Jeremy Mayer narrows in on the human form. Mayer’s pieces are crafted by assembling vintage typewriter pieces to portray anatomically correct human figures.  His latest piece, Nude IV – “Delilah”is a 6 foot tall figure, named both for model Delilah Brown and for the biblical character Delilah from the story of Samson and Delilah.

Press Release:

Sculptor Nemo Gould displays a collection of robotic creatures and small world-scapes crafted from salvaged material.  Forgotten remnants of gadgets, broken tools, and other objects that were formerly cast aside, now have new life with Gould’s interactive installations. Citing inspiration from his love of science fiction and cartoons, Gould’s work playfully evokes child-like sentiments – all the while exploring ideas about sustainability, objectification, and the struggle for definition.

Press Release:

Oakland-based sculptor Benjamin Cowden’s work also utilizes interactive mechanical pieces, focusing on machinery and the interplay between gears and movement.  His hand-cranked machines thoughtfully examine issues of everyday life, including his exhibit titled “A Series of Arbitrary but Passionate Decisions” which examines the dilemma of the unforsee-ability of life.

Suzanne Lee:

We are currently outlining our collaborative research direction which will bring together synthetic biology, chemical engineering and design towards future material applications.

Using green tea and ingenuity from the science department at Imperial College. Suzanne Lee, the lead creative director for biocouture, is transforming science fiction into reality.  If bacteria can produce a textile from something as simple as green tea, then the possibilities for application will have few limitations.

What bacteria clothing concoction would you make?

Mix bacteria with your favorite meal or cocktail to have evening to match, seems a bit strange, but evidentially possible.

These 4 billion year old creatures will seemingly educate us in waste management, with their nifty production skills.

Would you wear something made from bacteria and trash?

+biocouture

When I first showed up at Erik’s studio, we started talking about an installation he was building for a house in Soma.  Upon inspection of how much space and the new environment he had acquired, he was very excited and raved about ”activating the space.”

The summer months will bring a visual transformation to the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Four California artists will enhance the bricks and mortar of our galleries with installations intended as encompassing experiences. Using traditional craft materials of paper, fiber, metal, and wood, this large-scale exhibition will recontextualize these mediums, pushing their limits to new artistic heights. Be prepared to fully engage once you enter our Museum space, and to enjoy a new level of excitement at SFMC+D.

One of our past featured artists Christine Lee (wood) will be exhibiting at SFMCD. Along with Tanya Aguiniga (fiber), Paul Andrew Whayes (paper) and Thomas Hill (metal).

via SFMCD.org

Here are some more facts why tap water is better than bottled:

First, the most obvious reason being that it doesn’t come packaged in a single use container that has a huge carbon footprint compared to tap water, and why pass up the luxury of water delivered directly to your house–everyday–via Tap?

The Environmental Working Group did a study that found some brands of bottled water had hight levels of chlorine above California State Regulations would permit for tap water, which was also reported on the fair and balanced Fox News Network.

Tap water regulations will not allow any form of E. coli or fecal coliform bacteria, while the FDA has no prohibition of these bacteria in bottled water.

Be careful of the snake oil marketing that leads you to think bottled water is healthier, and if it is the taste of tap water that discourages you, take the time you would of used to buy a crate of tap water to buy lemons instead.

via Fox News

If you live in a city like New York where the Leaf Collection Program was canceled due to the lack of city funds, then you may have wondered about various ways to dispose of your bagged instead of sending them out with the regular trash where they end up taking valuable space in the landfill. Depending on the type of trees and the condition of the trees, various areas may experience leaf falling as early as middle to late summer; and with autumn approaching in September, it may be prudent to start planning now on ways to recycle your leaves before that time comes.

In the beginning years of the creation of our community garden in Brooklyn New York, our members established a Leaf Containment Center which was just a space cordoned off with mesh to hold leaves which we intended to collect and save for using in the compost bin as one of the carbon sources, an important component in compost which provides energy to the microbes and worms breaking down the organic waste. The block where our Community Garden is located is full of mostly London Plane trees which not only shed bark, but their leaves at an furious pace starting in mid to late summer. When we first started our compost bin, it was either late spring or summer of a season and not yet aware of the amount of leaves the block generated, we’d hunt for leaves at local parks and we’d also ask our neighbors for their bag fulls. I would multi – task by taking a bag with me on my runs in the park. At the end of my runs, I’d fill fill my bag with leaves and carry home with me to refill and save in the Leaf Containment Center . As summer wore on that season, we realized that the leaves on our block were plenty and we were able to collect and store them without having to gather at the park or go around asking. As a result, our Leaf Containment Center grew and to continue in it’s growth, we began to accept and ask neighbors to drop their leaves off to the Garden.

