
Yesterday 'The nature of things' at Artists' House, UK;li>- It's been just over ten years since London architect Stephen Marshall built Artists' House, the contemporary cottage on the grounds of the New Art Centre in Wiltshire and a modern foil for the grand 1804 mansion and Orangery at Roche Court. Originally conceived as a residence for artists putting in long days in the sculpture park, it was repurposed a few years ago by curator Sarah Griffin for the centre's first design exhibition. This weekend Griffin will launch a second design show, which featu…(more)

3 days Saatchi Gallery collection at Hyatt Regency London- While hotels often double as platforms for new art, few of them can lay claim to a selection picked from one of the most influential contemporary art galleries today. Settling in until 30 April at London's Hyatt Regency Churchill is 'One Giant Leap' - the first of a series of three exhibitions taking place during 2012 at the hotel, featuring an assortment of works from the Saatchi Gallery collection.
Predominantly scattered around the ground-floor lobby and restaurant, the mix of paintings, scul…(more)

New Court, Rothschild London HQ, by OMA- Taken in from Wallpaper* HQ, OMA's new home for Rothschild (the practice's first London building) seems the most exciting addition to the 'City-scape' in years. What makes New Court such a winner, perhaps surprisingly, is its restraint in scale and effect. A ten-storey mesh cube with various annexes, topped by a two-storey 'sky pavilion', it displays a lightness of touch that is certainly missing from the Walbrook Building, Foster's still unoccupied heavy-metal blob it overlooks.
Nathan Mayer Ro…(more)

Palazzo Pepoli, Bologna, by Mario Bellini- In a gorgeous, medieval Italian city like Bologna the historic treasures come in abundance, yet you'd be hard-pressed to find fine examples of contemporary architecture. Palazzo Pepoli, the new city history museum that opened its doors last weekend, is one such example. Marrying old and new, architect Mario Bellini and graphic designer Italo Lupi took a rundown 14th-century monument and opened it up with all the steel-and-glass tricks of the modern trade.
'Our main idea was to create a museum th…(more)

Development news from Honda's Japan HQ- Japan is a modest nation when it comes to self-promotion and Honda in many ways reflects this. The country's third-largest carmaker and the world's largest motorcycle maker seldom broadcasts its achievements. This seems a pity. Founded in 1948, Honda now has 70 manufacturing sites in 27 countries. This week the firm announced plans to expand its luxury arm Acura into the UAE, Saudi, Russia and Ukraine.
Wallpaper* travelled to the heart of the operation to see what else the company has in store. …(more)

Maison & Objet 2012, Paris- Cutback culture may be dominating the pages of newspapers, but behind the doors of the exhibition halls of the Parc des Expositions in Paris Nord Villepinte, and the galleries flanking the Seine, fresh new product design from old and new sources was flourishing last weekend at Maison & Objet.
Admittedly, economy and accessibility could be seen to be playing a role in some of the newer offerings. Established designers and design houses appear to be looking to small but perfectly formed product to…(more)

Architecture update: Letter from China- If buildings could talk, China…(more)

John Pawson's plans for new Design Museum unveiled- Terence Conran and John Pawson put in an appearance at what will be the new Design Museum in Kensington this week. Located in the former Commonwealth Institute, the 10,000 sq m building is set to open in 2014, placing the organisation within a stone's throw of 'Albertopolis' - SW7's museum district.
Empty for more than a decade, the Grade II listed building, which features a dramatic tent-like roof, is an example of 1960s architecture at its best.
'The challenge is working inside the skin of an …(more)

Postopolis DF-
Super excited to be part of Postopolis DF - the Mexican edition of Storefronts Postopolis, this time in partnership with Museo Experimental El Eco, Tomo and Domus Magazine.
Previously you've seen groups of celebrated (if that's the right word) architecture/landscape/urban/art/design bloggers converge in NYC and LA, inviting the great, the good and the obscure to present while they tweet and post like fury.
This time, I'll be there with:
Urban Omnibus (Cassim Shepard), Intersections (Daniel…(more)

