DESIGN STREET and the blast from the past...

I was in discussion with some of my architect friends, and the thought went on to the way our bodies have not been designed to sit. we have been designed to either lie down or walk on four legs, even standing is something that is not natural to us, we need to learn this balancing act. This got me thinking and then I thought of finding some of the iconic chairs and how they have progressed. In this design street section, I have just put them up for you to draw your own conclusion ...

Then there are some very interesting blast from the past... first is the book "Emerging Mind" of V S Ramachandran, considered to be one of the 100 Scientists of the century, which had impressed me the first time I read almost a decade back, and this week it came back to me in some discussions. This is a book a layman can understand about Brain and the most interesting section is on how our brains perceive art and beauty. His first book too created quite a stir - "Phantoms in the brain"

The Movie i have put here is something that I had again seen ages ago and it stuck in my mind and some how this kept coming back to me this week. So here is Samsara for you - a movie by an Indian director which was showcased in Canada. And here is what one of the reviewers said about the movie....

Staggeringly Beautiful! A film that explores desires, destiny and spirituality. Truly a visual feast. A serene and welcome escape from the frantic pace of everyday life. Performances are marvelous, especially Shawn Ku's Tashi, whose exploration of conscience is transparent, and Christ Chung's Pema, is sublime and graceful. Possibly is as close to Shangri-La as we will ever get. Samsara is a haunting, cinematic and spiritual love story to savor. -Urban Cinefile, Australia

The music: is Celtic Thunder... like it a lot. Ok this is not a blast from past but a blast nevertheless.


I recently come across "One Stop Poetry" blog by Adam Dustus, who show cases poetic talents of friends... if you like you can add your poetry to the blog and here is mine ONE SHOT 
Click here to read


Some details blow on how to submit your own poetry....


Welcome to One Shot Wednesday - highlight your poetic talents 

My name is Adam Dustus. Welcome to One Shot for our 11th week! I am extremely happy to be part of this supportive peer community of talented poets. Let the fun begin!
New to One Shot Wednesday? Here's a quick recap of how it works:

1. Write a poetic piece & post it on your blog
2. Then let us know about your post. Link back to One Shot
3. Sign up in the Mr Linky list, linking directly to your post, AFTER you've posted it.
4. Go visit others who have signed up! Offer support & encouragement. Share your love of words and insight respectfully. Please try to visit as many participating poets as you can. We all could use and appreciate kind feedback.

All forms of poetry are accepted for One Shot Wednesday. Everyone is welcome.


Click here to post your own poetry

Cheers.Adam 

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DESIGN STREET: The art of seating: Chairs with art, design, brains and conscience

The art of Seating: The needs of users have grown into the perfection high, and many of the designers have come up with many innovative designs and high class products. From the times of the people using stone's tree stumps to sit apart from just squatting on the earth, the modern design for seating solutions have come a long way. From bizarre to most efficient workplace seating solutions, the modern world is full of great chairs. Below are some that I have come across and like. But to begin with let me give you one, which I find more interesting which was show cased in Orgatec 2008 at cologne, Germany.

Perception Furniture for Inspiration

So here you go for a display of some interesting seating solutions from across the world. Hope you like it.

lc4-chaise-longue

A hallmark of contemporary design, this chaise longue was created by three architects who were forerunners of the International Style. An adjustable chromed-steel cradle rests on a black steel base. Broad rubber straps support the upholstered cushion with attached headrest and double-reinforced edge stitching to maintain its shape over time. Manufactured by Cassina under license by the Le Corbusier Foundation. For my Indian friends, Le Corbusier was also the designer of the Chandigarh the modern city on India in North.

Lounge chair and Ottoman by Charles and Ray Eames

Today it's one of the most widely recognized and imitated furniture designs, but Charles Eames' goal for the lounge chair and ottoman was much more modest. He wanted to build a chair with "the warm receptive look of a well used first baseman's mitt." So he nestled supple leather-covered cushions in molded-plywood, veneer-covered forms. He connected them with die-cast aluminum back braces. He set them all on bases painted black with bright polished aluminum trim and adjustable stainless steel glides.

Now an icon of modern design, the chair has been produced continuously for nearly 50 years by the original manufacturer, Herman Miller®. This authorized version is made of molded, seven-ply veneered plywood and is upholstered in top-grain black leather entirely by hand.

