One Day Poem Pavilion, by Jiyeon Song

Life gets interesting when different worlds start to collide. The increased focus in the media on creativity of artists and musicians to offer hope and an idea of rebirth to a struggling financial system is one obvious example. I’ve previously blogged on the merging of art and design practice but my real fascination at the moment is looking at more extreme worlds merging, get an engineering mind with an artist for example...



In this case, you are looking at the thesis work of graduate Masters student Jiyeon Song; he positions himself as Media Designer / Artist, his practice being focused on the exploration of ‘Experiential Typography’. Anyone involved in design will recognise the phenomena of the typography ‘geek’ who can name any face from 100 paces whilst being blindfolded, everyone knows at least one (I know a small handful of very serious ones, though I won’t out them for it). However I would be very surprised if Jiyeon would classify his work in the context within typography. The fact he works with hardboard sheets and yet calls himself a Media Designer is fascinating to me...



Media, as a classification is nowadays assumed to relate to the digital world, at the very least. And with that comes the idea of instant change, rapid update ability, fast control of information. Imagine a billboard which reveals its message over time in opposition to instant messaging (Stefan Sagmeister and others have explored this idea in various ways). There is a cultural confusion — in the positive sense of redefining how we classify the world or read information — where artifact blends with experience, where design message blends with art object. Experience of the art object carries with it the assumption that time is taken to absorb meaning, and that meaning is taken away with the viewer. That sense of reflection, consideration, mulling over is a fascinating challenge to a world which has been about speeding up. Maybe we’re recognising the value in moving forward ‘effectively’ is more rewarding simply moving forward ‘faster’.



It is interesting to contrast the speed at which we need to move towards sustainability with the need to slow down and consider the consequences of our actions that will help make it a reality. Lets have more designers considering slow communication and encouraging consideration, it is commerce which needs to become more intelligent to



master's thesis project, patent pending
media design program | art center college of design

"If we define art as part of the realm of experience, we can assume that after a viewer looks at a piece, he ‘leaves’ with the art, because the ‘art’ has been experienced"
John Dewey, Art as experience


slow media

In this fast paced world, it is difficult to pause even for a few minutes. If a web site takes longer than a few seconds to load in the browser, we move on to another site. Designer, engineers, and scientists put a lot of effort in making things faster. However, our life is finite. Nature has its own speed. Humans cannot control it: we live underneath its providence. Slowness has its own value.

In the One Day Poem Pavilion, messages flow slowly because they follow the movement of the sun. These slow messages offer the audience time to meditate. We cannot force it to go fast. We should wait. We live under the laws of nature. Slowness affords us time to rethink our lives which are finite and valuable. While the poem is revealed slowly, the meaning will resonate with the audience.

www.OneDayPoem.com

http://people.artcenter.edu/~jsong5/thesis/index.html

Calling all software developers, designers, business brains and other seriously creative minds, oh, and a raft of social problems which need to be solved through some innovative thinking, and action.

Over one weekend from 19th-21st June 2009, some of the best of the UK’s software developers and designers will be brought together with those at the sharp end of social problems at the Saltire Centre, Glasgow.

Their mission will be to convert six raw ideas to change the world into six social start-ups in under 48 hours — complete with working software.

If you would like to take part, or have the ideas for problems which need to be solved (from education, to health care, the environment; something on your doorstep or stuff that effects the world) then take a look at the Social Innovation Camp website to join up.

The deadline for the big problems is Friday 22 May 2009, so check out: www.scotland.sicamp.org

Looking for the latest gadget? Got to have that iPhone (yes, it can be a tough choice!). We are ‘programmed’ to ‘need’ the latest badges of post-post-modernity, sometimes it is useful, and at other times it represents desire, pure and simple. Imagine for a moment that it is now cool to have only as much as you require to enjoy life, and no more. Straightforward idea, and one which many belief systems have constructed themselves around.

Enter a straightforward project called, Kept. The idea being that you take pride in valuing what you have around you, avoiding having more and more stuff produced to satisfy a desire. Of course, a natural response might be, ‘loss of a commercial reason will kill development’ (based on the creation of desire as a drive for commerce). The challenge to move to a post-consumer world is baffling to some, and to others a new kind of self-control might be well considered, bearing in mind the fierce effect now being felt by the actions of the banking profession.

Projects like Kept shouldn’t be viewed as a full answer, but it does perhaps offer an opportunity for us to rethink the way we individually calibrate our concept of ‘desire’. One thing is for sure: we won’t create any type of paradigm shift to benefit the world by consuming more stuff. The development of the commercial service sector has surely only just been born. And with that, the practice of design continues to redefine itself.

Read more about the project and subscribe at: www.kept.it