As we entered the digital exhibition we found ourselves in near absolute darkness, surrounded by flashing lights and fluorescent beams. This came as a surprise because the rest of Tent London had been bright and cheerful.

Nick: The first piece we examined was “Go Scan Yourself” by Waggott Tripp & Graham. This installation involved a wall mounted scanner and a selection of old television sets. I took a time to scan my face and become part of the exhibition.

Kana: I believe this installation was about introducing the audience to Tent Digital, playing on the human desire to use everyday objects in alternative ways. It’s common for people to have a desire to scan their body parts with a photocopy machine, simply because it’s prohibited.  This was a fun introduction to the event.

Nick: The next installation of interest to me was “Tokyo Wonder” by WOW, originally commissioned for the Milan Salone in 2008. The imagery in this piece was sublime and created tricks using simple visual elements. We see a train in the distance as it gets closer our perception changes as we realise the widows of the carriages are vending machines lined up side by side. Then we see a haze of multi-colour particles as they drift down to form a technicolor city scape. There was a lot of visual beauty in this short feature, don’t you think?

Kana: Personally for me it was sentimental, as I’m from Japan. The combination of movement and colour really captured the essence of Tokyo. The piece had an exquisite beauty and the movement made it very engaging and mesmerising. I found it quite humorous that the drum machine installation next to Tokyo Wonder was making such a lot of noise, it ironically created an inescapable Tokyo like atmosphere.
Nick: The next exhibit we saw was an interesting one, in fact it made me momentarily confused. Troy Abbott’s digital bird cage features a pre-recorded bird (Actual Video Birds) silently perched within a small LCD like monitor.

Kana: I liked the fact that it had a kind of a patronising attitude towards human beings. We become engaged by the bird standing proudly, directly looking at us from within the cage … it leaves no space for us to treat it as a digital creation. I liked the choice of animal, birds are almost arrogant-like and display great confidence. However, as more Tamagocchi like virtual pets appear, it’s sad to think that people are so easily entertained by visual stimulus. I feel worried about those who are only attracted to the cuteness of pets and don’t want the responsibility of reality, leaving the negative aspects behind.

Nick: This essence of losing reality was again captured in the next piece by MSA visuals. A star like digital portrait morphed as participants stood before the camera and screen. This installation written in C++, OpenFrameworks and OpenCV analysed a video feed via an infra-red camera in real time, creating 1080p HD output using OpenGL.  This exhibit was a great showcase for open source software, which is a key element of digital interactive work. You can download the developed technology on the memo.tv website.

Kana: What did you think of overall Tent Digital?

Nick: I think Tent Digital was a great way for product designers to become more aware of the digital. Digital and product design can sometimes feel separated, so for a digital event like this held within Tent London was an excellent opportunity for each party to gain inspiration from each other. I can see future Tent exhibitions featuring a great deal of digitally adapted product design.

Kana: I really enjoyed this event, but was by a little saddened by the lack of awareness for sustainability. We are in an age of creating the unnecessary as necessary. However saying this I’m excited for the future of the design industry to provide sustainable and meaningful designs.

Kana: So, what was your impression of Glug? I wasn’t able to attend this one.

Nick: I hope you feel better now.  We didn’t have much time to attend all the networking events during London Digital Week. However I managed to find the time to attend this one. The name Glug and the strap line “Creative Drinks & Notworking™” are very fitting for this event. There was a lot of noise, drinking and conversation from around 400 attendees.

Kana: How were the presentations?

Nick: I arrived a little late so wasn’t able to get a front row seat, which made hearing difficult. I saw a presentation by Merlin Nation, a motion graphics designer. He showed some good work, especially a piece that used super 8 footage intertwined with some smart motion design. The presenter seemed to be battling with the audience to get attention and likewise I was battling to hear him. I returned upstairs to join the people networking with beer in hand.

Kana: So it was more of a networking event, rather than a presentation event? More people are holding networking events recently in the creative industry. Rather than networking online through the use of social networking sites like Twitter or LinkedIn, it’s more often as effective to talk to someone face to face. Networking events can be very intimidating for some individuals. Providing the opportunities of networking in the environment where people can buy drinks and have fun would make it easier for everyone.

