another restaurant opened in london town. the inamo. I’ve read that people call it new pan-asian bar and restaurant. (yeah, life isn’t complicated enough)

the soho-based restaurant has a feature: virtual menus which have to be navigated via table-top projections. each table has its own projector. basically you order your food (nice pictures are a visual help of choice) by your own and for the rest you can change the graphics on the table, see what the cook is doing, order a cab (if necessary) and see where the next club is. great interactive table which might be helpful by a boring date. (mine wasn’t)

oh, another major point to mention (for beer lovers like me): they just have one sort of beer which isn’t fantastic.

inamo – view from outside

checking out the interactive table

→

last week I went to the royal college of art in london to take a look on the work in progress show which is held twice a year. the show includes models, early prototypes and conceptual design work from the college’s courses in design products, design Interactions, Industrial design engineering and others. here are a few of the projects (I didn’t took many pictures), which will be further developed for the final show next summer.

writing in public by kieren jones

→

after the book launch I am still engaged by troika‘s work. one of my favorites by far is the digital sculpture for terminal 5 at heathrow airport in london. the piece is five meter long. it’s surface is covered with 4,638 flip-dots controlled by a computer. on one side they are black, on the other side shiny silver.

I love the flick-flick noise as the cloud changes color. reminds me of the sound of the old departure boards in airports. unfortunately this video doesn’t has sound though.

wednesday evening I attended at the book launch of london-based multi-disciplinary art and design practice troika.

conny freyer, sebastien noel and eva rucki have found troika after their studies at the royal college of art. and now they have published a book about designers, artists and technologists who work on the filthy boarders between these 2 disciplines. the lucky ones at the launch could have bought the book for 23 pounds. what a bargain! and I have even heard some people calling the book the bible.

→

london designer sebastian bergne is exhibiting his new designs for wine consumption at the aram gallery. he is known for design you would put into the category of industrial design. he worked for companies such as authentics, habitat and vitra. but in the current show called cru he plays with cork and makes me wanna have a glass of wine.

corked 4 – trousers glass

→

I have been at the somerset house here in london. there is an exhibition called ‘wouldn’t it be nice… wishful thinking in art and design’, exploring the common ground between design and art. (ok.. another ‘what’s the difference between design and art’ expo, but isn’t that what creatives do these days. isn’t everything melting together?)

the carcanapé by design duo bless was my favourite. a leather couch in the shape of a car, filled with foam. in my opinion they could have called it ‘carnapé’..

comfort for all pit babes

→

I choose for the titel because the german word for mirrow ball is ‘diskokugel’. that means ‘disco ball’.

robert lutz alias kalaman is a german artist from cologne. he was one of the other creatives who were exhibiting at the shopstop event last weekend in maastricht, netherlands. he is doing miscellaneous things with these little mirror pieces. what can I say.. I like the ‘disco ladder’.

→

tonight I have been at the opening of the ‘balke’ bar at the hohe strasse in dortmund, germany. another project of the guys from muto (phillip winterkamp, jan moeller, falk bocker and robin thon).

once again oliver klimpel from buro international london is responsible for the corporate identity. but this time he consulted me about the lighting in the bar. I suggested my favourite torch lamp from sylvain willenz (see my previous entry about the designer). check the result..

the floor – inspired by a scancode

2 loos for the girls – most of them go together anyway

→