“The greatest problem facing humanity is ‘poor thinking’”, said renowned lateral thinker, writer and philosopher Edward De Bono in London this month, where he outlined key strategies for creativity.
Continue reading ‘“creativity is a necessity, not a luxury” – edward de bono’
Growing up in rural Australia, a sensitive and caring young girl experienced the hardship that people often face when they are deemed to be different. When, as a teenager, she moved to the big city and into one of the country’s most culturally diverse communities, the innocent young girl witnessed social injustice on a global scale. Now 28, founder of The Social Studio, Dr Grace McQuilten is determined that Australia must become a more accepting country. In her efforts to help initiate that change, this positive young woman has armed herself with humility, generosity and an infectious laugh that comes straight from a heart of gold. Continue reading ‘national dreamer - grace mcquilten’
Entrenched in the high-flying world of business in Hong Kong, Norwegian brothers Chris and Bjorn Fjelddahl and Frenchman Nicolas Gontard would escape each year to what they considered the ultimate winter playground – Niseko, Japan. When, on a whim, Nicolas bought a piece of land in the alpine paradise, the trio seized the opportunity to indulge their love for design, architecture and sustainability. Combining their nous learned from decades working with the world’s most iconic brands, the trio created Odin – a property development and design company that would redefine the concept of luxury. In addition to building a stable of breathtaking ‘personal luxury sanctuaries’ (houses) throughout Niseko, Odin also dabbles in the design of exquisite furniture and, in December 2009, opened the doors to its first boutique hotel, Kimamaya by Odin. Continue reading ‘international dreamer – chris fjelddahl’
Beyond the energetic buzz, the buoyant chatter and the enlivening scent of freshly ground beans that fills the air at Di Bella Coffee’s roastery in Bowen Hills is a single clue that alludes to a love so strong, it could never be quelled. Perched high above the counter sits a placard expounding the words of a satisfied coffee lover. A morning without Di Bella Coffee is like death, it declares. Nine simple words that, in their sincerity, capture the relationship that so many people have with coffee – it calms, inspires and brings communities together. For Phillip Di Bella, the enduring motivator behind the tour de force that is Di Bella Coffee, understanding the intense love affair that a person can have with the rich bean is the key to his success. In just eight years, he has grown the business from a one-person operation (himself) started with $5,000, to a multi-million-dollar outfit that serves the divine liquid to coffee lovers throughout Brisbane and Australia. But the secret ingredient to his success is not the coffee he makes. It’s the passion for people, community and the ultimate experience that has fuelled his inspired journey. Continue reading ‘local dreamer - phillip di bella’
When Renee Nowytarger was a little girl, she liked to view the world through a lens. She remembers borrowing her dad’s camera from his cupboard and roaming around their property north of Sydney in Oxford Falls, taking photos for the school magazine. That was in the days of black-and-white film when the easiest way to breathe life into your shots was to process them in your own makeshift dark room. It proved a disciplined way to learn the ropes. Today, Renee, 36, is living her photojournalist dream and proving her mettle in a male-dominated industry. She recently scooped her fourth Walkley Award as Nikon-Walkley Press Photographer of the Year 2009 (she’s also a four-time finalist) but it’s not the trophies that float her boat. Renee thrives on working with people and telling their story.
Power outlets are quite often overloaded with appliances, crowded with extension cords and generally present an unattractive and dangerous electric mess. And no matter what you do to try to conceal them, it’s virtually impossible to hide their unsightly appearance from complete sight. Designer Meysam Movahedi has created the Rambler Socket in order to help minimise the danger and aesthetic offensiveness of extension cords. The Rambler Socket is a 1.5-metre extension cord that recoils into the wall socket and unwinds to your chosen length when required. Much like the cord of a vacuum cleaner, it is mounted on a spring mechanism that will retract the cord when you tug sharply. Meysam invented the socket design after listening to user feedback on the woes of using traditional extension cords. Perfect for use with appliances such as hairdryers, the Rambler Socket is a useful solution for an age-old problem.
Despite the known, detrimental effects of poor eating habits, an unhealthy diet continues to be one of the leading causes of major diseases. Daizi Zheng has attempted to use design to change people’s perceptions of healthy food, using recognisable packaging stereotypes that evoke the appearance of addictive products such as junk food, prescription drugs and cigarettes but contain fruit and vegetables. After observing personal behaviours of humans, Zheng created packaging that would allow people to connect with the food physically and physiologically. Super-size your order of celery sticks at the drive-through, pop your daily blueberry from the pill-packet, and run down to 7-11 for a packet of carrots. While still just a concept, the re-packaging could not only contribute to the availability of healthy food but could also result in people choosing healthier food in everyday life.
