this past week

Tuesday 24 June

That morning we went to the D&AD exhibition, a rather enormous international student design exhibition. It was a bit overwhelming, and the work wasn't displayed in a way that made me want to interact with it. The work was set up in booths/partitions.

Then Julianne and I derived with the wind. We allowed ourself to get lost depending on where the wind blew our hair or our clothing. Pretty early we stumbled upon a really old cemetery. We first walked in and the place was teeming with little lives--birds and squirrels really. But they had overtaken the place, and were very territorial about it. and there were black crows sitting on he gravestones. Many of the stones were heaved up and crooked, or broken and laid back down into their place. The grass was taller than the stones in some places, and ivy had overgrown in some places that there were only lumps of ivy in the grid of the gravestones. the cemetery went on forever, it was a strange environment in the middle of the city. There was a colonnade that went through part of the cemetery, elevating our view, and making it seem even more expansive. We sat down on a bench to have a rest and a strange man was sitting across from us. He was working on a 6 pack of something. he asked us about president Bush. We derived all the way out to the highway you take to Heathrow, through a lot of residential neighborhoods, some anti-climb paint, we followed a plastic bag, went into a McDonalds, and ended the day at the Harrod's food halls and I ate the most delicious olives in the world. They were beautifully bright green. We sat in Hyde Park and ate them. When we were taking the bus home, we fell for an old man's practical joke and got off before we needed to.

Later that night we went down to canary warf in search of an under-the -thames walking tunnel. After alot of walking/singing/dancing down the street we found it and the echoes were incredible. There was a smashed pomegranate inside the tunnel and the seeds were littered all over the concrete floor and white-tiled walls.

we also found a mass of traffic lights shaped like a tree in the middle of a traffic circle. It was bizarre because we wondered if it was an art object or not (or intended to be) it could be confusing or dangerous, the lights changed so fast.

Wednesday 25 June

letterpress workshop that was low key and fun, inspired by last nights singing, we made a spread about a birthday song. Their shop was great, nice wide presses and wonderful ink colors!

We also went to the Stanley Kubrick archive at the LCC. It was incredible, he saved everything form every project, or hint of a project he ever had. We saw the typewriter pages from the shining, golashes worn by the crew on a rainy set, handwritten screenplays, set design sketches, anything you could imagine....binders upon binders of research! The archive was designed to look like parts of 2001 Space Odyssey.

For dinner we went to Yo!Sushi. It's a conveyor belt Japanese restaurant where little color coded, dome-covered dishes are carried around the bar on a conveyor belt and you just grab what you want. Then we played some pin the tale on the Barbican.

Thursday, 26 June

V&A for the Blood on Paper Exhibition. It explored the meaning of artists books. There were a few really nice pieces. A collaboration between Lichtenstein/Ginsburg. we bomb you we bomb who do we bomb. There was also an exploding book, and the collection of stains that was in the MoMA color exhibition earlier this year. Not a single woman in the show, but it was curated by three women!

Then we spent many hours at the RCA design show, which was really nice, the work was great and the way it was displayed really made it nice to look at. The exhibition was dynamic and interactive. There were a couple really nice books one in which every page was the first sentence of a self help book. Another interesting piece was a map of London Tap water, that promoted district-specific tap water, the elements it contained was based off of the population. Some neighborhoods had great water, where everyone ate organic food, some had tons of drugs in it, like birth control and anti-depressants from peoples waste. Apparently, water filtration systems are not required to clean out pharmaceutical waste. There was a great animation involving finger puppets and salt shakers, and another very sad one about masculinity.

an id student made a record player with 5 arms so different parts played at once.

One students project was all about women in design (jackpot). She produced a book on the subject, and interviewed 2 women I have seen here (Teal Triggs and Catherine Dixon). It was interesting that some of her questions focused on the idea of the role model, and motherhood was a huge part of the discussion. Apparently during the 1990s something called "Lad Culture" popped up. The environment for design was very masculine and the public representation of women was repressed. In schools today about 60% of design students are women, someone wondered where are they all going? Some of the interviews talked about women being afraid to come across as feminist, and role models, who are they, what makes one?

