London show celebrates modern age design innovation
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – The Jaguar E-type, an LED dress and Concorde lead visitors through the last 60 years of British design in this summer’s flagship exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Delving deep into its collection, the museum has put on display examples of British innovation, some of which have never been shown before.
Everything from household knives and forks, to a Sex Pistols’ album cover takes you through the last six decades, tracing the art school movement from the utilitarian mundane to the rock-n-roll rebels.
Coinciding with the 2012 Olympics, the exhibition reaches back to the “austerity” Olympics of 1948, creating one of the first shows exclusively about Britain’s post-war design culture.
“In a time of great anxiety over the recession now, I think it is interesting to look over those 60 years and see how Britain responded to recession before…it is a complicated development and much creativity has come out of these moments of great discomfort,” curator Ghislaine Wood told Reuters.
The moment when design becomes art is captured in the dimly lit “subversion” room where pastel minidresses make way for safety pins and punk spikes.
Fashion designer Hussein Chalayan’s fantastically impractical, but deeply symbolic egg-shaped dress of 2000 brings this message to a head, and still looks modern today.
“We commissioned that piece 13 years ago and it’s an astonishing piece of design that makes you question the role of fashion and art and the way that the boundaries of these disciplines are really breaking down,” Wood said.
But it is the chair display that really gives a sense of chronological innovation – long considered the gold standard of design, the incredible collection of living room furniture provides insight into changing fashion, taste and cultural mores through the decades.
The boxy, synthetic chair of the 1960s gives way to a chair with legs in the shape of a rusty dagger, summing up the rough aesthetic of the 1980s. Nearby, a chair made of dozens of carefully assembled wood scraps is a nod to the modern penchant for designs which are greener.
The last gallery focuses on manufacturing culture. A wall-mounted telephone, the like of which graced so many homes for decades, makes way for a sample iPhone, hung nearby. A large model of Concorde, and an accompanying video chronicling its failings, takes up the other half of the gallery.
In a darkened “digital lab” fictional tomb raider Lara Croft clambers up a crumbled temple wall and swings on a jungle vine – in an example of British video crafting at the top of its game.
Lemmings tumble off a cliff into a black abyss, as the 20 plus age group, reminisce about early computer games, and smile at the astonishingly bulky desktop Apple Mac computer that was the height of chic only 10 years ago.
But there is one design that really endures. The silver Jaguar E-type glistening in the middle of the room.
“That design has stood the test of time,” Wood said, recalling the day it was driven into the gallery and the effect it has on visitors when they come across.
“To hear audiences step into that last room and see the E-type Jaguar, which is of course one of the most beautiful cars ever designed, to see audiences as they step around that corner gasping, is brilliant,” Wood said.
“That just shows you the power of design.”
The Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd British Design, 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, until August 2012.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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Young drivers know risks, but text anyway: survey
(Reuters) – Most young American drivers agree that it is dangerous to text while driving, but nearly a third admit they do it anyway, a survey by Consumer Reports shows.
While eight in ten said they knew of the risks, about 29 percent of drivers 16 to 21 said they had used text messaging in the past month, the survey found. And, 47 percent said they had made a phone call while driving, without a headset or other hands-free device.
The same survey showed that 48 percent said they had seen one or both of their parents using a cell phone without a hands-free device.
Nevertheless, last year there were the fewest traffic fatalities in the United States in more than six decades.
The number would have been even lower if not for traffic deaths caused by drivers who were distracted by using a mobile phone or engaged in other types of attention-dividing tasks, said Rebecca Lindland, director of automotive research for IHS Inc.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that in 2010, some 3,092 were killed in “distracted-affected crashes,” or 9.4 percent of all road deaths.
A NHTSA survey earlier this year showed that younger drivers from ages 18 to 20 showed the highest level of phone involvement in crashes or near-crashes. Drivers of this age are three times more likely to read or send an email or text message while driving than those 25 and older, the NHTSA survey found.
Reports of texting while driving drop sharply as age increases, NHTSA said.
The Consumer Reports survey said that half the young drivers survey said they are less likely to text while driving or use a handheld phone while a friend is in the vehicle with them.
A NHTSA observational study found that in the latest two years for which data was available, 2009 and 2010, 5 percent of drivers were seen talking on handheld phones.
Thirty-seven of the 50 U.S. states have totally banned using the keyboard – texting – on a mobile phone or other device while driving, and 10 states have outlawed the use of handheld phones.
The states, along with the District of Columbia, that have banned phone calls while driving – without using a hands-free device – are California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, West Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New York and Connecticut.
The Consumer Reports survey questioned 1,049 people ages 16 to 21 and the NHTSA survey from earlier this year questioned 6,000 people of driving age. Both surveys were of U.S. drivers.
