Julien Roure aka Jules Julien, vit et travaille à Paris. (1975, Bagnols/Cèze, France) Un pistolet écureuil. Une chevelure arachnéenne entourant un visage aux proportions cubistes. Qu’il soit subtil ou grotesque, le décalage qu’opère le travail de Julien Roure questionne la réalité du monde qui l’entoure, faisant ainsi basculer la notion de vérité du général au particulier. Détournant et associant figures et objet familiers, il met en scène un univers où le symbole se marie à l’anecdote et où l’étrange se camouffle derrière une palette de couleurs exagérément chatoyante. Car il faut bien reconnaître que l’apparence lisse de ses images, méticuleusement dessinées et vectorisées, renferme des strates bien plus complexes. Un monde souterrain où les super héros s’appelleraient Eros et Thanatos et où les tensions donneraient naissances à des chimères aussi séduisantes que vénéneuses. Portrait by Jean Biche Text by Justin Morin Published in magazines like: WAD (france) SOON (france) NUKE (france) PREF (france) GAF-FAG MAG (australia) OUT (USA) DNA (australia) TÊTU (france) CAKE TRAIN (USA) JulesJulien — + 33 (0) 6 63 29 27 49 — 6, rue Hermel 75018 Paris — http://julesjulien.com http://profile.myspace.com/ julesjulien
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Ditz Fejer Photographer Publishes in several Austrian and international magazines. Presently he works on a book about hardcore Austria. www.ditzfejer.com “Henrik Larsen“/“Tibcurl“
Martina Grünewald Writes her dissertation on the shifting values of 20th material culture at the department of design history and theory, at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. martina_gruenewald@hotmail.com ”What You Did Not Know About Design * Because You Never Asked”
David Carlson Works as a consultant and creative advisor under the brand name David Carlson with a focus on design and brand management for companies and organisations. www.davidreport.com ”Vulgarism“
Oliver Brandenberger Architect Lives & works in Basel. Winner of the “swiss art award 2007” and our most beloved correspondent from our neighbour Switzerland. www.oliverbrandenberger.com “Your guide to Zurich”
Werner Blazsovksy Photographer Vienna based freelance photographer. Check out his work at: www.wb-photography.com ”Sebastian Menschhorn”
Veerle Symoens Works as a freelance journalist, loves travelling round the globe, returning back to her present homebase Antwerp with lots of great stories to tell. ”Atelier A1” veerle.s@gmail.com
Alexandra Augustin Photographer and Artist Working with photography, sculpture, performative art and digital media since 2003. alexandra.augustin@silverserver.at ”Marco Dessi”
Georg Oberhumer Photographer Is studying mass media and communication science at the University of Vienna. www.georgoberhumer.com mail@georgoberhumer.com ”Streetpeople”
André Pretorius Painter Born in South Africa, but lived in the U.S. since he was 7 years old. Currently based in Brooklyn. Works as a copyist, mostly for Sotherbys. more at: www.andrepretorius.com “Party“ “Prince Pretorius“
Gregor Titze Photographer Vienna based photographer, creator of the award winning “Less is More” images. http://gregortitze.com “Less is More”
Eke Miedaner Photographer Zurich based photographer. I like to stroll, trying to find poetry in unexpected places. Sometimes I like kitsch too. I‘m a librarian by day and a dj at night. eke@gmx.ch
Riisli Photographer Zurich based photographer, http://www.flickr.com/photos/riisli b.disch@swissonline.ch
Patrick Bartos Consultant, journalist, teacher. His major topics are art, culture and business management. bartos@invent.or.at “So Design Is The New Art?“
Birgit Genner Make up Artist Up and coming make up artist. Based in Vienna, but at the moment conquering Paris and Barcelona. www.birgitgenner.at
Florian Fleischner Student Flo is studying industrial design, when not beeing creative with words. flofloflei@yahoo.de ”Anti-design and decadence in stainless steel”
Miguel Conejeros Fiat600 established in Barcelona, after participating in the festival for advanced music SONAR in 2001. Since then he has performed in several clubs and festivals in Barcelona, England and France. www.myspace/fiat600
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POLO RALPH LAURENWORKSBENE
ERFOLG BRAUCHT IDENTITÄT. IDENTITÄT BRAUCHT RAUM. BÜRO BRAUCHT BENE. Gemeinsam mit Kunden und Partnern entwickelt Bene innovative Büroraumlösungen, die Kultur und Identität von Unternehmen räumlich erlebbar abbilden. Sie beschleunigen Arbeitsprozesse und lassen sich schnell und kostengünstig an veränderte Rahmenbedingungen anpassen. Dafür bietet Bene ein Gesamtportfolio für alle Bereiche des Büros mit intelligenten Konzepten, erstklassigen Produkten und Dienstleistungen. So wird Bürogestaltung und -einrichtung zum Managementinstrument und zum Erfolgsfaktor für Ihr Unternehmen. Weitere Informationen: http://bene.com
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06 07 ‘Blut Lachen Kissen’ Der ‘Blood Puddle Pillow’ auch bekannt als ‘Der große Schlummer’ wurde vom Studio ‘FromKeetra’ entworfen. Die Idee zum Kissen hatte die Designerin Keetra Dean Dixon während ihrer Abschlussarbeit an der Cranbrook Academy of Art: „Die Kissen sind von den Momenten inspiriert, wenn ein Schlafender, der einem nahe steht, ein kleines Weilchen zu lange ganz still ist”, erklärt sie. ‘FromKeetra’ ist ein wachsendes und leicht schizophren angehauchtes Studio. Die Arbeiten des Studios nützen das Moment der Überraschung, der Entzückung und Entdeckung, die Lust am Spiel und an der Konfrontation, das Unerwartete um Pessimismus und Passivität zu überwinden. Das Motto des Studios “Lass dein Lachen sprechen”. Blut Lachen Kissen 41 x 41 cm Seide/Samt & Watte. Links: Den ‘Blood Puddle Pillow’ kann man über www.fromkeetra.com beziehen. Auch sehenswert: www.fromktoj.com
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Blood Puddle Pillow
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The ‘Blood Puddle Pillow’, also known as ‘The Great Slumber’ designed by ‘FromKeetra’: The pillow was created during Keetra Dean Dixons' Masters studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. “The pillows are inspired by those suspenseful moments when a sleeping loved one is a little too still for a little too long,” she adds. ‘FromKeetra’ is a growing and slightly schizophrenic studio. The focus of work is divided evenly between un-commissioned projects and client funded ventures. Ideally these projects utilize surprise, delight, discovery, a sense of play and confrontation of the unexpected to combat pessimism and passivity. The studios motto: “Make' em view smile!“ Blood Puddle Pillow 16“ x 16“, Silk/Velvet & Batting. Links: The “Blood Puddlle Pillow“ is available through: www.fromkeetra.com Also check: www.fromktoj.com
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WHOEVER USES OUR PRODUCTS GOES BEAR
Somewhere in Styria amid the wine street lies a small but nice smithy for outdoor design. At this place of silence and relaxation, in the middle of nowhere, are the roots, the present and the future of VITEO > OUTDOORS. PadFinder met its founder Wolfgang Pichler in his home-cum-ofďŹ ce to talk with him about successful products, successful marketing and successful networking and to have a look behind the scenes.
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Shower
by Danny Venletgarden shower
How it all began? It all began by chance. Wolfgang Pichler, an architect by rights and interested in overall concepts, was asked to complete an appartment, which was still a shell construction, for a friend. Fortunately, there was also a roof-terrace and as they were busy furnishing anyway, the outdoor area was also designed.
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Rather less by chance not only his friend but also his numerous guests liked this roof-terrace very well. “At this point my friend suggested starting something like that properly and I replied, of course, because the world is just waiting for another architect turned into furniture designer.” However, his friend didn‘t back down. A business plan was set up, at the beginning as hobby. “We started back to
“Our designer Danny Venlet is a long-time friend of our sales manager. The ‘Shower’ has actually a brilliant history: We sat together having a great time and wanted a shower for the outdoor area. We agreed that there are already so many showers, and eventually we thought of this ‘Gardena’ irrigation installations. All at once the thing was there. First in its form, but it took years till we could realise all the technical details. But now we’ve done it, the ‘Shower’ was awarded several times and sells like hot cakes. Some customers give the feedback that you can not wash your hair with it. But it is not a real shower in this sense, it’s just there to be refreshing. So far I haven’t met anybody who asked “what’s that?” There isn’t anybody who doesn’t like it. Now it is placed on two MTV shows, too. The market responded really great. The Shower is produced in front and made a business plan without Austria.” any product at first. Then I began with the HomeCollection, and modularity in particular was very important for me. At that time, in 2001, it still was really a topic, which isn’t one anymore today. At that time there were no real living areas and playful heights for the outdoor area.“
What about this marketing strategy?
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10 11 The whole thing should have started as a hobby and was launched in 2002 with a kick-off event in Straß (Styria), the headquaters of VITEO > OUTDOORS. So the foundations were laid for the success of VITEO > OUTDOORS. “We were always very good at celebrating, that wasn’t the problem.” At the beginning another former fellow student implemented the marketing: “It was a very graphic and also a very masculine thing, we liked it very much at that time and it also went with our products.” With increasing internationality more capacities became necessary. The time had come for a new protagonist to join the VITEO network. “Back then the design and communication agency FMW in Graz was a very young team with fresh ideas. It was a mutual interchange and we got each other going. Meanwhile they know us so well and have accompanied us on our way for such a long time that they help us also in positioning our brand.”
Bendybay
by Danny Venlet endless sofa system “…, a very modular thing, the perfect form, however, took quite long. The ‘Bendybay’ fits into the concept of transforming the outdoor area into a permanent living area; it is an endless sofa system, which can be used privately and in project areas. There is a part A and B and there are the closings left and right so you can endlessly put them together like snakes or circles or whatever. The fabric is tightly sewn, the imitation leather is water proof anyway and the seams are glued and then it is covered with film, and on the bottom there is a breathable material. So this is a sofa which may be left outside at all times, even though it is probably not used this way. You can simply use it. Optically speaking it is very simple, but technically speaking madly complicated. It has very deep elements and that’s the trick of the whole thing. It is not quite on the market yet, the presentations and the marketing have really just begun.”
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Mike Fuisz of FMW explains: “In branding we aim to differentiate. We looked at outdoor ads and saw that in all of them there was a couple sitting on a table with grapes on. We had to do something different. And the idea with the animal-heads is not quite new,
anyway, the old Egyptians already used this.”
Go bear Let’s stay with the animals: “You can also look at our animal-heads quite poetically, of course, like if you use our products, you turn into a bear. But actually, there was quite a pragmatic reason: Since we had to draw attention with ads, but did not have the means to do it over a wide area, we had to do something that makes people say ‘what’s that?’” And sure enough many ask themselves, ‘what’s that?’ The ‘models’ under the animal-heads are all people close to VITEO. “It also shows that we don‘t take ourselves 100% seriously and that things are not all grave. This is very important for us.” It shows also a close connection between work and life – the things you sell you should live yourself. “Our photo shootings are always great fun!”
And the production? VITEO doesn’t consist of carpenters and craftspeople. Or does it? “Many suppliers became our friends.” When Wolfgang Pichler talks about his diffe-
rent suppliers, who are largely from the neighbourhood, it seems as if they are part of VITEO. And in a way, that’s what they are, after all, technical details are improved with their help. “Buying individual parts makes us extremely flexible and enables us to work with every material. Furthermore, we are not interested in being stressed with load factors.” VITEO is a design-, production- and distribution-specialist. The assembly hall consists of only four co-workers, who assemble the delivered parts. Apart from a few screws you don’t see many technical tools there.
The essence of success “Our success is the mixture between a rather more commercial design, which is a big topic, because everything smacking of design could be sold 10 years ago; and the people behind it.” Wolfgang Pichler doesn‘t believe that their success is the sole product of marketing or of design. It is rather the Austrian charm and the internationally recognized quality standard in Austria, combined with the ease, that VITEO tries to convey. “However, the people notice immediately if you are only funny; you have to combi-
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Zoe
by Wolfgang Pichler & Robert Steinböck outdoor lamp “I designed ‘Zoe’ together with our light-designer Robert Steinböck, with whom I also very often worked together in my role as architect. It is a coincidence that it meets the current discussion about climate change, because the project is much older. We wanted to get away from the question, where do I plug this thing in? The common denominator then was the sun and after that the idea was obvious. The prerequisite then was that you must be able to read under it. This again led to conceive its design as a classic living room-lamp. My idea was to combine something emotionally known with the newest technology. You don’t have to think up a new form. You almost have to like it. It shines up to six hours and is comparable to a 40 to 45 watt light bulb. The whole thing was possible through our network with the electrician and me as a designer. Although you can not say that one person is responsible for these things, the other for those, we work on the solutions through interaction.”
ne quality and fun. With us it is simply a well rounded matter, you can recognize our qualities in the product.” “Our increasing internationality resulted in opportunities to work together with international designers, although we are quite restrictive in this respect and only accept things which we can believe in. We called it ‘Fresh’ Design and wanted to try it out; it was nearly experimental. Danny Venlet’s Shower is a product of this experiment and it sells like hot cakes.”
Outdoor design and urbanity Design usually takes place in urban areas. On the one hand, the regional
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connection of VITEO is contradictory to this verdict. On the other hand, Wolfgang Pichler states that “we usually move on roof-terraces and less in classic gardens. You may call areas with beautiful coast-strip rural, but they are covered with people who have money and go in for an urbane lifestyle.” The “outdoor feeling” in the urban area is simply different from the rural one. VITEO derives from Latin viteus for grapevine. “We have a very strong regional connection. In our choice of suppliers and our being we just love staying here. That’s what the name should stand for. At the beginning our problem was that people thought we were an Italian business.”
And the future? “It’s not about chasing some new trends.” Simplified solutions for the outdoor area are the big topic for VITEO. In the past as in the future. “If you come home into the living room, what do you do? You sit down on the sofa, you switch on the TV or you cook... all this is furniture, which you can use immediately. But if you go on the terrace you have to check, whether the table is clean; whether the cushions are on the chairs. If I want to cook something, I must heat up the grill first, somewhere I must plug in the lamp. The perfect outdoor situation is where I can use all this without thinking!”
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12 13 What kind of flacon is that you carry in your bag? Looks like it could take my breath away! That’s an essential oil (from London). Good to massage the temples to stop headaches. Bike-fraction and public transport avoider? Riding with everything: Public transport, car, taxi. What about the measuring tape? Always with you? ALWAYS!!!!! I use it a lot to demonstrate measurements in meetings, or to measure objects. Also e.g. in hotel rooms, if I’m interested in a chair, I’ll measure it immediately, things like seat height. You’ve got two wallets? Maybe to confuse pickpockets? Just one – the other one is a notepad to open. pictures: Werner Blazsovksy
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What´s in your Bag? Sebastian Menschhorn
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Sebastian Menschhorn Sebastian Menschhorn is translating classic style, form and function into contemporary product and graphic design, rooted in the past and at the same time tellingly new. The focus of his work is always the task to capture the particular essence of the topic rather than to develop a new signature. This is also a reason for his preference to work with traditional companies like “Lobmeyr” and the “Wiener Silberschmiede Werkstätte” which offer a rich basis due to their long history. His targeted analysis leads him to a further development of the existing identity. This process results in the transformation of meaning. www. pureaustriandesign.com/ showroom/ sebastian_menschhorn www. sebastianmenschhorn. com
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¨...But maybe it is exactly this, the small steps, patience. When you talk to others you just know that it takes a few years. You have to struggle through from one thing to the next.“
MARCO DESSI, „You get recognition, but you cannot eat it!“ MARCO DESSÌ SouthTyrol/I 23.2.1976 2006 2nd Prize ‘Rosenthal Design Award for Chaos Theory’. 2006 Exhibiting with ‘PureAustrianDesign’ at the ‘100%east’ in London. 2007 Participant at ‘inspired by cologne’ at the international furniture fair ‘imm cologne’. 2008 Exhibiting in the ‘Talent Zone’ at the ‘tendence lifestyle’ fair in Frankfurt. Picture portrait Alexandra Augustin
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Marco Dessi - in summer 2007 he finished his studies at the University of Applied Arts. His melodious name stands for a new star in the design scene. His project ‘Radiator’ won him international recognition and he was mentioned in magazines like Dwell and Frame. For PadFinder he opened his doors in the 7th District in Vienna and explained why even the biggest hype around him doesn‘t protect him against having to sell prototypes to a ridiculously low price…
Thank you that we could drop by your flat. You have just finished your studies. Could you tell us a bit about your current situation? After six years of studies I’ve finished my graduation project. Now it is over and you stand there and you just know that you won’t go into university that quickly again. You know that it depends on the next steps and wonder whether they are more or less clever. You look at how others do it and you think that you will always do it better yourself. In the near future I will refine my works. I have a small order of five pieces of my chair ‘Doppietta’ with a high rest. At the moment the most important thing for me is that I can carry on working as before. It’s hell to have to do things for money that have nothing to do with the way you want to go.
The chair ‘Dopietta’ is your graduation project. How did you get the idea to design a chair? During my studies I wanted to take up the challenge of chairs, because I’ve always had much respect for them. Since there are so many chairs, it is especially difficult to do a chair which merits existence. From the very beginning the project was very graphic and there is a consistent line. It was important for me to do a chair which enforces a certain posture. With the graduation project a certain radicality was indispensable for me. It doesn‘t invite to slouch. It is intended for the dining table. But if you approach your work then with some detachment. You notice that you were perhaps too screwed up.