According to the research done for this project 79% of freelance designers are men.
Women begin their own studios just so they have the flexibility to be with their children.
Ageism- the possibility/boldness of being young, once a women ages and/or had a baby the possibilities disappear.
You don't make enough as a freelancer to support a child.
Personality, and the ability to sell your work
your work should stand for itself outside of gender!
The internet was identified as an important tool for women, they can easily show their work without the intimidation of walking into a room full of men

These are a mix of the opinions discussed, and many of them varied. Some women didn't want gender to have to with their work, or how they are perceived by others. They don't believe it should be an issue, or an identifier work should speak for itself, and they want to be judged by work void of gender, (this is a great piece of design, not a great piece of design by a woman). Some thought it was a generational issue, there are many male executives because few women in that stage went to school for design. Others think motherhood has such a huge part in it. The demanding schedule doesn't support motherhood. Some women stated that we just need good designers, no matter what gender they are. Some role models are reole models because they are sticktotheirguns kind of people, others because their work is great.

It was an interesting sort of conversation between several women, who were all asked the same questions. Gender is clearly something that effects this field, but the opinions about how and where it is going are so different. There are so many women studying design today.

That night we went to sing along where a musician played an a rotating 12 foot vinyl record.

Friday 27 June

The rumpus room, interactive design, yet another affirmation that the internet is the new everything. Here we saw the internet being used/designed as a platform to connect people (p2p, facebook...) and advertise subversively at the same time. the rumpus room.

Then we all walked over to Abbey road, which was strange and funny. It's a very busy road, so we all sort of ran across self consciously.

We decided to go to the Hayward afterwards to see Psycho buildings, artists attack architecture. It was a nice, not too big example of how place/space is used in art. A lot of destruction. the first piece was a contained these fragrant nylon sacks within a strange nylon dome, sort of like a giant sack itself, it reminded me of insects. The highlight was a plastic observatory on the roof. It was a clear dome you could sit in, but it had a sort of double layered roof, the layer under the actual roof was a plastic bubble you could crawl around on. The show as a whole was pretty good I thought.

There was also a hyperbolic crochet sea reef. It used all sorts of materials, assorted/banal plastic things, hair ties that sparkled and of course yarn. It was beautiful, the mixture of material and color, and the interaction of the forms. It was made by (women I think) all over the world.

Today we went to Cambridge for the day, and punted down the river. It was a very English seeming thing to do, floating around lazing and eating on a boat. The person punting stood on the broad, flat end of the boat and used a pole to propel movement. It was harder than it looked. Cambridge was in graduation mode, and of course all the buildings were impressive, a rather pristine (almost too) environment. The student housing was pretty cool. Windows with several hundred year old glass, and nice gardens. It might bizarre to spend 4 years there.

Cows were wandering around.

The train was nice, we went by a lot of farmland that was so very green! There were a few neatly sliced tracks through tall fields that rippled as we went by, sort of flashing yellowy, with sudden bright patched of wildflowers, and green hills that were patched depending on what was growing there.

punk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riot_grrrl

they made their own fanzines.

On women thus far

I have lots of things to talk about...like going to the first ever dino park in the world, deriving all over the place and such. But first I'm going to talk about my take on women so far.

So far, on our formal visits we have seen very few women, however, the women we have seen have been doing really great work. Women can certainly be very successful designers/creative executives, but they are few and far between, and it seems to come with a price. Thinking back to Kate Stanners's talk she talked about how she headed up tons of projects, had this crazy life going here and there and everywhere and how much fun she had. She told us a story about when she was pregnant, she went to a meeting (very pregnant) and ended up not doing the job because of it. She also remarked that the only time she had in her schedule was when she was sitting on the loo, and didn't get to spend much time with her son. So, women do have babies, and it is difficult and it clearly effects one's ability/decisions career wise. None of the other women we've seen yet have had children. I wonder if they never wanted them, or was seen as a sacrifice? Do the view the role of a mother differently, do they not care about the societal pressures of motherhood, or do they feel the burden of them? She also admitted to going home at the end of the day, second-guessing herself. This is something I can absolutely relate to, but I don't think I really ever thought of it having to do with gender.
She also mentioned that insecurity drives good work, so is it some kind of crazy balance or gift?

