(Andrea + Raffaela)
Friday, July 31, 2015
Happy holidays !
Happy holidays to everybody: the post of eamesiana will return on August 31. Stay Tuned !
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
News: On Customer Experience: 4 Questions with Timothy Straker (Herman Miller)
People interact with the Herman Miller brand in different ways, ranging from their everyday work chair to the coffee table they eyed for years before purchasing. How do you think about the customer experience?
Timothy Straker: Customers might come to us for performance seating for an office complex, or dozens of chairs for a clinic, or a lounge chair for their living room. When they interact with Herman Miller, they all experience the same gracious hospitality, attention to detail, and inspiring collection of settings. We’re focused on the people who use our products: What do they need to get done? And how can we design to support their activities?
Then who is the Herman Miller customer?
Straker: On the surface, we have two very different kinds of customers. Our industry customers are often facilities directors for large companies. They need large-scale office solutions at a certain price point. They might not care all that much about the icons associated with the brand, at least not as a first consideration.
On the consumer side, we see people with a strong interest in design—they might be familiar with some of our legendary designers like Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard and George Nelson, or one of today’s designers like Yves Behar and Studio 7.5. With the acquisitions of Maharam and Design Within Reach (DWR), we’re connecting directly with consumers at retail more than every before.
But on both sides of the business, what people want from Herman Miller are innovative products that help them do great things.
With a portfolio of iconic furniture, the Herman Miller portfolio is relentlessly knocked off by counterfeiters. How do you keep your focus on authenticity?
Straker: Productions like Mad Men have helped reintroduce the classics to a whole new generation—what was new is new again. But our core buyers have always been true design enthusiasts. It’s not just about aesthetics to them—they’re just as interested in the design itself. They view how they live and what they buy as an extension of their own brand, and wouldn’t compromise that with a fake.
What do the Herman Miller values mean to the customer experience?
Straker: Customers today have more information than ever about the companies they do business with. The terrific thing is that our values haven’t ever changed. Our policy on sustainability has been in place since before sustainability was a thing. Our values of curiosity and exploration are central to our strength in innovation. And our point of view in inclusiveness and diversity is how we earned a 100% score from the Human Rights campaign for eight years straight. Our values matter a lot to our employees too, which is important because we believe customer experience and employee experience are one and the same. When your employees live the brand, it’s easier for your customers to identify with the brand.
Timothy Straker: Customers might come to us for performance seating for an office complex, or dozens of chairs for a clinic, or a lounge chair for their living room. When they interact with Herman Miller, they all experience the same gracious hospitality, attention to detail, and inspiring collection of settings. We’re focused on the people who use our products: What do they need to get done? And how can we design to support their activities?
Then who is the Herman Miller customer?
Straker: On the surface, we have two very different kinds of customers. Our industry customers are often facilities directors for large companies. They need large-scale office solutions at a certain price point. They might not care all that much about the icons associated with the brand, at least not as a first consideration.
On the consumer side, we see people with a strong interest in design—they might be familiar with some of our legendary designers like Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard and George Nelson, or one of today’s designers like Yves Behar and Studio 7.5. With the acquisitions of Maharam and Design Within Reach (DWR), we’re connecting directly with consumers at retail more than every before.
But on both sides of the business, what people want from Herman Miller are innovative products that help them do great things.
With a portfolio of iconic furniture, the Herman Miller portfolio is relentlessly knocked off by counterfeiters. How do you keep your focus on authenticity?
Straker: Productions like Mad Men have helped reintroduce the classics to a whole new generation—what was new is new again. But our core buyers have always been true design enthusiasts. It’s not just about aesthetics to them—they’re just as interested in the design itself. They view how they live and what they buy as an extension of their own brand, and wouldn’t compromise that with a fake.
What do the Herman Miller values mean to the customer experience?
Straker: Customers today have more information than ever about the companies they do business with. The terrific thing is that our values haven’t ever changed. Our policy on sustainability has been in place since before sustainability was a thing. Our values of curiosity and exploration are central to our strength in innovation. And our point of view in inclusiveness and diversity is how we earned a 100% score from the Human Rights campaign for eight years straight. Our values matter a lot to our employees too, which is important because we believe customer experience and employee experience are one and the same. When your employees live the brand, it’s easier for your customers to identify with the brand.
