[p2p-research] Fwd: Doors of Perception: April 2009 - Design in a thermo-industrial society

Thu Apr 2 06:41:33 CEST 2009

Dear friends,

It would be nice if anyone could go through the p2p energy aspects of this
book, and report on it for the blog

is there anyone amongst us who is or wants to specalize in distributed
energy?

Michel

LOOK AT THE BIG NUMBERS, NOT AT THE SMALL NUMBERS (BOOK)
On the subject of eco information, I'm reading a fantastically useful new
book:
Sustainable energy - without the hot air. Its author, David McKay, Professor
of
Natural Philosophy at Cambridge University, has responded to an urgent
global
challenge: how to make sense of the conflicting claims and information
bandied
about on all matters eco. The book is filled with insights like this one:
"Leaving mobile phone chargers plugged in is often held up as an example of
a
behavioural eco-crime. The truth is that the amount of energy saved by
switching
off a phone charger is exactly the same as the energy used by driving an
average
car for one second". Prof McKay desevres a Nobel Prize for Usefulness. I
boughbt
the hardcopy, but you can download the book free:
http://www.withouthotair.com/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 8:34 AM
Subject: Doors of Perception: April 2009 - Design in a thermo-industrial
society
To: Doors Report <doors-report at list.doorsofperception.com>

Doors of Perception Report
April 2009
Design in a thermo-industrial society
by John Thackara

MAKE SENSE, NOT STUFF: DESIGN AND THE GREEN ECONOMY (TEXT)
What would designers design, if they did not design products, or posters?
My question is not a rhetorical one. On the contrary, I believe design
schools
in particular in danger of being marginalised by the speed with which the
world
is changing. I develop this theme in a text called Make sense, not stuff:
A three step plan to connect design schools with the green economy.
It's for Cumulus, the international network of design schools, whose next
conference is in London 27-30 May. You can read the whole text here:
http://tiny.cc/kfzbw

NINE MEALS FROM ANARCHY (LONDON EXHIBITION)
The head of the UK Countryside Agency warned recently that Britain was 'nine
meals away from anarchy.' Britain's food supply is so totally dependent on
oil -
95 per cent of the food eaten there is oil-dependent - that if the oil
supply
were suddenly to be cut off it would take just three full days before law
and
order broke down. An exhibition in London looks at different ways that
cities
might be transformed from consumers to generators of food.
http://tiny.cc/L73Dm

METRICS OF THERMO-INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY (FLORENCE EVENT)
"These are my principles. If you don't like them, I have others". Groucho
Marx
could also have been talking about environmental standards. Our world is
awash
in eco information, but starved of meaning. Hundreds of organisations churn
out
a flood of reports, graphs, studies, punditry - and lists. So I jumped at
the
chance to write a text about the issue for an event called Green Platform
which
opens at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence later this month. Green Platform takes
a
complex critical view of the "crisis in our thermo-industrial society".
A preview of the full text is here:
http://tiny.cc/SDsEC

LOOK AT THE BIG NUMBERS, NOT AT THE SMALL NUMBERS (BOOK)
On the subject of eco information, I'm reading a fantastically useful new
book:
Sustainable energy - without the hot air. Its author, David McKay, Professor
of
Natural Philosophy at Cambridge University, has responded to an urgent
global
challenge: how to make sense of the conflicting claims and information
bandied
about on all matters eco. The book is filled with insights like this one:
"Leaving mobile phone chargers plugged in is often held up as an example of
a
behavioural eco-crime. The truth is that the amount of energy saved by
switching
off a phone charger is exactly the same as the energy used by driving an
average
car for one second". Prof McKay desevres a Nobel Prize for Usefulness. I
boughbt
the hardcopy, but you can download the book free:
http://www.withouthotair.com/

WHAT TOOLS FOR TRANSITION TOWNS? (SURVEY)
I received an interesting email from Transition Towns. "We recognise that
out in
transition land there's a great diversity of web tools and processes
currently
in use and under development" the mail begins; "some of these will be
resilient
and adaptable enough to support the changing needs of transition groups
around
the world". I am then asked to I fill in an online survey to help the
Transition
web team to "map out this sometimes alien terrain for community groups, and
introduce common tools, processes and protocols to make it easier for us all
to
do our work"
http://tiny.cc/OuCFh
http://tiny.cc/XvkXV

TOOLS FOR SOCIAL INNOVATION. (NEW YORK LECTURE)
Bruce Nussbaum has invited me to give a lecture at Parsons, The New School,
in
New York. I'll talk about an important lesson we learned in Dott 07, and
City
Eco Lab: knowing about the availability of tools that enabble people to
share
resources, for example, and figuring out how to use them well, are two
different
things. Design can help on both fronts, as I shall explain. Contact: Rebecca
Mielczarek, mielr147 at newschool.edu +1 (212) 229-5391 x 4213
http://tiny.cc/d1nxr

