New monthly podcast show from Cyber-Philanthropist Myles Dyer, containing open, honest & free-flowing conversations with guests from around the world about their life stories and what it can teach us about the human condition.
Quest for Global Empathy #7 – Rupert Read
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The Canadian artist’s creations are often layered in meaning, both theoretically and physically.
It can be difficult for some of us to admit that we have been influenced by our childhoods. We may want to forget some memories from those early years of life, even as we use other experiences from that period to inspire us in adulthood. For artist Samantha Sandbrook, her experiences as a child are part of what inspires her to create thoughtful pieces that comment, critique, and reflect on society.
With many children, the things that they care about are the things that they draw, but in Sandbrook’s case, what mattered to her were stories that came from literature.
“I started reading at a young age, and I really loved poetry. I also loved getting into historical characters, like Empress Joséphine,” recalls Sandbrook. As a child, her creative expression went beyond drawing and colouring, which she would do for hours at a time without noticing. That same feeling of timelessness would also occur when she read a book, as she became immersed in its characters. Similar to most of us when we were children, and even as adults, doing what she loves was her way of escaping to a separate world of personal comfort.
“I started doing little paintings of princesses, but as I grew up, they evolved into more romantic pieces, because I wanted to add more edgy, societal elements so that they are not just pretty pictures.”
For Sandbrook, the love of painting and reading started because of her parents, both of whom are teachers. Most people begin to think critically about culture and society in their mid-to-late teens, but Sandbrook was forced to so at an earlier age.
“My mother, who is an English teacher, made me read a book a week. At the end of each week, she would quiz me,” explains Sandbrook, before listing some of the questions that she would be asked to answer. “What is the thesis of the book? How did I feel about the imagery in the story? What are the symbols in the story? All of that thinking is built into my art today.”
As early as the 5th grade, Sandbrook was reading Jane Austen novels, and other works of literature, including Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, which she had to memorise.
“I did paintings about that lady, pining away, looking out the window for Sir Lancelot to come rescue her,” Sandbrook says. “Now, that’s not an attractive role for a woman to be in, because it is very passive. When I got older, I learned to criticise that very thing that I yearned for and loved.”
While her love of reading came from her mother, both parents gave her a love for art. According to Sandbrook, this was done through sternly suggested leisure time which she had to comply with. When both of your parents are teachers, following their suggestions is not optional.
“We got to travel to Europe almost every summer. We would do Europe on $50 (Canadian) a day,” remembers Sandbrook. “They brought me to many art galleries, because they had an interest. As an only child, I had no choice. The question for them was never Would Sam like this? It was always: You are going to fall in line and you will look at this gallery.”
Looking back, Sandbrook is not bitter, just grateful. “I loved it. Seeing all of that artwork at a young age would later influence my work as a professional.”
Another influence came from her grandfather, who built wooden displays for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He also used to make model boats, perfectly to scale, some of which can be found in museums across Canada. “That meticulous nature that my grandfather had, and that perfectionism, combined with my mother encouraging me to question what I was reading, informs my work today,” says Sandbrook.
With an artistic foundation that was laid in her childhood, Sandbrook has learned to see all creative disciplines as sharing commonalities, from fashion to architecture, and furniture to sculpture. It is why she is so adept at mixing media and art forms.
“I bring painting into my furniture design and sculptures, and I draw on them,” says Sandbrook, describing her approach to her work. “Everything starts from a concept, or a thesis that I want to attack. From there, I think about how it is going to be made. I can use wood with a highly lacquered surface, but I also like to use acrylic mixed with brasses, because I like the contrast in those materials. You can do beautiful three-dimensional pieces that speak on many different layers.”
Sandbrook’s work does not begin with a sketch or the stroke of a brush. Based on her upbringing, it will come as no surprise where she begins. “I start with words,” She says succinctly. The questions she tries to answer in her work come from those words.
“For my Imagine Console, I, like a lot of people, was feeling very sad about the state of society right now, especially in the U.S. It makes people feel very unstable. What shows instability? I was thinking about having the floor beneath my feet start moving, and about tectonic plates crossing over each other. All of the plates of the console table are shifting in time and space, which creates a type of instability. But then I still have this idea of a utopic vision of the world that I want to achieve. That is why the word IMAGINE is painted on it. The console shows the tension that I feel, where we are going through a period of shift and change, hopefully for the better.”
Her process of interrogating cultural and societal expressions can be seen in her wall sculptures, such as #Modern Love and I Still Love You. For the Antoinette wall sculpture, she uses 140 identical capsule-shaped pieces. From a painting, print, or digitally altered image, she screen prints them on the back of the 1.5-inch thick lucite pieces, to create the main imagery that will be seen.
“What you also see in the middle of the lucite pieces are other layers embedded within, like pieces of plaster, paint, old pieces of wooden pallets,” Sandbrook explains. “All of these pieces appear to float at various layers in the lucite, which is supposed to look like some of the walls in the back have come off and are flaking out. I also often embed the most important word in the piece.”
For I Still Love You, Sandbrook put the word still on a separate layer. “In that piece, the word still is more important than the word love,” she explains. “Still implies that after we have gone through all of this, I still love you. This is far more about longevity and real love, than saying I will always love you, which does not have that same ambiguity.”
The strategy of using different layers in her work to convey deeper meanings can also be seen in #Modern Love. “Love has changed in our society, but in what ways?” Sandbrook asks rhetorically. “This question can be answered by the multiple messages that I have written in graffiti into the background. Once I embed all the different layers and printed on the back, then the whole thing gets polished. It becomes very jewel-like, because I want the final piece to seem encapsulated in time.”
