Friday Diary: News from Across the Arts, Design, & Entrepreneurship – A WWM Roundup

*

It’s been a busy month and I haven’t been updating the site so here I’ve decided to wrap up the important news in creativity and leadership that may have been missed.

1) Fast Company named the 10 Most Creative Women in Business for 2010.  They include already very famous people like Stella McCartney and Nora Ephron and more obscure behind-the-scenes movers and shakers, the kind that are near and dear to WWM heart like game designer Jane McGonigal who said “My goal for the next 10 years is to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is in online games.” Now that piques my interest. I’ll definitely buy her book when it comes out.  And with a name like Padmasree Warrior, how can you lose;  Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer is leading the way to getting business on board with her right on target message that says “video content and cloud computing (is a platform for collaboration” that needs to be addressed. And now. Bonnie Hammer‘s SyFy channel is firmly planted in the future as well and she’s been making all the right moves. Of course they’re all worth mentioning. I’ll add the very photogenic Neri Oxman “whose work attempts to establish new forms of experimental design and novel processes of material practice at the interface of design, computer science, material engineering and ecology.” I wrote about her before at some point. She was on last year’s list. She does seem a little bit unreal.  I wish I could see her exhibit in Boston before it disappears but I’m sure there will be more.

2) On the lighter side, from Australia I’m digging Anthea and Cass Somas’ online shop Collection of Cool. Do you know any other great online shops? Do the little ones ever press on through to greatness and profitability? Would love to hear your suggestions on this front.

3) Grain’s purses inspired by Guatemalan women weavers. Their site explains: “Founded in 2007 at the Rhode Island School of Design, Grain is a collaborative of design thinkers with the shared vision of a more sustainable future.” Just my kind of project. Lovely bags as well.

4) Kate Gilmore’s “Walk the Walk” art installation in Bryant Park. What a fresh everyday urban detail to art upon.  I’m always perplexed by the lack of urban intelligence in certain cities. I’ve observed a lot of getting out of other people’s way in London for example and in Paris, how rushing headlong into someone is completely normal, without a word of apology or even a look of defiance. Human barrier to my path? What human barrier? Boom.  In New York, you have to walk on the street with the cars down Canal street for example in order to get anywhere. And everywhere in the world, its the tourists that create frustration just standing in the middle of the sidewalk obliviously taking pictures and strolling in slow motion. This walking, stopping, dodging, pushing through, and holding back is part of the stress, pleasure and pulse of living in a city.  It’s worth this kind of look and then some.

5) This exhibit – Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain at the Textile Museum. “Three women designers were pivotal in this artistic revolution: Lucienne Day (1917- 2010), Jacqueline Groag (1903-1985) and Marian Mahler (1911-1983).”

6) Women are Heroes, which I wrote about before What Women Make dot com started, debuted at Cannes last week. Juxtapoz reviews.

7) “Women without Men” by Shirin Neshat which explores gender in Islam opened in New York last week . I’ve also written about S.N. at some point on WWM. here is the review by the NYTimes.

And that it for now. Enjoy the week!

Chauncey

Image from article “Swedish/German designer Katrin Greiling plumbs Arab traditions in her furniture designs” via  Fast Company

Monday • May 24, 2010 • by Chauncey Zalkin

Category: Australia, Blog, Bonnie Hammer, Design Thinking, Designers, Film, Friday Diary, Jane McGonigal, Kate Gilmore, Lucienne Day, Neri Oxman, Retail, RISD, Science, Shirin Neshat, Sustainable, Textiles, U.K., U.S.