Cities in Java have many obstacles to walking. Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, is no exception: Footpaths are difficult to find, non-existent, or in disrepair. Traffic is ruthless. Maps are inaccurate. The weather is oppressively hot. Despite this situation, jalan-jalan (walking without a specified aim) is still the best way to explore the city and […]

Jakarta can feel oppressive for residents and visitors. If you’ve heard stories about the traffic, the reality is much worse. As in any city though, there are many people doing good things. Journalists Fergus Jensen and Rebecca Henshcke have been living in Jakarta for around 15 years. For the last nine of those they have […]

I picked up this book at Gleebooks, which still brings together a great curated collection at the edges of academic and general audience publications. It caught my eye because of some writing I am doing with Dr Kirsten Seale about typography and urban renewal. Tinkering has had a renewed interest in the past few decades […]

  I was recently in Hobart with a team from Frontyard for the Hobiennale. Hosted by Kickstart Arts, we spent four days making a book based on conversations emerging from our online image archive. We also did our best to get to know the site, St John’s Park. Across the road from our makeshift publishing […]

This post is not exactly about reading books, although books are present, but about reading an installation and a major art event through the lens of permaculture. The photo above is from the project Unpacking My Library at the 57th Venice Biennale. Inspired by Walter Benjiamin’s 1931 essay, this project allowed all participating artists (including dead […]

With a few recommendations, we went to the Sydney French Film Festival to see Tomorrow, a 2015 documentary by Melanie Laurent and Cyril Dion. The film presents five chapters, each telling a local activist story that addresses the global challenges of Agricultue, Energy, Economy, Democracy, and Education. Predictably, the agriculture chapter was most interesting to […]