ATMOSPHERES
7 objects to represent the zeitgeist
As part of Design Parade 7, Lidewij Edelkoort has been invited to select 7 objects she feels represent the zeitgeist. The exhibition will be shown in Hyères’ beautiful Villa Noailles from June 29 to September 30, 2012.The exhibition part of Design Parade 7,will be shown at Villa Noailles from June 29 to September 30, 2012.
COLOUR ONE for MINI wheel (2012) by Scholten & Baijings
SCHOLTEN & BAIJINGS. When Scholten & Bajings were approached to formulate a new vision of the MINI, they were given carte blanche. The Dutch design duo took the car apart to the very last detail and with their signature curiosity, asked elementary questions such as why is a wheel a wheel, why is the door as heavy as it is, and why does colour have to be solid? Why does a car still seem to be the same car after so many decades? Scholten & Baijings broke some rules and questioned them in order to innovate.
The vehicle’s wheels have been completely reinvented to become solid, made within one process using transparent synthetic matter and rubber – why had the tyre never been questioned so before?
Teresa Toys (2011) by DMOCH
DMOCH. Dmoch is an interdisciplinary design studio founded by David Ericsson, Marcus Berg and Ania Pauser. Together, they create ideas that spring from humanistic values on a quest to find the balance between life, humour and objects.
Designed to trigger children’s imagination, these totemic toys recall childhood memories with naive shapes that bring pleasure to playing and warmth to the heart (30% of the toys’ sales support UNICEF).
Mine Kafon (2010) by Massoud Hassani
MASSOUD HASSANI. Hassani and his childhood friends once played with lightweight toys that would roll with the wind; yet their games were cut short when the small miniatures rolled into dangerous terrains filled with landmines. Hassani transformed these miniatures into a prototype, creating a wind-powered mine clearance device that like his toys, rolls with the wind.This humanitarian tool is made of bamboo and biodegradable plastics, able to save a life each time it detonates one of the millions of landmines littering war-torn regions.
This award-winning project is being considered for production by the Ministry of Defence in the Netherlands.
Quartz Mirror (2011-12) by Study O Portable Courtesy of Caroline van Hoek, Brussels
STUDY O PORTABLE. Quartz crystal plays an essential role in a long list of digital devices; each relying on the mechanical property of quartz in the form of crystal oscillators. Quartz Mirror mimics the familiar form of mirrors, using sliced, polished and silvered pieces of quartz; a reflection through a technological myth, suspended between two dimensions.
Each set of mirrors is produced from a single piece of quartz, the size, shape and number determined by the volume of the quartz sourced in Arkansas, a region known for supplying the early oscillator industry in the United States.
Mathieu Lehanneur -Tomorrow Is Another Day (2011) courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London
MATHIEU LEHANNEUR.Lehanneur provides food for thought regarding the permanence and impermanence of things, about the principles of uncertainty, ineluctability and spirituality, allowing everyone to be a day ahead of time itself... Originally intended for use in a hospital, this device eludes the course of time by offering everyone the opportunity to see tomorrow’s sky.
Conceived from weather information gathered in real time on the Internet, the luminous image of the sky is diffused through a honeycomb network, appearing both like a sculpture and a celestial globe.
Numbered Edition (2012) for Booo by Nacho Carbonell
NACHO CARBONELL.Through the design of his hand made L.E.D. lightbulb, Carbonell has incorporated subtle references to the four classical elements: earth, air, fire and water. In an ingenious way, water in the bulb creates a sea-like reflection from the light source in the environment where the bulb is placed. Additionally, the user can alter the bulb’s size by pumping air into it, and this in turn changes the reflection of the water.
Be it by inflating or by pouring, hanging or floating, this glowing sphere invites us to play with it and define how it is to be used.
The Johnny Cash Project (2010-12) concept Aaron Koblin
AARON KOBLIN.The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project. Through its website, contributors are invited to share their vision of Cash as he lives on in their minds. Working with a single image as a template, and using a custom drawing tool, artists create a personal portrait of Cash before their work is combined with art by other participants from around the world.
Integrated into a united whole: a living portrait that continues to transform and grow, virtually never the same video twice.
introduction to the exhibition
Tomorrow Is Another Day (2011) by Mathieu Lehanneur courtesy Carpenters Workshop Gallery
As part of Design Parade 7, Lidewij Edelkoort has been invited to select 7 objects she feels represent the zeitgeist. The exhibition will be shown in Hyères' beautiful Villa Noailles from June 29 to September 30, 2012.
"Atmosphères à Hyères" reflects a constellation of spheres that seem to float in space, completing one another and engaging themselves in a dialogue on design. A moment for reflection and introspection when form addresses life's bigger questions; without being moralistic or presenting itself as utopian. Design journeys with us from life to death, teaching us how to play, how to adopt nature in all its intimacy, how to belong to a creative community, how to advance and rethink industrial production, how to annex progress in a nostalgic way, how to stop mutilation as easily as child's play and how to deal with death differently and more gently.
Through seven products and concepts from seven international designers, a positive perspective that is full of hope is brought to the design discipline that seems sometimes to become ephemeral and superfluous. Therefore, a correction of life's course is felt and promises a better future from crib to coffin.