The nature and the culture on Iceland is just fantastic!

As Remo Camerota was photographing his book ‘Graffiti Japan’ he came across various drain designs in different prefectures. Camerota started documenting these manholes and eventually collected enough to get a book together. “I noticed there was an otaku culture based around these manhole covers, as well as a huge internet following. People actually have website museums dedicated to the pursuit of drainspotting! There is no other book on the subject so I wanted to show the rest of the world the kind of artistic design going on here.” So while it’s not the oddest fetish in Japan, there are people who travel the length of the country enticed by the prospect of a compellingly designed manhole.

In Japan, modern sewer systems began appearing during the late 19th century, and foreign engineers introduced the Japanese to modern, underground sewer systems with above ground access points. At that time manhole covers had similar geometric designs to those used in other countries. In the 1980s, one bureaucrat devised a way to make these mostly invisible systems aesthetically appreciated aboveground, and the customised manhole cover was invented.

Asked which is his favourite manhole, the photographer replies, “The one I found in Shiga. I was arguing with my partner because I took a wrong turn, and low and behold, I found my favourite manhole cover lying there in the wrong street. We wouldn’t have found it if we went the correct way.” The manhole was a fireman and his bio suit. “How apocalyptic, and it was just there on the side of the road,” he exclaims. The reason it was Camerota’s favourite is because it reminds him of sci fi movies, anime and manga, which he’s a big fan and creator of himself.

Even though Japanese custom manhole covers cost more than generic ones, nearly 95% of the 1,780 municipalities in Japan sport their very own specially designed manhole covers. Designs range from images that evoke a region’s cultural identity - flora, fauna, landmarks and local festivals - even fanciful images dreamed up by school children. In Kyoto, a turtle adorns the city’s manhole covers signifying wisdom and longevity.

So what can other countries learn from this art? Camerota replies, “Attention to detail and unusual art practice are just some of the things they can learn. What this kind of thing shows is that no matter how small or insignificant the item, they can still make it perfect. Designing a manhole cover for each prefecture means there are over 2500 throughout Japan. Slowly but surely this insignificant item is getting its own cult otaku following meaning people are looking at Japan as modern leaders in landscape design and attracting tourists in a bizarre way. Even if they are maniacs!”

This is a new post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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Hub Culture is home base for the world’s knowledge leaders merging the virtual and physical worlds. Stan Stalnaker in ‘Hub Culture - The Next Wave of Urban Consumers’ first wrote about the network of global urban modernists who orient themselves around hub living in 2002. The associated website became the resource and meeting point for these global nomads, and a reference point for the uniquely globalised zeitgeist defining hub culture.

Stalnaker saw the need to move this social network from the digital to the physical and back again with no drama. Asked about the future of social networking he responds, “Getting real! That’s our take on it anyway . . . we see social networks moving off the web and into real life, still powered by the web. Hub Culture is a ‘real network’ that uses social network traits to deliver enhanced collaboration in real life. We see this merger of the metaverse (online) and the universe (offline) as the next big wave to hit society. This emergence of the omniverse will change everything - embedding the web and links into everyday objects and the very fabric of society. As a result, we are trying to lead in this area by taking these components from social networks and embedding them in real world scenarios - whether it’s our Cannes Pavilion overlooking the sea, or in London, where executives gather from around the world to connect and work.”

Stalnaker describes this urban community of globalised citizens as ‘post national’ as many come from two or three cultures, but operate on a global level with a shared perspective. Most of us have at least one friend who was raised in one culture, completed studies in another, and now lives in a third culture; if not friends that live and work between the world’s major hubs; or know of those who genetically or culturally identify with more than one city. Global hub living is not something in the distant future, it is happening now.

The big cities are the nomadic elite’s hubs around the world. These urban centres are the playgrounds for their chosen lifestyles, so the first permanent Hub Culture Pavilion was opened in Carnaby Street, London this year. The Pavilion radically reduces the cost of workspace and for a monthly or daily fee you can tap into the network of people that congregate to work there. It eases the stresses and strains of mobile living with valet and concierge services, and tries to ground the rootless lifestyle by enabling genuine connections to others in the network.

