Exhibition Design: Physical Work, Intellectual Work

Posted on September 19, 2011 by AXM

A friend commented recently that I look a little healthier, a little more in physical shape. While in Korea, I did do a lot of hiking. I climbed up to Sanghwangbong at the top of Mt. Gayasan, near Daegu, which is 1430m up, and then up to Guksabong at the top of Cheonggyesan in Seoul, which is 538m up.

But most of my new physical fitness came more from working for some two weeks on the Gwangju Biennale. Although when I first moved to Beijing, the work was very much intellectual and computer-based, as soon as I got to Gwangju, it was immediately physical. The Biennale Hall features multiple ramps and only one elevator, so a “quick check” of the topmost gallery entailed a 5-10 minute walk from our office at the ground floor , depending on your pace. And while we had professional shippers and construction crew to help us, we often would have to transport materials ourselves. At one point, some of us were even carrying bags of concrete until we found a wheelbarrow.

Now that I’m re-adjusting back to Beijing life, I’m focusing more on writing and research projects, and it’s back to intellectual, computer-based work again. But I’m finding that I miss the physical work of exhibition setup and design. The excitement of the first shipment (depicted above is the receiving day for our shipment from Beijing), the hectic running around to organize the materials, even the dust kicked up. It’s a healthy mix, as the work is physically demanding but also intellectually demanding. And the greatest gift, of course, is not being stuck to a chair and a computer all day.

How can more work be adjusted? How can we find meaningful intellecutal work while encouraging physical exercise? In creative fields, film production and industrial design often involve many hours of real physical labor. Some of my favorite memories are from carrying tripods and loading up cameras in south Texas producing a film that we’d spent months preparing for. But after that burst of energy, we also had time to sit down and edit the work, finetune it in front of a computer.

Harvest Celebrations and Back in Beijing

Posted on September 12, 2011 by AXM

Back in Beijing after nearly a month in Korea. Left Seoul just as they began celebrating Chuseok, which friends translated as “Korean Thanksgiving.” And then I arrived in Beijing for Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhongqiu Jie: 中秋节), where we drank, sang songs and ate mooncakes.

It’s interesting to think about the many harvest-themed festivals in the industrialized world, where we’ve become disconnected from the source of our food. What’s the role of harvest festivals? Often, they mark the change of seasons (it’s cooler now in Beijing), which not even the most advanced society can ignore yet, and the beginning of a new harvest: shopping. And in an increasingly-mobile society, these harvest festivals represent new definitions of family, new ways to gather and develop ties not bound by kinship and local village. But regardless of specific, the basic practice of gathering people and gathering meals is the same.

As a traveler far from home, I have to work hard to find home and friendship everywhere I go, but Korea made it easy. A month in, I made many amazing friends and tasted a delicious slice of the country. I’ll definitely be back soon. I posted this on Facebook shortly after returning to China:

Installed the Gwangju Design Biennale Un-Named Design section and an Ai Weiwei piece, climbed to the top of two mountains, lived in a monastery and a love motel, sampled amazing food (and soju), rocked out to K-pop and Korean hip hop, learned a few new words, and made friends from all over. See you again soon, Korea and all my new friends.

Had a fantastic time “out east”, but it’s good to be back in the Middle Kingdom. As usual, will be posting about my adventures and observations on this site, on Twitter/Weibo and on my Tumblr, which acts as my digital scrapbook. Nimen hao.

Greetings from Gwangju, Korea

Posted on August 19, 2011 by AXM

Despite being only about 1000 kilometers (~600 miles) by the way the crow flies, the journey from Beijing, China to Gwangju, Korea requires nearly a 12 hour odyssey. Early wake-up in Beijing, cab ride in the morning sun to Beijing Capital International Airport, land in Seoul Gimpo International Airport (lovely, by the way–much faster and more convenient than glamorous Incheon), airport bus 6011 to Seoul Station, KTX 143 train to CheonanAsan, quick transfer to KTX 511 to Gwangju, then a less-than-eventful cab ride to my accommodations. All on my only, while lugging exhibition items and not lugging a very big Korean vocabulary.

This is home for the next few weeks as we on the Un-Named Design curatorial team set up for the Gwangju Design Biennale 2011, which promises to be interesting. Now that I’m free of the Great Firewall, I’ll try to tweet a bit more about my adventures.

