March 20, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

University of Tartu Narva College: Kavakava

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Architects Katrin Koov, Indrek Peil, and Siiri Vallner of Kavakava faced the challenge of designing a new building for Narva College in Estonia on the Old Town Square next to its baroque Town Hall, one of the only buildings remaining since World War II when most of the town was destroyed. Kavakava’s solution is a rather unique and clever one. The structure consists of two connecting volumes; the façade of the volume facing the Square was designed to match that of the building that originally stood in the same place, now curiously cast in concrete, with an angled roof that has been nicknamed “the beak.” I believe the idea is that seen from the front, “the beak” gives the illusion of emulating the angle of the original roof. The rest of the new building is made in a contrasting red brick exterior, offering the most modern facilities and study environment from classes to lecture halls. New and faux old working together as one. And check out that laser signage on the floor in the fourth photo up from the bottom. Very cool.

Photos courtesy of Kavakava; and Maja.

via weinberger

March 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Morag Myerscough: Environmental Graphics

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English designer Morag Myerscough creates environmental graphics combining a great sense of color with a great sense of typography; what could be better? Having started Studio Myerscough in 1993, the studio has collaborated with important architects and worked on spaces that range from museum exhibitions to five children’s dining rooms for the new Barts and The Royal London Children’s Hospital (four of which can be seen in the top four photos.) All of Myerscough’s work exudes happiness and fun, which seems like the perfect combination to bring a little joy to a children’s hospital. There’s much more to see on Studio Myerscough’s website as well as over on the Supergroup site.

via étapes

March 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Academie MWD Dilbeek: Carlos Arroyo

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The Academie MWD (Music, Words, Dance) in Dilbeek, Belgium opened this past fall. The Spanish firm Carlos Arroyo Architects faced the challenge of integrating the new building on the boundary of city and forest, with low-rise single-family homes and the imposing Westrand Cultural Center designed by Flemish architect Alfons Hoppenbrouwers in its immediate surroundings, all the while maintaining the delicate balance with the natural green landscape. Arroyo and his team came up with an ingenious solution: a dynamic façade that gives the optical illusion of changing as you move along the street. In one direction the reflection of the trees is seen, in the other a series of blues, grays and whites from the sky and the facing cultural center. Looked at straight on, the building becomes a burst of color, in homage to a painting by the aforementioned Alfons Hoppenbrouswers where he transcribed a piece of music by a Flemish composer from 1497 into colors and visual rhythms. The color continues on the floors of the interior spaces. The result is a combination of kinetic sculpture, contemporary architecture, and nature. Nicely done, especially for a music and arts institute.

Photos: Miguel de Guzman

via europaconcorsi

March 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Matchstick Necklace: Joseph Escobar

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Originally from California, Joseph Escobar is currently finishing his senior year at RISD in industrial design as well as being co-director of 2ndLife — a non-profit, student-run, material upcycling center — and bringing the project to a storefront, including designing the retail space this past year. If that’s not impressive enough, he’s a part time sous chef to boot. But back to his design work: Escobar’s Matchstick Necklace was at the Senior ID Show and caught our eye. Made using 100 packs of matches, the necklace can be worn in both its unburned or burned state, yet clearly best to avoid having it on when lit.

You can see more of Joseph’s great jewelry work here and follow updates on his design-sustainability projects over on his blog.

Photos: Joseph Escobar

March 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 3/15

Cheap things to do this we

Free & Cheap things to do this weekend in NYC (3/15/13 to 3/17/13) in art, music, theater, performance, dance, architecture, film, design and general fun. Click through to event pages for more info, either on images above or in the descriptions below.

1. MUSIC/ART/PARTY: Fri 3/15 – Broken Angel Block Party: Fundraiser with music and art to help 82-year-old Arthur Wood find a new home. 4 to 8pm. Benefit after Party from 8pm to 1am $10.

2. ART: Fri 3/15 & through 1/4 – Applied Design MoMA ranging from a mine detonator to a vessel made by transforming desert sand into glass using only the energy of the sun. Also on display are 14 videogames and more. FREE Fridays from 4 to 8pm.

3. ART: All weekend & through 4/28 – Jon Kessler: The Web – An immersive installation that addresses the significance of the internet & mobile devices in our lives. 12 to 6pm. FREE

4. FILM: All Weekend – Philip Roth: Unmasked at FilmForum. FREE tkts available first-come, first served at box office day of show.

5. FILM: All weekend & through 4/25 – Cinebeast’s Subway Series: subway-themed features, docs, and video ephemera at various theaters around the city, and even busking with short films underground. FREE to $12.

6. FUN/FOOD: Fri 3/15 – The Slush Pile: Friday Night Happy Hour. Bottles of wine for $15, buckets of beers from $12 to $24 grilled cheese and board games! 4 to 8pm

7. THEATER: Fri 3/15 & Sat 3/16 – RogerandTom: mind-bending, head-scratching, meta-meta-quasi-romanti-tragi-dramedy 7pm $15 to $18

8. FILM: All Weekend – Foxy: The Complete Pam Grier. $9 to $13

9. ART: Sat 3/16 6 to 8pm & 3/17 to 3/31 – The Wonder Cabinet exhibit brings together an eclectic group of artists, sculptors, costumers, video artist, holographers and more to compose a narrative together in a walk-through cabinet of curiosities. FREE

10. FILM/FOOD/DRINK: Sat 3/16 & Sun 3/17 – Spoons Toons and Booze St. Patrick’s Day cartoon episodes, all you can eat ceral bar and White Russians

11. ART/DESIGN: All Weekend & through 8/4 – Sagmeister & Walsh: Six Things: known for their experimental typography and striking visual imagery $12 FREE on Saturdays.

ALSO: All Weekend – Barbara Bloom: So to Speak A museum collection. $12 or FREE on Saturdays.

12. FOOD: Sat 3/16 – Fourth Annual Best Wings in Brooklyn Competition 2pm FREE

13. WALKING TOUR/ARCHITECTURE: Sat 3/16 – Remembering Ada Louise Huxtable in Midtown. 2nd of two architecture tours of modern architecture: 11am. $15 to $20

14. ART/DEMONSTRATION: Sat 3/16 – Katagami (a Japanese paper-stencil dying technique) will be demonstrated at Cooper-Hewitt. 10am to noon. FREE for members. $20 non-members.

15. MUSIC: Sat 3/16 – Vocal Electrofolk: Africa to NY – Helga Davis joins esteemed cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and Zimbabwean vocalist Netsayi joins the evening with Black Pressure 7pm. $15

16. MUSIC: Sun 3/17 – Genghis Hans at the Ace Hotel: mixture of indie rock, pop, and electro. 10pm FREE

17. WALKING TOUR: Sun 3/17 – Hell’s Kitchen: The Political History of the NY Irish, Walking tour. 1 to 4pm. $12.50

18. COMEDY: Sun 3/17 – Invitation to a Beheading St. Patrick’s Dy Edition. Stand-up. 8pm $15

MORE…
>>ART: All Weekend & through 8/4 – Monumental Works by El Anatsui $12.
>>ART: Fri 3/15 & Sat 3/16 through James Turrell: Roden Crater and Autonomous Structures. Pace 57th St. FREE
>>MUSIC/FUN/FILM: Sun 3/17 –50 Years of Cassettes showcasing music by primarily tape-based artists Aki Onda, G. Lucas Crane, Emmanual Ferrant, and Rinus Van Alebeek. In additionalso watch a series of experimental films shot on PixelVision by Sarah Halpern while eating tape-shaped snacks. Bushwick. 4pm. FREE RSVP>>FOOD: All Weekend & through 3/31 – Chinatown Restaurant Week: roughly 20 restaurants offering meals for $20.13.

March 14, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Jamie Wolfond: Inflatable & Frumpy Furniture

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Daniela went to the RISD Senior ID Show last week and reported back with lots of exciting work and photos. We’ll be featuring some of these talented designers in the next couple of weeks, but first, here is an impressive RISD Furniture Design Senior: Jamie Wolfond. Not only are Wolfond’s designs super creative and fun, but his choice of materials are unusual and seem to be a lot about their feel and texture. The Lunar Stool (top two photos) is made with foam, while his Ball Ottomans are yoga balls whose shapes have been morphed by steel and air. The Emergency Bench is another clever inflatable object broken down to a mere three pieces. Make sure to check out Jamie’s site for more of his work as well as interesting videos documenting his process. And click on his name while you’re there, too.

March 14, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Jérémy Laffon: Hollywoodoscopies

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French artist Jérémy Laffon uses chewing gum sticks to create precarious structures and installations. Whether placing the gum in the style of a house of cards, or stacking them in spiraling columns, or creating a parquet pattern with them in a floor installation, Laffon’s pieces have an unstable and ephemeral quality that the artist plays up at times, forcing collapse by bending or heating the sticks, ultimately swinging into a different dimension.

Laffon’s work is being shown at the Association Limousin Art Contemporain in Limoges (his hometown) through March 23, 2013.

Photos courtesy of the artist; documentsdartistes; and galerie gounod

via junkculture & designboom

March 13, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Dinner For Two: Rachel Lee Hovnanian

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One of the crowd-pleasers at this year’s Armory Show was the mixed media installation Dinner for Two by Rachel Lee Hovnanian; an elegantly set 16-foot table with a multi-tiered (wedding?) cake standing tall in its center while a holographic-looking mouse nibbles away at it. At each end of the table is an LCD screen with a three-minute looped video of a couple, the man on one end and the woman at the other. Their eyes never seem to meet as they look down and around while the familiar sounds of texts and ringing cell phones are heard relentlessly. Hovnanian comments on the piece (via artinfo):

“We’ve forgotten what is real. Fast food chains replaced cafes; children think a package of pink powder mixed with water is real lemonade made with freshly squeezed pink lemons. We think we have 1,000 real friends on Facebook. We are sucked into our screens and can’t find the time to separate from technology. Only when the power is down, or if we are visiting a remote place with no wireless, can we take a break.”

Perfectly demonstrated.

Photos: Collabcubed; bottom courtesy of the artist.

March 12, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Attendant: Urinal-Turned-Sandwich-Shop

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I’ve heard of sandwich shops with cool bathrooms (i.e. the now defunct Bar 89) but a bathroom-turned-sandwich shop? More specifically, an 1890s men’s urinal in London. That’s what partners Peter Tomlinson and Ben Russell did with their new cafe Attendant. After removing 12 layers of paint dating back to 1890 from the wrought iron entrance, cleaning up the stairs, and removing just a single wall from the downstairs space (see the before photos above), as well as investing $150,000 in the renovation including polishing up the urinals and inserting a wooden bar connecting them all, Attendant was born, with the kitchen taking over the old Attendant’s office space, hence the name. Definitely original, if a little strange.

Photos: Attendant’s facebook

via huffington post

March 12, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hense: Recontextualizing Church

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What could be better than a graffiti mural? Multiple graffiti murals on one building. In this case, a Church in Washington D.C. Atlanta-based artist Hense was commissioned to paint the former church in D.C.’s up-and-coming arts district. Along with a small crew, some rollers, brushes, spray paint, acrylics and more, Hense and his team covered every inch of the structure with de Kooning-esque colors and Pollock-esque splatters and scribbles. Talk about an extreme makeover! The vibrantly colored transformation sits across from the future home of a 20,000 sq. ft. museum, how appropriate for this sculptural work. Hense’s installation is the perfect combination of contemporary abstract art and classic architecture that defines the artsy neighborhood. You can see Hense’s latest painted building in Atlanta, the WCAC, over here.

Photos: Miguel (M.I.G.) Martinez ©Hense

via i-ref

March 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Nausheen Saeed: Baggage

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Pakistani artist Nausheen Saeed created a series of sculptures depicting women as luggage. I saw two of these at the Scope Art Fair this past weekend here in NYC and they were sort of jarring to literally stumble upon. The carpet-like patterned fabrics are wrapped around sculpted fiberglass giving a mummified look to them while the zippers, straps and handles make them look bound and enslaved. The notion of women as burden seems to be the implication, and after reading up a little on the artist, it appears she remarked the following on the series: “Since childhood, family elders, through concealed remarks, give girls the impression that they are a ‘burden’ that should be packed off in marriage as soon as possible.” Saeed sees luggage as a possession, and women in their roles of mother, wife, sister and daughter, always belong to others. Yet, what is stored inside can be deeply personal.

The top sculpture is titled Transitory, the one that follows Belonging and the third one down, Carrier. There is a fourth, not shown here, titled Handle with Care… thanks goodness.

Photos: Aicon Gallery, Canvas Art Gallery, collabcubed, and artsofnyc.

March 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Windchimes: Reinventing NYC Payphones

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A few months back NYC launched a Reinvent Payphones Challenge for ideas on how to upgrade and/or replace the existing 11,000+ payphones around the city. Among the six finalists is Windchimes a distributed sensor network providing real-time and hyper-local records of the city’s rain levels, pollution and other environmental conditions. Created by a group of students and recent grads from Parsons, NYU-ITP and Cooper Union, the goal behind Windchimes is to empower the city with data which has never been readily available before. Scientists, city officials, urban farmers, techies, educators and the general public would have open access to the information enabling and impacting future environmental legislation, helping us work towards building a more sustainable city.

Why are we voting for Windchimes, besides the fact that we know one of the students on the team? Well, Windchimes is the only project with an actual functioning prototype, proving that it works and that the engineering has been tested and worked out. Windchimes could be deployed today; simply plug it into a telephone jack and watch as it instantly collects data and sends it to a database on the Internet. Windchimes is cost-effective with an estimated cost of $100 to $200 per unit and uses the existing payphone structures throughout the city, plus being energy-efficient as well.

Take a look at all the projects here (you may have to ‘like’ the group to view and vote) and vote for your favorite, though we hope you’ll consider Windchimes!

Oh, and here’s a video:

March 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 3/8

Cheap things to do this we

Free & Cheap things to do this weekend in NYC (3/8/13 to 3/10/13) in art, music, theater, performance, dance, architecture, film, design and general fun. Click through to event pages for more info, either on images above or in the descriptions below.

1. THEATER: Fri 3/8 and Sat 3/9 – Danny and the Deep Blue Sea: One-act play set in the Bronx where a man & woman emerge from their dark pasts into an empathetic embrace. 7pm FREE

2. ART: All Weekend – Spring/Break Art Show at the Old School in Nolita. 20 curators curate non-traditional art with theme of New Mysticism. Noon to 9pm. $5

3. FILM/TALK: Fri 3/8 and Sat 3/9 – Fusion Film Festival NYU’s premiere film and tv festival celebrating women in film. FREE

4. DESIGN: Fri 3/8 & through 4/5 – We the Designers: Reframing Political Issues in the Obama Era FREE

5. ART: All weekend – Independent Art Fair. Featuring over 40 international galleries representing fourteen countries. FREE

6. ART: All Weekend – VoltaNY Art Fair. (One of my favorites) This year in Chelsea. 11am to 8pm Sun to 6pm $15. 82 Mercer.

7. ART: All Weekend – Fountain Art Fair smaller independent galleries, collectives and artists who wish to gain access to a larger audience. $10

8. FILM/VIDEO: All Weekend – Moving Image Contemporary Video Art Fair takes place in a tunnel! 11am to 8pm through Sat. Sun 11am to 4pm FREE

9. FOOD: Sat 3/9 – Vegan Spring Break Shop-Up: Vegan & gluten-free baked treats and more. 12 to 5pm FREE

10. ART/TALK: Sat 3/9 – Tumblr Art Symposium: part discussion and part exhibition, explores the fast-evolving artistic landscape of Tumblr, 6pm to 1am FREE with RSVP

11. FILM: All Weekend – Queens World Film Festival 2013: $10

12. MUSIC: Sat 3/9 – Wahoo Skiffle Crazies at Union Hall. Doors 8pm. $8

13. FOOD: Sun 3/10 – FSNYC’s 3rd Annual Duck-Off. 1pm to 3pm. $25

14. PERFORMANCE/ART: All Weekend & through 3/15. The Introducing Series at The Windows, Roger Smith Hotel: 13 artists, who represent a broad range of young makers and experienced performers, will exhibit their presence in this space for a full 12-hour day. FREE

15. ART: All Weekend – The (Un)Fair: Guerilla-style art show in a 19th Century Hell’s Kitchen building with almost 100 works. 11am to 8pm. FREE

16. ART/FOOD: Sun 3/10 – LES Gallery Stroll noon to 6pm and Brunch at various locations from 1 to 3:30pm. Brunch with RSVP FREE

17. ART: All Weekend – Nathan Sawaya & Dean West In Pieces; LEGO art and photography collaboration; 10am to 6pm through 3/17 FREE.

ALSO in LEGO: Fri 3/8 & weekdays through 3/20 –Piece by Piece Sean Kenney LEGO sculptures and artwork. FREE

18. MUSIC: Sun 3/10 – Organist, composer and friend Harold Stover plays works by Cesar Franck & Camille Saint-Saens. 5:15 at St. Thomas Church. FREE

MORE…
>>FILM/FUN: Fri 3/8 – Movieoke at Videology. Karaoke for movie geeks! 8pm. FREE
>>ART: All Weekend – New City Art Fair, Japanese Contemporary Art. In Chelsea. FREE
>>ART: Sat 3/9 – Bushwick Gallery Late Night. 6pm to 10pm. FREE
>>WALKING TOUR: Sun 3/10 – Exploring the Glamorous Afterlife at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx. 1pm to 3pm. $18.

