Pollugraphies

via Wooster Collective

I thought this was a cool concept. Alexandre Orion, a Sao Paulo based artist has created his pieces utilizing the pollution expelled directly from a truck exhaust. The process is not easy. If the truck bumps too hard, the piece will be damaged. And if it rains, the piece is totally ruined. For every 4 pieces he attempts only one makes it to final product. He calls this "Pollugraphies". The pollution is collected for one week. So disgusting and awesome.

Container City

Let's all go live in crates! Two hours outside of Mexico City, Container City is an eco-friendly metropolis made entirely out of recycled shipping containers. Restaurants? Yup. Bookshops? For sure. Your Momma? You know it.

CC is open Monday - Saturday from 10am - 8pm and Sundays from 11am - 6pm.

More info here.

Starbucks: Debranding

In an effort to go back to their original company manifesto of being a funky indie coffeeshop, Starbucks is set to open one of three unbranded stores in the chain's birthplace of Seattle. The first - to be called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea - will serve alcohol, stock unbranded coffee and have space for running poetry evenings and open mic nights.

All is an experiment by head office to debrand and deglobalize... the question is why.

Pedestrian traffic has been down for Starbucks since the recession hit, and consumer tastes are changing to be more receptive to something that supports both the local community and the environment instead of a tie in with Chapters Indigo.

Head office's turn back to the funk is proving to be a hilarious Office Space esque quest for "flare". An excerpt from the Seattle Times:

'Sebastian Simsch, co-owner of Seattle Coffee Works near Pike Place Market, became frustrated last year after large groups of Starbucks employees kept crowding into his 300-square-foot store to look around. "I thought it was funny," he said. "We're this little store, and I thought Starbucks didn't need to learn from me."

During the third group's visit, Simsch let them know what he thought. "I said, 'If you want to buy something that's great, but just to look, that's not cool,' " he recounted. "I called the PR department and said, 'Never again.' " They did not come back, even after he moved into a much larger store next door.

Victrola Coffee Roasters saw the Starbucks people a lot more often. "They spent the last 12 months in our store up on 15th [Avenue] with these obnoxious folders that said, 'Observation,' " said Victrola owner Dan Ollis.

He thinks it's interesting that they spent all that time in his shop, which serves wine and beer, then applied for a liquor license to sell wine and beer at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.'

How's about leaving the local business to the local businesses and spending the debranding money and research on improving the existing brand instead? Consumers are well aware of being marketed to. If you want to appear more environmentally friendly, Starbucks, then let's try and do it properly. Have you heard of these?



Let's get them in your stores. I assure you that the public will be much more receptive to this than a weekly poetry reading.

And on the poetry reading rant, why don't we lift up our sleeves and move some chairs and use those funky chalkboards in your existing spaces to do so? Did we really need to print up "Observation binders" to think of this?

I am fully supportive of the debranding if it leads to more environmentally friendly rebranding of all Starbucks. For that, I say debrand away. Unfortunately, I don't believe the heart in this scenerio. Debranding in order to rebrand as being quirky and independent is only a scheme to be making more money and paving the way to exactly the same corporate trap they found themselves fall into in the first place. It's the Britney Spears syndrome. They won't be able to help themselves.


To see the Seattle Times article, click here.
Also, a great article from Marketing Mag here.

What to do with your wall of stank

With the City of Toronto finally reaching an agreement on the four week, 36 day garbage strike, as of next week Torontonians can kick it to the curbside once more.

Unfortunately, rumors are that part of the agreement is for households to only put out one garbage bin at a time, so additional recycling goods and garbage stores that have already become a treasured part of your Stank Family across the last month could still remain a house guest for at least another 3 weeks, yippee!

The question is what to do with your wall of stank...

Lucky for us we have Paris resident and sculpteur du papier extraordinaire JUNIOR JACQUET, who likes to transform left over toilet paper rolls into sculptures of faces:



Perhaps one could create a porch full of angry toilet paper roll faces for when the eventual collection does occur??
Just sayin'...

More on Junior Jacquet here.

Snowing Ice Cream: The Cloud Project

I am still very confused by this very yummy process and will do my best in trying to explain it.

This is an icecream truck:



It likes to shoot liquid nitrogen particles out to the sky that are flavored like icecream in order to produce icecream flavored clouds, which [according to some beautiful, heavenly plan] will start to snow icecream:



My understanding stops here, but I am more than prepared to give all my tax money to support this project.
For the rest, I hand you to the scientists. I'm off to get some icecream.
For more info, click here.

