Your Own Chinese Look.

I thought it is quite interesting to see that the Spanish team's 'We are ready for China' picture is send around the world as seen as racist. They did get a lot of criticism.


In order to increase the own competitiveness and its penetration of the global market , the Chinese society currently tries to conform itself to the western model. But as the Chinese force becomes stronger, this might very well turn the other way. We Western people might need to adapt to them. Looking at their Gold Medal success, it might not even be a bad idea.


The project 'Chinese Look' we published in Ad!dict on Heritage is a critic on the current paranoia that leads us 'from the West' to stare impotent to the imminent advent of a Chinese Future.
It's a jewel in titanium that the westerners can wear in order to assume the more obvious oriental somatic features, showing off fascinating almond-shaped eyes. It's also an instrument of visual correction that offers westerners the possibility to look at the world with Chinese eyes, helping them to face... a hypothetical new world order.
Ha. Let's see how many people will actually wear this in London in 2012.







Go to Oscar & Lara's labfile on addictlab.com:

Oscar Brito + Lara Rettondini

Mini Creative X-Ray© in Brussels. (addictlab brainstorming process)

Bring 10 creative minds
together, stir firmly, and leave a bit out of control: of course you get weird stuff.

I can’t really tell you why, for whom and certainly not what we’ve talked about, due to the confidentiality of these kind of projects at Addictlab. But the process is worthwhile mentioning.

Last month, I facilitated a brainstorming session as part of a system to generate new ideas for a company. We do these projects since I believe in the fertile environment of a mix of creative people. Preferably a lot, but, no, this is not crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing is the new buzzword. But it’s too
impersonal.

The added value of our ‘Creative X-Ray’ should be :
(1) having a track record so that we are sure we can deliver, and (2) have ways to deliver them. But, ok, I’m sounding too much of a salesperson now. If you’re interested, be sure to contact us.

On this particular day, I selected the Addictlab spot in Brussels. It’s a bit controversial, has the right vibe to do these kind of things, and was conveniently for me and the Shanghai based client, at that time.

The selection of resources is of utmost importance. As opposed to crowdsourcing, I need to know whom I inviting, for what, and almost anticipate what is going to happen when we bring labmember x together with labmember y on project Z.

Take Lieven De Couvreur, whose very first job was being a Design Lab Researcher at Addictlab. Ok, the economy & market reality made our ways to be separated, and he is now a teacher at the school he went to. When he enters, he brings his homework that I have asked, but in a powerpoint of 105 slides, that blow me away. I remember: this is why I do what I do. Feeling privileged to work with this kind of thinkers. Feeling honoured to be able to push their creative boundaries and have them come up with new ideas.

Lieven enters.
His lab/homework exists of 105 powerpoint slides that blow me away.

The whole day, we will have discussions going on, and I’m taking their minds on a journey through my sinister brain giving them assignments according to the Addictlab X-Ray methodology. Sometimes clear, sometimes unclear where this or that question will lead to. My job being to anticipate, filter, facilitate.
One moment, I see Boyoung being puzzled by some question I had raised.
A complex question it was, and not having received an answer I tend to switch to another angle. Yet she stands up, and moves to another spot in our space.
She needs some time alone and wants to come up with an answer.
When I go sit next to her, she has sketched out mentally a possible solution for the problem at hand, going much further then I could have imagined. I bring in Emilie & Celine to help investigating this route, while the others keep on my initial track.

At the end of the day I’m a bit of a wreck. But it was worth every second of it. The result, in this case, will not be tangible in the near future, yet it will be reworked in a ideadatabase to be used by the brand & their creative resources.

selected labmembers
Pieter Verhoeven
Lieven De Couvreur
Celine Poncelet
Emilie Lecouturier
Boyoung Jung
Emmanuel Wolfs

facilitators:
Niki Vranken
Jan Van Mol
+ clients



More info?
All labmembers received the same remuneration and signed confidentiality docs. The session was part of a three month Mini Creative X-Ray program. Interested brands or agencies for these kind of sessions can mail info@addictlab.com

Shit design. (Pardon my french)

One of the things we can do with the Addictlab concept, is set up collaborations with schools and have their students work on one of our research themes. Preferably in a out-of-the-classroom surrounding, and on a project that is far away from their normal habitat.

