Here’s that review in of the Plastic Futures 2 exhibition in FrameMag:
http://www.framemag.com/news/857

Last year I presented the iPatch™ (complete with ironic trademarking) as a satire on the way we look to technology to solve problems often caused by technology. In this case the vast amount of information we recieve via a growing number of technological media. At the same time the iPatch™ is a recognition that the pace of technological change and the increased reliance on large complex information systems is an inescapable reality. The latest issue of New Scientist has an article entitled “The dangers of a high-information diet”, wherein the …

The New Worlds magazine discussed in the previous post, was something I “stumbled upon”. I got there because I did a search for ‘Harrison 2002 Light’ and found this useful review of M J Harrison’s 2002 sci-fi novel Light. This contains a link to something about New Worlds , which doesn’t go anywhere, but obviously I persisted and found info.
Now, I did that google search because of a footnote in Nigel Thrift’s Knowing Capitalism, a book I finally got hold of this week. I was enraptured by this footnote, which …

Across Plastic Futures, we have often discussed what the future looks like (or, more precisely, how it is imagined and depicted). In Plastic Futures 1, for instance, we noticed that images of the future (often sci-fi) quite often involve grandiose scenes of enormity in which people become minute figures. So, in Plastic Futures 2 with the next group of participants, I had them all equipped with little white 1:98 scale model people, who became subjects for many photographs in 1:1 scaled scenes. This was carried through to the exhibition …

Nic Clear’s lecture, “Architectures of the Near Future: A Tribute to JG Ballard”, at the Bartlett, Wed 21 October:
http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/events/lectures/lectures
Nic Clear
Architectures of the Near Future: A Tribute to JG Ballard
JG Ballard was one of the most original and distinctive authors of the last part of the C20th and beginning of the C21st; his writing encompassed topics as diverse as ecological crisis, technological fetishism, urban ruination and suburban mob culture, he pursued these topics with a wit and inventiveness that is without equal.
Ballard’s understanding of architecture, and architects, and his prophetic visions …

Look out for the Jan/Feb edition of Frame magazine –
http://www.framemag.com/
– for an appearance of the Plastic Futures exhibition.

I think I might have nearly recovered from the Plastic Futures exhibition (marked by the creeping, insane desire to do another one).
This week, the Plastic Futures 2 group are meeting up for a final session, after a long break. Time for the next layer of reflection.
Pics of the exhibition, for those who missed it, are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/piaedniebrown/sets/72157621732953109/
Plus, I just stumbled upon a review in the blog of Daniel Neville and his theories of Nevolution:
http://nevolution.typepad.com/theories/2009/08/plastic-futures.html
The exhibition is also going to be covered, apparently, in a Dutch design magazine, but I’ll post more …

As I’ve discussed before, blogging (and reposting the content of other blogs – dubbed “re-tweeting” on twitter) is an example of how technology has affected culture – specifically the miriad ways we now access information and how integrated we are becoming.
The idea of the meme as a unit of culture that is self replicating really came into it’s own in the past few years as the internet – YouTube in particular – has allowed millions of people to view and share hundreds of videos, cartoons, images, humourous stories and urban …

As part of Plastic Futures 2 we had the opportunity to travel to Perth, Western Australia and participate in a workshop hosted by Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr at SymbioticA (a centre for excellence in bio-art research within the Department of Anatomy & Human Biology at UWA). This involved a loose set of investigations around the theme of “adaptation” with a focus on a colony of thrombolites, ancient “living rocks” situated in a lake south of Perth.
As well as the introduction to the labs at SymbioticA (including a session of …

I think I’m in love with Nellie McKay.
Not sure if it’s her sense of humour, her adorable outfit or her cute 50s American accent (that’s 1950s a la Shirly Temple, not 2050s).
http://www.ted.com/talks/nellie_mckay_sings_clonie_1.html