Sustainability and good design

https://monocle.com/film/business/mater-designed-to-last/ I came across this video while I was doing research for our public proposal piece. It is about the Danish furniture company Mater which only uses sustainable materials in creating their pieces. I really liked the vision of the founder who was the first to do this as he took materials that pollute our…

Happy Belated Earth Day!!

Unfortunately, to me Earth Day had become a day people use as an excuse to post all the cool places they’ve traveled to on Instagram. However seeing this art project by Olafur Eliasson reminded me that there are still people out there who try to send a meaningful message through Earth Day posts. Here, Eliasson…

JR’s Time Special Issue Cover

Time magazine has published a special issue about Covid-19 with advice, discussions etc. coming from people on the TIME 100 list. For the cover they asked JR, a French artist and photographer, to create a piece. I really like his work because he usually does large scale, public works that draw attention to the people…

A Guide To Keep Busy at Home

As we approach out fourth week of home stay (or fifth, I stopped counting at this point), I started getting really bored with the usual stuff I’ve been doing so far to keep busy. Then I came across this artist’s work that is also a book now. Max Siedentopf creates images that present small challenges…

Yin Xiuzhen’s Portable Cities

Yin Xiuzhen is a Chinese artist from Beijing who makes incredible sculptures made out of recycled clothing. I really liked her series called Portable Cities in which she recreates places she has traveled to in medium sized suitcases – she makes every famous structure from these places entirely from cloth. It’s really cool how she…

Art Podcasts To Check Out

Recently I came across this article that features 10 art related podcasts to listen to. Since we can’t go to museums or galleries I looked at a couple of them and think they have really interesting material. My particular favorites (all can be found on Spotify) include Talk Art by Russell Tovey and Robert Diament….

Kelly Wearstler’s Playful Interior Designs

An interior designer I really like recently started offering lectures on Masterclass. For those of you who do not know about Masterclass, its an online learning platform where people famous in their fields give mini lectures on acting, design, science, writing etc. Kelly Wearstler is an interior designer who just launched her series. I wanted…

How our psychology is altered by where we choose to live

In the first half of our spring break, before I had to leave abruptly, I was in Paris. I find the city’s design with multiple boulevards and interlacing alleys that allows you to get lost to be very thrilling. My friend told me that even though he goes to school from his house everyday, each…

Voice activated furniture becomes a reality in San Francisco

https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-bumblebee-spaces-modular-ceiling-furniture-startup-2020-2 A startup in San Francisco designed furniture that can be activated by a simple voice command. They were inspired by Mickey Mouse in this process. The beds, chairs, cabinets etc. that they designed can be lowered from the ceiling when you ask for it. This is especially helpful in cities such as SF where…

Making science more approachable through design

There is an initiative called “The Leading Strand” which pairs up practicing designers with scientists doing research in areas such as neuroscience, radiology, biomedical engineering etc. The main purpose is to make scientific research that has the possibility of changing the lives of many people much more approachable to the general public. The designers create…