Have a look at the ongoing Kidsresearch.

Some examples?
Take labbie Silke Rombaut.

She contributed with her great Kids Cage concept on her labfile.



But look a her 'Shit Down' concept, a bold design statement in the beginning of your career.. But on second thoughts, not bad. Useful it is, since you need kids to train to do their little thing on a toilet in stead of in the Procter and Gamble device. These house breaking rules are not that easy. (I have two kids, I know). Yet I'm not too sure about having a huge fecal look-a-like in my bathroom, but ok.






Second remarkable concept is by Labbie Dagmar Stozek
She is clearly a fan of the prestigious Nip Tuck series, and who can blame her.
She created a very strong image, with a lot of impact and 'stopping power' as we say. During the Labbie workshop they can think of concepts for products, but also reflect on the matter at hand. Which is even more important.



And then a nice one by Marilyn Verwimp. This flower changes color, indicating the right temperature of the water when the baby needs to take a bath. A concept with a possible commercial value..



We do welcome schools to take on similar projects. Do not hesitate to get in contact and have your students become our labbies.

Aanvallah! - A football blog.

So here we have it. The Dutch soccer team defeated Italy with a 3- niks score. And it could have been worse.

I'm not a football freak. I did play some, ages ago, at the infamous S.K. 's Gravenwezel. And the only time I wore a teams colors was when I drove my motorbike to go see Lierse becoming Belgian champion. An exhibition of fan behaviour from that magnitude, in my case, that needs some explanation.

I had an advertising agency, MotuNui, and we had arranged for my client Daewoo to be sponsor of the Lierse team.
A Korean client, at that time, was a sort of adventure for my then pretty young company. We had no 'car' experience what so ever. Still that's what made it a success I guess. (We gave a way 100 cars to test drive, added free petrol for a year, all things you wouldn't do with a car back then. We used FMCG marketing concepts for cars, which became an example for the competitive brands.)

Setting up sponsorship with a football team seemed a good idea to increase brand name awareness. The first match of the season, with big boss Kim attending (50% of all Korean people are called Kim) Lierse was defeated, with a humiliating 8-0 against Anderlecht.
Everybody thought our sponsor deal was wasted money. I thought I wasted my client.
Who could predict that at the end of that soccer season, that small team would actually win the cup. There are blurry images in my mind of Korean marketing responsibles dancing on their own cars. (You have no idea how a couple of years in Belgium can actually destroy your good manors :-)

So, yes, that's why a drove my bike and Petra - both with yellow scarfs - to that last remarkable game.

Football, since then, was never that good. Today, the Belgian soccer team is perfect in sync with the Belgian government. Blatantly incompetent to do the job at hand.

And what did we see yesterday? The Netherlands performing pretty well. Holland, playing as a team! Let me repeat that : 'as a team'. Done with the primadonnas and ego's of the last century.
You must know that there is always this sort of rivalry between Holland & Belgium.
Lately, the Belgian Flemish speaking part has some problems with the French speaking part, and vice versa, leading up to thoughts to bring Flanders together with Holland.
Thoughts that can only emerge after watching a boring football game in a burning sun when your face itches from the orange paint and your intestinal flora are being infected with a liquid substance called dutch beer.
Since no two cultures are more different: The Dutch eat sausages out of a wall and drink a pint of milk with it!)
But hey, if it's about a national football team that performed yesterday, then yes, we would welcome them with open arms. It's not that we still have a Justin Henin or Kim Clijsters to keep our country together. But that's another story.


Now how did I started writing this blog? Dutch labmember Jeroen Tebbe mailed me this morning that his 'Aanvallah!' concept was getting more and more international response.

'Aanvallen!' is what you would yell if you, well, charge to take over another country. Yet the Allah! at the back is a pretty good tongue in cheek discovery to add another level. It's a way to get Dutch muslims united with the Dutch soccer team.

A social integration project using football. Didn't I say that creative thinking can actually change our world?




Jeroen Tebbe's labfile

Your silence blows my head off.

Dutch labmember Jeroen Tebbe has uploaded another great concept on Addictlab.com.

Here you have something ordinary and small, and let's admit it, a bit gross. Any thought of another human beings ear smear is not what I consider a feast. But ok, ear plugs are quite necessary and helpful, from a medical perspective that is.

