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Well, it's Friday, and b3ta comes thru again with a link to this awesome collection of slowed-down videos, from animal trap crushing a pen and an egg to cymbal crash. All you design-types will probably go for the milling block of aluminum or the Slinky drop, but the rest of us, like the folks at b3ta, will enjoy the stomach punches and call it a day. Favorite though, is the pen twirled in hand, which, we suspect, is WAY harder to do at slow speed. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
What do you get when you cross Babblefish with a goldfish's 3-second memory span? Give a tap to Human Beans' in-ear Goldfish device and it'll replay the last 10 seconds of whatever you've last heard. Part of a triad of conceptual design pieces for Hearwear�The Future of Hearing at the V&A, Chris Vanstone and Mickael Charbonnel (the Beans; or the Humans...mmm, I'm not sure now) explored "hearing aids for the hearing able."
Their other two pieces are Mute�a SoundStick+plugs system using cancellation algorithms to remove various offending noises, and .scp, where users load and play a .scp soundscape file that "retunes" what you're listening to�turn traffic into harmonies, or rain to song. With stunning packing, convincing presentation and all-pro graphics, these conceptual projects are ready for the store shelves. Engineering needs to catch up a bit, but hey, companies have gone to market with a lot less.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
It's just a beautiful, minimalist wooden toy. Playsam Streamliner Classic. (Or I guess you could look here.) Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Eva is a floor lamp with a body that slides on a telescopic rod, between the floor and the ceiling. The higher it gets, the brighter your room!
Designed by FX Ball�ry.
Posted by: regine | Comments (0)
Via BoingBoing
Regardless of your perspective on the NYC subway bag searches, one must admit that this is genius. Use tools that put the customization (if not the direct creation) of products into everyone's hands and use the icon of the product itself to comment on the event. It's more than a slogan-on-a-t-shirt/button/placard, it's product as social action.
Posted by: Steve Portigal
| Comments (0)
New York Times article about a Saudi prince donating $20 million for a new wing for the Louvre's Islamic art collection. Posted by: Bruce M. Tharp | Comments (0)
Via BoingBoing, a short article on RSVP reading (rapid serial visual presentation), where words display on your cell or handheld one at a time in rapid succession. Here's the web demo; here's the link to BuddyBuzz, where you can download it to your phone. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
We can reproduce your favorite discontinued lip color shades or we can create a lip color for you from a color swatch that you provide. Your 'recipe' then remains in our permanent files for easy re-ordering! If you do not have a sample but you remember the brand name and color name of the shade you are looking for, please email us and we can check our archive of over 7,500 shades that we have matched for other clients. If your shade is not in our archives, we can arrange to notify you if we receive it from another client.This is a fantastic service; freeing loyal customers from the capriciousness of fashion/sales volumes/limited availability.You can have us create your own shade ~ from a splash of nail color in a baggie, a piece of fabric, a paint chip, a photo from a magazine, two lip colors blended together to create the ideal shade... anything!
Via MightyGoods
Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)
Props to this Industrial Design student at the Konstfack University College of Arts Crafts and Design, Stockholm. Check out his latest music video clip 'Station to Station'.
Industrial Design / Graphic Design / Illustration
Inspired by the history and social values of the sabil, the traditional middle-eastern public water fountain, Zohar Shalev's Mayimayim device provides mineral water in public spaces, serving as a community focal point. Refills cost a fifth of the price of a new bottle, and each time the machine�s four water tanks are restocked, the environment is spared 150 plastic bottles-worth of waste. View this project, as well as other final class projects here. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Faber Maunsell and Hugh Broughton Architects has won the competition for the new British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Halley Research Station.
The new station will have a series of mechanical legs on skis that enable it to stay above the surface of the ice and be relocated inland to minimize the risk of loss due to calving events. Designed to withstand extreme winds and freezing winter temperatures down to minus 56 degrees Celsius, the new design will provide a safe, stimulating place for scientists to live and work, in a building designed to minimize its impact on Antarctica's pristine environment. [gutter, etc., etc.]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
The chances of this actually happening seem pretty slim (no money for the project, Donald Trump is pissed it would be taller than the one he is building, etc.), but a developer is proposing to build a Santiago Calatrava designed skyscraper next to Navy Pier in Chicago.
