cover photo



blog archive

main site

artwork

bio






Schwarz



View current page
...more recent posts

'53 skylark


[link] [2 comments]

In its 34 years of existence, Liberty State Park has lived with approximately 250 acres of contaminated land, fenced off with signs warning of hazardous material. When the park was founded in 1976, there were few expectations that the area would ever recover from its past. Tainted with industrial waste, the swath seemed relegated to little more than an unsightly reminder of industrial recklessness.

But now, after ten years of public debate, environmental studies, and an approved plan in place for a $32 million dollar massive wildlife development project, the area — known as the Interior Natural Area — is set to re-open. And this Saturday, the park will give its second-ever public tour of the area and its dramatic environmental recovery.

[link] [add a comment]

In the early 1960s, after his collaboration with Jean Tinguely, Klüver began a long association with Roberg Rauschenberg. Their first collaboration was a work entitled, Dry Cell (1963). Dry Cell combined silkscreens, ink, and paint on plexiglass, as well as metal, string, sound transmitter, wire, circuit board, motor and batteries. An interactive work, Dry Cell engaged the audience in an exchange, a dialog between human and machine, in which the viewers are invited to talk or make other sounds into a microphone on the face of the work. In response, a small propellerlike piece of metal begins to rotate.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Rauschenberg produced this work in collaboration with engineers Harold Hodges and Per Biorn. It was shown in 1964 as part of the "For Eyes and Ears" exhibition at the Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in New York.


[link] [add a comment]

string quartets thread


[link] [2 comments]


[link] [5 comments]

sixpack tatoos at boxvox


[link] [add a comment]

b and w op quilt - variation on drunkards path pattern

vintage op fabric


[link] [add a comment]

Optical Art (Ovals) 1966 LBH ink drawing 12 x 9 in. Price: $60 + $5 sh



[link] [1 comment]

R. Crumb on greed, senior sex and life in France: ‘I’m not less angry’ [updated]

via hyperion fb
[link] [add a comment]

paper airplane in space


[link] [add a comment]

As SoHo’s iron-boned, sprawling lofts became gold mines over the past two decades, co-op boards, banks, brokers and the city itself winked at a rule requiring that they be reserved for working artists.

But over the last year or so, something odd began to occur: people started paying attention to the rule.

Apartments, even those in buildings with the prestige of famous residents, have languished on the market. Banks began withholding mortgages. Co-op boards began ordering residents to apply to the city for certification as artists.

[link] [add a comment]

quonset huts

other waymarking catagories
[link] [2 comments]

lamp black


[link] [1 comment]

The conversion of forests to other uses (especially agriculture) and the impoverishment of existing standing forests has been a consistent theme of the 20th century. The trend has many pre-1900s pockets. Greece lost its famous oaks to the axes of northern invaders in pre-Hellenic times. In the 1700s and 1800s, the oak-hickory forests of the American mid-western and southern deciduous forests all fell to wheat, corn and tobacco farms. The forests of southern Europe , Iran , Afghanistan , the Middle East , much of highland China , Nepal , Tibet and Sahelian Africa have been replaced by a shrub/grass complex. Various- kingdoms in West Africa (900s through 1300s) deforested areas for metallurgy, especially smelting.

The global timber trade began in the colonial era, starting in 1550 but accelerating after the post-Napoleanic Wars. Countries that had the transport, capital, technology, and political means extracted wood products from every region of the world. The Thai teak trade, the British extraction of naval stores from the American colonies, and Ghana 's African mahogany trade are three such sagas. In the twentieth century, industrial economies continue to tap the forests of developing economies to meet their own demand for construction wood, veneer, and plywood. Time after time, private investors join national commercial and political interests. Together, they cash in on the short-term profits to be made from timber exports from capital-starved nations. The most recently popularized example is the clearing of rainforests for timber and the replacement of these forests with pasture for export beef cattle. On the other hand, the developing economies have.been, until very recently, completely dependent on the northern industrialized nations (including China) for paper. Their export of timber has, in many cases, almost balanced their import of paper yielding no net gain in income.

[link] [add a comment]

down the hatch


[link] [add a comment]

call it what it is, retro futurism.

further reading: at its best, SVC


[link] [add a comment]

Cadmium paints are made with Cadmium sulphide, cadmium-zinc sulphide, cadmium-seleno sulphide, and there are even "Mercadium" variants that have mercury added for greater heat stability. Lithopone (co-preciated with barium sulphate) varieties also exist.

So, the cadmium content cannot be 100%, since at least one atom of sulphur is bonded to each atom of cadmium.

Plus, there is oil in a tube of paint and various other compounds.

