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Posted on 06.11.09 by Emily
Filed under: links |
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Posted on 06.01.09 by Emily
Filed under: consciousness and culture and environment and happiness and interconnected and links and mythology and people and science and sustainability and technology |
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Posted on 05.26.09 by Emily
Last Friday, I attended XMediaLab (X stands for “Cross”) in Auckland, a combination think-tank and creative workshop with a focus on the design, development and business of digital media ideas across multiple platforms. The talks were exciting, inspiring and filled my head with ideas. So much so that I’ve exported my brain of links and notes for later reference. Perhaps you’ll find them useful as well. Here’s a summary of what stood out for me along with some possible points of entry: Parmesh Shahani filled the room with the dynamic energy and pop cosmopolitanism of Mumbai along with tons of examples of emerging creative ecosystems and entry points to the Indian startup economy. I think about his framing questions a lot: “What does it means to be local in a global world? What does it meant to be global in a local world?” He and Vishal Gondal of India Games both extolled India’s virtue of jugaad – the can-do spirit of adaptive improvisational ingenuity which maps well to New Zealand’s “Number 8 Wire.” “Games will save us all” emerged as a major recurring theme and wish. Zhan Ye illuminated the history and emerging trends and opportunities of the online game market in China and offered lessons for abroad. Susan Bonds of 42 Entertainment shared lessons from the ARGs (Alternative Reality Games) she’s produced, including ilovebees for Halo 2 and Year Zero for Nine Inch Nails. I loved her vision of the world as a platform for storytelling and method of writing a linear story then throwing it away and providing evidence that it actually happened. Rajat Paharia taught how to use game mechanics to create zombie armies. Other themes included how we interact with “whatever wherever screens” (public/tv/personal) using distance and touch gestures. Dale Herigstad designed the interfaces for “Minority Report”, and now he’s designed some interesting new ways to visualize and organize time as well as space. He encourages the rapid sketching of ideas, blowing me away with what he created using Apple’s Keynote. Getting down to business, it’s all about the hybrid media and business model with multiple revenue streams; no one’s thriving on ad revenue alone. Adrian Sexton addresses hybrid media from a media+entertainment perspective. Richard Cardran explores hybrid business models in depth, and there are lots of good examples in Parmesh Shahani and Zhan Ye’s talks. “Jadedly optimistic” (in his own words) Tim Chang of Norwest Partners gave a nutritionally dense talk on what he sees unfolding in the next few years and spilled some VC secrets. Vincent Heeringa, the thoughtful director of HB Media which publishes the excellent Idealog, Good, and Inspire, shared how he launches stuff and also his concerns about the future of business, attention and longform writing with great photography in printed form distributed by post. He bravely open sourced his challenges and raised some great questions. Juliette Powell addressed bravery directly in a moving talk that cut to the heart – investing in people. She highlighted ways to build and develop social and cultural capital and take responsibility for our dreams, even when funding’s hard to find. Mike McGraw’s building bridges from people stories to product stories with lots of examples of what’s working now. Even though the title was “commercialising ideas,” I was surprised that so few presentations addressed social and environmental concerns in any context. Parmesh Shahani and Juliette Powell stood out as exceptions, looking at companies that do well and good and creating value through authenticity. The convergence of tools, media and knowledge available to all of us now is so awesome, harnessing it to create zombie armies hungry for more snack chips chaps my soul. I’d like to see and be commercializing ideas that improve lives and empower citizens rather than just entice consumers. Many of the lab project teams are doing just that, like BrightMind Labs, focused on improving lives of children with mental health issues, and Minimonos, a virtual world of fun for kids with core values of generosity and sustainability. For what it’s worth (in any currency), this was the first conference where I’ve heard people qualify using US dollars as reference in measuring and comparing business: “it’s still worth something,” “…since we don’t have another standard.” Overall, a fantastic day of learning from and connecting with some great creative people. If this touches your areas of interest and you have the opportunity to participate in a future XMediaLab, do it. Full list of speakers linked to notes on their talks: Filed under: advertising and better world and branding and consumerism and creativity and culture and design and interconnected and links and marketing and observations and people and sustainability and technology and webstuff |
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Posted on 05.20.09 by Emily
Furniture Typeface by Cody Haltom, created for High Fashion Home in Houston. Filed under: creativity and design and furniture and typography |
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Posted on 05.17.09 by Emily
All I knew about Max Gimblett when I learned he was leading a sumi ink workshop in Wellington was that I liked his “Low Tide” installations at the Asian Contemporary Art Fair and Asia Society in New York and his lustrous signature quatrefoils. I arrived at Capital E for Max Gimblett’s sumi ink painting workshop to see the chairs arranged in a circle that resembled an ensō, which would be our first painting exercise. Max introduced himself as a mad monk (affiliated with the San Francisco Zen Center) whose monk name means “Diamond Brush Awareness”, and stated we were now a group, a Gestalt, and to speak only to the whole group and the centre of the circle, not to each other. Furthermore, he stated he is very intuitive, and any resistance would not be helpful. Of course, that just made me resist like crazy. But it all dissolved the moment we picked up our brushes and began our wild ride.
Between each exercise we held up our paintings for each other to see and comment upon into the circle. By the end of the hour, we’d produced quite a body of work and harmonized into a group. Afterwards he walked around and discussed our work with us individually; above are some video clips from the conversations. We also discussed the edge vs the centre, an idea Brian Sweeney explores in depth at nzedge.com and one that captivates me as a recent migrant from NY to NZ. His last advice to me was if things weren’t working, to add a little red: “Red always makes things zing.” Max is currently has exhibitions of new work at Paige Blackie Gallery, “White Stone Clear Water,” in Wellington (19 May – 20 June 2009) and at Gow Langsford Gallery, “Full Fathom Five” in Auckland (5 May – 29 May 2009). His work was included in the Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia (recently completed, but interesting presentation online).
