ON OUR WEBSITE: Italian furniture designer Enzo Mari widely promotes “self-design” in the face of mass production. His autoprogettazione project includes detailed instructions on how to construct and customise items of furniture using simple materials. Photography courtesy of Eugenia Lim, Designrecherche and twentytwentyone.com.
The New School were approached by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to redesign traditional concert clothing. The result of this collaboration is the combination of high tech materials with vintage pieces, that make the garments sustainable and responsive to musicians’ movements when they perform. Digital projections are activated by motion and sound. Photography courtesy of The New School.
Haim Steinbach is an Israel born artist. Since the 1970’s he has been somewhat obsessed with the object. Haim’s art challenges the techniques of display and our reading of objects – predominately everyday objects. His exhibitions are positioned around arrangement as a language to enhance the interplay between the objects themselves and the relationships that arise between the object and spectator. His objects are strategically placed on shelves and obscurely titled to allow the viewer (and their imagination) to become an active participant in the work. His work reflects on our consumerist culture and the methods of display that both retail and the museum employ to entice their clientele.
On our Website: Cyclist, gastronome and writer for AP Arthur Holland Michel brings us the latest Blueprint City piece on New York bike culture. The bicycle infrastructure in NY has increased in recent times and subsequently so has the number of riders. Arthur reflects on NY’s shifting attitude towards the bicycle community and ultimately the lack of communication between cyclists, cars and the pedestrian. Similarly Melbourne’s bike trend has encouraged a recent increase in bike lanes within the CBD and riders too. Let us remember that we are all part of a “complex urban ecosystem” and the bike is simply a tool for coexistence. Images by Arthur Holland, James McDowell, MG Chan, Tim Ailius William courtesy of CC license via Flickr.
At a time of increasing individual public retreat into the media offered on mobile phones, New Zealand experimental design collective OH.NO.SUMO have intervened in a hardscape environment, to link people virtually and physically. The stairway cinema is free for communal public enjoyment. Photography courtesy of Simon Devitt.
Sarah Sze is a Chinese-American artist whose sculpture and drawings continually question how we create space, describe space, and experience space. Sarah creates intricate architectural installations that are often made up of everyday objects like plastic cutlery and toothpicks. The pieces draw in the viewer, relying on their perspective of the work and how the information that is revealed to them as they move through. Sarah is interested in the idea of being surrounded by or immersed in something. Her most recent work ‘Infinite Line’ is toys with the space between drawing and sculpture and the potential to describe space through her installations. Images courtesy of Sarah Sze and the Asia Society.
On our website: Rafaela Pandolfini is our AP Sydney insider. As part of the Made in Metropolis section she visits Sydney-based graphic design studio Blood & Thunder in their new Darlinghurst Studio. Director Kernow Craig is a printed matter fanatic with a background in web design – we don’t blame him for wanting to mix tactility with the virtual! Kernow generously shares with us his knowledge of the Riso printer (for all of you who have heard about them but don’t know exactly what they are) and the Heidelberg Platen. Graphics have become more than just work for Kernow. He believes that by bringing graphic design into the public domain you are literally helping people – a direct social outcome that encourages a relationship to place. Images courtesy of Rafaela Pandolfini.
Tjep took their clients Ymere seriously when they designed to suit the brief of a meeting place for ‘creative battles’. Ymere are an innovative housing association who believe that living well means having more than just a comfortable home. The organisation are involved in providing and promoting programs for personal growth and social mobility. Photography courtesy of Frank Tjepkema.
On our website: In the latest Assemblage piece our very own Eugenia Lim talks hammers and upcycling with Christian Dillon - the founder of East London Furniture (ELF). ELF are UK based designer-makers who build furniture out of reclaimed building materials from construction sites around their Hackney workshop. Their ethos is to recycle as well as encouraging a community to build furniture themselves. Dillon believes the key to salvaging is to become an unofficial hoarder with a thrifty sensibility to see the potential in materials. Their designs are relatively simple and according to the optimistic Christian – “anyone can buy a saw and work out how to use a hammer” – so with that said maybe we should get to it? Images courtesy of East London Furniture.
Flow is a living kitchen designed by Studio Gorm in which waste products are used to grow plants. Studio Gorm is a collaboration between Oregon designers John Arndt and Wonhee Jeong. The studio has designed a kitchen in which nature and technology are integrated to make use of energy, waste, water and other natural resources. The kitchen is a combined space where food is grown, stored and cooked. Additionally the waste is broken down by worms for use as fertiliser to grow more food. Flow is made up of simple materials such as salvaged urban oak, Oregon Fir (a native pine), Beech wood and earthenware - a thoughtful concept that makes ethical living more attractive and minimises your footprint. Images courtesy of Wonhee Jeong and John Arndt.
