cola, fear and slow rivers winding

Several things..... 

A friend just delivered me some fabulous cube cola concentrate. It is the base incredient for creating DIY cola, and I first encountered it at a blind cola tasting/installation in Brussels a couple of years ago. If you want a subversive open source alternative to mainstream cola domination, and a lovely tea towel based manual that comes with it visit: http://www.sparror.cubecinema.com/cube/cola/

Another friend, an experimental musician and artist, has been creating Below 20, an installation to be previewed in Brussels in March. The performance based installation is focussed on how fear is generated in society through media and surviellance and includes a blog which presents samples from the  'fear' industry.  The actual performance will not only create an environment of fear, but reveal how this is done at the end.  A great example of using art to build our capacity for  critical reflection.

For those of you interested in transdisciplinary initiatives, Slowflow invites artists, technologists and environmentalists on a 6 day journey down the Whanganui River (in NZ) by double hulled 22 person waka haurua (canoe) and bicycle, creating the setting for a flow of conversations - Te Ia Kōrero between different people and points of view. Over the course of the six day journey local experts are invited to give short talks about the historical context of each site they pass. Participants bring a project to make or experiment with on the trip. Whether it be a piece of technology, a piece of media, an art work, documentation of the trip, or some writing, the collective works will form the basis of an exhibition, a web site and a publication. 

Finally, it is well worth listening to this Radio NZ interview of Jane McGonigal. Jane is one of the world's experts of social gaming and gives an interesting overview of ARGs, and some useful arguement towards fun and games as tools of learning and community development:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/__data/assets/audio_item/0007/1851613/sat-20090131-0905-Jane_McGonigal_serious_play-m048.asx

(Thanks to Carl C. for alerting me to Slow River and Jane M)