FormmuseumNu – debate ‘regarding the content and function of a future design museum’

2 February 2012, Konstfack,Svarta Havet, Stockholm.   16.00 – 18.00

Daniel Charny, Curator and advisor for the New Design Museum, London, Lidewij Edelkoort, Trend analyst, Trend Union, Paris. Nina Stritzer – Levine, Chief curator at Bard Graduate center Decorative Arts, New York. FromaFantasma / Andrea Trimarchi, Simone Farresin, Designer, Eindhoven. Mikael Schiller, Executive Chairman of ACNE Studios, Stockholm. Moderator: Annica Kvint, Design – and architecture critic, Stockholm.

Having an interesting time talking to students from various universities about Power of Making, a joint exhibition for the V&A Museum and Crafts Council. Next up is London Metropolitan University, Department of Architecture and Spatial Design where Course Leader is Diane Cochrane on 10 November details here. Then Camberwell College of Arts 3D Design and Designer Maker students lead by Karen Richmond and Maiko Tsutsumi. A little later in the month with the Royal College of Art Design Products students, a programme lead by Tord Boontje and early in December taking part in the TOOKIT lecture series for Kingston’s BA Product & Furniture Design where Jon Harison is Acting Course Director.

Power of Making from Juriaan Booij on Vimeo.

A three screen film installation commissioned for the Power Of Making exhibition. A collaboration between the V&A and the Crafts Council of England. London 2011.

Director / Camera: Juriaan Booij
Commissioning Editor: Daniel Charny

Held at the V&A during Power of Making Friday Late 30 September, The Institute of Ideas Satellite programme with guests Sandy Black, Daniel Charny, Angela Saini, Paul Reeves, Matt Warman and James Woudhuysen was an eclectic array of  responses to declarations and questions such as : ”Is the move towards the ‘creative economy’ simply the latest evolution of Adam Smith’s division of labour, or is there a serious risk of overspecialisation once the Chinese et al develop their designers alongside their factories? Should we embrace a return to the days of thrifty ‘make do and mend’ or celebrate mass production’s achievements in creating mountains of ‘stuff’? What skills are necessary to fuel a thriving manufacturing sector, and are there any barriers being placed on innovation today? What should the UK be making in the 21st century?.” [via Institute of Ideas]

Daniel Charny was invited by the Crafts Council of Ireland to talk about the ideas that shaped the exhibition Power of Making (currently on and free at the Victoria and Albert Museum till 02 January 2012) as keynote speaker at Ireland’s Future Makers Seminar next Thursday November 3rd, 10am – 4pm. Venue: Triskel Christchurch, Triskel Arts Centre, Tobin St, Cork.

The 23^rd International Conference of the Society for Medical Innovation and Technology (SMIT), chaired by the innovative surgeon Amir Szold invited a keynote on Design Thinking and how to work with designers. The talk by Daniel Charny reviewed the development of the profession of industrial design as a strategic practice suggesting to the inventors, engineers and medical innovation leaders to integrate design and designers from the very early stages of their projects. The talk also presented recent ground breaking work from the Helen Hamlyn Design Centre.

David Adjaye is this year’s recipient of Design Miami/ Designer of the Year Award.

“The diverse selection committee comprising individuals who significantly impact international design discourse” included: Maarten Baas, Daniel Charny, Pierre Doze, Marianne Goebl, Brooke Hodge, Ellen Lupton, Ravi Naidoo, Deyan Sudjic, Noriko Takiguchi and Alexander von Vegesack.

Joint V&A and Crafts Council exhibition Power of Making, curated by Daniel Charny, celebrates imaginative use of skills is open 6 September 2011 to 2 January 2012. Check out the activity programme around the ‘Old Kent Enterprise’ table by El Ultimo Grito in the Tinkerspace. Images from V&A by Peter Kelleher.

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Published by the V&A Museum to coincide with the exhibition Power of Making, opening September 6 2011, this series of essays edited and introduced by Daniel Charny includes new pieces by anthropologist Danny Miller, cultural historian and educationalist  Christopher Frayling, Applied arts historian Martina Margetts, curator and artist  Ele Carpenter, science fiction author  Bruce Sterling and a recently conducted interview with Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms Neil Gershenfeld. The images selected from the exhibits are accompanied by short poetic captions commissioned from author Patricia Rodriguez. Designed by Oscar & Ewan. For full details check here.

Images from CRblog.

