In “Immaterials: The ghost in the field”, a film by Jack Schulze of BERG and Timo Arnall of the Touch project, they visually map out the invisible fields produced by RFID readers to better understand the technology

Carlo Ratti, from the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT has initiated a project to track where trash goes when we throw it “away”.

The Londonist checks in with Richard Reynolds, the man credited with planting the seeds for the guerrilla gardening movement, during a recent tour of some of his handiwork that had been arranged by the Museum of London.

To reach Hong Kong’s hip urban demographic Coke Zero is teaming up with Japanese streetwear brand Neighborhood Denim.

Urban Rustic
Locavore grocery shopping has come to Williamsburg with Urban Rustic, a food enthusiast’s paradise, stocked only with products sourced from farmers, butchers, cheese makers and other suppliers within a 100-mile radius. Electricity comes from wind power and handwritten tags give info on the origin of each item, which the owners meticulously source for specific reasons (and can tell you exactly why if you ask). Photos on the wall pay homage to the felled trees that were sacrificed to make the earthy floors (the owners were even part of the lumbering process). There’s a juice and- coffee bar in the [...]

Image Credit: Getty Images, vAns/Flickr

There’s been plenty written on the subject of converting urban space into farmland, from rooftops and abandoned lots to the empty beds of pickup trucks, but this idea always revolves around growing various varieties of vegetables and rarely strays into the realms of animal husbandry. Sure there’s the recent emergence of secret communities of city beekeepers and the age old tradition of rooftop pigeon coops, but now it appears even the humble chicken is getting its due.
A new documentary called ” Mad City Chickens” takes an informative (and often whimsical) look into the increasingly common [...]

Standing out from the concrete surfaces and benches of New York’s Collect Pond Park is a ten-sided wooden structure entitled “A Clearing in the Streets.” Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, the installation is meant as a visual intervention, forcing a spaciotemporal instance of the organic within the context of the urban. Although the miniature meadow behind the installation’s wooden panels is small, the project’s creators explain that:
Our collective urban vision is at a point where we need to broaden the definition of “nature” in the city. While there may not be many opportunities to build large-scale parks, there [...]

New York based artist Adrian Kondratowicz has been working on improving the urban landscape through the use of his custom-made, brightly colored trash bags since August of last year. He’s distributed the biodegradable bags throughout New York City, and in several countries around the world. Adrian will be part of a group exhibition during the ICFF called InDisposed which focuses on sustainability versus wastefulness, and preciousness versus mass production.
He explains:
TRASH: anycoloryoulike is a vivid art intervention for urban beautification and environmental awareness. The project consists of select city blocks in which new artist-created bags transform standard piles of trash [...]

Perhaps no place exemplifies the failures of a post-industrialized economy better than Detroit, a city that has lost more than half of its population over the past 60 years. In an effort to provide perspective on the dramatic changes taking place in his hometown, photographer Kevin Bauman began capturing images of the abandoned buildings that increasingly dotted the landscape. The resulting project titled 100 Abandoned Houses, paints a compelling portrait of a dying city where stately homes that were once vibrant and alive, are now bleak and boarded. The effect is equal parts beautiful and tragic, pointing to the challenges that lie ahead as [...]

Media architecture collective, Urban Alliance, recently installed what they call “interactive urban wallpaper” in a pedestrian tunnel in Amsterdam.  Made from 2,500 LEDs set behind a ribbed, semi-transparent wall, the lights react to people’s movement as they they walk through the tunnel.  In addition to making it less vulnerable to graffiti, the curves in the wall also enable the images to be seen more clearly from outside the tunnel.
Urban Alliance is composed of Dutch architects Studio Klink, production company Illuminate, artist Matthias Oostrik and design and construction firm Cube.
[via Dezeen]
Related PSFK Articles:
Massive Installation Utilizes 41,000 LEDs
LED Installation Lights Up [...]

With the intention of stimulating discussion and debate on how digital networks are transforming our notion of public and private space, the recent Radiator Festival featured numerous projects challenging the dominant forces at work in urban environment and exploring the new territories opened up by hybrid spaces.
One of our favorite projects came from Köbberling&Kaltwasser, who meticulously mapped out all of the spaces within Nottingham city that escape the gaze of CCTV cameras.  In these ‘blind spots,’ they built small wooden structures from found materials and made them available for anyone to step into at any time for “un-determined acts.”
The German [...]

The latest project from Spanish design company Luzinterruptus, Personal reading in public sites attempts to make passers-by rethink the usability of typically uninviting and hidden urban spaces.  Luzinterruptus’ ‘intervention’ was carried out on the particularly freezing night of January 5, installing twelve lamp and detective book combos throughout Madrid.
Hidden places in scaffoldings, a homeless sleeping-place, a box office of an old cinema which closed years ago, the emergency exit of a theater under construction, the interior of a small concrete container, a bus stop in a commercial street at night, a condom machine after it has been looted, an entrance [...]

The Hoegaarden Urban Oasis is an interactive outdoor installation that “challenges the relationship between urban and natural environments and looks at the effect this manipulation of space has on city dwellers.”
Found in London and Manchester and conceived and implemented by osa_london the Hoegaarden Urban Oasis, will create a living piece of nature in the heart of the city. This installation will form a physical and mental oasis for urbanites to step into, interact with and unwind from city life.
And: it sells beer!
Urban Oasis
Preview Invitation Details

A new application by MapHub allows ‘Shared Urban Storytelling’. The system enables residents to for search and publish information about their city. This will start in Pittsburg where members create ‘hubs’ or groups.
A group contains messaging, a unique interactive map. Hubs can be created to promote events, advertise jobs, share stories, or relate histories. Hubs can be used by anyone that needs to maintain and share a set of information about the city based on location.
Register and work out how you could promote your brand using this application.

MapHub