Tag: Creative

Posted on

How bicycles can save us by Riley Hoonan

After spending a very interesting day working on editing the structure of a literature review outlining the cultural role of bicycles in Africa, I was delighted to take a break and find this tasty infographic offering ‘How bicycles can save us’ by Riley Hoonan.

Inside Riley Hoonan’s head

It caught my eye specifically because of the ‘The European Way’ content linking obesity and cycling rates in the US, Germany and Holland. I love looking at infographics and am constantly in awe of the ingenious ways designers present and organise (often) very complex and detailed content in such a cohesive and visually appealing way.

I like the consistent and understated colours used in this one. Also, the fact that it includes a variety of information ranging from the physical, social, environmental, political and health advantages to cycling. I’m impressed by the thought and detail that Riley has gone into producing this particular piece and appreciate the diversity of data represented. And kudos to Riley for making the infographic Common License too, so it is free to distribute!

Improvement please!

My only contention with infographics in general (certainly not a criticism of this one in particular) is that although I appreciate that references for the sources are given,  I’d like to know which source is for what data set – which is especially important if you want to follow up on info. I know that having footnotes or superscripts in the image could arguably detract from the overall aesthetic, but in a situation like this where the info is immediately useful, interesting, and potentially transferable into my bicycle research project I want to know which fact comes from which source! Given that there are 14 or so sources, I’d like to know what factual content is linked to which certain reference.

Perhaps this is another design challenge for those who produce infographics.

Regardless, congrats to Riley for his chic aesthetic, for promoting bike use and spreading the good word. Keep up the awesome work circulating the positive ways in which bikes can save us!

How Bikes Can Save Us

by RileyHoonan.

From Visually.

Posted on

Darwin Community Arts – Malak Bike Shed

Darwin is not the first Australian capital city that comes to mind when you think of community bicycle projects – which is exactly why I found this project so reassuring. The idea of providing a free bicycle workshop space for locals to come and repair bikes and learn skills is not new, but in a place like Darwin it is fantastic to see the love of bike and community spirit alive and well.

Darwin Community Arts – Malak Bike Shed

This particular bike workshop in Malak caught my eye because I think it was great that it is run as part of the Darwin Community Arts program. Often such initiatives are either labour-of-loves for an individual or part of an NGO or community group, but certainly not usually part of a Council Arts Program. The Darwin Community Arts website invitation to the public to come and visit the workshop and use their services is refreshingly positive. They offer workspace, tools, mentoring, skills share – and some fun and innovative ideas.

One of the most exciting aspects for me is that locals can not only repair bikes, but there is also facilities and a regular Saturday morning Underground Arts workshop where you can decorate your bikes as well – which I think is great! I like the idea of instigating more colour, spunk and personality whizzing by on two wheels around the streets of  Darwin! Riding should be a fun, artistic and communal experience.

Source: Bike Shed Malak
Source: Bike Shed Malak
Posted on

I LOVE bedtime!

Felling a little tried from a big day? Today I wasn’t able to get on my bike as much as I’d have liked – so as a consolation, I thought I could make up for it with a little double helping of extra special bedtime bike love…

Bicycle Love

The first is to snuggle up with a good book – this one is BICYCLE LOVE  – the synopsis on Amazon states that “all athletes love their sports, but cycling has a fetishistic side to it—the love of this deceptively simple machine that allows you to silently float, race and climb. These 50 essays on the many varieties of bicycle love range from dreamy reminiscences of childhood bikes to powerful, sometimes insane adult attachments to mountain bikes, road bikes and tandems.

They all celebrate the freedom of cycling, the elegance of the machine and the beauty of the act. The characters are everyone from a teenage girl on a moun-tain bike to old men crossing the country on touring bikes to couples falling in love while cycling. Funny, revealing and intensely emotional, these stories show the secret inner life of every cyclist”.

Now that’s a nice collection to finish the day with – and what a great cover illustration!

Source: Amazon
Source: Amazon

Cycling Doonas

Then, an ex-student of mine sent me the picture below. She is from Russia and a friend from home had sent her this picture. Knowing my love of bicycles, she Facebooked it over, so it is a little hard to track the origin (sorry no attribution!). But, I’ve also since seen it on Pinterest (type in ‘bicycle bed cover’).

Either way, I love the idea of smuggling under this doona to dream about the next ride. GOLD!!!

unnamed

Posted on

Shut Up & Write Workshops

Being away in Cairns for the 2016 UCI World Cup was a brilliant thing to do and I had a ball, but it meant that I have not done any work on my Lit Review for a week. I made an effort to achieve some writing goals before I left, as I wanted to be sure I had some content on paper to come back to.

