Uncategorized « Candy Chang

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Design for Evil “Every design process is incomplete unless it takes into careful consideration what could be done with the product by a dictatorial megalomaniac in command of a national economy, a secret police, and a large army.” – Bruce Sterling	Race relations via candybars Some choice findings at the local Finnish supermarket.	5 Ways to Redesign a City Rachel Abrams, Creative Director of Turnstone Consulting, wrote a cool article “Five Ways to Redesign a City” for the UK Design Council magazine about ways interaction designers can tackle urban issues in various cities around the world. She includes good ol’ Helsinki and its public transportation-tracking tools with a little Atari reference from me. Watch the [...]	A Food Made For Radio Behold mammi, a traditional Finnish Easter pudding made from rye flour and malt that tastes like the dregs of your cereal bowl and is better served in mood lighting. How does the color of food affect the way taste is perceived? Food coloring is a common ingredient in chicken mcnuggets, salad dressings, sandwich buns and [...]

Crowdemployment & microsalaries When companies are trying to make the Latest Thing, there are lots of rules about keeping things on the hush hush. Nokia House, the headquarters just outside downtown Helsinki, is ripe with security. Every door in the ginormous complex can only be opened with a personal electronic gadget, and the design floor is even off-limits [...]	Things I Didn’t Think About No free streaming tv here! Hello bit torrents… U.S. magazines cost as much as books! Now eating while reading Time is for fancy days… There’s no peanut butter and people think PBJ sandwiches are grody! Gots to tell people what time it is…	The People’s Map What are your favorite places in Helsinki? Add it to the collaborative Google map here!	North by Northwest How do you feel comfortable in a city? For me, part of it is knowing what direction I’m facing. This was an easy thing to do in NYC where I was always aware I was walking north on Mott or west on Spring. As one of the first planned cities, Helsinki actually has a grid [...]

Mapping Our Crashes Crashstat.org combines Google maps with DMV stats on pedestrian and biking accidents so you can see which NYC intersections are danger zones. Since 1995, there have been 35 injuries and 2 fatalities just two blocks from my old apartment. And that doesn’t count tramplings-by-fellow-pedestrians on Canal Street… Made by Transportation Alternatives.	Drinking from our water features A fresh-water fountain in Chamonix, France What does it take to trust your tap water? My doubts started as a child, when the family refrigerator was consistently stocked with a store-bought gallon of water. And that was Ohio. There are places where suspicions are seriously grounded like a hostel in Nairobi, where the water ran yellow [...]	Eames Rock Out Charles and Ray Eames got even more awesome with this video/music mashup – my friend’s band played live to the Eames’ classic Powers of Ten video. Wait for the coordinated rock-out session during the zoom back to Earth ha, sweeeet.	Fun Finnish Apt Customs II No lobby mailboxes here – Finnish postal workers deliver your snail mail directly to your door (through a door slot that makes receiving your mail semi-frightening as it drops to a crashing heap). So tenants’ names are posted on their doors in official plaques that make everyone look like upper office management.

Lego NYC The funnest nod to NYC… by Christoph Niemann.	Music for Sleeping James made a new mix called Kylmä Musiikki (Finnish for “Cold Music”) that’s really good music to pass out to. Check out the tracklist full of soft and heartbreaking classics from Brian Eno, Oval and DJ Shadow, and download it here!	Two Birds, One Dish Rack Going apartment-searching in Helsinki has been a fun introduction to different customs for small-space-living. Here’s one that should be spread to all mankind – Dish racks are installed like shelves in a bottomless cupboard above the sink where they can drip, dry, and be stored away in one fell swoop. And I brought my standalone [...]	From Dots to Discus Three neat works from the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art… Rita Roos by Anne-Karin Furunes. Half-toned face made from punched holes and shadow. Dot matrix meets minimal art! 15 Excavator by June Bum Park. A sped-up video of a construction site is layered with crafty hands to look like they’re directing the crane. Real world as [...]

Weird Bench Formations in Helsinki Small talk turned into performance art…	Without Jargon or Pompous Language A sweet example of information made accessible – A Little History of the World (1935) by E.H. Gombrich, who explains world history in the same spirit as The Little Prince. As explained by his granddaughter in the preface: “He was… feeling a little impatient with academic writing, having waded through so much of it in [...]	Keeping You Posted Not only does Helsinki have a tram system that tells you exactly when the next one will come, but they have a neat map of bus lines moving in real time. An arrow notes the bus direction and the icons jolt every few seconds like a city version of Asteroids. No more fidgety gazing into [...]	Sunrise, Sunset Morning in Helsinki in January is like one long dawn and the afternoon like one long sunset. It’s actually kind of romantic and I’m finally awake for that time when the sky goes from dark to dewy and is good to reflect by, but this time it lasts for many hours and it doesn’t mean [...]

