Metabolic Studio Public SalonRickey SmithFriday, September 11, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Urban Green on Spring

About The Salon

You may have noticed that Millies - the old hamburger stand on the Los Angeles State Historic Park - has been repainted a fetching citrus shade recently? Reincarnated for the 21st century, Millie’s burger stand is in the process of becoming "Urban Green at LASHP". Rather than burger and chips though, Urban Green will grow vegetables and serve them up in delicious vegetarian dishes.

Urban Green has contracted with The State of California Parks and Recreation to build an interactive, interpretive system on the site of The Historic State Park in Downtown Los Angeles. The development envisions “ON SPRING” as a community hub with activities involving educational and practical application of sustainable functions which guests can incorporate into their own personal lives.

Discussing the venture and answering questions will be Urban Green Founder and Director, Rickey Smith.

About The Salon Presenter

Rickey Smith is founder and principal of Urban Green, a social entrepreneurship dedicated to restoring, developing and promoting “green space” within the communities it serves. Urban Green was designed upon Rickey’s philosophy of Circular Synergy, which seeks to establish a CLEAR path connecting the inter-disciplines of Cuisine, Land-use, Environment, and Architecture into Renewable cycles of self-reliant communities.

Inspired by the challenge to evolve food production in the United States, and seeking to create a deeper, more significant experience than just the mere exchange of goods for money, Rickey is committed to the development of functional, small-scale operations using closed-loop, urban-farming systems within the Los Angeles Metropolitan area.

Recognized as a leader and change agent who passionately believes in the Urban Green adage “Waste not. Want not.” He is currently a guest lecturer at UCLA, local charter schools and conference round table discussions. Rickey is also recognized for his community service work with diverse organizations such as Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles Robotics Team and Mother’s Club in Pasadena.

Above: pre-green Millies

Image courtesy http://lashp.wordpress.com

Metabolic Studio Public SalonDan EtheridgeFriday, September 4, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

A New Food Landscape in post-Katrina New Orleans

About the Salon

This salon will present the collaborative work of the Tulane City Center (TCC) and the New Orleans Food and Farm Network (NOFFN) in their efforts to support the growing urban farming/local food movement in New Orleans. Although part of a national trend, the projects presented here also grew out of a post disaster context that has enabled many new visions to emerge with a high probability of success.

The salon will specifically look at two larger scale initiatives in the New Orleans area: the Viet Village Urban Farm (a proposed 28acre urban farm and farmers market in the principal Vietnamese nighborhood in New Orleans) and the Hollygrove Growers Market and Farm (a smaller local growers market and urban farming training center).

These projects differ in scale and intent, however they were both supported by the TCC/NOFFN collaboration that brought design, planning, technical and other skills to projects that had great community support and a piece of land. We feel we have developed a model to support groups that lack the resources to access these skill sets, and the projects we will present showcase how these community generated initiatives can begin to garner the momentum they need to become reality.

About the Salon Presenter

Dan Etheridge is Associate Director of the Tulane City Center and Adjunct Lecturer at the Tulane School of Architecture. Dan has a degree in Applied Environmental Management from Southern Cross University in New South Wales, Australia, is a Fellow of the Institute for Environmental Communications at Loyola University New Orleans, and has worked for the last five years at the intersection of regional coastal restoration strategies and urban design and policy. He has been published in environmental science and management journals, design publications and community advocacy forums and continues to work across these disciplines in research and practice. In addition, Dan is a partner in the environmental consulting practice Meffert + Etheridge Environmental Projects that specializes in bringing sound ecological practice and communication to design, planning and development projects.

Further information: www.tulanecitycenter.org

Image: Tulane City Center, courtesy Dan Etheridge

Metabolic Studio Public SalonKirk Anderson & Amy SeidenwurmFriday, August 28, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Let the Bees Be Bees!

About the Salon

Convinced that the current decline in bee numbers is the result of their ‘enslavement’ to industrial processes, Kirk and Amy will discuss the pleasures of beekeeping and ways to encourage the native feral bee population.

Bees make honey to survive, and they’ve been doing it a long time. In its natural state, honey contains sugars, yeast and enzymes. It can also contain pollen and propolis (the resinous substance made by bees to seal cracks and small gaps in their hive). Humans discovered this wonderful honey, and eventually figured out a way to make the bees work for them.

In the early days, beekeepers used an inverted straw basket called a ‘skep’ to house the bees. Later, a man named Langstroth invented the current square wooden box with removable wood frames. This made it much easier for beekeepers to look at their bees and to get the honey out.

Honey can be extracted two ways: the frames can be put in a centrifugal extractor and the honey spun out of the comb or the comb can be cut out of the frame, crushed and the honey strained from it. Commercial beekeepers store the extracted honey in 55 gallon drums until it’s needed. Honey left alone will crystallize. It has to be liquefied to get it out of the drum. If the temperature used to melt the honey is less than 120E it can still be called “raw”. Honey can also be pasteurized (at temperatures up to 280E) to stabilize it and improve shelf life by killing the natural yeast and enzymes.

