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http://www.finecellwork.co.uk/ix/home

Fine Cell Work is a Registered Charity that teaches needlework to prison inmates and sells their products. The prisoners do the work when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence.

Savings reduce the likelihood of offenders returning to crime. Prisoners often send the money they earn from Fine Cell Work to their children and families, or use it to pay debts or for accommodation upon release.

The inmates are all taught by volunteers from the Embroiderers Guild, the Royal School of Needlework and the world of professional design. Once trained, they can be responsible for difficult commissions done to deadlines, and support other inmates who are still learning.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 06:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.temporaryservices.org/pi_overview.html
Prisoners' Inventions by Angelo and Temporary Services

chess set

salt and pepper shaker

This project was a collaboration with Angelo, an incarcerated artist. He illustrated many incredible inventions made by prisoners to fill needs that the restrictive environment of the prison tries to supress. The inventions cover everything from homemade sex dolls, condoms, salt and peper shakers to chess sets. We collaborated on this project with Angelo for over two years. We had many additional collaborators who made a book, exhibition of re-created inventions and a prison cell possible. This page offers an overview of the project thus far.

"When first approached with the idea of illustrating examples of inmate inventiveness, I was skeptical, thinking that there would be little of real interest to depict. When I set my mind to the task, though, I recognized the surprising range of inventions and innovations that I had witnessed. I had just become so used to it all that the uniqueness no longer registered."

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http://www.temporaryservices.org/

As we live, so we work

Temporary Services is a group of three persons: Brett Bloom, Marc Fischer, and Salem Collo-Julin. We draw on our varied backgrounds and interests to incorporate our aesthetic practice within our lived experiences. The need to create change within our daily lives translates directly to our public projects.

The distinction between art practice and other creative human endeavors is irrelevant to us. We embed the creative work we present within thoughtful and imaginative social contexts and strive to create participatory situations.

We champion public projects that are temporary, ephemeral, or that operate outside of conventional or officially sanctioned categories of public expression. We appreciate such diverse activities as makeshift roadside memorials to accident victims, temporary housing encampments designed by homeless people, tree houses fabricated by children, and idiosyncratic public notices that get stuffed inside the display windows of free newspaper boxes. We like outdoor projects that are encountered by surprise rather than sought out with deliberation like exhibitions and special events. We especially appreciate those projects that do not have permission and challenge expected usages.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 06:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.ybca.org
Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena, San Francisco
First Floor Galleries: Mar 18 - Jul 2, 2006

Pirkle Jones, Women, Free Huey Rally, Oakland, 1968

We want freedom. We want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.

So begins the ten-point political platform of the Black Panther Party. Coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Party, Black Panther Rank and File offers a multifaceted look at one of the 20th century's most controversial and inspirational organizations.

The exhibition pairs rare artifacts--never-before-released documents, recordings, film clips and archival photos, including seminal historical photography--with artworks inspired by the movement and reflecting its liberating ideals. A range of photography, film and artworks from leading contemporary artists will reflect upon the Party's lasting legacy. Also on view will be works by artists who were creating during the rise of the Party. This complex and powerful exhibition uses the Black Panther Party as a lens through which we can explore the role artists play in inspiring social change, and in remembering and reflecting on human struggle and achievement.

Artist list:
Radcliffe Bailey
John Bankston
Ruth-Marion Baruch
Joseph Beuys
Margaret Bourke-White
Nick Cave
Emory Douglas
Ducho Dennis
Sam Durant
Coco Fusco
Ellen Gallagher
Leon Golub
Tony Gray
David Hammons
Ilka Hartmann
Barkley L. Hendricks
Lonnie Bradley Holley
Jeff Hull
It's About Time
Arthur Jafa
Paa Joe
Pirkle Jones
Kerry James Marshall
Daniel J. Martinez
Chris McNair
Zwelethu Mthethwa
Refa 1, Steve Jones and Toons
Paul Sequeira
Stephen Shames
Gail Shaw
Jeff Sonhouse
Carlos Vega
Roberto Visani
Andy Warhol
Carrie Mae Weems
and others

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http://www.nothingness.org/SI/

Texts by and pertaining to the Situationist International have been entered into a database, and are available at the Text Library by clicking the link on the left. The library is fully searchable, and features more texts than ever before. Information on related articles are linked from each text, and biographical blurbs about the authors are just a click away.