March 7, 2013 by collabcubed - 4 Comments

Pendulum Choir: Cod.Act

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Swiss artists André and Michel Décosterd who make up Cod.Act combine their talents of music composition and architecture in their artistic performance and interactive installations. Their devices translate physical movement into sound.

Their Pendulum Choir is probably the most surprising. A choir of nine men is harnessed onto hydraulic jacks that react to their voices. The swinging and rotating singers seem to hang by their toes while leaning at what look to be close to 45-degree angles, coming very close to each other yet designed to never collide. Kind of zany, funny, and at the same time a little creepy.

Cod.Act have many other creations including the Cycloid-E—a pendulum of metallic tubes equipped with sound sources and with measuring instruments capable of making them resonate according to their rotations—and the Ex-Pharao, a mechanical apparatus composed of cables and hydraulic levers that allows the visitor to modify an opera by Schoenberg in real time. Much more to see on their site.

via spoon & tamago

March 7, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Leo Villareal: The Bay Lights

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If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you probably know that we like light-related art and installations. You might even know that we’re fans of Leo Villareal’s work (previously here, and here.) But only a crazy-loyal follower with an exceptional memory would know that we admired an LED light show a year and a half ago on the Bosphorous Bridge and wondered to ourselves why there’s nothing like that in the U.S. So, now, amazingly enough, all three of these elements have come together in Leo Villareal’s (we’re convinced he must be cloned in order to keep up with all the major projects he’s unveiled the past few months!) latest work The Bay Lights. With 25,000 LEDs strung along 5 miles worth of suspension cables, The Bay Lights project is the world’s largest LED light sculpture and it’s all taking place on the San Francisco Bay Bridge every night for the next two years.

Villareal has come up with unique algorithms that take their inspiration from the waves and wind of the San Francisco Bay as well as from the traffic that flows over the bridge. The light show was officially unveiled two nights ago. If you’re not in San Francisco, like us, you can take a look at the video below to see the animated lights in action.

Photos: Leo Villareal, the creators project; Jordan Kinley; basetree’s flickr; and steve rhodes’ flickr. Video: geekgestalt

via the creators project

March 6, 2013 by collabcubed - 3 Comments

Hamer Hall: ARM Architecture

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Many of ARM Architects‘ structures (previously here and here), have unconventional lines and a surreal quality, breaking beyond the boundaries of traditional architecture, and the recently completed Hamer Hall in Melbourne is no exception. ARM designed the redevelopment of the concert hall integrating it with new public spaces and the riverfront. They retained some of John Turscott’s original interiors but there certainly is a spectacular use of concrete in the redesigned foyer and exterior as well as state of the art acoustics and contemporary theater technology in the main hall. All around, pretty stunning.

Photos: John Gollings and Peter Bennett for ARM; and MarshallDay

March 6, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Jennifer Rubell: Nutcrackers

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First time I saw one of New York-based artist Jennifer Rubell’s Nutcrackers was last year at the NY Frieze Art Fair, but now I came across her website and see that the fun pecan-crushing mannequin was only one of 18 life-size female interactive sculptures, all surrounding a pedestal containing one ton of Texas pecans. Not surprisingly, Rubell used to write about food before turning to art where she frequently employs food and drink as part of her often participatory installations that blur the lines between performance art, installation and happenings. The pile of nuts beckons to the viewer to take one and place it in the mannequin’s inner thigh (or, in the case of the one at Frieze, a little higher.) Then, by pushing down the upper leg…voila(!) the nut gets cracked.

Rubell likes the idea of breaking the traditional boundaries between viewer and artwork, also evident in her other installations such as Padded Cell, a freestanding room insulated with pink cotton candy.

Here is one of the Nutcrackers in action:

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Rubell; video by PaperMagazine

March 5, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Shane Scheck: Office for Design

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Office for Design is a Stockholm-based industrial design studio founded by American designer Shane Schneck. There’s a beautiful simplicity and elegance to all of their work. From the Orbit series of stools and tables, to their modems and routers you’d be proud to display instead of hide in a corner behind a plant. And one of their most recent products, Strike, a series of matchboxes cleverly makes the design of the phosphorous striking strip the focal point of the boxes in delightful patterns on all sides against bold, bright colors. Love it all.

via notcot