Future permanent Pavilions will come to Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong, New York, Punta del Este and Singapore with temporary Pavilions in Cannes, Davos, Ibiza and Miami. Social networks drive global socialisation and the Hub Culture traveling Pavilions have the mobility to move you across your networks (contemporary art) and locations (Art Basel Miami). 

While the Hub ‘connects people, ideas and capital to each other for projects all around the world, always for social progress or integrated mutual benefit’; its mission is to reveal and enhance our collective consciousness. And as Stalnaker explains, “It appears that more and more people are coming to an understanding, driven by technology and other social changes, that there could be a common collective consciousness that exists between humanity. The more connected we become, the easier it becomes to access this collective identity - whether culturally, via communications, or eventually from the very definition of our identities.”  

The entrepreneur believes a functional collective consciousness will result from instant access to information allowing anyone, anywhere, to access what anyone else, anywhere knows. “That point is perhaps very distant in the future, but our efforts to integrate and engage the hub network - we feel - contribute toward this mission.”

The trading of goods and services in the hub network is based on Ven, the world’s first peer-to-peer social currency. It floats against other global currencies and is tradable online and redeemable at all Pavilions. Ven functions as a karma wallet - somewhere between thank you’s and payments - and is used for good deeds, introductions, or as a way to acknowledge positive social action. 

And what does this entrepreneur/futurologist see as the future of innovation? “Innovation is the ‘process of progress’ - the way we develop new memes that take hold in the culture or society that propel us forward. Innovation has become the holy grail of many companies and institutions looking to survive an ever more rapidly changing world, so to some innovation is about ‘change’. But change for change’s sake means nothing. We need to be changing toward something better if it is to have a positive material affect on society. Not all innovations are good, so we must consider both the process and the result of an innovation to understand if it’s beneficial to humanity overall. Taking in these ‘externalities’ should be a necessary ingredient of innovation. For me, only this type of innovation - this ‘process of progress’ is true innovation.”

So whether it’s Facebook, the resort on Luxury Island in Second Life, home base in London, or the traveling Pavilion in Ibiza, Hub Culture is the place to interact with others who live, work and travel between world cities on the ‘process of progress’.

This is a new post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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iMove is a lifestyle iPhone application for people who like to dance or express themselves through dancing. The main purpose of my project has been to create an application that stands out as a fashionable accessory among the vast amount of applications available in the app store today. iMove exudes freshness and innovation! 

The target group I have chosen to focus on is people aged 15-30 years. People in the audience have passion for modern technology and new media. Other words that reflect the target group’s interests are music, design, and entertainment.

iMove application is playing a basic beat in the start so that you are encouraged to start dancing. When you start moving, you create music according to various body movements. At the same time you’re iPhone is recording your movements with the accelerometer in the phone and create an animation with graphic pattern. When you have finished dancing, you can listen to the music you have created and watch the graphic pattern of how you have danced.

The iMovie application is designed by Elma Cavalic and is on exhibition at FORM/DESIGN Center in Malmö until the 7th of June.

Watch a short movie about the project below:

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The David Report blog is intended to be a meeting place for dynamic minds with an interest for the latest and most interesting news, ideas and concepts in the intersection of design, culture and business life. We are always trying to leave the surface to instead go in depth and relate a number of design trends to social, economical and ecological patterns and phenomena’s over the entire global - local scale.

We are now looking for creative article contributers. Culturally connected people that are curious and would like to share their thoughts and findings with the David Report readers. Does it sound interesting? Please drop us a line at info (at)davidreport(dot) com.

Ecodecor’s Tatami Flight Chair and Tatami Bench Sofa – designed by Chris Gurney – combine traditional Japanese materials, methods and craftsmanship with the Western style of sitting. Ecodecor is the furniture label by Brandarchitecture whose consistent design theme is ‘healing space for the next generation’. Brandarchitecture’s design process is defined by its collaborative artistic practice – partners who are located across the globe who see style and ecological awareness as equally attainable.

The cultural anthropologist Gordon Huse said that there are two customs characterised in our lives – sitting on a chair, or sitting on the ground. For centuries, the Japanese have sat on the ground (the ‘za-seat’). The mixture of the meditated style of yoga from India and the religious training from China influenced this custom. After Dogen brought Soto Zen to Japan, the tatami mat became associated with the traditional tea ceremony, and has always been used throughout Japan for this custom. If you like, think of tatami as a philosophy of sitting.

