Though this will read slightly strangely, having been the basis of a presentation given to a Design Conference in Aspen in 1970, it remains a searing critique of state-sanctioned environmentalism pertinent to our times (intro by Anthony on Mavis' behalf). [Addition 10/07/07] The text is re-posted from http://pipeline.gasworks.org.uk/2008/07/02/the-environmental-witch-hunt/

(reposting from the new Gasworks Pipeline commentary & materials site - very contemporary counter-Green polemic from 1970)

The French Group, which has been invited to this conference, has decided not to bring a positive contribution.

The group believes that too many matters, and essential ones, have not been voiced here as regards the social and political status of Design, as regards the ideological functions and the mythology of environment.

The Design Museum’s recent exhibition of trail-blazing film title designer Saul Bass provided interesting clues for both the history and future of digital poetics with its emphasis on real-time and trans-medial experimentation. Reviewed by John Cayley

One of the most beloved experiences of Americans is visiting their other national capital, Disneyland. But, can it be a model for urban design? This exhibition slips this and other questions in between original promotional watercolours and various charming historica from the Disney team archives, documenting the emergence of the Disney territories from California through to Tokyo.

Buried away in the summer programme of the ICA, the new media show Radical Entertainment represented an ambitious attempt to anthologise recent interdisciplinary work focused on the digital domain.

Graphical User Interfaces are still the dominant means by which we address our computers. Jason Walsh argues it’s time for an overhaul

>> Apple's OSX [http://www.apple.com]

At some points Web Wizards wears so much Net Chic that you would be forgiven for thinking that the Design Museum had re-sited across the river in Hoxton.

Catalogue of Strategies is an illustrated compendium of Dutch design iconoclast Mieke Gerritzen’s ‘design mentalities’. Lavishly published by Ginko Press, this edition is designed by Gerritzen and written by three new media pundits, the foremost of whom is Nettime co-founder Geert Lovink. After an initial interview with Gerritzen, a bold, red message alerts us to ‘STOP READING | START BROWSING’.

This issue’s head to head takes on a subject which gets most web designers clawing at their mouse pads: USABILITY. Is the internet a huge bank of information looking for its unified front-end, or do such dreams of standardisation completely miss the point?
Bo McFarland, austere usability guru, and Curt Cloninger, romantic design degenerate, exchange pistol shots at dawn. Well, sort of...

Entrants to the 5k web design competition had to design a complete web site in 5120 bytes (1k=1024 bytes). The challenge of turning around a design within such tight parameters seems to have tickled the fancy of the web community: the judges were swamped with entrants. Among the winners was the Web’s smallest art museum, displaying a Barnet Newman, a Rothko and a Mondrian.

Cooper James on Election 97 at the BBC

Now that the dust from the election has settled, it's time to look back and try to discover just why it was that after 18 years in the coverage wilderness the BBC managed not only to win on May 1st, but to rout ITV and score their biggest election victory since 1812.