First things first, I should really begin by introducing myself and the D*Hub team. I manage Contemporary Programs at the Powerhouse Museum – this essentially includes all programs designed for adult audiences including the annual Sydney Design festival, Craft Punk, the fastBreak breakfast series, Young Blood Designers Markets, the Design NSW Travelling Scholarship and D*Hub. Our two resident D*Hub writers are Joan-Maree Hargreaves and Rita Bila who scour the local and international design scene, probing the brains of curators, designers and experts to find out what is making waves in the world of design. In addition, we commission guest writers like former Museum curator Ann Watson, who recently talked to Marc Newson about his creative collaboration with SMEG.

Our by line is “unpacking design” and by that we mean getting under the skin of design, the people, the processes, the energy and creative inspiration behind meaningful design. We also want to give you a window into the world of design collections – especially those hundreds of thousands of objects in vast museum basements which almost never see the light of day. It’s our chance to connect with what designers are doing today and to reflect on what designers have been thinking about since humans first put their minds to problem solving. The power of design thinking – to solve, resolve and deliver solutions can never be underestimated.

Having recently attended the Australian Interior Design Awards, I am feeling quite inspired! I’ve been raving to anyone who will listen how impressed I was by the Potts Point apartment designed by Anthony Gill Architects. So I was quite pleased it got a gong for best residential. Refreshing to see such a modest and thoughtful approach to what I felt was a very real home for a very real family. The designer and owner had one key goal – to make a great place to live for a young family. And at 38 square metres this would seem an almost impossible task. Yet, with clever use of joinery – a slide out bed, ample storage and a sleeping platform – a couple and their young child could live happily ever after within this tiny footprint. I was equally inspired by the use of colour and whimsy that went into creating functional and restorative environments for children, staff and the public for the Royal Children’s Hospital in Victoria - designed by Billard Leece and Bates Smart. What a long way we’ve come from the days of stark white, and often foreboding, hospital interiors.

As the Museum gears up for an exhibition about design legend, Le Corbusier, and we reflect on the call to action of the Sydney Design 2012 theme – ‘design rethink’ – I am made even more acutely aware of Le Corbusier’s belief in modesty and livability. I’m sure a lot of you will share my excitement about seeing full size reconstructions of two of Le Corbusier’s most famous buildings – the split-level Unite apartment in Marseilles and his beloved beach shack, Petit Cabanon, on the French Riviera. Corbusier said that it had everything you needed and nothing you didn’t. Not a bad design philosophy in today’s world where both space and resources are at a premium.

I hope you check out this month’s offerings on D*Hub and remember we are always interested in what you think. Send us your comments, feedback or even ideas for stories!

Happy month of May
Lily Katakouzinos

The domain of the blogger has become a particularly powerful one. Apart from commentating on ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ and driving new trends, fashion blogs have become prime real estate for advertising.

Delina Darusman-Gala and Mya Arifin describe their personal style. Images based on an original concept by Crooked Rib Art collective. Photo by Marinco Kojdanovski

In December 2011 influential fashion bloggers Mya Arifin and Delina Darusman-Gala  took part in a photo shoot at the Museum as part of the development of the exhibition Faith fashion fusion: Muslim women’s style in Australia (open from 5 May). Mya and Delina discussed their unique sense of style and how they got interested in blogging with curators Melanie Pitkin and Glynis Jones.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your blog?

Mya: I was born in Indonesia but I’ve been in Australia since I was three years old… My blog, ‘MyazFashionSpot’ is mostly directed to Muslim women about fashion and how to dress stylishly but modestly at the same time. In saying that, however, it’s not only for Muslim women, but anyone in general looking for tips about how to dress modestly and different looks and outfits to put together.

Delina: ‘MuslimStreetFashion’ is basically about Muslims and their street wear, a bit of my life, how to wear your hijab different ways and where to get clothes from. It also features shops in the Muslim community, just to help out the Muslim community.

How would you describe your personal style?

Mya: I like to try different styles, I don’t set my mind into one category because I like to be open minded about creativity because that’s what creativity is about – not just about one certain aspect, but you can branch into different areas of it. So, I would call my style ‘open’.

Delina: I would describe it as quirky, personal, what I feel like on the day.

How does your faith inform the way that you dress?

Mya: I try to dress as modestly as I can in my style even though I do dress a little bit differently to a lot of Muslim hijabis, but I do try to keep it as modest as I can, but also different and creative.

Who are some of your fashion influences?

Mya: I have a few designers that I really like including Rabia Z. There’s a famous entrepreneur and she’s also a blogger and a Facebooker, her name is Dina Toki-o. I really enjoy her style. She’s one of my favourites.

Delina: From the Muslim side there is Yuna – she’s a singer, musician and also Hinata Joum, she’s a designer.

What inspired you to start a blog?

Mya: I knew my friend Delina was starting a blog and I had always wanted to do something about fashion and creativity and to put that somewhere to express myself so I thought why not blogging. Blogging is out there – it’s on the web and everyone can access it so I thought why not, it’s a good way to reach people on the web.

Group photo for the Faith, fashion, fusion exhibition, Powerhouse Museum. Photo by Marinco Kojdanovski

Delina: All my friends used to ask me where I purchased my clothes from, so I decided to setup the blog to help them out. I also wanted to let people know that Muslim women can be stylish as well… I started the blog in June 2010. I was up one night, it was about 12 o’clock and I said to myself ‘I am going to start this thing’, so I started, and from then I haven’t looked back.

Are you getting approached by designers and retailers to promote their clothing?

Delina: I’ve got quite a few approaches. I get a lot of emails now, recently I got one for this new swimwear label called ‘Modest Sea’. It’s Muslim swimwear and it’s really different to what you see now. It’s really cute and girly… I have also had people from websites asking if they could put their advertising on my blog – this is really exciting.
What are some of your favourite shops and designers?
Delina: I’m really loving Mimco and Hijab House. Australian Designers would have to be ‘Muhsinah’ (my friend Wasiela), she’s an upcoming designer and I love her stuff, but international designers would have to be ‘Maysaa’ Hana Tajima, Dina Torki-o I could go on!

Where do you like to shop?

Mya: I shop online, I shop in the retail malls and I like bargain shops – I shop everywhere! It just depends what I’m looking for and what I find.

What are some of the challenges of having a blog?

Delina: Some of the challenges are getting permission from people before posting anything up, and finding something before anybody else finds it so you can be the first… It is a bit hard blogging around the family because I do have an almost 2 year old who likes to run amok. I mostly blog late at night when he is asleep so I stay up and then I realise it’s 3 in the morning, but that’s the only time I can do it.

Do you have any plans to move into other online events?

Delina: I recently worked on a hijab tutorial course and makeup course… I’m also starting a wedding hijab thing soon.

This Article was first published in Powerline Autumn 12.

Read about the background to the development of the exhibition here.

It may seem of science-fiction but emerging technologies indicate your take-away meal may be delivered by drones using your GPS coordinates to locate you, your clothing will most certainly be self cleaning (a technology already used for self-cleaning concrete), and you will be wearing interactive glasses. One thing is for sure, the future is now.

Surveillance always comes to mind when we talk of drones and it is becoming less obvious. Humming birds though, may find it difficult not to stand out in the Australian environment. However there are many uses for drones, photography being one.

What we are seeing is a near future where our lives are becoming intricately connected to new technologies, for better or worse. We are experiencing an age of hyperconnectivity.

Many of us are becoming highly concerned about our interaction with and through digital technologies and profess that these very technologies used for convenience are intrinsically transforming us and determining what we become. Sherry Turkle has based her thesis on the observation that technology is making us ‘alone together’. Turkle identifies that we need to learn to give full attention and value to the real rather than the ephemeral.

Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology, MIT,2012

As connectivity now extends to the individual in a way it had never done before through mobile devices Turkle may be right in saying technology ‘catalyzes changes not only in what we do but in how we think’.

A recent review of an episode of the new HBO series ‘Girls‘ where the millennial generation character Hannah shares her experiences on Twitter nicely reveals how we interact with new technologies. Hannah tweets her ordeal. She edits and re-edits as she has learned to do on a public platform.

“When her roommate Marnie arrives in the doorway, Hannah tells her about her bad night; the women talk and laugh and dance together. There’s no clear transition in this scene between what’s online and what’s off—Hannah doesn’t have to choose, one leads to the other. She’s upset, and she’s saying so in public, but that online blurt is mediated, and it’s edited: a skill she’s learned through practice, because she’s grown up learning to do that. It’s a way of speaking that lies between writing and conversation, intimacy and theatre”.

We are learning to occupy both arenas. What may be isolation for some, is connectivity for others.

If we compare the  tsunami of 2004 and the recent tsunami warning of 11 April 2012 we can see a marked difference. At the time of the first tsunami not many people had smart phones resulting in widespread devastation. Yet last month there were warnings on the twitter-sphere, images of evacuations and you could track what was happening all around the world through people’s networks. Connectivity has empowered people.

Tsunami, David Rydevik, 2004 Ao Nang, Krabi Province, Thailand

The 2011Tohoku earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan gave birth to Safecast a service providing radiation measurements that the Japanese Government found too sensitive to reveal. It needed connectivity for the information to be released.

When it comes to connectivity vs solitude, what would you prefer? Connectivity is helping isolated populations and individuals; farmers in Kenya, fishermen in Kerela, barbers in Karachi.

It’s not the first time we have tried to imagine our future, however there is a lot of good to be had from connectivity. As the work of designers is to solve issues and problems of the time, make life more livable, create and innovate, it is of great importance to understand  the way we are evolving, the way we interact with each other and with machines. Where this can take us in the future is difficult to predict fully. It is a progression that can’t be stopped.

