Chris Jordan - Portraits of American Mass Consumption

Digital artist Chris Jordan knows how to turn e-trash into photographic treasure. His large-scale images of massive amounts of statistically-inspired refuse make it all too clear just how big a problem consumer waste is. His work, which features objects from Barbies and plastic bags to e-waste and shipping containers, brings to light a tough dichotomy, presenting our gluttonous existence as consumers in a beautiful medium. He’ll be keynoting our Greener Gadgets Conference on Friday, and we can’t wait to hear what he has to say.

In his most recent exhibition, Running the Numbers, Jordan looks at contemporary American culture through “the austere lens of statistics.” Each image notes a staggering statistic, and portrays a large quantity of something (i.e. 426,000 cell phones, equal to the number of cell phones retired in the US every day). The image makes the statistic real, almost impressionistic in style, as it appears simple or monotone from afar but detailed up close (see the zoomed images of batteries and cell phones below). “The underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming,” he says.

Yves Béhar - One Laptop Per Child

For the last two years, Yves Béhar (Fuse Project) has been working with Nicholas Negroponte (One Laptop Per Child - OLPC), director of the MIT Media Lab, developing a laptop that will be sold exclusively to governments in the developing world for $100 and then given to school children. Not only have they achieved a miracle of costing, their laptop makes all existing models look lazy, cumbersome and stupid. via Wallpaper

The goal of the XO is simple and noble: to give every child a laptop, especially in developing countries, where the machines will be sold in bulk for about $130 apiece.
But the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit, formed at MIT, didn’t just create a cheap computer. In addition to cutting costs—by designing lower-priced circuitry and using an open-source operating system, among other things—it also improved on the standard laptop by slashing the machine’s energy use by 90 percent, ideal for a device that could be charged by hand-cranked power in rural villages. The biggest power hog is typically the display, so engineers invented a new LCD.
Each pixel has one part that reflects light and one that lets light pass through a colored filter. Turn on the LED behind the screen, and a full-color image appears as rays stream through the tinted filters. Turn it off to save power, and light bounces off the reflective parts of the pixels to form a black-and-white image perfect for e-mail or e-textbooks. Even more efficient, the CPU suspends itself when the image is static.

Expect the tech in full-price laptops in a few years.

Readymade Magazine

ReadyMade (or Ready Made) is a bimonthly magazine published by Grace Hawthorne which focuses on do it yourself (DIY) projects involving interior design, making furniture, home improvement, sewing, metalworking, woodworking and other disciplines. It also has increasingly focused on independent music and DIY culture. The magazine is marketed to people who enjoy creating unique items to have at home and wear, and features projects which can often be completed with affordable materials, including household items.

Unlike more traditional home improvement magazines and how-to books, ReadyMade's projects are aimed at a younger (21-39) audience. Projects in their issues include:

>>making a lamp out of a cd spindle

>>altering a car stereo to accept an iPod input jack

>>instructions on how to run for local office in the United States

>>recycling broken speakers to become light fixtures, coffee tables, or bookcases

and similar projects with an emphasis on creating an urban indie aesthetic.

ReadyMade is aimed at the emerging DIY culture in North America that enjoys not only the fashion of handmade items and interior design, but also the philosophy and politics inherent in recycling, DIY attire, and ecology. The ads featured in the magazine target a readership that is largely liberal, and interested in locally produced, handmade, ecological, and organic goods, but also features ads from companies such as PF Flyers shoes, Urban Outfitters, and similar corporations looking to appeal to a young hipster audience. The music featured in the articles is generally independent rock, featuring such artists' own DIY projects, such as an article where The Flaming Lips show how to make a mock space station out of junkyard parts.

Thanks Wikipedia