Nick: When I was starting out as a designer I wasn’t aware of these type of events. I did go to some but they were of smaller scale and often held in more unwelcoming locations. It certainly didn’t seem to be as easy to participate if you’re were a young designer or a start-up company. Studio Output, Digital Gurus (a recruitment agency who organised the Table Tennis Tournament) and the organisers have done a great job organising this event to encourage creative people to network in a comfortable environment. Creative people are often introvert and can spend a lot of time working in a stuffy office or home. Some of us sometimes need a push to actively communicate together.
Kana: So the organisers have taken an important role in activating young parts of the industry, which essentially leads to the further improvement and development of the London creative industry as a whole. This form of casual networking has been made easier by the popularity of Facebook groups and other similar meet up websites.

The space was very clean, well tidied and busy with attendees interacting with the company’s work (which was generating a lot of heat!). We studied the diagrams of the Swisscom, played with some Augmented Reality projects and other interactive pieces.



To wrap up the event Moving Brands gave us some branded gift wrapping, which was greatly appreciated. You can see much more of their work on their website, it’s worth a visit.

First we got ourselves some comfortable seats and complementary drinks courtesy of JWT (of course). We then had a talk from two Tomato collective members, Simon Taylor and Dylan Kendle, who have been involved in Tomato’s digital projects. Sadly though there was expected to be three members of Tomato presenting, but one had a road accident and couldn’t make it.
Kana: I was surprised that they started the presentation with a project based in Japan, I didn’t expect it.

Nick: I remember you mentioning Tomato several years go, but I can’t remember in what respect …

Kana: When I first heard about them, I had the impression of them being a video making collective for Underworld. I didn’t actually know that Tomato operated on creative projects independently from Underworld in Japan.

Nick: The first presentation was about “Art Jam Japan”, which was held in November 2007. The basic concept was a live painting session on the walls of the Makuhari Messe. This was quite an old project, but set the tone for rest of the presentation, which was based around organically inspired digital work.

Kana: Then they presented “Word Collider” for Nokia, “Nostalgia” multi-screen film installation for the Ta Matete Gallery in Rome, “Voices: Expo 2004″ in Spain, “Water for Life” for the international Expo in Zaragoza, Spain, re-branding for “TV Asahi”, “Un Movil En Le Patera” in Spain, “Hotel Claska foyer” in Tokyo, “Aspesi Flagship store” in Milan, “You Me Who” in Japan, “Nouvelle Vague” third album design and “Gangster No.1″ opening title sequence.

Nick: I was interested in the TV Asahi re-brand, as it seems unusual for an art collective to do branding.  I had never heard of it before. Had you?

Kana: Well I think I’ve seen the logo, but not the moving one.

Nick: Whilst working on the project, Tomato had to create around 20 different versions of the interactive logo of which only one was selected. They said this was unusual as at the time, because they had lots of creative freedom and less rules, mainly due to less competition. Dylan mentioned that the logo was still going strong and had been recently been re-printed on the side of a helicopter and coffee mugs. So I decided to check up myself online.

It’s impressive that the logo is still in use today, and is still evolving. The original logo was designed from a generative audio driven animation, yet here it appears static. I think often moving logos lose relevance when they become static, the static logo works today but appears a little abstract, which is perhaps has been key to it’s longevity, yet the reason why it’s now supplemented by a little green monster.

Kana: The main theme of the presentation was “Generative”, wasn’t it? Each presentation was related to movements and had organic elements in it. The TV Asahi re-brand was no exception. It is impressive the logo still keeps going as I think they said the re-brand was in 2003. They also said it was “live branding”, never to be seen as a same logo, meaning it’s unique each time. I think their work has an association with “language” in terms of communication and interaction, it’s very organic.

Nick: This is why I think the presentation was inspirational for me. It’s nice to see something that’s digital yet organic, which seems to be coming very much in vogue today. Most of the projects talked about used analogue elements and it gave me a desire to use less digital quick fixes.