Hasta La Ideas

Tourists who crowd in the area between the National Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, the two Sir Edwin Lutyens’ fountains and the four enormous lions guarding Nelson’s Column in that famous plaza known as Trafalgar Square now have something else to feverishly photograph, at least until the end of London Design Festival. The Sound Portal—an installation commissioned by BE OPEN, the international arts think tank founded by Elena Baturina (pictured below), and designed by the engineers at ARUP—stands apart from its centuries-old stone surroundings, marking the square like a big black thumbprint.

Inside, a looping incline leads to an airy white central space where floor-to-ceiling speakers covered in a white mesh fabric line the walls. A wide, white ottoman dots the center of the room, above which the glass ceiling transforms the space into a cathedral of sound.

The center of the room is the optimal location for visitor to hear “pure acoustic experiences” designed to transport them from “one of the busiest and aurally chaotic environments in London.” Sound and Music commissioned soundscapes from five musicians who each interpreted the Sound Portal and its location within the city in entirely different ways. Ivan Pavlov (COH) created a choral piece that addresses the sacred nature of the space and offers “a universal religious experience” he describes as “a missionary UFO landing at one of the planet’s most visited spots.” Nathaniel Robin Mann’s piece, on the other hand, “evokes steam train frenetics, creaking organ bellows and pet shop cacophony.”

Jo Thomas’ piece “made from the reflective sound of cymbals recorded with a soundfield microphone… is designed for 9 Channels of Ambisonic sound,” making Tom Jenkinson’s solo guitar piece perhaps the most accessible of the group. The most conceptually compelling, however, is Jana Winderen’s “Ultraworld,” which she made using special microphones, placed both on land and underwater, to record species who communicate using ultrasound—frequencies inaudible to the human ear. To create a musical piece, she stretched out the sound to a frequency audible to the humans ear, bringing the heretofore unheard sounds of marine and land species into the heart of London. If you didn’t notice just how loud the buzzing square was before you entered the Sound Portal, you’ll leave not only aware of its variety of sounds and diversity of languages, but, like it or not, you’ll be tuned in to the sounds of the city in general as you make your way through its streets for the remainder of the day.

Elena Baturina

BE OPEN’s Sound Portal is in Trafalgar Square from September 19–23, 2012.

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“Birdland”

Once again, Core fav Noma Bar will present new work during London Design Week, on display at Outline Editions‘ booth at DesignJunction. His latest series of work abides by his simple yet compelling vector aesthetic, a handful of visual puns with punchlines for titles.

L: “Ouch”; R: “Open Face”

“Pop Art”

In lieu of the “specially commissioned, Heath Robinson-esque embossing device/sculpture” (as in last year’s exhibition), Outline Editions is offering new limited-edition prints from Bar, as well as Kristjana S. Williams, Anthony Burrill, Marion Deuchars, Malika Favre and more.

L: “Fatal Attraction”; R: “Therein Lies the Tail”

“The Last Emperor”

Outline Editions
Stand C2
Designjunction
21-23 New Oxford Street
London, WC1A 1AP
Hours: September 19, 3–9PM; September 20, 10AM–7PM; September 21–22, 10AM–6pm; September 23, 10AM–5PM

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Continuing with a theme, Orée is a new company offering a “range of lasting & customizable handcrafted tech objects made out of premium materials,” the first of which is simply known as “Board.” Of course, the premium peripheral has keys as any text input device, offering all of the functionality of a bluetooth keyboard in a handsome handcrafted maple or walnut package

The Orée Board is eco-designed: each unit is made from a single piece of wood which is cut into three “sheets” to preserve the wood grain across the shell and keys while also minimizing waste. We select wood varieties which are made to last, offer elegant aesthetics and that create a warm tactile experience for the user. We source them from sustainably managed forests to offer the most natural, durable and renewable material on Earth. In addition, the Orée Board is powered by a low power Bluetooth 3.0 chipset from Broadcom and a high quality key mechanism to offer extended durability.

As with Michael Roopenian’s “Engrain” keyboard, “Board” is intended to be a “lasting personalized object that [has] a soul and puts people in touch with the most natural material on earth.”

Of course, the French company is well beyond the prototype phase: tech entrepreneur Julien Salanave founded the company earlier this year in Languedoc in Southern France, and Tent London (which opens on Thursday) will see the launch of Orée with the “Board.”

