design miami basel 2010: designers of the future award winners

british artist / designer graham hudson
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new commissioned work from 4 shortlisted emerging studios practicing between
the boundaries of traditional design disciplines: rAndom international,
graham hudson, zigelbaum & coelho and beta tank within the framework of
art basel, design miami basel 2010 takes place in hall 5 of messe basel from
june 16 to 20, 2010.


'an insignificant  extension in space and a considerable extension in time' (prototype for fendi), 2010
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drawing from the architecture and design concepts that inform his art practice,
graham hudson plans to create the most practical project for his award commission.
the installation will be a continuation of his ongoing project 'the end of the end',
which explores the demise of the 1990’s club scene in london. hudson will respond
to a challenge posed by sponsors 'W hotels' to create a modular bar/DJ booth that
can be installed temporarily at sites around the world. his work memorializes
a pre-internet, socially-dynamic era within architecture and directly references
several de-commissioned clubs that embody/represent the hedonism of the time.



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marcelo coelho and jamie zigelbaum of zigelbaum & coelho
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for design miami/ basel, zigelbaum & coelho will create 'six-forty by four-eighty',
an interactive installation of thousands of graspable, luminescent pixels controlled
by remote light brushes. they are based in the US,  between LA and cambridge.

'primed by the biases of our visual culture, the pixel has ascended as the digital
realm's primary ambassador, but it has been a deceitful emissary. by transposing
the pixel from the confines of the screen and into the physical world, focus is drawn
to the materiality of computation itself, and new forms for design emerge from
the exposed spaces between media.' - jaime zigelbaum.



'slurp' by zigelbaum & coelho
image courtesy zigelbaum & coelho



the inside of 'slurp'
image courtesy zigelbaum & coelho



'slurp' in action
image courtesy zigelbaum & coelho



german designer hannes koch of london-based team rAndom international (with florian ortkrass and stuart wood)
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for design miami/ basel, rAndom international will create a new installation composed
of lights that have been programmed to 'dance' in response to the visitor’s body movements.





the celebrations started with a commission for the 'amplitude' installation, launched on
april 15, 2010 in the spazio fendi in milan. 'amplitude' will be permanently installed in the
fendi flagship store in rome later in 2010.

'amplitude' is a sound-reactive media installation that plays with spatially arranged light sources.
commonly, a flat arrangement of LEDs would be conceived as a display with
a resolution too low to establish an image, text or pattern. however, 'amplitude' is actually
home to a large number of individually controlled light sources on a y-axis. the introduction
of a third dimension to the traditional concept of a display turns the piece into a vivid part
of the space and emphasizes the fact that the piece is a light installation rather than a display.
the algorithm controlling the emittance of light creates a living organism that can be detected
in the shadows that the installation casts on itself.



eyal burstein and michele gauler of berlin-based studio beta tank
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for their commissioned project in basel, beta tank will tackle the complex debate over
the differences between art and design. the duo will harness aspects of international tax
and shipping laws to question and reveal some of the arbitrary assumptions underlying
the policies of the legal bureaucratic entities that regulate cultural production. the studio
will create a series of 'blended' objects – partly hand-made, partly machine-made – that
will be delivered to the fair in separate shipments, incurring different customs charges along
the way. this project will form part of a book that the studio is producing to help guide young
creative businesses through the maze of business models.

'we want to understand how true innovation and creativity, that which crosses boundaries
and moves into the unknown, can be actively pursued and matched within existing categories
and assumptions about business practices and results.' - beta tank



beta tank installation at spazio fendi, during milan design week
image © designboom



image © designboom




'memory stücks' by beta tank

'memory stücks' are a limited edition of memory objects, which bond the tangible
physical with the ephemeral digital. each object has been equipped with USB sticks
which carry the digital memories of its object in words, images, film and animation.



group photo at carla sozzani cafe in corso como 10, milan.
ambra medda and shortlisted designers of the 'designers of the future awards' design miami/basel 2010, including sponsors W hotels and PR.
image © designboom