o n g e l o f e l i j k

Number One

2012-01-19T15:58:00.000-08:00

Bus Number 1 ends at Vellir 7.

It leaves its engine running for about twenty minutes.

The drive has a key to a little kitchen in a grey container.

He lights his pipe, Brynhildur and I change shoes

– by now, I'm wearing borrowed gloves, shoes and a rain coat–

– I like to wear other people's things –

The bus drives off to its other end point, Hlemmur.

Exactly 3 minutes later another Number One

stops at the exact same place.

Field Essays - Unveiling Hafnarjordur

2012-01-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

Today we headed to THE NEIGHBORHOOD with special guest Pétur Thomsen; for his photographic project Àsfjall, commissioned by The National Museum, he followed the built and untouched surroundings of this "small hill with a huge name" since 2008. Thomsen has been capturing traces of what he calls 'umhfverfing' (environmentalization) for some time now - the way cities expand into the surrounding nature, and the conflicts that these encounters produce, are made tangible in his work. Sometimes the presence of the man-made is hard to discern. For instance, in the third picture I took, the diagonal hilltop is actually the limit of a construction dump on the other side.

The students were asked to bring their particular interest to this area - as a physical object, in their pocket. This way they documented Hafnarjordur through the lens of bees, rust, time or social contact. Interesting questions have already started to arise regarding alternative histories for this area. To be continued...

Your country doesn't exist

2012-01-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson opened their show Under Deconstruction last friday at the National Gallery. The show included Il Tuo Paese Non Esiste, 2011 (Your Country Doesn´t Exist) (ongoing from 2003). The fact that they have been working on this project for many years, producing different iterations in relation to varying contexts and countries, gives the initial title a lot of body. I would nearly want to see this title materialized in every single language of every single nation state of the world... From the moment I saw this image, it did its work - made its way to my conscience and my subconscious. And hasn't left it since. This sentence is important. It anticipates a shift in thinking and in the way we categorize the world. All we need to do it is appropriate it. Luckily, we can start by wearing it because Libia and Ólafur designed a very seductive t-shirt bearing the words.. in Icelandic!

Surrendering to Iceland

2012-01-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

The video Surrender is by Ólöf Arnalds. The way she visualizes birth in this video is breath taking.

Also mesmerizing is Björk's new album-app Biophilia, in which she took on the challenge of teaching music theory through the wonders of nature. See this article in Grapevine on this musicological ecosystem...

Nature + Music + Technology = Biophilia

Click here for the biophilia app on Bjork's site

Today I waited for the sun to rise from a hot outdoor tub at the Vesturbaejar swimmingpool.

The waiting for the day to break is long enough to make you crave for it
– when it finally happens, it's as though everything and everybody, buildings, colors and humans alike, are relieved.

Also today, the smoky bay cleared and mountain Esja appeared behind the shipyards.

Yesterday I experienced the tolt, a specific rythm characteristic of Icelandic ponies.
My pony was Jasper, a 22 year old lord of the hills.
"Dont' be fooled by his age", the girl told me before I mounted him.

The tolt is smooth enough to take in the landscape while moving very swiflty across it.
It's contained but forward driven.
It's addictive like many other things here.

The specifics of the tolt for the amateurs of details:

"For Icelandic ponies, it's a fifth gait-a single-foot or running walk. All Icelandic ponies walk, trot and canter. Most will also pace-move both legs on the same side at the same time. They pace as a way of resting after a fast gallop. Some will even tolt. The tolt is a four-beat gait, with the footfall sequence the same as the walk, for example right rear, right fore, left rear, left fore."

Field Essays - Iceland 1

2012-01-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

Field Essays meets Reykjavik (smoky bay)!

Day one proved one of changes of plans,
and brought about some wonderful first encounters here in Iceland,
Thanks to my hosts Brynhildur Pálsdóttir and Tinna Gunnarsdóttir.

The workshop at the Iceland Academy of Arts will start monday - the plan today was to go visit photographer Pétur Thomsen in Sólheimar, a sustainable village community of about 100 inhabitants, one –icy– hilly road away from the capital.
The icy road and the non-functioning window wipers brought us to another place - Tinna's parents' home, a beautifully furnished apartment with a view on the bay (smokey indeed, today). After a delicious lunch and switching cars (for an even bigger four wheel drive) we headed for Hafnarborg, the home town of Brynhildur, and the unbuilt neighborhood of Hafnarfjörður, which will be the site of inquiry of this Field Essays.

Hafnarborg is a place with a distinction - you are from there, or you aren't. Bryndhildur grew up there, but now lives in Reykjavik - her childhood friends still wonder about this. By contrast, Hafnarfjörður is an area that is still looking for its sense of place. Pétur Thomsen says about it: " What makes this area an interesting subject for a photographer is that it graphically portrays the situation in Icelandic society today, and the immense developments that took place all over the Reykjavík area during the past few years. A new neighbourhood is taking root in nature, right next to a nature reserve. But the downturn in the economy has slowed the development down. A lot of the property around there is now for sale, and many building foundations have been left untouched for some time. Events in the Icelandic society influenced how the project turned out. Within six months from its beginning the Icelandic economy collapsed." Hafnarfjörður is a very disputed place, not in the least because a large aluminum factory was implanted on the nearby coast. (Watch Dreamland to get an insight into the issues at stake...)

Walking around the area on unfinished roads between unlit lamp poles, it is as if time paused, to render the impact of human activities in nature startlingly visible. Here, a dilemma is made tangible - if "everything mankind creates is nature" (since mankind is in itself nothing else than nature) [quote from Aun, The beginning and End of Everything, by Edgar Honetschläger], then what is going on here?

To be continued...

Ps Note that the last image is a former potato storage. Compare it with the middle class and social housing developed in Hafnarfjörður!

Cross sections of happiness

2011-07-31T06:27:00.000-07:00

A little cross section of twelve days
of travelling happiness and melancholy
on our way to a Hungarian jazz festival,
a Swiss wedding and French friendships...

Villa Le Lac, Le Corbusier

Cascade de la Druise,
Plan-De-Baix

L'homme qui avait
le coeur dans la main -

Hussein Chalayan,
Musée des Arts Décoratifs

Libuše Niklová,
Musée des Arts Décoratifs

No More Art 3: Support SKOR for Art in Public Space

2011-06-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

To all cultural practitioners who understand that ... culture needs culture to strive, bloom and evolve (i can't say it more simply) –

Follow SKOR's protest actions here
Or sign the petition here, in favor of a sustained and reflective discourse of our socio-cultural realm

& Just make some noise, and show the Dutch government that this kind of policy making will not make them cool (read: tough) abroad, as they like to believe. Dutch politics are discrediting themselves at a pace they cannot keep up with. The situation would be a great script for a satire or slapstick, but unfortunately there's nothing to laugh about.

No More Art 2: let everything go up in smoke

2011-06-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

N.B. DOORGEZONDEN BERICHT: ARTBOMB
JOIN THE GROWING INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN AN ACTION TO SAVE THE ARTS

Please forward !

Dear art friend,
EXPRESS THE VALUE OF ART! SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR CULTURE!

On Friday the 24th June at noon local time, we need you to join this initiative in shrouding art locations across the world in coloured smoke. This visual act will be a sign of resistance against the growing disdain for the arts within societies and governments worldwide, and a sign of support for colleagues who face major cutbacks. Now is the time to act to show your appreciation and the necessity of the arts!

ARTBOMB is a peaceful art intervention initiated in The Netherlands. The Dutch Government is about to cut 40% of all cultural funding. This will result in the disappearance of a multitude of organizations that excel internationally in their field. This loss will be felt not only by the Dutch public but by the international community.

One signal, one moment, one act to show support. You can contribute visual ammunition against the disproportionate cuts to the arts budget. This visible intervention will rise up around the world where people value the arts and want to express their support for artists and cultural organizations.

Everybody who joins the ARTBOMB intervention will become part of this chain reaction and is invited to upload the photos and films of their own intervention to the website www.artbomb.nl as a token of solidarity and a symbol of strength.

WHAT             IGNITE COLOURED SMOKE AND DOCUMENT THE EVENT
WHEN            12 NOON LOCAL TIME, FRIDAY 24th JUNE
WHERE         ART LOCATION OF YOUR CHOICE
AFTER           UPLOAD YOUR IMAGES/FOOTAGE TO www.artbomb.nl

Information about ARTBOMB and how to join: www.artbomb.nl
Email: artbombnow@gmail.com

SEND THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR COLLEGUES AND FRIENDS IN THE CULTURE SECTOR!!

No More Art 1: Why intrinsic values don't seem to matter anymore

2011-06-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

Dutch coup d'état in art and culture: Appeal for response!

www.dezaaknu.nl
www.schadekaart.nl

Last week in a memorandum titled "More than Quality," the State Secretary for Culture, acting on behalf of the Dutch government (a minority government of liberals and Christian Democrats, whose hold on power relies on the support of Geert Wilders's anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV)) announced his new "vision" for the field of culture, which represents nothing less than a violent and sweeping political manoeuvre aimed at the very notion of culture and art, its role in society, and its place within the democratic sphere. With the exception of but a handful of "top international institutions" that will be spared, the entire field of internationally focused and future-oriented artistic experimentation, innovation, education, and development, which has distinguished the Netherlands and given it a leading international position in the field for many decades, is to be demolished practically overnight. Instead of preserving the values of experimentation, risk, and vision, the memorandum leaves us with rhetoric about "strengthening the responsibility and resilience of citizens" and letting "the market" take its "natural" course.

To be clear: Dutch professionals in the field of art and culture are aware of the fact that some cuts in funding are necessary given today's economic situation and that a recalibration of support may be called for. Furthermore the cuts in arts funding might seem of lesser importance in light of what is happening, with the same brutality, in the fields of healthcare, social reform, education, the media and scientific research, among others. However it is in solidarity with all these realms that we raise our voices in disagreement about the sweeping, overreaching, and devastating broad cuts proposed.