Orée is the result of a unique partnership between a technology entrepreneur, a product designer and a master woodcraftsman (“Compagnon”). Orée is about reconciling tradition & novelty to create exceptional objects through an exclusive combination of timeless woodworking techniques passed down through generations of French woodcrafters & cabinetmakers with cutting-edge milling technology.

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It’s been a minute since we last checked in on Bompas & Parr, but rest assured that the jellymongers / food architects have been as busy as ever. In short, the longtime friends create “spectacular experiences, [often] on an architectural scale with cutting edge technology… [exploring] how the taste of food is altered by synaesthesia, performance and setting.”

If the earlier video by Gestalten is a nice, thorough introduction to their work—short of consuming it, of course—we’re glad to get a taste of their latest work, courtesy of the Avant/Garde Diaries. While the Olympics all but dominated their hometown over the summer, they designed a recreational activity for the less athletically-inclined among us: a mini-golf course made of cake… on the roof of Selfridges, no less.

The Avant/Garde Diaries, who have brought us stories from the likes of Konstantin Grcic and, most recently, Ton Matton, have invited the dynamic duo to curate their London Design Week event.

Together with the multidisciplinary collective Jason Bruges Studio, they designed a temporary drive-thru restaurant called—drum roll, please—”Mercedes Drive-Thru”! From September 14–16, guests can enjoy an extraordinary art and dining experience, featuring a spectacular mix of food, light, and fashion. The formerly humdrum act of deciding which size soft drink to guzzle while going 90kmh will morph into an exciting, delicious and signaturely awesome sensory experience.

The event, which kicks off tomorrow and runs through the weekend, is currently sold out, but the website notes that a “limited number of tickets will be held at the venue.” Find more details here.

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Don’t be fooled by their name (a reference to the country where they’ve been exhibiting since 2004): Tuttobene is actually a confederation of Dutch designers who pursue “the art of designing physical objects to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.” While they’re an institution in Milan, the recent NY International Gift Fair hosted their first foray into the U.S., at once an exploratory mission and a chance for designers from the Netherlands to gain exposure beyond the sometimes-insular design world.

The participation of Tuttobene at the New York International Gift Fair is the U.S. debut for both Tuttobene and the design studios. Never before such a large group of Dutch designers gathered in the U.S. in a group presentation. The Boyscouts, Dutch Design Chair, De Dopper, Manon Garritsen, Royal Goedewaagen, Yvette Laduk, Jurianne Matter, Tweelink, Slim Ben Ameur, New Duivendrecht, Oooms, The Cottage Industry, Reineke Otten, Frederik Roijé, Roozenbottel, Soonsalon, Carina Riezebos and Carola Zee for Label Aleph will show their products.

Yvette Laduk’s “Woody Wood” anchored the booth… because bigger is definitely better here in ‘Murica.

If a trip across the Atlantic isn’t as far-flung as, say, Mars, many of the designers expressed a genuine curiosity about the differences between the furniture-centric Salone and the more retail-driven Gift Fair. Nevertheless, the 18 designers and companies made an impressive debut at the Javits Center, and Tuttobene was easily one of the strongest booths at this year’s show.

Although we’d seen Frederik Roijé’s “Dish of Desire” and Slim Ben Ameur’s “Continued Vase” at New Druiven Drecht in Milan, the fact that the work looked great even in a markedly different context reaffirmed the strength of the work.

Reineke Otten’s “World Skin Colors” scarves were a definite standout: the silk scarves are digitally printed with sociological, economic and geographical data that’s been abstracted to varying degrees into stylized infographic patterns and symbols. Each one measures 140cm² (55in²), and she’s produced a graphic for every country, over 200 in all, as part of her broader investigation into the topic.

The World Skin Colors scarves turn this (demographic) data into a visual language, and then into fashion. A program directed by Reineke Otten and applied by LUST designers translates these gathered statistics about migration, population density, temperature, UV radiation, GDP, and transport into a graphic code: the numerical grid of an Excel sheet becomes shape, color, and pattern in eight overlapping layers. Each layer represents a different factor influencing the composition of skin tones in a particular place.

While Otten has presented the data in various formats for exhibitions the world over, the scarves represent a particularly accessible—and beautiful—product of the “World Skin Colors” project.

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