So you take Jeroen's creative brainwaves, and hup, this little device becomes a communication tool. He uses a tongue in cheek humour that I can appreciate a lot.
The iDEAF should be a hit on the workfloor.

What am I saying, in your day to day relationship aswell.
The first one, for when she really isn't talking to you. Kind of saying: Talk to me, your silence is blowing my head of.
And the second one more for the opposite, when she talks too much. It would mean : Shut up, screw you...

Ok, I'll stop. My imagination is taking me too far.

Addictlab Labfile

Consumers becoming Condemners.

I must say, the last couple of months the world seems darker every day. Myanmar, China, the financial crisis, Austrian incestuous grandfathers, you get my point.
(I'm not even talking about the internal Belgian political arena since it is too stupid for words, and most of all the rest of the world thinks 'Belgian' is something you just add to a chocolate brand anyway.)

Now, as much as I believe in the whole green & sustainable movement - hell, ELLE decoration did a feature about me as a 'big thinker helping to shape our eco-conscious future' - I realise the planet needs more then just being greener. (And thus the only way to survive, I know, I know).

But there is hatred out there, and you can't solve that with biodegradable utensils, wood pellets heating systems or solar panels.

Who bothers thinking about cradle to cradle when you have no cradle to put your child in?

Let alone know how to keep it alive with the food that you don't have?


Where are those Parisian May 68ers when you need them? I know, married, children left the house, just bought a Harley, and jealous of Sarkozy - not for being a president (Hey, Bush is a president too) but for having legally a naked Carla Bruni in your palace.

So maybe, maybe, we have a creative duty. I believe, as a creative community we have the moral duty to use our creative thinking not just for the brands we work for, or the pure commercial value of it. We also need to use that talent to reflect on our society and our surrounding, and create sustainable (in all means of that word) changes by doing so.
Organisations and governments, should not underestimate the power we can have.


1. Beijing 2008.

It has something noble, attracting the whole world, being the host to the biggest event on earth, to compete in an open and friendly environment. It has also a big marketing value for the hosting country, for current and future investments, and it has a true commercial value. They will make money of it, but that's because we teached them capitalism.
I won't go into the politics of it, but the Human rights issue in the country and the treatment of Tibet on the political front is clashing with the global Olympic thoughts. So. Bam. Enter the "ADanarchists" or the "CommunicationGuerilla" and hup. You're expensive logo is wasted and will never be the same. These were send to me via Facebook.




Or this one.



2. South Africa

Then my temporary adoptive country, South Africa. Remember my blog about being robbed in our house. I do remember it, every night, when checking the house, the electric fence, the inside and outside alarms. Back then, I wrote a piece about the fact that just that event send out a message that South Africa wasn't ready for the Football World Cup.

Here you have a country, that by brave men & women and a lot of courage (including the white minority who voted against apartheid...) has been changed radically, in 1994. The rainbow nation, as Mandela called it, was a fact.
And now, in the 'informal settlements' & townships (there are about 2 million people living in Alexandria alone) there is hatred. True hatred against people from another country. (Countries that helped the ANC, by the way). Beyond hatred, evil, or how else can you explain that human beings are setting other human beings on fire?

I believe the World Cup to be a blessing for South Africa. In view of perception, international credibility, investments... There was no other African country that has this kind of boost. The ANC, après-apartheid, received a lot of help and support also. But today, the country's leaders are ignoring the current threat. Even worse. The people responsible for the violence are ANC voters.



So in true ADanarchism style, I've changed the SA2010 logo. Notice how the football playing figure has changed into the poor burned victim of the recent xenophobic violence, a photo that went around the globe.

From a branding point (no pun intended) of view, South Africa and the 2010 event really need to work hard to correct an image that is getting more negative with every Facebook group, protest march, or negative blog. And it's not the messengers that need to be taken care of, it's the very origin of the violence.

If Beijing 2008 and South Africa 2010 both look at us as 'consumers & fans' they should be aware not to treat us as ignorant or naive consumers.
With the powers that we have, the blogs we write, we can be condemners.

Know about the Ad agency Ogilvy's Lovemarks theory? Sissies. Advertising has nothing to do with love and barbie and pink Romantics. It's a war out there.