Monday, July 27, 2015
News: Girard meets Eames
Matchboxes. Cardboard boxes that have been stamped all over. A slip box full of quotes. Countless tiny portraits – Alexander Girard was a passionate, almost manic collector. He found inspiration for shapes, concepts and ideas everywhere, whether in modern industrial design or traditional folk art. And the Italian-American architect knew how to turn his inexhaustible treasure trove of reference material into innumerable new and exciting things. Girard turned every project he worked on into an artistic synthesis, where everything was thought through, from coffee cup to plug socket – and these projects were as diverse as the corporate design for an airline or an interior for industrialist J. Irwin Miller. He collaborated with Saul Steinberg and Georgia O’Keeffe, Eero Saarinen and George Nelson. And with Ray and Charles Eames. With the latter he shared an especially close and productive friendship. They swapped ideas about radio design and apartment construction, went on trips together, and Charles Eames even photographed Girard’s interiors. The fact that works by both the long-time Vitra hero and the rediscovered gem are now reunited in “Home Complements” is, of course, anything but a chance encounter.
What’s more, Girard’s entire estate, including his extensive collections, is now housed at Vitra Design Museum, so the path from Weil am Rhein into the architect and designer’s world of images and ideas was not particularly long. It is a cheerful world, at times floral and delicate like the pillow, at others loud and flashy like the colorful things now enhancing “Home Complements”. Further neighbors in Vitra’s Mount Olympus of accessories: Hella Jongerius, Arik Levy, Jasper Morrison and others – but even in this youthful company, Girard never looks old.
by Andreas Kühnlein
via stylepark.com
http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/girard-meets-eames/361195
What’s more, Girard’s entire estate, including his extensive collections, is now housed at Vitra Design Museum, so the path from Weil am Rhein into the architect and designer’s world of images and ideas was not particularly long. It is a cheerful world, at times floral and delicate like the pillow, at others loud and flashy like the colorful things now enhancing “Home Complements”. Further neighbors in Vitra’s Mount Olympus of accessories: Hella Jongerius, Arik Levy, Jasper Morrison and others – but even in this youthful company, Girard never looks old.
by Andreas Kühnlein
via stylepark.com
http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/girard-meets-eames/361195
Friday, July 24, 2015
News: Davone "Ray-s" speakers reference classic Charles and Ray eames chair
Influenced by the iconic Eames lounge chair and ottoman (1956), danish company Davone created the "Ray-s" speakers that embrace old world craftsmanship with the most advanced audio technology on the market.
It features a three way speaker system with an eight inch bass, that produces detail and depth in every note. davone eliminated parallel surfaces to help reduce internal cancellations of sound. the curvature of real wood is much stiffer than the fiber board construction of other speakers and includes a leather baffle to provide a unique look and even diffraction. the eight inch hand built paper woofer with symmetrical motors, stay stiff through the entire stroke and the off center mounting of the tweeter and midrange drivers give a more stable in-room feedback than traditional tower speakers. the one inch thick water cut solid steel stand provides elegant support of the speaker.
Through selective design decisions, davone created a stand that minimizes energy loss from the speaker to the floor. the single knobs at the back of the speaker tighten to guarantee a solid connection with the rest of the sound system. the high quality materials allow for an uncompromising interface that even Charles and Ray Eames would be proud of.
by Piotr Boruslawski
via designboom.com
http://www.designboom.com/technology/davone-ray-s-speakers-07-22-2015/
images courtesy of Davone
It features a three way speaker system with an eight inch bass, that produces detail and depth in every note. davone eliminated parallel surfaces to help reduce internal cancellations of sound. the curvature of real wood is much stiffer than the fiber board construction of other speakers and includes a leather baffle to provide a unique look and even diffraction. the eight inch hand built paper woofer with symmetrical motors, stay stiff through the entire stroke and the off center mounting of the tweeter and midrange drivers give a more stable in-room feedback than traditional tower speakers. the one inch thick water cut solid steel stand provides elegant support of the speaker.
Through selective design decisions, davone created a stand that minimizes energy loss from the speaker to the floor. the single knobs at the back of the speaker tighten to guarantee a solid connection with the rest of the sound system. the high quality materials allow for an uncompromising interface that even Charles and Ray Eames would be proud of.
by Piotr Boruslawski
via designboom.com
http://www.designboom.com/technology/davone-ray-s-speakers-07-22-2015/
images courtesy of Davone
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Eameses' Friends: Eliel and Eero Saarinen
A new book focuses on the small-scale projects of the finnish american architecture family.
