Final issues of FOMO released as project prepares to visit Venice

Milan 2014: Space Caviar’s algorithmic publishing project will be travelling to Venice for the architecture biennale, with the final issues from Milan design week now available to download – including contributions from Formafantasma and Martino Gamper (+ slideshow + download).

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan

Joseph Grima‘s design research collaborative Space Caviar created a new realtime publishing algorithm, called Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), which combines text produced using voice recognition technology with text and images posted on social platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
The FOMObile in transport mode

The software debuted in Milan last week with a series of talks called On the Fly providing the core content for the resulting publications, which were printed instantly from a travelling publishing unit known as the FOMObile and based on an Open Structures modular system designed by Thomas Lommee.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
The FOMO production line

Participants in the talks, which took place in Nike‘s Aero-static dome at Palazzo Clerici, included Martino Gamper, Clemens Weisshaar, Atelier Bow Wow, Bart Hess and Formafantasma. Members of the public from all over the world were also invited to take part by using the #OnTheFlyMilan hashtag on social media networks.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
Some of the printed FOMO publications in Milan

“The idea behind FOMO is to explore the potential of event metadata as source material for a performative publishing process, but the print component is important – the whole thing made a lot more sense when we bound it all together into a single volume at the end on the FOMO sewing machine,” said Grima.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
The FOMO publications were saddle stitched using sewing machines

The FOMObile will be in residence in Venice in early September and may also make an appearance during the opening weekend in early June.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
Issues of FOMO were handed at Palazzo Clerici

“From a Dadaist perspective I think the Milan experiment went very well – almost everything about it was unexpected, such as how moments of intensity and moments of inactivity are revealed in the blanks and overlaps,” said Grima.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
The FOMObile printer

“What we’d like to do next is explore the other end of the spectrum, perhaps creating something that is indistinguishable from a conventional publication, for example working with the social media and physical interactions between people on a weekday in one of the piazzas of Genoa,” he said.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
FOMO publications were bound with a sewing machine

The project was inspired by a comment from futurist and writer Bruce Sterling, who said that “events were the new magazines”. Sterling was among the visitors to the project during Milan design week.

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
Once bound, the publications were distributed for free

Download issues nine to 12 of FOMO from Milan:

» Formafantasma – download here
» Brent Dzekciorius – download here
» Anna Meroni – download here
» Martino Gamper and Arthur Huang – download here

Fear of Missing Out publishing algorithm in Milan
Joseph Grima hosting the first evening of the On the Fly talks

Download issues four to eight of FOMO here.
Download issues one to three of FOMO here.

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Formafantasma and Martino Gamper among speakers announced for Milan FOMO talks

Formafantasma and Martino Gamper among speakers announced for Milan FOMO talks

Milan 2014: a series of talks will launch this afternoon in Nike’s Aero-static dome at Palazzo Clerici, forming part of the FOMO algorithmic publishing project organised by Joseph Grima with Dezeen.

Three afternoons of talks called On The Fly will kick off today with Clemens Weisshaar, Atelier Bow Wow, Folder, Linda Fregni and Bart Hess discussing the theme of weightlessness in design.

The talks will take place at Palazzo Clerici inside a dome created by Arthur Huang, founder of MINIWIZ, which uses Nike’s Flyknit technology to create a temporary events space.

They are free to attend and each afternoon the speakers will tackle a different theme related to design practice, presenting a minimum of two images to accompany their talk.

During the talks a real-time publishing algorithm – developed by Joseph Grima’s design research group Space Caviar and called Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) – will automatically create written articles from live speech and social media streams using the #OnTheFlyMilan hashtag.

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The FOMObile in action at Palazzo Clerici in Milan

These will be collated in a PDF that will then be printed and saddle-stitched on the spot from the FOMObile – a roving publishing press with its own built-in power generator and solar-powered wi-fi hotspot. The resulting publication will be distributed for free in Milan and made available on the Dezeen website.

The On The Fly talks will be FOMO’s first test in a real-world environment. Anyone, anywhere will be able to take part by using the #OnTheFlyMilan hashtag on social media on Wednesday 9, Thursday 10, and Friday 11 April between 5.00 and 7.30pm CET.

