Archive for the ‘Mobility’ Category
Rituals in the Era of Instantaneous Reinventions
December 23, 2009
Holidays herald the typical rituals of gift-giving and other burdens associated with traditions. For better or worse, the celebration of Hanukkah, Christmas, Orthodox Christmas or Kwanzaa calls us to look on the past and connect it with the present moment. The most common holiday tradition is the family gathering. Whether or not it’s with relatives we see often isn’t the main point; rather it’s the symbolic weight of the event that lends it its importance. Of course, getting together with family can serve the practical purpose of reconnecting to and updating each other on our lives.
These days, however, such reconnection could just as easily (if not more easily) be done by email.
What matters most is the repeated gesture of joining each other in the same place. Whether or not you need to hear updates or enjoy eating your grandmother’s cooking is merely tangential. It’s the repetition of these actions that gives them meaning. They offer us comfort through their constancy. They humble us.
The rituals of this time of year still retain value, especially in this era of instantaneous reinvention. Reflect on the various symbolic gestures that occur this time of year and enjoy them thoroughly. If that proves to be a challenge, then it may be time to spark a new holiday tradition.
Perhaps you find yourself in an unexpected place or situation this year, be it by duty or desire, that distances you from those you wish to have at your side. There may be no choice but to see a loved one through a Web camera; chat with them on Skype, AIM, or Google Talk; or, email them a letter.
You might be sharing a holiday meal with people who, though not directly related to you, still connect with you by common interest. Or, you might be spending the holiday with only yourself. The reality of our increasingly mobile society is that fewer things feel permanent. Our economy strengthens and weakens. Our physical locations are short-term. And our distance from the ones who know us best can change unexpectedly.
You can use a ritual–whether it’s the lighting of a candle, the decorating of a tree, or just a moment of meditation–to keep yourself grounded in the midst of any changes and transitions that you may be undergoing.
If you feel that traditional modes of celebrating the holidays aren’t relevant to your modern lifestyle - find or design a ritual that speaks to you. This is a technique that we aptly call Ritual 2.0. Consider that there are always anchors in your life that are constant–a relationship with another, a love of wine, or a simple life goal. Channel these constants and celebrate them. Start an annual bottle-opening to taste that vintage wine you’ve been saving all year, splurge at a restaurant that tops your must-try list, or start working on one of your resolutions for the following year. Life may be full of changes, upgrades, downgrades, and surprises, but it’s also full of things that can bring us pleasure and inspiration.
This holiday season, all we ask is that you indulge and be merry.
Photo courtesy of:
candleconnection-eg.com.
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As the Mobile World Turns
October 1, 2009
The US mobile phone industry is far from perfect. In a system where consumers are left to find their way through a bafflingly complicated and illogical system of service contracts and stripped down versions of the Web, sometimes it’s easier to view mobile technology in light of its limitations rather than its advancements.
That was until the iPhone came along.
It was sleek, ingeniously designed, and had more sex appeal than any phone that had come before it – not to mention all the frills of a near-complete mobile Web experience. It had network operators trembling with desire like cell phones set to vibrate. But the iPhone showed up at the ball with its hand on the arm of a rich hot shot: AT&T. Passions flared and desire brewed. AT&T had something that everyone wanted. Read More »
Posted in Dining Reviews, Mobility, Trends | No Comments »
Giving Time and Space to ‘Buying Local’
September 22, 2009
The USDA wants you to buy local –- a concept that may be more revolutionary than you think. The argument in their recent “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” campaign seems straightforward: “Reconnecting consumers and institutions with local producers will stimulate rural economies, improve access to healthy, nutritious food and decrease the amount of resources to transport our food,” says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
What’s less apparent is that this “buy local” approach could be part of a much larger scale shift towards an economy of locality. We mentioned in a previous blog post how the notion of mobility has changed drastically in the last few decades – an erstwhile fascination with the possibilities for individual mobility brought on by the automobile has been overtaken by a desire for more delivery services. While the last decade has been especially defined by a movement towards virtual notions of time and space, due to the around-the-clock access and associated gratification offered by online shopping and downloadable media, the truth is our economy is still very much rooted in physical space. We may not have to move to go shopping, but the goods still have to move across great distances to get to our shops and to us.
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Posted in Design-inspired, Economics, Ingredients, Mobility | No Comments »
“Immobile” Movies Immerse Us in Film
September 16, 2009
While the latest trend in film viewing may be 3-D movies that create the illusion of the film world encroaching on the real world, one Hamburg-based company called Flexibles Flimmern - Filme in Bewegung (translated to mean Flexible Flickering - Moving Pictures) is allowing the audience to experience the fictional setting through location-specific viewings. The company uses venues as real-life extensions of the films – a recent screening of the original Ocean’s Eleven took place in Hamburg’s Esplanade Casino; another showed The Hunchback of Notre Dame in a local church’s bell tower. Holgar Kraus, the cinéaste behind the idea, calls it part of a “sensitized movie experience.” The intention is to add an extra layer of meaning to an audience’s location and thereby heighten the sensitivity of viewers’ imaginations.
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Googie Architecture: A Lost Vision of 1950’s Mobility
September 8, 2009
The UC Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s exhibit “Sardi’s to Orange Julius ®” that ends on the 13th of September 2009 chronicles several early 20th century restaurant designs from concept to completion and thereby sheds light on the interweaving forces of dining culture, technology, and architecture. The exhibit, whose name refers to two L.A. restaurants, includes designs from architects J.R. Davidson, Maynard Lyndon, Kem Weber, Edward A. Killingsworth, and Rudolph M. Schindler.
Although contemporary critics regarded commercial design (i.e. designing for the masses) as less prestigious than the design of private homes, architects nevertheless considered restaurant design a means for influencing the broader architectural landscape of the city. The Googie architectural movement that thus arose popularized space-age themes and the bold use of steel, glass, and neon lights to draw the eyes of motorists to the roadside and promote a new form of eating: drive-in dining. The automobile thereby influenced L.A.’s pattern of urban sprawl (into a spread-out city of suburbs), a then-new mobile dining trend, and, in the process, an architecture that expressed a generation’s view of the numerous possibilities that mobility could bring.
Posted in Architecture, Design, Design-inspired, Mobility | No Comments »
