departure City Hype ideas competition

Last year, departure, the creative agency of the City if Vienna launched a series of ideas competitions to bring forward creative ideas for urban innovation in Vienna and beyond. The 2013 issue of the ideas competition - Cycling Affairs - received more that 200 submissions.

With this year’s ideas competition departure launches a project that provides participants with the opportunity to reflect on what the brief calls a "solidarity city" - City Hype  - invites creative professionals and city enthusiasts to formulate their ideas for coexistence on an equal footing, to provide the city with a multifaceted, modern identity and to actively participate in shaping its future. 

The ideas competition is open for individuals, start-ups or collectives from various disciplines located in Vienna or internationally. The submission of multiple entries is possible. Please find the registration form here. 

To steer inspiration for first ideas of potential participants the team of departure came up with core areas and specific questions as relevant to the overall theme of the competition. These questions can be taken as points of departure for working on the ideas competition:

THE SOLIDARITY CITY
Which measures focus on justice and solidarity as basic prerequisites for the social interactions of the city dwellers?

THE NETWORKED CITY
How do technologies react to the requirements of a network society, to its high degree of innovative dynamism and advancing digitalization?

THE FLEXIBLE CITY
How can the requirements imposed by the revolution of the working environment be turned into practice and which new models for work, leisure time and life planning are imaginable?

THE OPEN CITY
Where is room for actively participating in the creation of communicative locations and how can we succeed in making the city a modern ‘place of action’ for all its inhabitants?

THE INTELLIGENT CITY
Which sustainable solutions can be developed for the future of a ‘smart city’ in terms of infrastructure, distribution and organization?

THE DETERMINED CITY
What are the tools and strategies required to meet both the needs of individuals and the challenges of the 21st century in a creative way and which lead to personal initiative for the benefit of the civil society? 

The competition's expert jury will be analysing the submitted projects according to the following criteria: 

• Creative quality

• Sustainability

• Potential for change

• Potential for activation

• Added value for the civil society

There are three jury prizes for the competition:  

1. prize: EUR 7,000
2. prize: EUR 5,000
3. prize: EUR 2,500

As well as one "Public’s choice award" which will be awarded by a public vote and which will win € 3,000.

The timeline for the competition is as following:

• Launch of ideas competition: April 15, 2014
• Deadline for submissions: June 18, 2014
• Public voting (for "Public Choice Award"): June 27 – July 20, 2014
• Jury meeting (For defining three jury prizes.): August 2014
• Award ceremony: September 2014

Read more about the ideas competition here and fond an English description here. 

Why We Need a Renewable Strategy

The invisible atomic horror in case of an uncontrollable nuclear hazard is becoming by far too real in case of the tsunami struck nuclear power plant Fukushima in Japan. Do we have to risk such hazards to supply at most 14% of global energy demand? [source]
I was struck today by this image below, almost like from a horror movie or a bad action-film-like dream. I abstained so far to blog about this, but now cant resist to reproduce some images here which I suppose will become part of global subconscious (fearful) image about nuclear power.

Inside the Fukushima plant. Workers risking their lives becoming heroes of Japan. [image via derstandard copyright by APA]

[image source and copyright welt.de]

The recent disaster, or 'incident', produces weather forecasts which are uniquely more than material for small talk.

The global perspective on the dispersal of Caesium 137 as released from Fukushima, modeled by ZAMG (click to enlarge). [source and copyright ZAMG]

[image source dailymai.uk, copyright Reuters]

Worst EU Lobbying Awards 2010

The award for worst lobbying interventions in Brussels in 2010 is now open for vote again. This year the awards deals especially with lobbying which prevented forewardlooking climate policies and employed the financial crisis in favour of corporate interest.
The 'Worst EU Lobbying Awards' are organized annually by CEO (Corporate Europe Observatory), Friends of the Earth Europe, Lobby Control and Spinwatch.

"[U]nderhand tactics, combined with the strength of big business, have allowed corporate lobbyists to continue for-profit lobbying at the expense of more climate- and consumer-friendly regulation; putting profits before people and the planet.


If these damaging and dirty lobbying tactics worry you, then fear not, help is at hand, and you can be part of the solution. This year’s Worst EU Lobbying Awards is here, with a twofold focus – climate and finance. And, with the help of Lobby-Cleaner, and your vote, we can clean up the lobbying scene in Brussels, discourage controversial lobbying practices by publicly exposing the worst offenders, and discredit the big business lobby among EU decision-making circles." [source and image credit]
See the nominees here and vote!

This year the award features comic heroes which personalize the grassroots movement in a superhero-style. Lobby-Cleaner "the Worst EU Lobbying Awards’ anti-heroine, roams the corridors of power cleaning lobbies, and cleaning lobbying. She is here to clean up the mess created by corporate lobbyists in Brussels." [source and image credits]

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn

The Gowanus canal in Brooklyn is an interesting site of future ecological cleanup and urban development. Like in many other places in Brooklyn you can sense the upcoming getrification and follow the ongoing construction processes. As the Gowanus canal has recently become a superfund site, there is lots of activity going on. For projects and activities along the Gowanus canal see also the site of the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation.
This will be the first entry of an exploration into this area. I was cycling there yesterday and got some impression about the urban fabric along the canal between 3rd street and butler street.

The Life of a Plastic Bag

Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani

Thank you for that movie!

Motivated by Disaster

The deepwater horizon rig explosion and following oil spill can be stated to be the greatest environmental disaster in recent years.
Interestingly enough this spill created very strong bottom-up movements to cover the impact of the oil spill by grassroots mapping , crowdsource mapping or by providing an oil spill crisis map.

As terrible as the visual material of the oil spill may be. There are as well images, such as the ones below, which transport both, information about the state of the disaster, and, a certain abstract aesthetic. The imaginary below was aquired by gonzoearth with the means of kite-mapping and represent a strong symbol of how networks of individuals can empower themselves to control government and corporations in their promise of mitigating environmental damage.



I've been following press independent coverage and want to provide some important sources of information.

TEDxOilSpill. Comprehensive, in-depth information in TED-talk-style.
I was especially touched by Carl Safina's talk:



NY-Times: Paul Krugman on what didn't prevent the spill.


We can't allow oursleves to forget or underestimate the magnitude of this environmental desaster as caused by our contemporary societal-industrial-political system. Namely unregulated corporations and our energy system being trapped in a fossil pathway will have to be adressed to successfully prevent such disasters in future.



It should say 'we' in the center of the above figure, as ultimately we are the ones who buy gas at the pump every day driving our single-cars, using electricity and petrochemical disposable products. It's time for some new paradigms. Sustainable futures are plentiful.