Matali Crasset talk: 17 August, Sydney

Matali Crasset: hospitality, generosity, technology

"Paris-based designer Matali Crasset will share her fascinating perspective on design at the Powerhouse Museum as she delivers the international keynote lecture for Sydney Design 06.

Matali Crasset is an award winning industrial designer with work stretching across a broad range of mediums including interiors, graphics, objects, furniture, wallpaper and electronic products.

Using bold graphic conventions, Matali’s designs are provocative, playful and fun. She explores notions of domestic and urban spaces while gently questioning and challenging the way we live our lives. Her highly philosophical approach to design encourages us to reconsider how we engage with our environment, subversion is at the heart of her practice.

“I’m interested in thinking about other possibilities. Not necessarily to change the world, that’s not my goal, but to present another alternative for living. That alternative might be more contemporary and it might reflect a greater awareness or fit more with what we have in our heads.” says Crasset.

After graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure de Création, Matali worked on design and architecture projects with Italian designer Denis Santachiaria in Milan. She then returned to Paris and was soon taken under the wing of design luminary Philippe Starck who she worked with for five years at Thomson Multimedia and then Tim Thom, Thomson’s design centre. In 1998 she set up her own design studio, a multidisciplinary practice with a mix of industrial, graphic and interior design.

Matali’s interior design projects range from the HI Hotel in Nice the Red Cell advertising agency in Paris, an apartment in Beijing and the renovation of an 18th century palazzo in the Italian city of Padua. Her work has been exhibited internationally in public museums such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Fond National d’Art Contemporain, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Francesco Capelo collection, Lisbon. Most recently her work was shown at the Milan Furniture Fair 2006 and she currently has a solo exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in New York."

Thursday, 17 August 5.30pm for 6.30pm
Powerhouse Museum, Coles Theatre
500 Harris St. Ultimo
Cost: $35/30 members & concession (includes refreshments, museum entry and exhibition viewing).
Bookings essential (02) 9217 0222, moshtix.com.au

W: http://www.sydneydesign.com.au/sd06/?s=program&id=5

Lost Bears flickr group

Photos of lost bears.

W: http://flickr.com/groups/lostbears/pool/

TED Talks

"Each year, TED hosts some of the world's most fascinating people: Trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses. The talks they deliver have had had such a great impact, we thought they deserved a wider audience. So now - with our sponsor BMW and production partner WNYC/New York Public Radio we're sharing some of the most remarkable TED talks with the world at large. Each week, we'll release a new talk, in audio and video, to download or watch online..."

W: http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/

Fashion blogs

Article in the SMH on fashion blogs titled: 'Let slip the blogs of wore'.

W: http://www.smh.com.au/news/fashion/let-slip-the-blogs-of-wore/2006/07/26/1153816248787.html

Book review: Hello Laziness

Hello Laziness by Corinne Maier. Book review by Harvey Chan.

(Bonjour Paresse)
If you are someone who has corporate aspirations, really motivated and loyal do well for your firm, then this is not the book for you.

This international bestseller really took Europe by storm. Its a witty, intelligent, irreverent wake up call about whats going on under the covers in a big corporation. Its not even 'work smarter, not harder', more like 'Work harder at not working at all'!

Corinne Maier is a part time economist for Electricite de France(EdF), her book sets about tearing away at the idealistic view of the machinations of a company, its management, and their loyalty to their people, and replacing it with a much darker, more cynical view of the motives behind corporate activities.

She starts rather gently, telling you flat out that corporations don't care about you. She touches on some lighter topics like the 'language of business' and how
to decode it, to warnings to individualists to get out while they can, identifying types of managers and fellow workers, then dives deeper and deeper in the subtleties of corporate culture like 'corporate strategy' or 'ethics'. Even the IT department doesn't escape her acid analysis - she has a whole section set aside for them.

But don't think that this book is whimsical and shallow. The author has reinforced her analysis with facts and figures to structure and defend her argued conclusions. And she doesn't just tell you how bad things are, she often provides (subversive) views about everything, and methods to avoid or fight them. She's not afraid of drawing inspiration from a range of eclectic sources to describe things, using quotes and analogies from the likes of other significant books in this anti-establishment genre, such as No Logo: No Space, No Choice, to Globalization and its
Discontents, to of course, The Dilbert Principle. The author is French, so there is an intriguing list of French material cited in the book.

