Felix brought this poster back from the RCA show, with Jaques Tati and his bike on the back.

Platform Six, Design Products, Royal College of Art

When taking pictures of these snazzy 24h book return terminals outside the National Library in Singapore, some lady selling t-shirts nearby noted sarcastically: “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Only slightly embarrassed, I told her that this was part of my job (cough, cough). Still amused, she was nice enough to explain to me how the system worked.
Basically, books are passed through a large rectangular slot, being identified by a barcode scanner. Once a book is identified, the customer receives two forms of feedback. One is via a text display (changing from “Ready” to “Returned” and then back again), the other is via a live video feed from inside the terminal, showing the book actually slide into the return box inside: a simple but very elegant way to give the user instant positive feedback!

In our temporary new abode in Berlin (yes we open another studio in Berlin), these two fellow sit proudly in the bathroom. Not under the sink or hiding in the cupboard - but proudly placed above the bath for every inhabitant or visitor to see. They haven’t necessarily redesigned themselves for their public outing. They happily turn, numbers rotate (as I suppose they did before), as I wash my face, rinse my hands, or flush the loo.

For all my time in London I don’t think I have ever come face to face with a water metre in the bathroom. In fact, the amount of water I consumed was so obscure to me and my many landlords, that it was something that was only settled vaguely, without any real understanding (on either side) upon moving out.

So it was a surprise seeing these fellows waiting, dials at the ready, when I arrived here. Although the relativeness of what I am consuming is not absolutely clear, the awareness that I am consuming is very apparent and has an effect.

There is no data interpretation here, no fancy interface it is just a metre. The classic ‘dashboard metre’ is a pleasing functional old school interface that runs at real time. A simple example of form follows function, no need for a filter layer between. The circlar movements of the dials are absorbing, especially when they change and start turning at different speeds. And the object as a whole integrates well with the functionality of the bathroom, a subtle functional reminder.

There is a big push now to make everyone aware of what and how much they are consuming. Metres are being redesigned, eco-chic gadgets are being created and information is being interpreted to communicate simply to households what is going on silently and invisibly in their house. This is fantastic and I am certainly going to sign up for a free realtime energy monitor, especially if it correlated in such a way that it helped me understand my quarterly bills (but that is a whole different post).

But just from my small experience with my old school dials, I am wondering what needs to be redesigned to help us become more aware and what could we simply bring out from under the cupboards and re-integrate into the everyday life of our homes.

A short comment on the Exhibition art_clips at the Media Museum ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany.

This exhibition is curated by Gerhard Johann Lischka and shows 90 short clips produced between 2000 and today, for the purpose of hammering the message home dubbed ‘art_clips’, from three countries: Switzerland, Austria and Germany. The DVD is available in the local Museum Shop.

What is worth a comment about this exhibition is the fact that this exhibition unintentionally raises the question what’s happening to the way video art gets distributed these days.

The resume states that these “art_clips” are the “subject-centered answer of art to the end of industrially produced music videos for television.”

Thinking of why one has to pick the music video industry as the point of reference, in order to define oneself, leaves one with plenty of question marks. But the desperation for one’s own position on the curator career ladder in art history shall be not of our interest in this case.

In times when Filmmakers like Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham are shown on various Music TV Channels, selling successfully their work in form of DVDs on unpretentious places like Amazon, one might wonder what the point is this exhibition tries to make?

There is clearly the attempt to offer artists a forum, a point of access to the ‘market’ – which is definitely a good thing as such.
And the ZKM is a well established place do do so … but why do they opt for an exhibition? Videos in exhibitions are boring Everybody who has been to an exhibition presenting predominantly videos, knows how fantastically well those work.
And why on top of it release a DVD as a distribution method for clips, which are obviously for a fragmented niche market?
Would it not be better to seek the challenge to broaden this niche, to allow that niche, wherever it can be found, access to this material? Instead of opting for making yourself at home in the corner of clichés and using a distribution method which is simply to expensive to make it work well?

In times when artists take it on themselves to put their clips up on You Tube, when their clips become very popular and even get commissioned by the likes of Coke, and you see yourself as a curator for the good cause why not become the filter for particular clips you call art_clips , open an account on You Tube and offer your choice – or even better create something like You Tube only better suited for your peer group (there is definitely space) since you are not only a museum but also a research facility?

Funnily enough the flyer of the exhibition (above) makes use of the top level domains (.de, .ch, .at) - maybe as a subconscious reference to where it should be heading. While underscores might be popular with file names, they are a no no if it comes to URLs - if only the ZKM would know … !

The exhibition is open until the 25th of March – and the DVDs can be bought in the local Museum Shop long after …

Two Christmas presents, one useful and one… er well… bright, and about ten sizes too small..

So what to do with those socks…..

Hmm….

Aha …camera settles nicely in foot … ankle is easy to grab…and when not in the company of other bright socks its easy to find.