zones of non consumption

lull

2010-05-29T09:07:00.002+01:00

When the noise becomes unbearable, stand back for a moment and listen. The shape of these wall mounted cups creates a sound similar to the experience of listening to the sea in shells.

reverse cctv

2010-05-10T21:21:00.002+01:00

Why not use the ever present and increasingly affordable technology of cctv for beneficial effects? Live streaming of rural locations as a temporary installation in empty shops, could provide us with a chance to contemplate nature. A less demanding view that could have restorative effects and enable us to enjoy the city centre more.?

manzini sustainable everyday

2010-03-18T06:42:00.003Z

After all this thinking about overstimulation in commercial city centres, I started reading Ezio Manzini who captures the issues of the inherent stress in consumerism:

" Well-being has two dimensions: the material and the non-material. Anyone who buys food and prepares dinner has the material satisfaction of filling his or her stomach and the non-material stisfaction of having cooked a particular dissh or enjoyed good company. Non-material satisfaction, however, requires deliberate attention for use and enjoyment. Having too many things makes time for non-material pleasure shrink; an overabundance of options can easily diminish full satisfaction; whoever wants to optimise his overall satisfaction must limit his quantitive aspirations. " Manzini, E and Jegou, F 'Sustainable Everyday: Scenarios of Urban Life' (2003)

change your view

2010-01-25T14:04:00.003Z

Based on the idea that contemplating natural environments has a restorative effect, I am proposing to create installations that could be used in empty city centre shops using imagery or cctv footage of natural environments. I had a positive response from Matt Easteal of Brighton and Hove Council Environmental Improvement Team, who explained the purpose of the large scale images they have been positioning on disused buildings. They are intended to combat vandalism and graffiti. Passers by agree that they enjoy looking at them: an alternative to the hoardings but not an advertisment.

Stand still, step up, mark one

2010-01-24T19:23:00.018Z

One way to have a moments respite, to escape the claustrophobia of the crowded environment is to step up. First trial of a step to nowhere, somewhere to stand still, elevate yourself , a look out post . We realised that the surface area makes you stand up straight, not so relaxing. Also that maybe you need something to lean on.

City Centre Sounds

2010-01-21T06:27:00.005Z

I have been asking people in Brighton what they like and dislike about city centre sounds :

Not surprisingly, they find the sound of horns, sirens, shouting, car alarms, traffic, construction work uncomfortable and irritating.

They prefer the sound of the sea, the birds. Basically when they need a break they go to the seafront or the pavilion gardens.

Are there ways to change irritating noises into something less uncomfortable? It turns out that the same principle that makes it sound as though you can hear the sea in a shell applies to cup shaped objects held at a slight distance from the ear. Apparently the lounder the ambient noise levels the louder the swooshing sound. Perhaps physical adaptations to urban environments could create listening posts..

Wearable sound baffles

2010-01-21T05:49:00.015Z

Is it possible to use the principles of anechoic chambers to absorb sound in clothing? Could pleating and smocking techniques that use soft warm materials but also increase surface area, dampen surrounding sound and improve ability to have a conversation in noisy environments?

Rob Oldfield currently doing a PhD in 3D sound at Salford university advises:"Urban soundscapes often have quite a lot of low frequency sound but it is usually the higher frequency (1000Hz-10000Hz) sound that we humans find the most annoying (that's because they are the frequencies similar to speech and we are most sensitive to them).Concentrate on trying to make the higher frequencies lower because these are more annoying anyway (alarms, whistles, screeching breaks)

Your idea of the pleating/smocking is really good because this is a good way to absorb sound (usually if you imagine something that is good for keeping you warm/insulating, it will also be good at absorbing sound too) So you could be on to a winner with that, thicker material and bigger pleats will be better for lower frequencies and will absorb more sound in general. "

measuring sound

2010-01-15T08:02:00.002Z

Advice on testing efficacy of baffles to cut out certain frequencies includes a number of methods:

