Hasta La Ideas

French designer Matali Crasset presents a series of vessels shaped like horns, speaker components and loudhailers at Mica Gallery near Rennes in France.

Each is made of sycamore finished in lacquer and gold leaf.

A performance by sound artist Damien Marchal will accompany the silent objects of the Infrasons collection, which are on show until 25 February 2012.

See all our stories about Matali Crasset here.

Here are some more details from Mica Gallery:

From 18 November 2011 to 25 February 2012, the Mica Gallery is exhibiting a series of objects by Matali CRASSET which have never been seen before. The combination of artisan-designer on which the Mica Gallery is staking as a future promise is therefore continuing with the invitation from this major design centre whose awareness of know-how has already been expressed in a number of collaborative projects.

Bowls, vases, tidies? Shaped like a loudspeaker, loudhailer or a foghorn, these objects mischievously shy away from their status, juggling between use and representation, compelling whoever takes it up to think about what he will do with it, and this is already an invitation to reinvent the world.

Unidentified objects, they play at maintaining a doubt about their function and their origins. They may be the descendants of old musical instruments where we don’t know where the sound comes from, as well as the prototypes for high-tech sound equipment that nobody yet knows how to work. This silence is too mysterious not to prick up one’s ears and to feel a palpable tension in this silence, generated by the attempt to synthesise what cannot be reconciled: the fossilisation of the future, the image of the sound, the materialisation of the wave, the objectification of the movement (the one which guides the body when spinning a piece of wood).

Without any noise, the sound spreads out. It cannot yet be heard, but it means paying attention as if one must be wary of sleeping water: the spirals may indeed follow the momentum started in the wood, the unique objects give rise to series. Then, the scenarios are borne out, the utopias prove their viability!

Damien MARCHAL has seen them… these objects being made. He has heard the sounds which filled the artisan’s workshops. The invitation he received in the form of a white card is the opportunity for the artist with sound to imagine a remarkable dialogue with these finished objects some of whose secrets he knows. Still in search of experiments, his taste for risk leads him this time to use his voice exclusively for this new performance.

Matali CRASSET

Matali CRASSET is by training an industrial designer, a graduate of the Ateliers – E.N.S.C.I. (Workshops – National Higher School of Industrial Design). At the beginning of 2000, after her initial experience with Denis Santachiara Italy and with Philippe Starck in France, she set up her own studio in Paris called “matali crasset productions” in a renovated former printing firm in the heart of Belleville. It is there, with the coming and going of children and neighbours that she dreams up her projects.

She considers design to be research, working from an off-centred position allowing to both serve daily routines and trace future scenarios. With both a knowledgeable and naive view of the world, she questions the obviousness of codes so as to facilitate her breaking these bonds. Like her symbolic work, focused on hospitality, “Quand Jim monte à Paris” (When Jim goes up to Paris), is based on a mere visual and conscious perception which she invents another relation to the everyday space and objects. Her proposals are never towards a simple improvement of what already exists but, without rushing things, to develop typologies structured around principles such as modularity, the principle of an interlacing network, etc. Her work revolves around searching for new coordination processes and formulating new logics in life. She defines this search as an accompaniment towards the contemporary.

Matali CRASSET works with a variety of actors, just as easily with the curious craftsman as with an individual in search of a new life scenario, with the industrialist ready to experiment as with the hotelier who wants to develop a new concept (Hi Hotel in Nice or Dar Hi in Nefta), with a small rural commune which wants to develop its cultural and social dynamism or the museum which wants to be transformed (SM’s in s’Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands). Always in search of new territories to explore, she collaborates with eclectic worlds, from Crafts to Contemporary Art, from the textiles industry to fair trade, realising projects in set design, furniture, architecture, graphics, collaborations with artists, and so on such as with artists (Peter Halley), with young furniture-making companies, as well as with municipalities and communes …

This experienced acquired over the years has led her to currently work on more participative projects, on a local and global level, both in rural and urban settings. From her meetings, creative workshops, discussion and common desires, she works with different project leaders who nevertheless all have the same conviction that these collective processes result in plausible social bonding scenarios.

