Every fortnight I publish The Possible City, an illustrated story series exploring the kinds of equitable, resilient, regenerative cities that you and I might actually want to live in. These stories are not about the cities we currently inhabit, but rather, about uncovering the cities … Continue readingThe Possible City Illustrations
We normally think of weeds as enemies. In this exhibition, Kang and Lydon’s “City as Nature” studio suggests that weeds are healers of the land, of people, and of cities. In three multi-sensory sections, the herbalist and artist couple celebrate how a relationship with four … Continue readingCity as Weeds
Many of us recognize the need for more ecological lifestyles, but if we live in a city with little or no ‘ecology’ around us, where on earth do we start? This short film brings us into the minds of natural farmers in Japan and the … Continue readingA City is Part of the Universe
The Typhoon Queens are an ecological artist collective formed in 2019 during a typhoon in Osaka, Japan, with members from Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Our work is part exhibition, part experiential story. Combining physical works, stories, sound, moving image, and performance, … Continue readingTyphoon Queens
Current works and select past works and projects from 2007 — current, organized by category: INSTALLATION & CONCEPT | FILM & VIDEO | STILL IMAGE | PROJECTS
Earlier this year I produced an art exhibition for Gomsil Forest—a real live Korean forest that Suhee and I have been friends with for some time. In preparation for the exhibition, Gomsil Forest spent an entire year creating works on canvas; these works were subsequently … Continue readingGomsil Forest & the “Gurye Contemporary Art Museum” (GCAM)
Just back from Paris, where I helped design, build, and curate an arts platform to augment the Nature of Cities Summit, a global conference of ecologists, urban planners, and others from academic and government roles. … Continue readingSpring 2019 Works & Events
A forest has its own exhibition of artwork in a Korean gallery, and the profits go back into the forest. … Continue readingForest is the Artist – Exhibition in Seoul
We’ve just been notified that our project in Osaka, “The Branch” has received a ‘Special Commendation’ from the 2018 Nick Reeves Award from Art and Environment! This award is given annually in recognition of an outstanding contribution in the field of environmental arts… … Continue readingNick Reeves Award for Art and Environment
Co-chair of a panel discussion at The Nature of Cities along with Carmen Bouyer. We invite eleven artists to present their conversation with water in cities. Coming from seven different countries—Czech Republic, France, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and the United States—these artists inspire our own experiences with water in cities. … Continue readingNature of Cities: Artists in Conversation with Water
We revitalized an old building and empty urban lot, turning them into an ecological art and media lab in Osaka, Japan. In the space, we host community workshops and exhibitions aimed at re-connecting more us more deeply to our environment and the world we live in.
Co-chair of a panel discussion at The Nature of Cities along with Carmen Bouyer. We invite seven artists from around the Earth to present their conversations with air in cities. Through their different creative practices, they invite us to encounter the air as the breath that flows through all of us, and unites us in a “common ground.” We hope you enjoy reading and participating in the conversations… … Continue readingNature of Cities: Artists in Conversation with Air
The floods that ravaged Silicon Valley this winter may have dried up, but there is still plenty of water flowing through the San Jose Museum of Art. This is a review of a trio of water-related exhibitions on view, “Liquid City,” The Darkened Mirror,” and “Fragile Waters.” … Continue readingNature of Cities: Drought and Flood in a Silicon Valley Museum
As a testament to an unconventional year, we spent Christmas on an overnight train from Chaingmai to Bangkok this year. Although we took the trip with our good friends Tomo and Pattarapol, and there were a few bright red Santa hats walking around the train, … Continue readingEnd of Winter Update (2017)
Join us this fall as we learn from and grow with each other during this 10-week series of events where participants learn to cultivate their creativity and ecological awareness, exploring art, nature, culture, and good food on the island of Megijima! … Continue readingREALtimeFOOD in Megijima, Japan!
We opened a slightly audacious restaurant and garden in a working-class suburb of Osaka, Japan with the intent of connecting people more deeply with food and nature in their neighborhood. Can an urban garden help us remember what it means to be human? … Continue readingNature of Cities | A Restaurant and Garden Serving up Connections to Urban Nature
A review written for The Nature of Cities of Refuge in Refuse: Homesteading Art and Culture, an exhibition curated by Robin Lasser, Danielle Siembieda, and Barbara Boissevain at SOMArts, San Francisco, USA. … Continue readingNature of Cities | Artists, Vagabonds, and an Accidental Nature Reserve in San Francisco Bay
The year started off in the mountains of South Korea. Generally it’s been cold here this year, but not quite as bad as the winter a few years past. That is, until we got out into the country side a bit. The image below was … Continue readingAn (end of) Winter Update from Dajeon, Korea
I took part in this global panel discussion on how can art (in all its forms), exhibits, installations and provocations be a better catalyst to raise awareness, support and momentum for urban nature and green spaces. … Continue readingNature of Cities | Art and Urban Green Spaces
Suhee and I are sitting in the Open Contents Lab, a co-working space in ‘Gangnam’ just now, and somehow I recall seeing Snoop Dogg dancing with a bottle of Soju last night… not sure if that was a dream or the jet lag. We’ve just … Continue readingSpring 2014 Updates
A cultural and ecological dialogue between two island communities, and across their borders. Based on work done during an artist/researcher residency on a small island in Japan.