Election Aesthetics- Over at Election Aesthetics, we will be following the upcoming UK General Election from a visual culture, aesthetic and design perspective. Posts will come from top British designers and design critics so it should prove to be an interesting dissection of designs role in contemporary politics (as well as an experiment in issue-based group blogging).
So far we cover topics such as David Camerons Photoshopped face, Swingometers and the colour purple.
If you'd like to contribute, let me know.…(more)

Sign Language-
…(more)

The Worst Condition Is To Pass Under A Sword Which Is Not One's Own-
The most fascinating show about design in London this year (and we've had a lot of design shows) is not a design show. Michael Rakowitz's 'The Worst Condition Is To Pass Under A Sword Which Is Not One's Own' at the Tate (on till 3 May) is the most revealing study of how design, fiction, and horrifying reality combine in the strangest of ways.
Rakowitz presents a rangey speculation on the relationship between Sadam Hussain, science fiction, Jules Verne, Supergun, WWF, Iran Iraq war, Star Wars,…(more)

Design Will Kill Us All, Horribly, Again & Again- Hausu, La lampara asesina from seres on Vimeo.
2.31 minutes which set out in the clearest terms the deep seated antagonism at the heart of design. In the end, design will suck us in, tear us apart, spit us out, and spray us with blood. At least physiologically. (From the incredible 1977 film Hausu.)…(more)

More Scenes In Cartoon Deserta- When you find yourself in times of trouble, historically speaking, its quite likely you'll find yourself in a desert. For Satan in Paradise Lost, for the Israelites fleeing Egypt, for Mark Thatcher on the Paris Dakar rally, deserts are places we become lost in or are exiled to. Equally, they are places where beyond-normal things happen, things like nuclear tests, alien autopsies and what-goes-on-in-Vegas-stays-in-Vegas moralities. They are places beyond our normal conception of place, empty of t…(more)

Eiffel X-Rays-
From the medical records of St George's Hospital Medical School:
"A 3 year old boy presented to our accident and emergency department with an obvious penetrating head injury. He had tripped and fallen onto a metal model of the Eiffel Tower which then became rigidly lodged into his skull.
On arrival he had a Glasgow coma score of 15 and was neurologically intact. He was then anesthetised for a computed tomography scan which showed the tip of the metallic model penetrating the skull and lying …(more)

Beyond: Values and Symptoms-
Excited that Beyond issue 2 is out. Alongside luminaries both literary and architectural including Douglas Coupland and Francois Roche, I have contributed a short story titled "Everything Dale Myres Could And Couldn't See". The story chronicles a digital animators increasing obsession with the assassination of JFK which leads to ever more byzantine recreations of Dealey Plaza and other sites noted for their conspiritorial nature - kind of Dan Brown via Nikolaus Pevsner if you will.
Here is an…(more)

Today Reflection of craft with a desire for a story-
I really enjoyed watching the two part film from Gourmet Films. They interview the founder and CEO of Icon, Jonathan Ward. It’s fascinating to listen what drives him to create. When you start listening to the decisions made it becomes clear pretty quickly that everything was done with a purpose and was thought out extensively. Things like color to the materials to the proportions all went through the same thought process. Inspirations came from jets to classic watches. Everything is simpl…(more)

On the Appropriateness of the Mad Men Poster-
Last week I came across a poster advertising the premier date for this year’s season of Mad Men. I took a shot of it for my daily photo project and posted it to Flickr, Instagram and Twitter. My tweeted title was “I’m not too sure how appropriate is this Mad Men poster”. Thinking nothing more of it I continued with my day and shooting more images each morning. A couple days later I went back to the photo and noticed a spike in traffic to the photo. A couple blogs had used the im…(more)