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16 17 When you work on a project, is there anything else for you?
Where do you take your selfconfidence from?
No, beside a project there is nothing else. All social contacts then are minimal; I have a good friend, whom I know for 16 years. I meet people in connection with my work. The rest of the time I put into my relationship.
The ‘Rosenthal Design Award’ was my first real experience of success outside university. Also the prize money did me really good. During my studies I had one, two colleagues and we pushed one another. That was my drive motor. This is where I got self-confidence from.
You once trained as a dental technician?! I trained as dental technician in South Tyrol. When I was building models for a few architects in Vienna they noticed that I was very skillful. Then they asked
me to apply to the University of Applied Arts. The architects have almost forced me to apply to art university. I also was kind of endowed with these skills; as a boy I used to stand right next to the printing-press and was allowed to drag paper into water and grease copperplates with paint.
How important is networking? I don’t think networking is that important, but self-confidence. You don’t just get this, if you like to do it, but you must also get good feedback and the feeling, that you do something valid. There is no perfect job waiting for you after university, either. Dry spells must be overcome with the ego.
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What about support for young designers? The ‘Inspired by Cologne’ also gives young designers the opportunity to exhibit. Then you are on pins and needles, will I take part? I did and although I won no price for the ‘Radiator’ there was a hype in publications. From one week to the other I got inquiries, above all from America. When does it come in production? I was then in contact with many small businesses, I was very tense and you simply try to prepare well; in the end nothing came from it, although I don’t know why. With PureAustrianDesign I had the possibility to exhibit in London, where my carton table was very well received. Next I am at the ‘Tendence Lifestyle’ in Frankfurt. It is actually very exciting to see what kind of hype emerges around you and your product ‘Radiator’ and at the same time you don’t seem to get anything out of it.
Yes, exactly. It’s good for the selfconfidence. There is recognition. But you don’t eat from it either. But with the third magazine, without wanting to sound arrogant, you think wow, super! But basically it is about the project. Appearances are simply deceptive. I am there alongside Karim Rashid, Joris Laarmann, Ron Arad and there is my radiator and they report about it just as seriously. It is best, if a project gets rid of this student image. Unfortunately, in my need I had to sell one ‘Radiator’. I am very attached to it, afterwards you just fret. But maybe it is exactly this, the small steps, patience. When you talk to others you just know that it takes a few years. You have to struggle through from one thing to the next.
Do you want to give it all up, sometimes? No. Meanwhile I can’t image doing anything else. What I like - in contrast to dental technology - is that it is about people, it is about objects for people. People with opinions, needs and different requirements from the products. It is the interdisciplinary work that I like so much.
Do you have also international contacts, where you can see a difference in conduct? I had most experience in Germany. I applied to Berlin ‘Young designers meet the Industry’. I think it works quite well in Germany. They are interested in young-designers and everything is well organized. Here in Vienna I haven’t noticed anything like it, so far. It is certainly no mistake to be on the lookout internationally. Frankfurt, Cologne and Milan are the biggest fairs and that’s were you would like to be. I try to do my best within the scope of my possibilities. Therefore I also like to work with small businesses, such as joiner’s workshops and flexure forming workshops, because then you have got a ready prototype. When working on my carton table I then saw through this cooperation that I can’t afford the metal table I first visualized. I must be
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able to develop things on the basis of prototypes. I visualize with the computer, but I must work with the material and must get feedback from it.
Your apartment is also your workplace at present… Yes, as I don’t study at university anymore, I am looking for a place to work. I can now set up a workstation at a friend’s, who is in a big office,.
Is there a design hotspot in Vienna, where you want to be, where you find inspiration? There are certainly people who have more contact among each other or who try to do something together. Maybe there is something like a hotspot in Vienna, but I don’t know it. My hotspot is, where there is interchange. That is neither a pub, nor an artist-area but a workshop where I can exchange views. I always had the problem that there are these vague ideas in design about what can be said, or what can not be said. I had to learn this first. So then you’re happy about each direct and open approach.
Would you mind describing how you are living at present? I am living with a box full of overdue notices, collections, and I’m saddled with collectors. Over the past six years I have learned to handle it. Every now and then I do small jobs. All in all it’s like a tightrope walk. It’s like being on a razor blade. But I stand my ground. That’s how it is.
If you say, you stand your ground. What do you mean? What do you have to do to stand your ground? Feedback is very important, of course. I can only wish that there will be more action in Vienna. Well, you slowly get the feeling that you are not all alone in Vienna. As it is said, hope dies last. After that, other things come second. Times are certainly difficult sometimes. It isn’t easy, you just have to believe in it. You’re quickly out of the game, you quickly lose the thread. The most im-
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portant thing is to keep eyes and ears open and go through the world like that; that you soak up everything like a sponge. If the financial situation is bad, you have no mind for such things and if I say, that you must stand your ground, I mean that you mustn’t give up.
You live in a pretty, small Viennese old apartment building. Is much of your furniture homemade or does a penniless designer have to fall back on the Swedish furniture store? Well, the wardrobe is from Caritas, my father had already worked on my desk, and the trestles are from IKEA. I don’t get trestles three Euro apiece anywhere else. But most things are from the fleamarket. The lamp is from my grandma. She gave it to me, when I painted her flat. I haven’t got much more furniture. It’s a small apartment.
mean is, I studied it and would also like to become one, and I will stick to this discipline, but I’m also looking for people who do others things. Among designers everything has already been so reduced and it is so difficult to find inspiration, this is also why I think that fashion is exciting, because there I can find new inspiration. But the most important thing for me is to find an answer to the question which justification do my objects have? What gives me the right to produce this chair? Why is it made this way and not from another material? This is my actual work.
Thank you for the interview.
I have been living here for two years. I live together with my girl-friend and her son. He is now with his grandma over the summer; therefore I can fortunately work here for the time being.
What would you have become if you hadn’t become designer? Astronaut, no, I don‘t know. During my studies I mostly got by with building models. Actually, after dental technology I wanted to do something with graphics. But who knows, whether I become a designer at all? What I
LINKS: www.pureaustriandesign.com/showroom/marco_dessi www.marcodessi.com
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Pad Finder For a long time design lovers have been wondering: Why is the word ‘design’ on everyone´s lips? What is happening with this word now, since it started to be published in all media some years ago? It is a fact that design has now turned into a phenomenon with a big impact in society. Everybody gets a big response and all opportunists run around like crazy chickens trying to gobble up as much as possible with one bite. Especially politicians and economists have discovered in design a new topic or a novel way to make a fast buck with the support of architects, artists, philosophers, theorists, self-seekers, curators, entrepreneurs, investors, fashionistas and also designers, thus introducing a big dose of vulgarism The next articles relate to these questions and arguments. Paints by André Pretorious „Party“ „Prince“
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...and now: “Designers like Celebrities?” The Phenomenon of design worldwide. You want to be a celebrity or a designer? this setting the profession as a designer is playing a leading part. It is abundantly proved since the end of the 80s that “good design is good business „. This is a fact. Many a company has been saved from smashup by letting redesign its strategies and products. In short, we see with stupor that the Vulgarism demands its sacrifices: designers used by mass media to present pretty product images, reboiled in many cases by artists converted to design - in the same way as it began years ago in the field of Art. Phenomena of ‚gadget art‘ laden with easy intelligence and ridiculous by its logic and humour. Likewise in the field of design there is the phenomenon of the object of “easy laughter“. A gadget, an empty, egocentric reinterpretation of something really well known, which is just what the journalist in charge, trend lover, is seeking. He arrives dribbling with his little cam at the international furniture fairs, the design festivals, which in many cases are not more than vanity fairs, where investors, tycoons, those who have become rich by speculating with real estate in stock-markets, or people who don´t know well on what to spend their money are cavorting. They invest in this trendy movement, degraded by its plated gold, and which the flashes, the celebrities, the trend magazines and the opportunists regard with favour. Today the phenomenon of design is sweeping along everything it can grasp on its way. It is a profession, a tsunami that is at its peak, and it´s not difficult to know why. If you stop short and look around you, you´ll realize that everything or almost everything must be redesigned. There are lots of bad products around us. And not simply for that reason - but due to the degree of complexity in our societies it is rather urgent to reconsider the production systems, the materials and almost everything, in an attempt to make life on earth more sustainable. The question is: Isn´t it only a pipe dream to reactivate our economies which are supposed to be always in constant growth? To stabilize the rhythm of growth is task of economists and governments, but hasn´t this growth an end? In
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So, where is the profession as a designer (reduced to a juggler, to a jester, with the 3% of royalties he makes money out of )? Where are the ethics and where the fair trade? Is this the revolution we want? A complete vulgarization as it happens in the showbiz which is entertainment for simpletons, for those who suffer brain damage or pinheads lulled by the bright lights. No more neon, please, but LEDs. A glamour life á la Dom Perignon. These lines look like we´d disapprove all! No way, far from it! It only afflicts us that the influence of ignorance and the vulgarization are dominating the topics - as almost in everything - and that there are just a few who really have both the talent and the integrity to contribute knowledge to humankind. And you, what do you want to be? A celebrity or a designer?
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22 23 Vitra Edition is a laboratory that gives designers, architects and artists the freedom to create experimental furniture objects and interior installations. Their choices of materials, technologies, applications and formal concepts are not limited. Working without the constraints of market and production logic has a liberating effect and results in surprising solutions and new ways of seeing design. Vitra Edition is both a process and a result. As a process it contributes to Vitra’s ongoing design research; the result, instead, is a collection of extraordinary objects representing some of the most advanced positions in contemporary design. These objects are as diverse as their authors and reflect the wide range of interests that is characteristic for a Vitra project. The following designers and architects have contributed objects to the Vitra Edition 2007: Ron Arad, Jurgen Bey, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Fernando & Humberto Campana, Naoto Fukasawa, Frank Gehry, Konstantin Grcic, Zaha Hadid, Hella Jongerius, Greg Lynn, Jörgen Mayer H., Alberto Meda, Jasper Morrison, Jerszy Seymour, Tokujin Yoshioka. Picture:Vitra
Pictures: Miami/Basel
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Asking this simple question to exhibitors of the ‘Design Miami/Basel’, they smirk at you, signalizing how naive you are. Or if you’re lucky, you’ll meet someone more polite, who would answer with an enthusiastic nodding gesture. The question seems unnecessary, of course design is ‘the new art’, even better ‘the other art’. What we have seen at the ‘Design Miami/Basel’ in the market hall of Basel, seems the vanguard, the avant-garde of a movement that can only turn into something bigger, better and more professional. In ten years time there will be as many design-gallery fairs as art-fairs today. All of them whether the ‘Armory Show’ in New York or ‘Frieze’ in London will do what ‘Design Miami/Basel’ did: present their own design sections. “Believe me. It`s going to be huge.” by
Patrick Bartos
Believe them. What we have seen at the ‘Design Miami/Basel’ in June 2007, we can also picture somewhere else and even bigger. This is not like an ordinary design fair where producers and traders are presenting their products in a business-like atmosphere. We see design galleries, showcasing their pieces and their designers like art galleries their artists and objects: An atmosphere of characters and ‘amour propre’ – a hot spot to meet celebrities not wholesalers. As logic consequence design has also been discovered by art magazines. Prices for prototypes, limited editions and classics are almost as high as for artwork. “People who pay US$ 2 million for a work of art are not going to be put off by US$ 100.000 for a design classic”, so the argument. The rapidly professionalizing art – financial market, due to the constant rising influx of investment banks and hedge-fondmavericks will be looking out for new fields of profit and are going to discover design sooner or later.
But let’s stop analysing and revue one more time what we have seen at the ‘Design Miami/Basel’: A selection of 22 design galleries that presented classics as well as prototypes – in any case: Good design, focused mainly between the 1950’s and 1980’s, modern but not contemporary. Pieces which are not produced anymore, so rare for this reason, and easy to fit with contemporary interiors. 22 galleries - just enough to look through every piece - have a little chat with the sales person and get quite a good idea about the whole fair. Imagine the lion’s share of the visitors making the impression as if they were local art and design students just passing by straight from university. The whole scenery set in a non-renovated concrete dome. Avant-garde like. See you in four or five years at ‘Armory Design’ in New York, a sleek show with Robert DeNiro, Beyoncé, 200 design galleries and a perfect sound system. It will be interesting, but something’s gonna be missing!
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So Design Is The New Art? MAGAZINE.indd 21
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24 25 DESIGN IS DESIGN AND ART IS ART?
DESIGNBOOST A NEW ANNUAL DESIGN EVENT IN MALMÖ Designboost is a completely novel concept on the Swedish design market. It will be annual, different, international and will penetrate questions of current interest on design in a broad perspective and put them on the agenda in the society at large. Founders of Designboost are Peer Eriksson and David Carlson together with City of Malmö and Region Skåne. This year’s theme is sustainable design.
The design event will be held in October: Designboost The visionary goal is to inject the participants with thoughts and make them ponder, question, reflect, be worried and pleased about what design really is all about and how it should be handled and used to give people a better life and to achieve a more sustainable society. 17. October to 17. November www.designboost.se
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Is design flirting with art, or is it art flirting with design? What is it that we see; a smart convergence between the two or an “easy” way to earn a buck and get massive PR, for both designers, producers and gallery owners? The merge between design and art is not a new phenomenon and it has been discussed before. Our curiosity today derives from the fact that the market driven designart style today boosts and gets lots of attention. We know by experience that everything comes and goes in various cycles; fashion, politics, names etc., the list is long. We ask ourselves if this phenomenon is the inner symptom of a confused design world desperately hunting for something new, or simply a waited and natural evolution in our contemporary lifetime? The market is not slow to react to the design-art whiz and capitalize on it. So where is this phenomenon going? Does it or doesn’t it benefit the design and/or the art world? Below we are trying to explain and describe what is happening. We will also give the style a name. To get some further indication we have asked Oliver Ike, Giuliana Stella and Christian Geissbühler to give their views from their particular insights and standpoints. THE SEED-BED FOR THE DESIGN-ART We are probably not the only ones thathave felt a vacuum in the design industry during the first years of the new millennium. It has been like a collective search for something new. If we look at the past every decade had its certain style or -ism. Like the modernism in the 20s, the plastic excesses during the 60s or the minimalism in the 90s. We have regularly since the late 80s been visiting the Milan Furniture Fair, the world´s epicentre of design. Our opinion is that the last couple of years have been poor in offering interesting and clever design. The kind of design that really makes a difference. Today a kind of sketchy design that doesn’t really make sense is paramount. If you would like to be harsh you can say that parts of the Milan Furniture Fair has turned into a large amusement park which delivers entertainment to “design-tourist-sapiens”, as our journalist friend Ana Domínguez calls them. It is obvious that this circus doesn’t have smart user-orientated and functional design as first priority any longer. Today it is probably more about showmanship. Media could partly be blamed for the sprawly superficiality, as a result of their stressful hunt for news. If you would like to take part in the media hamster-wheel you nowadays have to imitate the fashion industry and preferably come up with spectacular new products several times every year. The fuzz around a, preferentially Dutch based, kitschy design style is a good example. It’s like a convergence between design and art and at this year Milan Furniture Fair it was more visible than ever. Teapots in super size, huge Pinocchio dolls in mosaic, porcelain horse heads and knitted dogs. It was almost like to travel in a time capsule back to the glory days of Piero Fornasetti or the Memphis group and the postmodernism. Visiting the shows of Studio Job, Jaime Hayon and Marcel Wanders, among others, almost makes you feel as if visiting Alice in wonderland or the wizard from Oz. Everyone seems to be part of the mass psychosis, the market is praising it, the press is writing about it and the consumers are gaping. It looks like a scene from the HC Andersen fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes. An adequate question to highlight is if we should call it design, art or design-art or if we have to invent a new cate-
gory and word for these experiments. Some people call it neo-surrealism or expressionism-design, but we would prefer to refer to it as Vulgarism. If we compare it to the postmodernism, there is at least one big difference between the work of Ettore Sottsass and the others involved in the postmodernist movement from the 70s and 80s and the riders of the new Vulgarism; the lack of an intellectual standpoint and an impugning discussion. Where the former group of people were reacting against the dictates of modernism the latter are more or less just doing extravagant objects. A kind of design on dope. Anyway - it is not an exaggeration to say that we are experiencing a boom. THE VULGARISM – AS WE SEE IT Relatively few designers make a big income from their profession. As for people in general (for good or bad) money is probably a strong motivation in their lives. Maybe that’s why some of them are tempted to change sides and start to imitate the artists? The auction houses are of course happy. Now they are able to not only sell vintage pieces from the designers, they also invite them to do limited editions and one-off pieces. Philips De Pury new design gallery and Gagosian gallery (who recently made a bespoken exhibition with Marc Newson) both in New York are good examples. The new Thaddeus Ropac gallery “design line” with a Matali Crasset and Peter Halley exhibition and some parts of the second Vitra Edition are other examples. Another sign of our time is the new fair Design London which will take place parallel with Frieze Art Fair. It was revealed with a press release recently: “Design London is aimed at serious collectors, curators, directors, dealers and artists and it is hoped that it will also broaden the public’s knowledge of the ever-growing contemporary furniture market. Design furniture is a new sector of the fine arts... Design London will coincide with Frieze, further underlining the synergy between art and design.” The design journalists swallow the bait and reports about the Vulgarism in never ending articles. The market applauds and the wheel is rolling. . Time Magazine recently wrote about Studio Job: “Museum curators and gallery owners praise them as leaders in the hot Expressionist-design movement.” At David Report we assume that a lot of design hotel owners with large lobbies in new-chick countries are praising them as well. Alice Rawsthorn at International Herald Tribune says likewise: “There is a commercial logic to the neo-Surrealists’ madness. Sensation is a smart defence for European furniture manufacturers against their customers’ boredom with the sameness of globalisation and aggressive competition from China in the mass market.” Some of the pieces in the design-art style are made in gigantic proportions. Let’s quote Alice Rawsthorn again: “This seemingly nutty sizing is calculated to appeal to the art collectors who’re splashing out on spectacularly impractical examples of design.” So - what is the Vulgarism, is it design or art? Or a merge between the two? THE LUXURY MARKET AND DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL The luxury market is of course involved in the vulgar trend. The new online magazine ‘Luxuryculture’ recently wrote: “Jaime Hayon is the latest proponent of design’s new
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feel-good factor, creating artistic hybrids honed on human appeal. Hayons magnificent setting resembles a Disneyland for the discerning design buff!” They refer to him as Willy Wonka in his chocolate factory, actually a quite good simile according to us... Luxuryculture also writes about Studio Job: “‘Studio Job’ redefines design, instilling everyday objects with fine-art savoir faire and fairytale-like fables”. They continue by saying that Job Smeet and Nynke Tynagel of ‘Studio Job’ “exemplifies the current cross-fertilization taking place in art and design, creating autonomous works that are hard to categorise”. Already a couple of years ago ‘Studio Job’ made artsy pieces but was criticised as superficial. They have continued to work in the same spirit and suddenly they are in the middle of a boosting trend - design in the realm of art - or Vulgarism as we prefer to call it. Two important persons behind the Vulgarism explosion are the founders of Design Miami and Design Basel, Ambra Medda and Sam Keller. They offer a new kind of playground where celebrities are as important as the designers themselves. Ambra Medda’s own words in a recent ‘Luxuryculture’ interview; “I think the celebrity aspect does add to the event... at the normal decorative art fairs you would not see Diddy, Beyoncé, Steve Martin and Keanu Reeves...I think it makes everyone turn around and think, ‘Wow this is so cool!’” She continues: “There is so much attention now on limited edition design and it has allowed designers to respond to the trend in going completely crazy and creating these pieces of furniture which, in some cases, have lost their functionality”. According to Ambra Medda there is a great demand for expensive on-off and limited-edition design-art objects and together with a couple of gallery owners Design Miami and Design Basel are among the most important compellers of the Vulgarism. We have heard that they also have plans for branches in China and Dubai, which is logical since these areas are full of nouveau riche people and consequently there is an interest for vulgar design-art. This way even more galleries will get the possibility to offer a spectacular scene where designers are invited to play artists and they certainly line up like marionette puppets. The wheels keep on rolling and money is the true engine.