Humans like to control their environment and the living creatures in it, so beekeepers figured out ways for their bees to make more honey. However, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” really applies to bees. When bees and their hive are messed with, all sorts of problems can arise. If bees are allowed to go about their business as they always have, they’ll create strong hives and delicious, beneficial honey.

About the Salon Presenters

Kirk Anderson is an urban beekeeper and the founder of an LA collective of small-scale organic beekeepers. His goal is to do right by the bees so that the bees can return the favor. Amy Seidenwurm is a fan of bees, food, dogs, wine, music, typography, technology and basketball. In her professional life, she is a digital marketing geek.

Above: Bees settle into a front porch hive cut out of a wood-and-masonry dollhouse, Los Angeles 2009. Courtesy Kirk Anderson

Further Information: www.backwardsbeekeepers.com

Metabolic Studio Public SalonDetective Don HrycykFriday, August 21, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Art Fraud in L.A.

About The Salon
Los Angeles is the second largest center for the visual arts in the U.S. This has attracted art thieves and conmen (and women) who have often targeted the cultural heritage of the city. LAPD's two-detective Art Theft Detail has investigated many of these crimes involving not only art but other types of cultural property including rare books, musical instruments, fossils, and Hollywood movie props. These crimes involve not only theft of art but also fakes, fraud and forgeries.

Detective Hrycyk will discuss some of these cases and profile the type of art criminals who prey on artists, art dealers and collectors. Preventive measures that art lovers can take to protect themselves will also be discussed. Additional information about the Art Theft Detail including crime alerts on stolen art can be found at http://www.lapdonline.org/art_theft

About the Salon Presenter
Don Hrycyk is the detective in charge of LAPD’s Art Theft Detail – the only full-time municipal art investigative unit in the United States. During the 15 years that he has been in this position, the unit has recovered over $77 million in cultural property. He has been a police officer for over 35 years. Prior to investigating art crimes, Hrycyk worked a variety of assignments including homicide, robbery, sex crimes, burglary, juvenile, assaults, forgery, gangs, and patrol.

He graduated from California State University where he majored in Criminology. He teaches Art Crimes Investigation to law enforcement officers and lectures on the art crime problem. Hrycyk is a recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s Burke Award for Excellence in Cultural Property Protection.

Image courtesy Det. Don Hrycyk

Metabolic Studio Public SalonGreenmemeFriday, August 14, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Weaving the Landscape

About the Salon

Freya Bardell and Brian Howe of the Los Angeles-based design studio Greenmeme will discuss a variety of their projects. Their cross-disciplinary collective has worked to bridge artistic and scientific disciplines to produce public art, architecture, landscape and ecological design projects, which seek to raise awareness of the cultural and environmental conditions around them. Using science, form, history, story-telling and myth, they have created a series of site-specific works which are playful and educational interpretations of their surroundings. Come join our discussion on River Livers, Matryoshka dolls and how to harness the power of Grandmothers!

Further information: www.greenmeme.com

Image: Matryoshka, Plummer Park 2009 ©2004-2009 Dwell LLC

Metabolic Studio Public SalonCharles PhoenixFriday, August 7, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Charles Phoenix's Retro Slide Show Tour of Southern California
About The Salon

“It is the age of space and we have just landed in the most modern metropolis on the planet…”

A live vintage slide show performance by pop-culture expert Charles Phoenix. With his infectious enthusiasm and eagle eye for funny and thought provoking details Charles celebrates Southern California in the 1950s & 60s. You will experience the booming car culture, space age suburbia, fast food stands, shopping centers and drive-in's like you never have before. Go behind the scenes in Hollywood, see famous landmarks,then enjoy Knott's Berry Farm, Marineland and Disneyland when they were new and much, much, more-IN COLOR!

“… the sun-kissed Southern Californians seen here are clearly having the time of their lives. And so are we.” – Los Angeles Times (Critic’s Choice)

“so entertaining we wish it would last forever…” – LA Weekly (Pick of the Week)

About the Salon Presenter

Entertainer, author and pop-culture expert Charles Phoenix is known for his live hilarious retro slide show performances, comparing Downtown Los Angeles to Disneyland, Astro-Weenie Christmas Tree and colorful coffee table books. He offers a hip and highly original take on kitschy and classic American culture. Fans from coast to coast enjoy his infectious enthusiasm, gracious sense of humor and keen eye for detail. Charles is also a recurring correspondent for NPR’s Day to Day and The Martha Stewart Show. Charles was the Grand Marshall of this years DooDah Parade in Pasadena,CA. LA WEEKLY chose Charles for the cover of its 2008 people issue, calling him the Kodachrome King. For more on Charles and to sign up for his Slide of the Week go to www.CharlesPhoenix.com

Image courtesy Charles Phoenix

Metabolic Studio Public SalonFinishing SchoolFriday, July 31, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

M.O.L.D. / Bioindicator Workshop

About the Salon
Finishing School will discuss their most recent project M.O.L.D. (2009), a performative installation that investigates critical issues related to the science, politics, and culture of food through the lens of decomposition. The salon audience will also participate in a workshop where they will build their own amateur bioindicators to assess food quality and safety.

