Why are there 12 hexagonal planters containing citrus trees in front of the La Jolla Historical Society‘s Wisteria Cottage? That’s what I wondered when I paid a visit to the society’s museum yesterday, to view their new exhibition about the history of surfing in La Jolla. (I’ll be blogging about that shortly.)
It turns out the dozen redwood planters with citrus trees is a 2024 project titled Exterior Orchard, A Conversation with Survival Piece V. The uniquely designed orchard examines the necessity of ecologically focused and sustainable food systems in a future where farming practices may become obsolete.
The installation was inspired by the La Jolla Historical Society’s recent exhibition Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work. The Harrisons, founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, were visionary thinkers and designers who developed fascinating Ecological Art. They created plans for a Portable Orchard such as this in 1972.
The hexagonal redwood planters were built by students from High Tech High Mesa. The trees and planters, I was told, can be adopted. Funds raised will help support the La Jolla Historical Society’s work.
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In the past few days, I’ve spotted autonomous Waymo cars navigating streets in San Diego. Bankers Hill is where I saw two of the cars, to be exact. Both had drivers behind the steering wheel. I had my camera at the ready this afternoon to capture the above photo. Yes, there is a driver in there.
Waymo is the company that has those driverless autonomous taxis operating up in San Francisco. You hail them with your phone and input the destination.
Here in San Diego, and other test cities, Waymo cars are being driven through certain neighborhoods in order to gather data, refine maps, and learn about the peculiarities of different places. Here’s an article that thoroughly describes the Waymo tests in San Diego. They began very recently.
I can see how many people are wary of driverless cars. The concept is revolutionary and still pretty new. One hears of glitches.
I suppose, however, that at some point in the future, driverless cars will be ubiquitous in every city around the world and taken for granted, just as other groundbreaking technologies eventually become the norm. I grew up with a rotary dial telephone . . . and an astounding invention: the electronic push button calculator!
We live in exciting, uncertain times when technology is taking gigantic leaps forward. Artificial intelligence, chips in heads, advancing robotics, virtual reality worlds… Where will all of this take us? How will this change us?
I wonder. Will the automation of practically everything make life more fulfilling?
I guess humanity will take the journey and find out…
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The exhibition is described as a retrospective about the work of husband-and-wife team of Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison, who were among the earliest and most notable ecological artists. Founding members of the Visual Arts Department at UC San Diego, Helen and Newton were local San Diego artists for nearly four decades, where they developed their pioneering concepts of Ecological Art.
Would I see paintings? What exactly was this ecological art?
What I discovered was unexpected and thoroughly thought-provoking!
The walls of the La Jolla Historical Society’s museum–the Wisteria Cottage–were covered primarily with technical drawings, maps and designs that conveyed innovative environmental ideas the couple developed over many years of working together.
If you love invention and human creativity, you’ll want to view this exhibition. You’ll see how human genius can create previously unthought-of technology that can benefit both people and the planet. You’ll observe how our understanding of nature and the ecosystems we all live in might conceivably be improved.
There were dozens of surprising ideas. I saw a proposal to create flood-reducing canals around downtown San Diego, practical Survival Pieces intended to create self-sustaining ecosystems (including a portable fish farm), and even a huge, Earth-orbiting sky mirror!
The Harrisons’ work is so expansive and full of variety that it’s hard to describe it all. So you’d better check it out yourself!
Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work is actually a multi-museum exhibition in San Diego County. The La Jolla Historical Society’s part of this exhibition is sub-titled Urban Ecologies, and traces the Harrisons’ collaborative practice during the late 1960s-1990s.
Additional parts of this exhibition can be viewed at the California Center for the Arts Escondido, and at the San Diego Public Library Gallery. Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work continues at all three locations through January 19, 2025.
If that’s not enough, this exhibition is part of a much larger Southern California event now underway: the Getty’s 70+ institution PST: Art and Science Collide!
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An important presentation was made this evening in San Diego’s Balboa Park. A thoughtful audience, assembled inside the World Design Capital’s Exchange Pavilion, learned how the organization Tijuana Access is working to make Tijuana and Mexico more accessible for the disabled.
Eduardo Lopez Ruiz explained how Tijuana Access is raising awareness and lobbying for greater accessibility south of the border. He explained that our neighbors to the south are a bit behind the United States when it comes to making buildings, streets and city facilities more friendly for those who have difficulty functioning in a world full of potential obstacles.
