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MOVIE: MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
While we're on the subject of great Maker-movies, I feel obliged to mention Jennifer Baichwal's documentary Manufactured Landscapes, which is a survey of the work of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose métier is finding beauty in the midst of environments radically altered by human activity. If you watch no further than the first shot, you will have seen one of the most amazing takes I've ever seen in any movie, ever: It's an eight minute tracking shot of a Chinese factory floor that just goes on and on and on, and you keep thinking "This place can't be that big; this shot has to end soon." And it doesn't. And the images of the ship-breaking beach at Chittagong, Bangladesh, are like something out of a post-apocalyptic video game: Beautiful and frightening.
PETER ROSS: BURROUGHS
Following his 2007 work documenting psychics, photographer Peter Ross' latest series takes on the metaphysical aura of stuff with his series of images of William Burroughs' possessions.
The items—from skull candles to walking sticks (pictured here)—all still sit in his Bowery Street apartment in NYC.
Iconic accessories, like Burroughs' worn shoes, take on new meaning thanks to Ross' detail-oriented eye.
Other less iconic pieces, including this handmade quilt, provide intimate glimpses into the late writer's life.
Shot against stark backgrounds, Ross' approach makes the objects into resonant totems of Burrough's life.
Check out more images after the jump.
YOU'VE GOT TO MASSAGE THE CONTROLS
The unusual Massage Me gaming interface, cooked up by University of Art and Industrial Design Linz students Mika Satomi and Hannah Perner-Wilson, is a vest embedded with sensors on the back. As you can see in the photo above, pressing on the back of the vest controls the on-screen movements of the game. "Otherwise wasted button-pushing energy is transformed into a massage and the addicted game player becomes an inexhaustible masseur," the creators explain.
The soft flexible buttons are made from layers of conductive fabric and are embedded in the back of the jacket. These buttons register the massage moves and interpret them before passing them on to the console as control signals. This means that Massage me works with existing games, and the best massages come from playing games that require the player to press a lot of buttons and combinations. Although Massage me currently works with a hacked a Playstation Controller, we believe it wouldn't be hard to convert it to other consoles by hacking their controllers.
I'm not sure if I want someone who's playing Tekken to have their hands anywhere near my vertebrae, but you gotta give this one an A for originality.
LEGO PHOTO APP CONVERTS PHOTO TO LEGO MOSAIC
With the new LEGO Photo iPhone app you can convert snapshots into a LEGO photo mosaic. Just take a picture, press a button, and watch the app build an image out of LEGO. Use the resulting image on your favorite social networking site or as a guide for your own layout. [via techchee]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in iPhone | Digg this!IPHONE’S POCKET HEAT
It’s cold in NYC. Like, really cold. This Hand Radiator iPhone App turns your iPhone into a hand warmer. This might be the smartest dumb thing I’ve ever seen. Or is it genius. I can’t decide.
The app puts your iPhone on overdrive, using 100% of its processing power. That, as you probably have noticed with some applications, makes the components to overheat, which in turn can warm up your hands
How bad is that for the battery life? Via Gizmodo
INSA IN LISBON
Insa has created new installation work for the recently opened Montana store and gallery in Lisbon. Signature stripes and high-hell fetish remain at the core of the art. (via Juxtapoz).
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MANNHEIM STEAMROLLER
I was at this teriyaki restaurant the other day and this Mannheim Steamroller song came on. Damn this band is good! What is a Mannheim Steamroller? It’s gotta be something you some weed with.
COINS TO FREQUENT FLIER MILES "HACK"
Coins to Frequent Flier miles "hack" via DF.
Enthusiasts of frequent-flier mileage have all kinds of crazy strategies for racking up credits, but few have been as quick and easy as turning coins into miles.Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in hacks | Digg this!
At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.
Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.Richard Baum, a software-company consultant who lives in New Jersey, ordered 15,000 coins. "I never unrolled them," he says. "The UPS guy put them directly in my trunk." Patricia Hansen, a San Diego retiree who loves to travel, ordered $10,000 in coins from the Mint. "My husband took them to the bank," Ms. Hansen says, and she earned
JOHN PAUL THURLOW COVER ILLUSTRATIONS
Check out these awesome cover illustrations by artist John Paul Thurlow.
KEHINDE WILEY: EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT OF KING PHILIP II
by Ariston Anderson
This year's Art Basel Miami Beach features myriad homages to the deceased King of Pop, including works by David LaChappelle, Jeff Sonhouse and Jonathan Monk. By far, the most powerful piece on display is a semi-commissioned work by renowned Brooklyn artist Kehinde Wiley at Deitch's booth. The massive Rubens-inspired oil, called "Equestrian Portrait of King Philip II," swaps out the Spanish monarch's face for Michael Jackson's. The story behind the 2009 painting is as legendary as any tale in Jackson's book.
As it goes, after seeing Wiley's work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Jackson contacted the artist for a commission. Jackson, who frequently had himself painted as a king made a natural match for Wiley's magical-realism depictions. After Jackson and Wiley spoke for nearly a half-an-hour over the phone in 2008 about the artistic vision behind the piece, they agreed that Wiley would photograph Jackson in an Old Masters pose. Thoroughly impressed with Jackson's knowledge of the painting process, Wiley sent Jackson a set of reference images but then stopped hearing from him and was unable to contact him after Jackson changed his hotel several times.
