Hasta La Ideas

What do Tokyo and Brownsville, Brooklyn have in common?

How can we apply the tenets of “Behaviorology” – the interplay of people, nature, and buildings – to change social conditions?

How does the built environment shape community and create culture, and what are the responsibilities of architects and designers in making positive change?

Get inspired during a lively discussion addressing questions like these with the brilliant Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Associate Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology and Architect and Co-founder, Atelier Bow-Wow and the inspiring John Peterson, Founder & President of Public Architecture. Tsukamoto and Peterson will each describe the social perspectives of their work, and through a moderated discussion (with me), we will explore how to apply their concepts to the real-world Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn. Brownsville has the highest concentration of public housing in the U.S. and more than half of the residents live under the official poverty line. (Remember learning about master builder/neighborhood destroyer Robert Moses in school? Yep, this is his handiwork.)

Hosted by the Japan Society in partnership with the Designers Accord, Common Ground Community, the Brownsville Partnership, and GOOD magazine, this public symposium is part of a two-day charrette, bringing together designers and social entrepreneurs from the U.S., Japan, Thailand and Vietnam to explore how design can contribute to solving challenging social problems. The goals of the charrette are to generate ideas that can be implemented in the shorter term to help with the process of change in Brownsville, and to document our social innovation design process so that others can use the model in their own work and build on it further.

The details:
Japan Society
Tuesday, November 2, 6:30pm – 8pm

Buy Tickets Online or call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon-Fri 11am-6pm, Weekends 11am-5pm.

Japan Society is located in Manhattan at 333 East 47th Street between First and Second avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 at 42nd Street-Grand Central Station or the E and V at Lexington Avenue and 53rd St.

(more…)

Who does noted design firm OMFGCO turn to for its Coverall and Safety Glass needs? Why, Core77’s Hand-Eye Supply of course. At the recent AIGA Designspeaks event they wore their DIY, Can-Do attitude on their sleeves as they presented “7 Steps to Making it Official” Now, YOU, dear internet viewers, can taste a bit of the boy’s action packed existence in this, their epic presentation intro.

Thanks for shopping at HES, gentlemen!

(more…)

Unclutterer readers are the most amazing readers on the internet — at least in our (unabashedly biased) opinions. As a result, those of us on the Unclutterer staff will be purchasing two of the latest generation Wi-Fi Amazon Kindles to give away to two of our lucky readers.

Books can take up a lot of storage space in our homes and offices, and having a digital e-book reader certainly helps keep bookshelves from lining every inch of our spaces. The two units we’re giving away are the latest generation Kindle Wireless Reading Device, which are Wi-Fi only, with a 6″ display, in Graphite. It’s the same device I have and love with a passion. (I especially appreciate that I can read silly mystery novels and no one else is the wiser.)

How to enter to win: Entering to win is simple. All you need to do is follow us on Twitter. If you aren’t already on Twitter, create an account and then follow us @Unclutterer.

Next Tuesday and Thursday (October 26 and 28, 2010) at 10:00 a.m. EDT, I will use twitRand() the Random Integer Generator at random.org and select that day’s one winner. You only need to follow us once (and please, only once), to participate in the giveaway. If you already follow us on Twitter, then you are already participating and need not do anything more. Winners of the giveaway will have 24 hours to respond to a direct message from @Unclutterer to claim their new Kindle. Failure to respond within 24 hours will disqualify you from the giveaway.

I know that some of you aren’t interested in social media and will want to complain about having to sign up for Twitter to participate in the giveaway — however, this is the easiest way for us to manage the giveaway and it ensures that many of our readers are already entered to win with no additional effort on their part. Also, if you’re an avid Wired magazine reader, you know that social networking sites can help increase worker productivity if used efficiently.

I am so exited about this reader appreciation event and cannot wait to give away two Kindle Wireless Reading Devices. Remember, you have until 10:00 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2010, to follow us on Twitter for the first Kindle giveaway.

NOTE: twitRand() appears to be offline, so we’ve had to change the manner by which the winners will be randomly selected.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Here’s your chance to get the scoop on the graduate program that we can’t stop talking about. On Saturday, November 6, the School of Visual Arts’ Design Criticism department will host an afternoon of presentations and informal discussion about its MFA in Design Criticism, better known by its rapper name, D-Crit. Students will talk about their experiences so far, delightful D-Crit chairperson Alice Twemlow (who founded the program with Steven Heller) will provide a program overview, and faculty members Adam Levy, Ralph “Design Mind” Caplan, Andrea Codrington, and Leital Molad will discuss the courses they teach. We hear that there will be drinks (mimosas!) and snacks (exceptionally well designed doughnuts), and if you ask nicely, we suspect they’ll let you peruse the twelve-volume reprint set of Domus that we spied in one of the D-Crit classrooms on a recent visit. Get all of the details here. Can’t make the open house? Read on for a look at the remaining events in the department’s stellar fall lecture series.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.