GVCS in 2 Minutes – High Resolution from Marcin Jakubowski on Vimeo.

Imagine if Survival Research Labs cultivated its inner child and went eco? I think you’d get something like Open Source Ecology‘s Global Village Construction Set, a DIY Open source machinery ensemble for self-sufficiency. You can’t get more awesome design than that!

Loyal readers of this blog know that I’m not a big fan of Adbusters (because I think antimarketing is ultimately just a kind of graffiti that reinforces marketing). But I don’t wish upon them further grief for a big faux pas they made with their One Flag competition. The idea was to open up a flag design contest to represent the global community. The problem, though, was that the panel of experts appointed to select the flag were all white men. How ironic. Well, let’s hope this is a teachable moment for the Adbuster’s crew (sounds like it is).

William Drenttel, one of the judges who opted out, writes in Design Observer:

I’m writing this here not to further abuse Adbusters, but to forcefully argue that this should not happen again. It is time for organizations to encourage diversity as a part of developing new ideas, excellence and a richness in the future of design — an increased focus on multiculturalism, gender equality and globalism is more than appropriate in these times. Designers should take a personal pledge that they will not participate in events or initiatives that do not include participation by others, whether of sex, color or language. It’s a simple step, but it’s time.

You can check out the competition here. There are actually some pretty cool concepts. I voted for The Rainbow of Existence. (Today, March 17, is the last day to vote)

Had gotten my act together, I would have made one that was white with the handwritten words, “This is not a flag.”

Mediacology pal Joao Amorim made this awesome video. A true inspiration for the (eco)design arts.

Link.

A new article about an old friend, R. Buckminster Fuller, featured in the New Yorker, “Dymaxion Man”.

As a media lit guy I think the one thing I can contribute to Earth Day is a warning that as companies “go green,” to be watchful of the kinds of images they use to hide or mask other activities. In particular an ad from a newspaper Website by Areva (a French nuclear power company) caught my attention. I clicked through and was intrigued by its fun hybrid of video game animation, info graphics and funky music. Immediately I thought of one of my favorite music videos by the band Royksopp (which I also posted above). Turns out they are done by the same animators, H5. Frankly it makes me nervous when nuclear power companies market their products as pop culture.

When you click around Areva’s Website, one things stands out: rather than forgrounding the product (nuclear power), instead they call themselves a clean energy company. This lines are their mission statement:

Innovate to contribute to CO2-free power generation and electricity transport that are cleaner, safer and more economic.

Sounds great. But is the above graphic, which shows the company’s energy distribution cycle, really the new paradigm that will change our lives? It still comes across as a centralized energy network with the consumer as the end user. I believe anti-television crusader Jerry Mander is correct when we assess the true implications of choosing nuclear power. It means a devil’s pact with a highly centralized, bureaucratized, military-industrial-complex. A renewable energy system is decentralized and is not dependent on a massive security apparatus or infrastructure delivery system predicated on scarcity. Areva uses graphics that put renewable energy on an equal footing with nuclear power, but do the size of graphic representations mean the same as actual input into the system?

As an alternative visual representation, consider the following graphic (click to make it bigger):

This is a systems representation from Permatopia derived from the concept of permaculture, which depicts a more interdependent relationship with all the factors of life.

When looking at the green claims of energy companies, you may want to consider the “Six Sins of Greenwashing“:

* Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off: e.g. “Energy-efficient” electronics that contain hazardous materials. 998 products and 57% of all environmental claims committed this Sin.

* Sin of No Proof: e.g. Shampoos claiming to be “certified organic,” but with no verifiable certification. 454 products and 26% of environmental claims committed this Sin.

* Sin of Vagueness: e.g. Products claiming to be 100% natural when many naturally-occurring substances are hazardous, like arsenic and formaldehyde (see appeal to nature). Seen in 196 products or 11% of environmental claims.

* Sin of Irrelevance: e.g. Products claiming to be CFC-free, even though CFCs were banned 20 years ago. This Sin was seen in 78 products and 4% of environmental claims.

* Sin of Fibbing: e.g. Products falsely claiming to be certified by an internationally recognized environmental standard like EcoLogo, Energy Star or Green Seal. Found in 10 products or less than 1% of environmental claims.

* Sin of Lesser of Two Evils: e.g. Organic cigarettes or “environmentally friendly” pesticides. This occurred in 17 products or 1% of environmental claims.

BTW, I have free media literacy materials that you can use to deconstruct industry messages. They are available here.

Finally, if you want to keep current on greenwashing, then visit PRWatch for its weekly spin report. Here is their video from the latest on PB.

PS Why is only one day a year dedicated to Earth? Just wondering.

As part of Penguin’s We Tell Stories series, this update of Dickens’ Hard Times is a pretty cool little tour of our current state of the stats by Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma. The above is from the page, “Ideas are traveling faster.” Admittedly I find the graphics a little hard to follow. Maybe I’m too old. Anyhow, take it a tour, it’s worth the trip.

I just spent 35 minutes watching Bruce Sterling sum up the ideas of his design manifesto, Shaping Things. Thank the Great Whatever, because Shaping Things has been sitting on my bookshelf for two years and I’ve been dying to know what it’s about. I don’t want to spoil a great talk, but suffice to say that Sterling debunks many sci-fi technological conventions (such as androids and cyberspace) as impractical, pointing out that they are better literary devices than real design solutions. Sterling calls for the creation of “spime,” a kind of sustainable hybrid object that is embedded within networks (within networks (within networks)).

(Via BoingBoing)

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