culturalboundaries

The students in my visual and information design 3 class were assigned a Poster Design project each charged with the task of reimaging seating in a public space (park), this also included Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS). They then visited their selected sites, observed visitors experiencing the space; came up with a theme to recreate seating that would be interpreted as a poster. All wrote an essay defining the visitors experience and the space redesign. Some themes from assigned readings, online resources, website links plus a short film featuring Chris Holmes, user-experience researcher discussing his teams work with the Municipal Arts Society new POPS website. Such resources will enable them to further hash out themes for their design of the poster and seating, and essay, along with photos documenting site visits. From this a series of poster and seating sketches were developed, along with  examples of material. The final designs reflect a broad a mix of diverse themes and critical thinking. For example, students like Kelly McCrossin and Russell Howe chose the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center; (formerly Reebok Climbing Wall), which is a POPS site.

These two students chose reclaimed wood for seating which perfectly compliments the swath of greenery that covers living plant wall designed by the award-winning firm Todd Williams Billie Tsien Architects. In contrast Daniella Shin’s waterfront environment the Chelsea Cove of Hudson River Park she created, “My Adobe,” a multifunctional bike stand with a table crafted from bamboo. Riders can easily access Wi-Fi to check email, or relax to drink water and eat or read while taking in the scenic views of the Hudson River. Jennifer Coppola selected the Highline; one block away from the waterfront in trendy Chelsea neighborhood this elevated pedestrian concrete style boardwalk stretches from 14th Street to 23rd street offers visitor’s majestic views of Jersey City and NYC landscape. Concerned by the lack of adequate sitting inspired Jennifer to consider adding more seating to make for a better visitor experience.

A few other students, Katia Bourbon and Nicole Abesamis worked on Paley Park a respite from the city. This small three-sided privately owned-public space located at 3 West 53rd Street. Upcycling seating made from automobile tires inspired Kytzia; the chairs cushions are bright green grass, retrofitted with legs made from reclaimed wood. Nicole crafts anthropomorphic shaped rock seating meant to invigorate Paley Park with organic spatial design, as if designed by nature. Both students disliked the Bertoia wire mesh side chairs which reminded them too much of lunch hour scene from Mad Men television show. Yet, they kept the theme of the streaming waterfall muffling the hustle and bustle of midtown traffic. 
Socrates Sculpture Park, is located in Long Island City in Queens, two students Jane Choi and Kelsey Bryden introduced seating resembling iconic symbols of the parks existing sculpture—transforming the parks urban decay to a more family friendly place.  
Each student wrote a 500-word essay describing the location, observation of seating, the functionality and social interactivity, and the spaces architectural design team. My goal was to get the student’s to look at the seating as an object; allow the object to define the space with the visitor in mind. There were concerns with concept development and not use history as a way of interpreting the reimaging. The student’s research along with what they wrote was not meant to be part of the poster text; but it did become a part of the process of solving the problem. And the writing helped them to see the larger context of the problem and shaped their design thinking. They framed the writing process in terms of experience (the user and visitor). Some of the essays focused on the outdated mode of furnishings, drab ambience or lack of eco-friendly materials; others on the lack of public art or poorly designed signage. My hope that the students understand the necessity for maintaining public spaces and how this has a profound effect on their daily lives of living and working in an urban environment.

Lots of amazing presentations jumping off throughout  Social Media Week, however I started my Valentine day off with Digital Voyeurism panel held at the Hearst Magazines Urban Theater.  Much like the early onset of food bloggers revolutionized blogging—now design/lifestyle bloggers are making huge strides blogging about what’s chic and using social media— all has changed the way people decorate there spaces. Speaking on the what’s chic Bryan Batt,  Jeanine Hays, and Christiane Lemieux, each shared stories of about their blogs, shops and products. Now design bloggers are taking the lead with decorating magazines following suit and featuring eclectic colorful home decor photography from a more humanistic perspective rather then sterile sparse decor of the past.

Bryan Batt

This is an excerpt featured on the Studio Museum in Harlem blog, it’s my first in a series of design articles.