Play white noise and use sound meter to measure sound levels from a microphone close to the ear, with and without the baffles
Play white noise and record with and without baffles. Import into Logic Pro to view frequencies that are affected

this head size screen in the sound booth at university of brighton is lined with acoustic foam to further dampen sound for voice recording purposes. Can this be transposed to a portable/wearable accessory to make it easier to speak in noisy cafe environments?

books make libraries quiet

2010-01-09T10:10:00.002Z

Jane Fordham pointed out to me the other day that it is the books that make libraries quiet. A complete self fulfilling physical effect. You need quiet in order to read. If you have enough books they create a physical equivalent of an anechoic chamber, i.e. multiple non reflective surfaces that are also insulating. Think of all those remainder books that get pulped that could be used to build quiet places....

the poetry of moss

2009-12-12T11:06:00.005Z

Investigating the potential and benefits of introducing small scale interventions of growth in urban environments has led to expert advice from the living roofs organisation. George Schenk sums up entirely what I have been thinking:

"a world more closely viewed in vignettes of landscape that we discover or plant for ourselves, is a world made more cosy. Mosses up close are large on fellowship. Nothing else of greenery is more companiable at the near edge of our universe."Schenk, G Moss Gardening, p105

Dont rush

2009-12-10T10:58:00.001Z

Jacqui Chanarin told me about recent visitors to Japan where they are putting 'don't rush' signs up intended to influence crowd behaviour in commuter zones. The idea being that negotiating crowds could be easier and a less frustrating experience if everyone were more calm and careful. I found this one which apparently means " Don't rush or you will go round in circles"

noise

2009-12-09T07:50:00.009Z

This  DEFRA  noise map shows the main route by road in and out of Brighton to the palace pier. The purple is the most noise 75 + dB(A)  (mainly roads) the green 0.00-54.9 dB (A)  is the least.

 The red patch 65.0-69.9 dB(A) (the steine ) despite being a large stretch of grass is surrounded by roads and on the high range for noise.

moss

2009-12-08T09:54:00.005Z

I have had some useful advice from Gary Grant Ecology Director at Aecom in response to my query about creating small scale installations to encourage moss in urban environments :

"It is feasible but you will need to use north facing surfaces and channel rainwater across the surface
In Japan people use ricewater and yoghurt to speed up the process of colonisation
and try rough wood, sandblasted or similar, or hessian"

this is a first experiment for a channel that could be integrated into the shop window ledge to introduce a continuous line, an alternative view, leading to larger installations alongside public seating.

cognitive benefits of natural environments

2009-11-22T12:05:00.007Z

Perhaps unsurprisingly, recent research by Kaplan and Berman, psychologists at University of Michigan has found that a short urban walk can cause cognitive deficits compared to a walk in the park because natural settings do not require the same amount of cognitive effort. The concept of ART Attention Restoration Theory, suggests that immersion in nature may have a restorative effect (p21) Could small scale interventions - a glimpse of growth in unexpected places within the urban commercial environment have some of the same effects? Personal experience of comparing london Victoria to a rural walk would definitely support this.

city sensory input colour

2009-11-22T11:48:00.005Z

An anlysis of the distribution of colour in the same 200 yards in north street Brighton on monday looks like this : separation from the text, noise and people it looks less demanding ...

city information

2009-11-22T11:34:00.003Z

A sample of a record of text from shop fronts and displays of about 200 yds of North street Brighton on Monday looks like this : one aspect of information overload.

city observations

2009-11-22T11:28:00.003Z

Parin Shahs use of watercolour to document indian urban life offer an other way of seeing what is so familiar we are already filtering it out.

new york new york

2009-10-31T07:02:00.011Z

Famous for its dense population I've been told by recent visitors to Manhattan they are finding ways to introduce the rural into the urban space and provide more social spaces for seating that aren't just more cafes. The highline, regeneration of a disused elevated rail line provides a green space to step up above the residential and commercialised spaces. Herald Square, has introduced green areas for sitting part of liveable streets initiative freedom to sit.

scale

2009-10-31T06:52:00.002Z

I saw this outside a door in an appartment block in Paris. There is something about the scale, the colours and the story it might tell. Why is it there? Is it really for a very quiet small child...?

