"Codes, regulations, and guidelines are what the built environment is all about. Eliminating risk of injury to the human body, and, perhaps more to the point, that of economic and legal consequences have become the ground rules for those engaged in the design, production, and construction of public spaces.". In the International Garden Festival garden Safe Zone, designers Stoss Landscape Urbanism employ an array of commercial products designed for potentially dangerous situations and turn them to whimsical uses. Black rubber surfaced mounds, a blue rubber "wood chip" pond, and bright red safety padded trees are a jarring contrast to the natural environment that surrounds it. This safe zone is at once comforting and playful, somewhat destabilizing, and a little sinister. In the video Stoss principal Chris Reed walks us through the garden but our camera's Memory Stick hit the limit half way through so the video cuts out early, but you get the idea. See more images after the jump.

+ MP4 Quicktime Stream
+ igf_stoss_landscape_urbanism.m4v (11.15Mb video iPod file, right click and "Save link as")

From turntablists to monkey spies, Justin Wood’s illustrations are tight compositions of the way he sees the world.

Kids of all ages dominate the acrylics of Aaron Jasinski. Clubbing, rock’n’roll dreams and consumer electronics make up their days and nights …

Catherine Howe creates soft and serene goddesses of nature who sport a variety of flora and fauna in the tendrils of their coiffes. These portraits impart a sense of strength, yet also one of peacefulness.

Youn Woo Chaa updates wicker weaving by combining a traditional skill of the Tukano Indians with his own form of portraiture.

The intensity of the concert experience is the theme of the Soundtrack to Nothing series of photos by Christy Bush. Teenage fans around the world are depicted in the throes of passion for the music and the moment. SM

More at Art MoCo.

YouTube is mangling our mini video podcasts. When YouTube converts our MPEG4 (m4v) files to Flash it appears to be dropping frames. Or maybe it’s just us. Either way, does anyone know how we could upload these files so that the result doesn’t bite? This problem began when we started making MPEG1 video with a Sony DSC-30 still camera. The MPEG1 drops a few frames when converted to Quicktime (via iSquint ‘cause QT Pro can’t do it). The resulting QT video is good enough for iMovie and when we ‘share’ to iPod m4v it’s still relatively intact. It’s when we convert from m4v to Flash at YouTube that we lose a bunch of frames. Any ideas? We have a copy of ReadyMade, How To Make {Almost} Everything or an iPod Gelaskin for the best answer/solution. Please leave your answer/solution in comments.

L'effet de serres, by architects Bosses design, is a play on words, on the french words for greenhouse effect; it's both literal and figurative. The starting point for this International Garden Festival garden is the ubiquitous greenhouse. The visitor is led through three climates, and the experience becomes more ominous as one progresses through each one of the greenhouses, the first is large and sparse, the last small and packed with greenery. All of which evokes the ever increasing negative effects of greenhouse gases on our climate and planet. The video is narrated by the festival's Artistic Director, Lesley Johnstone. More images after the jump.

+ MP4 Quicktime Stream
+ igf_bosses_design.m4v (15.82Mb video iPod file, right click and "Save link as")
+ See it on youtube.com

+ The 'multi-vendor' Pad modular prefab gets built, see evilcoffee's flickr pics. Via Treehugger.

+ Bosch & Fjord has created an innovative plug and play system that allows organisations to refurnish, move to another site or grow and shrink without difficulty. Especially good for largeco’s that reorg every six months and Web 2.0 dot.coms (I'm not bitter). Via WMMNA.