A billboard I designed is up on display in Los Angeles. It’s part of a series of public art installations about the war, and will be on view until October 8, 2006.

The image is a map of Selected CIA Aircraft Routes and Rendition Flights 2001-2006, some of which transported prisoners to foreign countries to be interrogated and tortured. After years of silence and denial, the administration publicly acknowledged the flights in the last few weeks.

I worked with artist and geographer Trevor Paglen who provided the data. Trevor spent several years tracking down the flight information, and has a book out this month on his investigations, Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights. See this interview with him on Democracy Now! with co-author, journalist A.C. Thompson.

The billboard is located at 6150 Wilshire Boulevard, near South Fairfax Ave, between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. Here’s a Google Map.

Clockshop, a public arts organization in Los Angeles, funded the display. You can read more about the project at http://clockshop.org/here.php

A few images, below:

This week’s Time Out New York is running six pictures of Japanese manhole covers I took in 2002. It’s part of the cover story on “how to make New York better by stealing the best ideas from other cities.”

The photo editor found this old blog post and contacted me.

(And seeing it in print, I think the first photo is upside down. I always thought it was birds against the sky, but now I think it might be flowers against a river...)

Back in town and still catching up, but here’s an quick update on a recent blog item:

On Monday, June 5, 2006, the US Conference of Mayors adopted the ‘2030 Challenge,’ a resolution committing to a timeline for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by all new and renovated city buildings to the point that all new city buildings are carbon-neutral by 2030.

On May 31, 2006, the City of Santa Fe became the first city in the US to formally adopt the ‘2030 Challenge’.

The 78,000 member American Institute of Architects formally adopted the ‘2030 Challenge’ in January 2006.

The American Institute of Architects National Government Advocacy Team and Architecture 2030 are urging the US Conference of Mayors to adopt Resolution 50 which sets a goal of carbon-neutral city buildings by 2030 — that is, new city buildings will use no fossil-fuel or greenhouse gas emitting energy sources to operate.

The orgs are asking people to call their mayors this week before the meeting in early June. Background information, talking points, sample letters, and contact info up http://www.architecture2030.org/news/index.php

The text of the resolution reads like a nice little manifesto. Click below for the full text.

And how rare and wonderful to see a professional association engaging with progressive public policy!

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