impulses. They work in a commercial environment which means there is a huge number of considerations influencing the design process. Designers have to ask themselves questions such as: is the product they’re creating really wanted? How is it different from everything else on the market? Does it fulfill a need? Will it cost too much to manufacture? Is it safe?” Maybe design is too important to play around with? The thought-provoking exhibition “Design for the Other 90%” at the ‘Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’ in New York City showed us that nearly all design made is targeted for 10% of the people on earth. Almost no design is made for the other almost six billion people. According to us the superficial objects of the Vulgarism is definitely not made for them. A lot of the fans of this hyperbolized design style will be found around the wealthy Gulf. The new Villa Moda store for Kuwaiti luxury fashion retailer in Dubai by Jaime Hayon and the proposed store for the same company by Marcel Wanders located in Bahrain are two good examples.
Design is design and art is art?
IS THE VULGARISM A DISSERVICE TO DESIGN? There has been a lot of discussions lately concerning a possible backlash against design. A suitable question is if the vulgar trend boost is partially responsible for it? The blog ‘Core 77’ recently wrote: “This rising tide of disaffection tends to share two themes: a distaste for the superficiality of design’s media-celebrity nexus; and a growing discomfort with design’s role in generating ‘useless stuff’. These two complementary critiques could be abbreviated as Anti-fluff and Anti-stuff.” Paola Antonelli, Curator of MOMA’s Department of Architecture and Design says: “Design is treated as fluff and pushed to the lifestyle sections of newspapers.” Likewise we would like to quote a good designer friend of ours who refers to the Vulgarism as design for girl’s magazines (no hard feelings towards girl’s magazines though)... Jaime Hayon, one of the fixed stars of the Vulgarism, sees himself as an artist, not a designer: “I think design can be much more like art. I work with intuition. If they say white, then I go black”. It is an interesting quote. As a response to it we would like to bring forward an opinion from the British design council concerning the difference between a designer and an artist: “Designers, unlike artists, can’t simply follow their creative
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OUR WINDUP At David Report we believe in long lasting values as one of the best and most valuable sustainable solutions. Today we live in an overcrowded world that is melting. We are producing new stuff as if our resources were unlimited. We need to buy less but better products. We need to re-use and re-cycle. The maximalistic work of the Vulgarism is unfortunately something completely different. It’s a blown up bubble of exercise in decoration offering only a hollow shell. Tom Hedqvist, principal at ‘Beckmans college of design’ in Stockholm recently tried to describe the climate of design in the 70s compared to today; “We did not design just for the fun of it. People were acting well-advised. Just like the over-consumption is reflecting our society of today”. Will the Vulgarism be something more than a small question mark in the history books? Will it just be a parallel to the rise and fall of the artist Mark Kostabi in the 90s? Designers have a responsibility and as Tom Dixon recently said in an ‘Inhabitat’ interview “Design could save the world, for that to happen we have got to become more interested in the values that design can bring to solving problems”. A good example of long lasting value are the iconic design classics, like the Ant chair by Arne Jacobsen. It’s created by pushing the limits of production process and technology in combination with a true reflection of present time. The perpetrators of the Vulgarism are sadly doing neither. Who will be the first to shout that the emperor is naked?
About: David Report Bulletin, The David Report bulletin covers the intersection of design, culture and business life with a creative and humanisticapproach. By challenging conventional thinking we are always trying to make a difference. Four issues a year. Editor-in-chief: David Carlson Contributing Editor: Claes Foxerus www.davidreport.com
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Anti-design and decadence in stainless steel If anti-design is art and anti-design is the opposite of design, is design then no art? There was a time, in which cutlery was not an exclusive tool for the portioning of food. Distance had to be created – for one thing to those who used their hands for eating, and for another to the own corporality. We have now reached a new age in which the absurdity of our understanding of products presents us with new treats. Today design not only communicates the beauty of the form. A simple everyday object exempliďŹ es beautifully how easily functionality can turn into design, anti-design or art. MAGAZINE.indd 24
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The spoon surely is the eldest tool serving the food-preparation and - reception. Its form results from the requirement to take out bite-sized helpings of food from a bigger container. Today, this requirement - or the handle of a spoon - sometimes turns by 180°. Lately, at an event I came upon such decadence. One spoon offered me in devout attitude a lavishly arranged composition of small Schnitzel at potato-salad. The change not only restricts the spoon's original function. Since it is – paradoxically – intended for one-time use only and has to be cleaned afterwards every time, it keeps, apart from its archaic form, only a minimum of its original function. At least, no especially elaborate movements seem to be required, which can not be expected from anyone at a later hour, to grab that thing whose hand hold recalls an oil-lamp. For me it would be simply too embarrassing to put the “Crappy Spoon” back on its place afterwards, empty and licked clean. Altogether, there is no respect for the time it takes to manage this “one-way-spoon” of stainless steel. The relation of preparing, serving and fast consumption puts the consumer at the top of the food chain. The design object turns into a devout triviality and emphasizes the decadence in dealing with objects. All that remains is an almost empty shell of a function. Is it possible that an angle is the boundary between design and art? If the creative innovation of the canapé spoon is to bend the handle at an angle of 180°, what then could the reversal of the algebraic sign – an angle of -180° instead of +180° – bring about? Function is now completely bent out. Does this then become perhaps, compared to its equal, which is in materiality and form positively bent, an object of art? Admittedly, one could grab such a spoon just as well and also fill it, eating however would hardly be possible. The boundary at which design shifts into pure art is becoming apparent. And this boundary is certainly connected to the implication of function. If design is the attempt to find an ideal solution for a functional problem in combination with high quality in shape, then the goal of anti-design is probably to remove the actual function of an object. So it fails as an article of daily use and is taken ad absurdum. As it can not be used anymore but only be looked at, it seems to be an object from the domain of art; whereas an object regarded as a piece of design must show a minimum of usability. Is it possible that the angle is the boundary between design and art? If the change in angle is not seen structurally, as mentioned above, but metaphorically, in the sense of a shift from one context to the other, one is easily reminded of a methodology widespread in the design at present. Beside the use of recycled materials - records are remodelled into bowls, old cycle tubes into bags, there is apparently a phenomenon: already established forms, materials or functions are taken from their original context and embedded into quite different contexts. So the silhouette of a fighting dog is transferred onto a toy intended as “rocking horse”. Everybody has an image of the archetypal form of a fight-dog and a rocking horse in their mind. At the moment where the superimposition of both meanings is understood, one gains access to this unknown combination of known single elements. Another example, in which a design object is changed by its materiality, from the disposable product with a life span of few days, into an attractive article of daily use, is a water-carafe out of glass, which has the form of a plastic water bottle.
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anti-design =art _ anti-design ≠ design » design ≠ art? The practice of ready-mades, of Appropriation and of Assemblage has been widespread in the fine arts since Duchamp. For his “Catalogue d'objets introuvables” (1969) the French artist Jacques Carelman also remodelled through minimal changes of form practical everyday objects into works of art, which can be termed as anti-design in the above described sense. For a short while these lead the observer up the garden path, as items are presented, that long ago found a place in their minds as everyday objects and are consequently processed as known perception. The very simple changes are usually not detected immediately. The moment is distressing in which no rational explanation for the sense of the object can be found for logical or other reasons. Information is received in an evaluation matrix, which distinguishes between the known and the unknown. And exactly at this point, that is, at the perception and the processing of information, Carelman positions his art. He uses a simple coffee pot, for example, and rotates the spout by 180°, so that it lies over the handle and can therefore only be used meaningfully by those people, for who Carelman created this design. The work is called “coffee pot for masochists”. This, as well as further objects, similarly removed from their function, are the content of the catalogue mentioned above, that tries to show things of everyday use also in its graphic representation. What, however, does this then imply for the discussion about boundaries between design / anti-design / art? Anti-design could be the attempt to create art with the aid of design, which separates itself from the practical objects of design only by simulating usability. With the methodology and approach to problems of design, anti-design creates art. The relationship between design and anti-design as art in turn is well-founded in the intent to formulate the essential sense of a thing in an ideal form. On this occasion it is secondary whether it is useable or not. Regarding, for example, a hammer of Carelman, whose peculiarity consists of having a handle of wood and a head of glass, from a practical point of view meets with incomprehension. If the same hammer lies in a cabinet and one expects to see an object of art from the start, it is perceived differently. The classification does not solely depend on the object, but above all on the expectations one approaches it with. When looking at anti-design, the moment of understanding is preceded by bewilderment and then possibly followed by amusement. Might classifying known information in new contexts be a form of aesthetic sensation? Both, art as well as design can answer this claim of aesthetics. In an attempt, therefore, not to distinguish art and design by the characteristic of functionality, a simple mathematical equation like ‘anti-design = art _ anti-design ≠ design » design ≠ art?’ is not possible, as definition and function of an object ultimately depend on the context in which it is presented. Nowadays, for example, design is shown in the museum as art and is sold to the art market at similar high prices. Vice-versa a picture can, as soon as it has left the sacral showrooms, obtain functionality as decoration object on the wall of the private collector or even as cover of a safe. Florian Fleischner
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What You Did Not Know About Design *Because You Never Asked Pax, Expedit, Mörkedal, and Orgel Vreten. Words that look and sound familiar? Are these the names of friends or even foes? I live, sleep and wake with all these home furnishing products from Ikea and am never quite certain as to whether I should dump my Swedes for some more stylish and substantial but also more expensive cohabitants. Especially when Mörkedal, after enduring a couple of months of repeated medium-impact workout, one night gave in to my boyfriend’s and my combined weight – hey, how could this happen to a product from an explicitly family-oriented company? Both of us sported a perfectly healthy BMI, and we certainly had not performed any unreasonable moves. At least ‘Ikea’ is well prepared for such unhappy incidents. Before my boyfriend could break up with me due to a bad shopping decision that had resulted in a bed malfunction I came to a swift agreement with ‘Ikea's’ claims department to pick up Mörkedal and ship over sturdier Vinstra. For an additional �70.- we have been having safer sex ever since. You might think I have no right to complain because I should have known not to get myself involved with such spineless stuff in the first place. But despite a firm resolution to improve your world with good design, maybe you too have brought a bookshelf, a curtain, a lamp, or a chair from ‘Ikea’ or another furniture warehouse in Vienna home or to the office. Indeed, consider the fact that an average 4-person household owns 2,500 to 3,000 goods. Even if you stay away from Nordic goods, it is likely you own at least a garbage bin from ‘Leiner’or a toilet brush from ‘Lutz’ - although you live alone in a sparsely furnished designer penthouse flooded with nothing but sunlight and serenity. This concession you entered into lightly because it is not without irony and your friends won't turn up their noses at you. After all, within the professional circles of design practice, products sold at ‘Leiner’, ‘Lutz’ and ‘Ikea’ today carry such derogative attributes as bland, disingenuous, superficial, ugly, and cheap. Instant rubbish that retailers throw in vast quantities onto a global mass market and that people buy because they simply do not know any better. But also because they have no choice! A leftist academic tradition has long portrayed consumer culture as a hellish
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(virtual) shopping mall reality where people waste their hard-earned cash on pathetic props that cloud the mind, numb the senses, and pollute the body. These commodities reproduce shopping slaves mastered by corporate greed. Design literature is less politically charged but just as dismissive of the majority of actual household inventories. Historians and theoreticians consider only a select few items worthy of being remembered as the best and brightest of contemporary creative interventions. Notwithstanding their different argumentative trajectories, experts agree that the quality of our lives depends on the material and immaterial merit of the things we live with. Generally their lofty debates evolve around striking a perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality. However, what brings us joy and whether we are even capable of making ourselves happy, has never been fully resolved. Do people not need someone to choose what is good for them? Are they not incurable romantics who have fallen hostage to dreamy furniture warehouse commercials that are nothing but an insult to human intelligence? Just think of the current ‘Leiner’ advertising campaign that shows men dragging their furniture across a sandy beach during sunset like fools in love with a coat rack. Such questions usually go unheard because the media has long neglected its duty to critically report on design. Slick press images accompanied by silly puns are overall the most editors manage to produce in their magazines and newspapers. Then again, the legitimacy of engaging in cultural studies to define the role of design in social, political and economic life has been effectively questioned by postmodern theory. In a world where anything goes the cultural critic is redundant. Thus, where should one turn to get a more satisfactory answer? I decided to turn the tables. Instead of the professional, I ventured out to the pilloried furniture warehouses to ask random customers for responses to the question: “What is design to you?” What I hoped to discover were the rough contours of an alternative Viennese design geography based on popular notions of design. In the day and age of corporate branding and mass merchandising, I also sought
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SCS
IKEA - Lutz - Interio
SCN
Lutz - Interio
DONAUZENTRUM
IKEA - Lutz - Leiner
MARIAHILFERSTRASSE
Leiner - Interio
RINGSTRASSEN - GALERIEN Leiner - Interio
A22
Gürtel
Hadikgasse
A23
Ring
Wienzeile Gürtel
A1 A4
A23
to find out from Leiner’, ‘Interio’, ‘Ikea’, and ‘Lutz’ how each company defines design and to which extent they view themselves as design-oriented home and office goods suppliers. Mind mapping an alternative Vienna Design Geography Vienna counts over 1.65 million inhabitants who have more than 910.000 apartments at their disposal. Most of these dwellings are clustered in three outer boroughs. Located north of the River Danube, Floridsdorf (21) and Donaustadt (22) are Vienna’s largest boroughs. Together they house 260.000 people in 140.000 spaces. In Favoriten (10), situated to the south, 150.000 people live in 69.000 residences. The median cost of an apartment in Vienna is �362.- per month. To furnish it, an Austrian on average spends about the same amount annually. This means Austria’s furniture industry fights over € 3 billion in annual consumer spending. ‘Lutz’ and ‘Leiner’/‘Kika’ followed by “Ikea” are the domineering players of the game and have lined up at just the right spots in the north, south and center
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of Vienna to welcome customers from the most populated areas of the City. Just beyond the southern city border in Vösendorf is ‘Shopping City Süd’ (SCS), an American-style shopping mall founded in 1976. Here, ‘Ikea’, ‘Lutz’, ‘Leiner’, and ‘Interio’ conveniently rub shoulders in the midst of several big parking lots. To the north, ‘Shopping Center Nord’ (SCN) was erected in Floridsdorf at the end of the 1980s and attracted the settlement of large ‘Lutz’ and ‘Interio’ warehouses. In Donaustadt ‘Lutz’, “Leiner”, and ‘Ikea’ can be found on Wagramer Straße and along the S2. ‘Leiner’ and ‘Interio’ also maintain city stores on Mariahilferstrasse, Viennas biggest and busiest shopping street, and at the Ringstrassengalerie. The goal of my research was to reveal consumer dispositions towards design and juxtapose their answers with official statements by the retail stores they had visited. In other words, I questioned customers who had just left a store as well as the marketing representatives from ‘Leiner’, ‘Interio’, ‘Ikea’, and ‘Lutz’. ‘Leiner’ “Design lends form to objects,
functions and ideas in many different styles in order to satisfy human needs and dreams,” explains Paul Koch, proxy in marketing und sales at” ‘Leiner’ in his email. He sends me pictures of colourful cubical side tables, an embroidered floor lamp, and an asymmetrical rosewood imitation vase made of varnished plastic as examples for design objects available through his company's numerous branches. ‘Leiner’ was founded in St. Pölten in 1910 and operates seventeen stores all over Austria. Four outlets are located in Vienna. 33 ‘Kika’ warehouses, six in the Viennese area, also comprise a significant part of the family-owned business. On 30.000 m2 the ‘Leiner’ flagship store on Mariahilferstrasse displays flooring, kitchens, and bathroom accessories as well as bedding, curtains, and tabletop items. In addition, decorative objects, lighting, household goods, garden furniture and accessories are on sale. The company hosts brand showrooms including ‘Team 7’, ‘Joop’,‘Dieter Knoll Collection’, and ‘Alessi’. “What is design to you?” - “Not important,” two women in their midthirties exclaim as they pass me