Speaking from the position of our field, we find it essential to point out that what we are facing is in fact an end of an internationally valued cultural climate, which we dare say is unparalleled anywhere in the world. In and outside of the Netherlands, the art world has benefited from the existence of a cultural system of generosity towards the artistic and cultural imagination of the future, which today finds itself under threat of extinction. We must articulate our disagreement with these developments, and our resistance to them together, in order to prevent the following from happening:

In the fields of art and culture, the budget will shrink by 200 million Euros; for visual art it means going from 53,3 to 31 million on an annual basis, taking immediate effect in 2013. Amongst other things, this will lead to:
• A 50 % cut in the budget for stipends and working grants for artists;
• A 50% cut in the budget of the Mondriaan Foundation, the body e.g. responsible for supporting international projects;
• A dramatic reduction of the number of contemporary visual arts institutions receiving state support (which currently include Witte de With, De Appel, BAK, Marres, etc.) from 11 to 6;
• A total withdrawal of all support for art magazines;
• The end of government subsidies for functions now fulfilled by the Manifesta Foundation, SKOR | Foundation for Art and Public Domain, and the NiMK – Netherlands Media Art Institute;
• The end of all public financing of the post-academic education for artists offered in places such as the Ateliers, Rijksakademie voor beeldende kunsten, European Ceramic Work Centre, and the Jan van Eyck Academie.

Given this dramatic situation of the annihilation of government support for broad sectors of the internationally-recognized Dutch contemporary art field, we hope that you — our international colleagues — will respond fiercely and immediately to this extermination of our future heritage by signing this letter and returning it to us. We will hand over all letters to State Secretary Halbe Zijlstra.

Ann Demeester, Guus Beumer, Maria Hlavajova, Arno van Roosmalen, representing De Zaak Nu, various institutions and individuals in the contemporary visual arts all of whom are concerned about the future of the whole cultural field in the Netherlands. For more info see www.dezaaknu.nl and www.schadekaart.nl.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Creative Company Conference

2011-06-07T16:39:00.000-07:00

Haarlem, June 7, 2011.

Dying to connect…. Hipe or hope?

Set in the quietly located Haarlem's Philarmonie, the symposium's aim, according to its founder Rudolf van Wezel, is to connect creativity with business, with connectivity as this year's main theme. Creative Value Networks, Creative Entrepreneurship, and CCC Lunchtime Experience – as a relative outsider to the world of marketing and management, I found myself more and more puzzled by the managerial jargon and mindset of the day. Notions and words, which I have worked with for years, have apparently made it into the latest management theories (read: manuals, hypes, trends, buzz). Here's a selection of magical equations which claim to bring about change and innovation.

From Martijn Hamman's "Dominate Your Market" presentation (Van den Enden & Deitmer)

KISS: Keep It Stupidly Simple
Think BIC: Believe Innovate Collaborate
The 3 S: Sizeable Scalability Sustainability
CFIMITYM: Cash FLow Is More Important Than Your Mother

& and these are two striking ideas about today's world...

Entrepreneurship is the engine that drives the world.
Thinking becomes more important than knowing.
(...)

At regular intervals during the day, we are invited to connect to each other, the speakers, and even the (great) American bookstore in the entrance hall. By noon, I have to think of a recent article in NRC Next, which argued for a society without managers - its main claim being that most management is actually mismanagement, wasting resources, attention and time, and parasiting the creative discourse. A point in case in this respect is the book The Conversation Manager, by Steven van Belleghem. Van Belleghem rightfully points out that word-of-mouth and trust dynamics are the core incentives that drive our decisions regarding our careers and lives. His next claim is more problematic - according to him, conversations can and should be managed, hence providing a wealth of opinion-driven PR space to step into (and profit from). I would have liked to ask him about his last good conversation, and if we would have enjoyed finding out that it had been schemed from beginning till end. Or, as the day's comedian from Boomchicago neatly put it: crowd sourcing is kind of like if i invite you to dinner and I ask you what are you making me for dinner….

Uneasiness and resistance are interesting phenomena - they point to conflicting values and ethics. That I react as I did, comes as no surprise – "the room was filled with creatives wanting to go into business and business people wanting to be creative" (Boom Chicago).

"We need all need a Why" was a popular statement of the day, which could have connected the business and creative minds in the room, but strangely enough the conference itself was mainly instrumental in character. Notions that I work with as bearers of meaning, came by today as selling points: content, conversation, value, these notions have become quantifiable – hence manageable, which to me (forgive my longing for authenticity)endangers their actual (intrinsic) value.

It's all about reputation.

Can we imagine others models of success than the capitalist, profit driven one? Creativity is about intrinsic motivation, what is your incentive system? What are the consequences of embracing the network as a business model? How can design thinking help foster ecosystems?

According to Neil Robertson (Crowdsortium.org), crowd sourcing is a petri dish to test new forms of motivation, which do not rely only on money; examples of these new labour models are Mechanical Turk, or 99 designs. U tester, Trada, and Kloud score are other professional rating systems that reshape the labor market. The fact that we can now quantify expertise has made us move from a meritocracy to expert based markets. However, a danger, pointed out by a member of the audience, is that skills become commodities. To which Robertson cryptically replied: (…) We are commoditising the transaction costs of being an expert.

Nonetheless, being able to measure things opens up new territories – knowing about latitude and longitude helped us position ourselves, hence enabling us to move on to other, yet unknown horizons.

"Young people are today's leaders. They are the astronauts - I take care of their safe landing, and that of our customers." Ruurd Priester (Strategy Director Lost Boys)

"The issue with creative industries is you don't know what you get. That's the point of creativity. This is uncomfortable to the rest of the market, because most of the world lacks the confidence to trust this kind of processes. The norm is delivery, not research." - Victor van der Chijs (Managing Director OMA, Chairman Creative industries)

The creative sector should re-invent itself. It should concentrate on cross-overs, so that the collective intelligence of creative industries can start to be applied to urgent issues, who up till now have been left up to technocratic institutions. Now is the time, because we can organize processes now in one tenth of the time it used to take. Such is the conclusion, which van der Chijs formulated, partly fed by the architectural practice of OMA. By expanding their activities beyond architecture and bluffing their way into other fields of strategic thinking, OMA diversified its risks as an enterprise and broadened its scope of expertise. At the core of this move is the twofold identity of OMA / AMO, where OMA is the 'regular' architecture firn while AMO focuses on everything but architecture.

Some other of OMA's business model assets include: inventive and creative, profitable but not profit driven, no compromise in quality, talent scouting, short term work contracts. A distinct feature of OMA is its chameleon identity – in order to win the CCTV pitch, OMA became semi-Chinese in its organization, so as to understand the political context, speak the language, and be sensible to the local context. This mimicking behavior is a known entrepreneurial trait - mimicking allows us to empathize and hence develop adequate sensibilities for a given task.

At least I'm not laying bricks, or why running is considered opulent in Rwanda

According to Sarah Lacy, the day's last speaker, good entrepreneurs should be brilliant, crazy and cocky, by which she means: someone who foresees things the rest of us don't see, who is delirious enough to think he / she is the one to do something about it, and who has the courage to stick to his / her gut feeling, even when everyone will say them wrong.

"We talk about emerging economies and we only look at jaw dropping demographics – the problems the emerging world is facing today are problems that the west never had to face - we can learn from their entrepreneurial approach."

What we call innovative is not really innovative. Often what makes something innovative is its execution.
Types of cultural innovation, which Lacy encountered in her scouting research are: innovative monetization (Tencent: making money from instant messaging, China), innovative delivery (sms newsletter as a means of synchronizing supply and demand and connecting fractured communities, India), innovating the Old economy (a brick layer bluffing his way into building a house in 24 hours, ending up building a contested village near a gigantic dam amidst the Amazon region), Innovative society (rolling out fiber optic cables, which literally repair the country's social tissue, Rwanda).

What can we learn from all this? Pressing issues should (re)claim their space at the center of our discourse (Banny Bannerjee of the Standford Design Program). I couldn't agree more.

till death do us part

2011-05-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Bonnie & Clyde, shot by the police on may 23rd, 1934, in an ambush outside their hideout.

There's a new master in town

2011-05-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

The campaign I designed with Erik Wong for the (new) master’s degree courses of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam was launched last week. Guided by Jurgen Bey's ambitious take on education, the Sandberg is heading for some exiting adventures.

To all industrious and dedicated talents who might read this post: surf to the special apply page for all application details, and audio fragments of the talks I had with the course directors. Do you know any students or graduates, designers or other resourceful specialists in your network that fit the profiles? Thank your for forwarding this post to them. They can also contact the course coordinators via apply@sandberg.nl

Please note: the application deadline for summer admissions is July 1, for EU students. For non EU students who need a residence permit the deadline is May 1.

Unbound and Rebound

2011-05-22T06:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I moderated the Book by Design session at the Unbound Book Conference, organised the Institute of Network Cultures. The setting of the session was the book as it evolves today, unbound from its traditional format, content, production and use parameters. New territories are said to emerge for book designers, or rather: designers of reading experiences, in Andrew Blauvelt's words [in: I read Where I am, a collection of statements on new reading and information cultures by Mieke Gerritzen, Geert Lovink and Minke Kampman, released today]. See all images of the conference by Sebastiaan Ter Burg here.

The Panelists were Dirk van Weelden (author and philosopher), Otmar Hoefen (trained typesetter), Roosje Klap (graphic designer) and Femke Snelting (artist / designer). They addressed the questions of the day from a philosophical angle, from the perspective of the work floor –and the desk top– and from the experience of the act of imagining, and designing (e)books.

Here are some notes I took from the talks and the discussion. I purposely interspersed notes from other sessions of the day to add some spice to the whole notion of bookishness and readership, which by the end of the day literally made me dizzy (and angry also, for no clear reason?!). The phrases are from the four panelists, Nicholas Spice, I Read Where I Am, Henk Oosterling, and myself.

- a book is an object, a medium and an idea
- a book is a valued system that ultimately generates knowledge
- a book is accumulated, immersed attention
- every book (or object) has always had its origin in a network
- books make time; reading literally tele transports you out of here and now
- the types of things we read shape us as readers (down to the 6 point typeface): what kind of readers does the world need?
- texts and image have become interchangeable, we watch text as much as we read images
- we should start thinking about how browsing, leafing, linking and watching can become significant concepts of today's reading cultures
- reading can be informational, performative (as in sheet music), social and/or (!) solitary, to name only but a few. the future of book design is in understanding these modes of reading, and including these affordances in the entire process
- design is about designing interfaces and affordances: the nature of these is becoming more and more complex and dispersed, geographically and over time. book design for a network society needs to happen in a networked way
- how can a WORK retain its value in an information society, when every word that is made public is immediately appropriated, taken out of context, and displaced?
- taking money out of the information chain equation and replacing it with time can generate an entirely different valorization process
- we need to realize that we have the tendency to fetish openness over closure, the social over the solitude, the processual over the finished / the bound item, a hyper narrative over 'traditional' linearity, and most of all: we fetish real time.