A couple thoughts for the day:

How do first impressions of a new city compare to after-a-few-weeks impressions? How can one intelligently know and understand a foreign city and country with limited time and limited resources? We’re exhibiting the work of Reineke Otten, after she spent a few weeks exploring Gwangju. Thinking about different modes of knowing a city, depth vs. breadth, goal-driven vs. situationist.

How to navigate a country without speaking the native tongue? I find that a smattering of English, Mandarin and my iPhone tend to do the trick. But what are the absolutely essential words one needs in one’s vocabulary when visiting a foreign country? When does gesture-ese become too cumbersome? In my reckoning, 10-30 words are enough. “We’d like to pay the bill.” “Turn left here.” “Thank you.” “I’m sorry.” “I’m American.” And so on. Flash card system Brainscape has some good survival packs for the linguistically-inclined, but I’m thinking about something even simpler, down to the nitty gritty basics. A phrasebook/iPhone/good-friend-on-standby can fill in the gaps.

Will you be in Gwangju or Seoul in the next few weeks? Get in touch.

Notes from the “Future is Co-” at Xindanwei: Coworking in China, America and the World

Posted on August 11, 2011 by AXM

Had a lovely discussion this weekend at Xindanwei to discuss “The Future is Co-”, a look at the future of coworking, collaboration and collective creativity. I wrote recently abotu Xindanwei’s coworking model in Hyperallergic, and in a way, the panel was a way to continue that dialogue. What added to the event was that Tony Bacigalupo had come in from New York to join the discussion and share his thoughts. Tony co-founded New Work City, one of the more popular spaces in New York, and it was in his space that I first discovered the concept of coworking (with a hat tip to the fabulous Julia Kaganskiy for introducing me). It was in Shanghai that I discovered Xindanwei, and that’s when I realized coworking was so much more than a New York thing: it’s a global wave, as these hubs of creativity pop up around the world.

So we all got together. The panel included Tony from New Work City; Liu Yan and Chen Xu from Xindanwei (which means New Work Unit); and Ricky Ng-Adam and Min Lin Hsieh from Xinchejian (New Garage), the hacker space that grew out of Xindanwei. Silvia Lindtner and I moderated, and Lawrence Wang live blogged on both Twitter and Weibo. So many thoughts swirling in my head, but here’s what’s been sticking so far:

I was first of all struck by the role of diversity and synergy in coworking spaces, whether in Asia or North America. Tony mentioned in his talk that coworking spaces create accidents, by bumpling people into good ideas and sharing these ideas. Liu Yan noted a more deliberate approach at Xindanwei, as she actively introduces people with each other. The diversity cuts across many angles, from diversity of nationality to diversity of profession. At a hacker space like Xinchejian, this might mean bringing in hackers of different kinds, from software programmers to roboticists to urban farmers. The point is to find that magic spark of synergy that a more homogenous group wouldn’t be able to provide.

Secondly, I’m thinking about the role of the community vs. the role of the coworking space organizers. Aaajiao, one of Xindanwei’s founders, talked about cutting of all the branches and just focusing on building the tree. Tony brought up the analogy of the spider, which has a head, and the starfish, which has a decentralized nervous system. These analogies help get at a key point: the ideal coworking space is, perhaps, leaderless. Up until that point, however, coworking spaces do need more active leaders, as Liu Yan pointed out, especially in a new market like China where people might not be familiar with what services a coworking space can provide, and what they can expect. And I’m guessing that, in any space, some form of leadership will always be necessary. But ultimately, if the space is driven more by the community than the the organizers, then it’s safe to say the space is successful.

Thirdly, I’m thinking about the business models that coworking spaces can develop. Because as much as it’s helpful to develop a rich community, coworking spaces still exist in brick and mortar buildings, and that means rent, especially in expensive cities like Shanghai and New York (the former is actually now ranked as more expensive to live in now). What are the models for success? At Xinchejian, there are classes and events, and they sell kits and badges to support their expenses. Xindanwei offers tiered access, everything from a one-year membership for people like Emlyn Wang, who’s building her business from within the space, to people like me, who pass through Xindanwei only briefly and intermittently, but appreciate the community there. A robust and active membership is obviously the goal, but it isn’t quite enough; each space has to find its own way to grow funding and build a sustainable business.