Going back to Pentagram, what really stuck out to me was how the issue of gender was approached by Dominick, and how he seemed to make a point of justifying it. There are two female partners (one of which had just returned from a long maternity leave) but their statement was that there were no women designers out there that they wanted. That's interesting because the other day we met Morag Myerscough (a woman who started her own practice because so few women do) who is full of energy and crazy about working...what? you wouldn't want somebody that dynamic? Granted, she re-did the work for the Barbican that Pentagram had done before hand, so if I were her, I probably wouldn't want to join their old boys club anyhow. I can't see a woman like Morag going home at the end of a day and second guessing herself. She clearly loved what she did, was proud of it, and even took a few opportunities to compliment herself. Is it because of the people she surrounds herself with, the fact that she owns her own practice? I'd like to talk more with her about it.

Looking at some of the student shows has been really interesting because art/design schools here are so international. There are Indians, Muslims, Asians, Europeans, as opposed to the pool of students at Delaware, which is not so diverse. You could see the broad range of cultures as soon as you stepped foot in a gallery. There were so many different cultural ideas, and ways of representing things like gender and religion. In the US, in my experience, creative programs tend to have people that are openly liberal in their opinions about politics and such. And just like at home, there is a huge trend about being green and socially responsible, but here, there is a much broader spectrum of thought. There was was poster by a design student that expressed his pro-choice beliefs and thanked his parents for not killing him in the womb so he could grow up to be a designer. Somehow I can't imagine that at home, I can't see a student bringing that in for critique and not having some sort of consequence. Another thing I noticed is that the projects on show were really full, huge endeavors. Things were actually made and installed, on a huge, or public or permanent scale. I wondered again about the women having confidence issues comment. Students here seem less affected by that perhaps?

Oh, and similarly to home, there are lots of girls in school for art and design.

One other thing is that many student projects reverted to hand-done processes, like sewing, embroidery, scrap-booking...does a trend for hand made immediately spur references to the hand crafts typically associated with women, is it sort of a "feminine" thing? There is absolutely a movement back to such things, there are knitting/crochet groups cropping up all over the city...they advertise in Time Out.

Finding working artists has been a bit more of a challenge. I have been trying to keep track of all the events going on, but nothing to do with women/art has been blaring at me. They are much harder to find.

hm

is it very bad that when I was looking for galleries to visit I couldn't find any women artists that tempted me to make the journey? I'm going to look harder tomorrow, but I was looking at the gallery listing I had, and most of the things I circled were not female artist, basing it off of description alone.

There is the make library, and some film screenings on women, those are things lined up for the coming week.

Knitting is really big here, lots of stitch and bitch groups.

London is very round I think

Today was full but relaxing, Juls and I wandered around some galleries, and sort of all over the place. We tried to see a psychadelic movie from the 60s at the BFI but it got cancelled. We did a lot of walking and explored Bethnal Green during daylight.

We went to the Gagosian first, to see Monsters and Things, an exhibition by Tom Friedman. He did all sorts of amazing/meticulous things with collage. He created creatures and lots of energy with very, very carefully cut paper. some sections, and actually a whole piece of very fine, curvey crazy lines. The collages had some recognizable faces and products, so I suppose it was a very funny commentary. He has another collage where there was a life size set of human legs carrying this box stuffed with body parts, elements disconnected from their systems, is the body supposed to be a burden? The whole show really interested me. Playful with meaning, and broad in terms of how he represented his ideas but still cohesive, if that males sense.

The next piece we saw was a sound installation (his name escapes me) but he's all about using obsolete technology. the piece was made up of two rows of old walkmans attached to little speakers, about as wide as a sidewalk. The sounds were all from old relaxation tapes, except the tape part of the tape was unraveled and taken out of the casing and sort of strung up to create this space. the tapes ran along the floor, up to the ceiling and back down, and they moved while the tapes played. It also had time working in several ways, some of the tapes had broken, or players stopped working. it was nice to watch some of the tapes quivering and whirring, and to see the physical space that stores the sound physically moving to create a space for/around the sound.

Lastly we went to an animation show that was ok, illustrator/vector like graphics pulsing. I thought the most interesting part was the presentation, TV sets turned on their sides and such.

then we got fish and chips.

after victory, tigthen you're helmet chord!