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30 31 by without stopping in front of the ‘Leiner’ outlet inside ‘Shopping City Süd’. But then they turn around and add with a smile, “It must be practical and it must please.” Later, a couple exiting the store provides me with a more elaborate answer. He, in his forties, is convinced that design has to do with good forms but is a matter of taste not everyone can agree on. She adds slightly desperately, “For weeks we have been looking for a living room.” They complain that they have not been able to find anything suitable and that everything looks so similar and is simply too modern to their taste. Our conversation ends when a ‘Leiner’ employee catches up with them and invites them back into the store because he wants to show them something else they might be interested in. On Mariahilferstrasse, I approach a couple with a big ‘Leiner’ shopping bag filled with curtain fabric. He finds my question difficult to answer but decides on a definition he likes: “Way of life! Without design life would be boring.” Does he associate “Leiner” with design? “We were in touch with other companies before but those prices just did not work for me. Where I would say, okay, � 220.- per running meter if I am a managing director or had just sold a bank. And then you even have to throw away the repeat! At ‘Leiner’ you get sensible prices. In the inner city, where I like to be, I cultivate my taste but then I come here, where I can afford to shop even if it is not quite the same.” A woman in her early thirties views design as “the aesthetic treatment of the everyday.” Does she live with design? “If it is not too expensive I buy a piece, a chair or so.” At ‘Leiner’ she buys more common household objects. “I find it interesting to mix different pieces in an apartment, a really special antique with things from ‘Leiner’ or ‘Ikea’. All in all, it must be practical. “Well, I think ‘Leiner’ is not necessarily designer’s heaven. To me design is the ideal blend of functionality and appealing design, aesthetics, and preferably timelessness.” Does it have to do with price? “No, when I think about it, I like to buy old things and those do not necessarily have to be expensive,” my 35-year old female respondent states. “However, new things that are beautiful are usually costly. Some of those we like to buy, but we have not really entered that income class yet.” She is pregnant
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and in the process of moving to a new apartment with her partner. She tells me of her garbage bin dilemma. Instead of the original chromed Italian brand bin she decided to purchase “the plastic version. And now I am ashamed of it.” However, she bought it not because of the price, “but because I felt we already have so many chrome pieces.” Generally, she associates design less with ‘Leiner’ and more with the shops in Gumpendorferstrasse and around the Naschmarkt area. ‘INTERIO’ Despite multiple phone calls and email requests, ‘Interio’ did not get back to me with an official statement on design. The company was established in Switzerland in 1974. Today it is Austrian-owned and counts ten stores east of Lake Constance. Five of them are located in and around Vienna. ‘Interio’ specializes in modern- but also exotic-looking furniture, lighting, curtains, kitchen accessories, tableware, office goods and garden furniture. People ignore me in front of ‘Interio Vösendorf’. I cannot find anyone to talk to. Passers-by probably think I want to sell them an unwanted club membership. The WWF is campaigning on site today. Finally, a blonde 40-year old woman stops. She thinks that design is “something special, certainly not average, but of course it is also a matter of price.” A man in his fifties agrees, “Well…something exceptional, something that is uncommon,” and he qualifies the way in which he would acquire such an article in terms of “time, money, where and when.” A couple in their thirties return to their car in the parking lot at the larger ‘SCS Interio’ outside the main building. They take a minute to answer my question. “Basically, what you find in there is not very successful design,” he points out. She continues, “Well, I can think of functional, beautiful things, tasteful things…but somehow, well, design is mostly not practical.” Is this bad design to her or design in general? “Bad design or what is frequently sold as design. Stuff you find in magazines.” In the meantime, her partner has had time to ponder over my initial question: “Firstly, design means very consciously finding a formal solution for useful objects. That is a question of taste, is it not? And, essentially, I do not like the things at ‘Interio’. ”He just tried to sit in a chair although he knew at first sight
that it would be uncomfortable. “Design means furnishing your apartment luxuriously. Mostly it is unaffordable”. I meet a couple just down the road from ‘Interio’ on Mariahilferstrasse. They are in their fifties and have grown-up children who still need financial support, “We would not like to be in their shoes today; it is much more difficult to find secure employment. Luckily, design does not always have to do with price,” she adds. Right now they carry a couple of pillows home that they need as replacements for a suite of chairs. She pays a compliment to ‘Interio’: “It was the only place where we could get these. Otherwise we would have had to nick the seat cushions off a suite at ‘Leiner's’ because one cannot get individual replacements. You can only buy the whole suite, not the cushions. Of course, you can steal them, but you can only do that once.” ‘IKEA’ When I call public relations at ‘Ikea’, I am immediately invited to their upcoming press conference. In celebration of the launch of ‘Ikea's’ 2008 catalog the company sponsors a lecture by Italian design management consultant Simonetta Carbonaro and flies in Swedish textile designers Nina Jobs and Linda Svensson. In a loftlike space, colourful textiles with large organic patterns, anthropomorphic lifesize paper lamps, and porcelain with floral decoration typify ‘Ikea's’ selfproclaimed commitment to produce ‘democratic design’ and ‘design for the many’ Kerstin Lundquist, who is in charge of sales in Austria, gives me an impromptu definition of design: “Design is a good functionality with a very … where the look upon the functionality is beautiful. A creative solution for a need you have. The beauty of a design comes out of functionality. Functionality does not have to be boring or ugly or anything like that. And function is what function means to you.” Founded in 1958, ‘Ikea’ first entered the Austrian market in 1977. The Swedish home-assembly furniture expert has six outlets in Austria, two of them in Vienna. In Vösendorf customers can push their carts across a 37.500 m2 sales floor. Vienna North occupies a space of 22.400 m2. The product range includes everything from office desks to kitchen sinks and bath towels to sofa beds.
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At ‘Ikea Vösendorf’ I address a couple in their late thirties: “What is design to you?” “Design to me is expensive,” she says. Her partner adds, “more exclusive products…” and she complements him, “that are less affordable.” They do not really associate ‘Ikea’ with design. In contrast, a woman in her fifties feels that design is important and that the Swedish company does carry design objects. She adds, “A beautiful design can make you wide awake in the morning. But one should not overestimate it.” A female shopper between 30 and 35 relates design to “something extraordinary.” Does she find that at ‘Ikea’? “Rather less.” Does she live with something extraordinary? “I periodically try. Well, unfortunately it is mostly too expensive.” “What is design to me? Does this have to be correct?” a 25-year old female visitor worries. I reassure her that there is no right or wrong answer. She continues to flip through the current ‘Ikea’ kitchen catalog. “Well, design to me is a bit modern; I associate it with something modern and arty.” Although she knows that design is supposedly everything including a kitchen from ‘Ikea’, she cannot completely convince herself that ‘Ikea’ is a place to shop for design. Somehow design “is something a little special, something not everybody has. I don’t know.” Is it also something for her? “Yes of course it is something for me, but it also means a lot of money…typically designer clothes. That does not mean it is bad. It is closely connected to brands.” ‘XXXLUTZ’ To the ‘XXXLutz Group’, “Design is the art of furnishing, that is, especially beautiful, shapely furniture. Our department ‘Ambiente’ encompasses these products. These designer pieces have one aspect in common. They stand out through exceptional design and special composition. We also differentiate between design and modernity. Design mostly survives many different modern trends and good design always is up-to-date and remains desired.” Thomas Saliger, marketing director and corporate spokesman skilfully weaves the corporate marketing strategy into his definition. ‘Ambiente’ is a new line of designer furniture including the ”Rolf Benz” dining suite and ‘Estilo’ recliner chair Mr. Saliger selects as ‘Lutz’ design examples. Notably, ‘Joop’ and ‘Team 7’ are two featured ‘Ambiente’
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brands sold through competitor ‘Leiner’ as well. Founded in 1945 in Haag am Hausruck, there are currently 46 ‘XXXLutz’ warehouses in Austria as well as 44 ‘Möbelix’ discount stores and 7 ‘Mömax’ outlets. The ‘Lutz’ product line ranges from bedroom, kitchen, living room, bathroom, children, office, accessories, home textiles, household goods, flooring and lighting. “What is design to you?” “That is a good question,” agrees a young man but cannot find an answer. His 28-year old friend burst out, ‘Ikea’ is design. Simplicity. Straight lines.” A couple in their fifties almost start their own little conversation. He begins, “Well… furniture, fashion, beautiful porcelain tableware.” His wife tells me, “I am very much for beautiful things, jewellery…” and he proudly emphasizes, “My wife has a true appreciation for beauty.” Two female shoppers put it tersely, “Design? Luxury!” and off they are. A rather philosophical response comes from a man waiting outside the store: “What is design to me? That is a difficult answer… Design means trying not to lose a sense of individuality.” However, he feels that the media push design into the wrong direction today. Bringing the exceptional into the everyday “We have to go out into the world to observe and listen to what people say and then we have to start a conversation with them,” Ms. Carbonaro urged when I asked her to elaborate on her view regarding real quality design and market research at the ‘Ikea’ press conference. I can only agree with her. My respondents shared with me very complex definitions of design that demonstrate how well they understand the contemporary retail landscape. Their answers also pointed at a significant lack on the part of retailers to clearly communicate their individual brand identities and offer products people find attractive, well-made, useful, affordable and that convey a sense of originality.
reflects the answers produced by my small panel of interviewees. Titze criticized that few retailers really know who their customers are. While the concentration of the furniture und furnishing sector is rapidly increasing, most companies are a long way from maintaining best practice in developing their corporate branding strategies. Gigantic sales floors end up filled with products only slightly different from each other and the range offered by competitors. Each wants to be everything to everyone. After all, there are 3 billion in the pot. In the end, however, each risks to be nothing to anyone. Nonetheless, it would be too easy to accuse furniture retailers of homogenizing consumer shopping experiences and call it quits. Why did my interview partners frequently express such ambiguous feelings about design? The term conjured up a bunch of positive attributes these women and men could personally identify with. At the same time, many recognized financial, functional, and formal barriers that prevented them from ever truly living with design. My respondents were not too enthusiastic about theories that view everyday goods as design objects. Instead, many refused to call their own purchases at ‘Lutz’, ‘Leiner’, ‘Ikea’, or ‘Interio’ design even when somehow they had been told otherwise. They discriminated between shopping for replaceable utilities at a furniture warehouse and affording singular luxuries of lasting value elsewhere. It was not so much a question of good design versus bad design but of design or no design at all.
During the workshop ‘Future Dialog Furniture Country Austria 2020’ held by the Austrian Furniture and Woodworking Cluster in May, business consultors Winfried Titze identified three major challenges faced by the Austrian furniture trade. His call for diligent market research, careful brand positioning, and product differentiation
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32 33 The austrian furniture industry The austrian furniture industry is a branch of the Association of the Austrian Wood Industry and servers as a platform for its members, a source of information and a networking tool among companies, planners, architects and customers. It currently involves 60 companies and enterprises. www.moebel.at Picture, AndrĂŠs Fredes
We ask two questions to: MARKUS WIESNER President of the austrian furniture industry
Which, in your opinion, is the most positive of all futures for Austrian design? What is your vision? In the past few years, we saw that the creative scene has developed an enormous potential. Also many of the companies are learning that design is not only an identity providing tool, but that it also leads to competitive advantages resulting in proďŹ t. All in all a process has started where we don`t see the outcome yet. All requirements are showing that design from Austria will have a determining position in the global competition. What is the role of the Austrian Furniture Industry in this future? The austrian furniture industry is sensitising the public and the companies. It is also a platform of communication between the companies and the creative scene. The austrian furniture industry is fostering this process.
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Henning Larsen, founder of Henning Larsen Architects. Henning has from the start up until now spearheaded competitions and the construction of important buildings in Denmark as well as abroad. The Henning Larsen Foundation sponsored a new photography competition. From 107 submissions Ditz Fejer won second prize.
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HENNING LARSEN by Ditz Fejer
“My place“ Far away from the overused look at the historical Vienna, Fejer's series about the restoration and renovation work on the parliamentary buildings offers a look at the roof of the High House. Fejer's view is one of a distant photographer, who manages to hold the symbolism of the apparently banal, lying behind the public sphere. The quadrigae, steered by a winged Nike, do not keep watch on the roof of the parliament any more, but little houses which protect the historical good that needs to be restored. In an ironic way the photographer contributes to the discussion what is dear to the observer. During the time of the restoration work the visible pride in the history and in the luck of the democracy is replaced by the scenery of little homes. The symbol of the victory is no more Nike but a solid home which keeps watch over the roofs of Vienna. © Barbara Derler
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Less is More Where simplicity and creativity make an unbeatable combination A woman is sitting in a purely styled but cosy room, browsing through a magazine on her lap. Behind her, a guy running his fingers through her hair while the scissors is clapping dropping wisps to the ground. After a while he stops and asks: “How do you like it?“ She looks up, observing her mirror image “Is that architecture? I can`t see any architecture in my hair!“ After seconds of hesitation he takes another wisp and his right hand is starting to open and close the scissors in fast rhythm bringing the clapping sound to life. But no hair drops onto the floor. After a few minutes he stops, smiling at her asking: “And now? What do you think?”. Her eyes leaf the magazine and light up: “That`s architecture!“ The chemistry has to be right between people, especially when it comes to your hairdresser and yourself – one reason for Hannes Trummer founder of “Less is More“ to not only own a lovely little saloon in the centre of Vienna but to also to create his own hair care products together with his partner Doris Brandhuber. Recently the products not only give your hair what they need, but also care for “itchy dogs”. “Less is More“ products are all organic and only made of renewable resources, exclusively mixed by Doris in the back room of the saloon. And, since the creative potential seems never ending Less is actually evolving to More: Since the saloon and the hair care products are very appealing to the clients, Hannes is working on a training concept which will be innovative & unconventional: Less technique and More creativity! www.lessismore.at Pictures Gregor Titze
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Blickfang Wien
MAK
das möbel
PureAustrianDesign Landing
designerdock
Passionswege
DESIGN 07/Die Angewandte
Sommer Design Büro
Design Austria/designforumMQ
Technisches Museum Wien
Gastland Schweiz im Freiraum/quartier21
Top Kino
Hofmobiliendepot – Möbel Museum Wien
walking chair gallery
Liechtensteinmuseum
Wien Products
www.viennadesignweek.at
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Preview of Passionswege All adresses you found on the map add to the magazine Download the map at www.padfindermagazine.com
BKM design working group & Friedrich Otto Schmidt “notes on the history of things” In cooperation with the studio for antique furnishing Friedrich Otto Schmidt, Bkm is embarking on a quest for the spiritual form of this studio's designs. The objects, which originate from a long formation process, are the design knowledge of this renowned company. Bkm proceeds on the assumption that design knowledge is part of the process. This process is a sequence of realised and rejected designs and approaches. This knowledge is spanning epochs. The experiment: Intarsia and marquetry are still manufactured by F.O.Schmidt with technical mastery. Masterpieces are made with precision and talent. Bkm suggests to turn the ever possible mistake or fault into an element of design and by using it deliberately to transform a classical technique.
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Danklhampel design & Wäscheflott Wäscheerzeugung
dottings industrial objects & Hotel König von Ungarn
“Ethnography of 3 shirts”
“FRINGERIE” Design studio dottings puts passament into the right perspective. Fringes that were used for furniture, interior design and uniforms, are hanged, straped and cutt.
Ethnography: [ethnography], Scientific approach to the lifestyle of a defined group of people. Wäscheflott is a company of tradition. Goods: Handmade shirts. Clients: Famous, well off, noble, lovers of quality. The cost for one shirt made by Wäscheflott is not more than for a trendy trouser. So why is it, that still not more people decide to become new customers of Wäscheflott? We'd like to make the Wäscheflott experience and are therefor sending off three atypical clients: Leo, Stefanie and Viktoria. Their task: Their shirt has to have the potential to become their most favorite piece to wear, and it has to match their style. We are filming, photographing and asking questions. Their statements and brand new shirts will be presented within the “Passionswege”
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“Passionswege” is the name of a design presentation that paves its way through the inner city of Vienna from the 8th until the 20th of October. The “Passionswege” will be staged in locations that are representatives of an extraordinary as well as typically Viennese charm but may have until now not been strongly connected to the discipline of design. The selected locations are as different from each other as they can be: Shops, hotels and a traditional Viennese coffee house. This exhibition curated by
Neigungsgruppe Design presents a mixture of emerging as well as established designers. Using the term “passion” underlines a playful approach as the term itself refers to being passionate about something as well as it may imply a mentality connected to the state to suffering. Every “Passionswege”-showroom will have a grand opening cocktail event.
for use & J. & L. Lobmeyr
LUCY.D & XAL-XENON
“Numen / light object”
Lighting Showroom
This is a glass body made from spy mirror glass with thin fluorescent bars on each inner edge. The resulting structures of light are reflected endlessly in all directions and in this way form light sculptures of great depth. The bodies developed for this project are, like octahedra and tetrahedra, variations of crystalline shapes. Many interesting reflections of light emerge, akin to many Lobmeyr products and are therefore interpretations of their product’s refractions and reflections.