An installation which looks at food production in a tactile way, this living sculpture exists for the cabbage to slowly feed off of the energy of the decomposing burger.
A series of three paintings of the wind-swept landscapes of Orkney, in the far north of Scotland. Each painting consists of a solid, hand-mixed color, representing the mathematically-calculated dominant color value of three landscapes in Orkney: 1) an oil terminal 2) a wind farm3) a … Continue readingDominant Color
Maybe it’s the simple things which can build the roots from which our future will grow? Thoughts from the small island of Orkney, just south of the Arctic Circle. … Continue readingOrkney, Scotland: 6,000 Years in 1 Minute
When we release ourselves from the thinking that there must be some end result which comes to life exactly how we planned it, we are allowed to enjoy, engage, and to expand our view during the process of creating. That, too, is art. Isn’t it? … Continue readingThe Art Outside of The Art
When I think about what we’ve done over the past month here in Megijima, I am reminded of Bill Murray making a commercial for Suntory Japanese whiskey… if he had to do it for one month straight. After a month or so of Lost in … Continue readingFarmers, Artists, and… Bill Murray? The Show Opening in Megijima
The [HUMAN:NATURE] team went on an ‘away’ mission yesterday. Seven people jumped into a car most that Americans would consider ‘small and cute,’ and off we rode to Awa, Tokushima with Professor Suizu. Our destination was Mr. Okitsu’s natural farm. During this past spring, I … Continue readingGroup Visit to Okitsu Natural Farm
Medium: film, interactive media, social practiceLocation: Setouchi International Triennale / Megijima, JapanYear: 2013 In the Summer of 2013, I had the opportunity to lead an amazing team — Suhee Kang, Johann Barbie, Song E Lee — along with nearly fifty Japanese volunteers in a project combining art, … Continue reading[HUMAN:NATURE]
If you could peer into what I was doing during a random sampling of points in my childhood, most likely you’d come up with a bucket full of moments where I was begging my parents/grandparents to obtain maps, examining maps and being mesmerized at how … Continue readingMapping an Island
This ongoing series explores the streets of major cities throughout the world while the streets are completely devoid of human life. … Continue readingNightLight
It’s too easy today… to get stuck in a way of thinking which presents life to you as one struggle after another, an overly complex maze of people, places, and things, all which must be conquered in order to get to the ultimate resting place… which … Continue readingSimplicity in Yamaguchi
The issue of how the small island of Megijima will continue is a tough one to confront. At the same time, it’s a story which on the surface is not unique in Japan, and one which presents us with a great opportunity to use investigative research, technology, and art, to bring awareness, inspiration, and hopefully some smiles. … Continue readingHuman:Nature, Summer Residency in Japan
My tutor from University of Edinburgh traveled to Japan a few weeks back and I was fortunate to join him on a week-long tour of art, space and nature goodness. We went from the hills of Yamaguchi and Akiyoshida, to Aichi University of the Arts … Continue readingEdinburgh/Aichi: Art and Nature Japan Tour
Community-oriented short-take documentaries which highlight and help stimulate development of healthy, diverse, creative communities around the world.
This past week, I donated NightLight: Relationship — a large-format (120-megapixel) photograph taken in Hong Kong for the NightLight series — to the WORKS San Jose Benefit Auction. The print up for auction is a 28″ x 30″ mounted photograph which appeared last year in a … Continue readingWorks Gallery Auction
Certainly one of the few tasks of importance which must only be entrusted to the command of a single person, is that of art. Yet art it is not primarily mechanical or utilitarian in nature. … Continue readingSocieCity | The Art, the Individual, the City
Project Focus: navigating art, culture, and the urban neighborhood Patrick’s Role: designer Genres of Involvement: information design Download : San Jose Downtown Arts and Culture Walking Map (PDF) About the Redesign The Status Quo: Using a general multi-purpose map crammed with everything, including parking, transit, district names, … Continue readingMapping Art in San Jose
Four years in the making, the documentary film Final Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness, has been screened in over 200 cities around the world, at film festivals, by global NPOs, community groups, and in academic settings. The film is also part of the Global Environmental Justice … Continue readingFinal Straw: Food, Earth, Happiness
The art.culture.philosophy project currently exists on two levels, the first are a series of physical, bi-monthly meetings in Silicon Valley, the second are the written reflections from participants in the meetings.
Took a visit to New York City last month and was fortunate to photo document Eyebeam‘s Open Studio event for them. The place is officially an “art and technology” center, and although the projects all have some kind of technology slant to them, it’s really quite unbelievable the … Continue readingEyebeam Art + Technology Center Open Studios