Alternate Reality Gaming - Marc McGinley, Stand G12
Imagine there’s no line between fiction and reality. You’re following a
story that spills over into the real world, where you can call characters
on their mobile phones, interact with them over the Internet and help
them solve a mystery.
Project Ophiuchus was exactly that, a story where fiction became
reality and a missing couple were really missing…or were they? Players
noticed missing person posters in the real world, which lead them to a
blog telling of the search for the couple. They followed the story of the
missing couple for four weeks through three websites, solving many
puzzles collaboratively and progressing the story via interaction.
This was an exciting game with 250+ registered players, and dozens
who spent a few hours a day collectively solving the mystery.
Alternate Reality Games have a huge potential as a successor to viral
marketing and are being increasingly used as marketing for global
brands. This project was a practical demonstration of some of the
future directions the genre could take.
Contemporary Jewellery maker, Claire Johnston, is a recent graduate from BA (Hons) Applied Arts, based at the University of the Creative Arts at Rochester.
Claire creates contemporary sentimental jewellery that is influenced by her life journey so far. The Tooth Fairy Series (January 2008) is a range of jewellery that uses castings of her daughter’s milk teeth. Using mementos and objects that are sentimentally precious as her inspiration, Claire creates pieces that invite the audience to contemplate the value of sentiment. The range is constructed in silver, with some gold plating, and echoes of Victorian and traditional jewellery through form and aesthetic.
As a first class honours graduate, Claire has already started making waves in the design world. Her Untitled Brooch (pictured) from the Tooth Fairy Series range was shortlisted for the Liverpool Design Show, National Student Design Competition. Being the only student amongst the finalists that was not a furniture or product designer, she says,
“I was thrilled to be nominated. The fact that my work has been recognised on a national level by established designers is an enormous achievement for me, and validation that my pieces are conceptual and pushing boundaries of contemporary jewellery.”
Her most recent work is inspired by the initial reaction of the audience to her Tooth Fairy Series.
“I was surprised by the diverse and interesting reaction to the Tooth Fairy Series. Some people loved the pieces and would wear them despite that they were my daughter’s teeth castings; others loved the pieces, but were reluctant to even touch them, even though they were not the real teeth. Others were unsure of whether they liked them or whether they considered them grotesque. This diversity of reactions provoked me to consider audience participation with the pieces for the next series of work I created; the Ceramic Tooth Fairy Series.”
In conjunction with the engineering department at Greenwich University in Chatham, Claire had a 3D scan of a tooth prepared. This was then enlarged and created through the process of rapid prototyping, to a scale of 400% and 800%. These giant teeth were then cast and recreated in porcelain. Experimenting with different glazes, and other media, such as hair and silver, Claire has created stunning, wearable jewellery that is conceptually innovative, and that invites the audience to consider their own sentimental motivations.
Fancy Formica
Press Release Clare Willard Designs
One Year on – New Designers Exhibition, The Business Design Centre, London N1
Fancy Formica!
London, UK – 10th July 2008
Young designer Clare Willard surfaces for the first time at One Year On. Contemporary UK design
retailer Thorsten Van Elten has picked Willard as one of this year’s selection of cutting edge young
designers to feature at One Year On, a highlight of the annual New Designers Exhibition.
Using coloured laminates and plywood to create low relief surfaces, Willard has created a stunning
surface design concept that is stylish, contemporary and quirky. The works dimensional quality is
created from techniques of layering and inter-cutting which are common to textile design. Striking
colour and pattern owe much to Willard’s background as a print maker and laser-cutting
technology achieves pinpoint precision.
This intriguing and novel method produces a versatile surface treatment that can be applied to
door panelling, feature walls, furniture and product. It can be tailored to decorate the small and
intimate or scaled up to produce striking architectural installations.
Inspired by her earlier studies in social anthropology, Willard’s broad design influences span from
the appliqué molas of Kuna Indians of Panama to the jigsaw felt shyrdak rugs of Central Asia.
Clare Willard will be exhibiting from 10th to 13th July on the One Year On stand at New Designers
Exhibition.
ends
Notes to Editor:
Clare Willard is a recipient of Next Move funding from the Crafts Council - a residency scheme for
emerging makers.
Clare Willard has been sponsored by Formica to make new work for this exhibition.
For further information or images please contact Clare Willard on info@clarewillard.co.uk or Tel
07976 548 161. www.clarewillard.co.uk
Here are our Journeys
Music is an everyday companion to many people. It can change the way we perceive moments in our life, places we visit and people we meet. Music changes how we feel about Journeys and the same music can remind us of that Journey. ‘Here are our Journeys’ is an exploration into people’s interaction with music they listen to and the journey’s they take. The project looks into different methods of data collection both real time and periodically using different hardware, one of which is displayed below. The project then explores different ways of representing this data in the public domain.
