Material for thought

Here is a map that was made at the occasion of the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library.

“A number of groups and some individuals were given a large piece of a grid map to create their unique interpretation of the neighbourhood.”

I love big fairs like the Frieze Art Fair in London. You don’t need to concentrate and to try understanding any piece of art, as you do when you walked a long way to see 5 objects in a remote art gallery, frustrated to not see the obvious beauty in them. No, in the Frieze Art Fair, you just need to give an average concentration spam of half a second per art work, until one is catching your attention. Anyone can find his art, his theme, his interpretation at the Frieze Art Fair. Artists are just useful to provide enough diversity so that every customer can feel happy about himself. It might sound bad, but actually the process is quite enriching. The randomness of stopping in front of one canvas instead of another makes you discover new artists you have never considered before. And you can learn more about their complicated life and theories later, in art magazines and super intellectual galleries who will teach you why you should like their work and why they are superior to average humans.

the BBC

I just launched my new project, “curated matter” and defined its mission, vision and core values. I had the idea in March 2008 but it took months of passive reflection to come up with its final definition. The good thing about defining the mission of a venture beforehand is that you can then  easily understand what the goals and priorities are.

A model of London

The New London Architecture, at the Building centre, is an initiative that seeks to highlight the level of development either planned or currently underway in London.  ”Digital Cities, London’s future” was their latest exhibition. It highlights some of the resources and technologies which designers can use in the development of the city and explores areas of debate that arise alongside the opportunities of this new digital world.

The exhibition was packed with fascinating glimpses of the future.

Recycling campaign by the tfl

The Transport for London are currently running a campaign to encourage their passengers to recycle the free newspapers they get at tube stations.  This seems like a good initiative. But is it really? I commute every day and never take the freesheets that distributors literally put on my face when I approach a tube station. I know that there are plenty of London Lite, thelondonpaper and metro left in the carriages anyway.  The tfl is arguing that we protect the environment if we take our newspapers with us, so that we can recycle them. But obviously, more the passengers take the newspapers with them, less likely they will find newspapers left in the transport, more they will pick up new newspapers at station entrances. Where is the contradiction?