COLLABORATIVE SERVICES: SOCIAL INNOVATION AND DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY
(BOOK)
"What is a sustainable lifestyle? What will our daily lives become if we
agree
to change some of our routines? How do we reduce our environmental impact
without lowering our living standards?" A new book, edited by Francois Jegou
and
Ezio Manzini (with a chapter by me in it) attempts to answer some of these
questions. Collaborative Services suggests a variety of scenarios:
Car-sharing
on demand, micro-leasing system for tools between neighbours, shared sewing
studio, home restaurant, delivery service between users who exchange goods -
and many more.
http://tiny.cc/fEAO3

PARIS AS A SPONGE? (PARIS LECTURE)
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, asked 10 architects to project 20
years
into the future and dream up "the world's most sustainable post-Kyoto
metropolis". The Italian architects Bernardo Secchi and Paola Vigano
proposed to
enlarge the city and laying it out as a "porous sponge" in which waterways
are
given pride of place. As a metaphor, "sponge" strikes me as a good metaphor
to
start from - but what about the social organisation of a future Paris? My
lecture at ENSAD (Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs) will
explore
social innovation as a key feature of a sustainable city. 1830h- 2000h,
Thursday
30 April. Ensad, 31, rue d'Ulm 75240 PARIS. Contact: Nathalie
Foucher-Battais,
nathalie.battais at ensad.fr, +33 1 42 34 97 31
http://tiny.cc/DItSc
http://tiny.cc/RCbvJ

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES (HELSINKI EVENT)
Many designers, when they decide to take the limited carrying capacity of
the
biosphere seriously, first choose to design a poster about sustainability,
or a
thought-provoking "eco bag". But the transiton to sustainability is no
longer
about messages; it's about activity. But what kinds of activity? Juha
Huuskonen
and me are leading an all-day review of thesis projects that deal with the
designer's changing role in society. Saturday 16 May, Helsinki. Contact
Tulii
Sotamaa: tuuli.sotamaa at taik.fi

BRAZIL INTERVIEW (BOOK IN BRAZIL)
For readers in Brazil, and of Portuguese, the website Planeta Sustenavel has
published an interview and review to mark the publication of In The Bubble
(renamed, for Brazil, Plano B).
http://tiny.cc/Tpwo2
http://tiny.cc/CKV8Y

IN THE BUBBLE IN PHOTOGRAPHS? VOTE BY 3 APRIL
Deborah Yun, a Stanford product design graduate, "dreams of documenting the
mindfully designed world. I want to make a photographic blueprint of the
21st
century". Deborah says she is inspired in the project by my book In The
Bubble -
so I'm more than happy to reciprocate by inviting you, Dear Reader, to
consider
voting for her in Microsoft's "Name Your Dream Assignment" competition.
She needs 650 votes to make into the final and have a chance to win
the $50,000 prize. Voting closes on 3 April, so don't delay.
http://tiny.cc/lkzjV

ALEX'S IMPORTANT LETTER (APPEAL)
The founder and editor of Worldchanging, Alex Steffen, describes as "the
most
important letter I've ever written" his appeal, this month, for support.
Worldchanging has been challenged to raise $10,000 in recurring reader
pledges;
if they manage that, their challenger will support Worldchanging with a
$100,000
grant. We warmly endorse the Worldchaging appeal; they're an essential part
of
an evolving ecosystem in which we learn from each other how to thrive in the
21st century. If you still have a job, you can probably afford to contribute
-
so please do so.
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/009583.html

ART AND DESIGN RESIDENCY (NEW DELHI)
The Khoj International Art and Design Residency, in New Delhi, is for
practitioners, working at the intersection of art, design and media, who
seek to
"push artistic practice beyond convention". Five places are available on the
six
week programme during November-December 2009.
http://www.khojworkshop.org

PROFESSOR OF SERVICE DESIGN (JOB)
Lucerne School of Art and Design is looking for a Professor of Service
Design.
Deadline for submissions: 30th April 2009.
http://tiny.cc/EOcLi

CONFUSED? ANXIOUS? NEED A PLACE TO THINK? (VACATION)
Some close friends of Doors have just completed 20 months' work doing up
Cafe de
Tannay. It's an authentic sixteenth century town house two-and-a-bit hours
south
of Paris, 20 kilometers from UNESCO World-heritage site Vezelay on its
'eternal
hill' dominating the Morvan National Park. We warmly recommend a sojourn in
this
beautful place.
http://tiny.cc/lcvCF

YOUR LAST CHANCE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GIFT ECONOMY
I've been publishing this newsletter monthly since March 2002. As you may
have
noticed, it always arrives absolutely free. One of the indirect ways one is
compensated is by being paid to speak at conferences and workshops. If you
would
like to support this newsletter, but do not feel like giving us a huge sum
of
money, then please send my speaker brochure to someone in your company (or
who
you know elsewhere) who organises events that include paid-for talks. Merci!
http://tiny.cc/YNSzN

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