Addictlab & Urban Forest in Design Indaba Magazine

Remade plastic trees


South Africa's second Open Lab was held recently at the Design Quarter in Johannesburg. Brainchild of the almost year-old local chapter of international creative think tank Addictlab, the event drew participation from local and international designers.

"South Africa should be more proud of its creative talent," says Jan van Mol, Belgian founder of Addictlab. The role call included Haldane Martin, Vlaemsch, Juventa, Michaelle Janse van Vuuren, Kensaku Oshiro, Clive Rundle, Kofifi, Amanda Laird Cherry, Tempest van Schalk, Darryl Gouwes, Emile Kotze, Melanie Brummer and Mtkidu.

Van Mol himself contributed the Urban Forest light installation. Consisting of objects shaped like irregular tree trunks and made from recycled plastic, the installation criticises the world's consumption attitude. The built-in LED lights can change colour depending on the atmosphere, soundscapes, seasons or any other emotions linked to the location of the forest or reason for gathering. The inside can also be used as drinks cooler, turning the light objects into a lounge accessory, guerrilla tool or design object.'


Go to Design Indaba

Addictlab:
#28 Research: eco-research

Go to Urban Forest Labfile

Look. I'm thinking of you.

Addictlab's most recent research (our #29th already!) is all about 'in.tangible.scape.s' (You might ask yourself : 'What's with the dots?' - or you might think we're actually really clever to have at least 4 meanings in one title...)

Most promising is the fact that Addictlab has been receiving support from some organisations that are not the least in their line of work...
Thanks to Giovanna Massoni's Lab Researcher activities resulting in collaborations with the MOMA, NY,
Design incubation Centre, Singapore,
Science Gallery, Dublin,
Philips, Netherlands
V2, Rotterdam,
Imec, Leuven
and Domus Academy, Milan we do are developing our labresearch more globally.


Now have a look at the following concept, send to us via the Design Incubation Centre from Singapore.


Roly Poly
Web 2.0 is changing the way people interact resulting in the emergence of a new social eco-system. This concept would like to address the unmet and undefined needs within this new social eco-system through the creation of robotic social tools. Roly Poly looks at the phenomenon of people living apart and examines gesture as a different mode of communication other than speech and text. Through gestures, one is able to transmit him/herself physically to the other party even when miles apart. Roly Poly connects two individuals in real time through a familiar gestural dimension. Roly Poly is a manifestation of how sophisticated robotic technology can be integrated into our daily lives as expressive and communicative social tools.

Ok, I do not think the playful 'Roly Poly' name is doing justice to the concept. But imagine how this concept allows for communication and interaction between people miles apart, in distance, or, why not, in time. It's romantic, or sad, depending how you look at it.
Of course, if you change the hardware you 're pretty close to having real virtual sex - but that is then the more tangible result of an in.tangible concept.



Labfile

Labmember from Indonesia: No cup please.

I know, I do feel privileged to be in contact with geniuses from all over the world. Here is a very fine idea, uploaded on Addictlab all the way from Indonesia. It's interesting because of its simple concept, but also its sustainable and ECO-potential, cutting away part of the consumers consumption process (and thus waste).


New labmember Chandy Widiastara has been doing research on instant coffee packaging. You won't need a cup, since the packaging changes function. Just add water, and hup. How instant can you get?


Thank you Roosydin Harris, to become our new Labambassador in Indonesia. If there are other people in other creative hubs out there, do not hesitate and join our labambassadors from Vancouver, Gent, Joburg, London or more. Have a look at Addictlab.
As a labambassador, you try to discover great local talent, and by linking them with Addictlab and have them register on our website, it is your energy that will make their work being published in one of our books, being exhibited wherever we can (or are invited), and being produced whenever we get a client/company looking for innovation.
Know anyone working at D'Ouwe Egberts or Starbucks or any other worthy Coffee , Soup or food brand? I'll be happy to make the bridge.
Jan


Labfile Cupchet

Evil is in the eye of the beholder

There has been a bit of a stir in England on a logo that is created for the OGC, the Office of Government Commerce. It cost about 17000 euro to create, but it will probably not be used due to the .. well... erotic connotation it gets when you look at it sideways.