pop up

2009-10-26T07:41:00.002Z

The pop up concept, moveable locations for shops, bars, clubs etc could be used to create zones of non consumption. All these closed down shops could become a visual, aural, physical respite.. Meanwhile Space are working out how to use these places more easily.

felt -

2009-10-19T20:26:00.006+01:00

remember felt

acoustics
wool industry excess - burning fleeces
car industry processes
potential for hearing booths
listening corners
gossiping pockets
see Gubi chair and info
anna kyrro quinn uses felt to create decorative wall panels that have an acoustic dampening effect.

the urban idea of rural

2009-10-16T07:36:00.004+01:00

According to Global Colour Research this is the latest colour trend "a play on the rural stereotypes that urban dwellers imagine still exist in the countryside and try to replicate with visits to farmers’ markets and organic retailers"

What impact could introducing authentic elements of the rural environment have? A tree stump, a rock, a sheep, a telescope to a large sky but no wind no rain no fresh air. in Paris supermarkets they have the sound of tweeting birds in the veg section ....could we have breeze doorways? - or is that just air conditioning?

literal interpretations

2009-10-14T09:01:00.008+01:00

A fairly literal interpretation by Dominic Schwarz, uses the elements that my time out survey brought up.What these pictures don't show is what might be the effect on the user of eye level grass. Could moss be incorporated into seating like this using something like - Senseware demonstrated a Terramac a material that supports flexible planting surfaces for moss? - unfortunately the terramac material was only for the Milan exhibition not currently available commercially.

rfid

2009-10-13T19:49:00.003+01:00

There must be a way to use rfid technology to provide alternative views, messages, virtual reminders of elsewhere, directions to respite?

Anechoic chambers

2009-10-06T09:33:00.004+01:00

Acoustic anechoic chambers are used to minimise reflected sound - sometimes used for sound recording - could the principle be used on a smaller scale to create quiet places or talking booths? One of these chambers has been rated the quietest place on earth.

Jacob Kirkegaard is an artist who works with resonance, sound and hearing.

an empty cinema

2009-10-05T16:57:00.005+01:00

Went to see a one off showing of Fish Tank at the local Odeon. Such an alternative film that they didn't bother to put any adverts on before the film. I was the only one in there. Beautiful

ambient light

2009-10-05T16:51:00.007+01:00

Reduce energy. Create incentives for turning lights off.

Ambient light in urban living creates fantastic shadows

listening devices

2009-10-05T13:53:00.006+01:00

Do we need a way to hear each other in crowded places
Do we need listening devices?
Reinvented ear trumpets?
Whispering tubes?

places of non consumption

2009-10-05T13:46:00.003+01:00

What places might be considered to be zones of non consumption?

credit crunched closed down shops
places of worship
libraries
park benches any public seating
parks

What characteristics to they have?

empty, quiet, still, light, not crowded?
for reflection, contemplation, peace and quiet?

negotiating crowds

2009-10-04T20:44:00.007+01:00

Sometimes making your way through crowds of people can be hugely frustrating. Envisage yourself floating above the crowd. Perhaps a step to let you perch on a shelf overlooking the street would be a moment for time out before you lower yourself in to the current again.

negotiating urban space

2009-10-01T18:19:00.007+01:00

Time lapse films of certain urban spaces. Data from a snap shot survey of types of people: Man, woman, child etc, and whether or not they were carrying anything: bag, rucksack etc, would imply that men are less encumbered, more relaxed?

Churchill Square :

Saturday 12th September 9.45-10.15

Woman with bag: 94

Woman with child/ren :29

woman with nothing:6

Man with child/ren:17

Man with rucksack: 22

Man with bag: 15

Man with nothing: 73

the colour of midsummer

2009-10-01T11:50:00.005+01:00

Nearly everyone who responded to my Do you need time out? survey has a preference for a rural or natural environment and outdoors rather than indoors. Perhaps this is predictable . Perhaps there is some kind of collective subconsciousness that responds positively to growth? This is midsummer on the england scottish border : as much green as I have seen in the past year, without a building in sight.

