process shots

moss graffiti recipe

from environmental graffiti:

Originally created by horticulturists keen to add interest to their garden designs, this recipe for moss can be used as an environmentally-friendly alternative to spray paint.

RECIPE

You will need a blender to make the mixture and if you plan to grow your moss outdoors you will also need a seed tray filled with compost.

• Several clumps of moss
• 1 pot of natural yoghurt or 12oz buttermilk (experiment to see which works best)
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• Plastic pot (with a lid)
• Paint brush
• Spray-mister

Seemingly, getting the recipe to work can be quite difficult, the location and weather conditions need to be spot on. Moss thrives best in damp areas so if you have to grow it indoors make sure you spray it with water frequently. As soon as it starts to grow, transplant it in your chosen location and watch your graffiti art spread.

brincos

Judi Werthein's "crossing trainers" come packaged with a compass, tylenol, map and flashlight and were distributed to people in Tijuana (also sold in a high-end boutique for $250), where many jump the border lines into San Diego. Werthein has spoken out against claims that she is aiding and abetting illegal immigration, stating she is rather sparking discussion on the issue.

disconnect visual research

roadsworth

palas por pistolas

Artist Pedro Reyes melts down the guns of Mexican city Culliacan and uses the scrap metal into gardening tools as an anti-violence campaign:

Carolee Thea: How did Palas Por Pistolas come about?

Pedro Reyes: I was invited to do Palas Por Pistolas for the botanical garden in Culiacán, a city in western Mexico with the highest number of gun deaths in the country. The gardens are beautiful and bucolic, considered the best collection of tropical plants in the Americas, but outside the walls, violence prevails. My project tried to bridge the two worlds. My initial step was to organize a campaign in cooperation with the city government—collecting weapons and melting the metal into shovels that would later be used to plant trees in the city and beyond. It’s like a transmutation of metal motivated by the social design embedded in the process of removing the weapons from circulation—like agents of death turned into agents of life. I want to believe that by taking 1,500 arms out of circulation we might save a few lives, but the real purpose of the piece is to add a story to the world, so in other cities they will say, “In Culiacán, they did that. ”

ny times: google cars

smarter than you think

Google's self-driving cars have faster reaction time than humans, 360-degree perception and do not get distracted/intoxicated/tired. Reduced number of accidents (= lives saved)? Great. Yet another thing we've outsourced to technology? Not so great. Obviously this is an incredibly exciting advancement, but where do we as a people draw the line? What about public transit or carpooling? Both of those also lower accident rates through reducing the number of drivers on the road with the added bonus of reducing auto exhaust. In my opinion, the last thing we need is another means of writing ourselves further out of reality.

creative caffeining

Illustrator samples for next Hatch meeting:

brianna's hummingbird

collectives contd

• The 62 (www.the62.org) is an art and design collective in Brooklyn, New York
• Red Sun Press (www.redsunpress.com) is a collectively owned and operated union printshop in Massachusetts
• Eggplant Active Media Workers’ Collective (www.eggplant.coop) specializes in non-profit web design with two teams located in Vermont

a word on design collectives

from backspace.com:

Collectives, also known as “co-operatives,” “cooperatives” or “co-ops” are groups of individuals who join together to undertake an activity for their mutual benefit. Co-ops may be for-profit or not-for-profit, unionized or not, and legally incorporated or not — what’s different about a co-op is that it’s owned and operated by its members.

You may be familiar with a neighborhood food co-op or credit union. These are consumer co-ops which pool resources to offer discounted services to their members.

Graphic design collectives are “producer co-ops,” owned and operated by their employees. This is quite different from a firm with an employee stock ownership program. Co-op workers share in decision making and responsibility, as well as profits and losses.

Why form a cooperative? One argument is that organizations owned by the communities they serve are more accountable, and can emphasize service over profit. When employees govern their own workplace, they can design a happier, stable and more equitable work environment.

But there’s also the value of organizing according to one’s ideals. Though we are supposedly living in a democracy, most of us spend our days working for private tyrannies. Living and participating in a democracy should consist of more than just voting once a year. We should be able to participate in the decisions that affect our lives.

One member of a cooking collective sums it up: “We’ve tried not only to feed people well, but also to treat people well. Over the last 30 years our company has come to represent something bigger than we ever anticipated, and something better than the usual business.”

connect

wheat gum-pasted exercise in nyc

project II - disconnect collab