bhopal disaster. While pretending to be from Halliburton, they demonstrated the Survivaball, a human disaster survival suit: prohibitively expensive and visually ridiculous. In a particularly complicated stunt, they created a fake version of the New York Times announcing everything from the end of the war in Iraq to the creation of a maximum wage law. They have provoked, embarrassed, ridiculed and shocked many captains of industry. Driven, ultimately, by the desire to address serious issues with humor and radical intervention, The Yes Men Fix the World in a documentary that pits itself against unchecked greed.

Read the rest of MOVIE REVIEW: The Yes Men Fix the World

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Post tags: activism, Art, Film, global warming, green design, movie, social responsibility, sustainable design, the art of the prank, Yes Men, yes men fix the world

DIY graffiti doesn’t have to be ugly– it can be thought-provoking, challenging, and perhaps most importantly, temporary. Jesse Graves, an artist based in Milwaukee Wisconsin, has harnessed mud as an artistic medium to take his green graffiti to the streets, and he encourages others to do the same.

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Post tags: eco-art, farming, graffiti, green design, mud graffiti, muds stencils. jesse graves, oil, sustainable design, wisconsin

Wine makes the whole world more beautiful. Seriously, can you argue otherwise, given wine bottle cheese boards, used cork accoutrement — and now, these stunning light boxes from artist Tracey Johnson? They’re made out of used wine crates and a little bit of magic. Can’t tell? Read on.

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Post tags: light installation, recycled materials art, recycled materials installation, used wine boxes, used wine crates

So, by this point, I think it’s pretty clear that we, the humans, have messed up on a pretty grand scale. You don’t need me to read you the stats again. We need several more planets. We make and consume a lot of crap. There are islands of crap in the ocean. There’s crap in the rivers, crap in our bodies, crap in the air. All of this crap is difficult to digest, you know, on a daily level. Nobly, many artists are facing this pile of crap and trying to make compost from it. Problem is, some eco-art is actually pretty crappy.

Read the rest of GREEN RANT: Lame Eco-Art

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Post tags: art criticism, contemporary art, eco-art, environmental art, Green Rant

Re-inventing ordinary street dividers and concrete balls, Liesbet Bussche creates larger-than-life jewelry pieces for the streets of Amsterdam. The Belgian designer makes small interventions to the street scape, a charm to a chain or earring backs to a concrete ball. However, altogether the jewelry can easily make any passer-by smile upon finding a serendipitous change in the uniform vocabulary of the urban landscape.

READ MORE AT ECOUTERRE >

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Post tags: art interventions, public art, public space, Street art, street scape, streetscape, urban planning

Stunning, no? Apparently some icebergs have stripes, and it’s not the result of Photoshop or internet pranks or penguin sledding or any outside manipulation. You might have seen these shots in an email that’s made the rounds– it’s even been examined by snopes.com and hoax-slayer.com.  The email includes a series of beautiful photos of candy-striped ice-scapes. The stripes are real, the result of natural pressures and formations. Nature’s got this one covered — thanks — no prestigious exhibition needed.

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Post tags: Antarctic, envioronmental art, glacier art, glaciers, iceberg art, icebergs, natural beauty, natural phenomenon, stripes

Read the rest of Mikal Hameed Uses Trash to Make Music, Inspire Community

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Post tags: "music experience", engaging art, environmental art, interactive art, interactive music, Interactive Objects, m11x, Mikal Hameed, musical performance, recycled materials art, Ronin Gallery in Los Angeles, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn