January 9, 2014 by collabcubed - 4 Comments

3D Printed Prosthetics: Bespoke Innovations

The three of us have been fascinated by 3D printing since we first saw a demo a few years back, and the fascination keeps growing as the possibilities keep expanding. Sure, we’ve seen all kinds of jewelry, housewares, sculptures, even a bikini, but these prosthetic fairings (coverings that surround an existing prosthetic leg) are lovely pieces of design serving a decorative as well as personalizing function. Industrial designer Scott Summit joined forces with orthopedic surgeon Kenneth Trauner, MD and founded Bespoke Innovations with the mission of bringing more humanity to people who have suffered the loss of a limb. The process and design are individualized by using 3D scanning technology to capture images of a person’s sound leg as well as their prosthetic one. The wearer is given their body symmetry back by superimposing the sound leg shape onto the prosthetic one. Customization of the Fairing is overseen by the user who can pick and choose materials and patterns to achieve a personalized result. It’s all so smart and impressive.

via formfiftyfive

January 8, 2014 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Ice Castles: 20,000,000 lbs of Ice

I’ve been through a corn maze and even visited an ice bar, but I had never heard of these incredible Ice Castles created in Colorado, Utah, and New Hampshire. As an homage to the Polar Vortex we’re presently experiencing here on the east coast, I thought I’d post some photos of these castles/mazes that are built by hand from more the 20,000,000 pounds of ice. These glacial formations include caverns, archways, paths and tunnels inviting visitors to wander through in awe. If the ice itself isn’t amazing enough, at night these structures are illuminated by colored lights for additional dramatic effect. The castles begin by ‘growing’ more than 5,000 icicles per day which are then sculpted together. By dipping the icicles in freezing water they then stick to each other and with the combination of wind, temperature fluctuation, and water volume a variety of effects can be achieved. The process takes a few weeks of growth and artistry, repeating the process twice daily, until the final ice masterpiece is completed. If temperatures don’t change much around here, we may be able to build one of these in Central Park any day now…

Take a virtual walk through with this video:

Photos courtesy of icecastles

via atlasobscura

January 6, 2014 by collabcubed - 0 comments

teamLab: Homogenizing & Transforming World

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Tokyo-based teamLab is a group of ultra-technologists including programmers, user-interface engineers, mathematicians, CG animators, as well as architects, designers, artists and editors, who blur the boundaries of their respective fields to create and discover new ideas and push limitations. Presently, their interactive installation Homogenizing and Transforming World is part of the exhibition Distilling Senses: A Journey through Art and Technology in Asian Contemporary Art, at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Individual balls floating within an enclosed space communicate to each other via wireless connection. They change color and emit different sounds when touched by visitors or bump into each other or other objects. The balls send color information to other balls which in turn spread the information to other balls, changing all the balls to the same color. The piece is a metaphor for the internet and globalization in general. People act as intermediaries for information which so quickly travels via the internet globally, transforming the world in an instant and unifying at the same time.

You can see the installation live through January 12, 2014 or in the video below anytime:

via gestalten

December 20, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Audra Hubbell: Letters at Large

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I love everything about Chicago-based designer Audra Hubbell‘s project Letters at Large. For starters, it’s type. Large type at that. Then the combination with architecture and the effect of each on the other is pretty fabulous. Somewhat reminiscent of Jenny Holzer’s Projections, but here it’s all about the one letter as opposed to text. Hubbell unleashes full-scale typography in public spaces as a visual research project exploring the interaction between projected large scale letterforms and the urban Chicago surroundings. Wouldn’t it be great if the poster set were available for purchase.

via behance

December 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Duke Riley: Homing Pigeon Performance Art

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Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley describes his work this way in his artist statement:

My work addresses the prospect of residual but forgotten unclaimed frontiers on the edge and inside overdeveloped urban areas, and their unsuspected autonomy. I am interested in the struggle of marginal peoples to sustain independent spaces within all-encompassing societies, the tension between individual and collective behavior, the conflict with institutional power. I pursue an alternative view of hidden borderlands and their inhabitants through drawing, printmaking, mosaic, sculpture, performative interventions, and video structured as complex multimedia installations.

His piece Trading with the Enemy seems to fit the bill perfectly. Riley trained 50 homing pigeons to travel from Havana to Key West, Fla. Half the flock were smugglers of Cuban cigars while the rest documented their travels on film. The cigar-laden pigeons were given names of notorious smugglers such as Pierre Lafitte, while the filmers were given names of famous film directors who have had run-ins with the law: i.e. Roman Polanski and Mel Gibson. I imagine there’s a certain thrill to subverting hi-tech drones with good old fashion homing pigeons. Riley’s connection to the birds goes back to his childhood, after rescuing one, letting it go free, and finding that it returned to him. Trading With the Enemy is part of an exhibit titled See You at the Finish Line currently at Magnan Metz in Chelsea. Two of the pigeons are for sale at the gallery along with the art. The show will run through January 11, 2014. For those who can’t make it in person, you can watch the video of the pigeons’ adventure, below.

Photos courtesy of MagnanMetz & The New York Times

via nytimes

December 13, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hello Wood: 365-Sled Christmas Tree

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Imagine 365 wooden sleds stacked in the form of a Christmas tree. Now imagine each of those sleds going to a child in need once the structure is dismantled. Nice, right? Well, that’s just what architecture/design studio Hello Wood (previously here) is doing at the Palace of Arts in Budapest. In the span of one week, they built an 11-meter tall tree that can be viewed from inside as well, giving the impression of being in the middle of a giant snowflake. The base is made of steel to keep things safe in case of strong winter winds. A tall wooden frame was built with the help of a crane and some welding, in which the sleds were fixed upon. Once the temporary installation comes down, Hello Wood will donate the sleds to the children at SOS Children’s Villages, keeping things reusable and charitable as the holidays should be.

Here’s a video of the installation process:

Photos: Daniel Dömölky

via architect

December 6, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Zvi Hecker: Ramot Housing

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This is one crazy-looking housing complex, and yet the logic behind the hivelike building is, well, just that: logical. Completed in the 1970s, Ramot Polin housing project in Jerusalem was designed by Zvi Hecker. The Polish-born Israeli architect spent much of his career exploring cubes and dodecahedrons in his work. Hecker used the unique structure’s form to adapt to—as well as fit in with—the surrounding irregular terrain. By using the dodecahedrons and pentagon-shaped walls, he was able to enclose a large volume with less surface area; there’s a compactness to these units that makes them pack tightly and nicely together. Apparently, at this point (almost 40 years later) all of the 700+ original structures have been transformed to some degree, without a single one left in its originally designed state. Understandable, yet it would have been interesting to see.

Top photo from domus. All others by the architect.

via dwell

December 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Mégaphone: Moment Factory

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This past fall, up until last month, Mégaphone, an interactive installation, occupied the Promenade des Artistes, in the heart of Quartier des Spectacles in Montreal with the intention of reappropriating public space. The installation, designed by Moment Factory, invited visitors to gather and explore the fun side to public speaking. Using a megaphone participants could speak out, their words transformed in real time into images projected onto the façade of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), leaving their visual “footprint” on the urban landscape. Inspired by the city’s early 20th-century history of popular assemblies as well as the 19th-century British tradition of the Speaker’s Corner, the installation gives everyone a chance to speak out and air their concerns. Visual effects of waves, scribbles, and distortions were generated by voice recognition software designed by the Computer Research Institute of Montreal. Certainly a crowd pleaser for all ages as seen in the video below:

via eg

November 22, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Mike Hewson: Deconstruction

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New Zealand artist Mike Hewson (previously here) is playing with people’s minds again. This time the trompe l’oeil specialist has has covered an elevated walkway in Christchurch, NZ over its main thoroughfare, Colombo Street, with anamorphic large-scale digital prints of the two buildings connected by the walkway. When standing at a particular vantage point on the street below, the art visually deletes the overpass. When viewed from other spots the work looks distorted. Hewson’s objective in this post-earthquake affected area is to paradoxically reconstruct the site through a process of deconstruction, reflecting Christchurch’s recovery process of adding new development through the “deletion” of crumbled buildings.

via inhabitat

November 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Lucas Simões: Desretratos

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Brazilian artist Lucas Simões uses source materials such as maps, books, and photographs which he then folds, cuts, and deconstructs into new forms. In his series of portraits titled Desretatos (Disportraits) Simões invited friends to tell him a secret as he took their portrait. More than listen to the secret, Simões was interested in capturing their expression as they revealed it. He would also listen to a song selected by the subject as he photographed them, and asked them to give their secret a color as well. Combining all these elements as he worked, the artist would then select 10 different portraits from the photo shoot, layer them, cut, and overlap them. As you can see, the results are pretty wild. See more Desretratos here.

via fifty8

November 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Net Blow-Up Yokohama: Numen/For Use

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The Numen/For Use (previously here and here) guys are at it again. Known for their fun, playful, interactive structures, the Croatian-Austrian collective has recently gone inflatable. Their latest installation in Yokohama (home of the also fun CupNoodles Museum) looks like a carnival Moonwalk gone wild. The stylized cloud-like object has nets inside connected to its inner lining that expand and become taut as the blob is blown up. The exterior membrane is sheer enough that when lit from within, it acts as a projection screen for the activity inside. The nets provide climbing and tumbling surfaces on multiple levels. Looks like a blast.

via vizkultura via notcot

November 6, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

RAE: Word of Mouth Bodega

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What if your corner bodega didn’t just sell milk, candy and cigarettes, but acted as an exhibit space for beautiful street art, inside and out? Cool, right? Well, that’s exactly what Brooklyn artist RAE has done in the East Village. Finding a former bodega that had to close due to flooding by Hurricane Sandy last year, RAE reopened the shop temporarily for his first solo NYC exhibit Word of Mouth. Covering most every surface in the place—including security cameras—with his drawings, and folky sculptures, the artist has the ‘gallery’ space operating as a functioning bodega as well.

A couple of years back, a friend pointed out RAE’s art on a sign at a now defunct fruit and vegetable stand in SoHo, so it seems that he has a longstanding fascination for the corner food vendor.

Word of Mouth will be on exhibit Thursdays through Saturdays until November 16, 2013, at the corner of East 12th Street and Avenue C.

Photos: changoblanco and vandalog

via vandalog & gothamist

November 5, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NEXT Architects: Meixi Lake Bridge

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Amsterdam-based studio NEXT Architects was awarded first prize in an international competition for their design of a pedestrian bridge to span more than 150 meters and connect a diversity of routes across the Dragon King Harbor River and Meixi Lake in Changsha, China. The undulating, multilevel design is based on the principle of the Möbius strip as well as referring to a decorative knot seen in ancient Chinese folk art. And, though it’s not mentioned, I find it hard to believe that no one was thinking of a serpentine dragon when coming up with this wildly unique structure. It also looks like the architects decided to push the limits on their impressive and elegant recent project The Impossible Stair, completed last June in Carnisselande, The Netherlands.

