Art + Architecture + Design
Design
Canned Radiation from Three Mile Island
Mar 19th
We’re big fans of canned..well, anything really. Our prized can of LA smog sits on the living room mantle in our home, and will soon be joined by this:
This "Canned Radiation" produced by Brenster Enterprises in 1980 was probably the most popular souvenir from the Three Mile Island nuclear incident.
Amongst the six suggested uses listed on the label is this one:
via Neatorama
Nevada Solar One: May the Force Be With You
Mar 19th
Don’t you love it when real life turns out to be cooler than the stuff you thought up in your bedroom when you were a kid who couldn’t get enough Star Wars?
One of the world’s largest solar installation is about to be switched on. The project is called Nevada Solar One, and it is projected to generate 64 megawatts, when it is operational. It covers 300 acres and contain 760 mirror arrays, each measuring about 100 meters. The total number of mirrors is approximately 184,000. The solar power plant will go live next month in Boulder City, Nevada. The mirrors direct sunlight on an oil-filled tube. The oil is then used to create steam, which turns a turbine. See also: 250-MW Solar Power Plant Planned for Southwest. :: Via: Energy Blog
via Treehugger
Pulp Fiction Typography: Motion Graphic Drama!
Mar 13th
I’m on a YouTube bender…here is a great infographic of the Mrs. Wallace scene from Pulp Fiction:
Fab Tree Hab: Full-Contact Design. Watch the YouTube
Mar 8th
Watch the YouTube flythrough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcBpwJ0xYG4
Check out the "Fab Tree Hab" the first all-green home design we’ve seen. This has changed my thinking about building green.
Insteat of low-impact residential design, I’m thinking of this as full-contact residential design. The point is to fully embrace and design the landscape you inhabit, rather than the now-fashionable, small-footprint-light-on-the-land ethos now in vogue. It opens up a whole new dialog that is additive rather than reductive. It’s empowering, don’t you think?
According to the Vancouver Sun: "Instead of being just environmentally friendly, the structures would naturally blend in with surrounding ecosystems, he said.
"The group is currently working with Plantware, an Israeli arboriculture firm, to test techniques for growing the lattice-like weave of vines and roots that would help form the walls of the homes. The design technique combines an ancient gardening technique called pleaching — the weaving together of tree branches to form living archways and lattices — with computer technology that controls the growth and shape of a tree.
"Based on a computer model, wooden jigs would be placed at key portions of young saplings in order to guide the formation of the walls and roof. A dense layer of vines and other plants would be grown to reinforce the exterior, which would also feature soy-based plastic windows."
When do we start building…sorry…planting?
Here is NYC, circa 2107 using terraforming on the left, and current pleaching on the right…
thanks ArchNewsNow
Hotel Boxes Rule My World
Mar 7th
Feeling a little unorganized? Need a cool way to keep your shoes/sweaters/doo-dads out of the way, yet still fashionably within reach? Too much crap in your closet? The "Hotel Box" is a brilliant solution.
"Straight from Pure Nomade in Denmark, the Hotel box concept is a brand new product to the market. It is neither a box, nor a piece of furniture, but all in between.
You buy them collapsed and sealed in plastic folio. Whenever you need them you take them out, fold them into boxes, zip them with a pair of rubber bands, and they are ready to go. They can safely be stacked in up to 10 feet towers fixed through a center screw at the top of the box and they can be set up as shelves crawling along the walls by using some joints supporters, and all in between. Finally a dust lid is snapped into place through the opening in front, making this the window for display."
Available online at yoyashop.com. To see styles, go to www.purenomade.dk
TED Talks, Open Architecture Network, and the Allure of Changing the World
Mar 5th
"…it includes Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel laureate in physics; Paul Simon, the songwriter; Richard Branson, the Virgin Group magnate; and the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The occasion is the annual TED conference, named for the convergence of technology, entertainment and design— with a dash of social activism thrown in recently as well. It is expected to draw 1,200 people to Monterey, Calif., starting Wednesday." –NYT
This is a must-see; the TED conference is posting free videos of the proceedings here.
