Images Courtesy Vestergaard Frandsen

(article also available in Italian, to view click on Italian in the menu bar above / articolo anche disponibile in italiano, cliccate in alto sul menu Italian. Thanks/grazie Iris Cartia!

Cluster is supporting a project to help give earthquake victims in Haiti access to safe drinking water - which we think is a very good idea! The humanitarian crisis in Haiti will long outlive the earthquake that struck on January 12 2010; thirst, hunger and disease are rife, food and water supplies are scarce and survivors are highly exposed to the risk of contracting waterborne diseases through the intake of contaminated water.

Haiti is more in need of help than ever before.

Drinking Water for Haiti aims to help by donating at least 500 units of LifeStraw to the Haitian people to provide safe drinking water and contain the spread of life-threatening disease among survivors.

The award winning LifeStraw is a 10 inch practical, portable plastic straw (cylinder) that uses advanced technology to convert dirty water into drinking water by filtering out and killing bacteria as they are sucked up the tube.

Simple to use and light in weight Lifestraw is easy to distribute and can be carried around for use outside the home, it doesn’t require any electrical power and has a longevity of approximately one year (based on a consumption of 2 litres of water/day).
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Is the question that a team of futurists and international experts address in the 6th edition of FO/Futureorientation, the house magazine of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, an independent Danish (CIFS) non-profit research institution in Copenhagen.

Who Owns the Future? May, at first glance, seem like a trick question, as it’s impossible to own what is yet to be, unless, of course, if what is yet to be is already accounted for. This issue of FO/Futureorientation refers to legal intellectual property rights - that’s why there’s a © symbol ‘gracing’ the cover – and explores the new problems of copyright laws and immaterial property rights in a networked society, what could be at stake if we don’t rethink them, and possible solutions to them.

Inside ‘Who Owns the Future?’ illustrated with images from the photo sharing website Flickr, is a collection of valuable and comprehensive information, stories and opinions by knowledgeable authors from various disciplines that include:
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Photo by Logan Abassi/MINUSTAH via Flickr

In his plan to reconstruct Haiti Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of the charitable architectural organization Architecture for Humanity, tells it as it is:

For those not used to working in disasters the first week is chaotic, filled with stories of heroism and despair. The first responders are not the NGO’s or medical personal but the families of those who are injured or lost their lives. It is an overwhelming situation to be in. It is also not the time for architects to show up thinking they can rebuild. People are trying to find their loved ones not think about what their lives will look like in 5, 10 or 15 years.

His realism comes from his experience and expertise in the field; he knows what he’s doing.
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The video Installation ’10,000 Flowers’ by architect Neville Mars, director of the Dynamic City Foundation was recently exhibited on a at the 2009 Shenzhen and Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale urbanism/architecture in December.

10.000 Flowers, 2009, image taken from Burb.tv

10.000 Flowers is an artistic production of 5 films projected in loop on a 20mt video wall, each screen represents one of the five inner highways of Beijing through a kaleidoscopic lens, the video is accompanied by a soundtrack by James Eck Rippie, composed of natural details recorded on site. The city’s infastrucuture was filmed from inside a car as it circled the ring roads with a custom built kaleidoscope, large enough to fit a video camera, pointed to the sky.

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Street With A View, 2008, image taken from CCCS, Florence, Courtesy Ben Kinsley & Robin Hewlett ©Google, Inc.

Manipulating Reality: How Images Redefine the World
If you visit the Street View section of Google Maps and type in “Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh” you’re in for a big surprise, because who would have guessed that this one-way alley on the North side of the post-industrial city of Pittsburgh is one of the most exciting streets in the world.

On every block there is something going on; there’s a live garage band performance, a mad scientist’s laboratory, confetti, people in costumes, an escape from a bedroom window, a marionette parade, firemen rescuing a cat, crowds, a sword fight and to top it off a giant chicken sculpture. But do not be deceived! What you are looking at on Google Street View is not real but staged.

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