My Initial Reaction to the Book on Saul Bass- 2011 was a crazy year for me so over Christmas I rewarded the hard work I put in by buying a couple design books. I bought Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible by Sophie Lovell, Helvetica and the New York City Subway System: The True (Maybe) Story by Paul Shaw and Saul Bass by Jennifer Bass & Pat Kirkham. The first two books came right away but the Bass book was on back order and there was no defined delivery date. I ordered it anyways from Amazon. To my surprise it arrived a couple day…(more)

Getting a Glimpse Into Ford’s Design Process- It’s been almost a week since I was in Detroit for the North American International Autoshow that Ford invited me to. I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on the days that I was there and wanted to start talking about what I saw inside Ford. I along with 149 other bloggers from across the world got access inside the company that they’ve never given the public access to. We checked out different labs for testing, rooms where designs are reviewed and some of the workspace that clay …(more)

Cars I liked on the first day of the North American International Auto Show- Having never been to Detroit or the North American International Auto Show, here’s a couple cars that caught my eye on the first day.
…(more)

Experiencing the Henry Ford Museum- The Henry Ford Museum was the backdrop for the first dinner put on with Ford in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show. I had the opportunity to walk around the museum both before and after dinner. I was really was really impressed with the eclectic nature of the collection and vast size. There was everything from cars to trains to airplanes to different forms of machines that made energy. I really enjoyed seeing how a lot of those items have evolved over time. Going through…(more)

In Detroit for the North American International Auto Show with Ford-
Over the next couple of days I’ll be taking a lot of photos, tweeting and writing the occasional post from Detroit. I was invited from Ford to take part in this year’s North American International Auto Show. The two day schedule put together from Ford looks pretty cool as it is busy. I suspect by the time I fly back to NYC I’ll know a lot more about vehicles than when I landed in Detroit.…(more)

Tweaking the New Year-
A couple years ago after reading a post from someone that visited the Empire State Building once a year on New Years Day I decided to follow the same tradition. Just like last year and the year before that it gave me a focused opportunity to reflect on the past year and decide what I will do for the remainder of the new year.
Looking back it was like no other. The biggie was Gesture Theory. We worked with more people, released better products and ultimately we we’re in control of our di…(more)

Pleasure wear. Tokyo- In Tokyo a day off work is a rare treat and whether you spend it walking in the park or working your way through your magazine stash, you'll need the perfect attire.…(more)

...And relax- There’s no need to rush your Sabado in Madrid.…(more)

Bang on- This elegant, oval-shaped Suovo box (ideal for storage or laundry) is made by Villa, a third-generation family-run homeware firm based in Milan.…(more)

Q&A Noriaki Okabe- Noriaki Okabe, the Japanese architect who worked with Renzo Piano for 20 years and whose projects include the award-winning terminal at Kansai International Airport, has recently been putting the finishing touches to the new Belgian Embassy in the Nibanch…(more)

Shelf help- Vitsoe is expanding its reach with its first US shop, on Bond Street in New York.…(more)

Happy place- Residents in Keelung, Taipei's port city, now have more space to play thanks to a new plaza designed by Spanish architect Vicente Guallart.…(more)

Shedding Light- Brisbane-based architecture start-up Richards & Spence transformed a collection of run-down sheds (scheduled for demolition) into sleek new retail space for Brickworks South, a shopping collective in Southport, Queensland.…(more)

Q&A. Mauro- Mauro Bianucci trained as an architect in his native Argentina, before moving to New York to work as a retail architect in 2000.…(more)

Today Fine art reimagined with science fiction themes-
Tor.com's Irene Gallo gathers together an absolutely fantastic gallery of science fiction artwork that quotes famous works of fine art. I'm all over John Mattos's Mos Eisley reimagined as Picasso's Three Musicians.
Art History Through Sci Fi-Colored Glasses
…(more)

Today Woman's infected jaw removed, 3D printed replacement implanted-
An 83-year-old woman with a badly infected lower jaw had the entire thing replaced with a 3D printed titanium/bioceramic replica. The surgery was performed by doctors from the University of Hasselt (Belgium) in collaboration with Dutch surgeons.
The 3D printer prints titanium powder layer by layer, while a computer controlled laser ensures that the correct particles are fused together. Using 3D printing technology, less materials are needed and the production time is much shorter than tradi…(more)

