July 31, 2008
Is Hipster Homogeneity Killing Culture?
Adbusters has a controversial essay questioning whether or not today’s youth culture is inbreeding itself into oblivion. They use the dreaded word “hipster” which tends to make people argue about the definition and miss the point. The piece does raise an interesting question though -is the current cool/hipster/youth culture just an empty mash of previous cultures? Like westernization killing off indigenous traditions; is “hipster” culture an hyper-ironic recursive game that lays waste to creative thought? The article is written in typical heavy handed Adbusters style, but the ideas presented are worth thinking over.
From Adbusters:
Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.
But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”
An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.
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Unique Interior Design: Salt Lined Rooms For Relaxation
Omotesando, Japan is home to an interesting concept spa called Saltasia. It’s a female only spa featuring salt lined rooms that promote anti-aging and relaxation. Kept at a comfortable 41°C, the rooms provide a a space for lounging, meditation and stretching. Hexagon shaped salt tiles cover all surfaces with colored LED lighting behind them. Soft ambient music also plays in the background, making it into a complete sensory relaxation cocoon.
[via C Scout]
Marktd Hates Latest Guinness Ad
The guys over at PSFK’s Marktd site think that the new ad from Guinness is unbelievable:
Unbelievable in the negative use of the word… Now we have an ad with people switching on and off lights in a building at night… so that if you looked from the outside the building would look like a pint of Guinness. But it doesn’t. It looks like all those CGI gimmicks that throw you out of the make-believe in all those sci-fi films you’ve hated recently. You just know it didn’t really happen and that the ad-guys are trying to fool you.
Using Physical Objects As Passwords
Using a stapler to open Photoshop? A Notebook as your email password? A project from the Tangible Interfaces class at MIT gave birth to a weird but potentially useful idea - using physical objects as activators of computer processes. This unusual concept software is called Amphibian, and uses the very specific weight of everyday objects to trigger computer processes. Weighing the objects on a small scale connected to a computer will match the weight with the digital process, and make it happen.
From the Tangible Interfaces web site:
Amphibian allows users to easily imprint digital functions onto common everyday physical objects. Amphibian is a low cost, low infrastructure system that enables users to choose their own physical objects and imprint onto them almost any standard interface functions that take place on a GUI desktop. The goal of Amphibian is to create a system that the common user can implement and operate so that we may learn more about the digital-physical object relationships people will form.
[via Kevin Kelly]
Video Is The New Text File / Infomercial
Make Magazine make an interesting comment on their site about how video (like the one in this post) has become the new user-manual and that we, or at least tech-geeks don’t tend to learn from text anymore:
We think there are some good opportunities for people who makes things to share their skills and how they create and make a living doing that (and we’ve shared some initial numbers). Videos are becoming the new “text files” - if you grew up learning about some techy topics by text files shared around you likely recognize the analogy. Etsy sellers, makers and anyone who makes things might want to experiment with this model of sharing their skills with other online via video and having actually things to buy as part of the video, but not just an “advertisement” or “infomercial”.
Nice comment on the power of video to share ideas too.
Terminology: Citizen Engineers
A few months back we interviewed Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine, about his views on the trend of open source hardware (read it!). In the interview Anderson told us to watch what the guys at Make were doing around this subject, so it was interesting to note that Make have just released a pdf on the subject that they first presented at the Ingite NYC conference recently. In the document they have a lengthy list of the layers that make up open source hardware. The list includes Hardware / Mechanical Diagrams, Schematics & Circuit Diagrams, Parts List (BOM), Layout Diagrams, Core/Firmware and Software/API.They say that each level can be open sourced, but the exact nature of what it means to open it varies:
In practice, not every layer is fully open. Often only a subset of the layers are released, documented, or open source. 7th layer might be materials…
Something to monitor.
Cadillac: We’ll Go Efficient When Consumers Want Us To
Jalopnik points us to news that Cadillac have, erm, said they are prepared to downsize their cars’ engine size when consumers decide they want to have more efficient cars. Auto Observer covers a recent speech by Thomas G. Stephens, General Motors Corp.’s executive vice presiden
U.S. customers will have to signal their readiness to accept smaller engines - in effect reversing a long trend for ever-larger engines and more horsepower.
…Stephens cautions [that] marketing in many segments traditionally has focused on engine cylinder count and power ratings - totems Stephens isn’t certain all customers, particularly those shopping in the premium- or sporty-vehicle segments, are entirely ready to give up…
“We’re ready. When (customers) want it (the option of smaller engines) - we’ll do it.
You can see how well General Motor’s share price is doing with folks like this running their brands:
Bay Area Innovators: Gustaf Alströmer of heysan!