The question that asks to be tried out in as many ways as possible, starting from today is to me:

Can we reinvent writing and reading as a form of resistance to the dominant market driven forces that shape the world of books today?

All this took place, very appropriately, in The Theatre of the Word, on the seventh floor of the thriving, non-library like OBA (Amsterdam's renewed and very popular public library) – a sign that bookishness and readership are as valid today as they were since their invention, when they supplied us with a much needed external memory to store all our accumulated knowledge.

The proof? Books are great suppliers of humour, one of mankind's most vital survival techniques in my opinion… Here's the The 1st volume of “ How to understand women” in pocket version….. (No need to tell you who sent me that, and why ….. :)).

PPPPPPlateaux

2011-05-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

PPPPPPlateaux is the title of an audio piece I am working on since a few months.

It explores the different realities of Plateau Kirchberg, an area in full development just one (famous red) bridge away from the old city centre of Luxembourg city. The area was developed 60 years ago to – temporarily – accomodate the European Institutions of the yet to be formed EU. Luxembourg’s eagerness to be at the heart of the European dream is still tangible on site; the Plateau’s architectural skyline is a collection of famous signatures from wordly architects. Initially meant as a monofunctional annex to the city, Kirchberg is today being developed and densified as an urban tissue, by combining housing, recreation, and retail, and by differentiating its navigation possibilities.

What is Kirchberg like, from inside? Which myths has it accumulated? Who made Kirchberg happen? What is the flip side of the Kirchberg dream? Where is Kirchberg heading to? With these questions in mind I interviewed people in charge, people working on the floor, young and old generations of the Plateau as well as a biologist, a sociologist, and a journalist. I am now editing these conversations into an audio legend of the Parc Central, consisting of assembled fragments. A legend that ties together social, natural and economical issues at stake on the Plateaux, in an effort to understand its development from another perspective and logic.

Plateaux

An art manifestation in the Parc Central. With Pedro Barateiro, Hugo Canoilas, Simone Decker, Cyprien Gaillard, Renata Lucas, Wawrzyniec Tokarski, Sophie Krier.

Curator: Didier Damiani

Opening: 16th September 2011

Sound: Rico Quenrin

Physical legend (illustrations): Sonia Kneepkens

A new playground for Casablanca

2011-05-02T10:51:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I had the great pleasure of being back in Casablanca, while assisting Cathelijne Montens in the last week of a workshop by designLAB / Gerrit Rietveld Academie in collaboration with the City of Amsterdam, the Fabrique Culturelle des Abattoires and Casamemoire.

For Casamemoire, the playground on a square of the former slaughterhouse is a tactic to attract family mothers and bring them in contact with the Abattoirs growing cultural and social activities. The social tissue of the Hay Mohammadi district has been fragilized for years, due to a lack of investment in adequate infrastructure and social measures. The week spent amidst the dust, wind and scorching sun made clear that the students' designs, if well taken care of, have the potential to foster a space for trust, imagination, exchange, and play.

The research started with an inventory of Aldo van Eyck's ideas on children and play (Het kind beweegt, niet het toestel), which he formulated and refined throughout the 840 (!) playgrounds, which were installed in Amsterdam between 1950 and 1980. Another starting point was the rich 'savoir faire' of street workers, who according to Montens and her partner Krijn Christiaansen shape Casa's public space with a charming nonchalance and surreal common sense. Finally, the playground's brief included the goal for local repair, if necessary, and reproduction, as often as possible…. Hence the use of locally available materials and widespread installation techniques.

Play is about taking our imagination seriously. It's also about making things move. Let's hope this playground attracts and fosters these values.

Here's a link to the press release in French, which I wrote after interviewing Cathelijne.

Credits
Réalisation: Khadija Kabbaj, Extramuros

Intervenants et professeurs : Cathelijne Montens, Krijn Christiaansen, Bas van Beek, Anke Weiss, Sophie Krier, David van der Veldt. Phase préparatoire aux Pays-Bas: Cynthia Hathaway, Lena Shafir, Michiel Meurs, Francis Strauven, Erik Wong.

Un grand merci à Abderrahim Kassou, Aadel Essaadani, Aicha Elbeloui, Empreinte d’architectes, Bertrand Houin, Afrique études, Lamjid Rourak, CTCE, Rachid, Tarik, et les gardiens de l’abattoir. Avec la nouvelle aire de jeux, le réseau d’artisans, d’ouvriers et d’amis établi au cours du projet ICI, Casa Ville Inventive a pu se renouveler, une preuve que la continuité est essentielle pour ce genre d’efforts.

Images by Krijn Christiaansen, Cathelijne Montens, Sophie Krier, Alexander Spiliopoulos.

Love is in the air

2011-03-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

Spring is here again at last, it's in the air, slowly but surely... Here are a few beautiful, funny and haunting images of spring unfolding and cows celebrating their first day out in the fields during the yearly 'koeiedanspremière', organised by the association for the protection of animal rights Wakker Dier.

Do It Together

2011-03-06T08:02:00.000-08:00

On March 18 & 19, the second edition of the national volunteer day will take place in The Netherlands. It's open to everybody. To me, volunteer work should be a natural part of our everyday life or at least weekly schedule. In a world where things only happen when money is part of the deal, too few good things happen. The world need hands and time and dedication. NL doet is a modest but succesfull (150,000 volunteers signed up last year) initiative that can start to shift things towards a fairer society.

Bodies in Space

2011-01-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

Bodies in Urban Space by Willi Dorner & Lisa Rastl.
Wish this could be once a world wide flash mob.
it must feel like being top in between underneath behind and in front all at the same time.
Ouf!

Blog Beauties 1

2011-01-19T14:39:00.000-08:00

She is already in my "I LIKE" list but here's a special link to artist / curator / writer Gabriella Gomez Mont's Toxico Blog. Beautiful, disturbing imagery - otherness, again and again. This is a zootrope animation still from the 1990s, which she found.

Edith Dekyndt is a Belgian artist. You can find out about her research for subjectivity here.

Look for XY02 - the film with the hands and the loop of string. A handful of magic.

Bidoun is a magazine for art from the Middle East. Its discourse and aesthetics are like a great coffee in the morning. You don't want anything else, for a moment. This image is from the Revolution by Design article in the last issue.

From time to time I stumble upon a project that I become REALLY jealous of.

The surrender of Reynard The Fox by Leonard van Munster is one of those.

The "Tops" film installation by Miguel Angel Rios is a brilliantly choreographed metaphor of relationships between the world, things and people, and the tensions they create. You can watch fragments of the films via Evo Gallery here.

My research for I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING BUT I WANT TO BE THERE led me into a web of (graphic) design initiatives worth mentioning. Here's a first selection.

‘Arc en ciel’ by emilie faif & les amis'' by arnold goron, 2009 (stoneware, stone, paint, wood, fymo, bone), other works by Faif and Goron can be viewed via Soledad gallery in Amsterdam.

From the Dezeen archives: " Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong has created a tiny floating house as part of the Hong Kong & Shenzhen bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture."

About his Pushpin Calendar, Japanese designer Ryohei Yoshiyuki writes: When you put paper on the wall with this, you can make your own calander with paper of your memory. 2006 July. Ryohei keeps a diary with his dog in the main role, loyally by his side throughout his work.

To be continued in Blog Beauties 2

Never Sorry

2011-01-19T12:00:00.000-08:00

Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei's self initiated atelier complex was recently demolished because it "didn't comply with the regulations"– according to Chinese authorities. When did good art ever comply with regulations?? The teaser below gives some insight into 'tofu' construction practices that most probably lead to the earthquake disaster, as well as the fine line between activism and art in Ai Wei Wei's practice. The second clip shows the studio before and after demolission.

What supposts read

2011-01-02T08:54:00.000-08:00

Dec 30. Mudam.
The supposts, all middle aged men, read:
- The girl with the Pearl Earring
- A book on a female politician that looked that Hillary Clinton
- Fleur du Désert (below)

It would be nice to make an inventory of the readings of supposts in different countries in relation to the exhibitions on display.

i'm dreaming of a white

2011-01-02T08:41:00.001-08:00

Xmas 2010. Rameldange, Luxemburg.

snow is a wonderful fridge.
wood ashes make the best baked potatoes.
a balcony overlooking a valley is the best bar you can wish for.
(bambi nevers walks by a regular bar)

Jan 2.
Sometimes it doesn't take much to be intensely happy.
A beam of sunlight on a book that lies open on page 1 can already be enough.
A romantic house that seems to stand still in time, is great too.

Snow.
It makes the world black and white.
Suddenly you can see what you didn't know or might not notice.
How a bird does a little pirouette before flying off.
How a dog ventured on a detour before falling in pace with his beloved boss again.

Mohssine Elyounssi, Houtgraveur (NL version)

2010-12-15T00:55:00.000-08:00

Mohssine Elyounssi, Houtgraveur (NL version) from Klengfilmen on Vimeo.

About the art of wood engraving: during the exhibition ICI, held in Casablanca during October 2010, a Rietveld chair was on display in Moroccan design. My dad made this short documentary about Mohssine's art and ambitions. I especially like the part when Mohssine is at work and his craftmanship takes over.
Shot on Panasonic GH13, kit lens, smooth film.

Dutch and French spoken.
French and English versions to come.
More on ICI: facebook.com/group.php?gid=133159423397077

I DON'T KNOW WHERE I'M GOING BUT I WANT TO BE THERE

2010-12-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

Symposium Graphic Design Museum in Paradiso

NB last chance to get tickets! The symposium is nearly sold out!

After last year's Me You And Everyone We Know Is A Curator, the Graphic Design Museum organizes another end of year symposium on Saturday 18th of december 2010. The museum asked me to compile the day's speakers, topics and overall theme again.

This year's title refers to the continuously expanding field of graphic design and the desire to remain on the move. The title is also inspired by the realm of the relational, as felt in many similar lyrics:

got to be there
i want it my way
here there everywhere

Bruce Mau once said: "When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there." This quote was the reason for Stephanie Mc Ardle and her fellow MA graduates from London College of Communication to name their 2009 show I Don't Know where I'm going but I know I want to be there. The stenciled title poster below is by them.

