guerilla civic improvement

What is Essential

>  6 October 2011 | LINK | Filed in , , , ,

Political Graffiti

All graffiti have their politics but some more explicitly call for public policy change. Here are a few interesting pieces I’ve run into in the last week. An effective mix of surprise and cheek.



Troy Davis

A portrait of Troy Davis wheatpasted to the sides of a fence in London for Amnesty International UK, protesting his then pending execution in Georgia. More »



Dam Scissors

Residents, environmentalists and officials want to tear down an obsolete dam near Ojai. After years of protest, a band of artists used creative tactics to call attention to the issue. The image appeared on the front page of the local paper the same day environmentalists, county officials, and the Army Corps of Engineers met to discuss the dam. More »



Not One Dollar in Taxes

A nice bit of information design. (Via)

Making Passes

Cute urban intervention from bicycle advocacy group Critical Mass in Hungary:

Car Love Pedestrian

Related: this sticker I caught in Brooklyn.

>  12 July 2011 | LINK | Filed in , ,

Field Guide to Phytoremediation

New York City contains over 30,000 vacant lots covering a combined 11,000 acres (nearly the size of Manhattan itself.) Much of this space can not be reused because of toxic contamination and the expense of excavating it. Enter the sunflowers.

Phytoremediation is the use of plants to remove contaminants from the environment. This Kickstarter campaign hopes to both publicize and demonstrate phytoremediation in NYC:

“In 2010, youarethecity created the Field Guide to Phytoremediation, a DIY handbook to cleaning up toxic soils in your own backyard, neighborhood vacant lot, or other urban space. Working with soil scientists, urban farming activists, community groups, and others interested on (and in) the ground, we have expanded this research. We need your help to make this process more visible and accessible to anyone. We want to print 2,000 copies of the field guide, to distribute for free, and to create on-site installations that illustrate and explain the process of phytoremediation at field lab sites throughout New York City.”

Field Guide to Phytoremediation

I’m in.

>  7 July 2011 | LINK | Filed in , , , ,

Updates

Recent happenings on old blog posts:

More Public Schools: In March 2009, I wrote about The Public School a website where people propose, discuss, and coordinate free, offline classes taught by volunteers. The project has since expanded from Los Angeles to 6 more cities including New York, Paris, and San Juan. And still more coming soon! I taught a class on Mapping as Activism last month and had a great time.

public_school-2010.jpg

Listener Supported: In December 2008, I wrote about Spot.us, a site for crowd-funded news where anyone can pitch and help pay a journalist to produce a local story. Last week, Public Radio Exchange announced they will pick up the software to launch StoryMarket to bring the model to public radio.

prx-2010.gif

Guerilla Wayfinding in NYC: In March 2006, I proposed a compass rose stencil at the exits of New York City subway stations. Shortly after, stencils started appearing! A year later, City officials decided to implement a few test marks of their own, and I found out the idea had been proposed back in 1992. Now it’s 2010 and new compass stencils have popped up at downtown subway exits.

compass-2010.jpg

The Trouble with Hippos: In February 2006, I wrote about the Hippo Water Roller, a rugged, round water container designed to be transport water on tough rural roads. Last year, Alissa Walker reported on some of the obstacles the project encountered with extended use, and when trying to scale up production.

hippo-2010.jpg

Public Designer: My first article for Communication Arts ran in February 2005 on citizens designing for better government. It included several examples orchestrated by Sylvia Harris. This month the AIGA published a great interview with her that’s worth checking out. Harris is a public designer if ever there was.

census-2010.jpg

Get the E out of NYC: In 2004, I wrote about New York City’s trial collection of electronic waste for recycling. On May 29, 2010, New York State decided it’s illegal to throw away your electronic waste in the regular trash. Governor Patterson just signed a producer responsibility law requiring manufacturers to pay for collection and recycling of e-waste from consumers (including individuals, schools, municipalities, small businesses and non-profits.)

nyc_e_recycle-2010.jpg
I Park Art. i-park-art.jpgThe PARK(ing) Day meme lands in Paris and Italy to promote the guerilla re-appropriation of public (parking) space through art and intervention.
>  22 May 2010 | LINK | Filed in , , ,
In Paris, Anti-Ad Insurgency. “The Dismantlers, as a nationwide group of anti-ad crusaders call themselves, aren’t violent or loud or clandestine. In fact, they invite the police to protest rallies where they deface signs. With a copywriter’s flair, one of their slogans warns: ‘Attention! Avert your eyes from ads: You risk being very strongly manipulated.’ The goal of the Dismantlers is to get arrested, argue the righteousness of their cause in court and gain publicity.”

Via Just Seeds I found this condescending story in the LA Times. But it’s interesting nonetheless: “Baret, who like his fellow insurgents is a veteran defendant, had refused to pay the $58 fine. His lawyer argued that his actions were less destructive than the 57,000 giant signs that fill the train stations of France.... ‘The advertising budget in France is $39 billion a year.... That’s equivalent to the entire education budget in France.... Our movement goes a lot further than a simple symbolic gesture. And that’s what we want the public to understand.’”

This two-pronged attack on aggressive advertising, fighting with both graffiti and law, seems to be a growing pattern, a combination of legal and extra-legal civil disobedience (with a dash of spectacle) in the battle over what constitutes public space.
>  8 February 2009 | LINK | Filed in , , ,
What You Can Do With the City. paint-makes-park.jpg Curated by the Canadian Centre for Architecture, a list of 99 creative, public interventions for civic improvement. See, for instance, Illicit Stencil Saves Cyclists and Reclaim Vacant Lot with What City’s Got. ( via ag, gi)
>  15 January 2009 | LINK | Filed in , , , ,
Refused by His City, Man Jailed for Painting a Crosswalk. “Whitney Stump was tired of drivers ignoring stop signs at an intersection in his Muncie, Indiana neighborhood. After futile attempts to get the city to install crosswalks, Stump took matters into his own hands and painted one in at the corner of Dicks and North streets. Then he got arrested.”
>  25 February 2008 | LINK | Filed in ,
Design Police. Download and print out this handy sheet of stickers to mark-up your image environment for violations of good design sense. (Thanks Kim!)
Design Police
>  16 January 2008 | LINK | Filed in , , ,



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