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We’ve all done it, at one time or another… playing with clouds. Likely only a few have documented this fun for the enjoyment of others—and fewer yet with the determined playfulness of the late Horst J. Bernhardt,* an industrial designer who spent most of his 40-year career with Lightolier. View his image series entitled SKYplay here.
*Horst passed into another dimension in May of this year… R.I.P.
(I’ve posted about clouds and how much I like them before, here).
Montreal, Canada
Language is not only a product of human life—it is a pre-requisite that humans require to form relationships. As a fundamental form of expression, language binds us together.
But not all languages are spoken. A language can be visual—made up of complex ideas of truth deeply rooted in symbols, custom and imagery. Mother Tongue is about the power of language—verbal and visual, formal and informal. First language. Native language. It honours languages at risk of being lost in our globalising society and those that have survived the forces of colonisation.
Mother Tongue is a healing process—stimulating creative dialogue between indigenous and non-indigenous designers, students of design, poets and writers. Mother Tongue celebrates that underlying our languages, we are the same after all.
Mother Tongue also offers a forum for non-indigenous designers to respond to the position that indigenous language iconography, process and design knowledge can and should play an integral role in contemporary design.
Mother Tongue is a cross-cultural platform to open discussion around the role of contemporary indigenous design. It encourages collaborative projects that deepen our understanding of people’s culture in our visual world of this 21 century. Claude Levi-Strauss said that no one culture is more advanced than another, each is unique and there is much to learn from everyone.
“We need a culture shift. Can design reconcile differences? Does it hold this power? If design has the power to market products and services that make consumers consume, then I am sure it can. Let’s begin a journey of understanding—fostering a new respect for life, nature and the natural world. Let’s value the principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity and kinship.”
—David Lancashire, Melbourne, Australia (from the Mother Tongue brief)
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INDIGO, the International Indigenous Design Network, has launched Mother Tongue, an innovative online exhibition that seeks to capture the power of language—verbal and visual, formal and informal. Intended to stimulate creative dialogue, Mother Tongue offers designers a forum to respond to the position that indigenous language iconography, process and design knowledge can and should play an integral role in contemporary design. This cross-cultural platform will honour languages at risk and encourage collaborative projects that deepen our understanding of people’s culture in our visual world of this 21st century.
Mother Tongue is an open, multi-disciplinary, online exhibition. You may submit multiple entries, but each submission must be a single piece. The form of response is yours to determine—a poster, a photograph, a poem, a product, a piece of architecture— that interprets the spirit of Mother Tongue.
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Imagery: 1907 photograph of an Inuit/Inupiat woman; James Evans’ Cree syllabary developed in Norway House, Manitoba in 1841 (as a blend of Devangari script from India and the phonetic Pitman Shorthand from Britain)—this syllabary was later adapted by Edmund Peck to form the basis for the modern Inuktitut writing system.
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On this holiday day of nationalist celebrations in the United States of America, billions of the world’s citizens (particularly those in the 150+ countries in which the American military is currently deployed) wish nothing more than that the “Yankees go home”—for everyone’s good. Many of my friends in the U.S. wholeheartedly agree…
Manitoba, Canada
Over the past two months I’ve invested a fair bit of effort (with Ev’s help) in refurbishing Bettie Blue, the 1988 VW Westfalia camp-mobile I had the good fortune to buy from her original owner in Alberta last September. (Bettie, my first Westie, was sold to a long-time climbing friend in March). BB came to me in great shape and with exceptionally low mileage. She’s cleaned up nicely, is now sporting new rubber all around (pop-top seals on roof, and a handsome set of Michelin HydroEdge tires on new 16″ alloy rims from GoWesty below), and has been upgraded with high-powered halogen headlights up front. Already fully kitted out with camping gear, she now awaits the open road…
Image: a 1989 magazine advert promoting the VW Westie and extolling the vehicle’s versatile virtues… I’ll post some pics of BB herself at a later date.
