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 it. The result is a series of images that are eerily calming.
Moe Beitiks
Meghan Beitiks (Moe for short) is a writer, artist, gardener and biofuel lackey living in Oakland, California. She was originally turned on to the concept of sustainability while studying site-specific theatre on a Fulbright scholarship in Latvia. She spent the following years immersing herself in the worlds of organic farming and recycled veggie oil fuels by working on a farm in Oklahoma and driving across the country in a grease-powered veggie bus. Since then she's sought every opportunity to combine her passions for ecology and the arts. She is the Blog Editor for greenmuseum.org. A certified Urban Permaculture designer, she daydreams about bioremediative theater and is excited to be part of a sustainable future.
November 19, 2009
November 14, 2009
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.
November 7, 2009
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.
November 3, 2009
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.
November 2, 2009
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.
October 31, 2009
Zombie chair! Out for your wood scraps! Oozing sawdust and pure carnage! Designer Hongtao Zhou, who we found playing with ice, decided to get Holiday on a broken, abandoned chair he found on the streets in Madison, Wisconsin. The result: chair of the undead, risen from the swamp and demanding the chance to sit in your living room looking creepy. Zhou created the drippy effect with wood scraps and sawdust (and probably some monster blood and glue). Expect this chair on your front porch Halloween night, demanding all the sweet linseed oil you can muster. Happy creepy chair night, everyone, happy monster night.
October 26, 2009
As part of last month’s Architecture and the City Festival GOOD magazine took it upon themselves to match San Francisco civic leaders with well-respected designers to attack city problems head-on. In a packed lecture hall at the SPUR building, Alyssa Walker moderated a breakdown of design stalemates and enlivenings. It was all about remixing the streets: “What GOOD Design can do for San Francisco.”
October 17, 2009
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.
October 10, 2009
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.
October 10, 2009
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.
September 28, 2009
I have to admit that when I saw the title of Christopher Steiner’s new book, I scoffed a bit. Twenty Dollars per Gallon of gas seems like an outrageous, unfathomable price, even when you’re a believer in peak oil. But part of the beauty of Steiners’ book is its ability to track the effects of ever-more-scarce oil in believable detail. Whether the author’s predictions of local food, high-speed trains and alternative plastics are correct, they are excellent illustrations of the pervasiveness of petroleum.
September 21, 2009
Only 14% of plastic water bottles are recycled, and Americans add 30 million PET water bottles to landfills every day! Design firm MSLK has made its statement about plastic bottle use with Watershed, a series of bottle-droplets hanging in rain-like strings from a massive tree. The installation will be showcased at tonight’s Age of Stupid opening and will then travel to the D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge festival, carrying with it some hefty statistics about guilt and trash-making.
September 19, 2009
Park(ing) Day! Parking space invasion day! The day to roll out some sod, fire up the barbeque, and set out in the street like it’s your front porch. If you didn’t hear about it from us, from the event site, or from last year’s awesome photos, then you must not have gotten the telegram, ’cause this is the best reason to cruise around the city on bikes since you were 10 years old.
September 19, 2009
It’s remix-the-city-time: the Conflux Festival is back. This annual NYC-based festival of psychogeography promises some great urban tinkering, featuring the work of several artists we’ve featured here on Inhabitat. From Eve Mosher to Swimming Cities to Reverend Billy, the artists of Conflux use technology to explore public space in the city — re-defining the city and its proper use and maintenance.
September 17, 2009
James E. McWilliams seems like he may be a big bummer at a lot of cocktail parties. You can tell, because the introduction to his book Just Food is continually defensive. “My goal here is not to write a reactionary tract against the locavore movement,” he writes, yet his real and well-researched analysis of sustainable agriculture is laced with sideways critiques and subtle condemnations of current green culture. Within the pages of Just Food lie a mixed series of sustainable solutions and conflicting emotions regarding the challenges of eating an ethical diet.
September 12, 2009
If you’re in the Bay Area and want to catch a glimpse of some on-point environmental artwork, head out to Swarm Gallery this weekend (hey, the Bay Bridge is back open, right?). On display at the gallery, until tomorrow (Sunday, September 13th), are works from Josh Keyes, whose surreal paintings you might have seen gracing the parking structure next to the Dean Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, and Vaughn Bell, a Seattle-based artist who is hilarious, by which I mean you can stick your head in a box full of plants.
