Taiching, Taiwan
I’ve just spent a delightful and inspiring two days in Taiching (aka Taichung). After arriving by bullet train from Taipei yesterday, our delegation gathered at Asia University to deliver a series of lectures—nice bonus, a chance to peruse the University founder’s private collection of bronze sculptures (including one of 25 Thinkers by Rodin). Japanese architect Tadao Ando has just designed an impressive bespoke museum that will house this collection in years to come.
Today’s highlight was a guided visit to the beautiful Taiwanese National Museum of Fine Arts, where the 2009 Asian Art Biennial | Viewpoints & Viewing Points was on exhibit (see photos above). After a sumptuous lunch at the Xin Yue Wu Tung (Shanghainese) restaurant it was off again by bullet train to Tainan…
Big thanks and a virtual hug to my personal interpreter this week, Tree (in striped dress—a Taiwanese fashion design student who has just returned from three years of study in Paris).
Taipei, Taiwan
I’m currently spending the better part of a week in Taiwan, lecturing in three cities as part of the 2009 Conference of International Design Competitions (a truly innovative program that encourages and rewards Taiwanese design students for entering international design competitions). This is my third visit to Isla Formosa in recent years, and unlike the rushed and jam-packed previous visits, I’m happily able to engage in some cultural and touristic discovery this time around.
Accompanied by two beautiful and knowledgeable young interpreters (Julia and Tree), my Taipei tour started with a visit to the towering postmodern Taipei 101 (the world’s tallest skyscraper when it was completed five years ago), some upscale window-shopping (you’d almost think Christmas was an ancient Chinese holiday), a delicious Dim Sum lunch (best dumplings ever), followed by a half-day visit to the incredible National Palace Museum (with its collection of 650,000 ancient artifacts encompassing 8000 years of Chinese history). The day ended with a fancy dinner of traditional foods and fine fellowship with Taiwanese design colleagues.
Following the formal presentations and conference proceedings at the Red House Theatre the next day, I had the chance to take in the impromptu street-sights and sounds of the Ximending district. Next stop, Taiching…
São Paulo, Brazil
André Felipe has pulled together a remarkable online collection of largely type-based posters from around the globe… enjoy—here.
(Thanks to Matthew Wells for the link).
Copenhagen, Denmark
Leading up to the Copenhagen global climate negotiations that start next week, Greenpeace is currently running a clever ad campaign in the Copenhagen airport. Adverts feature digitally aged images of sad-looking world leaders apologizing for not addressing climate change when they had the chance. (Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper looks like “the saddest hockey coach in the land” according to one pundit).
I, for one, am not holding my breath in expectation of meaningfully positive outcomes from the upcoming talks… and I must say, with our country’s shamefully deplorable environmental record (and total lack of leadership) in recent years, this is one of those (thankfully rare) times I’m truly embarrassed to tell folks that I’m a Canadian.
Teheran, Iran
I just received an e-mail from Iranian photographer Morteza Majidi, inviting me to create a poster to help support Iran’s opposition movement. Many in the international visual communication community have already responded to the call… view an online gallery of poster submissions here; read more about the poster initiative here; view a collection of “green bird” photos here.
Glasgow, Scotland
SWING was created from discarded items of clothing collected from the back alleys and bin areas of tenements in Glasgow. The clothes were then laundered and dried, cut into strips, and woven together to fashion ropes, to which parts of chairs (also found on the streets) were attached to form swings. These were hung from the guardrails on the Botanic Gardens Bridge that crosses the river Kelvin and forms part of the busy Kelvin Walkway.
The clothes that were collected and used for this project were imbued with a personality and invoked very powerfully notions of the abject, each piece telling a story of sorts, albeit ambiguously, about its previous owners and their lives and experiences. The cutting and braiding together of these items seemed almost like weaving together small fragments of narratives from the lives of a myriad of unknown people, creating an object that at once juxtaposes these fragments while creating a new narrative of its own.
A project by Jen Grant—I like it!
(found at Wooster Collective)
Lisbon, Portugal
Anyone working in a creative field knows the challenge of bringing a good idea to fruition. Some days it feels like you’re battling a veritable conspiracy of idea-killers—diminishing budgets, focus groups, the client’s legal department, etc., etc. The depiction of good ideas and their respective enemies was the premise of these clever illustrations (lots more here) done by Scott Campbell as part of a Portuguese ad campaign promoting the film company Show Off! View the full ads here.
Thanks for the link Gregor.
Wherever…
These photos (among many others not posted here in the interest of a modicum of discretion) came in from my dear Belgian friend Guy today… while I must admit to taking a certain passive-aggressive (which is sooo Canadian) pleasure in these, they do carry a cautionary message—when in the limelight, do make sure to keep your guard up… and also be aware of those around you!
Kudos to the perceptive photographers—unknown to me at the time of this post I’m afraid (though I’d be more than happy to credit you, if you should come across this blog entry).
Winnipeg, Canada… late on a long day.
My good friend Gregor the programmer just sent me this link for Scroll Clock, along with the note “someone has too much time on their hands.” My favorite is still this old-school “Flip-Style ‘Pata Pata’ Clock” screensaver however… which I’ve been using for several years.
Now that it’s almost the witching hour, I’ll head outside to take in the last of the Leonids (annual meteor shower) for a bit—they promise to be brilliant in the perfectly clear starlit sky…
