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!

Bee Chamber

I found this really impressive and innovative way to detect and diagnose certain illnesses. Designed by Susana Soares, this glass chamber contains bees...yes, bees. They are known for their phenomenal odor-sensing capacity. How it works: The face object has two chambers, the larger one serves as the bee chamber, and the smaller one serves as the diagnosis chamber.  Bees trained to target and specific odor in the breath, a marker of a particular illness or condition, will fly into the smaller chamber. How amazing it this? The bees have the ability to detect pre-ovulation, ovulation and post-ovulation. I think that this is another clever way to use and build off of another species ability. 

Power Plants by 20/2 Collaborative

Design is involved with some of the most innovative and progressive ideas that better our world. I found this proposal for a new energy source. The project proposal is a network of engineered  algae ponds and hydrogen gas-filled balloons will fuel an icelandic city. How it works: "In 1999, researchers at UC Berkeley discovered that algae alternate between hydrogen production and photosynthesis, and that depriving the algae oxygen and sulfur, triggers them to favour the hydrogen cycle. A 10 metre, algae filled pond, easily built into a community landscape, should produce enough hydrogen weekly to power 12 cars. 

Science and Design

I was reading an article in SEED magazine about working in cross-disciplinary teams (science and design). People understand that the world is so complex and that product development is so complex that a single person or a single profession isn't capable of coming up with all the answers. One of the innovations that they showcased was a solar bottle by Alberto Media and Francisco Gomez Paz. It is a four litre water bottle that enhances SODIS technology, capturing UV-A radiation and heat from our most available resource: sunlight. This solar disinfection can purify contaminated water within six hours.

Extras

Andy Millman, Actor. Never forgets his lines because he never gets any. Andy, played by Rickey Gervais, is a desperate man. He's never done any real acting. Instead, he's a lowly film extra, making his mark in the background while the stars do their work. This television show on HBO is a hilarious show that displays a dry sassy humour. Guest stars like Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller and Samual L. Jackson, have a good time poking fun at themselves. 

The Design Revolution

I was reading an article by Cheryl Heller, in Communication Arts about an innovative design revolution called D-Rev. Created by a man named Dr. Paul Polak with the intentions of designing the tools to help increase production of crops in poor countries. He states that "the only difference between poor people and everyone else is a lack of money." Polak says that "90% of the designers in the world design products for 10% of people who have a lot of money." D-Rev focuses on the understanding, talent and innovation of the best designers in the world on the vast majority of people who need it the most. This movement has such a purpose behind it other than designing for the people who have the luxury of possessions. It is educating and aiding societies to function on their own, based on their terms. "Like societies in the dark ages, people struggling with poverty have needs more basic  than good typography. They need the essential things that sustain life and learning, and in order to be relevant to them, we need to think the way they do." This Design revolution is about solving problem versus creating. 

Jeffrey Docherty

This 29 year old New Zealander, lives in New York, and is the art director for the magazine SEED. He is brilliant. I love his intricate works with type and patterns. He creates wonderful custom typefaces for every issue of inside magazine as well. He is also the creator of the typeface Frame. His work inspires me to want to design type. 

My Compliments

My compliments must go out to good old Sue (my mom). I must say, my mother has been working hard for forty years being an upstanding parent to three girls. Finally after we have grown up, it was time for her to indulge in her own talents that she has just discovered recently. My mother is a fantastic realist painter. Who knew? Her work displays an incredible eye for detail, and her precision in spot on. She just picked up this hobby/job about three years ago and has already sold seven paintings. My mother is quite the talented lady, and all of my compliments go out to her.

State Radio - Township

I went to see State Radio at Lee's Palace last night. I had never heard of them before, and I ended up liking the opening band better. The opening band was a group from Boston called Township. Good times, let me tell you. They looked like they came straight from the sixties with their androgynous style, long fluffy hair and skin-tight jeans. They rocked out big time. They had a foot stomping drum line and fantastic musical, off-beat rests. I ended up buying their cd. FIVE STARS.

My Manifesto

Immerse yourself in new ideas and design - keep up with your craft and continually research what you are involved in.

Question the things around you for inspiration - some of the best ideas come from the most random unexpected places, great ideas are sometimes right in front of your face.

Don't be afraid to design something out of your element - sometimes design isn't always going to be in your comfort zone, it's best to get out there and do something you have never done before.

Stay young - have zest for life, stay young at heart, be positive, and love life, it will process nicely through your work.

Make terrible mistakes - this is supposed to be a learning process, don't be afraid to make horrible mistakes.

Give and take advice - one thing about this industry is that it is SO SUBJECTIVE, its best to get a few perspectives.

Don't self-handicap you or your work - be proud of what you can do, and don't make excuses.

Work through the process - Some of my best work has had a long and drawn out process to boil down to the big idea.

My Creativity and My Education

When I was younger, I was very fortunate in the sense that my parents were always supportive of my interest in the arts. My grandfather was an artist, and my mother is as well, so the arts were very important in my life. My very first out-of-school activity was taking an art lessons, and I will never forget that experience. As I grew older I transfered to Cawthra Park Secondary School for the Arts were I developed my acting skills. In that high school, you are completely immersed in creativity. My whole life I have been involved in the Art industry, from acting to classical singing to fine arts, my entire life is defined by it, and would be very different without it.

Alex Colville

Alex Colville is my favourite Canadian artist. His work is painted with mathematically perfected angles and perspectives. He also creates a wonderful feeling of motion is his work. I am quite intrigued by the stories that he is telling. Each one of his pieces is expressing a story or event in his life. A lot of the people in the paintings are his own family.