Is culture something that’s produced to be sold, or a description of the ways people live? It’s an old question, but last week’s Forum d’Avignon (see also my story below) put a new spin on it: could the culture industries lead the way out of the economic crisis? The debate did not take place on […]
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Post-GDP: metrics, aesthetics, or ethics?
So on Friday I’m immoderating a panel discussion about “After GDP” at the Forum d’Avignon, a uniquely French event which brings the worlds of culture, economy and media together in the Palais des Papes. By way of throwing an advance stone into the pond, I wrote this short background article for Les Echos. The French […]
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Do true cost economics spell finito for the Milan design scene?
Few artefacts embody so much mental, but also material energy, as a high design furniture from Milan. Will this sector be viable when the true social and environmental costs of industrial production start to be charged, rather than hidden? Well maybe, and maybe not: my lecture is followed by a debate. Thursday 8 October, Design […]
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Metrics and Aesthetics (cont.)
I can understand why Enrico Giovannini, Chief Statistician of the OECD, is so pleased with with his new visualzation tool, the OECD Factbook Explorer. Few people on the planet can be responsible for a larger volume of statistics than he is – or so aware that the more data proliferate, the harder it is to […]
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New questions for the Internet of Things
For Gunter Pauli it’s the sight of electronic devices that need batteries or electric wires in order to function. For me it’s hard or paved surfaces. For Usman Haque, it’s these pigs in a poke. These curious obsessions reflect new questions being raised about the design of things. My obsession first. After being mesmerised by […]
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DOORS OF PERCEPTION PORTFOLIO
Below you will find short descriptions of the main projects we have produced since 2000. We also publish Doors of Perception Report, a free monthly email newsletter here. Four Days Halifax (week of sustainability events, Halifax Nova Scotia, 2009)
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Four Days Halifax (week of sustainability events, Halifax Nova Scotia, 2009)
Doors of Perception helped to organize Four Days Halifax – a time-compressed mini-festival whose aim was to help the city get its hands muddy in a green economy Our starting point in Four Days was that many elements of a resilient Halifax already exist in embryonic form – but not all of them are visible […]
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2012 Imperative Teach-In (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2009)
Designers have an important role to play as enablers of the a transition to a sustainable system. As a society, we have the capacity to create systems that will allow us to live within the limits of the earth’s ecosystem. But the necessary changes are not being made – or not fast enough. How might […]
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Doors of Perception projects portfolio
Bulb-planting has started early at Doors HQ: – We’ve posted summary descriptions of the last ten years’ Doors of Perception projects – the idea being that we plan to do more projects like these ones, only better. – All City Eco Lab posts are now in one stack; [City Eco Lab never had its own […]