Artist Mathieu Tremblin has hit the streets again, expanding on his portfolio of repainted tags, turning messy walls into neat and readable ‘tag cloud’ arrays.

His past works have turned murals into blocks of color or applied copyright watermarks to urban surfaces so they will show up in photographs, but this series seems to be an audience favorite, perhaps uniquely suited to a digital age.

In most cases, he simply takes a picture, paints over the existing graffiti (which, given public works, would probably not last long anyway), then matches the relative size and color of the vanished tags but in a consistent typographical style.

One could argue he the makes dynamic surfaces of Rennes, France static rather than simply legible, but it does raise questions about the intersection of words and meaning when it comes to street tagging. The content seems lost when rendered in boring fonts rather than a stylized hand.

‘The principle of ‘Tag Clouds’ is to replace the all-over graffiti calligraphy with readable translations like the clouds of keywords which can be found on the internet,’ Tremblin says.

“It shows the analogy between the physical tag and the virtual tag, both in form (tagged wall compositions look the same as tag clouds), and in substance (like keywords which are markers of net surfing, graffiti are markers of urban drifting).”

Oddly, too, the results stand out more than the original graffiti, thanks to familiarity – our mind is so used to seeing and dismissing curvy tags, but comprehending and reading fonted text.

A lone artist is on a mission to restore some of the 70,000 books from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad that were reduced to ash during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As chaos mounted, looters broke in set the library on fire, burning it to the ground.

Students at the school still lack replacements over a decade later, which led Wafaa Bilal (an Iraqi-born artist living in New York City) to propose Blank Books, a program designed to bring in book donations, in turn to be shipped in sets to the Iraqi capital.

This combination art, awareness and shelf-stocking project works essentially like this: blank books are created and put on shelves at the Art Gallery of Windsor. When someone donates a book, a white blank is removed and given to the donor as a symbol of the void they helped fill.

While the university shared a wishlist, they also welcome books from personal collections in any of the following categories: Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Radio, TV, Film, Music, Art Education, Industrial Design, Printing, Textiles, Calligraphy, Ornamentation.

The effort raised over $50,000 from a crowdfunding campaign, more than 5 times its target amount. The campaign worked like the installation: “The blank books will transform into colored books. I see this as a visualization of the reversal of destruction,” explains Bilal

As the shelves fill up with real books, Kickstarter backers and other donors receive the blank books as rewards as a “small reminder of their contribution.” You can read a more detailed interview with the artist on Hyperallergic or watch him speak on CNN.

More historical context on this effort from its creator: “During the Islamic Golden Age, Baghdad was home to the largest library in the world—the Bayt al-Hikma, or House of Wisdom. A Mongol siege in the 13th century laid waste to all the libraries of Baghdad, along with the House of Wisdom.”

“According to legend, the library was thrown into the Tigris River to create a bridge of books for the Mongolian army to cross. The pages bled ink into the river for seven days, after which the books were drained of knowledge.”

Quite possibly the most filmed and photographed bridge in the world, the Sixth Street Viaduct, spanning the Los Angeles River, is a challenging icon to replace, but the Ribbon of Light aims to try.

The famous Art-Deco viaduct in question, built in 1932, has been featured in dozens of films, television shows, music videos and video games, including Grease, Gone in 60 Seconds, Terminators 2 and 3, Madonna’s ‘Borderline’ video and episodes of Lost and 24.

Some sequences show the most recognizable part (directly over the LA river) being driven across, but many are shot from the river below. Unfortunately for fans, its was deemed seismically unstable thanks to compromised concrete supports, despite its historic landmark status with the city.

Architect Michael Maltzan, responsible for its replacement, has made his design an epic ode to its iconic curves, reprising and repeating them across a much longer portion of the new structure.

The new structure features arched trusses to be illuminated at night, suspended over a series of parks and paths being developed below and alongside it. A series of staircases and ramps will allow pedestrians and bikers to move up, down and across it as well.

The architects are clearly cognizant of the landmark they are replacing, and, in a way, are preserving its visibility through these repetitive forms, which actually extend much further out on either side than the original arches.

From the architects: “The project foresees a multi-modal future for the city, one that accommodates cars, incorporates significant new bicycle connections, and also increases connectivity for pedestrians to access the viaduct, not only at its endpoints, but along the entirety of the viaduct, linking the bridge, the Los Angeles River, and future urban landscapes in a more meaningful relationship.”

“These pairs of repeated concrete arches and cable-supported roadway deck are simultaneously elegant and efficient. The design approach unifies and optimizes the architecture of the viaduct through repetition, creating a unique configuration through the repeated use of arches, roadway and pier forms: an iconic structure.”

Lightweight, individualized and inexpensive, this design and manufacturing strategy bends artificial limbs in new directions and promises a more personalized product for those in need of a replacement (or upgrade).

Developed by Adam Root, the process involves inverted laser scanning, 3D modeling and printing to generate form-fitting body parts that are comfortable, affordable and suited to a particular individual. The result is a “highly precise virtual model of the patient’s residual limb and matches its anatomy to within a fraction of a millimeter” which together with the “MIT biomechatronics lab-developed fitsocket captures leg tissue properties to enable a better fit.” Off-the-shelf parts round out these customized creations.

A custom-patterned mesh model forms the basis for fabricating an exo-skeletal structure, held together with titanium dust particles that are laser-sintered into place for strength and durability. This technique obviates the need for cumbersome central supports by spreading the loads in a sort of three-dimensional ‘space frame’, to borrow an architectural term. The resulting aesthetic is not only personalized but compelling – stylistically, it leaves choices up to the user and gives a unique look to each individual creation.

Gizmag puts these developments in context: “There are over 2 million amputees in the United States with 185,000 amputations every year. More than 90 percent of these involve amputations of the lower limbs. Traditional prostheses can be prohibitively expensive due to their complexity and the specialized labor required to customize them for each patient. They also have a very mechanical and robotic look and feel about them, which can exacerbate the sense of loss and negatively affect the psychological wellbeing of some amputees.”