Posted by: Don Lehman | Comments (0)
...So we Got on a Plane and Went There.
Bruce Tharp and Stephanie Munson put their (plane) tickets where their talk is. Plus a bonus picture gallery! Here's a snippet:
There has certainly been a great deal of speculation lately regarding the real or perceived rise of Chinese industrial design. We say "perceived rise" to emphasize that their impending world domination in this field is not a foregone conclusion, despite the frequent flurries of listserve chatter and design-conference panel discussions supporting such a notion.
We would agree that China's entr�e into the global design community demands careful attention as the stakes are high--remember when US factories weren't filled with yuppies and their Sub-Zero refrigerators (made in China)? But so much of what we have been hearing smacks of alarmism and over-reaching conjecture. We were dogged by the question of what is really going on with Chinese industrial design�education and practice�so we decided to go there and get a glimpse for ourselves. [Full article here]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Cristina Bilsland investigates "mundane" issues and responds to them through product design. She has been developping projects in response to obesity, eating disorders and obsessions.
My favourite among her works is GO-DO, an inflatable polyurethane doll inspired in the current debates on child obesity.
Today, even though they are larger than their counterparts in the 50s, children are still given 50s shaped Barbie dolls to play with. If given the opportunity to decide whether their doll was to be slim or fat, which would they choose? Would they want their doll to look like them? Should we give a child that choice?
The doll is manipulated through the injection of a liquid into its hollow body, which changes its shape from very slim to obese (and vice-versa).
Spotted at the RCA 2005 Show.
I Like Drawing has taken his pens to the streets to drawn on rubbish.
Posted by: regine | Comments (0)As an undergraduate at Brown University in the late 1970s, Holt was not only the picture of health, but an avid athlete and cyclist whose pals teased him about his �thunder thighs.� In 1979 at age 20, however, his life took a dramatic turn: for reasons doctors never unearthed, Holt�s kidneys failed. He received a transplant. After five months in the hospital, he battled back to health and finished a degree in cognitive science.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)Soon after, in 1982, Holt answered an ad for a low-level job at Manhattan-based ID Magazine, the bible of industrial design. Within a year, the intense Holt was editor of the magazine that spotted and helped shape trends, and it was a time when all sorts of new high-tech products were appearing on the landscape.
It's no Solar Death Ray, but the fact that the Solar Sizzler mounts to tripod makes it pretty sweet. [Treehugger] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Less elegant than Cableyoyo, but with a more military/industrial hit, Cordster is a specialist in managing teeny tiny headphone wires. Stick it on the back of your Sidekick, Gameboy, or iKnowwhat, and you're packin'. (Thanks to James J for the tip.) Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
The irony is, of course, that industrial designers do this all the time, but then mess it up with their J.C. and colors and nonsense. Leave it to the artists to know when to stop. [boingboing] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
We're a bit late on this, (and maybe so is she, for that matter), but Susan Bradley has won Graduate Designer of the Year with her laser-cut decorative patterns, Outdoor Wallpaper, at London's Design & Decoration Awards 2005. "Walls in urban areas are often overlooked, so I wanted to bring an element of indoors out to create an outdoor domestic space." [hiddenart] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Design and build a working Space Glove prototype for NASA, win $250,000!
Be warned though - if Troy Hurtubise comes outta retirement for this he's going to kick everyone's *#@!
(Full details have yet to be announced) via /.
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (0)
The Origami House at the Latrobe Regional Gallery, Victoria. Many months of folding; part of the Folding Australia 2005 Convention, of course. [boingboing] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
London based multi-disciplinary art and design practice Troika Design are building up quite a nice client list and still find time to explore some interesting self initiated projects including the SMS Guerilla Projector, a home made fully functioning device thats allows you to take over the public space projecting text messages onto signs, people and buildings. Not to dissimilar in concept to the work of Evan Roth (recently blogged at core).
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Fidget is a rooking stool designed by Lynn Kingelin for cafes. It reflects the fast pace and balance of sitting. An ocular lens shape ensures perfect rocking, spinning and balanced movement.