Situationist images and related graphics are available from the Images link, which currently offers a selection of graphics, and a picturebook of posters from May 1968 in Paris.

Links to other Situationist and prositu websites are available through Links.

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http://www.independentschoolofart.org/

The Independent School of Art is a nomadic experimental art school. Without institutional affiliations, degrees, or public funding, the school exists solely through the labor and efforts of it's participants, and thus fosters a proactive approach to college-level arts education, a real-world model where students are challenged to determine and create their own artistic realities. The school's barter-based tuition system makes explicit and direct the social contract between students and teachers and honors their collective labor as a vital form of cultural production. By existing without a site and locating nomadically, the school prioritizes social over physical architecture, and challenges students and teachers alike to imagine how their practice might intersect and respond to a larger set of physical situations and cultural possibilities. Since the ISA is not driven by tuition payments, employee payrolls, facility maintenance, fundraising quotas, degree granting and accreditation requirements it can be fluid and experimental, changing each semester to reflect the ambitions, personalities, and abilities of those in its community.

The Independent School of Art includes students of all ages, levels of experience, and disciplines in a one-room schoolhouse environment of shared learning and mentorship. The ISA prioritizes an action-based approach to arts education and cultural discourse and complements it's curricular offerings with student and faculty designed exhibitions, lectures, grants and publications. These multi-disciplinary public actions are a central part of the school's pedagogy, and serve a vital function by engaging the students in the direct creation of public culture.

founded by artist Jon Rubin http://www.jonrubin.net

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.bigboxreuse.com/

The Sugar Creek Charter Elementary School
Charlotte, NC
Renovated K-Mart

As superstores abandon buildings in order to move into bigger stores, what will become of the walls that they leave behind? It is within the answer to this question that we are seeing the resourcefulness and creativity of communities dealing with a situation that is happening all over the country: the empty big box. Through travel and the study of buildings, Julia is researching the way people build their towns, creating the context for their own lives.

Julia Christensen began investigating How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box in January of 2004. Since then, she has been traveling around the country in her car, visiting the sites and meeting the people who are making these transformations possible. She has been collecting a growing collection of photographs, interviews, stories, and documents relating to the renovations, and has been giving presentations in these communities about how other towns are dealing with this common situation. While exhibiting photographs and installing video and sound work generated from her travels, she is currently working on a book documenting her research. Julia continues to develop her traveling exhibit of artifacts exploring How Communities are Re-Using the Big Box.

The term "big box" refers to a large, free-standing building with one major room. This model was made very popular by the corporations that created stores with minimal storage space, the stock items simply coming in off the truck and on to the shelves. Because "big box" is a fairly new term, and since there are variations on the concept, there have been several occasions upon which Julia has arrived at a site and the "big box" was not quite what she thought it was going to be. Nevertheless, there has been something important to be learned at each of this locations. Her research has led her down many side streets, as she has learned about the choices people make in order to shape their town in order to accommodate their community.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.myspace.com/knittaplease
bombing the neighborhood with fresh, aerosol-free knit graff!
Music: juice newton, knitta!
Movies colors
Television: who has time with all the tagging?
Books: new york subway cozies for the soul
Groups: Graffiti Artists , Rebel Art Grrrlz , Purl and Hurl , Stitchin' Bitches , Rubber Coin Purse Group , buy adrian landon brooks art , MARFA or BUST ! , Revolution Grrrl Style Now

article in the Houston Press, 12/15/05

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

knit bricks

hosted by supernaturale.com

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.futurefarmers.com
http://www.futurefarmers.com/survey

Photosynthesis Robot is a three-dimensional sketch of a possible perpetual motion machine driven by phototropism- the movement of plants towards the direction of the sun. The motion of the plants upon this four wheeled vehicle would propel slowly over a period of time.

