Juice Bar

Culture, Academia and Business in Conversation - Organisation, Strategy & Design

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art - Barbican Museum


Anthropologists from outer space set out on a mission to understand life on earth. Imagine that they begin their mission by examining the curious phenomenon that human beings call ‘contemporary art’. What does Art tell them about human life and culture?

Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art presents contemporary art works under the fictional guise of a museum collection conceived by and designed for extraterrestrials. Playful and irreverent, the museum’s collection features some 175 works by over 115 artists, from modern masters to bright new stars including Joseph Beuys, Cai Guo-Qiang, Maurizio Cattelan, Jimmie Durham, Thomas Hirschhorn, Ryan Gander, Mona Hatoum, Susan Hiller, Damien Hirst, Brian Jungen, Dr. Lakra, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Mike Nelson, Cornelia Parker, Sigmar Polke, Ugo Rondinone, Daniel Spoerri, Haim Steinbach, Francis Upritchard, Jeffrey Vallance, Andy Warhol and Rebecca Warren.

Believing these objects to have a real or functional use, the Museum’s curators deploy an eccentric classification system. They treat artworks as artifacts. The Martian perspective opens up contemporary art to fresh interpretations as well as humorous misunderstandings. In presuming to understand an unfamiliar culture, the Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art parodies the way that Western anthropologists historically viewed non-Western cultures through alien eyes.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Node London Upgrade OSD

Documentation from the event is available here

NODE.London link >>

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

071129 Organisation Strategy & Design hosts NODE.London & Upgrade!














This month, NODE.london will be hosted by the Organisation Strategy and Design (OSD) Series at the LSE on Thursday 29th November.

The speakers for the evening will include Michelle Kasprzak from Upgrade! Scotland and New Media Scotland, who will be talking about her experiences in establishing and supporting Social Networks. There will be the usual opportunity for questions and debate.

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Upgrade! Scotland is a monthly gathering of artists, curators and others interested in art and technology in Scotland organised by New Media Scotland. It is part of the Upgrade! Network, an international network of gatherings concerning art, technology and culture which is organised in Skopje, São Paulo, Sofia, New York, Salvador, Seoul, Lisbon, Paris, Vancouver, Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Berlin, Belgrade, Scotland, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Brussels/Ghent, Montréal, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Tijuana, Boston, Munich, Istanbul, Seattle, Washington, and Second Life!

Upgrade! Scotland Link >
Upgrade! International Link >

NODE.London supports media arts practice in and around the capital, NODE.London [Networked, Open, Distributed, Events. London] has worked as an open organisation, using consensus decision-making and pooling ideas, resources and even people. It has sought to fortify existing media arts networks and to encourage production and experimentation, whilst assisting in the articulation of such innovative artistry to a wider audience.

NODE.London link >

The purpose of the Organisation, Strategy & Design (OSD) Event Series at the LSE is to build a compelling body of knowledge around the emergence of Design Process as a strategic tool for organisation and conceptual development; in other words, the movement from feelings to action amongst very large groups of people. The series is an open exploration of practice at the intersection of business, culture, community development, education and health. OSD is supported by the Institute of Social Psychology and the London Multi-media Lab of Audio Visual Compostion at the LSE.

Organisation Strategy & Design link >

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Web 2.0 - Beyond the Hype



Web 2.0 - Beyond the Hype was the theme for a fascinating evening. In conversation were Lee Bryant of Headshift (a company that enables corporate change through web 2.0 applications), James Purbrick of Linden Labs (Chief Development Officer of Second Life), Richard Davis, CEO Vexed (web developers), Justin Rivington CEO of Rivers Run Red (social software developers), James Cooper (Spectrum Consulting) and thirty others.

Whereas most agreed that Web 2.0 applications provide tremendous opportunities, and are the logical evolution of web functionality - there were divergent opinions on the value of these tools within organisations, or the forms that they take. James Purbrick believes that new economies are forming, creating entirely new opportunities for value creation, and that the barriers to entry have been significantly eroded. Second Life is providing a virtual realm in which real people are making real money. The value for large organisations however is unclear, beyond the halo effect of having set up a stall within Second Life.

