aSaigon/CreativeMorning

Motorbike Helmets for Kids in Vietnam? Not yet.

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 2 Jun 2011 03:26:00 +0700

A few years ago Vietnam finally passed a law requiring motorbike riders to wear a helmet but this law only required them for adult riders. Kids don't need them. Is somebody kidding somebody? We could blame the lawmakers for not seeing the fatalities and injuries amongst children but that shouldn't release parents from their basic responsibilities to protect those children should it? I didn't think so. And so an idea was hatched (yeah, bad pun) to do a public service campaign to speak to parents about the importance of the whole family wearing a helmet. In a country of what might be easily, 30 million motorbikes for roughly 80 million people the motorbike is a way of life in Vietnam. In fact it's an extension of life, an extra limb it has been called. But it's also a way of death, the highest rate of highway fatalities in Asia before enactment of the law.

On launch day, the government deployed 5000 police around the city (Saigon) to enforce strict fines ($10 is strict here) and lo and behold - one day nobody had a helmet and the next day they did. Except for the children. And this baffled the crap out of me. Didn't the people understand that a not fully formed skull can be crushed up to 60% easier than an adult's? Didn't they see it as important? And the answer is, 'no they didn't'. What was important to them was not paying a fine to comply with the law. Sad, I thought. No thought about the reasons one should wear a helmet at all.

Ask anyone what they believe to be a symbol of birth and childhood and you will eventually hear the word 'egg'. So I took that visual and put a helmet on it. It was funny. And it worked. We all know eggs crack easily and putting a helmet on them just reinforced the point. Photographer Mads Monsen and I worked together to create this campaign and we did it without a specific client in mind - because we thought the idea was important. Should you know of any organization in Vietnam who might be interested in running this work as a public service, please contact me. We would love to get this campaign up and running and doing the job the parents should be doing - getting all their kids to wear a helmet.

Can a beer be good design?

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 19 May 2011 03:40:00 +0700

From Adweek and Fast Company.

Danish brewer Carlsberg is getting set to unveil a new beer called Copenhagen, which is already turning heads for the minimal, stylish design of its bottles and other packaging. The message is unmistakable: In a category almost complete geared toward men, Copenhagen can also attract women, who make up one-quarter of the beer market. "We can see that there are a number of consumers, especially women, who are very aware of design when they choose beverage products," Jeanette Elgaard Carlsson, international innovation director at Carlsberg, says on the brewer's website. "There may be situations where they are standing in a bar and want their drinks to match their style. In this case, they may well reject a beer if the design does not appeal to them.

The consumer surveys that we have conducted in Denmark show that 98% of the target group finds Copenhagen exciting." Of course, women presumably don't just choose a beer as a fashion accessory. But there isn't much mention of the taste, beyond it being "light" and "refreshing." The brew hits the market in Denmark this year and the rest of Europe and parts of Asia next year.

35 Years - 100,000 Toothpicks

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sat, 7 May 2011 00:47:00 +0700

Leica i9/iPhone 4 Concept

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Mon, 2 May 2011 22:51:00 +0700

BLACK Design Associates have created this dream product concept, it's a collaboration match-made-in-heaven, digital camera heavyweights Leica teamed up the Leica i9 fixed-lens rangefinder camera with Apple’s iPhone 4. Combining the two products would result in a iPhone that connects up to a top-of-the-line digital camera, perhaps meaning the two would work together – the iPhone 4 screen as the digital camera screen, photos taken saved right to the iPhone? Let’s face it, this would be completely awesome. Leica, Apple, your move.

Yo Yo Ma and Lil Buck

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:29:00 +0700

Yo Yo Ma meets Lil Buck. You know Yo Yo Ma, he's the most famous cellist in the world. But you don't know Lil Buck - and that's what makes all of this work as well as it does. A fan of both on YouTube saw them independently and suggested a collaboration - certainly an element of audience participation gone viral. And this is now our media environment. Does life imitate art, or the other way around? There are now more ways than ever to explore that juxtaposition. What if more companies started to explore combining seemingly disparate elements? Could brands be reinvented, extended, reborn? Yes.

Teachers, students and business people alike, should see the Propellers!

