Besoin de nature en ville ? Voici une proposition certes pas forcément pratique mais qui a l’avantage de faire sourire !
The Grass Wheel was created by a group of students from the Dalhousie School of Architecture and is a humorous look at the real need for green spaces in urban environments. With the Grass Wheel you can take green space with you wherever you travel.
Although the Grass Wheel may not be that practical, but the premise is based on sound science. Numerous studies have demonstrated that green space promotes feelings of well-being, safety, calm and has even been shown to aid in recovery from illness and/or medical conditions. Researchers at the University of Sheffield found that contact with green spaces has measurable physical and psychological benefits.
I’m not sure when or why people started thinking of ‘culture’ as a product, not a conversation.
« Hey Jude» is not ‘culture’ on its own. It’s culture because when I sing « na, na, na-na-na na…» you know right away what to sing next. It’s a shared experience between all of us.
it’s not about shiny plastic disks, carved stone, or colourful mud on canvas, it’s about how we relate to each other, what we share, what we have in common.
A culture where one side owns everything and the other side is forbidden from engaging with it is not a culture worth having.
Katie Sokoler est une photographe freelance qui vit à Brookly. Elle déborde d’inventivité et ses oeuvres sont toujours positives et touchantes… A découvrir !
Super jolie vidéo de présentation de chez Babelgum :
Roadsworth est un peintre de Montréal. Son canevas : les rues, les trottoirs et le mobilier urbain. L’art de Roadsworth est controversé, aimé, détesté, mais ne laisse jamais indifférent. Et vous, qu’en pensez-vous ?
Roadsworth began painting the streets of Montreal in the fall of 2001. Initially motivated by a desire for more bike paths in the city and a questioning of « car culture» in general, he continued to develop a language around street markings and other elements of the urban landscape using a primarily stencil based technique. In the fall of 2004, Roadsworth was arrested for his nocturnal activities and charged with 53 counts of mischief. Despite the threat of heavy fines and a criminal record he received a relatively lenient sentence which he attributes in part to the public support he received subsequent to his arrest. Since that time, Roadsworth has received various commissions for his work and continues to be active in both visual art and music.
What began as a form of activism rooted in a desire for more bike paths and justified by the rationale outlined above eventually grew into an art project that, to a certain extent, continues today. Fuelled by a sense of righteous indignation I also felt empowered by the expressive and creative outlet that street art afforded me. Instead of feeling like a helpless passenger on a train headed for disaster I felt that I had created a voice for myself amid the noise of the city.
Un documentaire sur Roadworth est sorti en 2009 et tourne en ce moment en Amérique du nord. Bande annonce :
Roadsworth: Crossing the Line
Francine Lord, Public Art Commissioner (à lire à haute voix avec l’accent québécois) :
A mon sens, c’est la première fois que les gens de la rue, le public, des gens ordinaires, s’adressent aux autorités municipales pour soutenir une oeuvre et un artiste. C’est pas rien ça !
Grâce à la pulvérisation par avion de iode d’argent dans des nuages en approche, l’entreprise de location de voitures Sixt a maintenu un ciel parfaitement bleu au-dessus de la ville de Halle en Allemagne. Cette ville tient normalement le record européen de jours pluvieux par an (266)…
Dans quel but ? Pour faire la promotion de sa location de voitures décapotables.
Est-ce aller trop loin ? Qu’en pensez-vous ?
Sixt “Blow the clouds away”
Driving a convertible in Halle (Salle) – at first glance this doesn’t appear particularly spectacular, but in reality it’s a small miracle. For Halle is statistically the rain capital of Europe, with 266 rainy days per year (2004). Sixt and advertising agency Jung von Matt/Elbe were evidently unwilling to accept this cold, wet situation, so they enlisted the help of former NVA fighter pilot Sandro Wolf who used the chemical silver iodide to “blow Halle’s clouds away”. This extraordinary feat can be witnessed in the film “Sun in Halle”, which is currently being exclusively screened at sixt.de. The film reveals the secrets of the pin-prick tactic, which Sandro Wolf uses to successfully combat rain and storm clouds. It also shows disturbingly beautiful images of a completely cloud-free Halle, as well as the city’s proud inhabitants enjoying the sun – in an affordable convertible from Sixt, of course.
« Anthropologists and socio-economists have spent decades examining the principle of people responding to a positive action with another positive action, commonly referred to as “direct reciprocity.”»
De nouvelles expériences d’espaces d’échange entre inconnus sont en cours… avec succès.
Des squats genevois proposaient de telles espaces de partage, fonctionnant à ma connaissance plus dans une direction : mise à disposition par les habitants de l’immeuble/maison d’objets, vêtements inutilisés et qui pourraient être utiles à autrui. Ici, il s’agit d’échange pur entre étrangers.
Voici donc deux exemples simples et ingénieux de détournement de mobilier urbain vers un usage communautaire : une boîte à journaux et une cabine téléphonique… très british.
Stranger Exchange :
… Both artists have long been fascinated by open systems built on the philosophy of “Have a Penny, leave a Penny. Need a Penny, take a Penny,” such as Wikipedia and Craigslist, or The Free Shop in New York City. As with the Wicker Park boxes, they would try to create a dialogue between strangers and exchangers. But there would be two key differences from the boxes Chris had originally seen in Chicago: they would “broaden the scope of what could be dropped” and they would build a simple online “guest book” so that people could share messages about things left and received.
… they found an abandoned newspaper box, and with their friend Samantha repurposed it as the first local « drop box.» They wanted the box to stand out enough to be noticed—but they didn’t want it seem at all “kitschy” or “contrived.” It was also critical that it feel anonymous, so that the community would immediately see the box as “theirs” and not as the possession of whomever put it there.
… They placed the Stranger Exchange box in Central Square during the late evening of October 25, 2009. Since then, either John or Chris tries to visit it every other day to see what has been left and taken. They’ve discovered books like A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, as well as movies, photographs, souvenirs, and even letters.
But what really has surprised the friends the most is the quality—and, in many instances, the effort—that has gone into some of the things that have been deposited. Plus, people are clearly making items specifically, for the box for no other reason than to share.
Grâce à la pulvérisation par avion de iode d’argent dans des nuages en approche, l’entreprise de location de voitures Sixt a maintenu un ciel parfaitement bleu au-dessus de la ville de Halle en Allemagne. Cette ville tient normalement le record européen de jours pluvieux par an (266)…
I’m not sure when or why people started thinking of ‘culture’ as a product, not a conversation.
« Hey Jude» is not ‘culture’ on its own. It’s culture because when I sing « na, na, na-na-na na…» you know right away what to sing next. It’s a shared experience between all of us.
it’s not about shiny plastic disks, carved stone, or colourful mud on canvas, it’s about how we relate to each other, what we share, what we have in common.
A culture where one side owns everything and the other side is forbidden from engaging with it is not a culture worth having.