And fourthly, I’m wondering about how we can connect all these international coworking spaces together. I felt there was such a unique energy on Sunday, to have people from China, Canada, Taiwan, Austria and the United States talking together about coworking in Shanghai and New York, and other spaces they’ve seen. But how can we continue this dialog? There’s social media, of course. The coworking wiki and Google group allow for ongoing discussions, and more informal discussions are happening every day on Twitter and Facebook. But surely there’s more to be done. Tony brought up the idea of the Coworking Visa, which I really took to. Having traveled to so much as of late, I’m finding that coworking spaces offer a excellent “entry point” into a new city, as I meet like-minded city natives who can introduce me to different sides of their hometown better than any guidebook could.

Here are a few tweets from the conversations, using the hashtag #xdw:

[@sharism]: this sharism # coworking project s also facing challenge in China,but I believe this brilliant idea, guys just need a bit more time
[@yunnia]: @ CXu : creative clusters are about property, @ xindanwei is about community & creativity
[@lawrenceyeah]: sharing is a key character in modern society , esp new tech makes it far easily, effectively to connect ,share reproduce
[@yunnia]: @ theliuyan coffee layer and events as channel to speak to people from all kinds of backgrounds, people bring in own social networks
[@serenitygao]: ” @ LawrenceYeah : # xinchejian 新车间 a special hacker space – good place for kids to spend holidays

As Silvia and I were preparing for this discussion, we both struggled to find a word that encapsulates the rapid growth of coworking around the world. It’s not quite a “movement”, which suggests strong leaders guiding the way. Coworking spaces are very much ground up, sparked by seeing successes in other parts of the world, but tailored to the unique needs of the city. Xindanwei, for instance, was started after Liu Yan observed successful spaces while she lived in The Netherlands, and New Work City emerged as a result of Tony Bacigalupo’s earlier work with Sanford Dickert at CooperBricolage.

Ultimately, we decided on the word “wave” to describe the rapid growth of coworking in different parts of the world. It feels right to me, and it suggests an idea that’s successfully finding implementation across contexts and cultures, a result of the growth of the creative class and freelancing community in a given city, and a real-world analogue to the connecting, synergizing effects of digital social media. According to Wikipedia, coworking as a formal practice really started taking off in 2005, which means the wave is just a few years old. What’s next? How can we develop these spaces? How can foster more creative dialogue across spaces? Things are just beginning, and that’s pretty darn cool.

Morse Code “Tweets” on Sina Weibo

Posted on August 2, 2011 by AXM

My friends, the telegraph has arrived on Sina Weibo. Remember that Morse code project I did for the Brooklyn Museum a while back? Beijing artist Yang Jian (杨健) discovered it on my web site and as a result started posting Morse code on his Weibo account.

I’ve spoken a lot about how I’ve been pushed out of this project (and that’s a good thing). I started the commission thinking it would be mine, but in the midst of it, two years ago, the audience took over and started tweeting back to me and to each other in Morse code, eventually leaving me out of the circle. I’ve seen it pop up in Facebook posts and Flickr accounts. This is my first time to see it on Sina Weibo.

This is what I find so cool about social media art–when done right, it leaps from the artist-originator and takes a life of its own, and it adapts as necessary to different media, different languages and different contexts. Social media art presents new opportunities for art to be co-created, co-developed. Why is that? Because the barriers to entry on social media art are much lower. Just as social media in general encourage participation, whether in journalism, filmmaking or politics, so do they encourage more ready audience engagement in art. But it’s not just engagement–it’s taking the project and making it one’s own.

So what did Yang Jian say? Well, normally, I’d just put a link to the Morse code and the translator and let you figure it out, but this time he’s actually posting in Mandarin.

Morse code translation site: http://t.cn/hcobT

It’s not practical for China to make leaps and bounds.

Learning to listen to Morse code.

I spoke with him about it, and he said he’s been looking for something like this. He’s using the translator to improve his listening skills for a video he’s trying to interpret (it apparently contains Morse code). Looking forward to seeing what Yang Jian comes up with.

Two Days in Seoul

Posted on July 4, 2011 by AXM

Two days in Seoul last week, packed with meetings, meetings and… did I mention meetings? My first time in Korea but not my last.

Got me thinking about the different modes of experiencing a city. On one extreme is being born and raised and knowing it like a local. On the other extreme? A rushed, 30-minute layover in the airport.

