For the Tate Triennial 2009, which opened on February 3, curator Nicolas Bourriaud declares that postmodernism is over and that we are experiencing the emergence of a global ‘altermodernity.’
Bourriaud, the French cultural theorist and co-founder of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, believes that a new form of art is emerging, fueled by non-stop communication and globalization.  He explains that altermodernism is a “sort of dream catcher attempting to capture the characteristics of a modernity specific to the 21st century.”

Regine Debatty of We Make Money Not Art summarizes his theory quite nicely:
If early twentieth-century Modernism is characterised as a broadly [...]

At the PSFK Conference Asia 2008, Jeff Staple, Founder and Creative Director of Staple Design and Reed Space, talks about his “accidental” career path. Jeff went from hand-silkscreening tee-shirts in school to heading a global design, consulting, apparel and retail operation in 11 years— on his own terms. He speaks about lessons learned and knowledge gained in the process.

For tickets and/or information about our upcoming event in London, go to www.goodideassalon.com

To go along with the theatrical release of Beautiful Losers, filmmaker/curator/writer Aaron Rose teamed up with Nike to create Make Something!!, a set of digital shorts featuring how-tos from heroes of the DIY world. The inspiring videos include a zine workshop with Rose; sneakers-making with Jesse Leyva; a skateboard graphic tutorial with Ed Templeton and more. Below is artist Jesse Spears explaining how to make paintings on cardboard, pom-poms, and ‘whatever we want’:

[via KitsuneNoir]

It seems like just yesterday we were in Asia hosting our conference.  For those of you weren’t able to make the trip half way around the world to see it live, we’re proud to present our video coverage from the event. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be publishing one video a day, so keep checking back for more inspiration from Singapore.
In this first video, Piers Fawkes (PSFK) explains how an emerging class of creators is developing that inspire and challenge the way we work today. He describes the intricate relationship between creators, the community, and modern companies [...]

Enabled by the connectivity and community sourcing abilities of the web, we’re now more than ever able to share what we know. In both real world meet-ups and online forums, people are coming together to teach and learn from each other.

In the heavily digitized world of today it’s refreshing to see cool print projects that do things differently. “I Left This Here For You To Read” is a collaborative magazine-art project by Tim Devlin and a large group of contributors. The monthly publication is printed in limited runs of 50 copies, and placed at random locations for people to discover and read. Park benches, buses, airports and dentists’ offices in 25 US and Canadian cities are where you might find this limited edition publication, if you’re lucky. To keep the randomness and exclusivity high, Devlin never sells or reprints any [...]

We’ve seen a bunch of useful software and hacks come out recently that turn mobile devices into (almost) fully functioning musical instruments. From samplers to guitars, music making is being shrunk and virtualized. In an interesting example of this phenomenon, a YouTube user in Japan has modified the Nintendo Dsi (running Korg DS-10 synthesizer software) into a 70’s rock style talk box. By taping a drinking straw to the microphone he has replicated the classic “talking guitar” sound. Look out roadies, your job is becoming obsolete -it seems bands of the future could be playing off iPhones and tiny gaming [...]

Turbulence.org and artists MTAA’s “One Year Performance Video” is a 21st century update to Sam Hsieh’s seminal 1978-1979 One Year Performance, in which the artist voluntarily sequestered himself in a self-built jail cell for a year, beholden to a set of strict rules: no leaving, reading, writing, entertainment, or conversing with others.
Hosted on Turbulence’s website, “One Year Performance Video” shows the two artists that comprise MTAA meandering about identical bedrooms, with a second counter at the bottom of the video recording how long visitors have been tuned in. Viewers are asked to sign in to keep track of how long [...]

Located in Shanghai’s trendy Tianzifang area is a boutique that may change your impression of design and manufacturing in China.  The NEST design collective and store “is dedicated to contemporary product design, high quality craftsmanship, and responsible manufacturing.”
Among the current group of designers featured at the Nest are bambu, who produces housewares out of bamboo and other renewable resources and Wobabybasics, a sustainable baby clothes brand made from 100% certified organic cotton and handwoven.
In addition to the concept store, NEST hosts regular DesignerTalk evenings with topics such as “Defining Responsible Manufacturing in China.”
NEST

Every two months our Hamburg-based German office curates panel discussions on topics from the fields of society, arts, media and culture. The first panel in our new event series kicked off November 20, where we discussed the state of digital music culture around the overall theme ‘Music is Okay?!’. Panelists included Oke Göttlich (CEO Finetunes), Eric Wahlforss (Co-Founder of SoundCloud), Ruben Jonas Schnell (CEO ByteFM) and Ulrich Stock (Die Zeit).
Big thanks go to our Partners and Sponsors: creative agency G2 Hamburg and publishing house Gingko Press.
The next event is scheduled for February 2009 where we will showcase new forms [...]

Sickboy, a British graffiti artist, launched his first gallery show in London yesterday and brought his unique street style into a formal artistic setting.  The “Stay Free” show epitomizes the counter-cultural mantra built into street art.  The show invite has a picture of Sickboy’s caged heart that he put outside the Tate Modern to protest the corporate sponsorship of a graffiti show.
The Bristol native Sickboy is opening his first solo show in London and will be open to the public until December 10th.  The installation includes traditional paintings and prints, but also includes a 14-foot “Stay Free Factory” that has [...]

Gizmodo is bringing a bundle of interesting electronics to display to visitors of the Reed Space in New York.  The Gizmodo Gallery begins today and continues until December 7th, with funding coming from GizMine, an online store of well designed gadgets like the recently written about Mir:ror.  The gallery is a huge collection of items (aspirational, for most) and gives visitors the opportunity to actually play around with the latest toys, games, and electronics.  Gizmodo is bringing a Red One Camera (to be played back on a 103-inch plasma screen), the world’s most powerful flashlight and some Gundam slippers that [...]

Last night, we attended Microsoft’s soft launch party for Softwear, the company’s new line of graphic tees designed by hip-hop artist Common and “inspired by the 1980s when both Microsoft and hip-hop really came of age.” The software giant’s foray into fashion is intended to conjure a sense of nostalgic hipness around the brand, while reacting to the “I’m a PC” stereotype made popular by Apple. The shirts (which hit select stores in the US on Dec 15) incorporate old DOS iconography, geek vernacular, and a retro-futuristic aesthetic into some surprisingly stylish designs. Softwear’s two lines – Classic and Common’s [...]

The Jen Bekman gallery is currently hosting the Thrilla in Manila, “a no holds barred draw-a-thon” between artists Jane Mount and Jason Polan to benefit 826NYC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting youth writing.  The live art experience began December 3rd and will run until 6pm December 6th.  In the spirit of community and collaboration, the press release invites the audience to “come into the gallery, join in the drawing, learn how to draw, be drawn yourself, or just root for your favorite artist,” opening up the creative process in a way that can’t be captured by simply looking at a [...]

Violet, a company devoted to building products based on “calm and emotional technologies,” recently unveiled their new Mir:ror device.  The cleanly designed product resembles a USB-powered cup holder, but it’s essentially a simple RFID tag reader paired with some innovative software.  The idea behind Mir:ror is to streamline your physical life by scripting digital events through RFID tagged objects.  For example, you affix one of the provided colorful RFID stamps (called Ztamp:s) to your car keys and after waving it over the Mir:ror pad your computer reads you the traffic report for the morning commute. The slogan is to create [...]