With the first full moon before spring comes the Holi festival to celebrate the power of good over bad, the arrival of spring over winter, the promise of life over death.

Holi is a very old Hindu ritual that brings together family and friends. The festival originated about 300 years BC, as some cave paintings seem to indicate. It is the story of a king called Hiranyakashyap that wanted everybody in his kingdom to venerate him and him alone; great was therefore his agony when his only son Prahlad decided to admire and serve another master called Lord Narayana. The son disappointed his father so much that Hiranyakashyap ordered his sister Holika to enter a blazing fire to burn his son to death. She knew how to ignite a fire from her limbs and stay alive in the blaze, yet failed to burn her brother since she could only do it by entering the fire alone. She paid the price of her life by seeking revenge yet her brother was saved from the fire; therefore the Holi festival celebrates the victory of good over evil and also the triumph of devotion over deceit.

To today Holi is savoured in northern India with major bonfires called Holika on street corners and public squares to burn the bad spirits before the next morning; people take embers from the public fires to light their own.

Holi marks the end of the winter gloom and the beginning of spring. Therefore the sprinkling of coloured waters and dusting with pure pigments has become the ritual to mark this moment. A national full moon holiday where all people dress in inexpensive white khadi cloth, as a canvas to become a walking fauvist impression when speckled with colour. The vivid, almost fluorescent hues tint the clothes yet also the skin and hair, painting a strange, at times scary and monster-like picture. Families and groups of friends come together and drink lassi laced with bhang which is a mild opiate to set the spirits free and to get the feet ready to dance in Bollywood fervour.

Woken up early the next morning by multiple jetlags, I had to pinch myself: was the bhang still in my body giving me hallucinations? I contemplated the Paris fashion shows on F-TV and couldn't believe my eyes to see Holi again! And this time for winter 2012-13, the brightly coloured hair at Gaultier, the monochrome eyes at Dries, the mask-like faces at Zandra Rhodes to go with her definitely pigmented chiffons, as well as the bride and evening dresses at Vivienne Westwood, all definitely shouting Holi to me. Suddenly I realised that we could see these new fashions through Holi eyes and understand it as the ritual of colour over neutrals, the rites of pigments over darks, the triumph of happiness over pessimism. And then I proudly remembered the pigment story I had done in Earth Matters for spring summer 2012! So please have Happy Holi for the seasons to come.

Lidewij Edelkoort

As part of a landmark event merging music, nature & technology, Björk has collaborated with academics, writers and scientists to investigate exciting expressions of sound and create Biophilia. She recently performed the first in a series of intimate concerts at Roseland Ballroom; a live tour that follows the artist’s partnership with the Creators Project and her residency at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. (The show was previewed first over the summer in Manchester and Reykjavik).

The Biophilia project is an exploration of how natural phenomena has the power to inspire sound structures and music; it is also the world’s first app album, composed with the help of a tablet and especially developed instruments such as a MIDI-controlled pipe organ, 10-foot pendulum-harps and twin-musical Tesla coils that generate lightning. Ten new songs include Solstice, Dark Matter, Thunderbolt, Crystalline and Mutual Core.

Introduced by the iconic voice of Sir David Attenborough, the live experience was a soft awakening: a concentration of centralised vocal energy, potent like pollen and punctuated by occasional drumming or bursts of sound. Björk’s latest style incarnation involves a swarming red wig and bombastic fashion by the Dutch designer Iris van Herpen; on a circular stage framed by eight screens, she sings like a queen bee surrounded by a choir of 24 female chorus-soldiers.

A programmer stationed behind screens and 4 iPads mixes sounds that morph like the onscreen animations by Scott Snibbe: the interactive artist has merged his images with others from National Geographic to create visions of thriving biotopias, throbbing germinations, geometric representations of sound waves, strands of DNA, thunder bolts and volcanic explosions. To be both in awe of nature and in symbiosis with it.

Forever at the forefront of contemporary culture, Björk has tapped into a shift towards biology. Her music is a poetic indicator of how we will get closer to nature intuitively and on a more spiritual level; succinctly echoing many of the themes in Trend Union’s Earth Matters forecast – 2012 could mark the beginning of a significant rebirth in ecological awareness and a global coming of age.

