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.
Los Angeles Without Traffic!
by Moe Beitiks, 11/19/09
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.
Terrafon Plays the Earth as an Instrument
by Moe Beitiks, 11/14/09
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.
When it comes to kicks, the rarer the better. And if you’re looking for originality, we guarantee you won’t find another pair quite like these upcycled junk-metal Jordans by artist Gabriel Dishaw. He whips metal and electronic scraps from old computers into crazy DIY shoe sculptures that will have any sneakerhead foaming at the mouth. We don’t advise wearing them due to the jagged edges, but they’re certain to be conversation starters when placed strategically on your coffee table.
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re:Use Canopy Upcycled from Plastic Cups by BIOS Design Collective
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.
Mud Stencils Create Environmentally-Conscious Graffiti
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.
GREEN RANT: Lame Eco-Art
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.
SonUmbra Solar Powered Tree Lights up the Night
As advancements in lighting technology unveil fresh materials, we’re thrilled to see designers exploring new ways to light up the night. SonUmbra is a solar-powered tree composed of strands of light-emitting fabric woven into a lucent web of branches. The installation’s canopy of photovoltaic panels captures light during the day, and once the sun sets the tree blooms in an interactive flourish of light and sound.
Floating Green: A Grassy Bench
A lush lawn can be a wonderful thing to stretch out on. Unfortunately, the high-maintenance needs, which include frequent seeding and fertilizing, of grass can make it more of a pain than a joy, leaving would-be loungers disappointed. Fortunately, grassy seating can put back some of the fun. The idea of creating seating out of grass is no new concept, as you may find with the lawnge chairs or living lawn chaise. In this formulation, the Floating Green, by Ling Fan, is a stretch of lawn that appears to have rebelled against horizontality by springing from the ground, doing an elegant twist and then settling into a vertically folded position to offer passers-by a place to sit.
Inhabitat Reports from London Design Festival 2009
The London Design Festival is in full swing, and Inhabitat has been on the scene to give you the scoop on the dazzling examples of sustainable design presented at this year’s event. Read on for our favorite products and innovations that we spotted this year.
Watershed: Recycled Bottle Eco Art Hits Age of Stupid Premier
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.
The Crate Man Cometh: Recycled Milk Crate Art
Holy leaping legos! This cratalicious creature may, at first glance, appear to be some kind of primitive transformer, but he actually deserves a lot more respect that. For this is none other than Crate Man! As his name implies, his mysterious erectors lovingly built him and a whole clan of crate peeps out of primary-colored crates – you know, the kind used to ship milk jugs in. As large and in charge as Crate Man may seem, he’s really a bit shy so not much is know about him. Read on to see the facts that we have gathered and ogle other personified crate creations.
Environmental Art at Swarm Gallery, San Francisco
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.
Ginormous Handknit Pink Bunny in the Alps
Nothing can put a smile on your face quite like a ginormous pink bunny welcoming you with open arms. Up until now, we thought that such a delight existed only in our imaginations, but then we received word that there really is a larger than life cotton-candy colored rabbit in the Italian Alps! Check out all the pictures of this wondrous spectacle, including some of people lying on top of it to …
Habitat Machines: David Trautrimas’s Amazing Art
There is something so fascinating about miniature worlds and peering down from above and imagining all the intricate daily happenings of the tiny people who live there. What if that tiny world was made up of re-purposed kitchen and hardware items that were forged together in some sort of crazy modern industrial architectural style? Well, that’s what David Trautrimas did with his amazing series of digital photographs “Habitat Machines.” His body of work is both exciting and inspiring with retro lines, cool metal finishes and are the ultimate in recycled materials.
Buddha Sculpture Made from 20,000 Dead Bugs
In the Gunma prefecture of Japan there sits an elaborate statue of the Buddha housed within a community hall. From a distance the intricate statue seems to be covered with thousands of gems and jewels… until a closer look reveals that it is actually composed of tens of thousands of dead insects! The statue took the artist over 6 years to create, and while it might be the creepiest religious icon we’ve ever seen, we admire the artist’s incredible use of natural, biodegradable materials.
Music From a Tree: Diego Stocco Creates Musical Jams With Nature
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.
Carhenge: Scrap Vehicles Replicate Prehistoric Monument
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.
2009 Prix Pictet Environmental Photography Shortlist Announced
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!
Recycled Trash Robots Lay Waste to the Earth!
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.
NYC ART TOMORROW: Burning Ice by Chin Chih Yang
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.
Porta Hedge: Mobile Artificial Hedge
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.
The Invisible Tree Museum at the Bronx Grand Concourse
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.
Traffic Jam Art Installation Staged in the Mountains
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.