By Shaunacy Ferro
Via fastcodesign.com
at http://www.fastcodesign.com/3040687/the-remarkably-intimate-houses-of-father-son-architects-eliel-and-eero-saarinen
Architecture history is filled with father-son duos. In the 18th century, Jacques V Gabriel, the premier architect to the King of France, left his title to his son Ange-Jacques, who designed and remodeled many of the interiors and exteriors at Versailles. In the 20th century, Frank Lloyd Wright passed the architecture bug onto his son, Lloyd. Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect, also had a son who went into the field. One of the most famous of these architecture lineages belongs to the Saarinens, Finnish-born architect Eliel Saarinen and his even more famous son, Eero Saarinen.
The Saarinens, who both received the American Institute of Architects' prestigious Gold Medal award for their contributions to the field (Eliel in 1947, Eero posthumously in 1962), are the subject of a new book by architecture historian Sirkkaliisa Jetsonen and photographer Jari Jetsonen, Saarinen Houses.
The book covers the famed architects' residential work in both Europe and America, spanning 17 projects over six decades starting with Eliel's work in the late 1890s. Though both Eliel and Eero Saarinen are best known for their public works, like the elder Saarinen's Helsinki railway station and Eero's TWA building at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, "it is through the homes they designed for themselves and others (a number of which are open to the public) that we may witness the effects of their 'integrity of mind and spirit' and glimpse something of their basic natures and personalities," as Gregory Wittkopp, director of the Cranbrook Art Museum (in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where Eliel Saarinen ran the affiliated art school) writes in the book's introduction.
The interiors underscore both Saarinens' love of art and decor, with decorative touches, custom-designed modern furniture, and carefully sculpted gardens. The buildings also reveal the Saarinens' mastery of context. Both architects are known for their monumental works, including airports, railway stations, and the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and yet their designs are just as adroit at the scale of a family home, all of which look eminently livable and human-scale, not just beautiful.
The photographs are an intimate look at the private residences the two master builders crafted for friends, family, and clients, including Hvitträsk and Saarinen House, the two houses Eliel Saarinen built for his own family near Helsinki, Finland, and in Bloomfield Hills. Inside, we catch a glimpse not only of the Saarinens' architectural prowess, but their smallest-scale design ideas as well: many of the homes contain furniture designed by either Eliel or Eero. The residential designs featured range from the rustic, ornamental style of Eliel's early Finnish homes to the mid-century modernist touches of his later collaborations with Eero. The book traces Saarinen and Associates' design evolution from the cozy, very Finnish country homes with Mansford roofs and timber ceilings designed by Eliel at the turn of the century to Eero's mastery of the International Style and the modernist home. Eliel and later Eero traded wooden cabins for flat-roofed, glass and marble minimalist homes with '50s conversation pits, never losing the comprehensive, detail-oriented design ethos of creating a residence that was both living and entertaining space and work of art.
The Saarinens, who both received the American Institute of Architects' prestigious Gold Medal award for their contributions to the field (Eliel in 1947, Eero posthumously in 1962), are the subject of a new book by architecture historian Sirkkaliisa Jetsonen and photographer Jari Jetsonen, Saarinen Houses.
The book covers the famed architects' residential work in both Europe and America, spanning 17 projects over six decades starting with Eliel's work in the late 1890s. Though both Eliel and Eero Saarinen are best known for their public works, like the elder Saarinen's Helsinki railway station and Eero's TWA building at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, "it is through the homes they designed for themselves and others (a number of which are open to the public) that we may witness the effects of their 'integrity of mind and spirit' and glimpse something of their basic natures and personalities," as Gregory Wittkopp, director of the Cranbrook Art Museum (in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where Eliel Saarinen ran the affiliated art school) writes in the book's introduction.
The interiors underscore both Saarinens' love of art and decor, with decorative touches, custom-designed modern furniture, and carefully sculpted gardens. The buildings also reveal the Saarinens' mastery of context. Both architects are known for their monumental works, including airports, railway stations, and the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and yet their designs are just as adroit at the scale of a family home, all of which look eminently livable and human-scale, not just beautiful.