The Future is Now (1955)

Janet’s statement reveals:

“Tsunami 1.26, an aerial lace installation, was inspired by the 2010 Chile earthquake’s ensuing tsunami and the 1.26-microsecond shortening of the day that resulted from the earthquake’s redistribution of the Earth’s mass. By meditating on these epiphenomena, the work underscores the interdependence of Earth systems and the global community. It asks the viewer to pause and consider the larger fabric of which they are a part.

My studio generated a 3D model of the tsunami using data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research. I then used software to transform an outline of the model’s higher amplitude area into a sculptural form. My studio created hand-knotted models to achieve the complex shaping of the piece.

This artwork utilizes Spectra®, a material 15 times stronger than steel by weight. The mesh is knotted by machine in order to withstand winds, but is engineered to reflect the intricacy of handmade lace”.

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski
© All rights reserved

Penny Craswell is the Editor of architecture and design magazine, Artichoke, and a long-time fan of great design. Craswell shares what she loves most in the Museum’s deep and delicious collection.

Penny Craswell loves this suede and leather dress designed by Akira Isogawa.

I love this Akira suede and leather dress because it is a hand-crafted yet wearable piece of fashion in stunning red. The object makes me feel proud that we have Australian fashion designers like Akira representing us on the world stage.

The object is significant because as well as being a beautiful Akira dress it is from the personal wardrobe of production designer, film producer and costume designer Catherine Martin. The object makes me think of Akira himself – a humble, intelligent and kind person.

If I had an Akira dress I’d feel a million dollars wearing it!

The Wool Modern exhibition travelling the world and featuring global designer heavyweights has arrived in Sydney. The exhibition includes works made from sheep’s wool by long list of design greats including Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Galliano.

Also on exhibition are archived pieces by Akira Isogawa, Jenny Kee and Sonia Rykiel, all of who feature in the Powerhouse Museum collection.

Australian designers freshly included on the Australian leg of the tour include Josh Goot and Gorman who’ve each designed bright knits specifically for the exhibition.

The exhibition helps mark the start of Wool Week (April 23-29) which began with an ‘urban farmyard’ at Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building, featuring models wearing wool garments from various retailers.

Wool Modern arrives in Sydney

The Wool Modern exhibition is part of the Campaign for Wool – a cross-industry initiative convened by HRH The Prince of Wales in January 2010. As a serious environmentalist, the Prince believes the natural, sustainable origin and highly technical structure of wool can offer fashion, interiors and the built environment many superior benefits.

The combined efforts of the leading wool organisations, industry associations and the textile industry across the world has created a campaign to promote the properties that wool offers to textiles and in doing so, help support sheep farming as an industry and the textile community internationally.

Wool Modern opens on April 25 at Pier 2/3, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay and runs until May 1.

Joan-Maree Hargreaves speaks with the three creatives who started the Office for Good Design: Kate Rhodes, Dan Honey and Emma Telfer about their studio and this upcoming project.

Tell me about the Office of Good Design and how are you different from other design studios?

We (Kate Rhodes, Dan Honey & Emma Telfer) met when we worked together on the State of Design Festival in Melbourne. We are all committed to assisting in the development of the creative industries in Australia, and we realised that there was an opportunity to create programming and content that would contribute to this mission. We were also motivated to form our partnership because we respect each other, share creative values and have fun along the way.

The Office creates platforms for new design work, critical discussion and interdisciplinary exchange. Through exhibitions, public conversations, strategies and activities, both self-initiated and commissioned, we seek innovation, support experimentation, and advocate the value of good design and creativity.

You’re curating ’7 Kinds of Happiness: Conversations on Design and Emotion’ which will be held later in the year. Can you tell me how the idea was generated and how it led to this conference?

We were engaged by designEX to shake up the standard keynote lecture series they have produced in the past. We are interested in creating an immersive and engaging experience that is critical but accessible to a broad audience.

With 7 Kinds of Happiness, we were inspired to explore how designers use, explore or consider happiness in their practice.

Should designers work with happiness in mind? Do they think design can create happiness?

Through this exploration, we are eager to see if design can assist in creating a greater sense of community and belonging, and a heightened civic well-being by making happiness a desirable outcome.

N

Why have you chosen the particular speakers you have? What do they have in common?

Each of the speakers brings something very personal to the question “Can designers create happiness?” and we chose them because each has taken up this question, or ones like it, in different ways. Some have worked on projects that give rise to thinking about this question and together they form a set of intriguing ways to unpack the relationship of personal emotion to design research and how we seek solutions through design and the value of happiness to society and what role designers might play in helping to tease this out. We are after multiple ways to get at this seemingly simple question. Each designer’s experience, personal philosophy or particular example of their work will be drawn out during the talks to help show that this question might be, in fact, one of the most important we can ask ourselves. The speakers we have asked are:

Happiness 1 with Alice Rawsthorn (live keynote)
Happiness 2 with Stefan Sagmeister In conversation with N (via Skype)
Happiness 3 with Rotor In conversation with N (via Skype)
Happiness 4 with Ilse Crawford In conversation with N (via Skype)
Happiness 5 with WORKac In conversation with N (via Skype)
Happiness 6 with Anthony Burke, Gerard Reinmuth and TOKO In conversation with N (live panel discussion)
Happiness 7 with Broached Commissions on Australian Design History

Rotor

Why happiness?

Happiness, as we know, can be hard to achieve because we find it difficult to pin down exactly what happiness means to us. We often know what makes us happy, but we still find it hard to make ourselves happy because we argue that we have a lack of time or money or our situation keeps us from doing the things we know will make us happy. Happiness is so fundamental but we can’t always grasp it and that’s makes it a fascinating topic for discussion.

7 Kinds of Happiness will be an opportunity to put design and designers in front of this question and to dig around related questions such as can happiness be ethical and why is it important to consider how we shape the material world, and how does it affect our physical and emotional well being?

Stefan Sagmeister

Can designers create happiness? Should this be their ultimate objective?

This is exactly the task ahead. We’ll be spending three days asking just these kinds of questions. Certainly we think that design can improve life from the most basic human requirements, such as designing systems that supply clean drinking water, to greener and safer cars, to better food labeling, production and smarter messaging around its consumption, designers impact our personal lives on a daily basis. What we hope we’ll uncover during the talks is how can we approach the challenge of seeking solutions that sustainably enrich our lives and which might also create happiness?

Do you think designing for happiness is a new idea?

The aim of 7 Kinds of Happiness is to bring some new thinking to a long-standing, complex and fascinating area of enquiry. Some great international writers and designers are bringing highly original thoughts to the subject and this prompted us to curate a speaker series that brings some of this thinking to the Australian design community.

What is the main objective of this project?

As with any OFGD project, we advocate the value of good design and creativity by stimulating conversation about what design and designers do. With 7 Kinds of Happiness, we are interested in unpacking the social and physical factors for designing happiness and asking can we design them more often, for more people.

Tell me about a couple of your projects and what they say about design in the 21st Century?

Collectively, we have delivered design and community development programs for Victorian Government departments of Major Projects and Business Innovation, the Queensland Government Department of Premier and Cabinet, Melbourne Open House, Indesign Group, Architecture Media, Victorian College of the Arts, Craft Victoria, The National Design Centre, L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and Object: Australian Centre for Craft and Design.

We are currently working with Arts Centre Melbourne on Audio Architecture, a design program commissioned for the launch of Hamer Hall’s major refurbishment in July.

Audio Architecture explores cities and sound through public talks, a tertiary student design camp, five workshops, and an online exhibition. We are also continuing the Sound of Buildings. Launched during State of Design Festival and Melbourne Open House 2011. Sound of Buildings is an app that offers multimedia walking tours of Melbourne’s most architecturally significant buildings, told through the voices of designers, building users and children. And of course, 7 Kinds of Happiness: Conversations on Design and Emotion with designEX.

Concept for Happy Place venue

Yet postmodernism gave us the framework to approach everything in our world including the creative process. Setting out to ‘deconstruct’ it gave us the freedom and ability to create something new albeit a ‘mish mash’ or pistache of what we already knew. It was a system of anarchy that gave a framework to criticise and re-evaluate the world when we were mere passive recipients of ‘truths’. It had a noble cause rallying against the ‘grand narratives’ of our times. Itself subjected to the same chain of deferred meaning as was all else in the poststructuralist framework, it still managed to displace the modernist era.

Recently we have taken the contribution of the post-modern era for granted forgetting how it interrogated the dogma of authority. It gave us freedom in every respect replacing it with a sense of an ever changing reality and elusiveness. It advocated the revision of everything including law and social order, the creative arts and culture. We were no longer passive bystanders. The unmentionable became obvious as skeletons poured out of the closets and elephants in the room were named. We were able to reconfigure the world and create new beginnings. It affected everything in the creative industries including, film and video, architecture and design.

Juicy Salif lemon juicer by Philippe Starck, 1990s, Designed for Alessi

Synonymous with postmodernism is the term ‘irony’. Postmodernists referenced and cross-referenced as a means of deconstructing and re-evaluating their disciplines. These devices, used to make direct or indirect comments, became one of its most identifiable characteristics despite making a pistache of it all. It may have seemed trite and superficial yet at the heart it had an anti-establishment core.

The G’Day chair by designers Brian Sayer and Christopher Connell, from the Powerhouse Museum collection clearly demonstrates the use of irony. You may cringe but the idea of basing a design on a clichéd idea of the Australian identity is noteworthy if not for its design then at least for its bravery. As the Bicentennial celebrations were approaching Australians were intent on defining identity, and perhaps we still are. The celebrations of 1988 were an opportunity to announce our development and advancement, a time to make ourselves noticed for our unique qualities as were the 2000 Olympic Games. However, living now in the globalised world, the notion of difference is not as important as it once was.

As an object, the chair still stands up as a worthy piece of design. Whacky, indeed, but it is obvious that a serious amount of thought has gone into making it technically precise while maintaining a conceptual base. It is sturdy, durable and essentially a chair that reflected an Australia that was responding to the reverberations of a post modernist doctrine.

