—Australian Aboriginal proverb
R.I.P. Alexander Cockburn, (6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012)
(across the UK)
New York-based artist Kurt Perschke recently brought his famous RedBall project to the UK for the first time, installing his massive inflatable red ball in a total of 20 sites around the country. Filmmaker Danny Cooke was on hand during the entire RedBall UK trip and edited together a great timelapse of the installation as it moved from location to location around the country—view the video here.
(source)
Melbourne, Australia
“Respectful depiction and referencing of Indigenous visual iconography has become an important issue around the world—especially when designers and their clients choose to visually represent national identity. This new emphasis on cultural authenticity raises ethical issues of appropriate engagement and knowledge ownership.”
On 9 August 2012, Russell Kenedy will give a talk entitled ‘Appropriate or Appropriate? Strategic considerations when representing Indigenous culture in communication design and branding’ at The Museum Theatre/Melbourne Museum (full information here). He will speak on the need for the design profession to establish a framework of engagement with Indigenous knowledge, which will educate and inform practitioners on issues relating to cultural ownership and respectful development processes. He believes a dedicated policy in this area will help facilitate the transition to an authentic national identity, one that celebrates Australia as the home of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.
My good friend Russell Kennedy is a Research Fellow at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA) and a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). He was Chair of the International Design Alliance (2009- 2011) and is currently serving as immediate Past President (2011-2013) of Icograda, the International Council of Communication Design and is Co-Chair of INDIGO, the International Network of Indigenous Design.
The poster design shown above is entitled “Peace Roo” (done for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games) and is by another Aussie friend, David Lancashire.
(image source unknown)
Dublin, Ireland
This is a great illustration project by The Project Twins—bold graphics and visual wit are used to interpret and represent a collection of strange, unusual, and lost words (see the words represented in the graphics above and all 26 prints here). The full collection was exhibited at the MadArt Gallery Dublin during DesignWeek 2011, and consisted of 26 individual 50cm x 70cm Giclee Prints on Hahnemühle 100% Cotton Rag, each in a limited edition of 10.
(thanks to GDC Listserv colleague Lesley Casson)
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Breakfast of Champions)
