Dale Hardiman
is In Wild Air

Culture

The Sound of Sports

I’m no avid sport follower (besides the Australian Open Tennis), but thanks to this episode of the 99% Invisible podcast I now know that there is a possibility that some of the sounds you hear when watching or listening to sport events might have been pre-recorded. I guess my interest would be based on how we as consumers actually consume everything around us, and how easily we can be tricked into believing something so irrelevant to the overall experience be actually what is happening before our eyes.

99% Invisible is a podcast about the things that surround us that we are unaware of. For example, did you know the Taser was actually named after Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle?

I would suggest these if you're not already a listener: Inflatable Men, A Sweet Surpirse Awaits You.

People

Paul Erdős

Paul Erdős was a Hungarian mathematician, and I was only recently introduced to Erdős through friend Ben Landau. Erdős was the ‘master of collaboration’, his collaborative efforts were so prolific the Erdős number was created to describe the “collaborative distance” between Erdős and another person - this is also where the Erdős-Bacon number comes from*.

Erdős had no wife, no children, no job, no hobbies, and also no home. He lived out of a suitcase, and moved around the world meeting new mathematicians. Erdős lived such an incredible life, and with what little money he received, he would give away to relatives, colleagues, students or those in need. Erdős literally gave his life to his work, to collaboration.

If you’re interested I would suggest watching N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdos, the 1993 documentary.

*The sum of one's Erdős number, and one's Bacon number which represents the number of links throughs roles in films by which the individual is separated from American act Kevin Bacon. Canadian actor Albert M. Chan has an Erdős–Bacon number of 4. He co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on OFDM, giving him an Erdős number of 3. Chan was cast alongside Kevin Bacon in Patriots Day, giving him a Bacon number of 1.

Places

Arcosanti

Arcosanti is an experimental town in central Arizona developed by Paolo and Colly Soleri, and built by a huge team of volunteers (7,000+). My initial interest in Arcosanti was the construction of the buildings, as the 10+ structures were all built through earth casting - concrete being poured on-site over pre-shaped earthen forms and then excavated to remove the solid concrete.

Paolo and Colly developed Arcosanti on Arcology, a concept by Paolo which see's cities embody architecture with ecology. Arcology is a much more efficient and intelligent way to build cities - typical cities devote more than 60% of it's land to roads and automobile services. Arcology puts living, working, and public services within easy reach of each other.

Arcosanti is the place of my dreams - educational focus, working within close proximity from place of residence and local production.

Things

Spaghetti Bridges

I’ve only just recently become super interested in spaghetti bridges. I’m not usually a bridge person, but the idea of students trying to make the strongest bridge from wheat is incredible. Some of my favourite projects are based on experimental uses of food materials, looking at short-term applications that are entirely biodegradable and can be produced from within the kitchen. The first project I ever produced was called Kids Straw Stool and was made from materials (ingredients) that could be purchased from the super market and cooked in the kitchen. I'm still incredibly interested in the idea of the kitchen being a type of workshop/ laboratory.

Who decided spaghetti was going to be the material? In 2009 a Hungarian student built a bridge weighing 982 grams that held 466.05kg.

Thoughts

Stupid Hackathon

The STUPID SHIT NO ONE NEEDS & TERRIBLE IDEAS HACKATHON is a one-day event where participants conceptualize and create projects that have no value whatsoever.

Recent projects include Wienchimes: windchimes made out of hot dogs, Zen Volt: a meditation aid that shocks you when you don’t relax, NonAd Block: a chrome extension that blocks all web content that isn't an ad and E-book: a book with a cut out for your phone inside it so you can read while you’re reading.

I've always had a great love for concept generation of this time - no limitations. I recently received an e-mail from a high school student who said his class had to take an idea from one of my works, and incorporate it into theirs. He started the e-mail with ‘What makes you design? Do you seriously get up in the morning and think, “I just had an idea, to make a stool that looks like horse poo?”’. The closing line of the e-mail was “But your designs aren’t actually functional they are just weird”, I was very happy to receive this e-mail and hope the student will take me up on my offer to explain the reason for the work.

Wildism

Eric Hu’s Tumblr

Eric Hu is an artist and designer based in Montréal, and New York, and is currently the creative director of design at Ssense, editor at Talk Magazine and a member of Eternal Dragonz. On his personal Tumblr, Eric posts work in progress, but also answers lots of questions openly and honestly from anonymous submissions. Eric totally opens up and answers questions about subjects such as education, advise on reading material, mentors, religion, and privilege.

Friday, October 7, 2016 Anonymous asked: "hi Eric! I just have a question about exhibition of graphic design, what do you think about it? Do you think it´s right to show it in gallery?"

"I have no strong feelings towards it, but I think people who are against it on the grounds that graphic design exists “in a context” and a gallery space strips that context are buffoons. like lol so does your portfolio/website you dummy people can use their imaginations"