designswarm thoughts

It’s election day tomorrow in London and it’s been sort of entertaining and depressing at the same time to follow the campaign (I’ve been keeping track of the one on the other side of the pond through the excellent Bagnews notes).
It’s almost like we’re collectively confused about the difference between entertainment and politics.
Chris’s excellent links on this issue here.

Random thoughts triggered by Nicola’s link.

What if what was going to be a major roadblock to ubiquitous computing is the idea that as users, we want to be able to point to where a “technology-enabled” object lies? That we cannot live with the idea that we no longer have an on/off relationship like the one we have with our phone or laptop. Can we come to accept the implications of “ubiquitousness” and give up the ability to encapsulate technology in our hands, inside a thing we can kick, curse or accuse?

Can we accept that we may no longer be able to see where exactly technology operates because it’s unevenly distributed and invisible? For John Doe, questions will arise like how much technology is ubiquitous technology? How distributed and where is it distributed and for what purpose? It’s not only going to be a preoccupation of the systems but of the urban human psyche, it will affect how we relate to technology in general and our perception of it as something that is controllable or something much closer to Big Brother: controlling, everywhere and impatient.

This really depresses me. I think issues of sustainability are quickly going to have to move beyond the Treehugger attitude that “every little counts”, because our way of life and the economics attached to it is literally killing people as we speak.

It really isn’t going to cut it to act as if we weren’t the ones dramatically affecting the planet and I don’t think that pointing to China is helpful at all at the moment. And I don’t think the changes we need will come from grass-root movements either sadly. As Bruce Sterling highlighted, 3 years ago,we aren’t acting quickly enough to have the type of impact we need. Governments and corporations will have to make the biggest and most important steps.

In Amélie Nothomb’s book, Peplum, set in the year 2580, the main character learns that under the weight of guilt and responsibility that developing countries posed to the western world, the southern hemisphere was eradicated entirely. How crazy does that sound at the moment?

2 days to go to the glamourous and always exhausting Salone del Mobile.

Hopefully I will have time to see more things as last year I was exhibiting Topoware with Karola. Looking forward to some apperitivos with old friends and new ones.

If you’re in town, ping me!

Spotted on the world’s favorite waste of time: FB.

I don’t want to look like I’m crying wolf here, but certainly you can’t ignore the signs.

From why design conferences should be better to how we should design ouselves out of consumer culture ending with Stark himself saying it’s all a bit shit really, things don’t sound too good for product design at the moment.

Tweetclouds.

There’s clearly something wrong with the delivery of a service if it makes me think “oh what a waste”. This reflects poorly on the company, it’s brand and it’s supposed values, especially when I’m already aware I’m being unsistainable by using the service.

1st example:
Last week during a doze on the Eurostar a member of staff woke me up (!!!) by pushing a leaflet on me that described what their specials were at the restaurant car. I always valued the Eurostar experience as one of the best, especially their ability to generally leave me alone to just enjoy the ride. This has definitely changed things as not only are they wasting a lot of paper for trivial advertising but they actually encourage rude behavior from their staff.
2nd example:
Today on the Gatwick express, I bought a bottle of water, only to have a napkin given to me with it. Did I look like I could spill it all over the place? I realised it was made in the Netherlands for Starbucks and had the clever and oh so ironic “less napkins, more plants, more planet” printed on it. As you’re being handed a napkin so uselessly, this tagline really is reduced to hypocritical corporate advertising.

So according to the cleverness of the internets, I have 123 readers (through rss at least).

That’s much bigger than I thought, especially considering how many blogs on “design” are out there. So I thought I’d stop and say:

Sorry for the more than one paragraph-long rants.
Sorry for the small type.
Sorry for being so damn demanding and critical.
Thanks for following.