Welcome to day 8 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 92 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Following yesterday’s post I had some pretty good responses from friends about the snappy concept of the Not So Obsolete project that I’m now renaming the Floppy Flash!

Skimming today’s news I just couldn’t let go of the idea that everything about today might be a message to modify yesterday’s attempt at a cool crafty way to house my boring flash drive!! How to keep to my new project a day requirement?  Beginning grad school several years ago I wrote an essay after my first theory class extolling the virtue and necessity of PLAY as a means to not only learn but to be refreshed as well. I proposed that through play we find space in our lives to not only be creative, but to re-create things which seem fixed and resolved in the world around us. So today’s project is a yesterday’s project with a more informed twist- an effort not to just make something but show how it is made!

Today’s project is inspired by:

The Varieties of Play Match the Requirements of Human Existence

Today you have the opportunity to make your very own Floppy Flash!!

You will need:

A flash drive that’s easily opened. I used a 4GB Lexar flash.

Black foam core.

Shiny silver, white, and orange paper.

Glue

Set of keys- err.. you really only need one key.

An x-acto knife- useful for cutting materials, opening flash drive, and hollowing out space in foam core.

LET’S GET STARTED!!!

*Just to help you out I suggest looking at the real 3.5 floppy as you do this or pulling up an image of it as a visual aid yo help you as you work.

Step 1:Crack open that Flash Drive! It feels really good to have the sensation of breaking something when you’re really not. That naked little Flash Drive body is pretty amazing…

Step 2: Cut a 3.5 x 3.5 square out of black foam core. I rounded my corners with an x-acto knife and sanded the edges for smoothness. Measure the body of your naked flash drive and let that tell you how far you want to cut into your square for the part of the Floppy Flash that will be hidden under the faux metal part of the disc.

Step 3: This is where you get to use those keys! I started hollowing out a space in the foam core (carefully!) with an x-acto knife and then finish by pressing down some of the hardest to reach foam with a key. This worked great for me and made sure that the path was clear so my flash drive could slip right in. Start with hollowing out the space for the flash in the small cut-away part of the foam core that will house your flash body.

Step 4: Take small plug-in of your flash drive and push it in to larger part before you begin to cut a place for it. This will help you make sure to put the hole in the right spot. Remember to press down the foam with the key before shoving in your flash- you don’t want to get a bunch of foam up in your flash drive!

Step 5: Now for the fun part. Cut and glue on a fake label for your Floppy Flash. Cut and Add the “metal part” at the top and the certifiably real metal circle of the  back of your floppy disc. Yea! It’s looking really swank at this point!! Write something witty on the label part like “Floppy Flash” or ” Not Obsolete”

Step 6: leave it on your desk and wait for the fun to begin.  Someone wanders by and asks

” Whoa- are you still using these?”

At which point you crack that puppy open and show them the relevant data storage inside!!! Blam!!!

Total Time Spent: 2hrs.

Total Cost of Material: $0

Amount of Fun had: 9!

Day 7 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 93 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

FAQ: Are you making work for 100 consecutive days?

A: Yes! 100 days! Back to back!

Today’s news sources are:

From Gizmo Watch:

Alpheus

Today’s idea came to me rather quickly as I skimmed the news. Gizmo Watch posted yet another modification on the flash drive which has been housed in a variety of unlikely ways in the past several months. Following an inspiring lecture by Stephanie Syjuco who incorporated fake 3.5 floppy discs into an art project of hers, I was reminded of how quickly data storage devices become obsolete and I started wondering when the flash drive would bite the dust. There seems to be some irony in housing the flash drive in unusual outfits. It’s almost as though we can’t wait for the next mutation.

…and so without further delay today’s project: Not So Obsolete

Total time spent: 30 min. Gees!!!

Total Material cost: $10

Total fun had: 9!!!

Day 6 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 94 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Today’s news sources are:

From Google News:

Asia Markets Brief
Asia Stocks Fall Apart Despite U.S. Bailout Progress
Vivian Wai-yin Kwok, 09.29.08, 2:02 AM ET

From Boingboing:

Interview With Crafter/Toy Designer Amy Jenkins

Day 5 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 95 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Today’s news sources are:

Barbie: Manufactured by Mattel, designed by evolution V

Company will apply green spraypaint to dead brown lawns of foreclosed homes

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, September 27, 2008 8:55 PM | permalink

and

Top 10 Wired Reader Macro Photos, Decided by You

By Wired.com Photo Department

Today’s readings had me thinking about fecundity: a word which finds it’s roots in the French fécond or Latin fecundus  meaning “fruitful”. In the midst of searching for the line of work I am really after (art professor but I often wonder if a career in design of some sort would not absolutely please me), I am struck by how important it has proven to be to make apparent to others that progress of one form or another is being made; that beyond the university my art career continues to be productive. There is a strong sense in terms

of career that like attracts like: if you are working and making you are offered more chances to work and make things.