Today 16-y-o girl, accepted to MIT, sends her admission letter into space-
Chris sez, "My name is Chris Peterson. I run web communications for MIT Admissions and have been a loyal BB reader for years.
For the last several years we have been sending our admitted students their acceptance letters in cardboard tubes. First because we sent a poster, but now it's its own thing.
2012 is the anniversary of an old MIT balloon hack, so we put a letter in all of the Early Action admit tubes telling them we wanted them to hack the tubes somehow, and set up http://hackthetu…(more)

Today HOWTO do Converse fingernail paint-
I don't know an awful lot about fingernail painting, but this seems like a pretty straightforward painting task, and the effect is pretty awesome.
Converse Nails
(via Super Punch)
…(more)

Today Rebecca MacKinnon talks about her book "Consent of the Networked"-
Joly sez, "Rebecca Mackinnon discusses her new book 'Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom' (Basic Books) with Mark Whitaker, managing editor for CNN Worldwide, at The New America Foundation NYC on Feb 1 2012."
I've got a copy of this book at the top of my read-for-review pile. I can't wait. Rebecca's views on international relations and the Internet -- especially the role the Internet plays in both the struggle for freedom and the suppression of freedom in C…(more)

Today Map shows NYC's energy consumption, building-by-building-
Gmoke sez, "This statistical model uses 'zipcode-level energy consumption data to estimate the average annual energy use for every tax lot—at practically building level—through all five boroughs of the city.' Included are estimateans for space heating, space cooling, water heating, and base electric applications such as lighting. 'This map will enable NYC building owners to see whether their own building consumes more or less than what an average building with similar function and size wou…(more)

Today Avería: an "average" font-
Dan Sayers ("I am not a type designer") decided to explore "generative" type-design by seeing what happened when he "averaged out" a large number of fonts. Once he got his teeth into the problem, he realized that "averaging out" is a complicated idea when it comes to shapes, and came up with a pretty elegant way of handling the problem, which, in turn, yielded a rather lovely face: Avería, "the average font."
Then it occurred to me: since my aim was to average a large number of fonts,
perh…(more)

Today Impromptu to do today in SF: Johann Sebastian Joust in Yerba Buena Gardens- This afternoon some friends and I will be playing this new game we really like in Yerba Buena Gardens, and you're welcome to join us.
Johann Sebastian Joust is basically like high-tech tag. Each person has a Playstation Move controller, and the object of the game is to jostle other people's controllers so that you're the last man standing. The twist is that as you play, a Bach concerto will also be playing and its tempo indicates the upper threshold for how much your controller can be jostled…(more)

Yesterday In Your Face: Harold Offeh and Eloise Calandre;li>-
Contemporary artists Harold Offeh and Eloise Calandre collaborate to explore concepts of portraiture and its capacity to challenge and provoke. Using the primary mediums of popular culture - photography and video - Offeh and Calandre devise a series of three one-off performances, broadcast live. Tune in at 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00 GMT on Friday 3 February 2012 to watch the action.…(more)

Death Camp-
'The history of our planet is one of a death camp. The planet history is one of violence, corruption and conspiracy.' Photographer and filmmaker Joseph Lally's film Death Camp takes a dark, morbid tone exploring the depravity of modern existence and the failure of humankind inspired by the visuals of Jean Luc Godard and the writings of Bernard-Henri Lévy, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag.…(more)

Design_Download: Stephen Jones-
The eighth pattern in our Design_Download series celebrates the creativity, wit and invention of master milliner Stephen Jones. A leading figure in international fashion for three decades, Jones' contribution is a prime example of the exuberance, glamour and formidable technique that characterises his hats: a playful exaggeration of the classic beret, titled (wait for it) 'Nice Package'.…(more)