Within her work, there is a definite theme of love, peace, and beauty. All things that fascinated her as a child, and all things that are too often lacking in our world today. When asked if her work is a commentary, a criticism, or a reflection of modern love, Sandbrook gives a nuanced answer. “My work is a combination of all three.”
Listening to her describe her work in these terms, was like watching someone unpeel the layers of what they have created. It provides a stronger appreciation for her work. “I’m a romantic in many ways, however there are some things that have changed, both for the better and for the worse,” explains Sandbrook, as she ponders #Modern Love. “The temporary nature of love today can be seen in people being married more than once. Now, it is walk beside me not walk behind me, because you are holding hands walking through life as partners. In some ways, love has not really changed. Bob Dylan sung, You were my first love and you will be my last. I know a few people who have that kind of a love, which is rare these days. In general, things right now are very transitory, and that is the nature of contemporary love.”
In terms of showing female perspectives, Sandbrook’s Antoinette wall sculpture does what Jean Rhys’ 1966 novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, does not. “That wall sculpture is a reflection and a critique of what I think modern love is. The novel by Rhys, is a commentary on Jane Eyre from the point of view of the character of Bertha Antoinetta Mason, who is Edward Rochester’s first wife. I felt like in this wall sculpture, Antoinette gets to express herself, whereas in the Jane Eyre novel, and in the book Wide Sargasso Sea, she does not really get a chance to express herself. She is perceived by Mr. Rochester as this wild creature of the Caribbean, through a colonialist lens. She in her own right was full of beauty and luscious as the tropical island that she was living on.”
The exercise of questioning everything that she reads and sees, is something that Sandbrook tries to get those who view her work to do. Her Ciel wall sculpture is a reflection of that curiosity.
“I love getting the viewer to question what they are looking at. I like the idea of imbued meaning that is not readily apparent,” says Sandbrook. “This was inspired by one of René Magritte’s paintings from the Surrealist era called Ciel, or sky in English. The painting did not have the image of a sky in the background. It just had the word ciel on a white canvas. He also did another one called Ceci N’est Pas Une Pipe (This Is Not A Pipe), but it was a painting of a pipe.”
By taking the word ciel, printing it out onto a piece of acrylic, then cutting them into circles, the perception of reality is changed. “Now the piece is a step further removed from the word ciel, it is not even ciel anymore, just lines and shapes,” describes Sandbrook. “When I decided to reassemble these pieces, with acrylic and into industrial pipe parts, you saw disorder when I put them up on the wall. It was just mismatched patterns and black lines. This is not a sky, is it?”
When people observe her Ciel wall sculpture, she enjoys their reaction, and how everyone, including her, wants to do the same thing. It is a reflection of how we attempt to make sense of disorder, rather than being fine with how things are. “People come up to it without thinking of the different layers and meaning to it, but want to put the pieces back together again. They want to make all the black marks line up. It is an interesting joke on the viewer. I feel that way myself. I want to align the lines, so I get it,” Sandbrook admits. “But life is not like that. If you try to match patterns your whole life you are going to be pretty miserable, because life is all of these random lines.”
After interrogating the nature of love and the realities of contemporary life through her work, Sandbrook would like to focus on art that provides a commentary or critique on the state of the environment. “Part of me will not let my work get too dark,” concedes Sandbrook, “but I would like my work to become a little more political. To make a piece that is beautiful, while also saying something serious.”
She has ideas for more political works, but has no idea what they will look like yet. She sees fellow Canadian, and photographer Edward Burtynsky’s The Anthropocene Project, as a good example of work with many layers that depicts the scarring of the planet by human activity with compelling images.
Sandbrook wants to express similar truths, in her polished and edgy style. “I like to see the beauty of things by painting graffiti-like imagery because it is a real and honest way of communicating with the viewer.”
Words Phil Roberts
We designed a camera system for photographers whose passion take them far and wide, to distant and spectacular places. The Phase One XT was created to be brought along on long trails and off-road scouting expeditions, just the kind that Reuben Wu likes to venture on. So we gave him an XT Camera System and sent him off to Bolivia, to capture its beauty in a light only he knows how to cast. More about the project:
https://seek.phaseone.com The XT Camera System: https://seek.phaseone.com/xt-camera-s… Phase One – http://www.phaseone.com Try Phase One: http://www.phaseone.com/demosignup Download Capture One: http://www.phaseone.com/download#PhaseOneXT#XTcamera
How a design company’s sculptures use magnetic energy to pull strings and create calming sounds.
When you think about relaxing sounds, you might think about the sound of a waterfall, the chirping of birds, or the soothing music from an instrument. You are less likely to think about magnets, but they too can produce relaxing sounds.
Magnetic Sound, a design company that creates tranquil sounds from magnetic energy exerted on strings, is showing how technology and the soul can be related. That relationship has always been true of music, but in Magnetic Sound’s case, it is about using sound as a tool to give an alternative meaning to a space, with interactive sculptures, and soundscapes.
“A soundscape is a type of composition, specifically an environment of sound,” says MJ Caselden, founder of Magnetic Sound, from his studio in Valley Cottage, just north of New York. “There are two types of soundscapes. One type is the audio recording of an environment, under a bridge or in nature. The second type of soundscape is where something is ambient, atmospheric, and encompassing sound.”
Magnetic Sounds’ technology is a wood sculpture that looks like a mix between a work of art and a string instrument. Two sculptures are placed on the walls of a space to create a soundscape for users to practice deep breathing, reflection, and guide them into a meditative experience. The compositions created by the magnets are controlled by algorithms that were written by Caselden that generate unique harmonies every time the sculptures are activated. Clicking on the Soundscapes App on a phone or tablet triggers the magnets that cause the strings to vibrate, and the reverberation through the wood sculpture creates the sound.