Now, if I was the creative director of the slick London design agency, I wouldn't worry too much about controlling the hormones of my design team or their will to create some hidden persuaders. I do would fire them and start looking for a team that could create something unique for a client, in stead of going 'shopping' and getting more then a bit of inspiration in .... a bottle water.

trend research on designweek.be

It's but one of the products we should package more and better: Designweek.be has the potential to be a weekly updated website on the design activities in Belgium. And there is a lot of it happening nowadays. If there are people outthere wanting to collaborate (and advertise :-) feel free to contact me.

To kick off our new approach for the website designweek.be I wanted to show the work of new Labmember Marijn Dionys. I simply love his 'stock' (a wordplay with the dutch word 'stok' for branch)? There is romantisme involved because of its irregular shape, but most important, it shows the original source and the functional end result in one object. Very clever.

Guest blogging for Elle Decoration.

The recent issue of Elle Decoration magazine here in South Africa is all about Eco design. Of course , there are other magazines attacking the subject, but Elle Deco is actually the first one to ... feature me in it as one of 7 'Green Keepers', 'Big thinkers helping to shape our eco-conscious future.'


Check www.elledeco.blogspot.com these weeks, since they've asked me to be a guest blogger on their site.

Fitness in third world countries.

I live in South Africa. In that part of Johannesburg where the rich black & white population enjoys supermarkets with an abundance of food, restaurants on a Friday night (and Saturday and Sunday since it's that inexpensive, for that matter), a braai now and then and an occasional robbery if you're popular as I am. (Or just bad luck, who knows...)
A place, where that richer population almost without exception has a a subscription to a golf course and a Virgin Active fitness chain.

And I know, since I'm member too. (Not the golf, that I still - wrongfully, I know - consider a sport I will take up in 30 years or so.) Who could have thought that I would once go 'work out' in a fitness center. The moral and ethical boundaries of running on a specially designed treadmill were to high, but my life (and my body) needed some sort of structural work, so I figured a fitness and workout membership could do the thing.

Running , on the streets, seemed not an option. That is considered dangerous. In many ways. yet after a while now, I'm running on the streets anyway. From my house to the gym. That way I skip the boring treadmill with built in TV screen and ipod connector, but keep the workout sessions.

Watch the guy that I caught on photo, in full exercise. Dragging a tire behind him up a hill towards township Diepsloot.
Respect.

trend research : The Penguin in all of us.

So here you go. The internet is doing what we all think it should have been doing 10 years ago. Until the bubble burst - and that was not my fault. I didn't find an investor back then. (Interested parties can always apply, though after the Kuwait Prince and the Malaga scam I am a bit, well, suspicious.)

But I wanted to point out a web 2.0 concept : I find myself throwing a party for my son Lucas, turning 8 years on Friday. Not a real one. A virtual one.

Both he and Emma, my daughter of 6, have understood what internet is about. If you look for something - for a project at school - you type orca, killer whale, My Little Pony or clown frogs in the little Google window on dad's computer. You select, you print, and hop, work is done.

It gets better. If your parents drag you from your friends in Belgium all the way to South Africa, than that's cool. You make new friends, discover new stuff, can swim while everyone in Belgium is freezing and hoping some sort of government actually would start to do something. But - you can stay in contact. Not with boring Skype and fractional images of grant mother, but ... by becoming a penguin.
So on Friday, Lucas' friends in Belgium will be joining him in ... his igloo, for which he 'bought' a dance floor, a DJ set, a palm tree and much more.
After the virtual cake, they will go and play in Penguin Land. Eat a virtual pizza, do some sledging, or stroll around the Penguin island to discover other friends.






Become a penguin here

All about Ann.

Running Addictlab has been a sort of rollercoaster experience.
This multilayered concept of creating platforms such as our books, or exhibitions, or consultancy towards brands, of being a gallery and doing trend research, it all makes sense to me. I realise that that's not always the case for everyone else. That's probably why running Addictlab sometimes was and sometimes still is a burden.

As opposed to my naive attitude of wanting to create a very creative global and fertile surrounding, of introducing creative chaos in a work environment as an asset,
I need an organisation and people whom I can build on.

And the last years, I've had the honour and privilege to be helped by Ann. She has the looks, but I won't go into that. She has also the brains. And above all, she has the emotional intelligence to take on life as it happens.