London is one of the hottest and most creative cities, bristling with a multicultural community. Yet its Black artists and designers have remained largely untapped. That is until now. Just this past September, London was booming with design festivals showcasing innovative furniture, objects and fabulous fashions. Among them was the latest installment of the African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora Festival, a hotbed of new ideas, inspiration and creativity. This year’s theme, “?Choices!,” attracted some 22,000 visitors (2,000 more than in 2010). The AACDD festival took place from September 9 to 25, coinciding with the London Design Festival and constituted AACDD’s second successful year. It was the latest project launched by the British European Design Group’s (BEDG) three-year initiative, which is playing an increasingly important role in diversifying London’s creative community.

The festival director, Karin Phillips, Design Director Clemens Hackl, and Nigerian-born designer and curator, Emamoke Ukeleghe, orchestrated this production. The artists represented included roughly 100 graphic designers, multimedia artists, illustrators, industrial and product designers, and visual artists of African and African-Caribbean descent working in the U.K., Africa, the Caribbean, Japan and the United States. Hackl explained, “These artists and designers made a huge impact on visitors with their innovative works.” And thanks to funding from the London Arts Council, this year the AACDD Festival reached more people through a well-designed festival guide, website and social media platforms.

AACDD’s festival took place in three main locations: BargeHouse in OXO Towers in SouthBack, Hospital Club, and the Re-Loved Lounge at 100% Design. With 1,333 square feet of raw warehouse space, the BargeHouse served as the perfect blank canvas setting for browsing art lovers. It featured four floors of curated work by fine artists, illustrators, graphic designers, fashion designers, multimedia artists, and photographers. On one floor, Below the Surface, a photographic project by young black teenagers from London’s African and African-Caribbean communities, was a whopping success. The teenagers documented the colorful facets of everyday life, and produced an eye grabbing collection shot with disposable cameras given away through AACDD’s tweets and Facebook postings. For more click here>>

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk: The first exhibition devoted to the designs of world-renowned French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier will make its U.S. debut at the Dallas Museum of Art in November 2011. This is an unprecedented look at the designer dubbed fashion’s “enfant terrible” from the time of his first runway shows in the 1970s and who has become one of the most important fashion designers of recent decades. Organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Maison Jean Paul Gaultier, the exhibition premiered in Montreal on June 15, 2011, and will be on view at the Dallas Museum of Art from November 13, 2011, through February 12, 2012, before traveling to its final stop in the U.S. at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young, in March 2012. The exhibition will be on view at the Fundación Mapfre – Instituto de Cultura in Madrid, Spain, from September 26 through November 18, 2012, and to Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from February 9, 2013 through May 12, 2013, and then travel to Arkitekturmuseet, Stockholm in June 2013.

Check out Jean Paul Gaultier, Fashion’s wild child on CBS Morning News

I’m hooked on this: Actor/rapper Ice Cube steps into the world of industrial design, posing in a series of advertisements highlighting the innovative chair designs of mid-century design luminaries Charles and Ray Eames, for the Collecting Eames Collection. Held at the Pacific Time Standard, this event began this October to celebrate the Los Angeles art and design scene’s groundbreaking years between 1945 and 1990.

Besides the series of colorful ads, check the video of Ice Cube talking about the Eames House. You’ll be surprised to learn that Cube at one point tried his hand at architectural drafting while in trade school back in the 1980s.

In the video below, Cube says: “In a world of McMansions—where structures take up all the land—the Eameses made structure and nature one.” He strolls around the grounds of Eames House, rapping about how they were doing mash-ups before mash-ups even existed. Check out the L.A. Ice Cube knows and Loves!

My several pairs of Havaianas, from my travels to Brazil are like gold. And much like everyone else walking around in colorful Havaianas flip flops, I love mine to death. This year’s opening at Art Basel Miami 01 December, will be jamming with artistically styled Brazilian flip-flops brand recently commissioned street artist Finok to create some eye popping murals. Check out some funky graffiti art from the streets in Sao Paulo to Collins Avenue in South Beach at the swanky Shelbourne Hotel. And while your perusing buy a pair limited edition graffiti collection designed by the Brazilian artist Finok, Chivitz and Minhau for $28.00, it’s probably one of the few affordable art pieces at Art Basel.

