Ouno Design
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Blog posts & design info from Ouno Design. Where once was sustainable textiles, now is mainly design criticism. http://ounodesign.com
Vancouver
This page links to Ouno Design site, which is just a long, somewhat messy photo essay on design. The historical context of design - design of objects, dwellings and cities - is too often ignored. History can be fugitive in the New World, with everything so decontextualized in the flow of commodities. Don't even get me started on tumblr and pinterest. I am more interested in the modern, co
ntemporary and the ancient than I am in what lies in between. I don't understand the appeal of cathedrals which I find garish and oppressive. I like the space-age, the futurist and the rustic, the utopian and the anti-utopian, the unstuffy and the unstaid, the frugal but sensual, the possibly-not-entirely-lost promise of the 1960s and 70s, the creative, the practical, the ingenious, the mixed, the unorthodox, and the way people actually live in real spaces. I am interested in bricolage, in making do, and in the way necessity mothers invention. I like the sheer level of cultural borrowing evident in design, the actual impurity of design traditions long considered pure, and just generally the wild miscegenation of everything. That's not to say that all mixing is a good idea. I'm definitely not talking about the faux-historification of our cities, the demolition of our actual past followed by its replacement with a faux nineteenth-century 'originality'. That's when you get elements of the past and the future, combining to make something not quite as good as either, as the Mighty Boosh would say. Because design is never divorced from anything else, this long essay is also about urban planning, philosophy, art, political economy, architecture, sociology, geography, neurology, pyschology and anything else that pertains to design, which is everything. The word "ouno" is a name in both Finnish and Japanese, two of my favourite nations for design. Apropos of nothing, the word also contains the symbols for both zero and one, and it's the same right side up as upside down. My dad was a mathematician in love with puzzles, so please excuse the nerd quotient and arithmophilia. Speaking of which, this blog makes no attempt to avoid being nerdy or critical. There are plenty of nicey-nice boosterist design blogs out there and if that's what you're looking for, you will happily find many of those. I wouldn't blame you for going there. I just think that without critique and complaint, the design of dwellings and cities in North America won't get any better. And it needs to get a lot better than it is—less creatively impoverished, more democratic and a lot more pleasurable. We do after all spend almost all of our lives in buildings and towns and cities and altered landscapes, all of which have a overwhelming impact on our conscious lives, our unconscious lives, our health, intelligence, creativity and our social interactions. These things affect us every moment of our lives whether we're aware of them or not. And not only do we need more humane spaces in which to live, we need—above all—to ensure affordable housing for all. Without this, all our interest in decor is just privileged fiddling while Rome (or insert your city here) burns. Housing is a human right. Public policy and regulation are the only ways to insure people are housed and can afford to live in the cities where they work. The market and private industry are not going to get us there. We all need to fight the worsening property speculation! Dear Canada and the USA and beyond, quit letting developers run—and ruin—this show.
21/04/2022
There is no way of knowing whether the dangers of lead exposure are only in your soils or your water pipes, or if they are also on your living room floor.
02/12/2021
Finally, an explanation for something we've all noticed... film dialogue has become impossible to make out over the past 10 years.
/Film spoke with several Oscar-winning sound designers, editors, and mixers to learn why it has become tougher to understand what characters are saying.
21/02/2021
I did not know this.
“Did you know the Jolly Jumper was invented by an Indigenous woman who spent her final years on Salt Spring Island? I sure didn't. This is Olivia Poole and the original Jolly Jumper. Learn more in the latest episode of MicCHEK: https://t.co/YdZ6fmUMv9 (Pics from Julie Shepherd)”
27/01/2021
One more nail in the coffin of the summit spreadeagle, oh please god make it stop
No more lavender fields or mountain tops please, urges agency in effort to stop people ‘travelling under the social influence’
31/12/2020
The latest from British Journal of Photography. Read now on the all-new 1854.photography.
28/12/2020
To add a factor to the settler/colonial hipster trope discussion: the underlying base of libertarianism. Excellent read.
“There was an old darkey And his name was Uncle Ned….” –Little House in the Big Woods “She did not make one mistake in geography.” -Little House on the Prairie By Lizzie Skurnick We tend to excuse the “Little House” series’ offenses as a product of their times. As a girl, I know I ...
20/12/2020
On Elon Musk's pickup truck, from last year's Big Fat Quiz:
Roisin Conaty: "There's no hope in that design. It's like that's a design for war. It's saying nothing good's going to happen..."
