mirror/drink by maia love

Riddle: What am I? Transparent in a tipped glass, glistening on your lower lip before cascading down your throat, nourishing your cells. Melting off a mountain ice-block, somersaulting over stones, pooling in a mirror form before streaming down your pipes to land splash into your glass. As wealthy as diamonds, precious as platinum, rare as air. Escaping skyward as we gently slowly heat our globe-shaped home . . .

Dance piece by Maia Love.
Filmography by Hans Christian Berger.
Video edit by Moira Simpson.

Performed at the Vancouver Design Nerd's Jam at Recollective, April 2009.

raftacular

It was always my intention to keep the RAFT project going after school. It was always my intention to develop a simple design that could be scalable, adaptable, modular and work with materials at hand. I am so grateful for having met the fantastic people at eatART who are now supporting (and storing) this project at the hangar. Our mutual love for the sea as well as things like civil disobedience, energy awareness, creativity, invention, and general mayhem brought us all together this weekend, dressed like pirates, armed with a potato canon and ready for adventure. ( : So fun!!!

hello, lawrence weiner

I recently saw a Lawrence Weiner (and John Baldessari) show at the Apt. I went with Alex and Katrin which was a treat in of itself. I hadn't heard of either of the artists before this week. It was a private showing so we learned a lot about conceptual art and 'the business of. Alex asks the best questions. And since then (of course) I recognize the names. So you can imagine the delight of seeing this short video which I first saw on Kara's fabulous oliveisgreen. Check it oot.

RAFT :: being held hostage in gallery

Conceived as a floating structure, built mostly of salvaged materials, the project component of my thesis (RAFT) is used as a way to test and work through the creative possibilities that surround slow design. I use RAFT as a research tool – a conceptual and physical sounding board to uncover and develop a template for practicing slow design. The method was conceived primarily for industrial designers, and therefore more often than not includes a physical product output. It has the ability to transfer to other forms of sustainable design and production.

primed - opening!

Thanks to mandroid for taking these!!!

primed

hello out there,
my grad show is coming up quick!
just want to have here for the record; the river; the stream; the flow; the blog.
i installed the RAFT in there this afternoon.
i have to say i'm running on a low tank these days.
nothing a little pulverized pineapple, banana, and wheat grass can't fix.
still lots to do. but when is there not?

ready for the next chapter.

grass chair

I'm liking this image.
Something like this with the RAFT for our grad show could work.
Very finished yet there is a time element with the two objects.

RAFT- test launch

days to come

giant snow flakes are falling from the sky and i'm working from home today. i am making little plans in my mind. i want to collaborate everywhere all the time. little plans to upload my thesis paper here. to paint. to throw paint. to make music. to post photos. to write a short story about the sea. RAFT is coming along nicely. might even see a test launch this weekend, weather permitting.

1 more month of school. thesis defense is end of april. grad show is april 30th. convocation is may 3rd. bang bang BANG.

then?

work. work. travel. travel. fun. FUN. work.

RAFT as platform

Updated sketches coming soon to a scanner near you. and who is YOU? aha I get a kick out that question. It's very Modest Mouse.

Age, gender, culture all play a role in influencing temporal perception. Jones describes cultures as having a "future time perspective" (a high value placed on distal or future goals) and a "present time perspective" (a high value placed on proximal goals) and argues that the specific demands of the culture one lives in create environments that demand a particular temporal perspective (Jones 1988). Further research on the perceived flow of time finds that perceptions of time have been linked to changes in well-being. Under pressure, the sense that time for an activity is scarce, has been associated with stress, fatigue and diminished physical and mental health (Larson, 2006). Conversely, that pressure is lifted when we carve out space for unstructured or leisure time, though not always an easy task. The Time-Pressure Illustion: Discretionary Time vs. Free Time was an Austrailian research study (2004) that explored whether the ‘time pressure’ that people feel they are under is real or imagined – or, more precisely, whether it is a matter of choice or of necessity. The study finds that those who feel most overworked – those who have least ‘free time’ – largely do it to themselves.

sketches

evo lives on

I entered evo (my carleton ID grad project) into the core 77 / inhabitat / greener gadgets design competition. and received a notable mention. Cool! So did terry and shane. go carleton. Check it out over here. I'm flattered that 4 years later, the same design could even qualify for being green. Approaching emotional durability.



Eternally yours,
Sarah

thinking slow

Slow design is contextual so its definition changes depending on the scale and situation. To me it means taking the necessary time to consider as many facets around who and what the designed thing (object, system, experience) will effect over time. This includes the environment, the producers and the consumers, in the short run and long run. I am making an effort to expand the time frame in which I operate so looking at projects like the 10 000 year all mechanical clock designed by the Long Now Foundation. Extreme yes, but they are actually building the thing in order to talk about applied long term thinking.

A typical intended outcome of a slow design process is to effectively slow down the flow of materials and/or pace of life. Less consuming equals less waste. Careful planning equals less waste. Taking 2 extra minutes to crush the cans and bottles from mad max and bring them up the dock equals less waste. To me slow design adds yet another layer on top of all the eco / sustainable design strategies I've been learning about through school, the green building world and my current job. I feel like slow implies a sensibility around the way we consume that is not about sacrifice but rather quality and pleasure. It also doesn't mean we have to walk every where and do every thing slowly but more about taking the necessary amount of time to understand what is often hidden behind the shiny surface and the allure of bigger better faster now. Because it's killing us.

And there's my slow rant for now. Time to go to work.