I have noticed that at this early stage, often my writing time was being sabotaged. Usually, occurred when I got caught up in editing whilst I was writing, or looking for a reference, or feeling like what I was writing was too close to what I had just read, so I would scrap it and start again. This means that it takes a lot of time to produce a relatively small amount of content. It is also quite frustrating. This means that although I have been working on my Lit Review, the process thus far has been cumbersome and ineffective. So, coming back to writing again after a week’s break – I want to change my writing process and experiment with some other techniques to see if I can get more out of my writing time.ccurred

I want a designated space to brainstorm, write and express ideas that did not feel so rigid and awkward. I like the using the Pomodoro technique for writing.  I know a number of other Higher Distinction by Research (HDR) students who are also wrestling with the same issues. So I wanted to form some kind of ‘study group’ where we could all contribute and benefit from a new approach.

Hosting Shut Up & Write Workshops

A Shut Up & Write workshop is a great place to start. I like the idea of having company when I write that is conducive to productivity and professionalism. I looked around to join one. Griffith University Postgrad Student Association has a Breakfast Writing Workshop on Saturday mornings, but that’s my prime bike riding time.

So I decided to host my own SU & W sessions (a series of 3 consecutive Mondays) and I opened them up to other Griffith University students and staff a to attend.

WHO CAN ATTEND:

All are welcome! Any level of students – Bachelor, Honours, Postgrad, HDR, any type of student – international or domestic, academic or support staff, people who have no experience with SU&W or Pomodoro, writers who want a designated time to produce writing or others from outside of Griffith who want to give it a go.

WHEN: 9 am- 11 am  Wednesdays 2nd, 9th and 16th May, 2016  (Week 9, 10 & 11)
WHERE: N76_1.02/1.03 Nathan
WHAT TO BRING:
  • Your own writing materials (paper/pen or laptops)
  • 3 topics that you want to produce some writing for
  • A big smile
NOTE
  • There will be a short introduction so participants know what to expect and how to use the session most effectively. Pomodoro timing will be provided.
  • We will complete at least 3 Pomodoro rounds (maybe 4).
  • This is a professional academic workshop, so adherence to punctuality, preparedness and silence during writing times is expected.
  • Arrive early to avoid disappointment.
  • See you there and let’s get writing!

Shut up and Write Semester 1, 2016.-2

Posted on

Japan: Bicycles – A way for disarmament

by Sachie Togashiki

 

This online news article that I found is about the exhibition Change from Arms to Arts: Peace-building in Mozambique held in the art gallery of Tokyo University of the Arts. In this exhibition, audiences can see art objects which are made of materials which used to be guns.
After Mozambique became independent in 1975, a civil war occurred and lasted until 1992, after which many weapons used in the civil war were still left without proper removal. Then, the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM), started the project Transforming Guns into Hoes, which was instructed by Dinis Sengulane, General Secretary of CCM. In this project, guns were exchanged with agricultural implements, bicycles, or sewing machines. Bicycles in Japan were donated to this project. Thanks to the project, about one million guns have been collected and most of the weapons collected were safely destroyed and others were used for making art objects, which are exhibited in Change from Arms to Arts: Peace-building in Mozambique.

 

Bicycles – a way for disarmament
Source: Tokyo University of the Arts – Change from Arms to Arts: Peace-building in Mozambique

 

This article expresses the necessity of bicycles. Because bicycles are needed by people in Mozambique, CCM members were able to exchange weapons for bicycles and other useful implements. This means bicycles might make the world better in terms of disarmament strategy. The issue of leftover weapons can be better solved, partly thanks to bicycles. In this way, bicycles can be used for maintaining peace – as seen in this exhibition.


Sachie Togashiki is our Guest Blogger, unveiling some of Japan’s bicycle culture for the fortnight from 11th April to 24th April.

Posted on

Art Bikes Revealed

Sunday was the revealing of the Bicycles Create Change Summer Program Art Bike Project – and what a success it was!

It was a relaxed, colourful and highly informative session and not even the small amount of rain that came could dampen our enthusiasm. I picked the team up early and everyone was in good spirits as we headed to the Community Gardens. Then the heavens opened and a few worried looks were exchanged. Nevertheless, as always, the sun shone through intermittently and then we had a burst of beautiful blue sky, right on cue as we had our bikes in hand and were rolling out to go and set up. As we walked our ART BIKES down to Bethania Street Community Gardens, we received a few locals honking and shouting out well wishes for our presentation. We arrived in plenty of time to set up and get ready.

