Hayes Valley’s Sagan Piechota Architecture will soon be hosting a reception for German artist turned Californian Sargam Griffin, and I’m looking forward to seeing the citrus colored work. While the Saturday opening is invite only, her creative process is well worth a look. She describes it as follows:
We live in tumultuous times of exponential change. As a whole – people, environment, society and the world – we are all at a crossroads. The old ways of thinking, acting, responding and consuming are not working. It is significant to me as a painter to capture this important time in my creative process.
After issuing an August call for local problems (not your average ask), the SF Urban Planning and Research Organization will host an evening of design-inspired ideas with GOOD magazine come Thursday. The Mission Street event will be moderated by Ms. Gelatobaby, LA’s own Alissa Walker, and will center around a lineup of problems and prospective solutions that include the following:
Challenge #1: Foster civic engagement through technology and online media. Submitted by Lisa Frazier, President/CEO of the Bay Citizen. Design response by Ben Barry and Lee Byron of Facebook.
Challenge #2: Increase the use of solar hot water use in California. Submitted by Molly Sterkel, California Public Utilities Commission. Design response by Kate Lydon & Anton Willis of Civil Twilight.
Challenge #3: Reframe urban density as a channel for public good. Submitted by Alexa Arena, Forest City. Design response by Larissa Sand of Sand Studios.
Challenge #4: Connect aging farmers with the next generation of agricultural landowners. Submitted by Steve Schwarz, CA Farmlink. Design response by Allison Arieff & Bryan Burkhart of modernhouse.
Challenge #5: Create a landscape that fosters forgetfulness. Submitted by Nader Shabahangi, President & CEO of Agesong. Design response by Sarah Kuehl of Peter Walker & Partners.
Challenge #6: Increase public transit ridership and decrease driving in San Jose and Silicon Valley. Submitted by Kevin Connolly, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. Design response by Brute Labs.
Challenge #7: Develop a system to store disaster response supplies across the Bay Area. Submitted by Gregory Smith, Director of Disaster Services, American Red Cross. Design response by Brian Singer of Altitude.
Lots of us are wary when we hear that something’s available to us for free. “Are you sure?” and “Are you trying to con me?” are our usual reactions, but in a Chris Anderson-inspired sphere where “Free” is a non-scary reality, a startup like Storenvy has a real shot.
And it should: the idea for a social store community that offers no-cost virtual storefronts is a strong one when coupled with good UI and eye-catching design (Kansas-to-California founding duo Jon and Janette Crawford have new addition Willo O’Brien to thank for that). DIY store owners are offered CSS color pickers and social features in the company’s aim to democratize e-commerce. And for the non-merchants among us, browsing shops like Fashion Loves People and Clothe Your Neighbor as Yourself is a great way to spend your clothing dollars supporting independents.
After a bright weekend in the city (it is Indian summer, after all), it’s nice to see work that’s equally colorful–and imaginative, for you Folsom Street Fair-goers. In addition to creating joyful work on wood locally, illustrator and CCA grad Mati Rose McDonough currently has a show at Rare Device that’s well worth a stroll through. If the warm weather keeps you from making it to the Market Street store, her Etsy shop may grab you with its neon elephant-themed pieces and half off sale.
Now that the Tour de France is over (and with it the de California), we San Franciscans are gearing up to do it our way: handcrafted and well-aled. Though we’re no Houston, the annual Tour de Fat bike extravaganza promises a calorie-filled destination for all locals who bike over to Lindley Meadow this Saturday. But you need not go it alone: Valencia Street bike builder Mission Bicycle Co. will be leading a bike train to Golden Gate Park for New Belgium Brewing’s “costumed celebration of human-powered transportation.”
After a story about a friend’s grade school son using YouTube as a homework resource made the NYT a few years ago (and apologies for not being able to find it due to search limitations), I’ve been fascinated by the idea of web video as classroom tool. And not just for kids but for PhD researchers and adult learners alike, which is why I’m intrigued by Wednesday’s talk by Pitzer College’s Alexandra Juhasz.
“To Teach, Write, and Learn on YouTube: Publishing Theory and Practice On-Line” is being co-presented at Cal by the Berkeley Center for New Media in advance of Juhasz’s findings and videos being published in a digital book by MIT Press. Her “two-year project—to teach, write, and learn about YouTube on YouTube—raises the hows and whys of (re)presentation and translation of on-line experiences and analyses across vernaculars, audiences, and media”–and should you be interested in its implications for publishing, please report back.
In scrolling through the afternoon e-newsletters, I was struck by prettymaps, a new edition by Aaron Straup Cope for the art collection site 20×200 that depicts SF (in the artist’s words, it’s intended to “give you that same dizzy feeling you get when you look down at a city at night, from an airplane”). Beyond the colors, I’m intrigued by the sources that local information design studio Stamen utilized for the piece, including Flickr shapefiles and the Open Street Map project. It’s community-generated data at its finest.
The headline may make you groan, but I’m a big fan of Oakland organization Save the Bay’s just-released voting mechanism for choosing which local waterways require most immediate attention. Internet users can select from the 225 spaces in the Bay that are most in need, including Colma Creek in South San Francisco, thanks to Google maps integrations. And while you might have liked what Arcade Fire put together recently with the Google API, you won’t love learning what’s clogging our local water, including toxic levels of plastic bags, cigarette butts, fast food containers, old tires, et al. Where is it most important to you that they’re removed?
As though South Park weren’t already a wonderful enough place to kill an hour between meetings, European-style bike maker and shop Public Bikes is now inhabiting a bright space across the street from the swing set (sounds like a dream, I know). Their “Public M” and double diamond frames come in orange, white, blue, and green, and no local would be surprised to hear that the color that’s sold the best is the one that no other word rhymes with. The website and store have clothing, bike accessories, and a certain book whose logo I love for its similarity to the forthcoming SanFranista redesign.
In theaters, museums and cultural centers throughout the Bay Area this weekend, Cine+Más will be presenting screenings as part of the SF Latino Film Festival. Whether it’s independent, classics, international, or domestic films you prefer, 33 films from Latin America, Spain, and the US will be shown, including the Sundance-winning “Underow,” which opened the festival on Thursday. Also not to be missed is the Uruguayan coming-of-age film “Leo’s Room (El Cuarto de Leo),” being presented at the Roxie by the Global Film Initiative, a local non-profit and promoter of independent film from around the world.
