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Posts Tagged ‘Barrier’

The Walled-Off Hotel: Banksy-Designed Rooms Overlook West Bank Barrier

07 Mar

[ By SA Rogers in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

The Walled Off Hotel Banksy

Contemplate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as you take in “the worst view in the world,” ensconced in Banksy visuals in your room at The Walled-Off Hotel. Yes, this ‘art hotel’ is real, with fully functioning ensuite facilities and car parking, designed and financed by the elusive England-based graffiti artist and operated by the local community, and anyone can book one of its nine rooms overlooking the West Bank barrier. Banksy painted the rooms (and commissioned other artists, like Sami Musa and Dominique Petrin) and outfitted the hotel in dystopian decor, like security cameras mounted on a wall in the style of taxidermy trophy heads.

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Banksy is well-known for painting right on the barrier itself, including a recent work depicting a girl being pulled by red balloons, and last year he painted four street murals in Gaza. Guests who stay at the hotel will get “privileged out of hours access to Wall*Mart next door,” a graffiti supply shop, so they can make their own mark.

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And if you think you’re going to get away with booking a room and sawing Banksy’s work right off the wall to make a buck, expect to pay for it: the hotel takes a hefty deposit for the duration of your stay to safeguard against theft, and inspects rooms before guests leave, warning that anyone found attempting to steal or deface hotel property will be arrested and prosecuted.

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The hotel will open to guests on March 11th, with rooms starting at just $ 30 per night. Accommodations range from ultra-budget-friendly bunk rooms to a ‘presidential suite’ complete with a cheesy faux rock hot tub. An adjacent gallery, open to the public, offers a collection of works from notable Palestinian artists from the last 20 years, and a ‘homemade museum’ offers a biography of the wall.

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On the choice of location, Banksy says, “This place is the center of the universe – every time God comes to earth it seems to happen near here. The architecture and landscape are stunning, the food delicious and the current situation remarkable and touching. This is a place of immense spiritual and political significance – and very good falafel.”

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[ By SA Rogers in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Posted in Creativity

 

Paradise Found: Spend a Night Floating Above the Great Barrier Reef

05 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Better hope your kids remain firmly tucked into their Finding Dory-themed beds all night long lest they get a little too enthusiastic about leaning over the edge of this wall-free AirBNB floating over Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The vacation rental company is offering one lucky family of four two free nights aboard their 2-bedroom, 1-bath open platform, with a beautiful white-curtained master suite on one end and the kids’ room tucked behind it.

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The platform itself is pretty cool, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and pleasant temperatures of the area, not to mention the world-class snorkeling and scuba diving. If you want to win, you’ll have to submit an essay on why your family deserves to stay at the temporary rental, and your answer better “surprise and delight” the folks at AirBNB. The winner will be selected on July 4th.

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“Imagine living atop a coral garden beside a sand cay in a billowing reef home on the Great Barrier Reef,” says AirBNB on the promo page for the contest. “You feel the pull of the unknown when you peek over the edge of the coral shelf and take in your neighborhood – home to 600 types of soft and hard corals, 100 species of jellyfish, 3,000 varieties of molluscs, 500 species of worms, 1,625 types of fish, 133 varieties of sharks and rays, and more than 30 species of whales and dolphins. And somewhere, beneath you, is the most famous Blue Tang in the world.” [The latter refers to the type of fish featured in ‘Finding Dory.]

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Unsurprisingly, the contest is a collaboration between AirBNB and Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory, the animated film that’s likely set to wipe out the species of fish it highlights just as it did with clownfish back in 2003. In the years since ‘Finding Nemo’ came out, more than 10 million clownfish were removed from reefs for home aquariums, causing them to go locally extinct in places like Thailand. At least viewing tropical fish in their natural habitat at the Great Barrier Reef leaves them where they belong. Just don’t go throwing any trash overboard, please, kids.

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[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Table for Two: Window as Bridge & Barrier Between Shared Seat

22 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

table public art piece

Putting you in the spotlight with a stranger, this installation in New York City is a perhaps-paradoxical commentary on both connection and isolation in urban environments.

table for two project

Located at 7th Avenue and Carmine Street in Manhattan, Table for Two by Parisian native Shani Ha was designed to separate the participants with a window, yet by its placement and proximity makes simultaneously for intimately-shared moments.

table glass nyc art

Vicky Gan describes it as “part sculpture, part performance art, it challenges those who sit down to look up from their smartphones and into the eyes of a friend, a stranger, or their own reflections in the glass. A self-conscious homage to Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, the work realizes the age-old concept of the big, crowded city as a lonely, isolating place.”

table for two corner art

Like any good piece of interactive art, the stories about its usage are what show it works – deaf people communicating in sign language across the glass in one case or a couple talking to each other (like in prison) on phones in another.

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Technology, claims the artist, is responsible “making us more self-centered because [it gives] us the power to access only the people we decide to access,” whereas the intention in this piece is “to break the bridge between the outside and the inside, and allow a new form of interaction between people.”

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PocketWizard Plus X Remotes Break the $100 Barrier

01 Mar

This is what I have wanted from PocketWizard for a long time: a sub-$ 100 remote.

Basically, the new Plus X transceiver has everything you really need—and nothing you don't. Full details below.

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Posted in Photography

 

Man With a Camera – Another Barrier

04 Nov

International superstar and iconic tough guy Charles Bronson stars in this gritty, action-packed TV series. Bronson portrays Mike Kovac, a New York City freelance photographer who specializes in getting difficult shots other lensmen cannot. Assisting law enforcement and insurance agencies, he invariable winds up acting as a private eye and gets himself into plenty of trouble!
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Posted in Photography Videos