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 7 Apr 2011 21:21:00 +0700

A flurry of mail this week from teachers wishing they had seen and brought their students to Dinh Q. Le at aSaigon/CreativeMorning's last session but sadly, that time has passed - as will all Creative Mornings, so it makes only good sense to catch things as they happen. To that end, we are including the following flyer for posting at your school, company or otherwise place of business.

aSaigon/CreativeMorning.Propellers.Flyer

We are intent on increasing the student population at events and are happy to fly in the face of other more commercial 'seminar' series that seek to charge you real money to see, too many times, just commercial people, trying to sell you something. At aSaigon/CreativeMorning, we have but one thing to sell you - new ideas. And we hope that will provide a kind of lasting value, quite seriously lacking in business today.

Please download and post the following flyer for people who may not know us from the Internet. We have been pleased to have had many RMIT lecturers at events, but far fewer students. We hope aSCM to be an event for sharing information, so please teachers and others, share and share alike. Delloite, Raffles, Vietnam National, DDB, BBDO, WPP, Lowe and Navigos, join us as well.

Online Ticketing for aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes The Propeller Group - 15 April, 2011 powered by Eventbrite

aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes The Propeller Group - 15 April, 8:30am

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Tue, 5 Apr 2011 01:42:00 +0700

The Propeller Group is an art collaborative that specializes in media production, using popular culture, cinema, television, advertising, the web, galleries, museums, writings, interviews and conversation to distribute and disseminate art projects. The Propeller Group’s projects have been about collapsing media strategies of power, distribution, and access to information as well as issues of public vs. private space within the development of sub-cultures and popular cultures.

"In many of our projects, we try to create disorder, hoping that disorder in such particular instances can become another "sense of order" to an audience that may be all too afraid of change, or unaccepting of other possible ways of engaging with their current cultural/social structures. We like to play. We align ourselves with different cultural producers. We like to let ourselves get ingested into the bellies of big social beasts such as television or the various manifestations of pop-culture. We feel that true criticality comes from the change that can happen from the inside of a system, and not from analytical discourse posited from external positions."

The Propeller Group is comprised of Phunam Thuc Ha, Matt Lucero, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen.

Based in Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City, The Propeller Group doesn't want you to view art in the way that one might have been taught to view art. And The Propeller Group doesn't want you to see television or any other medium for that matter for what you might believe it to be - rather they seek to be deconstructivist in any variety of media and have you put things back together in any way that you like. With the blurring of lines between television, telephones, computers and the next big mobile bling to hit the market, it only makes sense to begin to re-examine our relationship with media and recreate it for a new means of consumption. Come join us on April 15th as we explore disparate and ever changing creative horizons with The Propeller Group.

Online Ticketing for aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes The Propeller Group - 15 April, 2011 powered by Eventbrite

This Viet creative's got something goin' on...

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:50:00 +0700

...because he writes as well as he art directs. Is he a polymath?

Does this design sound good?

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:09:00 +0700

Learning to play an instrument no longer has to be a great expense. With the help of Victor Scott and some old cereal boxes you could be the next Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton. Sort of.

Taking rubbish and turning it into instruments is a passion for Junk 4 Funk creator, Victor. A musician and music tutor for over 30 years, Victor now helps the general public to get into music through being green. Old bottles, cereals boxes, frying pans and dustbin lids are all recycled into instruments. Becoming a rock star has never been so accessible.

Get your ideas in gear

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 00:59:00 +0700

on .

aSaigon/CreativeMorning III - Dinh Q. Lê

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 02:32:00 +0700

Reprinted from the blog, Studio Mads Monsen.

aSaigon/CreativeMorning March speaker Dinh Q. Le at Stella Caffe, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Brilliant. Inspired. Moving. It was simply a great presentation and the early birds of Saigon enjoyed it. “I’m lovin’ it” to quote McDonald's, however, it was a far better deal. Unwrap a burger and you get disappointed as it never lives up to the tasty, juicy advertising image that sells you the deal in the first place.

The Early Birds

Dinh unwrapped his thinking and reason behind his works. His research methods? Obsession he answered.

Multi-media with Dinh Q. Le

His work on Agent Orange was nothing but brilliant. His latest projects include exploring the visual language around us. If people with a voice can find a way around to get noticed, artists can too. He proved that with his Agent Orange shop example - a real shop in Vietnam that sold cute little outfits for agent orange babies, like double hooded jackets and sweaters with teddy bears and flowers on them. Cute, but scary in that the usage could be real.

That looks nice. A box?

Our lucky-draw prize. From TIKI.VN. Guess what?

