Emily Davidow

How can indigenous wisdom be used to develop sustainable architectural and urban design strategies? Exploring Maori design principles with New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities.

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?

Links of the day:

• New ZeaLAND Day
• Robert Thurman and Danny Hillis on science, ethics and religion
• A short history of the Internet by Robin Chase
• Google Wave

Links and notes from XMediaLab in Auckland, a combination think-tank and creative workshop with a focus on the design, development and business of digital media ideas across multiple platforms.

I’ve 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.

Part three of a four part video looking at the work of artist Fiona Hall in the exhibition FORCE FIELD at the City Gallery Wellington. Fiona Hall City Gallery Wellington Art Artis When My Boat Comes In – detail, photo by cicadas , image by Fiona Hall.

A recent live talk with Peter Senge through Calliflower introduced me both to this great tool for conference calls and webinars and Senge’s compelling new book, The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World.
Calliflower impressed me with sophisticated features for managing and participating in calls with an [...]

A. Both are fictional. Or at least highly speculative.
No. We’ve already established that.
B. Both indicate danger, especially around bodies of water.
Sure, but we’re looking for a more specific answer.
C. How about tree-fitty.
Exactly! Tree-fitty.

What’s tree-fitty?
Loch Ness Monster: $3.50
Global Climate Crisis: 350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The [...]

First day of spring, first bloom in my secret garden. Siberian Iris, March 20, 2008, NYC.

What a delight to receive this picture from Waveplace showing the new owner of the OLPC laptop I donated last month. Here’s a movie of the kids’ first experiences with laptops. Looks like a beautiful group of students and teachers (and fresh green classrooms). Hope you have fun and enjoy learning with your new [...]

Two great streaming media offerings exploring the nature of consciousness:
Oprah and Eckhart Tolle’s “New Earth”online event and Jill Taylor’s TED Talk.

Poems and notes from a delightful talk with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bokara Legendre (filmed for her “Conversations with…” series for LinkTV, so surely you can see it soon too.)

NZ dolphin rescues beached whales
When a group of pygmy sperm whales repeatedly beached themselves off Mahia beach, people tried over an hour and a half to get them to sea. Just when humans were about to give up, a dolphin appeared, communicated with the whales and led them to safety.
(tags: interspecies altruism animals newzealand whales [...]