Constructed landscape with lightweight architecture from Micro-urbanism: the Maori pā and architecture as a generative landscape by Amanda Yates

What resonated most is a series of Maori design principles shared by Amanda Yates and Shaun Awatere:

1. Kotahitanga – Cohesion and collaboration. Collective cooperative and effective partnerships and collaboration with community.
2. Wairuatanga – Embedded emotion and spirit.  
   Everything should support our spiritual well being and consciousness. Emotional connection with the environment that links people.
3. Manaakitanga – Hospitality and security.
   Embracing and welcoming visitors, and protection and security of community.
4. Whanaugatanga – Participation and membership in the community and social setting
5. Kaitiakitanga – Sustainable resource management. Protection of significant landscape features and natural enviornment.
6. Rangatiratanga – Leadership, identity, self-determination. Community can lead and take responsibility for creating and determining their own future.
7. Matauranga – Knowledge and understanding. Understanding of community history, identities, character.
8. Orangatanga – Maintain health and well being
9. Mauritanga – Essence or life-force of a natural environment. To identify and promote the maintenance or restoration of a mauri (the life force which all objects contain). e.g. rain-tank collection systems, grey-water recycling systems, passive solar design.

In addition to enjoying the presentations, this was the first event I attended with the Livescribe, an amazing pen/paper system that records notes as you take them and allows you to play them back. Both the presentations and my full notes with audio are available online:

• Amanda Yates, registered architect and academic: Micro-urbanism: the Maori pā and architecture as a generative landscape PDF, Livescribe pencast
• Shaun Awatere (Ngati Porou) is a resource economist: Developing Maori urban design principles PDF, Livescribe pencast
• Wiki Walker, Ngati Hine, Manukau City Council Environmental Policy Planner (tangata whenua): Tangata Whenua and the landscape PDF, Livescribe pencast
• Ngarimu Blair, is a Trustee on the Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board: Orakei papakainga PDF, Livescribe pencast

Further reading: Ngā hua papakāinga: Habitation design principles by Shadrach Rolleston and Shaun Awatere

I love Bruce Sterling’s closing talk for Reboot “action” edition conference that took place in Copenhagen on June 26. Bruce lays out his vision for the next ten years of dark euphoria, favela-chic, gothic high tech and stuffed animal frontiers. (His talk references a photoset, studies in atemporality, (featuring examples from Wellington when he was here speaking at Webstock on What comes after Web 2.0). Here’s what really resonated:

Objects are printouts – not treasures, not things to stocpkpile.

Our posessions are frozen social relationships. Think of them as hours of time and volumes of space.

Reassess the objects in your space and time. What is most important?

1. What you use all the time. Get the best possible common everyday objects. Your bed! You’re spending a third of your life in the thing – you should go out and buy the best bed you can get. The sheets, the pillows, they’re pretty high up there too. And a chair.
2. Things that are beautiful
• Is it so beautiful you’re going to show it to your friends?
• Is it on display?
3. Things that have emotional meaning
• Are you going to tell anybody else about it?
• Does it have a narrative?
• Or are you its slave?
4. Tools
• Have high technical standards
• Be very demanding
• Don’t make do with broken stuff

And everything else? (probably 80% of your stuff)?

1. Virtualize it.
2. Store the data.
3. Get rid of it.

I did a big reset one year ago moving from New York to New Zealand, and was surprised by the euphoria of liberation from so much stuff I thought I loved. Below are a few tools and resources that were awesome for virtualizing, storing data and getting rid of my stuff – perhaps they may help when it’s your turn.

For virtualizing books and almost anything with a barcode then managing and visualizing the data, Delicious Library makes it easy and fun. You hold the item’s bar code up to your camera, then see all the data about it. You can even see what the item resells for on Amazon and post it for sale there in a couple of clicks. It’s amazing to see my old library visually on the screen as I once knew it physically and to often be able to access the sections I want to reference through either Google or Amazon book search even though I no longer have the book physically before me.

If you’re in NYC and don’t have time or desire for selling on Amazon, The Strand pays fairly for used books, and Housing Works accepts donations that are tax deductible and for a great cause.

For furniture, electronics, etc, I took photos and made a catalog document linked to a live Google Docs spreadsheet that had up-to-date pricing and availability. Cocktail evenings (needed to empty my liquor cabinet) helped move the goods. Most items sold to friends, friends of friends and then lovely random people through Craigslist who would likely have become dear friends had I stayed. (We have the same taste!)

