Lifestyle

German car manufacturer Volkswagen have released a site called “Volkswagen 2028″ that sketches a scenario of future automotive mobility, 20 years from now. The site kicks off with a short introductory movie set in the future, where a father takes a walk with his son talking about the old times where you had to search for a parking-lot. Future times according to VW are about smart, on-demand car delivery services, skinnable car exteriors and the death of traffic jams as we know them.

A series of interviews with VW researchers and designers unveil their visions of electric-driven Single Occupant Vehicles, holographic projections, gesture controlled dashboards, and emission free automobiles.

While the entire site is in German, it’s still worth having a look at their future scenarios.

Volkswagen 2028

Kids today are increasingly prone to social, mental and environmental stresses that lead to hyperactivity, ADD, frantic multitasking, and distraction. How can this tide be turned? A program in Bangkok, Thailand called the “Mind and Self Grooming Day Camp” is helping children deal with these problems by teaching them meditation. Using a custom tailored approach that cuts the meditation exercises down to easy 15 to 20 minutes segments, the camp turns meditation into games that kids can enjoy and relate to. The program has helped students deal with problems at school and to stay relaxed and focused amidst our fast paced over stimulating modern society.

[via Bangkok Post]

Hoping to inspire 9-to-5ers to take advantage of the glory of summertime outdoors, the City of London will be transforming St James’s Park into an outdoor office space for two days, from July 3 to 4. The park will provide free wifi, a boardroom, a breakout room, 12 desk clusters, and a receptionist. And not to worry - visitors won’t miss out on any hot office gossip - there’ll be a water cooler, too.

Anyone interested in a change of scenery can reserve a room or desk here. Space can be booked in 2 hour blocks between 9.30am and 6pm.
[via Pocket-Lint]

The recent summer surge in gas prices has finally trickled down to American teenagers. The tradition of aimlessly cruising on summer nights appears to be a rapidly disappearing ritual. This distinctly American practice was best captured in the 1970s hit, “American Graffiti.” With the downturn of summer employment opportunities and the upswing of gasoline prices, parents and teens alike are looking for alternatives to driving.

A recent article from the New York Times reports:

Perhaps the summer’s most visible change is occurring in the downtown strips of small towns where, for decades, cruising on Friday and Saturday nights has been a teenage rite of passage. It is a peculiarly American phenomenon — driving around in a big loop, listening to music, waving at one another and wasting gasoline.

“We’re not cruising around anymore, with gas costing $4.50 a gallon,” said Ewelina Smosna, a recent graduate of Taft High School in Chicago, as she hung out the other night at the Streets of Woodfield, an outdoor mall in Schaumburg. “We just park the car and walk around.”

NYT: As Gas Prices Rise, Teenagers’ Cruising Declines

LAist points us to a commendable urban redevelopment project now underway in Hollywood. The intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Gordon Street is home to a drab parking lot and an unused half acre grassy field. A coalition of neighborhood residents have come together to reclaim this wasted detritus and transform it into a park. They want to breathe life back to the area and create a vital hub for the community to gather. Drivers have not been forgotten either. The existing parking lot is to be relocated underground, and the park will sit on top.

[via LAist]

Here’s an interesting study of cellphone carrying behaviors around the world from Jan Chipchase and Fumiko Ichikawa’s presentation to Nike Tokyo Design Studio. We don’t often stop to think about the way we carry our phones, the devices having become second skin to most of us. But here Chipchase, who travels the world conducting research for Nokia Design, sheds light on the variation in these practically unconscious decisions of where we put our phones, how we carry them, and why. Through studying the carrying patterns of thousands of mobile phone owners in Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa, Chipchase and Ichikawa reveal some noticeable differences, including:

- 80% of Women in Milan carry their phones in their bags, while only 30% of Women in Los Angeles do (studies also reveal that 50% of people who put their phones in their bags report frequently or always missing calls or SMSes, versus 30% of people who carry them in their pockets)

- In several developing countries, including India, China, and Brazil, many users carry more than one mobile device to optimize their communication costs by buying multiple SIM cards from different operators

- The clamshell phone design is used by domestic Chinese brands to target women, with a large offering of accompanying cases and mini-carriers available to buy at street markets and in stores

One of our favorite slides in the whole presentation, and that serves as a nice summary of what mobile phone designers can learn from these small habits points out, quite simply: “The easiest way to never forget - is to have nothing to remember.”