Kettle designed by Michael Graves in 1984-85

“Post-modernism emerged as a cultural reaction to what had become the excessive conformity, conservatism and utopianism of the Modern movement, in tandem responding to changes in societal attitudes being negotiated through the Post-Colonial movement. Postmodernism also emerged in tandem with the Punk movement leading and planting the seed for Craft Punk where freedom of expression and truth to materials remain core values. Why Postmodernism? Sometimes entrenched traditional or conservative views just have to be turned upside down, turned on their head, to ensure culture and society remain relevant, democratic and dynamic”, says Anne-Marie van de Ven curator at the Powerhouse Museum.

It offered historicism, was self-referential, and expressed itself through bricolage, a mixture of styles, cut and paste, the presence of the past and the present, bright colour and decoration. It was the beginning of ‘mash-ups’ and sampling through appropriation in music and the arts. There was a general freedom of choice in design and the possibilities became endless. Historic motifs and architectural ruins cluttered the imaginations and works of many designers and artists. Ettore Sottsass designed using bright colours, strong contrasts and patterns. Michael Graves and Aldo Rossi experimented with architectural styles in their designs.

Tea and coffee piazza, Designed by Aldo Rossi, 1983

” Postmodernism incorporated symbolic messages, stories, humour and or unconventional colour while responding to the emotional needs of the consumer. Michael Graves’ successful silverware design demonstrated that imaginatively designed silver tableware could be both ground breaking in design and attractive to the public. The Tea and Coffee Piazza series influenced the appearance of domestic tableware not only in silver but also in stainless steel and other materials around the world and paved the way for a large scale involvement of architects in designing tableware,”says Eva Czernis Ryl, curator at the Powerhouse Museum.

Birds Nest Beijing, Architect Herzog de Meuron, Arup photographer Ben Mcmillan

Did postmodernism ever leave us? On the pessimistic end of the spectrum Alan Kirby suggests it is done and dusted and completely forgotten. In the post ‘Big Brother’ era he concludes that we tend to take the legacy of postmodernism for granted and have fallen into a non reproducible, vapid, trite, amnesiac, shallow stupor where there is no sense of the past or a future. The post postmodernist digimodernist or psuedo modernist world, as it is now known, is one where reality has ceased to exist except where we feel that we participate or intervene with it. The world is now dominated by market forces where we mitigate it through ‘doing’, clicking, surfing the net and downloading, giving us the illusion that we are participants. In his article in Philosophy Now, The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond Kirby states;

“Pseudo-modernism’s typical intellectual states are ignorance, fanaticism and anxiety…it was not born on 11 September 2001, but postmodernism was interred in its rubble”

Mantle Clock, Michael Graves, 1986, for Alessi

On a less pessimistic note, cultural theorists Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker co-founders of ‘meta-modernism’ see postmodernism as a continuum and an internalised system of questioning that has not left us. It can be aesthetically exemplified by the practice of Herzog de Meuron in architecture which portrays the oscillation between the past and the present evoking the presence of the modern and of the postmodern but suggesting a new presence that is neither. It negotiates between universal truths and relativism construction and deconstruction and suggests the maturation of the early anarchistic approach of postmodernism.

I for one would like to believe in this later more optimistic view of the legacy of postmodernism. Cher Potter, of TANK magazine describes meta-modernism as an outgrowing of postmodernism’s ways and as Timothus Vermeulen states, it is a coming to terms with and adjustment to all the changes happening around us today. We now live in an age where creators suspend irony to make an attempt at sincerity, if only for a brief moment, and where we as viewers also understand the singularity of perspective. The Grand Narratives are gone. But I will not venture into the realm of post-irony or ‘performatism’, perhaps another time.

In October 2011 the City of Sydney called for Expressions of Interest (EOI) from artists and creative enterprises to activate and occupy currently vacant City-owned retail and office space on Oxford Street.

The City received 52 submissions and there were 16 short-term leases available, mostly on a 6 month x 6 month basis, with a review at 4 months. Reduced rental rates were offered for these short term tenancies to offset inconvenience while internal building works are undertaken.

A total of 13 offices and 3 shopfronts are now occupied by artist collectives, design studios, architects, graphic designers and various art and design galleries.

Inside Oxford St Design Store

Among the short term tenants is the Oxford St. Design Store. Their concept is simple: they sell Australian made products for under $20. The Store is located at 58 Oxford Street and is a collaboration between local graphic designers Louise Helliwell and Alex De Bonis (of the Tough Titties collective). “The idea has been conceived to allow for a small profit for the contributors and also as an opportunity to get work out to a wider audience,” says Helliwell. From ceramic jugs to screen printed teatowels it’s not surprising that the store attracts customers who spend more than $100 on their visit.

Lou Helliwell of Oxford St Design Store

At the back of the store there are table set up for talks and workshops. In the coming weeks the Rizzeria, formerly housed at the now defunct Paper Mill, will be have a new home at the back of the store. The Rizzeria is collectively owned and operated by a bunch of self publishers and print makers. Its aim is to challenge and develop the aesthetic possibilities of stencil press printing. The group recently ran a successful crowdfunding campaign on the Pozible website to raise $5000 to buy a new machine (after an accident with the old stencil press) and get the print runs rolling again.

Wander a few doors up and you’ll find the He Made She Made Concept Gallery. This design gallery aims to showcase and promote the work of Australian creatives whom are otherwise under-represented.

Inside the He Made She Made Concept Gallery

Since taking on the tenancy He Made She Made has teamed up with the fortynine, another design collective who took on a lease of one of the office spaces above the Gallery. The fortynine design studio was established in response to an increasing need for considered design objects, spaces and practice. The founding members are graduates of the College of Fine Arts (COFA) School of Design and span a range of disciplines, each with their own sensibility and approach. As a result, their work is varied in its form but consistent in its values of integrity, connection, purpose and story.

Members of the fortynine design studio

The fortynine are also amongst the tenants supported by the City but had no shopfront to display their works, which is where He Made She Made stepped in. This type of collaboration is one of the success stories of the City’s cultural revitalisation projects. “From our perspective, the project has been a great success already,” says Belinda Brooke, Cultural Projects Manager for City of Sydney. “We’re so pleased to see the cross collaboration and networking that’s happening between the various groups, as well as the genuine increase in foot traffic in the area.”

Right next door to He Made She Made is another gallery, Platform 72, run by Juliet Rosser and Sam Mitchell-Fin. Exhibiting mostly graphic design and illustration, the gallery boasts a ‘no commission on sales’ tagline instead charging artists to ‘rent’ a space in the gallery. They currently showcase around 40 different artists and designers.

Sam Mitchell-Fin and Juliet Rosser of Platform72

Among the tenants upstairs are textile designers, Tim Rouse and Anastasia Phillips of Rouse Phillips, graphic designers and illustrators, Laura Pike and Anne-Louise Dadak of Province, as well architect Matthew Chan of SCALE and arts organisations like QueerScreen and creative entrepreneurs Fishburners.

Matt Chan of architecture firm SCALE

Sadly, but inevitably, The City intends to return all properties back to long term commercial tenants as the building works are completed and Oxford Street medium/long term activation projects commence. The City hopes they will be able to keep the tenants there beyond the 12 months with incremental increases over time for those that can afford it, to bring the rents closer to what would be considered commercial rent. “We know that this wont be possible for everyone and we will be looking at each case individually through the review process to discuss possibilities and opportunities,” Brooke explains.

Despite the rather melancholy end to this story, Clover Moore and the City of Sydney should be applauded. This type of initiative which certainly takes inspiration from Marcus Westbury’s Renew Newcastle scheme, will undoubtedly lead to new projects and new ideas for many of those involved. During a time of uncertainty for everyone in the arts and design community, with the Australia Council under review, and cuts to various organisations already underway, this is surely at least a demonstration of the potential of Sydney’s cultural community. Every little bit of support counts.

Watch an interview with the fortynine from their ‘ReForm’ exhibition held last year as part of Sydney Design 2011:

The Australian Design Alliance (AdA) is the alliance of peak professional organisations that represent designers across all aspects of Australia’s design industry. The AdA is a not for profit industry alliance and its primary goal is to promote the use of design to boost Australia’s productivity, sustainability and innovation.

Visit the AdA’s Pozible page here to find more information or pledge your support. The organisation hopes to raise a minimum of $15,000. The AdA is lean operation, with a volunteer Board and a part time Executive Director. With the money raised the AdA will be able to undertake the research needed to strengthen their case, as well as be able to spend more time influencing political leaders and step up its communications strategy to showcase the work of Australian designers in all their guises.

Various high profile designers and industry leaders are behind the project including Professor Roy Green, Dean of the UTS Business School and a member of the Prime Minister’s Manufacturing Taskforce: “In advanced high cost economies, future competitive advantage will increasingly be based on the intangible value of design and innovation, which enables firms to differentiate their products and services. The question is not whether Australia can afford to invest in design, but whether we can afford not to,” says Green. “With trade-exposed industries such as manufacturing and tourism under severe pressure, Australia’s creative talent in design should become a key source of our uniqueness in global markets and value chains.”

Designer Liane Rossler agrees: “Australian designers are leading the way in creativity, sustainability and innovation. A national design policy would help to give designers recognition and respect and enable them to reach new heights. Please support the AdA in this important campaign for Australian design,” says Rossler.

The AdA’s vision is to develop a culture of design in Australia to strengthen economic competitiveness, innovation, creativity and sustainability. Its mission is to achieve greater recognition and valuing of Australian design by governments, business and community, plus greater innovation and collaboration within the design sector together with the application of strategic design approaches across all sectors.

The deadline for applications is April 13, 2012.

The selections will be based on the main concept of “Hidden Cities” that analyses the hybridization of physical and social identities in the contemporary cities.