Construction for the new bridge is scheduled for next year. Add this to your list of reasons to visit China.

via designboom

October 30, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Gooyesh Language Institute: Ali Karbaschi

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I definitely get a kick out of seeing typography integrated into architecture (hence the multiple Architypeture posts) and this building in Isfahan, Iran is no exception. Designed by architect Ali Karbaschi, the Gooyesh Language Institute’s curtain wall is clad with almost a crossword-y look of, ironically (or not so ironically, being a language institute), Latin letters on all sides as well as cut out of its steel entrance gates. As far as I can tell, the letters are purely decorative and don’t spell anything out, but I wasn’t able to find any information on the project, other than its location, architect, and that it was built a little over a year ago. Looking closely, it would appear that in some areas the oreder of the letters in the rectangular panels adhere to the alphabet, but then suddenly a ‘W’ appears sandwiched between an ‘E’ and a ‘G’, so there goes that theory. In any case, it looks particularly attractive lit up at night, wouldn’t you say?

via Contemporary Architecture of Iran

October 29, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Sambre: Wooden Sculptural Street Art

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French street artist Sambre recently finished a new work at Le MUR XIII in Paris (looks to be a similar situation to NYC’s Bowery Mural with alternating artists’ works throughout the year) in the 13th arrondisement. Using found wood, the artist superimposed a sculptural piece with a protruding face at its center over the previous Le Mur XIII mural. Sambre had previously created an impressive installation in wood at Les Bains Douches (if you have a couple of minutes, check out the video below, it’s kind of amazing) this past summer, but this appears to be his first outdoor wooden piece.

Though (I’m pretty confident) not at all Sambre’s intention, this work seems fitting to post on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. It almost looks like the storm personified, down to the ripped apart boardwalks. To all who were affected, and the tough year they’ve been through, here’s to a better year ahead.

via graffuturism

October 17, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

LAb[au]: Signal to Noise

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It doesn’t feel like that long ago that we’d hear the flapping noise of the information displays at most train stations and airports, yet quietly, and almost unnoticeably, they have mostly transitioned over to LED monitors. Belgian artist team LAb[au] consisting of Manuel Abendroth, Jérôme Decock and Els Vermang, created a playful type installation for Toronto’s Luminato Festival last year, utilizing the discarded technology and salvaged split-flaps from these old signage systems, arranged in a circular grid. Signal to Noise, as the piece is called, takes the random letters from the illegible and nonsensical into the legible and poetic, through its flipping mechanism. Apparently the sound is much subtler than in the video below; almost like rain. Best to see it in action:

Photos courtesy of LAb[au]

via canadian art junkie

October 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Gateshead Millenium Bridge: WilksonEyre

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a bridge, and though this one isn’t quite new, it really is a spectacular one. Designed by London-based WilkinsonEyre Architects, the Gateshead Milennium Bridge in the UK is quite an impressive sight. Spanning 105 meters across the River Tyne, the pedestrian movable bridge is nicknamed the “Blinking Eye” or “Winking Eye” bridge due to its innovative rotational movement—providing clearance for boats to pass under—that resembles that of an opening eyelid. This strikingly elegant bridge looks stunning in movement or still, day or night. Here it is in motion:

via presurfer

October 10, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Richard Dupont: Hanging Heads

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You know you must really like an artist when two years apart, in two different locations, two different kinds of sculpture—though both heads—make you stop in awe. Today, walking by The Museum of Art and Design here in NYC, a came across a huge sculpture of what looked like a melting head. I checked inside with the museum people and the artist turned out to be Richard Dupont, whose work will be included in the show that opens October 16th titled Out of Hand: Materializing the Postdigital. Upon looking up Dupont’s work, I discovered that he is also the artist behind the large heads I saw, and was impressed by, a couple of years back in Chelsea filled with junk; albeit themed junk (see bottom photos). NYC born and based Dupont has been working with digital full-body scans of himself for over ten years. He likes to use technology as a tool, but is partial to the physical material over the information, preferring the results derived from “disrespecting” technology. His “Hanging Heads” as he calls them, were initially the result of an accident. Working on a foam enlargement of his head, he decided to paint it with rubber. Not happy with the outcome, Dupont peeled off the rubber coating, only to find that it came off in one piece, and then nailed it to the wall. Amazing. Can’t wait to stop by MAD to see more of Dupont’s work in person. Out of Hand will be up through July 6, 2014, so there’s time to get back there.