The Scrapyard Challenge Workshops are intensive workshops where participants build simple electronic projects (both digital and analog inputs) out of found or discarded "junk" (old electronics, clothing, furniture, outdated computer equipment, appliances, turntables, monitors, gadgets, etc..).
So far the workshops have been held 42 times in 14 countries, on 5 continents with 3 different themes including the MIDI Scrapyard Challenge where participants build simple musical controllers from discarded objects and "junk", DIY Wearable Challenge where they create wearable tech projects from used clothing, and the DIY Urban Challenge where they work on public space interventions and other projects.
Open_Sailing is an international community trying to develop the International_Ocean_Station as an open-source project, developing hardware and software to enable intelligent human activities at sea. The project started as an apocalyptic design response unit, but has evolved into a voluntary exploration community of passionate amateurs, inventors and scientists.
The oceans covers more than 74% of the surface of the earth. The annual budget for space exploration is more than a thousand times the ocean exploration budget, yet there is so much to learn from the oceans and to do there. Life started in water, the majority of humans live at less than 150 km from the coast. We urgently need a new generation of semi-permanent affordable and sustainable architecture to explore and study the oceans, understand biodiversity, monitor climate change, address marine pollution, invent new modes of sustainable aquaculture, create data mesh networks, produce renewable energies, for navigation safety purposes and much more.
How has the geography of religion evolved over the centuries, and where has it sparked wars? Our map gives us a brief history of the world's most well-known religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism. Selected periods of inter-religious bloodshed are also highlighted. Want to see 5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds?
Catalyst Arts was formed 15 years ago in response to what was seen as a cultural vacuum. It is Belfast's primary artist-led organisation. Beyond its gallery walls, it has staged exhibitions on billboards, on gable ends, under floor boards, in a clothes shop, in the back of a van, car and a bus, on the airwaves, under the Lagan, in an airport baggage scanner, up a mountain, down the Falls, up the Shankill, over in Lisbon (not in Lisburn), in a helicopter, in an archive, in a museum, and in a haunted house. It has accidentally shut down Stormont, been robbed, beaten and sued, has had to move four times and amazingly, it has survived through the madness of over fifty directors to date.
Of all the social media sites out there YouTube has got to win the populace vote when it comes to participation in remix culture. And in a time when out of touch record companies are demanding that YouTube pull down the music videos on their labels, it is refreshing to see that artists don't have to be attached to a label, nor in fact do they have to step out of their bedroom, to be part of a band appreciated by millions of fans. Kutiman I salute you.
Photographer Steve Scholfield Land of the Free series capture the eccentricity of these enthusiasts, mainly Star Wars and Star Trek, relaxing at home with family and pets. Gold.
Rahnuma Ahmed gives a cautious welcome to the result of the Bangladeshi election that brought an end to a two-year ‘state of emergency’. New Internationalist