The number of works with which you can participate is unlimited. All video works must be on DVD (PAL or NTSC), no matter what the original source medium. The maximum length of videos should be 10 minutes. All photo works on every kind of support are accepted. The maximum dimensions allowed per each image are 100 cm per side.

Send your works submissions with a CV/biography, videography and some still images (only for video artists) and some samples of photo works (only for artists) to:

Luca Curci Architects
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, 33
70122 Bari, Italy

The participation in International Videoart Festival and Photo Exhibition requires an entry fee for every artwork submitted and selected. Participation open to: professional artists, architects and designers, associate groups and studios.

International ArtExpo is a not for profit organization that provides a significant forum for cultural dialogue between all artists from different cultures and countries.

Embryo Chair, Marc Newson 1988

That chair, the Embryo, has now of course become part of 20th century design history – a signature piece in which Newson says he found his voice as a designer. 20 years on in 2008 the Italian domestic appliances giant Smeg launched prototypes of its new range of Newson-designed ovens and cooktops in Milan. The colour and curves that defined the Embryo are still in evidence to some extent, but the indulgent, free-wheeling days of designing an object with no real constraining brief are long gone.

It is something of a paradox that expanded reputation and status bring with it the kind of restrictive controls that a high-end manufacturer has to exercise. For Newson, easily bored with reiteration, they are neither restrictive nor burdensome: constraints create challenges and the opportunity to problem-solve and it is on these that he thrives. Much has been made of Newson’s wide-ranging portfolio – the New York Times recently published a long article headed ‘Is there anything Marc Newson hasn’t designed?’ – but the challenge of having to start from first principles every time he approaches a new project, be it a camera for Pentax, a washbasin for Caroma or indeed Sydney’s New Years Eve big event, is just too appealing.

Pentax K-01 – Marc Newson Interview from photographyblog on Vimeo.

Newson wasn’t the first big-name designer to be approached by Smeg, but it was the company’s previous successful collaboration with architect Renzo Piano that motivated the decision to expand their designer partnerships. Marc was, however, the first non-Italian to design for the company. He was a well-considered choice.

Founded in the late 1940s when Italy was reinventing itself as a global design leader, Smeg has been run by the same family near Reggio Emilia ever since. For Newson, these days never short of a project, Smeg appealed not only because of its long history and global reputation, but because ‘it was one of my ideal kinds of collaboration. Smeg is big enough to manage manufacturing on a truly industrial scale, in a technologically sophisticated way, but small enough that one or two people are the ones making the decisions. It’s the perfect size company to work with and has a fantastic distribution network all over the world. One couldn’t hope to have a better partner in the sector.’ Most importantly Smeg offered the kind of ‘mental calisthenics’ that Newson says he looks forward to in each new project.

Smeg sketches, Marc Newson, 2007

For Smeg, Newson’s broad experience, his reputation for effective collaboration and that colourful, curvy aesthetic were a good fit with the company’s unique brand of technical innovation coupled with leading edge design – ‘technology and style’ as the company logo proclaims. A case in point is Smeg’s now classic FAB fridge which, with its cartoony curves and unconventional colours, was the antithesis of the angular stainless steel fridges then on the market. Its retro appeal was, however, a smart marketing strategy that repositioned Smeg in a highly competitive consumer arena.

Newson’s oven and cooktop for Smeg, released in Europe in 2009 and in Australia in 2011, are a more subtle and elegant essay on a retro theme that is both typically Newson and characteristically Smeg. The appliances have the softly rounded styling you would expect from the designer, and what the marketing blurbs describe as ‘intuitive’ display panels and ignition knobs, the result of Newson’s insistence on logical and user-friendly ease of operation. But it is the coloured enamel finishes that really distinguish these appliances from the rest of the pack.

Marc Newson for Smeg, 2009

While Smeg began in the post-war years as a metal enamelling factory, the Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla for which its current name is an acronym, it was, ironically, Newson who came up with the idea of using coloured enamelled steel for the cookware appliances. The choice of colours that followed – rich yellow, pistachio green and peacock blue – were unorthodox and distinctive in a traditionally conservative market, but also have a kind of pleasing familiarity that is hard to pin down. For Smeg, the introduction of coloured enamels has no doubt proven to be a clever branding initiative, but it has also had the unexpected spin-off of creating a nice symmetry with the company’s early history.

Both Newson and Smeg have said they enjoyed collaborating and want to continue the relationship. While the ingredients for an effective association between designer and manufacturer are complex and of necessity variable, the baseline must always be that each side is on the ‘same page’ in terms of process and outcome. The seemingly natural ‘sync’ between Newson and Smeg, designer and manufacturer, has in its turn created product that is both subtly groundbreaking and gently nostalgic. Perhaps it is this paradox – the seamless synthesis of new and old – that is the secret of the timeless appeal of the best of Newson’s work. Who could blame a manufacturer for wanting to tap into that!

Jansen speaks with D*Hub about his recent project with fellow designer, Henry Wilson, as well as other works in progress.

One of your most recent projects was your collaboration with designer, Henry Wilson. What happened with the Rocks Trent&Henry store? Will we see it reappear?

Never say never. It started off as a something Henry had read about and we discussed when we were having dinner, we’re good friends outside of this. He mentioned that The Rocks were running this pop-up project where artists and designers could take on space for inexpensive rent and we both thought that sounded like great idea. We had seen initiatives similar to it overseas where councils who could not lease out spaces, gave them to creative people at a reduced rate. We thought it was a nice way of populating a suburb like The Rocks. So we applied and our application was successful. We spent the first six months at 47 George Street in The Rocks, in a building which was the site of the first bank in Australia. A cousin of Westpac, I think. And so we had that for six months, it was great, we got to curate the work shown, and we tried to support a bunch of our colleagues. It was only Australian design and only things we thought were interesting. We’re both conceptual designers so most of the designs had some poetic things to say, some were just beautiful.

Trent&Henry at The Rocks

Inside Trent&Henry

We didn’t have that site permanently and we were coaxed out of that site and into another one. We wanted to make the gallery a permanent thing, so we thought ‘okay’. We moved to 13 Cambridge Street, to a beautiful space, a pedestrian street that had a really interesting history: people used to dry their clothes there and it was called ‘the drying green’. So we thought that would be a great name for the new gallery. We set about to refurbish it, and we came up against all kinds of trouble. After lots of time and money were spent negotiating with the Harbour Foreshore Authority we decided it was time to pull the pin. In retrospect, I feel good about it. It was a lovely thing to do, it was a very romantic idea, but it’s very time consuming running a gallery. We’re both really busy and time was definitely a difficulty. We had to see the silver lining in this. It’s always possible that it may emerge again in some form in the future, at this stage we’re happy to leave it behind.

Do you think these sorts of Government or council initiatives, like Renew Newcastle, and City of Sydney’s Oxford Street project do actually lead to positive outcomes and opportunities for designers and artists?

Yes absolutely in some instances, it depends so much on who is running them. We had issues from beginning. It was always quantity not quality for them [Sydney Harbour Foreshore]. They wanted us to be open all the time. So we had to put people there as we couldn’t be there all the time. They always wanted more in the space and yet we had a particular vision for the place. We always felt like we were pushing the envelope, creating trouble, trying to fit in with their framework. The Rocks has such a strong mandate, about what they are to the city. And all of those constraints were enforced on us as participants. There was no room for experiments, they’d done all the market research and they new what they wanted there. But if you’re inviting creative people in you need to allow them to be creative, you can’t fence them in. From what I under about Newcastle, people are given much more freedom. The Rocks because of its heritage, means you can’t do anything with building and they bureaucracy is so regimented and orchestrated. There are so many restrictions. The area itself is so beautiful and there is a real authenticity about it, there’s also all that stuff there that is so dramatised and put on. When the markets are on, they have people singing ‘Ye olde’ shanty tunes. It’s such an overly dramatic interpretation of the past that it turns into a bit of a theme park. I think it’s a real shame. We wanted to inject an authentic Australian business there that had a true relationship to the area, and its industrial past. There used to be lighting factories there, we wanted to be part of that history.   

You are working on a series of road sign pieces made from Northern Territory Intervention signs. Do you think of you think design can be politically engaging in a significant way? Is that your intention?

I haven’t made them yet there are being cut. I’m not expert on the intervention, but I’ve seen through insights of my partner who has worked in Alice Springs for years in Indigenous communities, I’ve seen the effect that it has. The bottom line is that it is very fundamentally a movement against a person’s basic human rights. It tells people how to spend their own money. It is sometimes wanted and embraced but not always.

I don’t know how much of a statement it will make. I think it’s interesting to use that sign because it’s something that happened. It maybe forgotten especially now that those signs may be gone soon as the communities are allowed to take them down.

For me I think it is a flawed policy and a mistake and future generations should be reminded of this. If I can make an object that can be a reminder, than that’s a good thing. Also, it’s an idea that the signs are more beneficial as furniture than as there initial use. There use is horrible. It tells people ‘no drinking, no porn etc’ and implies people are drunk perverts, it’s horrible. I know it’s something I’m against fundamentally. But it’s such a complex issue, I’m not well enough informed to take one particular stance.

You’re obviously interested in reusing existing materials to create new products. Do you think this is something that will be seen in mass production of designs?

I guess it depends what you call mass production. There’s no real number that makes something ‘mass’produced. Freitag from Switzerland do it on a mass scale I guess. They use old tarps from trucks, as well as seat belts and airbags and reuse them on a huge scale. I’ve visited their factory. It’s gigantic. And everywhere I go I see someone with one of the bags they’ve made out of those objects. It’s a difficult thing to organise. They have an amazing system. The bring in big loads of truck tarps, they wash them, lay them all out, photography them, cut them all up and then get sewn into bags.