Designstudio LUCY.D intervenes by means of putting things into perspective, perceiving this matter as an invitation to communication.
Sebastian Menschhorn & Demel K.u.K. (Imperial and Royal) Court Confectionary Bakery “Demel in my perception stands for desire, a rather airy term. Desire is always connected to unattainability, at least with something that might be hard to get, like for a kid in the candy store where everything is out of reach, because you're to small, but still you want everything. This is the reason I'll put nothing on the bottom of the shop window, everything is going to be floating, eluding from the ground. A mirror on the floor will rouse inviolability, almost as de-materialising things. “The objects I'm going to showcase are animals made of porcelain with a decor, standing for magnificence, sensuality and abundance. For me they reflect sensuality, just like pastry.“
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SODADESIGNERS are contemplating over autumn.
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POLKA& Riess ‘MUTANT’
Patrick Rampelotto & departure
What is considered as normal or standard? How many handles does a pot need? What turns an object of use into an object with purpose? Which habitual seeing- and using patterns are we trained for, and what happens if these objects bristle against them? And what if you discover that a pot needs 8 handles?
An industrial manufactured structure conveys the image of a chair. However, something that makes the chair a chair is not available yet. This absence invites to an interaction with the object. The user can make the chair-structure usable with own ideas, habits and taste. In the exhibition there will be shown different ways to use the object.
Robert Rüf & Juwelier A.E. Köchert ‘Necklace’ The basis for the design of the necklace is a diadem from the Köchert archives. The design is in particular about the manner and positioning of the connection between the set stones of the upper and lower row. This detail of peripheral connection becomes a characterising element of the necklace, especially because the individual parts either overlap along its length, or spread out in different directions. The individual elements of the necklace consist of a cut and folded piece of sheet metal. It lends itself to varying the size of the inner opening, as well as the diameter of the metal parts altogether.
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WT143
© WTV / KARL THOMAS
© WTV / KARL THOMAS
© WTV / HERTHA
HURNAUS
Wien-Hotels & Info Tel. +43–1–24 555 www.vienna.info
LiveLoveArt, Life „Vienna offers fertile ground for creative people and designers.“ Helga Schania & Hermann Fankhauser („Wendy & Jim“)
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PAD FINDER INTRODUCING +
ZURICH
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Oliver Brandenberger ‘swiss art award 2007’ Winner of the category ‘architecture’ HOME The polygonal wooden body moves leisurely, like two Swiss wrestlers in their circle of sawdust just to topple over into a different position. The glances, framed by three apertures, sweep up and down, back and forth, in obedience to the shifting of weight. While the variedly dimensioned structural openings and the pigmentation of the space – dark, green and weighty on one side, light, silvery and open on the other – suggest a static imbalance, the room in motion captures ever-changing fragments of their surroundings.
FAR AWAY The observer is in perpetual motion. He strides with his handycam through solid space structures. Endless, dark corridors and monotonous, desolate rooms. We are in a glamorous, empty New York Plaza hotel. While the animated camera work dissembles constantly changing surroundings, sporadic glances capture through the perforated façade time and again the horizon of Central Park. With his dynamic installation Oliver Brandenberger compels us to take spatial position, to create insights and outlooks und to observe consciously the morphology of space. Text: Reto Geiser Pictures: Susan Hoehn, swiss art award images Basile Bornand
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Selina Willemse Managing Director of Columbus Film Switzerland Martina Voser Landscape Architect Anna Brunner Cardiologist for children Thomas Fuhrer Architect/Visual Designer Claudine Daellenbach Art & Architecture Mirko Beetschen Journalist Britta Limper Editor Susan Hoehn Photographer
Ask a few different people about Zurich, all of them will give you different ideas & impressions about the city. This is not a guide, but it is full of tipps.
We asked Swiss architect and “swiss art award 2007” - winner Oliver Brandenberger to give us an insight on Zurich – the kind of Zurich he likes best. What did he do? He mailed out to a circle of friends, showing us “their” Zurich, now we`re fans too!. too!
Lars Willumeit Picture Editor Pictures: Eke Miedaner
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Zurich: Hot Spot Zurich is interesting because…. Selina: In ‘Kreis 4’ live people from 99 nations, Zurich is small and concise, fresh air to breath, water to jump in and the cultural diversity of a world capital. Martina: The mix of cultures, the density of creative people and selfmadewomen. Claudine: Nature, lakes, art and culture all very close. Trendy and ordinary are existing side by side. Mirko: Zurich has in many ways a huge density: Considering its size there's lots of clubs, pubs and restaurants (approx. 2000) and as many hotels as in Munich which is twice the size. Apart from that, great public transport, trams and busses everywhere. And of course we have the biggest density of public swimming pools ever (over 20 lakes, rivers and open air swimming pools). Susan: Although it isn't not very big and it seems like one of these tiny central European cities, it does feel like a big city, with its rhythm, anonymity and internationality and a huge cultural choice.
If your’re not from Zurich, what is it you definitely have to see? Mirko: The lovely little streets of Oberdorf, the classy area of Neumarkt, the buzz of activity just at the ‘Seebecken’ (get yourself one of the free bikes!), the mediterranian vibes of a warm summer evening, the ‘Theaterspektakel’, the ‘Barfussbar’ (barefoot bar) in the Frauenbadi, the staged readings in ‘Badi Enge’. Selina: The view over the whole city from the ‘Üetliberg’. Martina: Jacques Schader's Kanton-school Freudenberg from the 1950s, and the fluvial topography of Limmat.
The best places to eat out? Selina: ‘RiffRaff Bistro’ in the Neugasse or a Curry in the ‘Kobal’. Anna: Dine in the ‘Greulich’. Martina: Well I'm not going to tell you about all my favorite places to eat out, otherwise there`s not going to be any table left for me!!! But for Italian cuisine go for the ‘Osteria da Concetta’ located in the Hohlstrasse or have some Pasta in the ‘Bogetta Berta’. Thomas: ‘Tessinkeller’ for taking out the ladies and losing yourself in their eyes), to the ‘Rosso’ (Pizza for urbanes and wine to buy) Claudine: ‘Les Halles’ e.g. for a evening like lately, the competition Italy against France with music and flying seewead or in the ‘Italia’ having the Fennel Carpaccio. Susan: Restaurant ‘Alpenrose’ (where the beautiful Rosilla used to be waitress…), or to the ‘Kronenhalle’ for the celebs, or to the ‘Sternengrill’ to have the best ‘Bratwurst’ (grilled sausage) ever. Mirko: ‘Chemilli Bar & Comestibls’ am ‘Limmatquai’ (super quality, tiny place but gorgeous), ‘Rosso’ (located in an old industrial hall, you have a great view on the trains, very hip these days, but they really have the best pizza in town). ‘Tiffins’ for quick and delicious Asian cuisine, ‘Ginger’ for the best Sushi in town with the best interior in town by Alfredo Häberli.
Best places to go out? Selina: ‘Xenix’, ‘RiffRaff’ cinema and bar, the ‘Langstrassenquartier’, and events of the www.blechkultur.ch Anna: A must see is ‘Badi-bars’ during summer time, e.g. ‘Seebad Enge’ or to the ‘Barfussbar’. Martina: ‘Josef’ or the ‘Mata Hari Bar’. Lars: Check out these hot clubs: ‘Helsinki’ or ‘Zukunft’ Thomas: ‘Danielle H.’ (gay caterer with flair), ‘Meyer's Bar’ (the band leader does tearoom-Bar all through the night). Claudine: Kreis 4 or 5 for a ‘Lagavulin’ in the old ‘RiffRaff’ or a Whis-
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key sour in the Lobby of ‘Park Hyatt’. Mirko: The new clubs in the Langstrasse, e.g. the ‘Longstreet’. Generally there's a lot new stuff going on. Susan: Enjoy the happy hour in the ‘Bodega Espanola’ and late nights to the ‘Liquid’ (my all time favorite bar from the 70s).
Exhibtions? Selina: Gallery on the area of ‘Loewenbraeu Areal’. Claudine: ‘Kunsthaus’ and for contemporary art ‘Daros’ on the Limmatstrasse, the ‘Migros Museum’ and the ‘Kunsthalle’. Many of the galleries put their openings on the same date. In Kreis 4 & 5 people meet in the ‘Xenix’ afterwards. Mirko: ‘Museum für Gestaltung’. Susan: ‘Museum Rietber’, Kunst from Asia, Africa, the US and Oceania. Totally new with a japanese tea room and ceremony. Beautifully set in the Rieterpark.
Where’s your most favorite park bench. The place where to sit back and relax? Mirko: That's a secret hint: The botanic garden with its futuristic greenhouse from the 70s. And also the biggest square of Zurich, the ‘Turbinenplatz’ with great benches. Than there's also the ‘badi Wolloshofen’ from the 1930s (besides the lake), the red factory with a restaurant directly on the water. Selina: Bäckeranlage and the Dapletz. Thomas: The parkbench at the entrance of the ‘Xenix’ cinema (in the summer from 6:30 p.m.) Claudine: Cost free into her ‘Lunchkino’. Or get out of the city and go for the Teehaus Jurablick (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), or for a Boule competiton on the ‘Josefswiese’. And go and take a look at the fleemarket on the ‘Bürkliplatz’ or on the vegetable market on Thursday or take a romantic walk along the Schanzengraben. Susan: There's a bench at ‘St.-Peter-Hofstatt’ underneath an old lime tree, perfect to read a book there, or to watch people or to listen to St. Peter's church. Or in the old botanic garden, an oasis in middle of the city.
What’s going on in Zurich’s architecture and design scene? Mirko: Zurich is not really scoring, when it comes to hip ‘star architecture’. In my opinion Zurich is good, when it comes to everyday architecture. It´s especially famous for its ‘Kleinbauten’, but still these ones you have to discover, e.g. the beautiful ‘Quartierzentrum’ in the ‘Baeckeranlage’. And there is lots of great architecture in the districts (architecture by Burkhalter Sumi, Gigon Guyer; Christian Kerenz, …) Martina: Regular exhibitions on swiss design in the ‘einzigartig!’. Or see the ‘Architekturforum’. Susan: ‘Museum for design’ and in the ‘Cabaret Voltaire’.
Shopping? Lars: For second hand furniture, clothes and vinyl: ‘16 tons’. The ‘Elastique’! For design classics, trying out vintage furniture. And for a bargain every Saturday on the flea market on the ‘Kanzlei-Gelaende’. Britta: Shopping or strolling: tworooms. Susan: Try out the hottest brand new fashion trends in the ‘Fidelio’. Surprising your friends with little gifts from ‘Maud’. Buying sweet flowers from Maria Binden, the most beautiful flower shop and than go for an Amaretti at ‘Vohdins’…mmh… THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!
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UNFOLDED Design Studio Introduce yourself to those that don`t know you as designers? ‘unfolded’, a small graphic design studio from Zurich. Officially 3.5 years old/young.
Can you define what kind of work you do in two or three sentences? We are doing art: Art direction, graphic and design. Analog and digital, timebased and timeless. Most importantly, no matter whether it is print or digital: Interactive. A little bit of history: Where do the members of the team all come from? how did ‘unfolded’ start and when? Our various backgrounds of fine art, graphics and design, new media and pedagogy influences our work. Nadia Gisler and Friedrich Wilhelm Graf (the founding members) started to work together on some projects 4 years ago. We figured out that we liked working together and that we complemented each other perfectly. As we became more committed to the development of our projects, we founded ‘unfolded’ in winter 2003. We enjoy working with our wonderfully patient freelancers. Depending on the project, they are trained photographers, media artists, programmers, editors, etc.
Which kind of philosophy do you follow? Passion, for work, process and output. Love for the details / sidestories and while maintaining an eye for the big picture.
What are the strong points of your work?, What keeps you going? We are perpetually brainstorming and developing from scratch. Every project is a kind of blank canvas. Our approach is to develop the optimal embodiment of a project. ‘unfolded’ endeavors to find the most appropriate concept, instead of relying on the easiest solution. The coordinates for realisation come into being not
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only out of analysis, but flourish through perseverance and reflection. What did you want to be when you where little? E: “I only hope that we don‘t lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse.“ (Walt Disney)
What inspires you? Idleness is the inspiration of the spirit? (Franz Werfel) How do you work? Alone, or with more people? Researching a lot beforehand? Explain us your methodology. We do not believe in cold calling. Normally we are contacted by clients and discuss the ideas of the project during out first meeting. Thereby, we then try to work with the expectations and ideas of our clients. It takes a moment, until we have a picture, a vision that we are thoroughly convinced about, that will be a good solution for our duties at hand. Often the solution appears, as questions are being answered, or as a small detail in a briefing, or as our interest is picked by our own perceptions, and then we use these as a foundation. ‘unfolded’ sometimes works as a pair or a group of three. We try to assess the needs of our clients and depending on the size and nature of the project, we do work with specialists from a small network that is based not only in Zürich, but also worldwide. There are a couple of individuals we like a great deal, who we work well with together. To sum it up, the end result is more than what we started out with. 2 + 2 can sometimes equal more than 4.
When is design simply good in your perception?
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More than four arguments are not appropriate on paper, so away with the other two. (Steffan Heuer about powerpoint)
If you had to give an advice to emerging designers, what would it be? One must not be liked by everyone.
If you would have not become a designer, what do you think you would be doing today? In my next life? Perhaps a musician or a filmmaker.
How much time per day do you spend working on your designs? Repetition deepens the relationship betweeen the different centers in the brain, which measures on brain activity show. (Stefan Klein)
Describe one typical day in your life: A great deal happens, until you can see an internet site. Every time when you click on something, then the whole cycle begins again. (Die Sendung mit der Maus)
Is money a rather positive or negative issue? Ladies and gentlemen, you have yet to receive information about financial assets; how to recieve the highest yields. for all your hard work, you don't want peanuts. As André Kostolany already said, “There are a hundred Marks (in reference to the Deutsch Mark, the old German currency prior to the Euro) here and a hundred Marks to earn, and there is undoubtedly business.” And with a smirk, he told a story about the hobo, who was in standing in front of the judge in Hungary. “Aren't you ashamed of yourself?” admonished the judge. “You have a murdered a human being, just to rob him of two Gulden (a former type of coin)?” “But your honor”, said the defendent with the utmost confidence, “Two Gulden here, two Gulden there...” (unknown source)
What do you hate?
To keep things short, we would like to stay realistic in reference to Switzerland, and not expound lessons. (Idea contest, Swiss Pavillion Expo, 2005 Aichi)
Your favorite project? The one that makes you proud of yourself!? Those with the most blood, tears and processes
Not trust, bad decision-making abilities
What is the coolest thing about your design studio? Ask our neighbors.
What's your answer to everything? Computers says no.
On which things do you spend your money? Hopefully for the right ones.
You can´t live without…. our daughter.
Which is the project that was mostly celebrated?
Are you a design victim?
Carol: computers says no
Yes and no, probably yes but only the good gadgets...
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:-) yeah, rockstars, we personally don‘t know any rockstars, but the couple of rock stars that are around, are always good for a whimsical smile.
Who was the client you liked most?
It is a curse to live in an interesting time. (Hannah Arendt)
What is happening design wise in your town?
What is your opinion on designers with attitudes like pop stars?
The devil's work is never done. The devil is always busy. (The good reverend doctor purify)
Clients who have had trusted in our vision.
A place, where only the lights are extinguished at night.
Fame? 15 minutes, we have to find them somewhere first, Sic transit gloria mundi! (“Thus passes the glory of the world”)
Who was the worst client in your designer-life? And why?
Your favorite designer or design studio?
Your favorite design city?
What is your opinion on ‘fame’?
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Zurich Is Where The Drum Poets Are Conversation with Alex Dallas, Ron Shiller, Tobi Foster
Zurich Is Where The DrumPoets Are 1 Zurich is located at the lake Zürisee. The ones of you who are into football, know that the “grasshoppers” hail from this picturesque town. But Zurich is not only contemplative, there is some heavy party-stuff going on, as it is the centre of Swiss subculture. In the 90s there was a flourishing bar and club scene, above all standing out due to the fact that the good locations were illegal and somewhere in the 6th floor of an office building apparently dead by night, which often disappeared after some weeks of existence in order to reopen briefly later at another improbable place under a new name. By now there are, but only a few of them left. No question, such an active club movement leaves its marks: Indeed an open-minded party crowd, which loves the special moments of a good club night - and last but not least the very performers, the Djs and musicians. A scene which does best quality work in the case of Zurich.
How long does the Drumpoet Community exist already? Ron: Since 2006 as label, but yet longer in our minds: the majority of the communitymembers have met over the last five years or more. Most of them have been working together as DJs or producers for a very long time. We (Alex, Ron, Tobi) agreed that we needed a platform to release the music of our Zurich buddies.
