Couture and craft collided in the fifth Wearable Art Fashion Show at the Dunedin Fine Art Center Saturday night. Nine design houses created dozens of different wearable art ensembles to the thrill of the packed house. See all the fashion festivities (and a few faux pas?) after the break…
What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:
Living with the land: Florida’s first Earthship (video) – Eric Stewart gives a firsthand look at Florida’s first Earthship in Manatee County, and gets his hands dirty while helping out.
Not getting a million-dollar bonus this year? Think local stimulus- Scott Milinder shows us a real stimulus package that will work for us: we all commit to “Buying Local First.” According to recent economic studies, shifting your buying habits to locally owned businesses creates more circulation of money, more economic activity and more jobs in the local economy.
Eco-friendly summertime fashion accessories- Are you searching for a unique and beautiful purse to enhance your summer wardrobe? Then why not consider one of these recycled handbags that are made from recycled items that help to promote a cleaner and healthier world, reports Jen Meier.
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As you’ve seen from a post earlier this week in the Green Community, Florida is getting its first Earthship. But what exactly goes into making an Earthship and what makes it so energy efficient and eco-friendly?
Not only do Earthships utilize solar and wind energy (for heating, cooling, and electricity), they are made completely of natural and recycled items and are built to harvest their own water, have contained sewage treatment, and their own built-in gardens so inhabitants can harvest their own food.
Read the rest of this entry »
What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:
Steps to becoming greener: Reducing your waste, reusing and recycling: Joshua Poll gives some useful tips for ways to start reducing, reusing, and recycling things you thought you could just throw away.
Genetically engineering cows that will produce less methane, reducing greenhouse gases: Geneticists in Canada are trying to engineer a cow that produces less methane, resulting in less greenhouse gases, reports Brian Roberts.
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What architecture is and what an architect does seem largely unknown to most folks.
Tampa often seems strangely ambivalent toward good architecture and design; for instance, it’s nicknamed one of its finest newer downtown buildings the “beer can building” a.k.a. Rivergate Tower (see photo). This exquisite neoclassical building was designed by architect Harry Wolf, who based its measurements on the Fibonnacci series. You know the building — it’s the round one right next to the “exploding chicken” sculpture.
People work with an architect for many reasons. Sometimes it’s required by law for the building they’re constructing. Others hire an architect because they’re interested in collaborating and turning their ideas into a built form that is extraordinary and reflects not only themselves, but the local climate, history and culture. This team then finds a contractor or builder that can build what they want. Many think that architecture is the purview of the rich, that the intent of architecture is to create expensive “works of art.” This ignores the fact that “good design” needn’t be expensive and often employs good old-fashioned American ingenuity: locating and implementing alternate materials and construction methods to keep the price within bounds. Truly good design accomplishes the needs and wants of the client and architect within whatever budget.
The American Institute of Architects Florida Chapter recently created a video that describes what architecture is, what architects do and why architecture is important. It’s not on YouTube but it can be viewed after the break, along with a list of recipients of the 2009 AIA Tampa Bay Design Awards.
The American Institute of Architects Tampa Bay (AIA Tampa Bay) is currently conducting their “Second Annual People’s Choice Awards” for projects entered into the AIA Tampa Bay 2009 Design Awards! Voting is open to everyone, please visit this site to review the projects, and then cast your vote.
Unfortunately there does not appear to be a Green/Sustainable Architecture category as of yet.
Voting is open to ALL
Select your favorite entry overall from all of the award categories. Each category has its own page, so you will need to write down your favorites and then submit your final choice on the last page. You may only vote one time for one project. We welcome your comments: Please be sure to include the project name or number in your comments so we know what you are commenting on.
Results will be announced at the Design Awards Gala on June 20th 2009 at NOVA 535 at 535 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive North, St. Petersburg, FL 33701.
Summer is coming up, and what better way to start it off than with a sneak peak at some new fashions? In addition to a killer photo shoot by Athena Torri, I have some exciting news about a new store opening in Tampa! Designer Raven Reda of Suspicious Package has wrangled in some great independent designers, artists and Tattoo..ers(?) to unite in a hip store on Howard Ave., called F.A.T. ink.
