Solid simple colors from old computer monitors shaped into western symbols and bricked to make entire walls.  Sandy Smith’s salvaged then fixed these computers to work again, or at least to display bright beautiful colors.  Which parallels to her ideal sense of art as stated on her homepage:

“When its sunny outside everything is Art.”

This must of sent the meter spinning.  The average desktop computer uses between 60-250 watts of electricity per hour, start counting and multiply.

The modern religion being fed through tv screens, either through work or with your tv dinner, we are consistently and constantly being fed.  A reminder to go outside today and enjoy the outdoors!

This is one of her first installations as you can see she still has the icons and the OS running.

This would be some beautiful ambient light to have running through a bedroom.  Though you would need your whole roof covered with solar panels to not feel slightly guilty.  An estimated 50 million tons of E-waste is created each year and proving to be a very profitable industry.

+ Sandy Smith

Here are some of the noteworthy green designs found over the weekend.

A colorful chair with the cushion made from ribbons placed on a reclaimed chair @Re-Nest.  DIY full directions here

Tires partially made from orange oil by Yokohama, significantly reduces the need for petroleum materials.  If you are skeptical, these tires won the Popular Mechanics Editor’s Choice Award in 2008. Via Greenopolis

These robots (whose parts move and lights blink), by artist Mario Caicedo Langer, made from junk, remind me of characters in movies, namely Star Wars, Wall-E and Short Circuit in particular.  Via Ecofriend

A power strip that resembles a pyramid, maximizing space.  Via Cool

Nice, sleek mechanically powered LED “candles”.  Via Ecofriend

Charlie Whinney bends “eco-friendly green wood” in curvacious forms in and around Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge, London.  Via GreenMuze

One of the coolest recycled sculptures I’ve seen recently, and strangely enough it closely resembles a friend of mine.  There are many animalistic works displayed at the Recycled Sculptures Show in London, from June 4th, 2009 to April 4th, 2010.  Via Re-Nest

MIT researchers have a set a new project into place to track your trash from your barrel to landfill through the cities of New York and Seattle.  They plan to place tracers that will triangulate their position, “the goal of the project is to reveal inefficiencies in our disposal process.” This could be an affective process of keeping waste and recycling companies accountable with their diversion processes as well as an efficiency check on routes.

Their first test subject, the infamous starbucks coffee cup, goes on a tour of NYC and has a video tracking the cup going through New York, which is highlighted through their blog.  This program is intended to educate the public on the wastes they accumulate everyday and their inefficiencies on the environment.  We do have a recycling loop in place, but how many miles does it take to close that circle?

Back in 2005, National Geographic was talking to these Berkley Scientists about the development of a battery that produces 1.5 volts of electricity by taking two pieces of paper, soaking them in copper chloride sandwiched between plastic and then putting a drop of urine in a slit of the plastic, and voilà, electricity.  An array of applications have been stated–like cell-phone batteries, mp3 players, computers and cars.  This could make an interesting first date when your cell-phone battery indicator is blinking and you decide to go to the bathroom.  But hey, at least if your car runs out of gas at least you can persuade the officer to let you off for peeing in public.  Any other ideas?  Perhaps a little uncivil, but this  new eco-technology definitely brings new etiquette to our social and public lives.

Leave it to the Japanese to come out with the first public application.

Go ahead and do a google search of Nopopo and click on the shopping tab and you can have a flashlight with batteries for $40 or just the batteries alone for $15.  Not a bad deal and a good gift to crack some jokes over and try out at a birthday party.

via National Geographic

Designer  Sang-Kyun Park has developed a way to brighten up your rainy day.  Named “Lightdrops,” the above umbrella lights up as water falls on it. The more it rains, the brighter it becomes.  As  kinetic energy from falling rain comes in contact with the conductive membrane of the umbrella, called the PVDF, it is generated and transferred to LED’s , making light of any dismal day.  Hope for stuttering cloud-bursts to get the techno effect.

Nokia Research Center has unveiled a phone that Nikola Tesla would be proud of.  Absorbing ambient radio waves, used to recharge a mobile phone battery, its current prototype can absorb three to five milliwatts of energy from up to 4.1 miles away. With a long term goal of absorbing fifty milliwatts, Technology Review states that it will take three to five years before the phone will be on the shelves.

Let the visible light in but keep the sunlight out, chic and responsible.  These glasses use a solar dye in the lens, absorbing  harmful sun rays while also letting in visible light.  The absorbed energy can then be transferred to your mobile device.  Let us hope more styles are designed by Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong. Maybe a pair of aviators incorporating wireless electricity with the solar absorption. – Just my style!

Who knew giving out hugs and charging your cell-phone would work so well together? From sipping your coffee to picking up the paper, this new fabric can generate energy from the simplest of movements.  Basically, piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc oxide nanostructures produce small electric charges that are captured and then routed to your favorite mobile devices. Since fabrics are so widely used, other applications such as curtains capturing the wind and bed sheets, for active couples and restless sleepers, are just two out of the wide array of ideas that are out there.

[vimeo 1758266]

Last, but the funnest of them all.  The iYO YOYO, for the iPhone, is the perfect travel companion for night-crawlers, techy tramps, and touring cycle bloggers to supplement those idle moments.  After performing “walk the dog,” followed by “rock the cradle,” electromagnetic induction charges a lithium ion battery, leaving you fully charged and with enough tricks to put on a street show for passers-by and rack up some nickels and dimes for that cup of coffee.

Double use polymer products are sweet and green. Would you put any of these in your ensemble?

via inhabitat
via yankodesign
via georgiatech