Distracted #10
Just so that you're not mistaken when you see me Saturday, I'll be a mapache. It seemed appropriate.
More themes and ideas to help you conjure the fantastic. Nothing too scary.
(Before you jump into the link-dump, you might be interested in an intimate, free event I’m running in January on the future of retail. Deets. )
It’s Alive!
Experiential agency launches timely edit of ghost stories found on Trip Advisor (and gets some great buzz out of it).
Foursquare visionary Dennis Crowley re-animates ‘Her’ with his in-ear, AI-powered, location-based suggestion platform Marsbot. (App link)
Did you ever read that story of the Facebook scientists who left connected AI machines running overnight and when they came to work in the morning, the machines were talking a unique language? The researchers freaked and pulled the wires - but should they have? This article wonders if we have the right to kill AI.
Netflix next hit Eden may offer a future vision of how things might turn out if we don’t pull them plugs. Anime style.
On Turning To Community
How small indie-theaters lean into loyalty to survive our times.
The Strand, south of Union Sq NYC, used to be surrounded by blocks of book stores and now it’s all alone - and doing ok by appealing to its community.
This piece by New York Mag inspired me to think about how my businesses engage and listen to our community. The article, ‘The Worlds Best Bureaucrat’, looks at how one federal institution shied from politics and embraced criticism, engagement and long term planning. “We’ve done a ton of things to open ourselves up, welcoming input from the outside, welcoming criticism,” [said Jerome “Jay” Powell of the Federal Reserve] “I do think if you’re not doing that right now, then you may or may not know it, but you’re about to go over the falls.”
Altered Memories
Lovely work: As you scroll through Catherine Panebianco’s No Memory Is Ever Alone project the blended images of past and present hints at memories, reveals histories.
The NewYorker on Columbo as a hero for our times: “The show’s protagonist is a merit-based hero, besting the privileged and the spoiled.”
'My sister lives on in a video game' from the BBC.
This essay by Maya Jasanoff helps me (begin to) process the realities of the heritage that sinews itself around every Brit: the British Empire.
Chocolate isn’t grown in Belgium and more misdirects. Check the Marcus Samuelsson interview on NPR on how black culture has been edited out of the history of cuisine.
On The World Outside
I talked about the rise of open-air retail in Distracted #1. News is that Carters is closing stores to refocus on open-air shopping centers that “provide a better, more convenient experience for same-day pickup and curbside pickup of online purchases.”
Co-working space Neuehouse builds outdoors to service its members.
Artist and sometime ad-exec Alex Poba creates visual experience that deliver “positive stimulation of the senses”. Check her work in this report by Camila Rigaud.
A hot-house installation in London communicates the impact of global warming.
A pyramid in London is filled with houseplants with biophilic benefits and a 6 meter vertical kaleidoscope to “fully immerse you into nature and help banish the winter blues.”
Reveal All
Bill Nye limited-edition burrito from Chipotle comes with eco-report on the ingredients in each order. Ok, ok, yes. I had to look up who Bill Nye was. (Sorry: I missed that bit of the 90s - I was stuck in a field off of the M25.)
Artist reminds us of consumer waste by creating 250 Nike replicas from recycled trash
Amazon is rolling out a “eco-friendly” shopping platform to help guide consumers in to household products with sustainable credentials.
On Getting Stuff Done
I just love the over-sized ambition of this. Architect Bjarke Ingels has a masterplan to save the whole world.
Airbnb’s design team has launched a toolkit called Tyrus to guide freelance illustrators and creatives through a collaborative project
Productivity app Notion looks useful. From the review in Mashable “Notion brought my love for working back… It connected the lines between my personal life, such as my health and journaling, with my professional life, such as tracking freelancing articles and emails.”
Kinda mental. Kinda informative for anyone making service experiences: How Lyft predicts riders’ destinations when they open the app.
How Airbnb localizes. In detail. Steal this.
Changing Perceptions
In order for Lee Jeans to realign its image, it chose to do a sideline in uniforms.
Meanwhile, after years and years trying to distract us with muscle rides, Harley Davidson might have caught everyone’s attention with its e-bike.
Porsche tries to generate excitement with a cyberpunk cameo. BMW just hooks up with Kith for big effect.
Media provocateur Brian Morrissey provides a great overview of the Rise of DTC Media. “Niche is sexy,” he reports. Which is good for PSFK, I guess(!)
On Pause
Silent breakfast is a wellness practice that helps people cope with all of this stuff.
Artist will publish book in 2114, when the tree she just planted reaches is ready to turn to pulp.
Opting out to run a bakery from your apartment - in Cobble Hill, in Mexico City.
Visual Wizadry
I feel that the last time we saw drones dance was at an Olympic ceremony or something. Or was it the Super Bowl show? Well, they’re back - in this music video - the ‘how they did it’ vid is just as interesting.
We’re going to be wearing them for a long time, so let’s have fun: At an exhibition at the University of Denver’s Vicki Myhren Gallery, 40 artists turn face-masks into spectacular mask-masks. (Related, maybe: Artist makes masks from food waste.)
You may have already seen the Live NYC Subway Map as it got a lot of well-deserved buzz. Also check the video about how they made the ‘live’ NYC subway map by those digi-wizards Work+Co.
“Thanks! Wow there’s a lot of wonderful grid porn there!” The response I received from PSFK’s freelance Creative Director David McElwaine afterI shared this link of report-design inspiration.
Hub and Spoke Retail
I’m fascinated with the hub&spoke models that the larger retailers are exploring. We’ve seen Nike roll out stores with different offerings in in LA and we’ve been watching Nordstrom too - especially with the Nordstrom Local concept. CSA reports that the retailer is “doubling down on its no-inventory store format in the company’s largest market”.
Interior architects Balbek Bureau intersected “effortless elegance” and “lyrical imperfection” (huh?) to upend conventional notions for this beauty salon. Looks good too!
Meanwhile, luxury brand Moose Knuckles explores how retail has moved from transactional to the theatrical with a pop up in Milan.
Gmerce - your emails are going to become hyper-dynamic e-stores btw.
Traveling Back Towards
I’m fascinated by what gets reported about hotels in a time when we should be huddled at home. The fact that journalists write about these places of social-mixing seems quite alarming - but the articles also fill us (me) with a mix of nostalgia and aspiration:
Atari Hotels will “delightfully play with the themes of retro-futurism, pop culture, and nostalgia — offering fun for the whole family.”
Scottish hotel differentiates itself with vegan values and a drive for sustainability.
In London, a new 149 room hotel embraces desert-chic.
To-Dos
Read: Blockchain Chicken Farm - a look at how technology is recreating a small-town China. Review by the NYT here: “Chinese government and private sector are busily — even desperately — trying to engineer a technologically fueled “rural revitalization.”
Download: I might go back to using virtual backgrounds with this collection from artist Michael Mandiberg.
Binge: Hold Fast on YouTube - a documentary “of maniac sailors, anarchist castaways, and the voyage of the S/V Pestilence” Via Book of Joe
Early holiday gift: Cat pillow on Etsy. (also - some cat design fodder while I’m talking about our felines). Also, I guess you could buy yourself this home-office toy: suction-cup axe.
Attend: Festival Of Place, Nov 2 - 13.
Read: David Byrne explores The Complicated World of Staten Island - thanks to the original Jeffrey Weiner for the tip.
Telephone: On Sunday, call an aunt and a cousin in another state and demand that they vote.
Thanks. That’s it for now. Feel free to ping me: piers @ fawkes.org
Piers Fawkes
Retail Innovation Week | PSFK | Wallkit | Bunch of Other Stuff