Funny. I just got my favorite jeans repaired (two pairs, the bottoms went out on me), as well as my favorite fuchsia heels. I had to go to three shoe repair shops. The first dismissed me, the second told me to throw them away, and I managed to convince the third one — although I had to dig through a dirty old box to find the right heels. Now they are black — more character. “Will your husband mind?” said the guy. Uh-huh, right.

This also makes me think of the whole cradle-to-cradle idea.

Then, there’s Ryan Paul’s piece in Wired on hackable hardware:

Open source hardware is designed to be reprogrammed or physically modified to make it easy to install custom firmware and software to create entirely new products. The big idea: crowdsourcing hardware development will encourage innovation in unforeseen ways, much like how Creative Commons licenses have enabled artists to remix existing content to create new works.

… Not all gadget makers embrace this trend and a growing number of them are fighting back by blocking installation of custom software or slapping on warranty stickers to discourage would-be developers from opening up their gear and tweaking the electronics. (Apple has been particularly aggressive about discouraging iPhone hackers.)

Then there are companies like OpenMoko, a spinoff of Taiwan’s First International Computer, established to build an open source touchscreen smartphone.

“For the people pushing this project, an open phone is not really even a product. It’s the very embodiment of our vision of technology,” OpenMoko CEO Sean Moss-Pultz wrote in 2007. “We absolutely, passionately, believe that something as fundamental to our lives as the mobile phone must be open.”

The hardware schematics, CAD files and source code of the OpenMoko mobile phone handsets have all been made available under open licenses so they can be freely modified and redistributed. The project quickly attracted attention in the open source software community and became a hub of activity for open smartphone development.

Will follow this with interest.

This is a great opportunity for a designer who wants to build their portfolio and work with a creative team, as well as support urban ecology, the reclamation of the commons, and local history. Main contributors to the project (designer, artist, publisher) will invest time in developing the book and then split the profits from the book and related merchandise. The project will contribute to the commons — all outputs will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license, allowing subsequent creators to remix and build on it.

Interested? Visit Emily’s site for more details.

I’m (through Artefatica) helping Montreal artist Emily Rose Michaud, the force behind the Mile End’s Roerich Garden, to produce a book that will document community happenings and uses of the lovely and (for the time being) wild field that lies between the east end of St-Viateur street and the Carmelite nun’s residence. The book will be published in the spring of 2009.

To contribute content, contact Emily before the end of November. If you’d like to help produce the book we’re also looking for a designer. See Emily’s blog for more details.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.

I’ve never focused on originality. I can appreciate it, but don’t aspire to it. Innovation maybe, as in finding a better way. In the forefront of my mind? Healing, integrity, justice, peace, empathy. That’s what gets me going. To love. To repair the world. Better to focus on understanding and sharing. Better to focus on being authentic. That is hard enough and good enough for me.

I learned about the film on Véro’s blog a few weeks ago and really wanted to see it. Lately I’ve been thinking more and more about things open, creative commons, and remix (read/write) culture. So my Friday evening is off to a great start. Will let you know how it goes.

Via Lawrence Lessig‘s blog. He rocks.