Hasta La Ideas

“Oh Tannenbaum” (“Oh Christmas Tree”) is probably the most sung Christmas carol over here in Germany. History shows that cherishing trees in songs is a serious thing but at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design Christmas trees are also good for big fun.

Next week, it’s time for the “Oh Tannenbaum” 6th Christmas Tree Exhibition (from 16-21 December 2009) featuring texts, pictures, posters, sound installations, objects and other representations of our beloved Christmas tree. Unlike the standardized Christmas trees, these so called “Designer Trees” come with no guidelines, no selections or short-listings and no limitations on submissions.

For the fast and the furious: It is still possible to send your own Christmas tree idealization, critique, persiflage, redesign or other transformation until the 16th of December! We are looking forward to a great exhibition and great party!

See more pictures after the jump, or enjoy last year’s x-mas trees here.

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The Halo-like soldier up top and the suspension assembly beneath it–featuring stiff cross-members combined with flexible rubber wheels and even plastic springs–all came out of the same Connex RP machine, which can work two different materials simultaneously. Gerald Berberian of Objet Geometries runs their technology down:

(Note: The first word in “Objet Geometries” is pronounced “ob-jett” as in airplane, not “objay” as in objet d’art. Now you can correct someone at that holiday cocktail party filled with engineers.)

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Subports, the new text-to-buy retail platform that we blogged here in October, is producing another exciting retail experiment, entitled “Clairvoyant.”

In this pop-up shop, taking place in New York City between December 10th and 12th, visit clairvoyant Judith Aurora Ryan who will read your mind and help select just the right gift for that special (and hard to shop for) person.

Sound risky? Well, don’t worry—even if you’re suspicious of psychic abilities you can count on the gifts, with contributors like Kiosk, City Reliquary, In God We Trust, Amron Experimental, Other Music and more.

All items will be sold via text-message (this is part of what enables Subports to organize such a cool event in the first place), so you’ll have to sign up with them either prior to or during the event.

Clairvoyant, presented by Subports
Noon-10pm, daily
December 10, 11, 12, 2009
303 Grand St., Brooklyn NY 11211

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We’ve got a post-script from last month’s Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting at Design Concepts in Madison. Thanks to Elysa Soffer for her thoughts and photographs.

Casual, collegial, and you might even say noisy (in a good way), Design Concepts hosted Madison, Wisconsin’s first Town Hall on November 12. Held in our “Open Space,” there was non-stop yakking from 6 ’til well past 9, and we enjoyed some great local wines (yes, Wisco wines) beers, wraps, and cheese.

We had a great turn out, including our friendly competitors in product design Brooks Stevens, Bit7, Intense Engineering, Inspire, and BestAbode; graphic design firms Gage Mitchell and Swink; marketing firm Heibing; local behemoths GE Medical and FISKARS; and a smattering of MIAD and MATC students. Presenters were Jim Armstrong of Good for Business, Dan Lipscomb of FISKARS, and Design Concepts’ own Mark Cors.

The majority of our guests were still in the “pre-Accord” state (presenting an opportunity for proselytizing), so Design Concept’s Rachel DeSmidt kicked things off with a thorough introduction to the Designers Accord.

Mark Cors described Design Concepts’ sustainability efforts so far. Design Concepts has established an ever-expanding Ethernet “green library” of relevant articles and information for use by its project teams. More recently, Mark and Rachel have focused on spearheading the institutionalization of Design for Disassembly as a consistent component of our design methodology. The take-away: disassembly is a necessary precursor to recycling, and designing to facilitate disassembly is both relatively easy to implement and sell to a client. The Design Concepts DFD Guidelines were given to the attendees, and are available for download.

Jim Armstrong of the Madison-based marketing and communications design firm Good for Business, spoke passionately and persuasively about alternative business paradigms. Long-time members of Business for Social Responsibility, Jim’s firm engages in non-traditional marketing, representing clients who want to work with a conscience.

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Fabrica will present the “Exquisite Clock” as part of their exhibition Decode: Digital Design Sensations to be presented at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London from December 8th, 2009 through April 10, 2010.

The clock is made up of numbers taken from everyday life, seen, captured and uploaded by people all over the world. Is that a 3 hiding out in the leaves of your houseplant? Or a 7 in that snapshot you have of your cat jumping?

Fabrica is inviting you to take part in this exhibition by uploading all of your number photos to exquisiteclock.org. All images uploaded to the website between now and the close of the exhibition will be used.

See the web version of the clock here— it’s also available as a screensaver or iPhone app.

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