Protein journal 8

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Prote in® Journal #8 The Performance Issue

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Prote in® Journal #8 The Performance IssueWelcome / Calendar / Feed / Reader / Br ie f ing / Gal lery / Forum / Survey / Prof i le / Guide / Store / Data

Management

William RoweCEO & [email protected]

Kirsty DareCommercial [email protected]

Jo JacksonManaging [email protected]

Sales & Accounts

Bridie WoodwardAccount [email protected]

Grace DavisAccount [email protected]

Richard RobinsonAccount [email protected]

Nardjisse Ben MebarekAccount [email protected]

Ben HopkinsAccount [email protected]

Nina RoeAccounts

Intan Hashim Accounts

Kemi FatobaOperations Assistant

Editorial & Insight

Max ReynerHead of [email protected]

Addie ChinnManaging [email protected]

Ian SenEditor-at-Large

Adam PasulkaNew York Editor

Jonathan FaganInsight Analyst

Sarah PearsonStaff Writer

Contributors

Stephen FortuneScience

Emmajo ReadCulture

Ali RaymondCulture

Nadia SaccardoCulture

Ian HsiehMusic

Karis BowryTrends

Kate Berry Retail

Liz StinsonTech

Sara KabiriMusic

Tarik FontenelleCulture

Production

Frederieke JanssenCreative Director

Shaun WeaverHead of Digital

Teddy FitzhughProduction Manager

Jessica BarlowProduction Manager

Helen Ralli Gallery Manager

Mitan MistryFilm Editor

Chloe RahallDesigner

Max SpencerDesigner

Kasia DolatoStudio Assistant

Mehdi LacosteProduction Assistant

Clotilde TestaProduction Assistant

Jess ColeContributing Photographer

Contact

London18 Hewett Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3NN +44 20 7247 3999

New York72 Allen Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10002 +917 254 239696

Paris35 rue d’Hauteville, Paris, 75010+33 950 391 519

Melbourne285 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, 3182 +613 9912 893

Berlin116 Chausseestrasse,Berlin, 10115+49 30 2478 1443

Hong Kong2410 Fortis Tower, 77-79 Gloucester Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

General: [email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected]: [email protected]

Promotion

Neil LazarooHead of Ad [email protected]

William BuckleyCommunications Director

Kat ChanPromotions Manager

Tom CantwellPromotions Assistant

Eva VanderlanzPromotions Assistant

Natasha MorrisCampaign Manager

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With the Olympics now officially underway, everyone is still talking about medal favourites, empty seats and the opening ceremony. We are too, but we’re also looking at a slightly different topic for this issue: improving performance. And not just sports performance. We’re looking at the bigger picture: how we – as humans, not just athletes – are using devices, data and apps to improve the way we do all manner of things.

This issue explores how apps using game mechanics are pushing people to their limits, and we uncover the increasingly brand-enabled community sports movement. We talk to app developer Rohan Gunatillake about borrowing from Buddhist practices to help shape our digital downtime. And we catch up with Reddit founder

Alexis Ohanian to discuss the untapped potential of the internet and how he’d survive a zombie apocalypse.

And if all this still doesn’t satisfy your hunger for what’s new and next, then why not join the Protein OS (if you haven’t already)? It’ll give you full access to Protein’s inspiring events, informative editorial content and functional apps. Just head to:http//:prote. in/join

William RoweCEO & FounderJuly 2012

Welcome

Contents

The Performance Issue

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Correspondents

Karii Arreola, Mexico City

Karii has written for Vogue, Glamour and Nylon magazine in Mexico, and is the founder of infl uential fashion blog Raras Coincidencias Neoyorquinas.

http://rarascoincidenciasneoyorquinas.blogspot.co.uk

Annalisa Merelli, New Delhi

Italian writer Annalisa lives in New Delhi where she works for Wieden+Kennedy, writes for Motherland magazine, edits The India Tube, and manages art incubator W+K Exp. http://www.lascrittoria.com/

Karcheun Leung, Shanghai

Karchun is the features director of Modern Weekly, runs a design company with his partner and spends much of his time creating mobile apps.

http://modernweekly.com

Our network of global correspondents helps keep us up-to-date with the latest projects, events, stories, trends and, well, just really awesome things from around the world. If you’d like to join the team, get in touch at: http://prote. in/jobs

Marina Bortoluzzi, Sao Paulo

Marina has been a trend analyst since 2007 and is currently working at a Brazilian consultancy helping them understand consumer trends.

http://twitter.com/mahbortoluzzi

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Christophe Victoor, Paris

As well as being a freelance journalist and creative consultant, Christophe is busy as the marketing manager of the Pompon club in Paris.

http://christophevictoor.tumblr.com

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Bilgen Coskun, Istanbul

Based between Berlin and Istanbul, Bilgen works as a free-lance consultant, as well as a regular contributor to various influential art and culture magazines in both countries.

http://bi lgencoskun.com/

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Calendar The Protein Calendar is quarterly round-up of upcoming events, editorial and app releases on Protein OS. For more details please visit: http://prote.in/calendar

SEPTEMBERJULY AUGUST

(Ga) Love thy Badger(Fo) Gamify Yourself

(Sc) Dante Fried Chicken Supper Club

(Sc) Dante Fr ied Chicken Supper Club

(Sc) Dante Fr ied Chicken Supper Club

(Ga) Performance Private View

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance(Ra) Monthly Music Monday

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance(Bb) Performance

(Ga) Psychedelic Psyblings Launch Party

(Fo) How to start a Record Label

(Bb) Travel Brief ing

(In) Travel Report Published

(Ga) Protein Birthday Block Party



(Ga) Fire and Ice(Ac) Taste Academy

(Ga) Greg Eason Solo Show




(Ga) Love thy Badger(Ra) Monthly Music Monday

(Ga) Love thy Badger(Fi) Cine East Fi lm Screening

(Ga) Love thy Badger






(Ga) Lines in the Sand








(Ga) Love thy Badger (Bb) Brands Play Ball


(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance






(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ga) Performance

(Ra) Monthly Music Monday

(Ga) Fire and Ice

(Ga) Fire and Ice

(Ga) Fire and Ice

(Ga) Fire and Ice

(Ga) Fire and Ice

(Ga) Fire and Ice

(Ga) Fire and Ice

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Editor’s PicksThe internet is a pretty hefty beast. The Protein Feed is our daily selection of the very best the web has to offer. Read more at: http://prote. in/feed

Feed

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Nike Craft Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

New York artist Tom Sachs is the latest cultural icon to pair up with Nike.Previously, Tom's artistic work has looked at themes of space exploration, such as Space Program, which involved a re-enactment of a mission to the moon inside the Gagosian gallery in New York. More recently, he launched Space Program: Mars at the Park Avenue Armory, also in New York, where he created parts of a fictional journey to the red planet.

Now Sachs has created a similarly space-age collection for Nike, called NIKEcraft, which compromises of five pieces, many with fully-functional tools, that could be useful for a budding astronaut.

These include The Mars Yard Shoe, a beige and orange vintage-style trainer that Sachs describes as being 'built to support the bodies of the strongest minds in the aerospace industry'. There’s the Airbag bag, made with automotive airbag materials, aluminum interior dividing clips and a ‘paracord’ that doubles as a tourniquet. And there's the Chester trench, featuring a silver lining with the periodic table. While the every day lightweight tote, billed as being perfect for the ‘everyday superhero', is complete with grappling hooks and storage cases.

Designers Matt Mets and Kyle McDonald have created a self-portrait machine that enables anyone to effortlessly draw a picture of themselves.

Originally shown at hacker collective NYC Resistor’s interactive show in Brooklyn, users rest their hand on a small board and hold a pen over the edge. The board then starts to move outlining the contours of the user's face as scanned by an attached computer.

Not only does this quirky invention have the potential to provide endless amounts of fun but it’s an example of how hand-craft and robotic-tech are combining to create new possibilities.

Self-Portrait Machine Submit ted by Emmajo Read


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Dutch design studio Formafantasma has developed a range of domestic objects made from a mixture of leather off-cuts and natural materials for Fendi’s Craftica project, which was presented at this year's Design Miami/Basel show.

Formafantasma, compromised of Design Academy Eindhoven grads Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Ferrasin, created the project to explore the relationship between leather and other hand-worked and natural materials. By juxtaposing discarded leather from Fendi’s cutting room with pig skin, fish skin, cow’s bladder, cork and tree bark, not only is the leather presented in a way that describes its ancestral context, it also helps to

open a conversation about production, resources and the connection between humans and nature Similar to Fendi’s Design Performances that have been taking place since 2009, Fendi craftsmen and the two designers, will be putting on live demonstrations of the production process behind the collection and creating more pieces to add to the series.