Today’s event will be moderated by Joseph Grima, founder of Space Caviar and the former editor of Domus.

Talks on Thursday will be hosted by Gianluigi Ricuperati and will include Ianthe Roach, Pier Nucleo and Italo Rota, who will all discuss the theme “seamlessness”. On Friday, Marco Velardi will host Formafantasma, Martino Gamper and Anna Meroni talking about sustainability in design.

Scroll down for the full schedule for On The Fly:


9 April, Weightlessness with Joseph Grima

17:00 Clemens Weisshaar
17:30 Yoshi Tsukamoto, Atelier Bow Wow
18:00 Folder: Marco and Elisa
18:30 Linda Fregni
19:00 Bart Hess

Weightlessness will explore how external masses and strains, or lack thereof, shape the thinking and production of design. How does the experience of our environments impact on the design process? What does this mean for the final product? With a shifting landscape of outside forces, what does this mean for practice? What would freedom, or weightlessness, from this mean for our work and for us?

Formafantasma and Martino Gamper among speakers announced for Milan FOMO talks
Nike’s Aero-static dome created by Arthur Huang

10 April, Seamlessness with Gianluigi Ricuperati

17:00 Olimpia Zagnoli
17:30 Italo Rota
18:00 Pier Nucleo
18:30 Marco Raino
19:00 Ianthe Roach

Seamlessness will ask whether consistency is good for design. Is a process, or product, designed without interruption a good thing? Is a perfectly consistent object or idea something positive? What can the messy convergence or merging of technologies, processes or people add to a project? How do these transitions and interfaces of design change or challenge us for the better?

Formafantasma and Martino Gamper among speakers announced for Milan FOMO talks
The Nike Aero-static dome

11 April, Sustainability with Marco Velardi

17:00 Formafantasma
17:30 Brent Dzekciorius
18:00 Anna Meroni
18:30 Martino Gamper
19:00 Arthur Huang

Sustainability will take the practice of contemporary practitioners and explore the social, political, economic, and environmental aspects of sustainability. What is the impact of designing sustainably? How do we sustain interdependence between process, products and disciplines? These conversations will attempt to understand the life cycle of design, and the flows of work systems.

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Martino Gamper curates exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery

Designer Martino Gamper has curated an exhibition at London’s Serpentine Sackler Gallery featuring classic and contemporary shelving systems that display objects chosen by friends and colleagues including Ron Arad, Marc Newson and Ross Lovegrove.

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Bookcase by Anna Castelli Ferrieri with objects chosen by Jurgen Bey. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Gamper‘s exhibition at the recently opened Serpentine Sackler Gallery includes shelving products dating back as far as the 1930s, which the London-based designer selected for their iconic status or to demonstrate how they relate to the objects they contain.

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Turnaround shelves by Martino Gamper with objects chosen by Ernst Gamperl. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Among the products presented as part of the Design is a State of Mind exhibition are classic shelving systems by designers including Gaetano Pesce, Ettore Sottsass, Ercol and Gio Ponti, as well as contemporary products from companies such as Ikea.

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Book Show Case by Martino Gamper with objects chosen by Adam Hill

Each shelving product is used to display objects borrowed from the personal archives of Gamper’s friends and colleagues, including Newson, Arad, Lovegrove, Jurgen Bey and Sebastian Bergne.

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Double Bracket shelves by Michael Marriott with objects chosen by Max Lamb and Gemma Holt

Gamper said: “There is no perfect design and there is no über-design. Objects talk to us personally. Some might be more functional than others, and the emotional attachment is very individual. This exhibition will showcase a very personal way of collecting and gathering objects – these are pieces that tell a tale.”

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Paperweights and drawings from The Intellectual Work by Enzo Mari

The prototypes and inspirational curios selected by the designers include a paperweight in the shape of a bird’s foot lent by Enzo Mari and a collection of objects made at the Leach Pottery in St Ives, chosen by Max Lamb and Gemma Holt.

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Dexion Slotted Angle shelves by Demetrius Comino with objects chosen by Ron Arad

Practical metal shelving from Dexion displays objects from Ron Arad’s personal archive, including a table he made from a Singer sewing machine base with a dartboard top.

