Posts tagged with "Art and Design"

I wrote an article about how to organize a community swap/barter meet for Shareable

By Shira | Feb 4, 10 12:47 PM

Shareable, a website that "tells the story of sharing,” invited me to write a how-to article for their site and I seized the opportunity in the hopes of inspiring similar efforts in other communities.

Read the article: How to Throw a Community Swap Meet

Photos from NYC and Thanksgiving

By Shira | Dec 4, 09 04:31 PM

Our 2nd Annual Shirari Week

By Ari | Nov 30, 09 10:49 AM

We took last week off from most of our regular work so we could focus on big and/or neglected projects. Here's some new stuff to check out, if you want to see the fruits of our labor:

Made and launched a site for Frac Attack and arranged our world premiere (Dec. 10 at Cinemapolis in Ithaca)
Event outreach and site updates for Share Tompkins (next swap is Dec. 12th at Southside)
Posted and tagged photos of natural gas drilling for Shaleshock
A new look for Shirari.com!! (Not done yet, but don't worry, there will be bunnies.)

Basically, we still worked the hard the whole time, and barely left our computers. Whoo! It wasn't all work though - we also went to NYC to hang out with Meg and Kevin and see Devendra Banhart, and we hosted a Dacha-licious mostly-vegan Thanksgiving. Shira wrote and recorded a new song which is not up on her MySpace yet but here's the link anyway, and I wrote 32,876 words in November - not a novel yet but it's on its way. And now that we're done with our working break, it's back to work again. Happy Monday everybody.

Fresh off the Wordpress: Frac Attack

By Ari | Nov 28, 09 10:31 AM

$fracattackhome-launch.jpg$ I'm sure Shira will post something more detailed later, but I'm excited about a new Wordpress site we just set up yesterday, so I'll write about the tech for now!

Frac Attack: Dawn of the Watershed is up at fracattackthemovie.com. It's an evolving site (the About page hasn't been made yet, for example!), so keep checking it if you want to see it grow. We'll be adding production info, credits and thank-yous, press coverage, and, after our world premiere at Cinemapolis on Dec. 10, the film itself, so people can watch the whole thing online anytime. It is, after all, an advocacy video, and we believe in free culture. This whole project is about getting the word out about natural gas drilling so we can protect New York state!

We set the whole thing up yesterday. We've been doing more and more Wordpress sites for clients and I wanted to do one for us and see how long it would take to put up something attractive and functional. Here are the features of this little site, built in one day:

It makes use of a partnership with a local, related advocacy organization (Shaleshock; I update their website, among other things) to provide maintenance-free Take Action and background info links.
This site has AddThis social bookmarking and send-to-friend functionality, and is already collecting stats via Google Analytics. We're also using a Facebook fan page and event listings (which we link to liberally) to help people get the word out about the film on Facebook.
It's serving up a trailer hosted on social networking sites, saving us bandwidth and providing a range of online viewing options.
Graphics, and the template itself, have been designed to not need updating: The left sidebar auto-updates as authors blog and add links and pages. The right sidebar is designed to not need any updates while sending traffic exactly where it's needed, though its auto-updating Flickr badge showing photos from the production (and soon, our Premiere, and house screenings!), which keeps it feeling fresh.
Applying our ethics to our tech choices, we chose the free, open-source Wordpress, which I installed on our MayFirst hosting account. (MayFirst is an affordable membership-based tech organization that's a great hosting solution for progressive folks with a lot of websites.)
To save on labor time (and, if this were for a client, costs), we used a free Wordpress theme by Eric Crooks, slapped a header on it that echoes our poster design (thanks to Joe Fisher for the amazing photography!), changed up the colors and fonts a bit to work with the film's look and feel, and put most of our efforts into careful content creation, fleshing out the site with essential pages and carefully-chosen, useful sidebar links. A few hours later: Presto, a website. Hardly any coding to speak of. We ♥ Wordpress.

Popo-chan (Thank you, Flickr)

By Ari | Nov 5, 09 04:58 PM

Popo-chan, via Flickr - thanks cjPanda( LMB )!

Greening "Away We Go" and the Fun Theory

By Shira | Oct 30, 09 10:34 AM

VIDEO: How to make a simple print block

By Ari | Oct 13, 09 10:36 AM

Our friend Lea enlisted me to show how to do some simple block-printing in this short video for About.com. Yay Lea!

What the Frac?!

By Shira | Oct 12, 09 12:59 AM

Behold the teaser for Frack Attack, a short environmental zombie thriller that we're making with the Dacha Project:

Frac Attack Teaser from Shira Golding on Vimeo.

HappyCommunity by Apak

By Ari | Oct 7, 09 08:49 PM

HappyCommunity
Originally uploaded by apak

I continue to love Apak. Imagine living in such a happy community!

They've posted lots of new stuff on Flickr, check it out.

Underground city map

By Ari | Sep 25, 09 07:22 PM

A map of the "underground city" of Derinkuyu, Turkey. Via Urban Cartography.

New Videos for freeDimensional

By Shira | Sep 24, 09 02:08 PM

More shorts from the freeDimensional Wasan retreat...

Providing for Artists in Residence Through Sharing and Bartering in the Community from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

Negotiating the Balance Between the Roles of Artists and Facilitators from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

Defining Community from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

Fundraising for the Arts from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

Connecting the Arts and Human Rights Worlds and the Role of Emerging Art Spaces from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

Photos from My Family's Visit to Ithaca Last Weekend

By Shira | Sep 9, 09 11:27 AM

My parents Hana and Dov, my brother Amit and his wife Sharon, and their kids Eli and Natan all came up from Maryland to Ithaca for the weekend. They couldn't sleep at our place because Eli is allergic to cats, but their hotel was really close to The Commons and we managed to pack in a lot of antics - The Cayuga Nature Center, The Johnson Museum of Art and the Suspension Bridge up at Cornell, Cascadilla Gorge, The Farmers' Market, a 2-hour cruise on The Cayuga Lake Floating Classroom and The Science Center. We also took my parents see the land we might buy near The Dacha. Thank you, Ithaca!

Yay updates

By Ari | Aug 30, 09 04:03 PM

New stuff just posted:

Other places we're blogging:

Art barge in NYC

By Ari | Aug 18, 09 09:07 AM

This is cool. I wish they weren't using chickens, but hey. Besides that it's a pretty awesome-sounding project.

New sites, new photos, new art

By Ari | Aug 14, 09 01:51 PM

Some recent work and updates:

The Amazing Hope Machine - a site about our friend Max's theatre work, with art by Matthew Duncan

Vintage Lucy - my mom's new vintage clothing shop; she's moving on from eBay. It's all used clothes, so it's good for the environment, and it has a vegan section, too!

Fundamentally Wrong - just started this blog about people doing messed up things in the name of god and religion

Lots of new art and photography and videos on Flickr

I've been blogging for freeDimensional

I post a lot of links and timely stuff (Ithaca and NYC events etc.) on Facebook and Twitter

And Shira and I have been posting a lot of great links on Delicious

Peace!

Useful way of thinking about work

By Ari | Aug 11, 09 10:42 AM

This infographic doesn't factor in bartering and working for free but it's useful for thinking about ways to generate cash... via Urban Cartography

fD Outreach: Wasan Retreat 2009

By Ari | Aug 5, 09 04:15 PM

fD outreach: wasan retreat 2009
Originally uploaded by arimoore

Shira and I work for freeDimensional, an international network that fosters collaboration and resource-sharing between activists and art spaces. I recently became its Director of Communications. Fun! One of my first big projects has been helping to coordinate the follow-up documentation and outreach of our Wasan Retreat 2009.

We used Flickr and other social media including the Ning I set up for fD to record the happening, and to digest all we learned there so that it will be of use to a wider audience. Over time we'll be posting more and more videos and texts, but even now, you can see photos, videos, info on the amazing people who were there, and other coverage online. Check it out and join the Ning if you too care about free expression and the power of culture to change the world!

Hosting Activism in Art Spaces - A New Video for freeDimensional

By Shira | Aug 4, 09 09:39 AM

Working with footage from freeDimensional's 2009 Wasan retreat, I put together this 8-minute video, which has been submitted to the Commonwealth Foundation's Group on Culture and Development:

Hosting Activism in Art Spaces from freeDimensional on Vimeo.

Planning to Change the World 2009-2010 Planner

By Shira | Jul 30, 09 10:42 AM

I had the privilege of designing the cover for the new planner created by the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) and the Education for Liberation Network. Today is the last day to pre-order your copy for the discount price of $14.00.

Last year's planner was awesome and I think the new one will be even better!

Planning to Change the World is a plan book for educators who believe their students can and will change the world. It is designed to help teachers translate their vision of a just education into concrete classroom activities.

Planning to Change the World is an imaginative and innovative idea in the field of education. It is something that teachers all over the country who have social consciences will find useful because it will give them an opportunity and a framework for putting into practice what they believe. I hope it will be widely adopted.
–Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States

Photos from the Ithaca Freeskool Outreach Board Decorating Party

By Shira | Jul 28, 09 10:58 AM

We're planning on doing some tabling in the hopes of getting more people involved in Ithaca Freeskool. So we got together at Lily/Sharon/Marina's place to create an outreach board, science fair style. Check out the photos below...

Recent design and illustration work

By Ari | Jul 26, 09 09:25 PM

I just posted a bunch of new stuff on Flickr, if you want to see some of my recent design and illustration work. Well, it's not all recent, it's just stuff I haven't posted online yet.

I ♥ Flickr

By Ari | Jul 15, 09 08:14 PM

smells good!
Originally uploaded by Yoshiko Oouchi

Posting things on Flickr, and enjoying the scenery. Had to share this amazing drawing I just came across, by Yoshiko Oouchi.

