“In the sought-after London boroughs of Chelsea and Islington, inner city birds often have to claim their nesting space quickly! However, birds that are open to changing their wild ways might be convinced to try out the innovative bird-housing concept developed by the artists atLondon Fieldworks. The “Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven”opened recently as part of the Secret Garden Project by UP Projectsand hopes to develop into a haven of biodiversity and create a new public awareness of the ecological and cultural value of urban green spaces.
With over 250 bird and bug boxes available in the stunning sculptural art installation, birds can choose from a range of shapes and sizes of boxes to use for shelter, nesting or feeding spaces. The diverse complex of bird boxes were designed to reflect the architecture in the nearby Georgian terraces and 1960s flats that surround the park in Duncan Terrace Gardens and Cremorne Gardens. We love the strangely organic forms that are created by stacking these distinct modular box shapes together and are happy to hear that they have been woven together using elastic bands, which means the structure can change over time as the tree grows.
I came across some photography work of Iain Crawford and was quite impressed. Take a look at the website full of shots great shots! I’ll post some of my favorites after the jump. (more…)
I started Designverb on January 18th, 2006 as a quick experiment to jot down the many things I found to share with my friends and anyone else curious. Today, August 1st, 2010, marks my 1000th post, and this one being the 1001’st.
I’ll admit the the opportunities, friendship, community, and insights I’ve received throughout the years has been amazing and it has surely kept me busy after a long day of work and on weekends. There are times where I’m flooded with work and have very little time to post, but I started a Facebook Fan page where I post quick fun links and have recently found some extra contributors to help find more great things to post about.
The Above picture is of sushi at O Ya here in Boston. I tend to eat sushi to celebrate so maybe I’ll go there this week again.
Back in March 2007, soon after starting Designverb, I was selected as 1 in 100 artist worldwide to create a design for the Converse JoinRed initiative to bring AIDS awareness and to raise money for the cause. Above is the one of the final designs I submitted which was stitched by hand and went through quite a design process even though I later submitted a re-worked design because of trademarks issues in my first design. Though I am not a shoe designer, I approached this project as any of my other projects diving into research, discovery, meaning, definition, creation, and refinement.
If your interested, read after the jump to see the design process, thinking, and some other design concepts I thought up but did not continue with in this short 2 week project.
“These images are from a set of 1,075 photographs — shot over five days last year for the book and exhibition, ‘‘Contraband’’ — of items detained or seized from passengers or express mail entering the United States from abroad at the New York airport. The miscellany of prohibited objects — from the everyday to the illegal to the just plain odd — attests to a growing worldwide traffic in counterfeit goods and natural exotica and offers a snapshot of the United States as seen through its illicit material needs and desires. ”
What a great installation in Tokyo! Wish I were there to experience it…as if I were inside a big snow globe!
“‘sensing nature‘, an exhibition which rethinks the japanese perception of nature, has just opened at the mori art museum, tokyo with interpretations of the subject made by takashi kuribayashi, taro shinoda and tokujin yoshioka. the three japanese artists / designers give abstract or symbolic expression to immaterial or amorphous concepts as well as natural phenomenon such as snow, water, wind, light, stars, mountains, waterfalls and forests. their ideas of nature suggest that it is not something that is to be contrasted with the human world, but that it is something that incorporates all life-forms, including human beings. the exhibition consists of newly commissioned works by each of the three artists, each attempting to stimulate our sense of nature through large-scale installations.
Following an old but still fun trend in pixelating products in our world is turning digital icons into products. This is probably one of my favorites but I really can’t wait until our entire physical world is represented by 2d objects… graphics and products at their best… at least visually.
(pics mirrored after jump)
I’ve been incredibly busy helping organize the TEDxCambridge event occurring May 16th at the MIT Stata Center. The theme “How do you eat” is based off of this year TED prize winner Jamie Oliver in regards to Food and education. If you are in Boston May 16th, apply to get an invite and let me know. We can only invite 300 attendees and registration will close soon. You can learn more on tedxcambridge.com
Also, if you are in a position to sponsor any food, funding, or gifts for the event, please contact me asap. (now! =) ).
We will have 2 break sessions followed by an evening event in eating, drinking, and idea sharing!
Lots of awesome speakers in the line up!
- Wylie Dufresne: WD 50
- Chandler Burr: Times Scent critic
- Dan Ariely: Behavioral Economist
- Richard Chisolm: Filmmaker
- John Gertsen: Mixologist
- many more!
I’ve mentioned 1 sheet cardboard furniture studies as one of the RISD freshmen foundation projects, but one other great project was making furniture with lots of cardboard. I do not have any pictures from my time there, but Lazerian Studio has a great example with similar results. Oh the memories!
