Blog Finale

For our Contemporary Art Market class, it was required that we keep a blog about anything that is related to current issues and design. I have learned a lot in this process and would like to thank you Heather for, yet again, providing an interesting and thought provoking class. Your efforts are commended. This class was taught me the importance of research and staying in the now. I hope that you enjoyed reading some of my postings, and that I was able to shed some design light in YOUR life. 

Even though this class has ended my blog entries shall remain. 

Devin Soisson

I was reading CMYK and came across this illustrator Devin Soisson. His topics are interrelated to green design and sheds light on the pollution shared by everyone in a metropolis setting. His very intricate pen and ink drawings show how waste and pollution seep into every aspect of our lives.

Tom Cruise - Whack Job

Has ANYONE noticed lately that Tom Cruise is the biggest tool box around? What a whack job, I seriously think that he has lost it. I just needed to dedicate a blog entry at his dispense. Now that his wife Katie is finally separating him, he can go full throttle into the church of Scientology. 

Take a look at his interview on that topic, and someone please tell me...what the @#%*!! is he talking about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxSO 

Masdar City

Designers are starting to think green on levels never seen before. I found an interesting article on a magazine that I was reading this morning about green world design. In 2009, the world's first sustainable, zero-waste, carbon neutral city will open on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. It is part of the oil-rich capital's $15 billion clean energy initiative. Planned by Lord Norman Foster's design firm, this will be a 50,000 people city fueled by solar energy and wind towers, and where personalized pods transport people around the metropolis and 99 percent of waste is reused or composted through solar desalination systems. It is estimated that it will take ten years to build the entire city, however, when the University is built, students will be encouraged to participate in the development of the city.

Design Power

What would I use my power to promote? World equality. Much like the article that I read on the Design Revolution, I would like to promote ways in which third-world countries can eat, sleep, be educated and have basic needs be met. I would like to promote this issue in a way that these countries are self sustainable in their own ways, not that ways in which we know. Band-aid effect is not something that I think would be helpful, but a way in which these countries can rely on their own education and design. 

It is a large issue to tackle, but it is out for everyones best interest. Much like how societies work in theory, we have yet to see it actually work, equality shares the same problem...human greed and need to monopolize power of resources. However, I don't think that this issue is something to be ignored. One step at a time, it will be a slow and gradual progress, but a positive one. 

Flocking Diplomats

Joris Maltha and Daniel gross are designers that take an innovative approach to their design work. They have thought of a way to design data and raw figures. They have a systematic approach with a set of rules describing how the data should behave, when they adhere to these rules the material itself generates a design. The Flocking Diplomats is data based on the behaviour of foreign ambassadors in the US whose diplomatic immunity covers fines for traffic violations and other infractions. This is info design at its finest, and it is the data itself that falls into a design that is unknown at first, but later creates itself.

The Jellyfish House

Why not look to nature when considering design? Design is everywhere and can generate from anywhere. Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott, are the architects that modeled on the idea that "like the sea creature, it coexists with its environment." this structure features a porous, layered skin through which rain water and grey water are captured, filtered, and stored for later use. The name of the structure is reflected in the process as the water flows through the titanium dioxide-coated cavities in the skin, it is exposed to UV light and gives off a soft blue, bioluminescent glow. Bah! Brilliant. It almost seems like cheating to look to such an easy outside source, but at the same time...it works for a reason!