(017) Living a Happy Life
Every mobile phone ever, glass fruit, Bangkok like Wong Kar-wai, Prada, personality quizzes
Life’s been crazy again. New York to Chiang Mai to Los Angeles, now Montreal. I’m starting something I saw in a mildly cheesy but actually very informative video called a “Season of No”. As the Steve Jobs quote roughly goes: Focus isn’t about saying yes. It’s about all the good ideas that you have to say no to.
On the agenda this issue: **A documentary that genuinely changed me**, the museum of mobile phones, the home accessory I didn’t know I needed, one of Miuccia Prada’s best interviews, the creative powerhouses behind the new Troye Sivan releases, the Whole Earth Catalog archive, a quiz to see if you’re a genius, PRESENT Magazine launch, an unusual personality test and Metalabel’s latest release.
Children Full of Life (2003)
This is the most valuable thing that I have watched in recent years.
I can’t emphasise how much this documentary, comprised of five videos under ten minutes each, has impacted me. If there’s anything you take away from this newsletter, I strongly suggest taking the time and headspace to watch this. I encountered the video thinking eh, I’m not really in the mood to watch something and then devoured all five parts back to back. I have thought of it every day since.
The documentary follows a fourth grade class in a Tokyo neighbourhood, led by astounding educator Toshiro Kanamori. He asserts that: Life is undervalued every day. A teacher’s job is to show how precious life is. And unlike any classroom I’ve been in, “the class goal for Grade 4 is to understand how to live a happy life and how to care for other people”.
This is an incredible documentary that explores the core tenets of human life, death, friendship and respect with such beauty and care. It deeply inspired me. It made me love the world again. If you watch, please let me know what you thought.
Links: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5
The Mobile Phone Museum
One of my favourite recent discoveries: the Mobile Phone Museum started by two collectors who have now amassed more than 2700 devices and counting. It’s a meticulously archived catalogue of thousands of devices, some accompanied by fascinating histories. I loved the stories surrounding the iconic pink Motorola Razr and the multicolour StarTAC Rainbow. What a fun trip down memory lane searching through the catalogue to find the numerous devices I used to have and to witness the creativity and individuality that our hardware used to have.
Glass Fruit by Devyn Ormsby
Simply obsessed with this decorative glass fruit made using an increasingly uncommon wax technique by Auckland artist Devyn Ormsby. Check out some of these stunning creations here and here.
“I love uniforms — they require no thought”
It’s because the uniform enhances them somehow. Because you think there is a whole world under that uniform that you don’t know about. All the girls in love with uniforms, and the power of uniforms – not so much now, but certainly after the war – that was because the uniform was always considered mysterious and fascinating, and could hide secrets and a forbidden life, which made it sexy. Under the neutrality, you can imagine anything.
— From one of Miuccia Prada’s best interviews in System Magazine
Behind every Troye Sivan, there is a Gordon von Steiner?
You may have seen two masterful music videos lately from Troye Sivan. The first is close to my heart, shot in Bangkok, which perfectly captures the alluring undertones and sultry colours of a somewhat overlooked or under-explored city. Here’s the second, with collateral designed by one of my favourite studios based in Barcelona. Both videos are directed by the epic Gordon von Steiner & director of photography Stuart Winecoff.
The (Nearly) Whole WHOLE EARTH CATALOG Archive
In his iconic 2005 commencement address at Stanford, Steve Jobs described the Whole Earth Catalog as “Google in paperback form, thirty-five years before Google came along.” Now, a group of brilliant people have compiled a near-complete archive of the counterculture publication birthed by Stewart Brand between 1968 — 1971 accompanied by its many spin-offs.
The Genius Purity Test
“Do you keep promises?”
“Do you learn really fast?”
“Do you consistently surprise your superiors or other competent people?”
“Are you really as special as you think you are?”
Take this test to find out.
Monotony, old friend
Lots of art is still very good (I’m listening to Bad Bunny’s new album as I write this and it bangs), it’s just that very little is really new, in the sense of creating new artistic paradigms that are distinctly different from previous forms. Some of this is simply a matter of perspective and frame of reference — it can be hard to follow change in the moment, and it’s impossible to have a meaningful grasp of all of the artistic culture that exists in like, the whole world — but yeah, I think it’s fair to say there’s a general stagnation of culture under U.S-dominated world capitalism, what Sam Miller-MacDonald called “an empire of same.”
— from Lyta Gold’s article they don’t make em like they used to (because of the passage of time)
Issue 03 of PRESENT Magazine is out
“PRESENT is a magazine about creating and self-reflection where we speak with makers about their path and philosophies. It’s a space for honest conversations about discipline, fear, process and confidence.”
I also find founder Hugo Hoppmann’s extensive weekly log to be a real testament to consistency and archiving process, and the site is cool.
A Whimsical Personality Test
You may have seen this “innate personality test” released by the Taiwan Design Expo circulating the internet — or not. Either way, take a light-hearted meander through surreal situations to discover where you fall and with whom.
Collaboration Cookbook by Metalabel
I’ve long been a fan of Metalabel and the Metalabel model. This week, they released Collaboration Cookbook which is “a living resource that includes recipes for real creative projects. Each recipe is an instruction for an activity, initiative, or experiment that is the products of people working together in creative partnership.” Check it out, contribute your own recipe and receive a physical copy of the cookbook. I also loved the design by Fi.
