Post Titled: The DESIGNMAI FESTIVAL I did not intend to attend...

If you don't know me personally then SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH because it might be boring: I woke up, attempted to cut my own out-of-control-Peter-Pan hair, which worked, watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith (CLICK TO WATCH), a terribly enjoyable film I might add and then had to decide what to do with a rainy Saturday. Took all the empty bottles to the store and got the deposits, then used that money to buy bread, cheese and beer. Practically a barter system. there was a break in the rain so I google-mapped the location of an art and culturething sponsored by Tiger called "Tiger Translate" I was mainly interested because Eboy was on the lineup and I love their sh*t, so I got on the bike and make the trek across town, along the way passing by a club just off Heinrich-Heine Str. called "Poppen" (Fucking) at the base of a leg of the overhead S-bahn tracks. The name of the club was displayed in white duct tape on the window, cleverly... uh, avoiding sign-design costs, I suppose. I actually only noticed it beacuse a teenage girl was dancing through the bars of the second-story window, along with booming electronic music and other young hip-looking kids in their late teens and early 20's laying on the curbs and sidewalks outside. Charming... it was 4 in the afternoon, and although I had heard of clubs going through one night into the next day and on through the next night I hadn't actually withnessed it, so I was a bit taken aback. "Yaaawh, Faaaarradfahrer!! Ja, Fahrradfahren ist die Zukunft, alter!" said a cracked-out kid on the sidewalk, "Uh, -ja!" I managed... anthow, gotta film that sometime if I remember. Rode on past Alexanderplatz and then was distracted along the way when I then acidentally came across the

DESIGNMAI INTERNATIONALES DESIGNFESTIVAL (indicators being over-creatively snappy dressers with unusual haircuts, little tiny fold-out bicycles and crazy glasses. In typical space-cadet fashion, being disoriented and overwhelmed and this find, I didn't even notice the ticket desk and went straight to the book sales desk where they had a copy of the most recent Bruce Mau book (title?) and a dual-language copy of Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" oder "Der Medium ist die Botschaft"
Upstairs there were presentation areas for designers from all over, and I found a day-ticket on a table to legitimate myself. I actually got really excited because this stuff was SO sci-fi and "Web X.0" (whatever that means) it was amazing. Processes that imitated nature, products that looked like they were from another people and another planet, cellurlar-structured and creautre-esque furniture, stools, and lamps.
I guess I had taken for granted that design was blah-zaaay and could no longer stir my romatic mind, but seeing the FRONT Sketch Furniture made my jaw drop, and holy COW this is why:

music by: Hess is More.
so, yea, they DRAW the furniture in 3D space and then the machine or whatever "prints" it, whhhattt the faahk, amazing, right?

I then wandered into a room where a panel discussion was happening and took a seat. there was a really inspiring presentation from Reto Wettach of the Fachhochschule Postdam on INteraction Design and SUstainiability as well as Human-oriented interactive software adn Hardware, (his point was that coputers should be designed in ecactly the ways that we interact witht he world, not that we should have to adjust to their way of doing things... I think I had this same complaint recently: what is the point of going to an effing miserable office from 9-5 (17), sitting in front of a gling machine screen, etc. This all needs to GO- the office model, OUT OUT!. After that there was the girl (blogger) behind we-make-money-not-art.com, Regine Debatty, in pigtails. The program said she was from Germany but she had the Frenchest accent ever. I was quite impressed by her simple and blunt positions after her presentation: "I am just an observer" and "I am a consumer, yea- I buy a lot" when questioned later. I really appreciated that she brought up Takashi Murakami as the example of where the concern for the distinction between art and design ends. "The Japanese look for beauty in everything, they are not concerned whether the object of beauty is an artwork or a product..." I could never really truly wrap my mind around that... my years of faschist aesthetics sensibilites told me what was and was NOT art, still trying to free myself of that... afterall, who even cares? it is Art-Nazi bull$hit, afterall... I sold all my Murakami art products in the last months because of my financial situaltion, and yea... artproducts... they are both.
It was another awkward feeling since the room was filled with folks who had big hard boners for design and I am somewhat indifferent to it, I man sure- it is cool, but... hmm. I am not nodding my head at itching to get a work in edgewise like the group towards the front, grey-haired, sweatered and man-boobed... Yea, anyhow, design is cool but I guess I just don"t need it. Don't need to obsess over a thousand dollar chair that looks like plasticine mollusks- although, I appreciate how it tricles-down to affect product appearances in general, like - mobile phones and shoes and the lot.
an exhibit:



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