5 Things 21/05/20
offsite online by sight unseen
Sight Unseen’s long-awaited virtual design fair launched yesterday, and it lives up to every bit of the hype.
With plans to host a physical exhibition in NYC this year put on indefinite hold, the magazine was inspired to pivot to a digital exhibition model instead — harnessing the visibility of their existing online platform to create a much-needed creative and commercial outlet for the design community, as well as redefining what a fair can be in the digital age.
The is to provide support to designers who have found themselves cut off from nearly all avenues for sales and promotion due to the global pandemic; many were ready to launch their 2020 collections when retail stores were shuttered and design fairs canceled for the foreseeable future.
Determined that the (design) show must go on, Sight Unseen was forced to think not only about the ways in which a virtual show might recreate the best parts of a physical fair — most notably, interaction with the designers themselves and moments of discovery around every corner — but also the ways in which an online show could improve upon them.
For a personal touch, each exhibitor has recorded an audio clip introducing themselves and explaining their project in their own words. To put the designs in a spatial and conceptual context — in the absence of a physical presentation, or in many cases the ability to do a styled photo shoot — a plethora of some of the design world’s most up-and-coming digital artists have created 3-D rendered environments around them, including Stefano Giacomello, Andres Reisinger, Charlotte Talyor, and Victor Roussel.
Of course, it would be remiss of me to mention the main advantage of launching a design fair on the web: online shopping. In partnership with 1stdibs, Sight Unseen have curated a storefront in conjunction with the exhibition to make a selection of the pieces immediately purchasable.
Get the full Offsite Online experience on Sight Unseen.
Print Therapy With Pat Kim
This week’s therapeutic art video is brought to you by Pat Kim, New York based designer/artist. Oooh baby these lines got me feelin things.
Gardening Will Save the World
As part of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019, Tom Dixon and IKEA teamed up to design and produce an experimental model for growing plants in the urban environment.
Divided into two levels, the garden explores the contrast of the super-natural and technological to explore the future of growing.
The base garden is a horticultural laboratory where hydroponic technology is implemented to grow hyper-natural edibles. The raised garden is a botanic oasis with a naturalistic aesthetic and will encourage visitors to immerse themselves in a canopy-like ecosystem of trees, flowers and plants with medicinal, health and environmental benefits.
Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio will explore sustainable, affordable and forward-thinking solutions for people to grow food and medicinal plants at home and beyond. The garden showcases the potential for democratic and distributed urban farms and will consider the future of the environment.
Air Station by Moe Kim
The delightful Moe Kim is a textile designer experimenting with new materials to create unique and innovative fabrics.
In 2018, Kim released Air Station, a dystopian take on air pollution that plays with ideas on how it could be solved in the coming decades.
“Air Station project is about air-purifying components considering the situation in the future in 2050’s air contamination on earth. It is indoor air purifying system with landscape motifs. According to my hypothesis in the future, humanity pursuing massive filed of nature with fresh air. These motifs represent seven different nature themes.”
This Rainbow Kindergarten in Tianshui
Innocently scrolling through my discovery feed, this image stopped me in my tracks.
Chinese architects SAKO used 483 pieces of polychromatic glass to decorate this kindergarten in Tianshui, China. The studio has applied colourful elements above the glass doors and windows, as well as the handrails of corridors and stairs, creating a kaleidoscopic effect across the otherwise minimalist building.
University studies show that the presence of colour in a learning environment positively effects concentration, boosts mood and even increases motivation, so you can be expecting the next generation of child prodigies to be coming out of Tianshui.