Programme

For all the bio's please visit the museum's website

10.30 Doors Open, Coffee & Tea
11.00 Introduction / Koert van Mensvoort, moderator
11.05 Welcome to Design Wonderland / Mieke Gerritzen
11.15 What’s going on? Design today. / Alice Rawsthorn (UK)
11.45 Digital Anthropology / Lust (NL)
12.00 Thinking inside the box / Thomas Lommee, Intrastructures (B)
12.15 Graphic Detour / Erik Kessels, KesselsKramer (NL)
12.45 Pattern Landscapes / Julian Roberts (UK)
13.00 Lunch Break
13.45 Sound Unbound / Paul D. Miller, alias DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid (USA)
14.15 Design for Wikileaks / Metahaven (NL)
14.45 Between Reality and the Impossible / Fiona Raby, Dunne & Raby (UK)
15.15 Coffee Break
15.30 Why designers need to learn to juggle / Sophie Krier (LUX)
15.40 Ravioli / Paul Griffioen (NL)
15.45 Design and Happiness / Stefan Sagmeister (AT)
16.15 In the rear view mirror / Koert van Mensvoort, Sophie Krier
16.30 Drinks

Organised by Graphic Design Museum (logo)
Made possible by Stichting Dioraphte (logo)

Concept
Sophie Krier, Mieke Gerritzen

Graphic identity
Marjolijn Ruyg & Muster

Tune
Benoît Martiny Ricording Co.

T-shirt
Experimental Jetset

Bloggers
Charlotte Cheetham, Manystuff, Simona Kicurovska, Michele Champagne, Noortje van Eekelen (Sandberg Institute), Julie Cettie (Rietveld Academie)

Photography
Jonas Lund & Anika Schwarsloze

Video production
RET MEDIA

I DON’T KNOW WHERE I’M GOING BUT I WANT TO BE THERE
Paradiso, Weteringschans 6, Amsterdam
Entrance € 25,- / € 12.50 (students)
English spoken
Doors open 10.30 am
www.paradiso.nl - www.amsterdamsuitburo.nl - www.ticketmaster.nl
Ticket reservation: info@graphicdesignmuseum.com

WHAT USED TO BE A CULTURALLY DEFINED, CRAFTSMANSHIP
BASED PROFESSION HAS EVOLVED INTO A
POPULAR, DEMOCRATISED DISCIPLINE PERMEATING
ALL TYPES OF MEDIA. TODAY’S VISUAL COMMUNICATION
LANDSCAPE FUNCTIONS AS A BREEDING GROUND
FOR BOTH TEXT AND IMAGE, WHICH ARE PRODUCED
AND CONSUMED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN NETWORKED
LOOPS. CONTEMPORARY PRACTITIONERS GENERATE
THEIR OWN CONTEXT AND RULES, AND NAVIGATE
THE WORLD THROUGH AN ARRAY OF SAMPLED MEDIA,
METHODS, STYLES, AND IDEAS. NO ONE KNOWS
WHERE GRAPHIC DESIGN IS GOING, OR WHAT IT WILL
BE CALLED TOMORROW. WHAT WE DO KNOW IS THAT
IT’S ON THE MOVE.

Here's a preview of what will be shown and talked about next Saturday...

From top to bottom: Lust, Julian Roberts (Parc D'expositions), Kesselskramer Publishing (In Almost Every Picture), Dunne and Raby (Functional Fictions), Design for Wikileaks by Metahaven, Open Structures by Thomas Lommee, Paul Miller's last book, Stefan Sagmeister: Trying to Look Good Limits My Life.

ICI Casa, city of systems

2010-12-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

ICI, Casa
Here and nowhere else

What happens when six designers from The Netherlands decide to come open minded and empty handed to Casablanca, in order to put together an exhibition from scratch, using the city as an instant source of inspiration and production? Between August 20 and October 20 2010, the project ICI was conceived and realised in Casablanca. Its title ICI, meaning here, refers to here and now, almost as if one would press pause in everyday life. At the same time, the term 'here' points to where one comes from (there). Here merges time, place and sociality: "Wish you were here."

ICI was set up as an artistic residency and produced new work made in collaboration with a Moroccan team. The residency was complemented by a program of lectures and workshops with local partners, which opened up the process to a wider audience and intensified the exchange. The different aspects came together in the exhibition-manifestation "ICI, Casa Resourceful City", a Dutch perspective on the city of Casablanca in the form of objects and installations. The article below tries to orchestrate the experiences and findings of the team during the eight week working period, in an effort to feed the discussion around the issues at stake in this complex city.

Our ICI adventure will be published alongside an essay I wrote on Casa's upcoming social and cultural challenges in the next issue of DAMn Magazine! Keep an eye out for it coming January...

Here is the only thing we have

I try to survive. I bluff my way through. I find ways around the rules. I work things out, one way or another. In hindsight, it seems that we took over the very dynamics of the city of Casa in the production of ICI…. They say beauty is a subjective notion, which prompts us to perpetuate it - ICI turned out to be an exercise in mimesis as a mode of cultural reproduction.

We wanted the exhibition to be experienced as a city in a city. Visitors would encounter a world under construction, that referred to everyday elements of the city – studies of another Casa: a Casa built from qualities, which we had encountered during our stay.

The exhibition was to be held in the former Église du Sacré-Coeur near the city centre. A loaded place pointing to French Catholic influences, unavoidable by its sheer size and whiteness, and yet wilfully unknown to most taxi drivers. For our process driven approach, this location seemed a dead end at first, mainly because of its elitist image –boys play football on the square in front of the entrance, but will never go inside.

Here you are

After having walked through a long alley, filled with sounds from street merchants, visitors arrive on a main square (situated at the back of the church). Modified street signs, see-through kiosks assembled from refuse metal and dispersed sofa's – stripped down versions of the Moroccon Salon – frame the temporary square.

On the night of the opening, local food merchants take over the exhibit and prepared their snails, chick peas, pancakes, mint tea and cardamom coffee just like they do it everyday on the market. A one day jazz gnaoua rock slam fusion band, baptised Mystic Session, plays on the public square in front of the former Eglise, whose cement steps had been upholstered with scotch-taped pillows. Passers-by, attracted by the music, are invited in.

In two weeks time, ICI is gradually adopted by its neighbouring students, who use it as a resting and meeting place. It's a big compliment to us.

Here to stay

ICI wants to stay in Casa. Therefore we've donated all scenographic elements to the Fabrique Culturelle des Abattoirs for future use in cultural events. Plans are underway for future collaborations, such as art directing a streetwise version of the high end Festimode event, and producing prototypes of urban playing environments with La Fabrique Culturelle des Abattoirs.

Credits

ICI was initiated by the Dutch Ambassy of Rabat in the context of the celebration in 2010 of 400 years of economic relations between The Netherlands and Morocco.

The Dutch design team was composed of established practices (Sophie Krier, Bas van Beek, Erik Wong) and upcoming talent (David van der Veldt, Sjoerd Jonkers, Dawn Ray), all affiliated through teaching and studying with the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam. In the course of the project the team was enriched with Khadija Kabbaj, designer, Jamal Abdennasser, producer and photographer, and Meryem Aboulouafa, assistant producer, as well as many artisans and students. Towards the end, almost fifty persons were implied in the realization of ICI. Local partners include La Fabrique Culturelle des Abattoirs, Casamémoire, KHK Extramuros, and L'École Artcom.

ICI logo & identity: Erik Wong
Scenography: Sophie Krier
Communication: Erik Wong, Dawn Ray
Co-curator: Khadija Kabbaj
Object and Installations: David van der Veldt, Sjoerd Jonkers, Dawn Ray
Assistant producer: Meryem Aboulouafa
Producer & Making Off : Jamal Abdennasser
Press Photography: Hicham Zemmar
Mystic Session Musicians: Hamam, Saddik Ngoumi, Mostapha, Jamaal Nouaman, Mahmoud Bassou, Rezki Amine, Martin, Abdesamad Rizki, Benoît Martiny. Manager: Tarek Boual Technique: Joe Hani

The projects shown above include:
- For the workshop "On Se Pose" David van der Veldt teamed up with Khadija Kabbaj of KHK Extramuros. The participants form diverse origin were to re-interpret the Rietveld Crate Chair in relation to the monumental space of the former slaughterhouse complex Les Abattoirs.
- During a three workshop Erik Wong and Dawn Ray worked with students of l'École Supérieure de Design Art'Com Sup de Casablanca on the spreading of the word ICI in the city, as an exercise in guerilla communication.
- Calligrapher Abde Samad Doumi at work on the exhibition titles, taken from shop signs all over the city and applied to the works produced on site.
- Kiosks, reconstructed from refuse metal collected in Derb Korea and Mohammedia, and recalling different typologies such as the butcher, the café, and the small riad. Blacksmith Lamjid Rourak, design Sophie Krier
- "Le Salon des Amis" (the friends' living room), a series of adjustable sofa families inspired by the traditional Moroccan Salon, which was an affair of taste, money and craftsmanship. The double sided textile used for the upholstery is normally covered. Upholsterer Bourga Décor, design: Sophie Krier & Khadija Kabbaj.
- "Au dernier cri, Qualité 1ère Reproduction": a blue horse designed to seduce an audience to be portrayed with it. Part of the "spray-cast fiction series", a technique developed by Ray. Design and realisation: Dawn Ray
- Hand knotted carpet from industrial rope named 'our', usually used to fill up the corner pieces of mattresses. Upholsterer Bourga Décor, design Sjoerd Jonkers
- A Moroccan version of the Crate Chair Junior by Rietveld, using local engraving techniques.
Engravor Mohssine Elyounssi, Carpenter Abdellah Lebchina, Concept David van der Veldt & Bas van Beek.

Special thanks to Abderrahim Kassou and Aadel Saadani, as well as all that made ICI possible, especially the artisans and the students involved in the workshops and the exhibition build up.

Facebook: ICI Casa Ville Inventive

www.basvanbeek.com, www.sophiekrier.com, www.wongema.nl, www.sjoerdjonkers.com, www.davidvanderveldt.nl, www.dawnray.net

ICI Casablanca / Stills

2010-08-23T18:11:00.001-07:00

ICI Casablanca / Foot sur plage & Sidi Abderrahmane

2010-08-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

see Le Routard for more background on the 'village island'...

