Tiaras are magic, ask any girl who knows how to turn herself into a princess. Bompas & Parr’s Magic Crystal Tiara kit, created to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, makes magic even more magical.

As Bompas & Parr say –
Crystals are probably one of the most mysterious things on the planet and so is the Queen. Since the dawn of time crystals have been used for ancient ceremonies and rituals like the coronation. Grow your own magic crystal tiara by adding the crystal solution to the tiara and watch it blossom with white crystals. Don’t drink the solution though – danger of death.

This little kit provides the tools to make magic – on sale at Selfridges on Oxford Street, London for the month of May 2012.

Photo credit: Bompas & Parr

Purveyor of fine goods for monsters of every kind.
Bespoke and everyday items for the living, dead and undead. Located at 159 Hoxton Street, London.

This is a great shop, the only one in the world we know of which supplies such fine goods for monster consumption. It’s also a great way to get people interested in creative writing. The Monster Supply Shop is a front for the Ministry of Stories – behind a secret door is a free space for workshops and one-to-one mentoring for writing by young people. The services are provided by volunteers: local writers, artists and teachers, all giving their time and talent for free.

This place oozes creativity and just being in the shop gets visitor imagination buzzing. It’s a well-crafted effort to convince supporters and writers with any inkling of hesitation to come on in and stay.
Opening Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 11am – 5pm

Fine selection of tinned fear: Mild Sense of Unease, Cobbly Wobbles, Heebie Jeebies, Escalating Panic, and Mortal Terror. Not shown but also available: Fang Floss, Human Snot, Zombie Mints. Excellent prices.

Also available: Miniature eyeballs, flayed skin, fresh farts, vilest bile and varieties of human blood.

Death certificates available. Monster hot line at your own risk. Magic beans not accepted for payment.

Staff portrait wall.
One favourite – Filthystein, Shop Manager 1990 – 1993. Once ate his own brother then vomited him back up. Profiled by the 2010 Year 4 Class at St. Monica’s RC Primary School.

Community notice board. Where the undead and other creatures swap info and source hard-to-find odds and ends.

How can choreography lift a participatory experience? Move: Choreographing You at the Hayward Gallery, London, showcases the influence of dance on contemporary arts since the 60ies, in an open format for anyone to take part.

The show is very much like a playful choreography workshop. Different tools and set ups invite visitors to explore new ways to move and experience space. Some dance students warm up the air for participation. Guides are also present to help you through a variety of performances. Feel the anxiety of squeezing in Bruce Nauman narrow ‘Green Light Corridor’, test your agility crossing William Forsythe’s ‘The Fact of Matter’, a forest of suspended rings, or challenge your equilibrium while playing with Bodyspacemotionthings, a set of sculptures by Robert Morris…

Everything is in place to have visitors transformed into dancers. Plus, the exhibition is beautifully designed, with giant folded paper sculpture by Amanda Levete Architects that punctuate the visit.

More information here
Interesting article here

Giant magnetic coin-like structure invites people to leave behind their spare pennies, when passing by the Southbank Centre in London. The installation will close on 8 October 2010 and £1 will be donated to children’s charity Barnardo’s for every penny attached to the structure. Drop is an inspiring example of how to playfully engage people in making a donation – the interaction is simple, intuitive, and fun, as people move around the collected pennies like they do with fridge magnets, drawing or writing messages. Drop stimulates visitors to purposefully leave a trace, feeling ownership of their space, while giving back to the community.

This is a project spotted on Dezeen – I have not seen it in person, and wonder if people know how significant their donation was… even if the project does not need instructions for interaction, it still would be nice to know what will happen to all these pennies – especially when it is so motivating to know that each penny will become pounds…

How to make gallery visitors look at a collection in unexpected ways? The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, uses playful tools to engage visitors in looking up closely at contemporary artwork – Benches & Binoculars revisits 19th century displays by stimulating personal investigation through the use of binoculars.

This is just fantastic.
Heavens Above Fireworks (see link here) offers funeral arrangements, cremation services and ashes scattering services. Ultimately the company offers what they call “A happier way to say goodbye.” Heavens Above will create spectacular firework displays and also offer to create smaller, self fired fireworks rockets or other celebration fireworks with ashes for clients who do not want a display and who just want a few rockets to fire themselves.

What an excellent way of dealing with a difficult task – the permanence of death – turning it around completely and making it fun. Read the article, the family say it themselves – it’s about celebration of life. Company owner Fergus Jamieson says, “Fireworks are a metaphor – they are sparkling and over in a second, just like our lives on earth.”

Link to a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZoVbx6d2to

Also of interest, they offer memorial space flights! check those out here

Yes, I want to be loyal!

Lovely incentive – 10 stamps gets you a free coffee, but at 5 stamps you get a hug! Good encouragement at the half-way point. A great way to create loyalty and plenty of customer satisfaction. Everything they say, and the way it’s written make me feel personally invited to this cafe.

A great set-up in the Energy Gallery of the Science Museum, London. The rule is written clearly on the floor – do not touch. What’s more, located in a gallery all about electricity, breaking the rule here may well be dangerous. In this case the ‘rule’ acts more as a dare and visitors get a thrill from the result.

For starters, imagining what everything might be like is a great premise to get visitor sensors turned on. The Museum of Everything is a temporary museum dedicated to outsider art. It’s had several iterations, including one that invited folks from all over Great Britain to contribute work for Museum of Everything – Exhibition #2 at Tate Modern.

We visited Museum of Everything – Exhibition #1, whose details caught our eyes and imagination.

Starting off in the lobby, asking for a suggested donation is tricky. Here it was made playful by presenting that step lightly. Suggested donations from £1 – £1million. A great sense of humour goes a long way and visitors gladly paid non-obligatory entry fees.

Exhibition #1 was selected by leading contemporary artists, curators & cultural figures. Every display label gives a personal statement by the selecting person, explaining what’s interesting and why they chose it. The small shift in presentation format (from more formal, singular description of works) makes for labels everyone wants to read!

EVERYthing, NOthing, LAST Thing – The museum is full of rules & clues for what to do. The tone here is good-natured egging on and enouragement to keep exploring.

The whole museum was adapted to its space with artworks in odd nooks and niches. This gets visitors ducking, climbing and peeking, which can sometimes feel like an art treasure hunt.

It opens up main gallery that’s so tall, the exhibition team provided benches with binoculars for far away viewing.

For good measure, magnifying sheets are also provided for super close-up viewing. It’s playful low-tech interactive.

Sprinkled throughout are low-brow good humoured instructions. In the gift shop (just beyond the sign announcing LAST thing) you can pick up some tasteful swag, including yummy sweets of everything.

The tricky part – It’s both temporary and nomadic, you’ve gotta catch it! Since our first visit, the museum has generated versions #2, #3, and #4.

Have issues with Finance? Time management? Love? Meaning in your life? The School of Life turns niggling life issues into exciting opportunities – it’s a store front offering ‘good ideas for everyday living’. For people who are curious, somewhat sociable, want to expand their thinking…

They offer programmes & services concerned with how to live wisely and well, services like Bibiotherapy & individual sessions with all sorts of experts. They host events but also walk-ins welcome for browsing their handy book & product selection.

Some bookshelf topics: How to think about death, How to fill the God-shaped hole, How to be wise about money, How to fit in…

Breakfast club for early starters, 7.30 – 8.30am, led by Mark Vernon, philosopher, journalist & author.

So lovely, they make our hearts skip a beat.

The School of Life is open daily from 12:00 – 19:00 at 70 Marchmont Street London WC1N 1AB.