Somewhere close to that end of the spectrum is a couple days of business meetings and seeing the city through a cab, a Google map, a GPS.

Texting in the Philippines, Sustainable Design in Malaysia, and the Southeast Asian Design Community

Posted on June 30, 2011 by AXM

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Have a new photo essay in Design Observer this week. This time, I’m focused on Manila’s rich SMS/texting culture, and how that influences the design of storefronts, public space and even Starbucks trinkets. Did you know that the Philippines is the world leader in texting per user? In the United States, users send, on average, 420 messages per month. In the Philippines, it’s 600:

Statistics are interesting, as are anecdotes. But what does this look like on the ground? The last time I visited the country, it was 2005, and texting was already firmly established. When I returned a half decade later, I found it’s become an institution. After trading business cards, we trade phone numbers, and a lot of follow-up is done over text messages. An entire text messaging dialect has arisen just for texting that even native speakers have trouble understanding (think of “lol” “brb” and “g2g” applied to almost every word).

My photos look at the culture of “load na dito” (which means “load up your phone here”), and what it looks like on the ground when a country is saturated with texting.

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And then there’s my chat with Zara Arshad for A Good Week, a weeklong “Global Celebration of Good”. I looked at how good design can encourage ethical/sustainable action, and I focused on two wonderful initiatives in Southeast Asia and China:

When good design meets good living, magic happens. ULTRA, a Malaysia-based fashion label, combines high-quality design with sustainability. They recently unveiled 10 items that can serve as the majority (or all) of your wardrobe for a year. JeepneED aims to provide much-needed science education to rural Philippine schools, modeled after the colorful “jeepney” designs used as public transportation throughout the country.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these essays come after I spent a couple months in Manila. Southeast Asia isn’t generally on the radar for folks outside the region, but I’ve been finding exciting examples of innovation in design and sustainability. We Are ULTRA, of the world’s most creative sustainable fashion collectives is based in Kuala Lumpur (and one member in Shanghai), where they’re seamlessly blending sustainability, quality design and social media outreach. And Txtfire, the world’s first SMS-based dispatch system, arose in Manila, as a response to a hampered fire response system.

Whether in formal or informal design, Southeast Asia hosts a number of exciting developments that work well in the region and could be applied anywhere in the world. I’m really excited that I can share just a bit of what’s going on with a broader audience. Stay tuned for more…

At the Old Drum and Bell Towers in Beijing

Posted on June 26, 2011 by AXM

Swung by the Old Drum and Bell Towers area this weekend to see Chak Man Lei’s tango dancing, as part of Stephanie Rothenberg’s Travel Office, an art installation/performance art intervention she’s set up in Beijing. The area reminds me a bit of Brooklyn, a historic part of Old Beijing quickly gentrifying and attracting “hipster” types of both Western and foreign persuasions. Lots of interesting artistic projects.

Afterward, I wandered around the park nearby, my head filled with thoughts of what intervention in public space can be, whether in the physical public space or the Internet public space. And I started to notice a very Chinese use of public space, the intergenerational, interspecies (with dogs) play I rarely saw in one compressed place, except in parts of Griffith Park and Park Slope. Here are some pictures.

The Chinese hackeysack, or jianzi (毽子) is what I see the most. As with the hackeysack I see in Venice beach, you can play in groups or by yourself.

Badminton, also known as yumaoqiu (羽毛球).

Those advanced in years preferred to line dance to some very cheesy music.

We used to play this when I was little and we called it “Chinese jump rope”. It’s one string held taut, and we jumped over
it or did cartwheels.

Biking is of course popular. These kids left their bikes and went… somewhere.

Pogs! Do you remember pogs? They’re still quite popular amongst Chinese kids.

This happy, 10-year old pug happened to be on a leash, but most dogs ran around free. It was also a dog park in that sense.

15 Seconds of Fame Everyday: Twitpic vs. John Baldessari’s Your Name in Lights

Posted on June 20, 2011 by AXM

This month, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is hosting John Baldessari’s Your Name in Lights, his popular commentary on that famous “15 minutes of fame” concept. In this particular installation, it’s reduced to 15 seconds, and broadcast in Museumplain, Amsterdam and simultaneously on the Internet. You can register here to be part of the fun.

