dysemevas

Brick by Brick

I am extremely excited to be bringing (fingers crossed!) Brick by Brick, by People's Architecture, to Hong Kong.  This is one of the coolest programs around, teaching kids about architecutre, urban awareness, and architecture through play... 

Happy Birthday...

Richard Hutten x Christofle

Went to this opening tonight... The Christofle guy was like- what the hell are you doing here? 

100% Design: Day One

10:30am: Make it to the fair bright and early. Walk through the bamboo structure, designed by Tobias Wong and Aric Chen, the creative directors of the fair. I completely miss the fact that it is an installation until it is explained in detail during the Press Briefing. Bamboo being a ubiquitous symbol of the development of modern China, Tobias and Aric choose to create an empty space into which future objects by Chinese designers. Cute idea, but difficult execution –how are we supposed to tell the difference between this and an actual construction interior? Would be much cooler if the fair was anywhere else… Here, it’s too literal.

11:30am: Richard Hutten very publicly thanks Christofle for WRITING HIS SPEECH, which he will “deliver, word for word.” I love him. He is hilarious.

12:15pm: Outside at the signboard. Have decided to make the signboard a tribute to Andrew Yang, the fair consultant. Aric Chen plays along, but Tobias plays it a bit straighter…

1:45pm: Find Hans Lensvelt of Moooi at the bar buying a beer… He has the best wallet EVER.  It's made of old luggage tags- now clocking in at 6 laters of them... Unfortunately I can’t say the same about his phone… I send him and Richard to the signboard to write nasty things about Andrew…

3:00pm: Am in LOVE with this chair by DROOG in the Design Republic booth… I should make one, but that is exactly the point right? I shouldn’t copy their ideas?!! But what if I don’t sell it and just put it in my house? Is that ok??

8:00pm:  Make it to the opening party.  There is a random installation hiding in the corner--student works...  Am gifted an "O-PEN" by the designer himself... Dinner with Joanne and co... I love Patrice.

Droog rocks...

Sent via BlackBerry® from 3

100% Design- Richard Hutton...

Sent via BlackBerry® from 3

100% Design...

or 200% fake?  I love Douglas Young because of his incredible wit.  It's finally here, 100% Design has made it to China... I saw a giant Chinese flag in the airport today and was mildly touched... That was right before the gigantic line at customs, at which point i was more than mildly annoyed.  Spent the day being extremely annoyed because Hong Kong's visionaries are not very visionary at all.  To save my soul from eternal damnation, i wont say too much, but really - what is the point of having a design group of even you aren't going to design the best possible thing????  The term "put your money where your mouth is" comes to mind.  At least DY agrees with me.  DELAY NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!  Let's do things properly. 

Anyways so yes, I made it to Shanghai even with the typhoon.  Well, the typhoon was gone but still, the airport was a mess (i always forget that after weather disasters airports are a mess because they have to SHUT DOWN).  Whatever though, I am here.  Cannot WAIT to see what they have done / found.  Perhaps i shouldnt get my hopes up too high but I have FAITH.  (the same faith that i have when i say that my not taking a plastic bag is going to save the world...).

Rant: Hong Kong Design Institute & Institute of Vocational Education

I recieved this in the "mail" today and realized that something was WRONG.  This is a edm from a DESIGN SCHOOL.  Why aren't they showcasing the best of their design???  The fact that they used a stock font and then just WRITTEN THE TEXT in a COMPLETELY BORING WAY is BEYOND DEPRESSING.  Obviously they teach design.  Obviously they have students who can do things for them.  Obviously this is the work of some bureaucratic freak who just decided to put this together and forgot that (1) this is a great avenue to showcase the work that is being done at the school and (2) people do LOOK at these things as a DIRECT MANIFESTATION or REPRESENTATION of the work that they are going to see.  THIS IS WHY there is space for a group like the Ambassadors.  NO FURTHER COMMENTS.

Download IVE.bmp

*It's so gross i dont want it on my page...

Everything I have Learned In My Life So Far...

Blogging is awesome because it gives me a place to say things that i otherwise would have to find someone to say to... 

About a year ago i read an article in Harper's on the decline of reading.  Other than the actually quite fascinating history of reading that it shed light upon, and the satisfaction that it gave me (yay: I read!), its main feat was leading me to an essay on the art of the aphorism.  the aphorism is the lingusitic answer to a painting.  Nietzsche said that people write badly because they write the whole process by which they came to a final thought (SOROS!!).  The aphorism, which Nietzsche was a master of, is the thought itself, or, both the hook and the bait.   What a thought - lets take out all the explaining, justifying, rationalizing ... make a powerful statement...

Am now reading Stefan Sagmeister's "Everything I have Learned In My Life So Far."  It's beautiful.  The intertwined process of writing, reading, and thinking was another cornerstone of the aphorism article.  Back in the day people would  have these notebooks where they would write, read, think, re-read, re-write, re-arrange...  I always wanted to read one of these as I wanted to be able to get inside the head of someone.  I always wanted to model my notebooks on them... Sagmeister returns to his list of things and recomposes them graphically and expounds upon them and shows how they came about and how they work...  While not in the model per-se, it comes pretty damn close and is probably a better version to live and play with... life, thinking, creativity, thoughtfulness, inspirations... the book is beautiful.  Reading it, i want to be him.

Of course I am rambling and doing exactly what i quoted as "bad" but whatever.  this is a blog.   

things i have learned so far in my life

Grandeur is dead

watching Prince Caspian made me yearn for the days where people were noble and chivalrous... I've also realized that the people closest to you are usually both your biggest fans as well as the ones who are most likely to look you over... i think there is this chicken - egg and noble spiral issue in the world: the more we talk about stuff, no matter how ridiculous it is, the bigger it gets... I love that chinese has tones and when you bring us all together and none of us speak properly we all have absolutely no idea what we are all saying... Am disgusted but intrigued by the prevalence of consultant-speak that has permeated my way of thinking - cycles of learning, process flows / maps, T & A's... can't decide if it just shows that we are all really task oriented or just spend too much time with corporate f's... Shopping round out... Anyhow the long weekend is almost over... Eventful? Always... Just letting the rain wash away troubles and making my world a prettier place...