Refresh

Posted on August 3rd, 2006 in site news and

It’s too damn hot. Things need to be lightened up a bit—clothes shed, bags dropped, drinks iced, and designs de-frocked. So, next year’s model is here, or something. Please refresh your browsers. Update your RSS feeds. Lighten up.

Actually, the unbearable weight of design struck one before the unbearable heat of the concrete world did. It seems so hard to escape the Brand. It seems that to design is to brand, to reduce for consumption, to package so nicely, and to sell, to be instantly apparent. One wishes to be clear and to convey information in a reasonable, digestable manner: one brands oneself. “So step back a bit,” one says to oneself. It can be clear and structured—and there can be a spot of blue!—and maybe not so much the identity package for a luxury sedan. (Although, next year’s model is already available here.) It might be a lost cause. These days, to give the thing a name is to begin the descent (or ascent) to Brand Hell (or Heaven).

Maybe the overheated argument is more plausible. It’s just too damn hot, and you gotta lighten up.

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Hello

I live and work in Philadelphia, USA where I am an Assistant Professor in Multimedia in the College of Media and Communication at The University of the Arts. I am the Director of the Department for the Investigation of Meaning in The Think Tank that has yet to be named and I am a strategic designer in The Action Mill.

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  • Nature Study, An Ambivalent Guide

    A guidebook and installation which catalog a contemplation of the ambivalence that defines humankind’s complex relationship to the natural environment.

  • The ARPANET Dialogues

    An archive of rare conversations within the contemporary social, political, and cultural milieu.

  • Manifesta 8

    Co-curating the European biennial of contemporary with Bassam El Baroni and Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum.

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    Place In Place Of: Alexandria

    Site-specific interventions, performances, lectures and documents created in Alexandria, Egypt.

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    Terra Incognita

    Marking the impact of the University of the Arts on land use in Center City Philadelphia.