Craftica is an example of the post-luxury climate where traditional notions of ostentation and showmanship are being eschewed in favour of products that engender experience and emotion. Furthermore, it demonstrates how designers are challenging the idea of luxury with eco-friendly materials.

Craftica Submit ted by Emmajo Read

When the difference between winning and losing a race is a matter of milliseconds, it doesn’t take much to get an edge. Luc Fusaro of the Royal College of Arts sees a significant advantage in fully-customised footwear. 'Scientific investigations have shown that tuning the mechanical properties of a sprint shoe to the physical abilities of an athlete can improve performance by up to 3.5%, when an improvement of 0.7% can already make a significant difference in a sprinter’s chance of winning a particular race.'

So Fusaro has designed a pair of custom cleats using an additive manufacturing technique called Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). 'Following 3D scanning of the athlete’s feet, a one shot full sprint shoe is produced, complete with traction elements and shoelace features,' says Fusaro.

As 3D printing becomes more prevalent, more versatile and cheaper, we may see a whole range of truly personalised sporting equipment.

Designed to Win Submit ted by Adam Pasulka

Future Self at MADE Submit ted by Emmajo Read

Interaction designers and art collective rAndom International have collaborated with choreographer Wayne Macgregor and modern classical composer Max Richter to create a light installation that maps and replicates human movement.

The Future Self project is a study in human motion that incorporates dance, light and music. During a live performance at MADE, a creative space and gallery in Berlin, two dancers moved around the stunning installation, as choregraphed by Wayne MacGregor to a Max Richter score, whilst being recorded by 3D cameras. These images were fed through a computer and replayed onto a brass screen of LED lights.

Conceptualised as an exploration of ‘self, present and future ‘, the results are captivating, truly beautiful and made all the more impactful by virtue of the heavyweight, contemporary artists involved.

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If stock markets are anything, they’re volatile. Fortunes are made and lost daily on what is arguably a game of high-brow roulette. And if that age-old wisdom of buy low, sell high doesn’t even guarantee success, how are we making these financial decisions?

Designer Sing Tat Chung is asking investors to participate in an experiment that employs a rather unorthodox strategy. The Superstitious Fund Project is a live experiment in which an algorithm trades based on superstitious beliefs. The autonomous algorithm makes decisions

based on lunar cycles and numerology, and also develops its own form of superstitious logic, creating lucky and unlucky values that influence its behavior. The fund was built with help and advice from financial professionals, fortune tellers, programmers and lawyers.

Around 144 people from around the world have already invested a total of £4828.88 in the fund, which will return the resulting balance to its investors in a year’s time. With all financial matters looking grim at the moment, we’re keeping our fingers firmly crossed.

A Superstitious Fund Submit ted by Adam Pasulka

With the Olympics hitting London, the city has become a hive of cultural events, new ventures and exciting regeneration projects. One of our favourites about is the Barking Bathhouse, a new spa and bar created by design studio Something & Son, due to run from 13th July until 9th September.

As part of the Create festival and the London Cultural Olympiad, the 6,000 square foot space will use innovative health, beauty and design practices to bring a little relaxation to the city this summer. The project revives the spirit of Barking’s former Bathhouse, which closed in 1986, and encompasses features from 20th century working-mens’ bathhouses as well as ultra-modern spas. While the space offers traditional spa services such as massages and pedicures, what's different is the setting where they take place. The architecture of the space features prefabricated pods inspired by Barking’s industrial heritage, such as the black-stained timber farm buildings of Essex and the wooden beach huts of Kent.

The Bathhouse also pampers with sustainability in mind: the relaxation pods have been designed to be assembled on site, so that when the space closes, they can be recycled for use in the local community. The team are also working closely with local beauticians and gardeners to develop natural treatments that use produce from local allotments.

The space will also run an events programme to cultivate happiness and wellbeing, ranging from philosophical talks to chocolate-making workshops, plus laughter yoga, clowning workshops and comedy nights.

Barking Bathhouse Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

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With the new Olympic Park spotlighting Stratford, a new project, called Fantastic Factology, has launched to add a little sparkle to the area through the placement of crowd-sourced facts.

The project was created through a collaboration between The Klassnick Corporation, Ritta Ikonan and We Made That, where facts were collected from the local community via postal and digital submissions, as well as event workshops. At the Fact-Fest at Stratford Old Town Hall, for example, local schoolchildren and members of the community created interesting facts through hands-on activities on the themes of local industrial history, science and biodiversity. The best ones have now been selected and placed on plaques situated across a series of benches around the Park. These nuggets of knowledge range from science ('The person you love is approximately 65% water') to local history ('The Yardley’s soap factory near Carpenters Road, now the Olympic Park, closed in the 1960s. Thirty years later when it rained you could still smell the soap').

Fantastic Factology is just one venture which falls under the umbrella of The Fantasticology project, a series of interventions and community engagement events commissioned for the Olympics. Others include the ‘Fantastic-Archaeology’, a series of wildflower meadows that act as a floral celebration of the industrial heritage of the site. It’s a great project which engages the local community and aims to excite, bewilder, inform and inspire.

Fantastic Factology Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

InstaCRT is a new iPhone project, inspired by Hipstamatic and Instagram apps, that explores how a mobile phone’s camera could use a real analogue-style filter.

The project, created by designers Martin Ström, Ruben Broman and Erik Wåhlström, is comprised of an iPhone app, a Canon 7D camera, an old school computer monitor and a MacBook Pro.

When a person takes a picture using the iPhone app, the image is automatically uploaded to a central server. The Macbook then uses a computer script to fetch the images from the server, which are then downloaded and displayed on the monitor. The Canon 7D automatically takes a photo of this displayed image, then sends it to the person’s phone and the project's Tumblr site.

With Instagram having soared in popularity over the past few months, and the appetite for lo-fi photography still healthy, it’s good to see a project that explores the idea in a real world setting.

InstaCRT Submit ted by Al i Raymond

Plant-In City is an exciting large scale plant-based art installation by a series of New York-based architects, designers and developers, where plants populate stackable structures inside a gallery space in Manhattan.

Inspired by the shape of the city and in particular the complex infrastructure that supports it, the ingenious minds behind the project Huy Bui, Carlos Gomez and Jon Schramm are hoping to recreate nature in a box. Visitors to the space enter different immersive environments and interact with the plants by using their smartphones. This includes being able to trigger sounds and lights, water the plants themselves and discover information on each species of plant.

Their vision is to establish a new design practice that supports our relationship with plants through flexible, open-source architecture, media, and technology solutions. Or, as they put it, ‘creating a space where a community who loves architecture, technology and plants can meet,' and a place where ‘interacting with plants will improve our lives.'

The creators are currently holding a fundraiser on Kickstarter to produce the large-scale installation, with a location still be confirmed.

Plant-In City Submit ted by Al i Raymond

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Origami Pills Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

Singapore-based design student Chan Min Yun has re-conceptualised the way we take medicine with an origami pill design that ‘blooms’ in water. The innovative idea aims add a touch of luxury to a typically dreaded process.

For the project, poetically titled ‘Luxury is feeling blessed in Adversity’, the designer took three common medicines (amoxcillin, acetaminophen and paracetamol), and repackaged them so that each powder was enclosed within an origami flower. When the pill is dropped into water, the flower opens, releasing the medicine into the liquid which can then be drunk. 'The experience of the watching process serves as a form of emotional relief in addition to physical relief from the medication,' says Chan.

The project is a great example of a simple design serving a practical function while challenging the traditional associations of sickness and medicine.

MIT Media Lab’s Eric Rosenbaum and Jay Silver have created an invention kit which turns anything in the world into a keyboard interface. The kit, ‘Makey Makey’, could, for instance, turn a bunch of bananas into a piano, or a handful of buckets of water into the controls for Dance Dance Revolution. It’s the perfect plaything for beginners and experts interested in art, engineering and everything in-between.

It’s also really simple to use: you just connect a circuit board to your computer via the USB port and assign the 18 mouse and keyboard inputs to any conductive object which you can attach by crocodile clips. For example, you could load up PacMan on the internet and configure it so that the control keys are four pencil drawn icons on a piece of paper. Or load up a music programme, attach it to your stairs and use each step as a different key of an instrument.

Inspired by the maker movement, Rosenbaum explains, 'we believe that everyone is creative, inventive, and imaginative. We believe that the whole world is a construction kit, if we choose to see it that way.'

