Platformtwo

The first part of our manifesto writing project was a collaboration between students of design communications and platform two. After grouping up two by two (mixed), we were asked to write and a mutual manifesto and publish it somewhere in the RCA.

Anne Harlid and So Hyun

Gemma Holt and Filip Tyden

Georgina Wu and Mario Stadelmann

Sarah Gottlieb and Isabel Lucio

Simone Brewster and Erwan Lhuissier

Zamir Antonio and Yuri Suzuki

Aysenaz Toker and Simon Denzel

I am no longer an official member of Platform 2. They sent me home after graduating and haven’t let me return. I will occasionally pop my head into the studio but if I don’t see you at college no doubt we will meet someday somewhere.

This seems like a great space to advertise.

so….

check out www.robandmax.co.uk to find a little post-RCA Platform 2 project by me and Rob Phillips, another fellow P2 graduate. It is a photo-etched brass lampshade and is currently being displayed in a window gallery in Canary Wharf.

Thats all for now. Hope to see you at your interim ‘work in progress’ show. I hear it is going to be tasty.

Good luck

Max

Platformtwo has built it’s sordid reputation on Direct Action .

We believe that design at Masters level should be less theory, and more about real experience.

To give ourselves a window on the real world, we have negotiated a prime retail space in Knightsbridge, which will become a literal platform from which to engage the public in the products and services of Platformtwo .

This space will become the marketplace from which we will indulge in live testing our products and services. Any profit will be ploughed back into the latform to enhance the educational experience.

Design cannot exist as an activity in itself, therefore Platform two will create a series of situations which will force the designers into unfamiliar real life situations.

This years platformtwo students:

Gemma Holt
Greetje Van Helmond
Mario Stadelmann
Aysenaz Toker
Yuri Suzuki
Simon Denzel
So Hyun Kim
Isabel Costa Lucio
Rodrigo Solorzano

It has been a while since we’ve been back and the quest for the perfect product has not been easy. But finally we have packaged products that we hope, can sell and so help the Lohar.

But before I got to the finished pieces there was a lot of other attempts, some more successful than others.

try,try and try again……..

After having made coat hooks, candle holders, bird feeders, fire pits, hammers, nails, corkscrews, foil cutters, insects and gardening tools, we chose to work on designing sets, so I took on developing the hammer and nails set and an insect memo holder set.

The hammer went though several models before finding one I was happy with.

The finished set consists of one hammer and ten labeled hand forged nails.

Below is the collection of the animals that I made during the design process.

Below is the insect memo holders in their box. The front legs hook over a screw in the wall and the weight of the body presses the back legs against the wall, allowing each insect to hold a photograph or note.

Jonathan found this interesting link we should look at…

http://www.core77.com/reactor/02.06_desi.asp

Lohars may not have much in terms of western materialism, but they were rich in their simplicity and their way of living.
 

As I spent more time with them I noticed little things like how the children played with kites and they laughed and giggled a lot.  The men were respectful of one another and joked around, while the women looked on to their families and even helped the men with their work. They showed me a different way of living.

Perhaps its not about trading up for more and better, but rather living it up with all you have.

We had design critiques in the evenings with the IIDC students and instructors. Hearing the design thoughts of other student designers from the other side of the world, and finding out that it’s not that different from one’s own, somehow made the cultural gap seem a little smaller.

As you walk the streets of Pink City, you never really know what to expect.

On my way to the junk yard, I caught sight of this little boy making vroom vroom noises on the back of this bike. It made me smile.

Nigeria is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer and black gold provides 80 percent of the government’s income. However, this wealth is not only a profit for the Nigerian people.

More information and images on this website :

http://www.zreportage.com/nigeria_oil.shtml

Nigerian concrete block could be good enough quality. It was made from a mixture of gravel, sand, cement, water and root.

To fully understand Lagos, you have to use one of these buses : yellow, 15 year old, 20 passengers, a pilot, a co-pilot and nothing to lose.

A very nice fire engine, a Lagosian version of the Hummer Jeep, a big blue Bedford, and a typical public bus.

Parents want the best for their children. Living in poverty proves no different.

One afternoon while we were working, Pappu points to his middle child and gestures to the sky, “England,…study.”

Sunday night in Lagos, Femi Kuti playing at the Shrine club.

The stage reverberates with funky, groovy and danceable music. A trio of supple ladies enters the stage, gyrating their bodies in the most sensual way, to the applause of an exuberant audience.

Born June 1962, in Lagos, the son of legendary Nigerian Afro-Beat pioneer Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Femi is a musical icon and a worthy successor to his father. Nimble footed, humorous on stage but hard-hitting in both his lyrics and talk, Femi has added a new dimension to the polyrhythmic sound in which his father specialized. Through flawless performances he has added the exuberance of young Lagos as well as the sound of American dance music such as house.

He first rose to fame in 1985 when he appeared in place of his father at the Hollywood Bowl after Fela was arrested at Lagos Airport on a dubious fraud charge. Femi delighted the audience with the same strident saxophone style and self-assured stage presence of his father. By 1987, he had formed his own band, the Positive Force, and their debut album “No Cause for Alarm�? was released on Polygram Nigeria. It was an effective blend of soul and jazz with driving percussion and sociopolitical lyrics. He says of his music: “It reflects in my everyday living. I am a stronger believer in love.�?

platformtwo backstage f_kuti_(031).mpeg