In conclusion, The book reads like Harvard Business Review version of Dilbert, and is worth a look for an offbeat intelligent read, perhaps to be offered an alternative perspective on business, and perhaps to compare notes with what you have already learnt - just don't let your manager catch you reading it.

What Kind of Genius Are You?

Article on Wired online. "A new theory suggests that creativity comes in two distinct types – quick and dramatic, or careful and quiet...

Galenson "has found is that genius – whether in art or architecture or even business – is not the sole province of 17-year-old Picassos and 22-year-old Andreessens. Instead, it comes in two very different forms, embodied by two very different types of people.

“Conceptual innovators,” as Galenson calls them, make bold, dramatic leaps in their disciplines. They do their breakthrough work when they are young. Think Edvard Munch, Herman Melville, and Orson Welles. They make the rest of us feel like also-rans. Then there’s a second character type, someone who’s just as significant but trudging by comparison. Galenson calls this group “experimental innovators.” Geniuses like Auguste Rodin, Mark Twain, and Alfred Hitchcock proceed by a lifetime of trial and error and thus do their important work much later in their careers. Galenson maintains that this duality – conceptualists are from Mars, experimentalists are from Venus – is the core of the creative process. And it applies to virtually every field of intellectual endeavor, from painters and poets to economists..."

W: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/genius.html

Street-smart innovators - 27 July

"Business Review Weekly’s recent “Innovation” issue highlighted an important truth: “Successful innovators don’t need to be big, they just need to THINK big.”

This month LTC treats you to two highly successful, remarkable young innovators who did just that:

Anthony Bell, Bell Partners — BRW’s “No. 1 Most Productive Firm” and “10th Fastest-Growing Firm”. At just 35, this industry leader is a popular advisor to many of Australia’s highest-profile businesspeople and celebrities.

Bahar Etminan, Brandmakers – The press call her “The Cosmetic Queen.” A stand-out young entrepreneur, Bahar runs a leading cosmetic distribution company and has become a formidable force in the beauty industry.
Both are excellent presenters, with a wealth of experience to help you grow your business and career..."

W: http://www.lastthursdayclub.net/nextevent.asp

Comedian Russell Peters

Article in SMH: "Most Australians have never heard of Russell Peters, but if the Canadian-Indian comedian is worried by his low profile in the mainstream media, he isn't letting on. Without any advertising, Peters, who has built a cult following thanks to the video clips of his stand-up shows that circulate on the internet, has managed to sell out four shows at the Enmore Theatre. All the tickets went within four hours and he has hastily arranged a return visit in December. "I say that the people decide who the stars are these days - the media has nothing to do with it," he says..."

W: http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/a-funny-way-to-get-a-cult/2006/07/10/1152383678516.html

Adobe Live 2006 - free 2 day conference

Adobe Live 2006 - Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Sydney 17&18 July | Auckland 20&21 July
"Featuring presentations by our Worldwide Evangelists:

Alan Rosenfeld (Creative Suite) | Greg Rewis (Studio 8) | Jason Levine (Production Studio)

..Creating breakthrough experiences with Creative Suite, Studio 8 and Production Studio. With Macromedia's software now part of the Adobe solution we know you have questions. Hear about technology workflows and developments that will help you differentiate your communications now and in the future..."

W: http://www.adobe.com/au/adobelive

Phillip Adams podcasts

"Admitted Luddite Phillip Adams has a new regard for technology since discovering his Radio National program Late Night Live consistently leads the ABC podcasting chart. The program is downloaded to computers or portable MP3 players 100,000 times a week..."

W: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/01/1151174437778.html

Them's the Breaks

"Made to Break reveals the roots of our throwaway culture.."

W: http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2006/06/29/grossman/index.html

ICollect short films - Canberra and online

"From July 1 - 31, 2006 12 NOISE artists will have their fantastic short films on bizarre collections screened at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra...

Icollect is a dozen short films exploring artefacts, memories and objects."

W: http://www.noise.net/feature-display.asp?id=30

The World's Most Innovative Companies

"Their creativity goes beyond products to rewiring themselves... To discover which companies innovate best -- and why -- BusinessWeek joined with The Boston Consulting Group to produce our second annual ranking of the 25 most innovative companies. More than 1,000 senior managers responded to the global survey, making it our deepest management survey to date on this critical issue..."

Innovative companies include: Apple, Toyota and Virgin.

W: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_17/b3981401.htm