Sussex, 8. April 2012

Stockholm, 5 march 2012

Mathilda is presenting her proposal to change the paradigm of consumption to Swedish ministers today, as part of Stockholm +40 (40 years on from the first UN environment conference, held in Stockholm in 1972, and 20 since Rio). It’s being webcast here starting at midday UK time, but obviously all in Swedish. She’s on after Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

Forbo Flooring Systems, London 17. February 2012

The other day Anette was invited to attend a think tank session with Forbo Flooring. A selected group of professionals with different expertise in: architecture, design, journalism, strategic marketing/ communication discussed current issues around austerity, value creation and sustainability, moderated by Tim Vermeulen, from Premsela, the Dutch institute for fashion and design. How will these issues influence the future of Forbo’s product concept offering, design and brand positioning? Insights on where innovations are going within this segment were shared, but also the interesting question arose of what left field and disruptive innovation might change the rules of the game?

Good for Nothing, London 20 - 22 January, 2012

Anette did some ‘good for nothing’ this weekend to help three social innovators in their endeavours to contribute to social good.  Occupy Blue Monday was a 48 hour  ’creative, collaboration gig’ bringing together a large diverse group of talented people. With a love for stories, Anette was captivated by the POP UP Festival of Stories, an amazing initiative for children set up in 2011 and run by Dylan Calder to “celebrate books, stories, and the people who make them”. Of course much much more than this, the team collaborated to clarify the purpose and mission of the initiative, provide a pertinent communication strategy as well design some product-services to enable the initiative to become sustainable over time. It was intense and seriously fun.

South Bank, London 20 - 22 January, 2012

‘A long chain of charity and commerce binds the world’s richest and poorest people in an accidental intimacy. It’s a curious feature of the global age that hardly anybody at either end knows it.’ George Packer, New York Times magazine, March 2002

Where do your clothes go, once you give them away to a charity? The exhibition – Everything Must Go, made visible and tangible some of the flows of textile waste. Unfortunately the exhibition was only on this past weekend in London but this web-site and the film ‘Unravel ‘ by Meghna Gupta’s gives an idea of what it is about, and definitely provides some food for thought into consumption patterns in clothing.

10MW Aerogenerator X © 2010 Wind Power Limited & Grimshaw

Anette has been working with Theo Bird founder of Wind Power Limited on refining a set of 14 project principles for the Aerogenerator – an innovative offshore wind turbine. Inspired by Kelly Johnson’s Skunkworks, these guidelines for advanced research and innovation in cleantech were generated with input by several established partners to the Aerogenerator project such as Grimshaw Architects, Virgin Galactic etc. The purpose of these principles is to tell the story of the project and invite audiences to share experiences in developing and managing complex projects. The role of sustainability is inherent in the project principles in terms of design, function and business case. The 14 project principles for the Aerogenerator were presented yesterday at the Helen Hamlyn Center at the RCA, and will shortly be presented at Cranfield University and at the British Council’s Everything Forever Now symposium in Bangkok which has been curated by Wallpaper magazine’s Editor at Large, Henrietta Thompson.

Goldsmiths, University of London, 18th October, 2011

Anette delivered a workshop and talk for the seminar series: Methods & Processes for all the design students across the Master programmes at Goldsmiths. Together with Hannah Jones, programme leader for MA Design Futures at Goldsmiths the students got to explore the life cycle of a selection of everyday objects in a tactile and qualitative way as well as get an overview of how sustainability informs new visions, strategies and frameworks for design. This sparked some interesting debates on some of the paradoxes and contradictions many products such as: a Patagonia fleece jacket, a wooden stapler or a Guerlain powder refill container may pose, and what more it offered opportunities to rethink about use and adequate lifespan of products.

Newly launched – Technology Will Save Us is the first haberdashery for technology and education space. The founders, Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirschman are two creatives who are testing formulas to enable users to revise the kinds of relationships we could have with our technologies. They organise workshops where you can learn to make your own speakers or lumiphone etc.

We aim to help everybody experience the joy of making technology work the way they want it to. We show people what they’re capable of with our DIY technology kits, our workshops and support services.

The full range of DIY Kits and products are available to buy exclusively at Haberdashery East at RoughTrade East.

We came across this new magazine “Makeshift – a journal of hidden creativity” on kickstarter which is to be launched in October 2011. It seems like a promising project that aims to ’celebrate DIY and human creativity and ingenuity from all corners of the world’. We’re excited to follow the stories that present different solutions to meet real needs using various strategies from hacking, recycling, re-enginering etc. Read more here at inhabitat.