About the Salon Participants
Formed in late 2001, Finishing School is a collective identity that investigates diverse social, political, and environmental issues. Their projects combine praxis, play, and activism and engage viewers through various participatory models. They have exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally.

Finishing School was recently the inaugural participants in MOCA's Engagement Party, an ongoing "artists residency" program at MOCA in Los Angeles where they presented three projects: Finding Joy (2008), The Drug Run (2008), and Executive Order Karaoke (2008). Other current projects include Little Pharma (2008), which investigates alternative medicines and lifestyles as a viable antidote to some of the drug industry's pathologies. Little Pharma consists of a series of workshops, roundtable meetings, lectures, weblog, community medicinal garden, and drug themed bike ride.

Past projects include Public Interaction Objects (2006), a series of low-tech participatory objects including meet/greet, a semi-autonomous drone designed to move through public spaces and greet individuals with multilingual salutations representing the six official languages of the United Nations; The Patriot Library (2003), a working library that provides access to books, periodicals, and other media considered "dangerous" by the United States government; and Saturday School (2001), a temporary, nomadic teaching institution offering multidisciplinary classes that dissect, question, and illuminate various aspects of everyday life.

Further information: www.finishing-school.net

Metabolic Studio Public SalonJill LeovyFriday, July 24, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

The Homicide Report

About the salon

Two or three homicides occur every day in Los Angeles County, but major newspapers report on only around 10% of these. Realizing that most of the stories went untold, LA Times crime reporter Jill Leovy committed to reporting each and every single murder.

Leovy initiated the blog the Homicide Report in 2007 with just 17 names received from the local coroner's office. A year later, the blog had documented every murder in Los Angeles County, 845 in all, something that had never been done before.

The Homicide Blog, "seeks to exploit the advantages of the web to eliminate selectivity in homicide coverage and give readers a more complete picture of who dies from homicide, where, and why -- thus conveying both the personal story and the statistical story with greater accuracy."

About the presenter

Jill Leovy is a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Click here to access the Homicide Report.

Photo: Pearl White sits near a vigil for her cousin, Dennis Joe Rodgers, Jr. who was shot and killed Wednesday night, 7.8.09.Credit: Ruben Vives/Los Angeles Times

Metabolic Studio Public SalonDeborah KaneFriday, July 10, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

A Facebook for Food as Local Goes Online:
Getting Regional Food to Market with FoodHub

About the Salon

Demand for local food is at an all-time high. As a result, larger-volume and institutional purchasers such as public schools, colleges, hospitals, retail grocery stores and many others are increasingly assigning geographic preference to their key purchase criteria along with long-standing cost, quality, quantity, and delivery requirements. Yet every year more American small- and medium-sized family farms go out of business, having not found a viable method for accessing this increased market demand for their products. This year in the Pacific Northwest the farmer with a fire sale on blueberries will have access to hundreds of online wholesale buyers through a new tool called FoodHub. Will it save the family farm? It just might. Come find out more. (see too www.ecotrust.org/foodhub/)

About the Salon Participant

Deborah Kane’s passion for promoting local and sustainable agriculture places her at that critical junction where the culinary arts and the sustainable agriculture movement intersect. A tireless advocate for sustainable agriculture and food-related industries, Kane currently serves as vice president of Food and Farms at Ecotrust, a Northwest-based conservation organization.

Under Kane's leadership, Oregon became the first state in the nation to institutionalize the notion of getting regionally produced food into public schools by creating full time ‘farm to school’ positions in both its Departments of Education and Agriculture. Kane is the publisher of Edible Portland, an award-winning quarterly magazine that celebrates the region’s bounty, season by delicious season.

FoodHub, Kane's latest project, is an online directory and marketplace designed to make it easy and efficient for buyers and sellers of regional food to find one another and conduct business. Kane looks forward to the day when supply chains are transparent and information flows readily so that questions such as “I wonder where I can sell these parsnips” and “Where can I get 120 pounds of wild salmon” are answered with the click of a button.


Photo: Chef John Toboada receives a delivery of local produce from farmer Laura Masterson. Foodhub makes it possible for local producers to find (hungry) buyers.

Photo courtesy Deborah Kane.

Metabolic Studio Public SalonKevin KuzmaFriday, June 26, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Edendale: Where the Hollywood film industry was born

About the Salon

This year marks the centennial of the first permanent movie studio to set up shop in Los Angeles. But that first studio and others that sprang up nearby where not located in Hollywood. They cranked out silent films several miles east in a village called Edendale, which straddled the border of what is now Echo Park and Silver Lake. The presentation will cover the founding of that first studio, Selig Polyscope, and the emergence and brief reign of Edendale as the center of the region's movie making business.

About the Salon Participant

Angelino Heights resident Kevin Kuzma is president of the Echo Park Historical Society and the owner of Revival Arts Restoration, a preservation and restoration consulting company.

