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.
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.
Polar bears, polar bears. Those ubiquitous symbols of climate change. Cute and cuddly, ethereal and majestic, they’re popping up everywhere – including atop subway grates on the streets of New York City. Artist Joshua Allen Harris has created quite an online buzz with his puppy-like inflatable plastic bag polar bear: it inflates and deflates with the passing of subterranean subway trains, springing to life and then fading away in a vital commentary on global warming. We’ve covered inspired plastic bag art in the past, but never with such an animated aesthetic.
You may have heard of ‘outside art’ before – but how about letting a tree sketch the next picture to adorn your living room wall? British artist Tim Knowles has created an amazing project to create Tree Drawings — images created by pens attached to tree branch tips!
Imagine if R2D2 didn’t project images of Princess Leia, but rather an assessment of local superfund sites. Objectively, it’s nothing like the very adorable R2D2, but the Environmental Risk Assessment Rover (ERAR) by EcoArtTech is proving to be a very useful and devoted robot friend. Solar powered and GPS-oriented, the ERAR analyzes data from its surroundings, including air quality, local traffic accidents, and current terrorist warning levels. The rover breaks its findings down into fourteen unique (and pretty funny) categories, everything from “Plastic Bags” to “Regis and Kelly”, and projects them onto nearby natural surfaces. Just like the Princess Leia projection, right? Okay, not really, nor with the cute little meeps and whistles, but this thought-provoking rover sends a more urgent and critical message.
One of our favorite green public artists, Edina Tokodi, is at it once again with her shape-shifting moss graffiti and urban guerrilla tactics. Tokodi was recently commissioned by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) to encourage Philadelphia’s commuters to ‘Go Green’ with her navigable moss icons and green walls in the Market East Station’s passenger service area, ticketing area, and on the exterior of the station building and Transportation Museum. The initiative is part of SEPTA’s mission to help commuters become more aware of the positive environmental impact of using mass transit regularly.
British-born sculptor Tony Cragg uses color families and a carefully curated collection of flotsam and jetsam in his large-scale installations. Born in Liverpool, Cragg has an amazing collection of pieces made from found materials from household trash to construction refuse. We love the impressionistic charm of his pieces- gorgeous and graphic from far away, intricate and detailed from up close.
If one could pass a magnifying lens over the pixelated realm of mass consumption in contemporary American culture, one might peer into a mind-boggling sea of just how vast our appetite is for consumer goods and household products. How might we then effectively zoom in on the detritus and trash that is cast-aside every day, every hour, and every second of our lives for that matter?
Chris Jordan’s new photographic series, Running the Numbers, An American Self Portrait (2006-2007), puts a very visceral spin on the statistics of waste. The Seattle-native’s large-scale inkjet images depict the sheer volume and heaping mounds of cell phones, phone cards, plastic bottles, paper bags, and circuit boards that now grace our landfills and neighborhood refuse bins.
Something mysterious happened in Jersey City this past Monday night… On this grey and windy evening, while most people were at home watching TV, giant neon lights emerged up in the windows of an abandoned factory, spelling out the sentence: “It is green thinks nature – even in the dark”.
The neon-light public art installation is visible from the surrounding area, from the New Jersey Turnpike, and even from the air for incoming and outbound flights. The goal of the illuminated art piece, sponsored by the Precipice Alliance, is to spark public discussion about global warming, energy conservation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
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