I Am Still Alive

Two 12” bass speakers and two 10” mid-bass speakers mounted on rear cabinet. Custom-welded support brackets. Four 6×9” mids speakers up front. 2000 and 1500 watt bass amps and 1000 watt mids amp. DVD player and equalizer on handlebars.

A punching bag and a pair of boxing gloves are the only tools – waiting for the customer to form his or her individual lampshade CASSIUS. The initial form for the customer to beat into shape is a cylinder. Sensors in the inside of the punching bag transmit the punches to the computer, which morph the cylinder according to the positions of the blows. Each punch changes the shape of the object. The vision in the mind of the customer comes to life through physical power.

My book of 30 simplified idioms, proverbs, phrases and quotes.

I find it interesting that we are able to understand a message or meaning from a phrase that should not be taken literally.

Reducing these idioms to three simple nouns doesn’t remove our ability to understand the meaning connected to these words.

I’ve spent some time this afternoon appreciating all the good sign painting over on Jeff Canham’s website.

From Blanka’s set of posters by JMB

They are green trash bags on a green halo of steel attached to a post or freestanding. They are not bins. Nor are they trash cans. I guess I’ll call them trash rings.

I was in Paris the week before the U.S. launched the Iraq War. I found myself aware of these receptacles placed throughout the city. Their shape and the fact that they did a surprisingly poor job of actually keeping the city clean struck me immediately. The trash rings’ design is largely a society’s reaction to the threat of terrorism.

So as a given, these perform their container functions poorly. The bags tear, they overflow, they spill, they keep our refuse constantly visible. They do, however, do their part to minimize the ease with which a person could discretely place a bomb in a public place. And if a person did place a bomb in one of these containers, the bags’ transparency makes it more likely that the bomb might be discovered in time to avert a disaster. The lack of real structure would make reaching the bomb to defuse or contain it somewhat less complicated. Or if, the bomb was not discovered in time to disarm or at least clear the area, the relative lack of metal structural elements would minimize the shrapnel sent about after an explosion.

In this trash ring you find an important trade-off between functions. The public refuse container evolved out of necessity to organize and conceal the things we discard – to keep them out of sight and out of mind as soon as possible. The trash container must now also protect people from a threat as both immaterial and real as these trash rings themselves. In terms of designing for function, the latter purpose is opposed to the former. So we get trash cans that contain and hide our trash poorly as they have to assume a part in a public’s defense against terrorism.

Although you can’t tell from the photographs above, the bags have the words “vigilance” and “propreté” printed on them – placing vigilance before cleanliness (the similarity between “propreté” and “property” is interesting if nothing else).

Gosh, 2003 feels like so long ago. I am not sure that these are still in use in Paris today. Somebody, holler at me and let me know.

Interesting installation view of the main exhibition hall at the 23rd biennial of graphic design in Brno, Czech Republic. Books on chairs, I like it.

Barack Obama is the first major candidate to decline participation in the public financing system for presidential campaigns. He’s found a more effective way to raise money — by leveraging the power of the American people through online Social Networks.

The Pot-in-Pot system consists of two pots, a smaller earthenware pot nestled within another pot, with the space in between filled with sand and water. When that water evaporates, it pulls heat from the interior of the smaller pot, in which vegetables and fruits can be kept. In rural Nigeria, many farmers lack transportation, water, and electricity, but one of their biggest problems is the inability to preserve their crops. With the Pot-in-Pot, tomatoes last for twenty-one days, rather than two or three days without this technology. Fresher produce can be sold at the market, generating more income for the farmers.