Updated -- New Salon Speakers For This FridayWouter Osterholt & Elke UitentuisFriday, June 19, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

The Farmlab Public Salon Series welcomes Wouter Osterholt & Elke Uitentuis as the Salon presenters on Friday, June 19, 2009 @ Noon.

Osterholt and Uitentuis are currently MAK Center Artists and Architects-in-Residence.

For more information about Osterholt and Uitentuis, please visit their website and see the "about" section at the bottom of this page.

Special thanks to the duo for being able and willing to come Friday on such short notice. Thanks, too, to the MAK staff.

The Salon Series also apologies to anyone anticipating seeing our previously scheduled Salon speakers this week. That duo are unable to participate.

-- Farmlab Public Salon Series

About the Salon Presenters

As of 2005 Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis have been collaborating together as an artistduo. Their work utilizes a context-specific approach, investigating the relationship between people and their surroundings. They try to visualize the friction of regulation and improvisation in relationship to the planning of society and space and to unravel hidden hierarchies in order to offer an insight into the contradicting interests defining the use of public space. The test-situations they create are supposed to challenge people to redefine their relationship with their surroundings and their personal attitude towards ‘citizenship’.

Goat Video #2

Second in a series. The first is here.

GoatCam Video

State Park To Close?

The Los Angeles State Historic Park -- site of the Anabolic Monument, past site of Not A Cornfield -- is under threat of being shut down.

LASHP is not alone. 220 of California's 279 state parks, beaches, and preserves are on a budget-cutting hit list. Here's a Los Angeles Times summary. Here's the Downtown News on the local park. And here's an editorial cartoon from the Garment & Citizen.

Finally, here's the website of the California State Parks Foundation, a "friends-of" group to the California State Parks Department.

Checking in With SCF Trees @ The Huntington

Eduardo, Jamal, Steve and Roberto from Yo Watts pose with pomelos they picked in the Huntington Botanitcal Gardens fruit orchard after a full day of mulching the South Central Farm trees.

For more information about the trees, the Huntington, the Farm, and Farmlab, please see this page.


Farmlab photo by Meredith Hackleman 2009

Lauren Bon, Metabolic Studio Part of L.A. River Multimedia Piece

KCET.org's latest "Departures" feature is about the L.A. River.

Lauren Bon is among the interviewees. There's also a Metabolic Studio group video portrait.

View the full project here.


Screen grab from KCET.org

(Disclosure: Metabolic Studio's Jeremy Rosenberg freelances for KCET.org)

Goat Video

More goat-related info is here.


GoatCam video, 2009

F.L.A.G. Planted At Homegirl Cafe

Anna, Homegirl Cafe grower and Master Gardener trainee, picks up seedlings at the Metabolic Studio for the F.L.A.G. ag bins newly located behind Homegirl Cafe at the Homeboy Industries building.


Cell phone photo for Farmlab by Meredith Hackleman, 2009

New Play Features Rainwater Collected At Metabolic Studio

Touch The Water, indeed.

Touch The Water: A River Play, the new work from L.A.'s legendary Cornerstone Theater Company has various connections to the Metabolic Studio -- not the least of which is the production's inclusion of rain water collected at the Studio.

TTW opens Saturday, June 6. It was written By Julie Hébert and directed by Juliette Carrillo. Visit the company's website for more info.


Farmlab Photo, 2009

Behind the Scenes at the Not A Cornfield Exhibition

Prior to the opening of the continuing Not A Cornfield exhibition at the George Eastman House, in Rochester, New York, Lauren Bon (center) and Janet Owen Driggs (typing, left) work on the project's installation.


Metabolic Studio photo by Steve Rowell, 2009

Farmlab Public SalonRiccarlo PorterFriday, June 5, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

How-To For Economic Dilemnas

About the Salon

Focus: Insightful solutions and ideas for troubling economic times get a step-by-step once-over by Riccarlo Porter, ACS (Toastmaster). He give green initiatives for new development and alternative speak for collective development.

The Main conclusion: To give participants new hope in dealing with a troubled system.

Q&A to follow.

About the Salon Participant

Riccarlo Porter developed a perspective on Public Relations through theater, media experience and social activism. Recently, working on four plays; two of which, he is the director. At Aware 1 Magazine, he wrote contracts, advised on production, placed magazines, and set up locations for photo shoots. He also writes scripts and articles for newspapers and magazines. He has developed a knack for networking from working as a Co-host on Go Gospel Radio and ad consultant for Fix My PC Please, I Will Recycling Service, and other companies.

Image courtesy Riccarlo Porter

More From The Eagle Rock Exhbition

Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio have a work, titled PSQ.2, in this exhibition.

The text in the image above reads:

"Lauren Bon and The Metabolic Studio
PSQ.2 / Eagle Rock Arts Center 2009
material: corn fodder, hydro seed, water
Dimensions: 8 feet, 4 feet, 4 feet
edition of 100

This object is in a process of decay. The remainder of one process -- the growing of corn -- is the material for this structural form. That form once bundled and shaped is impregnated with seeds, brought to the site and connected to reclaimed water. This sculptural object's very form will change as a process of growing another life on it. Catabolism is the term that refers to the breakdown of metabolic form. It is the process by which ground is made which allows new things to emerge. The connection to pregnancy and mothering is there; as is the idea of generations. Once the flowers are mature, they will blow to neighboring ground where more flowers will emerge."

