Following up on last year's excellent Malfatto symposium, Material ConneXion hosted this year's event at the Equitable Center, with the theme of green and a lineup of folks to Inspire (Natalie Chanin, Michele Oka Doner, Andrew Dent), Innovate (Yves Behar, Michael Braungart, Jill Dumain), and Sustain (Leslie Hoffman, Sami Hayek, Sergio Palleroni). There was lots of all three, but there was also equal parts heartbreak, since each presentation (or its corollary) did more to underline what a mess we've made of everything (waste, pollution, loss of craft, etc., etc.) than to show us any hope. Moderated by Laetitia Wolff, each speaker took the stage, sat down with Laetitia for a couple follow-ups, then assembled for some audience Q&A. (We loved how Laetitia encouraged the audience "to make sure you have a question mark at the end of your sentence"!)
Highlights were the charming Natalie Chanin, showcasing her Project Alabama and its attempt at reviving craft and cottage industry; Yves Behar with his 4 principles of Cycle, Adapt, Emote, and Democratize; Michale Braungart with is condemnation of "stupid designers" and his sobering, provocative stance that doing less-good is hardly worth bragging about; and Andrew Dent with his rundown of 10 sustainable material selections (everyone took notes furiously and snapped flash photos of his PowerPoint). Braungart didn't really come close to last year's infamous flameout by Kardash Onnig (I am the greatest fill-in-the-blank), but he did argue that though "he was the best scientist in [his] field, he was a mediocre communicator." George Beylerian must broke a sweat at that moment, but all was forgiven: Braungart was a gem. Exactly the kind of spanking our industry needs (though Behar disagreed gamely, asking Braungart to work with more designers instead of blaming them). Looking forward to what Material ConneXion's got in store for '07!
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