More coolness in her portfolio.
Posted by: regine | Comments (0)
David Graas's BonusAntifoni2003 lamp. This is nice. [GNR8] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Shane Inder from New Zealand rethinks extreme ironing with his 'Ironman'
"The ironman's unique shape allows for easier ironing. His broad chest provides a greater surface area for ironing shirts, skirts and linen. His legs allow you to slip over trousers and shorts"
via [popgadget]
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)"This conference aims to bring together manufacturers,plastics engineers and end-users, together with producers of innovative plastics materials.From the idea to the product,network and .nd fresh ideas on designing with plastics at this event."
More info can be found here.
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This degree project intends to explore western society's current perception of illness and wellness in a context of product design. The main goals of this project are equal and presented in no particular order. The first goal is the desire to stimulate debate and conversation about health, to ask people to reevaluate their own perceptions of illness, wellness, and the way in which these assessments shape their lives. Another goal of this project is to question the role products play in the forming of these values, to ask whether or not the existence or non-existence of a product can manipulate our desires into �needs.� Additionally, to test the extent to which a product can employ a conceptual voice most often utilized by fine art. Design concepts and prototypes of products that can illustrate these ideas and help to raise these questions were produced at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2005."
His Chuck Taylors are nice too.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Typeradio, the radio channel on type & design. Type is speech on paper. Typeradio is speech on type.
Typeradio is MicroFM broadcast, a MP3 internet radio stream and a podcast station. Since 2004 Typeradio is visiting different design events around the world, to meet designers and to talk.
You can even download the Widget!
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)Driving simulators are interior mock-ups (or in some cases, complete cars) placed on hydraulically actuated platforms and surrounded by video screens and speakers. Drivers at the wheel feel vibrations, acceleration and deceleration just as if they were driving on the roads projected around them.Link to full article Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)"You save 50 percent of your research time,'' said Beuzit, noting one reason companies build multimillion-dollar simulators. "It has transformed the automobile industry in the last 20 to 30 years.''
Because the simulator experience is so close to reality, providing the physical sensation of going around a curve or bouncing over a badly paved road, scientists can use it to do fundamental research on how all the senses contribute to what a driver perceives, said Andras Kemeny, a research director at the technical center.
For Renault, he said, "It is absolutely necessary to understand the driver's strategy in driving, and then design industrial objects according to this knowledge.'' Kemeny said it would take a decade to complete the loop of bringing fundamental research results to showrooms.
Now come on! Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
"Sticker-removal duty took Jean Lemeaux of Clarksville, Tex., half an hour one day last week.
"I was picking all the little stickers from the Piggly Wiggly off my plums and my avocado pears and my peaches," said Ms. Lemeaux, 76. "Then I had to make fruit salad out of the ones that got hurt when I took the stickers off, and then I had to wash the glue off the other ones before I put them in the fruit bowl."
"One time," she said, "I got up the next morning and looked in the mirror and there were two of them up in my hair.""
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (0)Note: the date on the photograph is 7th July, this was taken the evening of the explosions, less than 200 feet from where the doubledecker bus exploded earlier that morning.
These aren't all new, but some nice work out of SAdBK Stuttgart Master of Design Integral Studies. Above: Ralf Becker's InLight, Steffen Schmidt's Remora, and Ralf Becker's Instant Spine Immobilizer. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
A new generation of Danish designers is emerging, with design that is characterised by powerful aesthetics, social awareness and new expressions - in product design and graphic design, modern communication design and solutions to complex challenges concerning environmental sustainability and other issues.
With "exhibition spheres" such as Outernational, Help Me Help You, You Better Work, Blah, Blah, Blah, and Home Sweet Home, 'sure does sound like a design exhibit to me. Link.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
New York Collective for the Arts is producing anOTHER T.SHIRT COMPETITIONM, a reinterpretation of the traditional t-shirt competition.
