Art as Play – The Indoors – Outdoors Playground

March 19, 2013March 20, 2013 Beth Kelley

This blog post is from two years ago but still relevant…

In the interior courtyard of Ottawa’s City Hall there is a place where the door is always open. The Living Room is a multiple piece static sculpture by the design duo at Urban Keios .

This is art as playground, an open invitation for children to make believe and scamper about slightly oversize chairs with out of kilter door and window frames defining the space. It looks like a set prepped for the shooting of a claymation adventure where we’re just waiting for the action to begin. There in the near distance is a TV permanently piping in the imagination station.

Although The Living Room is not designed as a playground per se, what kids could resist stopping off momentarily for a touch of make believe, of playing house, of filling the blue sky space with movement and laughter?

Somebody’s having fun. The grass is worn away down to hard…

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Soundscraper Transforms Vibrations from City Noise Pollution into Green Energy Soundscraper Generates Energy From Noise Pollution – Inhabitat

March 19, 2013 Beth Kelley1 Comment

Cool idea, if perhaps a little, um, well, er, too organic?

Soundscraper Transforms Vibrations from City Noise Pollution into Green Energy Soundscraper Generates Energy From Noise Pollution – Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building — The concept for the Soundscraper is that it would generate energy from noise pollution.

The Soundscraper is a futuristic structure designed to transform auditory vibrations from bustling cities into a source of clean energy. Designed by Julien Bourgeois, Olivier Colliez, Savinien de Pizzol, Cedric Dounval and Romain Grouselle, the Soundscraper is covered with noise-sensitive cilia that harvest kinetic energy while soaking up urban noise pollution.

more via Soundscraper Transforms Vibrations from City Noise Pollution into Green Energy Soundscraper Generates Energy From Noise Pollution – Inhabitat.

Twenty-seven Captivating Skyscrapers From The Future (yankodesign.com)
Why Noise-Induced Hearing Loss is a Growing Threat (theepochtimes.com)

architecture · design · environment · happiness · health · mental health · Nature · psychology

Dennis Bracale’s Garden Compositions

March 19, 2013March 19, 2013 Beth Kelley

Creating organic, peaceful spaces can be arguably one of the most powerful, important acts for human wellness, both physically and mentally. These gardens are also peaceful just to look at, even if you can’t experience them firsthand.

Creating organic, peaceful spaces can be arguably one of the most powerful, important acts for human wellness, both physically and mentally. These gardens are also peaceful just to look at, even if you can’t experience them firsthand.

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creativity · play

Colored Pencil Shavings Transformed Into Playful Illustrations | World of Designers

March 18, 2013 Beth Kelley

I love found art and seeing artists be creative and resourceful and being inspired to create with what they have around them, especially things that would normally be recycled or thrown out.

Using an object as basic as a pencil shaving, artist Marta Altés created these clever, yet simple, drawings in which ink figures interact with colorful and textured pencil remnants. By repurposing the shavings, the artist transformed objects that others see as trash into beautiful and integral elements within each piece, including butterfly wings, a ballet tutu, and a lion’s mane. It’s incredible how many different ways she has morphed her doodles into these adorable drawings, with just these delicate scraps.

more via Colored Pencil Shavings Transformed Into Playful Illustrations | World of Designers.

As a kid I loved the shapes these pencil shavings created, so I’m glad somebody else noticed this too. There are some great images, so go check them all out at the link above.

