At the beginning of the 20th Century, the city of Detroit developed rapidly thanks to the automobile industry.

Until the 50′s, its population rose to almost 2 million people.
Detroit was the 4th most important city in the United States.

It was the dazzling symbol of the American Dream City with its monumental skyscrapers and fancy neighborhoods.

Increasing segregation and deindustrialization caused violent riots in 1967.
The white middle-class exodus from the city accelerated and the suburbs grew.
Firms and factories began to close or move to lower-wage states.
Slowly, but inexorably downtown high-rise buildings emptied.

Since the 50′s, “Motor City” lost more than half of its population.

Nowadays, its splendid decaying monuments are, no less than the Pyramids of Egypt, the Coliseum of Rome, or the Acropolis in Athens, remnants of the passing of a great civilization.

The recession has really hit Detroit its $325 million deficit doesn’t help either, these haunting pictures by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre show a world or urban decay, monuments of civic pride are just left to rot. At a conference in March 2010, the City Mayor Dave Bing announced  a detailed plan of destruction rather than an urban regeneration project. 3000 homes are die to be leveled in 2010. 7000 more by the end of his term in 2014.

Detroits’ new vision for the future is that for the first time in American history it will be radically shrunk.

You can see Guillaume doing a base jump into Dean’s Blue Hole. They say it’s a fictional and artistic project, they wanted to show another approach to freediving videos. Even Julie, who filmed everything with the amazing Canon 5D Mark II, hold her breath the whole time.

Invited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art to create a site-specific installation
for the iris and b. gerald cantor roof garden, the twin brothers Mike and Doug Starn
(born in New Jersey in 1961) present their new work, ‘big bambú: you can’t, you don’t,
and you won’t stop’.

The monumental bamboo structure, ultimately measuring 100 feet long, 50 feet wide,
and 50 feet high, takes the form of a cresting wave that bridges the realms of sculpture,
architecture, and performance. ‘big bambú’ is a growing and changing installation,―a vast
network of 5,000 interlocking 30- and 40-foot-long fresh-cut bamboo poles, lashed
together with 50 miles of nylon rope. it will continue to be constructed throughout
the duration of the exhibition. the first phase of the structure―measuring about 100 feet
long, 50 feet wide, and 30 feet high―was completed by opening day, April 27.

What a beauty..

Many people in the world seem to be at war with each other. We see families split through disagreements, gang warfare on the streets, politicians arguing, whole civilisations and religions constantly battling. This device aims to help those who are at odds with each other make a first move toward reconciliation. The Pre-Handshake Handshake Device is currently on display at the Uncomfortable Conversations exhibition in New York please visit and use if you need to make up with someone.

Check it out here

I am not an artist

facadeprinter.org – three stones from Facadeprinter on Vimeo.

Horizont from Stas Chepurnov on Vimeo.