Hasta La Ideas

Core contributor Alissa Walker moderates a panel discussion of (Fast) Company Men as they discuss the future and impact of the holy cell phone. Here’s a good bit courtesy of Robert Fabricant:

How have cell phones changed our behavior? It is remarkable to me how it has taken the iPhone to create this momentum in the U.S. market: to get people to engage with mobile experiences outside of basic communication. When I travel outside the U.S., particularly in the developing world, the engagement with mobile devices is so much higher. Mobile minutes are quickly becoming the most liquid currency in Africa and other emerging markets. Even in very remote regions, you see people using their devices to transact and fulfill a broader range of needs than we see here in the U.S. And that is with the most basic Nokia phone. Forget multi-touch.

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Sure, a tree grows in Brooklyn, but in the Bronx, they talk—one in the voice of starchitect Daniel Libeskind. Or at least they will beginning this Sunday, when artist Katie Holten transforms the Bronx’s Grand Concourse into a “tree museum” as part of a year-long centennial celebration of the thoroughfare designed by Louis Risse. Commissioned by local organizations including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Holten’s Tree Museum will consist of 100 “talking” trees along the four-and-a-half-mile path: each will be designated with a unique phone number that passersby can dial to hear a recorded voice of Bronx history. Jim Dwyer previewed the leafy voices in a recent New York Times article:

Tree No. 39, a honey locust at Marcy Place, will feature Jose Ortiz of the percussion group BombaYo. At another honey locust, No. 52, at 175th Street, Lurry Boyd, who grows peaches and strawberries in a community garden, will narrate. In Poe Park, a London plane tree (No. 75) will connect listeners to the story of the park, a former apple orchard that is now home to a cottage where Edgar Allan Poe lived. People often danced around the park’s bandstand at night, as Lloyd Ultan, the Bronx borough historian, tells it, including two sisters named Clooney. One of them was the singer Rosemary Clooney, aunt of the actor George Clooney.

As for Libeskind, he’ll speak for tree number 97, a hawthorn that stands at the Concourse’s northern end. “As a teenager, I was an immigrant to the Bronx and the Grand Concourse was my iconic street,” says Libeskind. “Street of extraordinary trees, a kind of boulevard that I only dreamt of, because it reminded me of Europe.” No word as to whether tree number 97 will be fitted with distinctive rectangular-framed eyeglasses, but our fingers are crossed.

To help raise money for the restoration of the historic Eames house, Lucia Eames is opening her Petaluma home and private collection to ticket holders of the first annual Eames Foundation Fundraiser. The afternoon sounds action-packed with exhibitions of furniture and photographs, film screenings, kite making, and a group activity inspired by the Powers of Ten film. Finally, the evening will end in a silent auction, including a chance to bid on an overnight stay for two in the house in question. Tickets are $500 for the general public, $400 for members and $250 for students and teachers. More information can be found on the official invite.

Eames Foundation Fundraiser
June 21, 2009, 1:00 PM-6:00 PM
Petaluma, CA

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Eastman Innovation Lab has launched a series of design-inspired videos on their site, featuring the likes of Yves Behar of Fuse Project, Ravi Swhney of RKS Design, and Josh Nakaya of Art Center. The production values are pretty high on these, and if you’re interested in the background, check out Gaylon White in Orbiting the Hairball.

The video with Ravi also features Eric Barnes, Founder & CEO of the KOR ONE water bottle we’ve gone on about.

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