- We need to create environments that involve people in bringing people or objects together.
- We also need to allow people to adapt or alter in creating emotional involvement within it.
A little vague but it's coming along.
Sunday 30 May 2010
Other collections
This is a slightly different 'grouping' than the previous ones, and I must admit I didn't see it at first. This is a signage post near sophia gardens. What I find interesting about this along with the normal grouping and acceptability of stickers is the further development of the stickers. In particular the PAC MAN which is from Cardifferent. This sticker as you can see has been further enhanced by the chewing gum to create an even more emotional response. The need to these emotional responses is hugely important and has been looked at for decades both in design and in psychology. Further to my last articles on this subject, there are things that need to happen to use this type of work in successful design situations.
- We need to create environments that involve people in bringing people or objects together.
- We also need to allow people to adapt or alter in creating emotional involvement within it.
A little vague but it's coming along.
- We need to create environments that involve people in bringing people or objects together.
- We also need to allow people to adapt or alter in creating emotional involvement within it.
A little vague but it's coming along.
Saturday 29 May 2010
Empty Shop update
Managed to visit the shop for the ARK project this week. And to put it simply it is huge. We have got loads of work to do to it as well. If we are going to get it ready for the start of July. IF anyone wants to lend a hand please get in touch.
Tuesday 25 May 2010
Saturday 22 May 2010
NESTA Mass Localism - on reflection
Over the last month I have been lucky enough to experience the thoughts and ideas of John Thackara and also attending the findings of NESTA's Mass Localism discussion paper. I have also through ARK been running a mini project on the creative networks within Cardiff and Wales. In short it has led me to a number of proposals which I hope make sense:
- The volunteer work with ARK seems to tie in neatly with the findings of NESTA and the fact that through small groups doing different things independently we can make real change on major issues.
- This brings a question of what if mini groups are doing similar things? do you leave them to do the same thing or do you try and link them up to create a stronger group. If you take John Thackara's idea then you let them flourish individually which also seems to be in line with NESTA's findings.
- There is then a question of this middle ground of when local has to be scaled up or not. In particular things such as food and agriculture and also house building. For me other recent findings have led me to question the very notion of 'localness' and small farms being the answer to food production in the future. If you havn't seen it then I suggest you have a look at the below video of Dan Barber. And the line in particular about measuring the success of the farm by the number of it's predators and also not feeding its livestock at all. This seems to me a question of scale and something that would be interesting if it can still be local. In the same way house building particularly in Britain seems to be dominated by large companies buying land and developing and building in traditional ways. While legislation is making these companies improve there quality in environmental terms it seems to me at least that legislation isn't the way of making a company or country innovative.
The most obvious and historically proven is to be at war 100's of inventions and developments have happened through war and have formed many of the things we now see as being essential to live day to day. The second and slightly less deadly would be to look at how other companies have managed to change there traditional views and turned themselves into innovative companies and it seems that it is through a huge internal cultural change. So people are not only working up to the legislative line they have innovation in built and use this to gain more work due to them being ahead of the curve.
- The future is also an issue for me in terms of things like hydro power etc. At the moment my understanding is that people/companies are part subsidised by the government for installing hydro, wind and solar energy systems into local landscapes. But if we take it to the extreme and in the future everyone sets up their own power station. Does that mean they will still pay money to buy the electricity? if this stops will these systems then become rundown as they will not be able to be maintained? I do not really know enough about this industry to know for sure, but I think it is interesting to think about these issues now. It also brings up other very interesting questions of one town which is energy rich 'giving' energy to others in exchange for something the other town does well. How can this work? what will energy companies of today turn into???
- This nicely brings me onto another issue which was raised during the NESTA seminar. The issue of power and how far does power move from government to the local areas where they know exactly what is going on. First view point is that 'mass localism' has proven that in general local communities can react and deal with huge issues in a quicker and cheaper way rather than being dictated to by using a universal model. So government has to start giving support to these communities in different ways than it does know. Secondly will government really give this power away to local communities? is it a step too far? will councils etc be disbanded as towns and communities will start doing everything for themselves?
- Finally I am starting to think about the wider world and how we are making certain materials harder and harder to find. A few months ago I attended an E:DN event where a chemist introduced us to the periodic table with loads of colours on it. At first I thought looks really nice then he went on to explain that due to some of these elements being used in things like phones etc and then spread around the worked these elements are becoming in essence extinct. So as well as designing we much now start asking is there enough of this material to make millions of them. So who decides this in the future? who says yes to one manufacturer and no to the other?
Just a few thoughts I wonder what other people think?
- The volunteer work with ARK seems to tie in neatly with the findings of NESTA and the fact that through small groups doing different things independently we can make real change on major issues.
- This brings a question of what if mini groups are doing similar things? do you leave them to do the same thing or do you try and link them up to create a stronger group. If you take John Thackara's idea then you let them flourish individually which also seems to be in line with NESTA's findings.