Things I've posted recently:

For my Flickr faves, go here. Also see Shira's Flickr.

Photos from Israel

By Shira | Jul 12, 09 06:38 PM

After our week on Wasan Island in Canada, we traveled straight to Israel for my grandmother's 80th birthday celebration. Ari was out of commission for most of the trip because she came to down with lyme disease (no worries - she's on antibiotics and feeling much better). But thankfully she came out of quarantine the last few days to hang out with my family, check out some art in Ein Hod, and see a modern dance performance in Tel Aviv.

During the trip I spent a lot of one-on-one time with my grandmother, savta Margalit. I shot some beautiful video of her telling stories about the Holocaust and her life since for a film I'm making with my brother. I'm also going to be laying out and publishing a book of her poetry later this summer. She's a very inspiring lady - Happy Birthday Savta!

Photos from freeDimensional's Emerging Art Spaces Retreat on Wasan Island

By Shira | Jul 11, 09 12:55 PM

Ari and I went to Wasan Island in the Muskoka Lake region of Canada to help facilitate and document a retreat for people working in emerging art spaces around the world. Organized by the nonprofit network freeDimensional and supported by Breuninger Stiftung Foundation, the week-long convergence provided an opportunity to connect, relax and delve into the interconnections between art, freedom of expression and human rights.

Despite my role as documenter - I was taking photos and shooting video for a large part of the time - I was still able to connect deeply with the group and with the island. It's a beautiful place that allows people from very different geographies to find common ground.

Check out the photos and stay tuned for video...

Peeps are made of people

By Ari | Jul 9, 09 04:48 PM

Thanks to PixelVegan for using my "Peeps are boiled bones" poster to illustrate a blog post on gelatin. (And yay Creative Commons!)

If you're vegetarian, vegan, or just care about animals, you should know that peeps are not an animal-friendly food. Read the post for more.

Fresh websites, hot off the Wordpress

By Ari | Jun 19, 09 10:04 AM

Recently I've made the switch to Wordpress, where I used to use Movable Type. I like that they've been committed to Open Source from day one, whereas Six Apart, the company that makes MT, has always seemed more profit-driven to me. I was shocked at how easy WP is to install, and at how deliciously comfortable it is to use. I'm able to search for, install, and configure plug-ins from within the WP admin area. Same with themes.

Many of the folks we work with are on a very tight budget, or have no funding at all, so being able to create an inexpensive or free site very quickly is something I've been wanting to learn to do for a long time. With WP, I can make a beautiful site that anyone can keep up-to-date in just a few hours. Finally.

What this has meant is that suddenly I'm able to do much more work for many more people, much more quickly. Here are a few recent sites I've made or worked on. These folks are really cool, visit their sites to find out more about them!

Service Women's Action Network - SWAN needed a new logo as well as a new site that they could update easily and use to reach out to potential funders. This site is the result - it features a Vertical Response mailing list, Google Analytics and AddThis sharing. Before it was even online they were talking to Congress with their new logo printed on new business cards. Go SWAN!
Using Their Words - This site is an activist effort by a woman we've worked with over at NYCORe. I initially helped her polish a Google Site and created this new illustrated header for her. Then we found out that her radical web host, MayFirst (to whom Shirari Industries is now migrating!) wouldn't even support her domain pointing to Google, since they're so commercial. So we moved the site onto their server and installed WP. I set up the front page to look less bloggy since the site's primary function is serving up radical curricula - and I used tags and categories to help visitors find the kind of lesson plans they're looking for.
AEI Convergence 2009 - This site was particularly fun because it was a barter! In exchange for making my friend Emily's logo and putting together this quick WP, I got my bike fixed and she and Shira and I had a lovely meal together that she cooked and brought over one day. I love the little site, too - it's simple but it does what she needs it to do, and she can keep it updated easily, herself. And what a cool convergence she's planning! I love the photos she's adding to the site.
Share Tompkins - This one was particularly fun because I wrote the resources page, too. Well, the first edition. Now others have been invited in and hopefully the page will grow and evolve. The site is made using the free, hosted version of WP, in keeping with the Share Tompkins ethos of making life more sustainable and affordable through sharing resources. Using the free version of WP gives us less control over the site's appearance and functionality, but the important thing is to get this content out and usable - not to have it be 100% beautiful and customized. That might come later - this is only the beginning for this fledgling mutual aid network. Our friends Jason and Joe are working on an even more useful sister site, where members of the network will be able to list haves and wants, to facilitate easier sharing and bartering. In the meantime, folks can check out the many trade networks listed on the resources page, or they can come to our community swap meets.
freeDimensional - This site is still evolving, and has made some real progress lately! It's the only one here that's not a WP site - I built the splash page with some simple HTML, and the rest of the site is a Ning. Shira and I are very organizationally involved with these folks - we're both on their steering committee and we may soon have staff titles. Not sure - it's a horizontal network, and we're still discussing as a group how to best handle roles and responsibilities. But what all of this involvement means is that Shira and I have been intimately involved not only in the visual design of the site, but in creating the content on it, and even in making the organizational decisions that go into how the network presents itself and how it functions. It's an exciting process, with all of us volunteers and freelancers and staff people figuring out how to share power and how to talk about it. Mad props to Tricia Wang for her feedback on the site - I think we're making more and more sense, and becoming more and more easily navigable and comprehensible, and useful to everyone in the network that depends on the site.

That's it for now! Many more sites are currently in the works, and I'll share them when they're complete. Also on the table is a massive overhaul of this site right here, Shirari Industries. We're experimenting with a very new, flexible, open-feeling site navigation that we hope will be easier for us to keep up to date, and which will give a much better idea of all of our current projects. If there's anything you want us to keep or change or add as we do our redesign, please leave a comment with your ideas! We'd love to hear from you.

Peanut tattoos

By Ari | Jun 12, 09 11:28 AM

lovebirds
Originally uploaded by picklepuff

Shira and I post a lot of our photography and art on Flickr with Creative Commons licenses so it can be used and shared. A while back I posted this sheet of tattoo art ideas that I sent to my brother Ant in Massachusetts. And then the other day I heard from picklepuff on Flickr; she wanted to know if she and her friend could use this little peanut guy I drew for matching tattoos! Ant said yes, so they got inked. Here's a photo. Eeee!

This is the second time that I know of that someone's actually gotten art by me tattooed on them. I've had some other art requests but I don't know if they panned out... I'm always too shy to check in. What do you say, "hey, did you get my goofy sketch permanently painted on your body?" Anyway, wow. I'm so happy to get this photo. Thanks to picklepuff and friend for bringing this peanut to life.

What is up, media?

By Ari | May 6, 09 09:33 AM

I think the more I read the news the more irritated I get with the media. I wish they were more critical. I wish they didn't just repeat each other endlessly. I wish they spent their time more wisely.

But then I remember that capitalism is probably the cause of these ills. If you're so focused on clicks or issues sold or your stock value, you'll do anything to get people to read you. Even that means you have to spend your time making slideshows like this one I just found while reading Google News, instead of covering, oh, I don't know, maternal health as impacted by economics, or US-led bombings in Afghanistan, or other issues of substance.

Some good books: DIY media labs and culture, environmental sci fi, the origins of aggression, and tantric buddhism

By Ari | Apr 20, 09 09:13 AM

Grow Your Own Media Lab by James Wallbank

My review

I found this book tremendously inspiring and challenging, and hope that others who are interested in technology and communities give it a read. It's an accessible and engaging short howto to making technology more accessible to people regardless of class and abilities. It helped me to see the importance of embracing free and open-source software, and the huge potential of dumpster diving and recycling for meeting people's technology needs economically and in an environmentally sustainable way. It also helped me understand that the key to empowering tech users is not detailed instructions, but rather, to serve as a facilitator of their interaction with technology as they learn how to educate themselves and solve their own problems - basically, teaching others the value of the DIY ethic.

The Wounded Planet by Roger Elwood

My review

Awesome different ideas about the future, written from an early 1970s viewpoint. Scary to see how little has changed about our behavior, especially considering how much has changed about our understanding of our impact on our environment.

On Aggression by Konrad Lorenz

My review

This book, though it's very pre-identity politics, had a lot of excellent takeaways for me, as a peace activist. It shows how human behavior and animal behavior (humans being animals) reveal patterns that can help us understand how to break free of self-destructive and socially-destructive behaviors like war.

Introduction to Tantra: A Vision of Totality by Lama Yeshe

My review

This book is written in an engaging style which is meant to approximate the voice of influential Lama Yeshe, who died in the late 1980s and was reincarnated to parents in Spain. The text explains how someone can use tantric (Tibetan) buddhism to reach enlightenment efficiently, which theoretically will allow you to, like Lama Yeshe, control the process of dying and rebirth so that you can help others and create a more compassionate world. It includes detailed descriptions of meditations and other exercises one can do in this pursuit, and serves as an overview of the first stages of tantric practice, encouraging readers to find a Lama they like so they can pursue further study in community.

Personally, I enjoyed the style and content and found the ideas very intriguing - but I shy away from organized religion and power hierarchies, and tantra as outlined here does seem to depend on such things. It also seems somewhat heterosexist. I hear that not all followers follow plans like Lama Yeshe's to the letter, though he does speak with such an authoritative voice that one would think that his plan is the tried and true method to attain enlightenment.

These criticisms aside, I did love reading the book, and felt many of the techniques outlined in it really are useful and do contribute to the practitioner's experience of bliss and wisdom.

Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore

My review

This book made me reevaluate my relationship with money and has challenged me to figure out how to make a living while really retaining my integrity as a culture worker. I mean, I've been working on that for years, but the author of this book and the many interesting people she interviewed are helping me see that I could go even farther. Good stuff - and an excellent primer on the punk movement, as well as on street art's evolving relationship with commerce.