The photographs are an intimate look at the private residences the two master builders crafted for friends, family, and clients, including Hvitträsk and Saarinen House, the two houses Eliel Saarinen built for his own family near Helsinki, Finland, and in Bloomfield Hills. Inside, we catch a glimpse not only of the Saarinens' architectural prowess, but their smallest-scale design ideas as well: many of the homes contain furniture designed by either Eliel or Eero. The residential designs featured range from the rustic, ornamental style of Eliel's early Finnish homes to the mid-century modernist touches of his later collaborations with Eero. The book traces Saarinen and Associates' design evolution from the cozy, very Finnish country homes with Mansford roofs and timber ceilings designed by Eliel at the turn of the century to Eero's mastery of the International Style and the modernist home. Eliel and later Eero traded wooden cabins for flat-roofed, glass and marble minimalist homes with '50s conversation pits, never losing the comprehensive, detail-oriented design ethos of creating a residence that was both living and entertaining space and work of art.
Via fastcodesign.com
at http://www.fastcodesign.com/3040687/the-remarkably-intimate-houses-of-father-son-architects-eliel-and-eero-saarinen
Saarinen Houses is available at nb notable bookshop, via bellezia 12, turin (italy).
Monday, July 20, 2015
In Vivid Animation, the Shapes and Sounds of Planet Earth
“Powers of Ten,” the 1977 short film by Charles and Ray Eames, begins with an idyllic shot of a picnic in Chicago, captured from one meter away. As a narrator talks, the camera pulls back 10 meters, revealing a grassy lawn. It leaps again, this time 100 meters back, framing the neighborhood. Gradually, by powers of 10, the film opens up the city, the Mid-West, North America, Earth, and beyond—all the way to the edge of the known universe.
The film was a feat of the era’s technology, and a wondrous, human-positive take on the possibilities of satellite photography—now a pervasive feature of our digitally mapped world.
The world now has a kind of heir to “Powers of Ten” in the new short “Ripple,” which filmmaker and RISD student Conner Griffith has called an“advertisement for planet Earth.” Griffith has assembled and animated hundreds of shots of our planet’s open and developed surfaces, using imagery primarily from Google Earth but also Wikipedia, RISD’s collections, and Griffith’s personal photography.
With a clever soundtrack, the film creates echoes between Earth’s natural and built features. The sound of electricity crackles behind a rapid montage of lightning-shaped tributaries. Machines beep and boop as farmlands transition into computer chips.
At any scale, the film suggests, the world has only a few shapes to offer—a conclusion that seems only possible to reach in the era of satellite ubiquity.
The film was a feat of the era’s technology, and a wondrous, human-positive take on the possibilities of satellite photography—now a pervasive feature of our digitally mapped world.
The world now has a kind of heir to “Powers of Ten” in the new short “Ripple,” which filmmaker and RISD student Conner Griffith has called an“advertisement for planet Earth.” Griffith has assembled and animated hundreds of shots of our planet’s open and developed surfaces, using imagery primarily from Google Earth but also Wikipedia, RISD’s collections, and Griffith’s personal photography.
With a clever soundtrack, the film creates echoes between Earth’s natural and built features. The sound of electricity crackles behind a rapid montage of lightning-shaped tributaries. Machines beep and boop as farmlands transition into computer chips.
At any scale, the film suggests, the world has only a few shapes to offer—a conclusion that seems only possible to reach in the era of satellite ubiquity.
Laura Bliss
Via citylab.com
Friday, July 17, 2015
What Japanese Etiquette Can Tell Us About Good Design
The connections between hospitality and design are well known. Charles Eames once remarked to his contemporary and collaborator Eero Saarinen that "the role of the architect, or the designer, is that of a very good, thoughtful host, all of whose energy goes into trying to anticipate the needs of his guests."
But how can you operationalize this concept of "being a good host" in the constantly shifting context of mobile digital interfaces?
Seven years ago, a Panasonic interaction designer named Kerstin Blanchy was wondering the same thing. As a westerner working in Yokohama, Japan, she became inspired by the cultural concept ofmotenashi (or omotenashi), a traditional code of conduct outlining the ideal guest-host relationship. Blanchy published an analysis of "this special version of Human-Human interaction … in order to seek hints on how to improve Human-Machine Interaction," which she boiled down into "three principles of attitude":
Anticipation of the other’s needs: The host should respond to guest’s needs before the latter feels such need himself.