Farmlab Public SalonVictoria Yust and Ian McIlvaineFriday, May 29, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Old Ideas that should be new again...and other dreams for L.A.

About the Salon

Monorail? Solar hot water on every roof? Courtyard housing? Shared green spaces? Natural hot spring community bathhouse?

Architects Ian McIlvaine and Victoria Yust, of Tierra Sol y Mar, will present a few projects, still in their very early stages, that incorporate these old, yet still forward-thinking, ideas. Small steps that could make Los Angeles not only a more sustainable place to live, but a more pleasant one. We lost the red car system; would a monorail be the 21st century solution? We used to have unlimited space and room for everyone to have a freestanding house and a garden; would a "small lot subdivision" with a shared central park be the solution for a denser city? Los Angeles has long been called a collection of neighborhoods in search of a city, but these neighborhoods need to maintain their sense of community; is a mixed-use building at the old Bimini Baths, on an LAUSD-owned site, a way to do that?


About the Salon Participants

Ian McIlvaine, AIA, LEED AP, and Victoria Yust, AIA, formed Tierra Sol y Mar in 1994 to provide environmentally conscious design through a close collaboration with builders, artists, and most importantly, their clients. Their first project was the design and construction of a straw bale pavilion for the 1994 Yuba-Sutter County Fair, using rice straw, a local waste material. Projects completed since then range from single family residences, including a house in Venice which was the first permitted SCIP (Structural Concrete Insulated Panel) building in Los Angeles, to commercial projects including a three story commercial building in downtown Santa Monica where they collaborated with three different artists. In their own 4-unit building in Venice, they had the opportunity to test their mettle as "green developers". 90% of their current clients have come to them asking for sustainable design – a noticeable change since 1994.

Image: The Schwebebahn (monorail), in Wuppertal, Germany, built in 1900 and still in operation.(LIFE Images)

from: http://www.californiasolarcenter.org/history_solarthermal.html via Victoria Yust

Farmlab Public SalonKim Stringfellow and Chris CarraherFriday, May 22, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

JACKRABBIT HOMESTEAD

About the Salon

Join Kim Stringfellow along with Wonder Valley artist, Chris Carraher, for a presentation of and discussion about the JACKRABBIT HOMESTEAD audio tour project.

Stringfellow and Carraher will discuss the history and contemporary landscapes of jackrabbit homesteading, specifically how the cabins resulting from the Small Tract Act have helped to foster the thriving creative community located throughout the Morongo Basin region where Joshua Tree National Park is located. Several tracks from the freely downloadable car audio tour available at www.jackrabbithomestead.com will be presented.

JACKRABBIT HOMESTEAD is a forthcoming book and web-based multimedia presentation featuring a downloadable car audio tour exploring the cultural legacy of the Small Tract Act in Southern California's Morongo Basin region near Joshua Tree National Park. Stories from this underrepresented regional history are told through the voices of local residents, historians, and area artists—many of whom reside in reclaimed historic cabins and use the structures as inspiration for their creative work. Funding for this project was made possible, in part, by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities as part of the Council's statewide California Stories Initiative.

About the Salon Participants

Kim Stringfellow is an artist/educator residing in Los Angeles. Her work and research interests address ecological, historical, and activist issues related to land use and the built environment through hybrid documentary forms incorporating writing, digital media, photography, audio, video, installation, and locative media. She teaches in the Multimedia area as an Associate Professor in School of Art, Design, and Art History at San Diego State University.

Her projects been commissioned and funded by leading organizations including the San Francisco-based Creative Work Fund, the Seattle Arts Commission, and the California Council for the Humanities. Her photographs and projects have been exhibited at the International Center for Photography (ICP), John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), the Rachel Carson Institute, 18th Arts Center in Santa Monica, and San Francisco Camerawork. International exhibits include Paisajes Toxicos at the José Martí National Library in Havana, Cuba and the Tallinn City Art Gallery in Estonia.

Her first book, Greetings from the Salton Sea: Folly and Intervention in the Southern California Landscape, 1905–2005 was published by the Center for American Places (CAP) in 2005 and was partially funded by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. She is currently working on her second book with CAP, Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape, 1938—2008, available in fall 2009.

Chris Carraher is a Wonder Valley, CA artist who uses a historic jackrabbit homesteading cabin as her studio. Her recent body of work, "The Plan: Claims of Territory in the High Desert," uses the cabins and the landscape they inhabit as subject.

She is actively involved in organizing cultural events incorporating the homesteading cabins as the event’s core theme. Carraher with two other Wonder Valley artists, Scott Monteith and Andy Woods, co-directed the Wonder Valley Homestead Cabin Festival in 2008 to showcase the work of area artists and performers whose work is inspired by the abandoned shacks. For more info: http://www.jackadandy.net/dandyhome4.htm.


