Created by Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya back in 2011, Cloud Parking is a magical installation that gave people a chance to walk through clouds or, depending on how you look at it, a heavy blanket of fog. (“Scientifically, cloud and fog are the same,” stated Nakaya, “but conceptually, there is a big difference.” She describes fog as “an interactive media” which “conjures dialogue with nature” and “reveals the innate” whereas clouds have “never left the realm of romanticism.”) Located in Linz, Australia, on the rooftops of buildings, were these artificially created clouds that enveloped its visitors completely.

more at: http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/fujiko-nakaya-cloud-parking-linz

A state rules society by weaving its logic of power into the fabric of society. In a city like Damascus, power configures space.

As part of workshop at University of Damascus, twelve students were asked to describe places that are mysterious, off-limits or such whose function may be obscure to the public. By inventing new names for each and by creating fictitious accounts of what is happening there, the places are reimagined into private utopias within a totalitarian state. Soft mountains in the heart of the city were found, niches to rest in absolute silence or hidden-away rooms where men and women can invert their roles.

Finally a five-meter tall neon signpost, now permanently installed at the Damascus University Art Gallery. Nine arrows pointing in nine different directions, spelling out the names of places that do not yet exist.

more at: http://thegreeneyl.com/unseen-damascus

Hello Lamp Post! by design and research studio PAN, is the recipient of Bristol’s first ever Playable City Award.

Hello Lamp Post! invites you to tune in to the secret conversations of the city and communicate through lamp posts, bus stops, post boxes and other street furniture. Part game, part story, anyone will be able to play by texting in a unique code found on the city’s familiar street objects.

Lamp posts, bus stops and post boxes are the goosebumps of the city and so ubiquitous that they have become invisible. Hello Lamp Post! will make them playable, using existing city infrastructure to make an open, hospitable and playful experience which encourages you to notice and interact with what is around you.

Every post box in Bristol has a six figure code, every bollard has two, some of the benches have seven and the storm drains have 14. This summer you will be able to text the word ‘Hello + the name of the object + its code’ to the special phone number and the item of street furniture will immediately text you back with a question. Will it be pleased to see you? Irritated at having been left in the rain? Or will it tell you a secret? The more you play, the more the hidden life of the city will be revealed.

more at: http://www.watershed.co.uk/playablecity/about/the-winner/

When in motion, each of the 21 swings in the series triggers different notes and, when used all together, the swings compose a musical piece in which certain melodies emerge only through cooperation.

Together with Luc-Alain Giraldeau, an animal behavior professor from the Université du Québec à Montréal’s Science Faculty, we explored the concept of cooperation:

Cooperation emerges when the behavior of each individual depends on the decisions of the rest of the group: it’s a game where, from the start, you need to adjust to the actions of others.

The result is a giant collective instrument that stimulates ownership of the new space, bringing together people of all ages and backgrounds, and creating a place for playing and hanging out in the middle of the city center.

More Info at: http://www.dailytouslesjours.com/project/21-balancoires/

The eleventh Urban Age conference will take place in central London on 6-7 December 2012. This year the conference will focus on the ‘Electric City’ – a detailed investigation of how the combined forces of technological innovation and the global environmental crisis are affecting urban society.

Organised by LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society, and supported by the Mayor of London, the two-day event will explore a number of themes that connect technology, the environment and cities. Speakers will be asked to tackle the social dimension of technological change, addressing questions of adaptation and change in individual and collective behaviour. The objective of the Urban Age Electric City conference – and the research leading up to it – is to provide a fresh perspective on how to accelerate the current sociotechnical transition of cities in order to more effectively respond to the urgent environmental and economic challenges.

The invitation-only event will be held in London and will be attended by around 350 participants, with over 50 speakers drawn from cities and institutions in Asia, Africa, North and South America and Europe.

It will be streamed live on the LSE Cities website on 6 and 7 December starting 9AM GMT.

more at: http://ec2012.lsecities.net

Marling is a mass-participation interactive urban spectacle, sited in a public square in Eindhoven, Netherlands, brought to life by the voices of the public.

Your voice creates the space around you, reverberates in many ways long after you have stopped speaking. In Marling the voices of citizens are given form through spectacular effects that hang in the air above the crowd, forming a delicate, intricate ceiling of animated colour. People become players on the urban stage, together bringing the space to life through their actions and sounds, and building a shared public memory of collaboration that, hopefully, will last long after the event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN8Gky8_Sf8

more at: haque.co.uk

via: SEMNON

A new, innovative venue offering artistic and research residencies of 2–12 months duration for art production at the interface of urban research will open its doors in summer 2012 in the district of Moabit in Berlin-Mitte, on the edges of Berlin‘s largest inland port, Westhafen.

Located in a former railway depot surrounded by a freshly landscaped park, the ZKU – Center for Art and Urbanistics – is the linchpin of a concept developed by Berlin-based artists‘ collective KUNSTrePUBLIK.

Analogous to the nineteenth-century transport of goods by rail, this unique new venue is set to become a lively hub for the transport of ideas and ideals in the postindustrial era.

More information at http://www.zku-berlin.org

Josh Hiller is fed up. As a partner in RoadStoves, the food truck outfitter that helped launch Kogi into the stratosphere, he thinks L.A.’s rapidly expanding new-wave food truck scene is getting out of hand.

“We tried to be very specific about the trucks we launched; we were looking for good business models and good food,” says Hiller of the months that followed Kogi’s launch 21/2 years ago and its unexpected success. At the time, Angelenos, united by Twitter, lined up for two hours or more to taste the truck’s signature Korean barbecue tacos.

“We got hundreds of calls, but we rejected 95% of the requests. The problem came when the other commissaries and truck owners saw money and basically just prostituted the whole culture. So what you ended up with was 15 so-so trucks parked on Mid-Wilshire, the city unhappy, a mediocre food product and all the truck owners cannibalizing each other’s business.”

Hiller is not alone in feeling that what was once an exciting, underground food scene driven by a punk rock aesthetic and an exploratory mentality is swiftly becoming a mainstream, bottom-line-obsessed maze of infighting and politics.

When Kogi started, there were only a few new-wave food trucks on the scene; now that number is hovering near 200, says Hiller. And where experimental entrepreneurs once dominated, corporate players such as Jack in the Box and Sizzler are entering the fray.

There are other issues too, including a wealth of copycat trucks and the sense that many entering the business have no culinary experience but expect to make a fortune.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a silver lining to the movement’s adolescence. Hiller, other truck owners and a ravenous public believe in the food truck’s promise — the realization of a street-food culture that unites a disparate city and encourages a community that lingers outdoors together over a plate of food. It’s a concept long understood by the loncheras, or taco trucks, that have operated for decades without stirring the beehive of debate that these flashy new trucks have generated.

Read the full story at latimes.com

Slowing down, much less stopping, will likely get you trampled on the ever-bustling streets of New York, but Bland Hoke and Howard Chambers envision a metropolis punctuated with impromptu social spaces surrounding some of the city’s biggest eyesores. The pair met as students in the Transdisciplinary Design MFA program at Parsons and, taking cues from the prominent pedestrian plazas popping up all over Manhattan, created Softwalks–a kit of parts that includes chair, planter, counter, light, and screen that can be easily attached to the scaffolding, or “sidewalk sheds,” that obscure the front of so many urban structures.

“We were inspired by the concept of ‘the city as lab’ as well as the work of Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl, who recognized the positive aspects of social interaction within urban spaces,” Hoke tells Co.Design. Extensive testing was done to ensure the set-ups didn’t cause unwanted congestion–in fact, groups milling about were actually a boon for some businesses, as “people attract people,” Hoke says.

If the thought of loitering beneath an active construction site seems slightly unsafe, the duo discovered there is actually a glut of “passive” scaffolding that languishes curbside, doing a whole lot of nothing. “New York City’s Local Law 11 stipulates that every five years a building must undergo a facade inspection,” Hoke explains. “Unfortunately, some fail, and in the worst case the cost of keeping a sidewalk shed installed is more economical than doing the repairs. In our research we discovered an instance of one remaining in place for 12 years!” The Softwalks team is currently working with Business Improvement Districts to initiate a pilot project with the kit of parts, which will also be on display at the Dumbo Arts Festival and the Art in Odd Places festival.

via: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670533/softwalks-transforms-streetside-scaffolding-into-urban-parklets#3

“ Artist Kiel Johnson looks at paper in a very specific way. He doesn’t see it as something you can simply write on or recycle to make more paper: he says paper as the building block of creativity. His current body of work has been to construct these tiny, intricate, detailed little cities from chipboard and various other paper pieces. These cities are fully realized with stadiums and police chases, power lines and Times Square like culture zones. They have thousands of little stories contained in one piece and are just incredibly fascinating. “ – via thefoxisblack.com

Read an Interview of Kiel Johnson at laimyours.com

Watch Theo Jemison’s video of artist Kiel Johnson’s installation “Everyone’s an Architect” at TEDActive 2012. See how the project grows throughout the week, with dozens of collaborators stopping by or spending long hours to help build Johnson’s charming cardboard city — lit up with LEDs powered by human foot traffic and a hand-cranked generator