Road safety advert

I'm going through all the emails I received whilst I was away in the summer. I subscribe to the marvellous Kindling-the Do lectures newsletter which provides as they put it 'the best stuff from last week. The most inspiring articles, ideas, videos, talks etc. We edit them down. So you don’t have to'.

One of the items from the  newsletter in early July was this Youtube video . All material © 2010 Sarah Alexander/Daniel Cox/Sussex Safer Roads.
An exceptionally effective advertisement ,  it makes me want to put a seat belt on right now even though I'm stationary in a computer chair. It has been viewed over 14 million times-now that is a successful design product!

I've mentioned The Do lectures before. They provide a variety of inspirational talks, their strapline is  

Attending the Do Lectures is very costly, but they are available for free online.
This one is about doing things the long hard stupid way

Robots and machines that make music

Last year I enjoyed Paul Granjon’s show at Oriel Davies in Newtown Powys

'Humorous and fun, Granjon’s practice triggers serious reflection upon our relationship with technology. In Oriel Factory he capitalises on the abundance of technological waste and creates an open space for playing, making, learning, thinking and sharing in a way that firmly belongs to the 21st century.'

 Paul has spoken of his  apprehension when regarding the gradual infiltration of machines into human experience. The machines  made for this show are not unnerving rather they are funny and endearing. In the show and workshops that made up ‘Oriel Factory’ Paul and his assistants transformed old machine parts into various musical and locomotive machines.

A documentary by Chris Keenan about the process of Paul Granjon's 'Oriel Factory' from start to finish can be viewed  here. The video takes you from an initial studio visit, to installation at Oriel Davies Gallery and performance by Paul Granjon at the opening event with commentary from Paul Granjon and the 'Factory Workers'.

On a related note here are two musical scanners made by a Youtube contributor posted here to welcome in the New Year with a smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-1fkQcntTU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4

Catch Gerhard Richter online or before the show finishes

Tate Online offers a range of videos about artists in the 'Tateshots' series. On the occasion of his major retrospective at Tate Modern a lovely video featuring Gerhard Richter talking to Nick Serota (Director of the Tate) has been  linked from the exhibition's webpage  here.

"Spanning nearly five decades, and coinciding with the artist’s 80th birthday, Gerhard Richter: Panorama is a major retrospective exhibition that groups together significant moments of his remarkable career.Since the 1960s, Gerhard Richter has immersed himself in a rich and varied exploration of painting. Gerhard Richter: Panorama highlights the full extent of the artist's work, which has encompassed a diverse range of techniques and ideas. It includes realist paintings based on photographs, colourful gestural abstractions such as the squeegee paintings, portraits, subtle landscapes and history paintings."  from Tate pages for 'Panorama'
Gerhard Richter: Panorama at Tate Modern 6 October 2011  –  8 January 2012

More Tateshots from the Tate Channel can be viewed from here

Steve Jobs- two different viewpoints

I am back after a  long absence but the blog will now be updated regularly as before-spread the word and keep reading!!

BBC 2 screened a documentary on 14th December entitled ' Steve Jobs: Million Dollar Hippy' "a long-haired college dropout with infinite ambition, and an inspirational perfectionist with a bully's temper. A man of contradictions, he fused a Californian counterculture attitude and a mastery of the art of hype with explosive advances in computer technology.
Insiders including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the chairman who ousted Jobs from the company he founded, and Jobs' chief of software, tell extraordinary stories of the rise, fall and rise again of Apple with Steve Jobs at its helm.
With Stephen Fry, world wide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and branding guru Rita Clifton, Evan Davis decodes the formula that took Apple from suburban garage to global supremacy."

The arts desk an online arts reviews website has published a trenchant reaction to the programme by Jasper Rees in the wake of the BBC documentary.

Enjoy both and think about what Apple means to you (and the world).

Artists’ Books Special Collection in Howard Gardens Library

Some of the items from our 50 new Artists' Books are now on display in a magnificent lighted glass case to be found in the Yellow Room (to the left as you enter Howard Gardens library). Information about the books  can be found by searching LOCATE, the Library catalogue, as normal . The books are for reference only and not kept on the shelves but may be viewed upon request -ask for details at the Library desk. The display in the Artists' Book Collection glass cabinet will be changed periodically to allow the full range of material to be seen.
The collection includes items such as Sioux Bradshaw’s ‘Art Lover Seeks’:  a simple A4 single printed and folded page and Franticham’s Assembling Box of visual poetry and Fluxus inspired works - a set of individual sheets from over 20 contributing artists. Some of Jill Barker’s ‘Somerset Stones’ series include wood engraved prints and house actual stones within the pages, and Jo Wilson’s limited edition ‘Beside the Sea’ is a single scroll contained in a boxed wooded frame. The collection also includes Zines. New artists' books will continue to be added to this new and exciting resource.

Bright Ideas Lighting

Inhabitat (a weblog forum for emerging trends in architectural interior and product design), in partnership with Philips Lighting recently ran a competition called Bright Ideas Lighting. The idea of the competition was to showcase the potential of LED lighting. They were looking for examples of inspiring eco-friendly lamps that make smart use of materials, and are designed to work with low-energy LED replacement bulbs like Philips AmbientLED. (Since LED bulbs are low heat, this was an opportunity to get creative with other materials that might be off-limits with traditional incandescent bulbs). The panel of expert judges selected 20 finalists based upon aesthetics, creativity, sustainability, practicality, and commercial viability. Readers then voted for the winner.

The winner, designer Edward Chew,  cut box drink cartons into hundreds of strips and folded them into pieces to create his Tetra Pak lamp . Along with its retro looks and attractiveness it is also a creative example of upcycled design and craftsmanship – it was even assembled without the use of any adhesives!

Read about the competion and the other winners here

Ted Prize 2011

TED is devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design.

The TED Prize is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, "One Wish to Change the World."

After several months of preparation, the wish is unveiled at an award ceremony held during the TED Conference. Over the life of the prize, wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.

This year the prize was awarded to JR

JR owns the biggest art gallery in the world. He exhibits freely in the streets of the world, catching the attention of people who are not the museum visitors. His work mixes Art and Act, talks about commitment, freedom, identity and limit.

JR creates "Pervasive Art" that spreads uninvited on the buildings of the slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle-East, on the broken bridges in Africa or the favelas in Brazil. People who often live with the bare minimum discover something absolutely unnecessary. And they don't just see it, they make it. Some elderly women become models for a day; some kids turn artists for a week. In that Art scene, there is no stage to separate the actors from the spectators.

JR’s One wish for the World is here. A fabulous talk by the very charming JR and details too on how you can become part of his project Inside Out