Makey, Makey Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

Adding game mechanics to people’s perspiration is one of those ideas that’s so weird that it just might work. Dublin based tech company Shimmer are betting on it with their new app Sensum, which quantifies your sweat to make film watching all the more insightful.

It works using a sensor (called a Galvanic Skin Response sensor) that measures sweat levels, and is worn by users while they’re watching a film. Once the film is over, all that sweaty data is sent to the Sensum phone app via bluetooth, and is then transferred to the Sensum website for correlation. Once this is complete, the app can then chart your personal sweat-o-meter, and overlays the video you’ve just watched with this perspiration data. The result is a chart that tells you which bits of the film freaked you out the most.

Gamified Sweat Submit ted by Stephen Fortune

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Future typographers take note: if you're not into DNA origami now then you're behind the curve. It turns out DNA isn't just limited to being the building blocks of life. The proteins which make up DNA can also be used with nantechnology to create a whole typeface.

Scientists at The Wyss Institute at Harvard University in the US have done just this, having created a Chinese and English alphabet made of DNA with each character being around 100 nanometers (billionths of a meter) in size. And being true to the written word in 2012, they even created a series of DNA emoticons. :P

DNA Origami Submit ted by Stephen Fortune

Artist Gavin Turk and designer Hussein Chalayan have released a collaborative record called the 4 Minute Mile as part of Britain Creates 2012: Fashion & Art Collusion, a project by the British Fashion Council, Bazaar Fashion Arts Foundation and the Mayor of London which celebrate the relationship between fashion designers and visual artists. Previous collaborations include Giles Deacon and Jeremy Deller who created a Lycra running suit, and Matthew Williamson and Mat Colishaw’s photographic prints.

For 4 Minute Mile, the duo used transcripts of an interview Chalayan conducted with Turk for inspiration. Some of the transcript took shape as lyrics in a song, from which the track emerged in reference to the speed record (of four minutes) that was famously broken by Roger Bannister in 1954. The track begins with the pounding of running feet and the sound of heavy breathing which maintain a melodic tempo throughout.

Released on London’s independent record label The Vinyl Factory, the record is exclusive to 100 signed copies and will also be exhibited to the public as part of Britain Creates festival at the V&A from the 6th-29th July.

4 Minute Mile Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

French record label Kitsuné has launched a series of listening stations across New York to promote its new compilation.

The small boxes, inspired by traditional listening stations in music stores, have been attached to lamp posts across the city. When a passerby comes across one, they can plug their own headphones into it and then listen to some of the label’s latest releases. There’s also a map that lets people find the locations of the devices beforehand.

The project is an inventive way to enable people to discover and consume media within the city.

Sound Graffiti Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

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Google Visual Dictionary Submit ted by Al i Raymond

London artists and designers Ben West and Felix Heyes have joined forces to make a monumental visual dictionary using images from Google search.

The project, simply called Google, replaces the 21,000 words found in your everyday dictionary with whichever image showed up first for each word in Google’s image search.

The resulting JPGs, GIFs and PNG files were then downloaded, laid out and outputted as a PDF by a clever computer a script. This PDF was then printed into a 1240-page hardbound book, complete with a marbled paper hardcover – and serves as a tangible collection for this digital information.

London-based studio Graphic&Design& has recently brought 70 designers together to create ‘Page 1: Great Expectations’, an unusual typographic experiment that explores the relationship between graphic design, typography and literature.

Each designer was told to design and lay out the first page of Dickens’ classic Great Expectations. This encouraged contributors to explore, challenge and

celebrate the conventions of typography, and explores the power it has in influencing and affecting the way we interpret text. The book contains all 70 of these ‘page ones’ along with a short rationale from each designer that explains their decision making process.

It’s a fascinating and insightful exploration into all things graphic design and a visual treat for Dickens aficionados and novices alike.

Page 1. Great Expectations Submit ted by Sarah Pearson

When it comes to robotic exoskeletons, we are probably most familiar with them when thinking about the hulking beasts seen in Alien or other sci-fi blockbusters.

But thanks to new advances in technology, we may actually see consumer exoskeletons before 2014. A new robotic suit, developed by Hiroshi Kobayashi of the Tokyo University of Science in Japan, is capable of letting its users lift 40kg of rice as though it were as light as a cotton sack.

It works using pneumatics (compressed air) as part of a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) system.Serious consideration has been given to intuitive use too: the suit is primarily operated by bodily acceleration and voice commands. This is essential given that the target market is Japan’s rising elderly population (over 30% of the population will be over 65 by 2025).

The exoskeleton will be available to rent from ¥15,000 (£115) per month.

Robotic Muscle Suit Submit ted by Stephen Fortune

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Barber/Osgerby Torch

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, explain the inspiration behind their winning design for this year’s London Olympics torch.

Source: MocoLoco

Reader

Best of the Network

Submitted by Prote in

Adidas x Stella McCartney

Adidas and Stella McCartney have opened a boutique store right next to the Stella McCartney flagship in London’s leafy Kensington.

Source: Superfuture

The Protein Reader is an online app that collects and curates stories from our global Ad Network of independent publishers. It covers everything from fashion and art to music and travel. Here are some of our favourite sports-related posts.

http://prote. in/reader

Poster Wimbledon

Celebrating this year’s Wimbledon, students from Kingston University were invited to submit their unique visions for an official poster design.

Source: It ’s Nice That

ONLY x Harlem

A new video from New York clothing brand ONLY sees their skate team hook up with Belief Skateshop and head to Harlem for the day.

Source: HUH

Game On World

To promote its new Fuelband, Nike has created a new commercial spot which sees the entire world turned into one huge platform game.

Source: HUH

Unsuitable Sportswear

With the Olympics upon us, it’s unsurprising that there’s been a parallel explosion in sportswear across fashion world. Not all is suitable however.

Source: Who’s Jack

London 1948

Documentary photographer Katherine Green has tracked down and photographed athletes who took part in the previous London Olympics in 1948.

Source: It ’s NIce That

Skateable Art

Bringing the outdoors indoors, artist Rich Holland has created incredible skateable sculptures at the Kiasma Museum of Modern Art in Finland.

Source: HUH

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Opening Ceremony x Adidas

Opening Ceremony teams up with Adidas Originals for a capsule collection made for this summer's Olympic Games.

Source: Fashion Gone Rogue

Boombox Architecture

Magma Architecture of London and Berlin has developeda series boombox-like, PVC tents to house the shooting events at the Olympics.

Source: Dezeen

Sports Plates

With Boguslaw Sliwinski’s simple drawings of skydivers, soccer players, divers and weightlifters, plated food is suddenly an object of play.

Source: Moco Loco

Pulse Machine

This electromechanical sculpture counts down the heartbeats of an average human life (78 years), with a bass drum beating for every single heartbeat.

Source: Today and Tomorrow

A.P.C x Nike

Nike is the latest brand to get the A.P.C. collaboration treatment with a limited edition two-piece sneaker range for it’s fall/winter 2012 collection.

Source: HUH

Sportcentrum Nieuw Zuilen

Bright yellow spectator stands line the edge of this timber-framed sports hall in Utrecht by Dutch firm Koppert + Koenis Architects.

Source: Dezeen

Arrow Zone

This sleek bicycle attachment projects a distinctive arrow onto the road to help you to stand out to out to motorists.

Source: Yanko Design

Louis Vuitton Poster Show

The luxury fashion brand has collaborated with high-profile British artists for an Olympic-inspired poster show at its Bond Street flagship store.

Source: Hint

Pentagram Fifth Wall

Pentagram’s Abbott Miller brings modern dance to life with his iPad app that lets the viewer interact with the performance by flipping the tablet.

Source: It ’s Nice That


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Fun and fitness are good and well, but the core of sport is quantifiable feats of athletic prowess. From Epinician poems praising Ancient Olympic victors to The Guinness Book of Records, simply competing is not enough; objective greatness must be achieved.

That may not be a problem for professional athletes, but what about those of us who will never, say, be in the lane next to Michael Phelps? Amateurs can set goals and feel a sense of accomplishment, but it’s just not the same as feeling the weight of 14 gold medals around your neck. Thankfully, new technology and age-old self-monitoring techniques are coming together to help us intramuralists get more from our sport.

Coined by Wired magazine’s Gary Wolf in 2007, Quantified Self is 'a collaboration of users and tool makers who share an interest in self knowledge through self-tracking' Of course self-tracking is not a new pursuit. Men and women of science have been keeping records on diet, sleep, athletic feats and other human activities (see: Alfred Kinsey) for centuries. But the QS movement has swelled in popularity over the last five years, now with active Meetup groups in more than 60 cities around

the world. This is due in part to increasingly smarter and smaller technology. A slew of new gadgets have made self-discovery and self-improvement much easier, and even more fun. Things like time spent working, time spent sleeping and changes in emotional state are now all effortlessly measurable to a high degree of accuracy. While its focus is broader than sport, the QS movement has also made it easier for the weekend warrior to set challenges, track progress and celebrate achievements. So if you really want to live like an Olympian, now all you need is a few relatively inexpensive gadgets…and seriously lowered expectations.

