Nature Deficit Disorder, is a term invented by Richard Louv in his book called “Last Child in the Woods”. Louv writes that children are spending less time outdoors, resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems. Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. Recent research has drawn a further contrast between the declining number of National Park visits in the United States and increasing consumption of electronic media by children.
Richard Louv spent 10 years traveling around the USA reporting and speaking to parents and children, in both rural and urban areas, about their experiences in nature. He argues that sensationalist media coverage and paranoid parents have literally “scared children straight out of the woods and fields,” while promoting a litigious culture of fear that favors “safe” regimented sports over imaginative play.
Causes:
Parents are keeping children indoors in order to keep them safe from danger. Richard Louv believes we may be protecting children to such an extent that it has become a problem and disrupts the child’s ability to connect to nature. The parent’s growing fear of “stranger danger” that is heavily fueled by the media,  keeps children indoors and on the computer rather than outdoors exploring. Louv believes this may be the leading cause in nature deficit disorder as parents have a large amount of control and influence in their children’s lives.
Loss of natural surroundings in a child’s neighborhood and city. Many parks and nature preserves have restricted access and “do not walk off the trail” signs. Environmentalists and educators add to the restriction telling children “look don’t touch”. While they are protecting the natural environment Louv questions the cost of that protection on our children’s relationship with nature.
Increased draw to spend more time inside. With the advent of the computer, video games and television children have more and more reasons to stay inside, “The average American child spends 44 hours a week with electronic media”.
Effects:
Children have limited respect to their immediate natural surroundings. Louv says the effects of nature deficit disorder on our children will be an even bigger problem in the future. “An increasing pace in the last three decades, approximately, of a rapid disengagement between children and direct experiences in nature …this has profound implications, not only for the health of future generations but for the health of the earth itself.”
Childhood obesity has become a growing problem. There have been multiple studies that show children who go outside more often exercise more.
Attention disorders and depression may develop. “It’s a problem because kids who don’t get nature-time seem more prone to anxiety, depression and attention-deficit problems.” Louv suggests that going outside and being in the quiet and calm can help greatly. Attention Restoration Theory develops this idea further, both in short term restoration of a person’s abilities, and the long term ability to cope with stress and adversity.
In an interview on Public School Insight, Louv stated some positive effects of treating nature deficit disorder, “everything from a positive effect on the attention span to stress reduction to creativity, cognitive development, and their sense of wonder and connection to the earth.” From Wiki.

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 30, 2009

Flower inspired earthenware by Walter Ostrom.

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 26, 2009

100% Bamboo Bed designed for Wonk Furniture (copyright Wonk) by Paul Gower. The platform bed incorporates tool and fastener free assembly.  The flat-pack design allows for easy shipping and storage. Once all parts are cut a small amount of finishing is required before complete assembly and shipping.

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 25, 2009

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 23, 2009

Birds by Kenojuak Ashevak. Kenojuak Ashevak was born in an igloo in an Inuit camp, Ikirasaq, at the southern coast of Baffin Island. 

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Streetlamp pole by Vancouver based artist Germaine Koh. Custom LED chandelier responds in real time to wind speed, wind direction, humidity, and rainfall “A large chandelier with blue LED bulbs hangs from a sleekly modern lamp post, sprouting from the green roof of the Convention Centre West. The LEDs are animated by exterior weather conditions — glowing, sparkling or dimming in response to humidity, rain and wind, measured by sensors integrated into the electronic system. The lights grow brighter with relative humidity, and individual LEDs flash when rain falls, while gusts of wind dim or flicker the side of the chandelier that they hit. On clear and calm days, the piece remains constant. ” - Germaine Koh.

Above: another piece by Germaine Koh. This is a site-responsive installation with plants and soil transplanted from vacant land. Plants and seeds in the soil continue to grow over the course of the show.

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Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 22, 2009

Ben Reeves

“These works highlight formal structures while causing the figurative image to slip away within an apparently abstract field: the language of representation supersedes its subject. Reeves investigates the inevitable gap between ‘reality’ and representation: a space where the world is rationalized through visual conventions.”

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 21, 2009

Beautiful photographs by LANE CODER.  Found on ART RUBY

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 20, 2009

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 19, 2009

Chair made from recycled , reused fabric pieces /  discarded scraps. By Fernando and Humberto Campana from Brazil.

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Vancouver and New York based artist Aurel Schmidt.

