You know that thing about how photographers hide behind their cameras? It’s all in the past. Dutch designer Bas Groenendaal developed the digital camera Scope to be used as a therapeutical instrument by unprivileged children. By photographing themselves and the place where they live, they are able to rediscover their space and identity, and share this point of view with others. The product has a very low cost of production, and an innovative look, exploring simple lines and vibrant colors. The proposal is to adopt a new perspective in photography, one in which the photographer and the world are mutually looking at each other. Bas Groenendaal believes that self-expression is able to change not only the people, but also the world we live in.
The idea of mobile phones making music is far from being new, but it looks like someone has finally decided to take the concept seriously. The Japanese au Design Project and Yamaha teamed up to make a series of mobiles that double as musical instruments. The project resulted in six unique prototypes. The Band In My Pocket model incorporates several brass instruments, like trumped and harmonica. The sounds are generated through the user’s voice, and are controlled by the buttons. Trio In Your Hand has a more electronic approach, with an interface for DJs and dilettantes to make their own scratches. Box To Play is one of the most creative, in visual terms: a foldable handset, with several musical interfaces, including synth and a platform for scratches. The little piano Key To Touch is also foldable, and comes with a tiny keyboard. And, Strings for Fingers functions as a sliding interface to reproduce the sound of instruments like violin and cello. Check out more images and videos, after the jump.
The Travelodge hotel chain has just opened in Uxbridge Central (Middlexex, Inglaterra) an innovative hotel built from prefab shipping containers. The outside of the building was covered and received windows, and looking at the facade no one would guess what the structure actually looks like. The 120-room hotel was built in only 10 weeks, and the prefab structure saved about US$900.000, according to design studio Verbus Systems. Travelodge is now planning to open a version with 307 rooms at Heathrow. Famous for its affordable rates, the company intends to save almost 20 million dollars per year by using this new construction method.
Zach Johnsen is a haunted illustrator. His ghosts, aparitions and freaks come to an exorcism in his watercolors and illustrations, beautifully composed in a vibrant, vivid, and loose line. Zach’s work explores various mediums: print, skateboards, skis, furniture, sneakers, and apparel. Widely recognized in the USA, Australia and Europe, the artist currently works in variations of his work, with canvas paintings and installations for video and animation. An interesting outcome of these experiments are the series of photos depicting his characters roaming the real world as if nothing were more natural. Check out more images after the jump.
Slow Food Nation is an event that celebrates the gift of food in America, and it happens in San Francisco during the Labor Day Weekend. The event gathers enthusiasts of the growing movement of sustainable food, and brings options of healthy tasty food to thousands of people. This year’s new feature is the collaboration of several architecture firms in San Francisco, which collaborated with curators to build the stands and present projects for slow food to be appreciated. Naturally, all the projects are eco-friendly, and some of them include very clever tricks for the reuse of materials. A good example of this is the cheese stand created by Macy Architecture, built with 1,100 milk cartons that build its structure; a smart way to hold back fast food culture, seducing both for the advantages of healthy eating and for the delightful spaces in which it can be tasted. The event will go on until September 1st. Check out more images after the jump.
The Hong Kong Lego Users Group has reduced the structure of the Beijing Olympics to a perfect replica in Lego bricks. All the main Olympics buildings are in it, as well as all the sports and vivid details of each inch of the structure. The group used about 300,000 bricks and 4,500 Lego people. The installation is about 7 x 3 meters and it will be in display in up to August 30th at the Grand Century Place in Hong Kong.
With the project Impossible is Nothing: Sports in Art, giand sports brand Adidas has managed to turn athletes into artists. The brand invited some sports stars to create works of art based on their own history, including David Beckham, Tyson Gray, Ian Thorpe and medal winners Jeremy Wariner, Allyson Felix, and Yelena Isinbayeva. After touring China, the pieces are currently in Beijing, and in October they’ll take a trip to Hong Kong, where they’ll be up for auction. The money will go to benefit Right to Play Sports Charity.
This is the one but last day of our special about China, and the topic is design and architecture. An event that covered a lot of the contemporary production in these fields was China Design Now, which took place from March to July 2008 in England. China Design Now brings an interesting retrospective about the country, and draws parallels between its imperial past and the urbanization of today. Check out more information and images, after the jump.
As we said back in this post, contemporary art in China has been growing through its clever combination of innovation with traditional elements. And this new Chinese creativity has been taking over the streets, as our highlights of the day are sure to illustrate: 798, the Chinese SoHo, and the city of Chongqing, which gathered artists, students and workers to cover over 40,000 meters of the city in graffiti. Check it out, after the jump.
The oh-so-desirable luxury travel items brand Louis Vuitton is known not only for its products, but also for the excelent city guides it’s been publishing for over 10 years. The brand has recently teamed up with Soundwalk, a company specialized in audio walks, to produce soundtracks for urban tourism in the Louis Vuitton Soundwalk project, the first digital product of the traditional brand in its 154 years of history. The cities chosen for this pilot project were Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing. Check out more images and videos after the jump.