eye movements

2009-09-30T10:14:00.004+01:00

My survey 'Do you need timeout' has also generated ideas from areas such as the treatment of post traumatic stress, where unanticipated triggers can provoke spontaneous memories that cause panic attacks. EMDR Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing is a technique where the patient is encouraged to use bilateral eye movements (e.g left-right-left) when recalling traumatic and distressing events. This technique has been found to reduce the intensity of the memory. I am wondering whether there might be a connection between this and the sensation you get on a speeding train? I often find my thought processes run smoother when I am in motion - watching the world go by?

hiding places

2009-09-28T08:28:00.003+01:00

Getting peoples preferences on their version of a space for time out has generated some good nuggets of ingredients to chew on so far:

' a haven of the unexpected' that is 'deliciously enclosed'
' a womb like flotation tank'
' pre-menstrual huts complete with stacks of plates for smashing'
' padded cells'

with

'natural colours and patches of intense pigment'
wind and breezes quite popular

Bin Bowl Water

2009-09-14T07:36:00.005+01:00

If sunlight, a bowl of water and a waste paper bin can make this there is potential for magical shelters...

tidy sleeping

2009-09-13T13:30:00.006+01:00

Is it the density of the population and the limited space that makes some people in India so organised and tidy? A place for everything and everything in its place, including yourself. Work done, time for a break. This was in a Bangalore market in April

the colour of churchill square

2009-09-12T14:27:00.009+01:00

Having done a combination of mapping with google maps and pacing the streets, I made a colour sampler to demonstrate the (visual) experience from photographs that I took in churchill square using the eyedropper in photoshop. This is a colour palette of the environment, not the people.

unregulated spaces

2009-09-11T19:21:00.002+01:00

Sennet keeps returning to the need for ambiguity in urban environments . He seems to be responding to the over design of certain modern buildings and streets that do not allow for an evolution or interaction developed over time with use, that do not accomodate adaptations. But also that we need more, not less, challenging spaces. Guy De Bord coined the phrase psychogeography in a response to the perception that everyday life is controlled and manipulated by over regulation. Are there examples of actual places and spaces that respond to these ideas?

le mur vegetal

2009-09-11T08:34:00.004+01:00

It turns out that the growing wall concept was invented by Patric Blanc, who is giving a talk at 100 percent . That one I saw in Paris is probably one of his and he did the one for the Ministre de Culture (architect Jean Nouvel). oddly reminiscent of my brother's overgrown garden that recently had to be scoured because the ivy was eating into next door..

small growths

2009-09-11T08:12:00.003+01:00

Hafsteinn Juliuson has produced this range of jewellry he calls grings

spotlights

2009-09-10T04:23:00.007+01:00

Environments that use directional light, creating spotlight places like by Anthony Mcall at the Serpentine. The interesting thing about this was the way that walking into the shafts of light changed the shape of the light beams.

reflected light

2009-09-10T04:20:00.003+01:00

This one of my favourite bits of reflected light, probably the colour combination.

grown homes

2009-09-09T18:58:00.006+01:00

One way to maximise resources and provide shelter, these ones are in iceland, where cosy is essential.

rodchenko workers club 1925

2009-09-09T06:30:00.005+01:00

Libraries are another location of non consumption. Quiet but social. Rodchenko's 1925 design for a Workers Club, a restroom for Workers,reconstructed at the Tate exhibition this year.

mixed use streets

2009-09-07T08:54:00.000+01:00

The recent conversion of New Road introduces the concept of mixed used streets to Brighton: cars, bikes and people are equally free to roam and it seems to work. A hundred yard bench provides opportunity to share a seat whilst at the same time maintaining personal space. A snap shot survey reveals that pedestrians and cyclists take over:

New Road 7/9/09 08:50 -09:50

cyclists: 55

cars: 7

trucks: 2

vans: 6

woman with bag:96

woman with rucksack:9

woman with nothing:4

man with bag:21

man with rucksack:22

man with nothing :43

child:27

pushchairs: 11

rollerblades : 1

man with one item( enveolope, light bulb, guitar, paper, folder, can): 6

woman with stick:1

man with stick:1

wheelchair user: 1

snug

2009-09-06T13:38:00.007+01:00

this project by Luis Carjaval and Annie Davy about victorian snugs is a reminder of a great idea that could be revived. Time out from the crowds, where you can make conversation. Apparently it had other uses..