Noticing that there were no standard protocols for communicating between mobile phones and desktop computers, Heysan! is a mobile web based service that enables people to use any Instant Messaging service to chat through their mobile device. The service is not only free, but works with any phone and on any network.
Gustaf discusses some of the popular devices amongst their young, urban users that are typically overlooked by the mobile industry and explains the unique relationship this audience has with the mobile web.
More Stories
Is Unilever Running Out Of Ideas?
A move by Unilver to shed some of its laundry brands reminds me of that ‘How Long Can P&G Last?‘ opinion piece I wrote back in June. In the piece I argued that ‘holding companies’ like P&G and Unilever with armies of brand managers are going to have a hard time creating real brands that [...]
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For Better or Worse, Body Mod Takes a Leap Into Fantasy Land
The latest body modification fad to come down the line is ear sculpting. Body mod expert Russ Foxx has developed a surgical process that will transform your human ears into a pointy pair of elf ears.
Huh?
I wonder if these people will still love their ears down the road? There seems to be a growing nonchalance [...]
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Map of Political Blogosphere
There are a ton of ways to track the progress of the upcoming US elections, but Presidential Watch 08 offers a real-time, dynamically changing visual map featuring input from 533 different websites. The linked sites are color-coded based on their political leanings and the results are displayed on a large scatter graph. From liberaloasis.com to [...]
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Quiet Rise of China’s Female Contemporary Artists
An article in this week’s NY Times featured the quiet emergence of China’s female artists within the nations’ booming contemporary art scene. It is no secret that over recent years Chinese contemporary art has exploded with international interest, in fact, catapulting China past France as the world’s third largest art market.
Currently, China’s contemporary art scene [...]
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Ogon Wallet Will Protect Your RFID Data
More and more credit cards, ID badges, EZ pay tags - and even passports are being created with embedded RFID tags in them. The tags contain basic, but important information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, name, birth date etc. ID cards also have the magic ability to open doors and allow entry into [...]
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Zaha Hadid’s Architectural Rubber Shoes
What’s stylish, highbrow, totally sexy, and (at least looks) extremely comfortable? That would be Zaha Hadid’s newest creation, a pair of gorgeous and intriguing rubber shoes, designed in collaboration with Brazilian shoemaker Melissa.
The shoes will be available only at London’s Dover Street Market, and will be arriving in eight different (we envision neon) colors in [...]
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Fred Segal Green
PSFK popped into the Green concession at Fred Segal in Santa Monica on Monday and chatted to the owner there. Green stands out in the mish-mash of concessions found in the store because of its choice of fine and clean aesthetic design. We were told that the pieces were about providing final touches to existing [...]
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Stoked Mentoring: Helping Kids Through Skateboarding
Stoked Mentoring is a non-profit organization that coaches at risk youth through action sports. Mentors are matched up with teens who learn valuable life skills like communication and responsibility. Skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing are used as challenges to help participants overcome fears. Alldaybuffet has teamed up with Detriot based Good Wood to produce a benefit [...]
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Coming Soon: Dr Jay Parkinson’s Hello Health Outpost
We spoke with Dr Jay Parkinson MD a few months back to learn about his innovative approach to healthcare, treating patients at their homes and providing services on a subscription-based payment model (ideal for the growing number of uninsured). Now Gothamist reports that Dr Parkinson’s Hello Health outpost will be open for business within a [...]
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International Street and Stencil Art Celebrated in Melbourne
On August 1, Australia will host its 5th annual Melbourne Stencil Festival, featuring works by established and emerging artists from Australia and around the world. The 10-day long festival will showcase a wide variety of colorful exhibitions, artist live demonstrations, artist talks, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and street art related films.
Over the past four [...]
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This Patch Is a Hyperlink
Object hyperlinking is the practice of linking physical objects to online information. One common way to do this is through an interface called Qr code - which we spoke of last week. Qr code is a two dimensional bar code that when scanned with a compatible camera phone, will link to any URL on the [...]
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Augment Memory with Digitalization, Algorithms and Syncing
IBM Research recently showcased a new project entitled Pensieve, that looks to organize your life based on digitizing contact information and pairing it with photos and other tags. This idea has already been developed with projects like Evernote and by independent developers, but IBM hopes to wrap all the latest authentication technology into one [...]
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Milk Crate Chandelier: Street Style Lighting
Milk crates are one object we don’t have to worry about showing up in a landfill anytime soon. The plastic cubes are the perfect multi-use, modular design solution. For the most part, they’re a uniform size, and can be used as a building block of a structure or as storage containers. Milk crates can usually [...]
