Homesense: Every Home has a Story to Tell #geekgirl

Homesense is an open research project collaboration between Tinker London and EDF R&D. Bringing open collaboration methods of online communities to physical infrastructures in the home selected households will create their own smart homes and live with the technologies that they have developed themselves without any prior technical expertise.

Source: Interactive Architecture

Crap at My Parents House #fun #geekgirl

Crap at My Parents House

The goal of Crap At My Parents House is to pay homage to all of the weird crap that everyone’s parents have. Please help in this project by submitting anything you deem funny, weird, odd, unique, strange, absurd, ridiculous or just plain terrifying.

http://crapatmyparentshouse.com/

HiGH ViZ Vogue – Bike #Fashion Jam #Melbourne #bicycles

DIY cycling gear workshop to keep the cops and the fashion police happy

11:00 – 13:00
Saturday 19 June 2010
Coburg Library
Cnr Victoria & Louisa Streets, Coburg

Craft Cartel, alarmed by sights of fluoro lycra clad cyclists and equally aghast at the thought of coming a cropper while partaking in our favourite form of transport, are proud to present a solution: High Viz Vogue, a DIY bike fashion workshop.

This event, part of the Moreland City Council Coburg Carnivale, invites members of the public to adapt helmets and other clothing bits they’d like to make roadway and catwalk friendly, or to start from scratch using supplied materials. Local designers Miss Viz will be on hand to provide guidance and there will be displays of innovative bike fashion solutions such as designer Ann Maher’s ‘biker bustle’.

The event will culminate in a fashion parade with prizes supplied by Crumpler and will be followed by a celebratory ride through Moreland to parade the new hip gear led by Sugar Spokes all female bike crew.

“We don’t think riders should have to choose between having a sore body and being an eye-sore,” says Cartel co-founder Casey Jenkins, “You can look hot while you’re cycling and still keep yourself safe, we’re going to show you how.”

Free! No experience necessary! All materials supplied. Ace prizes to be won.

Produced by Ann Maher, Rahne Widarsito & Casey Jenkins

Media contact: Casey Jenkins, casey(at)craftcartel(dot)com ph.0439 354 560

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Melbourne Craft Cartel
www.craftcartel.com
for crafty types who don’t dig rose-scented doilies

Snapshot – ‘Darlinghurst Eats Its Young’ – part of the Left Coast Festival

Thursday, May 20, 2010
6:00pm – 8:00pm
SEDITION-the barbershop
275 Victoria St Darlinghurst
Sydney, Australia
View Map

Description

World Naked Bike Ride – Australia

At least 7 Australian towns and cities will participate in the next southern hemisphere leg of the World Naked Bike Ride in March 2010. More cities may be added to the list if volunteers are found to organise the ride in new towns and cities. The official southern hemisphere ride date is Saturday 13 March 2010.

The dates and locations are:

Saturday 13 March 2010: Sydney and Adelaide
Sunday 14 March 2010: Newcastle
Sunday 21 March 2010: Canberra and Melbourne

WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE MELBOURNE 2010
The Union Club Hotel, 3:00pm – 8:00pm

Corner of Gore and Webb Streets FITZROY, Melbourne

http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/wiki/Australia

CitySwitch urban interventions – Exhibit

Event: CitySwitch urban interventions
What: Exhibit
Start Time: Tuesday, February 23 at 5:00pm
End Time: Saturday, February 27 at 8:00pm
Where: Hunter St Mall & Renew HQ 3 Morgan St Newcastle AUSTRALIA

CitySwitch is an international exchange between Japan and Australia, where urban designers, architects and artists workshop ideas over 5 intense days, to collaborate on the creative activation of urban spaces.

23-27 Feb 2010

CitySwitch Lab invites you to downtown Newcastle to collaborate with a team of architects, artists, and designers from across NSW and Japan for the 2nd international workshop on urban revitalisation.

… “We are working on the ground to create four catalytic interventions within downtown Newcastle”

… “Artists, architects, creators, and thinkers of the city are all invited to take part in the workshop”

You can join in on the workshop (each day), come to free lectures (Tues/Weds/Thurs 8pm), or come and view the completed exhibitions/installations/projects (Saturday 27th, from 2pm).

The workshop includes the collaborative design and production of four different urban intervention projects, a series of international lectures, and a range of social events. The workshop culminates in a public show to exhibit, critique and celebrate the works on Saturday the 27th of February.

**International guest creators include: Satoru Yamashiro (Tokyo, Japan), Toshinori Esumi (Izumo, Japan), Jin Hidaka (Japan) and Jun Inokuma (Tokyo, Japan). **

Full details http://cityswitchlab.org/newcastle/index.php

#Melbourne Laneway Commissions for 2010

CALL FOR PUBLIC ART SUBMISSIONS

The City of Melbourne continues its successful annual Laneway Commissions. They are seeking innovative proposals from artists or group of artists which respond to Melbourne’s distinct urban setting.

Deadline: 22 January, 2010

Artists must obtain a project brief.

French stencil artist Blek the Rat in #Melbourne.

French stencil artist Blek the Rat is in town and an exhibition of his work  has opened  at Metro Gallery on High St, Armadale. On display are a dozen of his iconic life size stencils like the famous “The Man who walks through Walls” and many smaller works and prints. Xavier Prou started stenciling after a visit to New York where he was inspired by early forms of graffiti.

Back in Paris he sprayed stencils of rats as an art student in the early 1980s which set off the stencil art in France. Many of the early French artists like Jef Aerosol, Miss Tic and others soon got in trouble with the police under president Jacques Chirac’s hardline approach. The French scene subsequently died, just to have its renaissance almost 20 years later as part of the world-wide stencil art movement. (Melbourne’s stencil artists deserve some credit in being instrumental in getting the movement started.)

Prices for a large work average around $24,000 and in case you can’t afford one you can still buy one of his rats on a tiny cheap canvas for $7500. Blek’s stencil work is simple, rather primitive and badly executed. The materials used of minor quality. But so be it.
Blek the Rat has been hugely influential and is a true pioneer. If you want to find out more about him visit his Blek website and read Amelia Swan’s enlightening article on Artshub.

Earthsharing Australia

Earthsharing Australia is a Georgist organisation that provides free education services on economics. The bounty of the land is best shared amongst the people rather than hoarded by the privileged. Their teachings demonstrate the urgent need for the capture of resource rents for public benefit. With the capturing of this natural wealth, we can reduce wealth gap pressures and curtail the motivation to exploit our resources. This is the big picture reform we need to create the sustainable, walkable communities necessary to survive climate change.

Editor’s note: This is really a pretty busy crew with lots of events and campaigns going on under the guise of it’s Georgist roots. Worth spending some time to read the underlying philosophy of Henry George. Affiliated with Melbourne based outfit Prosper Australia you may think they’re a bunch of neo-marxists; but this would be a decidedly wrong interpretation. Marx saw the Single Tax Georgist platform as a step backwards from the transition to communism.

Earthsharing Film Competition

Entries are now open for Earthsharing Australia’s 2009 film competition entitled “I Want to Live Here: The war on creativity.” Artists and film makers are asked to respond to issues of gentrification and the difficulty creative communities have when rent increases cause them to move onto cheaper suburbs.

Entries close 4 November

For more information visit http://iwanttolivehere.org.au/