Image courtesy Kim Stringfellow

Farmlab To Be Polling Place For Upcoming Election

On Tuesday, May 19, 2009, Farmlab will continue its recent role as a neighborhood polling station.

That's the date of the California Statewide Special Election, which features various propositions. More information on the election is here.

This will mark the third consecutive election for which Farmlab has served as a center for voting. Previous occasions were November, 2008 and March, 2009.

For information about how to find Farmlab, including map, street address, please visit here. (Note: Hours listed on that page are not applicable on voting day -- State-mandated voting hours will apply.)

Goats Coming Back Wednesday;An Anabolic Monument Update

Goats are coming back to the Anabolic Monument -- on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.

Recently** this blog asked Farmlab team member Olivia Chumacero for an update about all things Anabolic Monument. Here was her reply:

"Goats! Wonderful spotted goats, returning to the Anabolic Monument . Plus, please check out the chicken mobile, it will be traveling throughout the park.

"Why? Because these animals produce a valuable garden necessity: Manure. They do this everyday and we will use this to fertilize the land in an organic manner. Which means that when you walk, run, stroll, bike, or sit on the ground, in the Anabolic Monument, you will not be bombarded with any harmful chemicals.

"Please do give us a call at our office building 323.226.1158 x 5108 if you are interested in volunteering."

Olivia Chumacero and friends, March 2009, inside the Anabolic Monument. Photo by Abel Salas

**=Note: This post has been updated twice the past two weeks as goat dates have changed.

Photos From The Not A CornfieldExhibition in Rochester, NY

The Not A Cornfield exhibition at the Eastman House Museum in Rochester, NY opened Saturday, May 9. Here's a link to a Flickr photo set of the show.


Photo by Flickr user Museumphotographer

Neighbors & Seedlings

Recent Farmlab and Under Spring visitors Edgar, Linda, and Willy pose with the tomato, pepper, jalapeno, basil and ruda seedlings offered to them by F.L.A.G. team member Meredith Hackleman.


Farmlab photo by Meredith Hackleman, 2009

Farmlab Public SalonJeremy PalFriday, May 8, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources, Agriculture, and Extreme Events

About the Salon

Temperature and precipitation are virtually certain to substantially change over the next century in response to anthropogenically enhanced greenhouse forcing. Such changes will impact a wide variety of natural and human systems resulting in dramatic ecological, economic, and sociological consequences. This presentation focuses on the impacts of climate change on water resources, agriculture, and extreme events based on high-resolution climate model projections over North America.

About the Salon Participant

Jeremy Pal, assistant professor of civil engineering and environmental science at Loyola Marymount University, is among the contributing authors on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC), an international collaboration of scientists that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore. Prior to joining the LMU faculty, Pal worked for the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, an agency that operates under two United Nations Agencies in Trieste, Italy with the mission to foster the growth of research in developing nations. Pal has authored numerous internationally recognized articles on the impacts of climate change.


Photo illustration for Farmlab by Kate Balug. Graph courtesy Jeremy Pal, copyright IPCC 2007. Photos for Farmlab by Kate Balug.

Not A Cornfield ExhibitionTo Open May 9, 2009 in Rochester, NY

On Saturday May 9th the Not A Cornfield exhibition is scheduled to open at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, in Rochester, NY. The exhibition is scheduled to continue through Sunday, July 12, 2009.

This is the first exhibition about Lauren Bon’s metabolic sculpture Not A Cornfield, which transformed an abandoned Los Angeles train yard from a brownfield into a green field in one agricultural cycle.

The exhibition offers visitors the opportunity to explore some of the sights, sounds, ideas, and legacies of Not A Cornfield, including Farmlab and the Metabolic Studio, and the local initiative PLANT Rochester.



About PLANT

Inspired by Not A Cornfield, PLANT Rochester is a citywide cultural initiative of the George Eastman House in partnership with Rochester Contemporary Art Center, which functions as a hub for citizens to share actions and ideas related to nurturing life in the urban environment.

About the Exhibition

More information coming soon...

Exhibition Dates

Saturday, May 9, 2009 - Sunday, July 12, 2009

Exhibition Location

George Eastman House
900 East Avenue
Rochester
NY 14607
585 271 3361

Related URLs

http://www.notacornfield.com
http://www.eastmanhouse.org
http://www.eastmanhouse.org/inc/exhibitions/exhibits.php?mode=upcoming
www.rochestercontemporary.org
http://plantrochester.org/


Images -- Top: Lauren Bon, Not A Cornfield concept sketch, November, 2004.
Bottom: Photo by Steve Rowell, 2005.
Copyright and courtesy Not A Cornfield.

Baker Street F.L.A.G. Moving Under Spring;Winter Crops To Be Harvested; Summer Seeds Planted

During the month of May, F.L.A.G. (the Farmlab Agbin Garden) on Baker Street will be moving Under Spring. That same month will bring a harvest of the winter crops that have gone to seed, and a replanting with seedlings for the summer season.

Please check back for volunteer opportunities to help with the seed harvest and give-a-way. Pictured above are some lettuce, spinach and arugula going to seed.

