Mayari’s Blog

Yesterday, my brother and I went to the backyard market at brick lane (near spitalfield market) to sell my latest product: Recycled Magic Wallets. I thought this would be a perfect place to sell them, since it’s famous for its innovative products made by young designers. We didn’t book a stall in advance but were lucky enough to get a space in the back of the market hall.

Around midday the place started to get relatively busy. Most people were curious to learn more about the Recycled Magic Wallets. Showing them how the wallet works, their reaction was very positive. “Cool”, “wow” and “very clever” were common comments. But I realised that liking an idea or product is not an incentive for people to buy it. Sometimes, a new idea (in this case a new way of storing your money) can be fascinating because it’s new, but at the same time it can be just to new to handle it. Changing habits is an effort. Also as soon as I told them how much the Recycled Magic Wallet would cost (explaining why), most people said thank you and went on.

It was a little sad to see that the Italian man next to us (see my brother’s blog post) was successfully selling his mass produced sun glasses made in China for five pounds, while most others offering unique and hand made products didn’t sell much. It seems that most people still do not value unique design and local craftsmanship much. Not in terms of spending much money on it. I got a lot of compliments and encouraging words. This doesn’t make a living, but it makes me happy.

So now, I have go on and find and make work, that also pays my bills.

This is the result of an interrogation I did over a year ago in Zurich. I interviewed (qualitative interviews) 30 students concerning questions such as envirnmental awareness, responsibility and behaviour.

For those who don’t understand German here are the 3 most important findings.

- there is no common motivation to act sustainable but there’s a common sense to act in favour of the environment.

- there is a need to do something for the environment but everyone has to do something for himself, there is no need to be politically active or become part of an organisation.

- recycling seems to be a habit among most of the students. I assume it’s due to our education, the convenient facilities we have as well as due to our waste fees.

It’s been a while since my last entry. I really needed to organize all my online and offline stuff and activities. I feel like I need to have a different strategy.

From now on I will post my more private stuff on the blog I started when I was in China. You can find it here. Further I created an account on friendfeed which gives a handy overview over some of my online contributions and activities.

I would like to turn this blog into a blog focusing on one topic: Switzerland’s Sustainable Designs. Coming back from London I noticed how progressive Switzerland handles sustainable practices. I always took recycling, saving energy, buying local etc. for granted. Especially within Europe. But I found out: it is not.

That’s why I would like to share Swiss sustainable design strategies (and design objects) with you. Maybe it helps or inspires other countries or people implementing sustainable solutions. Who doesn’t want our children to live on a healthy planet? We can do something about it. Now.

I got to London last weekend and I’ve been walking around a lot, taking mainroads and small alleys. That’s how I get familiar with a place.

Observing people and the environment I tried to compare London with Shanghai (where I’ve been living more than 4 months). But I failed. Those two cities are simply too different. They are both big and busy. But almost everything else is different. I like Shanghai but I start to realise that London could be great as well…

I always thought Shanghai was very international. And compared to Wuxi or Bern - even Zurich - it is. But compared to London it isn’t at all! At the moment, as an Asian-Caucasian woman having no real home I feel that I would blend in visually and mentalitywise here in London’s environment best.

Will my future be in Shanghai or London - or even another city? Either or, what I understand is: cosmopolitan cities inspire me, keep me going and make me happy.

I went to visit Art Basel. But I was a little disappointed. Or maybe I’m no more too familiar with contemporary art and its artists. A lot of the pieces didn’t draw my attention. Many of them seemed to be somewhat familiar in its materiality and incomprehensible in its content. There weren’t a lot of revolutionary works exhibited so that I was thinking: Oh, that’s really clever and new, somehow distracting or widening my mind or in an other way touching my soul. What’s wrong with art… with me? Am I expecting too much?

At first I concentrated on the artworks. But at the end I was studying the visitors more than the art around them. These people seemed to be more interesting to me than the works of the artists! There were all kinds of people from all kinds of nationalities, ages and backgrounds. All kinds of styles. True individuals. Unique. Yet all in all a perfect mix. Next time I will go there to watch the visitors. It’s really interesting!