(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Jackie Frank)
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South Sudanese in Shakespeare play, a call for peace
LONDON |
LONDON (Reuters) – The moment the besieged British king in Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” defies a far stronger Roman empire to declare his people’s independence is filled with tension in any production.
For the South Sudanese troupe putting on the play one chilly spring night in London, that is also the moment where Elizabethan invention and modern African reality collide. Back home, they and their countrymen face the very real threat of war just a year after gaining independence from a powerful ruler.
“We had connotations that could be applicable to the situation in South Sudan,” South Sudanese playwright and director Joseph Abuk told Reuters.
Abuk translated Cymbeline into Juba Arabic and co-directed the play alongside Derik Uya Alfred.
“We wanted to pick a play that has a similar conflict that has raged in the country for a very long time,” Abuk said.
Since separating from Sudan last July, after signing a peace agreement which ended decades of civil war that claimed millions of lives, South Sudan has struggled to keep peace with Khartoum.
The two countries disagree over citizenship, border demarcation, and transit fees for South Sudan’s oil, which must travel through Sudan for export.
That provides the potent backdrop for Shakespeare’s tale of the rebellious British monarch who refuses to pay tribute to imperial Rome, sparking war. “Cymbeline” was put on this May in London as part of a cultural festival tied to the Olympics.
“We want to say that we have fought a war, we have suffered, we have reconciled, and it’s time for us now to build our new country and to be recognized as a country,” the 50-year-old Alfred told Reuters.
Despite the hope wrought by a peace agreement, tensions between Juba and Khartoum have escalated this year, threatening to tip the two sides back into full blown fighting.
Just hours after the company’s final performance at the Globe, South Sudan accused Sudan of launching an air strike on one of its oil regions, a development that threatened to derail a promised ceasefire.
Simply producing a script in Juba Arabic, South Sudan’s lingua franca and a language without a dictionary, was a tall order, Abuk said.
“It looked like writing a new play,” he said. “Relying on one’s own vocabulary rather than on the written text, it was certainly difficult to imagine what could be the alternative here, what could be the actual meaning here.”
“WASHA MUKORMASH”
Another, perhaps more basic challenge for the actors was the change in temperature. While Juba reaches springtime temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, an unseasonable London chill had audience members sitting in the open-air theatre wrapped in coats, scarves, and blankets.
Actors ran around on stage barefoot, the women often wearing skirts and bra tops, never betraying even a shiver.
“It was a very big challenge, that weather,” Alfred said. “If you change the costume, if you put something under it you will be destroying the culture.
“We told them, ‘Don’t feel the cold. Just feel warm and send that warmth to the people in the auditorium and they will also feel that warmth.”
Alfred’s Kwoto Cultural Centre, launched in 1994, has been active in passing down South Sudanese culture to a generation in Khartoum displaced by war.
His projects rankled the Sudanese government of President Omar al-Bashir, which was then trying to instill Islamic and Arab identity throughout Sudan. The government accused Alfred of violating national culture.
“We said no, we are actually doing something which is ours,” Alfred said. “This is our right as people living in this country and we should practice it. We will invite all the Sudanese to come on board.”
Laced throughout Abuk’s script are cultural references to his home country, which provoked laughter and nods of recognition from the many South Sudanese in attendance on the final night of the play.
For instance, at one point a character uses the phrase “washa mukormash,” which refers literally to something that is unironed and rumpled, but is a Juba Arabic colloquialism for someone with an angry or upset face.
And though Abuk’s translation keeps the original Roman and English character names, the actors wore costumes like animal skins and brightly colored togas and beads.
The play opens with a shrill yell, is punctuated by drums and tambourines, and ends with an exuberant South Sudanese dance.
Alfred said one of the most satisfying aspects of coming to London was performing for the South Sudanese expatriate community. Several told him they had tired of being portrayed as a poverty-stricken country where insects feed on neglected, hungry children.
“They said, ‘Today you guys have made us very proud of ourselves, there are no more flies in our eyes,’” Alfred said. “This kind of expression will really give somebody courage that arts is a very powerful element.”
Gina Abbe, 54 and a nurse, was in the audience with her husband for the final performance. She noted the hopeful ending of the play, in which Cymbeline makes peace with Rome and forgives the shepherd who kidnapped his sons.
“There is the war and then everyone makes peace,” she said. “There is a little bit of forgiveness also at the end. I hope one day it’s going to be like that in South Sudan.”
(Reporting By Yeganeh Torbati, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Smart fitness puts premium on the personal touch
NEW YORK |
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even in the vastness of the online fitness universe, it all comes down to the human touch on your touch screen.
The latest, smartest devices and websites are enlisting online dating and gaming technology to forge real relationships in the virtual fitness world.
