It’s that time again. Nokia research have a new film exposing the delights of how Nokia will be at one with your life and your life at one with Nokia. I have to admit this particular film narks me somewhat less than another offering a while back that fumbled around the Nano meme. However, i am still perturbed by it’s cleanliness, by its perfection. Knowing a little bit about how Nokia Research do their research I’m disappointed that a broader or more diverse context has not been explored within this narrative.

Obviously it is intended more as a PR piece than a genuine exploration of potential futures but even as a PR exercise it leaves me thinking,

“oh, shut up…lets say i do live an idealised Scandinavian life, i still don’t believe you Mr Nokia”.

I don’t think I’m alone.

Yet again we had some great inspirational talks last night, curated by the It’s Nice That boys, Alex and Will.

Johnny Kelly was the host for the third It’s Nice That Talk evening held up in our Sense Loft. A fantastic presentation to set the stall out for his two invited guests David McFarline from Spin and photographer Marco Bohr. You’ll be able to see the videos here and also available on iTunes.

We’ve also put up some more photos on our Flickr page.

Noticed this at a recent trip to the Eden Project (which is superb but interestingly disappoints many visitors because they go on rainy days thinking it’s all undercover!)
Anyway, they’re trying to get everyone to have lunch with their neighbour in a massive street party in July.

“What chance have a bunch of eco warriors in a corner in Cornwall got of pulling this off” I hear you say. Well they have a massive ad campaign breaking and backing from Mastercard and the Post Office so may be able to pull it off.

I hope they do as I’d love to see the UK rebuild a sense of community to help us through these tough times.

Wonder if there are any other brands out there who might see some value and brand fit beyond basic  tick the box CSR stuff?

Sense Worldwide are really happy to support Sensers Alex Bec and Will Hudson (HudsonBec) with the launch of a series of talks from their hugely successful blog It’s Nice That.

It was a brilliant night in the Sense Loft - we had the opportunity to meet some really talented, quirky and creative people, who also shared an interest in what we do here at Sense and within the Sense Network.

Riitta Ikonen, a London, soon to be NY based artist from Finland was the host speaker who showed us some of her amazing projects undertaken whilst at the Royal College of Art including the celebration of Nylon…something which has lead her to create statement costume pieces.

Ritta also brought with here two other very different speakers. One, Jazmine Miles-Long gave us a first hand account of how to taxidermy a pheasant, complete with pictures of a stage when it is required to turn the head inside out. Fascinating stuff….and good to know - I had no idea quite how much work, most of it unpleasant, goes into creating them.

The last - but hugely entertaining speakers of the night were Michael Crowe and Lenka Clayton who, united by the same ambition to send a personal letter to everyone in the world, took themselves off to the small village of Cushendall in Northern Ireland for a practice run. For a project called ‘Mysterious Letters’, they spent 2 weeks locating and spying on villagers, finding things personal to them to write about and eventually succeeded to write all 467 unique letters - some as simple as ‘Just a quick note to say that as I was passing your lovely home recently I noticed a crow land on your roof then take off again after a bit. With very best wishes from lenka + Michael’.

Click on the links to find out more about them - there’s also a link to a wonderful film called Age, created by Lenka and James Price for Channel 4’s 3 minute wonder series - it’s a must see.

We stayed until the only contents left in the fridge were tomato ketchup and mustard - a good night had.

The next one is pencilled in for May 21st - don’t miss it

Jess saw this article in The Telegraph about London fitness chain, Gymbox unveiling their latest way to entertain members whilst they work out… human dumbbells

Hianta has been trying out Spotify this week…

“basically, it’s an itunes-like music player, with tons and tons of music on it, and it doesnt really do buffering at all, and is very intuitive, fast and yes. awesome.”

…try it.

Whilst collectable cards based on elements of trading and competition such as Pokémon and ‘Magic: The Gathering’ have enjoyed great popularity with boys, introducing a similar hit for girls has proved difficult.

Bella Sara is a card game aimed at 6–12 year old girls. The cards feature pastel coloured pictures of unicorns and virtual horses to groom and are aligned with positive messages such as “Have the courage to trust yourself� and “Use your love to bring peace to the world.� Unlike competitive card games, where the possession of rare cards can result in victory or failure the emphasis of Bella Sara is on collection. Each card comes with a code which can be entered on it’s associated website to unlock the horses stable, but each code can only be activated once, underlining the collection appeal of the cards. Girls can use a computer mouse to clean the horses living quarters and feed them hay. The original version game has already proved its viability in Scandinavia where seven million sets have been sold.

(via The New York Times)

Dr. Whippy is an interesting new concept for vending ice cream. The machine asks you a series of questions to analyze the stress levels in your voice. Depending on how unhappy it thinks you are it serves you with the amount of ice cream it thinks you need to feel better. Designed by Demitrious Kargotis the machine is being exhibited at the Ars Electronica exhibition in Austria.

(via Gizmodo)

Japanese bike manufacture Shimano has collaborated with Ideo in designing Coasting - a range of bicycles aimed at casual riders. Whilst the bicycle market has witnessed a massive growth in ‘cycling enthusiasts’ the number of casual riders has declined sharply. In the US market this accounts for a potential 160 million cyclists who are currently not riding.

Ideo initiated a qualitative research process which involved despatching a team of industrial anthropologists into 50 homes to gain an in-depth profile of how people spend their leisure time. Whilst it was previously assumed by cycling industry executives that people were opting out of cycling either through laziness, or because bikes themselves too heavy the reality was very different. People held very found memories of cycling from childhood, recalling the activity as a simple and elemental pleasure; they wanted bikes to putter around on rather than becoming fitness freaks. This relaxed attitude is completely at odds with the atmosphere of the typical bicycle store where potential customers looking for a pleasant way to spend their weekend were confronted by ‘Spandex-clad bike geeks expounding about technology and performance.’

Ideo and Shimano were faced with two challenges. Firstly in creating a new bicycle for the casual cyclist which would be simple, comfortable and affordable, designed primarily for fun rather than fitness. Secondly and crucially they sought to re-design the retail experience. They expanded the experience of the bike shop by making dealers aware of the needs on non-cyclists through online training and dvd’s. The Coasting website augments and broadens the experience of owning the bikes themselves, providing a bulleting board for new cyclists and information about routes and rides (currently in 15 cities around the US).

(via core77 & Hemispheres)

Last November Westminster City Council launched an advertising campaign, which reveals a telling insight into our national attitude to drinking. The campaign displayed adverts of partygoers in various states of drunken disarray, with the slogan ‘some things you only do when you’re drunk’. The scheme was initiated after a survey found that 50% of people got into trouble after a night out at some point or another. Problems included getting lost on the way home, missing work the next day, losing property, and people doing something they regretted or being the victim of violent behaviour. How far does the council have to go to stop us getting into such a mess?

(via BBC News)