Do you rule the Trivial Pursuit board or are you one of those people who cower in fear at the mention of a pub trivia night? Everybody learns differently and, for some, the conventional classroom wasn’t the most effective method. Visual Aid books give the reader a fun and engaging way to train your brain and quench your thirst for knowledge. Getting you game-show and trivia-table ready, books such as Visual Aid: Stuff You’ve Forgotten, Things You Never Thought You Knew, and Lessons You Didn’t Quite Get Around to Learning will help you answer an array of life’s little questions by using colourful illustrations and diagrams that will capture your attention. Learning with visual aids improves retention and comprehension and can help the reader see relationships and patterns. Proving that you really can never know too much stuff, the books can teach you how to use sign language, the geography of the Italian wine region, and the configuration of star constellations. Both Visual Aid editions provide the reader with handy yet sometimes eccentric information compacted into an accessible guide format. The books are suitable for all ages and available for purchase at Amazon.
Photo by Carolyn Cole for the Los Angeles Times. On January 12, a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti and caused a series of after-shocks that have together affected 3-million lives, taking the lives of 200,000 people, and leaving an estimated 1.2-million people homeless. It is now more important than ever to support the poverty-stricken area, and help those affected by the disaster. The Stand With Haiti Foundation, run through Partners in Health, urgently needs support to acquire and distribute medical supplies to the area, and continue their work in strengthening the public-health system. What lies ahead in the process of rebuilding Haiti is many years of work and heartache for its people. You can help by donating to the foundation online, or fundraising in your local community to help spread the word of the cause and contribute to the relief effort.
Mathieu Lehanneur, a designer and sometimes scientist, has developed a range of quirky yet functional creations that fuse together technology, nature and his own wild imagination. His works include gold-infused spring water, artificial foliage that reacts to seasonal changes, and a ‘local river’ – a mini-ecosystem used to store fish and plants. He has received recent attention for Andrea, a natural air purifier that uses earth’s most efficient air purifiers: plants. Andrea is a glass-enclosed super-plant that cleans the air of toxic compounds through its leaves and roots. The materials used to create our man-made world emit toxins that are imperceptible yet harmful to humans. For example, plastic furniture, glues, and cleaning products emit formaldehyde, a compound that is classified by the World Health Organisation as a known carcinogenic. Fulfilling his dream to design objects that improve quality of life, Mathieu has created an ultra-efficient filter system that eliminates harmful organic compounds from the air, using the basics of nature to combat the by-products of manufacturing.
Image via Lexpress.
Somewhere between August 2009 and January 2010, I became so saturated in information about the environment, I lost interest. I withdrew. I ceased treading water in the ocean of blogs and sites and people and views and ‘sign here’s, and ‘tell five friends’, and climate change is real but only if you look at this report, not that report.
You get the point.
I ceased bobbing with wave after wave of data and let myself sink into the quiet. At first I told myself I’d be back. I’d do it tomorrow. Next week. Has it been a month? Suddenly it’s been three.
What I speak of isn’t uncommon: the reaction to be overwhelmed by data. Its term is yet to be officially defined, but what I speak of is information overload. To learn more I took the time to talk with someone who is addicted more than most to information and I discovered some very interesting concepts.
Eddie Harran is a digital addict. He is just one example of a person who has attached himself to the information flow from avatars and usernames of thousands of people, who in turn plug him in to their own thousands of networks, forming a constant, 24/7 stream of data. His twitter followers number 2,844, he recently attended Palomar 5, and in February he leaves for San Francisco to continue working on a specific data project as a resident of GAFFTA. He conservatively estimates he’s online for 18hrs daily, noting that with devices like the iPhone, you rarely aren’t, until you lay that shiny black pebble beside you on the bedside table. But more importantly than when he’s online is why.
Continue reading ‘have i got your attention?’
This video captures a design project that I was involved in. It is a street furniture design collaboration between Pratt Institute’s Design Incubator, Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects and the community of Hunts Point, New York. One of the many things that inspired involvement in the project, was the emotionally charged talk by SSBx Founder, Majora Carter, on TED.com where she shows how minority neighborhoods suffer most from flawed urban policy.
I love Map, Carl and Mikki and everything this place stands for. “Remember to Dream”. More than just dreaming, I challenge you to SHARE your dream, because that is the only way we get them. Stuck inside our heads they are no good to anyone.
I’m dedicating my life to making other peoples dreams happen. (because frankly it is so fun to do!)