To learn more, watch the slideshow below, or download it here.

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[via FuturePerfect]

PUMA have just released a series of short films exploring bike culture. Produced by Daniel Leeb of Cinecyle Productions, The I-Cycle Film Series consists of five surprisingly well made videos documenting five different influencers and the contributions they’ve made to the bike community. Each video is about 5 minutes long and explores the importance of biking and why these advocates personally love moving on two wheels.

Unfortunately, the videos can’t be embedded, but you can check them all out here. Features include:

Matthew McGuinness, cofounder of The 62, a Brooklyn-based art collective who started Re-Bicycle
George Bliss, the man behind New York’s Pedicabs
Brendt Barbur, founder of The Bicycle Film Festival
Matthew Modine, actor and founder of Bicycle-For-A-Day
Antonio Bertone, PUMA’s CMO

I-Cycle Film Series

Q: You write that studies show the time children spend in creative play has diminished over the years. Why?
A: Kids are spending about 40 hours a week engaged with electronic media after school. That’s time taken away from creative play. The combination of this screen time and all the toys based on TV shows and movies narrows children’s options for make-believe. So do these best-selling electronic toys where all you have to do is push a button, and the toy talks, walks and does back flips by itself. It’s like the toy is having most of the fun, but it’s not giving children a chance to be creative. When it comes to toys that encourage creative play, less is more. A good toy is 90% child and only 10% toy.

“You are what you eat” is one of the main principles behind UNKL 347, Indonesia’s independent clothing pioneer. But “eating” in its case refers to the Warholian consumption of pop culture. In keeping with its of-the-moment ethos, 347 has seen three variations of its name over the years since the brand emerged in 1996, with each name change reflecting its revamped identity.

The brand started out as 347 boardrider, a reflection of the founders’ roots in made-to-order fashion inspired by their love for surfing and skateboarding. It then evolved into 347/EAT, in recognition of the influence that international pop culture was having on the brand. And now, in its most recent iteration, they go by UNKL 347, the brand having established itself over the years as a well-known influencer in its own right in Indonesia (”After ten years, friends called us uncle”).

With UNKL 347 quickly outgrowing its small label roots, so is debate about the brand’s right to continue to “eat” into other intellectual property. 347’s recent designs have appropriated imagery and logos from Nike, Xerox, popular song lyrics and even from Andy Warhol himself (the legendary appropriator). 347’s defense is that they are simply engaging in commentary and that it is far more noble (though illegal) to show your influences outright than hide them in a blur of pastiche. Inside Indonesia covered this in a discussion with Dendy, a 347 founder:

‘We’ve been cut ’n’ paste from the beginning, and now is the era of cut ’n’ paste,’ Dendy [said]. ‘We readily admit it,’ he says. ‘In fact, we make it obvious so that people know.’ One of 347’s designs, for instance, features an almost exact copy of the album cover for ‘Goo’ by the New York art punk band Sonic Youth. A young, modish couple in bowl cuts and sunglasses smoke cigarettes while they lounge in each other’s arms. Beside the image, the original handwritten words ‘I stole my sister’s boyfriend’ have been replaced with ‘I stole my Sonic Youth.’

This kind of borrowing is actually quite a common practice for small, independent clothing labels all over the world; but as 347 grows in reach and profitability, many are starting to wonder where to draw the line. Certainly 347 is more than just a copycat; the brand has produced a considerable amount of original work and has been a catalyst in the development of local underground events. In 2002, it put on the first largescale outdoor rave in Indonesia called Distance and started Ripple, an influential publication which has since sparked several spin-offs. Besides, it’s reasonable to believe that - in a country where blatant product piracy is rampant - customers are buying the “Nike” and “Xerox” shirts more because of what’s next to those icons: 347’s own bowl logo and the word “EAT” which 347 has filled with so much connotation.

But if you’re already contributing so much culture on your own, why bother to continue borrowing from others? Is it simply a lazy design shortcut?