Flexibility to the situation: Refers to the appropriate amount of formality or casualness respectively.
Understatement: The host should not display his efforts, in order to create a natural feeling for the guest.
By John Pavlus
Read all at: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048651/innovation-by-design/what-japanese-etiquette-can-tell-us-about-good-ux-design
But how can you operationalize this concept of "being a good host" in the constantly shifting context of mobile digital interfaces?
Seven years ago, a Panasonic interaction designer named Kerstin Blanchy was wondering the same thing. As a westerner working in Yokohama, Japan, she became inspired by the cultural concept ofmotenashi (or omotenashi), a traditional code of conduct outlining the ideal guest-host relationship. Blanchy published an analysis of "this special version of Human-Human interaction … in order to seek hints on how to improve Human-Machine Interaction," which she boiled down into "three principles of attitude":
Anticipation of the other’s needs: The host should respond to guest’s needs before the latter feels such need himself.
Flexibility to the situation: Refers to the appropriate amount of formality or casualness respectively.
Understatement: The host should not display his efforts, in order to create a natural feeling for the guest.
By John Pavlus
Read all at: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048651/innovation-by-design/what-japanese-etiquette-can-tell-us-about-good-ux-design
Ray Eames, Charlie Chaplin, Isamu Noguchi and Shirley Yamaguchi during a Japanese tea ceremony held at the Eames House, 1951.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Exactly 50 years ago.
Courtesy: Linus, Milano Libri Edizioni, Milano, 1965.
Monday, July 13, 2015
Math error at Mathematica exhibit? Not so fast!
While visiting (from Virginia) Joseph Rosenfeld (15-year-old) found an equation error in Mathematica exhibit in Boston Museum of Science.
He said there were three mistakes in the formula for the Golden Ratio — minuses where there should be pluses. They have been there, part of the Mathematica exhibit developed by Charles and Ray Eames, since 1978. No one seemed to notice. The story of how he caught the supposed errors has gone viral, and initially the Museum of Science let him know they’d be correcting the mathematical display. Reporters have reached out to the teen about his numerical wizardry.
Rosenfeld said it was simple logic.
“I immediately thought it was incorrect, but I still double-checked myself on my cellphone, going to Wikipedia and other websites,” Rosenfeld said. He even took a picture.
After a follow-up e-mail to the museum, the rising sophomore at John Handley High School received a letter from the Museum of Science. It seemed Rosenfeld’s attention to detail had paid off.
“You are right that the formula for the Golden Ratio is incorrect,” wrote Alana Parkes, the exhibit content developer at the Museum of Science. “We will be changing the – sign to a + sign on the three places it appears if we can manage to do it without damaging the original.”
But now it seems the museum has had a change of heart.
On Tuesday afternoon, Museum of Science spokeswoman Erin Shannon released a statement saying that the Golden Ratio display in the Mathematica exhibit is correct after all.
“It’s not at all surprising that this enterprising student noticed the minus signs because the way the Museum presents the Golden Ratio in its exhibit is in fact the less common — but no less accurate — way to present it,” the statement read. “It’s exciting that people around the country are talking about math and science and that, in the process, we learned something too.”
So . . . can they both be right?
Arthur Mattuck, an emeritus professor of mathematics at MIT, said yes. The two formulas are equal. It’s just that the Golden Ratio is normally presented the way the museum did.
“There’s no logical reason it can’t be presented the other way,” Mattuck said. “The two numbers are the same even if they look different . . . the student is just presenting the fraction upside down, in other words using the reciprocal number.”
To recognize Rosenfeld’s achievement, the Eames Office is putting together a small package of Eames materials for the young mathematician.
“We figure Charles and Ray would have gotten a kick out of a student so engaged with the ideas of Mathematica that he helped make the exhibition even stronger,” said Eames Demetrios, one of the famous designers’ five grandchildren, in an e-mail.
via bostonglobe.com
see: https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2015/07/07/math-error-museum-science-not-fast/BJBCcndGWe9YC2mnCUrP1O/story.html
courtesy: bostonglobe.com
Rosenfeld said it was simple logic.
