Paper waste is a common office culprit. Despite being a web geek who keeps nearly everything in the cloud, I admit to printing off more than I need to. I know that wastes paper, and the trees and those who love them hate me for it.
Paper would be pretty dull, however, if it weren’t for ink. We use lot of ink printing documents, and we often don’t think twice about it, especially at the office. But it takes a lot of materials, energy, and often toxic chemicals to produce an ink cartridge, not to mention the landfill waste once it’s tossed in the trash. Cutting down on ink use couldn’t hurt, then, could it?
The folks at Spranq, a Dutch communications firm, took a unique but simple approach to the ink conservation situation: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? Apparently punching little circles out of each letter is the answer, resulting in a font that uses up to 20 percent less ink.
Behold the Ecofont. It looks a touch funky when blown up, but when used at 10pt it is practically indistinguishable from Verdana, the popular office font upon which it was based.
So download a free copy of Ecofont, and give thanks to a simple design concept that will give you more blotch for the buck, and keeps cartridges out of the landfills a little longer.
Rugby tries to clean up its image
This ad takes the cake. Any other adverts suck in comparison. That’s all I have to say. And um, I know it’s from 2007, but it’s still my favourite advert from 2008.
Get your technology boots on – Redwire Magazine is looking for articles, poetry, letters, artwork, photos stories about Indigenous peoples and the negative and positive sides of technology – as a tool for communication, as economic driver, as means of artistic expression, as extension of colonial power, as fabric for building cultural strength …
Redwire Magazine was crated in 1997 as an uncensored forum for Native youth. Today Redwire distributes 11,000 copies across Canada, four times a year.
Redwire is the first-ever Native youth run magazine in Canada and is committed to operating with Native youth staff, writers, artists and publishers. Redwire appreciates all submissions but gives priority of publication for work created by Native youth (29 and under).
Deadline for work is Feb 9/2009. Send submissions and inquiries to editor@redwiremag.com.
Poking politics at Sarkozy - the perfec gift
It’s holiday season for some of us and that can mean hyper-consumerism gone wild – we’re here to calm the beast. In keeping with blog fashion (see Boing Boing’s gift list) and in the spirit of our continued committment to and support of the (political) arts, here is my Holiday Wish List for 2008. All items have been created and/or released in the last year. Get ‘em while they’re hot, and remember the best gift other than the one you don’t have to buy, is the gift of art. And of course I realize that there are many, many, far better things you can do with your money, such as donating to your favourite non-profit, or to Art Threat.
Here is the list in no particular order (really):
1. A Sarkozy Voodoo Doll pictured above (still waiting for the Harper doll)
2. Etana’s The Strong One
3. Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of American Empire (graphic novel)
4. A painting by George Littlechild
5. A political calendar for 2009, take your pick: Freedom for Political Prisoner’s or Ben Heine
6. Concert tickets to see the fabulous Femi Kuti
7. The Wire Complete Seasons Box Set (released last week)
8. Solar-powered wireless relay station to help you get out of the city but stay connected
9. From the NFB: The Norman McLaren Box Set and/or Roadsworth: Crossing the Line
10. Rebecca Swan’s Assume Nothing (photography)
Bonus round: An Anti-Hummer Tshirt or you could just go with What Would Jesus Buy?
There’s more, but I didn’t want to get carried away. But we’d love to hear from you – throw some suggestions in the comments for this post. Happy happy from Art Threat!
Image: Daily Mail.
Are some people in New Orleans afraid of memory? Earlier this week the Vieux Carre Commission , New Orleans heritage department, said “no” to a public sculpture commemorating Katrina’s victims.
Artist Dawn DeDeaux’s proposed sculpture titled ‘Steps Home’ is a visual reference to the concrete stoops and entrance stairs left behind after houses were washed away in some of the city’s most devastated neighborhoods. The finished sculpture would have shown three freestanding illuminated steps weighing about 800 pounds, 29 inches high and 48 inches wide, installed at Jackson Square – a National Historic Landmark in the U.S. and what was before Katrina an important public gathering place for local musicians and street performers.
The installation at Jackson Square would have been the first of a dozen similar sets of steps being installed at sites citywide for a period of time and then assembled together at a final permanent location.
According to comments from the Commission, their concerns were more focused on Jackson Square than on the memories being commemorated. One commissioner said that he was worried about “a proliferation of 21st-century modernist works that would screw up the square.”
Dadeaux can appeal the decision. Write to the Commission and tell them your thoughts. It seems to me the guy on a horse in Jackson Square (image above) could use a little 21st century help, especially from a public art installation remembering how some of the cities “non-horse riding” residents lost so much in the devastation of Katrina … and, sadly, how much was lost in the tragedy of betrayed public trust.
Wired has published an interview with Trevor Paglen, photographer and “experimental geographer”, whose most recent work features a collection of 189 photos of officially non-existent spy satellites.
In taking these photos, Paglen is trying to draw a metaphorical connection between modern government secrecy and the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Galileo’s time.
“What would it mean to find these secret moons in orbit around the earth in the same way that Galileo found these moons that shouldn’t exist in orbit around Jupiter?” Paglen says.
Image: Trevor Paglen, Lacrosse/Onyx IV Near Alfirk (USA 152, 48 x 60 inches, C-Print, 2008
Democracy Now reported this morning that the peace symbol turns 50 today. Fifty years ago a British textiles designer created the symbol out of the letters “N” and “D” to stand for nuclear disarmament. The symbol was used in the anti-nuclear campaigns in the UK and quickly spread global, becoming the internationally recognized symbol for peace.
Some folks have created a website, Happybirthdaypeace.com dedicated to the symbol’s birthday, with oodles of info and media, including various versions of the design from all over the world.
Peace.
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