a hole in the ground

2009-09-06T08:15:00.003+01:00

When we were in Andra Pradesh in April we visited a home where a woman was grinding chilli like this: a hollow in a slab of stone in the ground: looks like hard work. But interesting that you can make shapes in the fabric of the building for functional purposes

growing wall

2009-09-03T19:44:00.002+01:00

found another one in kingston and discovered the name of the man: jean nouvel who did the one in paris at the cartier foundation

feet and ground

2009-09-03T06:59:00.005+01:00

Trainers are probably the most ubiquitous form of footwear. developed for sports, worn by anyone comfort and convenience and pounding the pavements. They work - consequently multiple designs accomodate taste and fashion. 4 wheel drive versions of footwear. Could difficult terrain be reintroduced into urban environments: rocks, moorland, to make more challenging experiences? You can get portable climbing walls now.

wind rain sun

2009-09-03T06:54:00.002+01:00

Preoccupation with weather in britain is inevitable - what to wear to avoid being soaked, cold, burnt? Can these elements be used to create engaging and environments and functional objects in the urban environment? things that interact with weather things that make you wish it would rain?

sonic marshmallows

2009-08-30T07:40:00.003+01:00

Troika created this installation at Wat Tyler country park in Basildon Essex based on sound mirrors like the ones at Dungeness used as early warning systems during the war - if you stand by one and whisper you can hear by standing at the other one 60 metres away,

in between spaces

2009-08-29T19:04:00.002+01:00

I like the idea of this pod by Mariko Moro - a floating day bed pod for time out

in between spaces

2009-08-29T18:24:00.012+01:00

Earlier this summer I worked on the installation of the Elephant Bed at Fabrica, a large scale site specific piece by the Canadian artist John Grade, made from soluble biodegradable paper. The shapes are based on microscopic structures of Coccolithophores that ultimately form the chalk sea beds. They create an intriguing space in which to retreat: warm and light, muffling external sound.

Must be entirely synchronicity that Olivia Decaris MA student in Design Products at the RCA has created something almost identical for a similar purpose.

dysfunctional outfits

2009-08-29T16:05:00.007+01:00

Maybe the continuing popularity of the high heels and the low slung jeans, that make it impossible to walk, is due to a need for inconvenience? Perhaps life has become too bland,predictable, and comfortable and we need some kind of physical challenge to make life more interesting?

perforations

2009-08-29T12:18:00.003+01:00

note: explore the potential for perforations to make deliberate patterns or messages out of shadows - this is the shadow of a device to make ready made instant kolams using flour - probably tin

seeing in the dark

2009-08-29T10:56:00.006+01:00

We eventually managed to get up to the Chattri on the Downs to see the Anish Kapoor installation C Curve during the Brighton festival, a little late in the day. By the time we got there it was dark. Taking photographs with a flash created unexpected results: they had put one of those orange plastic netting fences that construction workers arrange around holes in the road to deter the sheep from licking the mirror..

there is life and then there are shoes

2009-08-29T08:56:00.014+01:00

Function: something to protect our feet from the ground. Protection from the elements, wet cold, dirt. To prevent cuts and grazes, to keep feet clean.To make it easier to walk?