View all my reviews.

A Mini Ecocity

By Ari | Feb 9, 09 10:49 AM

mini ecocity
Originally uploaded by arimoore

I often imagine cities and towns reclaimed, made greener, augmented by natural building and alternative energy and water and waste systems. I'm trying to get better about turning ideas into sharable, useful things. Here's another such illustration, with a Creative Commons license so it can be used and remixed. Whee! More to come I hope.

Best viewed large - there are lots of details. Feedback appreciated!

"Sometimes It's Hard to Breathe" - I finally edited my footage from our trip to India in 2006

By Shira | Jan 18, 09 06:28 PM

Sometimes It's Hard to Breathe from Shira Golding on Vimeo.

Shot in India over three weeks in November 2006, Sometimes It's Hard to Breathe is an experimental, personal travelogue. For more context, check out our photos from the trip:

Shira's India Photos
Ari's India Photos

freeDimensional: Birthing a web 2.0 child

By Ari | Jan 12, 09 06:44 PM

I hope executive director Todd Lester of freeDimensional doesn't mind if I quote him with the title of my post here, but this is how he described the collaborative experience of launching fD's new site this weekend, and I think it's particularly apt: We all birthed a web 2.0 child. You can go meet it here: freeDimensional.org.

freeDimensional is an organically-growing, partnership-based organization that links activist culture workers (journalists, artists, writers, and the like) who are facing repression and censorship with support services, including safe haven placements in artist residency programs. The power of the organization is in its social networks around the globe. These programs, these services, these people, are all out there - the challenge is only to connect everyone so we can all engage more effectively in mutual aid.

I met Todd way back at the end of 2005, through Shira and their work around the Media That Matters Film Festival. He needed a site, and at the time, I remember seeing that they'd need something much more interactive in the future, but that for now, I could make a small, informational site to give them a web presence while they built their organization. For a long time I thought that in the future we'd hire some big web design firm to come in and create some perfect glittering website for them that would magically fulfill all of their many needs.

In the interim, I had a bit of an awakening about the internet, via my understanding of web 2.0 (collaborative, online) technologies. The internet can be an extension of our physical lives, a way for us to transcend space and time. Our blogs and Flickr photostreams and Tweets and Delicious links and Facebook updates are extensions of and aids to our imperfect human memories. Email and messaging and Skype and the like allow us to connect with each other across great distances, often instantly. We're all learning how to use the internet most effectively to meet these great needs, and in the process, I believe we're gradually realizing our commonality, and creating new solutions to age-old problems that formerly seemed unsolvable. (I have a theory about web 3.0. If anyone reads this and is interested, comment and I'll write about it!!)

So when fD finally outgrew their little site and was ready for something new and more useful, Shira and I were ready to craft a solution for them. It was time for them to clarify what they were all about, explain it well, and then provide an online platform for the incredible social networking that had been happening in the real world. fD was ready to go web 2.0.

Shira made a short video intro for them and helped them rework and refine their mission statement and other organizational copy. I helped them look at their many technology options and to select free services that will allow them to grow and extend their reach with minimal cash outlays. The site is built on the Ning custom social networking platform (the free version for now). We're transitioning the mailing list to Vertical Response and their lovely nearly-free non-profit program. Shira chose the beautifully high-res-capable video service Vimeo to host fD's intro video. We integrated Twitter, Flickr and YouTube feeds into the site. We'd settled on Network for Good to collect donations a while back. fD also has accounts on other social networking sites, which we've been using to meet and collaborate with even more people around the world.

These free and low-cost services have limitations - you're fitting your own complex self into a sometimes-imperfect template, and you don't have the same level of control over your content that you'd have if you were hosting the whole thing on your own server. However, they make an extraordinary array of sophisticated communications features accessible to organizations that don't have tens of thousands of dollars to drop on a new custom-crafted interactive site every few years. The internet is changing so fast that production cannot keep up with the technology if we follow old models of design and interaction. This solution can and will grow and evolve, flexibly adapting to and taking advantage of new technologies as they come.

This project would not have been possible if Shira and I, or fD, worked in a more mainstream and less openly collaborative way. Shira's and my cooperative approach to design problems and fD's trust and willingness to experiment made for a very organic design and production process that drew on the strengths and knowledge of everyone involved. This web 2.0 child we've birthed together reflects that process, and is stronger for it.
freeDimensional.org »

Just Seeds - Cheap and lovely art

By Ari | Dec 13, 08 03:58 PM

Just Seeds has a new sale page and it's awesome. If you're looking for something to give someone for the holidays, they've got some great prints up there, and they're really affordable.

More Do Not Leave Unattended

By Ari | Dec 12, 08 09:43 PM

A while ago I wrote about a collaborative notebook project, Do Not Leave Unattended! We were lucky enough to get one of Jude's first notebooks; I passed it onto Shira, and then she passed it onto Angela. She wrote about it and you can see it at Do Not Leave Unattended! It is pretty awesome. I found it really moving.

Join in and get a notebook!

Previously:
Do Not Leave Unattended: Dispatches from Ithaca
Do Not Leave Unattended!: New design launched

Radical solidarity - an artist's statement

By Ari | Dec 11, 08 01:05 PM

It looks like Socialist Party USA is going to publish some of my more activisty artwork in the upcoming International Women's Day edition of Socialist Women. I've done some custom illustration for them and even laid out the whole magazine several times, but this is the first time they'll be publishing the art I make for my own activist purposes. Since it's heavy on animal rights and sustainability and the issue (like most issues...) didn't have any content along those lines, the editorial collective asked me to write an artist's statement to go with the work. I sometimes have a hard time asserting myself as an earthy-crunchy animal-loving hippie in the socialist community, and people have a tendency to get pissed when one draws connections between the oppression of humans and animals, so writing this was a challenge! I really welcome comments from folks - let me know what you think.

In progressive activist circles we often talk of solidarity, and with good reason - unexamined privilege and blindness to the oppression of others makes social change difficult. If we come to activism with open minds and open hearts, we'll find allies everywhere, and our unity will advance the causes of peace and social justice. Fortunately, over time, the circle of compassion has widened further and further. People really seem to be learning to look beyond our differences and understand and identify with each other's struggles on an international level. And finally, activists working in all areas are realizing that this compassion needs to be extended not only to all humans but to the home we all share, our earth.

However, many people are still reluctant to open the circle of compassion to non-human animals. Even in the most radical queer or feminist or socialist spaces, mentions of animal rights are often met with ridicule or patronizing requests that we stick to "real issues" like human rights. Though animals feel pain and pleasure, are sentient enough to have families and desires and agendas of their own, and there are vegan alternatives aplenty to their exploitation, animal rights, we are told, will have to wait until after the revolution.
This pattern is an old one, repeated time after time throughout history. Sojourner Truth was told that black women's rights had to wait until after white women's suffrage had been secured. Bayard Rustin was denied credit for organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom because he was queer. Every time we disregard one person's rights to advance someone else's rights, we may think we're being strategic, but we're also oppressing someone and holding back their struggle.

The means are the ends. We need to be the change we wish to see. It's time for a radical new solidarity that acknowledges all oppressions and all struggles as interconnected. Believe it or not, there are no limits to compassion. Perfection might not be attainable, but it is entirely possible for each of us to begin to abstain not only from the oppression of other humans, but from exploiting animals as well.

Animals may not be able to communicate in a language we can understand, but they have many allies in their struggle: vegans, finally coming to accept and move beyond our species privilege. We may be part of the "circle of life" but our species is capable of great things, including forging new paths that don't include the strong preying on the weak.

I'm an activist / artist living in a progressive town where my partner and I are organizing a back-to-the-land vegan housing collective. I work with local groups and folks online to do community organizing and create art and outreach materials around issues of sustainability, radical solidarity, nonviolence, and economic justice. You can see my work, find out about my current projects, and check out our blog and podcast at shirari.com.

DIY Holidays

By Ari | Dec 7, 08 05:53 PM

he needs help sitting up
Originally uploaded by arimoore

Kirsten Dirksen and Nicolás Boullosa wrote an article called Holiday shopping guide? 15 tips, and used this photo of this little tofu guy I made for Shira to illustrate it. Thanks Kirsten and Nicolás! The gift guide is fantastic, all about creating a joyous holiday with a sustainability-oriented, "buy nothing" ethos. Yeeah!

Shale Shocked

By Shira | Dec 6, 08 03:05 AM

There are many factors that contribute to the fertility and productivity of land that are beyond a landowners' direct control. One of the major issues we need to consider in New York State is natural gas drilling. Ever since the development of more commercially-viable drilling techniques around 2000, major oil companies have been going to town on the Marcellus Shale. One of the main ways they get access to the land is by leasing land and drilling rights from local landowners. While this can be a good source of income for struggling farmers, there are numerous environmental impacts including the distribution of toxic chemicals into the soil and water table.

We've been getting involved with Shaleshock, a local resistance group, and we recently designed their logo and a new website. Check out the site to get up to speed on the issues and take action. One thing you can do now is comment on the DEC's draft scope...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has released a draft scope document that outlines how they will regulate natural gas drilling of the Marcellus Shale. In addition to commenting at public hearings around the state, you can submit your comments via letter or email by December 15th.

Submit comments to:
Attn: Scope Comments
Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources
625 Broadway, Third Floor
Albany, NY 12233-6500

Or email to dmnog@gw.dec.state.ny.us with "Scope Comments" as the Subject

Download the pdf of the scope

Cool folks we're working with in Ithaca: Ithaca-Area Vegan Meetup Group and Shaleshock

By Ari | Dec 2, 08 03:05 PM

Are you in the Ithaca area, and either vegan or vegan-curious? Come check out the Ithaca-Area Vegan Meetup Group - we have a weekly coffee and tea hour at Autumn Leaves Cafe, 3pm on Sundays. Lately folks have been talking activism, which is awesome! Come over and get involved if you're in town and love animals. Whoo! If you want to help promote, here are handbills and a poster. (Designed by me.)

