Visited: 'Packed Lunch' Optimism talk @ Wellcome Collection

I went to another brilliant, free talk at the Wellcome Collection. This time with neuroscientist Tali Sharot on the subject of optimism.

It is estimated that 80% of the population are optimists and are in fact optimistically biased. Tali Sharot talked about the effect of this on our lives, particularly on how we see our lives in the future and future events. She also talked about how people maintain an optimist bias in the face of reality.

For example, it is a known fact that almost 50% of marriages end in divorce. However, when optimists are asked how likely they think their own marriage will end in divorce they answer much lower than the average. Further to this, people believe they will live much longer, healthier lives than that of the average person. It has been found that people will consistently answer questions about their own lives more positively and optimistically than that of reality, despite being fully aware of the statistics. They also don't correct themselves, to become more realistic, as events unfold in their lives and their optimism has been shown to be wrong. Also when asked to predict when a bad event, e.g. loosing their job, will happen in their lives, they predict it to be way into the future, whereas they predict happier events to occur sooner.

I also found it really interesting that, research shows, when people are asked to talk about someone else, or society generally, rather than themselves or immediate family and friends, they suddenly answered questions more realistically and closer to the national average!

It has been found that optimists, compared to pessimists, to live much longer, happier, healthier, more successful lives.

You can listen to the talk here.

This post is specially dedicated to my ever optimistic friend Nicole.

Visited: Brit Insurance Design Awards @ Design Museum

Me and my housemate Jamie went down to visit the Design Museum at Shad Thames, the other weekend, to see the Brit Insurance Design Awards. Not been to the Design Museum in ages and thought I should check it out.

I really liked YCN's Library concept -

'The Young Creative Network installed a lending library into their new headquarters at 72 Rivington Street to spark interaction with the local community. Members sign up in person before receiving their membership card in the post. They are then free to borrow any title from the collection, which is also delivered online. Details of which publications are on loan to other members can also be viewed. Regular guest reading lists are presented in person in the space and also online, keeping the collection fresh – and the members inspired. Guest reading lists have so far been contributed by Sir Paul Smith, Sir John Hegarty and Simon Waterfall.'

YCN Website

I liked this idea because, like many design consultancies, YCN probably have quite an extensive collection of art and design books, they are likely to be sent them free by the publishers and previously they would only be available for their employees to read. However, now they are sharing their resources, making more use of them, giving other people the chance to read these books and also creating interaction with the commuinty that surrounds their place of work. Also, it's a bit like Book Crossing because, unlike your average libabry, this concept was created with the intention to facilitate interaction and also has a digital extension.

This lead me on to think about how maybe other businesses should be doing more to become more involved and integrated with their local communities. Have more of a positive impact on the people that live arround the area they work, rather than acting compleatly independently from them. Medium and large companies have a lot of assets which are very rarely used at 100% efficency. Prehaps companies resources could be shared and utilised by local people for community projects or even used to support smaller or new businesses.

I'm not normally a big fan of car design but I really enjoyed seeing the BMW Gina concept car in real life, having previously only seen it on the internet. Despite there being many signs saying 'DO NOT TOUCH' I couldn't help myself and prodded it quickly when no one was looking! It's made of fabric - such an amazing car! See video.

Some Assembly Required

By Michael Johansson

I didn't realise, until I looked at his website, but he is the guy who made these really nice sculptures of household objects that all fit neatly together which I have previously seen.

Visited: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot Installation @ Barbican

An installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot commissioned for the Barbican. Went to see it yesterday. Amazing! Absolutely loved it!

Visited: Kinetica Art Fair @ p3

This was quite a while ago now but I went to the Kinetica Art Fair.

'Kinetica Art Fair is produced by Kinetica Museum and is the first of its kind in the UK. It provides collectors, curators and the public with a unique opportunity to view and purchase artworks from leading contemporary arts organisations and artists specialising in kinetic, electronic, robotic, light, sound, time-based and interdisciplinary new media art.'

Link here.

My favourite piece of work (shown above) was this robot that drew people's faces. First a camera took a picture of the person's face and then the mechanical arm holding a pen jerked across the piece of paper to reveal a line drawing of the face. It seemed to draw an outline of the face and then fill in the detail later on. I found it quite weird that the robot seemed to have its own style of drawing, but of course it had been programmed to construct the image in a certain way.

I also quite liked this mechanical drawing machine. People's heads had been cast in plaster, then as a head rotates a marker follows the 3D form of the head, spiraling down, which are then converted into a contour drawing of the head from above.

Some of the pieces were quite exciting but you could tell most of the work was created by artists and their main focus was for aesthetics or effect. It was interesting for me to see the work produced but imagine alternative applications for the technology and programming they had used.

I should have been working.

But I was reading this article in New Scientist last week about Extreme Empaths -

'HORROR films are simply a disconcerting watch for the majority of us, but for Jane Barrett they are literally torturous. She writhes in agony whenever the actors on the screen feel pain. "When I see violence in films I have an extreme reaction," she says. "I simply have to close my eyes. I start to feel nauseous and have to breathe deeply."

