object eye
Object magazine gets international awards attention!
Tuesday February 12 2013
Issue 63, available now for free as an iPad app download or for viewing on your browser, is the fourth digital edition of Object magazine, first published in print form over twenty years ago. After three previous apps, experimenting with digital publishing and how we can make the magazine experience more fun and engaging, issue 63 brought together all that we have learnt so far, funnelling them into a beautiful interactive experience.
And now the world is taking note! Today (February 12, 2013), issue 63 has been selected as the FWA Mobile of the Day, a huge honour both for Object and our Corporate Partners and talented collaborators Canvas Group. The FWA showcases digital projects that ‘use cutting edge technology, together with inspirational ideas, that lead the way for future generations.’ We’re very excited to be included amongst a long list of terrific projects, including apps for the likes of Mercedes, Lexus, MoMA and Disney.
Object magazine issue 63 nominated for a Pixel Award.
Wednesday January 09 2013
The latest issue of Object magazine, issue 63, has been nominated for a Pixel Award. Run since 2006, the Pixel Awards annually honour ‘compelling apps and sites that have shown excellence in design and development.’ This is the second Pixel Award nomination in the magazine category for Object — Object magazine issue 60 also received a nomination this time last year.
In each of the 24 categories there are five nominees, with two awards being given. Category awards are chosen by a panel of judges, proven innovators in their fields with a demonstrated knack of spotting extraordinary talent with fairness and accuracy.
But there is also a people’s choice award in each category, and everyone can vote once a day! Voting for the people’s choice awards finish on 25 January 2013, so head over to the Pixel Awards website once a day to log your vote.
Object magazine issue 63 is now available
Thursday October 25 2012
Ross is Object’s Digital Programs Producer. In addition to managing this here blog and website, he produces Object magazine in digital form and keeps the local Thai restaurant in business.
I took over producing Object magazine a couple of months after the first digital issue, issue 60, was released back in late-February 2011. Since that first issue, focused on International Ceramics, we have looked at Design Thinking/Design Action with issue 61 (the first issue to also appear in a browser-friendly web version, for those without iPads), and Studios with issue 62 earlier this year.
In collaboration with our fabulous friends at Canvas Group we have gradually been exploring ways to present our stories, articles and news with you, our readers, in exciting and engaging ways. Our Studios issue gave you tags attached to each article, allowing you to explore based on the themes you were interested in, or that related to that article, rather than necessarily following our pre-determined, editorial pathways.
18th Biennale of Sydney
Wednesday June 27 2012
The idea of collaboration — whether between people, disciplines, media or culture — seems to be a dominant theme in the current cultural landscape. It is something we have covered numerous times, and almost became an unofficial theme in issue 62 of Object magazine, so prevalent was it in the practices covered. And it is this idea that underpins the 18th Biennale of Sydney (BoS), open from June 27 to September 16.
Titled all our relations, the latest BoS (the first instalment of which opened in the Sydney Opera House back in 1973) is, for the first time, headed by two Artistic Directors — Catherine de Zegher and Gerard McMaster. The pair, who have previously collaborated at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and The Drawing Center in New York, reference their partnership through a number of artistic combinations, bringing together artists from various corners to work on pieces at once local and global in their gaze.
Calling Emerging Design ‘Writers.’
Thursday May 24 2012
Object: Australian Design Centre is looking for emerging design ‘writers’ to become involved with a new, ongoing segment of Object magazine, profiling emerging Australian designers.
Here at Object, we’re not only interested in acknowledging those designers who are established and known — we have a history of also profiling designers who are at the beginning of their career, possibly exploring new and exciting modes of design. We’re also interested in supporting those who support designers — and very often, that support comes from design ‘writers’.
You may notice that ‘writers’ has been surrounded by quotation marks. That’s because ‘content creators’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Object magazine 62 — Wood You Wear Review
Monday May 14 2012
Linda van Niekerk’s exhibition Wood You Wear? boldly and aptly questions assumptions about functionality and provenance and reflects her curious and audacious process in creating her new jewellery designs.
The small scale of the community in Tasmania and connectedness inherent in this proximity has led to a collegiality among designer makers and a collaborative spirit. In this exhibition van Niekerk capitalises on these exchanges through the design process she employs.
To create these new works there have been ‘partnerships’ with six different designers makers who each knowingly, either at the time of making or event after, have consented to van Niekerk using their completed components or discarded remnants as the major feature of her jewellery. Remarkably she resists temptation to re-design, adapt or re-mould, instead simply honouring the form and subverting the function.
Object magazine 62 — MAD Open Studios
Wednesday May 09 2012
In a successful attempt to enhance the experience of their visitors, New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design established the Open Studio Program in 2008. A three month in-house residency, the program allows six artists to work in a studio on the sixth floor, providing them with prime public exposure. In addition, museum visitors are given the opportunity to learn about craft and design practice. However, by blurring the line between a private studio and a place for unrestrained public discussion, one begins to question the benefits of this noon-traditional space.
As well as more conventional jewellery and ceramic practices, the current program houses Don Porcella, a pipe-cleaner sculptor whose thoughts on the Open Studio Program provoke the same fascination one gets from looking at his hand-made tools.
Object magazine 62 — Vert Design
Thursday May 03 2012
Andrew Simpson, director of Vert Design, sees his role as to create ‘beautiful forms that relate to people in whatever level they’re meant to.’ And for him, those forms can be anything from a chair to a conveyor belt piece — while the latter might generally be regarded as less aesthetic than the former, its beauty is in the realisation of its purpose.
Simpson refers to his practice, currently consisting of seven designers, as a ‘design house’ rather than a studio. He defines a design consultancy as a ‘gun-for-hire’ practice, and design studios as practices that produce their own concepts and take them to market. Vert sits somewhere in between — they work with a lot of clients on various industrial design products, but will also develop their own products and pieces, both functional and purely aesthetic.
Object magazine 62 — Lola Greeno
Wednesday May 02 2012
In late 2011, Object announced the next two recipients of the Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft honour, which has shifted to being a biennial event, with alternating years seeing an exhibition centred around a particular craft medium.
With Nick Mount taking the 2012 honour, 2014 will see Lola Greeno, an Aboriginal shell worker based in Launceston, open her Living Treasures exhibiton. With a career spanning over thirty years, Greeno is one of the most well-respected shell workers practicing in Australia.
Taking her cues from nature and history, and using the landscape as her studio as much as any dedicated space, Greeno herself was only inspired later in life, when she recognised how important the practice was to her culture and her heritage. Upon this realisation, she set about learning as much as she could from her mother, ensuring not only shell-work but family history remained intact.
Object magazine 62 — Healthabitat
Tuesday May 01 2012
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, defines a ‘social business’ as a ‘cause-driven business’ where the ‘investors/owners can gradually recoup the money invested, but cannot take any dividend beyond that point.’ Paul Pholeros AM believes that Healthabitat, an Australian private company of which he is a co-founder and director, perfectly fits that definition.
Healthabitat had its genesis in 1985 when the three directors (Pholeros, Dr Paul Torzillo AM and Stephan Rainow) were working together at the Aboriginal-run Nganampa Health Council. The director of the Council, Yami Lester, had seen health programs rolled out that saw more people attending hospitals and doctors for treatment, but recognised that that didn’t mean the situation was improving — there were no programs aimed at stopping them getting sick in the first place.
Visiting Object
St. Margarets, 417 Bourke St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
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Wednesday to Saturday
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+61 2 9361 4511
object@object.com.au
