Hotel design from a modern art hotel in Austria.

COMMENTS — Airlines have been decorating their planes for some time now. Below is a slide-show from Reynolds on SlideShare. Well done!
The Trends. 2thinknow view.
Handmade, hand-painted, decorating mass-objects are key trends of the 21st century.
This is a nascent trend of modifying mass-produced objects.
Decoration & personalisation by hand, not machine, will be a strong dominant theme of the 21st century.
Once we were impressed by the modernist metallic sameness of airplanes. Now we are impressed by their uniqueness.
The mass-produced object is losing it’s 1960s gloss, at the cutting-edge. And has been replaced …

REVIEWS, Stuttgart — Traveling to Germany on Eurail had been an exciting adventure. Stuttgart, especially, surprised me, probably having more inspirational potential than text-based research would indicate.

The magnificent and exciting Stuttgart StaatsGalerie was holding an extensive Pop Art Exhibition at the time of my visit. It was a well curated exhibition of the Pop Art movement in the USA and UK primarily, in the 1950s & 1960s mainly.
Here is my journey through that exhibition, and an increasing realisation that modern art of a time period is often a window on …

REVIEWS, Adelaide – Australia is blessed with great airports by US, UK and in some cases, continental European standards.
Most Australian small airports are superior to most North American small airports. Although in larger airport terms, Boston’s Logan or SFO are superior to the large Sydney airport most international visitors experience.

One of Australia’s great smaller airports is the comfortable, practical Adelaide airport.
With crisp clean design lines, comfortable seating, work desk areas for non-lounge members and a good choice of food and shopping, Adelaide airport does it well.
Lounges at Adelaide
The Adelaide Qantas …

ANALYSIS, Frankfurt — Art (or kunst in Deutsch) is a window into mens souls.
German art is a window into the Saxons, Prussians, Bavarians and other Germanic tribes.
People forget that the German nation is a modern construct, stitched together by Bismarck as a Greater Prussia. Prior to this, Germany was a collection of largely independent kingdoms.

Accordingly, major German regions and cities with links to art and design throughout European history are hardly surprising.
I find much to like in the art of Saxony, including Leipzig, and the so-called Leipzig School (an …

TRAVEL, Shanghai — This video shows the marvel of the Shanghai skyline.
A modern international city, there are ‘China issues’, but Shanghai is an amazing international city, a star on the rise. Also shown is the famous ‘the Bund’.
Shanghai is being watched by 2thinknow, as an emerging innovation city.
Another video here shows the great wonder of Shanghai’s skyline, but also greyness of the sky and the cost of that modernity.
China, we watch you with interest and awe.

From London, to Singapore to Berlin and Melbourne a Ferris Wheel was the city ‘must-have’ in 2008. and yet, no city has ever branded itself by copying others so intensely – read why in this piece from the vault.

COMMENT, Paris – Paris is divided into: Old Paris, where all the buildings have consistent height, and often consistent or at least fitting facades.
Standing on level 5 of Georges Pompidou, you can see the whole of Old Paris, laid out before you. I did this last in April 2007, and was mesmerized.

And New Paris: Office district on the other side of Paris; La Défense. This modern office block tower district, is really an additional side to the old Paris not a central part of Paris.
The new 300 metre tower by …

TRAVEL, GERMANY — This April, Christopher Hire from 2thinknow was assessing Düsseldorfas an innovation city, in the 2thinknow World Innovation City rankings for 2008, scheduled to be released in the last quarter of 2008.
A largely industrial city, on the Rhine, Dusseldorf is over 800 years old. The city is known as a fashion and advertising capital, with a major fashion fair annually.
The video contains many of Düsseldorf, ’s more impressive sites, the Rhine and buildings.
Königsallee, is a world-class shopping street, and the city contains various museums and galleries, such as …

TRAVEL, Rome — Rome is a marvelous, eternal city of beauty without end.
These slides show some of Rome’s most inspirational areas and beautiful landmarks. The lovely backing song is Roma Capoccia by Antonello Venditti, a famous Roman singer.
Rome was ranked equal 5th Innovation Cities in the world largely due to its inspiration, and position as Italian capital. The rankings were part of the Global Innovation Review 2007, authored by Christopher Hire and published by 2thinknow.
Rome is undoubtedly one of the worlds, most cultured and beautiful cities.
And on previous trips …

