The New Consumer Society...

Consumer Society...The Adaptation

This is a different kind of consumer society; a rebellion  against the clone city: creative,local,and street wise, endlessly inventing and re-inventing the space to meet the inspiration of the moment and allowing opportunities to a succession of imaginative enterprises.

Time Bank Alternative Economic Model...

Stroom Den Haag

Stroom Den Hag and NAIM Bureau Europa, have launched a pop-up ‘time store’ called time/bank in Maastricht, Netherlands that is open now until October 2, 2011.opens the Dutch branch of the e-flux Time/Bank. This initiative by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda is a perfect match with the Stroom program ‘Upcycling’ which investigates new perspectives in the creation of value and meaning. 

The current distrust of existing financial and economic systems and the radical cuts in art funding are an important driving force behind this parallel micro economy based on trust and solidarity. This initiative by Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda is a perfect match with the Stroom program ‘Upcycling’ which investigates new perspectives in the creation of value and meaning.

“Through Time/Bank, we hope to create an immaterial currency and a parallel micro-economy for the cultural community, one that is not geographically bound, and that will create a sense of worth for many of the exchanges that already take place within our field—particularly those that do not produce commodities and often escape the structures that validate only certain forms of exchange as significant or profitable.”

Conclusion

We all know that physical money would be worthless if we ceased to put any meaning into it, yet things like useful products and labor have always been worth something, that is why the Time/Bank pop-up shop is so culturally crucial. By trading in time, the Time/Bank pop-up shop does deal in principles of mutualism and the labor theory of value, but only through the concept of time. It forces us to reconsider what is really important in this life. People often get sidetrack by the ritual of making and spending money, but what if we just focused on the work and results that really matter?

Worlds first "Pop Up Mall" comes to London Town...

Worlds first Pop Up Mall...Take a sneaky peak!

Gone in a Flash...

Four days. That's how much time New Yorkers had to get a piece of the upscale design line Proenza Schouler at discount prices. On Feb. 2, the über-chic discount retail store Target (TGT) popped open a store in lower Manhattan, to display this latest high-fashion-at-low-prices design line. The store then closed on Feb. 5.

In a world of BlackBerries and instant messaging, there's a growing sense of haste in people's lives. In response, companies trying to get consumers' attention are trying to create a sense of urgency. For retailers, who need to get people into stores to try out their clothes, their shoes, and any other new products, the store itself is the new limited edition. So limited in fact that it may last a mere 96 hours. "There's a certain passion about things that shout 'act now!' and that has transpired into the way we shop too," says Claudine Gumbel, co-founder of Think PR, a New York fashion publicity firm.

These days, retailers are adopting the concept of a pop-up store with gusto. A pop-up store opens up at an empty retail location for a few days in a major city, or a mall, with great fanfare. And then, poof! It's gone. Last year, in November, Nike (NKE) opened a pop-up store in Soho for just four days for the sole purpose of selling 250 pairs of the Zoom LeBron IV NYC basketball shoes, named after the popular 22-year-old NBA All-Star LeBron James. The special edition shoes were priced at $250 each.

In May and June, Gap (GPS) kicked off a '60s style tour, where it used a school bus as a traveling pop-up store that made appearances in Los Angeles and New York and stopped at beaches on both coasts. Instead of seats, the bus sported shelves filled with t-shirts, flip-flops, and beach hats that people bought and paid for at a cash register near the driver's seat. Even the stodgy giant Wal-Mart (WMT) adopted the concept last April, when it showed its new fashion line Metro 7 in a Fashion Cabana in Miami's South Beach district, open for only two days.

BUDGET BUZZ

Retailers use pop-up stores to generate buzz and excitement around a new product launch, as in the case of Target's Proenza Schouler line. Sometimes, the stores are a great way for stores to check the pulse of consumers and try out new products. Usually, they are less costly than television ads, which can run in the millions of dollars to produce and broadcast, and the stores generate similar buzz and publicity for new brands.