Another project Shira and I have been participating in is Shaleshock - the site was hacked before we arrived in town and so they haven't had a very good online presence. We're helping to get content up there and organized. It's my first time working with WordPress (I'm usually a Movable Type girl), and it's a lot of fun. Big thanks to Joe for setting this thing up!

Art for feminist, socialist healthcare

By Ari | Nov 11, 08 04:07 PM

Thanks to Liz Henry of Composite: Poetics and Tech for using an illustration I did for her excellent post, Argentinian feminists in the early 1900s.

You can also see and comment on the art here: "socialist heath care" on Flickr. This art was originally an illustration for an article in Socialist Women, about a woman's struggle in the U.S. healthcare system. If anyone out there is still afraid of socialists, read about Socialist Party USA's wonderful healthcare campaign.

"The role of trust in high tech work- The case of Freelance Web-Designers in NYC"

By Ari | Nov 10, 08 03:36 PM

A while back I participated in a study by a Columbia sociology student named Matthias Thiemann, who has written a 120 page thesis in German based on his research. He's translated a four-page section of it which may be published as a chapter in an upcoming book, which I really got a kick out of and wanted to share here: The role of trust in high tech work- The case of Freelance Web-Designers in NYC (PDF)

Some highlights that I really identify with (and I guess I should, since I was part of the sample):

In sending away clients to cheaper, better suited competitors or building little devices free of charge, freelancers establish a reputation of putting the clients’ welfare first, generating trust. Such acts of gift-giving then can lead to overcome the volatility of market-demand by generating referral networks for the freelancer and binding the gift-recipients for the long term.

I totally do this! I learned this from Tekserve, where I first worked when we moved to NYC - and it's not something I do to get something out of people, with the expectation of returns. I do it because, like Tekserve, I care about the people I'm working with, and about their projects, and if I can do something that's perhaps small and easy for me, but of great value to my clients, I'll do it in a heartbeat. This is also why Shira and I sometimes refer clients to other designers - if we know someone who can do a given job better or more economically for some reason, we pass it on, because it's in our client's interest. And rather than losing us clients, often those same clients come back because they know we did them a good turn.

In the sample, the more successful freelancers deserve special attention to the communication process, attempting to include the wishes of the customers and providing them with the feeling that they are in command. This strategy does not only bind their clients to them and leads to several referrals due to the pleasant process of cooperation, it is also a lucrative strategy in itself. The increased trust into the interaction partner seems to arouse the desire to actively engage in the process of production. This not only increases the satisfaction with the final product, it also increases the amount of work time spent on a project which adds to the income of the designer.

Here too, we don't use this strategy so we'll spend more time and make more money, though of course those are nice side effects which do happen on some projects. Shira and I treat every design job not as merely a service for pay, but as a cooperative partnership - we specialize in helping to give form and reach to our clients' ideas. The result is that the client is usually very, very happy with the product, and the product is very, very useful to them. We do give advice and make calls as designers, because we often have a deeper understanding of communications strategy and visual design principles than do our clients (which is, after all, why they hire us), but we don't steamroll our clients into accepting things they don't dig. We like to work with people to make things they love, and which will last. It's good for the client, and Matthias's study is helping me see how good it is for us, too.

Click here to read the paper, and let me know if you too are a web designer who'd like to talk to Matthias. His research goes on...

Uncle Samantha for Dr. Sketchy's Edinburgh

By Ari | Oct 28, 08 04:19 PM

Dr. Sketchy's Edinburgh is using Uncle Samantha to promote their November cabaret life drawing session and I'm just tickled pink. This drag queen is going a lot farther than I ever thought she would. Thanks, Dr. Sketchy's!

Cabaret life drawing sounds pretty awesome - and Dr. Sketchy's isn't just in Scotland, but around the world. Check out a session if you can.

Previously: Yet more Uncle Samantha sightings...

Do Not Leave Unattended!: New design launched

By Ari | Oct 23, 08 04:52 PM

The site I designed for Jude of Randomly Run4istRun, for her new collaborative writing/art project, Do Not Leave Unattended!, has launched. Visit the site to see current contributions and to sign up if you'd like to participate. I'm particularly happy with this design, which put my handwriting and illustration style to good use. Thanks to Jude for the support! It's nice to work on projects that allow so much creative freedom. Thanks also to Krissy for the logo collaboration, and to Barbara for the excellent WordPress coding skillz.

A fun fact: the notebooks that appear in the layout (in the navigation and the background) are photographs I took of actual notebooks and handbound books I've made and filled. Which is cool, because this is the first time they've appeared publicly outside of my "i made this" photoset on Flickr.
Do Not Leave Unattended »

Previously: Do Not Leave Unattended: Dispatches from Ithaca

Do Not Leave Unattended: Dispatches from Ithaca

By Ari | Oct 3, 08 05:06 PM

Recently I've been doing some work for a fellow blogger, at Randomly Run4istRun (that illustration at the top is based on a photograph by Dorothy O’Connor). She's just launched a new collaborative notebook project called Do Not Leave Unattended, and I'm working on that site too. She sends out notebooks and the recipients get two weeks to fill the next page (or pages), before passing them on. The results so far display a delightful hodge-podge of writing and art. I got one, and passed it on to Shira, and I'm very happy to report that our friend Angela is taking it next. Who knows where it'll go after that?

Yay internets! This is the first time I've done one of these mail-based collaborative projects and it was a lot of fun. I see photos on Flickr all the time of people sending out color-coded packages full of candy and collectibles and art, and other interesting projects, and I always wondered what it would be like to have something like that arrive in my in-box. The answer? It's pretty awesome. I feel like I'm in good company, and I can't wait to see what the finished books look like. Kudos to Jude for creating such a cool project.

Click here to see all of the submissions as they come in... and stay tuned, a new design is coming soon!

Bird Peace illustrations

By Ari | Sep 8, 08 08:24 AM

So, I did some drawings the week before we moved to Ithaca, in the mornings. Each morning I did one and posted it on Flickr. I got a surprising amount of positive feedback - yay Flickr! I cannot recommend Flickr highly enough for any budding artists / visual experimenters / photographers out there. If positive reinforcement is something that drives you, Flickr's community has got it in spades. Thank you, Flickr friends.

Anyway, here are the four pieces. Each one is about peace, and each one is kinda birdsploitation. I really dig birds. There's an immediate association with peace, because of our friend the Peace Dove. But birds are good inspiration in other ways. They, like us, sing songs and decorate nests. They, like us, seek heights but come back down to the creature comforts of food and sleep and family. I think we have a lot to learn from them.

Teach Peace. The tiniest bird can teach us peace. She lives in her ecological niche, in sustainable equilibrium with the other species around her. She never takes more than she needs to survive, allowing her neighbors to thrive and support her in turn. In turn, we can learn to act with such peace that no animal needs to fear us any longer. We need to improve how we fit into our own ecological niche, to begin to help our neighbors to thrive.

The means are the ends. This one is taken from a quote by Gandhi, who said, "the means are the ends in progress." Basically, no, violence is never justified, because if you want peace, you need to use peaceful means to get it. That's where peace comes from. That's what peace is.

Might does not make right: This one is just a reminder from one of our small, sweet cousins. Did you know chickens score higher on cognitive tests than do dogs or cats? Or if you prefer scripture over science, doesn't god hear every sparrow fall? The tiniest, downiest chick deserves nothing less than compassion, and the right to be let alone with his loving family. (Sadly, commercial egg production involves unspeakable horrors done to chicks. Please read about it if you aren't yet informed - and go vegan!)

Everything will be OK (no really). This one is another reminder. If we look at the long arc of history we can see how much better things have become over time. I believe another world is not only possible, but is being built right now. Join in! Read Nowtopia or The Great Turning if you need evidence or more encouragement than these birds can give you. Everything will be OK!

For more of my work on Flickr, please check out my i made this photoset. Comments (here and on Flickr, negative and positive) are always welcome.

"Shira Golding - Sex Icon"

By Shira | Aug 14, 08 07:09 PM

Well...not exactly, but that's what the email read when I got the assignment to create the graphic for The Macktivist, the new sex advice column in The Indypendent. The first installment by R. Alvarez is a pretty awesome read.

6 best practices: Engaging in social networking for social change

By Ari | Aug 9, 08 03:56 PM

as a vegan lesbian, i find this doubly gross
Originally uploaded by arimoore

I'm a Flickr addict. I have nearly 450 contacts and am in over 280 groups; I admin or moderate an additional 8 groups, two of which I started. Sometimes I worry I'm spending too much time on the site, but I get so much out of it I think the effort is more than worth the return - I've gotten feedback on my drawings that's been a huge motivator and inspiration for future work; I've had dialogues with activists and others that have gone on for days and changed minds all around (including my own, many times); folks have found my work and used in their own projects or published it with their articles - and even an upcoming book - while I've found images to use in pieces for our clients, in lieu of stock photography. All in all it's been a very positive experience, and I've picked up a lot about how to be more effective as an activist and as a member of the Flickr community. I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned.

Continue reading "6 best practices: Engaging in social networking for social change..." »

Kind comics

By Ari | Aug 9, 08 02:51 PM

I love web comics and have been reading them religiously as long as I've had an internet connection. In the past year I discovered that a few I'd known and loved and read every day for a very long time were driving me crazy - little oppressive things here and there stopped being funny, then stopped being things I could ignore. So I cut them out and am now reading a different set of comics that are smarter and more progressive. Yay! Read on for links to my favorites and to some particularly good strips.