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Island #2
Janaki Lennie
oil on canvas

Island
2008

My artwork is a response to my immediate surroundings and in a larger context to our complex relationship with the natural environment. My recent relocation from downtown Houston, Texas to St John’s, Newfoundland represented a dramatic shift in my point of view. I have been inspired by the wonderful coastline of this province and its unique social and political situation to explore the mystique that islands hold in our culture and history.
Islands fire the imagination, sometimes as places of entrapment or dread but more often as alluring utopias shimmering on the horizon, promising a serenity normally absent from modern life, an image often at odds with the reality of their isolation.
This series of paintings explores the island as an ephemeral vision, slightly beyond reach, embedded in an uncertain atmospheric space and separated, sometimes by distance, sometimes by the trappings of urban existence. The nostalgic pull of this island dream persists. - Janaki Lennie

Breathing Space
2006

For the last several years, I have explore the possibility of calm in the midst of chaotic contemporary experience, which is believe is often characterized by a profound disconnection between people and the natural world. They present the natural world as the experience of space itself; her images push man and nature to opposite sides.  The images are softened models of industrial sites and/or intensely lit tree limbs existing together or facing each other.  Her colors suggest distortion of light through pollution, another unseen sense of man’s presence. The final result is a strangely beautiful and surreal illumination of an imaginary window of space and stillness of time. -Janaki Lennie

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 18, 2009

Creek Tangle A/2, 2009
Gordon Smith
Acrylic on Canvas
60 x 67 in.

Creekside Grasses #1, 2009
Gordon Smith
Acrylic on Canvas
67 x 85 in.

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Installation view, Fog, 2004
2 rollei medium format projectors,
medium format slides

Fog study, 2004
Lightjet photo
24” × 24”

Fog study, 2004
Lightjet photo
24” × 24”

Fog study, 2004
Lightjet photo
24” × 24”

Burning Bush, 2005
HD DVD
05:03:15

Burning Bush, 2005
HD DVD
05:03:15

Face Lake, 2006
KEVIN SCHMIDT
Lightjet photo
48” × 48 ½”

Little Blue Lake, 2006
KEVIN SCHMIDT
Lightjet photo
48” × 48 ½”

Johnson Lake, 2006
KEVIN SCHMIDT
Lightjet photo
48” × 48 ½”

Installation view,
Sad Wolf, 2006
DIY projector video installation
00:04:11 (looped)

Installation view,
Sad Wolf, 2006
DIY projector video installation
00:04:11 (looped)

Still, Sad Wolf, 2006
DIY projector video installation
00:04:11 (looped)

Still, Sad Wolf, 2006
DIY projector video installation
00:04:11 (looped)

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Semi #2, 1999
Kevin O’Connell
Platinum palladium photograph
4.75 x 6.5 inch

Erosion #3, 2001
Kevin O’Connell
Platinum palladium photograph
4.75 x 6.5 inches

Jet Trail #4, #2/25, 2001
Kevin O’Connell
Platinum palladium photograph
4.75 x 6.5 inches

Prairie photographs by Kevin O’Connell

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Best Seen From 100 Feet, #2
Peter Krashes
2004
oil on linen

Best Seen From 100 Feet
Peter Krashes
2004
gouache on paper
52 1/2 X 79 inches

Untitled
Petr Krashes
2001
oil on linen
72 X 78 inches

More filled seats magnifies the message

Some letters have to be written, but are best not sent.

Best Seen From 100 Feet, #1
Peter Krashes
2004
oil on linen
78 X 140 inches

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 14, 2009

Red Chair Antiques.  Found on Wabi & Sabi blog.

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 12, 2009

Reusing old buttons as fridge magnets. By Skin and Tonic Too.



Rings made with old vintage buttons. Found in Red Chair Antiques shop.

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The Lightcatcher building (opening- November 14, 2009) designed by Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects will feature multiple exhibit spaces in new climate controlled galleries. The Lightcatcher is designed to meet LEED (Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design) Silver standard and includes a “green” roof, providing a venue for the Museum to offer programs around sustainability and conservation.





“The basic concept for this new museum is that museum turned inside out—to make the building as active on the outside as it will be on the inside. An iconic 36-foot-tall, 180-foot-long translucent wall, “the lightcatcher,” is conceived as the focal point and backdrop to a central courtyard that will become a new gathering place for the city. The exterior of the museum will be an invitation to engage in art and will allow pedestrians walking by to view the art and activity within” - Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Posted by DESIGN SQUISH on October 08, 2009