Re-use 2008

By Antonio Scarponi, taken from the Conceptual Devices weblog:
Here is the new, free RE-USE Do it Yourself Agenda for 2008. For more informations about RE-USE, here.

RE-USE is an ADA device (Analogical Data Accumulator) that re-uses the back of discarded photocopies or of any computer-printed document, promoting an individual behavior with an eye to the sustainability of everyday life. Follow the Re-use instructions, download Re-use files and print out your diary, the notebook and address book on the blank side of any standard-sized printed paper. You can then bind your Re-use simply with the help of a hole-punch and metal rings. RE-USE is a flexible system offering a wide range of independent inserts, all of which are available in different standard sizes: diary, notebook, pockets, address book, colorful address cards, CD holder. Makes any combination you need, and you can bind it within the original designed covers made of recycled leather. RE-USE is made of ecological materials: recycled leather for the cover and a special post-consumer processed paper called ‘cartapaglia’ for the inserts.

Flabbergasted by numbers

My friend Johan tipped me for the work of Chris Jordan whose photographs visualise in clear and very understandable terms the average waste production in the USA. The picture above zooms in gradually on a photograph, which depicts two million plastic bottles, the number used in the USA every five minutes.

Don’t you think these pictures would do great as wallpaper though? I could probably cover my living room with the amount of cell phones retired every 2 seconds in the USA, my bath room with the amount of plastic bottles thrown away every 0,0001 seconds and my kitchen with the amount plastic bags handed out every 0,000001 seconds in the USA. Weird! (and quite sad of course)

Today seems to be all about numbers anyway, I found a link to this beautiful website on the weblog of Another Company. Here I’ve learned how long it takes to travel from side of the Milky Way galaxy to the other: at the speed of light (around 10 million km an hour) it will take around 100 million years! I mean, what the..?!

And last but not least, I stumbled across an old book (written somewhere in the 80s by Jeremy Rifkin) about how computers would change the world and found the following quote:

…Imagine two computer engaging in a discussion during a certain period of time. After a while, a human being asks them what they are talking about, and during the time it takes him to ask this question, the computer have exchanged more words than the total amount of words that mankind has uttered since the day Homo Sapiens appeared on earth, around two or three million years ago…

I think I need a coffee now…

Learning Group / Sustainable Art

I like about everything there is to like about Learning Group: their intentions, their way of collaborating, the issues they deal with and their methods and strategies.

Learning Group is an art group that is comprised of three other art groups (N55 (check out their Land project), Temporary Services and Tercerunquinto; all equally great) and as such they are collaboration to the power of three. They deal with issues such as sustainability, re-use of waste and self-empowerement.
I particularly have a crush on the the project ‘Collecting system’ (pictures above and below) which was carried out during an artists’ residency in Moriya, Japan. After studying the city (what materials and human resources are leftover or unused; what conditions people are living in etc) they decided to work with leftover cardboard. It was used to produce an outdoor cardboard dwelling (picture below) and the construction of a ‘Walking city’ (reminding me of course of the famous walking city project by Archigrams‘ Ron Herron) during a workshop at an elementary school (picture above).

The feeling of playfulness on the one hand, and the seriousness and relevance on the other is what makes the project unique. A great combination of intellectual content and joy and improvisation!