I have been researching what Leeds City Council does to support sustainable development and it seems that they have a dedicated unit, compromising of six specific teams. I think that working in the Design Unit would be an edifying experience so I will contact them about possibilities. I really don't know if they take on undergraduates, but it is worth a try.
For some background reading, I am taking advantage of the sources offered on the site, including the sustainable design guide and the environment office's 2006 EMAS* statement.
*Eco-management and audit scheme, part of the EU umbrella.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Dystopian Films of the 60s and 70s
The ultimate pessimist season, only in the crumbly boat house! We are screening the following foreboding cult classics:
Silent Running (1972) Down on earth humans have unwittingly exfoliated from the planet all vegetation. Up in space our remaining flora is on the brink of permanent extinction. Starring Bruce Dern at his most earnest.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Based on the book of the same name by Ray Bradbury. Books are banned, firemen start fires, and Guy Montag just wants his wife to leave him alone.
Soylent Green (1973) It's the year 2022 and the people need food!
Space-raiders will be provided.
Silent Running (1972) Down on earth humans have unwittingly exfoliated from the planet all vegetation. Up in space our remaining flora is on the brink of permanent extinction. Starring Bruce Dern at his most earnest.
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Based on the book of the same name by Ray Bradbury. Books are banned, firemen start fires, and Guy Montag just wants his wife to leave him alone.
Soylent Green (1973) It's the year 2022 and the people need food!
Space-raiders will be provided.
Saturday, 19 July 2008
19th Century Greens
A though-provoking show broadcast on Radio 4, speculating on what the romantic poets of the 1800s would think of today's environmentalists. The conclusion seemed to be that Wordsworth, Ruskin and their contemporaries celebrated not only the majesty of nature, but it's relation to the greatness of the human spirit, whereas today man is increasingly portrayed simply as the great destroyer of the vulnerable entity that is our planet.
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something for more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting sins,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky and the mind of Man
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts
And rolls through all things.
Wordsworth Tintern Abbey
The programme is available on the website until 23rd July.
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something for more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting sins,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky and the mind of Man
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thoughts
And rolls through all things.
Wordsworth Tintern Abbey
The programme is available on the website until 23rd July.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Hyde Park Source
Once a week I help to turn bin yards into beauty spots. This week I learnt how to bricklay(!)
Pictures soon...
http://www.oblongleeds.org.uk/node/285
Pictures soon...
http://www.oblongleeds.org.uk/node/285
BFI Online
The British Film Institute has uploaded 177 of its films onto a YouTube channel, creating a database of fascinating historical documents.
Nude Woman by a Waterfall (1920)
Nude Woman by a Waterfall (1920)
WALL•E
Not just your average CGI film about talking animals doing things that could be considered quite funny. In fact, the main characters don't even talk. Set in the future, several hundred years from now, Earth can no longer sustain life, and has been abandoned by the human race. Could the circumstances be any more current? There is interesting debate over whether children should be confronted with such serious issues, under the guise of entertainment, but the politics in Wall•e are subtly expressed.
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Ken Yeang
Ken Yeang is a Malaysian architect who specialises in 'green' skyscrapers. The two words do not sit comfortably together, but I have been informed that high-rise, higly compacted, urban living is the way forward if we want to cut carbon.
I am not convinced that environmentally-friendly architecture has to take on such a purposely futuristic form, but the his designs reveal a positively ideological thought process.
Yeang is also the author of
Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design.
Online, read Jetson Green for the latest on green building.
I am not convinced that environmentally-friendly architecture has to take on such a purposely futuristic form, but the his designs reveal a positively ideological thought process.
Yeang is also the author of
Ecodesign: A Manual for Ecological Design.
Online, read Jetson Green for the latest on green building.
London
Over the weekend, I took a break from doing nothing and spent some time in London.
I spent most of my short time there with friends and family, and the only exhibition I saw was at the Science Museum! It was about plastics, and their future, and actually really interesting, even if the target audience was ten year olds. The divination that we will be using our old landfill to harvest material for new products actually gave me a modicum of hope for the fate of the current mess. I was also intrigued by the Bakelite objects on display. At the same time I mock and marvel at it's faux-wood charm.
I expect I will be returning for a little more culture in a couple of weeks, subject to one provision: I must find a job!
During my time on the tube, I finished reading Surfacing, which I now consider to be my favourite book. This is exciting, as I never knew what to say when asked what it was. Now for some Camus, courtesy of Scott.
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
Invincible Summer is also the name of my friend Kit Richardson's new album. She's really good, my cousin said so.
I spent most of my short time there with friends and family, and the only exhibition I saw was at the Science Museum! It was about plastics, and their future, and actually really interesting, even if the target audience was ten year olds. The divination that we will be using our old landfill to harvest material for new products actually gave me a modicum of hope for the fate of the current mess. I was also intrigued by the Bakelite objects on display. At the same time I mock and marvel at it's faux-wood charm.
I expect I will be returning for a little more culture in a couple of weeks, subject to one provision: I must find a job!
During my time on the tube, I finished reading Surfacing, which I now consider to be my favourite book. This is exciting, as I never knew what to say when asked what it was. Now for some Camus, courtesy of Scott.