In reading about theories as to how men know how best to choose a “productive” mate, how realestate agencies are spraying lawns of foreclosed homes with a green dye so that they continue to seem as though they are flourishing,  I started wondering about the ways in  which people search for confirmation of  some sort in visual signifiers that may or may not be on track with the true attribute that will lead to their satisfaction. In the case of the foreclosed homes a green lawn stands as a cosmetic pleasure to decorate what is by far more important: the actual home a person might choose to live in.

Today’s post comes as an excellent follow up to some of the “surface appeal” that was in yesterday’s article postings.

Let us assume for one minute that the “attractiveness” our eyes have come to enjoy are simply preferences of the occipital lobe and are not grounded in any solid reasoning.Today’s project Fecundity Report is a response to the idea that solid information about a person’s “productive” nature can be easily totaled up from bodily characteristics.

Total amount of time spent: 1hr

Total Materials Cost: $0

Total amount of fun had (scale of 1-10): 6

Day 4 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 96 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Today’s News Sources are:

from Psychology Today (which is becoming a favorite):

McCain-Obama and 10 Rounds to a Draw…Sorta

Day 3 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 97 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Today’s News Sources are:

From Google News:

ISPs: We Swear, We Won’t Watch Your Every Move

By Michele Masterson, ChannelWeb
12:41 PM EDT Fri. Sep. 26, 2008

and

from BoingBoing:

Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will put us in a huge, Orwellian database: the rest of Britain will be next

Day 2 of the 100 Days in the news project. For 98 more days I will be pulling news stories from my Google reader and making artwork about it!

Today’s News Sources are:

From Psychology Today:

Rewards are Better than Punishment: Here’s Why

and

From the LA Times

Lawmakers reach agreement on bailout framework

By Peter G. Gosselin, Richard Simon and Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
10:51 AM PDT, September 25, 2008

As I skimmed through my Google news reader today it was impossible to ignore the mess in the financial world. I spent most of the morning trying to think of some prank that involved mailing a fake cake to Capitol Hill but ultimately didn’t want to pay for postage and thought it was a one liner sort of joke:

“Here’s a cake!”

“That’s not really a cake!”

Okay maybe it was two lines. I was wrapped up in annoyance that the very government that will hold me to my student loans is cranking up a millions of dollar style get out of jail free card for banks that are supposed to know how to handle money.  Fortunately a Psychology Today posting changed my mind:

Why not try a positive approach?

and so today I give you: Wall Street Cheer Gear

* Pom Poms made from shredded Wall Street Journal

* Hand sewn spirit jacket

* enthusiastic Wall Street Cheerleader

“LET’S GO FINANCE!”

Total cost of materials: $6.50

Total time spent: 5 hours

Amount of fun had (scale of 1-10): 7

Today’s inspirations were:

The Power of Negative Thinking

and

Keepin’ it real fake, part L: The “Ipod style Mobile Phone iPhone”

by Conrad Quilty-Harper, posted Mar 18th 2007 at 7:12AM

My day started with a meeting during which a friend and I talked about our obsessions with iPhones- they cost a bit too much for us, one brand dominates the market, and well, we want them anyway. I started thinking that I needed to come to terms with the fact that perhaps in the next few months I would not be getting a high paying job, would not be getting an iPhone, and would still be lugging around my laptop so I could catch that one e-mail I was waiting for.

What to do? Well for one the situation is not so terrible. I have a phone that has a truck load of sentimental value, not to mention that it flips open in a fancy way. Also, it’s good to remember that it can be a relief to be unreachable. I replay to myself an experience this summer when a friend’s boss e-mailed him an angry note in the middle of a camping trip effectively reining in the good times being had.

I’ve realized it’s not so much the “having” of the iPhone that’s driving me nuts, but the fact that it seems like an extremely handy tool that many in my social circle see as the ultimate authority in problem solving when it comes to directions, weather, looking up words, and on and on.  Just once or twice I want to find the word in the dictionary faster than on wikipedia- I want to make it outside and get hit by rain drops before my friends can look up the local weather conditions.

How to even the score??  With the use of Today’s 100 DAYS IN THE NEWS project. The very first in a series of 100 projects based on my responses to news items in my Google reader!

I’ve decided to level the playing field with my very own hand crafted iPHONE VOODOO!!!

The next time a friend pulls out the iPhone, I plan to whip out my little evil equalizer and stall that high-tech gadget with some electronic soul-poking.

“Why isn’t my iPhone working?”

“Hmmm…wow. I don’t know…sure is strange!!! Oh Look! We can just use this paper map to find our way!!”

Total construction costs: $20.00

Total time in construction:3hrs.

Amount of fun had (scale of 1-10): 7

I’m pausing in my whole mobility saga to draw attention to LA based C-level; an artist conglomeration that describes itself as boasting members who range from artists (typical?) writers, and programmers to “reverse-engineers.  Coming from a small town I was impressed with their virtual reality cock-fighting, but the site as a whole is worth a look-see. Nice website design, and they seem to teach classes, hold workshops, and screen films. Oh to live in LA and be able to get to these things!!!