She is just one of many people who suffer from a range of disorders that give rise to "extreme empathy". Some of these people, like Barrett, empathise so strongly with others that they experience the same physical feelings - whether it's the tickle of a feather or the cut of a knife. Others, who suffer from a disorder known as echopraxia, just can't help immediately imitating the actions of others, even in inappropriate situations...'

Read the full article

Mind Controlled Pinball

From DesignBoom - the Berlin brain-computer interface group is currently presenting a live demonstration of their brain-controlled pinball machine at the CeBit exhibit in hannover, Germany. the project features a user wearing a specially designed cap with eeg technology embedded within it to measure brainwaves. the user first undergoes a training program to calibrate the machine to their brainwaves. 'while the player imagines left and right hand movements, algorithms decode his brain activity signals in realtime into control signals for the pinball machine'. once they have mastered the training regime, they are hooked directly to the pinball machine. there, their brainwaves are linked to the left and right paddles so they can play the game without using their hands at all.

http://www.bbci.de

Hoberman's Dome

Touched Echo

I read about this project while working on my final major project at university and just found it again. I really like it. Digital media artist, Markus Kison, uses bone conduction technology to tell the story of a terrible air raid on the Bruhl Terrace, Dresden, Germany, on the 13th February 1945.

More information - http://www.markuskison.de/touched_echo/index.html

NEWS - Twitter

I got a Twitter account. I'm not sure how much I'll use it yet....

Follow me if you wish.

Taking a break from folding origami

Mr. Buckminster Fuller

Ryan Mc Caffrey

Jitterbug from Ryan McCaffrey on Vimeo.

I was supposed to be putting together some visuals in Illustrator

when I found these at http://thisisindexed.com/

Visited: Decode @ V&A

I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum last week to see their new exhibition on interactive and digital design called Decode. The pieces were split into three categories called 'code' 'interactivity' and network'. I thought it was a really enjoyable exhibition and you could see that the rest of the visitors were also enjoying it very much. But I suppose much of the work on display was purely to create enjoyment for the people who are interacting with the piece and the others who were watching. A few of the pieces were more about gathering information or data and then presenting this in a interactive way or more visual way.

An exhibition definitely worth visiting. My favourite piece was Weave Mirror by Daniel Rosin. I think I really liked it because it combined digital technology with mechanical actions and it was amazing how much detail it could create in the tones of colours and how quickly it reacted to your movements. You also got a really nice feedback from the sound it produced as you moved back and fourth. See the video below or go give it a go yourself at the V&A. More info on the exhibition here.

"Weave Mirror" (2007) by Daniel Rozin from bitforms gallery nyc on Vimeo.

Visited: RSA

The RSA (the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce) put on free talks about all sorts of interesting subjects with leading experts in their field. I've been to two now.

The first was called "The Anatomy of an Action: Self and Responsibility After Neuroscience" and was lead by Professor Patrick Haggard. Some information about the talk (which explains it quite clearly and concisely) -

Benjamin Libet (1916-2007) was a pioneering scientist in the field of human consciousness. His classic experiment showed that when subjects were asked to press a button, prior to their decision to do so, their unconscious brains had already started getting them ready to act. This implies that things happen in the following order: first comes automatic brain activity, then a conscious decision, then the action itself.

These findings seem to challenge our common sense idea of ourselves. ‘We’ seem to be nothing more than conscious decision-makers with the occasional power of veto over unconscious forces.

If this is right, does it put in question personal responsibility? Or does it simply shift us to a conception of indirect responsibility? For example, an athlete and her coaches are all indirectly responsible for the reactions of her unconscious brain through the training of habits, skills and intuitive responses. Is all responsibility for action like this? If so, what does this mean for social policy areas such as education and criminal justice?

After an introduction and explanation of the subject it was then debated by two philosophers - A.C. Grayling and Barry Smith. It was extremely interesting and I got the chance to learn about something that I didn't really previously know anything about. I have to admit I didn't understand 100% of what they were saying, especially when they moved onto debating the subject, but for the most part of the talk it was explained in a really clear easy to understand way. You can listen to the talk here

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The most recent talk I went to was called "The Hidden Wealth of Nations" with David Halpern.

Richer nations are happier, yet economic growth doesn′t increase happiness. This paradox is explained by David Halpern’s new book The Hidden Wealth of Nations – the extent to which citizens get along with each other independently drives both economic growth and well–being.

Much of this hidden wealth is expressed in everyday ways, such as our common values, the way we look after our children and elderly, or whether we trust and help strangers. It is a hidden dimension of inequality, and helps to explain why governments have found it so hard to reduce gaps in society. There are also deep cracks in this hidden wealth, in the form of our rising fears of crime, immigration and terror.

David Halpern visits the RSA to explore what is happening in contemporary societies - from value change to the changing role of governments - and to offer suggestions on what policymakers and citizens can do about it.