Even nonretailers are giving it a try. The U.S. Potato Board, which represents American potato growers, opened a pop-up store in New York, during the week of Thanksgiving, for less than $200,000. The group, with the help of cartoon character Mr. Potato Head, promoted the message that potatoes contain more potassium than bananas as well as nutrients like folic acid and vitamin C.

"We were featured in The New York Times, in the network morning shows, and in many places," says Amy Kull, senior vice-president at communications firm Fleishman-Hillard. "We could never have bought that much media within that budget."

Innocent Spontaneous Fate...

Innocent Village Fete

Planned Spontaneity...

Planned Spontaneity
Making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to be... spontaneous!
Trend Watching...

The Humble Pop Up shop...or is it just all science...?

The Pop Up shop is it just a big science experiment...?

The problem with these overpowering feelings of guilt: They get in the way of the dopamine that would normally flood your brain when you browse for clothes, try them on, and buy them. So retailers need to come up with a way to "short-circuit" your brain. And that's where the pop-up store comes in!


"Guilt is running so high these days that many people are simply not going into stores in order to avoid the temptation to buy, retail executives say... In response, some brands are trying to catch consumers off-guard with new outlets for selling. Ittierre is considering having some brands open pop-up stores—boutiques that exist for a few weeks or months—in unexpected parts of European and U.S. cities that aren't traditional luxury shopping districts. The idea is that pop-ups may not activate the psychological barriers that prevent shoppers from entering traditional stores."

Pop Up Culture...

http://popupculture.co.uk/

Pop Up Trends...

What impact is The Pop Up Trend having on the world...?

The Humble Pop Up Shop...

I feel good today...

Light calligraphy by Kaalam...

Exploring the gestures and movements of calligraphy, nantes-based artist kaalam (aka julien breton) has created a body of work that uses hand-held light and long-exposure photographic techniques to capture the transient form within a real setting. Often utilizing urban or historical sites as his three-dimensional canvas, the self-taught artist creates his own latin-based alphabet that heavily draws from traditional arabic and eastern calligraphy. Arresting and provocative, the floating light forms are not mere superimposed subjects but display a direct engagement with the surroundings. 

The capturing process, which can take as long as ten minutes, requires a choreographed movement which kaalam practices before hand in heavy repetition. different colours of 'ink' is achieved through pigmented gelatin which is applied directly onto the lamps. None of the photographs are retouched or edited, illustrating the laborious process in a single shot.  

Umbrella Exhibition...

The very Powerful umbrella exhibition...

Constructivism Tee...

Loving this constructivism T-Shirtee...!

Postmodernism...At the V&A

Postmodernism Exhibition at the V&A Museum

This is the first in-depth survey of art, design and architecture of the 1970s and 1980s, examining one of the most controversial phenomena in recent art and design history: postmodernism. It shows how postmodernism evolved from a provocative architectural movement in the early 1970s and rapidly went on to influence all areas of popular culture including design, art, music, film, performance and fashion. By the 1980s consumerism and excess were the trademarks of the postmodern.

The exhibition explores the radical ideas that challenged Modernism; overthrowing purity and simplicity in favour of exuberant colour, bold patterns, artificial looking surfaces, historical quotation, parody and wit and above all, a newfound freedom in design. See over 250 objects across all areas of art and design and revisit a time when style was not just a ‘look’ but became an attitude.

Terence Conran-The Way We Live Now....

The Man Himself-Terence Conran

16 November – 04 March 2012

The Design Museum marks Sir Terence Conran’s 80th birthday with a major exhibition that explores his unique impact on contemporary life in Britain. Through his own design work, and also through his entrepreneurial flair, Conran has transformed the British way of life. As well as this, his design studio and architectural practice have a world wide reach. The Way We Live Now explores Conran’s impact and legacy, whilst also showing his design approach and inspirations. The exhibition traces his career from post-war austerity through to the new sensibility of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s, the birth of the Independent Group and the Pop Culture of the 1960s, to the design boom of the 1980s and on to the present day.