VIDEOS, Youtube — Another beautiful world city Torino, or Turin, in the very North–west of Italy, near the Swiss and French borders. Embodying the rich layers of border cities, the images of this video, capture the beauty of Torino.
Most famously in a global sense, Torino hosted the Winter Olympics, and was able to use that to build awareness of the city internationally, outside Europe.
Once largely industrial, Torino is home to Fiat. The main newspaper is La Stampa. And now Torino, has become increasingly diversified in other areas of arts and …

REVIEWS, Europe — So being from Europe, Eurovision is a national pastime and real conversation piece this time of years.
I like to think of it as a way of watching a variety of cultures, and their attitudes to themselves. At 2thinknow, we study cultures, and globalism, so it is home-work!
Eurovision Song Contest – Belgrade 2008 Preview Player
Essentially a singing contest, with one representative of each nation, often controversially selected. The most interesting part is the voting, where neighboring countries often vote for or against each other, depending on the politics. …

VIDEOS, Youtube — For picturesque images of Bulgarian cities, including Sofia, watch this video.
Includes a musical backing soundtrack, in Bulgarian.
Bulgaria, notably, has changed a lot since the 90s.

VIDEOS, Youtube — This is a humorous video, in Bulgarian, showing Bulgarian sense of humor about their country. The title is ‘Bulgaria versus the EU’
Much of it is universally visual, despite the Bulgarian text. There is a musical soundtrack, which can be muted if you are watching at work.
Sometimes humor provides good insights into national characteristics or feelings.

This is one of our very popular earlier 2008 articles working to rebalance the criticism that Generation Y attracted, and pointing out that non-linearity may be an asset in a networked world. Enjoy the ‘Creative Generation’, reproduced for your reading pleasure…

YOUR SAY, Europe — This March and April I will be going on a Global Innovation Tour. From mid-march I will be touring European cities. Some cities I will be seeing for the first time, other cities visiting, like Vienna, many times.
I represent 2thinknow, and we are dedicated to global positive social change in areas like environmental friendly transport, food supply, artistic city cultures, small-scale farming, regional produce, increased small business, economic moderation, regulation of industry and many other global issues.
Be Involved, Help Create Positive Global Change
This is the very …

ANALYSIS, Sydney — Property prices in Sydney (and other Australian capitals) are more expensive than almost any city in the world.

New York? Paris? Boston? Vienna?
In general, better value than Sydney, as has been reported in numerous media stories today. Property prices are at 7.5 average median earnings.
And we’re not talking Park Avenue property here, more like Queens.
Sydney suburban Bondi is a sleazy second rate suburb, not comparable to Park Avenue. Yet property is priced in the millions of dollars.
There seems little doubt that Australian capitals of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and …

REVIEW, Melbourne — Who said theatre was dead?

Last night, in Melbourne, my wife and I sat in the Royal Botanic Gardens with between 500-800 people (a quick approximate headcount) to enjoy Shakespeare.
What struck me was the size and average age of the gathering.
50% or more of the people there were under 25. Most were under 35.
At least 10% were school age children, mostly pre-teens.
Sitting next to us was a group of around 25 10-13 year olds. Who rambunctiously enjoyed the performance with a few bags of Doritos, some bottled water …

VIDEOS, YouTube – An interesting video on the twentieth century, popular online.
Largely a narcissistic century in this view, increasingly focussed on the self.
English with Spanish subtitles.

COMMENT, Melbourne — Let’s face it privatized public transport has failed.
It’s not the same elsewhere in the world — where Public Transport is clean, reliable and safe.

Public transport succeeds in similar towns in Germany.
But not in Australia. Public transport can work, but does not now work in Melbourne & Victoria. There are issues in the approach of the State Government, private contractors and the various ideologically-driven desperadoes on this issue.
The biggest issue is the ideological gunfight set-up by far-Right gunslingers like Alan Moran, of the disingenuously-titled ‘Institute for Public Affairs’.
And …