SCENES: REPORTS FROM THE PLACES I VISIT - OR TRENDS I TRACK

Shanghai Design Biennial, September 14-16, 2006.
Setting: Shanghai Exhibition Center  (build during Mao's era after the Soviet models). Quote: "Shanghai is moving from an industrial city to China's center of creative industries"


Bangkok, November 2006. Taking "design" to the next level, Thai use contemporary design not just for "design hotels," restaurants or clubs, but for every commercial and public spaces. Left to right: taxies | a plane from Bangkok Airways which brands itself as "boutique airline" | bank | multifunction center offering shipping and other services | a seller at the market using designed trash can | Bed Supperclub which is a fabulous space but with its all white palette looking very 1990s then compared to bright cheerful colors used in new Bangkok spaces

Spring 2007: Fashion + technology projects begins to finally get more interesting.
Tired of the typical "wearable computing" or yet another expensive jacket with the pockets for a media player? Is iPod+Nike sneakers leave you cold? There are, however, signs that some fashion designers, photographers and other creatives in fashion and product industries are beginning to figure more imaginative ways of bringing technology into their designs.
Left to right: Dior previewing Victoire de Castellane's 17-piece jeverly collection in Second Life (1-2); Hussein Chalayan Spring 2007 ready-to-wear (3-6); ‘3-D rendered’ shots of Naomi Campbell captured by Nick Knight via 3D scanner in December 2006 (7-8); Hussein Chalayan collection for Autumn Winter 2007/8, Paris - An LED dress consisting of 15,600 LEDS combined with crystal displays a short abstract film (9-10).