He gave some amazing examples of societies' values and beliefs, how they have changed and how they compare to different countries throughout Europe. He talked about peoples levels of trust and fear. For example more educated people within the UK have higher levels of trust for other people. But our overall level of trust for others is quite low compared to that of other European countries. He talked about the Easterlin Paradox and how Danish people are apparently the most happy in Europe and they place Love as the thing that provides the most happiness. Whereas the people within the UK aren't particularly happy and we place Money as one of the most important things that makes us happy. He made some suggestions for changing the way we measure the wealth of nations so that we focus less on money and GDP and alter it so that is takes into account citizens wellbeing and quality of life. For example measuring complimentary currencies, placing value on the work of volunteers and utilising peoples skills and encouraging them to be exchanged. Watch the recorded talk below.

Dark Clouds by Jürgen Nefzger

golfers tee off in the shadow of Sellafield, England

a fisherman dozes across the river from the reactor at Nogent-sur-Seine

Torness, Scotland

nuclear plant (never used) turned theme park in Kalkar, Germany

Link - http://www.anothermag.com/current/view/69/Dark_Clouds

100th Monkey Effect

This phenomenon is considered to be due to critical mass. When a limited number of people know something in a new way, it remains the conscious property of only those people. The Hundredth Monkey Syndrome hypothesises that there is a point at which if only one more person tunes in to a new awareness, a field of energy is strengthened so that new awareness is picked up by almost everyone.

The Hundredth Monkey Effect was first introduced by biologist Lyall Watson in his 1980 book, ‘Lifetide.’ He reported that Japanese primatologists, who were studying Macaques monkeys in the wild in the 1950s, had stumbled upon a surprising phenomenon. Some anthropologist were studying the habits of monkeys on some islands in the ocean off the shores of Japan. They found one particularly smart little fellow, and taught it to wash its food before eating it. He learned to do this quite quickly. Soon the other monkeys in his family also began to wash their food before eating it. Later this behavior spread to other monkeys in the clan. About the time one hundred monkeys were washing their food prior to eating it, suddenly all the monkeys on all the islands, some thousands of miles away, began to wash their food before eating it.

This surprising observation became known as the Hundredth Monkey Effect and has been repeatedly observed. This same phenomenon is true in humans as well. It is part of the reason we have trends in fashion, the economy, and politics, etc. When we understand this concept, it becomes very important for us to develop our positive thinking. Humanity will be free, free at last. Free to build a better world, by "giving" - from the immense power of love, instead of "taking" - from the energy of fear.

From Michael Paukner's Flickr which also has some really nice graphic design by him.

Google Goggles

Another amazing application from Google.

My friend Owen was telling me about this the other day and I was just looking at Think Public's Blog and a saw a video for it.

The Frontal Cortex: Power

The UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner has found that, in many social situations, people with power act just like patients with severe brain damage. "The experience of power might be thought of as having someone open up your skull and take out that part of your brain so critical to empathy and socially-appropriate behavior," he writes. "You become very impulsive and insensitive, which is a bad combination."

A very interesting article about the behaviour of people in a position of power. Read the full article by Jonah Lehrer HERE

best short film ever

I was just reminded of this video by Charles and Ray Eames. It's mind blowing. I don't think I'll ever get bored of watching it.

Google Insights

Statistics and information on web searches.

Click the image to make it a bit bigger but have a look Google Insights yourself here

Information is beautiful

How green is your pet?

Information is Beautiful is excellent. Click to see many more information visualisations.

Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off

I've always thought that it's important to make time for things other than work and that taking time out (that could be 5 minutes to 5 months?) from projects and then coming back to them can be very beneficial. Sitting at a desk, starring at a computer screen doesn't particularly help generate ideas or solve problems. While at Uni I often found that the moment I left the studio was when ideas started to fill my head. Also, I think having separated work time and 'play' time actually makes me work more effectively and efficiently. I think it's important to see and experience many different things in order to inform and inspire me, so in some ways activities other than work are equally as important.

I often use this blog to keep track of ideas, thoughts and interesting things I've found while I was actually looking for something else (usually related to the work I should in fact be doing!) But I feel it's important to keep a record of these other, un-related to work, interests and thoughts because they can help provide information for future work and ideas.

This TED video talks about how Stefan Sagmeister makes everyone in his studio take a year long sabbatical every 7 years and the benefits to his employees of this. Ultimately he describes how happy employees are productive employees!

TV = generally quite shit

BUT yesterday caught Kevin McCloud's 'Slumming It' on Channel 4. A really fascinating program about life in the slums in India, where even though there are many bad things about living there, such as poor sanitation, the developed world can actually learn a lot about the way they live and how their communities operate. For example, they manage to recycle a very impressive 80% of the waste they produce compared to about 20% in the UK (although you will see their motivations for doing it are very different). Definitely recommend watching it, a very eye opening program.

Watch on 4oD here.

ICON 064 | October 2008 > Don't worry about oil running out

Read the article

Brian Dettmer: Book Autopsies

http://centripetalnotion.com/2007/09/13/13:26:26/

Erik Nitsche

http://www.iconofgraphics.com/Erik-Nitsche/

Music and life

Been thinking about -

Downshifting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downshifting

I feel I already live my life, almost, in this way but I didn't realise there was a term for it! After reading about it and learning more I've found out other ways to make more efforts to downshift and been thinking maybe I should implement them into how I live.