..:: belblog ::..

http://www.sleepingchinese.com/

quite an interesting discovery

*it reminds me to what my friend RocHerms did when he traveled China back in 2006,
he called it “the sleeping giant” and he got exhibited in photoespaña ;D

spotted today 13 September 2007 in Hong Kong

Two policemen;
one is holding a speed radar, and the other is pointing which char they should track…
Note the “very Hong Kong style” seats also…

it reminds me to the cardboard kids solution to reduce driver’s speed

Today I did not clearly understood this sign…
…means this that there’s no graffiti penalty..
…and the $1500 are for the winner?
that would be great!

*note the paradox of a no-graffiti sign made with spray paint
“hong kong” and “street art” are not really good friends, due to the cleaningness obsession of the authorities and the rule-followingness of its citizens…

…but even if there is this paranoid attitude of banning almost all the walls from any kind of expression (besides commercial ones, that are always welcome), we still can find interesting stuff around hong kong.

thirsty for graffity? > check the Graffiti Research Lab

a morning capture from home to office.

all my life thinking that the Forbidden City was located in Beijing…

but in fact, Hong Kong fits better this description…
here everything is forbidden!!! …looks like the only allowed activities are working and shopping

…this is a common sign you can find in almost any park around Hong Kong…

if all this is forbidden… what are the parks for?

>> here a link with a cool panoramic photos of the real forbidden city

Today Hong Kong had something to tell to design educators, and specially to those who keep an eye at Asia.

Concurring with the bodw (business of design week) today started the 2 days event DesignEd Asia 2006 titled “Creativity :: Point :: CounterPoint”.

The Creative Person & the Creative Context:
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
He summarized some concepts about flow related to the creative process from his book in a series of really understandable slides.
He made the statement that the problem of creativity is not in the supply (we don’t need to make the people more creative), it’s in the demand (we need to make the society more receptive).

The Challenges & Opportunities of Creative Education within a Global Context: by Renke He.
He mainly talked about the need to change the label “made in China” to “designed in China”, and proudly showed some BusinessWeek cover pages talking about China + design.
He also questioned the shape and form of the “Chinese touch”, by showing some examples of traditional Chinese elements and contemporary Chinese design.
BTW, did you know that China delivers more than 100.000 design related graduates a year?

Educating Creative Professionals – Experiences from the East & west: by Douglas Tomkin and Kees Dorst.
They ensured that the word “creativity” is over valued and that the “idea” gets too much importance on the design process.
They reminded that design is a problem solving activity and encouraged everyone to practice “creative exploration”, what means having multiple solutions by defining the good questions for a problem.

Creative “Lion”: by Jian Hang
In an unfocused talk, the speaker quoted Napoleon to remind us that China was called “the sleeping lion” a cople of hundred years ago, and he is still waiting the wake up.
With a sense of inferiority compared China with the western creativity, and he said that Chinese mindset is to follow rules and not to be creative because is socially unaccepted, but this need to be changed (that’s a good paradox).
He also complained about the westernized Chinese movies that misrepresent the authentic Chinese aesthetics.

Project Briefs that Enable Creative Solutions: by Alice Lo.
She used up her 45 minutes talk saying that if you tell the students to “design a chair” you get “non-creative chair designs”, and if you tell them to “design a comfortable place for sitting” you get “creative breakthrough innovative ideas”… and then she gave us a free book called “Creative Tools”.

Field of Creative Perception: Inventing Design Issues within the Process of Drawing: by Takeshi Suonaga.
He started with an interesting case study of a project where they designed a device for teenage girl’s shopping experience that allow them to store, personalize and share data in order to “help” them to make shopping decisions.
Then, he explained us that if you ask your students to draw 100 sketches from one day to another, you not only ruin their nigh plans, but you are giving them the opportunity to discover the magic moment of “drawing without thinking” which leads to a “creativity driven by action not by imagination”. He explained that by drawing and letting your hand flow free, you are creating a “space for thinking, where your brain perceives movements and translates them into idea generation”.

The day ended with a panel discussion titled “Beyond School: Nurturing Creativity in Young Designers”.

Panellists repeatedly highlighted that Hong Kong fresh design graduates have very poor creative skills and suggested that the best way to empower creativity among Hong Kong design students is to study abroad.
This statements obviously didn’t pleased all the audience, and some teacher reminded the panel that China’s design students hardly go abroad to study and their results are celebrated as creative.

Rain is a form of precipitation.
Rain forms when separate drops of water fall to the Earth’s surface from clouds. Not all rain reaches the surface, however; some evaporates while falling through dry air. When none of it reaches the ground, it is called virga, a phenomenon often seen in hot, dry desert regions. The scientific explanation of how rain forms and falls is called the Bergeron process.

>>>here my view of a raining HK + a traffic jam + lots of people

just discovered this service that’s worth a post
*specially because I like that funny icon

some guys created this TSP (Tourism Service Provider) back in 2004, and it’s a kind of audioguide that is served by cellphone
They suggest 2 walks in HK, covering Central and Tsim Sha Tsui… two of the most turistically exploted areas in this city… not so risky……
I’m sure that almos all tourists, when they arrive HK already have some leaflets and minimaps with the same suggested walks… But as in their blog they explain some interesting facts like “The Uglification of Nathan Road” or “Why There Are No Trams in Kowloon“, I guess this is the kind of info you can find in the audioguide…

I would be more interesting (for me, as a city-explorer by nature) to include in this service weird walks like:
> “where not to go if it’s raining”
> “how to get lost instantly… and find the way out by the phone”
> “find a bench and win a rest” and so on…

What was happening at the Hong Kong basements 20 years ago?
simple: they where selling pirated apple computers and software (like now)

Take a look at this video that was recorded back in 1986 using a hidden camera.
*the intro is quite long but retro-futuristically nice
The most amazing is that in that shops they could get any software within 3 days of its announcement anywhere in the world.
How could they do this without internet?
easy: they had lots of good friends that were airline pilots

As a Big city, Hong Kong has lots of different people…
but the type i’m missing, is the streetartist….
…I miss Les Rambles

enjoy this wonderful video called Mr.Fortune

*this video belongs to a series of shortfilms creted by Eric Lerner.