I have talked about the Charles and Ray Eames in my previous blogs, if you would like to read more please click here - Charles and Ray Eames- My blog post (you will have to scroll down to read it)

Panton chair

Verner Panton

The first one-piece cantilever plastic chair, this handsome, sculptural design heralded the use of molded plastic in home and office decor. Having been through several stages following the developments of plastic, it is now reissued in durable, extruded polypropylene. Made by Vitra. For our Indian friends, this is the chair used in the Ad "AAM SUTRA" where Katrina Kaif is sitting and drinking or rather slurping Slice.

Panton - two level seat

two level seat by Verner Panton

design by verner panton in 1973, made by metzeler schaum Germany , wood and upholster fabric - a very rare in a very very limited edition

Lou Lou ghost chair for Kids

Philippe Starck’s  Louis Ghost Chair for Kartell is a prime example of taking something staid like a Louis XVI chair and transforming into an icon for a new age. And now it’s gone through another evolution. Few years back at the Milan furniture fair the Lou Lou Ghost Chair for kids was launched. 

Aeron Chair

The Aeron chair is a product of Herman Miller designed in 1994 by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf. It is an ergonomic chair that is regarded by many users as inherently very comfortable due to its wide range of fit (available in three sizes) and adjustability. Its novel design has gained it a spot in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection. Its also the most sold chair in the world.

Z Chair

Giovanni Pagnotta attended Parsons School of Design and obtained a Masters of Architecture degree at Yale University, receiving the Eero Saarinen Schlarship for Design Excellence. His work has been featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami and at the Yale University Art Gallery. 

Mi Chair

Mr Pagnotta recently introduced his latest product, the Mi (pronunced ‘me’) Chair, a recyclable molded polypropylene chair.  Most notably, the Mi chair is comfortable, beautiful, and made in the United States.

"What feeds my soul is the challenge of deciphering the secrets of a particular material and translating those discoveries into something unexpected and beautiful." - Giovanni Pagnotta

Now just moving on to some of the daily to use chairs, workstation chairs or if you may like to call it, Task Chairs are listed below which I have liked. These are recently launched products so they have not reached the iconic level of the chairs mentioned above.

Embody

The manufacturers of this Chair Herman Miller says about the chair, "True innovation manifests itself in many forms. With Embody, innovation oozes from every contact point your body makes with the chair. Embody makes you feel like you're floating. It promotes health-positive sitting. It helps you focus on your work and think more clearly. In fact, it's the first work chair that supports your body and your mind." and I tend to agree...

The Embody was designed in the design studio of Jeff Weber and the late Bill Stumpf and launched in 2008.

Zody
Pic Curtesy GEEK.COM

Ergonomically and environmentally friendly. Zody is the first task chair certified Cradle to Cradle™ Gold by MBDC, and the first to be endorsed by the American Physical Therapy Association for science-based comfort and ergonomics. User control makes it popular around the office, and its global design makes Zody seating right for any work environment. Zody was designed by ITO design in Germany, in collaboration with the Haworth Design Studio. This is, no doubt, one of the very best workstation chairs that I have had used in profession.

Think Chair

Think is the chair with a brain and a conscience manufactured by Steel Case as they say. "It's intelligent enough to understand how you sit and adjust itself intuitively. It's thoughtful enough to measure and minimize its lifelong impact on the environment.

Designed by Glen Oliver Low, Think chair is the first-ever certified level™ 3 product, the highest BIFMA e3 standard. It looks good too, in my opinion. 

RECOMMENDATIONS: Music, Books and Films

EMERGING MIND: A book about understanding mind and how it perceives things including Art and Beauty.

Emerging mind is written by Vilayanur S Ramachandran (Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition and professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Programme at the University of California, San Diego).  I have been fortunate enough to see him in Chennai (He is from Chennai settled in USA) in connection with one of his book launch and liked his simplicity. He is considered one of the best scientists of the century. He gave four part lecture in BBC in 2003, in the Reith Lecture series.

The book is very interesting and explains, quite beautifully, how our brains perform and what goes on in, inside the brain. I have been much impressed by the book that I have had given this book to almost all my friends. Specially, the section on “The Artful Brain” where he has tried to explain how we perceive art and beauty. His other book, “Phantoms in the Brain” was also a best seller and came before this.