DIY Algae/Hydrogen Kit was a first time collaboration between Amy Franceschini and Jonathan Meuser. Currently scientists are testing and generating strains of algae to determine which one most efficiently produces hydrogen in a process called "biophotolysis". This is an exciting sector of research, but most of the activity takes place under highly controlled environments in laboratories within universities. Amy was interested in creating a "backyard/DIY" model which would allow people (not only scientists) to produce hydrogen. The notion of people producing their own power is exciting. Researcher, Jonathan Meuser used this opportunity to exhibit a model of "biophotolysis" to test a system in his backyard. His test was a success, in that it produced hydrogen and could demonstrate the process using off the shelf and found supplies.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 07:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.supernaturale.com/

SuperNaturale is an independent site dedicated to the Do It Yourself culture in all its glorious forms. From simple afternoon home improvement projects to radical lifestyle choices- we love them all. We celebrate ingenuity, creativity and the handmade.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.stealthissweater.com

1. Is this site advocating sweater theft?
No. For those of you born yesterday (or anytime during or after the Reagan years), StealThisSweater refers to Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, a survival guide and manifesto for those who fantasize about (or pursue) anarchy. The whole book has been stolen and posted online here, so be sure to take a look to see if you've got what it takes. Chris Buck suggested the website name after John Kerry lost the 2004 election and my previous site, KnittersForKerry.com became yesterday's news. Thank you, Chris. Abbie Hoffman was a radical with a sense of humor and a hatred of The Man. At StealThisSweater, we are not fond of The Man either.

"What's all this talk of dying for revolution? Live for it."
Not sure exactly who said it first, but it's in a poem dedicated to Diana Oughton, the Weatherwoman who died in a bomb blast in NYC in 1970. The bottom edge of the sweater says "Bring the War home" on the front and "All power to the people" on the back.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 06:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.knitknit.net/

KnitKnit is an artist's publication dedicated to the intersection of traditional craft and contemporary art. KnitKnit is published twice per year and includes interviews, profiles, articles, reviews and drawings. Each issue comes either with or without a limited edition, handmade cover created by a fine artist. KnitKnit can be purchased at bookstores, yarn shops, boutiques and art galleries across the US and in Canada, England, Ireland and France.

KnitKnit has been included in art exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam), Art in General (New York), ThreeWalls (Chicago), the Ambrosino Gallery (Miami), Gavin Brown's Enterprise at Passerby (New York), and the AG Gallery (Brooklyn).

In addition to the journal, KnitKnit produces receptions, film and video screenings, art shows, and other kinds of events.

KnitKnit was founded in 2002 by artist Sabrina Gschwandtner.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.microrevolt.org
microRevolt projects investigate the dawn of sweatshops in early industrial capitalism to inform the current crisis of global expansion and the feminization of labor.

Knitting program: KnitPro
knitPro is a web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns. Just upload jpeg, gif or png images of whatever you wish -- portraits, landscapes, logos... and it will generate the image pattern on a grid sizable for any fiber project.

ReBlog

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com

AVL-Ville is the biggest work of art by Atelier van Lieshout to date. This free state is an agreeable mix of art environment and sanctuary, full of well-known and new works by AVL, with the special attraction that everything is fully operational. Not art to simply look at, but to live with, to live in and to live by.

Atelier van Lieshout
http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/
Recently, AVL developed a style where the absence of design has become an important issue, using industrial materials such as galvanized steel tubes used for scaffolding, and sheets of unfinished plywood. Their raw functionality stands in contrast with the series of colourful polyester sculptures that AVL produced recently: human figures in various postures and actions, but also a complete series of human internal organs, ranging from heart, and brain to liver, rectum and the male and female sex organs.

The design of the Shaker furniture of Atelier van Lieshout can be viewed in the light of one of its famous projects: AVL-Ville. This autonomous free state in the harbours of Rotterdam showed a resemblance to the communities of the Shakers that lived in the Northern parts of the United States during the 19th century. The Shakers lived a completely self-sufficient and celibate life. Because of their religious background they isolated themselves from the outside world, and at the same time they survived by having their own systems in agriculture and craft work. The furniture they developed was highly innovative for those days and they considered the perfection of the final product as one of their life tasks.

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.extremecraft.com/
Garth Johnson

"A compendium of craft masquerading as art, art masquerading as craft, and craft extending its middle finger."

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://centennialsociety.com/durham.html

"A Day at the Mall"

"Bible Sticker"

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

http://www.craftivism.com
Betsy Greer
*wee, yet mighty

Posted by Stephanie Syjuco at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)