Letting Go A less streamlined adjustment in order to tilt my iPhone for easy movie-watching on the plane.	My Country Village in the City Multiple points plotted via multiplottr.com My NYC apartments 2001-2008: West Village – 22 Jones Street Apt 3F, New York NY Chinatown – 219 Grand Street Apt 1, New York NY Carroll Gardens – 44 4th Place Apt 2, Brooklyn NY Cobble Hill – 130 Dean Street Apt 1, Brooklyn NY Chinatown – 154 Mott Street Apt 5B, New York NY I rocked [...]	A Touch of Class When I think of American tourism last century I imagine color-penciled postcards and pennies stamped with historic landmarks. Now it’s butt-shaped shot glasses and shirts that say “Please tell your boobs to stop staring at my eyes.” Who’s a little less classy these days – us or the memorabilia designers?	Trail Cam I was sitting next to a guy on the plane with a striking deer photo on his laptop desktop. Found out when he’s not traveling the world as an engineer for GE, he’s living in a wooded area in Erie, Pennsylvania where he hooks up sensors with digital cameras and straps them onto trees in [...]

Plane Cam Seeing this a lot more lately – plane cam, which points out the front and the bottom of the plane so you can see just how ridiculously high you are in the middle of space… too much information?	Vintage Finnish Magazine Old Finnish men, Lichtenstein-esque map graphic, fuss lotion… from Suomen Kuvalehti (Finnish Picture Book), 1958.	Moomin! Thanks Tiina for introducing me to Moomin, my new favorite storybook star! Finland’s version of The Little Prince… entertains kids and breaks adults hearts.	Women and Carrots Something I found while flipping through an All-American Ads book ha… Guard your foods and women against rapid drying out!

Change vs. Reform A New York Times graphic tallying the number of times the Democrats and Republicans used particular words during their conventions. Helsinki is 7 hours ahead of NYC, but that didn’t stop me from staying up until five in the morning to frustratingly watch the RNC. If they’re going to boo Obama for not calling the war [...]	Sweaty Prison Disco Favorite Song No. 76: ‘The Chase’ by Giorgio Moroder. Who would have thought italo disco’s hottest track would be paired with a sweaty chase through chicken coups? From the soundtrack to the 1978 film Midnight Express, ‘The Chase’ provides a driving electro beat and sparkling synth melody as one man runs from the po and [...]	The New and Improved Wine Label It’s a common problem – you try a new wine, you love it, you forget what it’s called, and The End. Not anymore, thanks to the designers of the Oxford Landing wine labels. They’ve created a handy perforated tab that you can peel off and store in your wallet until it’s time to get your [...]	Detroit Techno Broke My Window When we were going to college in Ann Arbor, James and I and other friends would often drive to Detroit to go to techno parties on shady streets. One time we drove back with a shattered hole for a passenger window. Good old Detroit! These days the renovated waterfront and downtown are increasingly populated by [...]

From Leaf to Palace Cross-disciplinary ideas are the best. While reading Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, I learned about this hot back-story. Joseph Paxton was a gardener and the first in England to grow the giant water lily, the biggest flowering plant in the world. His lily had leaves 6 feet long, and a photo of his daughter sitting [...]	How Not to Collect Money What?… Then why did you send it to me?… did you just kill a child?	Do the Robot Talk Favorite toy no. 257: Speak & Spell. In 1978, Texas Instruments introduced the first single-chip speech synthesizer which was able to electronically duplicate the human vocal tract on a single chip of silicon. In charming and fresh fashion, their first product was the Speak & Spell for children and it quickly became one of the [...]	KinoSport Crashes in Radioland James (aka KinoSport) just made a hot new mix called Crashed in Radioland. Bookended by In the Mood for Love sound bites, it’s a warm, echo-y land of motivating background music to work to. And as time goes by, it shifts ever-so-slightly into soft-focus, just like you at work! Download it for free and get [...]

Stacking Up the Presidents Ever since Time Magazine’s redesign a year ago I want to spend more time in its big-titled pages, it’s so damn sharp. They have handsome information graphics that rival The New York Times and this week’s issue features a hot one. To accompany their cover article “Does Experience Matter in a President?”, they plotted the [...]	The Jon Show Hahaha and like that, it’s… so good… Garfield minus Garfield (thanks James).	She Has a Great Personality Wow. That’s the way we do business-casual on Canal Street.	I Heart Chinatown Happy Chinese New Year! Yay for old Chinese people!

The Day that Funky Died Rest in peace, you funky place you. At the end of my block on the corner of Broome and Mott there once was a restaurant named Funky Broome. Then it became Jazzy Wok. And lastly it was the Funky Thai Cafe. After each incarnation the decor got greener, purpler, and shimmerier, until it was a [...]	Mapping Your Place It’s so easy to put off visiting places that will always be a minute away… I’ve been meaning to go to The New Museum since its November opening, but it always seems too cold or too closed or too afternoony when it comes to mind. And it comes to mind often because it’s like a [...]	White People’s Subway Map It’s true, it’s true… the White New York City Subway map haha (thanks Matty). Made by Streeter Seidell, whose blog I just started reading and now I can’t stop. He funnee.