Working to make our world more accessible, Eduardo affirmed, is a matter of compassion. Not only are a significant number of people born with or develop a disability, but most of us become elderly–right?
There are all sorts of ways to make a city more accessible. Automatic doors, ramps, lifts, slip resistant materials and tactile paving can be adapted to enhance mobility. Handrails, rest furniture, properly placed buttons and switches, Braille printing and other changes can make life much easier and safer for many.
The presentation was mostly in Spanish with an interpreter helping us English speakers. I asked how I could link to Tijuana Access with my blog, because readers might like to help in some way. The Tijuana Access Instagram page is here. Their Facebook page is here.
To my readers in Mexico, perhaps this is a cause you’d like to support. Or simply spread the word to help to raise awareness!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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Various works belonging to the San Diego Civic Art Collection can be experienced by visitors to the Rancho Bernardo Library. I took photos of three prominent examples a couple weekends ago.
The first work is titled Ampersand. Matt Rich, Assistant Professor of Art at the University of San Diego, created the eye-catching acrylic on canvas in 2018. It hangs on a wall above the library’s main stacks.
This particular painting is part of a series of works that riffs on the symbol of the ampersand. The ampersand holds, both symbolically and formally, the ability to represent the idea of connection.
Connection perfectly describes any library. Shelves connect readers with unexplored worlds.
The next artwork I observed in the library hangs high on a wall roughly opposite the front desk. It’s titled Salta pa’ lante (Jump Forward), by artist Alida Cervantes. The dynamic art was created in 2020. A pair of aluminum panels come alive with acrylic spray paint and oil.
Alida Cervantes is a Mexican artist who lives and works in the Tijuana and San Diego border region. Traveling daily between the US and Mexico, Cervantes’ work is characterized by an interest in power relations between race, class, gender and even species.
This diptych…is part of the artist’s exploration into the Mexican casta (caste) paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries…Cervantes presents two figures that are the offspring of individuals not only from two different races but also from two different times in history: the present and the colonial…
Finally, here’s a piece titled Primary Waveform (half circle), by artist Kelsey Brookes. The optically mysterious acrylic on wood was created in 2018. You can find it up on the second floor of the Rancho Bernardo Library, at the top of the stairs.
Kelsey Brookes is a research scientist turned artist. His paintings experiment with pop, abstract, and traditional styles while exploring scientific subject matter, including molecules, atoms, and modern biochemistry...
This sculpture is one of a series of works inspired by the Fibonacci sequence and waveforms...
From a distance the painted wood almost appears like basketwork, but give it a closer look. What are those tiny figures? Is that a reflection you see, or a complete circle that curves beyond your reach?
Stand near Primary Waveform (half circle), then gaze across the library for a commanding view of those first two works of art!
Additional works in the San Diego Civic Art Collection can be found at the library’s glass wall and gate entrance, exterior courtyard, and in the library’s study rooms.
Why not visit the Rancho Bernardo Library and see it all for yourself?
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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San Diego artist James E. Watts will be hosting an art show inside his downtown studio this coming Sunday, September 22, 2024. Visitors will have the opportunity to be transported by his wonderful Portal to Heaven!
I swung by his studio this morning and was able to sneak a look at his completed Portal to Heaven project myself.
An astonishing wall appears like a puzzle piece sky full of clouds. Each of the 105 hand sewn clouds, he explains, gather and radiate orgone life energy like a battery! Stand at the heavenly portal and feel its energy!
I blogged about this ambitious project last December. You can read more about it here.
After James showed me the amazing Portal to Heaven, I turned about and saw how he’s creating bunches of apples. They’re in groups of five. He calls them all together the Gates of Hell!
The apples are of different sizes, just as sins are. Would you take a bite of these apples? Perhaps a little one?
James Watts’ studio never ceases to amaze me. Creativity fills it wall to wall, and every time I visit it seems there’s a new, fantastic project.
James loves ideas, theories, philosophy, literature . . . different ways of seeing this world. With his art he inspires, teaches. He explained during our talk today that he’s a teacher without a classroom.
You’ll note he also has a big smile.
Next he showed me what he called a sense board. This particular work of art, which is titled Six Senses, actively interacts with a person using sound, smell, touch, taste, sight and intuition! Should you attend his art show next Sunday, perhaps you can try it out!