Lee Bryant takes a different view. His company believes that the social relations of production have been significantly altered by Web 1.0 and that Web 2.0 offers tools for communication, collaborative work and decision making which makes these changes explicit. The new economy is the knowledge based economy and it is challanging and redefining the traditional boundaries of organisation, private, public, commercial and government.

What became clear was the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Although a term invented by Tony O'Reilly it helps use to understand the direction the web is evolving. Whereas Web 1.0 was about constructing infrastructure and enabling vast numbers of people, businesses to interact and contract online (shopping), Web 2.0 is taking linking, communicating and playing together to another level. The barriers to entry for people to establish highly sophisticated organisations are continuing to fall. Web 2.0 is a neat term that helps us understand what the next wave of internet functionality will enable us to do together.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Paul Bennun stays indoors for a week




Paul Bennun is locked up in his flat until the 19th of June and is disallowed any kind of contact that does not come over his internet connection. This is for a BBC Radio 3 programme about virtual communities and how relationships therein differ from physical ones -- a programme to be broadcast in November. During the week he is interviewing many of the most important thinkers in the field, as well as (most likely) going gradually nuts.

Read more >

Monday, June 04, 2007

MARJETICA POTRC - Forest Rising - Barbican



The Curve
Marjetica Potrc - Forest Rising
24 May - 2 September 2007

Acclaimed Slovenian architect/artist, Marjetica Potrc, is renowned for installations that present socially driven architectural projects in a gallery context. Working at the interface of architecture, art and social science, Potrc is concerned with the fundamentals of human life; our need for shelter, well-being and community.

In this, her first solo exhibition in the UK, Potrc has created a dramatic new work for The Curve. A powerful evocation of Amazonian life in the twenty-first century, Forest Rising, is an ‘island community’ floated on some 40 trees, including a field, pier, helicopter platform and a school, complete with solar panelling and satellite dish .



In focusing on a commendable local response to de-forestation and rising water levels, Potrc’s commission inevitably points to the dangers of globalization, climate change and unsustainable urban growth. However, firmly imbued with an aesthetic of hope, Forest Rising shows how rural living can offer a model for the future; a vibrant community that is both self-supporting and globally connected.




Most positively of all, Potrc finds a commonality between the utopianism of the Barbican, with its high-walks and monolithic raised dwellings, and the inspired strategies of a community on the other side of the world.

Marjetica Potrc is currently based in Stockholm and Ljubljana. Her work has been exhibited widely in the Americas and Europe.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

OSD: Craft, Design, Economy

GARRICK: The context for this event is that a great number of conversations were begun last year with various people involved in design projects in development situations. We thought it might be an interesting idea to get various groups together and begin a conversation about what it takes to be successful, and indeed what is the definition of success in these situations.


TOM BARKER: I'm Prof of Industrial Design at the RCA. What we've been doing for the last couple of years is we've been taking students overseas for a couple of weeks to work with crafts people locally, and then we bring them back to London to complete the design process. The first project we did was in China. It was a dry run, but we didn't actually make any products. Last year Garrick and I put together a project in Thailand. The difference was we wanted to take it to the next level and create projects.

Our learning is we really have to find the strengths and weaknesses of any country. Initiating these projects is easier than its every been, but you really have to conclude and getting out it as difficult as its every been.

This is a map of the fastest growing countries in the world.

This is a map of the countries with the fastest growing tourism.

We spoke to the Thai's (TCDC) and

A map of countries with the most shops.

There were very good reasons for collaborating with Thailand. It was the most optimal location for establishing a production / sales base in the coming 5-10. Thailand is ranked as the the 3rd most attractive FDI locaiton in Asia and the 9th most attractive location in the world for the next four years. Has no paperwork, very friendly, relaxed attitude and a mixture of work and pleasure can be a plus and a minus.

The comparison between Thailand and London is interesting.

There are lots of compelling reasons to work with London. We identified a trend called Masclusivity – the art of creating very low batches of custom products, for people who had disposable income who wanted to to differentiate themselves. This is what makes Thailand distinct from somewhere like China which is based on an engineering and manufacturing competitive advantage.

ASHLEY: The project aims was to take 21 RCA students and 8 designers to design, manufacture and sell a range of Massclusive products. This was part of a Thai national strategy for the survival of their craft and making skills. Thailand can’t comopete on infrastructure, number of workers or labour rates. One of these things is to develop a modern Thai design language.

