Keep it simple, think about the user, and don't be afraid to think big. That was the message that four key figures in London's new media industry had for aspiring designers and artists at the sixth NMK Christmas Special, reports Jonn Elledge.

Speaking as part of a lecture entitled "Why didn't I do that?", the four described some of the projects that have inspired them, and highlighted the qualities that made them so impressive.

The topic was chosen to mark the launch of dynamo london, a website set up by NMK and consultancy AIG as a showcase for London's new media talent. The project's creative director Malcolm Garrett, who chaired the event, described it as "a vehicle to celebrate the unsung heroes of new media."

First up was Andy Cameron, creative director of Italy's Fabrica, who said that the works that impressed him most were those that incorporate the response of their audience, as suggested by Nicolas Bourriaud's theory of Relational Aesthetics.

He cited a number of artworks which highlight this approach, including Yoko Ono's 1965 installation Cut Piece, in which she filmed an audience taking turns to cut away a piece of her clothing; and Marie Sester's Access, which filmed the response of members of the public who found themselves unable to escape the glare of a moving spotlight.

Perhaps the most familiar of Cameron's examples, though, was Olafur Eliasson's 2004 Weather Project installation at the Tate Modern, which used a semi-circle of lamps and a mirrored ceiling to create the impression of a setting sun. As the project's real genius, he cited its "sense of sociability and conviviality", as its audience became part of the exhibit by lying on the floor and "drawing" on the ceiling with their bodies.

"It's incredibly simple," said Cameron. "It eats away at me, and makes the screen-based installations I've done look pretty small."

Artist and designer Jason Bruges was also impressed by such interactivity, citing Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's 2003 installation Frequency and Volume, in which an audience could re-tune radios by varying the size of their shadows on a blank wall.

But he also said he was inspired by the sheer audacity of some projects. As an example, he cited arcade, in which the Chaos Computer Club turned the side of Paris' Bibliothèque nationale de France skyscraper into a giant screen on which members of the public could broadcast videos or play games. Taking this a step further was Lozano-Hemmer's Amodal Suspension, in which text messages sent via a website were converted into a unique pattern of movements by 20 searchlights in the sky above Yamaguchi. "It just shows it's something we can do," Bruges enthused.

While the other speakers listed a series of projects that had impressed them, Simon Waterfall of Poke looked in detail at one - and at his own jealousy of its creator's cleverness. He listed ten reasons "Why it is good to Daljit Singh [of Digit]" ("He cooks well"; "He's afraid of single green peas, but will jump out of aeroplanes"), culminating in the success of Body In Motion, the interactive exhibit Singh's agency Digit created to promote Sony Ericsson's K800i phone. Singh picked up on the phone's unique feature, which allows users to take nine photos over a few seconds and select the best shot. To publicize this, he created an exhibit, first staged at London's Victoria station, in which passers-by could take pictures of themselves jumping in the air, and see them displayed on nine screens.

Waterfall praised the exhibit for using the phone itself, for the sheer number of consumers it had reached, and for the success with which it is now being rolled out to other countries. "It looks great, it's innovative, and it actually does the job," he said. "Worst of all, my mate Daljit did it, and I didn't. That really galls me."

The final speaker was Sankey of AllOfUs, who looked mainly at product design, on the grounds that "it's sort of useless if you don't actually use it."

He extolled designs that force you to think, such as the 1950s phone which takes so long to dial a number that you are forced to think about the person you are phoning, or the paper record player that begs the question of how far technology can be stripped back to basics. He was also impressed by ability of the younger generation of designers to create products that serve dual functions: "A lot of the kids starting out now are so multi-skilled it's frightening."

As examples, he cited a number of works by Japan's Naoto Fukasawa, including a CD player disguised as a wall fan, children's slippers that light up the surrounding room when worn, and a fridge door that also serves as a wipe clean message board. He was also impressed by Nick Mulvaney's Bebop web app, which looks at the songs on your iPod, finds gigs on your area of bands you like, and digs out links to box offices.

The speakers we followed by a panel discussion, during which Garrett expressed his surprise that no one had chosen screen-based projects. There seemed to be a consensus that designers are moving away from the internet - and that a good rule of thumb online is that, if it looks good, the content will be dreadful. "The web has only got good now people like us aren't involved any more," noted Cameron.

About the author
Jonn Elledge is a writer and journalist who blogs at Atlantic Rift.