🎹 I’ve always loved a good brand story so when I received Waqas's deep dive on Teenage Engineering, I felt excited right away. Why Teenage Engineering is so Cool. This is exactly the type of opinionated company and brand we'd like to see more of. Which makes me wonder: why are there so few in the world? How can we empower more people to launch weirder and cooler things?
🎨 We let disposable stuff put us -humans- in a state of disconnection and lack of meaning. Objects are evidence of human existence. This is why Ben’s piece Marks of Making resonated so much:
Objects that expose their “marks of making”, or artifacts of how they were constructed, are a reminder that everything is made. Nothing simply appears. In a time when most people are wholly detached from making anything they consume, it’s easy to lose sight of that fact. I’m not necessarily lamenting this disconnect, but I appreciate any design which reminds us (whether intentionally or not) that it was made.
🎨 Henrik struck again. Look at that opener 👇 I was hooked right there. The whole thing looks like a great -and wise- ‘lesson’ to pass on kids: everything that turned out well in my like followed the same design process.
If I look at things that have turned out well in my life (my marriage, some of my essays, my current career) the “design process” has been the same in each case. It has been what Christopher Alexander called an unfolding. Put simply:
I paid attention to things I liked to do, and found ways to do more of that. I made it easy for interesting people to find me, and then I hung out with them. We did projects together.
I kept iterating—paying attention to the context, removing things that frustrated me, and expanding things that made me feel alive.
Eventually, I looked up and noticed that my life was nothing like I imagined it would be. But it fit me.
🪡 We threw our first ‘denim soirée’ in San Francisco last Friday and we can’t be happier. Stella was one of the local tailor. Learn more about her and how she’s doing some magic with fabrics since age 8.
👕 Shameless plug to start: I was stoked to meet and chat with Sophie about the possibility (or not) to regulate our emotional attachment to fashion. [if you can't read the article, let me know and I can send it to you]
If we don’t pay enough attention to what we want and why we want it, we just tend to crave for what’s next.
🚶♀️I can’t agree enough with Patricia's title ‘solved by walking’. I’ve personally always loved walking. I’m currently in Berkeley, CA and I’m very surprised by the low amount of people walking -especially in the hills. Below are Russel's words:
In addition to physical exercise and my family fondness, walking remains important to me as an emblem of the sacredness of life. Humans think. Human feel. Humans move.
We encounter others in our walks. The world – nature, cities, streams, forests – unfolds underfoot. Walking remains a primary way we go beyond ourselves.
🪡 The first name of my very first company -back in 2010- was ‘My Tailor is My Friend’ so this new section by Mathilde on The Objet Journal feels quite special. Clara Metayer is a Parisian tailor, founder of Sauve qui Peut and tailor-in-residence at Patine.
Over time, I realised that I didn’t want to sell new products. We already have so much. How about keeping those we have and love? This opened a brand new world! Mending is made of so many techniques. For one given challenge, there are a thousands solutions: visible -embroidery, patches,…-, invisible - darning, or the art of recreating fabric literally, be it jeans or wool stitches,…
🤰 This testimonial by Daniel is a must read: Looking for the Anti-Mimetic Doctors. The subtitle says it all: “Rethinking Medical Interventions, and the Courage to Do Less”. On many aspects, it reminded me Mathilde's experience -and I know she might share it all soon on A Wander Woman.
As doctors, we know full well that tracking the baby’s heart rate during labor has increased interventions but has not improved outcomes. In simpler terms, tracking the baby’s heart rate during labor has gotten more women induced or sliced open, but has not decreased stillbirths or postpartum deaths. Then why do we do it? Because it’s scary not to, that’s why. And I speak from experience.
📝 I’ve been touched by Rob's ode to manifestos in Manifestos are magic spells. I can’t agree more with this typically:
The process of writing a manifesto, at its core, is the process of clarifying your desire. In a world that's constantly distracting us with digital noise and shiny objects, keeping us running on a mimetic treadmill of manufactured desires, getting clear about what you want, deep down, is a radical act. Exploring and articulating what matters most, then committing it to writing, is a bit like waking up to your own humanity after a deep slumber. It kicks off a journey of coming home to yourself.
Which is exactly why we wrote ours at Objet: "LE NEW CONSUMER".
🏛 Great article on The Hacking of Culture and the Creation of Socio-Technical Debt.
Like any well-designed operating system, culture is invisible to most people most of the time. Hidden in plain sight, we make use of it constantly without realizing it. As an operating system, culture forms the base infrastructure layer of societal interaction, facilitating communication, cooperation, and interrelations. Always evolving, culture is elastic: we build on it, remix it, and even break it.
That line made me think of New_ Public work and what they study/ fight for:
As more and more spaces for meeting in real life close, we increasingly turn to digital platforms for connection to replace them. But these virtual spaces are optimized for shareholder returns, not public good.
