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On the left: tomato
On the right: silverbeet

Tomato is winning but he had a head start. I expect silverbeet will overtake him around the 3-4 week mark.

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(his_whoreness on Dec 4, 2008 7:44 PM)

What's wrong with your silverbeet? Are you growing it from seed?

(piers on Dec 4, 2008 7:54 PM)

Yep! Sowed today. The tomato has been struggling in his tiny little cup, he should do much better now. Don't tell Bonni, I gave him non-organic fertilizer.

ffffound.

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One of the judges Jasper Morrison summed up the third MUJI Award as the best so far and was impressed (or relieved perhaps) that this year's entries were more holistic and thoughtful bucking the trend of visual games in design we've seen emerge in recent years.

"Visual games" is exactly what I was lamenting in my post about Tokyo Design Week. I agree with Mr Morrison, it is good to see the Muji winners bucking this trend.

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They feed on squid, small fish and on animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess at times that they are unable to fly and rest helplessly on the water.

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(LargeLouie on Nov 29, 2008 5:57 PM)

And?... "There is a town in north Ontario."

Lori Hersberger on designboom.

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I like Fréderic Ruyuant's rainwater collector/ distributor. More details on designboom. Photo copyright designboom.

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First, it impinges on our free speech. The decision of whether something would be blocked or not would have to be made by a mindless computer, because the internet is too big for a human to check each website. There would be innumerable mistakes, as well as entire domains being blocked because of a small amount of illicit content. There is the possibility of entire sites such as Facebook, Myspace or Flickr being blocked because of a small amount of infringing content being uploaded by a tiny minority of users. I believe it is every adult Australian's right to decide what she reads and sees, without having to have approval from the government. This is not something that can be "turned off" or opted out of. It is mandatory and Australia-wide.

Second, in practice it is impossible to effectively censor the internet. There are simply too many ways to get around any filter. Therefore anyone who really wants to access potentially dangerous material (bomb-making guides, for example) will be able to. Sophisticated, easy to use circumvention methods have been developed by political dissidents in China, whose government censors anti-government material. The filter will be unable to block file-sharing traffic, which compromises 60% of all internet traffic.

Third, any effort would come at a massive cost and a massive degradation of speed (up to 30%, as reported by The Australian). ISPs are unanimous in the opinion that the filter is impossible to implement without significant cost and reduction of speed. It is a technical nightmare.

Not only that, but the planned filter would break the security of internet transactions such as online banking. It would allow ISPs to intercept account numbers and passwords, making it impossible for people to safely use these services.

The public will be paying dearly for a system that blocks legitimate content, decides what they can and cannot see, is useless in censoring dangerous material, breaks their online security and slows down their connection.

The public must mobilize and express its discontent. If you think you can make up your own mind about what you view on the internet, if you don't want to pay for a technically flawed system that slows down your connection, if you are worried about having your online banking hacked and all your savings being siphoned off to organized criminals, LET THE GOVERNMENT KNOW and join the protests planned in capital cities this Saturday, December 13.

Check the Clean Feed Forum for details of the rallies in your city.

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It started before I could get in the show. The ticketing system was either malfunctioning or was woefully inadequate to serve the volume of visitors present. I was there right at the start of the first (trade-only) day, fourth in line at my ticketing gate, and it took over 15 minutes to get inside. I was handed a showbag with a little plastic trinket that would have been immediately discarded by 99% of the visitors, then lost by the other 1%. When every trade show is either focused on, or at least acknowledges issues of waste in design, imagining 20,000 little plastic buttons each in their own zip-lock bag going straight from the production line into landfill was discouraging.

Once in, walking past the teams of people still erecting banners and signs (why they were still setting up at 10am I have no idea), the exhibition seemed to rattle in grounds too big. They probably needed the space to cope with the influx of visitors on the public days, but bigger crowds would have made the space even more bewildering.

Wandering around inside the various sections I wanted desperately to be thrilled and excited, after all I had travelled an awfully long way to be there and Tokyo had thus far been amazing, but I could barely stifle a yawn. The show was dominated by junk. A lot of it was pretty or polished or very well-realized, but one could not escape the fact that there were no problems being solved, no clever innovation, just the same useless old products re-done with a gloss that had begun to fade even before its debut.

The trivet has now overtaken the vase (and before that, the kettle) as the most over-designed product available. A trivet, if you're not familiar, is like a coaster for a pot, something that protects your countertop. No-one actually needs one because every kitchen has tea-towels and they're always handy because they're stored on cupboard or drawer handles. They do the job quite adequately, are cheap, durable and plentiful. A wooden chopping board also does double-duty. Nevertheless there is obviously a market for goods that do part of the job of a tea-towel, with no improvement in functionality but great increase in cost, plus less versatility to boot. If you are bent on having one, a trivet need not be difficult to design or manufacture, workshops everywhere are littered with more than enough wood off-cuts to thoroughly satisfy the market. Yet every week I see a new, increasingly complicated, fashionable (in the sense that it is destined to some day be un-fashionable) and expensive trivet announced.

The trivet seemed to be the mascot of 100% Design. Products took its principles to heart - the vast majority of what was on display were solutions to problems that never existed. My beef is not that these trinkets were unnecessary, I am in fact a champion of the unnecessary object. No one artwork is necessary but as a whole, art is very much a necessary part of human expression and communication. I certainly see the value in the things we could survive without.

