Film a week number twelve
Footage taken in France…
I became frustrated that I couldn’t watch the view as I was driving, and had to actually concentrate on driving; I setup the camera so I could watch it later.
I’m not sure that it belongs on the internet- perhaps it should be a projection, running in the background that can be dipped into and out of, but for know it lives here.
Music: Do make say think
Film a week number eleven.
This is some footage I made with Jamie when we were in Spain- we sat around talking about art, design, cars, bikes etc for a couple of hours, I filmed a lot, and it has been a huge pain to edit, hence why I haven’t made a film for (over) two weeks.
Film a week number 9. Jamie was sick of the arty stuff in my film-a-weeks and told me I needed some more ‘punk’- so this is my attempt at a less refined ‘punk’ aesthetic, also due to the fact that i edited it in no more than 10 minutes.
Some friends of mine in France dig this trail and kindly gave me the key yesterday to go ride- while everyone else was either nursing hangovers or injuries I had a nice little session in the woods by myself followed by a swim in the river. I decided to do some solo filming, with a prettyshady inspired gaffer-tape-helmet-cam.
This is Nigel- I lived with him for a week on his farm, helping out, and made a little film with him just before I left…
Film a week number 7- long boarding in France with Jamie and Ander
I’m just going to quote the Howies blog for this- It really puts into words how I’m feeling right now… I think this is a lead on, though an antithesis to my riversimple post, for me it shows a genuine helplessness- how the hell are we ever going to get ‘the power’ back to make people take responsibility for their actions. It’s a very sad and impossible state of affairs to be in.
There are some swear words in this. I tried not to.
Why are we not getting better at the bad stuff?
We invented the plane and have streamlined systems to fly people all over the world, but cannot get them home when there is ash in the sky.
Leaves stop trains.
We create power from uranium, but have no great plan for it when it’s spent but still highly dangerous.
And when 5000 barrels of oil a day flood onto the oceans it will take another 90 days to drill another well into the oil field to release the gas to stop the flow. So by the time they stop it between 1-5 million barrels will have leaked into a fragile ocean.
And this is the third time in 5 years BP have fucked up like this. Why should shareholders and the company benefit when the world has paid the price?
Governments, business, people need to make the companies that are making big big money from high risk stuff prove that they are prepared for the big fuck up’s before they start.
Really prove it.
They must stand up in front of a huge room of children who will come up with all those madcap ideas that may happen. And if they can prove they are prepared, the next question from the kids will be “why”?
And if after all this they fuck up, then the company management is sacked after they have gone out and cleaned up their mess.
When it’s big stuff like this, companies have got to be good at the bad stuff.
The worst part of it is, these companies are asking designers everyday to make them look a certain way (BP especially)- to give the impressions of care, alluding to ‘greeness’; and the designers say YES!
“Design can change the world” - I think this is a stupid and unthoughtful expression. Of course design can change the world; it continually does, and always has done. When we look at the seemingly insignificant things we design- adverts, branding, new juice squeezers, we can see that they have a small pinprick pushing us towards something. All building up into a massive change- The iphone changed the world (the way we experience cities, our social life etc), but its just a phone! The problem here is not that design doesn’t make change it is that we continually design, and change the world for the worse – in a way that a certain group of people visualise the future.
I think a better phrase would be “Design continually changes the world- so make sure it’s good.”
-I found this little rant in a ‘sticky note’ somewhere in the depths of my HDD- I’m not sure when I wrote it but it seemed to make sense next to the poster.
(Poster by Connie Butler)
I came across this company in the UK who are releasing an open source hydrogen fuel cell car, while researching alternative fuels. I wanted to share a couple of quotes… The car doesn’t interest me so much as the business model: they recognise that most people don’t necessarily want an object (the car) that simply depreciates, they just want to be able to move around. Thus, they are moving away from the idea of car ownership- they say “Car manufacturers make money from selling cars and parts- which rewards obsolescence and high running costs”- they want to move towards leasing vehicles- which “rewards longevity and low running costs”- the car manufacturers take responsibility for the car, it’s fuel, and fixing it up.
They go onto say:
“we can never achieve a sustainable system whilst the interests of one stakeholder group, such as shareholders legally trumps the interests of society or the environment.”
Nail on the head I think- the interests of the highest earners dictates our overall direction, (as opposed to what a society wants) the desirable direction, for those high earners being to earn even more. Thus we have a never ending cycle.