Drivers of Change

A short movie introducing the drivers of change cards and some of the key issues they raise.

Cast: marcus morrell

Matthew Ritchie and Daniel Bosia: The Last Scattering, Arup Phase 2, London

In this film, New York-based artist Matthew Ritchie and Daniel Bosia, leader of Arup’s Advanced Geometry Unit, discuss their new work: The Last Scattering, on display at Phase 2, Arup, 8 Fitzroy St, London, UK until mid-July 2009. It is part of an ongoing collaboration, which explores the relationship between space and matter. This installation refers to the birth of the universe and the cosmic background radiation (visible as static on your TV screen), which comes from a moment called ‘the last scattering’ - the collection of points in space and time when light separated from matter, less than 400,000 years after the Big Bang.
The exhibition will tour to New York in October.

Cast: Jennifer Greitschus

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The story of energy, stuff and the economy

You’ve seen the movie; trawled the web sites; shopped around for that green lifestyle. Like me, do you wonder if we can build enough of this green technology to keep up with economic growth and reduce our voracious appetite for fossil fuels? Alternatively, how can our society can get off the growth tread mill without wholesale collapse of our economy?
Through simple drawings, I explain how its possible to "count up" all our stuff (physical assets) using embodied energy. This is the first step to building a physically based model of an economy. I go onto apply such a model to a scenario for the UK to 2025. Finally I test my scenario against objectives for jobs, national energy security, balance of payments, consumer welfare and CO2 reductions. The scenario scores well! Have you got a scenario you would like tested in this way?

Cast: Simon Roberts

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atabrahams impromptu collaboration

(left to right) Steve Lodder, John Etheridge and Philip Sheppard come together and improvise a piece of music - collaboration at its best. The video below is a bit shakey - i had to improvise ;-) but watch how the three are continually watching each other - how much communication amongst collaborators is non verbal? One of the themes of the atabrahams event at Arup where this impromptu piece was recorded.
arup.com/
atabrahams.com/

Cast: Duncan Wilson

Today’s Future Designer

Last month we were asked to pull together a short thought piece for an internal Global Buildings event at Arup on the "Future of Design". The pre-recorded piece was being used alongside feedback from clients on their view of the value of design. Both pieces provided the introduction for break out groups to think about 4 plausible scenarios for Arup in the years ahead. The summary blurb is:

"The role of the designer in the business world is changing. With increased activity at a strategic level and the innate skills that support community and collaboration, the designer has the skill set to play a pivotal role in today’s business. In addition, they have the desire to work with new tools and are experienced in making the complex simple. In a world where technological innovation has increased the complexity of both the products and services we consume, achieving elegance has become the hallmark of good design."

Cast: Duncan Wilson

[from cityofsound] Ideas for Cities [a GOOD Blog]

Some good things here. Good that it's non-built (i.e. soft) infrastructure.

[from cityofsound] Never mind the music. Your chance to vote for the best of 2009’s vinyl sleeve art [Eye blog]

"Formats come and formats go (and MP3s are going the way of cassettes now that we have room for ALEs), but vinyl has had a surprisingly long afterlife, writes John L. Walters. And so has the dying artform of sleeve art, which keeps lurching to grab our attention like one of Michael Jackson’s dancing zombies. Best Art Vinyl 2009 is an award scheme designed to promote the year’s best cover designs. Go to the Art Vinyl website and you can nominate your choice of three outstanding vinyl releases."

[from cityofsound] NuFormer’s 3-D Building Projections [At Issue]

"From Netherlands-based design firm, NuFormer Digital Media, comes a new way of projecting three-dimensional images onto a building exterior. Custom-designed to fit any building façade and scale up to any size, the video mapped objects are made visible by a set of powerful projectors. Without physically constructing new architecture or permanently altering the streetscape, NuFormer hardware/software technology enables users to transform an outdoor public space into a virtual yet live experience."

[from cityofsound] 'Soft power' prompts business relocations [People's Daily Online]

"Chengdu has been applauded as the Chinese city with the most "soft power" after beating a number of mainland cities - including Hangzhou, Dalian and Kunming - to secure the title. In recent years "soft power" has become an increasingly important factor in the success or failure of a city or region, in terms of both satisfying the needs of its residents and in attracting external support from the commercial sector. "Soft power" is now annually evaluated in China across 10 different criteria, including cultural appeal, innovative capacity, ability to support science and education, effectiveness of government administration, city cohesion, attractiveness to the business sector, social harmony, capability of image communication, level of coordination, and the effectiveness of information transmission."

[from cityofsound] W Australia sea level rising fast [BBC NEWS]

"New figures have revealed that sea levels along the coast of Western Australia are rising at a rate double that of the world average." Sayonara Perth

[from djdunc] YouTube - Drop of water

awesome slow mo video of water drops bouncing

[from cityofsound] Statens Naturhistoriske Museum prize [Terroir]

"TERROIR has won a prize in the international competition for a new Natural History Museum in Copenhagen's historic Botanical Gardens. TERROIR’s scheme was based upon the cellular nature of the Botanic Garden as it is currently organised. A series of bulbs are literally "planted" below the surface and merge together to create a diverse range of gallery and storage spaces. The extraordinary collection held by the new institution is archived on the lower level, allowing glimpses down to the collections from exhibition spaces above. The TERROIR scheme challenged a major rule of the competition, which required the new project to be completely underground. Our proposal suggested that one or more of these "bulbs" might grow above the ground level to provide café and entrance facilities and also to create a new glass spire." Fantastic! Well done Gerard and crew.

[from cityofsound] At Home with Nick Knight [Adam & Eve]

"Iconic British photographer, Nick Knight, opens his personal photo album giving us a look inside his David Chipperfield designed house in Surrey."

[from cityofsound] Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi [The Observer]

"Reading about this encounter is as thrilling as watching it on TV. So is the blow-by-blow recreation of the 2006 match against Baghdatis – more physically bruising than the one against Becker, but with the added appeal of mutual respect and graciousness thrown in. Watching even low-ranked pros, one is amazed by the way they have time to compose themselves when the ball is fizzing back and forth so quickly. For Agassi, time expands to such an extent that, in the penultimate victory of his career, against James Blake in 2006, it takes half a paragraph to itemise decision-making processes that last for the microsecond that the ball is in flight."

[from djdunc] IxD Spring Summit 2009 videos finally online! | Interaction Design Umeå

Good collection of videos from IxD earlier this year (just after ETech).