An interview with Dharavi slum stars

In January 2009, some children from Dharavi, Mumbai, created music with Bappi Lahiri and DJ Paul Devro of Mad Decent. One of the songs produced was named ‘Slum Stars’, supposedly in reply to Danny Boyle’s acclaimed movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. This is an interview of the friends and family of the children taken during a party organized by Dharavi.org. This video was made by the students of CEMA (Center of Experimental Media Arts, Srishti, Bangalore) in association with Dharavi.org.

Can Earth Hour Galvanize the global warming fight?

Every successful social movement has its defining images. Think of the civil rights movement, and the photos of protesters being attacked by police dogs and pummeled by high-pressure fire hoses. Or the Vietnam anti-war movement, and the video of body bags being beamed back to America's living rooms. Even environmentalism has its iconic images, like Cleveland's heavily polluted Cuyahoga River catching fire in the 1960s, smog wreathing Los Angeles's skyline during the next decade and even the stark hole in the ozone over Antarctica. To help galvanize public support — especially around a complex issue — the right picture really can be worth a thousand words.

When it comes to climate change, however, that picture hasn't yet been found. Hurricane Katrina's destruction, drowning polar bears, spreading deserts — these images are powerful in their own right, but they're not the sorts of pictures that can drive a movement. Precisely because global warming is so, well, global, potentially touching just about every corner of the world and every aspect of our lives, encapsulating it in a single image has proven elusive. You can't connect climate change to a natural disaster as simply as you can connect a napalm bomb, a running child and the war in Vietnam. That's made building and sustaining a movement against global warming so challenging. We can't see it yet, not quite — and we can't see its victims. But by the time we can, it will be too late.

That hasn't stopped environmental groups from trying, however. On Saturday at 8:30 pm local time — beginning on Chatham Island in New Zealand, one of the first places on Earth that the dawn strikes — towns and cities in over 80 countries across the world will shut off their lights for 60 minutes, to draw attention to climate change. The National Stadium in Beijing, the Great Pyramids in Egypt, the Empire State Building in New York and even the Strip in Las Vegas — all will go dark for an hour to raise awareness of climate change and show that there is a worldwide constituency out there eager for action. "This is the only event regarding climate change that is truly global," says Carter Roberts, the president of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the U.S., which is coordinating the event. "Climate change is the most global of problems, and the global community needs to come together to solve it." (Read "Earth Hour '08: Did It Matter?"

This is the second year in a row that WWF has helped run a worldwide Earth Hour — the event began two years ago just in Australia) -- and participation has grown tremendously, from 400 cities in 2008 to some 4,000 this year. The image, at least, will be spectacular — monuments and skyscrapers switching off, a ring of darkness passing across the face of the planet. Though WWF is loosely overseeing Earth Hour, the protest — for lack of a better term — is a product of the age of social media, organized at the grassroots, with word spreading via Twitter and Facebook. "This is an open source thing," says WWF spokesperson Leslie Aun. "We lit the spark, but everyone is owning this."

Earth Hour itself is easy to make fun of — skeptics will say that turning out the lights won't make but a light ding in our carbon emissions, and critics will claim it proves that environmentalists really do want to send us straight to the dark ages. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, is holding a counter-protest during the same time period called Celebrate Human Achievement Hour, which will "salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible." (So if you've ever wanted to throw a party for your local coal plant, this will be your chance.) But Earth Hour is a symbolic act, and as WWF's Roberts points out, "history is littered with symbolic acts that became tipping points."(Read "Solar Power: Eco-Friendly or Environmental Blight?")

Is Earth Hour going to become such a tipping point, or the movement's defining image? It's possible, but as important as pictures are, we'll need more. When President George W. Bush was in charge, knocking away climate change action like an NHL goalie, symbolism mattered because it was all we had. Now there's a new President who has made very green promises, and who needs to be kept to them, even in the teeth of the worst economic crisis most of us have ever known. The new battle will be fought in the nitty gritty of policy, and the protests that matter will be political ones.

Global warming may never get its perfect picture — Earth Hour, a globe gone dark, may be the closest thing we'll have. That's all right — at a time when a recent Gallup poll reports that a record-high 41% of Americans think global warming is exaggerated, green groups need to do everything they can to keep this issue on the front burner, here and in the rest of the world. "The take home message from Earth Hour should be that we are not alone," says Roberts. "I want people to go to the website, but after, I want them to send a letter to their congressman." So think of it this way; turning off your lights Saturday night is all well and good — but remember that the work really starts when you turn them back on.

