A gorgeous Spring/Summer photo shoot in the Shanghai sun! As the hot weather chimes in it's the perfect opportunity for bringing out House of Cam's colourful, breezy dresses and summery accessories. Following on from the winning first campaign, Pure came back to orchestrate a follow-up photo shoot for the S/S 2013 collection. With a summer pool party vibe, the shoot took advantage of the collection's vivid colours to create a rich and glamorous series that captures the brand's fresh essence and premium quality.

Photography: Kuang Da
Styling: mini
Models: Rhea, Lea, Louise, Selena
Mascot: Hugh

"If the minds of living beings are impure, their land is also impure, but if their minds are pure, so is their land. There are not two lands, pure or impure in themselves. The difference lies solely in the good or evil of our minds."
Nichiren Daishonin

We wrote about celebrated fine dining restaurant cum wild experiment Ultraviolet on this blog over a year ago, lauding it for its ambitious take on multi-sensorial dining. Finally, after a painfully long wait, we had a chance to experience the genius for ourselves...

A blow-by-blow account of the meal, as is customary for most reviews, would hardly do in this case. That is, not least, because the whole experience takes about 5 1/2 hours and covers 22 individual courses with drinks pairings. And with each course you're not only getting things to put in your mouth, but also stimulation for the nose, ears and eyes. To go through it all would not only destroy the quirky surprise and thrill of each creative flourish, but would be a reading feat of Tolkienian proportions. Rest assured, this is dining at its most epic.

Take the course "Micro Fish no Chips" for example. To the giddy chimes of the Beatles' Ob-la-di, Ob-lad-da, the room is enveloped in images of a rainy day, while the dining table is morphed into a British flag. The pairing, oh-so-fittingly, is one of Brew Dog's signature craft beers, 5 A.M. Saint. 

Show runner Paul Pairet shows no qualms in shirking the expected. In fact, casting aside expectations is perhaps what Ultraviolet is all about... This is all the more apparent when the Micro Fish no Chips arrives on an over-sized plate, a jab at the haute cuisine tradition of pitiful portions.

Throughout the night, Pairet is breaking down walls. Whether its slandering stuffy fine dining conventions, evaporating the chef/patron barrier or obliterating the guest-to-guest conversation quandary, guests are constantly being cajoled into enjoying themselves more.

But for all of the extravagance, for all of the tongue-in-cheek references and gleeful theatrics, make no mistake: what is being done here is masterful. Every single dish is a potent reminder of Paul Pairet's exceptional background and skill. He experiments without slipping into excess. He does the classics but avoids cliché. Even his most daring of dishes pay heed to a sense of balance, with multiple flavors exciting the palate but achieving a genuine synergy. This level of precision extends from the food and drink, right through the impeccable service and, to his added praise, the complex audio-visual system.

The menu our group of sybaritic explorers were enjoying was Ultraviolet's opening menu, known as UVA, although we were informed that UVB has just come online to great reception. It may take another year, but by God we will be working to get a seat at that one too.

3D printers are not a new invention per se, having been around for over 20 years, but then again you could say the same for a mobile phone, or the internet. What these technologies have in common, is that they have in this day and age achieved a level of sophistication where their potential is being explored - and exploited - to an increasingly profound level. Twenty years ago, with a mobile phone you could make a call and - if you were lucky -  play a game of Snake. Just look at what it can do now.

In the same way, 3D printers have also reached that level of maturity where they can be engaged with by a much wider audience of individuals from a whole range of backgrounds. Perhaps a potent gauge of a technology's mass appeal is the point at which a seemingly harmless invention is manipulated to achieve harmful ends. Just as social media, the revolutionary connector of people, was thrown into the spotlight as a new tool for paedophiles and stalkers, 3D printers have gained notoriety after being used to produce a fully-functional gun.

But for every controversial application there are hundreds of cases where 3D printing has been used to creative ends, making for inspiring new developments in everything from photography to fashion.

It is only a matter of time before 3D printing finds itself popping up in the events sector in myriad ways as the technology continues to get cheaper, quicker and more sophisticated. Instead of a simple paper invitation card, how soon will it be that we are getting a 3D-printed miniature car inviting us to an auto show, or a 3D-printed model of a hotel to celebrate its grand opening?

When will it become viable for us to get a 3D-printed image of ourselves instead of a polaroid at the entrance backdrop? Will we be seeing increasingly intricate centerpieces, chandeliers and other decorations that would until recently have been prohibitively expensive to have custom made?

No doubt some of these things are already being tested out in isolated cases where the budget and timing allows. And it is only a matter of time before these sorts of things become the rule instead of the exception.

3D printing is symptomatic of a wider trend that is not just influencing the creative industries but businesses of all types: the increasing individualization of output. In a way we have come full circle. From the artisans of old to the Model-T Ford revolution and back again, 3D printing is taking ground away from areas previously dominated by the production line. As social media is individualising news dissemination, lone online whistleblowers are shaking up governments and crowd funding is empowering entrepreneurs who previously had no voice, 3D printing is another such tool that is firmly marking this time we live in as The Age of the Individual.