ICI Casablanca # 1er jour

2010-08-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

Casablanca, day one. Painters white wash the roof of the Cathédrale du Sacre Coeur, built in 1930 and now an event space. Erik and David point to the sea, a mere thirty minutes walk away. The heat is scorching and even harder on those following Ramadan today between 4:29 am and 7:11 pm; for one month, the city becomes one of fasters (praying, sleeping, watching TV, exercising, playing cards, working, or preparing the evening f'tour meal, depending on their position and interpretation of the Ramadan ritual) and non-fasters (spotted at the Mac Donalds in Maarif); terraces host people but display empty tables until iftar, when the strangely empty streets suddenly stream full with people and cars late at night. It's an intense atmosphere of 'attente', awaiting. There is tension in the air too - Ramadan tends to regenerate tarmanida, "getting angry for trivial reasons", according to a Magharebia.com article, which also states that the yearly Ramadan time should be "a training in the values of tolerance, mercy, and solidarity between the rich and poor"– a motivator for quitting bad habits and embracing virtues, in other words.

Les Abattoirs de Casablanca is an impressive former slaughterhouse complex, which we visited with Tarik today. Originally built in 1922 by Parisian architect Georges-Ernest Desmarest in Eastern Casablanca - the industrial part of the city, enclosed by Casa Voyageur ("casa traveller", a station!) and the port, Les Abattoirs were moved to the outskirts of Casa in 2002. An accord was signed between the city and Casa Mémoire* to re-program the complex into a cultural space. Well visited events have taken place recently thanks to the energy and ambition of those involved, but structural funding is still needed to make Les Abattoirs a sustainable place. To be continued....

*Casamémoire was founded in 1995 to save Marocco's architectural heritage of the 20th Century.

...

Tomorrow is SUNDAY and as non-fasters our destination will be the beach...

Jeux de Boules

2010-08-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

Un samedi après midi de juin, dans le parc d' Echternach (Luxembourg), lors d'une visite surprise à Rudy qui venait d'avoir 95 ans. Le groupe se retrouve le mardi, jeudi et samedi à 3 heures. Le plus jeune adepte a tout juste 12 ans. Rudy et lui sont inbattables quand ils font équipe, il paraît...

Ongelofelijk # Amphibians

2010-08-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

Amphibians (class Amphibia, from Amphi- meaning "both" and -bios meaning "life") Thank you H for sending me the link and cheering up this rainy Dutch saturday afternoon...

Asphalt Summer

2010-07-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

This afternoon the skies finally turned dark dark grey and released buckets of water in Detroit. C. told me that last time this happened, the people in her street got out of their houses and let themselves get all soaked. Eventually they got cold until one person noticed that on the recently repaved street around the corner, the asphalt was still hot and the rainwater simply perfect. So here they were, regular adults on a regular night, lying flat on their stomachs and taking in pure pleasure.

This is the thing with cities and urban regeneration plans. Instead of importing out of context swimming pools or skate parks they should develop new sensitivities to local ecologies, re-inventing city life with as little hardware as possible, and in tune with the specificity of a site.

Thank you C for your story and embedded lesson...

Detroit-Chicago and back on the Amtrak

2010-07-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

LA # Elysian Parks

2010-07-28T14:11:00.001-07:00

On one of my last days Katie Bachler, map maker, gardener, educator and dancer with the collective bodycity, guided me around Elysian Park. It was my best encounter with Downtown so far: as a skyline reflecting the sunset, from faraway, filtered by the sounds of birds, shrubs and Freeway Nr 5 at the back of the park.

Click here for the Map For Another LA, by Llano Del Rio, to which Katie contributed.

LA # Looking in the rear mirror

2010-07-28T13:23:00.001-07:00

The sound of a city.

Towards the end of my stay in Los Angeles many asked me about how I felt about the city. What had been "highlights". I could only say - I don't know yet. I had too many impressions, stretched out over too vast, loosely tied places. But when the plane finally took off and circled above the beaches and mountain ranges, scaling down all those endless stretches of concrete city life down to seemingly random patterns, the name Los Angeles all of sudden took on a particular sound and colour - made up of the persons I had met and the beautiful spots they had taken me to, filled with the feeling of driving-drifting around and never quite arriving anywhere, and fed with the over sophisticated vegan food my body had a hard time to digest. Shaped also by all the things I didn't get to do and see, and at the same time inhabited by the need to be home again, to stay put, to give my mind some rest. Los Angeles city of longing in the land of plenty. Its cemetery is called Hollywood Forever.

FOLLOW THE SIGNS

Another city for another life

You can ride my car baby

Nobody walks in LA

Keep the speed limit

Even in the desert

Cause the sheriff sees everything

Pilot car follow me

It's true

Isn't it just great?

Life has a mind of its own

LA woman

LA /Los Angeles - what's the difference?

You move me

Wipe me out

Terrific. Awesome. Grand.

Why do fools fall in love

MIRACLE MANNERS

Ask us anything vacancy gas aspirin

You are our best customers

I want you to want me

You only need to remember one word: radiator

Thank god for Airco

Airco ruins everything

City of needs city of wants city of must-haves

The valley is another thing

Most people go the other way but I go South

Hungry valley

Cool beer

Great beer comes with great responsibility

Ocean scenic view

How many billboards

Merging the sacred and the profane

WE SELL BOXES

Family Dollar - Friendly Dollar - Million Dollar - Dollar Daze

The biggest problem - having to get the story before the content

I just wanted to become a famous singer

It's all about fan culture

Beauty Supplies

Spread and enclose

She called me the wild card

The detour is part of it

This is my shortcut to everything

SLOW DOWN FOR WILDLIFE

Unlawful to disturb

This is where I do all my thinking

Can you believe it

Go back one exit

They're true they're here they're American

The biggest insult was when they told me I had turned white

Galloping bungalows

Girls girls girls

Cleaners cleaners cleaners

Buildings as movie sets

Beautiful people

Swapmeet

Peanuts or pretzels

When you hit the pavement hit it smart

Merge left

You just missed us

How to transform a man into a rock or similar object

If at first you don't succeed, celebrate

FINDING YOUR OWN LATITUDE

You can move around for days without really being there

It's about you, not about knowledge

The big project for me is the living and breathing one

There is no plan

(That would take all the fun out)

This we know

Three chords is all it takes

You'll see that you were making sense all the time but you just didn't see it

(A collection of thoughts and sayings, sampled from the street, the radio, some lyrics, exhibitions, my mind, readings and talks this July. Thank you Benoît, Kali, Robert, Denise, Hedi, Jonathan, Hazel, Andy, Rem, Gilbert, Rich, Daniel, Vinca, John, Constant, Sarmishta, Signer, Sudeshna, Hammer, Jurassic, Javier, Leslie, Katy, and many more for your words)

LA Daily # Blue Saturday

2010-07-20T15:21:00.000-07:00

July 17th, Otis Workshop.

The workshop is conceived as an immersive drive-thru one cross section of LA; its aim is to train observation skills and simultaneously to postpone judgement. Not unimportantly, my agenda was also to have fun, share each other's views on things and to maintain a great group dynamics all day long. After an introductory round, we had a great 'fill up' breakfast at Pann's in 50ies style. We drove up to Mt Wilson Observatory from where we could see Western Avenue stretching out across hazy LA. Then we drove all the way from North to South Western Avenue, stopping now and then to walk. Every student had decided on a personal perspective, with which to document the street's typology, e.g. pauzes, logo's, waiting time and legends. The immersion happened for everyone, thanks to the blazing heat. H: "The heat just prevented us from taking any distance from the subject of the day [read: from that bloody street]"... An uncensured slideshow with improvised soundtrack made everyone come full circle in the evening - while the morning discussion was spent discussing motives and intentions, the afternoon's results pointed to each student's specific qualities and difficulties in such a fast, semi-improvised process, which called for inventivity, resourcefulness and alertness.

(above) The detectives at work.

(below) A funny trip, pieced together from the day's collected visuals, by Marina Murad.

LA Daily # Road trip

2010-07-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

LA Daily # (un)civilised nature

2010-07-20T14:07:00.001-07:00

Oil Fields north of LA, towards Sequoia Park. LA has active oil fields too, on Baldwin Hills, in the middle of town. When you drive up La Cienega the black heads seem to be gently bowing to the earth. It's a beautiful, rythmic sight. It's hard to admit that something so ugly can look so terrific. Baldwin Hills is a much disputed area, appointed to become one of LA's largest public parks, if negotiations work out– the lobby against the reclaiming of the oil fields is a hard-headed one. The Integrated Learning program of Otis, directed by Richard Shelton, will host a seminar on this explosive topic this fall. An environmental studio is currently researching "art and design interventions that rethink the relationship between public and private open space" with the aim to address "sustainability, environmental stewardship and blue-sky project development for a historically significant LA landscape". The studio is a collaboration project with Los Angeles Urban Rangers.

The Los Angeles Urban Rangers identity mimicks well-known government funded nature institutions. I met visual artist Sara Deleiden, one of the rangers in disguise, last week. Sara: "Because we look so much like them at first sight, this gives us instant credit." The Urban Rangers are steadily gaining recognition and terrain; their critical investigation of the city's "natural" qualities has made them a valuable partner in on-going discussions of urban renewal.

The Rangers' take on nature in the city is a lot more ambiguous and subversive than the national one, as their brochure reveals. Urban Rangers Tours include a toxic tour of polluted areas, a back alley tour including "grafitti, tagging, trash and wildlife", or a hunting and gathering tour of LA based on economies of barter and re-use in food cycles. Jenny Price, writer and Ranger (tours among others the LA river, check out next dates!), has posted her manifest on urban nature Here.

An afilliated activist collective is Centre of Land Use Interpretation on Venice Blvd. I will meet them this Thursday. More about their perspective then!

Venice Canals! Nearly like the real thing but just not quite right in terms of proportions...

Culver City. Reality-reality.

First thing I was told: drive up to the roofs of parking lots to have the best views of LA. Not one view has disappointed me so far. Another great habit to bring home with me.

La Daily # Gang Knowledge

2010-07-20T10:00:00.000-07:00

My second Drive Thru Crit was with H. who brought me to her birthplace Wilmington.

"Most people go the other way but I go South when I go home." H. has a background in Fine Arts. Graphic design was far from her mind then, and neither was it recognised by her teachers as anything of value – "graphic design was the enemy". Looking back on her three years at the MFA program of Otis, H. can now say that graphic design has become a tool, a way of operating for her– it helps her to organize her ideas, and to trace their lineage. It's also made her realize how muddled her ideas were before.

