Mobile Post: Earth Day at Alameda Park
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Look at these kids, destroying the earth!
Posted by lemonjelly on:
Look at these kids, destroying the earth!
Posted by lemonjelly on:
Earth Day is this weekend and the festivities will be centered at Alameda Park.
One very cool item that will be available is the Heartbeat Amplifier. It was developed several years ago as an art project by Hitch McDermid and Alan Macy, two people I'm proud to have as friends. It's been to numerous festivals, including Burning Man and Lightning in a Bottle, and I've had the good fortune of playing around with the Heartbeat Amplifier at private events as well.
So what is it? In less technical terms, the Heartbeat Amplifier measures your heartbeat, which is then translated into other sensory forms, like sound, sight, and touch.
The participant (will it be you?) sits in a comfortable chair and rests hands on two metal plates. The metal plates sense your heartbeat, which projects into a blinking light overhead, a thumping sound from speakers, and the chair will pulse, the effects become more pronounced as the Amplifier reads you better. Take a deep breath and feel the beats slow down. Put your arms around a friend, each of you touching one of the metal plates and your heartbeats will eventually start synchronizing.
Pictured above is the HBA prototype barebones, without the fancy soft chair, embedded speakers and ethereal lighting.
The HBA puts you in touch with your body, and you are also letting others around you connect with you. It can be a meditative experience, if you're not too distracted by goings-on nearby. Below is a photo of the HBA's installation at 2011's Lightning in a Bottle music and art festival, with three heartbeat stations.
The Heartbeat Amplifier will be at this weekend's Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park, on the western block of the Park, in the section called the Open Play Space, just south of the gazebo. Who knows what the setup will be? I hear this version will be totally solar powered.
Download the PDF of the entire Earth Day Festival guide here.
Posted by lemonjelly on:
Earth Day is this coming weekend, on Sunday the 22nd of April to be precise, and events are already underway to celebrate it. Everyone knows about Earth Day, it’s celebrated in over 175 countries. But not everyone remembers its origins, it’s just always been there, right?
What many Santa Barbarans might not know is that our little town conceived Earth Day. Really? Our town known more for idyllic year-round sunshine, bad soap operas, celebrities and the quiet rich living behind high stucco walls, this inspired Earth Day? Fact! You can thank the oil spill of 1969, which catalyzed the modern environmentalist movement, including Earth Day. At that time it was the worst in America’s history (Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez have since taken the #1 and #2 spots, moving the SB spill to #3) and still remains the worst to have occurred in California. Approximately 100,000 barrels of oil spilled out from Union Oil’s Platform A, spreading along the Southern California coast out to the Channel Islands. I grew up in Santa Barbara and a typical day at the beach in the 70s ended with my parents cleaning my feet with paint thinner to remove the blotches of tar sticking underneath. Maybe you remember this, too.
Shortly after the oil spill, Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin visited Santa Barbara. Being an environmental and conservation activist, he witnessed the local devastation and Washington’s meager attempts to address it and was outraged. It was he who proposed the first Earth day, as a national teach-in on the environment to be observed by every university in the United States, on 22 April, 1970. He paired up with Republican Rep Paul McCloskey and they created the non-profit, Environmental Teach-In, to generate interest and participation in the event. That first year, 20 million Americans participated and it’s been growing ever since with half a billion people around the world now estimated as participating.
Recognition of Earth Day succeeds because of its grassroots level of organization. It self-organizes, or to use the new keywords: it’s gone viral. So many people have concerns on some level about our environment, it could be damage on a large immediate devastating level like an oil spill, or something more localized like raw sewage, pesticides in riverbeds or on our food, plastic grocery bags choking fauna or collecting in landfills. Or something that’s been simmering and growing for years, like climate change. You jaded folk may roll your eyes at how many corporate personhoods are jumping on the bandwagon of greenwashing their business, but it does build awareness and awareness is the first step towards taking action.
Remember: think globally, act locally. This weekend Santa Barbara officially celebrates Earth Day at Alameda Park. Come on out to learn about green initiatives local companies are taking, visit the booths of eco-driven non-profits and companies that creates products and services that are environmentally friendly, see some bands, eat some yummy food. And walk or ride your bike to the event. Be social. Santa Barbara’s not letting us down, she’s got some great weather in store for us this weekend, let’s not let her down either.
What: Santa Barbara Earth Day
Where: Alameda Park, around Garden and Micheltorena
When: Saturday 11 am – 6:30 pm, and Sunday 11 am – 5 pm
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(It rained.)
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The Poetry Booth was an interactive free project in the courtyard space outside Marshalls (formerly Borders), at the corner of State and Canon Perdido.
People had access to words, scraps, books, pens and pencils, to create whatever they wished. I made a bracelet of some special words.
Poetry is for everybody!
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The Project is hereby titled The Most Social Space of First Thursday. I walked in once, and walked by it twice. Always full of people, lively music, friendly chatter, pretty pictures. It always feels welcoming.
People spill out into the street, it's just so full inside. If you've not yet been, GO, and hopefully you'll be smiling too.
The Project Fine Art Zone
740 State Street, Suite 1
(it's actually on de la Guerra, closer to de la Guerra Plaza)
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Jane Deering Gallery
128 East Canon Perdido Street
(next door to Handlebar Coffee Roasters)
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This was my first time in the Historical Museum. It's a nice space, centrally located to downtown at the corner of Santa Barbara Street and de la Guerra Street. It has a serenely simple back courtyard that's a beautiful example of the Spanish Mission style.
The Museum has information and artifacts of Santa Barbara's history including the Chumash and the Spanish influence. There's also a gift shop with a plethora of Santa Barbara books and nice souveniers, including Santa Barbara themed tea towels (which I love).
Running through 19 August, 2012 is an exhibit on the Flying A Studio, Santa Barbara's one-time big-time movie studio from the early 1900s. By 1915 it was the world's largest film studio. Yes, in Santa Barbara! I spent a few years of early childhood living just a few blocks away from its primary location, on West Mission Street, and my young parents at the time took note of the landmark. It was always in the back of our minds, so when I heard about the exhibit at the Historical Museum, I made it my first stop on the First Thursday tour.
The show is in the main exhibit hall. Start on one side of the room, and walk through a chronology of the studio, stop in the middle to see one of the studio old black and white reels, and pause to look the old movie posters.
There will also be some talks over the next few months about the history of the Flying A. If you want to learn more about Santa Barbara's reel movie history (rather than all the assorted celebs who live here now), I recommend.
Santa Barbara Historical Museum
138 East de la Guerra Street
Flying A exhibit (and past exhibitions)
Check in on yelp, facebook, foursquare for perks and discounts. On this night, a FB checkin got a free drink (beer or wine).
