Architempo /~ alok b. nandi design.architempo.net

Initiated on 080808 after the conference ISEA2008 in Singapore, the first publication on Zero, an artist book by Alok b. Nandi and Ajaykumar is released on 081216.

More info about “expositions on zero” on www.zero.fluxtopia.net

Looking forward to meet some of you at

_ St-Etienne Intl Design Biennale in France, for the exhibition INDIA IN FLUX >, and the table series “orientable” in the exhibition “La Belgique des Autres” - week-end of Nov. 15th;
_ the launch of the book “in.tangible scape.s”, on Nov. 21st at IMEC - an AddictLab + IMEC publication, which includes a chapter ref. arts & sciences by Alok Nandi;
_ the “Open Sauces” event on Nov. 22nd, organised by Fo.am
_ the University of Vienna, on Nov. 25th, speaking about “Hopescapes: Eclectic Oscillations”, on media art & design, and work-in-progress;
_ Pecha Kucha Night Rotterdam, on Nov. 26th
_ St-Etienne Design Biennal finissage, on Nov. 30th.

Stay tuned: posts & links to follow.

The first edition of Design Brunch at Museumcafé in Brussels is taking place on 21st of Sept.
Are joining the conversation Fernand David (initiator of the MuseumCafé with Peter Goossens, a 3 stars chef), Antoine Pinto (architect, painter, ex-chef, …) and Maja Kuzmanovic (Fo.am initiator and generalist) and the audience ! See you on Sunday - a day without car in Brussels.
More and registration via http://designbrunch.architempo.net

The Pecha Kucha Brussels premiere was a real-life “experience” about {creativity*conversation}, and did attract the audience - venue was full full full. Thanks to you all for being there, the speakers did a great job, thanks to the partners for the in-kind support (see partners tab on the top of the page of pechakucha.architempo.net/brussels) and Namahn for the seeding. Duvel and Cafe Belga allowed the conversations to flow. Great.

Some are already talking about this event. Do let us know your feedback, as well as links to sites about this (blogs, flickr, …). Let us tag this with “PechaKuchaBrussels”.

Should you wanna be a Pecha Kucha speaker, or support the evenings to come, contact Alok Nandi via the form on Architempo.

Speakers of Pecha Kucha Brussels Vol.01 were:
Bud Blumenthal - choreographer & dancer
Thierry Brunfaut & Dimitri Jeurissen - BaseDesign
Aureia Harvey & Michael Samyn - Tale of Tales
Jan Kriekels - Jaga Radiator Factory
Giovanna Massoni - independent curator “Table Talks”
Francis Metzger - Ma² / Metzger et Associés Architecture
François Pachet - CSL Sony Lab Paris
Paolo Pellizzari - photographer
Peter Scholliers - historian on everyday life and food
Diane Steverlynck - designer

The others could not make it for health, family or personal reason. More soon. Stay tuned and check http://pechakucha.architempo.net for updates and next events.

This Nov. 20th is the premiere of Pecha Kucha Brussels.
More than 300 persons have registered [double vs. expectation].
It is spreading …
Stay tuned and check http://pechakucha.architempo.net

Alok Nandi just convened the conference by Prof. Raymond Trousson at Mundaneum, Mons, Belgium, where they talked a.o. about the difference between “utopie” and “utopisme”. It was all in French:

Sciences, techniques et bonheur, de l’utopie à l’anti-utopie
Par Raymond Trousson, Professeur émérite de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles
Dans le cadre de l’exposition “Utopia, de l’Atlantide aux cités du futur”
Le jeudi 20 septembre à 20h
Au Mundaneum