Walking The High Line

It's official! New York is the super coolest.







Welcome to the High Line, a raised park in the sky! Built on an old freight train track constructed in Manhattan in the 1930's, the High Line opened on June 8th, 2009. For more info, click here.


All images courtesy of the High Line Blog.

Earth 2100: Civilization at Crossroads

It's a rarity to actually see a program nowadays and be stunned by both the context and the aesthetic quality of the production. [Except for The Hills. That gets me everytime.] Earth 2100 is a 2 hour documentary that aired on ABC last night. Examining climate control, it poses the question if this is the last century for civilization as we know it.

Says Alexa Daner, a writer for ABC News, "In order to plan for the worst, we must anticipate it." Following this thought process, a sub plot of Earth 2100 is narrated by Lucy, a fictional character who was "born" on the evening of June 2, 2009. Earth 2100 follows Lucy through her life span based on predictions and imagined environmental catastrophes from real life scientists, environmentalists, and anthropologists.

Apart from the program being incredibly poignant, it's beautifully executed. Lucy's sub plot is animated in such a way that it would make all your Graphic Novels get together and weep with envy.


If you missed this program on ABC last night, fear not. Watch it here:
Earth 2100: Civilization at Crossroads

Shared via AddThis


To read more on Earth 2100, click here.

Power to the Planet

Here's a video from Element Skateboards that features Juliana Neufeld. Juliana currently is also showing some art in the Ta2 offices. Why haven't you come by and seen it yet???


Element was created with an unwavering dedication to making a positive difference in the world. We continue this quest by supporting great causes, creating school programs and camps, and nurturing our sustainable and organic product lines.

Recently, over 60 Element family members joined together to tell their stories, inspire others, and raise social and environmental awareness.

'Power to the Planet' is about taking a stand, having a voice, and making change.

Watch: The Story of Stuff

If you have a spare twenty minutes across the next week or so, give The Story of Stuff a go. This is an animated "short" about consumerist society, written and hosted by Annie Leonard. It's easy enough to understand if you're a baby to the term consumerist culture; similarly, it's invoking enough if you're already a sociological/ecological veteran. A great film to watch when we're in the midst of a recession - when our existing business structures are breaking down, what can we be doing to shift industries in a more humanitarian and environmentally friendly manner?

The film is produced by Free Range Studios, a production company built on the ethos of "Creativity with a Conscience"; namely providing creative branding, strategizing and execution for those on a mission to save the world. To view Free Range Studios, click here.

To view The Story of Stuff, click here.

Pod Castaway

Can I have one?




For more info on Free Spirit Spheres, click here.

Watch: One Week

I watched this film on the weekend, and I believe at some point in your life you should watch it too.
The idea is nothing new, but the execution is exemplary. It also has my husband [Josh Jackson] in it, so that's reason enough.



Happy Meditations.

1 Girl, 50,000 Cups

No no no no. Stop what you're thinking.

Tara Donovan has given us all reason to contemplate "waste not, want not." The New York artist has impeccable skill in taking materials that most would consider - well, garbage - and creating beautiful installations. This sculpture was made of just styrofoam cups and hot glue and hung at the Ace Gallery in 2003:





For more on Ms. Donovan's work, click here.

One Flag, One World

You gotta love the anti-culture kids at Adbusters. Their most recent project is One Flag - a design competition inviting participants to develop a flag - One Flag, if you will - that will lead the world ahead on a collective mission of... Oneness? Says Adbusters: "We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn clichés – that embodies the idea of global citizenship".

They go on. "We are now faced with some of the most daunting global challenges in human history... These are real targets, worthy of our problem-solving skills, ripe for our intervention. Yet those who have the vision to rise above national and political boundaries still have no symbol to rally under."

But of course, a flag will help us!



Adbusters is currently showcasing the shortlist of 32 One Flags that you can view and vote for here.

My pick is The Eternal Round, created by Vikki Miller of Scotland, who encourages One Flaggers to make their own flags from their sheets, fabrics and scraps to the provided pattern. Says Miller, "Don’t let people take the easy option: flying their flag while watching TV. Have them working, constructing and crafting, and they will appreciate their relationship to planet earth a lot more."

Yes, yes, yes! Revolution we can sew. And if you get cold when mobbing, the flag can double up as a blanket.

Needless to say, my flag design didn't make the shortlist:



Next year, perhaps.

Dinner With A Stranger

"If you got an email from a stranger who said they'd donate $200 to a charity of your choice if you'd have them (and a friend) to a dinner [at your house], would you say yes?"

