Michael Edward Arth

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Michael E. Arth (2009)

Michael Edward Arth (also: Michael E. Arth; born April 27, 1953 in Burtonwood , Lancashire , United Kingdom ) is an American artist, house, landscape and town planner, futurologist and author.

art

Michael E. Arth has worked with a wide range of media; starting with rock concert posters in the early 1970s through copperplate engraving and screen printing to drawings, paintings, photography and films. A large-format book of his works, Michael E. Arth: Introspective 1972-1982 , was published in 1983. In 1986 he shifted his focus to architectural design , house and urban planning . In 2007 he produced his first full-length documentary together with filmmaker Blake Wiers .

Construction and town planning

From 1986 to 2000, Arth designed, built, and landscaped a number of privately owned properties in Southern California , most notably "Casa de Lila," a seven-story Spanish mansion in the rolling Hollywood Hills.

In 1999 Arth founded a version of New Urbanism that is strongly pedestrian and environmentally oriented , known as New Pedestrianism . His new approach calls for very densely built new cities and districts, in which trees are planted in front of homes and businesses, and footpaths and bicycle paths are laid out, and there are tree-lined roads in the back. However, the idea of ​​the pedestrian zone is not fundamentally new (examples of rear garages with front sidewalks in place and replacing the previous streets existed in Venice , California as early as 1910 ), but his passionate advocacy of this solution as a panacea for current problems distinguishes his Work out.

Arth claims that living in a so-called "Pedestrian Village", coupled with dense mixed areas or a village center, would reduce many of the problems that city life brings with it. Such a development in the vicinity of a city center or a new development area reduces driving times in the car, increases the physical activity of the homeowner and also saves energy. He claims that in new, more densely built-up cities and settlements, this new form of development would drastically reduce car dependency, and the resulting village-like cities would serve both aesthetics and quality of life. He is also promoting the creation of similar pedestrian-friendly facilities that could also be used to retrofit existing cities. Arth's design and construction company, Pedestrian Villages Inc., develops projects that follow the principle of New Pedestrianism.

The garden district

In 2000, while working on his documentary The Laboratories of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems , Arth discovered a small slum in DeLand , Florida , where he could try out some of his ideas. He bought thirty dilapidated homes and commercial buildings which he restored within six years. Driving away the drug traffickers and rebuilding this downtown area helped him gain community support and won several awards. He changed the name "Crack Town" to "Downtown DeLand's Historic Garden District". Arth upgraded the existing infrastructure by planting trees and creating sidewalks, gardens, courtyards and facilities for bicycles.

In 2004 he designed and secured planning permission for a large mixed-use construction project in the garden district, which serves as an example of the essential principles of New Pedestrianism. "The Palm Garden" will consist of twenty-eight shops, restaurants and health facilities that will overlook a lower-lying tropical garden with swimming pools and waterfalls - all on a car-free promenade. Fifty-two apartments are planned above the small shops. Opposite the "Palmengarten-Hütten" will be built from twelve houses on a pedestrian zone with a garden and communal pool house. In accordance with the principles of New Pedestrianism, the garages are arranged at the rear on a car road, while the houses in front overlook a tree-lined, car-free pedestrian zone. These new projects have been stagnant since 2007 as a result of the deteriorating economic situation in Florida.

Solutions to homelessness

In 2007, Arth proposed a controversial national solution to homelessness that included building near-car-free Pedestrian Villages instead of what he calls the "current patch approach to the problem." "A prototype, Tiger Bay Village, was designed for proposed the area near Daytona Beach , Fla., claiming it would be better therapy for the psychological and psychiatric needs of the homeless and cost less than traditional practice. Job opportunities, including building and maintaining the villages, and the creation of employment offices would help make the villages financially and socially viable.

New urban cowboy

New Urban Cowboy , a full-length documentary, will start in 2008. The film records Arth's rehabilitation of DeLand's Garden District and explains the philosophy behind New Pedestrianism .

UNICE

UNICE (Universal Network of Intelligent Conscious Entities) is a vision of the future that Arth has been developing since 1969. He developed the term UNICE in the 1990s to explain conscious intelligence, which he theorized as "soon to be emerging on earth, beehive-like interaction of computers, people and the Internet". Arth believes UNICE, both in their holistic and in their endless individual shapes, a technological singularity will start (Technological Singularity), could produce what intelligent, non-biological life, which envelop the Earth and could then expand into space. Arth is working on a book and documentation on the subject.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael E. Arth: Michael E. Arth Introspective 1972-1982 . Linnea Graphics, 1983, ISBN 0-912467-00-2 .
  2. ↑ JH Crawford: Carfree Cities . International Books, Utrecht, Holland, 2000 ,, ISBN 90-5727-037-4 .
  3. ↑ Pedestrian Villages Inc. . Pedestrian Villages.com. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  4. ↑ Laboratories of Hercules ( English ) Laborsofhercules.org. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  5. ↑ Carolanne Griffith Roberts, "Saving a Neighborhood," Southern Living Magazine, April 2004, Florida Living pp. 22-25.
  6. ↑ http://michaelearth.com/herc_IX.htm/ Philosophy behind New Pedestrianism (link not available)
  7. ↑ Michael E. Arth, "A National Solution to Homelessness That Begins Here," Orlando Sentinel, January 20, 2007
  8. ^ Tom Leonard, "Daytona may give vagrants their own resort." , Telegraph.co.uk, January 24, 2007
  9. ↑ Etan Horowitz, "Developer defends homeless-village concept," Orlando Sentinel, January 27, 2007
  10. ^ Rebbecca Mahoney, "Homeless village or leper colony?" Orlando Sentinel, January 20, 2007
  11. ↑ a b Michael E. Arth . Goldenapplesmedia.com. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  12. ^ "New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism" trailer . Youtube.com. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  13. ↑ http://s5.video.blip.tv/0550000468458/BlakeWiers-NewUrbanCowboyDocumentaryTrailer115.mov/ → New Urban Cowboy Trailer on blip.tv in high resolution (link not available)
  14. ^ New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism . Newurbancowboy.com. Retrieved August 14, 2010.
  15. ↑ Michael E. Arth, http://www.unice.info/unice/adaptation.htm/ → Article on UNICE (link not available), based on the book that will be published shortly: "The Future: A Progression (2008 to 2035) "
  16. ↑ a b UNICE - Universal Network of Intelligent Conscious Entities . Unice.info. Retrieved August 14, 2010.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Arth, Michael Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arth, Michael E.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist, house, landscape, and town planner, futurist, and author
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Burtonwood , Lancashire , United Kingdom