" we need to radically rethink our ideas of intelligence"

" intelligence is dynamic, it is wonderfully interactive"

Ken Robinson - TED Talks

Favourites

There are so many good photographers in the world. Particularly with the increase in digital, there seem to be a growing number appearing every minute. When I look on flickr, I get lost in a sea of photography..the good, the bad and the ugly.

However, when I see something that hits me and constantly makes me think about it. I know I have found a keeper.

I first saw the work of Dennis Darzacq when I was living in Paris. I went down a little street, into a little buidling, and down some small stairs and founf myself in a delightful gallery space, with some fantastic images...the series of fotos - La Chute were displayed. and I was won over.

How did he capture these people in these seemingly impossible positions? do they not create the most incredible portrait of the young people living in the Banlieus of Paris...
full of so much skill, yet somehow floating....
just a reminder that good photography is about the an interaction between the photographer and the subject..which then captures an the heart and imagination of its viewers.

So what does it all mean?

So what does it all mean, is the question they ask at the end of this video.
It is a good question. as it it could all mean so much or so little.
It depends how you analyse statistics and whether who you are and where you are...!

As one friend stated...it means

"process, method, persuasion, love, truth, media, sharing, caring, daring, subdivided, we will survive, strive, live"

It means connecting trains of thought, allowing transparency of information and being able to have an open mind to what the current state of the world is and what the future holds...

It means that some graphic designer, did a good job and created a topical, subjective video.

but I like it.

so I share it...

Forsman & Bodenfors

I just linked to the the new Forsman & Bodenfors website through Adverblog and I am an instant fan.

the click click noise as you scroll over the different pictures is quite delightful. But more so the interaction invites you to explore their numerous pieces of intelligent and exciting work.

User lead design

Generic work Process

a site so full of "Tools", certainly worth bookmarking.

Although it references work to look up, it would be great if it could link to real life examples.

Favorite things

Tonight I was just thinking about favorite things. I have often been one to say that I can have so many favorites that it is difficult to choose. The problem, is that is easy to be inspired by things in life, that it can be difficult to choose. However, I think I define something becomes a favorite, as opposed to an inspiration is when it continues to inspire me in a long term. That every time I revisit the work of a specific artist or designer or musician, that it gives me a renewed sense of pleasure, that it makes me want to find out more, to learn about who inspires them and who they inspire.

Tonight I was looking back through my personal library of designers and artists. And was able to remind myself of Erwin Wurm.

I simply love his work. I discovered him a few years ago, when I came across his book The artist who Swallowed the world in the school library and since then I have been hooked. I love the simplicity of the idea in alot of his work, yet I find so much of it to be extremely compelling. And it often makes me smile. which is the most important of all.

I love the series - 1 minute sculptures, which are based on a simple interactions between the model and their surroundings. They are interactions which are unusual, that cause you to stop and take a second look, then often to have a chuckle, as it is if for a single moment the person has been caught in the act of doing something that is normally "not done". It is almost like a photographic diary of catching people in these strange positions, in a multitude of locations...in the street, in a house...in a gallery...anywhere. and yet although these pieces seem so quick, so brief in their creation, they also seem to have many deeper messages that can be read within them.
















I also like, is that you can notice traces of his work in others. So it is noticeable that his work not only creates an impact, it inspires people. I see it as a possible inspiration to design work, mostly in the sense of the idea of not taking products and spaces at face value...and searching for all possible ways that something may be used or interpreted.

A group that took inspiration from his work is the Red Hot Chili Peppers, also an old favorite of mine in their video Can't stop, as seen below.

social media marketing

as a small snippet - been doing a little research on marketing and strategic plans for business. I came accross this site, titled the 22 step social media marketing plan which offers up a range of examples of how different businesses are using social media to promote and develop thier companies online. This is worth a post even on its own, simply as a personal bookmark.

The Year 2009

A short message to mark the New Year, which is already in full force.

Flew in From Italy on monday morning at, arriving at 8am and started work at 12:30pm. so go go go!

The world wide web - footprint

So it seems that I keep signing up to be part of various different online platforms that enable oneself to broadcast themselves to the world. Or communicate with the world. Or work collaboratively. The more I look, the more I find and the more I find, the more I think that it is so easy to lose track of your online footprint. Where you leave a trace, with maybe just one photo, one comment, a biography, a link, video...the list goes on.

Therefore, I thought that perhaps I would list some of the possibilities for various different tools here, simply as means for myself to track them...I am sure that this is not new news.... but it is useful and helpful to me...so for starters (may add to this list)

Creative networks...
Co creation
Klusters - a really exciting tool - a group decision-making platform that helps businesses, groups and communities discuss and rate ideas.

Threadless - a co-creative t-shirt design site, hosts an exciting graphics uploaded + voted upon
Ning - allows the possibility for you to create a social network for anything that you want.
Delicious - wonderful tool for bookmarking sites online + searching others favourites
eilluminate - virtual conference - free for up to 3 people

Portfolio/data sites
Coroflot - Probably one of the biggest online design portfolio sites, constantly updated with new and impressive portfolios, with reviews of certain portfolios updated to the core77 blog
Computer Love - Creative networks, portfolio uploads, blog updates...lots going on
Carbon Made - Nice way to make a quick + simple website, also hosts portfolios, in particular I like the simplicit yof the design for the individual portfolio.
Scribd - allows you to put documents presentations online for public access. yo ucan also embed a document in your wesite.
Slideshare - again for putting documents online
polldaddy - great free online surveys

Photographic/video social networks

Flickr - my ultimate favourite photography site for storage, sharing and searching, don't really look elsewhere, but will place a few links here anyway
youtube - only have a few things on here, but it is extremely useful for finding information etc.

Social networks
Linkedin -nice alternative to facebook for more business/non personal network creation
Twitter - staying conneted
Facebook -the infamous site, extremely useful for keeping in touch with a wide/ international network of friends
Bebo - used to use ie, but feel it is more for younger people
My space - don't use, but often look up musicians on there to hear a sample of their music

so various different website, blog and wiki servers:

Wetpaint - allows you to create a free website, nice layouts, a range of interesting sites
Blogger
Wordpress
Livejournal
Tumblr - I like the layout possibilities here
Pb wiki
Wiki.com
wikispaces


it is quite a long list already and I am sure that there is more that could be added to this...

My Bill...Your Bill... Our billl

So it is starting...Christophe Tallec and I will be launching our service design platform, My Bill...Your Bill...Our Bill, within the next week. In order to test the concept in an online public sphere and create scenarios for the Institute of the Futures, online platform Superstruct.

Where it began...
A one week design workshop held at ENSCI in Paris (2007), with Jennie Winhall and Chris Vanstone, which focused on service design research and prototyping tools, through the practical implementation within a project.

Our brief was to look at energy use within public space and design a service to reduce energy consumption or produce energy in public spaces.

We started by developing this initial diagram (below) which tried to define key differences between peoples awareness/control over energy within private and public space.






The results… My bill... Your bill... Our Bill

A service design proposal that explores public energy use and awareness. Part of the proposal was for the creation of a collaborative user platform that encourages people to explore the use of energy in public space. This could give a renewed awareness and power to people to affect business practice, as businesses would be offered incentives and rewards, or given penalties points and notifications, in relation to public reviews.

So more information on this will be available soon.

To find out more about the launch or the project you can contact us at mybill.yourbill.ourbill@gmail.com

To be continued....