Shattered Debris, Sheer Transformation
Creating domestic environments from found objects, resin, latex, lights, and her unique expressionistic process of shattering and re-forming glass, artist Hu Bing’s site-specific installation “Shattered Debris, Sheer Transformation” is now on display at the Flatiron Prow Art Space on the ground floor of the Flatiron Building.
Postcard from the Farm
We’ve returned to the farm up north where things are in full pre-season swing. Going from first light clean through till near dark. We now have happy piglets, spring chicks and bees!
We Are All Radioactive
We Are All Radioactive, a documentary series, tells the story of one seaside community’s efforts to rebuild in the wake of the 2011 disaster. Motoyoshi, a small town and surf spot about 100 miles from Fukushima, was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, and now it’s unclear how damaging the effects of the Fukushima meltdown could be. We Are [...]
America’s Greenest Cities
In honor of Earth Day—which was founded in 1970 by Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson—the Daily Beast ranked the greenest cities in the U.S. Can you guess who won? A hint: there are lots of surfers there.
The Island President
Jon Shenk’s The Island President is the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives and the survival of his country and everyone in it. As one of the most low-lying countries in the world, a rise of three feet in sea level would submerge the 1200 islands of the Maldives enough to make them [...]
David Thorne & elysian
I recently interviewed artist and cook David Thorne about an event space and occasional restaurant he’s running in Los Angeles: elysian. His background includes farming in Vermont and working with the famed Bread and Puppet Theater, as well as participating in the Whitney Independent Study program and producing very interesting work with his wife Julia Meltzer (among [...]
Surfrider Film Contest
How can you capture something as valuable as water in 3 seconds? Surfrider asked their supporters to do just that in super short films. More than 160 people sent in films from all over the planet (France, South Africa, Australia, Romania…). Surfrider edited the three-second clips together and added music by Zee Avi. See the [...]
Valérie Buess
Swiss-born artist, Valérie Buess, gives old books new life by creating these amazing three-dimensional sculptures that look like sea creatures.
NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record
The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000. NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface [...]
Flotsam & Jetsam
Pam Longobardi creates art with plastic objects collected on beaches. Her work reveals just how big our oceans’ plastic problem has become.
Origami Whales Project
Since 2004, the Origami Whales Project (OWP) founded by Peggy Oki, has worked to raise awareness concerning threats to cetaceans (dolphins and whales) through its “Curtain of 36,000 Origami Whales.” Created by thousands of concerned citizens across the globe and exhibited throughout the world, this large-scale public art project serves as a powerful visual statement [...]
21st-Century Cruising
Looking for an adventure? Consider a spot aboard a 72-foot steel-hulled sloop called the Sea Dragon for their cruise to an ocean garbage patch happening this May. Sponsored by Algalita Marine Research Foundation, 5 Gyres Institute and Pangaea Explorations, LLC, paying guests ($13,500 per person) can join scientists and educators to sail through the projected debris [...]
Tipping Barrels
Follow surfers Arran and Reid Jackson on a trip into the Great Bear Rainforest on the Pacific coast of Canada, one of few untouched forests of the world and an area threatened by the oil industry. Learn more at pacificwild.org
Latest Work by Jason deCaires Taylor
Time Bomb depicts a collection of bombs and mines designed to support marine life whilst symbolizing the critical future of our reef systems and the countdown of time we have to reverse the increasing worldwide decline. The works also portray the irony of weapons of destruction being used to support and nurture life. The various [...]
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
It’s pretty easy to disconnect from the impact our plastic habit has on the environment. But when you find yourself swimming in floating bits of garbage (as I did last summer in Far Rockaway), or you see an image like the one above, the impact is immediate and unavoidable. To learn more and bring awareness [...]
Bigert & Bergström, The Last Calendar
The perfect gift for your favorite prophet! From Cabinet: When the current cycle of the Maya Long Count calendar concludes on 21 December 2012, the world will end. Of course, this is hardly the first time the planet’s demise has been prophesied. And so Cabinet offers you, doomed reader, a guide to the brief time that remains. [...]
Free, Beautiful, Biodegradable Toys!
As part of my quest to incorporate more DIY, reused or found toys into my children’s lives, we’ve made it a point to show up at the beach without pails, shovels, etc and then see what we can find. My kids often find their own treasures, but sometimes (especially early on) I have found it’s [...]
Postcard from the Farm
Lemongrass is one of my favorite herbs, well grasses I should say. It grows prolifically wherever we seem to plant it (on the farm in Garza, Costa Rica). Two great culinary applications are pictured above and you can check out the growing process below.
VOWEL HOUSE
In 1955, the letter A was used as the form for a structure by the architect Andrew Geller for the Reese House, a beach residence in Long Island, New York. The New York Times published the house on May 5, 1957. Following the publication of the house, the form went viral across the globe. Today, [...]
New Windowfarms!
Creating your own Windowfarm is about to get a whole lot easier. Last week, the cool Brooklyn-based organization that creates vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, high-yield edible indoor window gardens, succeeded in meeting their Kickstarter goal. Now they will be able to manufacture new Windowfarm systems that look great and are easier to use. The new [...]
Materials for the Arts
Materials for the Arts (MFTA) is an incredible collaboration between the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Sanitation in NYC. It was founded in 1978 to gather materials from companies and individuals who no longer need them and makes them available for free to NYC’s arts and cultural organizations, public schools and community [...]
Urban Bee Keeping
Bees make the world go round! Now with this very well designed concept, you can have your very own bee hive at home. Honey bees are a very important part of our ecosystem, but for the past few years their colonies have been in a decline leading to drastically reduced bee population. Strangely, bees seem [...]
Biking Down Broadway!
Many of you visiting or living in NY may have noticed a huge increase in bike lanes throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn. The move to make biking a viable alternative method of transport is going to get even better with the addition of a bicycle share program. The program, modeled after similar systems in Europe and other [...]
Earth Time Lapse
Here’s an incredible time lapse made from photographs taken by the crew onboard the International Space Station (ISS) from August to October 2011. Shot from an altitude of around 350 km the earth looks like one big living organism and really puts human civilization in perspective. The video was edited together by Michael König.