NB: Good source for Chinese calligraphy brushes and Chinese Traditional Medicine in Wellington: Wellcare Chinese Medicine Shop 215, Left Bank, Cuba Mall, Wellington, 04 382 9451. Filed under: art and consciousness and creativity and culture and people and senses |
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Posted on 04.17.09 by Emily
Filed under: better world and consumerism and creativity and culture and design and environment and links and sustainability and technology and webstuff |
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Posted on 04.13.09 by Emily
I’m not sure whether it was “S as in Summertime” or “X as in Xylophone” that pushed my father over the edge, but by the time I finished talking with tech support, his face was bright red. “S as in Sierra! Everybody all over the world knows that,” he said. I had no idea. Actually, I had seen a copy of the military alphabet code or NATO phonetic alphabet taped to a friend’s refrigerator recently and laughed at him. Who talks like that? (Please forgive me!) I thought up words every time I spoke on the phone as a form of creative expression and mood indicator. At least I am kind and resist the urge to say “A as in Aisle, B as in Bdellium, C as in Czar, D as in Djinn, E as in Eureka, G as in Gnome, H as in Honest, J as in Jicama, K as in Knock, M like Mnemonic, O for Ouija, P as in Pneumonia, Q for Qat, T as in Tsunami, W as in Who, X as in Xylophone…” OK, so I’ve used “X as in Xylophone.” Here is the official military alphabet code/NATO phonetic alphabet: Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta Echo Foxtrot Golf Hotel India Juliet Kilo Lima Mike November Oscar Papa Quebec Romeo Sierra Tango Uniform Victor Whiskey X-Ray Yankee Zulu Well it turns out everyone doesn’t talk like that. Or at least they haven’t always. I found the Phonogram chart image above in the Southland Museum and Art Gallery in Invercargill, New Zealand. Here are some other examples: ‘British A’: Amsterdam Baltimore Casablanca Denmark Edison Florida Gallipoli Havana Italia Jerusalem Kilogramme Liverpool Madagascar New_York Oslo Paris Quebec Roma Santiago Tripoli Uppsala Valencia Washington Xantippe Yokohama Zurich Bombay telephone directory 1962 (also a later source): Army Brother Cinema Doctor English Father Gold Hotel India Jam King Lady Mother Navy Orange Paper Queen Raja Sister Table Uncle Victory Water X-ray Yellow Zero Kenyan and Tanzanian telephone directories 1966: Africa Bombay Charlie Durban England Freddie George Harry India Japan Kenya London Mombasa Nairobi Orange Peter Queen Robert Sugar Tanga Uganda Victory William X-Ray Yellow Zanzibar RAF 1942-43: Apple Beer Charlie Dog Edward Freddy George Harry In Jug/Johnny King Love Mother Nuts Orange Peter Queen Roger/Robert Suga Tommy Uncle Vic William X-ray Yoke/Yorker Zebra
What does your phonetic alphabet look like? Echo November Juliet Oscar Yankee! Filed under: about me and culture and observations and words |
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Posted on 02.28.09 by Emily
Filed under: links |
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Posted on 02.22.09 by Emily
If you tried to visit this site earlier today, you would have found it blacked out with the message below. Delighted to return it before the day is out, due to success of the blackout campaign for raising awareness. Kudos to Bronwyn Holloway-Smith and the Creative Freedom Foundation for their swift and effective blackout campaign and public demonstration at Parliament. I’m glad to see the government’s chosen to delay Section 92A of the Copyright Act until March 27 and suspend it entirely if no agreement can be reached. It needs to be repealed. Here are reports from Computerworld, InternetNZ and The NZ Herald.
Filed under: activism and better world and consciousness and creativity and culture and emily approved and happiness and technology and webstuff |
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Posted on 02.02.09 by Emily
What is temporary and what is of enduring value? What is a true store of wealth? Fiona Hall’s “Force Field” exhibition at Wellington City Gallery blew me away and left me pondering those questions when I first saw it in July, 2008. It keeps coming back to mind as I read the news these days. (The exhibition is currently open at Christchurch Art Gallery through February 15, 2009. See it if you can!) One piece, called “When My Boat Comes in,” (featured in the first part of the video), consists of a whole room filled with botanical leaf paintings on global bank notes past and present. The paintings each illustrate a plant that has economic significance to the land where the bank note is from: camellia sinesis for China, cacao for Brazil, cetraria islandica for Iceland, and so forth. Each bill has a visible ship representing the thread of trade that connects them all. Mesmerizing to look closely at so many currencies – countries – that no longer exist juxtaposed with the leaves of these plants – the leaves that are so ephemeral, the plants that have brought so much wealth to these countries, the trade that’s wasted the environments of so many the plants. “Tender”, another unforgettable installation, consists of giant vitrines with meticulously crafted birds’ nests made from shredded U.S. dollar bills. Etched into one side of the glass is the serial number from each dollar used in it. On the other side is the bird species that corresponds with the nest. Fiona Hall talks about this piece in the second part of the video above. • Fiona Hall “Force Field” install and process photo set on Flickr Filed under: activism and animals and art and better world and consumerism and creativity and culture and design and emily approved and environment and happiness and interconnected and sustainability and travel and video |








