Shaona Sen | My digital zine, because I find much joy in sharing = )
PETROU\MAN’s West Africa influenced SS12 line. WOOOOOH… .. .
Nicolas Petrou’s considered details of layering, prints, color and texture do justice to his inspiration of modern age fashion and culturally rich traditional influences.
I especially love the play of the hand prints.
Joyce Bidouzo-Coudray summarizes the collection nicely:
“Using both traditional and modern fabrics that range from hand-dyed tartans to organic cotton and jersey wool as well as microfibers, nylon and metallic leather, the collections offer a modern take on refined classical menswearwith a twist of tribal sophistication.”
PETROU\MAN wear is currently available at: OAK (New York), I.T. (Hong Kong), SHIPS (Japan).
(link via anotherafrica.net)
A group of young, energetic school girls dressed in pastel-colored hijabs were roaming around the Pewter Museum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the Good Friday long weekend. Took these Instagram’d photos on my iPhone 4.
On an Instrumental Kick
I’ve been going through a refreshing musical shift with the switching and revamping of electronics in my life. For one, an ongoing challenge had been the sync’ing of music on my work desktop, work laptop and home desktop. I’m no longer with my former company, since the turn of the year, so this self-fulfilling task is also no longer. A temporary void did come with the parting of some awesome playlists I had going! Of course I’ve got all of my tunes backed up. Many of. With change comes the recombining and exploring of life’s many (*turntable scratching*) soundtracks.
Two, a month before traveling abroad, the upgrading of my iPhone to iOS5 “blessed” me with some mishaps like losing ~1.5 years building of my favorite duck-duck-goose circle tracks. You know those timeless set of tracks that cater to any mood you may be in? Yup, those. Checked off “Back up and clear ~5,000 photos from phone” on the to-do list while at it (personal attachment that kept me from upgrading to iOS5 because of memory). And three, a last minute laptop purchase came with trip prep. Otherwise, it would have been a dragging, risky and odd journey for my ~4 year old, 27 inch iMac that houses mp3s from my Napster/LimeWire days. So I’m sitting here, a month later, with my new laptop, refreshed iPhone, a handful of design/photo files transferred over from my handicapped desktop many miles away and a small hard drive of my digital life in reach if needed.
Not to mention, after settling in foreign lands, Spotify gave me notice of having to upgrade to premium in order to access my account (Pandora was a no-go from day one). No denying Spotify withdrawal was tough at first. Maybe I’ll go premium later. Content with my circumstances for the time being.
All in all, I feel so much lighter and contained.
This has helped with my new year’s resolution of exploring more instrumental-heavy tunes. I’ve kept from transferring majority of my mp3s onto the new laptop. The month of February, the month of Nujabes and J Dilla’s birth/death anniversaries (RIP) was a perfect transition (especially after playing out a whole lot of Whitney, RIP). I’ve got Nujabes tunes for dayyys! A friend of mine, Furgersen7 (F7) has been dropping a lot of awesome instrumentals filled with fresh sound, nostalgic samples and Dilla inspired beats that I’ve been on for a while. And I’ve come across more instrumental candy while getting lost in the world of SoundCloud. Put Tabla Beat Science on the list, who I discovered in 2007 when visiting India. Zakir Hussain too, who I’ve been exposed to since childhood. My love for tabla grew after seeing him live, twice, for the Masters of Percussion tours! He is genius. I’ve recently been introduced to Cinematic Orchestra and Philip Glass, by Londoner Duane, while out here too. Add Dntel, Ian Friday, SBTRKT, Gorillaz, Elevation Theory, Fela Kuti, Telepopmusik and there you have sound bites of my past few months. Less instrumental but in rotation: Nneka (her latest Unplugged session in Nairobi is mesmerizing), this Mariah house mix, Janelle Monae, Gary Clark Jr., M.I.A., Little Dragon, Miguel, Beres Hammond, Sid Sriram, MJ, Amy Winehouse, Theophilus London and different artists of 2012’s SXSW.
Came across a photo of the War-Khasi tribe’s (Cherrapunji, India) living roots bridges (made ofFicus Elastica trees), built long ago. Mind blown. Brilliant. Raw functionality of nature.
“Some of these root bridges can carry fifty or more people at a time and can be over 100 feet long. These bridges take 10 to 15 years to become fully functional, and they keep growing in strength by the day. Some of these bridges are well over 500 years old.”
(via Lolirann blog)
Remote controlled LED kites by Marina Bay, Singapore, tonight. Stunning.
“Always trust your dreams. They’ve chosen you, as much as you’ve chosen them.”
Tallyho, The Universe
(via Katie Choquette)
The Scale of the Universe
Very humbling interactive infographic!:
by Cary and Michael Huang, of HTwins.
(via Thrive, Duane Melius)
Eric Rothenhaus’ Jansport beauties
-Beautiful- tribute to heritage of the Jansport brand!
“When Eric Rothenhaus landed a gig as director of design at JanSport five years ago, he wanted to make an impression. He would do it by re-creating, down to the seat-belt straps, the very first JanSport backpack (and the first-ever backpack with a zipper) introduced in 1969. Problem: There were no sketches, patterns or even any actual bags available on which to model his re-creation—only a few black and white photographs. But that was all he needed to breathe new life into one of the most iconic geekcessories of all time.
Rothenhaus studied the photographed relics with a magnifying glass to determine the correct proportions. He hunted for large metal zippers identical to those used back then. He found the right type of weathered nylon. He used (now considered extremely inefficient) 30-year-old pattern construction methods. He even recreated the original red and white label.”