(Via Time.com)

Casulo modular furniture

It might not look like it, but inside this box, there's an armoire, a desk, a height-adjustable stool, two more stools, a six-shelf bookcase, and a bed with a mattress. Casulo, the brilliant, modular setup designed by Marcel Krings & Sebastian Mühlhäuser, hides furnishings enough for an entire room -- or, heck, an entire apartment -- in a small 31"x47" (that's 80 cm x 120 cm) box. Two people can lift, carry, and assemble (and then disassemble, when it's time to move) each piece of furniture within the Casulo in about 10 minutes -- it requires no tools for assembly -- and every part of the boxy exterior is used, negating any need for extraneous, wasteful packaging. Smart.

Casulo won the "Abraham & David Roentgen Award" in November 2007 for its "cleverness, finesse and qualitative realisation of the idea" and we think it's quite well-deserved; what a perfect solution for frequent movers and small space dwellers alike. More pics, plus a video, of the unboxing process, after the jump. ::Casulo via ::DesignSpotter

Saul Griffith on kites as the future of renewable energy

In this brief talk, Saul Griffith unveils the invention his new company Makani Power has been working on: giant kite turbines that create surprising amounts of clean, renewable energy.





TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10

Robotic Chair that cannot be destroyed

The Robotic Chair is an apparently practical and generic wooden chair with the unique capacity to fall apart and put itself back together. This chair has the familiar form of those used to furnish schoolrooms. Yet it is not like any other chair. It is a chair with an obsession: it is perpetually falling apart and getting back together. Behind the chair´s veneer of wood is a custom robot designed to locate its other chair components and reassemble itself. For no apparent reason the chair will fall apart and crash to the floor. It then transforms into a robot and begins to step off any parts it may have fallen on top of. Once clear, the robot is able to drive about the floor in search of its parts. The chair sees through an external camera and is able to locate its legs and back. Once located it docks with its parts and secures them in place. When all the components are attached the chair stands up and the cycle begins again.

The Robotic Chair’s obsession with falling apart and putting itself back together is an insistence of its constancy, its coherence, its identity, and its trust-worthiness, in a word, its object-hood. As a work of art, The Robotic Chair expands the sense of real space and real time in which objects are experienced. It reconciles technology and art before the viewers’ eyes.

The Nordpark Cable Railway, Innsbruck, Austria

It's difficult to say what's more breathtaking: the four railway stations that Zaha Hadid designed, which climb from the Innsbruck city center up the Nordkette mountain, or the Alpine landscapes along the route.

The stations—double-curvature glass shells that seem to hover above concrete platforms—were conceived with particular care toward the specific topography and surroundings of each location. To achieve each one's unique appearance of a flowing ice formation frozen in place, Hadid studied glacial moraines and ice movements.

(via Time.com)

In world's first global election, vote for Earth

This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming. For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol. It is the chance for the people of the world to make their voice heard.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.

We all have a vote, and every single vote counts. Together we can take control of the future of our planet, for future generations.

On March 28 you can VOTE EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour.
Or you can vote global warming by leaving your lights on.

Benefits of green building

The built environment has a profound impact on our natural environment, economy, health, and productivity.

In the United States alone, buildings account for:
• 72% of electricity consumption,
• 39% of energy use,
• 38% of all carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions,
• 40% of raw materials use,
• 30% of waste output (136 million tons annually), and
• 14% of potable water consumption.

More statistics on the built environment in the U.S. and the growing size of USGBC membership and LEED are available in our Green Building by the Numbers document.

Benefits of Green Building

Environmental benefits:

• Enhance and protect ecosystems and biodiversity
• Improve air and water quality
• Reduce solid waste
• Conserve natural resources

Economic benefits:

• Reduce operating costs
• Enhance asset value and profits
• Improve employee productivity and satisfaction
• Optimize life-cycle economic performance

Health and community benefits:

• Improve air, thermal, and acoustic environments
• Enhance occupant comfort and health
• Minimize strain on local infrastructure
• Contribute to overall quality of life
  

( via US Green Building Council)

Grow your own home with ecoarchitecture

"Ecoarchitecture" may sound like a Buck Rogers vision of an ecologically-sustainable future, but that future is now thanks to the guidance of Tel Aviv University Professors Yoav Waisel and Amram Eshel. The concept of shaping living trees into useful objects -- known as tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or pooktre –– isn't new. But scientists are now ready to use this concept as the foundation of a new company that will roll out these structures worldwide.

