Slow Tech: Designs for Digital Downtime

Apologies for the blogging absenteeism! I've been quite busy recently, but I've finally got round to blogging about this exhibition I went to a few weeks ago called Slow Tech: Designs for Digital Downtime [curated by Henrietta Thompson and produced by Protein.]

The exhibition was a "Digital Addiction Clinic" addressing our society's obsession with the digital world. This includes our compulsion to Facebook, Tweet, blog and various other activities that disconnect people from their physical surroundings.

Hector Serrano - Screen Time

At the beginning of the day, the watch face is completely white. As the day progresses, the watch accumulates data through wi-fi or 3G to determine how many hours and minutes are spent on social networking sites. This manifests in the form of a watch pie chart. It raises the questions such as: do we realise quite how much of our day is consumed by sites like Facebook and Twitter, and are we embarrassed/shocked with how we spend the majority of our day?

Samuel Wilkinson - Biome

Biome is a flora terrarium whose climate, water and nutrients levels are controlled and monitored using a smartphone. The Biome is designed to encourage digital downtime and lessen interaction between a smartphone and its user. It is simple and easy to use, it is perfect for people who don't have the time to look after a plant and/or nature amateurs.

Samuel Wilkinson & Joe Wentworth - Pendola

Pendola is a wall mounted pendulum clock, it is not motorised but seems to magically swing as it passes over a small tab fixed underneath. The steady motion of the clock is designed to have a calming effect.

Kiwi & Pom - Flip

Flip is an allusion to the mechanics of traditional airport and railway information boards, which are being replaced with modern alternatives such as digital screens. Flip syncs with mobile devices to display notifications and messages, including texts, emails and social media updates.

Kiwi & Pom - Radio

The K&P radio uses wifi to pick up music directly and can be tuned according to genre or mood. These channels are operated using a dial. Favourite songs can also be recorded, the radio assesses these and determines the user's listening habits - therefore customising a widely available and used object.

The following three exhibition items are a part of Hugo Eccles' Design Office, all are aimed at social networking...

Hugo Eccles - Social Bomb

The purpose of the social bomb is to disable technologies without consent and without being detected.

Hugo Eccles - Social Thermostat

The social thermostat can be used to control the 'social temperature' of a space. A socially warm environment would turn on various communication technologies and a socially cold environment would switch them all off again.

Hugo Eccles - Social Timer

These social timers disable a particular social media for a short period of time when the timer is up. This is perfect for use at a desk or at the family dinner table.

Nicolas Roope - Cute Electric

This iPhone accessory helps technology addicts to manage their compulsion. The device administers small electric shocks that increase the longer the smartphone is used. The user will then learn to kick their habit, resulting in shorter durations of interaction between the user and the phone. This is the perfect solution for the anti-social individual amongst a friend or family gathering scenario.

Protein - In-Flight Chromo

This one was one of my favourites; it is a colour clock that enables your body to understand what time it is. It is a simple indicator for time and is a possible solution for jet lag, Seasonal Affective Disorder and other light/time related diseases.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition. It was an insightful social commentary on society's need to let everyone in the world know their every thought and move, albeit how inane those thoughts or actions may be. It puts into perspective how forefront sites like Facebook and Twitter are in our day-to-day lives. I doubt anyone can recollect the days before online social networking, nor want to. It's also very ironic that I am blogging in order to tell you about this exhibition...!

Museum of Broken Relationships

Recommended by my sister, I went to see the Museum of Broken Relationships in Covent Garden. I was told it would make me laugh and cry, and was advised to bring a box of tissues!

The Museum exhibition was broken up into two halves, one resided in the Tristan Bates Theatre and the other in a small shop just down the road past Chicago. Stepping into the exhibition, the soft and dim lighting combined with the precious belongings from lost loves created an intimate space.

The Museum was adorned with paper - including the work of Alice Bray who created Rob Ryan-esque large-scale cut-outs.

Alice Bray

My favourite part of the exhibition was the work of the very talented George Triggs, whose sculpture "Broken" was beautiful and thought provoking.


The belongings from love lost were donated to the Museum by the public, and had small descriptions to accompany. I was particularly amused by the painting below that was given to a girlfriend as a gift. The girlfriend, not knowing the meaning behind the painting, thought that it was a metaphor for the power and endurance of their love. I wonder if she knew that her boyfriend was simply a fan of the anime series Naruto?


Some stories were sad, some silly and others funny. The champagne cork was a favourite of mine - a mark of celebration and relief.


Someone had even donated their wedding album...



On leaving the space, you were greeted with a black brick wall covered in messages written by visitors in white pen. Some messages were about the exhibition itself, and others were written donations of their own stories of love lost. I made my own written donation.

For more information on the possessions on show, some are on the Broken Relationships website. Be sure to check out the "I Love You" Teddy Bear...!

Unfortunately the Museum of Broken Relationships has been and gone, but don't worry I have a feeling this successful exhibition will return to London again soon.

Moniessss

Just received fantastic news that two of my framed cutouts sold over the weekend at Craft Guerrilla's Little Shop of Crafty Splendours :)

Huge thanks go out to Craft Guerrilla - Debbie in particular :)

Craft Guerrilla's Little Shop of Splendours

Over the weekend Craft Guerrilla curated Finamore [Walthamstow] to present: Little Shop of Crafty Splendours. I was asked by Debbie to design a Craft Guerrilla Weekend cutout for their window display.

I popped into the Little Shop of Crafty Splendours on Saturday morning. The shop, which is normally an antiques store, was beautifully arrayed with handmade goods from various artists. Albeit a small shop, the space had been used well without being cluttered or cramped. It was a cute shop with a lovely twee and vintage atmosphere.

If you missed this event, do not fret - Craft Guerrilla's next event will be the Craft Trail/Thames Festival in September; for more information, please click here.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Craft Guerrilla, it is an independent collective set up to work with crafts artists, designers and makers of high quality handmade goods. They also organise DIY Craft Nights, Crafternoons, Craft Workshops and Craft Markets. You can find out more about them via their website or Facebook.

Girls + Zines

I recently submitted a zine to the "Girls + Zines" exhibition curated by the lovely Barbara Ryan. This was an exhibition aimed at the art of creating hand-made zines and making sure that this age old tradition does not wither in this modern day.

The exhibition dates [courtesy of Tatty Devine] have been extended until the 3rd Sept - for more event info please click here.

I popped into Tatty Devine [down Brick Lane] briefly on my lunch break; the collection of zines were so varied in style and content. They were all amazing - I wish I had had more time to browse every one! If you're ever in the area, go and take a look! I managed to take some snaps on my phone - please excuse the poor quality...

Guilty Pleasure Television - Isobel Kho

How to wow a woman - really liked this zine, but don't know who created it! If you made this zine, let me know and I will credit it :)

What not to say on a lesbian date - Elisabeth Lee

Candy Bag - Sally Jane Thompson

Colour in Katie - Isobel Kho

The zine I made was a concertina based on one of my favourite childhood television shows Jonathan Creek [played by Alan Davies]. Jonathan Creek was a typical British television series in the 90s, based on a magician's assistant [named Jonathan Creek] who has a knack for solving impossible crimes with his feisty crime reporter sidekick Madeline Magellan [played by Caroline Quentin]. The zine has illustrations of moments from the TV series, with lines of text to accompany. Images from my zine can be found in a previous blog post.

My Jonathan Creek zine was recently mentioned in a delightful blog post about Girls + Zines by Oh Comely magazine. You can read the review here.