Continue reading "Kind comics..." »

Strange Overtones

By Shira | Aug 8, 08 12:02 PM

"Strange Overtones" is the name of the new track just released by David Byrne and Brian Eno. I was just listening to it a few minutes ago, and I could not keep myself from getting up and dancing. It's pretty awesome. You can download it for free from the album site - I guess they're experimenting with new distribution techniques a la Radiohead with their album, In Rainbows.

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't know much about Byrne a few years ago, but he'll definitely be a part of what I remember about our time living in NYC, which is rapidly coming to an end! And apparently he likes some of the same stuff as us. He was in the same movie theatre as us when we saw the amazing Korean monster comedy The Host at the Sunshine and I spotted his glistening white hair in line at McSweeney's "The World Explained" fundraiser for 826 NYC in April 2007. He also curated what was definitely the best concert experience I have had in many years - the "Welcome to Dreamland" show at Carnegie Hall, a showcase of the "freak folk" movement featuring Devendra Banhart, Vashti Bunyan, CocoRosie and others.

Most recently, we checked out Byrne's installation "Playing the Building" at the Maritime Building en route to the Figment Festival on Governor's Island. Here's a little video clip...

So now I have to start learning more about Brian Eno. Our paths haven't crossed nearly as much, but coincidently he did the music for the 1997 BBC series "How Buildings Learn" by Stewart Brand (embedded below), which I was just watching a few days ago on Google video. It's a great introduction to the way that buildings are shaped by humans and the environment. So can I assume that Eno shares our passion for permaculture and natural building? Just maybe...

Yet more Uncle Samantha sightings...

By Ari | Aug 1, 08 01:37 PM

Thanks to F.O.R.C.E. - Feminist Organization Reclaiming Consciousness and Equality for using Uncle Samantha to get out the vote! F.O.R.C.E., a student-run organization at California State University, Long Beach, writes:

Our purpose is to bring dialogue to stimulate an understanding of feminisms by raising consciousness of women's issues, which include but are not limited to personal experience, agency, and the understanding of women's differences and similarities. In order to reach these goals we plan to educate and inform the campus community through activities and workshops. Lastly, F.O.R.C.E. will support the WRC, other campus organizations, and various departments that believe in the enrichment of women's lives.

Right on. They've got an awesome web presence, too:

Uncle Samantha appears on both the MySpace page and the blog. Don't forget to register to vote!

Previously:

In Our Future Home...

By Shira | Jul 30, 08 04:16 PM

...I want to generate my own energy by dancing and walking.

"Sudan? Monkey riding a rhino"

By Shira | Jul 30, 08 04:08 PM

Sudan? Monkey riding a rhino
Originally uploaded by George Eastman House

I just discovered Flickr: The Commons.

Radical Change Design for Green Earth Design Competition

By Shira | Jul 23, 08 04:03 PM

I just submitted this design to the green earth
international graphic design competition.

Here's my little artists statement. I'm not used to doing these!

Being "green" means living sustainably with the earth and all of its inhabitants. To do this, we must reconnect with nature on a deep level. As we become one with the earth, radical change will happen.

rad·i·cal 1. of or going to the root or origin; fundamental: a radical difference. 2. forming a basis or foundation. 3. existing inherently in a thing or person. 4. Botany. of or arising from the root or the base of the stem.

More on Click!

By Shira | Jul 15, 08 01:14 PM

My name on the wall of the Brooklyn Museum!
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

Ari and I went to check out the Click! show at the Brooklyn Museum. Seeing my name and photo on the gallery wall was a little anti-climactic, but thrilling nonetheless. While the methodology behind the project is very interesting, the gallery execution felt a little flat. It would have been awesome, for example, to see the results animated on flat-screen TVs, alongside snippets about crowd-sourcing, curation and the nature of photography.

The show is getting some press coverage...

From Proles vs. Pros: An Experiment In Curating by Robin Givhan:

This exhibit may have been particularly suited to crowd-based curating because photography is a medium that people experience every day, whether it is a particularly artful photo in the newspaper or an artsy black-and-white snapshot of their newborn they're e-mailing to relatives. There's a sense of ownership and accessibility with photography that doesn't exist with sculpture or painting. That connection is one of its pleasures; it doesn't seem so precious or elitist.

And 3,344 People May Not Know Art but Know What They Like By Ken Johnson:

How people arrive at consensus in the art world is worth studying. So is the tension between experts and nonexperts, which can extend to the highest reaches of the culture industry. So it is possible that Mr. Surowiecki’s ideas might yet prove fruitful for the business of art. But it will take a lot more persuasive reasoning to convince anyone with a serious interest in artistic quality that “crowd-curating” is a good idea. The best you can say for “Click!” is that it’s a good conversation starter.

Here's a podcastof the panel at Governor's Island. I ask a question at about 44min. 30 sec.:

And there's a book of the show available through Blurb:
Buy the book!
$3 off discount code

Uncle Samantha at Capitol Pride 2008

By Ari | Jul 14, 08 03:47 PM

Jonathan & Laurel with Uncle Samantha
Originally uploaded by bcvflickr

Burgundy Crescent folks using a character I drew, Uncle Samantha, to reel in volunteers at Pride in Washington DC. Apparently she's good at her job - they got a lot of volunteers!

Previously: Uncle Samantha

I Met the Walrus

By Shira | Jul 9, 08 06:45 PM

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel

By shirari | Jun 30, 08 06:26 PM

Get ready for an hour and twelve minutes of non-stop queer vegan rambling! Wait, that didn't sound particularly attractive. Rest assured it'll be worth a listen - in this third installment of Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast we talk about our recent trip to Israel, Amsterdam, and Iceland, and how we attempted to take best advantage of the fuel used to have a experience that was as low-impact and culture-rich as possible. You'll hear about a kibbutz that turns soda cans and other trash into eco-friendly buildings, bikes by the boatload, naked showers with Europeans, friendly ducks interrupting breakfast in a tent, a town where street art is loved and not hated, and delicious, delicious falafel.

Shira's voice is kinda quiet in this one, sorry about that! We're still working out the technical kinks here. If you're actually downloading and listening to these, please comment and tell us what you think! Thanks to those of you who've written to us or commented already, we're so happy folks are giving these a listen.

Shirari's Peace and Love Podcast #3: Travel »
June 30, 2008 - 72 minutes - 32.9MB

Show links:

Previously:

Columbia study on independent new media workers

By Ari | Jun 30, 08 01:10 AM

Any freelance web designers out there who want to help sociologists understand what's going on with our field? I spoke with Matthias at Columbia last week and had a great conversation about networking, relationships with other freelancers, quoting/estimating and fees, unionization questions, and other interesting facets of the freelance life. Here's info on the study if you'd like to participate:

You have been chosen as a participant for a study on employment conditions in contingent labor markets. This research is directed to gain a better understanding of this expanding form of labor markets and the exigencies it imposes upon workers in them.

Recent changes in organizational structure and employment relationships in the American work place have created an increasing amount of workers that work as singular self-employed. This study will scrutinize the actual demands that are exerted upon workers in this situation when the acquisition of future work becomes of major concern. For this purpose freelancers in the new media industry are a fitting target group, as their industry is characterized by a high percentage of freelancers, temp agents and independent contractors.

The study looks at how individuals adapt to the direct exposure to the labor market in terms of work load, skill development and life work arrangements and if and in which ways they use peers to delimit work load and secure continuous employment by leading guided interviews and collecting network as well as socioeconomic information. Of course all information gathered will be used confidentially and names will be anonymised.
Your cooperation might allow us to understand better the specifics of the new media labor market and to formulate policy recommendations to improve the situation for workers. Therefore, your participation would be highly appreciated.

If you agree to being interviewed, please email mt2430 -at- columbia -dot- edu or call the following number (646 552 2803) and we will set up an appointment according to your wishes

With our Best Wishes
Prof. Seymour Spilerman
(Principal Investigator Columbia University, Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Social Sciences)
Matthias Thiemann
Co-Investigator
(PhD-student Columbia\ Sociology Department)

Camp it up with Rude Mechanical Orchestra - Party tonight, NYC!

By Ari | Jun 27, 08 02:18 PM

Folly Day 2008 - RMO Horns Advance
Originally uploaded by LarimdaME

If you've never seen an activist marching band perform, and you're in NYC, tonight is the perfect opportunity to catch an amazing show. Our friends in the Rude Mechanical Orchestra are having a big benefit party, and we're bringing along some hand-drawn peace and love buttons and a poster in a hand-made frame for auction. We'll post photos of the stuff we made later on Flickr, or you can come see it in person tonight! For more info read on:

CAMP IT UP! with the RUDE MECHANICAL ORCHESTRA
Friday, June 27th at DCTV
87 Lafayette Street, NYC (just south of Canal)
$0-$20 suggested donation - $20 gets you a special gift!
Doors open at 7pm
Wear something CAMP-y!
HELP US GO PROTEST THE RNC! ***
Bike valet! Silent auction! S'mores! Stripes! Khaki shorts! Fun!
Buy a raffle ticket and win your chance to have the RMO perform at a personal event of your choosing! Yes, we're serious. 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 10 for $20. Available now until the party. Your event must take place after our tour and be in one of the five boroughs.
Also featuring:
Veveritse
Inner Princess
Melora auf Rasputina
Frank London
Jennifer Miller of Circus Amok!
DJ Dusty Walker
And, of course, the RMO
*** In August 2008, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra is taking our show on the road - in a low-impact, environmentally-friendly manner (no stretch SUV limo for us). We will be converting a school bus to run on waste veggie oil and traveling cross country for a two-week adventure -- to cross-pollinate with progressive grassroots organizations and other amazing movers and shakers, and to loudly register our dissent at the Republican National Convention. Along our journey, we plan to raise awareness about and support groups and individuals fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, war and violence in all its forms. So come party with us and help one of the hardest-working bands in town send our rabble-rousing brassy selves to speak music to power!

