materials

HypoSurface: Living wall!

Posted by _tango! on August 3, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, fun, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, tech, thoughts, wacky. 7 comments

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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To Catch a Web:Emil “Rocky” Fiore

Posted by _tango! on July 31, 2007
Posted in: art, entertainment, ideas, inspiration, materials. 5 comments



Very cool! Capturing spider-webs to make art! I love simple, random, some may think odd, hobbies that become a business!
via Coolhunting part 1 and part 2.

“The first in a two-part series, this video is an introduction to the real Spiderman, Emil “Rocky” Fiore, who captures and mounts spiderwebs on glass. Here, the episode documents his process—from spray paint and varnish to delicately aligning the glass—on a pier along New York’s Hudson River.”

“Our second video on Emil Fiore, New Jersey’s only spiderweb catcher, ventures into the forest to watch a few “catches.” Going a little deeper than Part One (which documented the capture of one web), this episode looks more closely at his process, as well as the spiders and their webs themselves.”

Second video after the jump.
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Weekend links!

Posted by _tango! on July 28, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, misc, style, tech, wacky, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment

– Proof Aquafina and Dasani water is just local tap water!
– Super high res image of downtown boston via neatorama.
– IDSA Okala EcoDesign Guide.
– Naoto Fukasawa’s project on how materials make a huge difference.
– Dippy Egg set.. makes ya want eggs and toast!

– Tech guru GigaOm launches The GigaOm Show! The first episode was a great interview with co-founder James Hong of HotorNot, and CEO Bill Watkins of Seagate.
– SoundBall! Pretty cool! Reminds me of Mario Brother in Reality! Watch the video!
– Double sided toothbrushes (brush your gums while brushing your teeth)(The Colgate 360 or the Reach Fresh & Clean) I think i saw this as a student project many years ago…great design!
– Underwater Pool Installation! Fun fun! via Hemmey.

Kameraflage: Camera Visible Ink

Posted by _tango! on July 28, 2007
Posted in: art, fun, information, inspiration, materials, tech. Leave a Comment

kameraflage
Very cool! Time to tag the whole city with invisible yet camera visible tags!

“With Kameraflage, now you’ll be able to plant subliminal messages on T-shirts, movies and billboards that can only be seen with digital cameras. This context-sensitive display technology, developed by Sarah Logie and Connor Dickie, works by using colors that are invisible to us but easily picked up by the silicon chips in digital cameras. As you can see, the lovely model above is wearing a shirt that only reveals that cloud’s lightning bolt when seen through an iPhone’s digital camera, although any ordinary unmodified digital camera would get the same result. She just as easily could have placed her phone number in that cloud. Hmm. Let’s think of some other uses for this cool tech.

Another use for the technology would be to watermark video and filmed content, so when pirates try to videotape movies by taking a camcorder into the theater, there could be a big bunch of funky-looking text all over it. Enabling this is a clever trick using a patented invisible light projector developed by Logie and Dickie. More Kameraflage clothing will be demonstrated at the ACM SIGGRAPH Unravel fashion show on August 6 in San Diego.”

via Gizmodo

Columnar Basalts

Posted by _tango! on July 24, 2007
Posted in: art, inspiration, materials, misc, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment
column like basalt

Woa! These cascading column like basalt formations rock!

“Columnar Basalts are rock formations resulting from the quick cooling of lava flow. Fractures form in a random cellular network (similar to soap bubbles, organic cells, etc.), though the average distribution of sides is six, giving the hexagonal structures an eerie man-made appearance.”

Lots more pictures via centripetalnotion.com

Toothpaste Damages Teeth

Posted by _tango! on July 22, 2007
Posted in: design, information, materials, thoughts. Leave a Comment

toothpaste damageDid you know that toothpaste can damage your teeth? According to the following article, I can see why… Otherwise, I’m sticking to my tasty paste for now.

“CBS2Chicago is reporting about a growing concern among some dentists that excessive brushing with toothpaste is not good for one’s teeth. Dentists increasingly see patients destroying tooth enamel and soft tissues, and scientific evidence seems to implicate the toothpaste.”

