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Welcome to Under The Influence, iris' cultural barometer and our window on the world. We'll be trawling the planet to uncover some truly extraordinary ideas and trends from around the globe. Every two months we’ll pass the editorial responsibilities to one of our network offices and set a new theme for us all to explore.
Issue 3
In the last issue, we covered the world of Urgent Genius, where bold thinkers use the hyperkinetic world of news and pop culture as a springboard to quick, killer creativity.
This issue, iris in the Americas will be exploring the idea of independence.
Giving the finger to the man and doing it your own way has always been a powerful idea. Now in an age where the web is empowering people in so many new ways, independence is a more powerful idea than ever.
So let’s take a look at the risk-takers and challenger brands disrupting every industry from movies to banking. Let’s salute those who are forsaking big brands to buy locally, and creating their own products. And let’s celebrate all the ways people around the world are now thinking and acting independently.
Join in. Comment and share here: undertheinfluenceUSA@iris-worldwide.com
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Wikileaks
Wikileaks has been headline news for the past month generating a range of urgent genius responses. This week, news that Julian Assange...
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Click the link and help get Urgent Genius on the slate for South by SouthWest (SxSW) 2011.
A new vision of the...
Tag Results
9 posts tagged rebirth issue
Mayflies
Matt Jones’ new super lightweight Nikes won’t be around for ever. In fact they won’t even last more than ten runs.
This defined sense of the object’s limited-life reinforces its narrative.
The thing is a clock.
Its beginning, middle and end will be marked.
And indeed, the object itself asks you to record the beginning…
…and to do right by its end.
Planned obsolescence like this doesn’t just belong in glitzy trainers.
Even the postscript in a letter from Google Adwords can do the trick.
Death and re-birth built into your creation’s lifecycle. Complete with a beginning, middle and end.
Books worth reading*
TED’s philosophy has always been social.
Its credo, “ideas worth spreading”, has informed everything from the the range of speakers invited to each conference to its stunningly successful Open Translation Project.
And of course it doesn’t mind copycat programs springing up. In fact, it licenses and endorses them (TEDx).
So now they’re turning their focus to publishing. Introducing TED Books:
[…] seeing the explosive growth of e-book platforms like Kindle and iPad got us thinking. And the question that wouldn’t go away was: why are books the length they are? Is it because it inherently takes 300 pages to explain an idea? Or is it more to do with the traditions of book publishing in print?
Available in Kindle Singles format (clever Amazon), the hope is that interesting academics and TED speakers will be able to publish in a more timely fashion and reach wider audiences.
Books worth reading. Not skimming.
Read Why TED Books? A Q&A with TED’s curator, Chris Anderson
iHumument
Tom Phillips’ classic book, A Humument, is now available as an app for iPhone and iPad.
The Humument App combines the 367 full-colour pages with an entirely novel interactive feature called “The Oracle.” Using a date and a randomly generated number the oracle will cast two pages to be read in tandem. Like the I Ching, the ancient Chinese Book of Changes, chance pairs of pages, taken together and interpreted, act as a guide and cryptic commentary on life in word and picture.
via imprint
SOME BIBLIOTHERAPHY?
In a world where technology is changing the way we read, where everything is online, on handheld devices, on the go, it’s no surprise someone’s found a way to do things differently.
Based on a 1930s concept that saw recuperating soldiers given books to read to aid their recovery and calm their minds, Bibliotherapy is at the heart of School of Life’s latest holiday programme.
Simply chat to a Bibliotherapist who’ll give you a tailored reading list. Then, in partnership with the School’s Living Architecture programme, head off to a beautiful location where you can sit back, calm your mind and re-kindle your love of reading.
FACTORIES
Albam don’t just do what they do because no one does it anymore. (Although they like that everyone else in their industry thinks they’re slightly crazy.) They do what they do - create modern, beautifully crafted men’s clothing, right here in the UK - because they like they way things used to be. Personal, British, meticulous.
The company started three years ago in a small work room in Nottingham. Armed with just seven lines of men’s knits, shirts and coats, and a determination to protect and celebrate old manufacturing processes, the small team set about producing high quality clothes for people who care where their stuff comes from.
And to prove and preserve their process, they put it all in a book. Factories documents two years of manufacturing trial and error, shows a rejuvenation of old ways and celebrates a new way of doing things.
The Impossible Project
Instant nostalgia, perfect pastel hues, that Outkast song. We almost had to say goodbye to it all in 2008 when Polaroid announced they were shutting down the factories that manufactured their film.
That is until a group of former employees decided to shake things up. They wanted to keep the famous analogue photography medium alive but the chemicals needed to manufacture the films were no longer being made.
So they completely re-configured the printing format. They invented new films that stopped the world’s 3,000,000,000 Polaroid cameras from becoming obsolete. They proved that with passion and knowledge, nothing is impossible.
And so, instant photography was re-born. Hipsters everywhere rejoiced.
Lekki offer a range of vintage and revamped mobile phones. More than 10 years after their original release the legendary 90’s handsets are back. Simple and effective these are phones that are just phones.
