http://www.anarchitect.org/log sitting around in the sun in your underwear playing the clarinet - while keeping a log on anarchitecturism. Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:11:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en While working on a mixtape for some friends, i was reminded of the Keine Angst compilation Marina and i created almost nine years ago. We put together this sampler for Micah who was about to disappear in Wyoming. Listening to it again, it still is an awesome selection of songs. ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2010/02/01/keine-angst/ I was just told by a good friend that my blog was dying, to which i can only say that it is actually only dozing off a bit and taking it easy. In the meantime i have been also using Facebook and constraining myself to short status updates on Twitter. ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/12/01/sleepyblog/ It's good to be reminded again of the psychology courses i took back in Magdeburg: In this TED talk Dan Pink talks about motivation for tasks that particularly involve thinking and problem solving. He cites several scientific studies in psychology that show how creative tasks are sometimes even impeded by ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/08/29/autonomy-mastery-and-purpose-for-everybody/ I was just talking with a newly met friend in Boston about ‘community’ and how it doesn't translate well to German. It almost seems as if in progressive circles in North America community is the best: think community bikeshops, community gardens, and online communities. However, the next best German translation, ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/08/20/community-gemeinschaft/ Towards the end of my high school time i had a pin on which "Get Radical!" stood. I think i got it at some thrift store in South Dakota. I liked this pin a lot, because it was political and aesthetic - attributes that are typically not used to describe ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/08/02/wicked-rad/ Die Magdeburger Lebensmittelkooperative Food Coop veranstaltet am kommenden Sonntag ein offenes Themenfrühstück zu selbstorganisierten Gemeinschaftsgärten. Während es in vielen Ländern eine längere Geschichte städtischer Kleingarten gibt, erleben nordamerikanische Städte gerade eine Renaissance urbaner Gemeinschaftsgärten (Community Gardens). Angesichts sozialer Entfremdung, erhöhter Lebensmittelpreise und globaler Erwärmung können diese Gartenkooperativen als eine interessante Antwort ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/06/25/selbstorganisierte-gemeinschaftsgarten/ The Calgary Herald recently published an editorial article (in the news section of their website!) arguing that a street festival that would block a small part of one major street would not make any sense and that there are much more pressing issues to be dealt with in Calgary, for ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/05/18/wake-up-calgary-herald/ I am finishing the wonderful book Pedagogy of the Oppressed written by Paulo Freire in 1970 and i must say it is an inspiring read for anybody (still) interested in revolutionary social change. While this book deserves a lengthier discussion particularly about education and activism, i stumbled upon this sentence ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/05/14/urban-destroyers-and-builders/ Together with my supervisors Sheelagh Carpendale and Carey Williamson at the University of Calgary, i am conducting a Web-based study on information visualization and Web search. Participants of this study are asked to use a visual search prototype for as long as they wish and fill out short questionnaires before ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/03/29/user-study-on-visual-web-search/ Nachdem ich Kamran und Jens einst erwähnt habe, wie sie Städte und Städter zeigen, hier ein kleiner Hinweis auf Joe und Michh, die sich dem Groszen und Kleinen in urbanen Gefilden widmen. Bei Joe sieht man im Moment Potsdam und seine Park- und Wohnanlagen und Michh zeigt kleinere Artefakte wie ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/02/23/joe-und-michh-sehen-das-kleine-und-grosze/ As i read this article on the website of Calgary's weekly zine FFWD about a local magazine shop and the printed news industry, i thought about print and the physical. I agree with the commenter Melly Mel, that print is awesome and FFWD rules. But i really do appreciate adding ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/02/21/%e2%80%9cprint-is-awesome%e2%80%9d/ Listening to BBC Global News (19 Feb 09 AM), i just learned about the US-American organization ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) that trains and supports to-be-evicted homeowners essentially to squat and defend their homes. Their ‘home defender’ campaign somewhat reminds one of the other kind of squatting ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/02/20/squatting-suburbia/ Since