It reminds me that in design or any other field, sometimes when you create solutions you also create new problems down the road . We feed ourselves problems through solutions if not pass it onto other fields … what a paradox. 😉

Read the rest of the article via MedGadget
Source: CBS article/video

Seattle: Boeing visit

Posted by _tango! on July 14, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, experience, information, inspiration, materials, me, tech, thoughts. 2 comments
seattle boeing 787 wings

The highly anticipated carbon fiber Boeing 787 Dreamliner was unveiled while I was in Seattle, so I ventured over to Boeings headquarters to check it out. Besides the galley tour and an awesome visit to their 98+ acre hanger, I had VIP (accidental trespassing) access with one of the 787’s up close and personal! Man, these aircrafts are gigantic. Some interesting facts:

– Boeing has reserved parking near the hangers for employees that have been around for 25+ years… I’m not sure what newbies feel, but man, thats a long time to wait for that benefit.

– Under the hanger is a long 1/3 mile hallway that houses all the plumbing. When it’s raining outside, employees often run up and down this hallway for exercise if not ride their bikes.

– If you want to buy one of these 787’s it’ll cost you some $230 million just for the plane, not including interior… and the waiting list goes as far as 2015 currently for delivery.(3 payment system: to start the build, to paint it, and to fly it away)

– The new Boeing 787 is some 40,000 pounds lighter than similar airplanes, making it %20 more fuel efficient, and produces %20 fewer emissions.

– People were not allowed to bring anything into the gallery tour, even my freaking sketchbook was taken away. The reason: too many people in the past dropped things down the hanger.

Pictures after the jump w/video about the interior design team (Teague) 😉

787 interactive page
787 Premier footage (pretty long video, but informative)
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Seattle: Library by Koolhaas

Posted by _tango! on July 13, 2007
Posted in: art, design, experience, information, inspiration, materials, me, style, tech, thoughts. 2 comments
seattle central library rem koolhaas building

During my trip in Seattle I went to the new cascading Central Library designed by architect, and GSD professor, Rem Koolhaas.  I missed out on the guided tours, but had a good hour walking up and down the spacious, colorful, and vibrant new construction. I don’t have much to say about the design, but the details were very nice… including the many sustainable elements within the design… and from what I know about Rem, the ideas are probably very theoretical though compelling. If you really want to read more about the design, dive over to Arcspace.

tons of pics after the jump.

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Inside Out Bears: Kent Rogowski

Posted by _tango! on July 11, 2007
Posted in: art, fun, ideas, inspiration, materials, style, thoughts, wacky. 2 comments
Kent Rogowski bears inside out book

“Think of your favorite teddy bear. Now imagine it’s been ripped open, gutted, and turned inside-out. That’s what Kent Rogowski’s Bears series has done to the iconic stuffed animals of our childhoods. In his recently published book and show at Foley Gallery, Rogowski mangles our memories and, at the same time, makes them all the more real.”

Pretty cool project ..and Kent’s a RISD alum whooohoooo! His bears reminds me how doing a total 180 makes things better!.(Pro E to Solidworks story, or making ugly dolls which have sold like hot cakes!!!)

via Boing Boing
Morning News Q&A interview
Foley Gallery in New York
BearsTheBook.com
Amazon Book purchase
Version by William Wilson via DesignBoom

Several pictures after the jump…
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Uniqlo Mixplay!

Posted by _tango! on June 24, 2007
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, information, materials, style, tech, thoughts. 4 comments

uniqlo japan mixplay

WOW! Uniqlo Japan has a stunning video for their lineup of color parkas and a pretty sweet mixplay website to to browse through.

Watch their awesome mixplay video (have sound on)(gets really nice after 2:00) of 4 dancers bustin out some sweet robotica moves, mixed along with matrix-like slow motion moves, mashed up with great beats, locks, and freezes. Some may think the films been edited, but my guess is it’s real time and purely mad skillz! They held a live version during the holidays in one of their stores in Japan and someone made a remix of their original with a more upbeat tempo here.

I’ll post all 3 videos after the jump. (Have your sound on)

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