A label as community? Or is it more? What is this community idea? Tobi: You’ve known each other for years and share your interest not only in music but maybe also in design, clothes, parties… whatever. Through this community idea it’s for the artist not any old label on which he releases his record, but he is in a way part of the Drumpoet team. Alex: We try to include the “family” idea and to highlight our shared passion for music, design and friendship. The community is characterised also by our joint efforts to boost our movement. For this our brothers in spirit Âme, Dixon and Chateau Flight and their labels Inervisions and Versatile play a part, of course.
Does the community consist of Thabo, Soultourist, Kawabata and Quarion, or are there any more? Tobi: Together with “The Lost Men“, this is the hard core of the community. We all live in Zurich, except Quarion, who is now in Berlin. But releases of other artists will follow. The next record will be from “The Lost Men”. One of Alex’s projects. It’ll be out in September. Afterwards we’ve got Karasu remixes by Deetron and Crowdpleaser. Ron: Meanwhile we get many things from abroad and have now signed in Manuel Tur & Dplay, the first non-Swiss act. Other records will follow, such as Sascha Dive from Frankfurt.
How many of you are working as DJs? Or do you rather see yourselves as DJ-community, which wants to publish music on its own label? Or is working on your label rather
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something apart from your DJ paths? Ron: Alex, Lexx (Kawabata), Ianeq (Quarion), Thabo and I are the ones working as DJs. Once in a while there is an oldschool party, where Tobi also brings his record case. Tobi: The label and our DJ activities are closely connected. We release records for DJs and clubs. If one of us makes e.g. a good folk-song, it will be published somewhere else, as it doesn’t make much sense on DP. Although we dig this kind of music. Alex: Drumpoet is a club label as Tobi has already said. In my experience it is difficult to present the people with different styles in one label. I think Drumpoet works, because it follows uncompromisingly one concept of style, so that its idea or vision is better understood.
The quality of the label’s publishing is very good. Does everyone
tinker on their own or is there a kind of co-operation? How do you achieve this high quality of your label output, after all, you are a very young label? Ron: Both. We support each other and try to help on everybody. Soultourist, for instance, tinkers with an idea partly at home and partly in the studio and then plays it to the others. Then it is decided whether to pursue this idea or not. Quite often one of us takes a CD fresh from the studio to our party and gives it to one of our DJs for the club test. The idea was not to produce a “Top Quality Label”, but our main aim was and is to have fun. Alex: Of course, as A&R people we try to support our artists and to offer constructive criticism. We then also tell them which tracks are possible for DPC, play loads of music to each other and try to motivate them to have a go at new things.
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very important, that there are also other influences.
You describe your music as “b-boy house & technosoul” – that’s how it says on Drumpoet’s homepage. Is that just another word for “deep house” or do you mean something different? Tobi: We never saw ourselves as rave musicians or techno-heads, that’s why we thought up such word creations. Beside many others, our roots are rather in the area of Hip Hop and Soul. We like this fusion of different styles. Some of our preferred House producers used to do Hip Hop, or are still doing it. Ron: Labelling something Deep House is not always satisfactory; there are many things we don’t like. If the Soul feeling emerges from electronic club music, then it’s usually right. But that can always be a different thing: a sound, a sample, a bassline…whatever.
Do you produce music for other labels as well? What about remix commissions? Ron: We (Soultourist) had a maxi-single on Sonar Kollektiv and an exclusive piece on “Broadcasting Compilation” by Jazzanova and Dirk Rumpff. Otherwise we concentrate on our own label at the moment. But we are always open for other things. Remix-wise there will be a Jamie Lloyd 12” single on the Australian Future Classic label, with remixes by Quarion and Soultourist. And Quarion has remixed DJ Gregory and Mustang. Further remixes are already planned. Alex: Actually, we concentrate mainly on DPC if it’s about our sound. Lexx, for instance, will publish his “Cosmic” things on Bear Funk and Permanent Vacation. Ianeq has already published on Get Physical and Mental Groove. And The Lost Men: the records of their old projects Earthbound and A Forest Mighty Black were published on
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labels like Straight Ahead and Compost.
Stylistically the publishing of Drumpoet Community generally circulates around Deep-House, sometimes Technoid, sometimes rather ‘soulful’. Everything is very ‘deep’. Somehow this word suits the music of the Drumpoets. Is it so deep because the mountains around Zurich are so steep? Tobi: Deep tracks are often more exciting than garish pieces with wild beats. We like this kind of music, but that has rather to do with the way we are and our love for music than with Zurich. Basically there is no such rule that a release on DPC has to be deep. If it fits the label, that’s fine. Alex: We highlight warmth and the delight of new things rather than “deep”. The tracks should be within House context, but it is
Zurich Is Where The DrumPoets Are 2 Some of these night players joined forces some years ago in order to make common musical cause and history in Zurich´s night life. “Drumpoet Community” is this collective, which runs the eponymous record label for lovers, getting international attention recently. A small, upcoming enterprise which cooperates with a larger one, ‘Compost Records’ in Munich. From the outset there are Ron Shiller, Tobi Foster (both Soultourist) and Alex Dallas (The Lost Men), who has been busy as organizer of innumerable parties and clubs for a long time yet. “Technosoul” is what they call their version of electronic music. We wanted to know what this is about.
Alex: It’s certainly inspired by Deep House, but you have to understand that this is not quite the people’s idea of classic Deep House. I think Technosoul defines our music best, because it clarifies unequivocally what it is about. We played this music years ago, but there were less publications at that time and so you collected stuff from artists like Pepe Bradock, Carl Craig or Basic Channel and you played their music in blocks in your sets. Now a movement has been developed from that and there are more and more producers who deal again with harmonies and warmth.
What are your musical influences? Do you tend rather to Berlin or to Detroit? Ron: In both cities there are great musicians and DJs, who we deeply respect. For our own productions we get our inspiration from very different branches of music. Tobi: Much older music from the 70s and 80s. The people around us are also very important for inspiration; more important than a city. Aelx: Above all, life is very inspiring for us.
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54 55 PadFinder is a magazine about all kinds of different aspects of design and also of electronic music. The artwork of your record publications and your online presentation of the ‘Drumpoet Community’ is marked by a certain graphic style. How important is design for you – regarding the appearance of your label, of your community? Do you co-operate for the graphics with an external artist? Tobi: If you manage to enhance recognition by design, it’s a good thing. Alex: Our graphic artist is Marlene Meier and she is part of the community. She is very talented, designs clothes and makes flyers for the club ‘Zukunft’.
And beyond the label: how important is design in your life? Is it solely a matter of lifestyle? Tobi: I’m generally interested in art and design. I think in a way that’s all lifestyle. If you’re interested in it you focus on it automatically. Alex: Design is very important for me. I’m an aesthete and don’t mind spending a bit more money on a sofa, on shoes, on whatever. The idea of feeling good is closely connected with it, and I can delight in something beautiful for a long time. But I want to point out that I would never treat people snobbishly, if that’s not so important for them. Style and design have no social reasons, only aesthetic ones. Ron: That’s right. All I can say is that I agree with the boys.
Zurich is your home base for the label. Is Zurich a good city for this kind of music? Ron: It is at the moment. You could say that the clubs in Zurich have lately more and more tended towards House (in a positive sense). Once there was a clear cut border. We had our House evenings and other boys did Minimal or Electro. Everything is much more mixed at present. Now we think that there are some club nights, where you can enjoy yourself while listening to good music. Alex: Zurich is very wild at the moment, and there are many parties for a city of that size. But you have to add that the middle of the 90s was just as crazy. At that time there were more illegal bars and parties. People defined themselves through their nightlife. The difference now is that many artists export their music and we people from Zurich get more attention. It is surely connected with the city that our music is more relaxed. We have beautiful oases like the lake and the Letten, forests and mountains around us and still have a very international and
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multicultural city life; in short, a great quality of life.
Is the place important for the development of this music? Zurich is not the capital city but it is very important for the culture and above all the subculture in Switzerland. Is Zurich the Berlin of Switzerland (if you can compare it at all)? Alex: Wenn man so will, würde ich die Frage mit Ja beantworten. Und doch ist Zürich sehr schön und aufgeräumt. Es ist auch viel überschaubarer und familiärer. Alex: Well, you could answer the question with yes. But still, Zurich is very beautiful and tidy. It is more manageable in size, relaxed and friendly.
In Zurich you have the club “Zukunft”, where you play yourselves and invite international DJs with similar ideas, like DJ Dixon, Âme, Henrik Schwarz, Maurice Fulton und Chateau Flight ... Deep sounds rule! Is there in general a good club scene in Zurich and in particular for your style of music? Tobi: There are relatively many clubs in Zurich. I think music becomes more and more mixed in good clubs. Deep House is played in several clubs and we play at different parties for different audiences. But it’s rare that we play strictly Deep House the whole evening. And there is no club which exclusively stands for this style of music. I think it’s important to go to different parties, or else it would be music-incest. Alex: Our club ‘Zukunft’ is very important for our music. I manage the club with five friends. Me and Kalabrese, who is also my partner, have a similar taste in music, so in Zukunft musical freedom is very important. It’s a great place where many things are possible and the feedback of many DJs is brilliant. You like to play there, because the crowd is open and loves the special moments.
Is the club “Zukunft” a club in a club or is it a venue in its own right? Ron: Zukunft is a club in its own right. It is managed by Alex Dallas plus five other guys. Tobi and I are not involved. We just have our Drumpoet evening together with Alex.
The club ‘Dachkantine’, which was a kind of institution in Zurich nightlife, doesn’t exist anymore. Did you play there regularly? Alex: We had our regular evening in ‘Dachkantine’, which was called “Loud Minority”.
There was always an international guest as well. The club existed only for a short time (about two years) and was then something like “the place to be”.
Berlin, London, Paris are hotspots for electronic music. Many musicians and DJs live or move there, because they want to be at the place where things are happening. Do you see Zurich as one of these hotspots? Do you like being in Zurich? Ron: We like to go to these cities, but we also love to return to our city. Zurich is very manageable in size – it’s a comfortable life – and has a great cultural choice. Many things are happening in music in Zurich at the moment, but also Geneva has produced some interesting acts and releases over the last few months. Alex: It’s certainly not such a hotspot, but the advantage compared to these metropolises is that we can pursue our musical visions easier, as we are less influenced by trends. It’s easier to do your stuff and play it to the people. In cities like Berlin or Paris many of our acquaintances don’t mix at all, because there is such an abundance in stars, so that it is difficult for many artists to get a booking at all.
What would you recommend for somebody staying in Zurich for a day or two, who wants to experience a bit of nightlife as well? Tobi: Langstrasse und neighbourhood (Kreis 4 and 5), you’ll find many cafés, restaurants and bars, clothes – and record shops; also the nature, the lake, Letten to relax and of course Zukunft to have a really good dance.
Which DJ would you like to see mixing in your club? Ron: To be honest, over the past years we’ve met so many DJs who we appreciate, in Zurich (Dachkantine, Zukunft, etc.) that it’s difficult to add to this list. We have most fun if one of our friends drops by to do the evening with us. That’s why we have a Drumpoet night every month and invite one of these valued DJs, live acts.
The best club to mix? Where is the best mood? Tobi: At my place during a private party in the kitchen with Ron as iPod-DJ. Ron: In Zurich the best place for our music is the Zukunft at the moment. The club is well frequented and you can more or less play what you like. Alex: Mercati Generali in Catania (Sizilien, It) and of course the Zukunft. Thank you for the interview and good luck .
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AUDIOFURNITURE
“The kids wanna dance.“ We‘d like to begin with this quote which comes neither from Madchester‘s historical club “The Hacienda“ in 1989 nor from Ibiza‘s “DC10“ in 2007, but from the “Family Dog“ in San Francisco in 1965, a bunch of hippies who staged an evening of bands and dancing, featuring giants like the Charlatans and Jefferson Airplane. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit towards acid experiments with their focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene‘s history. 20 years later hailing from Chicago and Detroit, House and Techno changed British pop music, not only dance music but also rock music. If you were a British band and could not play rock music in the style to dance to and with the rhythms that had spilled over from american discos, you wouldn‘t be a rock group that matters. Again 20 years later, there is a discussion going on, if electronic dance music is dead, and independent rock and pop music is going to take over the dancefloors of this world, flying the flag of 80s underground spirit. This happens while the pertinent press is argueing about the rise and fall of house music in favour of techno - be it minimal or whatever. Without wanting to split hairs and to be too profound, we dare to say: Who does really care? The Family Dog proclaimed it in 1965 and we do it now. “The kids wanna dance“. We personally love it more on the electronic side of beats. The following articles will prove this - mostly. Photo: Björn Disch
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DEEPCHORD - “Vantage Isle” Echospace, 2007. 2x12” + 7” Detroit is the Holy Land for electronic music, this is well-known; industrial peripheric city, marginal and gray, which has been the cradle of a musical revolution that doesn't stop mutating by now and influencing world-wide the whole electronic techno scene; it's all about the source from which to drink; the cathedral to pilgrimage to on the knees with a stone tied on our back … It was in Detroit where soul and feeling was added to these little machines called by palindromes (303, 808, 909 etc.), home of Juan Atkins, Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, Derrick May, Carl Craig etc.; and if we trace further back, of course the land of the huge Motown label and all its immense sonorous legacy. In the 90ies, amongst many others, Maurizio arrived at Detroit and with him Berlin; causing miracle and magic, fusing Dub and Techno, mind and soul, elements of two worlds, whose result - to our delight - continues projecting a long, very long shade … Taking today's evidence - Rod Modell,
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Mike Schommer, Steven “Soultek” Hitchell & Co. sign this fabulous limited edition issue with an excellent artwork in terms of both appearance and sound. Two 12 inches in plastic cover with a sticker (all handmade), including a precious 7 inch of transparent colour. A total of ten tracks, six sides. Rather than an album of individual tunes, it is a remix compilation of one track, “Vantage Isle”, remixed by different acts (DeepChord, Echospace, Spacecho, Convextion); one sound, one concept. All recorded, mixed and pressed in Detroit (another classic here: at the legendary Ron Murphy Sound Enterprises), completely with analogue technology. Dense and porous textures, disquieting, fantastic ambient noises, hipnotic abstractions on a dub tip, reverberations and echoes galore, lots of delay spread right and left. Deep chords. White noise, static current. Big aquatic drums in black and always the ritual of repetition like a mantra mutating millimetrically; rhythms that invite to dance crying with emotion; the emotion of the
machines! This record is excellent without fail, each cut is to be listened with a bib on. This is pure “Jabugo de pata negra” ham (Spain's best quality air-seasoned ham). A special mention is for the mix by Convextion (Gerald Hanson) he deserves a monument for; a piece of art of sonorous abstraction, almost eight minutes of layers, textures and cascades of infinite sound, this time without big drums nor marked rythms, only a disquieting pulse that step by step is taking us outside of this galaxy or to the bottom of an ocean as black as mysterious, transporting us to an unfamiliarly evocative and pleasant place. The entire production is a highly addictive trip of very difficult return. Echospace appears immense and more is to come, much more …
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BEN FROST - “Theory Of Machines” Bedroom Community, 2007. LP.
PANDA BEAR – “Person Pitch” Paw Tracks, 2007. 2LP
SVEN WEISEMANN – “Shade EP” meanwhile 008, 2007. 12”
The arm of the MK 1200 turntable in the first furrow, first cut. I am in the surgery room lying on the couch. The intense light of the spot on my face covers all my field of vision; Doctor Frost (Australian by birth) comes closer … the mask of ether in one hand and the scalpel in the other … fade out, to slow black … very slow and constant fade in … I can feel how the chloroform invades everything; immediately afterwards the scalpel begins to slice my brain; the firm pulse of the surgeon … I am no longer here, I begin to travel through the probe that connects me to the artificial respirator; there is only the sound, the breathing of the machines … textures of sound are being added, one on another one, to the rhythm of the stiletto; everything becomes dense, lukewarm, frozen, metallic, deep and drowsy; then the storm … convulsions … I believe that something has failed (or not) … I am no longer here. Second cut: Here, from this side everything feels better… I see the Doctor working on what was my brain … He has the eyes closed! His precision is amazing, I can see how he is replacing pieces of encephalic mass by strangely geometric aluminum pieces; in this moment the noise covers everything, the pleasure is immense. The pulse is not the usual one, the disquieting dense substance invades everything. I do not want to move, I do not need it, I feel that I have arrived … there is nothing anymore, nothing to need. Third cut, blind by the sound, I wake up; finally I see the doctor, I touch his shoulder, I call him by his name … He does not listen to me, he is engrossed in his work. His front is shining with sweat, glittering instruments … something seems to comment with someone who is not in the room … he decides to increase my dose, he does not give explanations; I understand the accuracy of his decision, now it is the right measure; I return to my old piece of skin and bones that at this moment is 50cms above the couch. When he applies the fourth cut, the room is inverted and on the oval walls of the pavillion resounds the roar of the waste falling in the refuse bin. With the fifth cut you assume he is closing the pass of the hemorrhage. A satisfied glance. Nothing has happened here; simply I am not the same, nothing is the same. Catalepsy, premature burial. Please, kneel down … let's pray!