First bus ride on top




I can't quite remember where I left off, But on Thursday we went to the Design Museum. We saw another architecture show, my two favorite things were the Bordeaux Law buildings. They were these gorgeous wooden pods (kind of like giant nuts or seeds) all connected by hallways and glass, it was really beautiful. The other thing, was a conceptual city in Japan that was created to be self sustained, containing and efficient. The cool part was that the model was clear plastic and it lit up to identify the different parts of the city, residential, green space, commercial space etc. It also showed the sun cycle. There was also a really inspiring photo show of Tim Walker's work, mostly for British Vogue I think. The photos played off of childhood stories and fantasy. It was the most interesting photo show I have ever seen, and by far one of my favorite things since I have been here. He makes these huge props for the models to interact with, and every photo was so playful. They also had a little ID show going on, with funny little things, like airline barf bags that doubled as film drop off bags, and portable urinals.

http://www.designmuseum.org/

That night we went to The Barbican (a really interesting place) to see a fashion exhibition of Viktor and Rolf, two crazy dutch designers. They had a giant doll house, and a traditional doll maker make a model of pieces from each of their Haute Couture collections for each of their strange dolls. They were so stiff.
You could also watch each runway show, and see examples from each collection. Thier work is all about reacting and commenting on the fashion world, and I found it to be very thoughtful and beautiful. A few pieces I thought were really nice were these dresses that drew from danish traditions (apparently they do that a lot) paired with a lighting/sound system that was attached to the model and that also held up the dress in a theatrical way around the model's body. They wore these metal structures with lights and speakers around/over their heads and carried their set with them. Another was a coat lavishly embroidered with all sorts of little bells. The runway was dark so you heard her before you saw her. They made a whole collection of blue screen clothing--they used blue screen technology to project onto the clothing, so the models appeared as moving pieces of video, wherever the fabric swished, the image swished. They also had the Babuska Piece. The Flowerbomb show was nice too, because the models danced down the runway. Something I particularly liked across the board was the music they chose. One show has Tori Amos performing live an adaptation of the Song of Solomon, another was Frank Sinatra, some had original music with chants and repetition of phrases paired with strange droning noises, the Beatles, What the World Needs Now...is love sweet love.
http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=7272&gclid=CNLdn8SdhZQCFRpUEAodezX0Vw

Friday we went to the Tate Modern, which is a really neat building and saw a photo show that was ok...the one at the Design Museum was more interesting to me. This one really looked at the history of photography, the relationship between photographer and subject, and questioned the validity of taking someone's photo. There were some interesting parts, there was a piece by Cindy Sherman (I think) where she took people's photos and then photographed herself as her subjects. I wandered around a bit, but wasn't really able to take a lot in from the other galleries, there wasn't much time, so I'll need to go back
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/

Borough market, raclette smothered potatoes!

In the afternoon we met with Morag Myerscough, and along with the architecture talk, this is one of my favorites. Her personality was great, the talk wasn't overly structured and I find what she does to be really interesting. She is a graphic designer that started her own practice because not many women run their own practice. She takes on work she wants to do, is very hands on and has a lot of confidence. Her studio ranges in numbers, when we saw here, it was her and another women, doing an incredible amount of work. She primarily does exhibition design (she did the new signage for Barbican). I really enjoyed seeing design in 3D, that deals more with space, the senses, objects, information, narrative and sort of planning how people will process and move through the space. I responded to it because I feel like I think better in 3d than 2D and I'm interested in the shift from one perspective to the other. She also gets to work a lot with architects. One of the pieces she showed us was a train car that she turned into a coffee shop. The train was in Deptford, what she described as a sort of depressing, run down area. The train project was created to give the community a lift...and I'm sure it worked because the outside is painted with funny sayings about tea, it seemed like a good gathering place, encouraged conversation...
She really stressed understanding the context of whatever you are doing, and she was very honest and the talk was personal, and less didactic than others which was nice.

In her old house, she had a gallery called "her house", and she had a similar setup her her new building (which was a great space, lots of light) When we were there, she had a show of all her mothers embroidery up. They were really beautiful, and it was interesting to see that sort of background for her life. Embroidery being a sort of traditional craft, coming before Morag's bold designs. Her mother's work was abstract, and full of stories.

