Designblog

listen to William Fitzsimmons while reading X

Saturday evening. I set up my alarm clock at 9:30, pretty early for a free Sunday.
It’s not that I want to be out of bed around that time. I’m going to watch Villa Achterwerk op Ned 3 in the morning. Before it starts I get a cup of thee and a sandwich. To have breakfast in bed, while watching Villa Achterwerk. As we did when I was littel. Walking to the bathroom on slippers and a soft bathrobe, having a relaxing shower to get fresh. Putting on a comfortable jogging suit. Lunch with a few sandwiches and if I’m lucky an egg. Dress up warm to have a walk outside, getting fresh air and watch the street outside. I see Cat’s sitting on the street, or sleeping on the heater behind the window. Moments where time isn’t important, i should have more moments like that.

“Slow” for me is enjoying life in the way I like it myself.
The slowest thing that I did, which I can remember, is to make an artwork.

Sometimes it takes months or years to finish it.
The process of being an artist is also slow for me, but I am enjoying this process a lot. The most unique part of an artwork is that not everyone can understand the meaning and feeling of it. During my research I have found sentences from Robert Hughes that made me very curious:

“What we need more of art: art that holds time as a vase holds water; art that grows out of modes of perception and making whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn’t merely sensational, that doesn’t get its message across in ten seconds, that isn’t falsely iconic, that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures”.
It makes an artist very special making this kind of art.

Somebody should not ignore the beauty of products, nether do I, but an overload of the visual and mental impact of consumption is forcing me to find a way to deal with this headache, which emerges from the stress of speed. Speed is arising from measurement. So the first step was to put down my watch to give myself some freedom. But “slowness” almost doesn’t exist in my life, what means that the stress is not erasable. What is left is to find a way out of this reality into daydream spaces, where I can have the total freedom of time in a self-chosen speed or system. “Daydream spaces, such as those generated by reading a good book, are often more commanding than physical spaces. While you read, you don’t even notice people who walk through the room because you are actually in the space that’s generated by the author. … the spaces generated by music can be much larger than the one in which you are physically…” here I totally agree with James Turrell. The same goes when he says that these are the spaces that we are inhabiting most of the time, much more then the conscious awake space that is called reality.

Which is everything I’m not. I like systems. I like structure. I like planning and going after the plan. I like schedules to follow and get annoyed with people who don’t. I’m always on time, and get anxious when I’m running late, even five minutes!
But why does all of this sound so negative?
I don’t find it negative though. I find it a quality. It makes sense and it works in a lot of cases. Like for instance in public transport, sleep, opening hours, work and even time is logical constructed for world structure.
And I don’t want to feel stupid waiting in the rain and my friend calls me, “ I’m late – sorry”! But I do – why?
Is it me – am I too controlled? Or is it everyone else who simply doesn’t care?
What is most effective – and again is effective good or bad. It’s like a circle I won’t get anywhere with.

posted by Maria Gondek Keller Pedersen

I will start with a beautifull sentence that has inspired me often. ”standing still for a moment, is actually a big step forward. So I stand still the whole day”. This sentence is a complete overview of what slowness is for me. But is this in connexion to any kind of design or art? For me in some cases this standing still adds a big layer in looking at things. By looking at objects and art for more than an hour and from the same perspective, it gives a new strength. But is there a way to make other people expierence this power of standing still. What could design/art add to this?

For the last time I visited “The Student”, this time busy hanging prints and getting all the little things ready for the exposition. ‘Is this it?’ I asked,

‘No’ she replied, ‘it needs the projection to really work’.

I felt I was taking a look in my own project, as I had been busy for 2 weeks on an installation that was going to project images of Rietveld students on the visitors of the Open Day, giving them the chance to be, for a moment, a Rietveld student.

The artist Jean-Christian Bourcart at some point also thought “It needs the projection” and made the great series “Collateral”

read it online

read it in print

how would it be to echo somebody?
how would it be to be echoed?
how does it feel, to be allowed to echo somebody?
how sensitive are you to get a good connection to his/her mind or presentation?
hoe does it feel to be echoed by somebody else?
is he/she sensible enough with your thoughts?
should everything be open, or is it better to hold something behind?
are there any rules or lines which should be followed?
i mean… is it really necessary to be always soft and sensible or what would change it, if you would cross the line?
about yourself, it is an easy question, i think you know your inner mine very well?
but how much do you know about the lines of the others?
or how easily can we meet in the middle of that line?

link: Osilloscope

Teamwork – ideas – opinions – help – building up something together

It‘s like standing in a big valley and shouting out your thoughts into the void. Some sounds will bounce back at you, some will disappear in mid-air. This is the big plus about teamwork; that ideas are constantly being bounced off each other to see which ones have potential, and which ones will just dissolve on the way.