I realize that life is full of constant changes, and up until Addictlab has a major breakthrough and has the resources to create constant growth, it is quite normal to have a flux of people coming in and leaving the company. In Ann's case, it's a bit different. She has been watching over addictlab in a way I never could have hoped for. Reliable and loyal are understatements. A Beacon of Hope for people around her , that's more like it.

Today is Ann's last day on the job. She will go and take on other challenges. It wouldn't be fair to say the timing is wrong. That there are going to be some major changes in the Addictlab organisation, and all that. There are always major changes in a concept like Addictlab.
But there aren't always people like Ann to believe in it. To support it. To help it grow.
I'll miss her. And that too, is an understatement.

You romantic twit.

'Follow me'. That is basically what all your GPS navigation systems are saying. But they do that in a functional, dry , engineery kind of way.
Now forget the engineery, go fairy.

Meet Dandella, A GPS direction pointing device that works with the GPS mobile
phone to find direction. The idea was to replace the complicated
digital interface with a physical and intuitive device that shows the
direction by pointing.
Forget Tom Tom, go ET.

This project received the Grand Prix from
Osaka International Design Competition 2006.






contributed by Design Lab Researcher Giovanna Massoni

The Design Incubation Centre is a design research
laboratory which investigates and develops tools to help
us better understand ourselves and our environments,
and to find new possibilities and new relationships
between man, objects and his environment. The
Design Incubation Centre is part of the Department of
Architecture, School of Design and Environment,
National University of Singapore.

Makes you think.

Pretty well done, if you ask me.

trend filtering

Life goes on. Even without my stolen Macbook Pro. (Thanks Marike for helping out)
Here is my new selection of interesting stuff in the Addictlab community.




1. Ouch/Bling



These are called bling band-aids.
Wear as jewelry. or really turn your OUCH into BLING. Packaging : Three plasters in slide top tin.
One with ice white rhinestones, one with rose and one with red rhinestones. sterile.

I love it. It decodes objects from two different worlds, mixes it, creates an experience that is completely new. It also proofs that Swarovski not always needs to rent a huge space at the Salone del Mobile in Milan to mark the spot.
Turning to a truly creative labmember is good enough.
Beauty and pain in symbiosis. How true.




2.Dignity Toilet

Uploaded by Alexandra Fraraccio, HUMANITARIAN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN ORGANISATION

Cooler Solutions’ “Dignity Toilet” wins international design competition by providing sanitation for those in need

Sustainable green product design granted the International HIDO (Humanitarian International Design Organization) Design Award



Toronto, Canada and Golfe Juan, France – November 27, 2007–

Today, Cooler Solutions, a product design firm specializing in sustainable and health product innovations and HIDO, the Humanitarian International Design Organization, announced that Cooler Solutions has received the HIDO International Design Award. The Award was granted for their ground-breaking ‘Dignity Toilet’, a portable sanitation solution ideal for refugee camps and developing countries. Cooler Solutions developed this unique design as a part of their focus on sustainable product solutions. Images of the product can be found at http://www.coolersolutionsinc.com/pdf/CoolerSolutions-HIDO-DignityToilet.pdf

The dignity toilet is a solid waste storage and disposal system for locations where a sanitation infrastructure does not exist. It addresses the issues of sanitation compliance, health and personal dignity. The Dignity Toilet provides sanitary storage for solid waste for four people for approximately 7 – 10 days. After that period, the toilet is removed from its dock and taken to a controlled area. It’s then manually augered into the soil where it evacuates its contents, mixes the waste with soil and buries it in the ground for decomposition.

“As designers we feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to use our experience to assist the hundreds of millions of people who live without basic sanitation. It is especially relevant at this time of year as we celebrate and give thanks for everything that we have, that we think about how we can make a meaningful contribution to all the families who are struggling to simply live,” said Terence Woodside, Partner, Cooler Solutions. “We’re honored that this new Dignity Toilet design was awarded the International HIDO Design award and hope that this product innovation will be a help to control the spread of disease and contamination caused by unsafe sanitary practices.”

“We believe that the solution offered by Cooler Solutions can create a chain reaction,” said Alexandra Fraraccio, HIDO. “It will not only tackle the lack of sanitary facilities in developing countries, but at the same time improve hygiene and decrease diseases caused by faeces lingering in many of the world’s slums and infecting drinkable water. This solution could be THE step forward to a healthier and more dignified life.”