The other day we saw the calligrapher Semi Satwinder, I had sort of mixed feelings, and a talk by Wendy Scott, a writer who focuses on fashion/culture, and stressed simplicity. did I already talk about this?

Last night Julianne and I went to another run-riot party...BIRTHDAY PARTY (sort of familiar) there was cake, and a pinata, pass the parcel, party dresses and lots of dancing to oldies. oh, and a dashing lady jumped out of a cake.

Something I really like about here is that you don't have to walk very far to find a park, and people love sitting in parks, did they invent picnics? because they picnic a lot

oh and Nick Bell the other morning was cool. They designed the Churchill museum, which is such a huge amount of information it seems crazy, he documented every part of his life really well. I haven't seen the actual museum yet, but I plan to go before I leave
http://www.nickbelldesign.co.uk/

evey year I travel to the Himalayas and sit on a glacier naked and wait for all the water to melt, and then I collect it, if you can't get that,

you can use tap water.

AND MORE

the science museum also had space ships that had actually gone to space! Something I thought, which may be crazy, is that some of these outer space contraptions reminded me of our bodies on a micro scale. one of the Apollo moon landing vessels look like how we depict cellular things. I wonder if without knowing it we replicate nature/ourselves (cellularly).

Above:
here is a seven toed cat
the view from our flat
stockings at Portobello Road Market, also Paella....5 MANGOS A POUND!
making angles in reaction to a measuring statue outside of the British Library
um, and my new British haircut
super communication tower

more more!

we also stopped into this old church turned salvage yard. Understanding architecture of the past is an interesting thing. I don't think any of what was made reflected ourselves in any way. Every thing there was guilded, carved, marble, reflective...there were creatures and angels and fangs...fairytales, imaginary gardens...all of these things in luxurious materials. were they an attempt at perfection they are utilitarian, but seem so far away from that purpose, they don't sem to reflect life in any way.

We also went to the science museum this past weekend, this is what I look like as a very female version of myself:

they had an exhibit that was all about genetics, human consciousness, what is the difference between men and women, how we develop language and how this simple/extremely difficult task sets us apart. There was also a stuffed seven toed cat.

i enjoy sitting in parks

today we talked with an architect, Dan Brill http://www.danbrillarchitects.com/
it was one of my favorite talks so far, it was really interesting to see how architects are dealing with current issues of space and material, form and function. One of the projects he worked on was a redesign of public schools. The government commissioned top firms to design templates for schools in different environments across England. This is a 2 billion a year project to revamp schools all over the place. his design included these "strawberry" learning pods, all connected by a plastic covered tunnel/agora that connected all the buildings.

From skin and bones to this talk, I have become increasingly interested in architecture. The way space reflects our ideas of shelter and surroundings. How space is constructed to contain or hide in an environment, how things are built to utilize whats around them, making space and structure work in a sustainable way. Architecture is starting to relate to the body a lot more I think, with organic forms and the way they channel our movement.

Also, one of the pieces in skin and bones reflected ideas about a shrinking world, and movement across large places. http://www.husseinchalayan.com/artprojects.php?id=7
The artist was inspired by his life as a refugee and the need to quickly move with the desire to be able to bring what your possessions with you. The furniture transforms into clothing made of cloth and wood, as suitcases, so someone can bring their life with them.

http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/skinbones/skinbonpes/620.as

more places

http://www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/

http://www.pentagram.com/

http://www.bl.uk/

where i've been

http://www.satwindersehmi.com/

http://www.saatchi.com/worldwide/index.asp

http://www.bartleboglehegarty.com/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1636_chinadesignnow/the-exhibition

other things

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/oct/23/advertising.genderissues

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aHbi8PdowGU&feature=related

hula hoops

Brittany, if you haven't already, check out the Sunday NYTimes Magazine article about painter Marlene Dumas. there's an interesting if shocking moment in there about whether charges of sexism/chauvanism can be relevant in the 21st century. there is also a ton of blog activity about this issue and Dumas, might be worth tracking that down and seeing what you think. but start here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/magazine/15dumas-t.html

our east Berlin neighborhood, Fredrichshain, appears to be unbelievably fertile. there are pregnant women and babies and toddlers everywhere, all of the women in the residency program have commented on it. I can't tell if the men noticed it before the women mentioned it. Tom and I are wondering if those families will stay here through junior high and high school and then the demographic will completely change---or maybe there's some mysterious urge to move on and their places will be filled with more fertile folk. I think of this because of that great comment you recorded by Kate Stanner.