![Sculpture_Source-Magnetic Sounds]](http://www.demagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Image1_Sculpture_Source-Magnetic-Sounds.jpg)
The company promotes their sculptures by exhibiting them at cultural festivals, design trade shows, and museums. They also install them in local businesses throughout New York that want to try them out on their customers. One such business was Lift Next Level Floats, a sensory deprivation/flotation therapy centre. Floating is a niche activity, but one that is exactly suitable for what Magnetic Sound offers. The small business allowed them to create a soundscape in their lobby as a two-week trial as a way for their customers to transition between the busyness of New York life and their flotation therapy.
“Lift Next Level Floats came out at just the right time when there was a rise in the interest of alternative therapies and recreational wellness experiences,” explains Caselden. He has slowly developed relationships and friendships with small business, co-working spaces, and independent hotels in Brooklyn that cater to the desire of personal wellness, such as an herbal tea bar and Lift Next Level Floats, whose founder Caselden met years earlier at an electronic music festival.
“Float was part of our experimental installations set up in businesses. Before, we would set up at festivals or in museums,” says Caselden. “It has been great to see something that was abstract and new get applied and installed in different businesses.” The feedback that the company received from those trials helped them to understand what people can and cannot sense. In order to influence wellness with sound, an audiological range had to be established, where a maximum number of people actually hear the sound that the magnets are making.
“There were certain feelings that people were getting from the sound in that decompression space (the lobby at Lift Next Level Floats) where they were sitting, but there were also people who were numb to the experience. It would not have made a different whether or not the pieces were there.” recalls Caselden. Since Lift Next Level Floats did not have a dedicated space to set up the installation, the trial only lasted for two weeks.
Compared to different types of interactive arts where the story is visually communicated, magnetic energy is invisible, so for Magnetic Sounds to get people to understand the experience as more than a quirky experience, they had to learn more about sound baths.
In sound baths, people are breathing together at the same pattern in tandem with sound. Some focus more on breathing, while others focus on chanting or vocal toning, but in settings such as those, technology like what Magnetic Sounds installs makes sense. In small businesses, it was hard to communicate what the sculptures meant, without knowing what they can offer to the relaxation and meditation industry. By themselves, the sculptures did not instantly convey their purpose to those who came upon them in small businesses. “For this reason, we do more than set up sculptures, but we seek to offer experiences,” explains Caselden.
Is Magnetic Sounds offering an interactive art or meditative experience? That is the question that is frequently on the minds of people who see their installations at open trade shows, where multiple dedicated spaces are too costly for the company to show how their technology works. If you see a Magnetic Sound sculpture in an open space at a convention centre or the lobby of a small business it will seem like interactive art, a novel invention for a space, but when you see it installed in a yoga studio its purpose is more recognisable as a meditative experience. Caselden’s answer to that question is more personal.
“These are two sides of one coin. The concept of meditation has performative undertones, elements of craft, and elements of ritualization that go into traditions of meditation,” explains Caselden, who has been operating a meditation practice for 15 years.
“If you live the majority of your adult life meditating regularly, when you release something that is an expression of yourself, which is what Magnetic Sound is, that is how art can coexist with meditation. This is distinct from the contemporary wellness movement, where Western interpretation reverse-engineers longstanding traditions, extrapolates what is beneficial in a capitalist sense, and develops a brand narrative for a return on investment. They are selling meditation with a fragmented approach.”
For now, Magnetic Sounds sculptures have mainly been installed and exhibited in private business and public areas in the U.S., and mostly in New York, but they can be shipped to anywhere in the world.
Words Phil Roberts
the city’s largest infrastructure project in 400 years
Today marks the launch of Copenhagen’s new Cityringen metro line, the city’s largest infrastructure project in the last 400 years.
Arup, in a joint venture (JV) with Cowi and Systra, has worked with Copenhagen’s metro authority Metroselskabet since 2007 to design the new 16 km metro line. Within the JV, Arup led the architectural design for the project, including all the 17 new stations.
Combining aesthetics with practicality, the Cityringen metro’s minimalist design provides Copenhagen with a simple and convenient means of travel, while celebrating the city’s diversity and placing local communities at its heart.
The stations are constructed as part of a modular system so that they could easily be slotted under the city. Each station has been specifically designed to pay tribute to the character of their respective areas; all 17 are uniquely clad with materials that reflect their vibrant local communities.
In Marmorkirken, the fossil-embedded, sand-coloured Swedish limestone echoes the 19th century Marble Church above, while, in Trianglen, high-shine mirrored glass panels reflect the colours of sports fans flocking to the national stadium.
Each station features a new landscaped plaza, providing a welcoming entrance and forecourt for passengers and a civic space for the surrounding community. Stations also feature intuitive wayfinding to provide a seamless street-to-platform journey. Upon entering, clean lines of sight allow passengers to see all the way to the platform and similarly view the exit as they disembark their trains, allowing for minimal signage.
One of the most prominent features are the spectacular origami ceilings installed across all the stations, which allow natural light to flood in. Designed using 3D simulations, the origami ceilings act as giant reflectors bouncing daylight and artificial light into the depths of the stations. Beyond their function as luminaries, the sculptural glass skylights above can be lifted as part of the station’s emergency ventilation system. Their unique geometry juxtaposes with the orthogonal station architecture, providing a dramatic focal point of interest while guiding passengers to platform screen doors and other key places.