Farmlab photo by Meredith Hackleman, 2009

Digi of the Week

May 3 - 9, 2009


In January, 2009, LA Weekly's LA People 2009 Autumn Rooney and Lisa Gerstein of the Echo Park Time Bank organized a lecture by Edgar Cahn, creator of time dollars, at the Metabolic Studio.

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

April 22 - 28, 2009


Earth Day special -- From the Anabolic Monument, at an earlier stage in its metabolism.

Farmlab Photo

April 15 - 21, 2009

The April 17 salon was a performance by Frank van de Ven and Victoria Looseleaf

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

April 8 - 14, 2009


From 2008, but couldn't resist revisiting: Cluster (!) performing Under Spring.

Farmlab Photo

March 2 - 8, 2009


Goats bring permaculture students out to the Anabolic Monument at sunset

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

February 23 - March 1, 2009


One of Farmlab's water harvesting storage tanks, with new vinyl sticker featuring roadrunner logo. Each tank -- Farmlab has four -- holds 5,000 gallons.

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

February 9 - 15, 2009


Patriots doing the hokey pokey at the Metabolic Studio's third Optimists' Breakfast, themed "What Patriotism Means to Me"

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

January 26 - February 1, 2009


Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison presented Farmlab's 100th Public Salon to a full house on Friday.

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug


December 8 - 14, 2008
The Metabolic Studio hosted The Moth Main Stage on December 11th.
The theme was "It Takes Two to Tango."

Farmlab photos by Kate Balug

November 24 - 30, 2008

The Metabolic Studio hosted its first glass orchestra rehearsal in the Owens Valley on November 24.

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

November 10 - 16, 2008

Some salons are messier than others.

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

November 3 - 9, 2008

Oguri + Body Weather Laboratory enchanted audiences at the Metabolic Studio on November 7 and 8.

Farmlab photo by Kate Balug

October 27 - November 2, 2008


La Ofrenda ceremony offering at the Anabolic Monument at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. The ceremony took place from midnight on Saturday, Nov. 1, until sunrise the next day. La Ofrenda remains on view until November 7 during park hours.

Farmlab photo by Sarah McCabe


Click here for prior Digis of the Week.

No Public Salon Friday May, 1

There will be no Public Salon Series happening this coming Friday, May 1, 2009.

The Series resumes May 8, 2009 at its regularly scheduled Friday @ noon time and place.

Please come join us for a conversation that day with climate expert Jeremy Pal.

Metabolic Studio Located Within Proposed "Clean Tech Corridor"

Today's Los Angeles Times includes an article discussing and a map showing the boundaries of a proposed "CleanTech Manufacturing Center" for the city. The Metabolic Studio (Farmlab+Chora+AMI) sits well inside the area.

Excerpted from the article, by Maeve Reston:

"Last fall, CRA officials and the mayor's business team began courting clean technology companies - talking up the purchasing power of the city's public utilities, as well as the array of tax incentives available to business."

The full story is here.

Meet the PLANT Blog

[UPDATE: PLANT mentioned in Rochester City Paper]

This Rochester, NY-based site stands on its own, as well as precedes and foreshadows the rest of an upcoming exhibition related to Not A Cornfield.

That exhibition will open May 9, 2009 at the George Eastman House, in Rochester. More information to be posted here soon.

In the meanwhile, on the "About Plant" page, you'll find the below:

"PLANT – Place, Land, Art & Agriculture, Neighbors and Technology – is a community wide cultural initiative that will function as a hub for citizens to share actions and ideas related to urban land use, urban greening and public health.

"PLANT Rochester is an initiative of the George Eastman House (GEH) and Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo). Inspired by artist Lauren Bon’s Not A Cornfield project and it’s ongoing offshoot Farmlab, an L.A. based collaborative that is dedicated to nurturing life in the urban environment.

"Initiated in August 2008, PLANT will:

* Host weekly events at GEH and RoCo, such as panel discussions, lectures about land use and public health, public fruit picking tours, and local history tours.
* Instigate citywide participation in international and national events such as Park(ing) Day.
* Establish a basecamp/workshop room at Rochester Contemporary Art Center from which excursions will depart and dialog will flow.
* Host an exhibition about community-based and local citizen actions at the intersection of art and agriculture, opening at RoCo May 2009.
* Host an exhibition about Not a Cornfield at George Eastman House opening May 2009.

"Why GEH?
With the opportunity to present the forthcoming exhibition Not A Cornfield, Eastman House is proud to explore and celebrate the agricultural legacy of George Eastman by engaging the community in a dialog around the history, heritage, and current/future importance of agriculture in Rochester.

