Vancouver 2004

R & I made one of our biannual trips to Vancouver a few weeks ago. It was very enjoyable, and not terribly expensive. I did manage to acquire about $40 worth of candy, but it's yummy Canadian candy, so well worth it. :)

The main purpose behind our trip was to see the Massive Change exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The curator of the exhibit is Bruce Mau, he & his design team were behind much of the work there. Massive Change " investigates the capacity, power, and promise of design." Some of the topics were genetically modified foods & plants, genetic research in humans and animals, harnessing solar power, human powered vehicles, and activism. The solar & wind power exhibits were really interesting, the theory is that many of the world's poorest countries are those that have the most sun. If they were able to effectively harness solar power (in an affordable fashion) they could be some of the wealthiest countries. I also learned about the Rocket Stove http://www.efn.org/~apro/AT/atrocketpage.html. I didn't realize that so many people are still dying because of cooking fires....I can't even imagine what it would be like to live with a fire pit in the middle of the living room in my apartment. We were able to read about the creation of GoreTex, CamelBak hydration packs, Crazy Glue, MRE's, and much more. The most impressive room was painted a really bright, orange-red color (The Wealth and Politics room). Hanging from the ceiling were various silver inflated glove-shaped objects. Each of them represented some sort of statistic...such as when a single text message in the Philippines allowed for a huge protest against the government. A little more can be read about it here http://massivechange.com/index.php?topic=wealthpolitics. The official Massive Change website http://massivechange.com/ is pretty interesting, and there is a book as well (which I'm coveting). I found the whole experience pretty inspiring. Of course, over time that inspiration drifts away, and despondency can settle in again. I'm hoping to find something to supplement my need for inspiration at home. I highly reccomend the exhibit, and it will be moving to other locations so keep an eye out for it at a museum near you.

This summer when I was at "architecture camp" we used Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for inspiration in the studio. Certainly helpful for a designer who is trying not to think, but does need to think. ;)

We also made a nice little discovery about downtown Vancouver, you can park in the city lots (usually found underneath shopping centers) for only $4/day on the weekends. We were misinformed about disabled parking, though, someone told us we didn't have to pay, and we returned to the car the next day to find a ticket. I guess you shouldn't believe random people who come up to you on the street, eh? Next think you know, I'll be believing that if I pray to Jesus I'll be able to walk again!