The Cityringen line also intersects with five existing railways and metro stations, as well as overhead heritage structures like Slotholmens Canal and “Graverboligen” at Assistens Kirkegård. Marmorkirken, the deepest of all the stations, has been built 36 meters underground and fits in a narrow urban space next to the iconic Church. To overcome this, a deep atrium stairwell floods the station with light and gives the illusion of a spacious environment. All the new stations are sympathetic to their surrounding buildings, which necessitated design within tight constraints.
Nille Juul-Sørensen, Global Leader of Architecture at Arup said “Good architecture is functional, simple, and elegant – but great architecture can create an emotional connection between people and a place. Although the stations are built as part of a modular system, we have designed all 17 of them to reflect the architecture of the surrounding areas. We’ve taken inspiration from the city’s unique heritage to create a distinctive metro line that the people of Copenhagen can be proud of.”
![Outdoor feast_Source-Creative Chef]](https://www.demagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Featured-Image1_Outdoor-feast_Source-Creative-Chef.jpg)
Our relationship with food has become a status symbol, sold to us by celebrities, celebrity chefs, and the 24-hour food entertainment industry. One Dutch design studio wants us to enjoy our food in a more personal way.
Not knowing what to eat, while having so much to eat, is high on a list of First World problems. There are some days when you would not mind eating something that you like, but opt to eat something else, because you are bored of eating the same thing. The same could be said for that restaurant that you like. Maybe tonight you choose a new restaurant so that you do not get sick of the old one. It is not that we are disloyal to our favourite foods or restaurants, but sometimes we just want to eat something new, with a new experience.
What began as a hobby in 2012, before turning into a professional studio in 2015, Creative Chef has been designing new ways for people to experience food. In the last 20 years, interest in food as an experience became mainstream. There used to be the odd cooking show with actual chefs watched by a niche set of viewers who had strong opinions about food. Now, there are many television networks devoted to cooking, with non-stop food entertainment. Things have gotten to the point where footballers, rappers, actresses, and anybody not known for their cooking skills, are showing us how to cook. Many celebrities have published their own cookbooks, and some like Gwyneth Paltrow, have published more than one. Food, which for most of human existence was a matter of survival, domestic, and cultural interest, and would later become a commercial interest in the age of mass production and consumption, is fully part of the entertainment industry of the 21st century.
Do people really value and enjoy food that much, or is it just that food has been intertwined with celebrity culture, mainstream entertainment, foodie Instagram profiles, and YouTube chefs?
“Food is everywhere in Western society and it has turned into a commodity product,” observes Jasper Udink ten Cate, founder of Creative Chef. “It became a lifestyle product. A way to communicate your identity.”
It is not just that ‘you are what you eat’, it is ‘who you are is what you eat.’ For example, anyone who has been to urbanism conferences or events about the future of cities in the last few years may have heard the word “kale” inserted into certain discourses. Saying that someone eats kale has become a shorthand for a ‘wealthy urbanite who is politically progressive, who does not own a car and rides a bicycle around town.’ The insertion into a conversation of one item in a diet can be used to make broad generalisations about who people are, what their status is, and even what they think in terms of politics. Food is no longer this niche interest that we all share, it has taken an elevated position within the culture, and can be used to signify where people stand within larger debates.
“Food has taken the same place as music, fashion, culture and even religion,” opines Udink ten Cate. “The food we eat has a strong relationship with price, marketing and industry. There is less room for local and small-scale food. Fortunately, we are slowly going back to authentic foods, with more sustainable ways of eating and growing.”
If people are excited about food as entertainment, how come that has not translated domestically? Why are people not excited about eating food at home, together? Many families in the UK rarely sit down to have dinner together, and this is probably true in many other countries. Our phones are part of the cutlery now, used for exercising the eyes and fingers between chewing and swallowing. Udink ten Cate has observed a backlash against this.
“What I see in Europe is that there is a movement towards valuing the moment of eating much more then 10 years ago, but on the other hand our meals have become shorter. Through food, people are searching for more connection with each other. The connection they miss out on during the week when they are on their phones.”
How do we get people to untether themselves from their devices, step back from seeing food as entertainment, and simply enjoy food for what it is? If running for a healthier body can go from something that people feel compelled to do by a doctor, into something that people are excited to do because they personally like how it makes them feel, then the same change of perception is possible for eating.
“For me, food is my artistic language,” says Udink ten Cate, whose studio consists of an art assistant, a production assistant, and a team of freelancers. “Food has a lot of power because it is connected with loads and loads of stories. Stories of our past, our present, and our future. It has the power to become a starting point of a story for people. It is a moment that matters in life. And for me as an artist, it has the potential to be a stage for stories that I would like to tell.”
As a chef and designer, Udink ten Cate looks for unique ways that he can serve food to people so that the experience of the meal goes beyond eating. His meals are food for the mind and soul, as much as they are nourishment for the body. For him, a well-designed meal is about the story.
“In restaurants, and even 3-starred Michelin restaurants, the chef creates a story that he is very successful, brilliant in cooking, and hard working,” Udink ten Cate says. “In other words, the story that is told is the story of the chef and the restaurant.” There used to be a handful of celebrity chefs, now there are too many to name. In a way that is good, because as Udink ten Cate sees it, the status of the celebrity as the reason that you should enjoy a meal should irrelevant.
“A well-designed meal is about the stage it creates for the guest. That stage can be about the questions it raises, or the interaction it evokes so you connect with other people. It is not about good food and the hero status of the chef.”
