TIK is een samenwerkingsproject rond ecologie en media kunst, en belicht het subversieve karakter daarvan. Gedurende 2 jaar wordt gewerkt aan het realizeren van een serie windklokken en een tijds-server, met de bedoeling een andere sensitiviteit ten aanzien van tijd te belichten. Het project bevat een belangrijk luik artistiek onderzoek naar de ecologische achtergronden en mogelijkheden, via workshops rond de constructie van de windmolens en -klokken, internet tijds-protocols, relevante visualizering en sonificatie. Daaruit volgen collectieve creatieve werken zoals genetwerkte installaties en webkunst, live radio sessies, performances en tentoonstellingen. Een tweede luik, het zgn. “open green”, houdt zich specifiek bezig met het exploreren van de mogelijkheden van nieuwe ecologische plekken om deze werken te brengen: tuinen in de stad, op daken en vensterbanken, of op oude industriele en agrarische sites, in de publieke ruimte. Via conferenties, presentaties en publicaties, maar ook met een groeiende online documentatie, wordt het project kritisch geannoteerd, en voor een groter publiek toegankelijk gemaakt. Het resultaat moet een creatieve benadering tonen, van hoe anders om te gaan met de tijd, vanuit een andere esthetiek, gebaseerd op wind. Een andere ruimte. Een andere tijd.

Workshopweek/ letny dielne in Hranicé/ Kravín. An old farm with a beautiful stable for workshops and residencies in the middle of the Czech Republic countryside. This is the first TIK-stop to start windclockbuilding and to dive into the Open Green research. Soon the bees and beekeepers will be involved too.

Meeting at Danielle’s place in Breda to define the framework for the Open Green database :

Mal au Pixel festival is looking at connecting technology, urban electronics and social transformation issues, and to investigate our contemporary beliefs. The festival brings together young digital artists and unconventionnal electronics: unexpected technologies, prototypes and open ended events.
For its fifth edition, Mal au Pixel further explores environmental issues and looks at the signals coming from the South, through initiatives from the worldwide DIY community.
ALTLABS MEETING au 104 • June 27 • 14h-19h
104 rue d’Aubervilliers – 5 rue Curial, Paris 19
with : Okno | Trias Culture | Ker Thiossane | TMPLab | HONF | CRAS | APO33 | Refarm the City | DakarLug | …
http://www.le104.fr

The year 2010 will be decisive in the debate about intellectual property rights concerning seeds. The EU wants to pass seed legislation that is uniform throughout Europe. In the future, will just industrial varieties be available on the seed market while regional and farmers varieties will be found only in museums and show gardens? All signs indicate that seed corporations are using the revision of the seed law to expand their power further. The EU directive on conservation varieties and non-industrial varieties complicates or forbids the propagation of old varieties due to geographic and quantitative restrictions.
In the last few years, seed initiatives in many European countries have teamed up and organized across borders under the banner of “Let’s liberate diversity!” They are defending farmers’ rights to sow seeds from their own harvest, to breed them and to pass them on. European seed initiatives from ten countries have prepared counterproposals and want to vote on them together in Graz as well as make connections in the European-wide network of resistance.
This year’s meeting is taking place in Austria in order to strengthen cooperation with Eastern European countries, yet everyone who is interested in the subject and who would like to become active is invited.
http://www.liberate-diversity-graz2010.org/

HOW TO MAKE SEEDBALLS? Seedballs consist of mixing one measure of seeds for next season’s crop with 3 measures of compost and 5 measures of red clay, and sometimes manure then formed into small balls. Much less seed is used than in conventional growing, resulting in fewer plants which are smaller but stronger with a higher yield. The technique is useful for seeding thin and compacted soils, and avoiding seed eaters. It is an ancient technique that was re-introduced by Masanobu Fukuoka, an advocate of natural farming.
Seedballs and seedbombing are perfect tools to put guerilla gardening into practice. Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists squat an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it.

The Tübinger-mix consists of 10 annual flowering plant species: borage (Borago officinalis), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), marigold (Calendula officinalis), white mustard (Sinapis alba), coriander (Coriandrum sativum), caraway (Carum carvi), centaurea jacea (Centaurea jacea), cheeseplant (Malva neglecta), dill (Anethum graveolens) and phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) in different proportions.
They attract a diversity of flower-visiting insects, including the honey bee and many species of bumble bees. Sequential sowings provide nectar and pollen from early summer to late autumn and fill the gaps when food for pollinators becomes scarce. Different insect species are favoured by different sowing-dates and plant species.

The Barefoot Beekeeper is a revolutionary book about ‘sustainable’, chemical-free beekeeping.
The author strips away all unnecessary complication and confusion, demonstrating that ‘modern’ beekeeping methods are largely to blame for the poor state of health of the honeybee and that the commercialization of beekeeping marked the start of the disease and parasite problems that honeybees have been trying to deal with ever since.
The author advocates small-scale, sustainable beekeeping, with minimal disturbance to the bees and more time spent observing and learning from them. This book shows how you can make everything you need to keep bees yourself, using recycled materials and simple tools: you do not need to buy any additional equipment at all, nor do you need synthetic medications or other chemicals.
http://www.biobees.com/

Net als in andere agglomeraties ontbreekt het ook in heel wat Brusselse wijken aan tuinen. Diverse vormen van (milieu)hinder, zoals verontreiniging, stof, lawaai en overstromingen worden steeds groter. Groendaken dragen bij tot meer natuur in de stad en tot de oplossing van heel wat milieuproblemen.
Bijdragen tot een toename van de oppervlakte groen en van de biodiversiteit en zorgen voor een betere waterretentie door zowel platte als hellende daken te beplanten met langzaam groeiende gewassen of, nog beter, met ware tuintjes.

Meer info : download de info-fiche eco-bouwen van leefmilieu brussel