ecopolis

“Superfund365, A Site-A-Day” is an online data visualization application with an accompanying RSS-feed and email alert system. Each day for a year “Superfund365” will visit one toxic site currently active in the Superfund program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This piece was a Turbulence Commission, the long lasting project dedicated to the promotion of net.art.

The journey begin in the New York City area and work our way across the country, ending the year in Hawaii. In the end, the archive will consist of 365 visualizations of some of the worst toxic sites in the U.S., roughly a quarter of the total number on the Superfund’s National Priorities List (NPL). Along the way, they will conduct video interviews with people involved with or impacted by Superfund. Content changes every day so be sure to visit often or use the subscribe tools to have content delivered to you.

“Superfund365” is conceived, designed and produced by Brooke Singer. The programming and Flash guru behind the project is John Kuiphoff. Kurt Olmstead provides business analysis and additional programming. Emily Gallagher is assisting with project research and EPA relations. Camera and sound work by Andrew Rueland.

“Superfund365″ is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for its Turbulence website. It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation. Additional funding was provided by New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

2007

1969

The americans got the Moon first, in the 1969, perhaps….and now for sure the Russian has got a new territory: the norht pole.
End if in 1969 the U.S.A. considered the landing on the moon most of all as a promotional campaign, now the russian are playing hard, looking not only for a promotional campaing but also for…petrol.

More at Guardian and BBC.

Stream is any body of flowing fluid but also a continuous moving procession and line of development. A festive fluid – properly enviromental – which influenced the curatorial process of the first Stream Festival, in creating a three night and days artists residency on local and international levels. (check also Luca’s Streamfest point of review)

Ecopolis among other digital environmental experiences was invited to participate and reflect onto the topics : Emotions, Discovery, Play. So I have been driving from Rome to Galatina, via Taranto, Gallipoli, Martano streaming to the fest.

I have appreciated very much the occasion to meet a network of media activists dedicated at different levels to environmental “connection” : (not only) my Ecopolis partners Luca Barbeni and Antonio Rollo, (also) Paolo Atzori and the interesting 3d3 NABA students, Alessandra Pomarico of Sound Res, Jaromil, performing Carlo Infante, Gianluca Del Gobbo, Giulia Mainenti and great Cecile Landman of streamtime.org. A Fest which has produced a series of conversion of tacit knowledge and has explicited the difficulties related to the understanding of digital environments and social tagging. A paradigmatic meeting which ended up in the peace of nature. I think we all agreed that technology is not simply an extention of our body. More is a matter of (ever changing) environment. Consequently a multimedia and multisensorial experience.

My installation pick for this first edition is the Ingenium Loci an Interaction System by Giada Totaro, Giorgio Rinolfi, Alessandra Cascione with the splendid music by the talented young composer
Gilvia .
While the live performance picks are the quite sophisticate Sombrero Party showcase featuring the Cologne duo playing a bubbling brew of mutant jazz, souls, electronics and funk with a baroque bassline;

and the finnish LackLuster, who managed to play – within the torrid heat – some fresh, icy and twitching textures.

Worth to mention the “historical” Sinatti Carillon Chandelier Sessions, a mixedmedia performance consisting of a specially constructed video chandelier and a real time image renderer, along with the presence of an electronic live set.

Kinotek Sound of Complexity, an attempt to make audible and visible the complexity of unheard and invisible waves: The crude sound of brain is translated in an audible frequencies through techniques of pitch shifting; then processed digitally in real time and the corresponding frequencies transformed in a Cartesian space to form visual trajectories projected on four screens that react dynamically.

Last but not leat: Jaromil hasciicam who makes possible to take live video from a capture device (like tv cards or quickcams) and renders it into ascii, formatting the output into an html page.
Valeria Guarcini aka Nikky deliriouniversale was the most fun and very interesting vjset which explored the possibility of infinitive framing and time topology through the use of diapositives. As much as the 2 days flowing PhotoStream of Matteo Barbeni and Alberto Ribotta.

Next day I continued my south pilgrimage to Copertino.