Power Dressing-
Power Dressing is a live shoot with a difference, combining self-defence how-to with high-fashion starring model Lara Stone. Trained in Krav Maga, a self-defence system used by the Israeli Defence Forces, Stone demonstrates to women everywhere how to defend yourself against would-be assailants, whilst wearing high fashion. Carine Roitfeld styles and Nick Knight captures the results for V magazine…(more)

NEWGEN//TEN-
Karlie Kloss is the model for SHOWstudio's first live shoot of 2012 - appropriately enough celebrating a decade of high-street giant Topshop sponsoring the British Fashion Council's NEWGEN scheme. On 6 January 2012 this shoot brings together the very best of ten years of talent, showcasing garments from the one-off collections created for Topshop by some of the greatest of Great British fashion…(more)

In Your Face: Interviews - Marrakech International Film Festival-
Featuring world-renowned cinema figures including Forrest Whitaker, Terry Gilliam and Marco Bellocchio, the 2011 Marrakech International Film Festival was a major event in the global film calendar. SHOWstudio covered the event with a series of interviews, an accompaniment to the 2011 exhibition 'In Your Face'.…(more)

Merry Christmas-
To celebrate Christmas 2011, Lady Gaga stars in this fashionably festive film created by Nick Knight and Ruth Hogben…(more)

Visions Couture-
Daphne Guinness is the iconic model for 'Visions Couture' - a shoot featuring the finest of Spring/Summer 2012 fashion mixed with Guinness' own legendary haute couture wardrobe, captured by Nick Knight. The resulting images will form the centrepiece of the fashion windows of Paris' Le Printemps department store, the final evolution of which will be unveiled in February 2012 Paris Fashion Week…(more)

Tissue Series- Lisa Nilsson‘s “Tissue Series” are anatomical cross-sections made of paper. Beautiful work.
found at Colossal
…(more)

Still Life- Still Life by Scott Garner is an interactive gallery piece that takes traditional still life painting into the fourth dimension with a motion-sensitive frame on a rotating mount.
found at CreativeApplications.net
…(more)

Air Vases- The Japanese studio Torafu Architects designed 2 new versions of their air vases: Gradation and Cube. Those 2 patterns are printed on both sides of paper disks, which are cut so the user can simply pull them into the desired shape. They don’t much function but they look nice.
found at dezeen
…(more)

Resonate – Belgrade New Media Festival, 16-17 March 2012- I rarely announce events here on today and tomorrow but “Resonate – Belgrade New Media Festival” might be something you’re interested to attend. It’s a 2 day festival in Belgrade, Serbia, taking place 16-16 March 2012. There’re will be talks, workshops, panel discussions, performances and concerts. But they’ve also taken care of a night program with DJ sets, live audio/visual performances and concerts. The line-up sounds great: Nicholas Felton, Josh Nimoy, J…(more)

One Piece at a Time- “One Piece at a Time” is a project by Jonathan Brand. It’s a paper 3D version of a 1969 Ford Mustang which he used to have but had to sell to buy a diamond engagement ring. It’s almost as complete as the original, the body and interior were completely refinished but not its mechanicals. The details of the car are based more on his memory and a few photographs.
found at It’s Nice That
…(more)

Tape Recorders- Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is a Mexican electronic artist, who develops interactive installations that are at the intersection of architecture and performance art. “Tape Recorders” is one of his recent installation which was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.
Rows of motorised measuring tapes record the amount of time that visitors stay in the installation. As a computerised tracking system detects the presence of a person, the closest measuring tape starts to projec…(more)

Mimesis- Here’re a few photos from the series “Mimesis” by Barbara & Michael Leisgen. Simple & nice.
found at Potz!Blitz!Szpilman!
…(more)

Ballpoint Pen Paintings- Ball Point Pen Paintings by Shane McAdams. He actually opens the ballpoint pens cartridges to blow, pour or let the ink flow on panels. Afterwards the panels get a special UV treatment at a tanning salon.
found at It’s Nice That
…(more)
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