Stop motion film by architect Guillermo Cameron Maclean from Argentina. This has Em’s name on it on so many levels! You can get your own Tetris bookcase here. via prodesignews
One Hundred and Eight
“One Hundred and Eight is an interactive wall-mounted installation mainly made out of ordinary garbage bags. Controlled by a microcontroller each of them is selectively inflated and deflated in turn by two cooling fans.
Although each plastic bag is mounted stationary the sequences of inflation and deflation create the impression of lively and moving creatures which waft slowly around like a shoal. But as soon a viewer comes close it instantly reacts by drawing back and tentatively following the movements of the observer. As long as he remains in a certain area in front of the installation it dynamically reacts to the viewers motion.”
Created by Nils Völker. Surprisingly soothing to watch. You can view the piece in action here. via trendbeheer
Dune House
This just in from Daniela (reporting from a remote location): The Dune House which is for sale in Atlantic Beach, Fla, is almost a dead ringer for the Teletubbies’ home! Designed by William Morgan Architects in 1975, clearly the Dune House precedes the latter by quite a bit. via (of all places) aol and can be purchased here.
Coat Check Chair
“Coat Check is a concept chair that seeks to encourage people to hang their coats up properly.
The design simply appropiates the plastic hangers and the steel bar from a standard closet and creates a chair from those elements. The idea is to bring these items out into the open to be seen and thus remembered on a daily basis…”
Hmm…I know a couple of people who would benefit from having one of these in their room… Designed by Joey Zeledón.
BKF Backpack
This BKF backpack designed by Ingrid Gutman for Humawaca and Mi in Argentina is based on the iconic leather chair designed by Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy in 1940, popularly known as the Butterfly Chair.
The anamorphic shape of this bag permits it to rest elegantly on the wearer’s back. Available here.
Morse Code Wine Labels
I know it should be more about the wine than the label, but for me it may be just as much about the label. I love these morse code labels for Henry’s Drive Wines. “The varietal of each wine is printed on the label in morse code.” Designed by Parallax Design in Australia. via Lovely Package
Jer Thorp: Data Artist in Residence
Another one of the amazing speakers at the Geeky by Nature conference last week was Jer Thorp, a software artist, writer, and educator. He is a contributing editor for Wired UK and is currently Data Artist in Residence at the New York Times. His digital art practice explores the many-folded boundaries between science and art.
The top image is a print Thorp made based on his word frequency visualizations that he created using Processing and the NYTimes Article Search API. It is titled ‘RGB – NYT Word Frequency’ and shows usage of the words ‘red’, ‘green’, ‘blue’ in the Times between 1981 and 2011. The second image is a detail of the print. The bottom image is a screenshot of a visualization he produced based on the Guardian’s data on the Haiti Earthquake Aid by Nation. He asked how much money was being spent per citizen of these countries and converted the figures to Avatar minutes, showing how many minutes of Avatar would the aid pay for.
All of Thorp’s visualizations are beautiful as art forms as well as being incredibly useful in facilitating data interpretation. You should take a look at some of his animated visualizations here.
O-Clock
The O-Clock is a cool concept for a modern-day pocket watch. Designed by Esteban Design.
The Narrow House
The Narrow House designed by Bassam El Okeily for a couple in their sixties in the small city of Bilzen, Belgium. This is Okeily’s first house. The house includes a library in the lower balcony area, and an artist’s studio in the upper balcony. Blue light turns the façade into a spectacular light sculpture at night.
via architizer
Patatras Rolling Bookshelf
Patatras, designed by Michael Bihain, is a new kind of book storage.
A rolling shelf made of expanded polypropylene and available in a range of bright colors. via Yanko Design
Festival of Ideas
“The Festival of Ideas for the New City, May 4-8, 2011, is a major new collaborative initiative in New York involving scores of Downtown organizations, from universities to arts institutions and community groups, working together to affect change. A first for New York, the Festival will harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore the ideas destined to shape it. It will take place in multiple venues Downtown and is organized around three central programs: a three-day slate of symposia; an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery; and over eighty independent projects and public events. The Festival will serve as a platform for artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, planners, and thought leaders to exchange ideas, propose solutions, and invite the public to participate.”
Worth checking out, I think. More information here.
Bordbar
Bordbar, based in Cologne, processes used airplane trolleys and transforms them into high quality designer objects for private use. Bordbar trolleys are available in a variety of patterns and colors, with interior elements varying from office file cabinet, to shoe closet, to minibar, as well as the ability to implement personal requests. via architonic
Aakash Nihalani
Aakash Nihalani is an artist whose work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares made from fluorescent tape. He places these graphics around New York to “highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city itself…For however briefly, I am trying to offer people a chance to step into a different New York than they are used to seeing…” via happymundane
Valve Bottle Stopper
Fun! Available on Etsy, here.
Open House: Droog
Sounds interesting. I’m in.
“Open house is a project by Droog led by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Open house will be presented in a one-day event on Saturday, April 23rd, 2011. The event will be kicked-off with a symposium at Studio-X New York introduced and moderated by Mark Wasiuta of Columbia University, followed by a bus trip to Levittown, where visitors can view and participate in several house installations in the neighborhood, designed and executed by architects, designers and artists in collaboration with the homeowners. One of the installations will showcase concepts for future open houses, with proposals for new housing configurations and regulatory modifications.”
The event is free but there is an optional transportation fee from Studio-X to Levittown.
UPDATE: POST-VISIT FOLLOW UP HERE.
Cecil Touchon: Visual Poetry
I really like this series of collages by Cecil Touchon titled “Visual Poetry”. Cutting up the type into abstract shapes creates a lovely effect, but then I’m a fan of collage and type in general, so the mixing of the two is win win.
“Here, pieces of letters—once recognizable symbols—cease to exist as words and begin to communicate only as formal elements of design. They become part of the visual medium, which celebrates the true essence of the artwork”. via trendland
Lego Lunch
Just when you thought there isn’t anything Lego-related left to come out with…
Lego Lunchboxes and Lego Drinking Bottles.
Mori Mini Cups
Masahiro Mori, designer of my favorite (finger-burning) tea cups, apparently designed these fun, bold-patterned cups, too. They were designed for sake, but I bet they would work with tea as well. Available here.
CollabCubed 