Design Ireland Network

Last Wednesday, 25th July, The Design Ireland Network held their summer party in Café en Seine. Myself and a friend went along. We met Deirdre the project manager/ co-ordinator of Design Ireland. She was very friendly and told us about a masters programme in design practice that the Design Ireland Skillnets is trying to start up with DIT. We also met Garrick, the chairman of Design Ireland Skillnets. I believe they have many events, up to 12 throughout the year and they run courses for designers to upgrade their skills. It seems like a really useful group to be a membership of for someone working in the design field and dedicated to training and staying up-to-date.

I was hoping for the opportunity to "network" or to get chatting to other designers. It happened a little bit! Another girl was hoping for a job to come out of it but I doubt she had any success. The layout of tables, the distribution of food and drink wasn't conducive to meeting people. There were up to 50 people present, many students I thought. I found it funny how designers talk about "design" regarding their own field only. For me that idea has always been associated with buildings, furniture, objects but people were saying sentences that I had to translate as relating to Websites, graphic design, packaging. It was an insight into another world of designers!

www.designireland.ie
www.skillnets.com

Hotel Puerta America, Madrid

Forgot to mention that we had dinner in Hotel Puerta America, Madrid. The hotel is designed by Jean Nouvel and each of the 13 floors are designed by different architects. We checked with the reception staff and were told that non-guests could see the ground floor - reception, restaurant, bar and the top floor bar. We went up in the lift. Fortunately there were two guests in the lift with us. They used their swipe card to get out on floor 9 and we snuck out after them. On checking the website now, the floor was designed by Richard Gluckman. It was grey, even the lighting felt grey. Doors to the rooms were inset from the corridor and the gap was illuminated, with the door number written on the lightbox on the ground. Stylish. Reminded me of Corb's corridor in the Marseilles apartment because he spoke of the importance of a light at each door.

The top floor bar was orange; lit in orange lights with orange furniture. Not the most relaxing! But offering good views of the night-lit city.

The bar on the ground floor was empty and doesn't stick in my mind for any powerful design reason!

We ate in the restaurant. A bit pretentious for my liking! Fantastic tea trolley with jars upon jars of different tea varieties but the giant trolley was clumsily pushed around and didn't fit between tables to offer diners a proper view. A bit nonsensical! The food was decent though not memorably tasty and it was presented in modern trying-to-be-trendy fashion. I had potato souffles as a side - basically puffs of air inside a potato like balloon, tasted like a crisp.

http://www.hoteles-silken.com/hpam/index.php

National Museum of Ireland

Popped into Collins Barracks this afternoon. It's great that there are new exhibitions. I remember a few years ago when I would visit the museum after a six month lapse and nothing new would have happened. But this time I was spoilt for choice of new exhibitions. My dad who was with me wanted to see the Soldiers & Chiefs so we started there. He had heard someone say that people can only hold their attention at an exhibition for 20 mins! I think this is a little short but by the fourth room I was flagging and in fact I've been to this exhibition before and not looked at the fourth room before so there may be some truth that visitors can only take so much. But the objects and information are magnificent.

I then went to the Ceramics Show. This was a display of contemporary sculptural pieces. Lovely. One room. Very accessible.

The Irish High Cross exhibition was stunning. The room is black and like a huge bare warehouse in blackness. These 7 replica celtic crosses stand tall in the room, each one illuminated from above. The info is published in a deep green colour scheme. The atmosphere in the room is black, stone, green. Magnificent! I hadn't time to read up on the crosses but they looked great and the display case with the cast was informative and very interesting.

I didn't get a chance to see the Whitewash & Thatch: Architectural Drawings from the 1930s and 40s and so I must get back to Collins Barracks before the 15th October!

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...

Summercase Festival in Madrid - Schedule

I've just compiled a grid of who's playing when and where for the Summercase festival in Madrid that we're going to on friday and saturday.

The letters on the left are the names given to the four different stages. The vertical lines break up according to the time the bands are due to go on. The time given to each band isn't the same hence the variation in the width of the cells.