“I immediately thought it was incorrect, but I still double-checked myself on my cellphone, going to Wikipedia and other websites,” Rosenfeld said. He even took a picture.
After a follow-up e-mail to the museum, the rising sophomore at John Handley High School received a letter from the Museum of Science. It seemed Rosenfeld’s attention to detail had paid off.
“You are right that the formula for the Golden Ratio is incorrect,” wrote Alana Parkes, the exhibit content developer at the Museum of Science. “We will be changing the – sign to a + sign on the three places it appears if we can manage to do it without damaging the original.”
But now it seems the museum has had a change of heart.
On Tuesday afternoon, Museum of Science spokeswoman Erin Shannon released a statement saying that the Golden Ratio display in the Mathematica exhibit is correct after all.
“It’s not at all surprising that this enterprising student noticed the minus signs because the way the Museum presents the Golden Ratio in its exhibit is in fact the less common — but no less accurate — way to present it,” the statement read. “It’s exciting that people around the country are talking about math and science and that, in the process, we learned something too.”
So . . . can they both be right?
Arthur Mattuck, an emeritus professor of mathematics at MIT, said yes. The two formulas are equal. It’s just that the Golden Ratio is normally presented the way the museum did.
“There’s no logical reason it can’t be presented the other way,” Mattuck said. “The two numbers are the same even if they look different . . . the student is just presenting the fraction upside down, in other words using the reciprocal number.”
To recognize Rosenfeld’s achievement, the Eames Office is putting together a small package of Eames materials for the young mathematician.
“We figure Charles and Ray would have gotten a kick out of a student so engaged with the ideas of Mathematica that he helped make the exhibition even stronger,” said Eames Demetrios, one of the famous designers’ five grandchildren, in an e-mail.
via bostonglobe.com
see: https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2015/07/07/math-error-museum-science-not-fast/BJBCcndGWe9YC2mnCUrP1O/story.html
courtesy: bostonglobe.com
Friday, July 10, 2015
Inspirefest 2015* keynote spoke of the need to include artists and designers early in the process of developing technology
In the 1950s, Charles and Ray Eames made a short film ‘primer’ about communications technology.
The architect and artist understood the underlying concepts and explained them in a way that still has merit today, according to Inspirefest 2015 keynote speaker Prof. Linda Doyle.
“They made the most beautiful, amazing objects… and a lot of people know them through that,” she said. “But what I am really interested in their creative practices, their educational ideas and films they made.”
Their insights into communication theory are a particular source of inspiration for Doyle, who is professor of engineering and the arts at Trinity College Dublin.
“They were fearless,” she said. “As artists and architects who had no background in technology, they accessed the most cutting edge technology of the day.”
Charles and Ray Eames recast ideas, they understood that a network was connected with people long before people were using mobile phones and they included concepts from a then-recently-published paper about how noise disturbs communications and has to be taken out, according to Doyle.
“From that paper stemmed the digital world that we currently live in. [The Eames] accessed that, understood it, they processed it.”
Adding art to science, technology, engineering and maths
The approach that Charles and Ray Eames took to education also shows how important the ‘A’ is in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and maths), noted Doyle.
“A lot of what we do today and the way we teach is about producing something to the bare minimum, sterilising it, dealing with the question, ‘Will that be on the exam?’ That way of thinking,” she said. “[Charles and Ray Eames] thought, ‘We want to immerse people in lots of different ideas, we want to bring them together and we want people to make their own connections.’”
As director of the Science Foundation Ireland CONNECT centre, Doyle said she would like to see the perspectives of artists and designers included much earlier in the process of developing technologies.
“In the [telecoms engineering] world I come from, a lot of the time when you talk about artists and designers coming on board, it is lumped in under ‘let’s do some educational outreach activity so the wider public can understand’.” she said. “That is a fantastic thing to do, but that to me is not the only place that the arts and design should be side by side with the technology.”
‘We are in a situation where this mixing of people from different disciplines is not nice to have but absolutely essential in the world we are facing into’
PROF. LINDA DOYLE
The architect and artist understood the underlying concepts and explained them in a way that still has merit today, according to Inspirefest 2015 keynote speaker Prof. Linda Doyle.
“They made the most beautiful, amazing objects… and a lot of people know them through that,” she said. “But what I am really interested in their creative practices, their educational ideas and films they made.”
