Friday, November 21, 2008

$5

fivedollarcomparison.org is a blog where ppl post what they can buy for five dollars all around the world. (found via jan chipchase's twitter :) )

$5-donkey ride in ecuador

$5-donkey ride in ecuador



$5-chicken in Uganda

$5-chicken in Uganda



$5-partial bale of alfalfa hay

$5-partial bale of alfalfa hay



$5-2 hr bike parking in montreal

$5-2 hr bike parking in montreal



$5- taxi in peru

$5- taxi in peru



$5-musical instrument in thailand

$5-musical instrument in thailand

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Unfinished Swan

If paintball were cool, it would be in a totally white maze world with no dimensions until you splattered paint everywhere. The Unfinishd Swan is a video game currently in production.


The Unfinished Swan - Tech Demo 9/2008 from Ian Dallas on Vimeo.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

stairporn.org

a blog on stairs. i don't think i even knew i had a staircase fetish until i saw this.

house_j_aoki


vigo017


glacier_loft_lucerne


trend


tolo_int_2


124

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Shaz Madani - works

arctic-current


arctic-poster


Clicked through a notcot post showing Madani's paper art (above) and found myself poking around his portfolio. London College of Communication, St. Martin's College. you know.

Thought this was a cool project, tracking and visualizing a week's expenditures. (black pins are needs, white pins are wants.)

chart-whole


chart-detail


chart-key



And this is a print promotion for the M25 Motorway in London. "On one side, the poster gives exact directions that would have to be taken to get from one side of London to the other [. ..] The reverse side reads, 'wipe away the confusion take the M25.'"

m25 1



m25-2



m25-3

Sunday, October 19, 2008

graphic office

battery packaging

whiteboard marker

permanent marker

hiliters

packaging for whiteboard markers, permanent markers, hilighters, and batteries. all simple but excessively descriptive.

andreas and i were thinking about hyper-labeling the locations of things in our kitchen with huge, typographic signs. "trash." "recycling." "mugs." it would be great, but maybe not as great as office supplies are great.

Friday, October 17, 2008

India + Color

Saw the most recent Sony Bravia video:


This theme of India as a land of color comes up again in the ad campaigns for India's tourism bureau, "Incredible India," (or rather, Incredible !ndia.) here are stills from the flash banner on their site.

incredible india


Andreas and I agreed: it's a cool brand identity for a country. for india, specifically.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Oblique Strategies

windowslivewriterobliquemarketingstrategies-88a9image07

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt had published four editions (in 1975, 1978, 1979 and 1996) of what they call "Oblique Strategies." It's a deck of cards with a random aphorism on each, dedicated to prodding people out of creative funks. And it is now available in iphone:



obliquestratiphone



Some examples:

Use an unacceptable color.

Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics.

Fill every beat with something.

Don't stress one thing more than another.

Ask people to work against their better judgment.

Call your mother and ask her what to do.

Humanize something that is free of error.

Breathe more deeply

Do nothing for as long as possible

Use "unqualified" people.

Make a blank valuable by putting it in an excquisite frame

Faced with a choice, do both

Use fewer notes

Get your neck massaged

Remove specifics; convert to ambiguities

Remove the middle, extend the edges

Imagine the music as a series of disconnected events

Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance

Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them

Disconnect from desire

Mechanize something idiosyncratic

Do something boring

Accept advice

Pay attention to distractions

Look closely at the most embarrassing details and amplify.



And some unpublished ones from his diaries:

Steal a solution. (22 July)

Describe the landscape in which this belongs. (9 August)

What else is this like? (9 August)

List the qualities it has. List those you'd like. (9 August)

Instead of changing the thing, change the world around it. (9 August)

What would make this really successful? (9 August)

Who would make this really successful? (9 August)

How would you explain this to your parents? (9 August)

Try faking it. - from Stewart Brand (9 August)

What were the branch points in the evolution of this entity (20 August)

Back up a few steps. What else could you have done? (20 August)

When is it for? Who is it for? (23 August)

What do you do? Now, what do you do best? (27 August)

First work alone, then work in unusual pairs. (8 September)

What most recently impressed you? How is it similar? What can you learn from it? What could you take from it? (10 September)

Take away as much mystery as possible. What is left? (30 December)

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Subway Time

lo75_1_large


I just bought this at Little Otsu on Valencia. its awesome & combines two of my passions: calendars and subway maps.

lo75_2_large


lo75_4_large

Monday, October 13, 2008

Overnewsed but Uninformed

01

18
so i don't speak german (as i learned incontestably while in berlin this summer). and thus, i had to rely on google translator to translate the page for me:


"News mediation was the beginning of our century still a few media is limited. ... With the possible anytime access to news about a variety of communication channels has a broad media landscape with a myriad of information producers and suppliers develop. For the viewer, it becomes more difficult to determine authenticity of messages. You are looking for sources to whom they can trust.