My process is not quite so sophisticated. But certainly, it could turn into that if the demand were there. There’s certainly enough road signs. There’s proof that it is possible. It’s complicated and certainly not cheap. But people want unique things and things that have a story. Either you hardly anything for something that has no story, that’s mass produced and made from virgin material and is run of the mill and narrative lacking. Or you pay more and become engaged in quite a complex process. It’s only possible when consumers embrace it.

You’ve just launched a new piece called the Nuptial Pendants. These are a follow up to the award winning Kissing Pendants. What is it about this narrative that interests you?

It’s sort of semibiographical. It’s a part of this larger range of things I call objects that remind us of ourselves. The Pregnant Chair and The Briggs Family Tea Set. It’s all about injecting objects with some kind of personal character. So that people that aspire to own them can relate to. That particular narrative is just a reflection of my relationship with my partner. For a period I was looking for universally understood relationships- so one was the ‘motherhood’ one, the ‘loving’ relationship happens in all forms, and is another fundamentally understood relationship. I figured the more people can understand them, the more they can relate to them, than the biggest goal of the object not being disposed of would be achieved. They become part of someone’s life or family.

The Pregnant Chair

Have you used 3D printing? Do you see this as a game changer for designers?

I’m interested in it. I used the processed to prototype the Kissing Pendants. But it was very expensive at the time I think I spent all my prize money on that. It was stupid but something you had to do. I’m not such a process or material person. For me what I’m saying is important. For me if the process adds something than it’s interesting but I haven’t seen that 3d printing can say that so far. I’m fascinated by the technology and I think it’s an interesting technique. But it’s also scary that making stuff is becoming so accessible. While I whinge about how slowly stuff moves in the manufacturing process, it is also a sort of a built in check point. An idea needs to be really great before time and effort goes in to actually making it. The more accessible the more stuff gets made that doesn’t need to be made. In many ways that check point is kind of a nice thing. It means there is some control over what is made.

What are you influenced by most?

Every project starts of with a lot of reading and I really hate reading. I really struggle, I never read for fun. I read for research for work. So I suppose in lots of ways it’s literature. Things that inspire me are stories. The tea service, that story was rich enough or compelling enough. I need to feel like, that the project is saying something unique. For that it was challenging. There used to be a common understanding, and some people still believe that Truganini was the last remaining Aboriginal inTasmania. And to tell that story of the Briggs family that was a story I really wanted to tell. Having something that is important to say, some story to tell, that’s what I’m influenced by most.

Has your approach to design changed much since you left art school?

Yes. I don’t think it did for a while. I think as I’ve always been a conceptual designer, it’s been about extrapolating a metaphor into an object and that can be done in a superficial way or deep way. And it can be done for the sake of it or it can be done for a real outcome. I think I’ve gotten to know what those outcomes are. I think I’ve got better at going deeper. I really like some of the earlier things I did but I think the biggest I thing I’ve done is when I went quite deep and say with the tea set, I feel for that reason for me that my most successful project. I think the Broached Commissions project is really exciting. Yesterday I got an email from someone who was descendant of the family and they said they were really excited that the family was being represented in this way. And for me, a lot of that time when I was making that work, I felt like I was treading on controversial grounds. I could really misrepresent those people if I wasn’t thorough. And that sort of feedback is better than any design critic. That the kind of outcome that’s what I hope these things might fulfil.

Now I kind of feel with upcoming projects like private commissions I’m working on, that I’ve adopted an intuitive approach. All along one concept line now I’m using lots of different stimuluses not just a single topic. For me I really like the outcome of this so I think it’s something I should try more. I think I need to trust myself more.

What do you think of the momentum of discussion around ‘Design Thinking’?

It’s basically systems design. I believe in it I suppose. I think I have more experience with it when teaching than in my own practise. I guess to be honest, I don’t know if I’m all that passionate about the kinds of projects exist in that area. The projects I’m working on are bespoke things, and there’s some design thinking around those. It’s an issue I come across with teaching with students in their final year projects that fit into the design thinking area. But I think designers need to be careful. Some designers think ‘you’re a master of the universe’. I say to students, designers can do equal bad as good and that’s been proven time and time again. I say to them, if you want to be a designer working on broader social problems, you need to ensure you work with a team who has knowledge in those areas. That’s why we offer mentors in the area they are working in. While designers may have the tools to think very broadly and creatively come up with solutions, in the end they must serve the purpose in a practical way. I feel designer don’t have tools to solve those problems by themselves. We have to be careful not to encourage designers to be gung-ho in thinking that they know everything there is to know. They need to be incredibly informed and collaborate with people who know what they’re doing.

One of the major industries on the peninsula in the nineteenth century was the sandstone quarries run by the Saunders family in Pyrmont. Starting in 1853 and continuing until the 1930s, quarrying changed the geography of the area.

Grindstones, Gift of Robert Saunders, Quarry Master and Contractor, 1906

The Saunders quarries employed over 300 men in the last decades of the 19th century. Work at the quarries is thought to have been done by local people in the trades of quarrymen, blacksmiths, engineers, farriers, wheelwrights and carpenters. The three main Saunders quarry sites, were named Paradise, Purgatory and Hellhole by the Scottish workers. These grindstones appear to be from the Paradise quarry.

Hellhole was located north-east of Wentworth Park on Wattle Street. It was a deep hole some six metres below street level which filled to the brim with every heavy downpour. Purgatory was adjacent and further north, producing a very hard stone with a grey streak which could crack. Paradise or Half Way was less than a kilometre north of Hellhole and produced the best stone, yellow block.

Many of the beautiful sandstone buildings like Sydney University including Fisher library, St. Mary’s, St. Andrews, The GPO, The Great Synagogue, The Art Gallery of NSW and Sydney Institute are made from the golden stone of Pyrmont.

‘Strangers visiting Sydney are often struck by the magnificence of our public buildings, the richness of their ornamentation and the mellow tone of their colouring. This freestone of Sydney seems to absorb into itself some of the brightness of the sun.’ (Robert Saunders Esquire, Australian men of mark, 1788-1888, Vol 2).

Detail facade, Sydney Technical College, Mary-Anne St

The Department of Commerce now repairs old Sydney sandstone buildings using stone dug from the foundations of early 21st century Pyrmont developments.

Fenella Kernebone is a long-time fan of great design and is first to share what she loves most in the Museum’s deep and delicious collection.

Fenella Kernebone loves …

I love the Super8 camera because I love the quality of the film, it has a romantic feel to it and it’s on the verge of being obsolete. But mostly I love it because it reminds me of my Dad, who used it to capture footage of me and my siblings.

The object makes me feel nostalgic, a little guilty and also a little sad. Nostalgic for the look and feel, the texture, it is so interwoven with my memories under the age of about eight years old. Guilty because I don’t know where the film is that Dad took, and sad because it reminds me of those moments as a little kids, the positives and also it’s the anniversary of my Dad’s death today.

The Super8 is significant because in today’s world, everything is captured so easily. Every moment can be captured on a digital camera or an iPhone and then they can post it to a social media site. Obviously when I was a kid, it was a completely different beast. Film was so expensive for most people and it only lasted three minutes, sometimes there was no sound. That meant what was captured of us was a special occasion. It was rarefied.  For people who grew up before the 80s, it was really a snap shot of an era, of my generation.

The Super8 makes me think of weird sports carnivals where Dad filmed us running or something like that, that was pretty shaky vision and then we’d watch it later that night when Dad had set up the projector.

I actually have one or two in storage, I have Dad’s one and haven’t used it for years.

Fenella Kernebone is the presenter of By Design on ABC Radio National.

Electrolux Design Lab started out as a global design competition for design students but has developed into a platform for design discourse and sharing inspiration. The brief for this year’s design competition is “Design Experience”, focusing on sensory experiences. Expectations are high, as the last ten years have seen very ambitious and innovative design concepts from thousands of students.

Electrolux and Yanko conducted a competition inviting design students to create an anniversary logo. Hundreds of students from all over the world participated in this special prelude to the main event. The winning entry, created by Swedish graphics design student Henrik Sundqvist, will be used as the official Electrolux Design Lab Logo for the 2012 competition.

Henrik Sundqvist is a 27-year old graphic design student at Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm, Sweden. His current favourite inspiration source is the typography of Michael Freimuth but he says that inspiration can be found everywhere. “My logo is intended to be playful and signal the importance of cooperation. The letters are connected to each other to strengthen this message. I wanted to both renew and modernise, but also keep something from the old profile. That is why I’ve kept the colours quite similar to the previous logo. By doing that, I hope EDL will not feel completely unfamiliar to returning guests, but still be fresh, modern and different,” says Sundqvist.

One of her most recent projects, Supercyclers, with fellow environment advocate and designer, Sarah King, engages a group of designers who reinvent new products from existing materials.

Rossler, 46, speaks with Joan-Maree Hargreaves about Supercyclers, design heroes and the future of design.

You’re a central figure in the arts and design community and one of your latest ventures, Supercyclers, sees you working with designer Sarah King on a project that will be shown at the Milan Design Week in April. Tell me about the project?

Sarah and I launched Supercyclers last year. It’s a project about reuse and it follows on from ‘The Other Hemisphere’ exhibition and our Plastic Fantastic project that was shown in Milan last year that showcased a selection of Australian designers. This year the project is called SOS: supercycle our souls. Working with different designers, the exhibition looks at things that are usually perceived as ugly, like waste, and turns something that is ugly into something beautiful. The exhibition features six Australian designers and two international designers, including myself and Sarah K (Supercyclers). This year we’re turning transparent plastic bags into new creations. Other designers include Mark Vaarwerk who makes objects out of all kinds of things including cigarette butts and polystyrene boxes, Tamara Maynes who has made templates for homebuilt cardboard lights, Henry Wilson who has ‘hacked’ or reinvented design classics, Andrew Simpson, an inventive problem solver and has made vessels from solar panels, Ontwerplabel ViJ5 who make Newspaper Wood out of compacted, compressed paper that is carved and has a grain like wood, Ett la Benn and Blakeborough and King.

