Designblog

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.

The first idea Paul and Elke had, for making an exchange tool, was a contraption that forced Paul’s legs into a manly stand, Paul usually has a rather feminine stand. After receiving some criticism by the teacher, they came with another plan; to combine two lists composed of stereotype feminine and masculine household objects, suggested by members of the class. They plan to make a glass baseball bat and a handbag which could be used as a lipstick that holds a razor blade. Paul and Elke say they are quite handy, so the rest will probably follow soon.

Many objects are designed to be perceived as clearly male or female (think of Gilette and Venus razors for example), whereas more essential ones (kitchen appliances, electronic media, tables and beds) are made „unisex“. But when we look at the same essential objects made for children: suddenly it’s all either pink or blue!

Why this sudden change in attitude?
Why – in a world supposedly freed from gender oppression – are boys and girls being subconciously made to feel so different from one another by media and toy companies?

Is it because this makes it easier for companies to supply new products, because they don‘t have to create innovative design and can just stick to typical army- and flower-pattern? Useful as it may be to manufacturers, I doubt it‘s good for children‘s self-image and leads to much teasing in schools that could be avoided by parents paying more attention to a less stereotyped environment for their children.
Would a little girl‘s gender identity be damaged if she used a neutral or (heaven forbid) blue notebook instead of a pink one?

P.S.: a bit of ha ha

Here the assignment “make a connection” became the inpiration for some reasearch on how to change two bodies into one. How to become a siamese twin. It is interesting to see the new shapes the bodies make, recognizable but totally new.  This project posts questions like; what would fashion look like if the human body was formed differently and how much can fashion form our appearance. It is interesting to think about what effect clothes that conjoin two people would have on our behavior and relationships.

Usually your body decides what kind of clothes you will wear, but what if it would be the opposite way – that the clothes would form your body? If a woman without curves would wear a dress made for a curvy female, there would be empty spaces between the body and the dress. What Anniek Mol thought of, was to design an insert to, in this case, fill the holes with. The idea is to be able to adapt your body to the clothes you are wearing. In addition to that it would change the way you look, you would also move and feel differently. This all started from Annieks uncomfort concerning her body, the question is though – would there not be a greater uncomfort with her design? Or is it after all the same principle like the push-up bra?

Link: Nagi Noda

Wouldn’t it be nice to have an opinion machine. In witch you could exchange your opinion for that of someone else.
But how would you make such a thing work?
You could categorize into subjects, such as politics, weither, celebrities etc. But you would end up with an endless amount of subjects.
Or you could leave it up to the opinion exchangers to bring the context themselves.
This to me sounded excellent. You could start out the day absolutely hating the way your hair looks. And end up the day singing your heart out – because you are the best singer in the world.

Let’s go a bit deeper into the word indivisuality and subjects around it. Especially the subject exchange. Would you exchange your indivisuality with someone else? If you would, would you go all the way and even change your name and habits, or is it only about visual appearance? Where is the line between individuality and visuality. Can you see these two things as two different things which can be separated or are the always connected with each other? Is it possible to exchange only parts of the indivisuality or do you have to go all the way? Can you exchange your indivisuality? Or can you only pretend?

http://www.marykay.com/whatsnew/virtualmakeover/default.aspx

I was asked to be a pedestal for Jesse Muller’s paper mohawk headpiece.
It was a delicate square helmet made from paper bags you would find at a greengrocer’s shop. It somehow reminded me of all the punk shows I used to go to when I was a teenage boy. All the loving memories I have. Beer flying though the air, people jumping over each other, off the stage, slipping on the beer stained floor, falling, bruising, laughing, the dirty squat houses, the friendly violence, the loud music, singing along. I think it’s maybe the most fun a person can ever have in his life.

posted by Tim Matijsen

Link: massa

How does all this work come into being? It is, of course, the product of the autonomous genius that is the artist, exploring depths where no mind has gone before and bringing back ideas that are completely original. Yeah right.
Most assignments, especially in the Design department involve a lot of research into existing artworks and other media. For instance, the picture above is an in-between work that started with the title of a book “Take my eyes and through them see you“, by Cerith Wyn Evans.
This made the teacher come up with the idea to have the students exchange clothes.
The photo’s gave a student the idea to cut them up and recombine them by hand.
In versions to come, the student said that she might combine it with the 7 sins, because of those sinful Dolce & Gabbana adverts. It made me think of those Magnum commercials from a while ago.
We’re all truly original…

posting by Arthur Perdijk

“Create a siamese twin with the fabric you have” was the assignment Emma Olanders and her classmates were given when starting the textile design lesson during the exchange project. Emma and a classmate started working with dependency by means of having a nylon stocking between them and letting Emma actually hang from it. They tried out different ways of hanging, pulling, pushing, giving and receiving weight with different materials between different body parts. They discovered that there are some things that you can do on your own. Having a partner, those small movements or pressures when pushing become unpredictable. The way they were depending on each other and giving/receiving weight has a rather strong connection to the dance technique “contact improvisation“.

posting by Nadja Voorham, photo by Benno Voorham

Isn’t that a great name Merel Woudwijk. You know i am wondering about Merel, because she got an idea to make her own alphabet.  An alphabet  that no one can understand. Very abstract and powerful alphabet. She call it “The alphabet of spaces”.

Why these abstraction, because of the inspiration of artist Sol Lewitt and her conceptually idea spread away in her mind to make such alphabets. There were more than 100 prints in woodcraving, some prints in silkscreen, 32 prints in etchings, and 42 prints in lithograph full with care and patient. She choose the basiccolor black for her alphabet, because it gives her good results and comments

posting by Raz Barsati