lucas did this

November 22nd 2021
filed under hyperlinks, culture and sociology, essays, recources and tools

Curious people become smart by accident.
Their curiosity simply pushes them into various rabbit holes.
Guided by a childish desire to understand why something is the way it is, they end up exploring webs full of strange to them, initially, things.
The relentless desire to explore the world we live in. To understand why people behave the way they do. To investigate what caused something to work makes them read articles, books, even old newspapers and look for solutions outside their field of work.

This essay on Why Curiosity Is Better Than Being Smart? sent me down the rabbit hole that is the website of Ivaylo Durmonski. A huge collection of long-form essays and book summaries “for avid readers and thinkers alike”. Bookmarked.

durmonski.com/life-advice/curiosity-is-better-than-being-smart/
November 21st 2021
filed under hyperlinks, design, recources and tools

© Nippon Design Center

© Nippon Design Center

Experience Japan Pictograms are a novel set of visual symbols developed for people of all cultures and ages to enhance their tourism experience in Japan. These uniquely simple and easy-to-understand pictograms are designed under the key concept of “second encounter with Japan” to invite visitors to explore and enjoy Japan a little deeper than before.

The studio of renowned graphic designer Kenya Hara, the Nippon Design Center, has released a free set with more than 250 pictograms primarily intended for the tourism sector in Japan. Even though the collection naturally has multiple rather specific icons, there’re some nice basic and universally applicable ones among them, too. Definitely worth a glance.

experience-japan.info/en
November 21st 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, art, design

© Tavo Studio (via Vimeo)

Where is your OASIS?
There is always a space between art and design, and that’s the spot where everyone
wants to be.
Oasis is a manifiesto in favor of the search for the balance between design and art.
Where is the border between client´s requests and your aspirations?
In short, it is a difficult balance to achieve.

behance.net/tavo_
November 20th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, design

© Jonathan Djob Nkondo / It’s Nice That (via Vimeo)

The mentality behind all my work is to tell a story in a unique way. Simple stories, few elements, with a smart way to add narrative

You can definitely see this mindset of Jonathan Djob Nkondo shaping all of his beautiful short films, but I’m especially intrigued by this one from 2018 called Comfort Zone.

itsnicethat.com/features/jonathan-djob-nkondo-comfort-zone-ultra-light-down-uniqlo-ones-to-watch-031018
The essential principal of business —of occupation in the world— is this: figure out some way in which you get paid for playing.

— Alan Watts on playing, filed under well said, November 19th 2021
November 19th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, art, design

© nomena (via Vimeo)

© nomena (via YouTube)

nomena is investigating new types of space perception. research and practice, academic and commercial, technology and aesthetic.

As mentioned in the about section of this blog, I love projects which cross-scale in media and studios (and creatives) who work interdisciplinary. Japanese studio nomena by Shohei Takei is such a studio, working at the intersection of art, design and science to create amazing tactile projects.

nomena.co.jp
November 15th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, culture and sociology, essays

A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It’s where the rich use public transportation.

Interesting article from Metropolis on the urban design of Japan’s capital and Why Tokyo Works.

metropolisjapan.com/why-tokyo-works/
November 14th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, culture and sociology, essays

The most influential companies in the world put all their energy into getting us to click, react, and consume. If you work on a computer, procrastination awaits you everywhere, all the time. How do you beat it and get things done?

A well-written, practical guide from one of my favourite studios, Swiss-Japanese iA Inc., to help End Procrastination —just in time for the upcoming new workweek.

ia.net/topics/end-procrastination
November 13th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, films and series

© SoundWorks Collection (via YouTube)

The Sound of Dune provides some insights on how the truly marvellous soundscape was designed that accompanies the absolutely astonishing visuals of the recent screen adaptation of Dune.

I’m going to write a long-form essay –like the one about Her– on director Denis Villeneuve’s latest masterpiece, after having seen it more than once, but for now, I’m just leaving this here alongside my strong recommendation to go watch it on the big screen. This is exactly the material movie theatres are made for.

soundworkscollection.com/post/the-sound-of-dune-with-director-denis-villeneuve-and-sound-team
November 13th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, films and series

© A24 (via YouTube)

This Thanksgiving, the A24 Screening Room invites viewers to spend a week at The Beach, in a new kind of sensory viewing experience that transcends traditional television.

Not much context on this one, I just really enjoy this trailer for The Beach —not to confuse with the Danny Boyle movie of the same name from 2000. It’s mesmerizing, ominous and a little bit strange, but not as weird as Lamb, another recent trailer by publisher A24.

Given the fact I really like some of the movies the company has put out in the past –2015’s Ex Machina is one of my favourite sci-fi movies for example and I’m still pretty mad I missed The Green Knight when it was playing in cinemas earlier this year– I’m intrigued to find out more soon.

screeningroom.a24films.com
November 7th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, videos, music, recources and tools

© ibi / creative commons license (via YouTube)

© ibi / creative commons license (via YouTube)

© ibi / creative commons license (via YouTube)

Another YouTube channel with beautiful music accompanied by beautiful, atmospheric imagery, fitting my current autumn mood extremely well. What’s more, the music by ibi is published under the creative commons licence (CC BY, to be precise), so you are allowed to use it for your own projects if you credit the Berlin musician. The free wav files are available via bandcamp.com.

ibipiano.bandcamp.com
‘Nichts ist sicher auf dieser Welt’, sagte ich. ‘Aber zumindest kann man an etwas glauben.’

— übers Glauben, aus “Die Ermordung des Commendatore” von Haruki Murakami, filed under well said, November 7th 2021
November 4th 2021
filed under hyperlinks, culture and sociology, essays

Tsundoku (積ん読) is a beautiful Japanese word describing the habit of acquiring books but letting them pile up without reading them. I used to feel guilty about this tendency, and would strive to only buy new books once I had finished the ones I owned. However, the concept of the antilibrary has completely changed my mindset when it comes to unread books. Unread books can be as powerful as the ones we have read, if we choose to consider them in the right light.

Having a bunch of unread books piling up on my bedside table and jamming up my shelves, I can absolutely empathize with Anne-Laure Le Cunff on this one. After reading her essay on the power of unread books, I won’t feel as guilty about getting more and more books despite those waiting already to be read anymore —I’m just building an antilibrary myself.

Now I just need a similar explanation to justify getting new records, even though I still haven’t listened to all of the ones I own already.

nesslabs.com/antilibrary