Before I Die

Chady Chang is a public installation artist, designer, urban planner, and co-founder of Civic Center who likes to make cities more comfortable for people, in particular her current residence of New Orleans.

She has many projects that I think help bring communities together and are pretty darn cool.

In particular, I found my way to her Before I Die project in which she places a large black board on a run down building in New Orleans with many lines that read, "Before I Die I want to _________________".  And people would write onto the chalkboard to fill in things they would like to do before they die.

I also enjoyed the "I wish this was ____________" nametag project in which people would fill out the sticker and place it on abandoned buildings in New Orleans to determine where they would like certain things, such as the grocery store, to be placed. 

There are a TON of really fantastic community projects to be found on her site.  Please check it out!

Back to the Future

So I have been absent for far too long... a mixture of a little unexpected life drama and a trifecta of school, work, and extracurricular madness.  However, today I officially mailed off and submitted my video and application for the COLABORATORY internship in Portland, Oregon.  Really, really, REALLY want it, so hopefully I will have a shot.  Would be my dream come true as corny as that sounds.

Anyways.. A while ago I stumbled upon this really cool photography project.  It is by Irina Werning and is called Back to the Future.  The project takes old pictures of children and recreates the pictures with the now grown up children.  I think it is so awesome and well done!  Here are some of my favorites:

Here is the link to the project, and keep an eye out as there is a Back to the Future II coming later this year in June.