The inspiration for some of his mixing of food and design came to him while on vacation in San Sebastian in Spain while Creative Chef was still a hobby. There, he went into a restaurant and they greeted him as if they had always known him. After the meal, they invited him into the kitchen and he told them how the experience had inspired him. “They showed interest in me and made me the focus of their work. That was the only time in my life that I had a really mind-blowing food experience.”
Udink ten Cate then used what he felt in Spain to develop his own special food experience for guests, called the Deep Dinner Concept. He made a meal for two people and found a way to create stories within the meal specifically for them. One portion of the meal was served in a book. When the guests opened the book, a void was cut out of the pages and that is where the food had been placed. As each guest ate to the bottom, a message, which was part of the overall narrative was displayed. In one book, the message was: Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, live truly, and forgive yourself. “I do research and investigate who my guests are and then create memories they will never forget,” explains Udink ten Cate. Guests can personalise their dinner experience by giving him that information, which allows him to cook something up, and serve it back to them.
In his meals, there is always something that tricks the eyes. For the Taste the Dutch Masters project that he exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as in London, Paris, Berlin, Muscat, Milan, Venice, and Beijing, he accurately represented a famous painting from 1612 with actual fruit and cheese. “When people saw it, they believed that it was a real painting. When they got closer, they found out that the food was real. And that is the moment it becomes their story.” The fruits and vegetables that he used were grown from old seeds kept at the University of Wageningen, giving the food an ancient look that fooled visitors to the museum.
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In May of 2019, at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York, Creative Chef Studio exhibited the Composition Table, a collection of products which could have wide appeal for families looking to reinvigorate their domestic dining experience. A table was set, with plates, cutlery, glasses, and napkins, all on a tablecloth. As music began to play, onlookers searched for the source, as Udink ten Cate hovered nearby with his phone. Naturally, they searched for a radio, at his phone, or any device that might contain a speaker. The reason no device could be found was because the sound was coming from the tableware.
“In product design, as in life, there is a strong tendency to follow acquired patterns,” says Udink ten Cate. “Learned behaviour is repeated ad infinitum.” Asking questions allows us to rethink experiences that are familiar. The viewers of the Composition Table kept looking for a device playing music, but what Creative Chef shows is that there is a broad range of products that can be used to play music. Eating at home together with the family can become an event worth experiencing again.
“Creative Chef examined the possibilities of utilising the wonderful shapes of sound vibrations for product design. Instead of sitting down and drawing, we started recording and exploring the phenomenal world of sound and vibration. We wrote our own music and captured the physical data. This data was used for the visual designs of our new tableware series from tablecloths to cutlery and napkins to glasses.”
With the help of a Dutch tech company called Superp, Creative Chef Studio inserts digital content to analog products. Through Superp’s proprietary AI system and Creative Chef’s imagination, the Composition Table creates another unique experience of food. Each product on the table is activated by an app that creates a unique sound, and together it is like a musical composition, where the people eating the meal are composing their own music. “Through the existence of the table you are given an opportunity: to explore the sounds behind the objects, engage the AI system by scanning the tableware, and to re-view learned patterns in design+food.”
For Udink ten Cate, the mixing of food and design is his way of strengthening connections between people. He finds ways for people to really care about food, outside of the superficial celebrity-based or status oriented culture, but through a personal connection with food and the activity of enjoying a pleasant meal with people you care about.
“For me there are no boxes. I really like to cook, invent, create, make music, make ceramics, tell stories, etc… But these subjects all come together in one brand, Creative Chef Studio. Food is always the language and the starting point of my projects.”
Words Phil Roberts
“Historic maps show a bridge existed on this site in the 1800s and linked the centre of Copenhagen to its defensive ramparts, some of which still exist,” explains Simon Roberts, Associate Director of international architecture practice WilkinsonEyre.
The firm has just seen its plans for the new Lille Langebro cycle and pedestrian bridge brought to life. Adding yet more evidence to argue the case that Denmark’s charming capital, Copenhagen, is the world’s foremost pedal-powered metropole, the striking structure spans the city’s harbour, helping complete a looped route through the downtown area, improving access between the busy Vester Voldgade thoroughfare and iconic Christianshavn and Langebrogade quaysides.
“It was always our intention that the bridge should continue this circular ring, encompassing the city. So rather than doing it on a really straight alignment we wanted to pick up on the circular nature of the route,” Roberts continues, before explaining how the BLOX building is also close by. A new cultural centre, comprising public realms, playgrounds and— fittingly— the Danish Architecture Center, the whole scheme is part of a masterplan to breathe new life into what was an all-but-forgotten area.
Nevertheless, this city is one of northern Europe’s most prestigious and historic, with Kodak moments around every corner. As such even when forming this positive, large scale redevelopment there were still significant issues posed by neighbouring landmarks.
“Langebro, the bridge next to ours, is a listed structure, so the client [Realdania By & Byg] was very keen that we didn’t overshadow the appearance of that. So our bridge had to stay very low in its alignment and its appearance,” Roberts explains.
This was far easier said than done. Original designs placed the structure of the bridge below the quayside deck to achieve the necessary harmony, but this threatened to impede boats intending to pass underneath. The issue was overcome by adding width span and curvature, helping raise the height in the centre to allow clearance for vessels, in turn offering bridge users some much need protection from the elements.
“Really we spent a lot of time trying to create graceful fluid curves,” Roberts recalls. “We were focusing on trying to get the edge of that curve as crisp as possible, which was never going to be easy. The guys at Hollandia, the same people who built [London’s] Gherkin, did a great job making that happen.”