Purchasers arranged their own pickup/delivery, often after getting quotes from multiple providers through CityMove.

For the bulk of the other stuff that’s not exactly marketable yet still usable, Freecycle connected the stuff with the people who want it. As a safety for moving day, I selected a couple of large furniture items to donate to Housing Works in advance and scheduled a free pickup through them so any last items that didn’t sell could be donated and removed at the same time.

I had been seduced by a terroirist network known as New Zealand Artisan Honey, made up of passionate beekeepers producing honeys in small, quality batches from specific varietal sources among some of New Zealand’s most spectactular locations.

Sadly, most bees and beekeepers are not having such a romantic experience. I had noticed my previous honey brands losing their organic status as the varroa mite has spread south through New Zealand. There is evidence that CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) has arrived in New Zealand, and it’s likely due to the strong neonicotinoids, a class of systemic insecticides which France, Italy and Switzerland have banned because of its effects on bees.

In the amazing TED Talk above, Dr. Jill Taylor (author of My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey) reaches the insights Oprah and Eckhart discuss through a stroke. As a neuroanatomist, she was able to observe her own stroke from the inside out. She uses a real human brain as a prop, showing how differently the left and right hemispheres experience the world, outlining an anatomy of enlightenment and “circuitry of peace.”

Her talk highlighted for me how we are literally out of balance individually and collectively. “Modern” education focuses almost solely on the left brain and undervalues development of the right side. We need to develop the whole thing and use everything we’ve got. Bring back arts, music and movement and add in meditation. (Of course, if you use more than 5% of your brain, you don’t want to be on Earth anymore…)

Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are, Coming to Our Senses, Full Catastrophe Living, and Arriving at Your Own Door, opened the conversation with a gorgeous poem from which the title of his latest book came:

The second poem Kabat-Zinn used was by a poet from whom the name of yours truly was inspired. (Thanks Mom and Dad):

During the discussion, he defined meditation as “attention in service of self-understanding and liberation.” He also used “awarenessing” as a verb in places where you might expect to hear “thinking” instead.

Both he and Bokara somehow started to blame technology for accelerating time, to which I respectfully disagree. Oddly enough, my brother gave me a book on just that topic this week, The Mayan Code, which asserts that time acceleration is a manifestation of the acceleration of consciousness. So perhaps it’s Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bokara who are responsible for this phenomenon through talks like these! Your thoughts (and awarenesses) welcome, of course.

Tinfoil hats are so passé. So what should you wear to Faraday’s Cafe?

Check out the latest collection of electromagnetic field blocking and “anti-identity theft” clothing at DDCLAB (427 W 14th St, New York NY 10014 map).

Here’s the text from the windows:

EMF: Electro Magnetic Field Block
Anti•Identity•Theft•Fabric
Electric Resistivity
measure of how strongly a material opposes the flow of electric current and allows the movement of electrical charge.

DDCLAB
Woven of super sheer mesh polyester fibers coated with blackened copper, this high performance ultra thin, light weight and flexible mesh shield has a high ohm/sq resistivity that protects against identity theft by blocking high tech scanners from lifting valuable passport and ID information.

Coming from a deep natural aquifer to the surface in Whakatane, New Zealand, Antipodes has real mouth appeal. It’s less aggressively carbonated than my usual brew, San Pellegrino, and it’s easy on the eyes too.

Dressed in classic Mrs. Eaves, Antipodes complements any table without overpowering it. The oviform bottle echoes the round beads streaming up when opened. It’s a happy thing to hold.

I know, I know… you have issues with bottled water. I do too. But a girl’s gotta have a vice, and until I can pour sparkling from the tap, I’ll order the bottle. (When out… technically I could make my own at home.) If it makes you feel any better, Antipodes is the first premium water to be certified carbon neutral in production and export, and they plan to be carbon neutral to any table, hotel room or home anywhere in the world by 2008.

Antipodes is currently served only in hand-picked great restaurants around New Zealand, hence their restaurant list is a good guide to the restaurants I want to try. You can order Antipodes by the case for home delivery in the United States through New Zealand Natural Goods, but at $60 for 12, I’d have to consider it a design element to justify it. Oh, wonderful! Oprah already did.