(via Gizmodo)
Invisible Children’s human rights campaign on raising awareness about Joseph Kony’s, the leader of LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), horrible ongoing injustices in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
Incredible storytelling. What does this mean for all the millions who have viewed the campaign video? Praying for peace, spreading more awareness, donating money, getting the LRA themselves? Applying the knowledge gained is most challenging for a viral message so powerful. The pre-awareness is both exciting and quite scary. What will that April 20th, 2012, a month from now, do that the campaign isn’t already doing? The KONY campaign release isn’t superhero armor for youth in N. Uganda, DRC, CAR right now. Time is of the essence. Prayers are with those in the midst of turmoil in the Congo and surrounding areas.
“He is not fighting for any cause, but only to maintain his power.” - On Kony, the #1 most-wanted on International Criminal Court’s list.
Goal: Arresting Joseph Kony
(= Seizing the fear, hurt, wrong he instills in children and families)
The film’s intro and campaign rollout strategy reflect on the power of social media. A grassroots energy set the tempo early in the film: “Because we couldn’t wait for institutions or governments to step in, we did it ourselves” is stated before the installing of the Early Warning Radio Network clip (real time updates on surrounding rebel activity). The infographic from this article that shows Twitter usage per African country came to mind (Uganda didn’t place) while continuing to watch. We saw the power of real time info shared by global “digital activists” during Egypt and Libya’s revolutions. The digital luxury of social media lacks in Uganda so mass communication methods like the EARN is a good solution for spreading news, as long as the control of is in the right hands.
I really hope the campaign is spreading pro-active knowledge (see site for a few programs) within LRA infested areas, just as much as worldwide. Full transparency for those actually in the midst of the civil unrest is crucial, to provide hope and clarity through a time of transition. Especially for the youth, who have been most effected and may not know what better there is, like when Jacob spoke about the favoring of death vs. living at a certain point in his life.
Further in the film, as the movement grew, a highlight was the U.S. government signing off on “the placing of U.S. ‘armed forces’ (in Uganda)”. Obama wrote, “To provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward the removal of Joseph Konty from the battlefield”. And “(This is) not putting Americans in combat” was shared on Maddow’s show after Obama’s policy extension… In other words, keeping death counts as low as possible.
Curious to see Konty’s reaction to his rise in “popularity”. Curious to see how influential this global campaign is when it comes to arresting others on the ICC list and the politics in supporting controversial countries. Curious to see how Invisible Children supports north Ugandan region post-Kony capture. Curious about how and if the 20 ‘culture changers’ and 12 politicians will put an individual spin on the Kony campaigning (Limbaugh, Rihanna, Tebow…).
On a positive note, this campaign is bigger than the LRA, than Kony. It’s about what to do with the empathy within us, for what we care passionately abt. I learned much from this short film. Again, curious, to see what empathic results come out of this campaign. #KONY2012
(video via invisiblechildren.com)
Love, love, love this jewelry set! The asymmetry. The pattern story. The color. The finish.
More here: www.nzingahdesigns.com
Singapore is so green! Boston is up there for greenest cities in the States and all but… this all-year ‘round lush, tropical greenery! SO refreshing.
The little of what I did see of Changi, Singapore’s Int’l Airport, was beautiful. Metal, wood, glass, neat patterned rug paired with streams of falling water and tons of greenery in and outside the airport. And as expected, way clean.
After getting settled in and unpacking at the apartment, we walked down the street for lunch, grocery shopping and photo printing. The ION building on Orchard Rd. is a photographer’s dream! Got to get back there soon with my actual camera. I took this photo (1st photo) from the west side of the building, very much appreciating how the architecture compliments the fluffy, healthy trees that line one of the most commercial streets of Singapore. While discovering ION’s underground shopping area, we also learned how big the venue is. Similar to exiting the New York City subway system, knowing your north, south, east, west saves you some time. Upon figuring out where we were above ground and where we were allowed to cross the street, I spotted a neat wall paneled with different types of plants that wrapped the corner of Orchard Blvd. and Patterson Road. Mighty fly. More documentation of the SG green scene to come! Plenty!
Still droo-ling.
B&W = $150
Watercolor = $175
Shipping fee to the States: $20
Elsewhere: $30
On Etsy: http://goo.gl/nKTQ3
“A Woman Multiplies the Impact of an Investment”
USAID.gov just released this burst-of-energy infographic, on the impact of investing in women (larger IMG of info). Very much deserving of all this typeface’s density!: “A woman multiplies the impact of an investment”.
Take a look below. Compare the info in blue, on the left to the info on the right, in red. I’m appreciative of the comparison that clearly shows the presence of women in politics, health, education, etc. then takes the extra step to show the positive results of the percentage that overcomes the odds. The depth in content breakdown brings about hope, in data that usually would trigger less optimistic reaction (“just another number”).
One thought that did come to mind is how the 50th anniversary aspect of USAID’s marketing could have been pushed for this data collection. I personally like seeing a timeline when data is being shared. A start and an end date of info to put data gathered into context. For example, “Between the 50 years of 1961-2011…”, to capitalize on how bigger and smaller picture happenings interrelate during the span of change. Maybe this is so? If so, the consideration could be much more evident.
I see the content in this infographic reaching the demographics that make up the data through a larger scale campaign, for an inner spark of motivation.