A great example of a QS-inspired device is Hind Hobeika’s Butterfleye. Hobeika, who describes herself as a 'self-tracking engineer', developed the Butterfleye so swimmers could visually monitor their heart rate while in the pool. 'The swimmer places Butterfleye on their goggle’s strap. They can set the target heart rate using the buttons. Butterfleye’s sensor measures the heart rate from the temporal artery, and depending on the difference between the measured and the target heart rate, a color is reflected indirectly into the lens: green if on target, red if they should slow down and yellow if they should go faster.'

Some tools that fall under the QS umbrella are so simple you can use them in your sleep. Maciek Drejak Lab’s Sleep Cycle app, for example, employs your

Gamified Performance Submitted by Adam Pasulka

Briefing

“Some tools that fall under the QS umbrella are so simple you can use them in your sleep.”

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smartphone’s accelerometer to monitor subtle mattress movements. The app then maps your sleep cycle — a process that used to require an overnight lab visit — and wakes you during the lightest stage of sleep.

But sleep is for the weak. We’re talking about smash-mouth competition here! QS developers understand the power of play, and are in turn Gamifying many of their applications. Gamification incentivises users to complete tasks (e.g. jog, meet a sales quota, stay positive) by offering prizes— tangible or otherwise— for accomplishing goals. Gamification also means QS can dovetail with the biggest e-word of the last decade: Social. Yes, self-quantifiers are known for collaboration, but they also compete amongst themselves. The best-known QS gadget is probably the Nike+ FuelBand, which promises to tell 'you more about yourself than you ever knew before' by tracking the progress of your daily exercise goal on a digitised bracelet (the band retails for $149, the accompanying app is free). Stats can then be shared through social media, allowing you to work with or against your friends to achieve a goal. Similarly, Fitocracy is a free online game and social network dedicated to making 'fitness a more fun, more addictive experience' by way of friendly competition.

Head-to-head exhibition is enough potential glory for some, but others will need more motivation. How about outrunning a brains-hungry horde of the undead? Six to Start has taken gamification a step further with Zombie’s, Run! The jogging app features an interactive storyline penned by award-winning writer Naomi Alderman. In Six to Start’s own words, Zombie’s, Run! is 'an ultra-immersive running game and audio adventure. We deliver the story straight to your headphones through orders and voice recordings and when you get back home, you use the supplies you’ve collected while running to build and grow your base.'

Zombies, Run! has proved popular, with more than 100,000 downloads. 'As far as I’m aware, Zombies, Run! is the only app that makes the actual act of

running more fun,' says Adrian Hon, CEO of Six to Start. 'In other words, it doesn’t just give you a shiny badge and 50 points after doing a 5k. You become the hero in a fantastically rich and immersive story that makes it vitally important that you keep running.' How many post-apocalyptic landscapes has Michael Phelps traversed?

If Zombies, Run! sounds too intense, Teemo is Gamified Lite. Created by Ammunition Group and Bonnier R&D, the app combines short and sweet exercises with travel adventure narratives. It has a similar social element to the Nike+ FuelBand and Fitocracy, and also includes instructional videos for the more than 100 two-minute exercises. 'We’re aiming for people who need to move more, but who think they don’t have time to get to the gym,' says Megan Miller, Bonnier R&D’s Program Director. 'Busy professionals, business travelers, busy parents, etc. Teemo is designed to be done with just a few square feet of space and no extra equipment.'

If the QS movement continues to grow (and it’s showing no signs of slowing down), there’s no doubt we’ll see a greater variety of tools that help athletes of all levels get motivated and track their progress.

http://prote. in/brief ing

“While its focus is broader than sport, the QS movement has also made it easier for the weekend warrior to set challenges, track progress and celebrate achievements.”

“Gamification incentivises users to complete tasks by offering prizes — tangible or otherwise — for accomplishing goals.”

“While its focus is broader than Butterfleye's sensor measure the heart rate from the temporal artery, and a colour is reflected into the lens: green if the swimmer is on target, red to slow down and yellow to go faster.”


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PerformanceGallery

Submitted by Protein

The latest print show at our 18 Hewett Street gallery brings together some of London's most exciting illustrators and designers to explore what the Olympics, and the concept of 'Performance' means to them.

Commissioned by Protein and curated by Tom Pearson and Angus McCrum, the only limitation given to the designers is that the colour palette must be that of the iconic olympic ring logo.The show runs from the 2nd until the 19th August.

http://prote. in/gal lery

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Angus McCrum

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Max Parsons and Jack Featherstone

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Tom Pearson

Welcome / Calendar / Feed / Reader / Br ie f ing / Gal lery / Survey / Prof i le / Guide / Store / Data

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Twelfth ManGallery


With the Olympics in town, it seems there is no better time than now to celebrate London's urban sportsmen in all their glory. Taking up the challenge are photographers Dylan Collard and Matt Cottis, whose project 'Twelfth Man' seeks to explore the various ways in which communities are engaging with sport.

The duo have documented, amongst others, local cricket team Kennington CC in their whites, early morning swimmers in the Serpentine (including Serpentine Alan), Kennington football club and the Poplar Rowing crew. The urban backdrop to the photos is a reminder of the multitude of sporting rituals that exist amongst the city's hustle and bustle, continuing due to the passion of the individuals involved. As they explain, 'the sport, the architecture and the neighbourhood may change, but the common thread binding these photographs together are the people. Wherever the place, whatever the weather and whatever the sport, without them the game ceases to exist.'

http://sportcitylondon.co.uk

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Info-trackers, quant-selfers or all-round personal data bods – whatever you call them, more of these people are using activity-measuring devices and apps to track and improve a multitude of aspects of their lives. Calorie counting suddenly seems pretty old school.

With the Olympics now underway, we thought we'd put some focus on personal performance. We invited three esteemed speakers to help us look into how devices, apps and data can transform – and improve – the way we live and perform.

Martin Blinder's (soon-to-be-launched) personal analytics platform Tictrac aims to be the hub for all the data you generate – from running and calorie trackers, to social media or sleep monitors. Once complied you will be able to make correlations and uncover patterns: Does your calorie intake spike when your inbox does? Or do you run further when it's raining?

Our second speaker, Michael Forrest looks to help people better understand a wider issue – that of Happiness. His app 'Happiness' acts as a digital journal for mood – at random points in the day asking how you're feeling, then asking for a happiness rating and a reason. Through consistent usage, the aim is to identify patterns and take better control over your emotions.

Our third speaker, Adrian Hon is the Co-founder of Six to Start, and part of the team who created mobile app 'Zombies, Run!' He talked about how this narrative-

based running app is motivating people through simulated zombie chases, and the power of story in conquering inertia.

After the presentation there was a panel discussion with a series of thought-provoking questions from the audience. We have included a selection here, but visit the website to hear the whole discussion.

Audience: Do any of you have ambitions to connect to the healthcare system in any shape, form or fashion? (This is probably less relevant for Zombies! Run…)

Adrain Hon: Well, you joke about it, but I just got an email from the NHS that we’ve provisionally won a grant to do a health-based game off the back of Zombies, Run! Obviously it’s not going to be specifically about zombies because that wouldn't be … appropriate. Zombies, Run! doesn't make any claims to improve people's health. It's just a way of making running more interesting. But we do think that we can do something that would help people lose weight and make them feel healthier.

Martín Blinder: We're currently in conversation with a few different groups. Imagine teachers: they could look at students’ grades and changes in behaviour, and maybe they’re based on changes in cafeteria food, weather, lunar calendar… And then the school would be able to compare that class by class, district by district or school by school.

Gamify YourselfSubmitted by Stephen Fortune

Forum

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Healthcare, is a tough one. But there are, increasingly, elements of well-being, that are being aligned with healthcare – everything from mental health onwards.

Protein: If you look at the Google-funded 23andMe, it's very much a genetic-based social network (if that term even fits). It’s a few steps up from Tictrac, where you buy the gear, buy the swab, analyze the DNA, and put it up online to be anonymously compared to other people.

MB: Our goal is to be able to give people a platform to create the lifestyles that make them happy. To empower people through their own data.

Audience: There's a lot of self-quantification out there, but one of the biggest challenges is the data collection in the first place. How do you see that developing from your side?