This book, “Emerging Mind” is a scintillating introduction to the latest thinking on the brain and the mind by the world's leading expert. Neuroscience can now begin to unlock the key to the self. Our knowledge of the brain has progressed so rapidly that it will change the way we think of ourselves as human beings. It will change our notion of understanding. This is a revolution which will have impact on all our lives. Neuroscientists are gathering new empirical evidence about consciousness and human nature; they are picking up where the great earlier thinkers like Freud, Darwin, Charcot and others began. This evidence begins to give substance to some of the grand statements and intuitive leaps made in the nineteenth and early twentieth century about the nature of the self.

It’s a very interesting read, hope you will all enjoy it.

Click here to read the BBC lecture - "The Artful Brain"

MOVIE: Samsara - A movie about Spirituality and sense pleasures.

I have seen it almost by the time it was released in 2001 and loved it. This movie's one line "How do you save a drop of water from drying up" is still stuck with me after decades and have featured in many of my writings.

Indian born filmmaker Pan Nalin makes his directorial debut with this sensual, elegant look at sex and spirituality. Tashi (Shawn Ku) is a gifted young monk who is just completing three years of solitary mediation in the mountains. Sporting long hair and a scraggly beard, Tashi is roused out of his deep mediation and brought back to his monastery by his fellow monks. There he rests up to recover his strength, returning to the usual rigors of monastic life. Though he is highly revered for having attained a profound level of enlightenment, Tashi is surprised to discover the sudden awakening of his own sex drive. While blessing the annual crop, he encounters beautiful peasant girl Pema (Christy Chung) and immediately he falls in love. Arguing that to properly renounce the world he would have to experience it first, he leaves his order and eventually marries Pema. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival

Sublime! A surprisingly intense cinematic experience. NOT TO BE MISSED. 

-Vogue Magazine International

The sacred and the profane meet head-on in Samsara. The film is spectacular, spiritual and thrilling. A distinctive debut feature by Pan Nalin is startling, with tech credits are top-notch, crisp widescreen camerawork and all other creatives combining to evoke the region with a stunning clarity and detail 

- Variety USA

A beautiful widescreen production… a metaphorical aerial bombardment that approximates the thunderbolts of love…Hypnotic, dynamic, delicious…Pan Nalin' s film has excellent production values and thoroughly transports one to its far flung world of clear skies, jagged mountains and passionate affairs on the mind and the body. 

-Hollywood Reporter USA

Simply Stunning! Beautiful and serene, Samsara, tells a universal story of desire and destiny and about how the desire for change can change one's destiny. Exquisitely filmed and acted, Samsara, is A FILM TO SAVOUR, …

-WOW Magazine Canada

Click here  "Samsara" to watch parts of the movie...

Click here to read a beautiful review by Devang Vibhakar. Click here for the interview of the director of the movie Pan Nalini by Devang. 
I thank you Devang for the links and a wonderful review. I loved it.

Music: Celtic Thunder - Appalachian Round Up

I have loved the music of the group and here is a favorite of mine from the group..... click here to listen to the song.

Welcome to the 9th edition of “Shadow Dancing with mind"

Welcome to the 9th edition of “Shadow Dancing with Mind” 

Yogi Baba - An untold story discovers the life of the daughter of a priest and Krishna, the son of the boatman, raised in the monastery after the flood displaced them from their home.

The priest's daughter, in this chapter is on the verge of discovering her bond with a young Bhikshu, living in the monastery beyond the forest... her songs attract him, and he dreams of her singing ... His guru guides him to seek her out and find his answers.... 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Whispering of desires, conflicts and shattered dreams. 

The touch that lingers

Like phantoms of my mind... lines from the Shattered dreams. 

This time, I have included a verse from Pablo Neruda -  "Body of a Woman". This verse as one of the writer said is an introductory text to the poetry of desire.

___________

Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
You look like a world, lying in surrender

.... 

___________

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

The Reader takes you to the world of being a sucker by reading into history of rare events and expecting them to happen again. The Black Swan Theory or "Theory of Black Swan Events" was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain 1) the disproportionate role of high-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology, 2) the non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to their very nature of small probabilities) and 3) the psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK "THE BLACK SWAN"...

The still life is going to take you into the world of Sadhu's from various places. Some of the interesting portraits that I have had captured along my journeys is here for you to enjoy.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Hope you like this edition of Shadow Dancing with Mind; look forward to seeing your comment this week too. I really appreciate when you write to me or leave me comments here. It gets me going, week by week. Please feel free to join in and suggest if something that you don’t like.

ॐ नमः शिवाय

Om Namah Shivaya