Thriving too

London and Paris

Amazing cut-out maps from Famille Summerbelle

Potholes

Painted by Joe Hill and Max Lowry, and commissioned by British Waterways, which maintains over 2000 miles of canals and rivers, to persuade cyclists to slow down on the tow paths.

More pictures here

All Prizes should be like this

Time to Design is a new talent award that is a cooperation between the National Workshops for Arts and Crafts, Normann Copenhagen . The award includes three months residency at The National Workshops for Arts and Crafts with own mini studio as well as access to workshops and guidance. If accommodation is needed; an apartment is available as well. 

Furthermore the winner is granted with career coaching, two weeks exhibition at the Normann Copenhagen Flagship Store in Copenhagen and DKK 50,000, donated by the Danish Ministry of Culture, to cover material costs.

Why can't they have awards like that for social innovators, writers, cooks ... anything?  All this normal funding lark is *yawn*... or *not yawn* of course if you don't have any!  

Unknowns

From Ami Clarke

The Interesting Illustrations of Christiana Couceiro

Christian Couciero produces some really beautiful work.

Radiological

"Note the distribution of fluff and the good natured smile."


Artist Satre Stuelke uses a CT scanner to make beautiful ghostly images of everyday objects.

Completely Fooled

Via: Think More Inc

Publish Your Writing Out Our Window

The Design Office is calling for proposals.

"We would like to put our 24" wide roll printer up to the window and print a message of your choice. Poetry, type play, whatever you think. We at the Office are happy to collaborate with writers who may not have strong opinions on certain design choices." 

Their offices are in Provicence, Rhode Island

Trolleys and Jelly Babies

 

The Halcyon Gallery is holding an exhibition of Mauro Perucchetti's unusual work until the 25th April in Mayfair London. Much of his work focuses on weapons, trolleys, jelly babies (above 'The Cloning Factory'), and religious symbolism, which collectively make an interesting statement, while remaining beautiful, minimal and crisp.

Gooseflesh

Gooseflesh is the home of artist Helle Jorgensen. Interesting and beautiful work.

Blank Canvas

 

Blank Canvas is an ambitious event organised by the students on the BA (hons) Design for Moving Image Design and Graphic Design courses at Ravensbourne College to raise funds for their graduation show.

Rather than the usual cake sale or student union party, they decided to do something a little bit more exciting this year. They will be sending their favourite designers and illustrators packages containing random items (which could be anything from an old teapot, to a skateboard, to a vintage suitcase). They will then be asked to customise these items in any way they see fit. These masterpieces will then be collected and put in a silent auction on the 30th of April at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane.

Great idea!

Song for Sunday

One of the most beautiful videos I have seen for ages

Passive Aggressive Anger Release Machine

‘Passive Aggressive Anger Release Machine’ is an interactive sculpture by Yarisal and Kublitz (they make pretty unusual things). 

"All you have to do is insert a coin, and a piece of China will Slowly move forwards and fall into the bottom of the machine, breaking, and leaving you happy and relieved of anger."

Seriously? Thankfully only a sculpture....

In the bag

I have plastic bags on the brain. Call me paranoid but they seem to be following me this week...

1. A friend randomly emails to tell me 'a good thing': that she re-used a plastic bag rather than be charged 5p for a new one and this means that the world is changing

2. I saw an Arts and Ecology blog post for a photography exhibition of plastic bags by a Chinese artist exploring our fragile global ecology, and have decided to go and see it next week

3. The picture on another post catches my eye and it is made from pieces of plastic bags by Virginia Fleck to transform garbage into beauty

Now we've just got to work on the rest of the packaging...

The 10,000 Project

In the spirit of social experiments, we decided to create "The 10,000 Project". It's quite simple, really. You sign up, we send you a sheet of paper with a word on it, and then you create a visual representation of the word. The catch is that 10,000 other people are doing the same as you. How many different ways will tens of thousands of people interpret the same word?
How it works

• Sign up!
• Receive your project packet in the mail with instructions and your secret word (Shh! Don't tell anyone!)
• Visualize the word and send it back to us
• Tell your friends about the project!

Adverts Schmadverts

Fed up with being bombarded with advertising on websites?

Tired of the consumerist rant of big corps alongside your daily news dose?

Try Add-Art! A free Firefox extension that will replace adverts with curated art images.

In stores now.

Pandoras Box

Pandoras box from Michael Flückiger on Vimeo.

The Face of Age

I love this project, The Face of Age,  so much.... imagine if more projects went out their way like this to respect the lives of elderly people...

"This calendar project was created specifically to raise funds for a Melbourne aged-care facility and, more broadly, to bring to life the stories and lives of some extraordinary individuals."

Signage

Brad Downey explores the impact of all the street signs and signals on our behaviour and encourages a different interpretation of the instructions to reclaim our public spaces.

Exhibition at the Dray Walk Gallery, off Brick Lane, London.

I Little Sprout

Beautiful animation from Eleanor Skeletor Cleverly
The Little Sprout™ from Eleanor Cleverly on Vimeo.

Just Seeds

 Justseeds put together an amazing calendar in collaboration with SEIU:

Produced in partnership with the Service Employees International Union, this calendar features artwork from 12 Justseeds artists accompanying inspiring texts on the topics of universal healthcare and workplace democracy.

Via: Groundswell Collective

Put your foot down!

Can a 300 shoe art installation raise awareness of HIV and AIDS? Well, ActionAid are testing it out in their current campaign Put Your Foot Down, which "highlights the link between violence against women and HIV AIDS in developing countries." As well as an art installation, on International Women's Day (March 8th), ActionAid will deliver 2876 shoes to the UK government, one for each of the women who contract HIV every day.

Via. YCN.

Affluenza, the exhibition!

In collaboration with the Samaritans, talented photographer Hege Sæbjørnsen is organising 'Affluenza'... THE exhibition. With an aim to promote "creative self-expression as a powerful tool to develop an understanding of ourselves and the world around us", an exhibition of works from over thirty international multidisciplinary visual and performing artists, "...aims to inspire an open debate about the destructive impact of consumer values on our emotional well-being and our integrity as human beings." 

The call for artists has been launched, and entries will be selected by a prominent panel of judges, including famed social and political Graphic Designer Jonathan Barnbrook, 'Affluenza' author Oliver James and the UK Design Museum's Michael Czerwinski. 

The deadline for submissions is 30th January 2009 and the events are scheduled to begin in March. For full details about the project visit AffluenzaExhibition.org, oh and of course you can also join the exhibition's group on Facebook! :)

Beautiful New Poster

Randy J. Hunt from Citizen Scholar in New York sent me this gorgeous poster that he designed with Ross Pike.

Thanks so much Randy!  I love it...

Art

 

Via: The wonderful M-C Turgeon (nominated as one of Canada’s Most Influential Women in Social Media!)