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ideas are everywhere

collect moments

By food for thought, ideas are everywhere, love a true story

The ‘crossover collective’ is a social machine that focuses on an ancient form of communication as social activity: collective embroidery. The machine was designed by Floor Nijdeken and on show during the tradeshow ShowUp, which was held in Amsterdam at the 2nd and 3th of February.

Like this focus on transfering knowledge or ‘heritage’ by interaction. Besides the fact that a lot of knowledge is getting lost by solely learning from books and nternet, there is less passing through of knowledge and inspiration by the seniors in the trade. Our society is also changing and people hardly communicate in real social exhange anymore. A lot of spotaneity is getting lost, which to me is one of the fun parts of life. Sitting together at this machine and sharing skills, stories, knowledge, having fun and having a little part of you left in an embroidered carpet. Couldn’t agree more with his slogan ‘collect memories, not things’.

memories

By a keen eye, ideas are everywhere

Intruiging photo’s by Chino Otsuka. A Tokyo born photographer, living in Britain since she was 10. In her work she deals with a repeating theme; “What makes a place a home and where does a sense of belonging comes from?”. In a lot of her projects she uses self-portraits to explore the themes of belonging, identity and memory.

These pictures are a great example of this theme she is working on. By placing herself back in a picture that was taken when she was a child. I wonder how she felt when she was back at the place where these pictures were taken. Was there some disappointment or will ‘the journey back’ make the memory stronger. Clever way of using memory as a narritive element to tell her story.

“If,
again
I have a chance to meet,
there is so much I want to ask
and so much I want to tell”

Imagine Finding Me / Chino Otsuka

opposite

By ideas are everywhere, love a true story

I’m so anxious about how this project will end; ‘40 days of dating’ by Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman. As an experiment the two good friends, with opposite relationship problems, dated for 40 days.

“It’s been said that it takes 40 days to change a bad habit.
In an attempt to explore and hopefully overcome their fears and inadequacies, Tim and Jessica will go through the motions of a relationship for the next 40 days: the commitment, time, companionship, joys and frustrations. Can they help each other, or will they fall into their same habits? Will they damage their friendship? What if they fall in love?”

They have set up a set of six rules in order to focus on each other and on the project.
1 _ they will see each other every day for forty days
2 _ they will go on at least 3 dates a week
3 _ they will see a couples therapist once a week
4 _ they will go on a weekend trip together
5 _ they will document everything
6 _ they will not see, date or have sex with anyone else

And of course the typographic illustrations they’ve made are fun, but what else is there to expect of two great designers.
Be sure to follow it. Just . love . it.

mix

By ideas are everywhere

Totally up my alley is the work of Verena Michels, shown at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy Graduation Show. Just fell head over heals for her use of colour, the beautiful little book added to the garments and the feel of her sweater. The total concept behind this project is making it top-notch; experiment and research the way it should be. As stated on her vimeopage:

‘I always liked the poem Inventur by Guenther Eich. It describes someone collecting, naming and counting everything he has left after the war. He describes their new function, like using a pair of socks as a pillow and cardboard as a mattress.

This mirrors my own concept; I gathered materials I like and tried to forget their conventional function. I experimented with wool and ended up finding a way to create a textile from wool without knitting. The technique is inspired by the way “moving blankets” are made industrially. The result is something that looks more flat than a knitted textile and has a different structure. The technique does not require special equipment. You can do it at home on your sewing machine and it is easy to learn. I always wanted to create a way of production that I can teach my friends and collaborate with them.’

Before I started my final project, I did a three month internship with Conny Groenewegen, an Amsterdam based designer known for her innovative knitwear collections. It influenced my way of looking at material. I learnt to manipulate texture and the weight of materials and I practiced creating silhouettes by following the material.’ ‘I only use wool yarn. The different qualities I use define the look of each garment. One looks and feels like a woven structure, one like a knit, and the weights vary from very light to heavy like a rug.

I got the idea for this technique the moment I saw the work of German artist Rosemarie Trockel in real life. It is her work too that made me decide to keep my own technique minimal.’

connected

By ideas are everywhere

Every house is like a tree rooted in a global network of underground network of pipes and cables. All we communicate through those roots is converted into a language that is the same all over the world: ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). This computer language was the first form of communication between man and computer. These curtains by Nienke Sybrandy visualize a tree that has its roots in the same ground as the house, and can be taken anywhere you go. No more longing to that old view when you move house and you sadly have to leave behind that growing tree in front of your window.

transfer

By ideas are everywhere

White crisp silhouette of weeds make intruiging patterns at the ‘Blueware Tiles’. The dried and pressed weeds are composed between plates of glass. The plates and tiles are then exposed under ultra violet light, which develops a photogram of the weeds in an intense Prussian blue. Great project by Glithero; two dutch designers working from London.

letting go

By ideas are everywhere

The ‘goedzak’ is an eye-catching, transparent zip lock waste bag for items that are still useable. The bag goes on the street and can be retrieved, so usable items are given a chance to a second life. The ‘goedzak’ is a straightforward introduction to sustainability. The bag is designed by Waarmakers, an agency creating designs that bring about a positive social impact, designs that materialise an ideology and trigger specific human behaviour. ‘We like stuff, but we like people better.’

The word goedzak means ‘softhearted person’, and combines the Dutch words for “good” and “bag”. Just my alley this simple, sustainable design with that sweet touch in the products name.

via Dezeen

lingering…

By ideas are everywhere

…a bit longer. Wouldn’t that be great on this swing-tree. What a beauty it is this project ‘chop stick’ by the swedish architecture firm visiondivision, commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art to create an innovative concession stand for the 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.

‘The design is based on the universal notion that you need to sacrifice something in order to make something new. Every product is a compound of different pieces of nature, whether it is a cell phone, a car, a stone floor or a wood board; they have all been harvested in one way or another.’

‘The raw material that was selected is a 100-foot yellow poplar tree, the state tree of Indiana. After the tree was transported to the park site, it became the suspended horizontal beam of the new structure, which is almost entirely made out of the tree itself.’

As an extra they made Yellow Poplar syrup; extracted from the bark of the tree and this is sold in the kiosk. How cool is that; you can actually eat a part of the building.

via Mymodernmet