H. spent most of her teenage school time in Wilmington 'roaming around' - which came down to "walking in and out of every shop, buying a hot dog, going to the beach and making sure you're home before 4 pm so it looks like you came straight from school"...

Wilmington was once one of LA's most notorious gang incubators. Growing up there as a girl meant regularly "hitting the pavement" on the way home to avoid drive-by shootings, learning how to show respect, bodily and verbally, and developing strategies to earn street credibility. "Gang knowledge is about knowing which part of town belongs to which gang."

Most of all, H. found it hard to gain access to artistic knowledge and skills. This is also the topic of H.'s graduation project, for which she is developing an educational program for teengirls growing up in similar, underprivileged conditions. "Part of what I want to do is let them know they are not limited. I want their ambitions to feed the program's curriculum."

Stuart Bailey, co-editor of Dot Dot Dot Magazine and one of her mentors at Otis neatly summarized the way limitations can work for you: "A punk rock gitar has just three chords, but from these all other things are born."

LA Q&A

2010-07-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

Design critic and writer Michael Dooley has posted a Q&A

on Printmag.com after my lecture at Otis last Saturday.

Good questions can throw you off balance

and make you rethink your premisses.

That happened now and then during this Q&A

and that's why I like this interview.

LA # Palm Tree : Wrong, Fake

2010-07-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

Local Wisdom # 1

" You can tell what kind of neighbourhood you're in by the way

the cellphone trees look - super plain or very sophisticated"

John Baldessari, Wrong, 1967.

LA / Drive-Thru Tree & Donut

2010-07-13T16:13:00.000-07:00

In Sequoia Park where I will be tomorrow if all works out

In La Puente, LA.

LA Daily / One-on-one Drive -Thru Crit

2010-07-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

As part of my (o so short) three week residency here at Otis,

I'm trying out One-on-one Drive-Thru Crits.

This is how I see it working.

Students who wish to have an in-depth, one-on-one feedback about their work,

ambitions, and methodology can contact me.

We agree a date and time.

They decide where they take me – a place in LA that matters to them and their work.

Time is no issue; for instance, if a student wants to drive for three hours that's fine.

The point is that we both engage in an adventure of which none of us know the outcome,

and that requires trust and commitment from both sides.

My first critique was yesterday night with E.

We drove all the way up to the Observatory.

One of the many insights it gave us is that a view doesn't discriminate.

It's there for all to see and have.

It doesn't need to concern itself with issues of access or navigation.

Perhaps this is why the concept of the scenic image is so powerful.

Especially in a drive-thru city like LA.

La / The Weatherhouse Project / Javier

2010-07-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

It all started with an article in LA Times by Esmeralda Bermudez.

It was one of the first things I read upon arriving in LA last week.

It made me want to meet Javier Prado.

Yesterday I was driving Downtown and sure enough,

Javier was by his Lake Backdrop in Mac Arthur Park when I approached him.

Javier has photographed park visitors all his life but his real ambition is to become a (famous) singer.

His camera is still his first, and he taped it all over to enable among others double exposure souvenir images.

"The only reason the whole world doesn't know who I am is because they didn't let me talk or sing."=

This friday night he and his band will be rehearsing on a parking lot and I will go film them.

I want to make another few portraits during my time here at Otis:

a) Rich, who owns two and nearly three garages full of records,

and organizes bi-monthly conventions that attract the world's most obssesive collectors.

b) The men (and occasionally women) holding up signs along the road;

especially the ones that juggle them high above their heads.

The Weatherhouse Project is the working title of my research project and it refers to a (hypothetical) house on wheels that absorbs, processes and emits the atmosphere of different neighborhoods of LA. It's inspired by LA's manifold climate, from fresh and gloomy by the sea to super hot inland.

To be continued!

LA Daily # Baldwin Hills, Santa Monica Pier, Venice Mural

2010-07-12T12:15:00.001-07:00

LA Daily # Inglewood

2010-07-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

LA Daily # Absurd Tuesday

2010-07-06T22:23:00.001-07:00

Corner bistro in Marina del Rey, where the LA river delta meets the ocean.

Chris said he'd take me to a place where

you can't SEE the OCEAN but you KNOW you're VERY CLOSE.

He was right. The ocean was the breeze, the light, the softened asfalt even.

The Wetlands, a protected area, popular with bird and bird spotters.

The towers in the morning fog are Downtown LA.

Downtown! Airborne! Awesome! Venice Beach! Brussels sprouts!

Pineapple Coriander! For your convenience!

Where does everything sound SO COOL here.

... AND LOOK so cool.

Re-read Robert Venturi's (awesome!) Learning from Las Vegas on the way here.

It all still makes so much sense:

- the ugly and the ordinary as alternative, aesthetic paradigm of design;

- an inclusive form of design, integrating the profane and the sacred;

- the building-becoming-sculpture versus the shed-decorated-as-sign;

Another proof that an in-depth, personal analysis of a place is of timeless value.

Otis College of Art and Design, my host until July 23rd.

More about my residency here in the next Daily.

(The LA Daily is released Now and Then, when content asks for it, unlike its name might suggest)

Summer Time

2010-07-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Seen at Hemeltjelief Festival last May

Daartussenin

2010-07-03T03:03:00.000-07:00

On a super sunny Sunday, May 16th, Bas Princen* took to me see Wall/Muur by LOD at the former 'rangeerterrein' at Tour&Taxis in Brussels; Office designed a one piece décor, a circular wall, like a 'point de fuite', een 'nulpunt', an enclosed zero point. My iphone, just like my mind, was a little overwhelmed & sun burnt that day– perhaps that explains the deep impression the afternoon made on me.

The brightly colored actors moving amidst the public represented two generations, the first built the wall fourty years ago, and the second was on the point of violently taking over their ideals. The audience dwelled around the wall, guided by the dialogues on their headphones, in search of the action and never quite falling in pace with it. The voices so close and yet so far gave an intimate sense of the history of this imaginary place of (be)longing. It made me enjoy the whole piece without necessarily wanting to catch all of it. A kind of associative, dream-like narrative.

One sentence I liked especially was

In het begin en het einde is er niets en daartussenin wordt alles opnieuw steeds uitgevonden.

*Bas has been photographing Office's work for some years. This year their collaboration is the basis of a special duo show at the Venice Architecture Biennale, where the photographs of Bas will be juxtaposed to OFFICE's collages.

hello, goodbye

2010-07-03T02:12:00.000-07:00

Identity is not about who you are but about how many persons you become as life pulls us forward. This blog is for me not about sharing my most personal thoughts in a diary-like manner but an exercise in taking on different perspectives. Until today, Madame des Matins Brumeaux posted all the messages on this blog. She decided to leave for a long holiday (she won't say where to), so Miss YesNo is taking over her tasks from now on.

Au revoir Madame des Matins Brumeux! Archived on July 3 2010.

" Madame des Matins Brumeux is a nostalgic yet militant mind. She has a thing with archives. She thinks of herself as elegant but others find her especially funny. Perhaps it is the tie she wears over her right shoulder, like a sjawl. She would love to wear high heels every day (like in italian black and white movies), but she likes long walks too much. Too many things matter, and that is why Madame des Matins Brumeux has started this blog."It is not because some things are unlikely that they don't happen", Madame likes to whisper before opening her eyes each morning."

Relational things

2010-07-03T02:02:00.000-07:00

This little iphone snapshot video documents the opening of Yvonne Dröge Wendel's Object Research Lab at Outline Gallery in Amsterdam, on a super rainy Sunday morning last May. I participated in one ORL session with a.o. Tine Melzer – the outcome of which will be translated into one of Yvonne's sensory, self directional things.

Here's the project in her own words @ objectresearchlab.wordpress.com/

The Object Research Lab aims to chart the contemporary thought and approaches about objects. Finding these contact points and moments of exchange that could translate in a visual research that in itself could be made applicable to artistic practice and design.

The first working phase of the Object Research Lab took place at the M4 guest studio in Amsterdam from August 2009 to January 2010. During this period encounters took place in a studio high up over the rooftops of Amsterdam within a constructed setting of human and non-human actors. Here Artists, Archeologists, Art objects, Pre objects, Amateur objects, Design objects, Philosophers, Sociologists and Designers have been busy formulating the necessary questions when it comes to (the future of) things. They brought in their respective skills and vulnerabilities to the Research Lab in order to find new ways of thinking with things. During and after each encounter in this series, the team at the Object Research Lab started to translate the ideas generated into three dimensional and textual forms – building up various trees, bodies and approaches to ideas of materially-engaged art practice.

Disrupting Design

2010-06-30T01:57:00.000-07:00

The "editors at work" in my studio garden, discussing draft papers for the book they've been meaning to put out in the world since of all them met by chance a few years ago during a workshop. My contribution includes a visual essay– a visual grammar of research–and an essay entitled "What's going on here?", where I attempt to disclose a personal design ethics, driven by desire and irrevocably engaged with the world as it is - an inextricable enigma.

If everything works out the book should come out next winter at a yet to be disclosed (very nice) publisher..... More soon!

tribute

2010-04-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

studying musica calade by fréderic pompou these days

found this slideshow, was shocked to see

it was a tribute to a 12 year old Sophie who passed away

and then....

was relieved, somehow,

when I found out who Sophie really was.

I knew there was something

mythical about the sound of this piece.

the thinking hand

2010-04-19T12:35:00.001-07:00

Views of the exhibition of Enzo Mari's paperweight collection

"the intellectual work", exhibition curated by barbara casavecchia
kaleidoscope project space, april 13 - 30, 2010, Milan

"mari has always investigated the role of the intellectual, the cooperation of thinking

and doing, heads and hands. words and things.(...) but there is more.

granting the papers months and years to mature, to form geological
layers of meditation, also means escaping the oppressive mechanisms of the productive
system, the compulsive logic of efficiency at all costs. it means affording oneself
the subversive luxury of taking all the required time to develop a good project. it means
extending the range of research in order to get an overall picture, acting against
the increasing hyper-specialization that restrains creative expression nowadays.

(...) perhaps the paperweights and the notes are ultimately talismans, there to exorcise

the risk of being complacent and giving up the search."

'I could affirm that the intellectual work

lies in saying NO.
negation is addressed not only to others,

but also to your own goal, because the final
aim is getting to the essence.' - enzo mari

source images & text: designboom

The title of this post is taken from an expression which Erik

recently used to describe his ideas of art education, De Denkende Hand

Living with Berlage

2010-04-19T00:37:00.001-07:00

These days Berlage, Krijn & Cathelijne's rabbit, is staying with me.

