© Daniel Håkansson for Readymade Projects

New York-based industrial designer Stephen Burks has been collaborating closely with artisans and crafts people from Senegal, South Africa, Peru, and India. His work merges high-end design work with local traditions, highlighting the positive side-effects of globalisation – to impact more meaningfully as opposed to destructively vis-a-vis local cultures. The processes of making things are, in this context, turned into a celebration of traditional cultures and savoir-faire that are often waiting to be discovered in other parts of the world.

Man Made is Burks first solo exhibition in New York and will take place at the Studio Museum in Harlem from March 31 to June 26 2011. The exhibition will unfold as a workshop involving local weavers and artisans. Photographic and video installations of Burks’ travels will also be showcased alongside drawings and prototypes.

© Japan Brand

Since the end-of-year holiday festivities, I have been thinking of writing a little blog post about cookware design and its relationship to food and local identity. After all, isn’t cookware design one of the most interesting reflections of people’s culture and their everyday life habits?

My interest in cookware design lies in the evolution of the object’s form and function. It is conceived around specific cultural traditions and needs which evolve as time passes. While culinary traditions are maintained, fusion is a term that is now commonly found in contemporary cuisine. As people of the world open up to other cultures, cookware designs are also taking new shapes. Continue reading on INDIGO

The creative mix of old and new can positively impact the shaping of local culture, the development of the tourism industry, and generate possibilities for environmental sustainability in many countries. In the Asian context, this approach seems particularly fit: the region is infused with traditional aesthetics, has a deep interest in its own cultural heritage, and is also driven by technology and innovation. By strategically merging local traditions and design, a number of positive transformations are already taking place. This paper reflects on this current movement through examples taken from South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and China. Within this context, contemporary objects and places are showcased as tangible outcomes of a synthesis between old and new practices. They also raise questions on the possible difficulties related to the processes of transformation that seek to seamlessly bind past and present times in an effort to define local culture.