- There is then a question of this middle ground of when local has to be scaled up or not. In particular things such as food and agriculture and also house building. For me other recent findings have led me to question the very notion of 'localness' and small farms being the answer to food production in the future. If you havn't seen it then I suggest you have a look at the below video of Dan Barber. And the line in particular about measuring the success of the farm by the number of it's predators and also not feeding its livestock at all. This seems to me a question of scale and something that would be interesting if it can still be local. In the same way house building particularly in Britain seems to be dominated by large companies buying land and developing and building in traditional ways. While legislation is making these companies improve there quality in environmental terms it seems to me at least that legislation isn't the way of making a company or country innovative.
The most obvious and historically proven is to be at war 100's of inventions and developments have happened through war and have formed many of the things we now see as being essential to live day to day. The second and slightly less deadly would be to look at how other companies have managed to change there traditional views and turned themselves into innovative companies and it seems that it is through a huge internal cultural change. So people are not only working up to the legislative line they have innovation in built and use this to gain more work due to them being ahead of the curve.
- The future is also an issue for me in terms of things like hydro power etc. At the moment my understanding is that people/companies are part subsidised by the government for installing hydro, wind and solar energy systems into local landscapes. But if we take it to the extreme and in the future everyone sets up their own power station. Does that mean they will still pay money to buy the electricity? if this stops will these systems then become rundown as they will not be able to be maintained? I do not really know enough about this industry to know for sure, but I think it is interesting to think about these issues now. It also brings up other very interesting questions of one town which is energy rich 'giving' energy to others in exchange for something the other town does well. How can this work? what will energy companies of today turn into???
- This nicely brings me onto another issue which was raised during the NESTA seminar. The issue of power and how far does power move from government to the local areas where they know exactly what is going on. First view point is that 'mass localism' has proven that in general local communities can react and deal with huge issues in a quicker and cheaper way rather than being dictated to by using a universal model. So government has to start giving support to these communities in different ways than it does know. Secondly will government really give this power away to local communities? is it a step too far? will councils etc be disbanded as towns and communities will start doing everything for themselves?
- Finally I am starting to think about the wider world and how we are making certain materials harder and harder to find. A few months ago I attended an E:DN event where a chemist introduced us to the periodic table with loads of colours on it. At first I thought looks really nice then he went on to explain that due to some of these elements being used in things like phones etc and then spread around the worked these elements are becoming in essence extinct. So as well as designing we much now start asking is there enough of this material to make millions of them. So who decides this in the future? who says yes to one manufacturer and no to the other?
Just a few thoughts I wonder what other people think?
Thursday 20 May 2010
NESTA @ the Pierhead building
I managed to get to the Pierhead Building this morning to hear a seminar about NESTA's Big Green Challenge and also their publication 'Mass Localism'. Chaired by Peter Davies, Commissioner for Wales, Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). with other attendees being Viv Sugar, Chair of Consumer Focus Wales, Dr Michael Harris, Director of Research, NESTA, Chris Blake, member of the Green Valleys community project in the Brecon Breacons, one of the winning communities in NESTA's Big Green Challenge and Cris Tomos, Chairman of Cymdeithas Cwm Arian Association.
I found the talks very encouraging for a number of reasons. Firstly a number of thoughts and beliefs that we have been investigating in ARK seem to be vindicated by the findings of NESTA's paper. Also within Hoffi it also seems like we are moving towards the findings and ways of thinking that are going to be necessary in the coming years. In particular looking at our role as a company within the marketplace of our community. Looking at how we improve our community and seeing if there are ways we can help generally as citizens. I look forward to the challenge.
I found the talks very encouraging for a number of reasons. Firstly a number of thoughts and beliefs that we have been investigating in ARK seem to be vindicated by the findings of NESTA's paper. Also within Hoffi it also seems like we are moving towards the findings and ways of thinking that are going to be necessary in the coming years. In particular looking at our role as a company within the marketplace of our community. Looking at how we improve our community and seeing if there are ways we can help generally as citizens. I look forward to the challenge.
Thursday 13 May 2010
E:DN - network
I have had a busy few days this week. I was asked to take part in the two day E:DN event setup by ecodesign Wales, the two days where fantastically inspiring for me as John Thackara attended the two days. For last years MA I used alot of John's work to base what has become ARK on. His book In the Bubble is a must read for anyone interested in design in general let alone specifically social design. I was also really happy to be asked to do a bit of facilitation during one of the workshops. Helping to try and create potential Design Camps for later on in the year. It was strange to be doing this kind of thing in front of people that I have based my some of my thinking on.
The night after
I took this the morning after the election and have been meaning to post it for a while. I guess now that an official government has been setup, it seems a good time to write about it. Recently I have not been on the bus to the Bay as I have started riding a bike through the OYBike scheme, but that day I got on and having previously used the bus on many occasions there was a notable change in the aire. It seemed like people where almost sounding each other out. Thinking that these people I travel on a day to day basis could have possibly voted for a party that I dislike. Very interesting experience
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Outdoor gym - Cardiff Bay
Went to a show this weekend in Cardiff Bay, while parking came across some very new and exciting gym equipment. We could not resist trying them out. We managed to understand most of them but some were pretty hard to know what you had to do.
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