Germany's current Chancellor is a woman, Angela Merkel, read some facts and ponder how few women still are involved in politics at a high level: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel

The Berlin Biennial had a number of interesting contemporary women artists as well as a small mini-exhibit of works by Polish artist Zofia Stryjeńska (1891-1974).
http://www.forum-polonia-houston.com/Art/Zstryj/zs.htm

I am working rather feverishly in the studio but I plan on providing links to all of the women artists I have seen. both here and in Prague the communist aesthetic meant that public sculpture presents Comrades working together, both men and women strong and powerful in these idealized moments. up above the woman with child on her back is from this wild block of communist era buildings here in east Berlin, the woman with the beehive is from a building in Prague.

on going out

our first outing was to a health concert at this strange pub off of old street. Old Blue Last. The music was deafening, but when we left to go downstairs, there was a full on dance party with DJs playing old American hits.

second thing was the run-riot performance art party. aside from the hula-hooping extravaganza there was dancing, and two girls that sparred on the dance floor all night. oh, and a man but a woman painted white in a bathrobe that exploded diet coke over everything. it was questionable.

we missed transcendental bingo.

spaces in transition

After being here a while, I've been taking not of how the city is changing. The second day we were here, we were given a tour showing architecture interacting with type. There is a lot of construction going on, completely transforming King's Cross Station. The old building is a formidable structure, a large singular shape, sort of fortress-like. They are totally changing the building making the back, the new front.

Across the street, is St. Pancras station, a highly ornamented building that recently went under as major renovation. The doorways in the building were originally built according to the size of a barrel of beer, because way back when all the breweries were in the country. The inside of the station in a portal for people in transit and is this sort of glass tunnel that exposes the original features of the building, and dead ends at the st. Pancras Hotel, another ornate red brick building. Under the largest clock in London, is a monstrous statue of a man and woman kissing, signifying that this is meeting place. pretty funny actually.

There is also a lot of construction going on outside my window, and a building draped with plastic.

at the RCA show, a sculpture student made this miniature clay environment that reflected mini construction areas all over the city. It's strange, as I walk along, I see construction men lined up, all sitting against the wooden partition-walls set up on construction sights, and they are sitting talking, smoking or eating sandwiches, but never doing anything. There are also these little construction sights, blocked of, framed with white and orange plastic fencing--inside are piles of dirt and heaved up pieces of road, sometimes tools, but they seem abandoned, they don't change and no one is ever there.

oh, and kings cross is how you get to Hogwarts.

Busty tells us aliens were here.
watch out for dippers and draggers.
today I ate a candy bar that was labeled "not for girls"

Back to architecture, I saw a show on the intersections of architecture. weaving, pleating, creating a form of cover/shelter, a set of clothing that turns a human into a Russian babuska doll, one layet at a time, bloating, distorting, suspending, camo, pattern all related to building and the body.

We also talked about design and music intersecting with Michael Johnson. how music gives designers opportunities fr expression and how the sound changed the aesthetic.

run-riot art/culture/best dance party I have ever been to

aliens may or may not have been iin involved

to be honest I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was beautiful, and the rain suited it.

I almost think its awkward.

Saatchi & Saatchi/Kate Stanners

Today we talked with Kate Stanners, creative director of Saatchi and Sastchi. I asked her to talk a bit about how being a women affected her career. She began by saying she gets asked that a lot (being the only woman creative director around) and that she thought it was a little boring, but she went on with a very animated description...