F.A.T. ink will have its soft opening May 1. We’ll get Raven in the studio later this month for a podcast to chat more about the specs and future of the store. Did I mention that Aleka Phoenix is finally going to have a steady place for people to buy clothing and accessories?
So to get you excited for all this news and the highly anticipated summer line from Aleka Phoenix check out the some shots from photoshoot”Electric” by Athena Torri with models Jojo & Jonathan Rosa, hair by our own Fusionista Tara at Salon 54 and makeup by Abra Molinari: Read the rest of this entry »
Courtesy of Design Zen
Sometimes it’s handy to watch a short movie or live streams on a mobile phone. But, getting the viewing angle just right isn’t always possible without having to hold it. Then you need something that can solve this problem – or come out with creative DIY pencil iPhone stand just like what Roland Hutchinson from Geeky Gadget do. Make your own iPhone stand using a regular pencil’s and elastic bands.
Wolfmother poster and album art by Keith Burnson
Last week, the second round of Artistik Envy – the online reality show about ten International Academy of Art and Design students competing to be named the best – focused on a 70s revival challenge. Two of the previous contestants Corey Garlow and Jerrodoemie Winters, were eliminated after Round One. (That’s not, in my opinion, to say they were the weakest competitors – I thought there were a couple of others who could just as easily have been cut. And, in fact, two weeks ago I voted for Corey – but apparently not everybody felt the same way. If you check out the site now, it looks as if another round of cuts have already been made, claiming Jovani Coleman and Rick Timpe as the latest designers to be auf’ed.)
Shown: Madden 09 screenshot
It’s lunchtime on the third and last day of the Sarasota International Design Summit, and some conferees are playing video games (literally). We’ve just listened to Phil Holt, general manager of EA Tiburon, offer insights into some of his company’s recent successes and where gaming as an industry is headed in the future.
A few things seem certain: gaming is headed toward being an increasingly important global industry (already at $37.5 billion worldwide per year), even with the economic challenges ahead; gaming is increasingly taking place on a variety of platforms including online, on gaming systems like Wii, on iPhones, on cell phones, within social networking sites, etc.; the audience for gaming is growing beyond hardcore fans to include demographics like children, seniors and women of all ages.
Courtesy Sarasota Int’l Design Summit/Pininfarina
Today and tomorrow, the Sarasota International Design Summit continues. (Click here to read an earlier overview of the event.)
At this point, the ideas start coming fast and furious, which is why the summit’s “visualization maestro,” Tom Wujec of Autodesk, plans to recap yesterday’s big ideas (memes, if you will) in sketches this morning. Throughout the conference, Wujec and a team of Ringling College students transcribe the speakers’ main arguments and/or research insights into digital tablet-drawn graphics. Believe me, by mid-Tuesday a mnemonic device or two starts to come in handy.
More of yesterday’s highlights:
Franco Lodato of Pininfarina described his company’s design for an electric car, Sintesi, that engages with the surrounding environment (i.e., the city) as a network. Hair-raising concepts included the absence of mirrors from the car – why have them when the automobile could network with a city’s omnipresent surveillance cameras? – and the obsolescence of stoplights when the cars themselves are able to negotiate who will stop when.
Greetings from the Sarasota International Design Summit, where I’m sitting in the ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Sarasota listening to the summit speakers.
Bruce Damer (pictured) just finished discussing his work, including the development of the iDoublet—a renaissance-inspired garment that holds all of your “wearz” or gadgets, like iPods. (In addition to several music players, Damer was wearing a prototype of a LED Twitter feed, with text scrolling across a small panel at his hip as he spoke.)
Damer spoke about his work simulating complex processes that are not yet realizable in real life. Through his work with NASA, he has—along with a team of collaborators—created animations modeling possible asteroid landing techniques, for example. One of his most recent projects is EvoGrid, an animated model of how a computer-driven artificial evolution environment might look and operate. Though Damer’s own work is quite science- and space-specific, the idea of modeling a process or prototype and experimenting in a virtual world has potential for application in a wide variety of industries. (Including architecture and construction, which the summit’s next speakers will address.)
Megan Voeller is Creative Loafing’s visual art critic. She teaches at the University of Tampa and The Art Institute of Tampa, edits the weekly online newsletter of CreativeTampaBay and blogs at Artsqueeze.com.
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