The brown leaves serve multiple purposes in the gardening processes, so in saving them, the environment is benefits significantly. Adding leaves to the compost gives energy to the bacteria in the compost (hot piles which are mixed with “green” nitrogen sources) pile, allowing for the creation of rich organic soil and fertilizer. Even if you are not adding the leaves to a bin in which a “fast” pile of compost if brewing, allowing the leaves to sit in a pile and decompose over time in a “slow” pile will generate a rich compost over a matter of time. So if you don’t have the time or want to start a compost bin/pile, keeping your leaves in area to decompose slowly will eventually create a rich soil gradully and will keep the leaves out of plastic bags and out of the landfill.

Another garden member got creative and started using the plentiful supply of leaves we have in the Leaf Containment Center as a mulch to preserve moisture and water in her planting bed. As this member demonstrated, crushed leaves can be used the same way as wood chips, spread over the top layer of the soil at the base of your plants, holding water in and preventing evaporation from drying out the earth.

On a recent garden work day, we discovered yet another use for the leaves. Some members were eager to do away with a pile of bagged leaves we’d been waiting to add to the Leaf Containment Center (it was full to the brim due to tons of donations over the previous summer and fall seasons and through our own collections). After some thought we decided to use the leaves as an underlying layer in a bird habitat we were creating. To create the habitat, we started off with rocks as the bottom layer to create height. Over the rocks we emptied the bags of leaves which would eventually be topped off with layers of soil where bird and butterfly attracting foliage would be planted. Being very eco-conscious, we were careful in opening the bags of leaves in an attempt to preserve and reuse as many bags as we could. Using the leaves as an underlying layer in the habitat allowed us to keep 20 – 30 plastic bag fulls of leaves out of the landfill. These leaves now have a second life, incarnated as fertilizer in the underlying layer of the habitat.

If you have been waiting for a Sci-Fi short film about futuristic Africa 35 years after WW III at the same time engaged in a Water War, then the wait is over. This is Kenya’s first Sci-Fi film, which also made it into the Sundance film festival.

Pumzi was written and directed by Wanuri Kahiu, who started this movie idea off of as a joke, which later turned into her passion.

Nature is extinct. The outside is dead. Asha lives and works as a museum curator in one of the indoor communities set up by the Maitu Council. When she receives a box in the mail containing soil, she plants an old seed in it and the seed starts to germinate instantly. Asha appeals to the Council to grant her permission to investigate the possibility of life on the outside but the Council denies her exit visa. Asha breaks out of the inside community to go into the dead and derelict outside to plant the growing seedling and possibly find life on the outside.

+ Boing Boing

Chris Jordan is known for his messages of over consumption with a combination of photoshop persistance and statistics, but this last September the over consumption and pollution message lay right in front of him. As he defines:

These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

The great pacific garbage patch has found a buyer from its resources: mother albatrosses feeding their young human trash mistaken as food.  With an estimated 80% of trash coming from land sources and another 20% coming from ships, the gyre that holds the trash in place is created from the north pacific subtropical convergence zone.  Many environmentalists have focused on this landmark, rather watermark, as the prime illustration of pollution and overconsumption for their presentations.

++Chris Jordan

“A neighbor [of mine] was throwing out some of his pornography and I asked him why he was doing that, he said he was clearing out a part of his life, who I later found died a couple months later”

If you look closely you can see syringes within the individual boxes which people found a symmetry to drug addiction.  Pieces are derived in an organic matter, the ideas coming to the artist after spending some time with them for a while.

Q: What do you love most about living in the Bay Area?

A: Its so green.

Q: How would you describe your art to a stranger?

A: I fit things together.

Q: When are you most productive?

A: Late night, around 2 am.

Individual plastic containers placed in front of a collage.

Q: Is there an artist that has inspired or influenced your work?

A: Joseph Cornell; I read when he would sweep his mom’s basement, he would collect and save the dust.

(Above) Truong luckily found a large amount of protein cups, cut out magazine pieces and arranged them in each cup.  He mentioned that he goes to the Alcoa aluminum foundry to make his frames. Truong has a fascination of transforming objects by dipping them in wax from old candles.  When he goes to Scrap and finds a large amount of a repetitive item, he will buy them and store them away until he can find a use for them.

Q: What was the last show you attended?

A: It would have to be my own, after my last show at the Minna gallery I was exhausted.  I go to my students concerts, but the music is a little hardcore for me, but I try to make it to other art shows as often as possible.

He would write poems on this piece and sporadically erase parts of the poem to the point of it losing its coherence.  Truong says of this, “I wanted to lose myself in the art when erasing the letters and words”

Q: What future direction do you see your art work taking?

A: Tone down the pieces, and not use as much lighting as I have in past pieces.

One of his published books Within the Margin, was inspired by Richard Serra who stated “In order for art to exist in our society there will have to be marginalized artists.:  The poems from the book had the intention of wrapping all the way around the gallery, he tried to have his book without margins, but the printers weren’t able to not have margins, “technology has limited many of his endeavors.”