And the Tatami Flight Chair and Bench Sofa are a modern interpretation of this philosophy. The frame – available in both light or dark bamboo – has tatami as the seating base and kimono fabric as its backing. The tatami base concentrates one’s attention on thought, and allows for peace of mind in meditation. And no extended periods of sitting on the ground are required!

This is a post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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Andra bloggar om: kultur, design, möbler, inredning, japan

Chambertronica 2008 from Olle Corneer on Vimeo.

Next week will be the premiere for Chambetronica and it will take place in the newly built hi-tech concert hall of Uppsala, north of Stockholm.

Chambetronica is an equal mix between contemporary chamber music and electronica. Two musical cultures that have not often met before. Three of the most experienced and established musicians within the electronica scene meet three of the most skillful and respected instrumentalists. What happens when musicians that practice on their instruments every day meet the ones that compose by moving squares on the computer screen? When musical instruments that have been developed through hundreds of years, through classicism, modernism and avant garde, meet the new digital instruments that change by the week, change by every software update? When musicians with years of school and training meet the producers of electronica that never been to school at all (mainly because there are no music schools for electronica)? Chambertronica forces these two worlds to meet, musically and in the compositions. The result is something completely new and unexpected, music without limitations.

Chambertroncia live is chamber music on a techno club. Unknown musical worlds and strong visual impressions, traditional instruments, electronics and VJs. Maybe it’s a star of a new musical genre?

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Andra bloggar om: electronica, musik, kultur, konsert, klassisk musik

FunFam – short for Fun In The Family – is a new style Japanese tableware brand for kids that mixes Japanese aesthetics with Western lifestyle trends. Designed with bamboo, it takes a unique approach to the concept of ‘fun in the family’.

With many parents now spending less time having dinner with their children, FunFam’s tableware range promotes opportunities for the whole family to share meal times together. A decade of research by CASA (The National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, New York) shows that the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

Inspired by mixed cultural influences, the tableware combines Western culinary culture with Japanese craftsmanship. The all hand made product lets kids discover the Western world of food by feeling the craftsmanship handed down in Japan over 1000 years. The Japanese way of life is integrally tied to the use of bamboo as one of the country’s main materials. For example, Japan’s oldest tale is titled ‘Kaguya Hime – Princess from Bamboo Trees’.

The key piece in the range is the Table Manners Set that invites children to appreciate the wealth of gastronomic tastes in the world. It sets out to help anyone (the world over) who has ever struggled to distinguish between the salad fork and the dessert fork. Knowing which fork, spoon or knife to use with which part of a full course meal can be a trial for even the most willing of learners. The Table Manners Set makes this less of a trial, and more of a fun, family-centered learning experience. The set includes nine different utensils, a plate, and a board to set all the utensils on. The board makes it easy for children to figure out what goes where with the pictures sketched underneath each utensil-shaped indentation. Learning about table manners is now a piece of cake (or bamboo!).

This is a post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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Andra bloggar om: mat, kultur, middag, japan, design, barn

The video above shows some of the work from the ongoing Helmut Lang exhibition called “Alles gleich schwer”. You can experience it both in real life at renowned kestnergesellschaft in Hanover and online at the collaboration partner Absolut.

Andra bloggar om: konst, mode, helmut lang, absolut, utställning

There has been a lot of reaction in the blogoshpere concerning our latest report called “5 Key Design Trends“. That’s fun, we like the discussion to continue and evolve. Below I’m posting a few of them. Check them out, they are all an interesting read.

Apartment therapy, Psfk, Home rejuvenation, Dexigner, Hi-id, Design Milk, Designophy, Mocoloco, Martin Koser, Trendbites, Desire to inspire, Live modern, Trendbird, Gems Sty, bwl zwei null, Frizzifrizzi, A ghost of daisies, Will it brand, Das Kulturmanagement blog, Addidea, Daidesignblog, Moneyfoxs, Foxerus, Yourtail, Daymoon design, Heyho, polymerclay daily, Docstoc, Design Latvia, Change the thought, Ffffound, Designcentre, Fav.or.it.

Andra bloggar om: design, trender, inspiration, kultur, framtid