Here are our Journeys will use data logged by user’s iPods’ and GPS units’ to represent their journeys online where they can be shared with others. This piece takes advantages of new technologies to collate data on a large scale then represent it in an engaging and tactile way. The project aims to give an insight into how our virtual persona is increasingly becoming part of our real life and to show that there is technology to already available to support this progression.
Diamond Display Cabinet in Indian Rosewood
" Imagine the four points of the compass joined to a single point in the sky and a single point on the earth to create a diamond."
Future folklore with Swedish handcraft and tradition for the East London Club Community
By seeing the possibilities of cultural differences Emma Lundgren has created the future folklore dress for the clubbing community. With her project she has combined the differences and
similarities of the East London club community with the Swedish Folklore dress, and its tradition, for her final project at Central Saint Martins BA Textile design.
She has combined the Swedish tradition of a folklore dress in its pattern and symbols with the East London club culture, where prominent colours, unusual materials and big objects are the motive for the adherent. Other examples of typical adherents are ‘Boombox’, a prominent club within the community, and the handcraft of the different objects, meeting in a futuristic feeling in colour and material choice, as well as how they are constructed.
During the project Emma has conserved the old Scandinavian hallmark such as lego, cross-stitch and the dalahorse. She has also questioned and reconstructed its purpose for the future.
Emma has worked with Hennes & Mauritz in Stockholm, Brewster/Indigo fair in London/Paris, Lisa Stickley in London, Bas Brand Identity in Stockholm and John Galliano in Paris among others. A selection of other merits is been shortlisted for RSA Awards for optimistisc ecological design, being highly recommended for William Atkinson Scholarship and Chartered Society of Designers.
Emma is showing her future folklore dress at New Designers week in July in London.
Snug Press Release by Sophie Friedel Product Designer
Snug
Press Release
July 2008
Hooded garment for travellers, addressing the need for a more comfortable and safer way of sleeping whilst on the move.
Trends show that an increasing number of people travel and sleep in airports and train stations but also on their mode of transport. Professional surfers, snowboarders or skaters for example travel a lot to compete in competitions around the world and use the (potential wasted) time spend travelling to catch up on some sleep.
Providing the traveller with the opportunity to gain a better sleep whilst on the move means they can use time spent on the destinations more productively.
Snug acts as a sheltering environment for sleeping by providing the wearer with an inflatable neckpiece integrated into the hood that supports the wearers’ neck. Attached into the hood is a face shield to block out light and give privacy to the sleeper. The hood has got a snug fit so that it will stay tight on the wearers head in windy conditions but also when performing fast downhill manoeuvres. Snug comes with earplugs to block out noise and has got a small compartment to store them safely. Furthermore it has got a 100 decibels safety whistle that acts as an audible crime deterrent.It also has got hand warmer mittens to provide cocoon like environment for resting.
100% MAPP merino was chosen to construct the garment because of its technical properties but also due to its sustainable manufacturing process. The fabric promotes balanced body temperature regulation and is naturally odour repellent meaning it needs to be washed less.
ENDS
For more information and images please contact Sophie Friedel, T. 0044 (0) 7851 718990sophiefriedel@hotmail.com
James Plant, Bucks Contemporary press release
James
Plant
www.jamesplantdesign.com
info@jamesplantdesign.com
Mobile 0(+44) 7823 888256
PRESS RELEASE JULY 2008
JAMES PLANT’S RADICAL DESIGNS EXHIBIT @ NEW DESIGNERS WITH BUCKS
CONTEMPORARY ’08 (9-13TH JULY 08)
James Plant, a fresh graduate of Buckinghamshire New University (formerly BCUC), is exhibiting at New Designers, the foremost event in graduate design.
“I keep a fun light-hearted side to my work, while the world around us becomes an ever more serious place I feel design has a part to play emotively as well as functionally. Whilst function should not suffer to aesthetics, I try to find graceful solutions in playful design that allows the user to interact with the piece.”
Marie Retpen is a Danish glass designer and maker graduating this summer from the Royal College of Art. With a background in traditional Scandinavian techniques from the KostaGlassSchool, her work balances precariously between sculpture and design.The fluidity of the hot glass mixed with the functional creates a surreal body of work that would be a talking point in any environment.
Through her making Marie is constantly developing new ways of creating forms often using different materials like paper, wood or clay to shape the glass. During this year’s New Designers she will be showing her installation Still Life Meltdown, a series of vase and light designs given the impression they have been exposed to a supernatural force. This summer her work will also be shown at the British Glass Biennale, in Tent London during London Design Festival and at Origin, the London craft fair in October at Somerset House
“In a domestic setting, these warped objects are suggesting a supernatural narrative”
For details about the products please contact the artist:www.retpen-glas.dk