It’s ultimately the core question of living together which defines her imaginative designs, writings and the sense of Matali’s work

Damien MARCHAL

Born in 1977. Lives and works in Rennes. Teaches in the Breton Higher National School of Architecture in the field of sound within the context of the visual arts. Founder member of the VIVARIUM artist’s workshop in Rennes, 2007.

For several years, he has been working on various problems linked to sound and the influence it can have. Damien MARCHAL uses sound like a material to create pieces and artistic environments. This approach to the many ramifications comes into play in the form of performances, devices or installations as well as in researches and collaborations with other artists. The artist endeavours to implement the devices or the sound is the basic element in the project. His work today questions the concept of going into violent action. He shapes the transducer as a sculpture, applying himself to give a visual meaning to the loudspeaker. In the “Garbage truck bomb” project, the sound produces a shock wave, this is generated by a series of speakers using terrorism’s visual codes. The sound depends on the visual field, the object then catalyses attention and focuses hearing on the project and what it has to say. This approach is similar to all his current projects, enabling the study of the properties of this material and its phenomena which can be observed.

Artisans

Alain LARCHER: Tournerie du Plat d’Or
Xaviert BONSERGENT: Prototype Concept
Olivier GUILBAUD: Atelier du Doreur

MICA Gallery
“La Brosse” Route du Meuble,
35760 St Grégoire-Rennes

Matali CRASSET
Guest artist Damien MARCHAL, Visual artist with sound
Commissioners: Michael CHÉNEAU and Julie PORTIER From 18 November 2011 – 25 February 2012
Graphics: Vincent MENU / “Le jardin Graphique”
Publisher: MICAGallery Edition limited to 8 copies Prices on request

Wiesmann a présenté en mars dernier son modèle “Wiesmann Spyder”. Ce bolide 2 places léger et puissant, pouvant aller de 0 à 100 km/h en moins de 4 secondes, est ici montrée sous ses plus belles formes à travers une série de photographies à découvrir dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Audi E-Tron Spyder
• Citroën Tubik Concept
• Renault Twizy Campaign

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“YATA STOOL” has equilateral triangle form basicly. Features can be stacked in two ways. One is to overlap the seat to seat. Another way to put a foot..

Dezeen Wire: Quentin Blake, the man responsible for illustrating many of author Roald Dahl‘s famous novels, has been announced as the winner of this year’s Prince Philip Designers Prize.

Blake’s characterful ink and watercolour drawings have accompanied the writings of many children’s authors and television shows and are familiar to audiences around the world.

The Prince Philip Designers Prize recognises an outstanding contribution to the development of design or engineering in the UK and has been running for 52 years. Previous winners include architect Norman Foster and designers James Dyson, Kenneth Grange and Terence Conran. Last year’s award went to IDEO founder Bill Moggridge – see our previous story

Here are some more details from the Design Council:

Famous Roald Dahl illustrator wins Prince Philip Designers Prize 2011

Quentin Blake, one of Britain’s best-loved illustrators and the man who created the world-famous images of the Big Friendly Giant and Matilda, will be named the winner of the 2011 Prince Philip Designers Prize by HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at a ceremony at the Design Council in London this evening, Tuesday 29th November.

Quentin Blake is perhaps best known for his illustrations of Roald Dahl’s books, but his distinctive pen, ink and watercolour drawings have also accompanied the work of many other children’s authors like Michael Rosen and Joan Aiken. He has illustrated Dickens, Carroll and Lear as well as originating his own characters including Mister Magnolia, Mrs Armitage and Clown.

Since his first drawings appeared in Punch when he was 16, Blake has become recognised around the world in a 60-year career. He became widely known in the 1970s, presenting the BBC’s Jackanory, where he illustrated the various stories on screen. He became the first ever Children’s Laureate in 1999.

Two of this year’s nominees received Special Commendations from the judges: Sir David Chipperfield CBE RDI, one of the UK’s most distinguished architects and this year’s winner of the Royal Gold Medal from RIBA and the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, and Saeed Zahedi, one of the world’s leading designers of medical prosthetics, who has been at the forefront of breakthroughs which improve quality of life for people, including military personnel treated at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre.