How fantastic is it that the fashion for higher and higher and higher heels has endured? These astounding elegant sculptural prostheses that slow you down, make you strut, and are all about glamour, sex, and objectification of legs? Its such a blatant defiance of feminist arguments about hobbling women: sculptural Barbie-fication of girls..difficult not to be impressed.

last november Devon council had to intervene: Late night revellers in a Devon resort offered flip-flops to help them get home

It occured to me that perhaps the girls in high heels needed the occasional perch. I have named my first prototype: Slip on

its staring you in the face

2009-08-29T08:06:00.004+01:00

How to account for the actual nature of the urban environment? How to document? How to anaylse? To understand the ground beneath your feet, the walls beside you, the spaces that have become the background to everyday life and normally pass unnoticed during the A to B. Spending time deliberately looking rather than just dashing past can be relatively uninspiring. It was suggested I look at Georges Perec :

" We live in space, in these spaces, these towns, this countryside, these corridors, these parks.. there isn't one space, a beautiful space, a beautiful space round about, a beautiful space all around us, there's a whole lot of small bits of space ... spaces have multiplied, been broken up and have diversified. There are spaces today of every kind and every size and every use and every function. To live is to pass from one space to another, while doing your very best not to bump yourself". (Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces,1974)

His chapter on The Street prescribes specific exercises -" exhaust the subject.. force yourself to see more flatly. Detect a rhythm: the passing of cars. The cars arrive in clumps.... decipher a bit of the town, deduce the obvious facts

i have embarked on a number of different exercises to document local spaces:

time lapse
redrawing maps from google earth to create maps of non consumption
just sitting while the time lapses and doing the perec exercises

its an act of faith - hoping for clues to support my hypothesis

I need some other subjective experiences other than mine .........wish you werent here?

in between time

2009-08-26T21:39:00.002+01:00

is there any time inbetween now that it is possible to consume 24 hours a day. if the shops are shut the internet is open. if the pubs are shut the clubs are open. If the cinemas are shut the movies can be downloaded. anything on demand. is there a time inbetween for non consumption?

add clock....pie chart for consumption diary

in between spaces

2009-08-26T21:33:00.003+01:00

There are many anonymous places in contemporary life between work, home, and entertainment . Perhaps thats OK, or perhaps they are wasted spaces or there aren't enough of them Richard Sennett talks about the need to design ambiguity into urban environments. Places that aren't for anything in particular that are not controlled or manipulated but allow for, or provoke interaction between people that is not proscribed. pedestrianisation of city centres is creating more space for potentially flexible interactions if it is not entirely inhabited by the service industries...cafe culture...

light shadows

2009-08-26T21:05:00.006+01:00

The workspace at the resource centre in Andra Pradesh had this woven grass roof that created this beautiful patterned shadow. of course the light intensity there is very high, so it won't work on a grey day.

simple but effective

2009-08-26T20:52:00.006+01:00

in Milan this year i was keeping a record of all those objects that had been successfully made from one piece: rope, sheet material, looped, knotted, stuffed. Then the other day Tom, whose mother is Danish was telling me about the appeal of these tin openers that have been used in his family for decades. I have never seen one before. Very appealing. According to Tom they also work.

where did that come from?

2009-08-26T20:25:00.012+01:00

I often become transfixed by those

occasional indistinct white smears

that sometimes seem like a spray can

test... and turn out to be reflected

light or light shadows could be used

to more deliberate effect?

reflected light from glazed tiles in a pub toilet

no idea but very lovely

introducing the rural into the urban environment

2009-08-24T16:30:00.002+01:00

Amongst the buildings, concrete, tarmac and increasing pedestrianised space, is there now more room to introduce more than just the odd plant pot into an urban environment? They seem to be having a go at vertical versions in Paris.

use a bench

2009-08-23T15:00:00.005+01:00

These benches in Paris are multi-purpose : day beds, card tables, bag hangers...

the longest bench that ade mentions in comment below is thomas heatherwick extruded aluminium. He is showing the offcuts as sculpture at the haunch of venison

sunday afternoon

2009-08-23T14:45:00.002+01:00

Luxembourg gardens, Paris, Sunday afternoon. All you need is a couple of chairs. Make your own arrangements. At one time these chairs were for rent like deckchairs, Proust mentions them in Swann's Way:In search of lost time (1913):" the chair-warden and I are old friends"

sheep shelter

2009-08-17T07:14:00.001+01:00

Even sheep need shelter sometimes

building a shelter

2009-08-16T19:00:00.002+01:00

Started building this in June - so far just the base - went back in August and it is growing itself

listening glasses

2009-08-12T17:54:00.002+01:00

The exhibition for the positivesoundscapes research project included a piece on listening glasses by Dawn Scarfe designed to vibrate when they pick up particular frequencies - ampliphying the sound in the ear. Lovely objects - to help hearing? And Simon Elvins

made a map of Silent London based on sound research to show the quietest places - evidence of what we might expect ? Could it be linked to GPS to guide you to the quietest places?