MB: Well I'm never going to track what I eat everyday. But if I go to the gym, my personal trainer will tell me to keep a two week training diary. That’s a ‘project’, right? And from that project, my trainer will be able to give me the insight to take the next step in my training…

We see life tracking as a continuous thing. At every stage in our lives we have a series of these projects. So we want to bring together the people that create the data with the people that interpret the data, because if you know that an individual is going to give you insight through a piece of your data then you share that, and that is going to push you to be better. Across anything.

Audience: But how can you balance that data collection with the real reason for doing those lifestyle activities in the first place?

Protein: Data for data’s sake…

MB: The more you do it the more it becomes real life, and not just you trying to aggregate data.

AH: A lot of people ask us why we don’t have achievements or levels where users can score points. The answer is because then you’re talking about ‘gamifying the game’. We’re game designers and we know how all the stuff works, all these variables of reinforcement, but we very deliberately didn't put any achievements in there. In Zombies, Run! there are no points. There are levels, but you don't get an achievement for running 20kms. We don't care, because you shouldn't care. We just want you to go out there and run.

Protein: The loose reason for this Forum’s theme is the Olympics. Obviously, there, it's the professional athletes' data that is important. But if we look four years from now at the next Olympics in Rio, how important is data going to be then?

MB: In four years time, I think it really will be much more about mass user adoption. I see what we're doing as bringing the professional level of sport stats to the masses. We’re speaking with several sporting groups to implement things like golf, tennis, baseball and football to enable more for junior leagues, for amateurs and for kids; to enable the kind of cool stats component we see in newspapers but for the masses.

Audience: Zombies, Run! has much more of a story to it which engages the narrative parts of the brain, while the other two apps engage those quite different areas of your brain which like stats. Is there a risk that self-tracking might not be so good for our health? That it might, say, encourage obsessive compulsive behaviours?

Michael Forrest: The mechanism of what my app does is actually to interrupt that narrative part of your brain and switch over into the analytical part. That's where the therapeutic value is. It switches you out of storing everything as ‘narrative memories’ that you've romanticized and pulls you into an analytical mindset.

MB: Clearly we’re very much in the initial stages, but for us it's not just stats, it's content, it's things that are contextual to you. More than just numbers, graphs and charts, Tictrac is about stuff that entertains in a positive way and therefore helps you perform better.

Audience: Today, there's this obsession with information and with data. The big question is: why?

MF: I think obsessively self-tracking is sort of like technology-driven software. It’s like the way Microsoft creates something because they've invented this technology and then they try to come up with some contrived use for it. With my project, what I want to highlight is that tracking is the solution. So I’m coming at it from the solution, not from the problem.

MB: For me, data is just the back end, Tictrac is the insight. If you look at life as insight then there is a huge case for it. You’re already creating all this information, and by pulling it over the course of one month you can see that you do actually spend x amount of money on eating or whatever. I can give you a million reasons why these insights are important, and why it’s important to generate insights from your data. What we’re doing is not asking people to track data, but giving them the tools to learn from themselves.

MF: Let’s face it, most people in this room are desperate for a little bit more self awareness, and anything that can help with that is a good thing.

AH: I’m in two minds about this. I have a friend who is a doctor, and as we walked past a Sainsbury’s with self check-out tills I was saying to him that in the future, with robotic CT scans, MRI scans, etc., he’ll be out of a job. And he said: ‘The problem. Adrian, is that people only get CT scans and full body scans to find out if something’s wrong with them. But everyone has something wrong with them, be it wonky spines or benign tumours. The problem is that there’s nothing you can do about a lot of it.’ So ignorance is bliss. But on the one hand, I think he’s right. On the other hand I think, isn’t it good to know this stuff and try and fix it? Some of it you can’t. But if you can fix it, great.

http://prote. in/forum

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The Future of Sport

Survey


This year’s Olympics are a showcase of both national pride and sweaty competition. But just where is sport at right now – and, more importantly, where is it going? We ask the innovators, technologists and designers that are creating this sporting future. If you would like to participate in future Protein Surveys, please visit:

http://prote. in/survey

Gregory Sporton

MotivePro Suit, UK

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I’m an ex-dancer who works with technology, so I love looking at how technology can enhance peoples’ skills and their capacity to do stuff, especially in body-based applications. I also recently designed the MotivePro suit for gymnasts.

What’s that?

It’s a modular network of sensors attached to the body in a wearable web. It works in real time and gives the user feedback in different forms (aural, visual and vibro-tactile) but it is pretty flexible and can output in lots of different formats. It’s just data, after all.

How does it work?

The principle is quite simple: we collect the data from the body and the user. Motor skill learning requires the co-ordination of lots of modes of experience, but we know that touch-based feedback, whilst very effective, is rarely used in improving or altering movement patterns. The vibrations in particular give clues about where you are in space, when you move inside or outside your desired range of

movement.

How important is the immediate real-time feedback in the suit?

Kinesthetic feedback is really important in improving people’s understanding. Looking at an animation or a video after the event is not a very effective way of changing your technique, and tends to reinforce bad habits by externalising the movement, rather than sensing change you have to make more deeply in the body.

Could this be the future of sports training?

The things we think are subtle today will look obvious to people in the future, just as we now take good nutrition or periodisation training for granted. Improving your perception of your movement, and allowing that to change what you are doing takes some thinking about, but there will be plenty of athletes doing it eventually.

http://motivepro.org

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Charlie Dark

Run Dem Crew, UK


My name is Charlie Dark and I’m a poet, writer, DJ and founder of the running group, Run Dem Crew (RDC).

What makes RDC different from other running crews?

Running clubs are traditionally concerned with times and performance, whereas Run Dem Crew is concerned with community and the well being of the individual. In fact running is the least important part of what we do. We are a family of creatives who meet to explore the streets of London whilst providing opportunities for the younger generation through mentoring, work experience and the achievement of dreams.

How did Nike get involved?

I’ve had a relationship with the brand for many years, so when the idea for RDC came about they were my first port of call.

Do you think groups like RDC are important for communities?

A support network is important for any

community, particularly in a city such as London where day to day life can be lonely and hard. RDC is doing its small part to make life a little easier for those that we come into contact with.

What are the benefits of running in a group over training alone?

Motivation!

Do you use technology on your runs?

Yes. If it wasn’t for Nike+ I would have never begun running in a serious way, and there would be no crew.

What are the benefits of using technology like Nike+?

The training partner in your pocket is as important as the Johnny Bravo shouting at you in the gym.

http://rundemcrew.com

Bud Schmelling

No Mas, USA


I work for No Mas and help run the Victory Journal, a quarterly sports and culture magazine.

What’s No Mas?

No Mas started out as a small apparel company founded by Chris Isenberg. He was interested in the intellectual side of sport, as well as its history. He started reproducing vintage sports shirts, from Ali to Baghdad Oilers, and it grew from there. Together, we started a blog on the side, launched a creative agency called Doubleday & Cartwright, and then, produced the Victory Journal.

Who is the typical Victory Journal reader?

It’s people who grew up watching Wide World of Sports [a cult US TV series], who are into Evel Knievel and old wrestling, who appreciate Doc Ellis and Bill Spaceman Lee (a professional baseball players in the ‘70s). So it’s not the guy who goes to a bar on a Sunday to root for his favorite football team.

When do you think the Golden Age of sport was?

The ’70s might’ve been the golden age, before things became so commercialised and reprocessed purely to make money and draw fans. I think there was a bit more of an innocence back then.

Has technology changed sport for better or worse?

I guess there has always been some forms of technology used for both good and pernicious ends. Nowadays it can have a negative effect in the way that sports are officiated, like with instant replays. Technology has gotten way, way too involved, to the point where the game is being slowed down and the human aspect is being replaced by machines. But that human element is one of the things that makes the game special.

What’s next for the Victory Journal?

We’re working on the next issue which should be coming out soon, dedicated to Mohammad Ali’s 70th birthday. And we’ve just been nominated for ‘best self-published magazine in the world’ by the SPD, which is really starting to open some doors!

http://victoryjournal.com

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Pekka Tolvanen

Myontec, Finland

Tell us a bit about what you do.

I’m CEO of Myontec, a company producing wearable sensory technology that measures muscle performance during various daily life activities. I’m one of the original inventors and founders of the company. Tell us about your shorts.

Myontec Pro shorts consist of conductive textile sensors embedded into fabrics and a small electronics device that measures muscle contractions in rest and in motion. The data can be wirelessly transmitted to a mobile phone or computer to show feedback to the user. Why is it a good idea to embed this technology into the shorts?

