This summer Stroom organizes an exposition as part of a two year curriculum titled Foodprint in order to study the relation between food and the city. If you understand Dutch you can read more at Stroom’s blog Foodprint and here is their Dutch blog’s summary of the exhibition. The exhibition will run until August 23, 2009.
At the exhibition Joep, who recently sold some work – including his version of a pod hotel – to Brat Pitt at Art Basel, has reversed the “normal” slaughterhouse where pigs are slaughtered to feed the humans. He installed a slaughterhouse where humans are slaughtered to feed the pigs. A mirror for the pork eaters among us.
The photo is by Eveline van Egdom. I will certainly visit it to make some photos myself.
Two Dutch University Teams have unveiled their new solar cars for the 2009 Australian World Solar Challenge (the 10th Challenge).
The WSC runs over 3,000 km from Darwin in North Australia to Adelaide in South Australia. The start will be on October 25, 2009.
Nuon Solar Team of TU Delft
The Nuon Solar Team consisting of 14 undergraduates from TU (Technical University) Delft, led by coach Wubbo Ockels, the only Dutch Astronaut, here left on the photo, have unveiled their entry for the unofficial world championship for solar cars. Nuna5 is ready for the team’s 5th title!
As the Nuon Solar Team has won 4 prior editions, their competitors will be putting every effort in beating them in this challenge. At first glance it seems that the Nuna5 is a further development of proven technology as could be found in its predecessor Nuna4
Twente University Solar Car Team
Twente University Solar Car Team Solar Team Twente will probably be one of the closest competitors of the Nuon Solar Car Team. Here is a video animation of it’s 2009 solar car:
They have refined two innovations of their former model: The cantilever wing design that enables them to turn the wing with solar cells to the sun and the Fresnel lenses to get more sun rays on the solar cells.
Some WSC History
To me it seems very odd that the “Official WSC Site” gives hardly any information about the 2009 edition.
The event evolved from an experiment by Danish-born adventurer Hans Tholstrup who, sponsored by BP, designed the world’s first solar car, called Quiet Achiever, in which he completed the BP Solar Trek, traversing the 4052 km (2,518 miles) between Sydney and Perth in 20 days. That was the precursor of the World Solar Challenge originally held every three years to one held every two years.
After the 4th race Hans Tholstrup sold the rights to the state of South Australia (source World Solar Challenge Wiki).
Results from the former editions:
1987
1st Place General Motors “Sunraycer” (USA) average speed 66.9 Km/h
2nd Place Ford Australia “Sunchaser” (AUS) average speed 44.48 Km/h
3rd Place Biel College of Engineering (CH) average speed 42.93 Km/h
1990
1st Place Biel College of Engineering (CH) average speed 65.18 Km/h
2nd Place Honda “Dream” (Japan) average speed 54.67 Km/h
3rd Place University of Michigan (USA) average Speed 52.53 Km/h
1993
1st Place Honda “Dream” (Japan) average Speed 84.96 Km/h
2nd Place Biel College of Engineering (CH) average speed 78.27 Km/h
3rd Place Kyocera “Son of Sun” (Japan) average speed 70.76 Km/h
1996
1st Place Honda “Dream II” (Japan) average speed 89.76 Km/h
2nd Place United High Schools of Biel (CH) average speed 86 Km/h
3rd Place Aisin Seiki “Aisol III” average speed 80.7 Km/h
1999
1st Place Aurora “Aurora 101” (AUS) average speed 72.96 Km/h
2nd Place Queens university “Radiance” (CAN) average speed 72.17 Km/h
3rd Place University of Queensland “Sunshark” (AUS) average speed 71.68 Km/h
2001
1st Place Nuna “Alpha Centauri” (NL) average speed 91.81 Km/h
2nd Place Aurora “Aurora 101” (AUS) average speed 90.26 Km/h
3rd Place University of Michigan (USA) average speed average speed 87.37 Km/h
2003
1st Place Nuon “Nuna II” (NL) average speed 97.02 Km/h
2nd Place Aurora “Aurora 101” (AUS) average speed 91.90 Km/h
3rd Place MIT “Tesseract” (USA) average speed 90.20 Km/h
2005
1st Place Nuon “Nuna III” (NL) average speed 102.75 Km/h
2nd Place Aurora “Aurora 101” (AUS) average speed 92.03 Km/h
3rd Place University of Michigan “Momentum” (USA) average speed 90.03 Km/h
2007 (NB lower average speeds due to 25% smaller solar panels)
1st Place Nuon “Nuna 4” (NL) average speed 90.87 Km/h
2nd Place Umicore “Umicar Infinity” (Belgium) average speed 88.05 Km/h
3rd Place Aurora “Aurora 101” (Australia) average speed 85 Km/h
A New Name: Global Green Challenge:
Ah….It turns out there is a new site and a new name on the block which gives much more information: The Global Green Challenge. Apparently the event has evolved. This is the new logo:
I believe that all parties involved have a task in bettering their communication. Teams involved communicate in their local languages and there are many loose ends.
On Tuesday June 9, 2009 I was present at the official opening of the 2009 The Hague Sculpture exposition by the Prime Minister of The Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende.