Portrait - Dinh Q. Le

Overall, a great start of the day, all thanks to the humble and yet so talented Dinh Q.Le

Location for Friday: Stella Caffe, 119 Bui Vien Street, D1, HCMC

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:10:00 +0700

Sorry for the delay all. The location for Friday's meeting is Stella Caffe, 119 Bui Vien Street, D1, HCMC. Stella is a fine Italian restaurant with what I consider to be the best Ceasar salad in town, but that might not be your breakfast choice. When you arrive, be sure to take stairs in front to the upstairs meeting room. We'll CU there at 8:30am, sharp!

Lucky-Draw from Tiki.vn!

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:23:00 +0700

Thanks to Sonny at TIKI.VN, Vietnam's online bookshop, our next session on March 18 with Dinh Q. Le will feature a lucky-draw for the book:

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm (Bìa cứng)

IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation. There isn't a business in the world that doesn't want to be more creative in its thinking, products, and processes. At many companies, being first with a concept and first to market are critical just to survive. In The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley, general manager of the Silicon Valley based design firm IDEO, takes readers behind the scenes of this wildly imaginative and energized company to reveal the strategies and secrets it uses to turn out hit after hit.

Be sure to bring a business card for the lucky-draw, or we might decide to award it based on the results of a wet t-shirt contest.

From the New York Times: More about Dinh Q. Lê

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Tue, 8 Mar 2011 13:18:00 +0700

ART REVIEW

Vietnamese Voices Against a Whir of War

By HOLLAND COTTER

Published: August 12, 2010

REPRINTS

In slumberous mid-August thousands of visitors fidget and drift through the Museum of Modern Art, finding almost everything worth photographing and almost nothing worth more than a point-and-shoot glance. But in one gallery — basically a wide glorified corridor — people tend to stop, focus, even settle down in front of a three-channel video by the Vietnamese-American artist Dinh Q. Le projected across a long wall.

Enlarge This Image

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

“Projects 93: Dinh Q. Le” at the Museum of Modern Art includes a helicopter built from scratch, right, and a three-channel video by Mr. Le.

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Enlarge This Image

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Dinh Q. Le’s video at MoMA, “The Farmers and the Helicopters,” intersperses noisy war scenes with recent interviews with Vietnamese people.

Titled “The Farmers and the Helicopters,” the video is partly and spectacularly about the Vietnam War. We first see a panning shot of forests and rice paddies in aerial view. Then helicopters arrive, swarming, landing, lifting off, buzzing and shuddering through the sky, spewing men and rockets, crashing explosively, then rising to buzz some more. Classic shock and awe.

Interspersed with these noisy scenes are recent interviews with Vietnamese people. A former Vietcong soldier recalls how, more than 40 years ago, he shot at an American chopper to make it go away, and it did. A woman describes her first sight of an American helicopter around the same time. She was so disconcerted as it hovered over her that she could only look up at the pilot and smile.

A younger man, a self-taught mechanic named Tran Quoc Hai, speaks of his lifelong infatuation with such flying machines. He says that after studying old examples in Vietnam war museums and doing some Internet research he teamed up with a farmer friend and built a helicopter from scratch, for commercial use, but also to serve as a positive symbol of his country in the contemporary world.

As it happens, we can see this symbol firsthand; it’s installed in a gallery next to where the video is playing. And the two pieces constitute Mr. Le’s solo show, part of MoMA’s Projects series.

aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes Dinh Q. Lê, 18 March, 2011, 8:30am

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Fri, 4 Mar 2011 18:51:00 +0700

Dinh Q. Lê in collaboration with Tran Quoc Hai,
Le Van Danh, Phu-Nam Thuc Ha, and
Tuan Andrew Nguyen. Still from The Farmers
and The Helicopters. 2006. Three-channel video
(color, sound), 15 min., and helicopter.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Dinh Q. Lê was born in Ha-Tien, Vietnam in 1968. He received his BA in Art studio at UC Santa Barbara in 1989 and his MFA in Photography and Related Media at The School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1992. In 1993, Lê returned to Vietnam and settled in Ho Chi Minh City in 1996. - - - Lê’ s work has been exhibited worldwide. Recent solo exhibitions include, 'A Tapestry of Memories': at the Bellevue Art Museum, Washington State; 'Destination for the New Millennium', at the Asia Society, New York and 'Project 93': Dinh Q. Lê at MoMA, New York City.