Read more on HIDO's Labfile:
http://www.addictlab.com/labfiles/index.php?page=workdetail&work=7708

Terrorist attack on South Africa

Tuesday night, October 30, 12 o clock. I work late on a new Ad!dict book that needs to go to the printer on Thursday. It’s a book that I’ve called WORLD 2.0.
Packed with recycling, rethinking stuff, with ideas from creative minds from the addictlab database from all over the world.
The baseline of the book will be: Ideas to create a better world.
Hilarious, if you know what’s coming.

I’m also finishing my presentation for my meeting in New York: I’m leaving tomorrow, October 31, for meetings and interviews on an exhibition on Nano technology, an outreach project combining industry, research & culture. Important meetings for me with the MOMA, So I decide to go to bed at about midnight.

Couple of hours later.

Two guys come in via a small window in our bedroom, with two guns. They force us to set out the alarm, then force us all (children and my mother in law who is visiting... ) to lay down on the bed. I hear them go down and open up for a third one.
One comes in with my squash shoe. I thought it a bit inappropriate to discuss a squash game at that hour.. He ties us up with the shoelaces, quite firmly, pulls up a children's chair and sits in the doorway.


Emma.
Emma needs to go to the bathroom. Of course, in every hostage situation someone needs to go to the bathroom. There would also be someone pregnant but that part was left out of our script. We ask our guard to let her, yet I don’t want her to go alone with him. Marleen goes with her. When Emma comes back, she whispers: ‘This one is nice, he lets us go to the toilet.’

Lucas is awake too. He rests his head on my leg, and has the best view of us all on the guard.

He is quite analytic.’Dad, if they have gone, can I then read a book? Or watch television? I‘m awake, I will not be able to sleep again.’
A bit later he asks me if I ever have been through something like this. I answer him no. His eyes light up. ‘Then I can tell this to my friends and my children when I’m older’. He has no idea how much I’m wishing that he will be able to tell it to whomever whenever.

I realize that with two guns there is not much one can do. Because they swap guns when they swap guards, I understand that one of the guns must be fake or not loaded.
Still with one gun, my biggest fear is what happens if they ‘re angry not finding what they’re looking for. Three, four times they come in to ask for cash, for the vault. They search the whole house, looking for precious stuff, hidden vaults.
We don’t have that.

I try to imagine how I can defend my family if ever they would turn against us. To Petra, to Emma. Horrific thoughts. And in no way I would let them do without putting up some sort of fight. I try to figure out how I ‘m tied up, how the knots work. The harder I pull, the tighter they get. Even today, two days later, my thumb is still numb.

I try to break the laces by rubbing them over the side of Emma’s bed, but that is obviously not sharp enough. I know that in Emma’s toy shop there are children’s toys to play ‘kitchen’. And I know there is a little knife as well, but it's out of reach.
I realize that I could put my hands from my back in front of me by sliding my hands underneath my body and putting my feet through.
The guy is sitting only two meters of me, so he could see that as an act of aggression. Which obviously it would have been. I keep it in mind, for later on, when things would go bad or when they’ve gone.


Emma’s savings.
Petra turns around. She’s having a hard time. It takes ages, and I know the shoelaces hurt, and the impossibility to move adds up to a claustrophobic feeling she can’t stand.
Yet she thinks about Emma’s saving money, and I agree. Maybe if we tell them where he can find Emma’s money we could fasten up the process , get them going. So we tell Emma, and we explain to the guy where he can find it.

He calls one of the others, and standing in the door, they’re splitting the R200 (20 euro). The guard then neatly closes up the piggy bank and puts it on the floor. He says ‘thank you’. How surreal can you get?


It takes ages.
I want him to think we’re human. So I ask our guard where he comes from. 'Are you from South Africa?' At first , he doesn’t understand. It is a question he doesn’t expect. I repeat it, and he says yes. I tell him we’re from Belgium.
Marleen turns to me and doesn’t get it. 'Are you socializing with the guy'?