"Why RoCo?
Rochester Contemporary Art Center brings fresh ideas in contemporary Art to Rochester audiences. Contemporary multi-disciplinary art practice is open to pursuits beyond the purely aesthetic activity contained within the white cube of the gallery. PLANT builds upon the visual communication strategies and shared space of the gallery and gives added voice to the actions and ideas of Agriculture and Community outreach agencies from all around Rochester. Contemporary artists have increasingly embraced such social practice for the past forty years. Joseph Beuys called it “Social Sculpture”, Claire Bishop writes about “Participation”, Grant Kester describes it as “Dialogic”, and Nicholas Bourriaud calls it “Relational Aesthetics”. Implemented as social practice art communicates not only through image or object but through shared experience, person-to-person exchange, participation and learning. The primary material of social practice is interaction; its primary focus is on relationships – between people and between people and places. Its strategies include new genre public art, project-based community practice, research and information sharing, service actions, street performance and community outreach.

"Running hand-in-hand with the implementation of art as social practice, artists such as Helen and Newton Meyer Harrison, Bonnie Sherk and Lauren Bon have allied social and environmental concerns to create environmentally beneficial art that implements actual change on the ground. The Harrison’s Endangered Meadows (1994-98) for example saved a 400 year-old meadow in Germany from development. Sherk’s work Crossroads Community (The Farm) (1974-1980) integrated disparate land beside a freeway interchange into a new city farm in San Francisco. While Bon’s Not A Cornfield (2005-06) transformed 32-acres of Los Angeles’ post-industrial brownfield into a vibrant agricultural, social and cultural arena.

"Why Farmlab?
PLANT is inspired by the power of art and culture to transform the world and is aided by the example of Farmlab (2006-ongoing) an LA-based think-tank and art production studio dedicated to the preservation and perpetuity of all living things. Farmlab grew out of Not A Cornfield (NAC). Led by Bon, the Farmlab team conducts multi-disciplinary investigations into land use issues that are related to sustainability, livability, and health. Not A Cornfield and Farmlab continue to serve as catalysts for community involvement and change through the development of art actions.

"Why Now?
Over the last decade, Rochesterians have built strong foundations in support of diverse movements that focus on sustainable communities, agriculture and youth. These include: school-community gardens, neighborhood and citywide public markets, food security (establishing access to healthy, affordable, culturally acceptable food for neighborhood residents), nutritional and culinary education, agricultural work skills development, and food-based economic ventures.

"Functioning as a hub, a network, and a series of events, PLANT brings these diverse initiatives together into conversation about Rochester’s sustainable future. PLANT also recognizes that sustainable cities are aware of their own history and re-engaging citizens with urban Rochester’s agricultural past will contribute to rebuilding and solidifying Rochester’s core."

PLANT Rochester Mentioned in City's Paper

From a piece in part about PLANT Rochester, written by Bleu Cease in the Rochester City News:

"PLANT, an acronym for Place, Land, Art & Agriculture, Neighbors and Technology, is an exhibition that attempts to bring this home. PLANT is a collaboration between Rochester Contemporary Art Center, George Eastman House, the Los Angeles-based Metabolic Studio, and numerous other local groups and organizations. PLANT challenges institutions to work together, and individuals to imagine and utilize the gallery as a social zone and resource center for sharing ideas and actions.

"The PLANT exhibition and its Sunday coffee hours simultaneously present and constitute an example of "participatory art practice," a loose category of cultural initiatives that brings people together to share in creative production and action. PLANT doesn't simply exhibit framed images, documenting an action. It IS an action. PLANT fosters discussions about the boundaries between art and the actions taken by a number of inspirational individuals and groups, those who are doing important work to improve our city. PLANT is as much about public health and urbanism as it is about aesthetics and white gallery walls."

Onion's Earth Day Spoof Says: 'Plant Some Flowers in the Rusting Frame of a Car..."

The Onion's recent Earth Day infographic concludes with the following:

"Be sure to plant some flowers in the rusting frame of a car or inside a shattered old television set, as this will provide your local news station with a perfect visual metaphor for the revitalization of urban areas."

Assignment editors, this one's for you:




Photo for Farmlab by Joshua White, 2008

Seed Library Photos

Above are shots of the Farmlab seed library room...

More information on the room coming to this blog soon...


Farmlab Photos by Sarah McCabe (top and middle) and Kate Balug (bottom), 2009

Farmlab Public SalonJohn Malpede & Susan GrayFriday, April 24, 2009 @ NoonFree Admission

Skid Row History Museum

About the Salon

Join Susan Gray, Arts Planner for the CRA-LA and John Malpede of Los Angeles Poverty Department for a discussion of their project to create a series of public artworks that would acknowledge the cultural contribution to the city of people who have lived and worked in Skid Row L.A., and to recognize the history and shifting contours of the area.

About the Salon Participants

John Malpede is a director, actor, activist, writer and the founder of the Los Angeles Poverty Department. At its inception, in 1985, LAPD was the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people. LAPD is dedicated to building community on Skid Row, Los Angeles.

Since 1985, the company has offered performance workshops that are free and open to the Skid Row community— partnering with numerous social service and advocacy groups, including SRO Housing, Inc.; LA Community Action Network; The Downtown Women’s Action Coalition; St.Vincent DePaul Center; The Salvation Army’s Women’s and Men’s drug recovery programs; and the Inner City Law Center.

Susan Gray is the Arts Planner for the CRA-LA.


Photo courtesy John Malpede