(006) Soft homeware & homey software

Today in miscellaneous digital goods

Octavia Butler:

“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice. You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

Writing & curating daily(ish) on top of working full time and consistently moving is challenging, but habit is more dependable. Lots of new thoughts coming soon but for today, I’d love to share these internet delights.

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HOPEWORLD

I had a lot of fun on this website sending HOPE to friends and discovering the vision of HOPEWORLD centred around human flourishing by getting into it at the root of culture: “A counterculture, an ideology, a community, a way of living, a vibe.”

will o’brien🕊 @willobri

In partnership with this community, we will produce media and art that depicts the future we want to live in which is one of hope, vitality and flourishing. Think the Whole Earth Catalog, but for the 21st Century. In order to create this future, we must first imagine it.

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Tecomate

Obsessed with these 3D printed goods from experimental homeware brand Tecomate by Betuel Benitez, “a physical and digital environment to explore new means of materiality and form.” Also love his pigmented silicone vases.

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The Light Phone

I discovered The Light Phone through this article, The Quest for a Dumber Phone (well worth reading). Almost Kindle-like, it’s built by ex-Motorola designers around the ethos:

“Light creates tools that respect you. Objects that empower you to be your best self. Technology intentionally designed to be used as little as possible. Things that serve you, not the other way around.”

The dumbphone movement (if it can be called that) has been growing. I’ve wanted to join for quite some time but as much as I’d love to don a flip phone again, it’s just not possible in my line of work and frequent travel. I’m super interested in the concept though, as my previous experimentations with offline life (disabling my social media accounts for months) revealed that:

1. It’s possible to be offline, but it’s inconvenient. Maybe that’s the point — you get used to this and your social circle is more adaptable than you think but in terms of things like GPS, online banking, 2FA for work, QR codes for everything else and so on… There need to be more options that don’t rely on cutting out technology.

2. I’m compelled by the idea of coexisting with technology (software and hardware) vs eradicating it. In order to coexist with technology, the incentive structures for using it need to change. If we change these, we’ll change the (nature of) hardware and software that gets produced.

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Logo Sofa by Lacuna Studios

I *love* this modular sofa by Lacuna Studios. Playfully nodding to radical design classics, it can be taken apart and rearranged in a number of different ways. The sofa itself is made from a soft density polyurethane foam with a flexible coating so it’s comfortable to sit on while maintaining a defined, elegant and aesthetically pleasing form.

They also made a lovely video shot on 16mm featuring the sofa in Paris called “A Dream State” (2022).

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Tambourine

“TAMBOURINE seeks to rethink the bookshop experience by organizing occasional ephemeral bookstores in collaboration with different actors within the creative scene.”

Really cool online art bookstore that originated in Madrid. Love the clean website laden with interesting books, zines and objects — peruse to get more design inspo and discover new artists.

Love this book by Japanese photographer Hidefumi Nakamura who documents public toilets in his native country, giving an insight into architecture and urban planning works as a catalog of Japanese aesthetics and habits, showing the creative potential of Japanese designers.

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Kawara

Stumbled upon Kawara which came about “after hiking 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail”.

Creator Jon-Kyle wanted a way of retaining some of the healthier habits developed over the course of the walk. Specifically those related to the phone and social media. There was a lot of time to think about time, and so the idea of using simple intervals and cadence as a medium to help establish and retain those habits came into focus.”

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Telfar Wallet

Never bought anything from Telfar but I loved the animation for their new wallet debuting in 17 colours. Read more about the real leather wallet here.

In general though, wallets as an object interest me: digital and physical. While digital wallets are undergoing a lot of change (Apple Wallet, crypto wallets, etc), the physical wallet has largely stayed the same.

It’s worth considering what a wallet actually is conceptually beyond form — an identity, a shorthand of one’s net worth or assets, a portable mechanism of exchange, a visual signal or god forbid, self-expression, something that vindicates or incriminates, a linear record of time, an insight into aesthetics in a given era, a revelation device of our personal habits & inner vices, a container for power… and so on.

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Thinking of someone? Forward this.

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