COMMONPLACE

... from the pages of the print edition of the Hackney Citizen

... Commonplace ... online episode archive ...

... http://www.flickr.com/photos/folkushackney/sets/72157625566703442/

PETITION: Petrol-free Parks For London

Target: Boris Johnson and the London Assembly

Can wheelbarrows, rakes, brushes and smaller, electric chainsaws make a comeback?

Can vehicles, if needed, be replaced with electric equivalents too?

Many of the capital's parks and green spaces no longer give respite from pollution.

Petrol-powered tools are used constantly, causing excessive noise, dust and fumes. Worst of all are leaf-blowers.

Year-round leaf-blowers, pole chainsaws and road vehicles have become commonplace. Air pollution, road risks, noise and dust are often worse than in the outside world.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petrol-free-parks-for-london.html

Ecocities: Graphic interventions for a greener future

http://www.archdaily.com/71810/ecocities-graphic-interventions-for-a-greener-future/

an architectural photographer based in London.

"My main motivation is to produce a positive outlook."

EQUIVEILLANCE

"The teaching of certain thoughts and ideas has often been regarded as a crime. And, since Roman times, certain kinds of what we might like to call Free Speech have been regarded as crime."

"But not only is speaking often prohibited, sometimes so is taking notes, or remembering what is spoken."

"At the WTO meetings in Washington for instance, police orders heard over the police radio requested the seizing or destruction of reporters' written notes, and many instances of attempted willful destruction of photographic and video evidence have been perpetrated by both the police, the military, and by others."

Sousveillance can be understood by the following simple experiment:

1- enter the regime;
2- ask them why they have surveillance cameras there;
3- accept a typical response such as "Why are you so paranoid? Only criminals and terrorists are afraid of cameras.";
4- photograph the respondent;
5- observe reaction.

The Land

...The Land is written by and for people who believe that the roots of justice, freedom, social security & democracy lie not so much in access to money, or to the ballot box, as in access to land and its resources....

http://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/

The DAWN CHORUS

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said: "...people are communicating publicly. It is untrue that we are becoming more isolated because of these tools, I think we are connecting more and we are finding new ways to do good."

"A friend of mine asked me, 'what do you hope people will say about Twitter in five or 10 years?' and my answer to him, which I was surprised to hear myself say, was that I hope people will not consider Twitter a triumph of technology, instead that they will consider it a triumph of humanity."

"The idea that the open exchange of information can have a positive global impact. If people are more informed then they become more engaged and if they are more engaged then they can become more empathetic."

Creative Talent and the Mental Environment

Should the best creative minds of our generation be so focused on high-gloss dishonesty?

"We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators who have been raised in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable use of our talents. Many design teachers and mentors promote this belief; the market rewards it; a tide of books and publications reinforces it."

Artists "who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact. To some extent we are all helping draft a reductive and immeasurably harmful code of public discourse."

"We propose a reversal of priorities in favor of more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication - a mindshift away from product marketing and toward the exploration and production of a new kind of meaning. The scope of debate is shrinking; it must expand. Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by other perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design."

http://www.spack.org/words/firstthings.html.moved

https://www.adbusters.org/category/tags/first_things_first