Nice Post on NFB's Highrise Out My Window: Thinking Outside The Blocks - Torontoist
nice stills Trevor!
nice stills Trevor!
A very short excerpt from an amazing LONG interview!
By EMILY GERTZ, 22 OCT 04
"From releasing packs of Feral Robot Dogs that sniff out chemical contamination, to teaching Yale engineering students socially responsible design, from creating pollution-detecting Clear Skies Masks for bicycle riders, to co-authoring Biotech Hobbyist Magazine, Natalie Jeremijenko's work merges engineering, biology and art to explore socio-political hot spots along the fault line where design meets information meets society.
As reported in the technogeek press in August, Jeremijenko was one of several artist-engineers developing and deploying protest technology during the Republican National Convention in New York City. She collaborated with activists to devise a number of devices that were both media-savvy and functional, designed to undercut surveillance, create accurate crowd counts, and protect activists--gestures that highlighted the growing technological arsenal being aimed on political speech and action.
I interviewed Jeremijenko for Worldchanging last month, over a vegan takeout dinner in her West Village apartment in New York City. We began by discussing her Republican National Convention protest tech.
Natalie Jeremijenko: The statement I'm going for is about illegitimate use of force, the militarization of the police force around legal political protest.
Can you imagine if they militarized around lobbyists visiting Washington?..."
read the full post
Excerpt:
By Duncan Geere, 06 January 11
"A New York architect named Ju-Hyun Kim has come up with an idea to terrify vertigo sufferers -- a theme park in the shape of a skyscraper.
Traditional theme parks are land-intensive and inefficient, requiring massive car parks and long queues. Kim reckons that a vertical tower would solve those problems as well as enhance the thrills for any participants on the rides. "I imagine a vertically stacked theme park in the middle of the city," Kim says. "When we're tired of the conventional suburban setting of the theme park, we may have to place our theme park in the urban setting. The density of the existing urban conditions will make the theme park a more exciting place. At the same time, the height of the vertically stacked theme park will also help to enhance theme park experiences to the visitors."
The imagined theme park would include an observation deck at the top, with a carousel that makes one complete revolution per hour...."
Excerpt:
"A Swedish architecture firm that came up with a plan to roll buildings through a city on rails has won third prize in a competition to develop the Norwegian city of Åndalsnes.
The company, Jagnafalt Milton, suggested that existing and new railroads could be built to provide the base for buildings that could be positioned differently depending on the seasons and on the weather. It proposed designs for rail-mounted single- and double-birth cabins, along with a two-storey suite. It also imagined lookout towers, kitchens, lifeguard stations, changing rooms, and -- in true Swedish spirit -- a sauna.
The idea, says the agency, was to use the city's railway infrastructure -- left behind from the days when it was an maritime construction town, building oil rigs -- as a basis for its future. Konrad Milton, one of the partners in the company, told Wired.co.uk: "As we see it there are two major benefits. First, it's easier to put buildings on existing train tracks than to demolish the tracks and build regular building foundations. Secondly the city of Åndalsnes has different needs depending on season...."
read the full post on wired.co.uk