Using a t-shirt as medium/raw-material or a jumping off point, we are looking for submissions which extend the boundaries of what a t-shirt is and what graphic design is. We are seeking entries that bring us into the world of inventive, playful, unconventional design. Look at it as exploring the t-shirt as artifact/fetish/object/medium/art.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
Call it Universal Design, or Accessible Design, or Inclusive Design, or just write your own definition. But whatever you name it, the RSA, along with i~design and EPSRC, have put together a great site with loads of case studies, strategies, methods, and a glossary on This Should Be Everyone's First Thought Design. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
The Optimus Keyboard, developed by Russian designer Artemy Lebedev, is a fully programmable, OS-independent, keyboard. "Every key of the Optimus keyboard is a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at this very moment." The keys use OLED technology to display what they are controlling. Infinitely flexible.
Thanks to Justin Fawson for the tip.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)The Optimus Keyboard, developed by Russian designer Artemy Lebedev, is a fully programmable, OS-independent, keyboard. "Every key of the Optimus keyboard is a stand-alone display showing exactly what it is controlling at this very moment." The keys use OLED technology to display what they are controlling. Infinitely flexible.
Thanks to Justin Fawson for the tip.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)Ducatti 911- Secret MotoGP Prototype - RARE - $22000
Reply to: anon-84647318@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-07-15, 11:56AM EDT
Fastest prototype Ducatti handmade by mr. Ducatti hisself in the Italian racing tradition of performance top of the line quality for racing applications only. This bike is Ducatti as fuck. You know you wants it, but damn yo, I need the cash bad, so serious buyers only. I am predicamented on account of the fact that I am unable to post a picture of this bike due to mr. Ducatti made me swear on his mothers meatballs not to show the design to no one. Think about it. Maybe you heard me ride by you at like a buck ninety nine in 2nd gear so you couldn't see me real good but you says to yourself how he go so fast yo? Ducatti 911, thats how. Shit be no joke kid.
Serious offers only. Cash only. On account of the sensitive designs and engineering I had to legalize crazy confidentialities regarding perpetration of disclosures and shit. Bottom line is you cannot see this bike until you have paid for it. Don't worry, I am very trustworthy and you will like it alot. Because the bike is so fast, you have to show up wearing full racing leathers and have a good helmet, or else I will not feel comfortable giving you the keys. It is for your own safety and so I can sleep at night knowing my best customers are not a five mile red stain on the BQE.
ps. Dethkillers of Bushwick is a fairy tale. That shit aint real. I know these things. Buy this bike and you can too.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
Colours Wheelchair makes high-end and sport wheelchairs, such as the 'Extreme' pictured above. Their web site marketing is a bit over the top, but they have a nice product range.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
This is off the hook, Jun Rekimoto doing some very conceptual physical user interface research at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Tokyo.
"I am interested in designing a new human computer interaction style for highly portable computers, that will be situation-aware and assistance-oriented rather than command oriented. Using this style, a user will be able to interact the real world that is augmented by the computer's synthetic information. The user's situation will be automatically recognized by applying a range of recognition methods, allowing the computer to assist the user without having to be directly instructed by the user. Before the end of the decade, I expect that such computers will be as commonplace as today's Walkmans, electronic hearing aids, eyeglasses, and wristwatches."
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)An increasingly global business climate means that more and more companies face potentially devastating disruptions to their operations as a result of natural disasters or local health epidemics like SARS. Manmade events like terrorist attacks, strikes, and bankruptcies also have the power to halt production and shipments. A fire at a manufacturing plant somewhere in Southeast Asia can halt laptop deliveries to individuals in Southern California, hurting not only a company�s revenue but the goodwill it has worked to establish with customers.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)Over the past 20 years many businesses have adjusted product designs to make them more flexible in responding to disruptions in supply or demand. Computer maker Hewlett-Packard, for example, has gradually shifted from building customized computers for different countries to adopting a common design that minimizes the number of country-specific features, like the power unit, so that there are only a few unique pieces, which can be added in the final manufacturing stage. That way, if the German market experiences a shortage, machines from France can easily be shipped in to fill the gap. This concept of �last-point differentiation� has been one of the keys to computer maker Dell�s success.