September 12, 2009
Making art with animals. Making art with animals? Not animals tacked on walls. Not animals stuffed with cotton. Animals as co-creators, as collaborators. Really? Interspecies says: Yes. It’s a series of exhibitions, performances, lectures and workshops examining the human/non-human relationship, and it is happening October 2-4 at A Foundation in London. There will be naps with pigs, playtime with monkeys, communications with fish, and the general exploding of the species barrier.
September 10, 2009
This week the Architecture + The City Festival took us to Treasure Island for an upclose view of the proposed sustainable development plan and a not so shabby panoramic view of the whole San Francisco Bay Area. We found that the entire place is steeped in future plans and the island is a keystone in what will become a center for green living in the Bay.
August 15, 2009
This Saturday, join environmental art gallery Collectively GRASP for its closing reception. After more than a year of exhibiting eco-art, gallery Owner/Director Aileen Meehan will be closing the art space to recover from the demands of running the gallery while working full-time. Like many businesses, GRASP has been affected by the economic downturn, however, Meehan is choosing to end GRASP’s life with a celebration rather than a funeral. The closing reception will be TONIGHT (August 15th) from 6-9pm at the gallery: 850 Greenwich St, off Columbus, SF, 94133.
August 15, 2009
Nature as artistic collaborator: we’ve seen it in the performance paintings of Olly and Suzie, in the sculptural rock-stackings of Zach Pine and Andy Goldsworthy, and in the plein-air tree drawings of Tim Knowles. Now composer and sound designer Diego Stocco has partnered with a tree in his backyard to create a delightfully fun musical jam. So go ahead, boogie down with the branches.
August 13, 2009
In the San Francisco Bay, water levels may rise 55 inches over the next 100 years. That doesn’t sound like much initially, but around the coastline, that makes a huge impact. High water levels are a liability. The challenge for the entrants of the recent Rising Tides competition was to take this liability and make it an asset. The winning proposals include inflatable dikes, laser levels, water recycling, habitat restoration, and bioswale street systems.
August 8, 2009
When Stonehedge was created, its builders used stones — making the space all about stone and light. Cycles and spirits. Seasons and sacrifice. Today, the “beings” that dominate our physical and energetic landscape are (arguably) cars. So it is no surprise that artist Jim Reinders has re-invented Stonehenge with scrap vehicles. The sculpture of sorts, which is fittingly called Carhenge, attracts thousands of worshippers — ahem, tourists — every year to its home in Alliance, Nebraska.
August 8, 2009
Although its name implies tongue twisters or dancing dwarfs, Prix Pictet is a distinguished international photography award for artists focused on environmental sustainability and has just announced their shortlist. Last year’s winner, Benoit Aquin, documented the effects and creation of deserts in China. This year’s 12 nominees depict the destruction of the environment through the exploitation of the world’s resources. Click through the gallery to see images from all the nominees!
August 1, 2009
Artist Brandon Jan Blommaert has stunned us with his virtual trash sculptures. In a gorgeous series of images, junk-crafted megafauna roam the mountaintops and landscapes of our planet, picking fights, searching for food, and striking poses in front of sunsets. Further proof that green design rules the planet, we say.
July 31, 2009
Melting ice: it’s the metaphor of our age. Here on Inhabitat, we’ve seen melting penguins, melting furniture, and melting little men. In case you missed theses visuals of climate change, in case those images of ice holes from An Inconvenient Truth are fading from memory, in case you’re bored on August 1st around 11 am, Chin Chih Yang has a not-so-gentle reminder for you. He’s bringing 21,000 lbs of ice to Union Square in New York City. As it melts, it will be raising flashing red hell with emergency lights triggered by the melting, protesting its own demise.
July 25, 2009
cloud-seeding technology, artists Zoe Papadopulou and Cat Kramer are making the discussion of climate control fun and engaging. The artists’ project, called the The Cloud Project, uses a retro ice-cream van with several mounted industrial water sprayers that spout a mix of liquid nitrogen and ice cream, creating a spray that condenses into ice cream clouds. This playful weather manipulation, although less useful as a practical application, offers a yummy catalyst for the debate on emerging nanotechnology and its promise to create a controlled climate.
