Organised v Messy

Walking past a bookshop yesterday I spotted this book in the window:

"A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder-How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and on-the-fly Planning Make the World a Better Place"

It's a question I've been grappling with for a while! I'm an extremely organised person. Recently, I've been organised to a point of annoyance! All the pens in my house were (a bit of an extreme example for the sake of highlighting the point) in a jar on the hall table. If I found a pen floating around, I'd bring it to the hall and place it in the jar. But what happens when I'm on the phone and need to scribble a message; a quick glance around the room searching for the stray pen that has inevitably been left around will not result in finding a pen - I need to traipse out to the hallway. And while I am guaranteed to find a pen, the trek can be annoying. I have solved this problem by placing pen containers in most rooms in the house!!! The pens are still tidied away and easy to find and more readily accessible.

Also, when being tidy, one is more unlikely to come across things/ to happen upon stuff.

At any rate, I'd be curious to know what these author (Abrahamson & Freedman) purport the advantages of a mess are.

Thinking in Pictures

I read Temple Grandin's book "Thinking in Pictures" recently. She is autistic. She designs farm equipment and is described as an animal scientist.

One third of the cattle and hogs in the United States are handled in facilities I designed. (p167)

Here and there she gives an insight into her method of designing which appears quite unique and which she attributes to her autism. She thinks in pictures and can play video reels of incidents and objects she has seen before in her head and join them together to make a new image which can be tested before the design is complete.
She speaks about using a camera at the level of a cow's eye to see what it would look like to walk through a chute.

Early in my career I used a camera to help give me the animals' perspective as they walked trhough a chute for their veterinary treatment. I would kneel down and take pictures through the chute from the cow's eye level. Using the photos, I was able to figure out which things scared the cattle, such as shadows and bright spots of sunlight. (p4)

I thought it was an ingenious idea. So few designers, in my experience, use nitty-gritty, hands-on, realistic, practical devices to inform their decision-making and enhance their knowledge.
She also spoke about pressure and the relief she got from lying in a cattle machine and being squeezed, and mentioned how this is similar to the pleasure of taking a bath and feeling gentle pressure from the water.
I feel I'm very much paraphrasing and hope I've done her ideas justice.

Designersblock & book-unit

The Observer Magazine, 9th September 2007.

Article about Designersblock (Piers Roberts and Rory Dodd), London design firm. Apart from my being interested in the fact that their firm is a 10-year old "organisation that mounts design shows and events, often in glamarously dilapidated, disused industrial spaces... including [London,] Milan, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Seoul, Istanbul, Cologne and Stockholm", I fell in love with one of the objects pictured and am planning to make for my own bedside: The article also mentioned the Geffrye Museum "east London's museum of domestic interiors" which was news to me.
http://www.designersblock.org.uk/

Monocle and Madrid

In Madrid airport I popped into the newsagents intending to buy Cosmo or some other trashy magazine to keep me company on the flight home. My eyes alighted on Monocle ("a briefing on global affairs, business, culture & design"). At E11 I thought it an expensive purchase but splashed out! And what value for money! The magazine or briefing kept me occupied for an hour or so before the flight, two and a half hours or more on the plane and for another while in bed that night. And I still have more to read. It was intelligent, amusing, enlightening if somewhat faddy. The july/august edition focussed on urban living and had a survey of the world's top 20 most liveable cities (Munich topped the list). I was thrilled to hear many of the contributors citing the importance of water in the urban environment. I live near a canal but development of the walkway alongside it is at a standstill, I know some of the canal-side is not in the safest of areas but surely good design could inhibit certain activities?

I don't have much to write about Madrid. My next holiday will *not* be in a city! After a while they all have a certain sameness and offer similar experiences. We did enjoy very much the huge choice of small bars off Calle Fuencarral.

I visited the Prado museum with its great collection of art. Especially fantastic were Hieronymous Bosch's pieces.

And the reason we went to Madrid - the summercase festival - was a great experience. The music was super! Arcade Fire, Kaiser Chiefs, The Gossip, Air, 2ManyDJs, Chemical Brothers, The Whitest Boy Alive, Scissor sisters, Jarvis Cocker, !!!, PJ Harvey, James, Belle & Sebastian DJs...