External monitoring devices show the mechanical output of physical effort like speed of running, jumping height or force produced. Wearable muscle sensors measure the level of muscular effort to produce that output. This is an important distinction as a skilled runner uses much less muscle work than a beginner even though both are running at the same speed.

How might this improve an athlete’s performance?

The Myontec Pro shorts advise you to optimise your muscle loading and technical skills to gain better performance. In addition, you can control your fatigue level, reduce discomfort caused by excessive overloading and even prevent muscular injuries. Could we see the shorts in shops anytime soon?

Currently our products are sold only to sports professionals and physiotherapists, but we do have ongoing projects to develop consumer level solutions. We hope these products will be launched within 1-2 years.

Where do you see this technology going in the future?

In sports applications there is a clear need to integrate other data into the clothing like heart rate, skin temperature and ranges of motion. But more broadly I can see this type of technology moving beyond sports and into other fields.

http://myontec.com

Hind Hobieka

Butterfleye, Lebanon


I’m a 23 year old Mechanical Engineering graduate who is now a self-confessed self-tracking engineer. I’ve recently developed a piece of technology for swimmers called Butterfleye.

Tell us more...

Butterfleye is the first (patent pending) modular biometric instrument that allows swimmers to visually monitor their heart rate in real time while training.

How does it work?

A swimmer places the Butterfleye device on the strap of their swimming goggles. They can then use it to set a target heart rate. Butterfleye’s sensor measures the heart rate from the temporal artery, and depending on the difference between the measured and the target heart rate, a color is reflected indirectly into the lens: green if on target, red if they should slow down and yellow if they should go faster.

What inspired you to design it?

I’m a swimmer myself, and a big self tracker. When I was on my university

swimming team, I was frustrated by the ineffective method we used to calculate our heart rate, which is the most important parameter of the workout. We used to count our pulse manually for 60 seconds after each race, and it was pretty useless since you need the heart rate in real-time in order to optimise aworkout.

Do you think self-tracking could be an important breakthrough for swimming?

The swimming sector today is very much behind when it comes to self-tracking technologies. Swimming is a very solitary sport: for the most part, swimmers have their ‘head in the water’ with no communication to the outside world. This makes it very hard for them to get feedback on their performance while training. So I believe that self-tracking devices are very much needed in swimming, maybe even more so than in other sports.

http://butterf leyeproject.com/

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Sky Christopherson

Optimized Athlete, USA

Tell us about yourself. I’m a retired Olympic athlete, internet entrepreneur, and founder of Optimized Athlete. I took part in a one year self-tracking experiment a few years ago to see how it affected my health and fitness.

Tell us about this experiment...

I was on the US Cycling Team for seven years and retired following the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The sedentary work and stress had a big effect on my body, and I rapidly declined in health. I was inspired by a TED talk called ‘The Future of Wireless Medicine’ and decided to start a one year self-tracking experiment. I started monitoring my sleep, along with a handful of other biometrics never before available, to help benchmark my recovery as I regained health and fitness. Did the self-tracking work? The initial goal to regain health was met and all the symptoms literally reversed. I had been doing some cycling training again as well, and a big surprise was that I was beating times I was doing in my 20s. But the biggest surprise was breaking the World Record in the 200m.

Wow. So what difference did the self-tracking make? I was able to train harder on days when I’d had a particularly great sleep session. Previously, during Olympics training in my early 20s, we used to have to go to an expensive sleep clinic to get a report that may or may not be usefulin influencing behaviour. Now you can get daily data that influences behavior and makes real changes in performance over time. Tell us about Optimized Athlete? It’s an independent consulting company leveraging biotech and wireless technology to benefit athletic performance. We utilise mathematics to uncover correlations in everything from genes to sleep patterns and are currently working with Team USA for London 2012. Do you foresee self-tracking becoming a standard practice in sport in the future? Yes. Athletes are already tracking many aspects of their training and recovery. The hope is that these insights can be realised by everyone to make better choices on a daily basis.

http://skychristopherson.com

Richard Wiseman

Dream:ON, UK

Tell us a bit about what you do.

I am a psychologist with an interest in the more unusual areas of the mind and behaviour. I have also recently developed the Dream:On app which is a giant experiment to monitor and potentially influence people’s dreams.

How does it work?

Before you go to bed you decide what time you want to wake-up, and select a soundscape such as ‘walking in the woods’. You then place the phone on your bed and it monitors your movement. When you dream you are very still, and the phone senses this and gently plays in the soundscape. In theory, this will then influence your dream. In the morning everyone is asked to send in a brief description of their dream to our database. We’ve already collected over 10 million dreams!

What is the importance of monitoring dreams?

We still don’t know very much about dreams. We know that most people dream about five times a night and that the dreams last between 10 and 40 minutes. However, this is the first

large-scale collection of dream content and it will be fascinating, for example, to compare the dreams of men and women.

Can dreams affect our everyday performance?

The dream that you have directly before you wake-up influences your mood for the day. So Dream:On aims to put people in a much better mood.

Can technology alone help our performance?

People find it very hard to change their behaviour, and technology might help. However, good psychology is going to be the key to any successful project — if the psychology isn’t right the project will fail. No matter how impressive the technology.

http://www.dreamonapp.com/

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Without too much hyperbole, it’s safe to say that Alexis Ohanian is more than a little addicted to start-ups. Like many serial entrepreneurs, his passion for creating brands and their associated products is borderline compulsive.

His first success came when, at the age of 22 and fresh out of the University of Virginia, he and fellow grad Steve Hufman co-founded Reddit, the self-declared ‘frontpage of the internet’. Endearingly geek-friendly, stringently user-focused and -defined, it wasn’t the duo’s first business idea. But it was the one that secured them support from Y-Combinator, the start-up investment company of which Alexis is now, almost a decade on, their ‘Ambassador to the East’.

'I think anyone who get’s into start-ups is a little mentally broken,' he admits. 'You’re committing such an unorthodox amount of your time and energy to something. But I think that, as humans, it’s really gratifying to see people enjoying what you’ve built.'

After a scant 16 months working on Reddit, by then already a much-loved icon of web democracy, the pair announced that the site was being snapped up by Condé Nast, internet speculations ball-parking a figure between $10m and $20m… Not bad for a year-and-a-half’s work. And for many twenty-somethings, that might have been it. A few million dollars in the bank, box ticked, job done, thank you very much and good night.

But, as we said, Alexis is something of an addict.So, since officially retiring from Reddit, he’s kept himself busy with a slew of projects. There’s his travel site, Hipmunk. There’s Breadpig, his profit-donating ‘uncorporation’ ('Buy geeky things and make the world suck less!' the site proclaims). And of course Das Kapital Capital, which has been providing investment, advising, and Quake II railgun tutorials to startups' for the last five years. All in all, not bad for a young New Yorker still shy of the big three-oh…

But there’s more to Alexis than just making start-ups for start-ups’ sake, or even for the sake of his presumably healthy bank balance. From his 2009 TED talk to his

workshop at this year’s 99% Conference in New York, Alexis remains an oddly unbridled optimist, his obvious business acumen coupled with what is best described as playful adventurousness, and of course that contagious Ohanian anarcho-entrepreneurism.

Not so long ago, there was a time when Alexis’ History degree would have guaranteed him a white-collared job role with a stable salary and a reliable lifestyle to match. 'Go to college. Get a job. Pay off the debt. But that model has broken,' as Alex puts it. That sense of stability and consistency are no more. 'And I don’t see it coming back.'

Cue depressed heel-kicking and railing against the insurmountable economic tides? For some maybe. But the alternative, as Alexis sees it, is to seek inspiration in everything. To play, to challenge, to experience.

'I mean,' Alex says, 'Dropbox started with Drew Houston, a laptop and a bus ride. Now that’s power. When you think that you can create that kind of value from so little, that’s just so empowering. And I know there are more Drew Houstons of the world out there who are 100% capable of doing this. And she is sitting in a classroom somewhere, bored and totally unaware.'

To remedy this, Alex has been teaching a class called ‘Making Something People Love.’ It’s about the experiences that he’s had building his fleet of brands – Reddit, Hipmunk, Breadpig – as well as the products that come with that and, critically, why people love them.

'Something I’m always trying to spread,' he says, 'is this propaganda about learning how to build. Whether you’re a developer, a graphic designer, any kind of content creator, right now there is a wealth of opportunity. You can’t find a company that’s not hiring in our sector, and that’s incredible at a time when the economy is still in recovery.