An exhibit of customized Vans sneakers, from Barcelona-based Espaipupu. Some for sale.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (1)
France's VIA exhibits student projects of '05... check it out online: Expos Galerie VIA --> Les Ecoles de Design --> "produits" cube in the lower right --> the projects. Found on Dezain
Above:
Priscilla MARTIN of the Acad�mie Charpentier
"Naomi screen"
ErwanMEVEL of the Beaux Arts de Rennes
"La r�verie cristalline table"
Pedalite is a bicycle pedal light, rendering visible the previously invisible night cycler. It is not run on batteries but instead on stored energy produced by the rider, creating a light signature viewable from 360 degrees.
Thanks to Arnold van Bezooyen for the tip.
"PixelRoller is a paint roller that paints pixels, designed as a rapid response printing tool specifically to print digital information such as imagery or text onto a great range of surfaces. The content is applied in continuous strokes by the user. PixelRoller can be seen as a handheld "printer", based around the ergonomics of a paintroller, that lets you create the images by your own hand."
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Fans of The King, pixels and office supplies will all appreciate the Post-It Elvis Mosaic. Complete with a handy step-by-step how-to, beginning with "What you'll need: a wall, an image, Photoshop, Post-Its, time."
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EILEEN GRAY
17 September 2005 to 8 January 2006
London Design Museum
www.designmuseum.org
Arguably the most important woman to have worked in the male-dominated fields of design and architecture, Eileen Gray was responsible for many of the most enduring examples of early 20th century furniture design, and her houses continue to influence architects. She infused the geometric forms and industrial materials beloved of Le Corbusier and fellow modernist pioneers with opulence and sensuality, while insisting on �building for the human being�. Her circular E-1027 table was originally designed for her sister to enjoy breakfast in bed.
Posted by: squee.gee | Comments (0)
It's easy to rag on design studios' insane flash sites, but this is just nuts. Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
More goodies from the Royal College of Art Show 2005, London:
Three vices, by designer Srishti Bajaj, is a series of conceptual tools to help achieve a degree of control over our vices.
The Horn Mouth has to be worn on the mouth clamping on the teeth. It was designed for people who indulge in spreading malicious gossips and rumors (worn by the girl with the black shirt).
The Tongue Rein holds the tongue of people with habit of using excessive profanity. The rein is worn over the tongue to literelly hold the tongue of such a person (green shirt).
The Tempular Point is a device aimed at keeping from talking too much an individual who is extremly longwinded - verbose. The hold is worn under the chin, therefore everytime the person opens the mouth to speak, the set of pullys harness the pointed angles to painfully press into the temples, forcing the individual to talk less in order to avoid the pain (blue shirt).
You can contact Srishti at worldbajaj at hotmail dot com.
Posted by: regine | Comments (0)
Next week London's National Film Theater will host Optronica, a five-day festival focused on the convergence of visuals and music, featuring (among others) ex-Kraftwerk start Karl Bartos and a performance of 'Rebirth of a Nation' with DJ Spooky. Sounds like five worthy nights of entertainment.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
In the upcoming movie Elizabethtown, Orlando Bloom stars as a brilliant twenty-seven-year-old design genius, working for the Oregon-based Mercury Shoes. He follows in the footsteps of Julia Roberts (Runaway Bride) and Eva Marie Saint (North By Northwest) portraying one of the most coveted roles in all of Hollywood: the industrial designer.
As the script opens, Drew has just discovered that the new sneaker he's designed, the Spasmotica, has been deemed the greatest failure in the history of the shoe industry and its recall alone will cost Mercury upwards of 972 million dollars.
Yikes. Maybe I won't submit that portfolio to Nike after all...
Script details via UnderGroundOnline
McDonald�s has already tapped into Hip-Hop music to help sell their food and promote their brand and now the fast food giant is in talks with Sean John, Rocawear and Fubu to give employee�s uniforms a makeover.The full article talks about McDonald's as a 'lifestyle brand,' and says they are also considering American Apparel, Tommy Hilfiger and others for the job.
via ProteinOS
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Crazy J - the guitar playing robot! Listen as Crazy J plucks out Flight of the Bumblebee! Rivals that banjo-playing kid from Deliverance! Found on slashdot
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (0)
I saw Evan Roth speak about "Geek Graffiti" on Thursday morning at the Flash Forward conference in NY. He's doing some really inspiring work on combining street art and technology. Evan just graduated from Parsons (had this wrong earlier), his thesis was The Graffiti Analysis Project.I also stopped by Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn last night to see him project his work on the side of a building... taking street art, using technology to analyze the art, then returning it back to the street.
email cinnamonoatmeal
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The Melbourne Design Festival commenced today with a number of exhibitions including the Melbourne and Milan Sister City Competition which debuted last April at the Milan Design Week. There's some excellent concepts exploring the physical and virtual experience of navigating the cityscape.