Ping Pong Parlour...

The Ping Pong Parlour is a one-of-a-kind table tennis social club, located just off Carnaby Street. As well as being able to play ping pong for free (although unfortunately not on regulation size tables), The Ping Pong Parlour offers up table tennis lessons (with an English Table Tennis Association coach!), Ping Pong parties (DJs, round the table tournaments and a robot which shoots out 170 balls a minute) and a Ping Pong Quiz Show.

The Ping Pong Parlour was conceived by Meera Sodha, Ping Pong enthusiast, and realised in association with design practise, The Klassnik Corporation www.klassnik.com an interdisciplinary design practice focused on communication of ideas through architectural research.

The Ping Pong Parlour is part of a wider initiative called Ping! which plans to put 100 ping pong tables on the streets of London for one month this summer. Situated in landmarks, squares, shopping centres, airports, parks and train stations; bringing ping pong to the people!

Bompass and Barr...

Bompass Barr - A City Of Jelly

Visionary Feast - London Design Festival

Visionary Feast - London Design Festival  20 September 2011

On 20th September Bompas & Parr and Martin Scholz (head chef of Catch) are hosting a Visionary Feast and screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky's cult film Holy Mountain. This is one of the Secret Sensory Suppers curated by Franklin Till within the Masonic Temple of the Andaz hotel. The film includes tarot, alchemists, limbless dwarves, a cemetery party and frogs dressed as mayan princes.The food for the Visionary Feast is inspired by the film and grand hotel cookery of the 1970's. Guests drink from a specially commissioned loving cup by jeweller Maud Traon before the presentation of a processional phallus made of ice. The menu incorporates figurative food drawn directly from the film and architectural space and includes hand reared frogs. 

Masonic Temple at Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel, London

Parliamentary Waffle House...

A slightly more quirky take on our previous ‘Pop Up Politics’ post is Bompas and Parr’s ‘Parliamentary Waffle House’. A pop-up eatery, come political forum which puts waffles at the heart of the political debate!

If still undecided on who to vote for, why not ponder at the same time as selecting your preferred waffle! Each item on the menu is orderable in a variation corresponding to one of the three major political parties.  Orders feed directly into a live action swing ‘o’ meter that gauges the mood of the country as people vote with their mouths.

For the final election showdown they will be providing all-night food, politics, Election night coverage live on a big screen, Live three way gladiatorial battle, Ballot box manicure and much more besides.

Idea Books...

Pop Up Shops All over the World

The IDEA Books Pop-Up Bookstore at St Martins Lane London. Stock is arriving every day and currently includes Raf Simon’s Isolated Heroes, many beautiful 1970′s issues of Interview Magazine, the punk book 100 Nights At The Roxy, and Charlotte Rampling.

Cineroleum Pop Up...

The Cineroleum

Original Petrol Station Facade

Beautiful Vintage Chairs

One of the most exhilarating elements of Pop Up events, is their ability to take a conventional activity and transform it, by placing it in a unique environment. This is typified by the recent Pop Up Cinema, Cineroleum, that has been entertaining film lovers in an abandoned petrol station in Clerkenwell. The location and venue are certainly unconventional, as is the idea of street side cinema for the average audience, but it’s a spectacular experience that takes the concept of cinema to a new level.

Cineroleum has primarily been constructed using donated and found materials. Popcorn, paper tickets, elaborate signage and flip-down seats, have been recreated to provide the excitement of a familiar experience. Enclosed by an ornate curtain strung from the forecourt garage roof, The Cineroleum has hosted screenings from sundown for four nights a week. With a programme of off-beat classics to celebrate the social experience of watching the big screen, stars from Buster Keaton to Barbarella have flickered, danced and shot their way across The Cineroleum screen as life passes by as normal on the Clerkenwell Road just a few feet away.

Design T Pop Up...