aPlaceForAllTheJunkiFancy

Kusho by Shinichi Maruyama

irisfong — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:47:28 +0000

Poetic water sculptures and photography by Shinichi Maruyama. The photographs of water stills emulate that of Japanese calligraphy skillful gestures- strong and swift yet the elegance and silence is powerful. Yea, sounds like i’m describing a ninja.

http://www.shinichimaruyama.com/

Bioluminescence

irisfong — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:45:28 +0000

A few days ago in Blackout seminar, Geoff expressed his obsession on bioluminescence as that was also the topic discussed for class. Speaking in fantastical terms, our power grid has temporarily failed us, but perhaps we can harness nature’s natural luminescence to light our way. We can design paths designated for fireflies and we shall follow the line of their light, or travel by water as the waves made from our oars will stimulate the glowing algae. It’s always fun to think “what if our world looked like this?” In the case of bioluminescence, what if our world could look like Pandora? (admit it, you too fell in love with Avatar’s glow in the dark CG)

Photographer Phil Hart managed to capture some amazing shots from Gippsland Lakes in Australia where bioluminescence and the night sky light the way. Yea yea.. technology’s amazing.. but so’s freekin mother nature!

http://www.philhart.com/gallery/Astrophotography/Phenomena/

check out these amazing night sky time lapses as well. It’s like a planetarium on your monitor screen.

http://www.philhart.com/content/stars-motion

Tourists and colder US winter

irisfong — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:48:59 +0000

Here’s a post I read up on Treehugger about Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull (yea good luck pronouncing that)

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/iceland-volcano-eruption-brings-tourists-colder-us-winter.php

Interesting chain reactions of a volcanic eruption- One would think people would avoid the volcanic debris, but rather they go towards it like a bunch of moths to a light. Disaster provokes tourism.

Cooling may be good, but what if… it stimulates some bizarre weather pattern no one accounted for? Nonetheless I still love the idea of cleaning up results of a climate crisis with another form of climate disaster.

Here’s another link’s about provoking volcanic eruptions, part of Geoengineering. Fascinating ideas, and interesting approaches to solving the climate crisis, but seriously, will it actually work?

Geoengineering, the effective, the risky, the useless outlined new paper

Seedbom- A Guerrilla Gardening Movement

irisfong — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:43:55 +0000

“SEEDBOMs are friendly bombs that contain everything you need to grow flowers virtually anywhere! Tools for eco-warriors and guerrilla gardeners in the war against neglected neighbourhoods and wearywasteland. Join forces with nature!”

http://www.kabloom.co.uk/

Earth Hour

irisfong — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:08:38 +0000

little late on this too…

May I present to you, a few photographs during Earth Hour, Saturday March 27th 2010, where landmarks of their world participate in climate change and environmental awareness by turning off their lights for an hour starting at 8 30 pm

click the link.. the javascript enables and ‘on and off switch’ effect between the two photos

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/03/earth_hour_2010.html

Water Please

irisfong — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:21:56 +0000

sorry.. a little late on this..

“Today, March 22nd, is recognized by the United Nations Water Group as “World Water Day”, this year’s theme being “Clean Water for a Healthy World”. Although we live on a water-covered planet, only 1% of the world’s water is available for human use, the rest locked away in oceans, ice, and the atmosphere.”

National Geographic was kind enough to shared some of their April-issue photos

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/03/water.html

Door lock

irisfong — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:38:57 +0000

If you live in Brooklyn and you want to feel safe, get one of these!

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/defendius/

Sleep Box Mini Hotels

irisfong — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:54:36 +0000

In the spirit of space-saving strategies in New York-living and Tokyo hostel-booking, CoolHunter did a post on the Yotel pods in airports followed by a few more examples of hotels such as Citizen M and Qbic in Amsterdam. Love it- High design in simplicity.

http://thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1699/sleep-box–mini-hotels

Paul Octavious: Same Hill Different Day

irisfong — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:10:40 +0000

Great photo series by Paul Octavious. Same location, but the seasons and events make it a different place.

“For the past 2 years I have visited a beautiful mound of earth that I have come to call “the hill.” Each time I have come to the hill a new story is told to me as if the hill is my stage and the locals are the actors in this daily play.” -paul

http://www.pauloctavious.com/hill/

Shanghai 2010: Almost Ready

irisfong — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:00:11 +0000

SOOO EXCITED. Finally, we booked our Shanghai hostel last night. All that’s left to do is to get our visas, and finish thesis.. and graduate… but anyways…
these photos look just like their renderings. amazing.

http://www.archdaily.com/53163/shanghai-2010-almost-ready/#more-53163