Or better said: is taking over the studio...

First her space was 1/3 of the front space but since she jumped over the fence

everytime I walked out of the room I now granted the whole front studio to her.

But ground floor is not enough for Berlage and everything is worth jumping on.

This morning Berlage ate parsely, cucumber, some bread and salad.

And some of my morning newspaper.

I think we are becoming friends.

good, better, other

2010-04-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

Image by Bas Princen, who was in Burkina Faso and Mali last week for Icon magazine
(which is put together by an editorial team of four, incredible but true)

What's going on?
Is it a drive-by closet?
A roadside instant shop?
Someone's migrated balcony?
Probably all of them.

What came first, the clothes or the tree?

Tree, clothes hanging to dry, wind and road -
They look like they have always belonged together,
even though we learnt they are not supposed to.

Another example of how little we really know
how poor generic design is
and how immensely rich the world is,
if we are able to see it!

life comes first

2010-04-15T06:53:00.001-07:00

Photo: Cihan Lacin, http://www.coid.nl

Life comes first and is the source of my work.
Work was never not meant to hollow life out,
no matter how passionate you are about it.
That's what I told an interviewer from the city
when she asked me
how I draw the border between life and work.

Quetions are beautiful things.
They often trigger a truth
that was not evident until that moment.

Raoul - one had to move to see

2010-04-12T07:23:00.000-07:00

Foreseen, 1989, Eindhoven

Raoul who was always there for us, is no longer amongst us.
He stepped out of time and cut short the life he couldn't live anymore.
Raoul left some traces online and I brought some together here.
Because without attention for one another, each and everyone of us is alone.
Raoul: we had no idea we are so sorry (words by Annelys today at the ceremony)
~
Here are some notions and phrases, which for me remain associated with Raoul's curiosity,
enthusiasm and generosity; pieced together from memory, email fragments and just plain sadness.

"Een ander beeld vraagt om een andere (talige) structuur wil zij niet in haar mimetische kwaliteit het afleggen tegen de grotere macht waar tegen zij zich juist wil afzetten." - Date: 8 March 2007 19:03:22 CET

"Er zal dus eigenlijk een ander discours geproduceerd moeten worden dat meer het bricolerende weefsel zelf mimetiseert....." - Date: 26 April 2007 23:01:06 CEST

"We moeten, en ik herhaal mijn argument van de laatste ontmoeing- het maar eens uitgebreid over representatie hebben..." - Date: 26 April 2007 23:01:06 CEST

"Met tekst –want het leek de hele tijd die kant op te gaan- bedoelde ik niet een gedrukte –of anderszins gepubliceerde tekst maar het weefsel (textuur) van betekenissen die een museum om een kunstwerk weeft. (...) Kortom tekst als textuur en/of weefsel." - Date: 26 April 2007 23:01:06 CEST

"Tamelijk eenvoudig eigenlijk. Wanneer je bijvoorbeeld kijkt naar de gemiddelde behandeling van een kunstwerk dan wordt het overgrote deel benut om te beschrijven WAT er zichbaar is en zelden HOE iets zichtbaar wordt gesteld."- Date: 13 May 2007 11:02:49 CEST

"De esthetica hernomen (Paul Frissen). (...) De kunsten en de vormgeving en hoe zij (misschien wel als verschil zijn weggevallen in de nieuwe media) kunnen deze rol op zich nemen." - Date: 13 October 2007 13:52:44 CEST

Bergon en Heidegger over de ervaring van de duur: "“zij valt samen met de wereld, zoekt daarin het singuliere en onherhaalbare dat op zijn beurt onpresenteerbaar is” - zie: H. Bergson, Introduction to Metaphysics p.7

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi guys (Magnum P.I. Season 1976),
Hoi jongens,
Hé geluksvogel (zomaar in Detroit...),
Mijn waarde kenniskringleden,

Woekeren en opschorten
Dit spel is nooit waardevrij
Differentie als verlangen
Voorbij goed of slecht.....
Being-there
JONGENS, LEES MIJN VORIGE MAIL NIET. IK DRUKTE PER ONGELUK OP ‘SEND’ EN DEZE MAIL IS NOG NIET AF.....
Om mijn positie te ‘hernemen’.....
Ook wil ik nog even stilstaan bij
Tussen zien en weten
“Het lichaam is ruimte, het bewustzijn tijd” (Bergson) - en dit valt niet op te lossen [RT]
Zij [dit leven, dit landschap] wordt dus ervaren maar kan niet in haar geheel uitgedrukt worden.
Dit volgend wordt het voorgestelde uitermate interessant.

"In andere woorden: we maken betekenis door "tussen" de betekenisgevende
structuren te gaan 'staan' en niet meer door een plek (locus) aan te wijzen
waar deze gevonden kan worden." (over Lyotard's intrasemische ruimte)

Hier wordt ontwerpen ont-werpen.....

Komttie.
Voor jou altijd:
You’re welcome en het is altijd als steun bedoeld

Het was een goede middag.....
Succes!
Veel succes alvast!
En nu ieder een fijne avond!
Geniet van dit weekend!
Geniet van je weekend!
Liefs en goed weekend!
Tot gauw,

En zo heb ik nog meer mar zal ik het hier even bij laten?

www.raoulteulings.com
1959-2010

Subject to change or the space love needs

2010-04-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

"Subject to Change" performed by NDT, Choreography bij Lightfoot & Léon

there is a point when the carpet she dances on,
the space in which she manifests all the love she holds within her,
that carpet shifts under her feet and turns her world around.
Sil and I were sitting on the tip of our chairs by then, moved to tears.

PS Noticed something strange in the format, right click the trailer and zoom out
or view full screen to not miss the margins of the carpet
(that's where it's all happening, in the fringes... of course)

Subject to Change is part of True to II, a compilation including also the virtuoso, super precise Shutters Shut and the magnanimous Cacti by young (24 year old yet author of 23 choreographies?!) Aleksander Ekman. Last chance to see and feel it all: tonight in Utrecht and tomorrow in Alkmaar.

Déracinner les pensées

2010-04-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Unroooted countless blackberrie bushes today, to make space
for a small magnolia, a group of snowdrops and three handful of field flowers
(which we call sneeuwklokje –snowbell– in Dutch, and perce-neige –snow piercer– in French)

Noticed a few parallels between the way roots and thoughts behave

a small stem says nothing about the size of the root below
a small stem that looks like it's by itself often turns out to be connected to some bigger root
(sometimes many meters further, in any direction)
pulling gently on the root yields more result
a hard pull will break the root off, leaving it amputated
to free a root you need to dig the earth up in a circle around it
at first it looks messy but it's also refreshing
shaking a root and seeing clumps of earth fall apart in black dust feels REALLY good
it made me think of the earth globe racing through space
raking the earth till it's soft and even feels EVEN better

Also cleaned up an uncanny pile of trash that was under my terrace when I moved in
and that I had tried to ignore over the winter. After getting rid of the most horrible stuff
I was left with earth and bricks of every possible size. I masoned them into a more or less even surface.

Bringing some kind of intention or direction or reading mode into whatever material
you are confronted with always works - it turns it into something, at least.

eco cathedraal van Kunsthistoricus, architect en filosoof Louis Guillaume Le Roy in Mildam (fr)

Why Man Creates by Saul Bass

2010-03-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

Just started a research for the Graphic Design Museum Breda, for a pocket size publication of the ever expanding territory of graphic design. One thing led to the next and here I am watching all kinds of histories of the universe on a sunday evening: invented, dreamed, drawn, pieced together. The animation is by Paul Bass and I found it on spacecollective.org, and the next one by Maria Kalman in Principles of Uncertainty. See and read more of her generous mind on her NY Times Blog.

The reality of Cultural Heritage

2010-03-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

This is what digging for cultural heritage means in reality: the regional museum (Streekmuseum) of Hoeksche Waard, which is currently being renovated, will be re-furnished and re-opened to the public in the course of next year, with the content of about six of these containers, which stock over 175 m3 of the museum's collection, which counts about 35,000 objects of daily use. Imagine 4 degrees Celcius, a loud playing radio echoing all around on the metal surfaces, and the feeling of a region's identity floating up in the air, waiting to gain shape again in your scale model. How do you feel? Exactly. That's why afterwards we had a big hot chocolate in Heijplaat's local café, which by the way is a living museum of local history.

onderdompelingen (immersions)

2010-02-21T10:03:00.001-08:00

Daphne, my intern on the Bovenlanden Proiect, and below, Henriëtte with her mother Ria. For some reason these snapshots, taken almost without noticing, hit me as very 'true' when I imported them and looked at them for a while. Silhouettes have an intense effect on me, more than faces. It's as if I could feel them walk away from me. And I like how they stick out from the surrounding flatness. And the space between mother and daughter fascinates me - so close and yet so distinct in their features.

about pets and what we call nature

2010-02-21T09:54:00.001-08:00

This is a pet's cemetery, and the top picture the grave of a canary bird (!) in Het Groene Hart (the green hart of The Netherlands). Notice the cat following Ria, Henriëtte's mother, like a loyal guardian. Henriëtte & I have been visiting the area for the past weeks for a project we are working on - about how to frame (mentally, visually and in terms of recreation) the area of De Bovenlanden, an agricultural polder destined to become 'nature' in the near future.

houses of desire and nostalgia

2010-02-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

Michel de Lucchi
- SO HAPPY TO COME ACROSS THIS, THE TACTILITY, THE SENSITIVITY, THE URGENCY ALSO -

Michele De Lucchi @ Ingo Maurer
Ingo Maurer Showroom, Kaiserstrasse 47, Munich, 5 February - 20 March
The quiet pleasures of whittling versus the frenzied sounds of the chainsaw might be at opposite ends of the sound spectrum, yet for Italian architect and designer Michele De Lucchi the move from sharpening pencils with a penknife to picking up a power tool was driven by the same joy: shaping ...

Erik Sep, details of his scale model city. Mediamatic wrote a review about Sep's methodology.