Stockport Emotion Map by Christian Nold, from presentation on “The Human Impact” at Pop!Tech 2007 conference.

Christian Nold looks at cities… differently. Most people go around cities with their head down. 50% of people live in them, yet they are more a concept than anything else. Nold posits cities are a consensual hallucination.

Historically, maps personified rivers and trees, and activities were embodied within the artful human-scale maps. How can we represent people again and all their human interactions? Nold has been exploring these ideas through biomapping, participatory sensory mapping, for the last 4 years.

The first projects began with blindfolding people and having them explore their local area. The main thing they noticed was smells. Now he uses a biomapping device that measures physiological arousal, how are bodies react to the world. Chris Nold’s biomapping device consists of a Galvanic Skin response sensor/data logger and a commercial GPS unit. The data is then loaded into Google Earth.

The resulting maps show where people feel excited and stressed, such as at the busy traffic crossing above. Places invisible or hidden on ordinary maps stand out on emotion maps, such as beautiful murals and social spaces where people interact. You also see what’s really going on in a place regarding traffic and pollution issues.

Nold notes that young people he encounters often don’t value their own perceptions and stresses how important it is to see themselves on the map. It’s important to visualize that you matter and also that you make up part of a larger place. The map helps show conflict and situations where some of the aspects are difficult to see and even contradictory. People begin to recognize cities as personal stories of place, get stimulated by their own experiences and start talking about their own stories. It makes a compelling entry point for civic engagement.

Personally, biomapping has made Nold more aware of his own behavior, life and level of association. He used to think of himself as an individual or mass, but now sees himself as a member of groups and small societies and sees social change happening most effectively at that level of organization.

The next day, Jonathan Harris presented his exploration of human emotions on the Web, We Feel Fine, that also tracks location data. I’d love to see a dynamic emotional map generated by a Google Earth mashup with the We Feel Fine data.

I wonder if Nold has tried biomapping any other urban species? What does Paris really look like to the rats? I have often imagined Cosmo’s canine map of NYC’s West Village. No electronic device is required to map his arousal level; it spikes at every venue that has ever dispensed treats, along with pet food stores, farmers markets, veterinarians, dog-friendly cafes, parks and patches of grass.

Technorati Tags: activism, art, design, information visualization, maine, photography, poptech2007

Claire Nouvian sailing in Penobscot Bay for a session on “Oceans in Balance” at Pop!Tech, off the coast of Maine. (More photos from Pop!Tech 2007)

Claire Nouvian, a documentary filmmaker, thinks really deep thoughts about the ocean and its inhabitants. She’s especially concerned about how we relate to ecosystems that are far removed from our own. Even though oceans represent about 99% of the planet, they have only been looked at in detail since the 1950′s, and we’ve only sampled about 0.5% of the surface. The ocean remains the last frontier.

Nouvian’s journey began in 2001 at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, where she was blown away by an exhibition of “Mysteries of the Deep.” She couldn’t believe the beautiful creatures she was seeing were real and not some computer generated 3D aliens. She set out to tell the world this stuff exists, making a documentary and book.

Because the deep sea is remote both horizontally — you have to go over the continental shelf before you go down to the depths — and vertically, it is literally out of sight and out of mind. Alas, it is not out of harms way. Creatures we haven’t even discovered yet are under threat from deep sea mining, deep sea dumping, co2 sequestration, ocean acidification, methane & oil exploitation and bottom trawling.

Why should we care? Sure there are boundless medicinal and biotech discoveries to be made, but aesthetics alone are reason enough for Nouvian. And they are breathtaking. Tim Burton, HR Giger and George Lucas have nothing on nature. On the very first look through her magnificent book, The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, I fell completely in love. As it turns out, the deep sea is where the creatures from our wildest dreams live.

But seduction always has a price… once you fall in love, you’ll want to protect them. And Nouvian argues there’s no just reason not to do so: deep sea trawling provides only 5% of the worldwide catch and only 300 or 400 ships engage in the $400 million per year industry. Nouvian argued that we are “destroying a unique, unassessed planetary heritage at unprecedented speed and scale in an irreversible manner for no reason but the increased profit of a handful of people.”

Nouvian recommends checking out SeaAroundUs.org, SaveTheHighSeas.org (the website of the Deep Sea Coalition), eating less fish and using seafood watch cards, and her new organization: the Bloom Association which aims to link people with the deep sea, rousing emotions through beauty.