What’s on family dinner tables in fifteen different homes around the globe? An interesting look at daily lives and some aspects of globalization. Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet"

See more of his work at the TIME slideshow

At Send A Message you pay Palestinians 30 Euros, you can have your message of love or debt collection spray painted on this 620 Kilometer fence.  In return, you get 3 digital photos to share with those who the message is aimed at.

"a collaboration between Dutch advertising professionals and creative Palestinian youth, each message posted reminds Palestinians trapped inside the Wall they have not been forgotten, helping to keep hope alive. The project also allows those inside those wall to send one single, simple message: “we are human beings, just like you, with sense of humor and lust for life.” That’s why they do this, and enjoy it.

Part of your 30 euros money stays in Holland, to cover the (minimal) costs of setting up and running ‘Sendamessage’. The bulk of the money will go to the Palestinian NGO’s (independent foundations) doing the work. They will fund small social, cultural and educational projects with the money earned (from buying bicycles to fixing the roof)"

Why is the wall there?

The barrier is a highly controversial project. Supporters argue that the barrier is a necessary tool protecting Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombing attacks, that increased significantly during the al-Aqsa Intifada; it has helped to significantly reduce incidents of terrorism from 2002 to 2005; its supporters assert that the onus is on the Palestinian Authority to fight terrorism.

Opponents argue that the barrier is an illegal attempt to annex Palestinian land under the guise of security, violates international law,has the intent or effect to pre-empt final status negotiations, and severely restricts Palestinians who live nearby, particularly their ability to travel freely within the West Bank and to access work in Israel.  In a 2004 decision, the International Court of Justice declared construction of the wall "contrary to international law."

Source: Wikipedia article 

No matter your view on graffiti or the Israeli/Palestinian conflict I think that this projects has some interesting implications and is worth thinking about how  terrorism, democracy and the role that technology will play in influencing them both. 

Found this article in Scientific American to be pretty interesting read, worth a few minutes to get the studies details:

"How does the brain differentiate those who are similar to us from those who are different? Does it analyze differences in skin color, language, religion, height, eye color, foot size?

In a way, the brain does all this and more by simply distinguishing those who don’t meet various definitions of who we are. Specifically, a forebrain area called the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) appears to predict the behavior of members of outgroups by employing prejudices about their presumed background"

and they concluded:

"that a critical strategy for reducing prejudice may be to breach arbitrary boundaries based on social group membership by focusing instead on the shared similarity between oneself and outgroup members." This is not new advice. Yet it is heartening to see that it is firmly grounded in distinct patterns of neural activity. There may be a brain basis for reacting with prejudices for those that seem different. But there’s also a brain basis for overriding those differences and seeing outsiders as more like us."

Blobwall Pavilion is a collaboration between Greg Lynn FORM, Machinous who manufactured the bricks and Panelite who produced & distributed the architectural material.

It is essentially redefining the idea of a brick into a lightweight object made of plastic and reinterpreted into modular elements. Blobwall Pavilion is a freestanding, indoor/outdoor wall system built of a low-density, recyclable, impact-resistant polymer. The blob unit, or “brick,” is a robotically cut mass-produced hollow tri-lobed shape formed through rotational molding, which is then assembled with interlocking precision to form the wall.

You can follow along with some of the Blobwall’s design process Here.

Ponoko is the world’s first platform for anyone to share, buy and sell product plans to make individualized goods.  They are taking the ideas of mass customization, 3d printing/laser cutting and combining them into an efficient revenue generator and marketplace for designs of almost anything.

With Ponoko you can:

Ponoko manages every detail for you to trade original user-generated digital and physical products. This service includes a personal web showroom for you to show, share or sell your stuff, a personal online factory for you to ‘click to make’, hosting, secure payment processing, order management, on-demand production, fulfillment, customer service and online sharing tools.

How it works - for creators

Ponoko is the easiest and most profitable way for creators to get their products to market:

No upfront costs. No minimum orders. No inventory. Simply click to design, make, sell and deliver your creativity to the world, at your own speed.

What is a spime you might ask?

A Spime is an object that through pervasive RFID communications and GPS navigation can track its history and interact with the world.  It is a location-aware, environment-aware, self-logging, self-documenting, uniquely identified object that sends data about itself and its environment in great quantities.

It was coined by author Bruce Sterling, The project OpenSpime wants to take this concept and provide an opensource communications protocol for Spimes and an Internet of Things. 

They have yet to release and API, etc but be on the lookout for what they come up with,  I have included a video interview of Bruce Sterling conducted by the creators of the OpenSpime project to give you a little better overview of the concept:

From the MIT project website: 

‘Quickies’ enrich the experience of using sticky notes by allowing them to be tracked and managed more effectively. The project explores how the use of RFID, Artificial Intelligence and ink recognition technologies can make it possible to create intelligent sticky notes that can be searched, located, can send reminders and messages, and more broadly, can help us to seamlessly connect our physical and digital worlds."

See more of his work Here

Tropism is a collaboration between New York product design studio Commonwealth and generative artist Joshua Davis. 

Joshua Davis created a library of elements by taking shapes from a book on floral mechanics. He then recombined these into organic compositions using algorithms. A selection of the images were then digitally outputted as ceramic paint transfers which were later applied to the digitally modeled vase.

Working up to 7 hours on each piece and walking for over 30 miles during the process, The massive hand drawn works of art work by Jim Denevan are an impressive feat in their size and temporary nature.  Check out more of his work here: