(incli)NATION

Cool Obama Schwag; t-shirts, mugs and more

Hey, I just posted these. Buy some and spread the word!

OBAMA SCHWAG by Daniel

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

Editta Sherman, photographer, in her apt. for 58 yrs!

Jill over at New York Mag sent me this this morning. A great article 'romancing the city'...

"The high-ceilinged, light-filled studios on top of Carnegie Hall have housed artists, musicians, and writers for more than a century; now, the remaining tenants are fighting to stay."

read the rest here

Building A Yurt Kazakh Style

Found this while Stumbling around this morning...Can't wait to try one of my own.

TrailerWrap by Michael Hughes

Love this idea, though the economic model does not seem to work. Trailer parks exist to fill a gap in the market. Anyone who can afford to will buy a stick-built house. Not to mention the fact that trailers actually depreciate in value rather than appreciate. But this one does look good:

"To Hughes, trailer parks offer an architectural opportunity to address questions of affordable housing. And he believes that trailers simply make sense as high-density alternatives to suburban sprawl. But first, they need to be made into attractive living spaces. "This is refabricated housing," Hughes says. "What does it mean to have light pouring into your home, with nine-foot instead of seven-foot ceilings? We wanted to highlight what’s possible even on a small house."

Read the rest here

via

Bamboestoel by Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen

Regular readers are already well aware of our preoccupation with the chair. This one comes from Dutch design duo Tejo Remy and Rene VeenHuizen. Tejo Remy spoke at the Inhabitat's 'Reclaiming Design' on the issues of reclaimed materials in design.

I love it when the design is more impactful than the 'green'-ness. Nice work!

via Inhabitat

Project7ten: NOW in Venice!

Gonna miss this one, but let me know what y'all think...

Los Angelenos looking to continue their environmental education can head to Venice to take a tour of the recently completed LEED® Platinum certified Project7ten house, before it goes on sale to the highest bidder. Real estate developer Tom Schey (in conjunction with the A+D Museum’s “Enlightened Development” exhibition) is opening the doors of his environmentally conscious home to the public to raise awareness about simple everyday choices and green products that can lead to a healthier living environment. Throughout the month of October, locals and tourists alike are invited to tour the cutting-edge structure and catch a glimpse of the future of sustainable building—which in this case includes solar paneling, recycled materials and certified lumber for building, as well as reusable rain water irrigation systems, lower gas emissions, and more. Proceeds from the tours and the sale of the home will be donated to Healthy Child Healthy World, an organization dedicated to educating the public about environmental toxins that effect children’s health.

Project7ten
710 Milwood Avenue
Venice, CA
ph: 310.454.0290

Joan Didion and "Alienation from Self"

"If we do not respect ourselves … we are peculiarly in thrall to everyone we see, curiously determined to live out — since our self-image is untenable — their false notions of us. We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gist for imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give. Of course I will play Francesca to your Paolo, Hellen Keller to anyone’s Annie Sullivan: no expectation is too misplaced, no role too ludicrous…

It is the phenomenon sometimes called “alienation from self.” In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something so small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — their lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home."

--Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem

via the excellent Maud Newton

Richard Barnes at the Hosfelt Gallery, New York, 9/15/07

Unabomber Ted Kazinski has been a regular interest of ours here at (incli)NATION and Alec Soth has a great post on Richard Barns and his role in documenting Kazinski over on his blog. It's a wonderful introduction to his work just as Barns' show is opening in NYC.. Be sure to check it out if you are in the city this month:

As regular readers know, I have a fascination with ‘the sentence’ – the shorthand summation everyone uses to describe a particular person. Some are easy (“He’s the guy that photographs Weimaraners). But Barnes is a tricky case. I doubt people would remember ‘He’s an architectural photographer who’s done fine art projects on birds, museums and the Unabomber.’ Whatever the phrase is, Barnes was able to sum up his achievements with a remarkably elegant sentence: “My work is all about containment.” He went on to say that he’d only made this connection in the last few years.

For me this was the ultimate lesson that Barnes brought to the class. While it may not always be great marketing, artists should be free to explore whatever quickens their pulse. Over the long haul they will inevitable find a thread that unifies their vision. Finding this revelatory thread (and not the stupid ‘sentence’) seems to be one of the most meaningful experiences to come from a life making art.

• An exhibition of Richard Barnes’ work will open on this Saturday, September 15th, at the Hosfelt Gallery in New York. "

read the rest here

Arne Quinze @ DailyServing.com

"On Sept. 14 Belgian artist/designer Arne Quinze's latest work "Cityscape" will open on the suburban streets of Brussels, Belgium. The enormous wooden sculpture is 131-feet long, 82-feet wide and 39-feet high and will stand for year in Brussels' luxury district. Quinze, the artistic director of design company Quinze and Milan,says of his piece, "'Cityscape' resembles a frozen movement, speed caught in time." The piece encourages interaction, people are able to walk through and experience the changes in light as the sun comes through the wood. The aritst built a similar structure last year at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. At the end of the festival the structure was set on fire. A self-taught artist, Quinze first found his creative outlet with graffitti as a homeless 15-year-old. Later this month Quinze has several pieces in Mutagenesis, a solo exhibition at the Abitare Il Tempo design exhibition in Verona, Italy. To listen to a discussion with the artist on WPS1 Art Radio click here."

via DailyServing.com

Andrew Mwenda: Let's take a new look at African aid

Do not miss this video: a REAL look at the politics of humanitarian aid to Africa. It will open your eyes. I remember presenting a similar--if more simplistic--paper in high school in the early eighties on the crisis in El Salvador. History has borne out the argument I think, but have a listen and judge for yourself:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/159