Interested, yet?
James E. Watts will host the 100 Clouds 100 Apples art show this coming Sunday, from 12 to 8 pm. His studio is located in the heart of downtown at 1046 Seventh Avenue.
Lovers of art just might find heaven!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The fantastic Exchange Pavilion has been completed in Balboa Park, and it is fulfilling its purpose: bringing people (and hopefully their ideas) together!
This open, geometric structure was erected in the Plaza de Panama because San Diego/Tijuana has been designated World Design Capital 2024. Various activations have taken form in San Diego during the yearlong international event, including the Bay to Park Paseo, but the landmark Exchange Pavilion appears to be at center stage!
Sunlight makes its curving, translucent orange skin glow, and colorful seats (that remind me of building blocks) entice Balboa Park visitors to relax in the shade. Electronic messages in English and Spanish scroll along the edges of the structure, but the people I saw seemed more interested in talking to one another or peering at their phones.
The Exchange Pavilion, as I understand it, officially opens tomorrow, so perhaps there will be more signage or elements added to inform the curious public. I’ve read that the pavilion will remain in San Diego until this fall, when it will be moved to neighboring Tijuana, Mexico.
UPDATE!
A few days later, I noticed this…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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A large steel structure is now being erected near the center of San Diego’s beautiful Balboa Park! It’s the Exchange Pavilion, another initiative of World Design Capital 2024!
San Diego/Tijuana won the coveted title of World Design Capital for 2024. There have been many activities and activations related to this international honor, and the Exchange Pavilion is the newest of these.
The lightweight skeletal structure evident in my photographs is being built in the Plaza de Panama, in front of the San Diego Museum of Art. The pavilion is designed to bring people together, along with their diverse ideas and experiences. Interconnectedness and collaboration are appropriate themes for the first ever binational World Design Capital designation.
The Exchange Pavilion, when completed, will feature interactive digital displays, special lighting, and a space for lectures, performances, workshops and more. It was designed by HELEO in collaboration with Tijuana, Mexico based visual artist Daniel Ruanova.
This very unique installation will remain in Balboa Park all summer long. It will then be relocated to Tijuana in the fall. I was told it will be completed and will open this Saturday, August 10!
I suppose I’ll have to swing by this weekend to check it out!
UPDATE!
I walked through the Plaza de Panama on Friday afternoon and saw that construction of the pavilion is still underway. The narrow digital displays appear to be functioning.
I was told by someone at the site that the Exchange Pavilion will now open on Wednesday!
ANOTHER UPDATE!
I walked by again on Sunday. I learned the pavilion will now open next Saturday 17, 2024.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
A pleasant day in Balboa Park, sitting, walking, daydreaming. Sudden inspiration.
That’s how certain stories were born in my mind before taking life on paper.
As a writer of short fiction, I occasionally share some of these stories. If you’re a reader, you might enjoy clicking the following links:
The Highest Seat was inspired by my friend Mitchell who plays didgeridoo in Balboa Park. He once worked in the planetarium at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center.
I hope somebody recorded them–those words spoken today by First Sergeant, US Army, Brian Bennett. They were eloquent. They were true.
After eating a hot dog in the San Diego sunshine, I sat listening to Brian’s speech during the Memorial Day event at Balboa Park’s International Cottages. He was the first of five distinguished speakers. They had served in the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force or Coast Guard. All of the speakers were excellent.
Brian is a teacher at Mount Miguel High School. He confessed that he began to prepare his speech the way many of his students do their homework–by using AI. We in the audience laughed.
Brian, however, found that AI’s predictable answer about the meaning of Memorial Day wasn’t quite right. True–the holiday is about duty, dedication, courage and ultimate sacrifice—but the computed answer wasn’t complete.
A true understanding of Memorial Day, explained Brian, involves long years of service and often difficult experience. It’s only then that one can fully understand the great and meaningful sacrifice made by those who’ve fallen in service to their country. Ideals easily spoken of become real.
Ultimately, he explained, Memorial Day is about love.
Love for those in your life who are precious. Love for a country whose founding documents grant us a life of freedom. And love for those who’ve come before, sacrificing so that we may live this life.
Yes, I thought, a life where people from all walks can freely gather together and speak or listen to powerful words without fear.
I hope my few, poor words did Brian’s great speech justice.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Cool San Diego Sights! 