In 2007/08, mine and Morgan’s dream was PARK(ing) Day and I said it here. PARK(ing) Day only works based on community. That you form community (globally, locally and in shared interest). You find and make community through connections - the fundamental connection - HUMAN connection. Communities exist at all scales - streeteditors is mine and your community, as is your family a community, your friends, your office, your suburb, your city. You need a community of people to make anything happen, any dream, at any scale.
I have a dream.
My dream: Some kind of Map forum
I want streeteditors to be that community. I think we need a forum where people can share their dreams and others can put up their hand and say “I can help”,”I know such and such”, “I have this you can borrow”. Just a place to share, and people to respond. Big or small dreams. Maybe your dream is a logo design? A helping hand in your garden? A new table? A free venue? A new place to open a cafe? The dream hardly even matters (though world changing ones would be way more fun!!). The real power is in community and we need to create more of them, connect more of them. This is how Obama won, he just connected to an untapped community. This is how we change the world - community.
Everyone has capacity to share. We all have a personal community of knowledge, skills, professional contacts and friends. I think Map supporters have socio-economic capacity higher than most. My image of a Map supporter is creative, hip, young, has money and has public influence. I think Map people are already “community” minded people and I think they are already craving inspiration. I think we need to channel that to influence something. Like TED fulfils dreams, a Map community can. So what can we influence? Continue reading ‘remember to dream. remember to share.’
From Fast Company: Aside from the Internet, no single invention might be as important to globalization as the shipping container. No joke.
TEDxBrisbane has announced the theme of All you need is … for the 2010 TEDxBrisbane conference on at the State Library of Queensland March 6, 2010. The conference is shaping up to be an exciting day of inspirational speakers and a conference that is sure to leave you feeling inspired in the spirit of TED. There are only 260 seats available for TEDxBrisbane so if you would like to attend TEDxBrisbane, please register no later than January 31, 2010. The exciting lineup of inspirational speakers will be unveiled on February 14th, 2010.
The Power of Self. A competition about the potential of self-portraiture. From Salvador Dali to Cindy Sherman the self has been the subject of all the art world’s greats. The self-portrait transcends medium, style and period, existing in the vast space between the personal and prophetic. This competition is about your story, your image and the power they hold. (PS It’s a worldwide competition and the prize is 6 months living in New York- go enter!)
![[Professor Suzi Vaughan]](http://www.streeteditors.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ballcons-map1.jpg)
She can pair a long black Wayne Cooper gown with Converse Shoes for a formal event. She carries off a pom-pom on her head, as though it’s normal. Her clothes may even strain your retina at times, with the intensely bright colours and patterns fused together.
If you swim in the ‘fashion’ circles of Brisbane, the name “Suzi Vaughan” would be familiar to you. If not, let me introduce you to the eccentric, yet exceedingly polite 6ft-1 tall fashion designer and academic. In the 80’s she was stopped on the streets in London because people thought she was Boy George. That was when she was a fashion student at Central Saint Martins, with Hamish Bowles (now the European Editor at large for American Vogue) as a friend, and with John Galliano in the year above her. She has worked in London, Hong Kong, and is now in Brisbane, educating up and coming great designers; including Gail Reid from Gail Sorronda who was a recent graduate. Continue reading ’suzi vaughan: standing out from the crowd’
“Post Secret: Confessions of Life, Death and God” (a short 6min video at Vimeo). You may find the brave voices captured in this short film haunting, shocking and humorous. In some of their faces you’ll see joy, anguish and grace as they trust you with their confession. PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. Continue reading ‘Postsecret’
Brisbane’s newest park at Kangaroo Point will open in 2010 following the redevelopment of the TAFE college site. Offering sweeping views of the Brisbane River, CBD and Botanic Gardens, the 9,828m2 parcel of land is being returned to the public as part of the Q150 celebrations. The new park at Kangaroo Point will feature five public artworks, four of which are under construction. These works have all been funded by art+place, the Queensland Government Public Art Fund. The fifth and largest commission, titled Crescendo, has yet to be decided and you can have your say by voting in the public art poll. HERE
Bjarke Ingels, the man behind Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), draws on poetic inspiration for his architectural designs, transforming his ideas into architectural masterpieces through innovation, intricate detailing and cultural influences. The Danish architect uses nature as a source for his passion and design, creating eco-friendly buildings that capture the wind and collect solar power. Bjarke’s dream is for us all to think BIG and to use everyday problems as challenges that inspire us to think outside the square. BIG’s building proposal for the city of Shanghai takes the form of a Chinese symbol for person (“ren”), where two buildings come together to form one. The building is symbolic of the ‘people’ of Shanghai and will coincide with the “Better City, Better Life” 2010 World Expo to be held in Shanghai. Image via FH Münster.
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