Cultural Cartography

Frieze Bunnies

I took this picture a while ago during the Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regents Park. It was during my lunchbreak and I really appreciated the sight of rabbits on the green grass, no matter how large they were. The really interesting thing was that it made me appreciate the grass more, its greenness, its texture and the way it covered everything. The art pointed me in the direction of nature by its artificiality.

Also more in line with the actual theme of this blog: I was struck by how easily I recognised the rabbits from far away. The ears were the give away and where they sat on the head. There is obviously a cultural understanding of the necessary elements of the sign that constitutes rabbit. It might be an interesting experiment to do with children to see at what point a rabbit is no longer a rabbit.

Ring my bell

None of the other bells look like they work. But I wanted to ring this bell as soon as I saw it. Someone has lovingly designed and executed this invitation to ring their bell. How perfect. I didn’t ring the bell though.

Tomorrow's news today

I instantly loved this sign when I saw it. Somehow it reassures me that there has always been the aspiration to get “tomorrow’s news today” .The constancy of that aspiration actually negates what it’s striving for.

The Design of Power

Went round Battersea Power Station last weekend with friends. It was truly amazing and I want to write more about it when I have more time. Topline thoughts: today's buildings are perfectly designed for their purpose but have nothing extraneous which actually adds to the design. The Power Station had lots of little elements which made the design all the more powerful because they were not necessary to the function of the building. The way one of the inside walls was tiled. The ceilings. Brick work which was truly beautiful and unncessary from a purely utiliterian point of view.

Maybe it's just easiest if I put up some pictures.

Life in small print

I was checking out my phone yesterday to see if I had missed any major applications which would change my life. Of course I hadn't but I did find the SMS template folder. Now I'm sure lots of other people have already thought this but it really struck me what those templates say about how we use our phones and the world that we live in with them.

The majority of templates were about being in a meeting, being somewhere and not being able to call, being somewhere else than you should be or just not being contactable. So the phone is serving as a person to person tracing device. You can track where someone is, where they should be and why they aren't why they are where where should be. A bit like the UPL parcel tracking system except only on a person to person basis.

The only other really interesting templates were I love you too and Happy birthday. I particularly love the "too" on the first template. So whoever designed these templates didn't think that someone would want a template that would allow them to quickly tell someone they loved them, no what they would want would be a template to reply - possibly to an unsolicited text. A quick and easy way of keeping your lover happy providing by Nokia. And the thing is you can't know that it was provided by Nokia and not by your lover.

Consumer navigation

I want to use this space to think about how we navigate our world via signs, pictures, codes and things and concepts in general.

One thing I've been thinking a lot about recently is about the consistency and colour of items like shampoo and conditioner. We still think that shampoo is about taking things off your hair i.e. dirt, grease and grime and  it is most often clear or transparent. Conditioner by reverse is about adding stuff, providing nurishment and nutrition (although that's strictly speaking not true) and it is most often creamy. What is about the codes associated with transparency and creaminess that makes fits with these modes of action? It's the same for liquid soap and hand cream by the way.

I think it must be to do with water and fats, if you go back to the basics. Water washes stuff away and fats add things, like the original furniture polish and cream in food.

The reason I thought about this is I recently washed my hands with handcream!! The container wasn't see through so I couldn't see what was in it and the labelling wasn't immediately clear. It made me start to wonder about how you could shift the paradigm? By making a really clear conditioner? What claims could you make for it? Or are we fundamentally doomed to always have conditioner that is creamy and shampoo that is clear