This month our team spirit kept up pretty well, but I also noticed that in a good working situation there‘s always a kind of teamwork going on, even if everybody is working on their own individual project. One should always ask for opinions, and always be ready to help someone by thinking seriousely about their ideas.

So, in the spirit of teamwork

Echo,

v. reverberate; repeat a sound; transmit immediately each character received by a computer back to the course as to serve as a confirmation of receipt (Computers)

n. repetition of a sound produced by the reflection of sound waves from a solid surface; (Computers) user input printed to the screen so the user can read it; (Slang) person who reflects on another person; person who imitates another

As I walked trough the hallways of the Rietveld I see everything developing,
objects, drawings, performances, everything is moving and growing.

although the strange thing is that everything looks a bit a like,
exchanged words, moves, thoughts connected, reflected and formed,
into one echo that belongs to the voice of the Rietveld academy

I was browsing the internet looking for a definition of the word ‘weblog’.
Doing so I landed up in blog after blog after blog.
Each blog having a different opinion and way of looking at the word or phenomenon blog.

I thought about this and realised that this was actually already my answer.
– The people trying to define a weblog, on a weblog. Even though they all have different opinions about it.

“There is no need to define ‘blog.’ I doubt there ever was such a call to define ‘newspaper’ or ‘television’ or ‘radio’ or ‘book’ — or, for that matter, ‘telephone’ or ‘instant messenger.’”
–  Jeff Jarvis

But for the general view this might be of some help.

Last week I wrote a posting about a student in the middle of a project, of an exchange of her and other peoples ideas, all seeming fruitful and full of inspiration. This week I visited her again, anxious to hear new developments. She was stuck.

Many artists experience this during the process of making something and a walk around the basic year revealed many tactics in getting back on track:

• Have a beer

• Be hungover

• Go to a junkshop or flea market

• Make all kinds of small things related to your project

• Analyze all different parts, what do you want, what does it mean etc.

• Talk to someone

• Do something else

• Find things that are completely non-related.

• Or just keep on going, stuck is just an idea in your head.

Or do some Automatic Writing, which happens to be also an album of a great band.

Here’s a jam from them, featuring some pictures of your typical inspiration-seeking person.

Being a Javanees is a very greatfull feeling. That is what this “tribe” wants to do. His name is Marlon Trimo Kromojodo, but he like to call himself Trimo. Why that, because he want to hold in mind the second name of his grandfather who also is called Trimo. He got an idea to create with natural material the cloth of the “tribe”, but he does something different and creates the Javanees cloth.

This is how Trimo wants to look like. It is really a Javanees style to decorate yourself with natural material. That is the identity of being a Javenees. Like the folding leave and decorate also on the head. So Trimo create his “tribe” in a Javanees style, because it is also looks different.

Look at these: www.javanenvansuriname.info or www.picasaweb.google.com

It was an assignment that started out with body extensions, and ended in animal imitations. The best known or most visible aspect of a certain animal was picked out and preformed by one of the students. I personally thought they did it in a very funny way without turning it in to a joke. My favourite was maybe the video where Timo Rohula tried to seduce Maria Pedersen. Timo wore the best, most flashy outfit he could get his hands on, and danced like a crazy man. All to get some female attention. Like a tropical bird flaunting his feathers.

Inspiratie halen uit iemand anders’ leefomgeving. Zoeken naar de punten die jij interessant vind en vanuit die inspiratie twee milieus samen laten komen. Een plek waar zowel jij als de ander zicht thuis voelt. Iedereen heeft zijn eigen persoonlijke ruimte binnen een groot huis en met die gedachte moesten er nieuwe omgevingen gecreëerd worden.
Bij architectuur projecten gaat het voordat je begint eigenlijk altijd om een onderzoek. Over wat voor een plek je wil ontwerpen. Is het een plek in de openbare ruimte speciaal voor jongeren of ga je iets maken voor alleen staande vrouwen.

I don’t know why but in my mind, the most strong image of ‘design’ is industrial or product design. For this reason, I had interviewed a friend who has studied industrial design. I liked one of her project which is named tea tablefor 88 persons. She had to make a product with 2 boxes of tiles. She felt the tile seems like pottery saucer so decided to make tea table with them. She made 2m long white tea tabel with tiles and each pieces of tiles have one cup.

2boxes of tiles were 88pieces, so it is named tea table for 88 persons. I really like it’s simple and beautiful shape. It was nice time to me to have an affinity for industrial design which add beauty and convenience on products.