One issue with heavy metal paints is solubility. Insoluble molecules tend to be less dangerous than soluble molecules. Some soluble molecules are much more dangerous than others, too. Dimethyl mercury is a lot more dangerous, for instance, than mercuric sulphide (vermilion).

[link] [add a comment]

Mumyoi Yaki is a traditional craft of Sado Island (佐渡島) in the Nigata prefecture (新潟県). Sado Island used to produce huge quantity of gold. Most Japanese associate Sado Island with its gold mine. The Sado gold mine not only produces gold, but also siliver and the most importantly red clay that contains a very high percentage of natural minerals granule. A long time ago, the red clay collected from the gold mine was used as a medicinal concoction. It was applied to the wound to prevent from bleeding.

In 1819, a man by the name of Ito Kanbei (伊藤甚平) began making Raku Ware (楽焼) using the by-product of the gold mine. In 1857, the pottery in Sado Island was further developed by Ito Tomitaro (伊藤富太郎). At that time, red clay was partially used. It was mixed with other clays in order to get a specific character of Raku Yaki.

[link] [1 comment]

georgia red clay for baseball diamonds / BEAM CLAY / Diamond Pro (also bricks to build mounds)


[link] [4 comments]

Self-healing of Concrete by Bacterial Mineral Precipitation

Repairing cracks in concrete structures is a time consuming, costly but necessary business. TU Delft is researching how the self-healing capacity of concrete structures can be improved by using calcite-precipitating bacteria and what conditions are necessary for these bacteria to thrive.

via ree
[link] [2 comments]

When visitors to Grand Central Terminal look up, the stars will be shining once again. That's because the backwards-painted zodiac on the green-hued ceiling has new LED lights that twinkle in accordance with each star's brightness in the night sky.

[link] [add a comment]

“Hotel Gramercy Park” Film Traces the Famous Hotel’s Highs, Lows

catch this running on sundance now if for no other reason than the schnable decorating scenes.
[link] [add a comment]

coppice farming in america. help write the story:

Hello friends!

We hope this message finds you fulfilled and healthy after a wonderful summer/autumn. I'm writing because Mark Krawczyk and I have begun writing what will be, to our knowledge, the first North American manual on coppice agroforestry, and we have two favors to ask of you.

For those of you who don't know, coppicing is a traditional forest management practice where deciduous trees get cut during dormancy and then regrow from the stump. We can later harvest these sprouts to make crafts, fuel, fodder for livestock, and many other useful products. Though humans have coppiced for over 6,000 years, no comprehensive resource exists that describes coppice system design, management, and establishment for our continent, well-suited North American species and projected yields, and the economics of coppice systems. It's a big gap to fill and we're eager to fill it as best we can!

We're already well underway, writing, researching, and building connections and a portfolio of case studies. Mark will travel to the west coast and Midwest this December to learn more about how folks have been using coppice there. Dave has begun combing the literature for any and all existing research on the subject so we can consolidate what researchers know. He is also building a database of species and their coppicing characteristics. We hope to complete our first draft by winter's end.

The first favor: while we've contacted publishers about this project (and they are interested), we've elected to self-fund our manuscript development. We ask you, our friends, colleagues, students and supporters, to help make it happen by engaging in our Kickstarter campaign. If you're not familiar with it, this wonderful web-based service enables folks to financially support creative projects in return for various creative rewards and a connection to the project's creative process. Like Community Supported Agriculture, this Community Supported Authoring structure helps us maintain our financial viability while we create a resource the permaculture community needs. Even small amounts-$5 and $10 offerings-will help us achieve and pass our $5,000 goal so we can travel to interview and photograph practitioners, acquire resources from overseas, and cover at least some of our living expenses while we work. Check out the write-up, video, and rewards on our campaign page at:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coppiceagroforestry/dave-and-mark-write-a-coppice-agroforestry-book.

The second favor: if you or someone you know already uses coppicing as a way to produce crafts, biochar, animal fodder, or other products, we would LOVE to hear about it. Please send the person's contact information to both of us at the email addresses above. Also, if you have or know of any written materials, research papers, or references, we'd also love to hear about those. You can send references to Dave at davej@edibleforestgardens.com or at 308 Main St. #2C, Greenfield, MA 01301.

We feel grateful for whatever support you can provide (moral and otherwise) and will deeply appreciate you passing this email along to friends, listservs, and networks that may also be interested in helping support our work. (I guess that makes three favors! Thanks! :-)

With sincere thanks,

Mark and Dave
via permaculture
[link] [1 comment]

painting a shipping container


[link] [add a comment]