They stayed for about an hour.. they found the remote controls of the car, the garage, the outside gate. So they took my whole work & more : 6000 digital pics, 2 laptops, desktop, digital camera, Playstation, PSP, ipod, cellphones, DVD camera, jewelry and a bit of cash. They locked us up in our bedroom, and drove away with Petra's company car. I cut myself loose with a razor blade then untie Petra and Marleen. I could escape via the outside window and open up for everybody.

The fear of what could have happened is bigger then the actual loss, yet my children seem to be ok.

Minutes after I have alerted the outside gate, our place is crawling with people. Security agents asking if we had a panic button. To be honest, I wouldn't have pushed it and be between three armed guys inside our house and the armed security forces on the outside.

The police arrives late - the security people gave the wrong address. Two cops, one more cop, two detectives. And the obvious guy from CSI Johannesburg doing the fingerprints. It is an interesting photographic process.

Missing.
They took all the electronic stuff. But a cellphone is not a cellphone. It is a container of contacts. A binary extension of our mind. It takes a while to retrace cellphone numbers and important contacts.

My loyal MacBook Pro is more then just a tool too. It's my office and reason why I could move to South Africa in the first place. For 80% of my job I use it to go online to the addictlab site that runs on a remote & protected server.
But both Mac and cameras are containers of history. The robbers have taken away 6000 images of my past and I hate them for that.


But it’s in those times of distress that you discover human beauty.

At school, the day after. It's Halloween. (How horrible can Halloween get?)
One of Emma’s class mates comes up to me: I’m sorry that you were robbed.' A girl of 6 being a grown up woman! Surprised , I thank her and turn my head away to avoid her from seeing the tears in my eyes.

Emma’s other friend Luz came with the idea to give back Emma’s saving money. Her parents Eric and Chris should be proud : raise a child with thoughts like that and your parental task is as good as finished.

Flowers from Eskom & chocolate eggs
The support from the people around us is moving. Petra’s client contacts drop by to chat or send flowers. Dupont arranges immediately for another car and cellphone. Dupont is sending someone from Geneva to check where the security can be better.
Marike drops of her computer so that I can continue working. Even though not Belgian the Christmas chocolates taste good with a glass of wine. We tell the story over and over.

The eternal optimist in me might be right: people are good from the inside.
A theory that is hard to defend, having had to call my parents and family who are staying all together in a holiday house in Belgium. The grief and sorrow and fear were unbearable.

I think of the extreme right comment one day on my blog. That we were stupid to go to South Africa. That we are putting our children in great danger. That the fences around us will never be high enough. I was disgusted by the tone of voice and the blind anger in that text. Yet how, today, can I prove them wrong?

I hate the robbers for putting suspicion in my mind. Looking around me while shopping, not out of fear, but hoping to run into them. Me, having organized an Open Lab in Bree street to give a platform to local creative talent. Where one - black - guy had come up to me asking - with tears in his eyes - why a guy from Belgium had to prove to all of them that Bree Street was not dangerous. I wanted to do my part of the job to work on the brand of South Africa.

Because there is more. Look at the speed with which the news travels. Our regular social networks, the compound where our house is, the kids at school, our friends, social & business network. Simply by having to cancel my meetings in New York you can add to that my network of creative thinkers from all over the world, this addictlab network. Everybody has heard: South Africa is not save. It is not ready to host the 2010 World Cup when people are threatened at gun point.

The walls, fences and security companies are a laugh. But Emma, Lucas, Petra, Marleen, we're all alive. We will cope. We're installing extra security systems, beamers, hell, even get a dog. And if we won't feel safe anymore, we will leave.

For South Africa, on the other hand, the situation is worse.
This was an act of terrorism.
Would someone acknowledge that?

'A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork.

That's the way we spell New York.'

I've been to New York quite a number of times, since I once started up Addict Inc there.
I even took my then Addict employees to sign their contracts in the restaurant on top of the WTC building.
It was called 'View on the World' and I thought that was appropriate for what I wanted to do with Addict.
Right vision, maybe. Wrong timing, for sure.
And I still remember Heather's email on 911: I saw the first tower go down.

I did go back after 9 11 to do a much apreciated New York Mutation Project , in a local art gallery, with contributions of artists from all over the world on the event.
Addict Inc didn't quite kick off, and I needed to focus on the main office in Belgium, but my love for the city remains.

The reason now is quite interesting. I'll keep you informed.