ideas


Wow! Hussein Chalayan’s Spring/Summer 07 Collection presents some seriously cool morphing clothing! Watch the video above, or watch it over at Gizmodo here. (NSFW: some nudity towards end)

I’ve seen my share of mechanical transforming outfits before, but most have all turned out robotic-like and seemingly uncomfortable on women. Hussein somehow makes these transitions smoothly and gentle, like a ghost peeling away at the models. The designs are very nice and morph for extra “wow” points. Call it fish strings, Nickel Titanium, some other memory alloy, or plan magic, I love it!

I want an outfit that morphs the fabrics pore sizes as my body temp changes after a run, though I think there are smart nano materials that do this already. Or maybe an outfit that’s connected to the internet that changes shape based on the NASDAQ or weather…. okie, I’m getting a bit geeky now.

I’ve posted the a longer version of the Catwalk and more about Hussein after the jump, with interviews and another spectacular soft LED dress thats pretty sweet!
(3 videos after the jump)

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CityScape Brussels Arne Quinze
CityScape Brussels Arne Quinze

CityScape is a colossal fortress of tangled wood hovering in the heart of Brussels for the next year reflecting a frozen moment in time gesturing the increasingly influential city of Brussel within Europe’s capital. The project was funded by MINI for to coincide with the world premiere of the new MINI Clubman Car, which is pretty sweet, though the back reminds me of a refrigerator nostalgically.

CityScape is the vision of designer Arne Quinze who directs the fast paced multidisciplinary firm Quinze&Milan.(They rock!) Their work has been seen around the world, but I first noticed them from last years Burning Man sculpture in Black Rock city which they later burned down like champs! Cityscape reminds me of the trippy Tunnel House in a higher budget way.

I’ve copied a ton of images after the jump, otherwise, go to their BLOG for more pictures, videos, and information.(one YouTube Video about the project)

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color organizing books

“There’s this new trend of organizing books by color. I love this photo by chotda linked via the Rainbow of Books Flickr group. This growing trend is cool but if I were gonna do this, I’d probably have to create a little digital database so I’d be able to find the right book I was looking for. Also, I’d probably be totally OCD if a book was out of place due to a subtle color tone. Jessica at How about Orange points to a San Francisco bookstore Superhero that rearranged all 20,000 books by color. [ via ] Link.

via Craftzine

Pretty sweet! I’ll have to reorder all my magazines on my bookshelf since they just sit there anyways. This reminds me that sometime when things are done one way by others or systems are designed to be done one way, there’s always a better solution for your needs.

Take for example those contact card binders with lettered tabs on the side, hinting you to keep your contacts in order by letters. We’ll, I started off that way but figured out a better method. I keep my cards in chronological order. The longer I’ve known you, the further you are in the front of the book. If I met you recently, your on the back half where I continue adding cards. Sometimes you remember people more by when you met them rather than by name, and by putting the cards in this order, you have a timeline of event such as college, a conference, a party, or at meeting. Perhaps this doesn’t work for some of you, but it makes for a great timeline book of contacts which works great for me.

Life.Saver.Bottle.Filter“The way fresh water is supplied to disaster-hit regions could be revolutionized after an Ipswich-based businessman (Michael Pritchard) invented a £190 ($385) bottle that makes foul-smelling water drinkable in seconds.

Military chiefs are excited because the bottles, which can distill either 4,000 liters or 6,000 liters without changing the filter, will have huge benefits for soldiers who hate drinking iodine-flavored water.

Conventional filters can cut out bacteria measuring more than 200 nanometers but not viruses, which typically are 25 nanometers long.

Mr Pritchard’s bottle can clean up any water – including fecal matter – using a filter that cuts out anything longer than 15 nanometers, which means that viruses can be filtered out without the use of chemicals.”

I’m glad to see these globally needed solutions advancing as far and as fast as they are. The Life Saver Bottle reminds me a bit of the Life Straw as well.

via Telegraph.co.uk
To Buy, go to LifeSaverSystems.com

armani dumpster boston newberry

Above: Newberry Street in Boston, Armani Exchange closed down, dumpster filled with goodies (wooden hangers, manikins, tables, chairs, shelves, etc) a few minutes later, ladies in high heels and gentlemen in suits dumpster diving. I have close up pictures of the ladies in heels, but I decided not to post those 😉 ( I grabbed some chairs and hangers)

Coca-Cola Happiness factory: animated commercial…very nice!
Huge LED Ceiling In Beijing: nice picture here, videos here.
Morph Thing: Morph famous faces together, or yours!
Great Bus Ads!
An interview with Ferran Adrià on his favorite places to dine in Barcelona with links! (I want to travel now)
Bill Clinton On David Letterman.
Removing a Cork inside a bottle: I’m not sure why you would need this, but would be a good IQ test.
Printing out all Spam installation
Turning Cheap Steaks into Gucci Prime Steaks!

