I had the very kind invitation from johnathan of mutantstyle and AWE50ME to be part of the PSFK conference Asia. There were some really nice speakers, and a fabulous after party at superfamous, with art from some of the local artists – the mutant style collective, steve lawler as mojoko, antz, joel yuen, kendrick from imaginary friends studio, and sean lee, a local photographer, among others. Also there was 8-bit DJ ikuma playing music from a 80s gameboy and SNES set.
Check his music here http://www.myspace.com/ikooma
The conference was one of the better design conferences i have attended, a smaller venue but much more interesting speakers, like Jeff Staples and rob campbell from sunshine, who spoke their minds about design in singapore and elsewhere. I liked the honesty and candidness of the speakers.
The conference provided a great platform for networking with international speakers, and meeting up with like-minded people.
Some things I’ve learnt:
1. Even big organisations like NASA need to stay relevant through design. The NASA speaker, Andrew Hoppin, actually admitted that they’re not capable of sending people to the moon now. And he emphasized the pressing need to keep in touch, through education, and using new media – blogs, second life, to keep the corporate culture fresh and invigorating.
2. Cultural shifts affect the way we work – and makes things irrelevant. In the case of NASA, it was interesting to note that factors affecting liberal arts studies and less focus on technical/engineering sciences made NASA ‘distant’ – and the need to reconnect with the general public (through volunteer programs online – more grassroots, less top-down). Is space travel necessary today? Is tax worth paying to fly men to the moon again and again? What are we learning about the universe, or is it really just a show on power, technology and capability?
3. I really liked how rob campbell talked about the BIG idea – not a funny one-liner, but an actual, life changing, world shifting, idea, just like how JK Rowling single-handedly changed reading habits of young people, more than any library reading campaign ever will. Food for thought. Sometimes it just takes one person, than a whole army of people to change anything.
4. Jeff staples reaffirmed my belief that its usually a good idea to stick to one memorable style of art than try everything to be a good artist. Sometimes you just need to at the right place and the right time to get to where you are. But he’s one heck of a hardworking guy and very un-assuming guy too. So I think that’s a plus too.
5. I like Nick Barham’s presentation on china, and the 3 keywords nu, fubai and ke zu tuan, and how these terms are taking on significally different meanings in a radically shifting age and time in china. His presentation really magnified the commercialism in china, but i think, its happening everywhere else too. I enjoyed looking at cultural differences in graphic design and the way homes are marketed to the middle class.
6. Campbell made mention about Singapore being one of the most creative nations in the world, for getting to where we are now, but also becoming boring – because we’re doing what everyone else already has: F1, IR, and the Singapore Flyer, among other things. I don’t think we lack creativity, but the courage to be different. I think there’s some reticence and politeness about people here. N its not always easy to be different.
7. I get the sense that there’s some impatience among us to get to the ‘top’, and being international. And having global recognition. Where is this top – and will we ever find it? I think success comes with maturity. It should be about the journey up than getting there – but I don’t think we can ever be truly satisfied as creatives. There’s always a place for utopia. Do we need to always look out to see what’s inside? We need to reassess our souls.
8. Lastly, should design be grassroots, or top-down, or both? I still can’t figure this out. Maybe there is a median, , where top and ground meet in the middle. Or maybe it should work in an exchange, a flux or conversation – like a continuous dialogue between the two. When we’re too high up, we have to look down to see how far we’ve climbed, to get a better perspective of things.
So yea, i learnt some things, but I think the conference made me think about more things than actually having finite answers to these questions, which was good. I don’t think creatives need to have answers to everything or we’d be dead.
Some pictures:
I like this sticker idea. Its analog in execution, but modern and progressive in the concept. Cool.
pick one
jeff staples and michael kerferl from CScout Japan
Recyclofashion
Recyclofashion are foong wai harng, yongzhi and ash, a trio of eco-friendly fashion designers to have made headlines with their plastic-bag bags. I also had the honour of being their facilitator in the School of Technology for the Arts, in Republic Polytechnic. Its cool to see your own students doing well outside of school when they’ve graduated.
DJ ikuma
Here is my print, the Party People’s Actions, 153 x 93m, stretched on canvas, for sale at SGD $600. Email me if you would like to buy one. Its limited to a print run of 10.
I also found out that pecha kucha is pronounced Pechakcha in Japanese, and it means ‘chit-chat’, from Mark Dytham – the architect who founded the sessions. He was also one of the funnier speakers at the conference. I’m not a huge fan of the format though, because you really need to rush through the slides. I think 40 to 50 seconds would be just nice. But maybe 20×20 sounds better.