Following the star's death, Wiley decided to complete the piece, a large royal sprawl as majestic as the King's work himself. Choosing to paint Jackson at the peak of his career, the images shows a figure comfortable in his own body, confident behind a wall of armor atop a bowing horse. With bold blues and reds, and surrounded by heavenly cherubs, it's a portrait that would have made the King of Pop proud. Miami visitors, this is a must-see before it falls to the home of a private collector.
Click through to see an image of Rubens' original.
POWER OUTLET WITH USB CHARGING PORTS
You can pre-order yours now at Fastmac. Supposedly they will ship "in early 2010." Or you could just make your own. If you try it, remember Louie the Lightning Bug: "You gotta play it safe around electricity." [via Slippery Brick]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!MYTHS & MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GRID SYSTEMS
A few myths and misconceptions about grids exist in the design community that can be detrimental, especially to designers who are new to the subject. I recently read an article, which is no longer online, claiming that grids have disadvantages and it listed the reasons why. As you can guess, I very much disagreed with the entire article and felt that it was providing a lot of bad information on grid systems. All of the listed “disadvantages” were distortions derived from the lack of understanding on how a grid works and functions.
In response to that article, here’s my attempt at clearing up this mess.
Grids are a design trend.
Grids have been in use long before graphic design became a discipline. During the 13th– and 14th-centuries, scribes used the Villard Diagram to organize their handwritten manuscripts. In the 15th-century, Gutenberg and others divided their pages using the Van de Graaf canon.
The use of a grid is not a trend, it’s a fundamental skill that designers should possess. Grids have been around a very long time and are an important part of the design process.
Grids can impede creativity.
Definitely the most ridiculous of the bunch, this myth suggests that a grid will cause a designer to be less creative. A grid should never define a design, it should work with it. To suggest that a grid can hinder creativity is the same as suggesting that a music tempo can as well. A grid is a building block that can never, and should never, impede creativity.
The legendary designer, Josef Müller-Brockmann, explained it well:
“The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires practice.”
Another outrageous claim is that grids are confining. When used properly, a grid will never limit or confine a design, it will grow and adapt to your liking. If someone tells you a grid gives you no freedom, that person doesn’t fully understand the purpose of a grid or how it should be used. Grids are flexible and allow for an infinite number of possibilities.
Graphic designer and writer Ellen Lupton explains:
“To say a grid is limiting is to say that language is limiting, or typography is limiting.”
Where people get confused is with the notion that a design utilizing a grid should look “grid-like”, giving a clear indication of columns. Fortunately, that isn’t true, and this poster by Brockmann is a great example. The text clearly falls on a grid but the concentric shapes have more of an organic feel, making the grid invisible.
Grids only benefit certain designs.
A grid can be used for ALL designs. I’ll repeat that. A grid can be used for ALL designs.
To suggest that only certain designs can benefit from using a grid is to suggest that a structural foundation can only benefit a certain type of building or that grammar is only useful for a certain style of writing. A grid is a foundation, and like with any architectural structure, it’s a vital part of the process.
Grids also do not satisfy a specific aesthetic. They do not require the use of Helvetica or the omission of images. A grid can be applied to any style of design, no matter if it’s scrapbooky, or clean and minimal. You don’t have to design like Brockmann to use a grid.
Here are two sites that exhibit completely different styles of design, but both make use of a grid.
Example 1 is predominantly white, doesn’t feature many colors or textures and uses a sans-serif typeface.
Example 2 uses a larger variety of colors, textures and a serif typeface.
Grids require a lot of content.
The amount of content in no way dictates whether a grid is required or not. A design needs to visually communicate an idea or message, whether it’s a 250 page story, or a 5 word sentence and an image. A grid helps achieve that goal through structure, organization and hierarchy.
Grids slow down the design process.
The opposite is actually true. A well-designed grid, used by a competent designer, can help solve a design problem in less time. A fully designed grid system will also provide a consistent structure and organization across a multi-page design, like a web site, making the process more efficient.
Grids only work in a fixed layout.
This is specific to web design. Many people believe that a grid needs to be fixed and as a result can only generate a fixed layout.
Not true.
A grid can be designed to be fluid and change with the viewport size, scaling itself proportionately.
A few articles have been written on the subject and there are even a few CSS frameworks available:
Fluid Grids
The Fluid Grid system
Fluid 960 Grid System
Conclusion
Hopefully this article has helped clear up a few myths and misconceptions about grids, and has allowed you to better understand the purpose of them and how they should be used.
If you’re interested in learning more about grid systems, visit my site The Grid System for helpful links to articles, tools, books and templates.
LEGO-SIZED HOLE PUNCH BY MUJI
Paper craft meets LEGO with MUJI's quad hole punch and kits, available November 27th at MUJI Japan. [via CRAFT]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in LEGO | Digg this!BASIC MATHS WORDPRESS THEME
Khoi Vinh and Allan Cole have created Basic Maths, an excellent grid-based theme for Wordpress that includes features like microformats, color-scheme control, full widget support and a key shortcut to display the grid. Not to mention it’s beautifully designed.
You can purchase it for $45. Well worth the price.
REAL IMITATES VIRTUAL - WINDOWS/MAC CALCULATORS
Korean product design firm MintPass came up with these great concept designs for real calculators that imitate their software counterparts. [via Boing Boing]
Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Computers | Digg this!THEO ADAMS
Theo Adams is a self-taught, 20 year old director, performer and visionary. His newly formed company of talented and passionate dancers, musicians, artists and performers are travelling from London to Tokyo to realise their most ambitious project to date.