So, this whole project has sort of taken off from last year, after we made these dishes out of plastic bags. The reaction has been just amazing. They were included in other exhibitions in Europe and were blogged about like crazy. I think what’s interesting is that people loved the simplicity. Personally I found it interesting, because I know from a design point of view, moulding and manufacturing can be quite hard and complex. It’s a really big process. Then something like we did, that is so simple an idea, and process, and then we say ‘go and do it yourself’. People really responded, and think ‘I won’t throw out my bags, I’ll make something with them’, and it makes people look at it things in a different way. It’s about design thinking and a different approach. Everyone knows about the plastic bag problem, so we are looking at whatever we can do to work out solutions for it.

For years people just used to design stuff. Now, there’s just so much stuff, we need to look at things differently rather than making more stuff for the sake of making more.

How can this way of thinking be commercially sustainable for designers?

One of the things that has changed is that traditionally, we’d make something and sell it. Now, what’s really important is collaborative creativity. People used to express creatively through what they bought. Now people feel more of a desire to create things. Making things together, and you can make money in the exchange of ideas, not through only one single retail aspect. There is a real movement toward sharing design process. I think that you can see this with the whole Etsy thing, workshops that are happening. It’s grass roots creativity for women and for men. We need to encourage that sort of tinkering and pulling things apart that men traditionally used to do as a kid in the shed, and encourage that to continue that as adult. In many ways we’re seeing that through cooking, but there are so many ways of being creative. Ultimately creativity is a rewarding activity. It makes people feel good when they’re making something. In terms of commercially designing, I think what used to be valued was the raw material. I think now value is in the time that was spent on something. It’s not just the material itself that holds the value.

You’ve placed the latest Supercyclers project on the crowdfunding site, Pozible. Do you think this type of social collective fundraising is going to dramatically change the funding landscape for designers?

I do. Crowdfunding is a really liberating thing for somebody to be able to do. It’s really nice to invite people to be part of what you’re doing. Being part of it is the perk. People love being part of something and for just a small amount of money you can see things being done. There’s a real shift away from one dominant model to the collaborative way which moves across so many different elements. Creative people don’t really want to fill out endless forms. They just want to get things done. It’s really exciting and a much more equitable approach. People give a dollar and can be part of something, and all those little dollars make something bigger.

In your opinion, is the perception of Australian design changing around the world?

I think it’s a global community now. I heard Tim Flannery say that it is now the end of the tribal era. Now it’s about a global civilization ‘we’re all together’. With technology, you can work in your niche and speak with anybody around the world. It’s less a country specific thing and more a personal thing. The way things are moving, we see things so immediately on the internet. It’s not so much that’s there’s an Australian approach to design but that it’s global. I don’t think people are surprised to see Australian design exhibited because everything is as valid as everything else. We used to be considered foreign, now we’re all just ingredients thrown in together.

Tell me about some of your other recent projects.

Knitty Gritty and Loopy was a project a group of friends and I started in 2009, where we’d meet up every month and make things together. A highlight of that was when we made 350 baskets from plastic bags to highlight climate change that were exhibited at the 350 event at the Sydney Opera House. We’d meet at Centennial Park, and we sent out an open invitation inviting people to get involved in the project. We had a really good cross section of people who’d come along and make with us. We were then part of Sydney Design and an exhibition at Object Gallery called, We Craft This City, and we held workshops there too.

Other smaller projects I’ve been involved in recently include Metalab’s Designer Sushi project where they gave a people a design challenge from found materials, Make It! at the Powerhouse Museum for the launch of Creative Innovation, and Interpretations for Sydney Design 2011.

So I like to be involved in a mixture of projects both small and large. I like to mix things up a bit. I think the common link between all of them is that I genuinely have passion for them.

You were a co-founder of iconic Australian lifestyle brand, Dinosaur Designs. Since leaving in 2010, how has your relationship to design changed?

What I’ve enjoyed since leaving is the great diversity in design, and working on such a variety of different projects with different people is really interesting. I enjoy design thinking, the approach, and it’s given me the opportunity to be much broader. And also I love the interaction with not only designers but different industries. Design is at the core of everything I do, but then applying it to different projects you naturally do it. I love it when I work with people who don’t come from a design background, when you can come together and mess it up, exchange ideas, the result is really good. You see things in a different way. A scientist might see it one way while a designer thinks how they see it, putting lots of different approaches together is interesting. Design and art are fundamental in everything in life. People see it as separate but I see it as fundamental.

You’re also an advisor to businesses on sustainable design, creativity, and retail as well as a mentor to emerging designers. What is the best advice you have ever received and given?

The best advice my mother gave me was ‘seek and you shall find’ which I guess means ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’. So I think if you want to do something, you’ve got to find a way to achieve it. There’s always ways of doing it. You’ve got to be inventive and adaptable. In terms of giving advice, it’s so simple but just do it. Just do it. It’s a cliché but if you stick to what you believe in and follow you’re instinct, you’ll achieve it.

You’re a tireless supporter of non-profit organisations – you’re a supporter of animal-welfare advocacy group, Voiceless; one of Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project presenters; an ambassador for 1 Million Women; and a judge for the Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Awards. What drives you to be an advocate for change?

I guess being involved with people doing good things, giving my support to things I really believe in is really rewarding. I think apathy is not a good thing. If someone is doing something really good I want to support them. I guess because if we all did nothing it would be a bit sad. I love the feeling of potential, of an idea. That’s the most exciting thing. I believe many drops make an ocean.

You launched Happy Talk last year at Art & About: an initiative that fosters collaboration in the design and arts communities. Is that an ongoing project for you?

That was something started together with Heidi Dokulil. For our first project, we built a pavilion in Hyde Parkfrom local materials, that had an extensive program of events and interactive workshops. It was a multifaceted project that looked at resourcefulness, traditional skills with contemporary uses and the culture and crafts of our Pacific neighbours. It is an ongoing project, and we have exciting plans for 2012 and the future.

You’re married to Sam Marshall of Architect Marshall, the architect behind the new MCA wing. Have you collaborated on design projects in the past or do you have any future plans to work together?

Yes, we are lucky because we are extremely similar in our approach to things, and to design. If we go to a gallery we like the same painting. We have the same taste in houses. We laugh and say we don’t even have to talk because we are both thinking the same thing. In our general life we collaborate domestically and we are very much continuing and expanding on this together. Sam’s work on the MCA has been a 10-year project so I can hardly believe it’s about to finish. It’s going to be very exciting. I can’t wait to see it filled with art and people.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for designers in the 21 century?

I think what is really important, is the whole cradle to cradle philosophy of creating. It’s important to consider why you are designing something. We need to think about what effect making this work has. What benefits can it bring; we need to look at it in the big picture. And probably the way of selling a product is going to be different. We see retail going through a big shift and there’s going to be different ways of exchange. Now we look at things, and it’s about life, how we live, how we eat, where we sleep, your surrounds. People used to design things, make it and then chuck it away. Those days are definitely over because there is no ‘away’.

You went to art school at COFA in Sydney. Do you think students of today are any different to students when you were at art school?

I’d have to say I’m extremely impressed with students I’ve met. You have to get a very high mark to get into art school now, so you see lots of extremely smart, dedicated, knowledgeable, professional people coming through. When I went to art school you had to get an okay mark but it was based more on your portfolio. I think there was more freedom in those days. I think maybe it’s more focussed on an approach to a profession these days. In a way, I’d like to see everything loosen up a bit because the business approach to the world is just one approach, it’s not the only approach. In this culture it’s dominant. In different cultures, it’s not that way.  And when you look at some of happiest places, people are living simply with the environment around them. I’d like there to be a shift to what brings you to happiness, a shift to simpler things.

What do you think it means to be creative?

I think creativity can be applied to anything – cooking, dressing. It is about doing things in your own way. I think if you create something and do it your own way it makes everybody feel good. I’d love to see more of it and more of it encouraged. It is simple but very rewarding. When you look at kids, you can throw anything on table and they’ll just go for it, and that raw creativity, that’s a wonderful approach to life. I think they start to lose that once they get to school and they’re told, ‘you can’t draw now’ and that’s the end of that. I think also, there’s no denying that the world is changing so fast and we’re not even surprised at how fast anymore. I think having a more creative approach makes you adaptable. I think if you’re very set in your ways it is harder to adapt and you’ll be happier if you have an open mind and you can look at a range of possibilities.

Who are some of you favourite creative people?

My heroes are Charles and Ray Eames. There were just so many facets to their studio. There was so much variety and their approach looked like so much fun. And it’s timeless. I also love simple things made by Japanese ceramicists, where you can see the hand of the person who made it. Another hero is David de Rothschild who created the Plastiki boat out of plastic bottles. He took a problem and made it a solution. And Yayoi Kusama who is in her eighties and still has bright red hair and still does things her own way. She seems to have a very creative approach to life.

What comes next for you?

At the moment it is a balance between physical creative projects and working with people and ideas sharing. I love the hands on creative process. I like a mixture of projects. This keeps it moving and keeps it interesting. I love the unexpected, I love the potential. The spark of ideas of is what I love.

Her unique label ‘Podtex’ uses waste packaging to create innovative textile pieces and digitally-printed fabrics that create awareness and provoke thought around sustainability in fashion.

This fascinating production video shows Rachel creating magnificent textiles out of used Nespresso Coffee pods.

PODTEX from Tim Doldissen on Vimeo.

“I am trying to create awareness by starting a serious conversation in a playful way about waste in the environment, particularly with how we all consume clothing and food,” says Rachel.

“We do not have the luxury to continue on as we have – using so much packaging in just a coffee and accepting all the perils associated with fast fashion garments,” she says.

“These garments really are not a bargain. The environment and the people who manufactured them get short changed in the process.”