Pilot projects now underway in the United States, Australia and Israel include park benches for hospitals, playground structures, streetlamps and gates. "The approach is a new application of the well-known botanical phenomenon of aerial root development," says Prof. Eshel. "Instead of using plant branches, this patented approach takes malleable roots and shapes them into useful objects for indoors and out."

A Scientific and Commercial Partnership

The original "root-breaking" research was conducted at the Sarah Racine Root Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University, the first and largest aeroponics lab in the world. Founded by Prof. Waisel 20 years ago, the lab enables scientists to conduct future-forward and creative research that benefits mankind and the environment.

Commercial applications of the research are being developed by Plantware, a company founded in 2002. TAU and Plantware researchers working together found that certain species of trees grown aeroponically (in air instead of soil and water) do not harden. This developed into a new method for growing "soft roots," which could easily turn living trees into useful structures.

Completing the informal collaboration between Plantware founders and the university, the company's director of operations, Yaniv Naftaly, holds a degree in life sciences from TAU.

An Eco-Positive Abode

It's even possible that, in the near future, entire homes will be constructed with the eco-friendly technology. An engineer by trade, Plantware's CEO Gordon Glazer hopes the first home prototype will be ready in about a decade. While the method of "growing your own home" can take years, the result is long lasting and desirable especially in the emerging field of green architecture.

Prof. Eshel's team is also working on a number of other projects to save the planet's resources. They are currently investigating a latex-producing shrub, Euphoria tirucalii, which can be grown easily in the desert, as a source for biofuel; they are also genetically engineering plant roots to ensure "more crop per drop," an innovative approach to irrigation.

Source: Tel Aviv University

(via physorg.com)

The magnificient Elephanta Caves

One thousand and five hundred years ago when craftsmen began cutting rocks and sculpting them into magnificent statues of Gods, little did they realize that in the second millennium the Elephanta Caves would not just be a major tourist attraction but would also be a World Heritage Site. The world's oldest island caves are now getting a new lease on life. The India National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has teamed up with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to spruce up the caves and protect them from further decay and degeneration.

Elephanta Caves date back to the sixth century AD and boast of some of India's most magnificent rock-cut sculptures of Lord Shiva. Situated 11 kilometers from Mumbai’s Gateway of India, these caves are reached by small boats. Once on the island, visitors have to climb over 1,000 stone steps to get to the caves.

The caves were originally built during the reign of the Rashtraputa kings. They contain huge images of Brahma, Parvati, Natraja and Shiva. The best and most famous of these is 'Maheshmurti' - a three headed bust of Shiva which is about six metres high.

The great elephant structure in black stone, which gave the island its name, was removed in 1864 by the British to take it to England. However, it was later returned to India and now stands at the Victoria Gardens, a park with a small zoo in Mumbai. On top of the caves are two huge canons installed by the British to protect the Bombay harbor.

There are nine carvings in the main cave that depict the life of Lord Shiva in different manifestations -the dancer (Natraja), Shiva killing a demon Andhaka, marriage of Shiva and Parvati, Shiva's descent to the Ganges, Shiva as Ardhnarinateshwar, Shiva as Maheshmurti, Shiva lifting Mount Kailash, Goddess Parvati on Mount Kailash and Shiva as an ascetic.

Back in the mid-80s a team of leading international archaeologists, conservators and historians visited the site and forwarded a proposal to UNESCO to grant heritage status to the caves. The proposal was accepted in 1987 and Elephanta Caves were declared a World Heritage Site.

Norman Foster: Building on a green agenda

Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and “basically pollution-free.”

The deepest step well in the world

Chand Baori is a famous stepwell situated in the village Abhaneri near Jaipur in Indian state of Rajasthan. This step well is located opposite Harshat Mata Temple and is one of the deepest and largest step wells in India. It was built in 9th century and has 3500 narrow steps and 13 stories and is 100 feet deep. It is a fine example of the architectural excellence prevalent in the past.

Twin Towers spray paint art

Here is some weekend fun.

Color cool out

Blues, greens, violets and their intermediates are considered cool colors because of their references to pastoral landscapes and ocean vistas. When we look at these colors they elicit feelings of peace, tranquility and relaxation.

Blue
Soothing blue is an ideal bedroom color choice for adults and children. But that same blue that lulls us to sleep also suppresses our appetites, possibly because there are very few naturally blue foods. Put blue to bed, but try and keep it out of the dining room.

Green
As the dominant color in nature, we are at home with green anywhere in the house. Light greens work well in baths and living rooms; mid-range greens are a great accent for kitchens and dining rooms. The calming effect of green makes it popular in hospitals, schools and work environments.

