Transgenic Mosquitoes, Musical Tomatoes, and Urban Fruit

If you are in or near San Jose, California, this weekend, these are just some of the delights that await at this year’s 01SJ Biennial. IMAGE: Transgenic Mosquitoes of California by the Center for PostNatural History. Under the pioneering and Utopian instruction...

Didactic Plant Labyrinths

IMAGE: Das Currywurstfeld, in Berlin, as seen from above. Germany’s Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR) is the federal government agency responsible for studying and assessing food, products, and substances in terms of consumer health and safety. As such,...

The Agri-Tech Catalogue

Matthew Spremulli, an architecture student at the University of Toronto, has recently embarked on an ambitious, if potentially quixotic, project: the assembly of an Agri-Tech Catalogue. IMAGE: The rake, from Matthew Spremulli’s Agri-Tech Catalogue (click for...

Nomencloneture

IMAGE: Tyler Faber with “Doc,” receiving his grand champion 4-H market steer award from Iowa State Fair queen Lacy Stevensen. Photo by Steve Pope for the Iowa State Fair. As today’s New York Times points out, it’s state fair season in America: a time for...

Upgrade Excreta

IMAGE: James Gilpin apparently offered visitors samples of his Family Whisky at the RCA Design Interactions exhibition (but Regine was too chicken to try it!). Image courtesy James Gilpin. With apologies to those who might be reading this over their morning coffee or...

Spaces of Prohibition

Historian Daniel Okrent’s recent book, Last Call, tells the story of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — otherwise known as Prohibition. IMAGE: Constitutional Amendment XVIII, ratified January 16, 1919, via the National Archives and Records...