Love Letters To Toronto
For topophiliacs in Toronto, the Love Lettering Project allows people to write love notes to their beloved city. At events around the city, the group sets up a table with fancy paper, glue sticks, scissors and pens and lets people pour their hearts out. Once they penned their odes, they are given an envelope and told to go hide their letters somewhere in the city for a stranger to find.
Read more →Makkie: A Currency For The Community
‘Makkie’ is a new peer-to-peer economy in the Indische Buurt (Indian Quarter) in East Amsterdam that was introduced a few months ago. Neighborhood residents can earn ‘Makkies’ by doing a chore for their neighbors or local organizations. This can be anything, varying from fixing someone’s computer to volunteering at a film festival or painting a hallway. Every hour of work will earn you one Makkie. Makkies, which look like real money, can be redeemed for discounts on products at local shops, free movie tickets, fitness courses, you name it.
Read more →
Some Wine With Your Outdoor Library?
By Emma Chow
What do you get when you cram a lawn chock-full of books? A Bookyard! We love pop-up libraries, from trees to trains. Italian artist Massimo Bartolini has outfitted the gentle slopes of St. Peter’s Abbey in Ghent with 12 sweeping bookcases for the Belgian art festival Track: A Contemporary City Conversation. The installation is actually adjacent to the abbey’s vineyard (the bookcases are aligned with the rows of vines) because Bartolini believes that both good wine and books can broaden the mind.
Read more →On The Way: Pop-Up Cinema In Moscow
By Adam Nowek
Muscovites, watch out. This travelling roadshow might be coming to a back alley near you. Russian group BBBspaces have put together ‘On the Way’, a mobile cinema space that can be set up with ease anywhere in the city.
Read more →Bibliotren Transforms Trains Into Virtual Libraries
By Clement Adam
Travelers of the Catalan Government Railways (Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya) will have plenty to read over the coming months as the trains are turned into virtual libraries, where 40 books are displayed on posters. After scanning a book’s QR code, travelers are enabled to read the first chapter of every book.
Read more →BLA BLA Presents: Your Very Own Pop-Up Movie!
By Emma Chow
BLA BLA is an interactive movie installation by Montreal-based director Vincent Morisset. It has been presented in museums in Rotterdam and Tokyo, but in Montreal it was set up outdoors for the first time as part of the International Digital Arts Biennial.
Read more →Burn Calories Watching Movies In The Pedal-Powered Cinema
By Emma Chow
Continuing on the theme of pedal power, the city of Derby in the United Kingdom will be hosting a pedal-powered festival this Summer. Burn off your popcorn at the pedal powered cinema and wrap it up with a party where the DJ’s spin on turntables energized by pedal-power. These community events also include demonstrations and workshops to show how to harness pedal power.
Read more →Pots And Pans Take Over The Streets Of Montreal
By Emma Chow
Starting a few evenings ago, Quebeckers of all ages and backgrounds emerged from their households at 8pm banging pots and pans to show their solidarity with the student movement.
Read more →Delta Air Lines Presents… Your Bag’s Journey At The Airport
I always wonder what happens to my luggage after I leave it at the check-in counters before taking a flight. In order to promote its new luggage-tracking smartphone app, Delta Air Lines launched a neat behind-the-scenes video that provides some insight in where a piece of luggage goes at the airport.
Read more →Design In Helsinki — World’s First Cleaning Day Turns The City Into One Big Flea Market
By Joop de Boer
Don’t we all have loads of unused stuff? And wouldn’t it be great to take a moment to sell this stuff to others that may need it? That’s what Cleaning Day is about. Last Saturday, 12 May, the first Cleaning Day ever took place in Helsinki. On Cleaning Day every urbanite can sell or donate [...]
Read more →