OBSERVATORY : MEENA KADRI

Meena Kadri's Collection of Indian Street Graphics

It started quite innocently — as most obsessions do. A snap of a painted truck here and spot of rural advertising there, on annual trips to the ancestral homeland. But soon the constant visual chatter of the Indian streetscape began to dominate my excursions.
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CHANGE OBSERVER : PHOTO BY MILTON ROGOVIN

The Poetry of Simplicity

Milton Rogovin, from series on Chile, 1967.
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OBSERVERS ROOM : ALEXANDRA LANGE

What Should Food Look Like?

If we want everyone to eat better, don't we need food packaging that crosses class lines?
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OBSERVERS ROOM : JOHN THACKARA

The Service Ecology of a City

Milan has approved a new Territorial Government Plan (Piano di Governo del Territorio) in which public services, and the way they are planned, are at the centre of the whole project.
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OBSERVERS ROOM : JESSICA HELFAND

Bring In Da Ponk!

There is a reason that most Americans don't think of roasted millet as a dietary staple, and it may have something to do with the fact that extracting it requires actually thrashing the wheat stalk from which it hails. To my knowledge, thrashing isn't a terribly common culinary term in Western culture (other than when it is used to describe Gordon Ramsay's bedside manner) which probably should have been my first indication that this was not your run-of-the-mill recipe.
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PLACES : LAURA RASKIN

Jorge Otero-Pailos and the Ethics of Preservation

"Why do we preserve buildings? What do we preserve? If preservationists are restoring objects that have already been made, is the field a creative discipline?" These are the kinds of questions animating the work of architect/artist/theorist Jorge Otero-Pailos, who has become, as journalist Laura Raskin notes in her profile, the provocateur of preservation. Raskin explores the ideas that drive Otero-Pailos's recent projects, especially his "Ethics of Dust" installations, which reveal the many layers of dirt and grime that accumulate on buildings over centuries, and which become part of their legacy. Pollution is, as Otero-Pailos puts it, part of our cultural heritage.
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OBSERVERS ROOM : JESSICA HELFAND

You Never Go Down The Candy Aisle

I used to believe that the true secret of extraordinary success in the kitchen lay in skillful grocery shopping. I was doomed, it seemed, the minute I hit the market, where I was hardwired to revisit the same aisles, to buy the same ingredients, to make the same dishes, over and over and over again. 

It was like Groundhog Day, but with cheese.
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OBSERVERS ROOM : JOHN THACKARA

How the Banks Want to Make China Sick — and Broke

Is it me, or are some banking people incredibly stupid as well as being venal and sociopathic? 

A Deutschebank report about health spending in China states that “at less than five per cent of GDP, Chinese expenditure on health is distinctly lower than that of OECD countries. So it would seem a good idea to improve the health system.
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CHANGE OBSERVER : THE EDITORS

Getting Something Done in D.C.

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act in the presence of Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders, Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D.C., August 6, 1965. Courtesy U.S. National Archives.
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OBSERVATORY : JOHN FOSTER

Accidental Mysteries, 01.16.11

Welcome to Accidental Mysteries, a weekly cabinet of curiosities set aside for your perusal and enlightenment.
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OBSERVERS ROOM : RICK POYNOR

In Praise of the East European Film Poster

Czech film posters of the 1960s are some of the most extraordinary graphic creations ever put on paper. So how can it be that outside of Eastern Europe, especially in English-speaking countries, these posters and the graphic artists who created them during a period of remarkable artistic freedom are barely known?
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CHANGE OBSERVER: PROJECT ARCHIVE

Chulha Stove

Report on the Chulha stove designed by Philips to reduce indoor air pollution in developing countries.

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OBSERVATORY ARCHIVE

PLACES ARCHIVE: WINTER 2006

Seattle Central Library: Civic Architecture in the Age of Media

In the Seattle Public Library, Rem Koolhaas and OMA work to transform architecture into media interface.
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Remote Research
Nate Bolt & Tony Tulathimutte

Shojo Manga: Pop & Romance
Kamikaze Factory Studio

Design Is the Problem
Nathan Shedroff

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