Every certain time somebody comes to wind up the clock, to oil the machine, to turn on a switch and thus to help us move forward, showing us the ropes. This is the third record in solitaire by Noah Lennox (Born in Baltimore/USA, today in Lisbon/Portugal), essential member of the Animal Collective, who adopts here the form of a bear in danger of extinction to give us this surprising “Person Pitch”. Or rather: the trip to the centre of a lemon. One breathes freshness here and influences from everywhere, from the Beach Boys to Aphex Twin, from the most advanced electronic music to kraut rock, from psychodelia to jazz, from techno to dub, etc… (everything mentioned in the ample credits of the record).
We recommend this fantastic vinyl as a sample of what the British label “meanwhile“ has been producing for a while. Each issue (this is perl #8) is an ode to good taste, sophistication and “savoir faire”. The whole catalogue is a must for our shelves and ears: Bovill, Murmur, Remote … and now this new jewel signed by Mr. Weisemann; a label to remember in the very moment of making the shopping list and a label which is hitting headlines with the undeniable weight of its quality.
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But, what is to be done that this eclectic mixture of styles doesn't end up as a hotchpotch of sounds or a vulgar copy? Here you go, the magic of our friend Panda who solves the equation with a sound as fresh as a lettuce, a sound of the future. Unbiasedness in favour of good taste, where the influences are treated like a creative experience. Lennox tells that he built all with samples fetched from here and there. To tell the truth, it doesn‘t matter and it means as little as the impossible endeavour to stylistically classify this album. The final result offers many viewpoints. What is concocted here, are immense walls of sound, distant voices, subterrestrial and evocative choirs, melodies that cross each other, creating a hybrid almost like a déjà vu (“experience of feeling a new situation previously witnessed or undergone”). Tracks with more layers than a bag full of onions. Pop and experimental music are simultaneously converging here in a unique sound; seven thrilling songs charged with emotion and full of images; a harmonic and coherent collage which invites us to think that far from defined styles, the future of modern pop music is here; originality, feeling and, above all, quest.
Sven Weisemann is a comer who has been delighting us for a while with individual works for exquisite labels like Mojuba (ARTLESS) or Styrax. On this immense 12 inch, this youngster full of good intentions gives us two heavenly pieces made vinyl. Yet in the first furrow of “Floating Dub”, good-natured Sven shows us his cards, revealing where his compass is pointing to … and of course, it is oriented towards Jamaica and Detroit, in equal shares. It sounds like “minimal techno dub“, deep and elegant, a perfect performance; a production without fissures nor concessions and with a certain “old school” flavour. On the B-side, on “Spheric Wave”, the guy outdoes himself. With the first chord he shows us what is what, and I am forced to ground some cable, before getting rocketed up to the stars. Omnipresence of 4/4 beats, delays and cyclic chords like waves directly breaking in the hypothalamus. A deep, disturbing and envolving subbass line, hi hats and congas smothered in an elegant haze of reverbs and floating like suspended in an amniotic atmosphere; here the elements are circulating, entering, leaving, being added, built together and disassembled creating an absolutely hipnotic broth. The best sound track to accompany our dry martinis at dusk or our effervescent tablet after a waking up with hang-over. In two words: elegance and style. Let us put a frame around him and shake the cocktail mixer. This is a good one ... and for a pretty long while.
A record that should certainly be present in all “best of”-rankings of this year. At least, this bear is safe from being extinguished, or rather the exact opposite: He´ll bring us much new life, for sure.
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Introduce yourself to those who don’t know you? I run a weekly Club in Vienna, called ‘Icke Micke’ and I’m a female DJ touring Europe with my recordcase. I studied fine art, but didn’t want to be working for the art scene, rather for an audience, that’s more hedonistic than fine.
What did you want to be when you grew up? I’d always admired what my father did. I didn’t exactly know what but he had a huge office, a secretary and lots of paperwork. But mostly I admired him when we all dropped him off at the airport cause he used to go to asia a lot. My imagination was to be flying around the world a lot aswell. Which I´m doing right now.
For us at PadFinder ‘Icke Micke’ is is the best club in Vienna. Do you think more people have the same opinion? Yes, I think a lot of people like ‘Icke Micke’. We’ve had a very good start and a stable following over the last 4 years. We keep changing and we have a very personal touch to our work, people can actually feel there’s real people, not concepts behind ‘Icke Micke’. Both me and my partner Hannes Baumann put a lot of personal thoughts into the party series. Also we run ‘Icke Micke’ as a fulltime business. It is a lot of work. You can´t run a weekly party on parttime level. A lot of people try to do that. I doesn’t work.
How come ‘Icke Micke’ became such a hype? We do everything completely different to the rest of the scene. Like the complete opposite. That wasn’t intended, that just happened. Cause we didn’t watch the scene and then tried to copy everything, we just asked ourselves: What do we want and need? No marketing rules etc. Just very personal needs. And our personal needs seemed to be the same for a lot of others. Actually quite simple. When we started, there was no outdoor party. We started the club at ‘Künstlerhaus Passage’ in summer 2003. All other clubs basically shut down for summer, cause a lot of people are out of town. Summer is our main season. It’s the best: Parting outdoors. Everybody loves that. It’s that simple.
You were born in South Africa, what took you to Vienna? And what keeps you in Vienna?
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My parents are from Vienna, but moved to SA for business. When they got divorced, my mum moved back to Vienna with me and my older brother. I was 10 back then. So here I am. I still go to SA a lot as my dad´s still there. But being in Europe is definitly more interesting for what I do. Vienna´s close to a lot of places in Europe. I move around a lot. I have an apartment in Berlin and friends all over Europe. But I run a club in Vienna. That’s my homebase. I like the city. Sometimes I get a bit frustrated with the lack creativity in the city. People are very slow, not too enthusiastic, sometimes I have the feeling people are living in an old people´s home at age 30 already. Like for the party: Get your fukin hands up in the air! You like it, shake your ass! Maybe they prefer shaking their beers more in Vienna.
Where on earth does the name ‘Icke Micke’ come from? When we started we never thought this would last longer than one weekend. Nobody knew we would still be doing this 4 years later. So with all the Capitalism crap going on in the world (I mean nowadays party names and flyer designs sound and look exactly like a fukin telekom ad) it’s important to create your own world (in names and shapes) if you have the possiblity. I’m self employed, I run my own business. I create the logo and look, so why not make the most fun of it. We’re not going to have to sell anything to some odd people, so why follow any rules? We hate rules, so make up your own. ‘Icke Micke’ means nothin, it’s just meant to be stupid. To make people who come, be stupid. That’s the message. Stop following the rules out there. Make up your own mind. Maybe we’ll rename it to ‘fiki miki’ one day, my second favorite name.
What does it mean? It means nothing basically. ‘Icke’ ist a slangword in Berlin, meaning ‘I’. So you could say it’s making fun of an ego thing like “me, myself and I”. But we didn’t want it to mean anything. Its cool that people keep asking what it means, that means we’ve done something right. Many question marks. That’s real. I think. In your ‘manifest’ you state that you were trying to organize illegal parties, which was not possible. And than you add: “…, to big was the crowd, and the crowd was politically re (de-shaped)”. Sounds political – and sounds like this attended exactly where the audience has long arrived: To an unpolitical party crowd?
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Well, what drives me crazy is not just are we talking about a unpolitical party crowd, we’re talking about a whole generation being unpolitical. And for a change I’m not talking about some old times, I’m talking about my own generation. Quite honestly, I’ve been fighting in various groups, political, femininist, art. But there´s hardly any following. People are completely bored and unhappy with their lives in Vienna. But they don’t stop talking about their favorite boring topics: “Have you seen my new rolex? I got it as a present.” “Wow, that one’s 3000 Euros.” I mean, young people don’t know what to do and talk about. There are no topics left. No infrastructuree for alternative spaces and ideas. No creativity wanted nor needed. Maybe this will change soon. For illegal parties it’s very important everybody understands, that if the police shows up, nobody going to say a word about who in charge. Just answer: “I don’t know”. We got into real big troubles cause most guests shat in their pants as they saw the police with dogs. They told them everything, looking me in the eye. We’re not going to take any risks for other people if they are not willing to do the same for us.
You also do special ‘party politics’: There’s no announcing of the dj playing on flyers or the website. The only way how to get a clue who’s gonna play is a stream on the ‘Icke Micke’ website. When you enter the club you’ll find a white paper glued to a wall announcing the nights dj. How were the reactions in the beginning from the crowd? Works for the dj`s? Good. A lot of people didn’t understand in the beginning, but with the time we had some good discussions about it. The only thing is the DJs, they are having troubles with it, cause they cannot promote themselves. So there was some more discussion. I know if every club would do the same, it would be hard for the musicians. But then the whole scene would have to change. Changes are always tough, but things are too settled right now. Every child knows how to run a business these days. Time do to something different, or? Lets see what we can do to help.
What’s the idea behind ‘female pressure’? ‘female pressure’ was a good starting point for me, but soon I realised it was also a ghetto. I was only playing at female parties. I wanted to get out of there, cause that’s not about equality. But changes in society are slow. ‘female pressure’ is a good start.
What about female Dj’s at ‘Icke Micke’. Since you’re a part of “female pressure”, do you empha-
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size having guys and girls playing, or is that not an issue? As I’m a woman and a DJ, I automatically invite woman, it’s natural for me. Guys should start taking this as natural aswell. The problem is that there’s much more guys in music as women. You have to research a bit more. All these things will change, rbut slowly. I stopped being impatient about it. But it was frustrating in the beginning.
You worst club you’ve ever been to? Many, but once I’ve been on a trip through Hungary, actually just a holiday thing, but my friends wanted to check out a place we heard some techno from on the streets in a small village. The doorman realised we were foreigners, so he charged us 10 Euro each. We got in, the music was so hard and loud, we turned around immediately. I think we stayed in there for like 3 seconds and nearly even had a fight with some guest. We ran off to the car and left the village as fast a as we could.
The best Club for you, the best city, the best crow, the best DJ? The best Dj, that changes. I like Move D a lot, also Soundstream or Villalobos of course. Ellen Allien is fascinating, as well as Miss Kittin still. Magda I like a lot as well, she’s very professional. There’s no best club, theres just good parties. Of course I had some good parties at ‘Panoramabar’ (Berlin) or ‘Sonar’ (Barcelona). I like ‘Icke Micke’ a lot. The best crowd’s apparently in Tel Aviv. Although I’ve never been there. But we talk a lot about these things of course. Tokyo’s definitly a good party place (yellow club).
If you say Berlin, why? I didn’t say Berlin, but it has some special privileges, like no closing hours. It’s special in Europe. Also the city council likes the party movement (still). So they are very free to do what they want. But in my opinion, there’s too many drugs there. It’s easy to have a crazy party crowd at the top of their heads if everybody’s on ketamin or mdma. What I like about the city is the freedom you have. You can be whatever you want, nobody’s going to look at you as if you’re crazy.
Something to add?? We´re going on a winter break after September, for a couple of months. And we´re probably starting a label then.
Thank you Tibcurl!
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READY FOR THE DISCO by Family Business Pad FinderMagazine Celebrates this Great Design!!! Good Business for the Family!
Family Business Swedish advertising agency that doesn’t do a lot of advertising. Because when we work, we always start at the point of purchase, the shop or a bar, and ask ourselves what the consumer needs to feel to pick the product off the shelf. A lot of the time, a great package is good enough. Other times, we start with the packaging and then create web, event concepts, pr and TV commercials, sometimes in cooperation with other agencies. This time, the task was to create a global winter campaign for Absolut Vodka. The aim is to sell a lot of bottles and at the same time make people happy and inspired. The target audience is wide, so it must be understandable for a lot of people from all kinds of cultures. Disco is not only understandable but also a warm thing that lights up the cold, dark, Swedish winters. Once the vodka is consumed, you can hang the disco ball skin in your ceiling to create a disco mood. It feels good to make a packaging that people will actually keep; that’s a good way of making sustainable design. A funny coincidence is that the pack has got exactly 1000 surfaces. Right now, we are working on a new Swedish beer and also an airplane interior for a big, international airline.
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JESSE ROSE, WHAT’S GOING ON? “All I wanna do now is actually to make an album that people will listen to in 10 years time. That’s all I wanna do. I’ve already achieved my dreams. And my dream was to be able to see the world and someone to pay for my ticket to go and see the world. And I managed to do that, which has been a dream come true. And the next dream was to release compilations of the music that I love and to do collaboration albums. I’ve done it. And now the real thing that I’d like to achieve is an artist album that can be listened to in 10 years.” When someone research on the internet about Jesse Rose, you hit names like ‘Induceve’ or ‘Izit’ and people like Trevor Loveys. What are these different projects about? Is it simply that you do projects and use different names, or is there also a concept of music behind? What basically happened was: I moved to London and I met a guy called Dave Taylor, who is ‘Solid Groove/ Switch’. At the same time I knew a guy called Trevor Loveys, and another one called Chris Belsey. And we all got together. I started a label with Chris Belsey and then I began working with ‘Solid Groove’. Me and ‘Solid Groove’ became ‘Induceve’. Me and Trevor Loveys became ‘Izit’. Trevor also worked with Dave for a while under the ‘switch’ moniker. And we all kind of got bored with what was going on in house music. It was just a time when house was all played out. All was kind of the same loopy, sampled stuff, and it was time for a change. And at once, all these exciting partnerships happened. Everyone had the same idea: It was time to sort of take house music and ‘fuck it up’. There are so many things you could do: just drop into Hip Hop, drop into Folk Music. Why does it start and finish the same? Why? There´s no formula. You can do anything with it, within having a kick drum on a 4/4 rhythm. All the different monikers came from a group of friends that were hanging out at that time.
Let’s go back a bit: You´re from London and you went to Bristol. Did you begin deejaying or producing? I began deejaying in Bristol, when I was about 12, with a friend, Jamie Anderson. He was already producing, he is few years older than me, and then we started making tracks together. He sort of helped me do my first track. At that point,
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I moved back to London, which was the time, when I met Dave, Trevor and Chris, the guys in London.
Would you describe yourself as a Dj or a producer? I think, I would describe myself as both. I love producing records, especially now. I´ve had so much help in producing. I began as a DJ. If you´d asked me that five years ago I´d say a DJ, but in the last 5 or 6 years with all of the talent that was around me in London, all the people I was working with taught me so much that I now kind of feeI like I can say I´m a producer and a DJ. I think, you can´t choose. Now I can go into the studio and hook up a track, and hopefully go in a club and rock it as well. So hopefully I´m good in doing both jobs.
You moved from London to Berlin. You live there since some months. And now you are resident DJ in the ‘Panorama Bar’. Why did you move to Berlin? To be honest with you, I was thinking that, if I have some kids, I´d like to tell them that I did something and moved around a bit, you know? A few stories to tell them. At that time, Berlin just seemed like a great place to move to. I´ve got lots of friends there. I´ve been going there for 7 years, before I moved. I´ve been deejaying there a lot, yeah! I think that each city has its time. New York had it in the 80´s, London had it in the 90´s and now, in 2007, Berlin is having its moment. There´s so much energy in the city. It was really like:‘It is the perfect place to move to!’.
The music you produce, or the music people known from you is kind of ‘electro house’.
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AME IS HI, MY N
ducer
Dj & Pro
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66 67 It´s a bit difficult to define. Maybe it´s not important to define something. But, anyway, is it electro? Is it more house? Is it more on a techno tip? I would say, it´s house music. But it is inspired by everything that is not house. It´s inspired by techno, by Hip Hop. It´s inspired by what´s going on in Brazil right now. Just all the new stuff. What I know - especially considering the other guys that are producing the same sort of style - is that everyone is really influenced by brand new things that are not going on in house music. They incorporate those ideas into house music. And in that way, it can´t actually stay as one particular genre. It´s always changing, because there is always new music coming through. Like last year, we had lots of music like ‘Baile Funk’ coming from Brazil - Really inspiring to hear this energetic music! And then there is ‘Grime’ and there´s ‘Dub Step’ coming from London. I think that - as long as there are young people making really new stuff - it is inspiring for me to carry on using those ideas and putting them into house music.
I read something about ‘Fidget House’? ‘Fidget House’ was just like a bit of a joke. Magazines wanted to have a name for our style – like dropping into these mad breaks, and we were like: “Yeah, call it ‘Fidget House‘”. And it just got a little bit out of control, people then were making records in the style of ‘Fidget House’. Which is just like: “Come on! The name ‘Fidget House’ is a joke, come on!” No one is going to really give its music a genre, unless someone is saying it. It´s just so narrow minded. But in a way, it was cool, because - by giving music a genre, giving it a name - people can start to relate to it and to understand that there is a scene going on. So, for that, it was fine. But it´s a total joke! If someone wants to describe my records as ‘Fidget House’, it makes me smile. Just the name makes you smile.
You release your tracks on different labels. You have your own label ‘front room recordings’, or ‘loungin´ recordings’, ‘made to play’, and then there is ‘dubsided’. What is what? I am signed to ‘dubsided’. It is a label run by ‘Solid Groove/ Switch’. When I do records for his label, normally I co-produce the record. He really heavily a & r´s my records, sending back records constantly. That is the reason why I stay signed to the label for years and years. He´s really such a perfectionist for the label that I don´t think that a record goes out which he hasn´t really listened to every detail of the record to make sure it´s really gonna do the job. And for me as an artist, that´s exactly what I want from an a & r-man: I want him to say: “No, that´s not good enough!” And I´ll say: “Ok, I´ll start it again.” And then, when the record comes out, hopefully it´s really a special record.
And ‘Front Room Recordings’ and ‘loungin’ recordings’?