I had the grid layout designed from the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival last year. It's the same idea - different bands playing in different venues with slightly varying time changes.

The colours I used for Dublin were appropriate for the venues (I thought!) but I don't know the differences between the stages in Madrid and don't know the bands well enough to deduce a music genre/vibe (if there is one) on each stage. It was hard to know when to draw the ending line, should I end them all with one line and square off the grid; how long will the last act play for? I decided it was more readable and probable if I guessed when the stage would be finished up! Big decision!

I really enjoyed putting this together. It's one of my ventures into graphic design!

Sketches of Frank Gehry

Went to see the film about Frank Gehry this evening with a friend. She didn't want to go but at the end she was pleased she went to see it and thought it was very funny and laughed about loads of scenes, quotes, people but I just thought it was sh*te. I've just checked imdb.com to see what else Sydney Pollack has done because I thought the film/documentary was so lacking in structure and argument - he was producer on Iris, a film that I much admired and thought was very touching and intelligent. Of other films he's involved with, I've seen The Interpreter and that makes sense for me to associate its director with this Gehry film.

I have never warmed to Gehry and this biographical film only served to strengthen my opinion. Of what I see and know of him, I don't like him.

One point I found amazing was Gehry's work process. His colleague, I think directly employed by him, is involved in software development. What initiative to employ someone to use technology and make it work for you. It is possible for the office to "scan" or record information digitally using a pointer on the model and this will generate 2d drawings. And Gehry can't use a computer! His reliance on teamwork and I assume capacity to direct that team is remarkable. There is no doubt that the structures he has succeeded in having built are mind-boggling.

Unfortunately the above was the most insightful the film got regarding the thinking, living, coordinating being that is an Architect. If this film was directed at architects then I think it gave them very little to chew on. If it was directed at a general audience then it regrettably only serves to further the public's cliched view of architect as brainbox talent with crazy ideas who has a past of bankruptcy and corporate jobs they would prefer to forget.

Gehry's therapist featured quite strongly in the film. I would have preferred to have met his dentist. The therapist claimed Gehry was lacking in confidence early on and other personal trite which no doubt we could all claim at some stage and which would be better kept between analyst and subject.

The only dissenting voice is Hal Foster who tries to make the point my friend made upon seeing Bilbao's Guggenheim - how can art be exhibited in this massive attention-seeking place?

Julian Schnabel turns up in a towelling dressing gown with brandy glass and sunglasses. Was it intended to be a laugh-out loud joke? And our own Bob Geldof's purpose in the film is to relate a story about how he was woken out of touring boredom by Frank's Vitra building in Germany. How it was learnt that Geldof had this story to tell I'd like to know and why it was thought telling it was warranted is something else I'd like to know.

I just love Philip Johnson. It was great to see him in this film. He said Frank knows light and what it does in a building. I think that was the one comment that wasn't nonsense in the entire documentary.

Blogging

I think at some point all bloggers blog about blogging. What were my intentions when starting this? Who was I hoping would read my thoughts (if anyone)? What was I going to write about? How often will I write?

I want to document my interactions with things related to design and design history. Exhibitions, lectures, books. And subjects that interest me, websites or links to other blogs or articles that I come across and enjoy.

Should the entries be in the form of essays? - it is a skill I need to brush up on; I check in with the Design Research Group blog (http://designresearchgroup.wordpress.com/) and the essays are interesting, informative and of a certain high discourse that I would like to aspire to. And so I started with the entry on The Frankfurt Kitchen - but I find it too jam-packed with information, and nothing new really. Another design blog I've come across and find really interesting, inspiring and informative is 1+1=3 (http://www.oneplusoneequalsthree.com/). It has lovely pictures and captured thoughts. My last few blogs have been statements of where I've been and a casual comment on my opinion of the exhibitions. Again, I am disatisfied. I think they should be more meaty! So I will try to write as if I am telling a friend about whatever it is is on my mind regarding a certain subject. Chatty, personal.

Onwards and upwards!