Some months ago I had the chance to design the key visual for the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2010. As the title “The Heat Is On – Climate Change and the Media” reveals, subject of the conference is our global environment which is heating up. Now as there are some problems in credibility recently (remember the hacked e-mails from a British University where scientist showed that they are ready to “tune up” statistics to keep the topic of climate change “hot” or the falling-down of climate star Al Gore’s respectability) it is even more important to picture the subject-matter in an objective manner. Let’s have a look on the approaches that exist to visualize climate change.

Within the next I will typify different approaches to the subject.

Members of Jeudi Noir

More than 8% of the houses in Paris (data of the city administration) stand empty. Supposably the real number is much higher. On the other hand even sharing a flat costs at least 400 Euros. This is a big problem for a city that is connected with terms like art and creativityWhat will the future be like if a city cannot offer space to live and work for upcoming younger talents that do not belong to the group of top earners? It’s of course possible that the mayor of Paris does not know about the importance of the creative industries and if he one day will know it might take years till a dull city administration will react on the issue.

The group Jeudi Noir did not want to wait so long. Their approach is to occupy houses that are empty and unused. Last “project” is a splendid villa on the Place de Vosges no. 1b. On one of the most demanded addresses in Paris the “Squatteurs” occupied a 1,300 square metre house that is degenerating since 45 years.

Spaces out of real estate perfection and capital are rare our cities. But it is exactly those places that creativity needs to grow and evolve. Assumed that the squatters treat the building at least better than its owners or even better start renovating the objects, it is the best strategy for the ghost buildings. “Eigentum verpflichtet” (property obligates) – and if the owner is not interested in caring for it, why not let creative people do the job that really have a motivation for it?

More information in English, French or German (including video).

Written at Cafe Kislev in the centre of Cologne, an enjoyable place with WLAN in the Zülpicher quarter.

There could not have been a better place for this panel discussion: Galeria Kaufhof held this event not in its headquarters a short walk away but in its Cologne warehouse amidst the things that matter: products.

Discussion topic was “Universal Design” and accordingly “how attractive products for all generations can be”. A lively discussion took place that add times tried to define the empty term “Universal Design”. For Prof. Martin Topel, professor at the University of Wuppertal and owner of the design agency Squareone in Düsseldorf / Germany, the expression is just a rehashing of old ideas:

“In general the principles that lie behind the idea of Universal Design were already defined by Dieter Rams in his 10 design principles* years ago.”

It seems obvious that the subject grows in importance now as the baby-boomers with reliable spendings due to safe earnings and pensions from the golden times have a high potential in spending money in goods. So retailers get more and more attracted to the idea of “Universal Design”.

Galeria Kaufhof, one of Europe’s biggest warehouse companies, has a special focus on demographic shift: in May 2009 together with six other companies, Kaufhof signed the “Berlin Declaration” where they commit themselves to actively participate in framing a society that will decline and age in the next years. In presenting the exhibition “Universal Design – Designing Our Future” that is initiated by the International Design Center Berlin the retailer underlines its ambitions once again.

Claudia Reinery, member of the executive board, with high experience in discovering and fulfilling customer’s needs seemed to be open-minded for good ideas in the field of Universal Design. Probably the right contact person for experimental projects. More than that it is important that a company of the size of Galeria Kaufhof sends the right and particularly powerful signals to the manufacturers.

*Here’s again Dieter Rams’ 10 Design Principles:
Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.

Patrick Martinez sent me his interesting idea about how to keep the good old light bulb alive. Of course the only way is to virtualize it. So he did and produced Blank Bubble a downloadable version of a light bulb that even changes colour in the way you conduct it. It is possible to even hide the light bulb when you only want to have the light itself.

His aesthetic design invites to sit around the computer screen with friends and talk about the good old days of the light bulb.

“How will the coming rise in gas prices change the world“ asks Jeninne Lee-St. John on TIME.COM Christopher Steiner, author of the book $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better. In his opinion at $10 a gallon (that’s € 2,65 per liter in Europe) gift cards will become biodegradable and have expiration dates and at $14 a gallon (€3,70/l) Wal-Mart might collapse and manufacturing in the U.S. would be reborn.

