On water

(Photo courtesy of Michael Cross.)

The cacophony you're presently hearing is the recursive, strengthening screaming of “Marvelous!” echoing through Pruned Headquarters for Bridge, a site-specific installation by Michael Cross.

“Housed in a former church,“ a project statement reads, “the piece comprises submerging two thirds of the inside of the church in water, and producing a series of steps which rise out of the apparently empty man-made ‘lake’ as you walk across them. Each step emerges one step in front of you and disappears back underneath behind you as you go. This ‘bridge’ is purely mechanical, the weight of the person on it depresses each step a little, this force activates a submerged mechanism which raises the next step.”

And yes, in what will certainly precipitate an outbreak of messianic prophecies, marian visions and apocalyptic auguries, “the public are invited to walk out on it as if walking on water, eventually reaching the middle of the lake, thirty steps and twelve meters from the shore. There they will stand alone and detached, stranded in the middle of a plane of water until they choose to return the way they came. For some people this experience of being cut off and surrounded by water will be peaceful, for others terrifying. For some walking across the water will be pure childish joy, whilst others will be too scared to try.”


(Photo courtesy of Michael Cross.)


(Photo courtesy of Michael Cross.)

Meanwhile, we are forced to quote a few biblical passages on the redemptive and sublime qualities of water.

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (Psalms 42:1)

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. (Psalms 32:1-2)

Save me, O God; for the waters are come into my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. (Psalms 69:1-2)

The installation closes on 30 October.

Pharmland™

“What if Denmark farmed pharmaceuticals?” asked NORD.

What if Denmark — no longer encumbered by the dichotomy between the natural and the manmade — began to cultivate fields of mine sweeping plants and vaccine-laden tomatoes just outside of Copenhagen?



What if Denmark — two-thirds of which is devoted to low value traditional farming — reprogramed its agricultural production landscape to include high value biotech agribusiness?

What if Denmark — with the ability to generate more revenue from less land — returned all the unnecessary farmlands back to the people?

And what if Denmark also transformed some of those former farmlands into “Wilderness,” a new landscape that covers 20% of the country and one that is more or less continuous?





And here's another intriguing question: what if Denmark — by lessening its dependence on massive EU agricultural subsidies — fostered a freer global market, allowing developing countries to enter the market and begin self-sustaining economies?

For the answers, you can view the presentation slideshow or download the catalogue.

Link:
Pharmland™

In the Archives:
Brave New Edible Estates

Floating Pool

(Model of the floating pool. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects.)

Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects is reintroducing a floating pool to New York City. At the turn of the previous century, we are told, the city “had as many as 15 floating bathhouses moored along the East and Hudson rivers. These floating bathhouses were tied up to existing piers during the summer, usually near the tenement districts and provided an opportunity for the public not only to bathe, but to learn to swim.”


(Building the pool in Louisiana. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects.)

Once completed it “will be towed to its designated waterfront site, which might vary from summer to summer. Acting as a kind of 'migrating recreation pier', the pool would serve neighborhoods which would otherwise lack direct access to public pool facilities.”


(Note the summery colors of the cabin roofs. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects.)


(Floating towards New York. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects.)


(Lounging around the pool. Photo courtesy of Jonathan Kirschenfeld Architects.)

Next on the production line: a floating oxygen greenhouse for those neighborhoods without direct access to clean air. Also: for those without direct access to clean drinking water, a floating river.

Don't touch that dial, Bernanke

Houston's 94.5 FM "The Buzz" alternative music radio station has a daily financial news segment called "Rock out with your stock out."

Axis of Delicious

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is encouraging its people to breed rabbits for food, the regime's official media reported today.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that rabbits were "the most economically profitable domestic animals" for the mountainous country's limited arable land.

Why the hell not?

AUSTIN -- State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, said today that she is "vehemently insulted" by independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman's derogatory comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees.

Friedman last week attributed a spike in Houston's crime rate to the "crackheads and thugs" who evacuated New Orleans. Friedman did not call Senfronia a vehemently idiot, despite the vehemently obviousity that she is.

On the record

Cincinnati over NY Giants in the Super Bowl. Win one for Lachey.

Cellular Terrain, Part II

Download a 3-minute excerpt of Inner Life of a Cell from here.

In the Archives:
Cellular Terrain