Category Archives: art

French Street Artist Wins TED Humanitarian Prize

Posted on October 22, 2010 by

[photo source] Wow. Just, wow. Check out the article…

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Life Inside the Box: Container Cities

Posted on April 1, 2010 by

Invented more than five decades ago, the modern shipping container is the linchpin in our global distribution network of products. In the containers go toys from China, textiles from India, grain from America and cars from Germany. In go electronics, chocolate and cheese.

While a number of resourceful people have converted shipping containers to makeshift shelters at the margin of society for years, architects and green designers are also increasingly turning to the strong, cheap boxes as source building blocks. Shipping containers can be readily modified with a range of creature comforts, and can be connected and stacked to create modular, efficient spaces for a fraction of the cost, labor and resources of more conventional materials. Continue reading →

Posted in architecture, art, human scale, Livability, Local Inspiration, Placemaking, Sustainability, technology, urban design, What if? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Negative Capability Defined: Walking in Mystery—And the Shoes of Others

Posted on February 28, 2010 by

In a letter dated 22 December, 1817, the poet John Keats coined the term “negative capability” and defined it this way:

I had not a dispute but a disquisition with Dilke, on various subjects; several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously – I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.
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Food for Thought: David Byrne (Again)

Posted on February 25, 2010 by

I sense the world might be more dreamlike, metaphorical, and poetic than we currently believe—but just as irrational as sympathetic magic when looked at in a typically scientific way. I wouldn’t be surprised if poetry—poetry in the broadest sense, in the sense of a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes, and designs—is how the world works. The world isn’t logical, it’s a song.
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The Fine Art of the City

Posted on February 24, 2010 by

I spent a while yesterday roaming through the stacks of Google Images’ digital library, and found some art inspired by cities that I thought I’d share. Some of it I love, some I don’t care for, but the thing that struck me most was the aesthetic diversity. It’s nice to see that art hasn’t succumbed to the creeping homogeneity of global monoculture.
Continue reading →

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