'So what I say to a lot of people, students especially, is that there is nothing from stopping you just building shit and trying it – whether that’s hacking into a Tumblr blog or trying it out on the Apple app store. If you make something that only four people use, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like your name has been tarnished – just do it again.'

All this grass roots work is just one of the ways in which he is trying (tenaciously) to motivate the next generation

Alexis OhanianSubmitted by Addie Chinn

Profile

“We are at a point now where it takes less then $20,000 to start a company. A few months later you can have enough to raise funding, and a few years after that you can literally have a billion dollar business.”

“I mean, Dropbox started with Drew Houston, a laptop and a bus ride. Now that’s power.”

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of internet entrepreneurs. The other way is through investment and support – which is perhaps unsurprising given his history with Reddit. It is a business model in which he evidently has complete faith.

'We are at a point now where it takes less then $20,000 to start a company,' Alex says. 'A few months later you can have enough to raise funding, and a few years after that you can literally have a billion dollar business. From an investor’s perspective, Y Combinator has done an excellent job in proving that you can invest a small amount of money in an idea and have it grow to Dropbox proportions. But this movement needs to go further. It needs to start earlier, in schools and colleges.'

When you combine this kind of passion with insight into the workings behind (and a potential future for) internet and tech start-ups, it is perhaps unsurprising that Alexis has become so engaged with the ugliness surrounding

“So what I say to a lot of people, students especially, is that there is nothing from stopping you just building shit and trying it – whether that’s hacking into a Tumblr blog or trying it out on the Apple app store.”

the SOPA/PIPA fiasco. It’s an engagement that he is a little wary of. But one that he readily admits needs him (if only for mildly selfish reasons). 'I never wanted to get involved in politics,' he says. 'But I had no choice. I am caught between dutifully trying to stay out of it while still working to save the only thing I can do with my life. When the zombie apocalypse hits, I’m a goner. I’m the first one they’d vote off the desert island. I get cold sweats just thinking about my life without the internet.'

http://prote. in/profi le

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LondonOutdoors


Guide

So the Olympics are here. But that doesn't mean it has to be all running tracks and velodromes. The Protein Guide represents our very own pick of the best that London has to offer. And these are our favourite outdoor spots for this summer and beyond.

http://prote. in/guides

1. Hampstead Ponds

The water may be a little green and almost unnaturally cold. But it’s also one of London’s quaintest, most timeless and hopelessly endearing institutions.

Hampstead Heath, N6 6JL

2. Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery is a vast and elegant stretch of land, rich in greenery and grand stonework. With such famous interments as Karl Marx and George Elliot it's a unique source for celebrity spotting

Swains Lane, Highgate, N6 6PJ

4. Primrose Hill

The ultimate place to sit and admire London with a view of London Zoo and beyond. It’s also, incidentally, the perfect spot for tobogganing in winter.

Primrose Hil l , NW1 7SU

5. Serpentine Boating Lake

As London’s oldest boating lake, this is the perfect place for a sunny afternoon with friends. Walk across the park then rent a boat or pedalo and watch the people go by.

Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA

3. Little Venice

Not particularly Venetian, but absolutely beautiful, pretty old barges nestle against chi-chi restaurants, posh ivy strew houses and old-school West London pubs.

Litt le Venice, W2 6ND

7. Bunhill Fields

Despite being a (grave) stone’s throw from Old Street, Bunhill is charmingly peaceful and hosts John Bunyan’s suitably grand tombstone.

38 City Road, EC1Y 2BG

8. Exchange Square

Tucked behind Liverpool Street is this cavernous hollow carved into the financial district. The sun streams in, the grass is cool and the giant chess pieces are a quaint distraction.

Primrose St, EC2A 2BR

6. The Barbican

It’s big. It’s brutal, plus it’s like stepping into a retrospective sci-fi film set. The exhibitions are always worth seeing and the riverside courtyard is a great place to take a rest afterwards.

Barbican Centre, Si lk Street, EC2Y 8DS

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9. Maltby Street Market

A street market that is so much more than just another street market. With its railway arches, awesome beer, coffee, wine, cheese and bread, what’s not to love?

Maltby Street, Bermondsey, SE1 3 PA

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10. Peckham Multi Storey Car Park

As carparks go,this one’s something special, Especially when Frank’s summertime pop-up restaurant and bar is doing its annual residency into the early hours.

10th Floor, 95a Rye Lane, SE15 4ST

11. Brockwell Park Lido

The beautiful 25m pool is surrounded by an art deco Grade II listed building, making it a great destination for both a (freezing) swim or a coffee in the poolside café.

Dulwich Road, London, SE24 0PA

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Earnest EndeavoursGallery


To celebrate the release of Widows’ eponymous debut EP, art-led record label Earnest Endeavours hosted an introduction for London to the cult duo of MC and producer/DJ, Jimmy Jams and Bobby Evans respectively.

Performing a previously unheard and unseen drum installation/performance at our 18 Hewett Street space, Widows were supported by a backdrop of pen and ink calligraphic new works by Earnest Endeavours art director Aerosyn-Lex Mestrovic and original STACKS drawings by Bobby Evans.


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In our world of constant connectivity and digital ubiquity, downloading an app for meditation might seen somewhat contradictory. But the possibility that apps and smartphones can, and arguably should, be maximised for contemplative practice as much as keeping us connected is just what Rohan Gunatillake is looking to prove with his urban meditation app buddhify.

Buddhify aims to take the base concepts of meditation, and combine them with culturally ingrained mobile technology to help people take time out from their busy digital lives. ‘Our generic relationships to technology are pathological,’ says Rohan. ‘They fragment our attention, distract, and reduce concentration levels. And taking downtime from our devices often isn’t enough. When you turn your phone off, it’s still not really off – there’s a strong likelihood that you have some low-level anxiety in your mind about the amount of emails piling up.’

The solution, he says, is to change our relationship with technology. With buddhify, his aim ‘is to turn our phone into a well-being device’. Through this we can then relate to personal technology in a different, more balanced way.

In the past 10 years there has been an increase in the number of neuroscientific studies examining meditation, as well as, more recently, attention from the wider media. Medical services in the UK offer mindfulness (a secular flavour of Buddhist meditation) as a treatment for stress. And the benefits extend beyond the therapeutic – Google provides similar courses for individuals due to recognition that mindfulness improves concentration and focus.

In Rohan’s experience, the main factors dissuading people from trying out meditation are the perception of it being both place-specific and time-consuming; two elements seemingly incompatible with busy city lifestyles. To overcome these hurdles he repurposed traditional guided meditations to fit occasions where people were already accustomed to zoning out on headphones – such as commuting on the subway or jogging on a treadmill.

And this is one of the most interesting features of buddhify: the meditations are context-appropriate to wherever you are. You can select a meditation themed to traveling, walking, or even working out at the gym. Buddhify also features mood check-ins which are a little more poetic and zen-like than similar Quantified Self applications. A dashboard charts your meditative progress with percentage values, infographical arrows and encouraging stats.

It’s all quite some distance from gongs, incense and retreats to the Welsh countryside. And that’s before you consider that it’s even possible to engage in a

two player meditation.‘In the same way that location-based gaming apps create a game-layer on your urban environment, I wanted buddhify to create a contemplative-layer for the city,’ Rohan explains. Various apps have successfully used gamification to improve physical health, and buddhify aims to apply these same principles to a different realm of well-being – that associated with our mind.

In between running Culture Hack Scotland and organising the forthcoming Edinburgh Festivals Innovation Lab, Rohan has been a practising Buddhist (and meditator) for a number of years. He adapted his knowledge of meditation techniques to fit his urban surroundings in London, and later Glasgow. And when speaking with his friends about meditating in the city they routinely respond with an interest, but rarely does that interest translate into ongoing practice. And, as Rohan explains it,‘this is the aim of buddhify: to invert perceptions of meditation, and make it accessible to urban dwellers.’

Taking these concepts a step further, Rohan has co-founded Meditation by Design, a design company looking to extend the ethos of buddhify into new technologies - and explore digital technology designed for the mental well-being of a digital generation.Distraction isn’t intrinsic to technology,’ Rohan contends. ‘It’s just that technologies have not been designed ‘with the mind, in mind.’ Meditation by Design’s plan is to create an environment where technology design embraces input from people who understand the nature of attention, whether that’s neuroscientists, psychologists, or meditators.

http://prote. in/profi le

Rohan GunatillakeSubmitted by Stephen Fortune

Profile

“When you turn your phone off, it’s still not really off – there’s a strong likelihood that you have some low-level anxiety in your mind about the amount of emails piling up.”