Previously: Send the Rude Mechanical Orchestra to the RNC

My photo is in the "Click!" show at the Brooklyn Museum!

By Shira | Jun 26, 08 04:12 PM

This is the photo I submitted to the Brooklyn Museum's "crowd-curated" show, "Click!" and...it's going to be in the show!!! Can you tell I'm excited? You can explore the show online or come see it at the Brooklyn Museum, June 27–August 10.

There's also a panel this Saturday on Governor's Island as part of the Figment Festival:

Click! Panel Discussion
Saturday, June 28, 11 a.m.
Governors Island
Brooklyn Museum clicks with the crowd at FIGMENT 2008, a celebration of participatory art and creative culture held on Governors Island. A panel discussion about the process and outcome of Click! will be held on Saturday, June 28, at 11 a.m. Panelists include James Surowiecki, New Yorker financial columnist and author of The Wisdom of Crowds; Jeff Howe, contributing editor of Wired magazine, who coined the term “crowdsourcing”; Eugenie Tsai, Brooklyn Museum’s John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art; and Shelley Bernstein, Brooklyn Museum’s Manager of Information Systems and the organizer of Click! The panel will be moderated by Nicole Caruth, Brooklyn Museum’s Manager of Interpretive Materials and a freelance writer and curator based in Brooklyn. Please note: In order to make the panel you must take the 10 or 10:30 a.m. ferry, which depart from South Ferry and are free of charge. Specific travel instructions can be found on the Figment Web site. The panel will take place in Perkins Hall. Seating is limited.

We went to the Figment Festival last summer and it was awesome - hope to see you there!

Bushwick Open Studios

By Ari | Jun 24, 08 12:26 PM

ladies looking at our art
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

This June 6-8, we participated in Bushwick Open Studios 2008. We had some art up in the Mighty Tanaka group show at Nut Roaster Studio (see photo), and Shira performed at Bushwick Open Studios Musicfest '08 on the 8th, at Don Pedro's Bar and Lounge. We got favorable responses and met a lot of cool people - and of course saw some awesome art and heard some great music, despite the heat.

The stuff we put up at Nut Roasters was a combination of photography and posters, much like what we put up last year at Office Ops - some choice photos, and some activisty posters you might be familiar with from our shop.

You can see some of my recent work on Flickr, as well as Shira's photography (also on Flickr), and Shira's got some music tracks up at myspace.com/shiragoldingmusic. Her complete first album is downloadable for free/donation right here.

Among the stuff we saw were giant subway photos by Daryl-Ann Saunders, a small lightbox/photography installation by Ryan Frank, photography by Lensflare, detailed drawings by Denise DeSpirito, paintings by Mishel Valenton and David Cahill, and some great prints by JeeYun Lee, probably our favorite work at the Mighty Tanaka show. I also seem to have picked up a card from a Mr. Nicolas A. Forker, and while I can't remember where on earth I saw his work, his site is pretty cool. Finally, we met a dude with a fun beard-and-hat combo who I believe is this very same Johnny Bubonic I've just hunted down - though I'm not 100% sure that's his link. He had stuff up at Ad Hoc, which we somehow ended up missing. (Odd, because that's usually our #1 art destination in Bushwick - sorry, Johnny.)

Thank you Arts in Bushwick for another great arts and music festival!

New and wonderful things from Lavender Diamond

By Ari | Jun 10, 08 10:15 AM

Becky Stark and the adorably wonderful peace-loving folks of Lavender Diamond are working on a new video project, Imagine Our Love. Click for info, beautiful film stills and production photos like the one above, and art for auction, proceeds to support the video.

Also, look: Ron Regé, the band's resident illustrator (of Peace Comics fame) now has his own blog.

I learned all of this from Lavender Diamond's mailing list, which I just joined. Yesterday an email arrived, the first message I've received on the list, apparently written by Becky Stark herself. It's probably one of the more awesome mailing list postings I've ever received. It begins:

hello everyone!
i hope you are well!
it is a beautiful day here in los angeles at the beginning of june-
i hope that wherever you are you feeling well and whole-
i'm writing to you today with some news!
and- also a little reminder-
remember: the power of love is infinite! Reading this email and visiting these links made me really happy, so I had to share. I listen to Lavender Diamond and I'm filled with hope for the world. I think that's a great effect for music to have.

Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World

By Ari | Jun 6, 08 01:12 PM

We've mentioned Victor Papanek's Design for the Real World a bunch of times but never blogged it properly, so here goes. Read it! It's amazing. It was written in 1970 but is still all-too-relevant today. The cover of our awesome 1973 Bantam edition (pictured here), reads, "Why the Things You Buy Are Expensive, Unsafe, and Usually Don't Work! With some startling practical alternatives -- like a radio that costs 9¢, a $6 refrigerator, a television set for $8, and much, much more! Design For The Real World by Victor Papanek: Human Ecology and Social Change With an Introduction by R. Buckminster Fuller; Completely Illustrated". Papanek adorably refers to his friend and introduction-writer as Bucky throughout the book, and relates stories of visionary design teams doing what the two men refer to as Anticipatory Comprehensive Design.

Basically that means looking at real-world problems and trying to solve them in an ecologically-sound and efficient, forward-thinking way, with the help of the stakeholders, the people who are actually affected by the design problem and its potential solutions. This is opposed to the more common practice of profit-driven design, which uses planned obsolescence and the vagaries of "fashion" to sell the same old crap year after year, dressed up in fancy new skins or even just different marketing. For every cool new low-cost, low-impact tool that's accessible and useful to folks who really need it, there are a million new expensive, ugly and possibly dangerous items put on the market simply to make a profit, Papanek says, and his message holds true today. The design world, for all of its improvements, does continue to churn out useless junk and endless repetitions of bad ideas.

Here's part of the flow-chart illustration with which Papanek ended the book - you'll have to read the book to see the rest of it, including his suggestions for how to get around the problems outlined here. But he doesn't give us all the answers - the flow-chart only goes so far as suggesting possible solutions to the world's problems; he puts it on us to fill in the rest of the chart as we move onto creating those solutions.

Since Shira and I are all about creating sustainable solutions in every area of life including the design work we do for clients, we found the book's message right up our alley, and the suggestions for improvement just as relevant today as they were when they were written nearly 40 years ago. It's encouraging to see that when Victor wrote this book he and Bucky were really trailblazing a new approach, which today has many adherents, with dozens of books and websites now dedicated to designing for the great majority of people instead of the privileged few who pay big bucks for pretty new designer chairs and the like. But we've still got work to do. So, read this book, and act on it!

Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical (going back to the roots) in the truest sense. It must dedicate itself to nature's "principle of least effort," in other words, minimum inventory for maximum diversity... or, doing the most with the least. That means consuming less, using things longer, recycling materials, and probably not wasting paper printing books such as this.

Fortunately, Design for the Real World has been in print for many years, and is available used from many freecycling / swapping networks as well as libraries and used bookshops, so no new materials need be used today in learning from this beautiful and clever and useful book.

Happy List

By Shira | Jun 5, 08 07:20 PM

There is a cat posse in our apartment, same-sex marriages are going to be recognized in New York State, my cousin Amir starred in this Borat spoof (it's a video for his high-school graduation party in Haifa), crop circles on google earth, using skype as our land line, Senegalese hip-hop at the eighth annual Media That Matters Film Festival Awards Ceremony, visiting Ithaca last weekend for a co-housing workshop at EcoVillage, looking for an apartment in Ithaca and finding an awesome one!!!, the plants in our window pots are starting to bloom, Obama is the democratic candidate for president, sharing our art and music this weekend as part of Bushwick Open Studios, picking up our first Hearty Roots CSA share of the season in Williamsburg, women's turkish oil wrestling at Galapagos, Renegade Craft Fair at the McCarren Park Pool June 14-15, Pineapple Express at BAM with Director David Gordon Green, tank tops, summer...

Check Out Our Music and Art at Bushwick Arts Festival This Weekend!

By shirari | Jun 5, 08 05:45 PM

This weekend (June 6-8) is the Bushwick Open Studios & Arts Festival and we hope you'll come check it out!

We'll have art and photography at the Nut Roaster Studio as part of a group show on display all weekend, and on Sunday night Shira is playing her music as part of a music festival at Don Pedro's. Here are the details...

Shirari Art and Photography
Mighty Tanaka Group Show
Saturday, June 7th - Sunday, June 8th
12-7pm
Nut Roaster Studio
120 Ingraham St., Brooklyn (at the corner of Porter Ave.)
L train to Morgan Ave.
Google Map

Shira's Live Music
Bushwick Open Studios Music Festival
Sunday, June 8th
Shira is scheduled to go on at 10pm
Don Pedro's Bar and Lounge
90 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn (between Boerum St. and McKibben St.)
L train to Montrose Ave. or J/M to Lorimer or G to Broadway
Google Map
www.myspace.com/shiragoldingmusic

We'll be in the neighborhood all weekend. Hundreds of artists will be having open studios, and there are tons of events including an art parade, cabaret and more.

Check out the full schedule.

Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate

By Ari | May 17, 08 09:29 AM

Reproduce & Revolt/Reproduce Y Rebélate is a new book edited by Josh MacPhee & Favianna Rodriguez for Just Seeds Visual Resistance Artists Cooperative (published by Soft Skull Press), and is a must-have for any activist group who needs to give their posters and handbills more visual punch: $18, 196 pages, 100 artists, 25 countries, 500 public domain political graphics. It's bilingual (Español/English).