And in related news:
"In 2006 Architecture for Humanity won the TED Prize and was given one wish to change the world. We decided to wish for something simple: A place where we could all come together to improve the living standards of 5 billion people.
Starting March 8th 2007, the Open Architecture Network will be that place. We hope you will join us in building a more sustainable future by sharing your designs and expertise.
Find it HERE
X-Rated Film Poster Gallery
Mar 2nd
Vintage poster aficionados will love this collection of x-rated film posters from the 60s and 70s. We particularly enjoy tag lines like, "a film for the erector set" and "so adult it smarts"
Link: X-RATED – Adult movie posters of the 60s and 70s.
Via Coudal Partners.
thanks Wit
Innovation timeline 1900-2050
Mar 2nd
Check out this great map by Richard Watson of nowandnext, who says on his blog;
"The timeline is offered in the same spirit as the 2007 trend map – it’s open source so people are encouraged to adapt or play around with it or use it in anyway they like. One final point though – please don’t take it too seriously!"
Looking at the full-size pdf, I’m all over the "sleep surrogates" and "invisi-spray"!
get the full picture here
Steve Boyer @ Upgrade! Seattle 3.8.07
Feb 28th
Steve Boyer is the ‘real deal’. Countless artists claim to cross disciplines, bridging the gap between art and commerce, finding new connections amidst the constantly shifting landscape of technology, culture, entertainment and communication. Boyer is one of the few with the chops to make that claim legitamately. He’s developed computer games, arcade games and toys. He’s worked as a software engineer, an audio producer and an art director. He holds two patents. All this while continuing his art practice, showing at SIGGRAPH, MoCA Chicago, Santa Barbara Museum of Art and many others.
Be sure to check him out next week:
"Humanity is undergoing an Evolution of Abstraction. The physical forms and social and economic structures that have previously defined human identity are disintegrating, often being replaced by their symbolic representations. As these new modes of being replace the old we are faced with a Crisis of Identity in that assumptions about what it means to be human are challenged by new technologies, social narratives and biological realities. But every crisis presents an opportunity and at this critical turning point in human history we have a unique opportunity to rewrite the narrative codes that allow societies to self-organize and prosper. and to re-synthesize what it means to be human.
In this presentation connections will be drawn between medieval trompe l’oeil painting, cellular biology, insect robots and reality television in an attempt to elucidate some of the opportunities (and risks) that are posed by electronic and bio-technologies and to examine the role of electronic media in both the writing and re-writing of narrative codes.
Upgrade! Seattle: CODE – The Evolution of Abstraction and the Crisis of Human Identity by steve boyer :: 7pm Thursday March 8, 2007 :: 911 Media Arts Center • 402 9th Ave N • Seattle, WA.
Feral Dogs Sniff out Pollution; Robots Rule!
Feb 26th
Now this is the kind of school project that would have held my interest back in school. Did YOU ever get to do something like this?
From Inhabitat:
"Remember those trendy robotic dog toys from a couple years back? Aibo and Poo-chi and the like? Well, sadly, after 6-year-olds tire of the novelty of electronic pets who can fetch balls, bark the national anthem and do silly little dances, there is not much left in the life of a toy robotic dog. Thats why we love Natalie Jeremijenko’s awesome eco / educational / engineering / art project which teaches students how to refurbish old toy robotic dogs and give them new life – turning them into lean green pollution-sniffing machines. For the Feral Dogs project Jeremijenko has worked with numerous student groups to create packs of roving robo-dogs, which are “released” en masse into a community space to sniff out harmful VOCs, ozone, and other environmental toxins. The ‘packs’ of feral robotic dogs are designed to “patrol” sites of public interest like schools, parks, and industrial sites, in order to generate community and media attention on the issue on contaminants in the environment. Clever, cute, and fun – is this the coolest project ever or what?"
more at Inhabitiat
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