The circular route Lille Langebro now forms part of directly inspired its clean lines and curves. In turn, that curvature is designed to highlight the directional flow of traffic by providing physical and visual continuity. All of which is accentuated by the primary steelwork’s bright white hues, contrasting the dark greys employed to minimise the impact of the pier arms and supporting structure from the perspective of those using the waterway.
The confident but tasteful aesthetics continue in the architectural lighting. By displaying these outwards, the upper surfaces of the two structural wings are illuminated, creating a continual band of light from one side of the quay to the other.
Comparatively, the central mechanism that allows for the structure to swing open for larger marine traffic is hidden in plain sight, but equally impressive. The work of Eadon Consulting and structural engineers BuroHappold, the closed-loop system— involving one top pin and bottom hammerhead— works in such a way that as one part pushes the other pulls back. The connection is, therefore, more rigid while allowing structural depth to be kept to a minimum.
This marriage of contemporary design and cutting edge engineering has resulted in a truly striking accomplishment. It’s a modern crossing that compliments the 21st Century elements of its surrounds, with local architectural firm Urban Agency responsible for seamless landscaping on the quaysides. But then it doesn’t neglect to pay respect to the area’s centuries-old history, it’s a future-proof solution to the issue of mobility in a constantly evolving and growing city. It’s also much needed if traffic numbers are much to go by
“Langebro has seen a huge increase in cyclists— last year 40,000 per day were coming over the crossing. So the purpose of ours was to try and take as much of that soft, squishy traffic off that bridge and onto ours, making it a safer environment for them,” says Roberts, going on to explain just how crucial offering more space for two-wheels is to commuters in this particular city. “Cycling is a massive thing in Copenhagen, they pride themselves on being the cycling city for the world. I saw something the other day actually; they now have more bikes in the city than cars.”
Open now until 9 February 2020 the Design Museum, London
The museum welcomes Beatrice Galilee as the guest curator of this year’s exhibition. Beatrice has previously worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as the Chief Curator of the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Close, Closer, and has curated exhibitions and events around the world. This year’s judging panel will be chaired by Paul Thompson, Vice Chancellor of the Royal College of Art and previous Design Museum Director to celebrate the museum’s 30th Anniversary.
Nominees include a meme-inspired dress collection by Viktor & Rolf, a data generated proxy address system created to reduce homelessness, the world’s first hands free breast pump, Adidas’s collaboration with designer Ji Won Choi, as worn by Beyoncé, food sharing app OLIO and The Shed’s extendable building in New York.
Accessible designs represent a major theme in this year’s awards, as seen in IKEA’s ThisAbles collection, Tommy Hilfiger’s Adaptive clothing range and Chromat’s AW19 fashion collection.
Costumes designed by Sandy Powell for Oscar winning title The Favourite and the world’s first silent and hands-free breast pump; the Design Museum in London announces the most international and gender balanced list of contenders to date for the twelfth edition of Beazley Designs of the Year. The annual exhibition and awards comprises of 76 nominations across six categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Graphics, Product and Transport. Selected by a panel of distinguished international designers, curators, critics and – for the first time – the general public, the awards showcase the most impactful products and concepts from designers around the world.
Sketches, models, prototypes, videos and photography will be on display for all the nominations to provide a compelling snapshot of the current world of design. To reduce waste, this year’s 3D designer Pernilla Ohrstedt developed the spatial design for the exhibition by reusing elements from the previous exhibition. By cutting holes into the walls of each space visitors can look through to each of the nominated categories, creating connections between the works. The removed material has been recycled to make bespoke plinths. The inspiration for the design came from artworks by the American sculptor Gordon-Matta Clark, who would carve ‘building cuts’ out of the walls of derelict spaces around Manhattan.
The fashion category includes vegan sliders from Rombaut, streetwear for Reebok created by Pyer Moss and Adidas’ Korean inspired Originals Collection, worn by Beyoncé. The meme inspired dress collection for Viktor & Rolf is also nominated in the fashion category, along with Chromat’s inclusive and sustainable AW19 collection – which demonstrate a new approach to inclusivity in the sector.
Graphic nominee MOLD, by LinYee Yuan have explored the future of food through a new online platform and magazine which dissects how designers are addressing multiple food crises by working with food design and technology firms. Additional graphic nominees include: Kickstarter book, notamuse which profiles female graphic designers in Europe, an updated brand identity for the Wolves football team and works from Mona Chalabi, a New York-based data journalist and illustrator. This year’s exhibition also welcomes eight new typefaces for each category of nominations, developed over the last 12 months by 2D exhibition designers Zak Group.
Product nominee CATCH was created to increase early detection of the HIV disease – with a low-cost and pocket-sized device that allows users to self-test for HIV in the privacy of their own home. Another innovative product nominee is silicone cover, MySleeve, which can be mounted on crutch handles to improve grip, comfort and stability. Other entries include the 1-inch Reclaimed Stacking Chair by Jasper Morrison for Emeco, made from leftover industrial waste materials, and British designer Bethan Laura Wood, who has created the handmade Super Fake rug collection inspired by diverse rock formations. Designs for women is a prominent theme in this year’s product nominations, with projects including the Elvie BEAZLEY DESIGNS OF THE YEAR 2019 3 Pump, the world’s first silent and hands-free breast pump designed to be worn inside a standard nursing bra, and a flushable and biodegradable pregnancy test designed to be discreet by all-female design team Lia.
The transport section highlights designs that improve local services with the GACHA Self-Driving Shuttle Bus designed by MUJI in collaboration with Finnish company Sensible 4, promoting easy autonomous access to public transport in all weather. Alongside this is JUMP by Uber, an environmentally-friendly fleet of smart electric pedal-assist bikes and scooters rentable through your phone and the CanguRo, a mobility robot assistant that can both carry heavy shopping and transform into a threewheeled motorcycle.