“We sell the relationship between trainer and client,” said Jeff Marinucci, president and CEO of InerTRAIN, an online personal training service launched in 2010.
To unite clients with the personal trainer of their dreams, the Chicago-based company uses algorithms similar to those of Match.com, the online dating service.
“This is the next generation of fitness,” said Marinucci. “Too much online fitness was generic. Our trainers will fit your workouts to your needs anytime, anywhere, just not in real time.”
He said his company targets world travelers, stay-at-home mothers, and others with tight and shifting schedules.
“When I was a client, my biggest problem was that workouts were not customized around the individual,” Marinucci said. “I need that person that’s looking over my shoulder, even virtually.”
The game designers, artists and technicians at Striiv, which is based in Redwood City, California, have aimed to build a Smart Pedometer that is as habit-forming as a computer game.
“The power of a simple pedometer is mindboggling but people get bored so fast,” said Striiv CEO David Wang. “We put technology inside ours that learns your behavior and gives you challenges depending on what motivates you.”
Wang said the pedometer’s learning algorithm resembles the one that delivers recommendations on Netflix, the internet subscription service for movies and television.
“People are addicted to game mechanics,” said Wang. “We can get people addicted to fitness.”
The pedometer can connect to competitions involving friends, family members, strangers and prizes.
“Even if you don’t have a lot of friends, you have a community,” Wang said.
Santa Monica, California-based exercise physiologist Amy Dixon believes that when you create a community around an activity, people are more likely to come back because they’ve made a connection.
“Look at Garmin Connect,” Dixon, creator of the “Give Me 10″ DVD series, said of a web community-based website for the runners, cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts who track their activities with Garmin devices.
“There are numbers people who like to know how fast they ran, how many calories they burned,” she said. “This (website) allows them to go back home, post their information and communicate with other people.”
Similarly, she said, the Nike Plus website allows users to share information from the pedometers built right into their Nike shoes.
Unfortunately, Dixon said, this brave new world can be daunting for some.
“It makes some people just not try,” she said. “Maybe if you wore that smart device you’d get fitter. But it’s just too complicated.”
Dixon recommends the beginner stick to established companies and check online reviews before investing in smart technology.
For Marinucci, online fitness is simply the logical future.
“I think this is where things are going, like online dating, online education.”
Dixon agrees that smart technology is spreading: rapidly and everywhere.
“It’s all pretty amazing,” she said. “Sometimes I look at (the latest) washing machine and think, ‘Can’t I just turn it on?’ “
(Reporting by Dorene Internicola; editing by Patricia Reaney)
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Want to quit smoking ? Try acupuncture or hypnosis
(Reuters) – Acupuncture and hypnosis have been promoted as drug-free ways to help smokers kick the habit, and there is some evidence that they work, according to a research review that looked at 14 international studies.
Researchers, whose findings appeared in the American Journal of Medicine, said that there are still plenty of questions, including exactly how effective alternative therapies might be and how they measure up against conventional methods to quit smoking.
But the alternatives should still stand as options for smokers determined to break the habit, said researchers led by Mehdi Tahiri of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
In general, smokers who want to quit should first try the standard approaches, which include nicotine-replacement therapy, medications and behavioral counseling, Tahiri said.
“But some people are not interested in medication,” he said, adding that in many cases the standard therapies had not worked. “Then I think we should definitely recommend (acupuncture and hypnosis) as choices.”
Researchers found that some studies showed that smokers subjected to acupuncture were more than three times as likely to be tobacco-free six months to a year later.
Similarly, across four trials of hypnosis, smokers had a higher success rate with the therapy compared to people who had minimal help.
But there were some caveats, researchers said. The success rate was not consistent in all the tests conducted, although the broad trends pointed to the benefits of alternate treatment.
A 2008 study that ran a few sessions of laser acupuncture on 258 smokers found that 55 percent who’d received the treatment quit the habit in six months, compared with four percent who were not given the treatment.
But a 2007 study from Taiwan that looked at needle acupuncture around the ear, the area typically targeted for smoking cessation, reported a lower success rate.
Only nine percent of those who were given acupuncture had quit after six months compared with six percent who stopped smoking without the treatment.
The situation was similar across the hypnosis trials. Two studies showed a significant impact : 20 to 45 percent of hypnosis patients were smoke-free six months to a year later. The other two trials showed smaller effects.
Nonetheless, Tahiri said, there was a “trend” toward a benefit across all of the studies of acupuncture and hypnosis.
There are still definitely questions, he added, about how many sessions of acupuncture or hypnosis might be necessary, or which specific techniques are best.
Other research reviews, though, have concluded that the jury is still out on alternative therapies for quitting smoking.
SOURCE: bit.ly/Khhv63
(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Sanjeev Miglani)
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