FLOAT_Beijing

Through the playful act of kite flying FLOAT_Beijing has empowered Beijing citizens to take action and protest current air quality standards, leading to people-driven improved policies for healthier lives. FLOAT is a tool to collect air quality data and circumvent state controlled channels of information. At community workshops participants learn about the health hazards of air pollutants and their detection through DIY sensors, which they learn to build and attach to kites. FLOAT modules are designed to be transparent and reconfigured by users. Residents challenge the invisibility of official data by flying their air quality sensing kites in highly visible public spaces. Kites have a strong cultural history in China which draws in diverse participants connecting them to new technologies. Participants are empowered by the ability to sense air quality. More importantly, through FLOAT_Beijing, citizens become active agents in monitoring, and eventually transforming their own environments. FLOAT_Beijing consists of two key elements: open source air quality sensing kites and community workshops that teach residents how to make the pollutant sensor and how to collect and interpret data. The air quality sensing kites have been widely used by local Beijing residents. In collaboration with a local, traditional kite maker in Beijing, we designed the kites which the sensors were attached to. We launched the project and held a series of workshops during summer of 2012. We had several kite flights using the air quality sensing kites in public plazas in Beijing, with many public plaza visitors engaging with the project and attending workshops afterwards.

Willets Point, NYC: Urban Livestock as Catalyst

(GSD Landscape Arch Studio IV)

in

Flashfloods + temperatures decline

Aug

Jul Naadam+ travel to soums for events

June

May

Peak of Field Exploration Season and Mining Season

Height of traveling season for small time traders begin

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Mongolias Economy of Time

Sedentary months begin Localized manure increases

Dec

Industrial + informal mining merge Increased movement to market doubles for logistics routes ICT+ Mining intertwine in nomadic mapping Nov Oct Sept Aug Jul

Dec Beginning of Grazing Season

Shipping + transport increase with climatic advantage Nov

June May Apr Mar Feb Jan Jan

Preparations for Winter season, Forage stock piling Mining slows due to permafrost

Oct

Feb

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Mar

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Apr

Calves + Foals born

Beginning of Dairy Sale

Cashmere + Wool Harvest

Travel Towards Markets, Cashmere + wool sale

Mongolian Metadata: Cataloguing remoteness

Networked Bases: Military Research and Virtual Territories

(GSD Landscape Arch Studio III)

(g)razeChicago

A proposal for Chicagos Fire Festival 2014: a mixed reality game combining online and offline players to allow for collaboration in an urban scavenger hunt. Teams are formed by neighborhood and exchange is facilitated via SMS and a web platform utilizing locative media and real life spectacle. The winning team sets the Chicago river ablaze, restaging Chicagos Great Fire. Cow carts are used, harkening back to Chicagos legacy of stockyards, and Mrs. OLearys cow, the fabled cow that started the fire.