If your brain hasn’t overloaded in inspiration and knowledge from the TED TEDtalks or PopTech PopCasts video archives, check out the GEL conference Videos! I attend these 3 incredibly stimulating, overcharging, brain shaking events yearly and now their lectures are avaliable online for everyone to absorb! GEL’s coming up this week, so catch up while you can before the next batch of speakers goes online!
My journey over to Milan from Florence was delayed by 4-5 hours, hence my well planned shopping safari around Milan never took place, but my late night visit for dinner did included a quick journey which I’ll post about here. In comparison to Florence it’s much more diverse, more of a city, more lively at night, but with the same rustic streetscapes surrounding Florence with finely detailed buildings. It’s more modern while stylish with a larger urban crowd hovering abouts the area. Most of my spare hours in Milan were spent eating at Obika, but I took a few pics here and there….so enjoy them after the jump! (I’ll include a few interesting going away images as well)
The Obelisk Chairs by designer Janus et Cie is pretty nifty and expensive($9k)set of chairs that modulates into a towering piece of artwork when stacked. I’m not sure which option I like best, but be assured, I’d be showing everyone!
via uberreview
More pics at dedon
Buy here($9k)
I’m not one to usually get too pumped about furniture, but these scrabble pillows with scrabble stacking like sofas by design studio Stephen Reed just made me smile today.
via geekologie
A few more pics after the jump.
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The sensational PopTech Conference I attended last October just launched their new PopCasts website with several of their amazing lectures from the 2006 event.
The above MUST watch video is an astonishing and inspirational highlight from the 2005 conference of Jesse Sullivan & Todd Kuiken presenting the world’s first non-fictional bionic man maneuvers of his prosthetic arm using only his mind. (Don’t ignore me…watch it!)
Watch the rest of the captivating videos after the jump!
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“Can one of the nation’s great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?”
Here’s an astonishing experimental story that questions talent, location, knowledge, culture, perception, a bit of marketing, and displacement. What happens when you take a world famous musician, Joshua Bell, and put him in the morning DC metro posing as a street performer seeking extra change? Do people stop and listen, do strangers acknowledge his talent, does a crowd form in awe, does he cash in, does talent simply pass by ones ears because of his environment, or are people too busy to stop and listen?
Read this incredible experiment after the jump along with videos. (mirrored from WashingtonPost.com)
Manufactured Landscapes is a stunning must watch documentary film created by legendary photographer Edward Burtynsky and award winning director Jennifer Baichwal that has received several awards this past year. The film visually captures China’s massive industrial revolution through Edwards camera while questioning our own human endeavors in impacting the planets future global proliferation, destruction, and waste.
I was not aware of this film until recently while talking with Edward at TED about his amazing slide show he gave at Poptech which previewed images used in this film. I missed the film when it was in theaters, but the DVD’s are available which I’d highly encourage everyone to buy (or the book) and share. (it’s a bit odd thinking about the movies message on massive product waste while using the exact same substance to distribute this film)
As an industrial designer I’ve been greatly influenced by the huge message Al Gore gave in Inconvenient Truth (meeting him pushed me as well) while also advocating Alex Steffan of Worldchanging.com‘s message that “your either in, or your wrong”. I’m stuck in a field where products and massive sales are king, yet the sustainable need for global changes is so uneducated in a cost driven but not globally aware or active field if not society. I’m not saying change is not happening, but time is not something you can pause… this change must happen, not sooner, but now. Perhaps I feel more like architect and famous product designer Philippe Starck when he was onstage at TED and said “I believe in general that my job is absolutely useless; but now, after Carolyn(Porco) and these guys, I feel like shit”.
Anyhoots, before I get ya’ll stuck in my own dilemma, give the trailer to Manufactured Landscapes a view and perhaps question your own actions in your own field, home, and surroundings and get motivated for some simple changes like recycling, changing to longer lasting light bulbs, or even reusing your CD spindles.
Trailer Preview
Manufactured Landscapes website
Worldchanging.com
ClimateCrisis.net
Here’s a wonderful and intriguing lecture during last years TASTE3 (wine, food, art) conference by Bryant Simon deconstructing the Starbucks brand experience. A great watch for any of ya’ll caffeine craving Starbucks addicts.
“Bryant Simon is professor of history and director of the American Studies program at Temple University in Philadelphia. Over the last year and half, he has visited over 300 Starbucks in eight countries and is currently working on a book to be published by Bloomsbury. This is not, however, just a study of Starbucks, but an exploration of American life both in the states and abroad in the 21st Century. His research explores the very desires of daily life as they are revealed on the comfy coaches and in the drive-thru of Starbucks. As he looks at what it means to consume Starbucks, he also investigates what Starbucks consumes of us – our labor, our landscapes, and our politics.”
via TASTE3
The must watch 2007 TED Prize talks are up! Above I’ve posted the powerful and captivating lecture by James Nachtwey that I urge all to watch, but be prepared for an emotionally disturbing yet moving photo journey.(I’d highly recommend watching this in full-screen or high definition 480p here) I’ve also posted the video lectures by Bill Clinton and E.O. Wilson who were also 2007 TED Prize winners after the jump. I’ll include the amazing bonus images taken in a secret location during each wish announcement.
via TED blog
Woa…how cool, sustainable, and smart. I’m never throwing away those CD spindle cases again. Add a sheet of rubber on the bottom and I think you’ll have an airtight seal! I’m sure you could use this for some chips, cereal, or any other munchies….they would stack nicely too!
pwka’s Flickr (via core77)
Here’s something I would have never thought up….serving dinner in total darkness as a restaurant theme. I love the idea of heightning your senses for food, but I wonder how many times I would flip food into my face or nose. I guess I’d avoid the noodles or soups and hot BBQ plates. Otherwise, I wonder if the users eat like blind cavemen using their hands. A dark room food fight with thousands of marshmellows could be fun.
“The first dark restaurant in Asia is officially opened on the 23 December 2006. This restaurant, located in Beijing, China, has its interior painted completely black. Customers are greeted by a brightly lit entrance hall and will be escorted by waiters wearing night vision goggles into the pitch dark dining room to help them find their seats. Flashlights, mobile phones and even luminous watches are prohibited while in this area.
The meal will be taken in this environment with the complete loss of vision. By starving one’s sense, your other senses are stimulated to full alert – all so the theory goes – and your food will taste like it’s never tasted before. In case you are wondering about the washrooms, they are all brightly lit. Link [in Chinese] ”