Violet
Despite the favorable response violet elicits in children, many adults dislike purples, with rosier shades of violet being somewhat more appealing. Children's bedrooms and play areas may be good places to experiment with this color family.

(Via Paint Quality Institute)

Willie Smits: How we re-grew a rainforest

By piecing together a complex ecological puzzle, biologist Willie Smits has found a way to re-grow clearcut rainforest in Borneo, saving local orangutans -- and creating a thrilling blueprint for restoring fragile ecosystems.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts.

Global Warming : Polar Bears

Global Warming. It may seem like an impossible problem: The Arctic ice is melting, storms are becoming fiercer, the resulting climate change is upsetting invaluable ecosystems, and the pollution is damaging our health.

But there is still time. Reversing the trend of global warming trend is possible and depends not only on the efforts of environmental scientists and researchers, governments of all nations, and leaders of business and industry, but just as importantly, it depends on the daily habits of regular people.

It is these regular people that this campaign hopes to inspire. The PSAs take a powerful, emotional approach to reach Americans with the message that global warming is an urgent problem that requires their immediate action.

The PSAs drive audiences to the website www.fightglobalwarming.com. The site provides information on the the causes, science, and consequences of global warming. A large part of the site focuses on what every person can do to reduce their energy consumption and therefore do their part to help slow and reverse global warming.

India to observe 'Earth Hour' on March 28

India will join rest of the world by observing 'Earth Hour' to save energy as well as environment on March 28.

The people will be observing the Day by switching off all the lights and electrical appliances for an hour from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm.

Began with one hour switching off lights at Sydney in Australia two years back, the 'Earth Hour' was observed in 35 countries last year in an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint, the World Wide Fund for Nature (India) Education officer Dr Goldin Quadros said.

This year India, especially Delhi and Mumbai will participate, he said adding that WWF was getting support from the government as well as the corporate houses.

Lights would be switched off or dimmed at 11 PVR cinemas in Delhi and Mumbai and corporate offices.

As per WWF this year, 50 lakh citizens of 377 cities from 74 nations are participating in this initiative.

Kick-starting the 'Earth Hour'campaign at the at green technology festival of the Chemical Engineering department at IIT `Azeotropy' , Mumbai Mayor Dr Shubha Raul said it was important to cut down carbon level and the municipality will be keen to help in the endeavour.

She has called for a meeting of all the corporators to brief them about the `Earth hour'on Monday and WWF will have a video show for them.

(via Economic Times)

India's light bulb phase out: setting a smart example

How many light bulbs can 1 billion people change? About 400 million wasteful incandescent bulbs, in India’s case.

Today, India has put in place a market mechanism that will phase out incandescent bulbs, making way for a cleaner energy future. The Bachat Lamp Yojana programme will replace 400 million incandescent bulbs with CFLs by 2012, which would save about 55 million tonnes of CO2 each year.

It's truly amazing how big the savings can be from strong action on energy efficiency. With this decision, India will be cutting the same amount of emissions that would come from four coal-fired power plants. If the whole world followed India's lead, eliminating wasted electricity from lighting, the cumulative effect would be equivalent to shutting down around 220 coal-fired power plants.

In this case, India has used a mechanism set up under the Kyoto protocol to bring down the cost of compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) for ordinary people. The more efficient bulbs were previously 80 - 100 rupees and will now be only 15 rupees, the same price as an incandescent bulb.

The funding comes via the cleaner development mechanism (CDM), effectively a way for developed nations to fund emissions reductions in developing nations. This programme sets an example of how nations can work together now to cut emissions, but a much bigger deal is needed urgently to stop runaway climate change.

Industrialised countries must agree to fund around USD 140 billion a year to help economies in the developing world cut emissions, protect tropical forests and adapt to the effects of climate change. Of course, countries too must implement tough domestic targets to ensure that global greenhouse gas emissions reach a peak by 2015, and start declining rapidly thereafter, reaching zero by 2050.

In India, lighting makes up 20 per cent of all residential electricity consumption, so this is a good first step. We at Snowcem Paints congratulate the Indian government, and hope it is going to carry out more actions in its plan, along with targets and timelines.

Energy efficiency is a really smart way to reduce demand and reduce CO2 emissions quickly, but it is only one half of the solution to climate change. The other is to quit coal and to replace it with non-polluting renewable energy sources like wind and solar - a real energy revolution.

India's rapid pace of development means its CO2 emissions are going up. It also faces peak power shortages even now, so a clean energy revolution will deliver big solutions to these big challenges.

(via Greenpeace.)