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
Invincible Summer is also the name of my friend Kit Richardson's new album. She's really good, my cousin said so.
Thursday, 10 July 2008
18th Century Rationalism
I really like it when reading perpetuates itself. Like how when my current book leads me to my next, or even a whole new genre. Reading Atwood's Surfacing, I came to the following paragraph:
'...his cache of serious books: the King James Bible which he said he enjoyed for its literary qualities, a complete Robert Burns, Boswell's life, Thompson's Seasons, selections from Goldsmith and Cowper. He admired what he called the eighteenth century rationalists: he thought of them as men who had avoided the corruptions of the Industrial Revolution, and learned the secret of the golden mean*, the balanced life, he was sure they all practised organic farming.'
Sound interesting.
*Aristotle, no?
'...his cache of serious books: the King James Bible which he said he enjoyed for its literary qualities, a complete Robert Burns, Boswell's life, Thompson's Seasons, selections from Goldsmith and Cowper. He admired what he called the eighteenth century rationalists: he thought of them as men who had avoided the corruptions of the Industrial Revolution, and learned the secret of the golden mean*, the balanced life, he was sure they all practised organic farming.'
Sound interesting.
*Aristotle, no?
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Medieval News
I wish I was an graduate of medieval studies so that I could be invited to this!
Drawing over 1,500 medievalists from over 40 countries, with over 1,000 individual papers and 350 academic sessions and a wide range of concerts, performances, readings, round tables, excursions, book fair and associated events, the Leeds International Medieval Congress is Europe's richest and largest annual gathering in the humanities. This summer's International Medieval Congress will take place from 7-10 July 2008.
Credit to the Guardian news podcast for keeping me in the know. Now, if you'll excuse me, voy a donde el rey va solo.
Drawing over 1,500 medievalists from over 40 countries, with over 1,000 individual papers and 350 academic sessions and a wide range of concerts, performances, readings, round tables, excursions, book fair and associated events, the Leeds International Medieval Congress is Europe's richest and largest annual gathering in the humanities. This summer's International Medieval Congress will take place from 7-10 July 2008.
Credit to the Guardian news podcast for keeping me in the know. Now, if you'll excuse me, voy a donde el rey va solo.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Slow Down
The Slow Movement aims for us to reduce our pace of life, and in the time created, enjoy what it is all humans fundamentally need: food, shelter and companionship. Paraphrasing part of their manifesto, re-focusing our lives on what is important, rather than greedy consumption, could ultimately improve our relations. Of course, this clashes with capitalist economics, and leads me to think that slow is socialist. In fact, I am reminded of Thomas More's imaginary socialist Utopia, in which people work only to produce what they need, and spend their remaining time developing their minds.
The Slow Food Movement is eco-gastronomic organisation founded in Italy about twenty years ago, as an ardent reaction to the growing popularity, and ubiquity, of fast food. Slow food believe we should preserve local food tradition, in turn combating people's dwindling interest in what they eat and how it is sourced. Now there is an officially recognised UK association, with 50 'convivia' across the nation.
See also Cittaslow.
England is not well-known for it's food, but I am convinced I can create some tasty Anglocentic meals with a little research.
Online, Eat the Seasons seems to be the best place to start.
The Foody is an ill-designed, but resourceful site containing information on seasonal produce and traditional recipes.
An article at Times Online asks what has happened of our relationship with seasonal food.
As always, the BBC comes up trumps with an online seasonal catalogue.
Apparently, the following foods are currently in British season: tomatoes; watercress; trout, pilchards, pike and clams; blueberries, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries and loganberries; sage; aubergine; cauliflower and fennel. I don't think this list is exhaustive either. Now I just need to scour the shops for relatively locally derived produce.
In rather well-linked style, I like so much that the Oxford word of 2007 was 'locavore'. I also always like miniature people, especially when they are mowing their kiwi-fruit lawns.
A wonderful film about food is Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua para Chocolate), a sensual Mexican film directed by Alfonso Arau.
The Slow Food Movement is eco-gastronomic organisation founded in Italy about twenty years ago, as an ardent reaction to the growing popularity, and ubiquity, of fast food. Slow food believe we should preserve local food tradition, in turn combating people's dwindling interest in what they eat and how it is sourced. Now there is an officially recognised UK association, with 50 'convivia' across the nation.
See also Cittaslow.
England is not well-known for it's food, but I am convinced I can create some tasty Anglocentic meals with a little research.
Online, Eat the Seasons seems to be the best place to start.
The Foody is an ill-designed, but resourceful site containing information on seasonal produce and traditional recipes.
An article at Times Online asks what has happened of our relationship with seasonal food.
As always, the BBC comes up trumps with an online seasonal catalogue.
Apparently, the following foods are currently in British season: tomatoes; watercress; trout, pilchards, pike and clams; blueberries, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries and loganberries; sage; aubergine; cauliflower and fennel. I don't think this list is exhaustive either. Now I just need to scour the shops for relatively locally derived produce.
In rather well-linked style, I like so much that the Oxford word of 2007 was 'locavore'. I also always like miniature people, especially when they are mowing their kiwi-fruit lawns.
A wonderful film about food is Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua para Chocolate), a sensual Mexican film directed by Alfonso Arau.
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