Kukun'ing the Home Renovation

There is clearly a growing trend in the design field where technology and the internet help both amateurs and professionals seek out new ways to reach clients and make business. Some platforms, profiles, and databases provide inspiriting design trends, lists of designers, contractors, and companies, and their design project outcomes. Essentially the overall objective is to present the client with a user friendly yellow page like option to select who to work with, where to buy supplies from, and what styles to pursue.

The growing list of websites and apps have their own service direction. The site that evidently provides a full A-Z 'partner' for online client is Kukun. The site has many similarities with its competitors with a twist of, well, simply more.  Dering Hall  is 'an online marketplace' where interior designers, architects, and designs can showcase and sell their work. Porch produces a list of local architects and trade professionals along with the links to their work as well as which Facebook friend has used their services. Adornably is an app that allows the user to select furniture of interest and place them in a digital image of the space desired for their placement. If the object fits then the buyer is more convinced and able to purchase the item online directly through the Adornably. Houzz is likely to be one of the most popular sites in its category of image database with links to furniture options in the various presented 'inspirational' pictures. And the list keeps going.

Kukun provides 'inspiration' with the intention of guiding the client through their own home renovation. The online user needs to simply register and describe the project, from a simple kitchen design to entire home makeover, and the site will navigate the rest. While there is a free online magazine with articles about current interior trends, European tendencies crossing the Atlantic, etc.; Kukun also handles budgeting and estimating, presents a local professional database, and offers comparison platforms. Kukun is more focused on getting homebuyers and owners to quantify how much it will cost to do any project and determine the effect of any renovation onto the value of their respective house. They have used a smart algorithm to derive from historical data the effect of certain changes to the house onto its future value..it is all patent pending and they promise to do more for the homeowner to help them manage the execution of the project not just conceive it including hiring the right professional through a standard process hiring process (check their references, create bids etc) rather a dating processes as practiced by its competitors.

Not every homeowner who intends to renovate is going to know first hand nor have advance understanding of the process, deadlines, costs, and simple stress until the project literally begins. So, the site is a pretty good guide to amateurs and experienced renovators who want the process to be not simply 'easy' but delineated and planned for an efficient, precise, on track course with intended and designed results.


for more info: http://mykukun.com/

Oakland Transformed: Getting in on the Art Scene

Oakland Experiments with the Up and Coming...

In the past, Oakland was perceived as depicting certain stereotypes. If anything, crime and baseball were the first images that echoed the city’s characteristics. Art by no means was a mainstream associated with the city. Since 2006, art galleries of the area created a community called Murmur with the intentions of collaborating on the common ideology of establishing Oakland as the new Bay Area art hub, competing with San Francisco’s position as the principal center. In a certain sense, the booming tech industry of San Francisco provided grounds for the expanding and increasing art community of the East Bay; essentially due to the rapid rent increase brought by the newcomers. It is feasible to perceive the art community was not initially content with their relocation, where the digital market dictated their venues. But now, one can gaze across the bay and see that the grass is truly greener on the other side. Galleries are located in Oakland’s Uptown, Downtown, Old, North and West Oakland, and Jingletown.


Along with their change of address came a change in mentality, recognizing that for the community to thrive requires a network and a leading platform beyond simply being relative neighbors. The First Fridays was established; founding a street festival where galleries and centers open their doors to literally produce a new art culture where it has even been rumored that an evening could bring 20,000 visitors. Art goers, tourists, dilettantes, and curious spectators fill the streets and venues bringing business, by default, to the neighborhood bars, restaurants, and shops. The event prides itself on promoting the new up and coming artists, offering them the opportunity to be seen and contribute the the market itself.


While the festivities are entertaining and does bring people from all walks of life to experience art, there are some shortcomings. While the platform launches new faces to the scene, their medium is not avant-garde and not at the level of being the future forerunners of the art market. The so-called thinking outside the box is still a long term journey that could easily demoralize prominent art collectors. Furthermore, the cost of the works are pricey. The casualness of the street scene does not mirror the type of clientele the galleries desire based on the price tags. It is by no doubt difficult to asses art values and it is often a big challenge for those in the market to target their potential or intended buyers. However emerging artists by default are accompanied by young buyers. The standard has to be equivalent. The perceived amateur work is further hindered by rudimentary display. Venues are not required to spend a lot of money on display, but their role is to bring out the best in the works, a curated environment. With these factors, investments in expression is diverted and the visitor are visual tourists entertained by walking around the closed roads, entering free open venues, watching street artists, and filling the eateries and bars.



It is clear that the potential is there and the future is bright. As more artists move to the East Bay and more centers and galleries welcome them, the scene can only grow and develop into a an avant garde movement, reflecting future expressions and echoing cultural progressions. Oakopolis Creativity Center Gallery and Impact Hub are two locations with the intention of establishing dialogue between artists and theorists, a form of communication that could help guide Oakland’s positioning as innovators, leaders of expression that could potentially transform the city at the level of international recognition, a sort of global art pioneers.


Bibliography:

1. Hiss, Mark. ‘OAKLAND: Crafting a New California Art Scene
2. ‘ in Watermelon (online). 10 Jan. 2010. http://wandermelon.com/2014/01/10/oakland-crafting-a-new-california-art-scene/ (date accessed 11 Apr. 2015).
3. Hiss, Mark. ‘OAKLAND: Crafting a New California Art Scene
4. ‘ in Watermelon (online). 10 Jan. 2010. http://wandermelon.com/2014/01/10/oakland-crafting-a-new-california-art-scene/ (date accessed 11 Apr. 2015).
5. 'Gallery District Walking Tours' in Oakland Art Murmur Organization. http://oaklandartmurmur.org/walking-tours/
6. 'Exhibitions' in Oakland Art Murmur Organization. http://oaklandartmurmur.org/exhibitions/ 
7. 'Our Story' in Impact Hub. http://oakland.impacthub.net/coworking-space-oakland-our-story-2/
8. 'Oakopolis Gallery' in Oakopolis Creativity Center Gallery. http://www.oakopolis.org/about-oakopolis-gallery/