my last rant about the Calgary Transit website five months ago on this blog and many rants with locals, much has happened. First Calgary Transit updated their website later last year and ironically it deteriorated even more. But the major step happened today: Calgary's public transport is finally put ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/02/18/calgary-on-google-transit/ Last Sunday i took a minor bike ride through the city ending up on a hill that actually stretches all along the major river here. Besides constituting a challenge when bike-commuting, it is one of several reasons to reconcile with a place that may not seem like the best place ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/02/12/on-top-of-the-city/ I am slowly but steadily reactivating my habit of putting photos online. I revived my Flickr account and will upload more photographs in the near future. Flickr may not be the philosophically best way of sharing photos, however, it does offer a great service. http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2009/02/09/taking-photos-again/ For a seminar paper i will be looking closer at critical geography, and via the corresponding Wikipedia article i stumbled upon a freely available reader called Critical Geographies: A Collection of Readings that spans over 150 years of discourse and 36 texts organized into four themes. Harald Bauder and ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/11/13/critical-geography-reader/ This is another reading response for the course Urban Design Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary. The major theme I got from this week's texts is the social meaning of urban space and the collective construction (or deprivation) of place. Norberg-Schulz [1] gives a philosophical account of ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/11/13/urban-place/ This is another reading response for the course Urban Design Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary. The readings I have chosen for this week are about the ecological, social, and participatory aspects of urban planning and design. A common theme–which may be utterly obvious–is that urban (design) ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/11/05/nature-community-and-participation-in-urban-design/ This is a reading response for the course Urban Design Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary. Reading Hodge's chapter [1] on the Modern history of Canadian city design, I wonder whether planning for a longer term is actually possible. Past planners couldn't anticipate subsequent developments—like automobiles, urban ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/10/08/factors-for-urban-planning-yesterday-and-tomorrow/ This is a reading response for the course Urban Desgin Theory given by David Monteyne at the University of Calgary. The main theme throughout the readings for me was the significance and the divergent interpretation of open streets and squares as public spaces. It was particularly interesting to read how Baudelaire ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/10/01/streets-and-squares-%e2%80%94-oppression-or-liberation/ Being rather busy these days with course readings and other stuff i tend to neglect this little blog of mine and indirectly you, dear readership. I'm sorry for that. But i have to tell you: the courses are really interesting. I am taking Social Contexts of Technology given by Patrick ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/10/01/readings-on-society-technology-and-cities/ The duck has posted some photos of our apartment on Flickr in a panomara style. We really like it there sitting in the Poäng, having a nice view and living in the center of Calgary. http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/09/20/living-in-calgary/ Please, excuse if this blog comes down to a place of personal ranting, however, dear readership, as an auto-therapeutic practice preventing further harm or damage i need to share my frustration about the website of Calgary's transportation company with you. I have written it all up as a customer feedback ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/09/13/complaining-about-calgary-transit/ Today i received again an email from ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) with the subject line "An Invitation to Join ACM". Before this, i have received numerous of those as postal letters as well as emails. This is probably caused by attending an ACM conference last year. I managed to ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/07/22/an-invitation-to-pity-acm/ Web comics are a great way to escape the dullness of work for a moment. If you're just starting to read a comic that has been around for some time, it is actually possible to spend an afternoon enjoying the development of characters' personalities and the comic artists’ drawing skills ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/07/08/web-comics-for-geeks-bicyclists-and-indie-rockers/ Jedenfalls wünschen sich das die Gartenguerrilleros Gregor Schneider (Stadtplaner) und Oliver Schilling (Architekt) von Raum391. Um diesem Anliegen weiter Anschub zu verleihen, gab es heute Abend im ÖZIM einen Vortrag (Ankündigung auf WebUni), den ich verpasst habe, und der Blog zur Bewegung ist auch schon eingerichtet. Auf dem Blog liest ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/07/07/guerilla-gardening-kommt-nach-magdeburg/ Yesterday we took our bikes and left all concrete behind to have a picknick along the river of the city we inhabit. Although windy and cloudy at first, it turned into an enjoyable evening. The girls and social scientists teams won in Boule against the teams of the boys and ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/06/28/an-evening-out-of-town/ It was rather silent here the last weeks, mainly because i have finished my diploma thesis recently and defended (successfully) shortly thereafter. The title of the thesis is Towards a Better VIEW: Visual Information Exploration on the Web. The core idea is the combination of multiple interactive visualization widgets ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/06/24/towards-a-better-view/ I just stumbled upon these two interactive art installations by Uta Hinrichs and Holly Schmidt: memory [en]code and EMDialog. I think both projects showcase how interactive tabletops and large displays can be engaging and inviting in public settings. I am excited to see more of this. Check out the ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/05/05/interactive-installations/ I am kind of undecided about Flickr’s recent move to allow small video snippets. Quite a few members are at least not amused. Flickr sells the very short films as long photographs which seems kind of ridiculous at first. The video service Vimeo tries to focus on high-quality, original ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/04/26/snapshots-or-beauty-in-motion/ Icaro Doria came up with the great idea of using national flags to visualize social issues of different countries. The project Meet the World (larger images) was actually an advertising campaign for the Portuguese magazine Grande Reportagem. http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/04/21/infographics-disguised-as-flags/ This saturday the third see conference on visualization of information is happening in Wiesbaden. It features quite a speaker list including Ben Fry, Bruce Sterling, and Frank van Ham. I really wanted to go, so i got my tickets well in advance, but something came in my way and now ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/04/18/see-3-%e2%80%93-conference-on-visualization-of-information/ Yesterday a lonely bicyclist had an unpleasant encounter with a slippery curb that didn't want him to get onto the bicycle path. He fell and later felt severe pain in his knee. Now he can’t really bend it, but the doc said it aint broken – just a bit bruised. ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/04/16/cops-contusions-comics/ Today it occurred to me (again) that urban planning and city lifestyle weaves itself like a red thread through many contemporary issues. In the previously mentioned CBC radio programme it was discussed that among other factors, the location where one lives in the city and the fact whether certain services ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/03/13/the-special-role-of-urban-planning/ I just listened to a very interesting two-part podcast about the social gradient in health produced by the CBC. The issue is that many contemporary diseases such as diabetes or obesity can be determined by looking at social factors like income, social relations, education and others while health advocacy still ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/03/13/sick-people-or-sick-societies/ Ich habe hier vor einiger Zeit einmal das eingebaute Wörterbuch von MacOSX gelobt. Damals habe ich mir gewünscht, dass die Wikipedia und die deutsche Sprache darin gut vertreten sein könnten. Und das sind sie jetzt auch. Wikipediainhalte verschiedenster Sprachen können seit MacOSX 10.5 abgerufen werden. Darüber hinaus gibt es jetzt ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/03/12/deutsche-englisches-worterbuch-und-thesaurus-fur-macosx/ Jens macht weiterhin tolle Fotos auf Blipfoto. Heute hat er zum Beispiel Herrn Schneidewind vom Blumen- und Gemüsestand fotographiert. Auszerdem ist Jens auf Flickr aktiv. Da gibt es unter anderem tolle Aufnahmen aus dem Magdeburger Umsonstladen Lirumlarum. Dort fand sich auch das Gandhiposter, was mir die Ente einst schenkte und ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/03/04/fotos-vom-umsonstladen-lirumlarum/ Etwas verspätet bin ich über diese Meldung bei Wikinews gestoszen: "Ein Teilverkauf der Stadtwerke Leipzig an Gaz de France (GdF) ist am Votum der Leipziger Bürger gescheitert. […]" Ein weiteres Beispiel dafür, dass viele Menschen die fortschreitende Privatisierung von städtischen