Amazing Wall of 12,000 Colored Pencils: colourSPACE (design-milk.com)

architecture · community · design · environment · play

Superkilen: Global Mash-up of a Park

March 14, 2013March 19, 2013 Beth Kelley

Using parks and other playful spaces to improve urban neighborhoods and the residents’ lives…

THE DIRT

The nearly mile-long Superkilen park in Denmark is a bold attempt to create a new identity for an “ethnically diverse and socially challenged” neighborhood in Copenhagen, Denmark. An in-depth community outreach process organized by the city has led to a place like no other, with a sequence of plazas that honor different ethnics groups living in the area. Designed by Bjarke Ingels’ firm, BIG, landscape architecture firm, Topotek 1, and artists’ group, Superflex, the massive project also accomplished a lot with a little budget: at just $34 per square foot, the landscape “packs a lot of bang for the buck.” The project, which has recently been all over the design press, also just took home the AIA Institute Honor Award for urban and regional design and an annual design award from Architect Magazine in the “play” category.

The AIA jury, which included Ellen Dunham Jones, author of Retrofitting Suburbia

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behavior · community · environment · happiness · health · Nature

Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA | Video on TED.com

March 11, 2013 Beth Kelley

Happy Spring Forward. Time to start planting seeds and playing in the dirt. In honor of getting dirty and creative, here’s a a TED talk from Ron Finley, guerrilla gardener.

Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA — in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where “the drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys.”Ron Finley grows a nourishing food culture in South Central L.A.’s food desert by planting the seeds and tools for healthy eating.

Best quote ever: “Gardening is the most therapeutic & defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. Plus you get strawberries.”

via Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA | Video on TED.com.

TED: Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA – Ron Finley (2013) (ted.com)
Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA (livinginnatureengland.wordpress.com)
Ron Finley: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA (enpundit.com)
Ron Finley: A Guerilla Gardener in South Central LA (secretsofthefed.com)

anthropology

Kenya’s Graffiti Train Seeks To Promote A Peaceful Election : NPR

March 5, 2013March 4, 2013 Beth Kelley

English: Slum Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just as the decision for Kenya’s election is being determined, a look at an artistic and playful way to promote democracy:

Kenya‘s peace train is ready to roll.

Kenyan graffiti artists received permission from the Rift Valley Railway to spray-paint a 10-car commuter train with peace messages and icons. It may be the first train in Africa with officially authorized graffiti.

The train will travel through the massive Nairobi slum of Kibera, one of the largest in Africa, where young gangs torched, looted and killed in the spasms of violence that followed the 2007 Kenyan presidential election.

“What we’re doing with the train here now, it’s part of a civic education and a way to advertise peace,” says Uhuru B, a 27-year-old graffiti artist.

via Kenya’s Graffiti Train Seeks To Promote A Peaceful Election : NPR.

Kenya’s Graffiti Train Seeks To Promote A Peaceful Election (wnyc.org)
On topic: Kenya’s Graffiti Train Seeks To Promote A Peaceful Election (streetartbrooklyn.com)
Kenya’s Graffiti Train Seeks To Promote A Peaceful Election (positivepressagency.com)
Kenya campaigns for peaceful polls (capitalfm.co.ke)

anthropology · architecture

The Rise of the Endless City

March 4, 2013March 19, 2013 Beth Kelley

As humans go more urban, what that means for how we live together…

As humans go more urban, what that means for how we live together…

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behavior · community · creativity · happiness · play

7 playful acts of kindness | KaBOOM!

February 13, 2013 Beth Kelley1 Comment

The nice thing about this is you can do this ANY week!

Are you getting ready for National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day? What about No Socks Day? There are all sorts of random holidays, but this week we celebrate a different kind of random—Random Acts of Kindness Week. Here at KaBOOM!, we know all about t

he joys of spontaneous play. Whether you want to call them playful acts of kindness or random acts of play, here are seven ways to make friends and strangers smile, this week and beyond:

Monday: Give a high five—or five!

It’s impossible not to feel energized after a high five. Use this
week as an excuse to give out as many high fives as possible, to
strangers and friends alike.

Tuesday: Draw a hopscotch board on the sidewalk.

Turn someone’s routine walk into a hop, skip, and a jump by
sketching out a hopscotch board with sidewalk chalk. For extra fun,
target a business district to inject some play into the daily grind.

read on at 7 playful acts of kindness | KaBOOM!.