art

Awesome. I want!!

“The Untitled (Hello World) sign by Valentin Ruhry is an enormous grid of 5,000 orange rocker switches that illuminate when switched on. The piece is currently on display as part of the Fünf Räume (five rooms) exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum NYC through September 5. I can only hope they might let you flick a few of these awesomely tactile switches. (via triangulation)”

via thisiscollassol

I’m heading out to SF towards Sebastopol for a new unconference that I have never been to but was incredibly excited to be invited to  FooCamp (Friends of O’Reiley) which is an invitational camp, where 250 awesome people, hackers, designers, creators, makers, and questioners  gather to come up with whatever is on their mind and have great discussions with people from all over the world from different fields to boggle your mind! I’ve had quite a few friends attend and everyone seems to be energized full of ideas and disruptive ones when they return from this 3 day backyard camp gathering. There is not much online about it, but here is a write up from our friends Andrew on his experience a few years ago! I’ll be back next week with lots to write up about, and keep secret at times. Let me know if your in SF. I’m out there right before Foocamp this week.

(picture from laughingsquid)


Our buddy Kyle Macdonald (one red paper clip project) told us about a pretty radical project he had in mind a few weeks back, and guess what, now he’s done it. The idea was to walk into a store in nyc, and Buy Everything, then re-sell it all in a collective of units. Anyhow, check out the video above, and go to the new website StoreBuyOut.com.

I’ve been waiting to visit Jay Walkers incredible “Library of Imagination” for several years now and in about 12 hours I’ll be inside pondering, wondering, imagining, and wishing I could take everyone along. I’d write more about it, but the 2008 TED video above or the Wired article will explain it best until after I return, though I’ll have no photos as this is not allowed during my visit. I’ll have to thank TEDmed for arranging this visit, which is also a must go to conference I highly recommend.


My favorite talk this year from TED:
“Diving under the Antarctic ice to get close to the much-feared leopard seal, photographer Paul Nicklen found an extraordinary new friend. Share his hilarious, passionate stories of the polar wonderlands, illustrated by glorious images of the animals who live on and under the ice.”


One of my favorite talks this year:
“A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station … And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light.”

via tedtalks


If your a UI designer you’ll appreciate these “UI Stencil” templates for for the iPad, iPhone, Windows7 phone, website, and Android phones along with some 1:1 ratio sketch pads.  Never again doodle out of proportion and know exactly what icons are used in those interfaces! Made from stainless steel and cost around $25.


A follow up from the TEDxCambridge event I co-organized: Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic from 2006-2010, is the Director and Curator of the Center of Olfactory Art at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. In his TedxCambridge talk he speaks about eating scent and smelling food.


Mesmerizing video!!!

“Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and (seemingly) random motion.

For more details see this link

The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that it executes 51 oscillations in this 60 second period. The length of each successive shorter pendulum is carefully adjusted so that it executes one additional oscillation in this period. Thus, the 15th pendulum (shortest) undergoes 65 oscillations.

Our apparatus was built from a design published by Richard Berg [Am J Phys 59(2), 186-187 (1991)] at the University of Maryland. The particular apparatus shown here was built by our own Nils Sorensen.”

via youtube


Wow! Watch this video to learn how to make use of a tiny 258 square foot apartment though the spacious balcony helps out for sure.

“When Christian Schallert isn’t cooking, dressing, sleeping or eating, his 24 square meter (258 square feet) apartment looks like an empty cube. To use a piece of furniture, he has to build it.

Apartment designed by Barbara Appolloni.
Original story here.
Youtube video.

Located in Barcelona’s hip Born district, the tiny apartment is a remodeled pigeon loft. Christian says its design was inspired by the space-saving furniture aboard boats, as well as the clean lines of a small Japanese home.”