Shopping for Air at ICFF
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05.23.06
In the middle of the Danish exhibition at ICFF there was a store selling boxes, bottles and tins of air- each with a label designed to provoke. the FLOWmarket store " takes values and problems and transforms them into physical products in the shape of aesthetically designed empty packings and containers with print-on labels that the visiting consumers can buy".
Sarah at Inhabitat wonders "how the designer reconciles selling disposable packaging as a means of criticizing overconsumption" But these won't end up in landfills, they will be constant reminders of:
Man's relation to himself: (rising stress- depression- and obesity curves, addiction, eating disorders, information overload, "always-on-line"-syndromes, symptom treatment etc.)
Man's relation to society (over-consumption, increasing violence, xenophobia, global inequality, cultural rectification, conflicts over resources, commercialisation etc.)
Man's relation to nature: (pollution, agricultural toxics, factory farming, decreasing bio-diversity etc.)
Canadians will be reminded of Don Watt's groundbreaking work for Loblaws generic products thirty years ago- the same clean, powerful design in white instead of yellow.
::Flow Institute also see gorgeous pictures at ::Inhabitat
I have a bunch of photos and descriptions from ICFF, the Stationary Show and Haute Green at www.3rliving.blogspot.com
Please submit this to the next waste of packaging contest.