And so marks the opening statement of Franke James' most recent artistic diary/social experiment. James, an incredibly talented artist and equally as talented environmentalist, received an email across the December period from said stranger, Mark Shouldice, who proposed the entire scenario and enticed the lovely James with the invitation.

"We often talk about how some of our best conversations are with strangers," said Shouldice, whose intentions were strictly whimsical. No creepy romances included in this invite.

To view the entire drawn diary of the account, click here.

James is now set on developing "Dinner With A Stranger" into a charity event. Read all about her ponderings here.

Question is, if your safety was entirely guaranteed, would you like to have dinner with a stranger? I would definitely be game. Who's cooking?

Eat your [jelly] fish

Ooooooooarrrrrrrrrrghhaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this image [apart from the fact that it's real and wasn't created by the art department who worked on Alien vs. Predator] is that this jellyfish - known as the Turritopsis Nutricula - is completely and utterly immortal.

Says The Telegraph, "The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature."

Oh. And,

According to Dr Maria Miglietta's interview with the Telegraph: "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion."

Yep.

Couldn't we be taken over by something more cute?


Read The Telegraph article here.

Muse - Friday, January 16th

TODAY IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 16th 2009.
WELCOME TO SHOWCASE!





Okay, okay, so it's winter and you're cold and Toronto's lights have gone out and this all seems like a evil Narnian Snow Queen joke to publish a water conservation blog in the middle of January, but eco battles seem to be only fought in the summer months where heat and electricity are pretty much deemed unnecessary because, "the sun like, provides it all man."

Here's just a gentle reminder of campaigns who have contributed to reversing the flow. We wish you warmth & inspiration...



Sukle Advertising + Design's campaign for Denver Water in 2006 still has all the blogs buzzin like a crazy foo. With the slogan "Use Only What You Need", the campaign encouraged Denver city folk to re-think the amounts of water they use versus need. Sukle worked on both extremes for the campaign; one by transforming regular mediums of advertising by using as little space and supplies necessary [i.e. the quarter bench, above], and the other by showing just how much we consume through quantity defined installations, like How Much Water Is Wasted By A Running Toilet in 3 Months?
Oh wait, this much:






We have to applaud the City of Toronto for taking on a similar note with their Drowning in Plastic Campaign. These posters were put up at bus and streetcar shelters across the city in late 2008 and still remain. We're still hoping for Sukle to come fill a shelter with bottles, but until then, try and get a hold of Channel 4's Human Footprint. The program originally ran in April 2007 and National Geographic went on to buy the rights for an American version of the same title. Like the Denver Water campaign, the entire program staged installations based on quantity defined statistics of how much we consume across our lifetime. Take a looksy here:



For more on Human Footprint, click here.
Denver Water images from useonlywhatyouneed.org



The WHOPPER Sacrifice Campaign is done and dusted. Facebook first disabled the application, then Burger King killed the entire campaign. :(
This only means two things - no more free burgers and back to having false friends. Hey-o!

Read the campaign's epitaph here.

Have no idea what we're talkin'? Read about the initial WHOPPER Sacrifice campaign here.


HAPPY WEEKENDING TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO.

Muse - Friday, December 12th

TODAY IS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12th 2008.
WELCOME TO SHOWCASE!

13 Days left until CHRISTMAS!
Get your FREE Advent Calendar here, with love from Tattoo.




Hurrah, hurray it's Christmas!! But that doesn't excuse forgetting about the environment and our fragile, suffering earth.
Here at Tattoo we've developed ways for you to help conserve the planet while still being able to enjoy the festivities.



Save yourself a trip to the dollar store and paroose your local coffee houses for gift tag inspiration instead. Lots of events, local artists and gallery openings leave postcard sized event cards and business cards by front doors and by bulletin boards. Check for any out of date event listings and use the cards! But please, don't tear down the poster for Bobby's Christmas Garage Sale.
Glue a piece of scrap paper to the back of the cards so you can write out your message, hole punch a corner once the glue has dried et voila -

Our Leslieville beauties, gathered & made with care:




Creature Comforts has devised a way of turning your grocery bags into pompoms for gift toppers.


Image from creaturecomforts.typepad.com

For full instructions, click here.



A recycling bag should be the only sack you're carrying this Christmas [unless you're Santa]. Keep it with you for all present wrapping & unwraps, Christmas crafts, and for tossing receipts not needed! Be conscious this Christmas and our world will thank you!


For more Green Saving ideas, hit up One Million Acts of Green here.


HAPPY FRIDAY TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO.