"There are very few spaces that I go into where I like the mix - often it's the same brands and a regurgitation of things. There are so many people out there doing amazing projects but they aren't necessarily given a formal space. This was a fun excuse to bring people together."
The dream is the confusion machine I didn't have to build, a space where perception slips beyond authorship. Within Communal Dreams, influence operates as a subtle signal rather than a directive force.
Craft is often defined as skill in making things by hand, but this interpretation is being challenged by AI. Craft transcends physical interaction; historical figures like Mozart and Beethoven exemplify mastery without traditional methods.
"It's a really special spot. When you start at the top and move down the gently sloped ramp, you almost feel like a marble tumbling down, looking at art as you roll by. The slight slant plays with your sense of perspective and grounding."
The entire indoor journey, from entry to elevator to the 100th floor, has been reimagined as a multi-sensory, immersive environment. The overhaul comes via a collaboration between experiential design firm Journey, multimedia studio Moment Factory and NYC-based design outfit SOFTlab.
If you haven't watched Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat yet, do yourself a favour and fire it up this weekend on Amazon Prime. The premise is brilliantly simple: one unsuspecting employee thinks they're on a legit company retreat while everyone around them is an actor orchestrating increasingly absurd situations.
Seeing the Alhambra in Granada was an extraordinary experience for me. It was the first time that I understood painting as something other than an object hanging on a wall. I thought that paintings could be in a fixed place, made for that place, made for the light of the place, experienced kinesthetically.
The handle, made of frosted silicone with a clean, pill-shaped profile, changes its physical firmness based on the freshness of the food stored inside the refrigerator. When everything's fine in there, the handle feels firm to the touch. When something is going bad, it softens.
I designed this bag in the same way I designed everything else, so largely based on right angles, but perhaps a little more emotionally, more personally. Designing a handbag is undoubtedly different to designing a Braun stereo system, but I applied the same principles. It had to be functional, visually durable, and very aesthetic. Less, but better.
"I'm really happy that people are responding to it. [But] I've been doing this all along. It's funny to see that people are really eating it up and loving it and encouraging me to do more."
I knew I needed help, so I put an ad in MySpace. A woman named Beth responded and I met her for an interview at a coffee shop. As we talked I realized she had all the skills I didn't have. She had a design degree. She had business savvy and technical skills. And she was wildly smart and more importantly, kind.
KAWS has shown an uncanny ability to connect with a wide variety of people. Younger buyers clamor for his $50 Uniqlo T-shirts, while trophy-hunting collectors shell out millions for paintings.