Gütern bzw Dienstleistern ablehnen. Wie zuvor erwähnt, stellen bürgerschaftlich ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/02/11/leipziger-gegen-ausverkauf-der-stadtwerke/ Until further notice i have disabled trackback and pingback funtionality. I just don't have the patience of going through long lists of spam these days. Once i find the time for a general maintenance update of the blog software, trackback will return. Thanks for your understanding. http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/02/11/trackback-disabled/ Somewhat in a similar vein as the last post: danah boyd calls for a boycott of closed (i.e., not open) access journals and venues to make academia a venue for free exchange of ideas and knowledge open to anybody. She seems kind of disgusted by publishers profitting from scientists' work ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/02/08/boycott-closed-access-publishers/ D'Arcy Norman makes an interesting observation how institutions take on exceptional efforts to keep content such as class slides and video recordings shut away from the public because the slides would violate some copyrights and not necessarily to keep ideas for themselves. I support him in pointing out that avoiding ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/02/08/copyright-violations-causing-closed-content/ On my old email address (word at anarchitect dot org) i get a lot of spam these days. So i thought i discontinue it, as i don't use it that often anymore anyway. I added this auto-reply so that my contacts that don't have my new address are directed to ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/02/04/email-address-suspended/ Ich kam längere Zeit nicht dazu, meinen Spamordner zu durchforsten (siehe Abbildung rechts). Ist die Anzahl ungelesener und unerwünschter Emails nun ein Indiz dafür, dass Spammer auf ein heiszes Hölleninferno zuarbeiten oder gilt sie gar mir? Wie dem auch sei. Ansonsten hält mich mein Diplomprojekt gerade ein wenig auf Trapp. ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/01/28/hollenspam/ Wenn städtische Energieanbierter privatisiert werden, müssen sie nicht zwangsläufig in die Hände profitmaximierender Groszunternehmen gehen. Eine spannende Alternative stellen bürgerschaftlich organisierte Energiegenossenschaften dar. Die Mitglieder sind zeitgleich Kunden als auch aktive Genossenschafter, was den Vorteil hat, dass die Preise zumeist sinken und bürgerschaftliche Kontrolle an die Stelle von Profitinteresse tritt. ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2008/01/04/energie-genossenschaften/ Letzte Woche haben mich noch die retrofuturistischen Bilder von Klaus Bürgle fasziniert und vorgestern hat Tim einen Chaos Radio Express zu diesem Phänomen veröffentlicht (Blogeintrag), in dem er mit "Gregor Sedlag und Christian Heller über die Zukunft und warum Science Fiction Schnee von gestern ist", spricht. Ich habe die Sendung ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2007/12/24/retrofuturismus/ As of today, the Lakota people declare independence of the United States of America. A group of leaders of seven Native American tribes situated mainly in North and South Dakota has cancelled all treaties with the US and created their own country. It is difficult to tell (for me) how ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2007/12/20/the-lakota-people-declare-independence/ Eigentlich weise ich nicht noch einmal auf Kommentare hin, weil es hier normalerweise auch nicht so viele davon gibt. Das ist hier ja nur eine kleine Insel verschrobener Gedanken oder so. Aber: in der Diskussion mit Holodoc zu den Helden auf Fahrrädern hat sich I was born under a wandering ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2007/12/13/i-was-born-a-biking-star/ The British Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC) is advertising the bicycle (high res version) as the suitable means for facing climate change for the rest of us: "You don't have to be a superhero to save the planet". More info on the campaign website. via Rad-Spannerei blog: Zweiradheld http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2007/12/03/heroes-on-two-wheels/ The Uruguayan band Cuarteto de Nos published this über awesome music video for their song "Ya no sé que hacer conmigo". The video was produced by Milagrito Films mixing beautiful typography with moving halftone characters (read: the band) and infographics: via information aesthetics: typographical music video http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2007/11/16/i-dont-know-what-to-do-with-myself-anymore/ D'Arcy Norman writes about his bicycling experience in Calgary. Interesting observation among others that i'd like to second: The likelihood of a vehicle displaying a yellow “support our troops” sticker/ribbon seems to be directly proportional to the size of the vehicle. I haven’t seen one on a Prius.This is also a ... http://www.anarchitect.org/log/2007/11/14/oh-what-fun-it-is-to-bike%e2%80%a6/