His has also been included in the 55th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2009 - City Visions Festival, Mechelen, Belgium; 2009 - Cuvee Biennale, Linz, Austria; 2008 - The Singapore Biennale - Thermocline of Art exhibition at ZKM in Germany - The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial at Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane Australia - 'Universal Experience' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; The Gwangju Biennial 2006, Korea - 'Persistent Vestiges': Drawings from the American-Vietnam War, The Drawing Center, New York - 'Infinite Painting', Villa Manin, Italy; 'Only Skin Deep' at the International Center for Photography, New York; Delays and Revolutions, Venice Biennale 2003.

His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Portland Art Museum; The Bronx Museum, New York; Singapore Art Museum; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum; The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. - - - Lê has also co-founded Vietnam Art Foundation-VNFA based in L.A., an organization that supports Vietnamese artists and promotes artistic exchange between cultural workers from Vietnam and the world. As an extension of VNFA, Lê and three other artists co-founded San Art, a non-profit gallery in Ho Chi Minh City. He is currently a board member of the Art Network Asia and Danish Embassy’s Cultural Development & Exchange Fund, and a member of the Asia Society’ s international council.

Dinh Q. Lê's work could best be described as multi-media - involving short film, photography, tapestry, weaving, drawing and painting, even bordering on graphic design, reaching from childhood memories to illuminate visions of the future. Please join us as he explains his process and answers questions regarding his work.

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Sponsors include Malongo Coffee and The Tin Foil Grill. Location to be announced

Adrian Jones in The Word online

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Fri, 4 Mar 2011 16:22:00 +0700

From Software to Vietnamese Art

Written by David Everitt-Carlson Friday, 04 March 2011 06:13

FROM SOFTWARE TO VIETNAMESE ART

One cannot immediately fathom Adrian Jones from his introduction. Programming video
games and publishing his first book on video game design at the age of 17, he went on to
Cambridge University to study engineering, but we'll have to assume he wasn't completely
interested in that.

This month, The Word Magazine/Saigon profiles Adrian Jones, our last speaker at
aSaigon/CreativeMorning. Click above to read more.

What type are you?

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:42:00 +0700

Helvetica? Times Roman? Courier? Verdana? Georgia? Trebuchet? Pentagram design has the answer here. Find out from a trained Phrenologist, just exactly what type you are.

Everyone needs an Evil Plan

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:27:00 +0700

In the early 2000's Hugh MacLeod was barely eeking out a living as a freelance copywriter in Cumbria, England but one night he had an idea and told his friend about it. "I'm going to write a blog and publish my cartoons on it", he told a friend. "What's a blog?", his friend responded. The rest is, of course, history. In 2009, with the publication of his first book, Ignore Everybody, Hugh became a Wall Street Journal top ten author for a business book that combined earthly creative logic with out of this world cartoons. This year, with his second book, Evil Plans, he tackles the questions of balancing love and work. Fast Company covers that book here with a nifty slide show. Check it out. We hope to have Hugh as a guest of aSaigon/CreativeMorning when he's in Asia next. Stay tuned.

A Young Vietnam Photo Blog

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:24:00 +0700

This week we're happy to present a photo blog in Vietnam with the AIS Saigon Photography blog. AIS is the American International School and, says the blog, "AIS Saigon Photography is a group of students who go out and take photographs of different subjects each week. Photographs you see here are the top selected pieces from our Tuesday wandering outside". This blog and these shots are young and idealistic - but that's just like the country as a whole and a very good sign. One somewhat disturbing comment on the blog was that, "We don't seem to have Photography Course this term but I want to keep adding more each week." The lack of available courses for all manner of creative studies remains a problem in Vietnam as well as the students inability to choose 'elective' study as opposed to prescribed courses that everyone must attend. Hopefully aSaigon/CreativeMorning and those who participate in our sessions can help raise awareness of the positive importance of the creative arts to all businesses. As Adrian Jones stated at the close of his session last week, "Encouraging creativity is good for business".

All about Adrian Jones and the 'restricted reading room' at the HCMC library

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 02:28:00 +0700

Sandrine Llouquet and Adrian Jones by Mads Monsen

This is the best photo of Sandrine that I have ever seen. It's all there. The beauty, the intellect, the daughter, the years, the partner, the desire to learn, the diaspora. Let us capture this forever. Because that's what aSaigonCreativeMorning is all about. It's about the ideas, and absorprtion and regurgitation and disparate cultures and whatever happens after that. Too many coffees and I thought about this. Bad idea, all that coffee. But a better idea is what we all need. Dearly. That's it.

