Watershed Morphology Workshop

watershed symbols

representations of water from across time and cultures

How do we indicate water, let alone its increasing significance in maintaining the fabric of a healthy urban watershed? As we prepare a final design for the City of Oakland’s system of Watershed Markers, Ene and I will spend the weekend at farmer’s markets and major pedestrian thoroughfares throughout the East Bay, soliciting feedback on how best to frame a contemporary Watershed Morphology.

In keeping with our preferred, ‘socially-engaged’ process, we’ve assembled panels of schematic, graphic representations of water (see above) from across time and culture to learn what resonates with people in the course of everyday life. The major challenge  will be to confirm a visual language that is both recognizable across the socio-economic spectrum, while presenting something compellingly new and replicable, with a long-range view of urban life.

We would love to have your feedback as we home in on a design over the coming weeks. If you’re in the East Bay over the weekend, please leave a comment with your contact info and I will let you know where we’ll be.


Furniture for Becoming Independent

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concept sketch of the Space Chair for Becoming Independent

I’ve been commissioned to design tables and chairs for the youth of Becoming Independent, most of whom have developmental disabilities of varying degree. The seating structures will be used in a new playroom that doubles as a space for observation and evaluation, so the tables and chairs need to be very durable, safe, and easy to reconfigure by the people who use them. They also need to be inexpensive to produce while meeting the high aesthetic and ergonomic standards of the organization.

Over the next month, I will make the chairs out of locally-milled, air-dried Monterey cypress, which is strong, stable and has a pleasing amber glow when oiled and waxed. The joints will be mitered and fastened with the innovative Festool Domino system, and the backs will feature panel-on-frame construction, with panels designed and painted by the artists of Becoming Independent; the chairs will double as picture frames. The tables will be pentagonal in shape to encourage modularity and collaboration, with inlaid ‘star’ patterns to go with the playroom theme of space. I look forward to working with Ann Westaway, Service Director of Art Works, and the talented people she works with daily.

pilot chair2


The Quiet Mechanics of Country Life

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Here the soils of daily washing
stay on the land, conveyed by gravity
through pipes to the leach fields
to join the earth of the tree duff,
filtering fresh rainfall to
replenish the dwelling well.

Meanwhile the ferrous field well
spews rustily over the garden,
adding a mineral edge to
the lusty bite of a tomato or
the lean green snap of a pole bean,
washed clean by the other water.


Kohler Arts Center Residency

sheboygan

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Ene and I (wowhaus) have been invited to be artists in residence at the Kohler Arts Center Connecting Communities program over the coming year. We plan to realize a project with focus on human-powered transportation and have been researching the city’s rich past and progressive plans for modeling the potential for a ‘green’ city. remedios para piolho em comprimido I’ve been very impressed with Sheboygan’s Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program (NMTPP) and their ambitious plans for future bike and pedestrian paths.

I hope to have time to explore the city on my Dahon Folder when I make the initial, exploratory visit next month. I have not used the bike much since I customized it with wooden panniers and a homemade trailer as the centerpiece of our biodiesel project, Friesel. I will at least bring along my Windsor Longboard if the snow holds off.

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The Week in Bloom

sunflowers

A freak thunderstorm over the weekend jolted the late summer halo, bringing cooler, moister air with more than a hint of autumn. The gardens are yielding the last and brightest of their fruits, and in the Ernsts’ woods where we cut firewood, waxy chestnuts are weighing down the branches. strongyloides pcr post ivermectin The air everywhere is peppery with falling nuts from the bay laurel, and the south swell is beginning to break along Doran. goedkoop stromectol Our challenge now is to harvest the ripening pears before they drop, wowhaus projects having heated up once again. Continue reading “The Week in Bloom”

Running Fence Revisited

running fence poster

vintage Running Fence poster, tacked to the side of a barn in Bloomfield, CA

What a rare treat when a work of art actually affects the course of everyday life for everyday people. Dozens gathered yesterday in Bloomfield, West Sonoma County to greet the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude and to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of Running Fence, which the duo spent four years planning and six months building for a two week installation in West Marin and Sonoma Counties in September of 1976.

christo1

Christo and Jeanne-Claude warmly greet ranchers and others who helped

The gathering included many of the 59 ranchers who allowed the 25 mile long fence to run over their land, as well as locals who helped the artists construct and install the project. The feeling among the people was genuinely familial and it was truly touching to see Christo and Jeanne-Claude greeted more like old friends at a family reunion than as international art stars. Everyone present had a story to share about the epic project, recalled as though it had happened yesterday. ivermectin dosage in heartguard can i buy ivermectin for humans over the counter I spoke with one man who had been a Team Leader on the Meacham Hill stretch of Running Fence, who gleefully recounted the challenges of securing the fabric clips when the winds picked up.

jacket

jacket sewn by Mrs. Les Bruhm in 1976 of fabric from Running Fence

I also spoke with the daughter of Mr and Mrs Les Bruhm, ranchers who were first to welcome the artists to the community, and whose cousin created a lovely scrapbook of the Running Fence project, proudly on display at the celebration. The Running Fence project clearly succeeded in calling people beyond their daily charge, inviting them to be a part of a unique historic event, whose legacy now resides in their collective memory. ivermectin uk lyme Haematobia irritans (L.), and stable flies, Stomoxys calcitrans (L.) ivermectin However ephemeral, a thing will last if its value translates across generations. If you’d like to either contribute to, or follow my ongoing interest in documenting what remains of Running Fence, please follow the thread by clicking here.

scrapbookcover

cover of the Running Fence scrapbook, by  M.J. Butner, October, 1976

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ASR Dispatch: Sustainability the New Cool?

Young skateboarders showing off their tricks on the floor of the ASR trade show

The buzz in the ASR seminar rooms hints that skateboarding is suffering from no longer being as cool as it was a few years ago. Its hipness seems to have peaked when skater shoes crossed-over and saturated the mainstream market. Also, it has simply become too difficult to be any good at the sport- the bar for performance has been raised too high to earn any ‘street cred’. Ironically, it has also become almost impossible to rebel any more- skate culture has become so conformist in its appropriation of the urban, thrasher style, it’s just plain boring.

asec

Action Sports Environmental Coalition is carving out a niche for the New Cool

So what’s next? I think it has to do with defining a New Cool, which I anticipate will have a lot to do with sustainability. Surfing remains cool because the activity is almost synonymous with environmental stewardship, it follows logically that surf-related products enforce the perception. Skate culture still has a ways to go.

I was surprised and delighted to see the ‘Green Room’ at this year’s ASR trade show, sponsored by the Bay-Area-based non-profit, ASEC (Action Sports Environmental Coalition). Tucked away in the back corner of the San Diego Convention Center, the area featured retailers and manufacturers committed to social and environmental responsibility. I look forward to working with Sebastopol-based Frank Scura, one of the founders of ASEC, as I bring my Deep Deck and related products to market.