designswarm thoughts

Coming back from a trip to Israel reminded me about what it used to be like to commute to and from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in the 90s when I was young. There’s lot of stuff about sur and sousveillance and much digital ink has been spilt on the subject of security and fear, but airport interactions in 2008 either make you feel safe, afraid, frustrated or bored. From the long cues at Heathrow where you really feel you are wasting your time and might never see your luggage again, to the other end of the spectrum, embodied by my experience with  El Al.

The whole thing started because I was late. The truth is I hate flying long-haul as I get completely bored and usually drive Matt insane after a few hours. Living and traveling around Europe, I never usually have to deal with that particular issue as most flight last under 2 hours. A glorified bus.

After a number of poor timing and transportation decisions around London, I showed up at the El Al counter an hour before the flight. I immediately knew I was in trouble as the young assistants (one seemed to be about 19) started questioning me quite thouroughly: “Where are you going in Israel”, “Who do you know there”, “How long have you known them”, “Where did you study”, “What do you do”. This didnt feel like anything you’d get out of the Ryanair staff. The young women (there were 3 of them at that point) were looking at me quite intently as if they had already made up their mind that I was a danger to their airline and by extention, their country. There was absolutely no agressive behaviour, the tone of voice was not raised, but the suspicion lay under the surface. They then proceeded to put my luggage (I hadn’t checked in at that point you must remember) through an x-ray machine larger than your average kitchen. Something in my laptop bag disturbed one of the young women and she asked for it to be scanned at least 5 other times. My check-in luggage was then carefully put on a table, as one of the other young women proceeded to ask me more questions about where I had lived and tell me a bit about her own travel, opened, all carefully packed items removed one by one, inspected and swabbed for explosives.

I settled into a state I can only describe as submissive as my future clearly lay in their hands.

They then proceeded to tell me that my hand luggage would be waiting for me at the gate (this implied they didnt want me to add anything to it before I got into the plane) and that I had to get to the gate as fast as possible (ie “run Alex run”) because the flight was leaving soon. So with little other than my passport, boarding pass and iPod, I sprinted through El Al’s dedicated security line guarded by a policeman (soldier?) holding a machine gun.
I ran like my life depended on it across the terminal only to get to the gate and have to go through body search and x-ray all over again. At that point it was clear the flight had been delayed, so panting and coughing, I relaxed at last.
I guess at the time I booked my tickets, I had wanted to make it a more authentic experience and never thought I would get in the plane with respect for a country and a company I had never encountered before. Safety and security at it’s most literal level.

I’m in Tel Aviv. My nose is sun-burnt. It’s warm all the time. First vacation since backpacking in Spain in 2003 which was also the last time I went for a swim in the sea. Yes, yes, 4 days isn’t exactly long enough, but I take what I can get.
Note to self: should do this more often.

They may look unrelated but these words will save your life here.

Pants = underwear as opposed to trousers

Bin = garbage

Chips = fries

Crisps = chips (i know, very confusing)

Wanker = idiot

Peak oil

Peak technology

Peak blogging.

Things are starting to feel awkward.

Ok so I’ve been back for a week or so and thought I’d report back on this year’s Salone del Mobile visit in a more interesting way.

I think the internet is really good at reporting on the Salone work and I’m sure you’ve all read and seen pictures of the projects presented there, but it only encapsulates one side of the experience. For me, Salone is all about who I saw, who I met and who I sadly only got to wave at. Making plans during Salone is impossible, meetups get changed or canceled, getting from one side of the city to the next takes forever, so it’s really all about who you do get to see and where.
At Bar Basso late one night

Outside the Ingo Maurer exhibition

At Arabeschi di Latte tea room

Outside the Lexus exhibition hall

Inside Molo design exhibition

Something that’s starting to tick me off in the world of information visualisation goes back to why people found it interesting to begin with. When we didn’t know any better, we’d leave information visualisation to Powerpoint and Excel and only insiders and people who’d been to the right schools were able to make any sense of it. The meaning of the information was hidden behind a layer of understanding the average person lacked.

In an age of obsession with visually displaying information (thanks Mr Tufte) that is not directly accessible to us (such as how much carbon is being emitted, information is more accessible to the masses of course, but I’m wondering if that’s all there is to it. “Oh, wow, thats all lot!” is pretty much where information visualisation leaves me at the moment or “Oh, nice!”

We are at a pivital moment where we are collectively starting to suffer from doom’s-day fatigue and our ability to see into the future and observe the consequences of our everyday actions is trumped by these constant visualisations of the depressing “now”.
Part of being a responsible adult is supposed to be about taking responsability for our actions and understand that they have consequences is it not? Why can’t our technologies help us with that? I would like to see us move towards a world full of little everyday objects that give me a glimpse into the future if I keep doing things the way I do, total yearly bills based on my current usage, predictions about how much I’ll have to spend on food and how much weight I’ll gain if I keep at the current pace. It’s not prescriptive and I don’t think it’ll be depressing. It’s just making information I need to lead a sustainable life, more easily accessible and more empowering than simple clever reporting.

I guess that used to be on the next slide.

1. London doesn’t want you here, which is why the weather is always shit. It’s your job to carry an umbrella at ALL TIMES. Even on those sunny-looking days. It’s a trick, don’t lt it get you.

2. Always remember to comment on how shit the weather is, it’ll make you agreeable to the locals.

3. If you’re Canadian, when accused of being American, enjoy those few moments of embarrassment the person will go through, while finding a reason they really loooove Canada and have been skiing there once.

4. London still doesn’t want you here, which is why it’ll try driving you off the sidewalk by put half of its inhabitants in your way on Oxford Street. You need to develop an equally agressive and fast pace and directional skills usually required for video games.

5. Alcohol is social glue here. If you don’t want to become a functional alcoholic, and antisocial, make sure to pay for the next round, but leave enough in your glass to not end up drinking at everyone’s pace. (Remember, glasses are larger here as well so when they serve you a “large glass” of wine, that’s actually a quarter of a bottle.)

6. You are here  because you WANT to be here, not because the quality of life is high, believe me it isn’t .