Now I just work with a mac laptop, “Logic” two speakers. And that´s it!
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Now, I just run ‘Front Room Recordings’ and ‘made to play’. I used to do ‘loungin' recordings’ with Chris Belsey and now he does that label on his own. When I started ‘Front Room Recordings’, we were running ‘loungin' recordings’ together, and he was very passionate about Broken Beats and Hip Hop and stuff like that. For me, that´s music that I
love to listen to when I´m not deejaying. For a while, it was great to have this house label and this broken beat label, where people like Kenny Dope did remixes for free. We had all these people really enthusiastic, which was great. But because now I am so involved into writing house music, doing remixes, deejaying, I really have to kind of stream line what I am doing, and really focus on what is really 100% true to me. And so its just ‘made to play’ and ‘Front Room Recordings’. ‘made to play’ is like the label where I get the record, I press it up and it goes out. There´s no mp3's, there´s no DJ mailout, there´s no press mailout. If it´s written in a magazine, it´s written, because the reviewer went out and bought the record. For me, that´s really keeping it to where I´m coming from. To me it´s really a special label. And then with ‘Front Room Recordings’: I´d like to run it like a conventional label: In the way that we get albums coming out and we really try to build it up. That´s the two labels.
You have talked a lot about your friends in London and Bristol. How is your relation with San Francisco based DJ Claude VonStroke? That´s really funny, because, before he actually started making records, he went around the world and filmed lots of DJs to understand how they make records and what turns them on. And he got all this wealth of knowledge. Then he made his first record, which was ‘Deep Throat’, and I think, he totally got it spot on with that. It´s just exactly were I´m coming from. There´s no rules. Have fun, enjoy it. We´re fucking lucky to be doing what we´re doing, and just role with that. I´ve got so much love for Claude VonStroke.
I consider you two similar in the way how you entertain and work. We have this mutual respect for each other. I heard this ‘Deep Throat’ record, the first thing that he did. And I emailed him asking: “Would you be up for doing something for my label, I don`t know, if you know who I am.” (He lives in America). And than he replied: „I´m totally inspired by what you guys are doing.” I was like: “Well that`s crazy, because I am like totally inspired by what you guys there are doing.” And so I eventually flew to San Francisco to play at the party he does in the Golden Gate Park. He basically does this free party in the park through the summer, which is amazing. For no reason, but he does it - just for the people ... And it totally clicked! Now I go over there, like once every few months, and hang out with those guys. There´s a definite connection in many ways.
Which is the best place you have ever been deejaying in the world? It´s kind of obvious to say: It has to be ‘Panorama Bar’ - without a doubt. I mean, honestly, when I play there, the hair – even now talking about it - the hair at the back of my neck go up. It´s a place where you can go really deep and play like at 110 bpm. Even my first set I ever played there: I started with a really slow record after a guy playing fast. I took it down, really slow. I thought I´ll take the risk with this club. I´d heard about that you can do anything there, and I did it ... and the crowd went crazy to a record with 110 bpm, very slow. And then through the night, we took it up and we played like mad house and then took it to Detroit Techno, at last. It was a four, five hours set. The whole time the crowd
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reaction was there. It reminds me of what was going on in the UK in 1989, when dance music first came through and everyone was like: “This is really exciting”. That´s the vibe that I get, when I play there. I`m even excited talking about it now and I play there every month, it´s crazy.
And the German crowd? The people which are in ‘Panorama Bar’ are they the best crowd? I was asked, when I´d like to do my night: on a Friday or on a Saturday - I do monthly there. On a Friday you get the Berlin crowd. They are more into minimal, more serious into their music. And on a Saturday you get lots of tourists coming in. For me, I really wanted to do the Saturday, `cause I feel all the excitement on a Saturday, that you have to queue two hours to get into the club. For example, you´ve travelled from Spain. Someone told me, they travelled from San Francisco - just for the night. They come, fly all the way for one weekend, for one night. So, all that excitement in the night makes it totally amazing for me. See, I wouldn´t think that it is specifically a Berlin crowd. I think, it´s a world wide crowd ... it´s a club where people know that it´s all about the music. There are no mirrors in there, no guest list queue, no V.I.P. room, no decoration on the wall to make it look nice, no fancy lights. There´s just a room and people dance. For me as a DJ, that´s all I can ask for. It´s perfect.
What´s for you the best record ever made? Does that exist? The best record ever made?
What comes closest to the basic feeling of ‘I need to have that’ or ‘Wow, this is just for me!’? That´s just such a hard question! When I am asked this question, I always wished I would be asked in a genre. I can answer my favourite techno record, house record, soul record, hip hop record. But one particular record? For me, .. maybe ... Marvin Gaye ‘What´s going on?’ I listened to the album over and over and over again. There are no fillers on the album. It´s a special album. But in terms of dance music tracks that I always keep in my bag, there´s ‘Fix- Flash’ by Orlando Voorn and also Aril Brikha´s ‘Groove la Chord’. These are like ... they´ve never left the bag and they capture the moment. And every time you play them, young people that never heard these records come to the front and ask you what they are. It´s not about time, it´s just about the feeling of the record.
What about ‘digital vs. vinyl’? I think it´s great. I play records and I play CD´s, because for me I feel like I can make a little show. I´m active, I´m moving around, I´m not just in front of my laptop. Not just very mono, I´m kind of out there, stereo. But at the same time, I love the fact that a 16 year old kid can make a record on a playstation, upload it and then email it over to me, and I check it over and then send him a sample to make that track better. We can go back and forth like that. To be honest with you, if someone has got talent, it doesn´t matter, what format it´s on. I just wanna hear good music. So, however that transpires, I don´t care. I love records, but at the same time, if some guy in Russia who has no chance
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of going into a record store gets a mp3, ... brilliant! Do you know what I mean? People beat my records, I don´t give a fuck, to be honest. I´m just all about spreading music. If the internet helps spread music, then let it spread music.
The future of Jesse Rose? ‘Jesse Rose presenting Body Language Vol. 3’ (Andrés shows the cd) Can I look at that? I´ve never seen that. Really, ... I did that compilation? That´s not me, is it? (laughing)
What´s the future of Jesse Rose? What´s the perspective of your labels? What do want to do in the end? All I wanna do now, is actually make an album that people will listen to in 10 years time. That´s all I wanna do. I´ve already achieved my dreams. And my dream was to be able to see the world and someone to pay for my ticket to go and see the world. And I managed to do that, which has been a dream come true. And the next dream was to release compilations of the music that I love and to do collaboration albums. I´ve done it. And now the real thing that I´d like to achieve is an artist album that can be listened to like in 10 years. In fact, I´ve done two albums: One was for ‘Solid Groove’ on ‘classic’, one album I´ve done for ‘Dubsided’ which I´ve completely cancelled, ´cause I thought that there´s no point in putting out an album just for the sake of it. It needs to be something with depth, with meaning, with point to it. As long as the album doesn´t come with that, it doesn´t go out. And when it comes, then that´s the album I´m really behind. That´s my main sort of thing. I´d love to produce for other people. I´d love to produce bands and singers. It´s just like ‘Everything is an evolution’. As a DJ you start and you wish that you could put two records together, make a set, and then from there, you wish that you could make a record that you would then play in your set. And from there it´s like ‘How can I push myself?’. And you always need to push yourself. This next push is about ..., you know, pushing my music and also producing other people so that I can push them.
Are you planning to stay longer in Berlin? I love Berlin. I plan to stay definitely a long, long time. Berlin and San Francisco are like my two favourite places.
And Jesse Rose live? It`s coming. Jesse Rose live is coming definitely. It´s just a matter of if I can afford to get the two strippers at each side of me, when I´m playing my laptop, to make it interesting. If I can do that, the Jesse Rose live experience is coming.
Thank you so much. Been a pleasure! LINKS: http://madetoplay.net www.myspace.com/jesseroseandcontent www.myspace.com/madetoplaymusic RELEASES / REMIXES / DJ MIXES YOU FIND IN
www.discogs.com
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Tamara, 19 Your fashion style in a few words: Everyday a new style. Where do you get your inspiration? Inspired by friends. Vertical or horizontal stripes? Vertical! Lake or pool? Lake Your favourite party location: Flex Christian, 30 Your fashion style in a few words: Independent Attitude: “Extravagant!” I prefer living than working. Where do you go out: I go to illegal techno parties, I listen to minimal techno, sometimes you can find me in the Camera Club. And your favourite ice cream flavour? I don’t like ice cream, I prefer Caipiroska or a good bottle of red wine. Jannick, 19 Your fashion style: My girlfriend is doing my clothes. Attitude: Try to be alternative.
Mumo, between 20 and 30 Your first connotation with design: Odds and ends for simple-minded people. Your fashion style in a few words: Nameless. My top is from a designer in Barcelona. Your favourite ice cream flavour: Strawberry
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Asking Streetpeople about Design and IceCream
Patti, 17 Your first connotation with design: It’s a question I don’t want to think about. Your fashion style in a few words: I can’t take this in words because otherwise it would loose its attraction. My clothes are all made by myself. Your favourite ice cream flavour? Pistachio Describing yourself in a few words: Painting, drawing and tailoring. Pictures Georg Oberhumer
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BALENCIAGA Masterpiece by Nicolas Ghesquière STOP! and take a look at this outrageous shoe design by Nicolas Ghesquière. Inevitably the centre of attraction of Balenciaga’s Fall 2007 press parade. EXTRAVAGANZA This new fashion paradigm shoe is inspired by sport and ski shoes. The plastic multicolor foot wear are a guaranteed eye catcher, and a perfect symbiosis of fashion- and product design. Designed by Nicolas Ghesquière France *1975 Ghesquière’s collections are ineffably cool and cutting-edge, and they have also had a huge commercial impact; not so much in terms of what he sells himself but through his influence on other designers. PAD FINDER CELEBRATES THIS GREAT DESIGN! Photographe: Milo Keller Credit: Balenciaga par Nicolas Ghesquière
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Holy Homes Designed for TuttoBeNe by Frederik Roijé. Two bird houses made out of the best porcelain. Designed for a period in time and love for nature. “In my believe there will be peace”. This project has been presented during the Salone del Mobile 2007 in Milan.
HOLY HOMES by Frederik Roijé
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A Puzzle for the Floor by Katrin Sonnleitner. Like a carpet, the puzzle inspired home product. The collections includes the classic PuzzlePersian with 9 persian rug colours, the PuzzlePersian BW with black & white pieces. The puzzle pieces are made of a recyclable mix of natural and synthetic rubber. Photos: Katrin Sonnleitner
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PUZZLE PERSIAN by Katrin Sonnleitner
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Atelier A1 Creative Vibes from Belgium
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Six designers from Brussels aged between 26 and 33 share a studio, the “Atelier A1“. Still they prefer not to be perceived as “a design collective” as everyone works in different fields, with different approaches and product creations. Nevertheless, sharing a studio creates stimulating vibes, as “Atelier A1“ proves.
Elric Petit works together with two other designers on basic commodities for home. In 2002 Marina Bautier started with a design project for her own label ‘LaMaisondeMarina’ focusing on product and interior design. Product designer Sylvain Willenz is busy, creating interior installations with an eclectic use of materials and techniques. Benoît Deneufbourg adds web design to his portfolio besides furniture and commodities, Diane Steverlynck studied textile design at La Cambre and Nathalie Dewez is a lighting designer. An eclectic group, at least? “The different viewpoints make it possible for everyone to grow into their field of design. The advantage is that the others are never far away to give advice or add a new point of view to the project.”
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But in terms of presenting themselves to the public e.g. arranging exhibitions, fairs, selling days, they stand together as ‘Atelier A1’, to show their creations. As this formation they also participated at ‘DesignBrussels’, ‘Sfeer’ in Gent, the Brussels ‘Artiesten Parcours’, the ‘SIDIM’ fair in Montréal, and many more. Veerle Symoens
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Chatting to designer Meriç Kara
Meriç Kara was born in Izmir, Turkey in 1977. She studied Industrial Design in Metu. After her degree she went on to do a masters in Milan and was excepted at Fabrica – the Benetton Research Center in Treviso. She took part in exhibitions like “Amsterdam Inside Design” and the “Milan Furniture Fair”. One of Meriç's most interesting projects is a series of designs labeled ‘B-Sides’. The collection consists of various designs that take metaphores and different communication layers into account transforming them into objects. Currently Meriç Kara is living and working in Istanbul. photographs by Zak Swenson www.merickara.com
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***When you create the B-Sides collection, you combine two objects with a different meaning so that the recipient can relate to the combined objects separately. The combination of these objects results in a new meaning. It's like putting two different layers over one another, and when you see them, they suddenly make sense. Where do you get your ideas from?
Hmm, I'm not sure but maybe you can put them together: If I have a brief, things are a lot easier, but if not, it can come out by just sitting with pen and paper and having conversations in my mind. I mostly work writing down words. Sometimes I decide on the object myself and I search what I can say with it. Or maybe I know what I want to say, than I search how I can say it. ***What are the related objects? What are the relationships? What are the experiences people have with it? Sometimes the ideas come out when I’m doing another project or listening to a lecture (and got bored) and these ideas flash. Or a little something happening to me during the day can turn into a project. The best example for that would be the “Rolling Stone“ that I’ve done with my colleague Keren Rosen. We were just walking to lunch and playing with those stones when the idea hit us. Here is an example from experience: You eat mint, than if you drink water the
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water feels very cold. That could turn into a little project about how to make cold water without ice, I haven’t completed it yet. I guess, I observe and collect information about our behaviours and what is around us and how they effect us. (And plus I love experiments.) ***For example the “handle plate”: When I saw it the first time, I thought of it as a pan, and I thought to myself: How practical for someone who is often in a hurry like me: I could cook and then eat from it, and it would still seem as if I was eating from a proper plate. But now I looked at it and I see more the plate than a pan, and of course the name doesn`t even contain the word “pan”. Do you think that the interpretation is very strong dependent on the viewer? It is very very dependent on the viewer. I think that’s why the names are important for the projects, sometimes they have the whole clue to solve the puzzle. When they ask me about these objects, I don't like explaining them much, I think they speak themselves and people may imagine something totally different from what I meant and I like that. Mine is sometimes so shallow when you hear what they saw - so I play safe ;)
share a beer makes it easier when you still have your own “drinking space” :) Is it possible to purchase some of the objects, and if yes, which ones and where? Hehe I wish Heineken did put it on the market, or even just for promotion. The only thing produced so far is the “digit”, the candle holder, it's produced by Paola C. from Italy and I saw them this year in the Milan fair, you can still buy them. The espresso cup was supposed to be produced by Fabrica, but things are always very slow with production and I guess they already forgot about it. Maybe one day you see the around.
to let them know, maybe as you've said like a revenge feeling. ***Do you think that this is a trend at the moment to link objects with each other and so create a new context? You see lots of examples of that. It is important what they say. To say something you need to create a composition so the bonds are created within objects. Some objects do belong to each other. Pepper shaker and tissue paper seems more like a “couple” than salt and pepper shaker where they're forced to be together.
***I also really like the “pillow hat”. I travel a lot, mostly backpacking and many times you sit in trains, or busses or even on ships for a long, long time. And mostly it's very cold, because of the aircon blowing on you. In order not to carry too many things the “pillow hat” is the perfect combination. And I hate it, when your pillow slides down the window of the bus! Or you have to change the position of it!
***You also create objects that seem really practical. I really hope that they come on the market: Like the “Heineken” bottle with the two necks. The decision to
***And my absolute favorite is the wedding invitation. What a playfull approach to “hard feelings”. Did this idea come from some kind of “revenge feeling”? I was asked to send these as proposals to a book about invitations. I thought about the times we invite people to events just to be polite. It's always very hard to invite your ex, and he probably wouldn't come. And I thought, you do want
Thank you Meriç!
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NR65_P
78 79 Where does architecture start and furniture end? A great example for this borderline discussion is the Windowseat Lounge. Picture this: A seat as a comfortable refuge from busy airport lobbies. Providing you space to letting the world pass you by, just as if you were not part of it. The designers-duo MIKE and MAAIKE creates sub-architectural spaces by applying walls and ceilings to the chair. The result is space-within-aspace giving it a wilful and at the same time unique perspective.
WINDOWSEAT LOUNGE by Mike & Maaike
Die Grenzen von Architektur und Einrichtung scheinen manchmal fließend. Ein wunderbares Beispiel ist die Windowseat Lounge. Man stelle sie sich als bequemen Rückzugsort in geschäftigen Flughafen-Lobbies vor. Ein Ort an dem man die Welt an sich vorüber ziehen lassen kann als gehöre man gar nicht dazu. Das Designer-Duo MIKE and MAAIKE kreiert laut Eigendefinition subarchitektonische Räume indem Decken- oder Wandelemente an den Stuhl angepasst werden. So entstehen Räume in Räumen mit eigensinniger und zugleich einzigartiger Perspektive.
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VOLOS. A highlight of expressive bathroom design. The minimalist form meets the high demands of classical purist design. The bathroom as a symbiosis of design, function, innovative lighting technology and meditative magic. A unique experience of expressive sensuality!
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www. pureaustriandesign. com You`d like to search a producer with me?
Rate me up. I won many design prizes
Open up to design dialogue
Take me out, I´m a cool outdoor furniture.
Hey, I just found one!!
We won the red dot award!!.
Don`t worry. It is not hard to find my disc. Let`s roll to the shop! We´re buyable!
My basket is never empty
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Celebrity is my name. I found a Producer on my Landing in New York
oK! do it!!
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