Alex Reid

More Dr. Suess Dr. Seuss; perhaps the best video about Burningman 2011.

Quadrotor Drones are the hippest machines these days.

French company Parrot has created an augmented reality video game using remote control quadrotor helicopters that you can use your iPhone or iPad to control. They act as mini unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), complete with video camera.

Last month a group of French engineers cum artists got together to illustrate a radically new way of building architecture; using flying robots.

The installation, called “Flight Assembled Architecture”, was conceived and built by teams led by my colleagues Fabio Gramazio & Matthias Kohler as well as Raffaello D’Andrea at the ETH Zurich.

Four remote controlled mini quadrotors landed on ”brick dispensers” (the bricks were actually polystyrene foam) and using “grippers” (three servo-powered pins to puncture and hold the brick), they then plucked one brick up at a time, carried each to the “building site” and began creating a warped tower wall. The software used managed control architecture, collision avoidance and freeway based flight.

The team claims this is the first architectural installation to be built dynamically by flying machines.

Interesting video by Spike & Mike.

There are a lot of important issues in Winnipeg, and for any Mayor, the table is quite broad. I believe the cultural state of a city should always remain in the top ten civic issues because it greatly impacts how other cities see us, reminds younger people why they should stay and ultimately, the arts industry defines the general livability and competitiveness of a city.

Without the arts industry, Winnipeg wouldn’t have the film industry, music industry or literary industry it should hold dear to. The value of a city is measured by its culture.

ArtsVote Winnipeg is a group trying to advance arts and cultural issues during the current civic election in Winnipeg before the vote on October, 27th, 2010.

Specifically there are two priorities in which this group is lobbying for:

Winnipeg needs bold, visionary leadership to implement bold, visionary cultural policy, as well as to include culture as a cornerstone of the broader policy-planning framework. Cities across the world are enacting policies that embrace the “creative community” and Winnipeg must actively support a move towards recognizing the vital role culture can play in reaching our city’s potential.

Increase investment in arts and culture. Though the breadth and quality of Winnipeg¹s arts and cultural activity is a source of civic pride, the arts and cultural community faces many resource-based challenges. Winnipeg needs leaders who recognize the many benefits of a thriving and arts and cultural scene, will listen to the community, and work to address these challenges.

The Arts Vote group will be hosting a Mayoralty Forum on Arts and Culture, on  Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at noon at the Tom Hendry Theatre at the MTC Warehouse. Admission is free, and while candidates will likely promise the world, I suspect someone might try to get the candidate most likely to win to make a promise on the subject.

On a side note, this is a great web site for election information in Winnipeg.