The Trap is a kaleidoscopic BBC documentary by Adam Curtis that examines the perilously flawed evolution of social theory underpinning Western foreign policy since the 1950’s. Curtis’ amazing use of archival footage– reminiscent of Robert Rauschenberg’s combine paintings– blend with carefully organized narrative and interviews with key players to make highly instructive viewing. The 3-hour journey moves through game theory, nuclear deterrence, market incentivization, R.D. Laing’s theories of family repression and on to genetic determinism, meritocracy, Prozac and finally neo-conservative interpretations of positive and negative liberty.

The program makes a compelling case that these flawed theories have been consistently embraced by both liberal and conservative ideologies and stand in the way of moving beyond our current state of peril.

The Trap - Part 1 Fuck You Buddy Part 2 The Lonely Robot Part 3 We Will Force You To Be Free

Have you recently strolled along the waterfront of the East River, right next to the Brooklyn Bridge and wondered about the strange red cloud hovering over the East River?

Well, the River Glow is not simply some kind of new, hip river art installation, but an indicator of the state of the river’s health. Designed by NYC architects The Living and Eric Forman, the team was interested in combining interactive technology and architecture to create objects that are aware and responsive to their environment. A solar powered pH sensor tests the acid level of the river and switches the light from green to red if the Co2 level rises. The project visually informs the New York public of the quality of their water, inviting them to become conscious of their everyday life surroundings.

Is there a better way to start the week than starting it with a bit of complaining? I wish not to focus here on its often-associated negative effects, but to look at complaining as a fundamental human right. That’s exactly what Finish artist Tellervo Kalleinen thought a few years ago when she was taking a walk on a harsh and cold Helsinki winter day. Reflecting on the possibility of transforming the energy spent on complaining into something else, she came up with the idea of establishing Complaint Choirs. The project can be organized in any city of the world, but started in Birmingham (“the arsehole of England”, say some), its result to be watched in this video. The idea is to collect complaints, find a composer who transforms them into a simple song, establish a choir and go out to perform it. The effect is heartwarming and liberating, an instant hit! After Birmingham, many other cities in the world followed, most recently Chicago. It is pretty easy to start one yourself, I’d say: go for it!

Here for the project website.
Here for instructions to start one of your own.

The spirit of Michel Foucault is haunting many contemporary art exhibitions nowadays; you might remember my Bio-Power post from a while ago during my visit to Bratislava. It says –as always– probably more about these unsettling times than about the trendy mindset of hip curators and cultural activists. Foucault’s thinking is a great vehicle for reflections on justice, societal constructions, surveillance, power relations, body politics, and activism; which makes his legacy enduring.

Just consider a new show at LACE, just space(s), which is reminiscent of Foucault’s famous unfinished text Of Other Spaces. The exhibition reclaims so-called dysfunctional spaces –including streets, parks, prisons, borders, and pipelines– as spaces that matter. Through a compelling display of artistic, activist, and scholarly works, it offers insights into how spatial consciousness can advance the pursuit of social justice.

just space(s) expands its activities to symposia, a library/infoshop, and a mobile community resource, while going into themes such as (Im)mobility - Prisons and the Prison Industrial Complex; Borders, Labor, and Migration; Economic Justice and the Right to the City; Environmental Justice and Public Health; Racialization of Space and Spatialization of Race; and Land - Indigenous Epistemologies, Land Claims and Treaty Rights.

If you can’t make it to LA, the website is a must: here.

Image: Million Dollar Blocks, Spatial Information Design Lab

One of the many great features on TreeHugger is their weekly “Ask an EcoGeek” advice column. The “EcoGeek” offers very clear, sound, balanced advice of environmental, energy, and tech questions. This week’s column:

Dear EcoGeek,

My parents are always bugging me about computer usage and how the computers are sucking up energy. I want to know what I can do so that my computer doesn’t waste so much energy? I totally wanna go green and save the Earth from Global Warming!