This year’s focus on accessible design continues in the digital category with wearable virtual assistant AlterEgo, by MIT Media Lab, which silently detects electrical impulses from the skin surface and transmits these to the internal device – assisting those unable to speak out loud to communicate without needing to open their mouth. Additional nominations include Q, the world’s first genderless voice. Made from real voices, the linguists, technologists and sound designers behind Q aim to challenge gender bias in the artificial intelligence industry. Another innovative digital project is neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app OLIO, designed by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One already used by 1.5 million users in 49 countries to share surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away.
The architecture category features many impactful projects including ProxyAddress by emerging British designer Chris Hildrey, which allows those facing homelessness to access support services by generating each user a consistent ‘proxy address’. Also appearing in this section is the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes inspired by the local urban area, expanding and contracting flexible New York arts venue The Shed and a new roof for the ancient souk of Homs in Syria by Ghassan Jansiz for the United Nations Development Programme – built in challenging conditions after the original roof was destroyed by conflict.
A winner will be selected in each category and one overall winner will be announced on Thursday 21 November 2019. Previous winners have included Forensic Architecture for their Counter Investigations Exhibition, Sir David Adjaye OBE for the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C, London 2012 Olympic Torch by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby and Human Organs-on-Chips by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute.
A project by Studio MiCat, There Project and Proud Studio
Commissioned by the Victoria and Albert Museum for London Design Festival, Sackler Courtyard, 14-22 September 2019
“As creators of new and desirable things, the design community is complicit in the current ecological and social crisis – despite often being torn between the love for their work and despair over the state of the planet. We believe in the power of design as a driver of change, to decouple the idea of progress from profit; to build upon and think beyond recycling and circular design; and to grow the appeal of a richer life with less.” Studio MiCat, There Project, Proud Studio
Non-Pavilion is an installation that draws attention to the repercussions of growth-driven economics and highlights the role design can play in shifting mindsets away from over-production and consumption.
Defined by its outer edges only, Non-Pavilion plays on the idea of ‘less’ as enrichment, not loss. Drawing on the simplicity of Swiss ‘Baugespanne’, erected to help the public visualise the impact of a proposed development, the pavilion only so much as hints at a space.
Augmented Reality (AR) commissions, projected into the Non-Pavilion space, transform it into a testing ground for alternative visions for the future. The provocations, designed by Leon Chew, Arne Hendriks, Leo Murray and Andrew Simms, LucienneRoberts+, Michael Schoner and Radical Norms, question the economic system within which we are made to operate. They aim to kick-start a debate about what life beyond consumerism and a different definition of abundance might look like.
Six artists and design studios have responded to the Non-Pavilion call to provoke visitors into thinking differently about our current consumerist patterns, using Augmented Reality. Their proposals will be projected onto the Non-Pavilion via an App accessible via tablets available on site.
The Impossible Hamster
Andrew Simms / Leo Murray / Viki Johnson 3D animation by Hao Cai, 2019
What can an ever-growing hamster teach us about economic growth?
This AR experience illustrates what would happen if there were no limits to the growth of a hamster – a metaphor for the absurdity and danger of limitless economic growth on a finite planet. Original animation commissioned by the New Economics Foundation in 2010
Prospect: The Bretton Wood Modules
Radical Norms, 2019
Can we reboot how we measure the wealth of nations from space?
A proposal for a new global economics conference unit onboard the International Space Station, to establish a new financial world order that benefits our planet and all that exists on it by speculative design studio Radical Norms, Toronto.
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Arne Hendriks (in collaboration with Studio MiCat & Proud Studio) 2019
Can we shrink our way back to abundance?
Dutch artist Arne Hendriks’ long-running project, The Incredible Shrinking Man, speculates on the consequences of downsizing the human species to an average height of 50 centimetres, meaning only 2-5 percent of the resources we currently use would be needed. This concept is applied to London: how many terraced houses fit into the space of the pavilion?
Awning Glory
Michael Schoner, 2019
Can the future still be joyful?
The Awning Glory pavillion invites us to holiday in our home towns instead of flying to far away destinations. Even if the future looks dire, people will want an escape, to discover a new place and experience leisure, and this pavilion offers it all. Designed by Netherlands-based 2&3D designer Michael Schoner.
Hysterical Cell
Leon Chew, 2019
The Hysterical Cell pulsates at a seemingly random frequency, hovering above a turbulent body of water. It is delivering messages in Morse Code for participants to decode and interpret with the intention of provoking dialogue about concepts of change. Leon Chew is a London based artist and visual designer, working in film and photography.
Restoring Balance – Down is Up / Up is Down
LucienneRoberts+ (Lucienne Roberts / David Shaw / John McGill), 2019
The world is dangerously out of balance
The three staircases in this installation and their orientations, colours and numbers of steps represent the current discordant relationship between people, planet and profit. For humanity to survive well, we need to recalibrate. Lucienne Roberts+ studio is known for its political engagement and ethical approach to design.
Talks and Public Programme
MONDAY 16 SEPTEMBER
Non-Pavilion pop up design talk – 1pm
Opportunity to meet the team behind the Non-Pavilion, who will be joined by some of the Augmented Reality contributors
SUNDAY 22 SEPTEMBER
A one day public programme on Sunday 22nd September, in partnership with the V&A’s Exhibition Road Day of Design, invites festival visitors to join in debate and activities that contextualise the concept of degrowth and value-led design.
