now » collaboration

Email from nadeem

defne — Mon, 11 May 2009 09:02:59 +0000

George Nelson recalls the iconic design of the Ball Clock as being a result
of a night of drinking with friends and associates, Isamu Noguchi, Bucky
Fuller, and Irving Harper.

“And there was one night when the ball clock got developed, which was one of
the really funny evenings. Noguchi came by, and Bucky Fuller came by. I’d
been seeing a lot of Bucky those days, and here was Irving and here was I,
and Noguchi, who can’t keep his hands off anything, you know- it is a
marvelous, itchy thing he’s got- he saw we were working on clocks and he
started making doodles. Then Bucky sort of brushed Isamu aside. He said,
“This is a good way to do a clock,” and he made some utterly absurd thing.
Everybody was taking a crack at this,…pushing each other aside and making
scribbles.

At some point we left- we were suddenly all tired, and we’d had a little bit
too much to drink- and the next morning I came back, and here was this roll
(of drafting paper), and Irving and I looked at it, and somewhere in this
roll there was a ball clock. I don’t know to this day who cooked it up. I
know it wasn’t me. It might have been Irving, but he didn’t think so…(we)
both guessed that Isamu had probably done it because (he) has a genius for
doing two stupid things and making something extraordinary…out of the
combination….(or) it could have been an additive thing, but, anyway, we
never knew.”

George Nelson: The Design of Modern Design; p.111

P.S.: Many years later however, Irving Harper, stated that he was the actual
designer of the Ball Clock. But since nothing was officially written down on
paper, the mystery will always remain…

Playing for change!

defne — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:55:00 +0000

Another great find from Wojtyna! This video is part of the “Peace Through Music: Playing for Change” project. It made my morning.

Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Clay Animals

defne — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:53:41 +0000

We attempted to make animals out of clay yesterday. I have to say Nadeem was more successful with his black polar bear than I was with my legless giraffe.

legless giraffe and black polar bear

Giraffe's Head

Polar Bear

from ___________ at the Frame!

defne — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:39:41 +0000

Thank you everyone who came to the opening of our show last week. It was delightful to see so many people there. For those who didn’t get to see it here are some pictures:

Sketching animals

defne — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:57:10 +0000

We were at Pittsburgh Zoo, looking at animals last weekend. We did not get to see most of the animals we were hoping to see but it was still pretty cool. We are sketching animals for Tails. FUN!

Working on Tails!

defne — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:38:49 +0000

Nadeem and I received a SURG (Small Undergraduate Research Grant) to work on a project called tails. Our objective is to represent the world’s cultures through a set animals that are significant to the geographical regions of those cultures. Each animal would be crafted to visually portray the materials and the personality of their assigned culture while still maintaining a cohesive appearance. This approach would give people, especially children a glimpse of the similarities and differences in the world around them. Animals are without preconceived political associations and they provide a medium children would want to interact and play with. These interactions will be the building blocks to a cultural knowledge which can be enriched through zoos, museums, books and travel.

After deciding on 12 culture to focus on, we started doing research on each culture and creating image boards for all of them.