In addition to the concerts, Björk has started the Biophilia Educational Series for middle-school students at the Hall of Science, teaching them how music can relate to nature and about the scientific themes of Biophilia: including the inspiring study of crystalline structures, lunar phases, DNA and viruses. This programme will incorporate teaching with the use of apps, now to be featured at international music festivals and introduced into Reykjavik’s schools’ curriculum for the next three years.

Philip Fimmano

I am part of this generation that feels that the heel is never high enough, We want higher and higher heels…. Shoes should either have a minimum of 10 cm heel or no heel at all.

But suddenly it’s changing we start looking and even trying shoes with lower heels, is it because we start to realize that you can’t actually stand a whole day on 14 cm heels… ?

In the movie «  my week with Marilyn » we suddenly discover that kitten heels gave her an amazing silhouette, and the idea that we had that shorter heels wouldn’t make us more beautiful is very wrong.

From Alexander Wang to Salfatore Ferragamo passing by Pierre Hardy we can see that there is a come back of the middle heel ; the one that is 3-5 cm…

Charlotte Bjorklund

Well Being is a long term trend that we have been watching since years, and we still are…. We now can find a range of health and fitness related apps that keep track of our health, today, two major companies in this industry are launching real new products.

Runkeeper, one of the major actor of the "digital wellness" has attracted since 3 years a massive databank of users : 8 millions health-conscious enthusiasts are keeping track of their miles, time and calories burned on iOS, Android or Windows devices! Runkeeper has partnered with a number of companies, sites and healthy lifestyle blogs.They also announced integrations with Wi-Fi body scales from Withings, heartrate transmitters from Polar …

But they want more : Runkeeper wants to become a global platform for fitness and wellness data.They are now introducing the "Healthy Button" which allow people to share health and fitness content from across the web selectively with friend. It acts much like the "like" button does on Facebook. From articles and blog posts to products: this button allows people to flag and share content that they feel is healthy. When the button is clicked, your page is added to the Health Graph as a healthy entity. Other people who view the item can visit your page and comment on the post .

The second launch is done by Nike who just unveiled its "FuelBand" this week in New York.This wristband is meant to be worn 24-7, as every movement is tracked: running, walking, dancing, basketball – and dozens of everyday activities. It will give you a score telling you how much energy you burned during the day. The idea is that this device tracks your life, and help you to live better. A LED display lets users know how close they are to their goal by flashing red, yellow or green. This data is synched to an IOS device. Exercise is something you do all the time, so any movement contributes to your "Fuel Score " : a night on the dance floor should be as productive as jogging around the park. For Nike the focus is on encouraging the gamification of being more active, regardless of how you do it.

Both developments express our strong desire of monitoring our body and get data whether we will share them with every one or keep them more private. Body is really THE new Media.

Cécile Poignant

www.runkeeper.com

www.nike.com

Born in the 1990’s as a science fiction, fantasy and alternate history style, steampunk is under watch again. In the ambient fear of the turn of the millennium, this current proposed survival in a gothic blend of historical and high tech styles. It built its name from the combination of steam power, engine of the industrial revolution, and the punk movement as a form of rebellion. It refers to the British Victorian and American Wild West periods and to the works of fantasy writers such as Jules Vernes or H.G. Wells.

This apocalyptic scenario inspired London and New York urban youth to imagine a look of decayed aristocratic dandies and eccentric ladies showcasing analog high tech devices encased in ornate historical covers. Boys and girls would re-design their wardrobe, lifestyles and interiors, dressing in redingotes, three piece suits and long skirts with extravagant hairdos and wearing mad max accessories, choosing steam machine conductor goggles and distressed leather accessories.

This dramatic style is re-enacted today with the background of the crisis and even the question of the end of the calendar in 2012.

The romantic movement from 18th -19th century Europe inspires us to rekindle with culture and opt for historical and gothic fashions. The steam inspiration enacts a desire to use trains again to travel on earth rather than by air; the punk inspiration echoes the protest movement to rebel against the boredom of today’s main street’s looks and start a radically new era in fashion where these renaissance references prevail.

Emmanuelle Linard

Yayoi Kusama's life have taken her from rural Japan to the New York art scene to contemporary Tokyo. Well-known for her repeating dot patterns, her art encompasses an astonishing variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, film, performance and immersive installation. A must see at Tate Modern!

More