A Clearing in the Streets: NYC Spouts a Meadow Amid Concrete
As the topic of urban restoration garners more attention, we have seen an increase in the investigation and experimentation relating to NYC’s ecological past. NYC Wildflower Week demonstrated a rise in popularity of plants native to New York City. Coupling urban restoration and indigenous plants, Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith, both landscape designers, were commissioned by the Public Art Fund to design and construct ‘A Clearing in the Streets,’ a 15-foot wide, plywood structure containing the beginnings of a meadow. The temporary installation, meant to invite passers-by to appreciate and watch the “re-insertion” of nature back into the city, offers a glimpse into NYC’s native landscape.
ECO ART: Plastic Bottle Installation in NYC
Sometimes it is hard to truly grasp how much waste we create as a society. That’s why NYC-based graphic design agency, MSLK is creating an installation that is an in-your-face visual of the amount of water bottles consumed in the United States. The installation uses 1,500 water bottles, the number of bottles consumed every 1 second — that’s 90,000 bottles per minute! Entitled “Watershed,” the piece is meant to inspire its viewers to consider the collective environmental repercussions of drinking bottled water over tap. The installation is showing at the Figment Art Festival, open from June 12-14 on Governor’s Island in New York City. Click through to see a video of the installation’s assembly!
Mosstika Moss Graffiti Brings Greenery to the Concrete Jungle
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.
ECO ART: Aurora Robson Recycled Plastic Sculptures
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.
Recycled Billboard Vinyl Becomes Public Art
Billboards get all sorts of (justified) flak for polluting our mind-scapes. They are everywhere, flaunting famous people — in expensive clothes, drinking sexy beer, promising us recession-busting discounts. Unfortunately, billboards are also responsible for a more tangible type of pollution. At the end of an advertising campaign, billboard workers roll up the heavy-grade vinyl and toss it in the dumpster. When Peter Schulberg experienced this waste firsthand, he immediately took steps to remedy it by inviting artists to use the discarded vinyl as a canvas for their work, which he would then display on the exterior walls of his gallery in Los Angeles.
ECO ART: Field of beams
It’s still the subject of (extensive) debate whether the electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) produced by appliances, cell phones and high-voltage wires contribute to human illness and cancer. For an academic overview, check out the Human Radiation Effects Group, by Professor Denis Henshaw of the University of Bristol. For a visual illustration, look no further than FIELD by artist Richard Box. It’s a grid of fluorescent light bulbs planted into the ground beneath a series of power lines. When the bulbs glow, it’s not because of a series of buried wires, or a battery– they light up using the ghost power radiating from the wires overhead.
My Shower Curtain is a Green Warrior
So you think it’s okay to continue with your 15-minute shower because you’ve got your super-efficient, on-demand water heater and extra-conservative shower head? Perhaps you’ve even gone as far as funneling your shower water into a personal greywater system. Well, your shower curtain has heard it all, and thanks to artist Elisabeth Buecher, it’s not taking any more of your excuses. Your soapy butt is getting kicked out after 4 minutes, when the shower curtain Elisabeth designed inflate with spikes.
Chris Jordan’s Wave Illustrates Ocean Garbage
Photographic artist Chris Jordan never ceases to amaze us with his clever pieces that allow people to “see” concepts that are often difficult to visualize. We submit for your viewing pleasure, his latest work, Gyre. Look familiar? The 8′ x 11′ triptych is based on the famous Japanese painting, “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” by Hokusai. Instead of paint, the colors are composed of 2.4 million pieces of plastic – the estimated number of pounds of plastic that enter the world’s ocean’s every hour! Gyre is the first image in a mini-series that Jordan is creating about the Pacific Garbage Patch, and is named after the Pacific Gyre, a thousand miles wide ocean current which turns clockwise like a giant slow-motion whirlpool and concentrates tons of the world’s trash.
ECO ART: SWOON’s “Junk Rafts”
Brooklyn-based street artist, SWOON is in the midst of launching her third fleet of “junk rafts” — crafted from construction site cast-offs and recycled scraps, these eclectic floats are a cross between a stage-ship and art-raft. These ships are envisioned, by SWOON, as a manifestation of “bits of land broken off and headed to sea.” Her third adventure/site-specific sustainability circus is entitled Swimming Cities of Serenissima and will be comprised of three rafts that will float through the Adriatic Sea from Slovenia to Venice throughout May 2009. Along the way, the crew of the vessels will collect curiosities and trinkets and incorporate them into their floating cabinet of wonders. The final result will be put on display for the public to examine when the fleet reaches its final destination, Venice.
ECO ART: Plastic Bag Light Garden
Is it possible that this is the song of the plastic bag? Plastic’s infamous reputation with the eco-crowd has fueled a creative renaissance that stirs significant introspection into how we have used plastic and how we can use it. Jellyfish. Sculpture. Woven mats. Haute Couture. In early March, art group Luzinterruptus immortalized the plastic bag with an impromtu garden of light. The installation, called “A Cloud of Bags Visit the Prado” occupied the area near The Prado Museum in Madrid for a period of about 4 hours. It included 80 such recycled baggies, which inflated with the aid of the wind.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
