Sources

Designers Now

Troika

Intersection - Science in Contemporary Art

at the Weizmann Institute. Rehovot. Israel

'Nature' at Vegas Gallery London

Paul Cocksedge

One of 5 designers paired with 5 top chocolatiers to explore the properties of chocolate and produce five one-off sculptural designs that reference London. 

Commissioned to design the auditorium which will host the Seminar Programme at 100% Design 2012.

One of seven designers commissioned as part of the collaboration of Dezeen and Covent Garden's Seven Dials during the London Design Festival 2012.

How 30 Great Ads Were Made: From Idea To Campaign

This book, although not inspiring in itself, discusses the behind the scenes aspects of the greatest ads from recent years, exploring their birth, development and production. Stripping down these glossy ads to reveal the minds of the key creatives, directors and clients for each campaign,. Each advert in the top 30 is deconstructed all the way to its storyboards and then reconstructed carefully explaining every step to the reader.

The appeal of this book is seeing behind the finished product, being able to investigate how different things were produced and manufactured. Sometimes knowing more than you are supposed to can ruin the magic (like christmas) but at the same time it can be equally interesting and exciting knowing how something happened, did you ever know that the cadburys eyebrow advert wasn't CGI but instead three puppeteers manipulated the eyebrows of those children.

Troika

Troika is a London based studio founded by Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel and it was started in 2003. The group is known for cross-disiplinary approach and a combination of sculpture, architecture and contemporary installation. Their pieces commonly feature modular components that combine to create a large installation, taking advantage of technology within their projects, Troika have developed some amazing pieces.

Falling Light is one of the my favourite pieces by Troika, using 50 ceiling suspended mechanisms the piece simulates rain drops falling into a puddle but instead uses light and the gallery floor. Each mechanism contains a custom-cut Swarovski optical lens and an LED bulb, the mechanism moves the LED light gently closer to the optical lens, due to focus and proximity the light cast on the floor ripples outwards like a raindrop. The floor resembling such a natural occurrence and the ceiling showing how technology has advanced, the partnership in this piece results in a brilliant piece of design.

Design Museum

Designers In Residence

The Designers in Residence exhibition was only small but there were a couple of appealing pieces in the collection. Above is Freyja Sewell's experiment with starch bound wool, a by-product of the british carpet industry, Sewell had a collection of different objects working with the wool, this, the Plexus Lampshade is one of the more successful ones.

These pieces are by designer Lawrence Lek, he uses digital design techniques including CNC and laser cutting. This use of bent plywood to create organic forms from modular components produced some interesting pieces including a stool and a pavilion. Each piece of plywood is soaked in wood and bent into shape, which then holds its shape when it dries. 

Digital Crystal: Swarovski at the Design Museum

The Swarovski collection at the Design Museum was an eclectic collection from a variety of designers, some of the pieces I found garish and chintzy, but others were amazing and one was my favourite piece I saw in London.

This piece by Yves Behar is called Amplify is a large grouping of oversized 'crystals'. The piece is designed to resemble a traditional chandelier, but consists of singular crystals illuminated by LED's concealed within each crystal. The shape of the shades are designed to refract as much light as possible and cast a rainbow coloured projection on the surroundings.

Paul Cocksedge created this piece, the green lasers are reflected and cast by specifically cut crystals and smoke is pumped into the enclosed room periodically to reveal the lines of the laser beam.

This was my favourite piece in the Swarovski collection, it was created by design group Troika and is called Hardcoded Memory. The piece is not only beautiful but it also has an interesting concept, the piece is intended to create a very low resolution portrait, and is a comment on how when there were only physical photographs and personal recollections images of the past faded away and became distorted, whereas now virtual media and photographs make it virtually impossible to forget anything.

Hardcoded Memory uses 850 custom-cut Swarovski optical lenses to project four portrait photographs using LED lighting, information about the images is contained within the mechanism, these digital memories are hard-coded into the display apparatus. 