Noel Fielding: "Imagine the music when that thing comes round the corner. It's not [singing sweetly] la la la, it's like [nasal robot] mwik ick mwrk"
37:25
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS_yyhdAwjE
Panelists: Dara O Briain, Maya Jama, Asim Chaudhry, Roisin Conaty, Richard Ayoade, Noel Fielding
19/12/2020
150 ft. Iceberg passing through Iceberg Alley near Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada
19/12/2020
06/12/2020
Those first few bars...
01/12/2020
There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, nothing they even want. So you buy them a solar-powered waving queen; a belly button brush; a silver-plated ice cream tub holder; a...
29/11/2020
Robin Wall Kimmerer is an acclaimed botanist who blends her scientific studies with her Indigenous upbringing . She says there is much to be learned about how to interact respectfully with the earth, from the behaviour of plants.
19/10/2020
12/10/2020
If you're in Canada or are Canadian, please sign this, and thank you: https://you.leadnow.ca/petitions/stop-all-work-at-the-site-c-dam-now
The B.C. government must stop throwing good money after bad into the unneeded Site C dam. In July, BC Hydro belatedly admitted that serious geotechnical issues had materialized at Site C and that the fix was unclear. Before any more work continues, and any more of our billions are potentially wasted...
03/09/2020
This stuff is so cool. Been fixing things and making things with it for years. Woman designer! Great video.
16/08/2020
This is the same guy who, as everyone knows, just built a ph***ic luxury monument to his and Ian Gillespie's egos in Vancouver which destroyed the skyline at the same time as it laughed at the city's affordability and homelessness crises... Comment on this from an architect friend in Delhi: "concerning the politically genocidal demolition of the UNESCO listed heritage building, the National Theatre of Albania in Tirana and the complicity of the corporate architectural practice, ‘BIG’ and Bjarke Ingels. “Will such characters gently go away or are we stuck with them?”
By Dorina Pllumbi On June 19th Bjarke Ingels responded to an article previously published at Politiken regarding the recent demolition of the National Theater building in Tirana. The founder and principal of BIG attempts to clarify his position regarding the event to his fellow Danish citizens. Ingl...
07/08/2020
26/07/2020
In the midst of all this hell, and in honour of Mick Jagger's birthay, watch Simon Baker and Jimmy Fallon have a Mick-Off
Upon learning that Simon Baker does a Mick Jagger impression, Jimmy asks him to join him in a Mick-off, and the two showcase their moves. Subscribe NOW to Th...
11/07/2020
A short story in 5 pictures (yes, this is real - original links in comments)
11/06/2020
Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge take No 1 slots in wake of anti-racist demonstrations, as Waterstones staff ask chain to support cause
05/05/2020
Great no-sew DIY masks from Dr George Yang (where did he get those nice multicoloured elastics...)
Introducing the Omega Fold Face Mask (Mark 12). Use what you have DIY 5-layer 3D Paper Towel/Tissue paper/printer paper face mask for imme...
30/04/2020
Right down to the near-identical piano music intros... Were these corporate Covid-19 ads all produced by the same agency?
Corporate Covid-19 response videos are eerily similar. *Cue somber piano music* When a company or brand releases a Coronavirus Response ad, they might tell y...
22/04/2020
Sudden inexplicable hankering to watch this video. The choreography! Also, it's all indoors pretending to be outdoors, so ... perfect for pandemic, though we may be lacking the cowboys.
You're watching the official music video for "Don't Tell Me" from Madonna's album 'Music' released on Warner Bros. in 2000. Buy/Stream the 'Music' album here...
02/04/2020
Please sign! And share.
Urge the BC government to respect Indigenous communities and their rights to health and safety. Continuing construction of Site C exposes communities and workers to further transmission of COVID-19. ACT NOW >>>
01/04/2020
DIY instructions to sew a handmade -19 mask. It's long past time for us all to be wearing masks when out in the world during this pandemic, especially in confined spaces. Sew something cool. https://ounodesign.com/2020/03/31/homemade-pandemic-mask-covid-19/
14/03/2020
Some of y’all might be offended by the profanity in the hashtag above,but one man in Germany is not. And when I saw this, I had to share it because it gets peoples attention quick. Frustrate…
29/02/2020
26/01/2020
Despite its status as the world's No. 1 corporate plastic polluter, Coca-Cola won't be phasing out its single-use plastic bottles anytime soon.
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Very short free virtual ferry ride from Vancouver to Gibson's (that's Molly's Reach for you non BCers). Remember when phone videos looked like this?
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