Category: Art

Shopping cArt Race in Toronto

I’m organizing the Toronto Idiotarod and I like to think that these sort of crazy events function as art.

We’re de-contextualizing the shopping cart which is a device designed to have people consume more than they normally would. In the Idiotarod the shopping cart is not something that you’ll want to fill with objects. We’re taking a tool used for consumption and turning it into something fun.

At each checkpoint the Idiots (racers) will be given information from an environmental organization and condoms from a health organization. We’re trying to educate people about issues in their own city by providing a fun experience.

If you live in Toronto, hop on the TTC or your bike and come to Grange Park for the 4pm start of the race!

Video on NY Environmental Artist

This landed in my email today from Parisa:

I’d like to share with you a video from Current.com that I thought you and your blog would appreciate; in the piece, Fritz Haeg–green architect/artist, discusses his current art project called Animal Estates where he makes homes for animals where people live in cities, suburbs, private properties, institution, etc. Based on the Manhattan Project, Fritz’s intention is to make homes for animals that used to live four-hundred years ago on locations where he’s placed his art. In the video, Fritz discusses his inspiration, roots, concepts and the ideas behind this project

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Canadian Environmental Art

The CBC has a neat article that examines the state of Canadian art that tackles how we look at the environment. Art is so fun!

Anyone who’s driven down Toronto’s Don Valley Parkway has seen Noel Harding’s most famous public artwork. Elevated Wetlands consists of large, plastic, tooth-like sculptures that serve as planters for wetland vegetation. In addition to fashioning whimsical, inverted storage sheds that act as birdhouses (A Chirp), Harding has recently moved into full-scale environmental planning with a project called Green Corridor. This collaboration with University of Windsor visual arts professor Rod Strickland will see the gradual construction of a two-kilometre “regenerative green zone” surrounding the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Windsor and Detroit. The corridor will feature numerous science and art projects, including wind turbines, “botanical interventions,” pedestrian walkways and water gardens.

3 Trillion Dollar Spending Spree

Here, have $3,000,000,000,000 and spend it!

What appears to be an art project (or is it marketing?) is critiquing the cost of the USA invading and occupying Iraq. That’s right, it will cost $3 trillion to fight for oil, er, freedom. The website linked above is a challenge to see how well you can spend the same amount of money for the world that you want. It’s obviously aimed at Americans. Take a look at my shopping cart here.

$3 TRILLION isn’t just how much the Iraq War will cost our government, it’s how much it will cost our sputtering economy. When the Bush administration launched this war, they claimed Americans would not have to make sacrifices. They even cut taxes with the help of a Republican-led Congress, rather than raising them as had been done historically in times of war. According to Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes in their book The Three Trillion Dollar War, we’re fighting an unnecessary war on borrowed money. The war has caused our skyrocketing national debt. And more than anything else, the war has caused our recession.
Here’s how $3 trillion breaks down:

$526 billion — borrowed money poured into Iraq so far
$615 billion — total interest costs for taxpayers
$280 billion — to rebuild our military
$590 billion — disability benefits and health care for Iraq veterans
$1.5 trillion — estimated costs through 2017