Before reading the information provided about this piece, curiosity urges the viewer to play with the discs on the back of this projection apparatus, under the impression that this will affect the image projected on the gallery wall, as I walked up to the piece I watched at least 3 people playing with the discs on the back, and so did I, with what I thought was little affect. After I left the exhibition I did further research on the piece and realised that the image that was supposed to be projected onto the wall was very different to the one I viewed, suggesting that peoples curiosity was altering the image every time they played with it, although not intentional it does link well with the concept of image distortion, either way I thought it was a intriguing piece.

Victoria & Albert Museum: Heatherwick Studio Designing the Extraordinary

The Thomas Heatherwick exhibition at the V&A was very interesting, after already having an appreciation for Heatherwick this exhibition was a further incite into his work. The above piece, which I consider his most famous, is one of my favourites but it was only when I went to this exhibition that I found that seeds are contained within each protruding spear.

Although I found the exhibition fascinating and discovered many new pieces that I did not know about, I felt that the exhibition itself was too crowded, the pieces needed more room to breathe on their own and it was difficult to appreciate all the pieces especially the ones that were further back than the rest.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park: Anish Kapoor Exhibition

The Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculptor Park was an interesting collection of pieces, some were very engaging and others were slightly disappointing. One of the interesting pieces was one of  Kapoor's Void Spaces, the large, deep bowl shape was covered in a dark blue pigment, as you approach this piece it appears simplistic and not terribly exciting but as get closer to the front the piece plays with your eyes, your depth perception is completely lost and it is virtually impossible to focus your eyes.

Another piece that was just as interesting was the large metal discs located in the corner. Visually they were stunning, especially the warped reflections of the surrounding exhibition but the really interesting aspect of these pieces was the way they distorted noise. The discs reflected noise perfectly, and whether or not this was intended as an interactive playful object, I found that it was.

Wellcome Collection

The Wellcome Collection had an interesting exhibition called Superhuman, looking at prosthetics and human enhancement, ranging from the mundane to the unconventional.

'Superhuman takes a broad and playful look at our obsession with being the best we can be. Items on display range from an ancient Egyptian prosthetic toe to a packet of Viagra, alongside contributions from artists such as Matthew Barney and scientists, ethicists and commentators working at the cutting edge of this most exciting, and feared, area of modern science.'

wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/superhuman.aspx

The most interesting piece at the Wellcome Collection and possibly the most fascinating object I saw all day was a located in the permanent collection. It was a real, entire cross section of human female, showing every organ and tissue, it was amazing to see every intricate part of human anatomy. 

Design Pieces

Microbial Home is an innovative creation funded by the brand Phillips, it is a domestic ecosystem which integrates biological processes with everyday systems of the home. Fuelled by the leftovers of daily life, the kitchen harvests the gases produced by decomposing foods contained within a concealed 'Waste Digester', these gases power the cooker hobs and the Biolight.

Within the organic shaped vessels of the Biolight are millions of natural bacteria that produce bioluminescence as they eat and breath. The bacteria consume the methane gases that are gathered from the waste digester which allows them to create their soft green glow. This bioluminescence is called cold light, better recognised in glow-flies and jellyfish, it is a completely green source of energy. Although the light is too soft to be used as task lighting it does provide a beautiful ambient glow.

Mieke Meijer and dutch firm Vij5 have developed a process that remakes newspaper into faux wood planks. The planks are made by glueing each sheet of a newspaper together and then tightly rolling it to create a sturdy plank, it is then waxed to make it water proof and sawed and sanded at an angle to reveal the 'grain' created by revealing the layers of print.

The wood was given to 7 designers to experiment with in their own way, below Greetje Van Tiem's explores the wood as a veneer on a writing desk. Although, the wood has its limitations currently the wood uses natural glues to keep it biodegradable, but a strong chemical resin would provide a stronger material, also another limitation is the fall in newspaper production with the introduction of online media freely available.