Someone go for me and report back…

In looking at people who participate in mobility out of necessity in the work place I find and extreme example in street vendors. Their work requires daily, weekly, and monthly shifts in where and how they conduct business, and changes in work settings are often unforeseeable and uncontrollable.

LOOKING AT STREET VENDORS

In countries around the world many people supplement or solely earn their income through selling a wide range of goods and services in the street or in other temporary settings. While in some countries regulations have forced vendors of most sorts out of the public eye, in many places vendors are thriving and providing a sensitive selection of goods to middle and lower class customers.

Around the world, a large and, perhaps, growing share of the informal workforce operates on streets, sidewalks, and public parks, outside any enclosed premise or covered workspace. This includes not only those street vendors who sell goods but also a broader range of street workers who sell services and produce or repair goods, such as: hairdressers or barbers; shoe shiners and shoe repairers; car window cleaners; tailors specializing in mending; bicycle, motorcycle, van, and truck mechanics; furniture makers; metal workers; garbage pickers and waste recyclers; head loaders and cart pullers; wandering minstrels, magicians, acrobats, and jugglers; beggars and mendicants. In Kenya, the Swahili term «Jua Kali» – which means «under the burning sun» – is the traditional name for the informal economy. This is because so many informal activities, not just street trade, take place in the open-air under the burning sun.(1)

In most countries except those where culture restricts women’s lives, women make up a large portion and play equal roles in the street vendor population. The exception is in Africa, where women though present in the informal markets, are more likely to be in high risk or unpleasant locations or situation that are either illegal, environmentally undesirable, depend on the sale of perishable goods, or working as employees under other vendors.

I borrow this excellent description of Street Vendors is borrowed from John C. Cross’s writings concerning informal politics:

Typology of Street Vendors

Street vendors are not a homogeneous group. They can be categorized or grouped according
to e.g. what types of goods they sell, where they trade, and from what type of premise as well as
by their employment status, as indicated below. Also, for some street vending is full-time primary
work; for others it is a part-time secondary job.

Types of Goods: What do They Sell?
Foodstuffs: fruit and vegetables Cigarettes and matches
Cooked food Newspapers and magazines
Snacks and soft drinks Manufactured goods
Candies and sweets Second-hand goods
Ice cream and popsicles

Location of Work: Where Do They Trade?
System of open-air markets in designated Railway stations, subway stations,
areas on designated days bus stops/lorry stations
Concentrations of vendors in particular areas: Construction sites
central business district or residential Sports complexes
neighborhoods Home
Street corners or sidewalks

Type of Premise: From What Do They Vend?
Baskets or bowls placed on the ground Bicycle
or carried on the head or body Wheeled push-carts
Mats or cloths spread on the ground Wheeled stalls with display cases
Stool or table Porch-front or window display
Pole over shoulder Fixed shed, stall, or kiosk

Employment Status: Are They Independent or Dependent?
Independent self-employed: with and Semi-dependent workers:
without employees e.g. commission agents
Dependent employees: paid workers for other
street vendors or for wholesale/retail traders

The Issues street vendors deal with are relatively uniform. In 1995, representatives from street vendor associations and activists, lawyers, and researchers working with street vendors from 11 cities around the world met at the Bellagio International Declaration of Street Vendors in Bellagio, Italy to form an international alliance (now called StreetNet) of street vendor associations and of organizations working with street vendors. The founders of the network drafted the Bellagio International Declaration of Street Vendors. The Bellagio Declaration identifies the following common problems of street vendors around the world:

• No Legal Status, No Right to Vend
• Lack of Space or Poor Location
• Restrictions on Licensing, Costs of Regulation
• Harassment, Bribes, Confiscation, and Evictions
• Lack of Services and Infrastructure
• Lack of Representation or Voice

The Declaration urged national governments to incorporate street vendors in economic policies relating to trade, financial policies relating to micro-entrepreneurs, and social policies relating to the working poor. The Declaration also urges city governments to incorporate street vendors in urban planning processes and urban policies and to promote institutional mechanisms for street vendor associations to voice grievances, make demands, and resolve disputes with other urban stakeholders.(2)

While caught up in fulgurations of government and market, it is interesting to note that there is a sort of equilibrium to be established within the shifting space and market street vendors occupy. Street vendors reside within a pattern of what I think of as “small world migration”- a phrase I’ve concocted to describe that significant travel and exposure to physical and sensory relocation is taking place, but to express that this form of mobility is also reined within a more limited distance than some of the other workplace mobility I will explore. It is certainly not the most static of work place mobility, as I will explore displacement and mobility in intimate and closed spaces in a post to come.

1. John C. Cross, Informal Politics: Street Vendors and the State in Mexico City, Stanford, California, Stanford University Press.1973

2.
Source: Bellagio International Declaration of Street Vendorsdrafted by founding members from 11 countries of the inter- national alliance of street vendors, StreetNet, at a meeting in Bellagio, Italy, 1995.