An Exploded View
Free drop-in workshop by Other Today from 11am on Exhibition Road
Ever wondered who made your toaster and where all its parts come from? Visitors can take apart domestic appliances, find out how they’re produced, and devise how they could be better made to benefit the people who make them and cause less harm to the planet.
Non-Pavilion pop up design talk – 12pm
Free talk at the Non-Pavilion, Sackler Courtyard, V&A
Opportunity to meet the team behind the Non-Pavilion, who will be joined by some of the Augmented Reality contributors.
Planet 2.0 Discursive Dining – 1pm
Drop in conversations and food on Exhibition Road
Non-Pavilion have curated two tables for the V&A’s food-waste feast by People’s Kitchen on upcycled tables along Exhibition Road. Visitors will have a chance to discuss important issues around the future of our planet with an expert while sharing a meal created from ‘food waste’.
Table 1: ‘For a Socialist Architecture’ with Architects for Social Housing and Naomi Turner, Festival of Maintenance
Table 2: ‘Design Ethics and the Climate Crisis’ with LucienneRoberts+
Non-Pavilion Talk: Accomplices or Disruptors? Design takes on Growth 3 – 4pm
Exhibition Road talks area
What role can design play in disentangling the idea of progress from economic growth? How can it help grow the appeal of a richer life with less stuff so that the planet can regenerate?
A panel discussion with:
Poio launch the English language edition, empowering millions of children to learn to read through play
Oslo-headquartered Poio the app providing a compelling, gamified alternative to traditional learning methods, has now launched in the UK with its English language platform, empowering millions of British children to learn to read through play.
Poio, launched in 2017 and acquired by Norwegian game-based learning platform Kahoot! To date, the app has helped over 100,000 Scandinavian children obtain the fundamental skills necessary to achieve reading proficiency. The Poio app (and accompanying physical storybook) provides an immersive learning experience for children, typically aged between 3 and 8. Through playing in the app they explore a magical universe inhabited by the eponymous troll and discover reading through linking the sounds of letters to actual words.
The app-based world of Poio, available for £19 in App Store and Google Play, differs from other digital learning tools through its overall focus on play and encouragement, in a safe and secure environment, enabling children to ‘crack the reading code’ and enjoy the reading process. Poio’s goal is to raise literacy proficiency through the utilisation of phonics – the repetitive practice of letter sounds, which can then be blended together to form complete words – introducing children to the fundamental principles of reading.
Poio’s unique learning solution was devised by CEO, educator and Founder, Daniel Senn, out of necessity. Daniel’s son, Leon, had been born with a hearing impairment which meant that traditional learning methods were inadequate. With school curriculums designed for the majority, Daniel felt that children who struggle to learn to read ran the risk of becoming demotivated as they watched their friends and classmates progress. As such, Daniel set out to find a solution, working in close collaboration with fellow educators to devise a tool that encourages self-motivated learning and makes the process of learning to read easier and more enriching for children, irrespective of their circumstances or ability. Consequently, Poio has fast-become a much-loved game for many children, from curious, eager learners, to those that require a different way of thinking in order to achieve their goals.
In launching an English-language version of the app, Poio aims to help address alarming statistics from the Department for Education, which revealed that in 2018, 1 in 5 children left primary school unable to read or write properly, as well as the fact that currently, the UK ranks 17th for literacy among 34 OECD countries.
Daniel Senn, CEO and Founder comments: “At Poio, we know firsthand that school systems around the world are designed for the majority of students that develop at the same pace and do not facilitate for those who might take longer to grasp the principles of reading, or those who learn in different ways. We have seen the efficacy of a gamified learning solution with our son Leon, as well as with hundreds of thousands of students across Scandinavia, and are excited to bring the method to the UK and the wider English-speaking world. Reading is one of life’s most fundamental and essential skills, and we want to make sure that children everywhere have access to a solution that works for them, while also raising literacy levels and increasing children’s enjoyment of the school curriculum and reading list”.
The knock-on effect of poor literacy is clear; further research by the OECD, conducted in 2015, found that a concerning number of 15-year-olds across the UK lacked a minimum level of literacy proficiency (18% in England and Scotland, 15% in Northern Ireland, and 21% in Wales), and the World Literacy Foundation estimates that the yearly cost of functional illiteracy to the UK economy is £37bn.
The Game and Learning Method
Poio facilitates learning to read within a safe gaming environment that children want to explore. The goal of the game is to help a troll, named Poio, learn to read the storybook he has stolen from letter bugs (characters known as ‘readlings’) in a magical location called Straw Island. In a troll-like fit of pique, Poio has imprisoned these letter bugs due to his frustration at being unable to read. To help the troll learn to read, children must free the readlings and collect words. These words are broken down into individual phonetic letter sounds voiced by the readlings, helping the child familiarise themselves with the letter and its corresponding sound and the particularly challenging vowel sounds.
The child is then encouraged to spell out the word and then drag it into a virtual book in order to advance the story, with the difficulty of the game adapting to each individual child. As the child proceeds, they can earn coins for completing in-game challenges, with this currency enabling them to decorate houses unlocked by finishing tasks.
Poio focusses on encouragement – rather than lingering on mistakes – to ensure that a point of failure is never reached whereby the player cannot proceed within the game. Constant encouraging feedback helps boost the learner’s self-esteem and ensures that they are motivated to continue, a factor especially important for low ability readers.
In addition, as part of Poio’s offering, parents receive an email with progress report and advice. This helps foster a positive relationship within families, rather than the frustration and isolation often experienced with traditional homework. Once progress has been made and the virtual book has been completed, the physical storybook can be obtained by adults to give to their children as a reward.
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