Mediterranean sea level could rise by over two feet, global models predict

A Spanish-British research project has come up with three future scenarios for the effects of climate change on the Mediterranean over the next 90 years, using global models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The conclusions show that ocean temperatures in this area will increase, along with sea levels.

In order to understand and correctly predict risks for the Mediterranean coast, researchers from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, a joint centre run by the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC) and the National Oceanography Centre of Southampton in the United Kingdom have analysed simulations based on three scenarios related to climate change and the rise in greenhouse gases. Their goal was to predict the temperature, sea level and salinity of the Mediterranean in the 21st Century.

"The most positive scenario assumes that greenhouse gas concentrations remain constant at their levels in the year 2000, and even in this case climate change still has an impact. The most negative scenario is based on diverse levels of economic development all over the world, with an ongoing increase in greenhouse gas production throughout the 21st Century," Marta Marcos, the study's lead author and a researcher at the UIB, tells SINC.

The study, which has been published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans, shows what could happen in the Mediterranean. The models predict that higher concentrations of gases will lead to an increase in temperatures throughout the entire sea.

In the most positive scenario, the changes are least, with temperature increases of less than 1ºC expected to be recorded in the Mediterranean by the end of the 21st Century. The other two scenarios envision an increase in greenhouse gases over coming decades, and foresee an increase in the temperature of the sea of up to 2.5º C. In addition, the results show that the temperature increase will accelerate during the 21st Century.

In the long term, sea levels could alter due to changes in temperature (warming leads to an increase in volume) as well as additional mass. "The level of the whole Mediterranean will rise by between 3cm and 61cm* on average as a result of the effects of warming," says Marcos.

There is "greater uncertainty" in terms of the mass likely to be added as a result of melting ice at the poles and from continental glaciers, and this aspect is not incorporated in the study. The most important area in terms of understanding sea level rise is the coasts, "but it is here that we know least because of the low spatial resolution of the models" the expert adds.

Read more.

Could just one degree change the world?

Witness how drastically our world could change if the earth warms by just one degree.

New wind turbine design good for rural, urban environment

Wind power is one of the fastest growing forms of alternative energy in the world. More and more, wind power mills are seen in the countryside, in large wind farms and for the most part, away from city life. But a new form of wind power is now designed to work in an urban environment. VOA producer Zulima Palacio has the story. Mill Arcega narrates.

Why must architects prove their worth?

You can currently buy two rival sets of Alfred Hitchcock films on DVD. One includes such masterpieces as Strangers on a Train and I Confess; the other boasts Psycho , The Birds and Vertigo . You might ponder why there are two sets, and what principle of selection is involved - but just look at the logos: one box contains films Hitch made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer, the other films for Universal. Long after his death and his acceptance into the pantheon of the greatest directors who ever lived, Hitchcock is still at the same time a studio property whose films are assets of today's MGM and Universal.

This brings me to the beautiful Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs, designed by Richard Neutra in 1946 and currently up for sale. With its clean low linear form set against desert mountains it actually resembles the modernist house at Mount Rushmore in Hitchcock's North by Northwest. But that's not why I've dragged in the master of suspense. Rather, the way the sale of the Neutra house is being promoted raises the same questions those boxed sets do about art and pragmatism.

Christie's is auctioning the Kaufmann Desert House as a work of art, hoping to redefine what was recently considered a derelict building ripe for demolition into a $25m (£12.4m) aesthetic masterpiece. What's surprising is that anyone should doubt this. The house is an extraordinary achievement from the golden age of American modernism, by a renowned designer. Why does Christie's have to labour the point that it is "art"? Why would anyone mistake it for anything else?

Because it's a house. Architecture is made to be used; it can be art but it isn't always. As a house, the old Kaufmann place has fallen into disuse and doesn't reflect the consumer aspirations of the rich today. Still it is of interest to connoisseurs of design, hope Christie's.

Architects are like film directors, it seems to me, because both have to accept and work within tough commercial realities. An architect's dream house must also be a house to live in. A film director's vision must persuade backers to invest. It's amazing how many trials and tribulations film-makers must endure even when everyone recognises them as serious artists; it doesn't matter how much critics revere you, you still have to bring in your latest project on budget and pitch the next idea. Hitchcock recognised this and even relished it; where other directors let Hollywood destroy them he gleefully walked the line between making art and producing product.

All of this raises the question of what makes art, which is defined as such by art galleries and the art world, so much more privileged? Visual artists are protected by galleries and curators in a way no film director or architect can ever expect. To put it another way, an architect or a film director is less of an artist in the world's eyes than someone whose job description says "artist".

(via The Guardian.)