German Garbagemen Turn a Giant Lens on Their City
Garbageman Hans-Dieter Braatz sets up a photo with a pinhole camera fashioned out of a garbage dumpster. Photo by Mirko Derpmann
The Hamburg fun fair photographed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Bernd Leguttky, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann
The Marco Polo Tower in Hamburg, Germany, photographed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann
The Fleetschloss in Hamburg, Germany, photgraphed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Hans-Dieter Braatz, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann via Treehugger
Los Angeles’ Street Pianos
Future pianist plays at a street piano near the Egyptian Theater. Photo by Adam Winter via streetpianos.com
Between April 12th and May 3rd, 30 pianos were scattered around Los Angeles for anyone to play and enjoy. The project called “Play Me, I’m Yours” was the brainchild of Luke Jerram who has installed more than 600 pianos in 26 cities across the country in the last four years. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra teamed up with local artists and community groups to decorate pianos and work with Mr. Jerram to bring the project to life and the Street Pianos website became a repository for images and videos of professionals and those not-so-professional to share their experiences with the pianos.
Musicians having fun at a street piano in Los Angeles. Photo by Elson Trinidad via streetpianos.com
Mr. Jerram says that the “idea for Play Me, I’m Yours came from visiting my local launderette. I saw the same people there each weekend and yet no one talked to one another. I suddenly realised that within a city, there must be hundreds of these invisible communities, regularly spending time with one another in silence. Placing a piano into the space was my solution to this problem, acting as a catalyst for conversation and changing the dynamics of a space.”
These pianos were a true delight in our city. Helping to create livelier indoor and outdoor spaces and bring passersby together to stop and enjoy beautiful executions of music as they unfolded.
People gather to watch a musician at Union Station in Los Angeles. Photo by The MetroDuo Blog
The Transfer Accelerator!
The Dutch city of Utrecht’s “Transfer Accelerator”. Photo via Pop Up City.
The Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a slide (or what they humorously call a “Transfer Accelerator”) at a local subway station. Often we talk about successful public space project “activating” spaces and this happens through movement, engagement and conversation and this slide accomplishes all three. How fun! And what a wonderful way to spend time waiting for a train or to slide your luggage instead of carrying it down those stairs. = )
Watch a video about the Transfer Accelerator below:
THE ACCESSIBLE CITY 