I'm not usually a fan of clip art, but I make a lot of posters for activist groups, and I really see the need for this collection. Grassroots groups are more likely to have to make posters in a pinch, very quickly, for events that are hard to find high-quality images for. Ever tried to throw together a quick broadsheet for a screening of an extremely indie feminist slideshow about imperialism in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and The Philippines? Try finding photos for that online. (Seriously, if you search photo sites for Hawaii and women all you get is hula girls. It's depressing. And part of why we should be talking about imperialism in Hawaii.) Now what if you're not an designer, illustrator or otherwise capable of turning grainy JPEGs or phone camera snapshots into decent printable graphics? This book has the potential to make life a lot easier for groups with limited means.

My only critique is that the book apparently doesn't come with a CD. Which I guess is good because it means less waste. But it does mean a lot of people will likely take messy scans of very pretty graphics. Or maybe folks prefer photocopiers, though I think there's a lot of waste involved in cut-and-paste photocopier-aided layout. Perhaps a companion online download area would have worked well? Anyway, despite being anchored in the material world, this book is pretty awesome.

Guerilla Girls meet Barnstormers - Saturday, NYC

By Ari | May 15, 08 12:19 PM

We just heard about a cool event happening on Saturday at the Bronx Museum: A "Collaborative Day of Performance" that goes 12-6pm and includes, among other wonders, a collaborative "Satiric demonstration" by the Barnstormers and the Guerilla Girls. If you don't know the folks in question yet, check out the video below of the Barnstormers in action. Now imagine it crossed with feminist art activism. I think this is not to be missed. More info can be had here: Bronx Museum Events.

(Via the Bluestockings Feminist Book Club)

Two and a Half Weeks in Israel, Amsterdam and Iceland

By Shira | May 12, 08 05:36 PM

Israel (232 Photos)

Amsterdam (232 Photos)

Iceland (207 Photos)

Photos from Ari and more about the trip coming soon :)

The Shirari Update: Recent Work

By Ari | Apr 11, 08 08:00 AM

So we're gearing up for this trip, and churning out a LOT of work before we go. In the past couple of months we've done quite a bit, much of which we've already written about. But here are some projects we haven't blogged about yet:

I worked with GLSEN to design a new look for StudentOrganizing.org and put fresh skins on their Day of Silence and Remembering Lawrence King MySpace sites.
We co-created a brand and launched a placeholder page for the new documentary Lioness, currently making the rounds at festivals. Posters and a full site are on the way... follow this film, it's a good one.
I made posters and other collateral for the freeDimensional / Casa Frela production OFF THE WALL.
Shira designed the DVD for the doc Innocent Until Proven Guilty, soon to be available for purchase at Arts Engine.
I handled the International Women's Day and May Day issues of The Socialist, the magazine of the Socialist Party USA. The May Day issue inaugurated our brand spankin' new redesign.
We designed a new film distribution brochure for Scenarios USA and rebranded (and re-designed and re-authored) their DVD collection. We also handled the collateral for their 2008 REAL DEAL Awards and Gala. (I made their site, too - though that was a few years back!)
I did a launch postcard for The Plant Republic's new site.
Shira's been a pre-screener and has been coordinating the jury process for Pangea Day, a project of TED Conferences.
I designed a guide to US citizenship and naturalization for South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) and a fresh cover for the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), through the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).
I made invitations, posters, programs, and a million other things for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center's Broadway Backwards 3 and Center Dinner 25th Anniversary Celebration.

I'm sure I'm missing a million things, so if we worked on your project and haven't mentioned it, apologies! We really love all of our work, though it can be hard (I got up at 7am and am currently running on empty...), and we've been very lucky in that we can choose to work only on projects we really want to stand behind politically and ethically. It's a good life, this. Thanks to all of our clients and friends who continue to bring these amazing projects to us.

Uncle Samantha

By Ari | Apr 10, 08 03:25 PM

I've been working for New York's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center for a while now, and a little job I did for them has recently gotten some new life, being put into use by Burgundy Crescent Volunteers in the DC area. Here she is! Uncle Samantha (or Aunt Sam) was meant to be a drag queen but is frequently mis-identified as a hot lesbian. Either way, she seems to be a crowd-pleaser. I originally drew her for the Gay Center's Volunteer Program and she appeared on the cover of the Center's newsletter, Center Happenings. Now the folks at Burgundy Crescent are using her to recruit new volunteers for DC Pride events. You can even get her on a shirt or mug!

Anyway, had to post this - I'm so happy to see Sam getting out there and hopefully bringing in some new recruits for the Gay Agenda. If you're queer and looking for something fun to do, I highly recommend volunteering with a local organization like the Center or BCV. They can always use people with skillz and are, I've found, generally full of really awesome people doing great work for people who really need it.

Click! at the Brooklyn Museum - Vote for My Photo!

By Shira | Apr 3, 08 11:37 AM

This is the photo I submitted to the Brooklyn Museum's "crowd-curated" show, "Click!" Anyone can rate submissions. Check it out and give my photo a high rating, if you please :)

R.I.P.

By Shira | Mar 25, 08 01:55 PM

rip - 3.08.08.jpg

When people die around the same time, are their souls somehow interconnected? I'm not sure that I believe that we have a "soul" and I'm pretty certain that there is no after-life, other than a slow reunion with mama earth, and yet when people pass away in close succession, I can't help but searching for common threads. (Remember when James Brown, Robert Altman, Saddam Hussein and Gerald Ford died in November/December 2006?)

So what do filmmaker Anthony Minghella, author Arthur C. Clarke and musician Israel "Cachao" López have in common? They were all creative visionaries.

Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a beautiful film that captures the conflict between external and internal identities in a way that I have never seen before or since. It also shows how totally destructive homophobia, especially the internalized variety, can be.

Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey was written concurrently with the production of Kubrick's film and published after its release. The film, the book, the whole of Arthur C. Clarke's work, is an example of the best of what science-fiction has to offer the world - a glimpse into the future that shows us what we need to do today.

I actually hadn't heard of Israel López until a few days ago, when his death was announced. On NPR he was described as the "inventor of Mambo music." While I'm sure that, as with any artistic movement, López had many collaborators and co-inventors along the way, it's still pretty amazing to be known as the creator of anything. It's time to listen to the Buena Vista Social Club Soundtrack again (López composed a number of the songs).

So rest in peace Anthony, Arthur and Israel. If there is a heaven, I hope you're all up there working on a mambo/sci-fi/cinematic mash-up.

OFF THE WALL - Opening tonight in NYC

By Ari | Mar 21, 08 02:13 PM

I've had the privilege to work with freeDimensional on an event called OFF THE WALL: Celebrating Arts and Human Rights, opening tonight at Casa Frela Gallery in Harlem. Click here for more info and be sure to check out freeDimensional. They're a growing non-profit that's doing some very important work for artists in need of asylum, all over the world.

"Conscious consumerism"

By Ari | Mar 16, 08 03:05 PM

A little while ago, Brooklyn activist/art collective Change You Want to See / Not an Alternative banned Raw Revolution products from their gallery space, issuing a kind of anti-greenwashing/consumerist manifesto along with the announcement: The Real (Raw) Revolution:

A line is here drawn against alternative capitalist products. Revolution is not a candy bar or an energy drink. Don't get us wrong, we recognize good intentions, but good intentions alone are no solution for avoiding the road to hell. All products that represent themselves as "sustainable solutions" are hereby banned from The Change You Want to See Gallery. Creating an economy where fairly traded, organic, vegan, healthy, (and even free) products are the norm rather than an anomaly is something we encourage. We believe however that to achieve this, a stand has to be taken against any commodity that is packaged as the embodiment of an alternative or a revolution. Consuming "Raw Revolution" will never be a meal replacement for actual revolution. Please... continue to invent, build, create, fight, force the limits of the capitalist system. Bring the results of your work to the Gallery, we want to and will continue to help you promote your work. However we will no longer provide a cover for a guerilla marketing campaign. If "false revolutionary", "fake alternative" "politically correct" "do-gooder" products are brought to the Gallery their packaging will be removed at the door.

(Via Stop Shopping Monitor)

Here's the video version:

I really dig the sentiment behind this move. We've been trying to figure out what we can possibly put in our own shop that would pass our ethical muster. We don't like using new materials or toxic art supplies. We don't want to ship things all over the place, requiring shipping suppplies and fuel as well as causing pollution. And we don't really like having money relationships with people anymore, either - though that's hard to avoid when you live in a capitalist society and sell your skills for a living. All of this rather limits what one can sell in a shop, if one decides to keep the shop at all.

There's such a fuzzy line between people working for social change and trying to make a living at the same time - and people who are more in it for the money, but who may do some good along the way. Where do you cross the line into exploitation, or are you always there, so long as you're participating in capitalism?

On the other side of this equation is consumerism of different sorts. In our ongoing efforts to reduce our impact we've found that there are certain things we've needed to buy that require shipping. You can find used books on alternative energy at a local bookstore, for example, but what about that washable shower curtain that requires no plastic liner (or other hard-to-find but highly efficient replacements for conventional housewares)? You'd think in our massive city we'd find it (and yes, if we were craftier, we'd make it), but no luck. But buying online from a company like Simple Family Living Homegoods or Gaiam has a broad impact (supporting capitalism; using packaging material; and polluting the air, using up fuel and clogging up a highway, during shipping). At what point does it make more sense to just buy a damn curtain that requires a liner, imperfect a solution though it might be?

I know we can't be perfect, but we can do our best to do the right thing for the planet and our neighbors. In the society we've set up for ourselves though, it can be hard to know what the "right" decision is.