Rachel got her inspiration for Podtex on a recent trip to India, where she witnessed the local people up-cycling various materials to use in their day-to-day living. One such material was coconut fibre, which they use to make a strong rope known as coir, and finally souvenirs and paddle-powered houseboats.

“The resourceful nature of the people living in the backwaters of Kerala impressed me immensely, particularly how through necessity and ingenuity, they use what is available locally to sustain their community, without having a detrimental impact on their environment,” she says.

Rachel has been selected as a finalist in the Social Changemakers Exhibition and Art Prize. As such, she will be showing her new work of sustainable textile art, alongside other finalists at the Weave Arts Centre, Eveleigh, 13-22 April 2012.

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Well today is the birthday of an Australian icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, fondly known as the coathanger. Now eighty years old the Bridge has become a symbol of Sydney and of Australia, its arch shaped structure adding definition to the beautiful harbour and inspiring songs, artworks, photographs and poems like this one by Dorothy Auchterlonie’s (Green) 1940 poem Kaleidoscope:

“Twinkle Twinkle little stars
On a million motor- cars
Along the Harbour Bridge so high
Like a coat-hanger in the sky”

When the Bridge was formally opened on Saturday, 19 March 1932 the ceremony went awry. Labor Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang was about to open the bridge by cutting a ribbon at its southern end. As Lang was about to cut the ribbon, a man in military uniform rode in on a horse, slashing the ribbon with his sword and opening the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the name of the people of New South Wales before the official ceremony began. He was promptly arrested.

The ribbon was hurriedly retied and Lang performed the official opening ceremony. The intruder was identified as Francis De Groot. He was convicted of offensive behaviour and fined £5 after a psychiatric test proved he was sane. He was a member of a right-wing paramilitary group called the New Guard opposed to Lang’s leftist policies and resentful of the fact that a member of the Royal Family had not been asked to open the bridge.

Captain de Groot under arrest and being escorted away at opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge, 19 March 1932

This photograph showing the arrest is from the album of Eileen Marjorie Bowker, secretary to J.J.C. Bradfield, during the construction of the Bridge which he planned as Chief Govt Engineer for NSW.

In 1815 Francis Greenway had proposed building a bridge from the northern to the southern shore of the harbour. It wasn’t until after World War I that more serious plans started.

A general design for the Sydney Harbour Bridge prepared by Chief Govt Engineer for NSW, Dr J J C Bradfield and officers of the NSW Department of Public Works. The New South Wales Government then invited worldwide tenders for the construction of the Bridge in 1922 and the contract was let to English firm Dorman Long and Co of Middlesbrough. The Sydney Harbour Bridge construction started in 1924 and took 1,400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Six million hand driven rivets and 53,000 tonnes of steel were used in its construction. It now carries eight traffic lanes and two rail lines, one in each direction.

The Museum has a broad collection of objects linked to the Bridge opening on 18th March 1932 including this commemorative booklet with photographs by Harold Cazneaux featured below.

`The Bridge Book', paper, Harold Cazneaux/Sydney Ure Smith, Australia, 1930. Collection Powerhouse Museum

At the Harbour Bridge’s 75th anniversary a major community celebration took place
including lighting of the bridge at sunset. 200,000 people registered by e-mail to walk across the Bridge, which was closed to traffic from 4am to 10.30pm.

Model, 'Sydney Harbour Bridge', shell / fabric, made by Mavis Longbottom and Lola Ryan, La Perouse, Australia, 1986

A range of bridge inspired art and decorative art has been created over the 80 years of the bridge’s existence including this remarkable shell work. Made by sisters Mavis Longbottom and Lola Ryan who began making and selling shellwork when they were children. Their family sold shell wares at the Royal Easter Show and Paddy’s Markets during the 1920s. Mrs Longbottom described the work as ‘a very hard business. We used to have to go to Kurnell in the ferry and walk from there to Cronulla to get the shells. My father used to carry sugar bags full of shells back to Kurnell’. Shellwork has been sold to Europeans for over a century. The craft, which continues today, was introduced by missionaries. Records show that by the 1880s Aboriginal women were selling shell baskets at Circular Quay and La Perouse. Today, women decorate a variety of contemporary tourist icons, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Although not a traditional Indigenous art form, the skill of shellworking has often been handed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter.

Recently the Bridge has inspired another artwork this time by lace maker, Alice Vokac who was inspired by an image of the Harbour Bridge she said:

I found a photo of the opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge, the day De Groot beat the Premier of New South Wales by galloping past on his horse with a sword to cut the ribbon. The image fascinated me. The overwhelming steel structure hooked me completely. It suited the technique of lace making so perfectly.

Model, 'Sydney Harbour Bridge', shell / fabric, made by Mavis Longbottom and Lola Ryan, La Perouse, Australia, 1986

This work is on display until April 2013 in the Love Lace exhibition at the Museum, the exhibition curator Lindie Ward describes the Harbour Bridge as “Sydney’s best loved open work structure”.

How did two guys, Steve Wozniak an electronic circuit genius and Steve Jobs drifting in from the edge of the late 1960s early 70s counterculture make this happen? They developed and produced devices and applications that introduced us to personal computing, forging a path through to desk top publishing, imaging and audio all the way to mobile media players, phones and now touch screen tablets.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, 1976

There are a number of key influencing factors that can take you through this extraordinary success story.

Recently appointed Apple CEO, Tim Cook is credited with reducing inventory and pulling Apple out of manufacturing through the closure factories and warehouses around the world from the late 1990s through the mid 2000s. Cook came from procurement where supply chain, inventory, manufacturing and warehousing are all controlled. He fine tuned the supply chain reducing shelf to store cycle from two months to only to two days. Through inventory simplification Apple products could include the latest components and saved a lot of money.

One thing Apple does extremely well is design. Not just the outside but the inside and the space between you and the product where lies desire and ease of use.

Apple continually succeeded in identifying poorly conceived, designed and executed products and remade them to fit their principles and exacting standards.

Diamond Rio PMP300, 1998

A quick glance through the history of 20th century product design reveals remarkably similar success stories. Through periods of rapid technological change these companies and individuals identified deficiencies in existing products leading them to innovate, reinvent, redesign and present products that like Apple, displayed clarity of purpose in their designs.

When we look for another example of how designers and engineers took existing products and reinvented them we find individuals like the Castiglioni brothers whose work for Brionvega took existing forms and drastically altered them to fit a modernist design ethos.

Braun T3 transistor radio, designed by Dieter Rams, 1958

There are extraordinary stylistic similarities between the modern post war domestic electronics by the German company Braun, and Apple products 40 years on. There is a consistent use of white, brushed metal finishes, clear and translucent materials, a type of ‘retro styling’ and an application of a purity of form. They are sleek, simplified shapes with gentle curved corners and controls that are remarkably easy to understand and use. In this way both Apple and Braun avoided confusion and presented a ‘calm face’ at a time when the rate of advancement in technology was becoming distressing and disconcerting. This strategy can be traced back to the ideals of the Bauhaus School of Design coupled with manufacturing strategies to deal with mass production.

Marcello Nizolli also reinvented the lettera 22 typewriter for Olivetti through a designer / engineer collaboration that introduced new techniques for product manufacture and assembly. This resulted in mechanically simplified and beautifully finished products that Apple’s designer has emulated with finishes that conceal all forms of fastening.

lettera 22, designed by Marcello Nizolli for Olivetti, 1959

Perhaps the most important steps Apple made along the way were in the realm of computer / human interface design. Apple identified interface methods from exiting computer research and brought them to market in their machines. Apple designers and engineers applied these methods to existing devices to help eliminate any trace of tedium in their operation.

The mouse and the Graphical User Interface (GUI) borrows from Doug Englebart’s late 1960s Human Computer Interaction research and development, via the Xerox Alto from Palo Alto. Their decision to refine Doug Englebart’s mouse and the Alto’s GUI in the Mac (1984) almost singlehandedly started the personal computer revolution. What Apple successfully did in the presentation and development of this environment is employ the most intuitive symbols and a dynamic flow to eliminate any labour in their operation to achieve what the uses wishes.

“Design should not dominate things, should not dominate people … it should help people.” Dieter Rams

The realisation had to wait, however, as the first stop on Munro’s Scholarship adventure (not counting a 48 hour bicycle adventure in Shanghai) was an internship with the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) at the Royal Collage of Art (RCA) in London. The HHCD is a social design company established to support RCA graduates. Besides offering graduates the opportunity to work with major clients, every project is focused on sustainable, inclusive design. The HHCD had been working on the Ambulance project for six years, in a mission to redesign the entire system of UK mobile healthcare. Munro was lucky enough to be involved in the final three months of the project. He helped out on with design detailing of an overhead patient monitor as well as designing the graphics for the entire full scale prototype. The final design was unveiled at the prestigious London Design Week.

By day Munro was helping on a project to redesign the London Ambulances, and by night he was running a free community arts centre in the inner-city suburb of Hackney, which began after Munro met a passionate collective of artists outside his London office. He joined forces on a large project to transform abandoned shopfronts into spaces which would benefit the community. Over the course of three months he helped to build two galleries, a theatre, a conscious cafe and numerous rehearsal spaces, and ran a huge range of performances, workshops and community events.

In London, learning inclusive design strategies really hit home for Munro. He realised very few people were accommodating users with special needs because they would argue it to be ‘too difficult’ or were ‘a niche market’. “When in actual fact it isn’t a niche market as everyone benefits from improved usability,” he said. “Inclusive design should be the norm.”

With the momentum that had built up over the three months in London, Munro ventured to Berlin to explore the underground arts scene. “If you ever want to put an exhibition on, go to Berlin!” Munro exclaims. “It’s so easy, everyone is incredibly enthusiastic and supportive of the arts, it’s filled with wonderful creative people and arts spaces are fantastic and more than cheap – they pay you!”