New African Fashion Book talk @ NYPL: On Wednesday 30 November, Helen Jennings hosts a talk at the New York Public Library as part of its Design & Style book series. She’ll be joined by designers Mataano and Mimi Plange, model campaigner Bethann Hardison and Enyinne Owunwanne of Heritage1960, who will MC the round table discussion. It’s a public event, first come, first served.

The following evening the real fun begins for those lucky souls who snagged a spot at the invite-only NYC launch party for New African Fashion at private members club Parlour. There will be a guest performance by Philly artist Zakee and sounds courtesy of DJ mOma and DJake. Enyinne will preview some of the designers and market finds shortly to be for sale on her beautifully curated site Heritage1960. And there will, of course, be free booze. It promises to be quite a shindig.
Occupy WallStreet Group: Arts and Culture segment of the OCW group looking to open art studio space, until such time they find permanent space chekout OCW’s art installation on Printer Matters Window.

SUPERSCRIPT’s SECOND ART AND ARCHITECTURE BOOK READING: On December 7, join Superscript and MoMA’s senior curator of architecture and design Paola Antonelli as we delve into the world of Philip K. Dick’s classic text, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Most famously the basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner (and the vast majority of science fiction imagery from the last thirty years), this 1968 novel popularized the idea of the cyborg and has had a lasting effect on dreams and fears concerning technology in the public sphere. Guest: Paola Antonelli; Text: Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Venue: 15 Union Square West; Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Time: 7pm Introduction; 7:15-8:15pm Discussion, Q&A

The debut article of my first By Design column featured in International Review of African American Art, Fall 2011 issue spotlights the fabulous Malene Barnett, carpeting and rug designer.

The Art of Everyday Use
MALENE BARNETT CLIENTS ARE FLOORED BY HER RUGS
Not all carpeting rolls off assembly lines in factories or is imported from exotic places in the Middle East, China or India. Hand-made floor coverings that rise to the level of art are created by Malene Barnett, principal and owner of Maleneb in Brooklyn. She has built a brand specializing in hand-woven carpeting and rugs of original design and high-quality fibers for commercial sites and homes.

At the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, Barnett initially majored in fashion illustration but  really longed to paint. Her decision to change majors was clinched when she happened to see a display of  projects by students in the textile surface design department.  As a textile design major, she was inspired by the early textile renderings of Lois Mailou Jones, a young, African American designer who went on to become a major 20th century American artist.

While taking a carpet design course, Barnett won first prize for a Stark Carpets-sponsored, carpet design competition, and committed to this specialized field in textile design.

Barnett graduated in 1996 and worked for a succession of companies, including Afritext where she modernized their line of African prints; and Nourison, an industry leader, developing products for major household brands.

After four years at Nourison, Barnett had an urge to explore the world. She quit her job and, carrying just a backpack with seven outfits, traveled to India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.  Each environment piqued her curiosity about the indigenous spiritual symbols, patterns and architecture of the cultures that she visited. She sketched this iconography in a small sketchbook as ideas for new designs.

Back in the States, Barnett worked freelanced for her previous employer, Nourison, designing handmade accent rugs and carpeting for some well-established consumer brands such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, Nicole Miller, Liz Claiborne and Macy’s. With her guidance, Nourison profits grew from $1 million to $15 million. Then Barnett was offered an opportunity to start a carpeting line with JLA Homes, a home furnisings company; once again profits increased.

When the economy started to tank in 2008, Barnett decided to launch Maleneb.  “Why would you even think of starting up a studio in such a dismal economy?” I wondered. “The timing was right,” she replied.  In leaving Nourison, she again was following a calling. She defines herself as a visual artist, with a propensity for hand drawing and painting, who loves to design carpeting and rugs. And besides, she explained, “most of my previous projects offered little exploration of my own ethnic sensibility.”

The luxurious residential rugs and carpeting in the Maleneb collection are hand woven designs based on the icons, patterns and colors that Barnett observed during her travels and as she continues to look to  artifacts from various ethnic cultures and the natural environment for inspiration, her work is informed by food rituals, ancient architectural structures, traditional garments, unusual  textile patterns and paintings are a part of the mix.

