London

Opening tomorrow (July 4th) on Montague Place behind the British Museum in London is a new temporary cultural space designed by Carmody Groarke Architects. Called the Sky Walk, the installation is the centerpiece of the Bloomsbury Hub of the London Festival of Architecture. Sky Walk is a series of elevated ramps that take visitors on a meandering journey exposing them to new views of the architectural details on the surrounding historic buildings. Over the next three days, Sky Walk will serve as a backdrop for performances, and exhibition, and a continuous picnic of locally produced food.

Sky Walk was constructed over the past three days out of reusable staging components. It’s covered in a translucent black mesh. The ramp reaches a height of over 13 feet at it’s tallest point.

The event is the first step in the total transformation of the street into a usable public space and a destination in its own right. The design firm of Burns+Nice have already developed proposals to redo the street and surrounding areas.

[via WAN]

While pacing may be the cure for nervous energy, it might also become a generator of, well, energy. Spinning off American military technologies involving soldiers’ boot-mounted mini-generators, British engineers have developed underfloor generators that can produce energy from footsteps above. They’ve calculated that 34,000 commuters in London’s Victoria Underground station are capable of powering 6,500 light bulbs every hour – the plan being to install the first foot-powered generators at Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth as tourists climb up and down the seven-trillion or so stairs.

Times Online - Light Fantastic

[via inhabitat]

London’s Soho was once known for its smattering of independent shops specializing in vinyl. Inevitably, many of them have had to shut their doors, thanks largely to the rising popularity of digital music sales and downloads. Photographer Spencer Murphy has paid homage to the neighborhood’s indie shops and storeowners, his works now on exhibit in “Independent: A Celebration of Soho’s Independent Record Shops” which opened today.

What: Independent: A Celebration of Soho’s Independent Record Shops
Where: 63 Broadwick Street, London W1
When: Now until May 24.

If you’ll be in London this summer, you’d be wise to stick around for the first few days of August when Innocent Drinks will be hosting their second annual Village Fete. The two-day not-for-profit festival includes music, dancing, food, lots of Innocent smoothies, and a hodgepodge of other traditional fete entertainment including ferret racing, duck herding and cake eating. Some musicians already lined up: The James Taylor Quartet, Earl Okin, Imelda May, The Fairey Band, and Peter & The Wolf. Activities for kids and adults will be plentiful, including petting zoos, farmer’s markets, craft tents and massages.
All proceeds from the fete will go towards Innocent’s partner charities - Samaritans, Friends of the Earth, Wellchild and the innocent foundation.

Date: August 2-3rd, 2008
Time: 11am – 7pm
Place: Regent’s Park, London
Tickets: £7.50 for adults; £3.50 for kids

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For more info: www.innocentvillagefete.com

What inspires ideas? Is it a pure moment of inspiration or just pure perspiration? understanding what the world needs now or simply a lucky break?

Design Icons at Harrods pays homage to the unique connection between a designer and the products they create - by uncovering the designer or creative mind behind it.

Here at Design Icons online, find details of our enlightening lectures and key speakers (including Vivienne Westwood and Roland Mouret); get exclusive insider’s access to the Milan Furniture Fair; glimpse a first look at this year’s Homes & Gardens Classic Design Awards; and browse details of our exclusive product launches and exciting events featuring icons of our time.

Plus, have your chance to ask one of our prestigious speakers a question of your choice through our lecture series or win a fantastic prize in our Design Icons competition.

Pop down to Borough Market on Thursday April 17th and you’ll find five boozers overflowing with inspiration as 20 passionate speakers postulate their vision of the industry’s future.

As pints are poured they’ll be thrashing out the hot topics of the day including the complexities of ethical consumerism, immersive experiences versus consumer snacking, plus whatever else gets their juices flowing.

In short, it’s lots of clever, inspirational people talking about stuff over a couple of pints. It’s that simple.

Some things about the day:
- It’s free
- Our informal yet informative festival of chat takes place on Thursday 17th April
- It kicks off simultaneously across four of the pubs from 2pm until 6pm
- The pub quiz cum lock-in then kicks off in The Climax & Curtains from 6pm, or thereabouts
- You’re all welcome so long as you register

Anthropologists from outer space set out on a mission to understand life on earth. Imagine that they begin their mission by examining the curious phenomenon that human beings call ‘contemporary art’. What does Art tell them about human life and culture?

Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art presents contemporary art works under the fictional guise of a museum collection conceived by and designed for extraterrestrials. Playful and irreverent, the museum’s collection features some 175 works by over 115 artists, from modern masters to bright new stars including Joseph Beuys, Cai Guo-Qiang, Maurizio Cattelan, Jimmie Durham, Thomas Hirschhorn, Ryan Gander, Mona Hatoum, Susan Hiller, Damien Hirst, Brian Jungen, Dr. Lakra, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, John McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Mike Nelson, Cornelia Parker, Sigmar Polke, Ugo Rondinone, Daniel Spoerri, Haim Steinbach, Francis Upritchard, Jeffrey Vallance, Andy Warhol and Rebecca Warren.

Believing these objects to have a real or functional use, the Museum’s curators deploy an eccentric classification system. They treat artworks as artifacts. The Martian perspective opens up contemporary art to fresh interpretations as well as humorous misunderstandings. In presuming to understand an unfamiliar culture, the Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art parodies the way that Western anthropologists historically viewed non-Western cultures through alien eyes.

China is huge. China is becoming topical. Yet China remains mystery to most people in the West. ‘Made in China’ has become a familiar tag, but the spectacular creative energy in modern China is barely known. During the last twenty years, the Chinese have rediscovered their pre-socialist past and begun to combine their own traditions with global influences to produce a cultural rebirth. At the heart of this lies a new culture of design.

This exhibition will take you on a journey along China’s coastal cities to experience the country’s creative landscape. The journey starts in the far south, where graphic designers in Shenzhen began to explore new directions in the early 1990s. Next we move up to Shanghai. Here consumerism and urban culture have combined to produce astonishing fashion and lifestyles. Finally, we travel to Beijing, where monumental architecture for the Olympic Games is transforming the skyline of this ancient capital.

China Design Now explores China’s dreams and hopes over the last two decades, from individual designers to the nation as a whole. It is our hope that this exhibition will bring contemporary China closer to you.

Futuresonic is an international festival of Art, Music and Ideas now in its 12th year. Taking place over 5 days and nights, it occupies the orbits of both digital culture and music, and features an international line-up of art and music events, exhibitions and live performances across the city.

The 2008 theme is The Social - Social Networking Unplugged, the first comprehensive and creative look at social networking by an art festival.

Art - New artworks by Thomson & Craighead, plan b, Grennan & Sperandio …

Music - RZA as Bobby Digital, Venetian Snares, Flying Lotus, Chrome Hoof …

Conference - Gerd Leonhard, Richard Stallman, Dopplr, Sarai, Last.fm …