This year’s nominees also included:

Cecil Balmond, winner of the Gretna Landmark on the England-Scotland border, and co-designer of the Orbit for London’s 2012 Olympics, is hailed as one of the greatest structural engineers and designers

Tim Brown, the leading pioneer of ‘design thinking’ and the CEO of global design and innovation firm IDEO.

Dinah Casson RDI, FRCA, FCSD, one of the world’s most respected environmental and exhibition designers.

Stephen Jones, one of the UK’s foremost milliners, who has transformed millinery since first opening a salon in 1980, and who has trained other leading designers including Philip Treacy and Noel Stewart.

Sir Paul Smith, arguably the most successful British fashion designer ever. Since opening his first shop in Nottingham in 1970 he has built an international business that has defined the way three generations of men – and latterly women – have dressed.

Shane Walter, the co-founder of onedotzero, which since 1996 has been at the forefront of digital design and culture with festivals, public events and publishing projects, and an education programme for emerging talent.

Chris Wilkinson OBE and Jim Eyre OBE, co-founders of Wilkinson Eyre Architects, the first practice to win the Stirling Prize twice and the only one to have won it two years in a row.

The work of the nominees provides a snapshot of the creative and commercial strengths of the UK design industry. Their biographies and examples of their work can be viewed on the Design Council’s website.

This is the final year that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh will deliver the Prize. Having headed up the judging panel and presented the Prize since its inception in 1959, he will be stepping down from the Prize as he reduces his work-load and royal responsibilities in his 90th year.

David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council, commented: “No-one can be in any doubt of the extraordinary dedication to promoting and celebrating design which has been shown by His Royal Highness during more than half a century of expert and insightful leadership of the Prince Philip Designers Prize. This year’s winner and nominees likewise demonstrate a dedication to creative excellence, but they are also exemplars of the international commercial success which springs from that creativity. Now more than ever, we must celebrate our world-leading designers, innovators and creatives, and their vital contribution to our economic future.”

To mark HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s contribution to the promotion of UK design, the Design Council has commissioned two very special gifts which will be presented to Prince Philip at the Prize-giving this evening. The first is a unique hand-drawn certificate (similar to that which has been presented to all Prize-winners for the last half century) – created by this year’s winner Quentin Blake, featuring a cartoon of Prince Philip in the artists’ inimitable style.

The certificate is accompanied by a one-off book of original artworks drawn by over forty of the Prizes’ previous winners, nominees and judges including Sir Terence Conran, Vivienne Westwood, Jeff Banks, Lord Norman Foster, Kenneth Grange and Sir Paul Smith.

The Prince Philip Designers Prize has been in existence since the early days of the Design Council. It was created by HRH as a response to post-war austerity, and aimed to stimulate and reward elegant solutions to design problems. For 52 years the Prize has been awarded for the best in UK design from products and graphics to buildings and feats of engineering, and has put the spotlight on designers for influencing and shaping our daily lives.

Former winners of the Prize include Bill Moggridge (2010) who designed the world’s first laptop, Thomas Heatherwick (2006); the architect Lord Foster of Thamesbank (2004); Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran (2003); Pentagram founder Kenneth Grange (2001) and inventor Sir James Dyson (1997).

Just before the holiday weekend, we told you that Paul Smith was set to be given the outstanding achievement prize by the British Fashion Council at this year’s British Fashion Awards, which was held this past Monday in London. Smith, of course, wasn’t the only happy recipient that evening. Sarah Burton, who took control of the Alexander McQueen line last year after the eponymous designer passed away, took home the Designer of the Year award. Explaining their decision for the win, the Council writes that Burton “has allowed McQueen’s legacy to live on while still giving her own twist of creative genius to a collection that has outshone its rivals on and off the catwalk.” Stella McCartney took home the Red Carpet prize, which recognized “the quantity and quality of her designs worn on the red carpet” and Victoria Beckham was awarded the somewhat similar prize for Designer Brand, awarded to a fashion company that has “focused growth strategy with each new product range receiving media praise and achieving high levels of sell through.” A full list of all the night’s winners can be found here, and here’s video of Burton’s win:

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.