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May 17, 2012
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Information is power, and open data is the key to building comprehensive and useful services tailored to the Web 2.0 generation. Part of the group leading this charge is Glen Barnes, who’s harnessing technology to create things like apps for companies to make virtual tours, or interactive sites for househunters that narrow the search based on criteria of their choosing. It’s all in the name of efficiency and, as Matt Cooney finds out, this is just the beginning.
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What’s better than being commissioned to design a label for 12,000 limited edition wine bottles? Having the wine named after you, too. Thanks to an initiative by online wine retailer Winesale.co.nz, Wellington artist Richard Thurston will be getting double honours. He was chosen by the Winesale.co.nz judges at this year’s New Zealand Art Show for his piece Fulfilment. He’ll produce two artworks; one especially for the label design and one to be donated to the Affordable Arts Trust for exhibition around the country. For each specially labelled bottle sold, Thurston and The New Zealand Art Show will receive $1 each.
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Kiwi company LanzaTech is flying high after signing a memorandum of understanding for the production of fuels and chemicals with one of the largest coal producers in China, Henan Coal and Chemical Industrial Corporation. Basically, it will produce ethanol fuels and chemical products through the integration of coal gasification and LanzaTech’s own biological fermentation process. Plans are also moving forward in regard to the creation of a research centre there, which will focus on developing complementary and other high value added technologies. Clearly, they’ve been busy since we last caught up with them.
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Not to be missed: the next Design Assembly gathering, otherwise known as the Spring 2010 Conversations Evening. It’ll be held at the Art and Design Faculty at AUT on September 29; be there from 6pm to mix and mingle with your fellow graphic designers. Jessica Mills will talk colour management, followed by a presentation on ‘the journey of research’ by
David Sinfield. Finally, Ross Liew will wrap up the night with a discussion on the overlap of the fine and commercial art worlds. Click here for more details and to register.
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It’s an elementary thing
Seems Google Instant isn’t just a new way to search the web, but ideal for creating music videos. First there was the company’s official version of Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues; now ad agency Whirled has had a go, too, with Tom Lehrer’s The Elements.
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Odds are you’ve already heard whispers about Mix & Mash, a competition to end all competitions where you get to show the world what you can make with New Zealand digital content and data. It’s being run to assist Kiwi organisations to release their stuff for reuse and encourage the creation of new tools, services and experiences using this material—from iPhone apps to things the organisers haven’t even thought of yet. More details will be announced at a special event in early November. In the meantime, you can sign up here for updates.
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A public housing project in Paris has a novel plan to reduce its carbon footprint: harnessing and redirecting excess body heat. The warmth generated by sweaty human bodies in a nearby Metro station will be piped through an underground corridor to heat the building. Apparently, the move will keep 17 apartments cosy and cut emissions by a third.
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Even if you’re not in London for the Anti-Design Festival this month, you can catch a sample of it in downtown Auckland. Newly returned Kiwi Philip Kelly (whose work has appeared in magazines such as Rolling Stone) is bringing a little of it back with him; he’s put up three distinctive billboards straight out of the festival here for our viewing pleasure. Keep your eyes peeled for them the next time you’re on Symonds Street, Pitt Street or New North Road.
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Perpetual motion
Where would we be today if it weren’t for the invention of the wheel? An exploration in nostalgia, the World Of Motion is a short, sweet tribute to humankind’s achievements in transport and technology.
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Quote of the week
My interest in open data and open government doesn’t really come from
a transparent-democracy kind of thing. It’s about being more efficient,
and doing things better.
— Glen Barnes takes a pragmatic approach to progress
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