Probably also electric and hybrid cars might come into the game. But to get this shift to alternative ways of car power it needs to become part of our public reality. First step will now be done in Germany. One of the biggest energy suppliers, RWE, today presented its new electrical filling pump in Munich. The new pump which has been designed by designaffairs will soon be installed in Germany’s urban centres. Berlin alone will receive 1,000 pumps.

In the next days we then have to talk about what big amount of energy and raw materials the production of electric engines itself costs. Probably we have to think over our way of individual transport in the end? However – this is a good subject for the Blog Action Day ‘09 on Climate Change.

In a country where the government wants to stay in control of its citizens, it is hard to find private or secret space. The only way to disappear from the eyes of big brother is to hide yourself. Artist Liu Bolin found a way to do so – respectively without photoshop or other manipulations. He just paints himself away. Found via reddit.

An interesting development comes from the company Greenhouse Energy and is called Microfueller (EFuel100).  It is a private filling station that allows to turn organic waste into ethanol fuel. Now – it is not that you can throw your old salad into the machine and the next day you drive 100 kilometres from that. The company itself will provide the feedstock for you. Greenhouse made contracts with companies that need to get rid of e. g. beverages that have date-expired and otherwise have to pay a high price to have those products hauled away for disposal.

Interesting and ground-breaking idea. Hopefully something like this does not lead to an increasing overproduction of things. It’s always a chain of systems that interacts with each. In the beginning it also seemed that using corn to produce fuel would be the most sustainable solution. Then it happened that the prices for corn rose worldwide – making it too expensive for people in poorer countries that are depending on it as a food.

However decentralized energy production is the most promising idea for the future. For example, the German bio-energy supplier Lichtblick is planning to install 100.000 gas power stations (“ZuhauseKraftwerk”) in private homes that supply heat for the building itself and energy for the public net. This huge swarm system with a capacity of 2,000 megawatts is equivalent to the power of two nuclear power plants.

More about the “Microfueller” project in an article published in The Economist. More about the Lichtblick idea soon to come here on ROGER LiVE – subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date.

Waste is design flaw says Kate Krebs of the National Recycling Coalition

After the launch in 2008 greengaged returns to the London Design Festival with a full week of world-class events designed to help the design industry tackle the big issues around sustainable design. Hosted by the Design Council, with five brilliant guest curators, greengaged promises to inspire us all and challenge the design industry as a whole to create positive change.

All greengaged events are free and each lasts for a whole day with lunch included. Details about program and registration can be found on the greengaged website.

This competition calls for a logo that represents the DREAM Center program of the UNESCO/Tribute 21 Fund. The logo is intended to be used on the program’s stationery, brochures, and collateral materials including possibly in video clips, on signage and on the web.

UNESCO/Tribute 21 DREAM Centers is an arts education program for children – DREAM stands for Dance, Read, Express, Art, Music. The project was inaugurated in 2003 with the goal of providing underprivileged children, especially in post-conflict regions, the opportunities and tools to express themselves creatively. This is based on the belief that creative expression is a powerful source of self-confidence and essential to child development.

DREAM Center programs serve a need that is not being met by programs that address basic needs (food, shelter, health care, etc.). Considered non-essential, art is often left out. DREAM programs – sometimes physical structures included – are built in partnership with a local NPO. Established locations include Kabul, Afghanistan; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monrovia, Liberia, and East Jerusalem. The UNESCO/Tribute 21 Fund is a project partnership between UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and Felissimo, a global design and merchandising company.

Application Closes November 17, 2009. Public Voting from November 19, 2009 to November 26, 2009. Results will be announced on December 08, 2009. More information via Design21 Social Design Network.

Jer Thorp, an artist and educator from Vancouver/Canada who runs the blog blprnt.blg, did this data visualization to display government spending on arts funding. The government of British Columbia seems to be one of the few regions that did not realize that the creative industries are beneficial for the economy but even more important for the cultural life and the satisfaction of its citizens. The liberal government cut its spendings from 47.8 to about 23 million $. This may have severe outcomes for the creatives in British Columbia.

Yesterday, on Sept. 9th 2009, members and supporters of the arts community gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery to protest against the funding cuts. Image: Carlito Pablo