The proceedings

We had nine attend, which was perfect (I was aiming for between 5 and 15 for the audience) so there were enough seats. It also meant that when it rained a little at the start, there was enough room for the audience, presenters and all the bikes to fit comfortably under the pavilion. Quickly after that, the weather turned it on and we had gorgeous sunshine for the rest of our time there. After a quick welcome, the order of proceedings and topics for the Art Bikes were:

Sachie – Gender Equality

Juliet – Women’s Emancipation and changing roles

Gabriel – The importance of bicycles in Cameroon Culture

Mauricio – Corruption

Nina – Child Labour

The presenters introduced themselves, their topic/issue and their bike, then discussed how their bike was symbolic of the issue they had chosen. At the end of each bike, the audience asked questions and gave feedback – which was fantastic as there were some very interesting insights and ideas raised.

We then had a brief close and thank you. It was great to see people milling around and making the effort to go and speak to each art bike artist to discuss their own reaction, interpretations and feelings about some of the issues raised during the presentations. It was very relaxed and friendly, with lots of jovial chatting. Conversations that were more profound emerged later on. Thank you very much to the locals and friends who came on the day to participate – your good company and input were very much appreciated.

Garden Butterflies

It was also heart-warming to see people drifting off into the garden to look at what was in bloom and finding something to munch on. I was especially pleased to see how excited Gabriel was to spot cassava growing there – he was delighted to see such a familiar staple food from Africa there, what made it even more awesome was that he had not idea it grew here – GOLD!

Congrats to all!

I was very impressed by the thought, effort and research that each team member had put into their bikes. The symbolism, motifs, creativity and explanations that were demonstrated showed a depth of critical thinking and careful judgement that surpassed expectations and made for a very enjoyable and stimulating morning. The presentations themselves were witty, engaging and well structured. I was incredibly proud of our team and was thrilled to be part of such a meaningful, worthwhile and illuminating event. We plan to have each artist share their bike creation and development process in a guest post on this blog.

Congratulations to the wonderful team members who have worked so hard for so long – I am so proud of you!
Posted on

Art Bike Presentation

Bicycles Create Change – Art Bike Presentation

You are invited to an ART BIKE PRESENTATION on Sunday 13th March at 10.30am at the Bethania Community Gardens, Lota, Brisbane.

Background:

The Bicycles Create Change Summer Program has for the last 8 weeks, been working with 4 international students (from Japan, Cameroon, India & Columbia) on a collaborative learning internship to develop their academic, vocational and personal skills – which has community engagement as a central focus.

Local contributions to Art Bikes:

The program involves the participants undertaking an array of weekly tasks and self-directed activities. Each team member selected a social issue and creatively represented that issue in the form of an Art Bike. Some of the social issues the participants have chosen include women’s emancipation and corruption. One example of an Art Bike (that will be included on the day as well) can be seen here to get an idea of what will be presented – the social issue is Wasteful Consumerism: https://www.bicyclescreatechange.com/?s=art+bike&submit=Search

Local Community Involvement

We canvassed the local Lota community last month for donations for bikes to use for this project and the response was overwhelming.  We received more than enough and the reactions were super positive and engaging – so we wanted to let the wider community know what the final Art Bike results are.

Final Program Community Presentation:

We are having our final presentation where we will display and discuss our art bikes on Sunday 13th March at 10.30am at the Bethania Community Gardens, Lota, Brisbane. We would love for you to come and join us for an hour with refreshments included.

BCC Art Bike Presentation

 

 

 

Posted on

This bike has Multiple Sclerosis

This remarkable health education initiative really personifies how bicycles can innovate positive social change – in this case, raising awareness about Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

MS Community Education

This initiative brilliantly mixes science, bicycle design, expert collaboration and cyclists to produce a community education campaign where a normal bicycle was augmented in a variety of ways to represent the MS symptoms.

To achieve this, each of the major executive functions on the bike such as the fork, handlebars, seat, frame and gears were altered so that the impact of the disease could be experienced first hand when you try to ride the bike – thus demonstrating the daily challenges that suffers have trying to operate their bodies as this autoimmune disease destroys their nervous system.

Ad Week promoted this ad campaign by giving it international recognition for its ingenuity and creative approach – and very effectively linked this issue to the lived experience of Penelope Conway who is an MS Suffer and informatively and humorously writes about what Multiple Sclerosis really feels like.