First there was a opening session in one of the oldest churches of The Hague, The “Kloosterkerk” (or church of the convent). The CEO of The Hague Sculpture , The Mexican Ambassador in The Hague, a trustee of The Hague Sculpture and some other persons held speeches. The Prime Minister got the first brochure of the exposition. Thereafter the company moved outside where the sculptures of Javier Marin were installed, for the official opening ceremony.
There the company stopped at the sculpture from which I took the above photo on beforehand. In a sequence of my photo’s there was an exchange between the CEO and Xavier Marin. I have made a small “video” of this exchange, because there are too many photo’s to present them all here on the blog. Look for yourself:
Picasa Video
I’m not so much a video person. It takes far too much time for me. But this little video (without sound) I could produce reasonably quick with Picasa 3, the free Google photo (management) program. Picasa is also very good for organizing many photo’s…I have approximately 20,000 and counting on my computer, deep sigh.
The Ceremony
Then there was the opening ceremony itself: The freeing of a bundle of balloons that, of course, partially got hung in the branches of the trees over the sculptures. How dumb!
Storytlr
I have experimented in telling this little story via Twitter by uploading some of the pictures to Twitpic and then putting them together in Storytlr: [ Update: Originally there was a working link here, but unfortunately the Storytlr service has discontinued since March, 2010]
Unfortunately the thumbnails of Storytlr are a bit too unsharpened to make it a nice looking story. I don’t have a mobile telephone with a camera ( I prefer better quality photo’s of ordinary cameras, but it won’t be long and then the mobiles can compete with ordinary cameras), but it is clear to me that Storytlr is a nice app to spread a life stream story.
In a couple of days “2009 The Hague Sculpture”, an open air sculpture exhibition, will open. The exhibition will run from June 9, 2009 till September 9, 2009. This year the steering committee has deemed it fit to have a one sculptor exposition rather than a multi sculptor exposition. The sculptor chosen is Javier Marin. His work is more than life size and will work excellent between the green of the trees of the location, the recently refurbished Lange Voorhout. Yesterday and today some impressive sculptures have been put on their places already. Time for me to stroll (or bike) along the site with my camera(s). I believe the exposition itself will be worth a visit to The Hague!
About Javier MarÃn
Javier MarÃn was born in Uruapan, in the region of Michoacán in Mexico in 1962. He graduated from the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City – the city where he now works and lives.
His original focus was on painting and graphics, but he later concentrated on working in terracotta, resin and bronze.
From 1983 on, he took part in a group exhibition in the Casa de la Cultura in Morelia (Mexico). In 1986 he had his first solo exposition in Mexico City. Since that time, his work has been displayed in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Espace Pierre Cardin in Paris, at the 50th Venice Biennial in 2005, on the Plaza de Cibeles in Madrid, on the Piazza del Duomo in Pietrasanta, and currently in the Rotonda di via Besana and on the square in front of the Scala in Milan.
Recently my wife and I had dinner at restaurant Elzenduin in Ter Heijde. Elzenduin is a 27 room hotel with a restaurant, a beach pavilion and a beach terrace. We had heard and seen good reviews of the restaurant, its brasserie and its beach pavilion. Recently it had undergone a total renovation and its beach terrace won the 2009 Dutch terrace award.
Ter Heijde is a very small township in the dunes of the Dutch North Sea coast half way the 30 km between The Hague (actually Scheveningen, the beach resort of The Hague) and Hoek van Holland or “Hook” as the Brits who visit The Netherlands via ferry use to call it. Ter Heide is part of the village Monster and the municipality Westland.
On July 31, 1653 (according to the Julian calender in use in England) or August 10, 1653 (according to the Gregorian calender in use in the Dutch Republic of Seven United Provinces) Ter Heijde became (in)famous because of the Battle of Ter Heijde (also named the Battle of Scheveningen) during the first Anglo – Dutch war. Eventually there were four Anglo-Dutch wars. Dutch Admiral Maarten Harpertz Tromp leading the Dutch fleet of about 104 man of war on board of the Brederode was defeated by George Monck leading an English fleet of 105 on board of the Resolution. You can see them engaged in the middle of the painting of the battle by Jan Abrahamsz between 1653 and 1666. Not long before Tromp had twice engaged with a fleet under Admiral Blake, the “Father of the Royal Navy” in the Battle of Goodwin Sands (or Battle of Dover) and the Battle of Dungeness where he had defeated Blake. Tromp died during the battle of Ter Heide by a bullet from a sniper on board of the ship of William Penn, the father of the William Penn who founded Pennsylvania. Actually I am a bit disappointed Elzenduin doesn’t elaborate a bit more about these historic events than in the one sentence their site devotes to the battle….
Back to dinner at Elzenduin: This is a picture from its window. It is located at the path between Ter Heijde and the Beach. So you look a bit up at the dunes and can see the sun setting behind the dunes.
This was our starter. A painting in itself.
And this was the well sculptured and fine tasting desert we had. I predict that the chef will acquire his first Michelin star very soon.
Update 2014
Only a very short time has this high standard been maintained by the restaurant. Currently it is middle of the road again.