07 – 15 July 2005
BMW Edge at Federation Square
Melbourne, Australia
Cnr. Swanston & Flinders Street
Opening hours: 10am - 5pm
www.nationaldesigncentre.com
Rice paddy fields in the village of Inakadate in Japan bear Ukiyoe works by painters Sharaku and Utamaro. Local rice farmers created the Ukiyoe works by growing different color rice plants. They can be seen until mid-August.
Tree accesses the source code of a web domain through its url and transforms the syntactic structure of the web site into a tree structure represented by an image. This image illustrates a tree with trunk, branches and ramifications. First each tree is initialized, than all html links are detected, chronologically saved and finally displayed.
Makes you wonder what ID-obsessed programmer could come up with: your URL rendered as a shoe? A coffee maker? (Chandelier's too easy.) [DesignObserver]
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
I'm so impressed with "Street Fight," a documentary by Marshall Curry. It's one of those films that makes you angry. Makes you want to prove someone wrong. Makes you care.
Previously only seen at film festivals, it's being featured on POV on PBS (check your local listings) so get a move on and record it.
People are buzzing about this one:
design*sponge, PBS message boards, NY times
This Article at Hint profiles an RCA product design grad's footwear work in the high fashion world. (direct link to her site)
Posted by: shaggy | Comments (0)
Astute reader Jens Christian M�ller pointed out the striking similarity in looks between the Sony Walkman WM-109 from 1986, and the Apple iPod. Check out all the photos from the last year's 25th Anniversary party here.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
Designers can be a cynical lot, but sometimes we just need to relax and remember why got mixed up in this whole design thing in the first place. In that spirit, Tom Peters has put together his Re-imagine manifesto into a nice little PDF. Is he promoting his books and company? Sure. But you know, let down your guard for a few minutes, read it, get inspired, and go kick some ass.
via Notcot
Posted by: Don Lehman | Comments (0)
First Pullover is a new blog/resource started by Core superfan and shoe designer Richard Kuchinsky. In it he documents the ins and outs of footwear design, provides some trend analysis and describes the process from the inside while working as a product manager at Hummel.
Nice.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
These instructions are intended to make a cutter for expanded polystyrene foam sheets of 5cm thickness. The cutter is suitable for cutting wind turbine blade sections designed using the club cycom software. Only use to cut polystyrene foam since other materials (such as polyurethane foam) will give off toxic fumes. [makezine] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
PLEASE NOTE: All the toys pictured on my site are a part of my own personal collection. THEY ARE NOT FOR SALE! This site is intended to show toy collectors what kind of bootleg toys are out there. Some of these toys actually have quite a bit of humor quality behind them. Other toys are just plain old pieces of garbage that have no reason to exist except to endanger small children. I DO NOT condone the manufacture, distibution or sale of these toys. I only collect them. [boingboing] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
It takes 920 handmade steel and bronze parts to create this fully poseable metal figure. The model has 101 parts in each hand alone. Available directly from the artist/manufacturer Mark Ho in Amsterdam. Some assembly required.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
The photo is definitely quaint but still matches our iconic image of how trading (whatever that is; most of us have little understanding of the mechanics of markets or the activity of trading). Maybe we picture men in jackets with numbers on 'em, holding phones and throwing pieces of paper and yelling and yelling. But that era has disappeared as technology has eliminated the need for a central place. Trading takes place in distributed facilities, owned and operated by "banks" (including Morgan Stanley et al) not in centralized facilities owned and operated by exchanges. The Chron today considers the history of the exchange in San Francisco, now a gym.A 1999 article in The Chronicle reported that only about 5 percent of the 17.5 million shares traded daily there involved personal interaction on the exchange floor.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)The romance was ending. Warren Langley, president and chief operating officer of the exchange from 1996 to 1999, wrote in an e-mail that those who had devoted their lives to the exchange "really were in pain as the world of technology and telecommunications made floor-based exchanges obsolete (and made the value of their jobs go away)."