The Ad

This bike has Multiple Sclerosis video (2 mins) explains the rationale and research that has gone into the strategic design of this bike.

 

This community awareness campaign is not only effective in reaching a wide audience and communicating its message, but it is clear and has immediate impact. One of the best aspects is that it is specifically designed to be experiential and engaging for the public.

This campaign is a great example of how a creative approach to presenting a public health issue can generate excitement, consideration and interest about an issue such as MS. In doing so, it is highly successful in prompting public education and discussion about what MS is – and the metaphor of a ‘rider’ trying to ‘control a bike’ as being similar to what an MS suffer experiences to control their body, is a stroke of genius. Most people who have no contact or exposure to MS, will be able to easily relate to how difficult it can be to ride a bike if there are mechanical problems.

If only there were more interactive, dynamic and enterprising projects such as this one that can equally correlate the public’s normative experience (of riding a bike) with a emerging/public issue (MS Awareness).

Want to try riding it?

Those in Melbourne next month (March 2016), will have the opportunity to try to ride this bike for yourself at the MS Melbourne Cycle on March 6, 2016 by registering at bike@thisbikehasMS.com.

The team
Posted on

Forever Bicycles 2015

Forever Bicycles 2015  is a massive outdoor installation specially designed by Ai Weiwei for the National Gallery of Victoria. It is constructed of over 1500 bicycles and stands over 9 meters tall and will feature outside the Gallery from December 11 to April 24. It is a visually spectacular installation and speaks to a number of significant social issues. If you have not seen this art piece before, I strongly recommend you to go and see it live. It is quite a special thing to behold in its entirety. Of [articular interest is the way in which the wheels rotate with each bicycle interlocked in a very strategic and clever way. Your perception of depth is manipulated somewhat and it evokes a number of very interesting thoughts as you wrestle with looking at the way it is constructed. It is quite extraordinary standing on a major city street looking through the sculpture.

 

As a bicycle enthusiast, I find it very exciting to see the grand scale and amount of popular attention this piece has been drawing.  Ai Weiwei is well-known for being a social activist and many of his pieces have strong social justice and political themes. It is in huge contrast to the scandalous bicycle laws proposed in NSW and an expression of the strong bicycle culture of Melbourne. The fact that this installation is in the NGV,  a major public place and a popular tourist location on St Kilda Road is highly significant. It is exciting to have such an obvious homage to the humble bicycle and to have it symbolised so resolutely and proudly in the CBD amongst all the city workers, tourists and locals.

 
Posted on

CONS-U-ME BLUES Art Bike

The pre-loved high-end bike in the picture below was on sale at a property auction. No one wanted it – it was too old and daggy and from the reaction of the crowd appeared in no way cool enough to buy, let alone ride. I looked at this forlorn bike and thought of the previous owner who had purchased, loved (I hoped), and ridden this bike – then it has been cast out after however long and was now forgotten and miserable. It was a sorry sight to see; as it seemed that there was still so much more spunky and happy times to be had with it– yet here it was discarded and sad long before its expiry date.

Considering how rapidly bike technology, marketing and styles change, my heart broke: that no-one wanted this bike anymore, that this bike had been so quickly and uncaringly superseded – and although it was in perfect working order at auction, was regarded as objectionable and obsolete.

So I took pity on it and was the only person who bid on it – and got it for 50c.

On my way home from the auction, I found a bag of clothes someone had tossed on the side of the road. All the clothes were brand new – tags still attached, never worn. Amongst the clothes were a set of blue athletic work out tracksuits, not dissimilar to those I’ve seen people wear on an exercise bike. It felt very serendipitous and ironic acquiring these two items.

I was inspired to create this art bike as I acquired both passion (bicycle) and fashion (clothes) items on precisely the same day. As well, both were items I have bought on a number of occasions elsewhere. However, on this day, I was even more strongly, blatantly reminded of the immensely wasteful and consumeristic society we live in; personified by these two items presenting themselves so closely and prominently within the same hour. It was both saddening and humbling.

So I refashioned these two items together to generate a new, valued and wanted artefact, that urges us to be more mindful of products we buy and to be more prudent with our passion and fashion purchases.

As the title of this art bike CONS_U_ME BLUES identifies, this bike highlights how often our CONSUMErist society CONS YOU and ME into buying more and more products – the result of which, when honestly critiqued, makes many of us quite depressed and BLUE.

 

Please be more mindful and responsible with your purchases.

 

Art bike: CONS U ME BLUES by Nina Ginsberg
Art bike: CONS U ME BLUES by Nina Ginsberg