Generation Y

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Kuala Lumpur- Singapore 1^st March 2013

First congratulations to our Grace, who this afternoon delivered a healthy baby girl! Well done, and that considering she still came to the office this morning! Now that is dedication for you :). We wish her, her husband, little Lionel and her family all the best with the new baby! These are happy and proud moments, also for us at the office! Will the baby girl turn out to be a lighting designer in the future, just like her Mum…?

So as I write this blog I can’t help but think about the new generation and how they grow up in such a different world as we grew up. When I started my career in lighting design we did not have computers let alone all these social networking ways. I am struggling to keep up with it (I have a twitter account with quite some followers, god knows why, as I have not tweeted for more than a year!). But today’s generation is literally born “with” computers and social networking, with the first pictures probably taken with an IPhone and uploaded to Facebook within minutes! I have a Facebook account solely to keep up with my kids, but the younger generation in our offices communicate constantly through these mediums. Skype is my only serious communication tool, besides my phone and text messaging. E-mails are already getting old fashion I feel, or better being made to feel! 🙂

Even in our daily work I can see that the new generation struggles to make sketches by hand, preferring to use computer programs to create or illustrate their point. I once saw a movie, forgot the name, where life was taken over by ever young “substitutes” from yourself, while the original you was just sitting in a chair linked to electronics controlling the substitute carrying the work out for you in “real” life…scary…are we going that way? I sincerely hope not and that the new generation will find a balance between the IT-age and real nature, our planet and our own human (motor) skills!

Light Watch 4-37: Appropriately this year’s Earth Hour activity in Singapore are launching an event called Dance 2 Power, where the audience will have to generate their own energy to watch the event. This is done by using and interactive dance floor that will convert the energy from their dancing into power for the lights and other!