Earlier this month, I went to a KCRW concert at the California Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles. For those that are not familiar with the place, it’s just a plaza with a fountain and a few shops. Anyway, I noticed that half of the space, and all of the VIP, was covered with chairs. Why is that? It is an ad-hoc music performance; people should be able to dance? No? Then I realised that most of our infrastructure is designed, consciously or not, to inhibit people to express themselves with their body. Think about for a second. Chairs should be there to allow people to rest, not to prohibit them to dance. Thankfully, people’s primitive instincts take over after some time, one stands up and starts dancing while the others are like @%#^$@^, but then 2, 3, 4, 10, etc follow. When enough people are dancing, they start to rearrange the space by pushing the chairs around. We have all witness this. We all know this.

This one obvious example and I am sure they are many others, but it made me realised how far my/our education reaches. What would the world look like if the Arts were the primary focus of education?

This is a recurring question I have every time I go to a public toilet. Why not having a smart plastic that test your urine for drug traces right on the spot instead of that stupid advertisement ? The ad reads “Say no to drugs”.

1) it would actually be useful by “informally” reminding people of their actions/status,
2) the results don’t need to be 100% accurate -no legal issue there
3) no privacy issue either -urinoirs are separated, the body blocks most of it and one ususally tends not to look at the neighbor’s.

Okay, drugs might not be the best example since traces remains in the body weeks after consumption.

The problem remains the same, why don’t designers (me included) go/push for the whole nine yards when it is so obvious and useful ?

This picture was taken in the American Airlines terminal at LAX. Sigh.

This is:
a) a minimum service expected by travellers/glomads.
b) a new unexpected and significant cost for infrastructure operators.
c) theft.
d) a design opportunity.
e) all of the above.