'You had to be there', as they say. And that's the idea. Did anybody know that an entire record of the North/South Vietnamese story, visual and written, is kept, and not burned, at the Ho Chi Minh City Library? And only accessible to those with a permit. Adrian told stories of what it took to get that permit and what he found while there.

Adrian Jones, with a great love of story telling, is in the business of allowing the Vietnamese people to paint the world in a 20th century context, having assembled the Witness Collection - the largest private collection of Vietnamese art in the world, because the Vietnamese and maybe only the Vietnamese, are uniquely qualified and skilled enough to do that. Eurpean colonialism, American Imperialism. Internal strife. Independence, Largely self-taught. This is our world history, not revisionist or propagandised. Balanced things.

Thank you Adrian. You had to be there and we thank you. And for those who weren't, you lost something.

Next month, a bit of great history and art, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. And the Vietnamese artist who made it happen. Let's join together. But, you have to be there.

Thank you too Sandrine.

Full photos of the event are available on our Facebook group page.

Sponsors welcome to aSaigon/CreativeMorning

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 01:24:00 +0700

In response to the many requests we've had to open aSaigon/CreativeMorning to other agencies and industry sponsors we are doing exactly that. DDB, Lowe and BBDO have all expressed interest but we haven't booked yet, and it's not like just one agency can sponsor. TBWA remains our beloved benefactor for getting us off the ground (George gets huge props here). But now we're doing what we set out to do. We more like the idea of brotherhood and togetherness so if two coffee sponsors want to take a go at it and run a taste-off, we're game! Malongo is ready! But none of you guys get to show your company reels, bad PowerPoints or other silly promo stuff. Restaurants? Come cook against the Tin Foil Grill! They've got some game you know.

Sponsorship opportunities are now available for location, coffee, breakfast and other ideas to your liking. Sponsorships go from Gold to Bronze but trust me, nobody's going to want Bronze cause you look like 'Cheap Charlie' around here.

TBWA was smart enough to execute the following press release and we think this sort of press has value to many companies. aSaigon/CreativeMorning remains a non-profit enterprise and all proceeds go towards maintaining the event and printing the cool t-shirts we're making for those in the groove.

Please contact us for sponsorship ideas. We maintain a very select avenue to Saigon's top creative thought leaders and are not interested in numbers at all. Ideas rule and if you're in that business we hope we can work together and get a few better ones.

Campaign Brief Asia: aSaigon/CreativeMorning

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:46:00 +0700

TBWA gets behind aSaigon/CreativeMorning

Thursday 10, February 2011 at 8:04 AM by CB

TBWA\Vietnam is supporting aSaigon/CreativeMorning,
a non-profit enterprise, to help build the creative
community in Vietnam. aSaigon/CreativeMorning is a
monthly series that focuses on fresh ideas, innovation
and creativity. Held at TBWA\Vietnam's head quarters
in Ho Chi Minh City, the event brings in key speakers on
a range of topics that inspire and support creativity.

The first aSaigon/CreativeMorning speaker was writer,
actor, producer, director, Dustin Nguyen (left). Coming
off of the success of Để Mai Tính, Vietnam's biggest
film of 2010, Dustin tackled the difficult question of
trying to find the balance between art and commerce -
something very relevant to those in creative industries.

R. Streitmatter-Tran, an artist who attended the first Saigon/CreativeMornings event,
praised Dustin Nguyen on tackling the subject in a very forthright manner: "Dustin was a
fantastic start - honest, unpretentious, and informative. An ironic but good mix; his talk
avoided self-promotion in a space where survival depends on promotion."

Campaign Magazine in Singapore has also covered the story here.
ADoBo Magazine has covered us here as well.
The Word Saigon has covered us below on the right hand page.

A little more about Adrian Jones - Engineering Student, Author, Video Game Developer, Software Entrepreneur, Sports Media Creator, Art Curator

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sun, 6 Feb 2011 18:39:00 +0700

Adrian Jones

Adrian Jones began his career in the UK in the early 1980s when he established a video games development company, working at the meeting point of art and technology. He published his first book on the design and development of video games in 1983. After studying engineering at Cambridge University, Adrian came initially to Vietnam in 1986-87 to write a book and make a film. During that period, he first encountered Vietnamese artists and started to collect their works, beginning a life-long passion for the region's arts.