Cut&Paste Boston

Cut&Paste was born in NYC 2005 assembling a group of digital graphic artist to do battle in an energy packed bar with over 850 gazers watching their swift Wacom skillz on projected walls Iron Chef style. This years Cut&Paste will hold battles in 11 locations worldwide. I’ve never been to one, but the hype and energy surrounding this growing event is the buzz around town. The Boston battle on September 8th initiates their world tour which I plan to attend, but if your not in the area, hit up one of their other locations:

Boston: Sept 8.
New York City: Sept 15
Portland: Sept 21
San Francisco: Sept 29
Chicago: Oct 6
Los Angeles: Oct 13
London: Oct 20
Berlin: Oct 27
Tokyo: Nov 3rd
Hong Kong: Nov 10
Sydney: Nov 17

video via coolhunting

random links thoughts

I’ve been really bad at posting this week and I apologize. I’ve been busy and found little to post. I almost posted about the very cool color guiding “MyCuppaTea” but then got distracted by the fact that Guster was playing live near me in September. After hurdling for tickets which I never bought since their concerts start before work ends, I scrambled online looking for the sold out but ever so cool red “Use Helvertica” shirt which lead me to Helvetica: the film. Somehow this took me to a Flickr collection of business cards which reminded me of my DIY Paint Chip card holders which someone did today though not with paint chips.

Now in my bookmarks were some really random links.. a kind of gross but amusing Frog cleaning his stomach, Martin Klimas and his smashing still photography, Hundreds posing naked on Swiss Glaciers thanks to Spencer Tunick, a kick butt Magnum wine ratchet , two huge people fighting, and the ever so fun visible but invisible public toilet which reminded me of the hilarious and very wrong Japanese toilet pranks.

I’d also like to make a shout out to my friend Andy on his company Interwoven Threads (Look good, Do better) He offered up a few shirts to my readers, so if interested, send me a cool link, I’ll pick a few, and he’ll send you a kick-butt shirt and even let you suggest a charity in your area to donate one to.(You buy a shirt, they donate the same one to the needed)

That’s it for now. Enjoy!

nike long ball shoe sustainable reconsidered

I don’t post on shoes too often, but when a big cookie monster like Nike known for making mountains of carbon fuming rubber glue shoes launches a 100% sustainable shoe in their eco-consciousness Nike Considered footwear line, I start to smile.

I’d seen previous attempts in this line that didn’t fair to well stylishly nor environmentally, but the these new Long Ball Lace shoes are rather appealing with it’s minty lime highlights while being 100% biodegradable using a cork sole and sporting some baseball stitch like weaves. Now all they have to do is figure out how to drop the price a bunch and be a bit more like TOMS shoes with donations to the needed, even though they probably do this already. 😉

via coolhunting

Full size pics after the jump
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PoachPod egg poacher
How smart and simple! I want one!

“Poaching is one of the healthiest ways to prepare eggs, since it doesn’t use butter or oil, but it surely isn’t the easiest—until now. The PoachPod suspends the egg like a lily in a lily pond. Simply crack egg into the PoachPod floating in boiling water. When done, simply pop out a perfectly poached, perfectly shaped egg! Silicone ensures quick, easy, clean release. ”

I’m sure you can find more than one use for this egg poacher 😉 (also, if you like boiled eggs, look into Eggo, or other various egg cookers)

Via bookofjoe
Buy at the KitchenOutlet, 2 for $9.99.

Brush and Rinse toothbrush fountain
Brush&Rinse is a ingenious fun idea by Scott Amron at Amron Experimental which adds a simple curve to a toothbrush that creates a redirection of water from the sink faucet for a fountain like spout to sip and rinse from.

His concept won an ID magazine award:

“The jurors loved the way a common-looking toothbrush, gently tweaked, could shape tap water into a fluid parabola as perfect as the St. Louis Arch. They talked about the wonderfulness of harnessing the appeal of water play to transform a universally unloved chore, repeating comments about the power of design to create moments when ingenuity boosts utility to an emotional “A-ha!” Their solidarity was too strong to rouse any pithy debate, however. “Will it entice kids to brush their teeth?” (Tobias) Wong wondered. No matter, said Jeremijenko: “It rescripts a daily activity into something fantastical.” …(It) reminded the jurors of the deepest and most primitive powers of design: to create wonder where it’s least expected; to make something out of nearly nothing; to reduce people to two words. Wow. Cool.

– Barbara Flanagan”

weekend bites
– Morgan Webb launches WebAlert.com, a new daily video on everything digital in 5 or less minutes.

Incuby.com– a beta for now social network for Inventors, TechCrunch review.

SearchMash.com– Googles secret testing ground.(article)

OrigamiTesselations.com– A blog on all things origami!

VideoJug.com– Life explained online with a bit of an English accent in most videos.

Modular sustainable shoe concept!

PBwiki.com– make your own wiki site.

This is pretty sweet! “HypoSurface is the World’s first display system where the screen surface physically moves! Information and form are linked to give a radical new media technology: an info-form device.”

Basically, it’s a Three-Dimensional moving surface even though in my mind, it’s just a scalable version of Daniel Rozins “Pixel Active” projects such as his fascinating Wooden Mirror which I posted about before or his Shiny Balls Mirror projects.

I’ve posted a YouTube video of Hyposurface above, but check out their website for more videos.

It would crazy cool to see this active wall combined with the Tunnel House!

I’ll post 4 videos after the jump.

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