Seeds of invention

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The Seed Cathedral: A Fiber-Optic Shrine to Mother Nature's Reproductive Prowess

Thomas Heatherwick, Seed Cathedral, British Pavillion, 2010 World Expo, Shanghai

Time magazine’s annual “50 Best Inventions” of the year list includes Thomas Heatherwick’s Seed Cathedral for the Shanghai Expo. via Archinect

“A house of worship for biodiversity, the British pavilion for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is constructed of 60,000 light-funneling fiber-optic rods, each with one or more seeds implanted at its tip. British designer Thomas Heatherwick worked with the Kew Gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank project, whose mission is to collect seeds from 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020. The result was a living structure that embodied the Expo’s theme of “Better City, Better Life” and rooted digital dreams in the soil from which all life springs. That combination helped make the Seed Cathedral one of the most popular national pavilions at the Shanghai Expo, where Chinese visitors nicknamed it pu gong ying, the dandelion.”–Time

At the opposite end of the scale, see Amy Franceschini’s Victory Garden Seed Library,  exhibited as part of Small Wonders (top center) at the 2010 01SJ Biennial.

Small Wonders, San Jose International Airport, 2010 01SJ Biennial

Small Wonders, San Jose International Airport, 2010 01SJ Biennial. Amy Franceschini (b. 1970) Victory Garden Seed Library, 2007 (top center)

Walking Spiral Jetty

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Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty

Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty has an almost mythic status. Perhaps less so, now that is has been routinely visible for some years. According to Wikipedia

“At the time of its construction, the water level of the lake was unusually low because of a drought. Within a few years, the water level returned to normal and submerged the jetty for the next three decades. Due to a drought, the jetty re-emerged in 2004 and was completely exposed for almost a year. The lake level rose again during the spring of 2005 due to a near record-setting snowpack in the mountains and partially submerged the Jetty again. Lake levels receeded and, as of spring 2010, the Jetty is again walkable and visible.”

Spiral Jetty was completely exposed when I visited, and I walked around and along it easily. Nevertheless, it was “hard” to see. Like driving through Yosemite earlier in the week and feeling as if all I could see through the windshield were the views of Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams, El Capitain, The Four Seasons in Yosemite National Park. via http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/four_seasons_in_yosemite/summer.html

I walked up close to Spiral Jetty. I walked out to the edge of the water, now far from the jetty. I climbed the hill overlooking. Sat still. Walked some more. In the end, I was not disappointed. It wasn’t the pictures of Spiral Jetty I was seeing. It wasn’t like the Mona Lisa, behind its bullet-proof glass, where the crowds were more “interesting” than the artwork. It was somehow, still, the thing itself.

Re-arranging chairs in the LA River

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“[Outpost for Contemporary Art] mounted a project titled “This Here and That There,” in which artist Vlatka Horvat continuously rearranged a series of 50 chairs in the [Los Angeles River] over the course of eight hours. The performance took place near Silver Lake, below the Fletcher Bridge in Elysian Valley.”
via Culture Monster

“In some arrangements, the stage seems to be set for many different scenarios: meetings, presentations, discussions, exams, interrogations, concerts, riots… Other chair configurations tends to defy altogether the everyday codes of chair-arrangement in public spaces, suggesting instead more intimate, abstract, or enigmatic encounters.”–Outpost for Contemporary Art

C02 Cube

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Christophe Cornubert, The CO2 Cube in Copenhagen. Credit: Joshua Brott. via Culture Monster

Christophe Cornubert, The CO2 Cube in Copenhagen. Credit: Joshua Brott. via Culture Monster

“In Copenhagen, where the United Nations’ summit on global warming is currently underway, artists  unveiled on Monday what they are calling ‘The CO2 Cube,’ a three-story site-specific artwork that was designed by L.A.-based architect Christophe Cornubert.” — David Ng via Culture Monster

CO2 CUBE, Saint Jørgens Lake in front of Tycho Brahe Planetarium, Copenhagen Artistic concept by Alfio Bonanno Architecture by Christophe Cornubert, PUSH Digital imagery by Obscura Digital. Photo Joshusa Bell

CO2 CUBE, Saint Jørgen's Lake in front of Tycho Brahe Planetarium, Copenhagen Artistic concept by Alfio Bonanno Architecture by Christophe Cornubert, PUSH Digital imagery by Obscura Digital. Photo Joshusa Brott

via Millennium ART

Who knew the CO2 Cube is created out of shipping containers?

C02 Cube. Image via Obscura Digital via Curbed.

C02 Cube. Image via Obscura Digital via Curbed LA.

“Is there anything shipping containers can’t do? Here they are arranged on a barge in St. Jørgens Lake in Copenhagen to visually represent one metric ton of carbon dioxide stored at standard atmospheric pressure. An average person in an industrialized country puts that amount out monthly.

“[Architect Chrisophe] Cornubert says the message of the shipping containers is deliberate–it calls to mind Copenhagen’s local shipping industry, consumption, and reuse all at once. Two sides of the big cube are covered in a mesh fabric and act as video screens, showing art, news, data visualizations, and other content. Besides all the transportation and construction, the CO2 Cube uses two 20,000 lumen projectors, an audio system, and LED lights.”

via Curbed LA

America’s Best Public Art

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June 20, 2009—Forty of the best public art works in the United States, including projects from 32 cities in 15 states, were recognized at the 2009 Americans for the Arts annual convention held in Seattle from June 18–20. The works were chosen from more than 300 entries across the country. More here or download pdf
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Nancy Ann Coyne, Speaking of Home. IDS-Macy’s skyway over Nicollet Mall, between 7th and 8th Streets in downtown Minneapolis, MN. Co-presented by Forecast Public Art, Family Housing Fund and the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota. http://www.speakingofhome.org/