The Franciscan church of Saint Giuseppe is considered to be a Sanctuary. It dates back to 1754. Inside there is the “Stalletta”, a small room where the Saint was born, and a small museum. He became famous for his ecstasies, miracles, and for the gift of levitation, reported by numerous eye-witnesses. He experienced this so often he became known as “the flying Friar.”

Then I moved to Lecce. I was guested at Supersquillo’s home near the curved archway of Lecce’s “Porta Napoli” one of the city’s main thoroughfares that meander through the “Centro Storico”.

Porta Napoli – Also know as Arch of Triumph,was erected in 1548 to pay homepage to Charles V for having fortified the town. Near by you can find the famous Teatro Paisiello, Lecce’s most renowned opera house and named in honor of Giovanni Paisiello. Built in the late 1600’s and originally named the “Teatro Nuovo”, reopened in 1993 is also called by the locals “teatro muto” (mute) because of the last renewal which ruined the acoustic. I also heard of a protest against the elimination of many historical pine trees which badly failed as you can see walking by the viale dell’università. No pine trees are left.

On the contrary “pink park spaces” are politically and correctly placed in the heart of the leccese Baroque of public square S. Oronzo

South park is infact controversial. Big Romanesque central rose windows, the rich frames, the columns, the imaginay creatures, the animals, the mythological and historical characters, the rural landscape, the natural food makes the Salento a perfect site for streaming into an ecstatic time. Felicità maniaca Carmelo Bene would say and play it, wouldn’t he?

Felicità
Felicità maniaca che ne faremo io della mia anima e
lei della gioventù sua cagionevole
lei, che tutto il mio cuore e la mia vita dove sarà a quest’ora …

But there is the emergency to create more Cultural and Environmental international occasion for the local population and more attention from the provincial administration. On preserving and updating these cultural treasures ensures their contribution to tourism and regional economic development is sustained over the long term, so that future generations may also benefit from them. We need old and new Fairs. Updated structure. Renewed festival. An essential pluriliguism, made of cultural vagabondage and more attention to electronic women. Streamfest was a good, yet critical, begin. And we are looking forward to check it next year – In the mean time the stream goes on.

To promote the upcoming The Simpsons Movie, 180ft image of Homer Simpson waving a doughnut aloft has appeared adjacent to the ancient Cerne Abbas giant, the 17th Century Rude Man and chalk hillside fertility symbol in Dorset.

Though Homer is drawn in biodegradeable paint, the english press reported that local pagans aren’t amused, saying that the proximity of Homer is disrespectful and they’ll be doing some “rain magic” to wash it away.

Cerne Abbas Giant Facts: Size: 180 feet (55 m) high; 167 feet (51 m) long
Location: 1 km north of Cerne Abbas village, Dorset, England, Map Ref: ST 667016, Ownership: National Trust, Hours: Always open, Cost: Free

Discover the Universe at home, using the Digital Universe Atlas that Hayden Planetarium offers on his website.

29 April 2007 – 2 September 2007

Ranging from reincarnation to cyber pop, Japanese artist Mariko Mori will address all manner of universal themes in this exhibition, which will consist of drawings, paintings, animations, videos, and enormous sculptures and installations. Mariko Mori creates artificial landscapes in which she often appears herself in various guises. She also puts modern science and technology to engaging use. A spectacular example is the large teardrop-shaped Wave-UFO, one of the highlights of the 2005 Venice Biennale, which also will go on show in the Groninger Museum.

Groninger Museum
Museumeiland 1
9711 ME Groningen
The Netherlands

What you see is the first Italian Parliament, in the city of Turin, Italy…i mean behind the blue pimple.

What you see is the National Library of Turin, where there’s an original book of Leonardo Da Vinci…i mean behind the blue pimple.

I know that the city council of all the italian cities has major problems of finance, but i think, that putting a huge blue box 5 meters in front of a National Library (that has even an original of Leonardo Da Vinci) and 20 meters from the first parliament of Italy it’s way too much.

On the photos you can clearly see how invading and not well positioned is the advertising box.
And what is more fun is that the message is about skin care, where looking at it from above it’s clear that the only thing that pollute the surface of the plaza, is the the advertising box itself, a sort of big spot on the face on the plaza.
Do i have to call them for a clean skin of the plaza?

p.s i’m not even talking about the text near the photos that it would be another news….so bad!!