Picasso, Nu

The collection, known as Witness Collection, today consists of nearly 2,000 works, regularly on loan at museums around the world and is accessible to researchers and scholars.

Pham Huy Thong, Buffalo Boy

As an entrepreneur, Adrian's work has been in the fields of media and telecommunications. He was founder of the company behind WinMail, which became one of the three leading worldwide email products in the early 90s. WinMail was adopted worldwide by IBM and won many industry awards for its effective use of graphical imagery (GUI) to improve interface ease-of-use.

From 1999-2002, Adrian was Executive Chairman of SportBusiness Group, based in London, New York and Munich, which he developed into the leading supplier of commercial information to the sports industry. The company produced numerous specialist publications - both print and online - as well as international conferences, working closely with broadcasters, teams, sponsors and media agencies in more than 60 countries, as well as international sports organizations such as the IOC, FIFA, Formula 1 and UEFA Champions' League.

Duchamp,
Fountain

Adrian established Asiarta Foundation in 2009 to support projects in Asian art conservation, research and media. At present, he is preparing to produce a documentary series for international broadcasters, which will look at the changing phases of the 20th century through the eyes of Vietnamese artists. Adrian also serves as a Director or Advisor to several private commercial companies and is Official Advisor to The National Gallery of Art, Singapore for their Vietnam collection.

Adrian will speak on 'What Makes Art Valuable?' What is art? And therefore what are we valuing? What inherent value does art have? What broader value does art have to our community, society or country? Why do art pieces sometimes sell for such enormous sums? What underpins the commercial value of art? And what changes it? What economic and social value does art have in Vietnam? What value does art have to our businesses? Why should we care about supporting the arts?

Event management for aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes Witness Collection curator, Adrian Jones powered by Eventbrite

aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes Witness Collection curator Adrian Jones - Friday, 18 Feb, 8:30am

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sat, 5 Feb 2011 01:16:00 +0700

'Goi Dao' - 1943 -
Tran Van Can (1910 -1994)

Adrian Jones, 44, is the founder of the Witness Collection, Director of Asiarta Foundation, and Advisor for the Vietnam collection to The National Art Gallery, Singapore. With more than 1000 pieces to date, Jones’ purpose in building the Witness Collection has been to “tell a story, the story of Vietnam’s people and society during the past century. Due to Vietnam being a microcosm for the world’s major social and political changes during that time, I [Jones] believe Vietnamese art tells the story of ‘our century’ in a way that art from no other country can."

Beyond works of art, Jones’ team has also traveled around Vietnam collecting old tubes of oil paint, unused canvases and old paper—in fact, pretty much any art material they can find that has been produced since the 1940s. They have also been interviewing elderly artists to gain a better understanding of their techniques. Jones also finds himself in a unique position helping define the value and merit of art in a nation with few domestic collectors of contemporary art.

“I’ve come to realise that, often unwittingly, we regularly take on a set of social responsibilities when collecting unique and original art – sometimes including responsibilities to a much larger community. Most artists create their works to be seen, so firstly we have at least some duty to the artist to share their works with other viewers, whether friends and family or wider afield.”, says Jones.

We're pleased to welcome Adrian and hope the morning will provide both visual and intellectual stimulation. The Witness Collection can be found here.

Register for the event here:

Event management for aSaigon/CreativeMorning welcomes Witness Collection curator, Adrian Jones powered by Eventbrite

Sponsors: Coffee - Malongo, Breakfast - Tin Foil Grill. Space - TBWA

Saigon/CreativeMornings is now aSaigon/CreativeMorning

David.E.Carlson@gmail.com (David Everitt-Carlson) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:41:00 +0700

In keeping with our desire to adhere to international copyright standards and allow Tina from SwissMiss to expand internationally, we have amended our name to reflect a distinction from CreativeMornings(tm). But a rose by any other name is still a rose and our objective remains the same - to bring world-class inspirational creatives from any number of disciplines to spark creative thought and discussion in one of the world's fastest growing markets. We continue to work with Tina and hope to be part of her global network as she takes the steps to bring Asia online for CreativeMornings. Until then, we will simply be, aSaigon/CreativeMorning. Cheers.