Foretaste Nº 5
An occasional newsletter as a deep dive into the minds, habits, obsessions, affairs, and influences of our friends and fam.
Together & Bas van de Poel
Bas van de Poel (in a local newspaper once described as same age as the first computer virus) briefly hit …,staat when some of us where there too, but quickly moved on chasing digital and analogue dreams. Balancing between commercial work and autonomous projects Bas inspired us over the past years with some amazing projects at SPACE10, graphics for Dekmantel and crazy exhibitions.
This curated edition is a perfect reflection of the stories he shares on the slack channels. Link to that his ‘Obsessions’ on instagram, and you’re well informed about what the future could look like.
Currently
Co-founder and Innovation Director at Modem. Formerly, Creative Director at SPACE10.
Currently reading
In Praise of Shadows by the Japanese by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. A beautiful essay on aesthetics by the Japanese novelist, originally published in 1933. The essay explores the beauty of traditional architecture, food, make-up and toilets, describing the tension between the shadows of traditional Japanese interiors and the crude light of the techno-fixated West.
Currently watching
Wata Igarashi’s transcending live performance at the volcanic Yatsugatake mountain range in Japan.
Currently listening
David Rudnick on the struggle for Primacy, type and poetry's unique value in an age of digital and physical conflict.
Currently eating
Take out ramen, which is an inferior experience compared to eating ramen at a ramen shop.
Currently drinking
Coffee. Lots of coffee.
Currently obsessed about
The impact augmented reality will have on the experience of the built environment and its vast implications for the architectural practice.
Currently distracted by
Currently trying to avoid
Algorithmic feeds
Currently frightened by
Ray Kurzweil, Google's Director of Engineering, predicting that we are doubling the paradigm-shift rate every decade.
“20 years from now, the rate of change will be 4x what is now. Said differently, for someone who is about 40 today, when they’re 60 in 2040, the rate of paradigm change will be 4x what it is now. They will experience a year of change (by today’s standards) in three months. For someone who is 10 today, when they’re 60, they’ll experience a year of change in 11 days.”
Currently transcended by
For the ten-year anniversary of their first report, trend forecasting art collective K-HOLE is minting two works to inscribe their legacy on the blockchain: the Normcore Semiotic Square and the Brand Anxiety Matrix.
Currently fulfilled with
Launching my own practice Modem, together with Astin le Clercq. Modem is an office for design and innovation. Working as the hybrid of a think tank and design studio, we are designing for resilience in times of exceptional change.
Bas
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Quick highlights from the Slacks:
Gentle MonsterThe Circle of Life, made by AES+F, via Saba
Mood Mail *Guest Moods, by Joachim
APC opening a store in Amsterdam, with Menno
Process Movement, via Thomas B
How a Fruit-Filled Garden Inspired a New Wellness Brand, via Keith
A cyborg monkey play Pong with its mind, via Astin
Prospect the Film, via Samuel
The Best Olive Oil, via Jess
Flock Together, via Joachim
State-backed manipulation by Facebook, via Saba
Issued by Bottega, via Jordi
The blessing and the thirst, via Joachim
Complex japanese wooden joints, via Toon
Remote Control Traveling, via Chris
More Moodmail, via Kimberly
Hope you enjoyed this one - And let’s get Together soon IRL!
PS. There are enough bots and ghosts in our lives and we’ve always seen Together&, human and alive. If you’re a genius mind whiling to share your inspiration, we love you. With that in mind, and our upmost respect, we will keep inviting more lovely & inspiring people and letting others go, with the only aim that by doing so this Slack group will bring us all much more than the expected. If you know more people who should join, let us know!