Overnewsed but Uniformed helps in the search. Sequences are described, ownership and dependencies disclosed and user behavior illustrated. Background information and the monitoring and analysis of the real message of a bridge no fall in Minneapolis convey the basis on whic the Chamber News better assess and categorize can."

from what I gather, its an infovis of the news-media industry.

can be downloaded (in german) from
www.overnewsed-but-uninformed.de

Friday, August 1, 2008

Signs of Life



By Freddie Yauner for his work at Platform 11 at RCA in London.

In his words:

///

We spend our lives being directed by signage, but what do the signs get up to when they have no one to tell what to do? Reactive signage, giving a look into the lives of overworked pictograms.

Site specific instalation for Sleepless exhibition at the Great Eastern Hotel. When people were present, the sign would function, but when the space was empty the overworked pictogram [its very hard work standing on one leg all day] would take a well earned break, that is until he was needed back at work!
Flash animation controlled by a motion sensor.

///

Thursday, July 10, 2008

kinetic sculpture

Electric moons

text from yatzer: "Electric moons is one of the installations that will be at display during the STRP festival in Eindhoven, Holland. It’s a performance which makes use of balloons, sound, light and movement. The height of the helium balloons is adjusted with a computer-controlled cable, whilst the internal illumination is accomplished using dimmable super-bright LEDs, creating a pixel in a warped 8x8 spatial matrix."

BMW museum lobby

text from infosthetics: "a mechatronic data sculpture made up of 714 metal balls that translates a virtual design process into the space around it. seemingly weightless, the kinetic sculpture moves through a cycle of free abstractions and typical BMW vehicle forms."
see the hi-res version here.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

PES





http://www.eatpes.com/

extinction timeline

notable extinction predictions:
2009: mending things
2013: getting lost
2018: secrets
addiction outlives intimacy
spam outlives coins
nothing outlives cher

extinction timeline


click here to see it bigger

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Monochromatic

One Is the Loveliest Color

Commitment? Art project? OCD? Five New Yorkers who wear only one color all day, every day (and it’s not black).


Photographs by Tina Tyrell

Valeria “ValBlu” McCulloch
Shoe Designer. Yves Klein blue.

Why blue?
In college, I majored in color theory. Blue was the most interesting color, historically. Germanic tribes wore it to ward off enemies; Christians used it to denote divinity. Wearing blue for me is being in a dream all day.

Do you make your own blue shoes?
I go to leather fairs and have the factory make me shoes. I also buy white Chanel and Christian Louboutin shoes, and I color them blue with custom-ordered electric-blue Sharpies.

Do you wear blue makeup?
I wear YSL No. 3 mascara, Chanel Blue Satin nail polish, and blue LancĂ´me lip gloss, which looks clear when you put it on. And my bathroom products are blue, like my toothbrush.

Does the color reflect your personality?
Blue signifies loyalty, and I’m very loyal. It’s hard in this industry, but I’m a humanist.

There was a lot of electric blue in recent seasons.
It’s getting trendy. When it hits “mass,” it’s a turnoff.

What do your friends think?
My friend studied photography, and I was part of her thesis. She did a color study and took photos of me.

What color is your apartment?
My living room is neutral, but just go into my bedroom. I have a blue Nintendo, bedside table, suitcase, pillow, BlackBerry. And I collect blue gemstones. People once believed that sapphires had healing properties.

How does blue make you feel?
Blue is a peaceful color. The U.N. has a blue flag; all the presidential campaigns have blue. It touches every realm of life, from cosmic to future.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

procrastination.


a film by john kelly, made as part of his masters at RCA

the last twenty seconds = me and my implementation project.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

corners and recesses

work by takeshi miyakawa, and shots of his studio.

corner shelf



14 + 1



inset shelves



takeshi miyakawa studio




also, the stack shelf, by shay alkalay

Shay Alkalay -Stack

Super Design Market

also by multistorey, the installation design for super design market, a "a curated selling market, with products from Britain’s best up and coming and established designers."

SDM 2008

super design market



sdm 08



sdm 08



sdm 08



sdm 08




SDM 2007

super design market 07



sdm 07



sdm 07



and also, an "photo booth" installation they did for V&A village fete. see the images they took here. they're pretty convincing.

photo booth