uncomfortable conversations

this sunday, designglut will unveil their off cite icff show. designglut believes it is the role of creatives to start the uncomfortable conversations that ultimately cause people to grow. they challenged artists to design an object that provokes an uncomfortable yet important conversation amongst the viewers of the show. the type of object, the materials it’s made from, and the topic of the conversation are entirely up to designer. their intention is to get people talking about something they would normally avoid, pushing them outside of their comfort zones and opening their minds.

nooka design challenges people to reject nostalgia and embrace an optimistic charge towards tomorrow. fashion is one area where nostalgia is still more of a driving force than futurism, and for this exhibition matthew waldman created a piece that highlights the sometimes uncomfortable reality when biology asserts itself.

visit designgluts website for more information here!

the address is:
803 Washington St.
New York, NY

nooka press: sight unseen

monia khemsurov wrote an amazing article on her studio visit at the nooka lab. be sure to check it out and get in an inside look at the office!

check out sight unseen here!

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cite goes america

on may 15th, matthew waldman and nooka will take part in the 2nd of three off cite icff shows. cite goes america centers around a skeleton house featuring 400 sq.ft. of a detailed oriented large room, created with the pieces chosen for the collection. in this manner a birds eye view of what they believe is strong and interesting design is seen not only in the context of an occupied house, but with a real feel of the new american home.

nooka has contributed products from our line conveying a message promoting universal communication, whether visual, systematic or linguistic. it’s a futurist philosophy.

to learn more about cite goes america, check here!

the address is:
cite showroom 131 greene st. ny, ny 10012

sounds like

as part of icff, joey roth gave collaborators a set of speakers he recently designed to reshape, using their own visual language. in turn, he asked each of them to work with a musician to produce a track to accompany their speaker interpretation. matthew waldman and miho hatori combined their creativity to produce a truly unique experience.

here's a glimpse of each of their statements for the piece:
matthew waldman
technology improves life and creates new dialogs between people and the universe. moreover, it fuels an ever growing expectation of things to come. it is not an exaggeration to say that the idea of time travel is perhaps the most portent of expectations of future technology. it is this theme i have explored in my piece for the sounds like exhibition – creating a physical evocation of time past and yet to come.

miho hatori
...looking at the time machine makes me want to give it life. for me primitive sound is the basis for the way people hear today. we all evolved from ocean life and sound memory is embedded in our dna. that is the beauty of life and this is why we have the ability to hear and interpret sound- this is the beautiful part of evolution. the energy and movement of evolution is far more powerful than human imagination. It is an organic occurrence that we can only dream of understanding and channeling in such an accidental, yet powerful way.

here is the AMAZING track miho recorded for the piece:



piers fawkes from psk will be sponsoring a panel of 4 speakers including matthew waldman. to learn more, be sure to check out their site here!

learn more about miho hatori here

be sure to learn all about joey roth's project here!

the address is:
DDCLAB
427 W 14th Street @ Washington St.
New York, NY 10014

matthew waldman x graniph t shirt on sale

heres your chance to purchase one of the exclusive-to-graniph matthew waldman t-shirts. this special limited edition collaborative shirt features the famous creatures of the night pattern in a bold star. its the perfect match to your nooka watch.

order yours here!

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london

i am in london, and man, it was cold the past few days. luckily it's in the 50s F [15ºC] today! i'm staying in shoreditch house and i must say, membership does has it's privileges – best stay ever in london [london, like NYC, is a city where even paying $200+/night does NOT guarantee a nice room, or even good water pressure in your shower]. i just wish my room had a bath tub...

so, i got the most of the cultural stuff out of the way on monday, as it was a bank holiday here: design museum, tate modern, and even a show on royal british armor at london tower [my friend darren dragged me to that one]. great shows at both the design museum and tate but it bothers me deeply that my products are in neither of the 2's gift shops [but i won't get into that here].

darren also arranged tickets to see hair, which he did the press for. it was a bit of a mind fuck for me on a few levels. i'm not into musicals, but hair is one i grew up listening to because of my parents brief hippy phase [my mom's huge afro and colourful dashikis were part of my aesthetic influences] and also, the drama club in my high school did a production of it [against my best advise, inner city NYC public school with maybe 5% white kids is not the most supportive environment for a hippy musical. no one came]. the mind fuck part is really about NYC – a city that spawned jazz, folk music [still can't get my head around that], glam rock, punk, disco, AND hip hop is so different now, it's hard to process how much has changed even since i was in high school and i wonder how a city like new york will propel itself into the future. london seems so motivated by their olympics, shanghai by the the world expo...why is NYC so not interested in big events to force major improvements to infrastructure? of course, the federal government is part of the problem with nyc being bled dry of tax revenue, but i'm not an articulate enough writer to address this complex issue up...just mentioning it in the context of what went through my brain while watching a production of a musical.

anyway, excited to meet with illustrator extraordinaire, ken chung, go for a tour of the royal society of arts HQ, meet with the ilove dust team...all between now and friday when i return to NYC.

nyc icff 2010 X nooka

the 22nd annual international contemporary furniture fair, the icff, will turn new york into a global summit for what's best and what's next in design. this year, nooka and matthew waldman will be involved in three off-site shows, uncomfortable conversations by design glut, sounds like by joey roth, and cite goes america by jan habraken.

more details to come as the date nears!

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