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Long positioned at opposite ends of the spectrum, creative culture has finally pulled on its joggers and decided to get sporty. There are no sign-up fees or team lists for this new breed of activity; individuals and brands need just show up and join in with the groups of like-minded folk who have decided to regularly jog, work out, or play ball together.

The growing movement, largely spearheaded by those exhausted by the ‘always on’ nature of their working lives, has seen the establishment of community-led sporting groups. Its proponents are a mix of enthusiasts looking to offset the nine-to-five, trendsetters tapping into new social networks, and locals attracted by the convenience and ‘no strings’ introduction of physical activity into their day-to-day lives.

Forward-thinking companies are on-board too, many launching campaigns to encourage ongoing local and social community activity in key urban areas. This doesn’t mean sponsoring a standout athlete, or a team, but providing the infrastructure for whole communities to play on their own terms.

With the London Olympics just around the corner and East London, in particular, galvanised by the global focus, certain brands are staying front-of-mind by fusing physical activity with culture both in the U.K. and abroad – ultimately encouraging local, social and health benefits that are good for everyone.

In prime position to leverage the hype surrounding London 2012 is Nike 1948, a space in East London where sport meets culture. While its existence is no big secret, the 1948 environment is certainly leading the sector.

'Nike 1948 is designed to allow communities to make use of the space and for Nike to inspire Londoners to play and love sport via cultural experiences, installations, screenings and events,' explains Ryan Greenwood, head of PR and communications at Nike U.K. and Ireland. 'The aim of the project is to reach different levels of the creative community by engaging them through sport. We have six sports clubs at 1948 and they’re all made up of local creatives.'

From the ‘48 Ballers’ (basketball) to ‘Yoga Flex’ (you guessed it), Nike 1948’s six clubs tap into different levels of community sporting culture. It doesn’t stop there. Nike 1948 is currently regenerating a local public sports space

Brands Play BallSubmitted by Nadia Saccardo

Briefing

“Brands are staying front-of-mind by fusing physical activity with culture both in the U.K. and abroad – ultimately encouraging local, social and health benefits that are good for everyone.”

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called Aske Gardens, with the aim of making it better for the entire community to use; the consultation process is conducted in the 1948 space.

Also playing in the community-led arena before the Olympics is Umbro. Over the past year the brand has teamed up with London underground music night Boiler Room http://boilerroom.tv/london/ to host five-aside football matches in an East London park. Under the banner ‘Boiler Room Football Club, tailored by Umbro’ the collaboration facilitates weekly kickabouts, calling on local people, labels and collectives such as NTS Radio, R&S Records and Young Turks to play ball. 'Football, music, food, drink, sun and a lot of rain,' the BRFC’s mission statement reads. 'Less about inter-label club rivalries and more a coming together to play football, talk football and watch football.' This is a social club – not a serious competition, and by facilitating the process Umbro has established a friendly rapport with a talented creative community, while further cementing its local reputation as a dedicated advocate of the game.

'Sport is deeply communal and tribal, so any platform that can facilitate it happening will benefit with the energy that’s associated with it,' says Nick Crocker, founder of Sessions, a personal health-coaching program in the U.S. and a former digital strategist. 'Sedentary lives are now legitimately a chronic condition that affect millions of people.' Branded or no, Crocker regards the implied health benefits of ongoing sporting activity as overwhelmingly positive. He cites Nike+ as leading the trend towards community-led sport in the States, but also sees opportunity for brands to come on board as supporters of grass-root events. For example, Parkrun is a weekly, five-kilometre untimed run in Bushy Park, Teddington, that’s open to all ages and abilities, while the New York Bridge Runners holds weekly jogs from The Bowery in Manhattan.

Social media and app technology is also helping people switch off and shape up. Recess is a brilliant app and sport-centric social networking tool developed by Brooklyn-based Interactive Designer Cooper Smith as part of his MFA thesis. Put simply, it helps over-worked nine-to-fivers create and facilitate some much-needed after-hours sporting activity.

There seems to be a lot of activity in this sector, but why now? Crocker pinpoints three things: 'Convergence of health being a massive problem, tech enabling people to facilitate online interactions that power offline experiences, and the immediate reward that sport brings,' he states.

Progressive developments in this sector are by no means confined to the West. In Shanghai, the Dark Runner Club (founded by CHairYUAN, an eyewear designer) conducts running sessions under cloak-and-dagger darkness. Encouraged by the film Crank,

where the main character must keep his adrenaline high to stay alive, an energy-filled CHairYUAN and a mate discovered the cool thrill of pounding the pavement at night. Friends soon joined and Nike came knocking. 'At the beginning it started off as just friends,' CHairYUAN explains. 'Since then we’ve developed a big following on Weibo, so a lot of people come through from there. Then word of mouth spread as we became more popular. Nike often support us with product and inviting us to events.' CHairYUAN’s official Dark Runner site lets enthusiasts know about upcoming runs and offers them mixtapes. It also features information on cool running products, most of it Nike.

Even the static pages of independent magazines are starting to show a sporting bias. Out of Japan, Corner magazine is a beautifully compiled ‘journal of a runner’s lifestyle’ that examines the creative culture surrounding runners the world over, including where they live, what they eat and the art they collect.

'Community sport is important because we revel in team spirit,' says Nike 1948’s Ryan Greenwood. 'People want to feel part of something bigger and group sports help you find your identity.'

It seems that now – more than ever – is the time for brands to team up with sporting hobbyist groups, facilitate active experiences, or support spaces where community-led sport can take place. The playing field isn’t too crowded; there’s still a lot of room to move.

http://prote. in/brief ing

“Sport is deeply communal and tribal, any platform that facilitates it happening will benefit with the energy that’s associated with it.”

“Community sport is important because we revel in team spirit. People want to feel part of something bigger and group sports help you find your identity.”

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New Arrivals

Store


Banned Olympians Poster

Data visualisation print, from the Performance gallery show at 18 Hewett Street, representing a chronological list of every Olympian banned for drug use since 1967.

£25

Welcome to the Protein Store, an online and offline emporium of delights. Find everything from our Audience Surveys and Insight Reports, to Protein Calendars plus all the best prints and original artwork from our 18 Hewett Street gallery shows and coffee kit from our in-house coffeeshop.

http://prote. in/store

Widows EP

The debut EP from the cult NYC/LA experimental duo, Widows. The partnership of MC, Jimmy Jams and producer / DJ, Bobby Evans is celebrated within a wildly creative EP of drums, raps and electronics.

£5

Epoca de Clebra Poster

Epoca De La Cvlebra print by NYC based artist and designer Aerosyn-Lex from the Widows (NYC-LA) EP launch at 18 Hewett Street.

£20 (Unframed A2 Print)

Brewing Equipment

From v60’s, to grinders and syphon’s, our coffee shop stocks everything for your home coffee-brewing needs. So, whenever your in need, drop by Protein by DunneFrankowski at 18 Hewett Street and say Hi.

Opening hours: Mon - Fri 8:00 -17:00 Sun 11:00 -16:00

Performance Posters

All the prints from our Performance gallery show at 18 Hewett Street will be on sale in A2 poster size.

£20

Protein OS Membership

Designed to inspire, educate and provoke, the Protein OS is our subscription based insight and research platform covering the most relevant issues and topics affecting the modern consumer.

From £50 a month

Protein Audience Survey 2012

Touching on all aspects of culture, music, food, fashion, entertainment, and technology, our annual Protein Audience Survey draws upon emerging patterns in the consumer behaviour of our market.

£200

Protein Tote Bag

100% premium, heavy-duty canvas tote bag with plenty of room to carry everything you need on those weekend trips to the farmers market.

£9

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Wilder is a publication for people enthralled by the natural world. It is ‘life through the lens of the growing world’— indoors and out, culture, travel, food and design

£12

Wilder Magazine Issue 3

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Banned OlympiansData

Submitted by Shaun Weaver

Running (pun intended) at our 18 Hewett Street gallery space, PERFORMANCE is a print exhibition featuring 13 London-based artists. Inspired by the games and ideas around performance, Protein produced this piece for the exhibition.

A chronological list of every Olympian banned for drug use since the 1967 introduction of the anti-doping regulations. From 1968's Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, the first banned athlete (who allegedly had two beers to calm his nerves before the pistol shooting portion of his pentathlon), to the new class of third-generation erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, this is a visual representation of the pharmaceutical side of performance enhancement.

The show is on from Thursday 2nd until the 19th of August, so make sure you head down to the 18 Hewett Street gallery space take a look.


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LIMITED EDITION 1/4. CREATED BY M. I.A. SERVED BY BECK’S.

© 2012 AB INBEV UK LIMITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY.

Documents

Protein journal 8