THE CULTURAL JACKDAW

Pirate Time

In May last year I started to spot a few Pirate inspired cultural events.

The Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides launched:

There was  National Pirate Day in Marlow:

The Museum of London Docklands hosted a Pirates exhibition to mark the anniversary of the execution of Captain Kidd, the exhibition explored the history of pirates in London. It told tales of the high seas and the corruption of London's East India Company and the show revealed how close the links between the city and piracy really were:

Then flash-forward to this year and I've recently heard about the great work that these guys are doing in East London to help young people develop literacy and creativity. 

This is a play that is now on tour across the country:

And the new animation from Aardman called The Pirates - In an Adventure with Scientists, a film it took five years to put together, launches later next month. 

A while ago I wrote that Zombies may be the new Vampires but now there's no doubt that Pirates are the hottest fantasy characters capturing people's imagination.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this year to see what other cultural ideas they inspire.

 

Smart Cities

There's little denying that urban life is the future.

This huge shift is driving a fascinating change in the way cities are being built. The last great burst of city design was naturally inspired by the car, but in today's digital world city planners and architects are increasingly designing cities with the mobile phone and other technology as inspiration.

All of this is leading to the emergence of 'smart cities' being built where the live organism of that city can be accessed and viewed by the public. I've noticed a few interesting projects lately that have looked at this growing social trend.

Sense and the City was a recent exhibition at the London Transport Museum that explored how emerging technologies are changing the way we access and experience London and compares this with past visions of the future.

This is an interesting short documentary called 'Thinking Cities' that looks at the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in the Networked Society:

 

And (unsurprisingly I think) Amsterdam and Stockholm are leading the way as new models for smart cities of the future.

The Age of Access

Over the last few years there's been a wealth of new businesses / ideas that have changed our view of ownership.

These prove that people are increasingly valuing access to something rather than the hassle and stress of the ownership experience. People can now pay on demand to get access to everything from luxury handbags to city bikes and classic cars to music.

Boris's bikes

Classic Car Club

Bag Borrow or Steal

Spotify

Sense of Adventure

The great outdoors and anything associated with adventure (e.g. Alpine pursuits and aviation) have been subjects to mine for a number of fashion labels over the last six months.

These include two of my favourite brands; Visvim and Albam.

 

Learning

I think these two examples that I picked up in Australia illustrate a growing trend of brands acting as educators.

In his book After Image, John Grant talked about the New Age of Intellect and how consumers are increasingkly concerned with learning and self-direction. I think these two examples show how brands can do the smallest of things to give consumers some interesting info and make them learn something new.

Taking the learning trend one step further is someone like Howies (my favourite brand) who provide a free library service where people are sent books to read free of charge:

http://www.howies.co.uk/think.php?category=library.

 

Travellers

Perry Ogden (director of new film Pavee Lackeen) seems to have tapped into a growing trend for travelling culture.

Between the 16th - 30th March there is a London International Gypsy Film Festival: Finding Romanistan. Details are here: http://www.ligff.org.uk/.

And between the 13th March - 29th April 2006, there is an exhibition of Romany stills by a photographer called Melanie Wagner at the Royal National Theatre in London: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=16884.

This current interest in travelling culture says a lot about our fascination with cultures we just don't know anything about. The travelling community are so vilified and discrimnated in this country that these events should shed some light on a declining and misunderstood tribe of people.

I always think it's a shame where these kind of events get exposure though (e.g. arty venues). I think that many of the films that are featured in the above film festival would cut-through with a mainstream Channel 4 audience. That might help overcome some people's prejudice.

A Revolution in Consciousness

Fairtrade, and ethical goods, are hot news at the moment and in the UK March 6th - 19th is Fairtrade fortnight.

This all comes at a time when 'conscious consumption' is on the up. According to The Observer, in 2003 there were 150 fairtrade products available in the UK. Now there are 1300! The market for ethical goods and services has grown 14% year on year across Europe.

It's good to know that the UK buy more fairtrade goods than any other European country. I think that's something to be proud of.

It's fair to say that we're definitely witnessing the rise of more socially aware consumers that appreciate brands with ethical visions who are committed to social responsibility. Reflecting this growing trend is The Observer newspaper who have recently announced the launch of their first ever Ethical Awards. They've teamed up with Ecover and the aim of the awards is to "reward people who make ethical living accessible and aspirational". They need people's help in launching this inaugural awards ceremony so check out: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/ethicalawards

The Rise of Folk

After seeing the new Nick Drake documentary and Rough Trade Records voting two of King Creosote's albums - http://www.kingcreosote.com/ - in the top 100 albums of 2005, there's seems to be a rise in everything folky.

To further prove this trend, the ICA are launching a night showcasing the best new artists from folk roots:

http://www.ica.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=14779