Their insights into communication theory are a particular source of inspiration for Doyle, who is professor of engineering and the arts at Trinity College Dublin.
“They were fearless,” she said. “As artists and architects who had no background in technology, they accessed the most cutting edge technology of the day.”
Charles and Ray Eames recast ideas, they understood that a network was connected with people long before people were using mobile phones and they included concepts from a then-recently-published paper about how noise disturbs communications and has to be taken out, according to Doyle.
“From that paper stemmed the digital world that we currently live in. [The Eames] accessed that, understood it, they processed it.”
Adding art to science, technology, engineering and maths
The approach that Charles and Ray Eames took to education also shows how important the ‘A’ is in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and maths), noted Doyle.
“A lot of what we do today and the way we teach is about producing something to the bare minimum, sterilising it, dealing with the question, ‘Will that be on the exam?’ That way of thinking,” she said. “[Charles and Ray Eames] thought, ‘We want to immerse people in lots of different ideas, we want to bring them together and we want people to make their own connections.’”
As director of the Science Foundation Ireland CONNECT centre, Doyle said she would like to see the perspectives of artists and designers included much earlier in the process of developing technologies.
“In the [telecoms engineering] world I come from, a lot of the time when you talk about artists and designers coming on board, it is lumped in under ‘let’s do some educational outreach activity so the wider public can understand’.” she said. “That is a fantastic thing to do, but that to me is not the only place that the arts and design should be side by side with the technology.”
‘We are in a situation where this mixing of people from different disciplines is not nice to have but absolutely essential in the world we are facing into’
PROF. LINDA DOYLE
IoT needs A
Doyle is particularly keen that creative mindsets are involved in the emerging area of the internet of things, or IoT.
“The IoT world is all about taking everything in the world and instrumenting it in a way that it can report back to the internet something about its condition or its context, and then you can use that information to make some kind of informed decision,” she explained, citing smart cities, factories and food as areas of application.
“The reality is, with the IoT, that social rules are getting embedded in the environment around us, and those social rules will inform our decisions but can also determine our behaviour.”
Doyle has already seen ‘worn-out gender stereotypes’ being reinforced in emerging IoT applications and argues we need early input from creative disciplines and mindsets that understand power and culture, and understand that there is no such thing as neutral design.
“We are in a situation where this mixing of people from different disciplines is not nice to have but absolutely essential in the world we are facing into.”
(*)
Inspirefest is Silicon Republic’s international event connecting sci-tech professionals passionate about the future of STEM with fresh perspectives on leadership, innovation and diversity.
Doyle is particularly keen that creative mindsets are involved in the emerging area of the internet of things, or IoT.
“The IoT world is all about taking everything in the world and instrumenting it in a way that it can report back to the internet something about its condition or its context, and then you can use that information to make some kind of informed decision,” she explained, citing smart cities, factories and food as areas of application.
“The reality is, with the IoT, that social rules are getting embedded in the environment around us, and those social rules will inform our decisions but can also determine our behaviour.”
Doyle has already seen ‘worn-out gender stereotypes’ being reinforced in emerging IoT applications and argues we need early input from creative disciplines and mindsets that understand power and culture, and understand that there is no such thing as neutral design.
“We are in a situation where this mixing of people from different disciplines is not nice to have but absolutely essential in the world we are facing into.”
(*)
Inspirefest is Silicon Republic’s international event connecting sci-tech professionals passionate about the future of STEM with fresh perspectives on leadership, innovation and diversity.
Wednesday, July 08, 2015
Tips for Summer #3: The Stuff of Life
In her new book, sought-after interiors stylist Hilary Robertson reveals a multitude of different ways to style and display the 'stuff of life' - the flotsam and jetsam of possessions, from pictures and ornaments to hats and bicycles, that we all gradually accumulate. In the first chapter, How to Arrange your Stuff, Hilary identifies and illustrates four different approaches to arrangements and shows how each one can be achieved. Chapter 2, Where to Arrange It, considers the variety of display locations available and how to make the most of them, from blank walls to windowsills and tabletops. Finally, in Stories Told by Real Homes, Hilary shares knowledge drawn from the experience of creating interiors that fall into four different styles - Neatnik, Bohemian, Sculpture Vulture and Noble Salvage. Some people are magpies - they love stuff; finding, collecting, and displaying it, while their opposite, the minimalists, are on a mission to contain or tame it. The ideas in this book will appeal to both magpies and minimalists and everyone in between.
