Discover Top Posts Tagged with #ds12

Graphic test for a charity art event poster.

#DS12 #MOCAD #charity #poster #concept

Early sketches of life on the island:

Design studios and sampling workshop merge into the everyday street scene.

#Architecture #MArch #DS12 #masters #masters of architecture #Yr 1 #process #sketch #water colour #fashion island

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Playing my first DS-12 track in the wrong order 👻 #ds12 #chiptune

#ds12 #chiptune

On vote au maximum pour @leilabenkhalifaofficial ✌ #DWTSMELeila voté👉 #DS12 #EnCompagnePourLaVictoireDeLeila 👏👏👏

#dwtsmeleila #encompagnepourlavictoiredeleila #ds12

jumping bean hoon (cr: dc)

#lee jong suk #ds12 #look at this dumb #doesn't it make you feel life is worth living

We're better when we're together

There is a lovely Ethiopian proverb that describes the process of collaboration:

“When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.”

Sadly, it isn’t always like this.

Those of us in the creative industries are often called upon to team up. When it works well, the results can be wonderful: the Google Art Project, say, or the Tate Movie.

More usually, however, collaboration is a bit like fruit tea: better in theory than practice.

Last night, we hotfooted over to the Barbican Centre to hear Unthinkable Consulting and a bunch of successful collaborators spill their secrets.

First up was Nikhil Shah of Mixcloud and Daniel Nathan from totallyradio, who brought together a bunch of industry stakeholders – and a wadge of grant cash – to form Radio Connected. Together, they tackled some of the big issues holding Internet radio back, such as standardised metadata and simplified rights management.

Nikhil and Daniel picked out two important things: that ‘true partnerships’ seldom work (one person needs to be in charge), and that you can never ask for too much funding.

Next up were Peter Higgin of Punchdrunk, the immersive theatre company, and Tod Machover, a avant garde composer working at MIT Media Lab. They made Sleep No More, an immersive theatre show in an abandoned hotel in New York, which involved such eye-catching elements as typewriters outputting messages from online participants.

The big challenge for Sleep No More was to keep these online participants engaged over several hours, and a deep marriage of tech and emotionally-involving theatre was crucial. The solution was perhaps unsurprising: talk a lot, respect the expertise of everyone involved, and don’t worry about stupid questions. Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering!

The most interesting talk of the evening came from Anno Mitchell of digital design agency Friday. She was presented with the ultimate service design challenge: the funeral.

Funerals are events which most people only plan once or twice, and in an emotionally-fragile state. Digital elements have to be simple and informative – many people don’t know where to start, and are unlikely to be digital natives.

There was great scope for Co-operative Funeralcare – the client – to extend their reputation for great service by becoming the go-to online resource for anyone planning a funeral.

Anno talked about the importance of deep understanding of the client’s business, and the value of cartooning to visualise abstract digital ideas for people with little digital know-how.

Mutual respect was the subtext of all of the presentations – collaborations work if everyone believes that their collaborators are adding some kind of value. That comes from choosing the right collaborators. If you nail that, crackly Skype calls, budget constraints and hectic schedules can all be dealt with.

We left with the feeling that, with a bit of luck, we might lick that lion after all.

#collaboration #tech #tech partners #events #ds12

"Predicting the future is like selling banana" Simon Waterfall. #figtalks #ds12 (Taken with instagram)

#ds12 #figtalks