Branches 20090325

Out for a walk along Rockland with my wife Saturday morning, I threw out the idea that natural things differ from man-made things in one key aspect - natural things seem to inherently branch off where as man-made things are static and self-contained. The bushes, trees, clouds, and even human offspring and interactions all branch off to other, newer things that are pretty much structurally the same as the parent. Juan Armando Sánchez in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Columbia has even dedicated a website to his study of branching in aquatic animals. Fractals are like the ultimate abstraction of branching off. 'The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same "type" of structures must appear on all scales.' A suite of works of branching off, hmmmm...

Infrastructure 20090311

Gustav Klimt must have loved textiles. The blankets in several of his works are beautiful, and would be fantastic inspiration for the infrastructure blankets. Still wondering about the best approach to produce the blankets.

I can't be sure, but it looks like Douglas Coupland's been to Walmart to produce his "Corporate Safety Blankets," an interesting concept...

Infrastructure 20090308

Sorry for being away from the sketchpad, my Dad died Valentine's Day in Regina, so the past while has been up and down.

At the Downtown Victoria 2020 conference a few years ago, Bill O'Grady, Ph.D spoke on the topic of "Downtown: The Last Public Place" and laid out a Progressive Vision for Homelessness. The vision included several points that are frequent stumbling blocks for youth at risk:

• Affordable Housing - which could be addressed by using city-owned property to create co-op housing;
  
• Educational Alternatives - particularly Grades 9 and 10;
  
• Health Services supports;
  
• Criminal Justice System - is homelessness really a criminal matter;
  
• Social Supports - through mentoring;
  
• Labour Market needs;
  
• Education of Residents - how to interact with homeless;
  
• Tolerance - of different lifestyles.
  

The current economic climate is pressing more individuals into difficult situations like couch surfing, marital disintegration, food banks and other related difficulties which in time could lead to desperation and homelessness. Carl A. Anderson is quoted as saying, "If greed - one of the worst aspects of human nature - helped push us into crisis, then one of the best aspects of our nature - generosity - will be necessary to help pull us out of it." We should all be looking to charity and generosity to assist those at risk.

Learn more about Bill O'Grady from the University of Guelph's website.