Quand et comment les sciences et les techniques, si présentes dans les utopies et dystopies modernes, font-elles leur apparition dans ce genre littéraire ? Absentes dans les récits de l’antiquité, elles se manifestent dès la Renaissance, mais étroitement reliées à la religion et à la métaphysique et, sauf chez Francis Bacon, ne conditionnent en rien le mode de vie de la Cité. Jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, mis à part “L’An 2440″ de Louis-Sébastien Mercier, les utopies peuvent tout au plus contenir des informations sur un savoir encore interdit, le genre romanesque autorisant, par sa fantaisie avouée, des propos inacceptables ailleurs.
La perspective devait se modifier à partir de la révolution industrielle. Nombreuses sont alors les utopies qui, jusqu’à la fin du XIXe siècle et au-delà, manifestent le culte de la science et de la technique, encouragé par le développement du scientisme et du positivisme. Toutefois, dès 1846, se fait jour une approche pessimiste du phénomène. Après être apparues comme libératrices, sciences et techniques se font asservissantes, mécanisent l’humain et ouvrent la voie à la contre-utopie, dont les exemples sont nombreux, de Zamiatine à Huxley.
Dès lors, la problématique concerne essentiellement une éthique. L’utopie en vient à s’interroger sur l’utilisation d’un savoir déshumanisant et sur les méfaits d’une technique que ne régit aucune morale et se trouve inféodée à un système politico-économique néfaste. Le retour, à la fin du XXe siècle, vers une certaine forme d’utopie positive, portera condamnation sur l’illusion d’un progrès indéfini et la promesse d’un « bonheur » grégaire ignorant des valeurs essentielles.
Raymond Trousson

Raymond Trousson, professeur émérite de l’Université libre de Bruxelles, est l’auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur les grands auteurs du siècle des Lumières. Dans le domaine de l’utopie, il a publié plusieurs éditions critiques de textes classiques et est aussi l’auteur des “Voyages aux Pays de nulle part. Histoire littéraire de la pensée utopique” (3e édition, 1999), des “Religions d’Utopie” (2001) et de “Sciences, techniques et utopies. Du paradis à l’enfer” (2003).

Dans le cadre de l’exposition “UTOPIA, de l’Atlantide aux cités du futur”, du 20.04 au 28.10.2007.

Open Sauces : on food and coding.
Demystifying the production, distribution, presentation and consumption of food in a degustation dinner, with matched artists, including Kate Rich, Stevie Wishart, Femke Snelting, Alok Nandi and others.

Alok Nandi will talk about Fresh Food Frozen Cities, which was launched in Delhi in March 2007, as part of Taltala Tales, in the design conference Doors of Perception.

22 November 2007, 18:00 - 23:00
fo.am, Koolmijnenkaai 30-34, Brussels, Belgium.
Organized by http://fo.am, Maja Kuzmanovic and fo.am team.

Alok Nandi is launching Pecha Kucha Night Brussels.

What does “Pecha Kucha” mean ?
More on http://pechakucha.architempo.net

Pecha Kucha, a Japanese expression for the sound of conversation, is a series of show and tell evenings for designers, architects, artists, creatives, … started by Klein Dytham Architecture in Tokyo.

Since 2003, groups have sprung up in cities all over the world (over 80 so far) and adopted the Pecha Kucha format: each presenter has 20 slides which are displayed for 20 seconds each.

The idea is to create an environment where creatives from all fields can present (in 6 minutes and 40 seconds) a project carried out, under development, or which they dream to see accomplished. Anyone who has made, or will make, something interesting and would like share with the curious and open minded is welcome.

These last seven months, Alok Nandi was giving a weekly radio chronicle for Paris-based radio BFM, in the programme “IndeHebdo”, covering “books and India”, in French: fiction and non-fiction, essays, design, … all genres … One way was to look at narratives and storytelling for systems design, or in other words “experience design” [non ?].
These are accessible via podcast and will be radio-casted in FM this summer.
List of chronicles and podcast access on mahanet.com

“Fresh Food, Frozen City” was one of the topic presented by Alok Nandi, at Doors of Perception in March 2007 in Delhi. It raises many themes connected to innovation, emergence, design, narrative, …
Interventions are in development. Today’s hype jargon would label these City 2.0, Food 2.0.
For more information, you can get in touch with Alok Nandi.