Frank Halsmans, 'Motel Insomnia', 1996-.... - INSIDE ARE THE ROOMS HE ONCE SLEPT IN, BUILT FROM MEMORY AND CONTINUOUSLY REFINED, DETAIL BY DETAIL - (I wonder if Halsmans will ever reach the point where these 'place-memories' will 'fall into place' and 'feel right')

Ron van der Ende: 727 woodrelief UNDER CONSTRUCTION size: approx. 3m10 wide 16cm deep
- OUF -

Ron van der Ende: Flagmans House / Baanwachtershuis 2009 (detail) bas-relief in reclaimed timbers, 90×80x10cm - LOOK AT THOSE DETAILS!!! THOSE COLORS!-
(If the world was shaped with such care and detail it would be a whole different place and we would all act more elegantly, I' sure of it)
Ron van der Ende: Flagmans House / Baanwachtershuis 2009 (detail) bas-relief in reclaimed timbers, 90×80x10cm - I WANT TO HAVE THIS ONE IN MY HOUSE A.S.A.P. (just need to save up a little....) -

Ron van der Ende: Signal Box 2 / Blokpost 2 2008 bas-relief in reclaimed timbers, 65×85x10cm (left: the flip side image) -THIS ONE TOO-
Tracey Snelling @ Cokkie Snoei Gallery
Market (New Orleans), 2008, mixed media,136 cm x 85 cm x 61 cm
- I DREAMT ABOUT THIS ONE ONCE (I THINK) -

art & object rotterdam

2010-02-21T08:32:00.000-08:00

Object Rotterdam was like last year, the boring one of the two shows, with hard neon light, static presentations and important looking (wannabe) designers - in contrast to the tipsy, out of line, talkative artists on the other side of the road (which I feel a lot closer too, to be honnest). There was ONE thing that gave me shivers, Scholten & Baaijings's Total Table Design, a cooperation with Royal Leerdam Crystal (glassware), Koninklijke Van Kempen & Begeer (cutlery/table accessories) and the Audax Textile Museum. Scholten and Baijings are real shapers (vormgevers), in the crafty sense of the word, with a sense of aesthetics, details and texture that left meunder their spell for a while. Thank you Stefan and Carol for taking things this far. It proves that good design can renew our sensitivity to the world.

Tracey Snelling @ Gallery Cokkie Snoei # Bad Motel, # 2008, # mixed media, # 106 cm x 58 cm x 36
Either I'm addicted to dream-like houses and scale models, or the art world is. The 2010 opening of Art Rotterdam was busy as always, and my hurried visit amidst the bubble wine frenzy left me with a homesick feeling and four names in my notebook: Snelling, Sep, Halsmans, and Van der Ende. They make bad motels, uncanny markets, flagmans houses, insomnia motels, a slow city. I decided to start a collection of beautiful alternative homes, also because these days I'm fevereshly sketching on a weather house (a house with the weather inside) for a project, whatever that may become..

mina perhönen

2010-02-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

forest gate, 2005 a/w
Over a hundred 30x30 cm textile print studies by mina perhönen fill the tiny exhibition room of the Textile Museum in Tilburg, which I am visiting with Mara and Monique on a icy sunny saturday. Pictures are not allowed so I draw some of the patterns I like most. The one above is shown in original format in an adjacent room. It's a beautiful, breathing charcoal drawing. I want to touch it. I want to be the little orange tiger at the edge of that endless forest. Now I understand why Perhonen's work feels so rich. It's literally layered, condensed attention, hours spent with sheets of paper, later scaled down and transferred to textile, and ultimately shaped around the body.
~
Monique is as much more fervent blogger than me (I only come round to processing what I've lived, seen and aprreciated every few weeks or so, also because INSTANT messaging just doesn't feel right) - so she managed to get hold of the 2010 collection book via a special japanese website, uguisu. I found a super funny paper bird which I will fly over here to brighten up my studio!

A Cheerful Seater

2010-02-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

Big string-sofas, 2008, Bertjan Pot
For the café of the Textile Museum Bertjan placed four comfy cheerful seaters in each corner - frames of metal woven into hamock like alcoves. They are elegant, funny, well made and they work - they literally frame the space, in a hushed manner. Wonderful.

Field Essays

2010-01-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

Field Essays, the outcome of my research at the Professorship of Art and Public Space at the Rietveld Academie, and supported by the Amsterdam Foundation of Visual Arts Design and Architecture, is currently looking for its place in the world. It's talking to interested publishers but it's also exploring the adventure of self-publishing, which the NO ISBN Salon für Kunstbuch project celebrates.

Edited by | Sophie Krier
Authors | LucyandBart, Marek Pokropski, Sophie Krier
Graphic design | Andreas Tscholl
Print | Drukkerij Rob Stolk, Amsterdam
Copy Writing | Arden Rzewnicki
Cover image | “Pick of Sticks”, LucyandBart, 2009

Field Essays could not have been possible without the generous and critical voices of Jeroen Boomgaard, René Put, Ilse van Rijn, Willem van Weelden, Renée Kool, Raoul Teulings, Frank Mandersloot, Guus Beumer, Danièle Rivière, Bas Raaijmakers, Matthias Gmachl, Rachel Wingfield, Fatos Ustek, Bas Princen, François Roche, Antonio Scarponi, Bas van Beek, Gabriella Gomez-Mont, Alvin Ho, Julia Born and Marieke Stolk.

a car and a garage and their combination

2010-01-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Slimste parkeerder van België | Flabber

I got this link from Bertjan and it's just too nice to not share...

My world on air on "Werelds" @ TV Rijnmond, 26.01.2010

2010-01-26T08:20:00.000-08:00

To know more about acroyoga and Dieke Bikker, the best teacher you can find, visit Salon Physique or Acroyoga! The images of the wrapping up of my exhibition were shot at TENT. Rotterdam, right after the BLURRRR exhibition.

Ivor Pogorelich or Chopin turned inside out

2010-01-23T09:29:00.000-08:00

Since I have taken up piano lessons again, after a pauze of almost 15 years, I have been studying one of Chopin's Preludes, Opus 28 nr 4 - a super nice, super delicate, super sad piece. It was my teacher who suggested that I look for Youtube recordings of it, to study the different possible finger placements. Ainsi dit ainsi fait and I stumbled upon Pogorelich- a few hours later I stared in awe at this recording. Notice the way he walks away at the very end...

GOOD

2010-01-23T04:19:00.000-08:00

Left: Stefan Sagmeister. “Good,” part of an installation at Art Grandeur Nature, St. Denis, France, 2004. Photo: Stefan Sagmeister
Right: Scott Stowell. GOOD magazine, 2006. Designed with Susan Barber, Robert A. Di Ieso, Jr., Gary Ozcan, Nicholas Rock, and Ryan Thacker. Courtesy of Open

Some words sometimes just feel so right
GOOD is one of them
I came across these two good's the other day and could only think:
of course!

zilu - celebrating the handmade

2010-01-23T04:01:00.000-08:00

You know how sometimes things friends do just make you SO proud? Ghazaleh and me have been friends since, well, that embarassing teenage time when I had braces and she had a huge afro. Ghazaleh's career has taken her from Law to Creative Journalism to Zilu - an online shop for everything that's "handmade with love". That sounds simple but it's not that easy to find the makers that really make qualitative jewelry, accessories and other unresistable ornaments of everyday life. Thanks to her flair and that of her partner in business (&life) Bob, Ghazaleh has now gathered a select group of craftsmen & women. It's a relief compared with the usual overload of "nice stuff" everywhere else. If you don't believe me go have a look for yourself (it's nearly Valentine, after all).

my first sofa

2010-01-16T10:54:00.001-08:00

My first sofa arrived this afternoon, straight from a nice family business dealing in vintage design in the polder. It's magical, sitting on it. It's a cute twoseater, 50ies Artifort sofa, still in wonderful shape, upholstered in flower weave, with beautifully shaped legs. The back side is as good, if not better, as the front. Never thought I'd go for flowers!! I love when I end up doing something completely different than I thought. It reminds me that identity is not who you think you are but the search for how many "you's" you can be, a phrase I read in the newspaper the other day - and of which I can't recall the author. Identity as a kind of démultiplication - that thought gives me wings.

side effects

2010-01-16T10:28:00.000-08:00

Bas and Allan conversing during the dishwashing break in my kitchen.

Césare Pietrouisti once wrote really nice things about side effects of his work, in the book "Wat we want is free", on generosity and exchange in recent art. Pietrouisti: "With events in real time, there are always side effects that happen and I would try to recognize them and work with them. Usually, when we project something side effects are considered negative because they are diversions. (...) I like to think that an art practice is the only work with the freedom to consider side effects as a positive part of a project. At the same time, I think that we we cannot expect side effects, nor try to create conditions for having as many of them as we can. On the contrary, if we are not very precise and rigorous in our project definition, we won't be able to recognize the side effects, because we could be submerged by them and not see anything at all.(...) If everything is good nothing is good and you won't be giving meaning to anything whatsover." (p.79) A little earlier in the interview Césare Pietrouisti comments on the potential of documentation: "You can use the documentatin of a project as a mirror for what you have done, as a confirmation, or as a new source that, starting from your action, gives you the opportunity to go somewhere else, to move aside and explore side effects." (p.78)

The above snapshot was taken right after a well deserved lunch break today with five fellow colleagues, with whom I am working on a super exiting book proposal. My studio and home were instantly re-baptised in a kind of salon, with continuous discussions going on all the time. I don't remember sitting for such long stretches of time since a long time. Two days of talking and intensive cross questioning have exhausted me, and yet I still cannot help feeling the urge to sit down and write up all the meaningful things that have been said. On a Saturday evening!!! That's how good the energy is, which we generated together. For that I thank you, Marc, Froukje, Alan, Bas, and Jelle.

searching now

2010-01-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.automatedbeacon.net is a super simple, super addictive net art project launched by Thomson & Craighead on 01/01/2005. Here's part of their press release at the time:

For immediate release 01/01/05 At 00.00hrs on January 1st 2005 an automated beacon began broadcasting on the web at http://www.automatedbeacon.net The beacon continuously relays selected live web searches as they are being made around the world, presenting them back in series and at regular intervals. The beacon has been instigated to act as a silent witness: a feedback loop providing a global snapshot of ourselves to ourselves in real-time. As resources become available, ‘Beacon’ will also begin broadcasting an audio version of this signal across the web and as a series of short wave radio broadcasts and FM local area broadcasts –time and places to be confirmed. Happy New Year! Thomson & Craighead. Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead are artists based in London who use video, sound, electronic networks and communications systems to create gallery and web-based artworks.