Hilary Robertson, The Stuff of Life, Rylandpeters & Small, London, 2014
Available at nb-notabene bookshop, via Bellezia 12c, Turin (Italy)
Available at nb-notabene bookshop, via Bellezia 12c, Turin (Italy)
Monday, July 06, 2015
Tips for Summer #2: Monochrome Home
Sought-after interiors stylist Hilary Robertson celebrates the stylish simplicity of the monochromatic home - elegant interiors in black, white, and every shade of grey in between. In the first chapter, "Living in Black and White", Hilary analyzes successful monochrome interiors, providing moodboards for different schemes. Next, In the "Mix takes" a closer look at the effective tools of texture, light, and scale and pattern and the roles that they have to play. The third chapter, The "Dark Room", visits real homes that feature darker monochrome palettes, while, following on, "Let there be Light" provides examples of homes with a whiter, brighter approach. Finally, in Monochrome Home Hilary Robertson shows how to bring the look right up to date, visiting the fabulously inspiring homes of artists and designers from Europe to the US.
Hilary Robertson, Monochrome Home, Rylandpeters & Small, London, 2015 (€ 30)
Hilary Robertson, Monochrome Home, Rylandpeters & Small, London, 2015 (€ 30)
Available at nb-notabene bookshop, via Bellezia 12c, Turin (Italy)
Friday, July 03, 2015
Tips for Summer #1: Design Bloggers at Home
A digital revolution is underway. A global network of creative, interior design bloggers has emerged, publishing fresh and inspiring content online every day. With diverse backgrounds and lifestyles, these individual bloggers combine to create a thriving online community of trend-setters and style gurus. The digital world brings with it design democracy; with the freedom to publish whatever they want, these bloggers offer a beguiling alternative to traditional media and have become an important source of inspiration for the homes enthusiast. In her first book, interiors journalist and stylist Ellie Tennant meets the characters and creative forces behind leading design blogs, exploring their online realms, their beautiful homes and their clever styling ideas. Fifteen in-depth case studies cover a panorama of cutting-edge bloggers' spaces - from a pared-back monochrome cabin in Scandinavia to a maximalist, colour-filled apartment in California - while the final chapter offers advice on setting up your own blog. The result is a visual feast of inspiring yet achievable interiors, with plenty of ideas to use in your own home.
Ellie Tennant, Design Bloggers at Home, Rylandpeters & Small, 2014
Available at nb-notabene bookshop, via Bellezia 12c, Turin (Italy)
Wednesday, July 01, 2015
Populous Creates Eames-Inspired Installation for World Architecture Festival London
Taking inspiration from Charles and Ray Eames’ House of Cards, London-based practice Populous have developed an installation for the inaugural World Architecture Festival (WAF) exhibition. Built from "hundreds of super-sized multiples of a single ‘W' form, the dramatic seven metre high installation forms the centrepiece" of an exhibition which seeks to showcase "the very best in world architecture." This year, 350 projects have been shortlisted from some the world’s best architects and designers.
According to the organisers, "Populous have created a physical identity for WAF – a brand experience that can be packed up, shipped and re-assembled in locations globally." Aaron Richardson of Populous said: "[we] got involved with WAF London because it was a perfect opportunity to showcase what we are all about – finding innovative ways to connect people and brands to incredible places. We were tasked to deliver an imaginative response to a challenging space and budget. The use of off-the-shelf industrial materials fitted the architectural environment – a cavernous former construction testing bunker."
via: archdaily.com
http://www.archdaily.com/769325/populous-creates-eames-inspired-installation-for-world-architecture-festival-london
According to the organisers, "Populous have created a physical identity for WAF – a brand experience that can be packed up, shipped and re-assembled in locations globally." Aaron Richardson of Populous said: "[we] got involved with WAF London because it was a perfect opportunity to showcase what we are all about – finding innovative ways to connect people and brands to incredible places. We were tasked to deliver an imaginative response to a challenging space and budget. The use of off-the-shelf industrial materials fitted the architectural environment – a cavernous former construction testing bunker."
via: archdaily.com
http://www.archdaily.com/769325/populous-creates-eames-inspired-installation-for-world-architecture-festival-london
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