Street Smarts

Picturing Health: Photographs by Teens in Central and Southern California

Opens March 12, with a reception and talk with several of the young artists from 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. at Venice Arts gallery. Open through April 30, 2011.

Picturing Health visually explores both the strengths and challenges of 8 Central and Southern California communities as seen through the eyes of teens. Through a two-year project run by Venice Arts with the support of The California Endowment, 80 youth from 8 Central and Southern California communities explored what they felt were barriers to a healthy life including trash-filled streets, lack of park space, teen pregnancy, and the presence of gangs. They also documented community heroes, vibrant culture, friendship, and family.

Please join us as we celebrate their achievements. http://www.venice-arts.org/

MANufacturing

Rapid prototyping is a process of making models using synthetic materials fed into a 3D printer. The process brings the digital aspirations of 3D modeling out of the computer into everyday reality. Similar to the brush fire set off by the personal computer, 3D printing has set off a wave of "small manufacturing" by artists, designers, engineers, and craftspeople. Many see this as an opportunity to jumpstart the stalled world economy through innovation and micro production. In his book Makers, best-selling Sci-Fi author Cory Doctorow fast-forwards through the boom and bust of a post-modern industrial revolution to probe the heart of a designer.

UK book cover, MAKERS

US book cover, MAKERS

  
"Makers is a book for the lovers of technology, for the gleeful optimists more than the cynics. It's for the people who love the kooky engineering projects you see on Boing Boing, for the people who believe that, as the poster says, "The future belongs to the few of us still willing to get our hands dirty." It's for the people who can't wait to own a 3D printer, and who believe that while technology has its missteps, it's going to change our lives in wonderful and unexpected ways.

It's for the people who hate Disney's corporate tactics, but still get a thrill at the idea of visiting the Magic Kingdom; for the people who believe that, even if they can't change the world, they can at least improve their little corner of it. It's for the people who think that, while the future may not be all jetpacks and hover cars and all the world's people singing Kumbaya, we as individuals have the power to make it awesome in its own right."  -- Lauren Davis, IO9

Hooked Up

LONDON WALLS PHOTO EXHIBITION - ICA
Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Image via ICA

Some of the UK's best streetart and graffiti photographers will display a selection of their photos tomorrow evening as part of the Shunt Live weekend at the ICA. The London Walls photography exhibition will feature pictures from Delete, NoLionsInEngland, Leeone102, HowAboutNo, Buddz909 and Joeppo. All six photographers have been documenting the ephemeral graffiti and street art that constantly ebbs and flows across London's streets, rooftops and tracksides.

The London Walls show brings together for the first time a selection of high quality photographs which capture the work of London's finest writers, bombers, and street artists. Also see HOOKED - Hooked blog started in 2005 as a place to share a love of Street Art, Art, Stencils, Grafitti, Tags, Screen Printing, Illustration, Exhibitions, Zines and everything and anything in between! Read more: Institute of Contemporary Arts | The Mall | London SW1Y 5AH

Gamings No Joke

Training THE NEXT GENeration

This landmark report sets out how the UK can be transformed into the world’s leading talent hub for video games and visual effects.

At over £2 billion in global sales, the UK’s video games sector is bigger than either its film or music industries, and visual effects, the fastest growing component of the UK’s film industry, grew at an explosive 16.8 per cent between 2006 and 2008. High-tech, knowledge-intensive sectors and, in the case of video games, major generators of intellectual property, these industries have all the attributes the UK needs to succeed in the 21st century.

Yet, the sad truth is that we are already starting to lose our cutting edge: in just two years, it seems the UK’s video games industry has dipped from third to sixth place in the global development rankings.

For the full education plan or more on INNOVATION IN THE UK, see NESTA website.