The collection consists of three distinctive themes: Signature reflects the diversity of everyday life, for example, the Mehndi-inspired rugs of rich burgundy and red wool yarn with linear designs based on a palm decorated with henna tattooing for a wedding. Classical— traditional motifs and icons such as the Adinkra writing system of Ghana. And texture which explores the multiplicity of organic forms in nature. In order to achieve the characteristics of flowing water, mountainous landscapes and tree trunk textures for the Texture theme, Barnett mastered a distinctive technique of creating varying pile heights.

As a member of the Good Weave organization working to end child labor in South Asia, all Maleneb pieces carry the “Good Weave” brand to distinguish them from those made under exploitative circumstances.

Besides designing the collection, Barnett gets numerous requests for commissioned projects. For example, Ken Staves, an architect based in Calgary, Canada, called to request rugs for his new home, based on photography he had shot of magnificent, New York City architectural skylines.  From this imagery, Barnett crafted a series of tapestries that now hang on the walls in Staves’ home. The Carl Ross Design Croup hired Barnett to create special rug tapestries for the lobby walls of the Hyatt Vacation Club Hacienda del Mar in Mexico. Her design for this commission was inspired by the 15th century rock art of the Taino Indians of Mexico.

A spunky seven-year-old girl passion for drawing and painting has become one of the top designers of carpeting and rugs in New York City.

Limited Edition Tap Tap rug, abstract angular colorful shapes, with varying piles based on the colorful, hand-painted local tap tap buses in Haiti, this rug design was featured in the Global African Project exhibition catalog, 2010.

For more information on Maleneb click: maleneb.com 

Shortly after 11PM Monday, the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur foundation announced this years 2011 MacArthur Grant Fellows, each of the 22 recipients will receive a staggering $500,000 — no strings attached over the next five years. This is a highlight videos features a few fellows selected include: Jad Abumrad a radio host and producer of the nationally syndicated program Radiolab. Abumrad is known for infusing his background as a composer to orchestrate dialogue, music, and sound effects into compelling documentaries that draw listeners into investigations of otherwise intimidating topics, such as the nature of numbers, the evolution of altruism, or the science of emergent phenomena within ant colonies and other complex systems.

Anther exceptional fellow is Chicago Architect Jeanne Gang. As a MacArthur fellow, Gang’s firm Studio Gang Architects designed the 82-story Aqua Tower at Columbus near Randolph among other works, like all the other fellow will receive $500,000 – no strings attached – over the next five years. Informally dubbed the “genius grant,” the foundation has awarded individuals with exceptional creativity and promise. Gang was cited for “integrating conventional materials, bold yet functional designs, and ecological technology in a wide range of striking structures.”

GLIDE’12  rev’s up planning for the next symposium promises to surely be loaded with stellar presenters and topics. If you are interested in receiving information just leave me a comment, I’ll add you to our contact database. For now you’ll just have to settle for reading advisory board member Gloria Gomez’s review on GLIDE’10. The compelling and exciting work that was presented at GLIDE’10 can make designers feel proud of the powerful design contributions we can make to society on a global scale. The presentations mainly represented work on the facilitation, consequences, and challenges of cross-cultural collaboration in indigenous and underserved communities, and the effect of such on human/user experience. This review summarizes the conference facts, the conference schedule as well as discusses the presentations, blogging comments, and the virtual conference format. The review ends with concluding remarks and a summary of each presentation, photographs, and a hyperlink to the video recording published on YouTube –http://www.youtube.com/user/glideconference.

The International Review of African American Art just published a special issue which shows how aesthetic, scientific and mathematical configurations can be perceived in everything and experienced in many ways. This full seeing and being is a spark for innovation in art, science, technology, engineering, architecture and mathematics and, more broadly, in education and business… and life!

This Spring issue features a spectacular group of design and cultural critics, and theorist writing on science, Afro Futurism, STEM Education and the Interplay of Patterns are just a few of the amazing features highlighted in this issue. Pick up a copy and delve into creative intelligence!