Text: Cosmin Caciuc
Photo: Atelier Fabrik
I was reading a funny story: “A game that began with paper planes has received financing worth half a million dollars”. The project in question is called Power Up 3.0, developed by Shai Goitein and the TobyRich company, and it was financed with great enthusiasm by means of the Kickstarter platform: a smartphone app that can control any paper plane from a distance with the help of a tiny electromechanical device.
In other words, we are no longer playing using only folded paper and gusts of wind; for an extra 50$, we get a gadget which would make us reconsider the paper plane and even outdoor entertainment. It’s a type of recreation both low-cost and high-tech. And very trendy, how else?
I believe that this is a very good example of a small idea with a big stake, considering today’s collective enthusiasm for mobile phones, applications and gadgets. This is not only supertech and miniaturization, but also an incentive for a more “traditional” creativity in the background (the paper plane as a DIY), customization, socialization, and, lastly, an outdoor activity which is healthier than the apathetic browsing on a tablet.
Can we do the same thing for design, architecture and the city? This issue features an article about the first project built by Modulab with the help of AFCN, Symbiomorphogenesis, which exemplifies open source and collaborative work methods, or the technology necessary for living in the city. Next issue we will talk about Fabrik, a printing press and an interdisciplinary workshop which creates paper objects. Photographer Cosmin Bumbuț has collaborated with this workshop on an album which materialized with the help of crowdfunding through the Creștem Idei platform. And so, in the end, we come back once again to paper (currently threatened by all that is digital), cool design by means of traditional recycling techniques, and high-tech communication and financing methods.
I want to believe that the future does not belong solely to one grand idea, but to many smaller ideas which are, perhaps, better. And that we will focus not only on the obsession for gadgets and technology, but also on the active concern for social qualities, significant things and desirable models for creative urban life.