Munro arrived in Berlin knowing practically no one and it took only a month to ‘wriggle’ his way into the art scene. “Before I knew it I had 20 local and international artists keen to collaborate,” he said. They collectively hosted a night called ‘Creative Adventures,’ which offered artists from across the globe the opportunity to share and discuss their work.

However, Munro was unaware that despite the excitement of redesigning ambulances, building galleries around London and hosting exhibitions for Berlin’s underground arts community, the climax of the Scholarship was yet to begin – his internship in Amsterdam with his design hero Gijs Bakker.

“I have always been incredibly inspired by Gijs Bakker and his courage to be radical. The world needs more radicals to challenge consumerism, drive culture and generate discussion.”

Inside Gijs Bakker's studio in Amsterdam

According to Munro, Bakker, an internationally collected jeweller and designer (he was one of the founders of the famous Dutch design studio, Droog), is an exceptional conceptual thinker. Bakker has spent decades exploring human behavior and challenging our relationship with design. Munro spent two months at his studio in the hope that his ‘cheeky attitude would rub off’ on him a little.

While under his tutelage, the young designer was told that he was “being too much of a product designer, step back and think more!”. Something Munro admits he and his peers heard at university, but for some reason when it came from Gijs Bakker, he listened.

“With Bakker, I had the liberating realisation that sometimes you don’t need a market for your design,” said Munro. He explained, that design education is often geared toward mass production, as designers we come up with fantastic ideas but are often cut down by self doubt which makes us question ‘is there really a market for this?.’

“When in actual fact we’re allowed to create things outside the market. Design is also a form of expression and sometimes creating one piece for the sake of exploring an idea is enough to generate discussion. It can be mass communication as opposed to mass production,” he said.

Munro describes himself as a sustainable social designer. When asked what that means, he answers: “It means that if I received a brief to design a million useless plastic salad spinners I’d probably turn it down.” The designer believes designers have lost their ability to empathize with users and certain environments, instead becoming obsessed with consumerism and ‘celebrity’ at the environment’s expense. “The up side is, it has forged a place for design within business and society, now it’s time to return design to its original intention and get on with things,” he proclaims with sharp optimism.

Since returning home to Sydney, Munro says he is more passionate than ever about social design. He carries this enthusiasm with him when he tutors at UTS, Sydney and in the near future, he will continue working with Christian Tietz on various environmental health projects, as well as continuing other projects overseas.

“It’s an exciting time for design as minds are opening and people are slowly beginning to care. I’m looking forward to working on a range of projects to nurture this shift.”

www.tasmanmunrodesign.com

The Raspberry Pi is $35 computer with no keyboard, monitor or case. It aims to give schoolchildren (hence the rest of us) a chance to learn the basics of programming and how a computer actually works.

The Raspberry Pi is the product of nonprofit organisation, The Raspberry Pi Foundation, a UK registered charity that wants to foster programming skills among students and promote the study of computer science.

The previously released Model A Raspberry Pi now has 256Mb RAM, one USB port and no Ethernet (network connection). The Model B has 256Mb RAM, 2 USB port and an Ethernet port.

The Guardian website recently produced a video (below) to look at how easy it is to set up, browse the web and write code.

Two British companies, Premier Farnell and RS Components will manufacture and distribute the Raspberry Pi on behalf of The Raspberry Pi Foundation.

The transformation of the building into a new home for the Design Museum is scheduled to be completed in late 2014. It will offer three times more exhibition space, vastly improved learning facilities and a dedicated space in which to display the museum’s Collection.

The move will allow the new Design Museum to become a word class centre for design, nurturing local British talent and its international influence on design of all kinds. It will bring the museum into Kensington’s cultural quarter, where it will join the V&A, Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal College of Art and Serpentine Gallery.

The former Commonwealth Institute is regarded by English Heritage as second only to the Royal Festival Hall in its significance to post-war architecture in London. The Institute was designed by Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall and located next to Holland Park.

This much loved modern landmark from the 1960s, a grade 2* listed building, has stood vacant for the past decade. It will be carefully remodelled for museum use by John Pawson.

John Pawson’s body of work includes Calvin Klein Collection’s flagship store in Manhattan, an airport lounge for Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong, a condominium for Ian Schrager on New York’s Gramercy Park, a 50-metre ketch and sets for new ballets at London’s Royal Opera House and the Opéra Bastille in Paris.

Exterior image of the new Design Museum at the Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington, London.

Entrance Foyer. John Pawson Ltd. Image by Alex Morris Visualisation.

The New Design Museum from Design Museum on Vimeo.

Made from handspun and hand-woven natural brown wool harvested from local sheep, djellabas like this are of the type traditionally worn by Moroccan men during the winter. The cut is straight and fairly capacious to allow for clothes to be worn underneath. It covers the whole body, enabling the wearer to practise the modesty in dress required by Islam, while the pointed hood, known as a cob, provides vital protection from the winter cold. Lighter weight summer djellabas also have hoods which protect the wearer from sun and often sand.

Close inspection of the djellaba reveals how beautifully it has been constructed. The edges and seams are finished and decorated with narrow hand-made mauve silk braid. This type of braid is worked in place on the garment using a card-weaving technique intriguingly similar to that used to make the zeh edging common on garments and textiles from Central Asia. To make the braid, mauve silk warp threads were laid along the seam or edge and manipulated backwards and forwards around a continuous weft thread, which was passed between them and through the ground cloth, forming stitches perpendicular to the edge in the manner of buttonhole stitch.

This djellaba was made in the craft town of Chaouen (also known as Chefchaouen), situated in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco, just inland from Tangier. Chaouen was founded in the 1400s by Moorish exiles from Spain; it became part of Spanish Morocco in 1920, but was released back to Morocco on becoming independent in 1956. Chaouen is well known for its excellence in the crafts, which include brassware, pottery and leather work as well as weaving.

This djellaba was bought in Chaouen by the Australian woman who has now donated it to the Museum. When travelling in Morocco in winter in the early 1970s, she bought it to keep warm; it was only afterwards, on finding herself a source of amusement for local women and children, that she discovered her djellaba was of the kind worn by men. Generally speaking, women’s djellabas are of different materials, more close-fitting and decorated with colourful embroidery.

Finally, those readers who think they may have seen a hooded woollen robe like this before are probably Star Wars fans.  It was the design of the Moroccan djellaba that inspired the hooded robes worn by Alec Guinness as Obi-wan-kenobe and the other valiant Jedi Knights in the Star Wars films.

First published in Powerline, Spring 2011

During the 16-day expedition, Mushin will study the continent’s fragile ecosystem and unique wildlife and assess the viability of adapting the self-sustaining aquaponics farming system he is co-developing in Melbourne for the E-base research station on King George Island in the Antarctic Peninsula.

“I expect to learn a lot about Antarctic ecology and marine systems which will feed into my E-idea project,” said Stephen, referring to his aquaponics system which he is developing through a British Council and Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) programme also known as Big Green Idea.

silverbeet harvest 2011

“There are already many hydroponic systems in Antarctica – including one designed by NASA – but no aquaponic systems due to strict quarantine controls on importing live fish,” Mushin says. “However I propose developing a salt water system which farms Antarctic Krill (to eat) and Edible Seaweeds. Such a system would enable the E-base to be self sufficient in food as well as renewable energy and would be an exciting demonstration of Antarctic ecology.”

“LRQA are delighted to be supporting Stephen on this significant adventure,” says Simon Batters, LRQA Project Director for E-idea. “Stephen won his place, which was open to all 40 E-idea 2011 Project leaders, after making a compelling application for his role and contribution to the expedition. We wish Stephen and all those travelling to Antarctica a safe and successful trip and look forward to the outputs with keen anticipation.”

Mushin will also draw on his experiences in Antarctica to complete the graphic novel he is illustrating which is set on the continent and begins with the disintegration of Larson B ice-shelf, a 3250km2 chunk of ice, owing to the effects of climate change. Mushin will chronicle the journey through video and film and has been approached by the film production house infinity² who have proposed to do a documentary about him as part of a series on multidisciplinary designers.

Mushin is participating in the 16-day expedition thanks to funding provided by Lloyd’s Register Group.

Held on the centenary year of British explorer’s Robert Scott’s heroic and ill-fated journey to the South Pole, the expedition will depart from Ushaia, Argentina and sail via the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula. As the ship – Sea Spirit – sails south, experts on the environment, climate change, and sustainable development will give presentations on the wildlife, geology, history and geography of the Antarctic Peninsula, and Robert Swan will deliver his personal leadership and sustainability programme “Leadership on the Edge.”

Once they reach the Antarctic Peninsula, Mushin and his shipmates will board inflatable zodiacs to cruise along spectacular ice shelves, follow whales feeding near the surface and make numerous shore landings in such sites as Cuverville Island, which is home to some 40,000 penguins.

Expedition leader Robert Swan is the first person to walk to both the North and South poles. He has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica by promoting recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change through his 2041 project and public-speaking activities.

Aquaponic system

“It is our mission to inform, engage and inspire the next generation of leaders to take responsibility, be sustainable, and know that now is the time for action in policy development, sustainable business generation and future technologies,” says Swan. “The IAE will inspire [the participants] to return home and create change on the personal level, the community level, the corporate and beyond.”

Antarctica holds 90% of the world’s ice and 70% of the world’s fresh water, but says Swan, “Scientists forecast significant warming and reduction of sea ice surrounding Antarctica over the 21st century, all of which will contribute to rising sea levels and climate change.”

“We are delighted that Stephen has been selected to join the International Antarctic Expedition as it will enable him to conduct important research on his E-idea aquaponics farming project which has great potential for development in Australia and in the Pacific Islands and could one day make Antarctic research stations self sufficient in food and renewable energy,” says Nick Marchand, Director British Council Australia.

To view video on Stephen Mushin and aquaponics click here