Archive for March, 2009

The conglomerator I’ve been waitin’ fer!

by David Auerbach on March 31, 2009 in Cool Ideas with No comments

skimmerOk, I’ve been talking about this for a long time: how someone needs to come up with an application to allow you to skim through the various social networks we all participate in and present them in a polished interface that doesn’t limit you functionality-wise too much as to make the whole effort useless. Of course, Facebook is trying to become the ultimate conglomerator on it’s own by allowing just about anything to connect to it, and this works to everyone else’s advantage because Facebook is so large, sending updates to them can actually gain them new users…

Anyway, enter skimmer, an Adobe Air application developed by Fallon, a branding/marketing/development company that obviously has a very clear vision for these things. This application works very well, and it’s only in beta. And as the first Adobe Air application that I’ve used for more than 10 minutes, I have to say I’m pretty impressed. It works fast, doesn’t look like crap, and doesn’t bog down your computer like other alternatives out there…plus it has an absolutely gorgeous full-screen mode. It lets you tweet, update some info in Facebook, comment, and go directly to the page in question if you need more info. All very seamless.

True, it’s a bit limited at the moment as it only connects to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Youtube and Blogger, but as the app develops I’m sure they’ll be adding lots of other applications…at least I hope so!

The next step for this whole “social network” phenomenon that I love/hate will be a way to UPDATE all of these services in one go, instead of just pulling information from them. It’s tiring and a total, complete waste of time having to repeatedly update different services with whatever information needs updating.

Robots with Soul

by David Auerbach on March 30, 2009 in Art & Culture, Cool Ideas with No comments

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When I was a kid, I loooooooved the movie “The Brave Little Toaster” (and I still do) for it’s personification of regular household objects, depicting them on a journey to find their owner who discarded them. I guess, as a kid who always took things apart to find out what made them tick, I enjoyed the idea of the “soul” in the everyday objects that surrounded me.  I’m sure many other kids did too, since Disney made a movie about it.

You may have seen these guys in a shop window if you happened to be shopping on Atlantic Avenue, and I think they’re absolutely amazing. Using only parts from old-world industrial machinery and equipment and a few new parts, Gordon Bennett of Bennett Robot Works creates these amazing little creatures that just seem to be alive, and each one seems to have it’s own unique personality.  He even gives them their own names. While they’re way out of my price range ($1500-5000), they do sell a poster for $50, which is a little more affordable, although still expensive.  If you happen to be in Boerum Hill, definitely check out City Foundry to see these guys in person.

Click the thumbnails for larger images.

  • Homart
  • Hickok
  • Monarch
  • Spot

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The Comprehensive Jeff Koons

by Amelia on March 29, 2009 in Art & Culture with 1 Comment

picture-3Taschen just released the most comprehensive hardcover book (ever) of the works of Jeff Koons.  It’s a monster of a book (592 pages!), and may seem like there’s a lot of text for a coffee table art book – but that’s only because his art is accompanied by historical content in English, French, and German.  That’s so we don’t forgot how much of a worldly guy he is.

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Despite the millions of dollars for which his work is sold, this book is only $70.

Via Freshness Magazine

The KOZO Lamp

by Amelia on March 29, 2009 in Cool Ideas, Random Finds with 5 Comments

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I love it when what is normally raw and grimy turns into badass and ingenious.  What I love even more is when designers recycle actual old parts instead of manufacturing new parts and make them look old for the sake of design.  Please take a moment to notice the lovely little tap light switch, developed by Design2009 Studio themselves.
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Now available at their Etsy shop, starting at $169.

Via Likecool

Oh, My! What big cans you have!

by David Auerbach on March 28, 2009 in Art & Culture, Events, New Products with 1 Comment

I may love KRINK a little more than the next guy, but when I saw these, I literally LOL’d. Yes, LOL’d. This is some serious KRINKage right here. The photos are from a preview of KR’s exhibition at Melbourne’s Don’t Come Gallery. These came out looking amazing.

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krink-dont-come-gallery-preview-1jpgvia HighSnobiety

“Not Fair” by Lily Allen

by Amelia on March 27, 2009 in Music with 3 Comments

I almost thought that Lily Allen was doomed for pop cheesiness, but this is more like it!

Presidents Have Sex, Too

by Amelia on March 27, 2009 in Art & Culture, Inspirations with 1 Comment

In an effort to humanize all the presidents of the U.S., artist Justine Lai has done an entire series of paintings, Join or Die – depicting herself having sex with every single American president, in chronological order.

The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents.

I believe that Bill Clinton would never have been as popular as he is today, had he not had a steamy affair (and denied it under oath.)  Dudes dug it, because, hey, even Bill’s got urges.  And some women dug it, because they realized they probably would’ve jumped at the chance to get with him too.  And of course, there was Marilyn Monroe and JFK – another super-popular president.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning infidelity, but the thought or image of a public figure with such political omnipotence, in a sexual setting, naked – is extraordinarily humanizing, and renders him relatable, and then perhaps more amiable.  Justine Lai definitely has been successful in cleverly demythologizing the presidents.  Plus, now I don’t feel that weird for having a little crush on Abraham Lincoln.

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Twitter? Flickr?! But I hardly know’er!

by Amelia on March 27, 2009 in Art & Culture, Cool Ideas with No comments

twittervision

The thing that really made me see just how insanely huge Twitter is getting was twittervision, a 3D simulation of tweets as they happen – spotlighting one tweet per second, displaying who tweeted (or is it ‘twatted’?), what they tweeted, and where they tweeted. When I first saw this, I found myself 10 minutes later, still staring at the screen. They got me – I was sold.

The trend has been set.

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Now, some [awesome] people at MIT have created a similar program for Flickr, in a project called The World’s Eyes. The project currently only focuses on Flickr users in Spain, but I hope MIT’s project will open Flickr’s eyes a bit, and encourage them to try a little harder and step up their game from their current interactive world map.

Galileo Just Got a Hard-on

by Amelia on March 26, 2009 in Art & Culture, Cool Ideas with No comments

telescope

ENESS, a duo of Australian design and media specialists unveiled their latest installation, seen above, The Humble Telescope.  Inside this telescope is a 3D simulator of our entire known universe – and when you look through it, you can see what exists (in outer space) in that direction, and it will do so in any direction in which you swivel the telescope.

The Humble Telescope serves as an on-going reminder

of how truly amazing our universe is, and how truly small

we are in context. What better way to provoke thought

and discussion concerning our existence, where we are

going, and ultimately inspire us to care more about our home, Earth.

Not only do they create extremely cool interactive installations, the design of their projects are consistently brilliant.  They’ve won tons of design and media arts awards, and they’ve also done work for big names like Louis Vuitton and Lenovo.  The ENESS boys (“EN” for Nimrod, “ESS” for Steve) do encourage contacting them if you’d like to see what the Humble Telescope looks like in your part of the world.

Via FreshMoCo

The Wild Things Are Here

by Amelia on March 25, 2009 in Art & Culture with No comments

It’s here.  The trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are directed by Spike Jonze.  Since the book is only 48 pages long, it’ll be interesting to see how Jonze will make a feature-length film out of it, but, then again, we’re talking about Spike Jonze, so it’s bound to be spectacular.

YES!

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