London – Another World

Ep. 43: The Art of Compost Toilets + Green Roofs

Today, art with a bite of environmentalism.

Joey Hays is an artist, an environmentalist, and an expert on all things bathroom. For his show this month at Carnegie Mellon, he’s building a massive compost toilet in the university art gallery. It’s his masters thesis project – tying together Pittsburgh’s massive sewage problem, artistic design, innovations in sustainability, and bathroom humor. Joey talks about the idea for his Gardez-Leau, the research he’s done on toilets, bathroom and sewage, and what he expects the gallery-goers will do.

Bob Bingham teaches art at CMU, and his classes of students work on environmentally-minded projects – including a Green Roof atop the university’s Hamerschlag Hall. Bob’s also worked on the city’s Nine Mile Run Project, in which a slag heap on the outskirts of Pittsburgh was transformed into a residential community, with sustainable living principles at its core. Today he talks about building green roofs, dealing with rejection of his proposals, and starting conversations about new ways of life.

For more on environmental toilets, see the latest from Rose George at the NYTimes.
And for Hamerschlag’s Green Roof, you can see it at CMU’s site.

Ep. 39: Being English in Northern Ireland

Another World Episode 39

Thriteen years ago, Nervys Young came from a village outside of London to Northern Ireland. She intended to stay for a three year degree program and has not left since. Ned talks about how totally naive she was when she first moved here, whether she’s ever considered herself a local, how people react to her accent, and why she hasn’t run for the hills yet.

Belfast Creatives: Part 2

Jared Longlands (for more: smartturkey@hotmail.com)

Julia Atkinson

Paddy McKeown (for more: http://www.myspace.com/patrickmckeown)

Michael MacBroom

Belfast Creatives: Part 1

Sinead Breathnach-Cashell … (for more: http://www.myspace.com/draw_in)

Neil Brogan … (for more: http://caff-flick.com)

Margaret Hagan … (for more: http://penelopebox.etsy.com)

David Timlin … (for more: http://www.creativematch.co.uk/portfolio/david_timlin/ or d_timlin@mac.com)

Stuart Sloan … (for more: http://www.youtube.com/user/sloanowski)

Foreigners Belfast: Part 2

Ep. 29: Caff-Flick Neil

Another World Episode 29

Neil Brogan tells of his professional hobby, running the small record label Caff/Flick out of Belfast. The label (http://caff-flick.com/) is a niche one, releasing vinyl 12″ and 7” records & picture discs of bands from all over Europe + North America, including Mount Eerie, The High Places, No Kids, and Champagne Diamond/The Brilliant Light (from whom some songs feature on this episode).

Neil tells of how he got into the niche in London and expanded it from Belfast — constructing a snowballing virtual world of music, art & business — run via multiple online personas he’s cultivated. He also comments on the lifestyle that comes with running a small label: whether Belfast is (or could be) a decent place for his ambitions, bank account, and sensibilities; if he’ll ever cash himself in for a suit and an office job; and how hipsters can induce sensations of inadequacy and nausea.

Neil also performs (in a weird, self-effacing way, as he puts it). This Sunday the 17th he helps put on ‘Up The Buff’ at the Royal Antedeluvian Order of the Buffaloes club, in the Cathedral Quarter, on Writer’s Square, at. It is free in + goes from 7pm.