In 2001, the exchange announced a merger with the electronic marketplace corporation Archipelago, eliminating the need for brokers to interact face to face, and sold the trading floor in 2002.
If you attended the 2002 IDSA conference, you may have seen architect Bruce Tomb talk about his experience with his others in his community graffiti-ing or removing graffiti from his building, and how he essentially turned it into an ongoing art project. I wrote about it here (six boxes down, in blue) and today the SF Chron has an in-depth piece about Tomb and his building.The posters are bright, papered over each other and peeling. A public gallery of outrage and passion on a former police station that once housed drug dealers, gang members and drunks in its holding cells, the dozens of radical statements plastered on this wall at 23rd and Valencia streets make up what may be the most outspoken site in the country.Posted by: Steve Portigal | Comments (0)Unbeknownst to most passers-by who stop to stare, behind the poster wall lives a quiet man who furiously defends its aesthetic. With his hair slicked neatly back and black Dickies pants that match the sturdy frames of his glasses, Bruce Tomb does not look like a fighter. But for the past seven years, he has fiercely protected the 25-foot square front wall of his home, the former Mission Police Station.
Tomb, an architect, views the 1950s-style industrial building, in which he lives with his family and operates his business, as a beautiful piece of modern architecture and a valuable part of city history. Some of his neighbors disagree, seeing the boxy structure vacated by police in 1994 for a larger precinct house at 17th, six blocks down Valencia Street, as an eyesore.
While each series has some fun shapes, it's a flash website with very poor navigation, so be careful as you'll be thrown back to the "intro" every so often to start browsing all over again. The launch of this line has been covered by other newsblogs and sites, but what intrigues me is the "brand positioning" being articulated on their website. It reads like someone picked up a copy of Don Norman's Emotional Design and regurgitated the concepts right back.
We all know that good design should emotionally connect with the user, but would you beat your customer over the head with that fact? Here's a snippet to give you a flavor of what I'm talking about from their section titled "Emotional Connection with You",
"Our designs will tap into your dreams and desires. Our products will form an emotional bond with your style, your identity, your spirit, and your soul."
Personally, I don't think I want any TV set to bond with my soul, there's too much of that already. Posted by: Niti Bhan | Comments (0)
Nice footage of a radio-controlled boat/plane/car cruising and flying over various types of terrain. If they could scale it up about 20 times it would make the morning commute a lot more fun.
Thanks to Joe MacCarthy for the tip.
Posted by: StuCon | Comments (0)
And speaking of huge scale transpositions: Hektor was great�it was light, travelled well, and had a subversive undertone. But where was the risk?
Developed for dePonk�a collection of international artists Geraud de Bizien (France), Karl Klomp (Netherlands), and Bnjmn Gaulon (French and living in the Netherlands)�this project uses a paintball gun as an inkjet printer. Currently on exhibit in Groningen, Netherlands, PrintBall is also the Masters project of Gaulon, who calls it some kind of "Tactical Media Tool."
This October, Deponk is organizing a festival and workshop called "e-waste 1.0", which will consist of doing stuff with hardware junk in a limited timeframe.
So, here's a link to the twelve-minute, 31.4MB mp4 movie, but the beginning's worth it for the milling footage, and there's a surprise ending at the close.
Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)
The Knitting Machine is Dave Cole's performance art piece that uses construction equipment and 20-foot long knitting needles to construct large-scale objects. Starting yesterday June 30th and throughout the weekend, the artist will use a pair of John Deere excavators to hold the needles and a Genie to wrap the yarn, creating an oversize American flag at MASS MoCA. The flag will then be folded military-style, housed in a diplay case about the size of a Volkswagen Bug, and become part of an exhibit in the museum along with other work by Cole. Something about the mix of domestic craft and construction seems like a fitting way to celebrate the 4th. Now, can we get those Flickr slideshows going? [Thanks to Joy for the link] Posted by: Allan Chochinov | Comments (0)