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L’Arco della Pace by Martino Gamer. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Some of Gamper’s own designs feature in the exhibition, including his rainbow-like arrangement of veneered modular units called L’Arco della Pace.

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Collective shelving by Martino Gamper. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Gamper also chose to include a large archive of contemporary furniture manufacturing catalogues from around the world.

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Together Library shelving by Martino Gamper. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Two spaces at the centre of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery provide the setting for events organised by Gamper as part of the exhibition.

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Gritti Bookcase by Andrea Branzi with objects chosen by Maki Suzuki. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

The designer identified a range of activities that demonstrate how people interact with furniture and products, including cooking, eating, reading, listening, writing, playing, drawing, dreaming and working.

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Booksnake Shelf by Martino Gamper with objects chosen by Michael Anastassiades. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Design is a State of Mind is running concurrently with an exhibition at the main Serpentine Gallery that showcases the work of American artist Haim Steinbach, who is known for including found and made objects in his art.

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Campo Graffi bookcase by Franco Campo and Carlo Graffi with objects chosen by Bethan Laura Wood. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

Gamper’s exhibition, which runs until 21 April 2014, is the second major design exhibition to be staged by the Serpentine Gallery, following the Design Real show curated by Konstantin Grcic in 2009.

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Wall bookshelf by Andrea Branzi with objects chosen by Daniel Eatock. Photo by Hugo Glendinning

The Serpentine Sackler Gallery opened earlier this year following its renovation and extension by Zaha Hadid, who added a swooping tensile fabric canopy to a brick building that was once a gunpowder store.

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Bench Years by Established & Sons at the V&A museum

London Design Festival: Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, Jasper Morrison and AL_A are among the designers who have created benches with British design brand Established & Sons for the central courtyard of the V&A museum (+slideshow).

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

Each of the one-off benches is made from a different material and produced in collaboration with a company specialising in that material. After being on display for the festival they’ll be auctioned off and the money fed back to fund next year’s London Design Festival commissions.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the designers of the Olympic torch, made a marble bench with holes bored through (above) in collaboration with Italian studio Tor Art. They were inspired by shrapnel marks left in the V&A museum’s western facade after the Second World War. “It’s something that always fascinated me and Ed on the way from South Kensington tube up to the Royal College when we were students, and so when this project came up we thought it was a nice way to reference that,” explained Jay Osgerby at the opening.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

AL_A, the architecture practice led by Amanda Levete, worked with Barcelona ceramics company Ceramica Cumella to come up with a bench (above) made of overlapping tiles, glazed with colours inspired by the museum’s ceramics collections. AL_A is also designing a new subterranean gallery for the museum.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

British designer Alexander Taylor made a bench from mirror-polished stainless steel cylinders (above) with steel specialists Caparo. He explained that making perfect cylinders in steel is tricky because “the material is extruded with an oval profile so it has to be cut and put back together again.”

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

Italian designer Martino Gamper built a wooden bench (above) from slanted planks of thermally modified hardwood, treated to improve its stability and resistance to decay. The angled stripes of red oak, maple, ash, yellow birch and tulipwood provided by the American Hardwood Export Council create an “optical illusion” and “somehow give the impression of animation” said Gamper, adding that the modular system can be extended to any length.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

British designer Jasper Morrison collaborated with concrete specialists lowinfo to create a concrete bench (above) with narrow runnels along the seat that allow rain water to drain away despite the seat being curved for comfort, while German designer Konstantin Grcic worked with Italian company Bisazza on a glass mosaic bench (below).

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

Portugese designer Fernando Brizio created a cork bench in the shape of a pig’s foot (below) with Amorim Cork.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

British designer Felix de Pass produced a cream-coloured sheet-steel bench (below) with perforations that help water drain away and disperse heat from the sun. It’s an adaptation of his bench that’s already in production with Established & Sons.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

Sam Hecht and Kim Colin from Industrial Facility worked with Corian, a material often used for kitchen worktops, to create two benches (below) that mimic the marble plinths found inside the museum.

The Bench Years by Established and Sons

Sadly the final bench in the collection, created by Italian designer Luca Nichetto and glass manufacturer Nardo Vetro, was broken in transit.

Other installations at the V&A during the London Design Festival include Keiichi Matsuda’s data visualisation and chairs by Nendo scattered around the museum.

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