The outcomes of our projects is that our products were used as case studies by TCDC to show how design helps business. Factories developed new making skills. Some of the objects made by factories hadn’t changed in 100 years. It was also a proving ground for Go:Global.

The unexpected stuff that happened was concept creep. The stronger ideas got better and the weaker ideas dropped out. A good evolutionary approach. During the manufacturing stage the weaker ideas didn’t have champions. Factory courtship was interesting – most of the meetings were about establishing relationships. Some of the people couldn’t read drawings. Which meant we had to rapidly prototype ideas in London – which were then shipped over to Thailand.

A lot of the decision making process was consensus driven. The assumption was that everybody had to be involved in the design decisions.

These are our final products – the Ka -Tin collection.


KATE BLEE:

I’m a designer. I was approached out of the blue to get involved in a programme in South Africa. It had an emotional start without much research. Having said that all the designers who were getting involved had a great deal of experience. We weren’t students flowering out, we were all fairly experienced.

It was started in 2001 and called LOSA (London-South Africa). It cam out of the Sisisizwer Turst and the Khumbalani Crafts based in Johanneburg. They were working with woman with aids and a great deal of problems. The knowledge of the people and the links with the communities were fairly developed.

The point of it was to pick on the crafts skills which existsed, run workshops which could build on the skills and see if we do some development that could build products that could be lifted out of airports shops and placed on a the open market. A very ambitious project.

We all arrived and met at the airport for the first time. We brought a variety of ideas, and communication tools. We went out to Kwazulu Natal – and the aim was to have a show in Sotheby’s alongside the contemporary decorative arts show. We had a year. We put on a good exhibition, we had a great deal of quality press. Things developed very quickly. We had retailers interested in the stuff. Julia has experience in product development and employed to do the brave job of working in the communities and demand quality. There were also a lot of things to deal with people who were ill. We also had a master-craftsman project to enable us to identify good skills.

It was incredibly rural. It was very basic. No electricity. In some instances it was very basic. We were frustrated that we weren;t necessaryily going to get out a product that could sit on its own with other products free of being “made by a poort person”.

The negatives were it collapsed. We feel tenuous about it. We had 900 crafters involved, but its collapsed. It was cited in South African as being a shining light. It was taken into a stratospher which didn’t have a basis in the reality. The links in the chain were strong – purchasers, crafts people and designers – but we had management who were flailing around having to deal with the press, which were inflating the ideas before they were ready. We had money coming in from all kinds of people, lots of money promised on the basis of various things happening. And the Londoners were not being communicated with and were’nt were being consulted with.

The sad thing is just sort of melted away. Although the skills that were transferred and are still being used. A lot would have happened in those communities that wouldn’t have otherwise happened. We didn’t achieve sustainability. I have a few images of the products and of us working in the field.

Baba Oscerbie, Katy Beal, Julia Leaky, Tom Dixon, Natalie Hambro and Jessica Rose.
SIMON FRASER

Central St Martins MA in Jewellery Design.

Our students work with craft and artisan communities. From our experience, we have to be particularly careful as people coming in from the outside (London) into the politics of other countries.

Working with students who are working in their own countries, we see them bringing design identities from Europe, which may be not welcomed or viewed with suspicion. I think we have to be careful about working with very small or micro communities. If you work with Oxfam or working with people

The Zandra Rhodes woodblock project in India, was interesting and difficult. Everybody made shedloads of money and then went bankrupt which had very difficult implications for the families and communities involved.

We got involved because our students
I had some experience of working at the National Institute of Fashion and Design in Delhi. You have to make a commitment to people and you end up with an other familial type of responsibility. Its been interesting with people working inside their own cultures with new ideas it can be different. A designers input may be read in a certain way. The reverse is also true if you come in from a different culture. These perceptions have to be negotiated. In this can be some tremendous opportunities as well.

We are interested in engaged with economics. Speaking as a maker, we have material cultures that chime inside cultures. You look for bridges and areas of discourse where you can have engagement. This can be as simple as colour.

