Urban Air is a project by L.A. artist Stephen Glassman to turn billboard infrastructure into mini-bamboo groves floating above the traffic clogged streets. It’s a pretty idea; just check out the mock-up:
This Kickstarter project is unlike many we’ve come across. It is designed, engineered, sourced and billboard space has been acquired. All Urban Air needs is funding to complete the project.
It is also unlike many Kickstarter projects in that it’s trying to raise a rather large sum of money — $100,000. These mini-groves have a lot of bells and whistles: misters to irrigate the bamboo so the floating forests look like cloud forests, “climate monitoring technology” (which, as far as I can tell, just means air quality monitors), and wifi connections to collect that information for no obvious purpose.
If, like me, you are an East Coaster and find this idea charming, I recommend just handing over your money and not watching the fundraising video. It’s just a tiny bit too L.A.-spacy for comfort: There’s lots of mumbo jumbo about cracks in the urban skyline and spaces to breathe. Instead, just think about the billboard forests, and how much nicer they would be to look at than, say, a giant picture of somebody’s bum.