sitting post

2009-08-07T13:20:00.002+01:00

New Road Brighton: was this intended as a seat? Definitely there is potential to consider heights of seats, a good form of storage for people who can climb? Theres a lot said about public seating and a good debate on Dan Lockton's blog Design with Intent about using design to influence behaviour and the lengths public authorities will go to deter the homeless from rough sleeping and teenagers from hanging around. Similar to the dissappearance of public toilets:why make life inconvenient for everyone? People will find ways around it.

hearing devices

2009-08-07T12:04:00.008+01:00

First experiments with hearing devices - so why wouldn't you use your hand? Does the stick make it more comfortable? more performative? how about the context? Would a ruff work as an ampliphier?

rejecting consumption

2009-08-07T11:26:00.003+01:00

i am reminded of Michael Landy and his systematic destruction of all his possessions

as an ongoing performance Break Down deliberately located in the centre of consumption a recently vacated C&A store in Oxford St,London.

24 hour world

2009-08-07T11:14:00.001+01:00

we're discussing the potential of i-technology, on-line profiles and similar that mean that we can access the world in our pocket. how much are we in the present moment or able to experience parallel existences concurrently? They are explaining the situationist notion of society of the spectacle and realising that we are now able to weave our own individual spectacles..... constantly and ultimately able to be in touch and update and be updated in real time.. do we need a mode of escape? A magnetic field shield? do we need to create terrains of non-consumption?

borrow

2009-08-07T10:11:00.000+01:00

in an atmosphere of sunny saturday affluence, they stroll in their favourite and informal shirts and skirts and hats and bags and hats and shorts and shades. its time off. Have come to meet Mark Bennet to borrow his camera so I can experiment with time lapse in urban environments. So I am explaining my research.

As he points out: " there is nowhere on the high street that is not moderated by money" ( i have just paid £2.40 for an orange juice) and sees:" sharing as a subversive act".He hands over the camera.

information overload

2009-08-01T08:23:00.002+01:00

What intrigued me at first about Nacho Carbonnell Evolution series was the contrast to the rest of the Milan design shows. Amongst the onslaught of opulence and glamour of sumptuous materials and extravagant signature pieces, his work looks awkward, hand made, childlike. when you discover that its intention is to provide a refuge from information overload, and that it is literally made out of pulped printed material. - it makes all the more sense. There is something appealing about how the drab material, the crooked lines and apparently unstable structure compare to the ubiquitous sleek, stripped down, wipe clean urban shopping environments.

zones of non consumption

2009-07-27T22:35:00.001+01:00

How do we cope with the world around us?

i am interested in finding lateral,playful and explorative solutions to contemporary dilemmas:

too much choice, too much information, too much signage, over regulation and excess.

Do we need zones of non-consumption? Do we need prostheses to survive everyday life?

can you hear me?

2009-07-18T20:00:00.000+01:00

Background noise everywhere is making it more and more difficult to have a conversation. Ambient music in bars raises speaking levels - urban noise from traffic, bars, clubs, extended licensing has made this to 24 hour experience. Do we need some kind of prostheses so that we can hear each other in public spaces? Our friend Gregory currently in As You Like it at the Globe is also interested in the potential to provide audiences with a device to help them hear the actors.. we visited the Globe for some active research..

in between buildings

2009-07-15T14:35:00.006+01:00

A few wild flower seeds have created a meadow alongside this otherwise grey utilitarian path, that winds down between a couple of tower blocks in Brighton. Makes a meadow out of grassy bank.

24 hour living

2009-07-05T13:27:00.003+01:00

Recently Willliam Leith has identified the risks of the apparent convenience of 24 living. More evidence to support my hypothesis. Do we need some way to protect ourselves from this over-stimulation? Time out?