What was on display was not beauty, though, most of it was bad visual puns and re-hashes of what might once have been seen as "new". And the titles! The name of a product should be used to differentiate pieces of similar functionality in a designer's line-up. Instead, it often seems a designer thought of a clever title and designed a product so that she might be able to use it.

There were exceptions, of course. One of the standouts for me was Zeroperzero's interpretations of three cities' railway maps. They are at first visually arresting, beautiful and easy to decipher, then upon further investigation, reveal themselves to be subject-specific in a charming way. Osaka, for example, is the head of an octopus with arms extending to the neighbouring cities of Kyoto, Nara, Kobe and Wakayama. The octopus is a symbol of Osaka, the main ingredient of Takoyaki, a dish it is famous for. The maps won the iF communication design gold medal.

I didn't go to Design Tide because having blown ¥2000 on 100%, I decided to cut my losses. I did go to several of 100%'s associated events and installations. The most interesting part was when I was riding around looking for an in-store event, I climbed to the third floor of the wrong building and got a great view of Omotesando. The actual exhibition was unremarkable.

It's a shame that the show was such a poor reflection of a country that is certainly no disappointment in the design department. I hope the show's curators are in future a little more discerning and a little less swayed by short-lived trends.

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Found on ffffound, the portfolio website of Elias Tahan.

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(his_whoreness on Nov 12, 2008 5:06 PM)

Why do I know that name?

The Japanese love their papercraft, and so do I. From left:
P-Sharan pinhole camera
Hiroshige Tatebanko
Cart from Tokyu Hands
Tsutenkaku Tower

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note: skip if you are not a film nerd

Just before I left for Japan, I bought some Fuji HRII Minicopy film from Japan Exposures (formerly Megaperls). It's an ASA 6, panchromatic black and white negative 35mm document copying film that's only sold in Japan. Why did I import film from Japan just before I went there? Well, it's a special purpose film, and I rightly assumed I wouldn't find it in stores. Neither Bic nor Yodabashi stocked it, in Osaka or Tokyo, and I didn't see it in any smaller shops either.

I've just developed the first roll so I thought I'd report back with my results.

I shot it at EI 6, and developed it in Rodinal at 1:200 for two hours, agitating at the start for five seocnds, then only once, for five seconds, at the mid-point. I got this time from Dirk Rösler, who runs Japan Exposures, and it's the only time I've found online. The box doesn't have any times, it doesn't even list an ASA/ISO rating. Before processing, the film is bright purple.

It has a clear base, dried almost completely flat, and the contrast is intense. I accidentally overexposed it and my negs were too dense, this is because I have alkaline batteries in my camera and the meter isn't accurate enough. I know I should use silver, I just haven't got around to buying any and the alkalines are accurate enough for (normal) negative film.

But despite overexposing it, I still have next to zero shadow detail. It's really blacks and whites, very little grey. This would imply that you need to meter incredibly accurately, but that's not necessarily true: when you're clipping your highlights and shadows so severely, it doesn't matter that much where you decide to put your exposure on the grey scale. It's hard to explain.

There is no grain to speak of. There is noticeable halation, but it's an effect I quite like.

I really, really like this film. I wish it were available in 120. I'd also prefer to shoot it with a body that did automatic bracketing. I think it's suited to cityscapes and the like, it makes for some very graphic images, but also shines in high-key portraiture, and who knows, possibly low-key too.

One note on processing - at concentrations of 1:200, a 35mm roll will sit in approximately 300mL of developer, which means 1.5mL of undiluted Rodinal. With that little developer, you run the risk of exhausting it. I think the recommended minimum undiluted Rodinal per roll is about 5mL, but I put 600mL of diluted developer in the tank, which is 3mL of undiluted, and it came out fine.

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I'm back from Japan, and wow, what a trip. Suffice to say I have a lot to report, I'll get to it over the next few days. Thanks Tim for being a most excellent host and giving me an insider's view of Osaka! I love that city, the whole week was a blast.

I was lucky enough to get upgraded to business on my flight out of Tokyo, and my gosh, it's really the only way to travel. More than just more legroom, at the end of the flight, despite flying through the night, I felt refreshed and calm, not stressed and irritable, as I normally would after 8 hours in a plane. I sure as hell can't afford to actually pay for it, but I see why it's worth it now.

I have a mountain of film to develop, it'll be going on flickr as I get through it all. Some of the shots are from a camera I picked up at the MoMA store in Tokyo (but then saw later for cheaper at Tokyu Hands) called the P-Sharan STD-35, it's a papercraft pinhole camera I assembled myself, relying only on the Japanese instructions. I love the results, it makes Tokyo look as gritty as it did in real life. Most of the shots I took on my Mamiya 645. It was a bit tiresome lugging it around the city, but from what I've seen so far it was worth it. It's also comforting to know that any photo that turns out well, I'll be able to blow up as big as I like. I took my 35mm SLR but only ran two or three rolls through it. I didn't bother taking a digital camera (other than my iPhone) and I didn't regret it.

I'll be back with more about Tokyo Design Week, bicycles, Engrish, architecture and food stories...

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An old lady showed me how to use this. It's a two-bath process: first
you soak your glasses in the top bath, which buzzes and vibrates, I
don't know whether what it's doing is electric or mechanical, then
when that finishes, you rinse in the bottom bath and dry off. My
glasses were sparkling!

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