UPDATE, 3.26.08
Lest I sound too negative about Simple Family Living Homegoods and Gaiam, I wanted to put in that these two companies - and Simple Family Living Homegoods in particular, which is much more indie than Gaiam - are both really great places to get things that will help you move toward a lower-impact life. Reusable, washable mesh produce bags will help you avoid using plastic ones, reusable cloth gift bags and handkerchiefs will help you avoid the use of wrapping supplies, soap nuts and a collapsible drying rack will help you avoid detergents and use less power when doing laundry, and so on. If you can't - or won't - make these things yourself, and if you can't find them locally (which is all too often the case, hence this post), these are indeed very good places to find them.

Fight Military Recruitment in Schools

By Shira | Mar 1, 08 07:21 PM

The New York Coalition of Radical Educators (NYCoRE) have recently released a curriculum that helps teachers educate their students about military recruiting tactics. The goal is to empower students with concrete information and to make sure they know about alternative ways to access education and career-building tools after high-school.

Ari and I had the pleasure of designing the cover for Camouflaged: Investigating How the U.S. Military Affects You and Your Community, which you can preview and buy online through Lulu.com.

If you're a teacher who want to get involved, you should come to the meeting this week...

NYCoRE's Counter Recruitment Project Meeting
Thursday, March 6, 5:30-7:30
CUNY Graduate Center 34th St. & 5th Ave., Room 5489
Please bring ID

Topics of discussion include:

Bringing teachers together to develop a workshop for other teachers around unpacking military recruitment in New York City Schools and across the country
Outreach to bring teachers and administrators from Upper Manhattan neighborhoods to the workshop
Strategizing ways to share the ideas developed by New York City teachers in NYCoRE's recently released curricular guide Camouflaged
Developing ways to be a voice in the events acknowledging the anniversary of the war in Iraq

If you are interested in attending or getting involved, email Edwin at NYCoRE.

And here are some great videos about recruiting and the impact of war on veterans from Media That Matters: No Child, All That I Can Be and Night Visions

The Oscars Have Come and Gone and What Have We Learned?

By Shira | Mar 1, 08 02:02 PM

Unfortunately, this was one of the whitest, most male-dominated awards ceremonies in recent history, which makes me feel less sad that I missed it this year.

I recently illustrated Judith Mahoney Pasternak's great article about racism and sexism in the Oscars for The Indypendent. Check it out: The Oscar’s Minority Report

If I Blog Today, Will the Entry Only Appear in the Archives Every Four Years?

By Shira | Feb 29, 08 06:42 PM

in theory
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

This was stuck to the bottom of my shoe at PS1.

Ari and I met up with Laimah and some of her friends to check out the WACK!: Art and the Feminist Revolution show. We went to a panel about art and activism, walked through the galleries and then ended up in the cafe downstairs.

That's when I felt something hard and sticky on the bottom of my shoe. As soon as I saw what it was, I figured it must have been on the floor in the bookstore, where I had been browsing. I pictured the stacks and the Theory section, somewhere in limbo, unlabeled, being consumed into other subjects.

So I turned around and walked straight back to the store and went up to the guy behind the little counter and handed it over. He took it from my hand, smiled, said thanks, and then tossed it straight into the trash. So I took it out of the trash and kept it.

HAPPY LEAP YEAR!!!!!

The Why Cheap Art? Manifesto

By Ari | Feb 10, 08 01:42 PM

I'd somehow never seen this before, and had to share it. You can get it here. Bread and Puppet made it. Find out more.

Via Green Mountain Collective's Catamount Tavern News, reachable at greencollective(at)chek(dot)com or via snail at CT News, PO Box 76, Montpelier, VT 05601.

The Indypendent Printed My Illustration for "Revolutions: Read All About ’Em"

By Shira | Feb 3, 08 06:22 PM

I had fun working on this piece to accompany Chris Anderson's review of the new "Revolutions" series from Verso Books.

I'm really looking forward to checking out the series. I'm especially excited about Slavoj Žižek's intro to Mao's "On Practice and Contradiction."

Craft Magazine really wants you to buy things

By Ari | Feb 1, 08 06:49 PM

Craft Magazine rejected an article written by one of their regular contributors, Jean Railla. The piece, called “What Would Jesus Sell?”, asks some questions about crafting and consumerism that Craft apparently decided were too dangerous to publish. Fortunately, Murketing and MediaBistro have both taken up the slack and republished the piece themselves. Yay, you can read it! It's good:

Isn’t shopping, no matter how wonderfully crafty and politically correct still, well, shopping? Can you escape the so-called sin of consumerism by buying handmade? Isn’t the whole point of modern crafting Do It Yourself - not Buy from Someone Who is Doing It Themselves?

(Via Stop Shopping Monitor)

Crafting Protest

By Ari | Jan 27, 08 08:15 PM

knitting nation jumpsuit
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

Yesterday Shira and I hit a panel at the New School called "Crafting Protest", the result of a collaboration between women working around the intersection of crafting and activism. Liz Collins, Sabrina Gschwandtner, Cat Mazza and Allison Smith showed us presentations on their amazing projects, and dropped some science.

Shira's Flickr photoset Crafting Protest at the New School - January 26, 2008 includes links to the panelists websites and such. And these are my drawings made while at the event:

Ch..ch..ch..changes

By Shira | Jan 21, 08 07:22 PM

zora checks out the new mac pro tower
Originally uploaded by Shira Golding

It's still hard to believe that Shirari Industries is my full-time gig. My days feel longer in the best possible way, and I fall asleep excited about the next morning.

We just got a new Mac Pro, and it's pretty awesome. My old iMac could barely run iPhoto without crashing, so with me working from home, it was definitely time to upgrade. The cats were almost as excited about opening the boxes as we were. So far, I'm a happy customer and I'm especially psyched about the new iApps. Unfortunately, I think I might have some major issues getting sound recording set up as there are Panther incompatibility issues with the MBox and the Oxygen8 - bummer!

Technology is weird. Somehow, no matter how incredible a device seems when it first comes out, it feels slow and useless only a few years later. Has the device degraded or have we, as individuals, just upgraded our expectations? I recently read Victor Papanek's 1972 book Design for the Real World. (He was a friend and colleague of Buckminster Fuller, developer of the geodesic dome.) The book presents an indictment of planned obsolescence, the notion that corporations purposefully perpetuate a disposable, commodity-driven culture by creating products that aren't built to last, and by always pushing the newest model while discontinuing support of older editions.

The moment I started up GarageBand on my new Mac and tried to record a song using my MBox, only to discover that the device is "not yet supported," Papanek popped into my head, and I felt a rush of guilt. Should I really be investing in more machinery that's probably going to end up in a landfill in a decade or sooner? At least I can console myself with the fact that my Samsung monitor had an Energy Star sticker on it and that Apple went a little greener in 2007.

Button Patrol: They Said It Was Going to Snow

By Shira | Jan 14, 08 08:10 PM

It didn't snow today, but it might snow tonight!!!

Nestbuilding

By Ari | Jan 10, 08 06:47 PM

This image is a screenshot taken during the development of this site - it's sort of embarrassing to look at, so hey, we thought we'd share it. I think it shows how much better we've both become as designers, quite frankly. It also shows how far we can push something when we give it time. This site was about two years in the making, I reckon. This weirdly busy wood look we had going in this earlier version was cool at first, before we coded it prematurely and then struggled to improve what was already tragically flawed, our efforts just making it worse. We didn't figure this out until we'd spent countless hours poking at the thing.

It's kind of shocking how much time we wasted. Don't they say "designers are their own worst clients"? It's true, anyway.

The finished site breaks a lot of rules I usually hold sacred. The home page is a mostly cute splash page devoid of content, a big no-no. The navigation is erratic, jumping around and reordering itself and changing location and size. The sidebar elements vary from page to page, as do the things you find in footers. I'm afraid the Google Blogrolls on the links page don't work for Internet Explorer users (and perhaps others... thanks, Google, sorry visitors). I haven't yet worked out the kinks in the blog's comments and tags, the way they display. And so on.

Every time we broke a convention or integrated content from seemingly disparate parts of our lives into a new weird whole, while making this site, I found myself wondering if we'd end up with something incomprehensible. But it's true to our sensibilities - we aren't just designers, after all. I think (and hope) that it paints us for who we are, and explains in some way the various things we do to occupy and entertain and support ourselves. I also hope the blog will be entertaining. Aaaand I'll stop posting such meta content soon, which I'm sure will help.

Hello and welcome to our brand new blog.

By Ari | Jan 8, 08 11:19 AM

Well here we are. Finally! This website has been a long time in the making. The design couldn't keep up with how fast our work has been growing and changing, and had to be totally redone several times as we reconceptualized what on earth it is we're doing here. Shira will write about her end of things, so I'll just cover my own path to this new website.

I've been blogging in some form or other since 1998 or so; my most recent blog, several years in the running, was called pinkrabbitsays. Meanwhile, I was showing my work at arimoore.com - and was increasingly realizing that my politics, activism and blogging were overlapping more and more with my graphic design and illustration work, as well as with my self-education, art and writing. I've been thinking a lot about connections lately, and seeing the value in looking at things holistically. So I think this new site comes out of that - all of our work and play under one roof.

In college folks constantly mixed up our names. Our friend Diane jokingly called us "Shirari", at one point actually sending us a package addressed to "Shirari Molding-Gore" (our last names are Golding and Moore). So here we are starting a new site and a new business together. We're calling it Shirari Industries, because we're Shira and Ari, and we're industrious. I hope you dig it. Thanks for visiting.

P.S. Please contact us if you run into anything that's not working yet - this site is fresh out of the oven!