Stefano Mirti’s facebook wall

01/522013

timeline archive:a personal collection of curiosities

Stefano Mirti’s facebook wall

https://www.facebook.com/stefano.mirti.3

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Dar Alhajar, Sanaa

Unknown Image

To keep the conversation going, here the flabbergasting Rock Palace, in Dar Al-Hajar (Yemen).

Here the link to get to know more: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/.../Imam%27s+Rockin%27+Palace...

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

La Biennale di Venezia

The GrandBox

-image courtesy of: Giulio Pascali-

It has been the nicest project I've been working at in the whole year. A community of people gathered around http://www.facebook.com/groups/GranTouristas, an atlas of interesting places & people to go to see and meet around Italy: http://www.facebook.com/GrandTourVeniceBiennale012

All of this, became physical in 100 GrandBoxes.

Thanks to all the GranTouristas. Very nice to play with you!

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Nichelino

Great work by Martino Gamper in Torino's outskirts.A proejct made possible by Maurizio Cilli and Rebecca de Marchi (Eco e Narciso) + Situa.to. With the great support of the kids living in the quartiere Castello.

Martino Gamper's Shiny Bubble

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

강남

Mr Gangnam

Undoubtfully the 2012 has been the year of mr Psy, aka mr Gangnam Style.

More the one billion views on YouTube, or: Korea Rules!

Wikipedia explains:"Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed "class." The term was listed in Time's weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam district. PSY likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humour by claiming himself to be "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class.

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Baghdad, Iraq

Very nice project, as read in the Economist.

A (Literary) Bridge to Baghdad

"People who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are—it's only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are "Gangnam Style"—so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying so hard to be something that they're not"~Psy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangnam_Style

Here the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUk69c7...

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

On March 5th 2007, at the bloody midpoint of the Iraq war, a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. The attack tore through the heart of the city’s historic literary district, a block crammed with cafés and bookstores. The Shahbandar coffeehouse, a meeting place for generations of Iraqi writers and intellectuals, was blown to pieces; the owner’s four sons and one grandson were killed. Thirty people died and 100 were wounded in the blast, for which no group ever claimed responsibility.

A world away, a San Francisco bookseller read about the attack in his morning paper. Beau Beausoleil, a poet and proprietor of the Great Overland Book Company, a second-hand book store, waited for the outpouring of support and outrage that would surely follow. Nothing happened. Mr Beausoleil felt compelled to act. An attack on writers and booksellers anywhere in the world was an attack on them all.

Keep reading at: http://www.economist.com/.../al-mutanabbi-street-starts-here

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Rapallo

Ka-Boom

Andrea Botto is another great character who had a big role in the GranTouristas game/project.

Excellent photographer (here above one of his "Ka-Boom" images), here is the link to his website: http://www.andreabotto.it/

To see the original version of the image above, here is the link: http://www.hippolytebayard.com/.../on-documentary...

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Milan

Through the Window

Giorgio Barrera’s series “Through the Window” is somewhat more complex than it appears at first: Inside each of the rooms seen in the photos, the artist put flash lights - with the consent of the people living in those apartments - to trigger them and take a photo whenever he decided to: Smile!, you are on camera (but you won’t know when).

Check his website to see the original of this image above, as well as to see much more: http://www.giorgiobarrera.it/

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Mexico

The (New) Book of Questions

”What if it was the body that gives meaning to space?” @laperiferia, 2012

In 1974 Pablo Neruda published his best-seller “The Book of Questions”: “poems in the shape of questions, observing whatever surrounded him, with the wonder of a child. Is in this spirit that the project”

“The ( New) Book of Questions” is founded: to observe and question the “territories in process” we live in, rather than to “answer” them. These questions will lead authors and lectors into the realm of further observation and, if lucky, further questioning. The aim of this “book” is to become a device or tool for thinking, observing and understanding the landscape, city, and space.

The (New) Book of questions will document , in

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

the format of questions, different perceptions of the territory during a year (Nov. 8th. 2012 until Nov 8th 2013).

Follow the project at: http://nomadicity.tumblr.com/.../what-if-it-was-the-body…

More about The Nomad (alter ego of Evangelina Guerra Luján) at: http://about.me/thnmd

Follow her on twitter at: @____thenomad

You can also follow this, very nice: http://thnmd.tumblr.com/

Sukhumvit 39

Printing Covers...

Happily busy in booklet making…

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

More at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/WHOAMInotebookchallenge/

Have a nice day to all!

United Kingdom, Surrey, Guilford

Very impressive and very addictive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Curiosity_%E2%80%93_What%27s…http://www.22cans.com/

You can download it here:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…https://itunes.apple.com/.../curiosity-whats.../id557549271

Curiosity. What's inside the cube?