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Bay Area Innovators: Joe Gebbia of AirBed & Breakfast
Joe Gebbia is the Co-Founder of AirBed & Breakfast, a new way of traveling that allows people to book rooms with locals to get a truly local experience. Travelers simply log onto the site and peruse the profiles of locals. Hosts provide descriptions of their accommodations, photos, as well as personal information [...]
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Food Industry Dodges Need For Better Kids Food
A report from the Federal Trade Commission that looks at the impact of marketing of food products to kids has found that food companies spend $1.6 billion annually on advertising to to children and teenagers. What’s more alarming is how the food industry continues to dodge the issue of offering good food by meeting criteria [...]
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PSFK Conference SF Recap: Making Inspiration Matter
At PSFK Conference SF, Gareth Kay (Modernista, Brand New), Eric Corey Freed (organicARCHITECT), Josh Morenstein (fuseproject), and Frank Striefler (TBWA\Chiat\Day & Media Arts Lab) shared their views on how people and brands can take inspiration to create change. Some key points:
A curious mind can be inspired by anything.
You get inspired by adding life to your [...]
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Has Apple Helped Create The Real Web 2.0?
Has Apple helped launch the next generation web? For a long time, many web analysts have been labeling the second web boom (also known as the read-write web) as Web 2.0. Watching the impact of applications on Apple’s iPhone makes you wonder if they were being a little too generous to the return of browser-led [...]
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Observations On Mainstream Media’s Digital Editing
Having got the ’show edits’ feature turned on, on my news reader software NetNewsWire - I’ve started to notice a difference in editing and archiving styles between new and old media. New media like blogs tend make updates on old posts with new posts while old media like The Sun tend to rewrite and edit [...]
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Monocle Interview With Alain De Botton
Colin Nagy sent us a link to an interesting Monocle magazine podcast that features a discussion between Tyler Brule and Alain De Botton on the subject of livable cities. Alain talks about cities that get it right and why - but at the end of the interview the Swiss-born author admits he finds it hard [...]
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Coffee Snobs Triumph Over Starbucks In Australia
Starbucks, the hyper-ubiquitous coffee house chain recently announced they’re closing a large chunk of their Australian shops. Only 23 of the existing 84 stores will remain open, mostly the stores in the urban areas of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.This news comes on the heels of earlier announcements of 600 store closures in the US. It [...]
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Timbuk2 & Threadless: Art Meets The Messenger Bag
On the collaboration front, we noticed this limited edition screen printed bag featuring the iconic Timbuk2 messenger bag and t-shirt website Threadless. Using the classic Timbuk2 messenger bag as the canvas, self taught fine artist Robert Hardgrave styled the bag with a detailed design that reflects ideas of reincarnation, disease, recovery and life after death. [...]
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Terminology: “Broken Britain”
“Broken Britain” is a term that the Sun newspaper in the UK is using the describe the supposed lawlessness of the youth there. If you read the tabloids it’s as if Britain has decided to skip going down the pub for some binge drinking and gone straight into the fighting part of the night (or [...]
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Park(ing) Day: Guerrilla Parking Space Renovation
This September 18th, get ready for the second annual Park(ing) Day. Last year, residents of cities all over the US turned parking spaces into micro parks, farms, seating areas - even a croquet course. The event is a guerrilla gardening style transformation of parking spots into public spaces, reclaiming what’s basically a storage space for [...]
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Home Automation Networks Identify Energy Drains
A major source of wasted energy is household electronics left plugged in that seep away energy while in stand-by mode. This has been dubbed Vampire Energy and many designers have tried (and failed) to come up with a practical solution to this cloaked menace. Most homeowners, even well-meaning ones, do not have the [...]
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PSFK Conference SF Recap: Thoughtful Change
At PSFK Conference SF, Jean-Marie Shields (Starbucks) discussed how brands can connect with consumers by converting ideas into Thoughtful Change. Some insights:
Traditional Culture = Utilitarian, sell a need, production centered
Consumer Culture = only good until 2009, Experiential
Re-Imagined Culture = Creative consumption
Be close to consumers and understand their need and aspirations to be able to address [...]
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Objectified: The Follow Up Film To Helvetica
Gary Hustwit, director of the documentary Helvetica, has officially announced that he is working on a follow up film, Objectified, about industrial design. The documentary, which is set to premiere in early 2009, will explore our relationship with everyday objects, everything from radios to toothbrushes, and those individuals responsible for designing them.
According to Hustwit:
Those [...]
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PSFK Conference SF Recap: Aligning Interests
Max Schorr (co-founder and Community Director of GOOD) spoke at a PSFK Conference SF about aligning business with idealism, and how GOOD has applied this approach to building their company and magazine.
We’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot by aligning doing good with altruism. Altruism isn’t fun. Doing good doesn’t have to be altruistic. This [...]
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