Super Contemporary - Designed in London, curated by Daniel Charny for the Design Museum is opening in Taipei Fine Arts Museum on 27 August –  27 November 2011. The show celebrating the fearlessly progressive spirit of London’s greatest creative minds, past and present includes a rich timeline of design events in political and cultural context from the 1960′s to this day. Along side it are 15 commissions of new concepts for the city by leading designers that see London as their home. First shown in June 2009 the exhibition design is a collaboration between furniture designer Martino Gamper, and graphic design consultancy Bibliothèque.

FROM-NOW-ON have been appointed by the Design Museum London as Content and Interpretation Consultants to work with them on the strategy, policies and display of their permanent collections. This is part of the comprehensive goundwork preparing for the  museum’s very exciting new development project to move to the former Commonwealth Institute building.

Four more projects by Design Products students from the group working with Roberto Feo and Daniel Charny include: QR U? a project about exploring and controlling online identity by Thorunn Arnadottir ; Fast assembly studio furniture bracket system by Thomas Hatfield; From Here For Here local materials for local product, pencil making mini factory for the Royal College of Art students by Ariane Prin and Lightweight trestles and heavyweight coat-hangers by Benjamin Whistle (Images on their way).

First round of trials for the live online masterclasses completed, learnt much and lots to look forward to. The first round of masters to brave the new format included: Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh/Sugru , Simon Waterfall/Fray , Conny Freyer/Troika , Asa Bruno/Ron Arad Architects. We are working on the next set of classes that will be available for the autumn season.

Konstfack university college of arts, crafts and design is reflecting on locality in a global design and art world. Daniel Charny will be among a group of panelists invited by Ivar Björkman, President of Konstfack since 2003 to take part in a public round table discussion about the role of geographical location in art, craft and design. It’s a pertinent question for design and art education especially in these times when there is increasing pressure by governing bodies and students alike to demonstrate value. Among the panelists are: Liesbeth den Besten, Dan Fern, Søren Grammel, Davide Quadrio, LouiseSchouwenberg, Annika von Taube and Marco Velardi.

Curated for The Aram Gallery Material Table will present the material sample library from David Adjaye’s practice. Taken as is from their offices and located across the gallery space the timber, glass, metal, fabric and plastic samples, along side unique sample experiments will serve to offer insights into one of the most significant and emotive aspects of this creative architectural practice. The catalogue includes David Adjaye in conversation with Daniel Charny talking about materials and methods.

This year Daniel Charny nominated four designs for Brit Insurance Designs of the year 2011 the yearly showcase of selected designs from around the world is on at the Design Museum London until July 2011.

SPUN by HEATHERWICK STUDIO/Manufactured by MAGIS; LEVERAGED FREEDOM CHAIR by MIT MOBILITY LABORATORY; BRANCA by INDUSTRIAL FACILITY/Manufactured by Mattiazzi and INTIMATE RIDER by ALAN THOLKES.

This year Roberto Feo and Daniel Charny set Platform 10′s underlying theme as The BookClub. After reading excerpts from: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore; Writings by Vilém Flusser; Myths of the Near Future by J.G. Ballard; Species of Spaces and other stories by George Perec; Ubik by Philip K Dick; Cultural Resistance (Editor Michel Ducombe) by Ricardo Dominguez; Password by Jean Baudrillard; and in particular Losing Blue by Haruki Murakami and The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, the first and second year MA students embarked on a project called “A future of…” and so far some exciting ideas looking into the future of self diagnostics, makers guilds, insomnia and lighting in public spaces to name a few.(images by Roberto Feo from the start of year presentation)

Charny is to pursue new projects as Director at FROM-NOW-ON, a creative projects consultancy and to guest curate an exhibition, commissioned by the V&A Museum in collaboration with the Crafts Council.

Titled Power of Making the exhibition is due to open at the V&A in September 2011.

In the past eight years with Charny as curator The Aram Gallery has clocked 30 exhibitions, presented over 200 unique exhibitors, seen close to 10,000 visitors in the gallery and in the past year alone over 120,000 online visitors. Since starting in 2002 the gallery has grown to be a place dedicated to offering insights into design process with a focus on showing experimental work and championing the significance of prototypes. Among the shows were highlights such as Rotations, Significant Colour,  Jaime Hayon, Martino Gamper, Sebastian Bergne, Okay studio, Grassworks by Jair Straschnow and most recently Mind Sets by Ineke Hans. In May 2011 Charny will be back to do one more show about material samples with David Adjaye.

Daniel Charny was invited to take part in the Design Miami Designer of the Year Award Jury 2010 alongside Anniina Koivu, Cédric Morisset, Alexander von Vegesack, Ambra Medda & Wava Carpenter and 2008 winners Fernando & Humberto Campana.

The nominations have all gone in and voting has happened as well…the winner this year is Grcic, Konstantin Grcic.