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Thanks to Piero Rivizzigno for the link!

Brno

Machinarium

I always loved Czech design. Here once again, here we go…

Generally, I don't like so much contemporary digital/video games. But here there is an exception. A nice game with fantastic visual world.

http://machinarium.net/demo/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinarium

Interesting to know that: "Machinarium was developed over a period of three years, by seven Czech developers, who financed the project with their own savings. The marketing budget for the game was a scant $1,000".

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Edward Bellamy House

Looking Backward

Another interesting person I've met thanks to the GT game is ms Laura Basco. She knows a lot of things, and chitchatting with her is nice because I get to learn lots of (cool) stuff, I've never heard about.

Here for instance her reference to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward book.

Wikipedia explains:Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy; it was first published in 1887.

It was the third-largest bestseller of its time, after Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

It influenced a large number of intellectuals, and appears by title in many of the major Marxist

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

writings of the day. "It is one of the few books ever published that created almost immediately on its appearance a political mass movement".

In the United States alone, over 162 "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up to discuss and propagate the book's ideas. Owing to its commitment to the nationalization of private property, this political movement came to be known as Nationalism, not to be confused with the political concept of nationalism.

The novel also inspired several utopian communities.

Keep reading at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_Backward

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Guatemala

Guatemalan developers are building a nearly independent city for the wealthy on the outskirts of a capital marred by crime and snarled by traffic. At its heart is the 34-acre (14-hectare) Paseo Cayala, with apartments, parks, high-end boutiques, church, nightclubs, and restaurants, all within a ring of white stucco walls.

The builders of Paseo Cayala say it is a livable, walkable development that offers housing for Guatemalans of a variety of incomes, though so far the cheapest apartments cost about 70 times the average Guatemalan's yearly wage.

Keep reading at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.../paseo-cayala-guatemala…

Cayala City. A Private Town for Rich People to Escape Crime

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Flims

The Architect's Studio

Valerio Olgiati - Dado, the architect’s studio.

A very special space.

Here some other images: http://subtilitas.tumblr.com/.../valerio-olgiati-dado-the…

Thanks to Joseph Djenandji for sharing the link.

Thanks to Giulio Pascali for the link.

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Playboy Mansion, Beverly Hills

The Guardian reports:

"Hefner, 86, wearing what appeared to be purple silk pyjamas under a black bathrobe and snuggling his bride, 26, still wearing her pale pink wedding dress. He also wore his trademark captain's hat"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/.../01/hugh-hefner-gets-playmate

Hail to the Chief!

Purple Silk Pajamas (Getting Married in)

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Turin

Postal Dossier

For Viaggi Postali (Postal Voyages) 25 friends, co-workers or family members were selected. Alighiero Boetti sent envelopes addressed to his 'travellers', knowing they would be returned as undeliverable.

Boetti photocopied the returned mail, placed it into a new envelope and sent it on its next journey. These photocopies were gathered together and systematically ordered in the Dossier Postale (Postal Dossier).

Imaginary journeys were drawn up for his addressees; Boetti would send the gallerist Leo Castelli on a tour or Morocco's grandest hotels, his colleague, the artist Giulio Paolini, would be sent to every address Boetti had ever lived in. Other 'recipients' included Marcel Duchamp, Bruce Nauman, Lucy Lippard and Seth Siegelaub.

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Keep reading at: http://openfileblog.blogspot.com/.../alighiero-boetti…

It was 1969!

JISC Digital Media

This free, open and online course (MOOC) has been designed with further and higher education professionals in mind - lecturers, qualification teams, awarding bodies, learning technologists, library and student support staff and learning and teaching specialists - but may also be of interest to teachers (or teachers to be) in secondary schools or informal/work based learning facilitators, in fact, anyone with an interest in curriculum and learning design.

Learning Design for a 21st Century Curriculum

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Keep reading at: https://sites.google.com/a/olds.ac.uk/oldsmooc

Thanks to Jolanda De Villiers Morkel for the link.

Corso Magenta

Big Ben Zine

Since a new year is starting now, let me link one of my favorite design zine: Legrenzi Susanna's Big Ben ZIne.

http://www.bigbenzine.com/

You can also follow the news on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/.../big-ben-art.../118993556076 and twitter: @bigbenzine.

Stefano’s facebook timeline 01/52 2013

Berlin-Mitte

Das Weisse Buch

This fact that I can't speak or read German properly, is something that once in a while, it really annoys me.

This is one of these situations. There is a great book by a great author, but not much to understand (beyond its title).

Anyway, here a link to start to get into mr Horzon world: http://www.goethe.de/.../prj/mtg/men/kun/raf/en6890643.htm

Here a link to his website (again, everything in German): http://www.modocom.de/

Thanks to Iva Na Langstrumpf for introducing me into this (very) magic world!