- Lukas

Hey Lukas,

You probably won’t be surprised to discover that I spend quite a bit of time thinking about this very question. First, you should let your parents to know that your computer, with all of it’s amazing opportunities for educational, economic and social advancement likely uses less power than the light bulbs in that share the room with it.

Most desktop computers use between 100 to 150 watts. Now, this goes way up if you’ve got some kind of monster high-end gaming system, but 100 watts is a pretty good energy investment for what these glorious machines give us…in my opinion anyhow.

But that doesn’t mean that they’re aren’t steps you can take to decrease your computer’s power usage…

Here for the rest of the answer.

Regine, of We Make Money Not Art, has an interview with Alice Miceli of the Chernobyl Project, an art project about the “dead zone” of the Chernobyl nuclear site. Miceli is actually developing a technology that will use the gamma ray contamination of the site itself to record images of the “Exclusion zone,” making the deadly contaminants there visible by way of the art produced.

Here to read the interview.

Earth2Tech is a new weblog recently launched by Web and tech industry writer/blogger Om Malik, as part of his growing blog network. The new site will cover tech firms that are trying to clean up their act and developments in greener technologies hitting the market or being R&D’d. Or as their About Us puts it:

Earth2Tech is a publication devoted to intersection between the tech industry, their eco-moves and the next generation of tech innovation that will combat climate change. We’ll scour university labs for the next clean tech leaders, keep a close eye on tech giants green campaigns, and we’ll pull together resources for those green-minded entrepreneurs out there.

Here to check out the site.

TreeHugger:

Walking matters. “A walkable community promotes better health, reduction in greenhouse gases, more transportation options, increased social capital and stronger local businesses.” Treehugger has noted before that suburbs make you fat because it’s hard to walk anywhere. Or, as St. Augustine noted, “Solvitur Ambulando.” So how walkable is it where you live? Find out with Walk Score, which “uses a patent-pending algorithm to calculate the walkability of an address based on:
* The distance to walkable locations near an address.
* Calculating a score for each of these locations.
* Combining these scores into one easy to read Walk Score.”

 Here to read the rest.

It has been said that our current war is creating a generation of unwitting cyborgs, soldiers (and civilians) who survive injuries that would likely have killed them in previous wars. This is leaving thousands of people with missing or badly damaged limbs, with brain injuries, and other significant wounds which our advanced medical sciences and technologies are quickly trying to repair (at least for those lucky enough to have their benefits kept intact, who live close enough to a VA-approved hospital, etc.).

Paddy Hartley’s art looks at another war where modern medical science quickly advanced in an effort to heal the wounds inflicted by the modern machinery of death. WWI, the first “modern” war, saw horrific disfigurement of solders, thanks to advances in weapons such as the machine gun. The surgical art of facial reconstruction came into its own during and after this war. Strangely enough, Hartley’s work, calling attention to both the horrors of the warfare that created such human disfigurement and the medical innovations that arose to repair it, caught the attention of scientists working on today’s reconstructive technologies. Hartley contributed his skills in casting and mold-making to improve techniques for making glass facial implants.

Paddy Hartley’s latest piece in his ongoing exploration of the reconstructive surgery of war is called Project Facade. In it, he examines the stories of the WWI soldiers who underwent facial reconstructive surgery and the impact it had on their lives. He does this through creating replicas of their uniforms, amended with text, photos, drawings and other artifacts that help tell their stories.

Here for an excellent interview with Hartley on we make money not art.
Here to the Project Facade website.

We’re surrounded by objects that create noise as a by-product of their function, affecting our health and quality of life.

What if sound became a criterion for design? What would be the effects it could have on the look, feel, texture and overall experience of an object?

Lise´s handfelted domestic appliances are audibly, but also visually, silenced. The fabric absorbs most of the sound coming from the motors…

From we make money not art

Here for Lise Lefebvre’s website.
Here for The Aesthetics of Sound project page.