It’s a good piece, certainly interesting, but I was struck by a Twitpic posted by my friend Rebecca Taylor, who has nearly 3000 followers on Twitter. While the museum’s livestream showed her “fame” reached 16 viewers, her Twitpic of the event reached more than ten times as many. Social media have upset the balance: we’re getting our 15 seconds of fame every day.

What follows is a short email interview with the museum about the show:

How did Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam link up with John Baldessari?

There is a relationship between John Baldessari and the Netherlands; his first European show was held in the Dutch gallery Art + Project plus he exhibited a two room solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in the early 1970s. Exhibitions followed at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. The Stedelijk also has several works by Baldessari in its collection.

For this year’s Holland Festival – the largest theatre festival in the country, the Stedelijk sought a work that is a cross over between visual and performance arts, preferably a very visible, public and interactive work that we could show at the Museumplein where the museum is located.

As we follow the practice of John Baldessari, it was a pleasant surprise to learn that he was working on ‘Your Name In Lights’ for the Sydney Festival together with Kaldor Projects. We immediately sensed that this was the project we were looking for. It is community based, interactive and very playful. We did not hesitate and approached the artist. To our great joy and honour he accepted. It did help a little of course that our director Ann Goldstein knows him well from the time when she was affiliated with the MoCA in Los Angeles.

Tell me about a bit about the installation and Museumplein. Do you have images I can post on my blog?

Inspired by traditional mass cultural symbols of celebrity, such as neon lights on Broadway and the marquees of Hollywood cinemas, and even ‘the strip’ in Las Vegas, John Baldessari gives spectators the opportunity for a glittering 15 seconds of fame by offering people from Amsterdam and all over the world the opportunity to present their name on the illuminated L.E.D. sign. He refers to the fact that the need to be in the spotlight, to be recognized and remembered in our culture of celebrity has become a goal in itself.

Baldessari himself has noted that celebrity culture has even spread to the art world and other cultural realms. Your Name In Lights playfully comments on that burning desire for acknowledgement, on the yearning for fame by the masses. Museumplein (Museum Square) is the future cultural hotspot of Amsterdam. All important Amsterdam art institutions are located at Museum Square: Rijksmuseum (National Gallery), Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art.

How does this installation differ from the Sydney installation? What has the reception been like in Amsterdam?

The Holland Festival and The Sydney Festival are both cultural driven organizations which specialize in theatre and performance art and Your Name in Lights was made possible with the assistance of Kaldor Public Art Projects in both Australia and Amsterdam.

The Holland Festival offers people in the Netherlands the chance to experience public works such as Your Name in Lights and brings internationally renowned arts to Holland.

One of the main differences between the Sydney installation and Amsterdam installation is the way in which the work is displayed. In Sydney, the LED screen was mounted on the side of the Museum of Art, next to the museum sign, so people immediately recognized that it was art. Here in Amsterdam, we have installed the work onto the scaffolding, in front of the forthcoming expansion of the Stedelijk, which is currently under construction. This offers the work another dimension, as visitors to the city of Amsterdam may not recognize the Stedelijk under the scaffolding. In this way, the work raises questions (what is this?) and is more enigmatic. \

The Netherlands and Amsterdam also has a large Turkish population and the LED screen here recognizes the Turkish alphabet, so you could say that the work has adapted in relation to its location.

The response here has been brilliant! Amsterdam is renowned for its vibrant and diverse cultural heritage and the work has received lots of press attention both nationally and internationally. The launch last week on June 1st was very festive, with people cheering out loud when their names popped up.

How can participants who aren’t in Amsterdam experience the work? I’m in China, for instance, and I submitted my name. What’s next for me?

The wonderful thing about the work is that everybody can participateand that you don’t even need to be in Amsterdam. Through a live stream via the website yournameinlights.nl one can watch their 15 seconds of fame live, from the comfort of their living room. In this respect the work is both community based and international. We have many names from outside of the Netherlands (MoMA even had it on their Twitter and Facebook) which adds to the diversity of the work. If you have submitted your name, you will receive an email telling you the time and date that your name will be illuminated. The live stream runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week meaning everyone can experience their 15 seconds of fame!

Images come courtesy the museum. Outdoors image is copyright Ernst van Deursen, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. John Baldessari, Your Name in Lights, June 2011, Museumplein, Amsterdam. Holland Festival/Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.