Neww of youths getting involved with underground farming typically suggests the illicit and causes a bit of concern… but not this time! Inside a former bank vault hidden beneath a high rise building in Tokyo’s Otemachi business district, a square kilometer of subterranean soil has been planted with rice. There are also different rooms for growing tomatoes, lettuces, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and herbs.
The facility, Pasona O2, was built as a training facility for wanna-be farmersto create job opportunities in the agricultural sector. The project is targeting “freeters,” a Japanese expression [...]

More than a year ago SMITH online magazine challenged their readers to compress their life story into six words. The magazine was flooded with 15,000 entries and almost 1,000 of these tag line life stories have now made it into the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure. In addition, the editors have thrown in a couple of celebrity autobiographies including Aimee Mann, Stephen Colbert, Mario Batali, Amy Sedaris, and Dave Eggers and the result is, according to SMITH,
“[...] both a moving peek at the minutia of humanity and the most literary toilet [...]

Urbanites might never stop craving nature in the concrete jungle, and in Seoul, they’ve found a nice compromise in Ann Demeulemeester’s new boutique. We talked about the rise of “botanic architecture” last week in our post about Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University; and this boutique follows a similar concept, bridging the gap between idyll and city with its vertical gardens. Originally conceived by French botanist Patrick Blanc, “Le Mur Vegetal” (or in English, “wall of vegetation”) relies on a lightweight material upon which greenery (in this case, manicured moss and bamboo) is cultivated and grown slowly. With the Belgian designer’s boutique, [...]

Contributed by Jessica Greenwood:
I, and no doubt thousands like me, have been closely following the case in which an Erasmus student was murdered last week in Italy. Erasmus is an exchange programme in which European universities allow students to study for a year abroad. I did my own Erasmus year at Bologna University, not far from Perugia where Meredith Kercher was killed.
It’s obviously a high profile case given that the victim was young, beautiful and intelligent, and although precious few details are forthcoming, we know that Kercher’s death was both physically and sexually brutal. In addition to this, it’s throwing [...]

Hosted by The MIT Convergence Culture Consortium (C3), The Futures of Entertainment 2 conference featured 6 panel discussions spread over the weekend. With attendance split roughly 50% industry and 50% academics the event provided a debate forum on the fresh ways we interract with consumers and brands, forming richer, more meaningful experiences and strategies in the cluttered landscape of new media. A backchannel site was launched and with audience questions projected in real-time.
Mobile Media

Day one featured a discussion on Mobile Media with panelists Marc Davis (Yahoo), Bob Schukai (Turner Broadcasting), Alice Kim (MTV Networks), and Anmol Madan (MIT Media Lab). [...]

Uniqueness, a contemporary aspiration, a celebration of one’s Ego, and one’s “Me-Power”… Quintessence of a new luxury, less show-off and more intimate. Parisian dandies are on a quest of the ‘Nez’ that will create for them, their grail, their unique scent, and that will make them feel Unique!

Wendy Dembo who spoke at PSFK’s New York Conference has decided to speak up again, this time in the form of a T shirt. The Gap’s Red t-shirt line spurred her to mimick the design and address the rather shocking rate of health insurance in the United States.
As the inside of the shirt states, 46 million US citizens have no health insurance. New York Magazine reports:
It’s a state of mind so common, in fact, that the insurance industry has a name for it: the “young invincibles,” those who, betting they can get through their twenties relatively unscathed, “choose” to go [...]

Hosted by The MIT Convergence Culture Consortium (C3), The Futures of Entertainment 2 conference featured 6 panel discussions spread over the weekend. With attendace split roughly 50% industry and 50% academics the event provided a debate forum on the fresh ways we interract with consumers and brands, forming richer, more meaningful experiences and strategies in the cluttered landscape of new media. A backchannel site was launched and with audience questions projected in real-time.
Day one featured a discussion on Mobile Media with panelists Marc Davis (Yahoo), Bob Schukai (Turner Broadcasting), Alice Kim (MTV Networks), and Anmol Madan (MIT Media Lab). Acknowledging [...]

We are bombarded by images, thoughts and ideas, more then anytime in history. Cheryl Swanson spoke at the FUSE Conference back in April about how over stimulated we are compared to any generation before us. In an attempt to somehow limit and filter what is only valuable, we have developed a type of Media Attention Deficit Disorder. Entertain me, make me think, make me laugh, but you only have 60 seconds.
Veronis Suhler Stevenson a private equity firm has reported what we have long suspected, we are consuming less forms of traditional media then ever before. Altogether [...]

New offerings from the New York design team Rag and Bone now line the shelves at Den, Odin’s offshoot store. The 2 week sample sale stock, Odin’s warehouse leftovers, has ended and been replaced with all new goodies. The concept store’s shtick, rotating out old gear every 6 weeks, seems to be working quite well as the first two days of the sample sale drew hoards of eager downtowners, leaving the racks sparse for latecomers to comb through.
Pop down to 11th st. to check out R&B’s new line for both guys and girls.

The First Reverse Marathon in history took place at Parque Centenario in the City of Buenos Aires on September 8th. This flashmob was the opening event for the IX Fuga Jurásica Multimedia Experimental Art Festival , that has taken place in the Museum of Natural Sciences Bernardino Rivadavia of the City of Buenos Aires since 1998. The idea is to make a Reverse Marathon that is related to the integral concept of this festival: “Experiencing is good”, which was created and developed by Underground School of Creatives, who are responsible for the integral communication of the event. In order to [...]

Last month Aquafina finally agreed to re label their water source after it was disclosed that the water came from the Missouri River. PepsiCo, the bottling giant has been quick to point out that their water is of a higher quality than tap water. Although how remains to be seen. For the most part the average consumer of the 15 Billion dollar water industry remains relatively clueless about the origins of most bottled water sources.
The issue of bottled water is a contentious one and the release of this information could possibly effect the 30 Billion water bottles consumed a year, [...]

The debate continues around the issues surrounding plastic water bottles, the latest Fast Company article “Message in a Bottle” was quick to point out that the United States consumed over 50 billion water bottles last year alone, that’s 167 water bottles per person. One artist in South Africa has chosen to see the beauty in what we throw away.
Heath Nash has created lamps and light fixtures made out of water bottles and caps. South Africa is a Country known for their ingenuity and resourcefulness in creating beauty out of waste, soda cans become radio’s, gum wrappers into purses [...]

Innovation was the genesis behind the re-launch of Clae footwear. As we’ve seen throughout this series, when designers can’t find the clothes they want on the rack, they do what they do best and make their own. High Snobiety reports:
OGs know this brand as being the FIRST boutique “athleisure” footwear brand. They went on hiatus for a few years but are back with a full collection in stores this coming Fall, and a capsule collection in very select stores right now. New shipment just arrived at Everything Must Go in Harlem www.everythingmustgonyc.com price points from $89 – [...]