MAHANA CHESNY working in Pakistan and Delhi BRUMPTAN FROM Delhi who have been working


ANDY GOODMAN and ADAM THABO

We’ve created a product called SNAPSHOT. It’s a tool for facilitating Group learning. We both went to Thailand. We experienced the design process. The design process was called LOOK, we then went into a Concept Generation Phase, we worked through a matrix. We had two groups, one set developing designs and another looking at concepts that would inform the design.

The most interested things has been language barriers, communication and facilitating problem solving when it breaks down.
We’ve isolated the bare bones technology for communicating and solving problems together – very simply. A pen and a piece of paper – moving onto a collaborative project.

One barrier is the gap that exists between the workshops and the subsequent interaction and collaboration. Sometimes we use a WIKI which engage workshops beyond when they are together.

How can we facilitate communication across time and distance.


WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

Katy HOlford: I was working with a factory hands on. One of the biggest problems I have is communicating with my host in Thailand who only uses the mobile phone – not the web or email. Communication was the biggest challenge. How do you communicate across time and distance? I don’[t want to lose momentum. They’ve put the ceramic into production. They were launched at the Bangkok international gift fair in October – but I ask the questions and don’t get the responses.

Ray: I have two similar projects in Bethnal Greens – around bringing making skills, crafts and music to teenagers. I’m wondering is how do you define craft? Do you have to go overseas? I’m getting involved in Dott 07 to use design to regenerate the local economy.

This is very interesting – why does it have to be the other side of the world. There are so many problem – cultural differences, communication. And there are communities that can benefit dramatically from the similar approaches.


Tom: These are questions of globalisation. The modes of communications are very different. The proliferation of modes, in someways makes it harder to communicate. If you have mashed up communication you start getting surprises. This can be a problem in the design process. Each time it gets less painful and you get smarter at it. The techniques.

We are interested in the Wiki, but it only works if the manufacturers understand it.

Does long term success require collaboration, as opposed to consulting?

Or do people have to stay on the ground in order for it to be successful/

Katy: My belief if that you need to have someone on the ground. The Christopher Farr project in Turkey (making carpets) has a very reliable chain. It’s a network of trust.

It started out at by a prof at university who was worried about the collapse of traditional making. He wanted to rekindle the interest in the product. Its very gender related – woman weave, men dye. Its very village based. It was setup as a big cooperative.. The chain started with identifying the master craftspeople, they made the product, the reputation grew through their product, their was a training programme which passed on the information in an organic manner. It stayed within its size. It didn’t get political.

Simon: We’ve found is best to keep the politics out. The successful projects become victims of their own success and get appropriated by various politicians. Funding bodies want to be associated with the success. We’ve had some projects where an aid agency has taken. You have to look at who we are and what are we doing in that situation in the first place. We have to be honest about whether we’re doing production or political.

Dierdre Figuretti projects with Diaspora projects in Birmingham are very interesting. Which we don’t see – because its nots aimed at us – its for the communities.

The question of design to culture, community, ethnographic appropriation has to be our first question.

I agree. You first have to understand first the people and the culture.

BOLIVIA; My project is involved in Bolivia. Climate change is causing people to go to the cities. These people use Cactus in their own communities. They grow in semi-arid regions and could work better. It has great qualities which can be used to create different products. This can be used to sustain livelihood in their communities. Working with material in the habitat. They’ve made products – We discovered the properties of cactus. I wanted to develop something rustic. There is no community making the products yet. We need to money to make something happen.


Its about respect.


INDYPAUL: What worries me is the fickly design community with communities – building bespoke non-diverse supply chains – if something happens to the supply chain can have a devastating effect on the other side of the supply chain. We need to build resilience into the ecologies of supply chains on both sides.

SIMON: There are ethical considerations about health and safety.

ADAM:

DoiTung came into communities did health first, then agriculture and then education.


TOM: The Gates Foundation are getting involved in Africa. Within the department we run we believe in the benefit of design to enable economies. We get in return networking, a good research opportunity for our students. These are on a small scale. If the Gates sling a billion dollars at a country – that can have a massive impact on the economy. Dyson was talking about building fortress Great Britain. Previous collaborations. If you are making yourself part of the economy in the host country maybe you need to be there for the long run.

KATY: I think its important that everyone understands from the outset – that its openly win-win from the outset and together we can do something – something openly give and take.