July 18, 2009
Camouflaged in recycled artificial Christmas trees and powered by solar panels, the Porta Hedge is a lean, green dystopian machine. Conceived by Justin Shull, the mobile unit is a playful and portable shelter decked out with swings and chalkboards, but most importantly peepholes for observing life outside — unnoticed. So spy on your neighbors, observe their use of pesticides, toxic cleaners, and ugly hemp fashions. Report domestic terrorists, or at least make fun of hippies — all from the comfort of your own shrub-like surveillance unit, the fabulous Porta Hedge.
July 11, 2009
My favorite part of Disneyland was always the Main Street Electrical Parade. It seems gluttonous now: a procession of mechanized floats, covered in rainbow light bulbs, all buzzing and twinkling to the tune of music. Fortunately, O*GE Architects and Interactive Gallery have sated my light-show fix with a solar-powered, LED-licious Night Garden. The installation was part of the recent Light in Jerusalem Festival and dazzled visitors to the Gan Habonim (Jerusalem Citadel) with giant neon-colored, luminescent flowers whose petals opened and closed throughout the night.
June 26, 2009
READ MORE >
What do you do if you love treehouses like us, but don’t have a tree to build on? Netherlands-based designer Gert Eussen may have a solution with his Coco-Hut, a cozy and round hut made of scrap and FSC-certified wood. With an element of whimsy, the structure looks a little bit like a beehive with a linear version of the honeycomb texture. The Coco-Hut is also unmistakably cute with its round shape and humble staircase leading inside.
June 20, 2009
In the Niger Delta, oil turns the rivers rainbow. Surrounding communities are engulfed in the emissions from constant natural-gas flaming. Generations that used to survive on fishing are now jobless and wandering — some have joined local militant guerrilla groups in an attempt to defend their land against the pillage of the oil industry. Ed Kashi has documented all this destruction in his stunning photographs, currently on view at Exit Art’s exhibition, The End of Oil, part of a series called Social-Environmental Aesthetics (SEA).
June 13, 2009
It’s a picture of a tree. Yes. Okay. But this tree has a phone number. If you call this tree it will tell you stories of the neighborhood. It will talk about the Bronx Grand Concourse, about itself, even about the local ecology. It will tell stories about the neighborhood. It might even sound proud, after all it has been around a while. Starting June 21st and continuing through the summer, the trees along the Grand Concourse will play host to a virtual Tree Museum. Visitors can call a phone number and get the details on any particular tree by punching in its extension. The audio guides are recollections and fond stories from folks who have grown up with the trees. Each tree has its own story.
June 6, 2009
READ MORE >
It’s all about context. Meal with friends: normal. Meal with food gathered in a one mile radius: art. Traffic jam on highway: normal (and boring). Traffic jam in the Spanish mountains: art (and very curious). In 2005, artist Maider López put the call out for willing participants to create an intentional car cluster muck in the Aralar Mountains. In response, more than 400 folks drove up to the countryside in 160 vehicles to get stuck. The result: an unexpected invasion to illustrate the automobile’s impact on the landscape.
READ MORE >
May 23, 2009
READ MORE >
When it comes to eco-art, it doesn’t get much better than Edina Tokodi’s awesome green graffiti made from living moss. Inhabitat has been following artist Edina Tokodi and her tongue-in-cheek moss art installations for awhile now — from streetside bambis to greenings of Philadelphia Transportation. Now we’re excited to see the latest of her work appearing in galleries and blank walls all over.
READ MORE >
May 16, 2009
The Inhabitat crew was pretty blown away by artist Aurora Robson’s artwork at the recent Designers & Agents Green Room, so we thought we’d take this opportunity to explore her body of work in more detail. For instance: it is stunningly intricate, deliciously colorful, uses solar-powered LEDs to glow at night, and has diverted some 20,000 plastic bottles from the landfill. Bam.
May 16, 2009
Taking a step beyond the certified- green-label: what if you had a personal agreement with a business that the money you spent would go towards sustainability? “If people really vote with their dollars, shouldn’t there be an election day?” asks Brent Schulkin, an activist turned entrepreneur who co-founded the company called Virgance. The company got its start after Schulkin brought folks out to stores in a new consumer action called carrotmob, a “method of activism” that encourages businesses to spend their revenue on socially-minded endeavors.