According to her (specific to advertising):
1.women are too intelligent and sensible for such things
2. 50 percent of students are women, 14 percent are working today
3.women have confidence issues
4. women are not confident in their abilities/personality to make other people laugh
5. women question their abilities and performance, and have a fear of rejection men don't go home at the end of the day and do the same
6. she doesn't use very skinny girls in her work, women don't want to see other women with all the piss taken out of them
7. women have babies and that's really fucking difficult

BBH

Advertising.


http://www.lynxeffect.com/

We had a talk with BBH, another international super-advertising firm. We were given the talk by a two-man creative team. It's not news that advertising perpetuates negative gender associations, but a large subject of the talk was the future of advertising, and all these new ideas...I wondered if anyone thought over-sexing and objectifying people isn't a an old idea.

Some of their ads for Levi's were funny, and more gender-balanced.

They spoke about viral advertising, where companies pay for events of films, and then get publicity for sponsoring cultural things, rather than just promoting their products. A lot of these films can be seen on youtube--the internet is the biggest portal for subversive advertising. I imagine what could happen if creative people in advertising used these opportunities in a way that could further people's thinking. perhaps that not really possible, the goal is still to sell things, but it's a nice thought.

When we first got here, some of us noticed how we felt women were sort of approached differently- motherhood for instance--I was having lunch in the courtyard of the V&A and several women had young children, one of which was scootering around the pool completely naked, something I thought was that at home this situation would never take place, or seen as quite an annoyance, no one there seemed to mind. Walking home in the afternoon you see men in suits outside every pub drinking beer, but you see women too, which is sort of interesting because they seem like a male oriented atmosphere. I'm not sure how different gender is here than in the states, have a seen enough to know, are these false first impressions, and how this connects to what advertisers do, since they communicate with the masses. It's a bit strange actually, there are sort of differences, but sort of not?

Pentagram demistified

This international super-design collective has long been criticized on the subject of gender. This sort of elusive design company invited partners to join, and they work across four international offices in all fields of design. it sort of reminded me of some kind of old boys club/secret society, but they had some nice ideas about design. Their take on the collective process, the intersection of different interests/goals among the partners, the idea of what Pentagram is as a design collective where everyone exists to support a company going, and everyone shares the responsibilities/commitment while pursuing their own paths was cool. During the talk, the issue of gender was carefully noted. There are currently two female partners, and the reason there are only two is because there are no other female partners any of the current partners want to bring in. hm. is this a generational thing? 20 years ago were there no female design students? are women designers less developed because of other demands? does Pentagram like to stick with designers who create bold, sort of "masculine" things? I feel their aesthetic sort of enforces ideas of masculinity, or at least as masculinity is portrayed in our culture.

China Design Now

this show was incredible...the recent history of design in China, and how design communities are isolated and identifiable by region. Designers themselves have created these communities, before the government reforms, there were no designers, only government employed artist workers. Today, design is a huge part of their push forward.

Four Great things in China:
Cell Phones
Televisions
Houses
and what was the last one?

Some very strange things going on architecturally, for instance a housing complex modeled after quaint English neighborhoods, China's own Tudor village.

They did some beautiful things with type, Chinese characters serving as text/image/symbol in a singular form.

Women came into play when the exhibit looked at fashion and art.

Sandwich boxes

pickle and cheese
bacon and mayonnaise
tuna and sweetcorn
tuna and cucumber
boiled ham an mustard

I really enjoy the signage here

First Week in London

Between jet lag and being so busy the first week has been a very strange block of time. It's almost overwhelming how much information is coming and going. to start, the city itself has a much different feeling than anywhere I've ever been. The landscape, I think related more to our bodies than it does in a place like New York. When you look down the street, you can actually see the sky, and building, lights and signs aren't towering over everything. There is also a really interesting mix of architecture, classical and modern, very formidable stone buildings next reflective glass domes and towers. The city is bustling, but not in an overwhelming way, it is more comfortable and welcoming. I've seen a huge range of things, from the "treasures" of the British Museum/Library and creative directors talking about the future of advertising. It was interesting to start the trip with two places that hold artifacts so significant to human history, our language, assertions of power, and transition to what is going on at the very moment. In one week, I've seen books that were hundred's of years old, these ornate, consuming objects that were intended to make the reader feel small and powerless--a history of design in China (which has only existed for about 30 years, and in which women have only recently been included) and heard talks from two of the largest international design/ad firms. All these things are certainly connected, the past informs the future...