From China, with Love

With the US congress moving closer to pass legislation banning imported products made with child labor (click here) it's should come as a shocker that people are concerned about where and how the shit they buy is made.

From Core77.com "US-based Baggu thinks so and they're leading the charge with an assortment of beautiful and reusable bags that are "Ethically made in China," according to the tag on each bag. Their phrasing probably seems like a smoke screen to skeptics who want to support their local economy and are dubious of Chinese imports."

Plus with software like Good Guide's iPhone app, continues to empower us with instant product information that will make us all more ethical consumers.

Except there's one problem, and it's not with "ethical consumers". If you actually clicked on the link in the very first paragraph you would've been directed to a link to an artcile regarding how some corporations are worried about the impact on their bottom line legislation banning products made with child labor would have. Really? Talk show host Rachael Maddow sums it up best starting around the 3:20 mark:

The Great Water Debate.

Forget oil. Water is our greatest resource. Recently I came across an article from Core77.com (click here for that article) about a bunch of design students from Savannah College of Art & Design who are engaged in helping a nearby vacation destination, Tybee Island, reduce its water consumption to preserve a local aquifer.

Digging deeper I found an article on the SavannahNow.Com about the same issue (click here for that): "Tybee needs such innovations because the state has mandated it and other coastal communities reduce water usage. The aim is to protect the area's main source of drinking water, the Floridan aquifer, which is threatened with saltwater contamination from overuse. To do its part, Tybee has to find ways to cut back 44,000 gallons a day starting in the new year. The beach showers already have been shut off, then restored as foot-washers to meet current water use limits."

But back up for a minute. The central issue of the these two articles are WATER and CLIMATE CHANGE. Global climate change is not just affecting water supply on a tiny island off of Savannah. It's a global issue that will affect not just geology, but politics. Remember the film Chinatown?

Digging deeper I remembered an article I came across a while back from the Guardian about a suppressed, yet leaked, report commissioned by the Pentagon on the national security implantation of global climate change. (click here for the entire article). The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. The report was commissioned in 2004 by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall and written by CIA consultant Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network. The report is bleak, to say the least.....In all honesty, the shit is depressing. Some key points:

-"the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated."

-"Coastal states like Florida and California face a water crisis not only from increased demand, but also from rising temperatures that are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise. Higher temperatures mean more water lost to evaporation. And rising seas could push saltwater into underground sources of freshwater" (refer back to the first paragraph - on the Savannah design students).

-"An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions."

-"major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world."

And, now some videos on water, climate change and it's implications:

Interactive LED Furniture.....Cool!

Here we have the neato Ripple Interactive LED Coffee Table . It contaings 480 super-bright white LEDs and optical sensors to that light up when objects are placed near it. In a nutshell, it's interactive furniture. The table comes in three lengths: 22" inches long, 40" inches long, or 58" inches long. They are all 26" inches wide by 18" inches high. Prices range from $1,800 - 2,100. It was made in a collaboration between furniture designers Because We Can and Evil Mad Science.

Though it's a bit pricey I still applaud the concept of interactive furniture. It's not unlike the interactive stage displaye employed by rock band Nine Inch Nails, built by Moment Factory, during their 2008 Lights In The Sky Tour. Trent Reznor (NIN and Trent Reznor are one in the same) wanted to manipulate the stage visuals with his movement and sound - to integrate the preference, display, lights and movement into one piece. Moment Factory is a new media arts and entertainment studio with HQ in Montreal. They specialize in the creation, design, and control of immersive environments and new media content.

The following videos are of a demo on the LED coffee table, details on how NIN created their stage show and a preformace of the song Closer, Ghosts 31, Piggy and The Big Come Down:

Jay-Z Rhapsody Commercial

In this commercial for Rhapsody, Jay-Z recreates every one of his album covers. Awesome.

Shoelace rug? Cool shit!

Here's something interesting I found on Core77.com. It's a rug made out of shoelaces. Pretty cool shit. It's considered a "happenstantial multiple" by creaters by Nate Silverstein and Andrea Paustenbaugh. It moves beneath your feat, creating an ever-changing sculpture that's surprisingly comfortable and engaging.

In my opinion it's a great middle ground between form and function. Pleasing to look at, yet conformable and functional. We need more of that.

Like what you see. Visit their website ShoelaceRug.com. The SMALL, approx. 1m x 2m, color: black + white will run you $250 USD. The LARGE spanding 2m x 4m in black + white will cost you $500 USD. Those are your options and each one is unique. We like that. Im sure at some point these rugs will be swooped up and available at the hipster temple Urban Outfitters.

Out of the butt, into the fuck

So I found something interesting on Core77.com Click here for the original article. Now this is something I can get into. It's comical, yet functional. Irreverent, yet practical. As you can tell for the picture, it's a slide for playground made in the shape of an elephant. No more description needed.

Why can't design be irreverent, funny yet practical. Sometimes I wonder if most designers mainly design things for their peers (that small group of people you went to art school with that always get-it because they've been soooo institutionalized) and not for the public in which they might serve.

What's wrong with low brow humor? Do designers have to be soooo goddman pretentious? High and mighty? Elitist?