Design

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Design Photography

Majestic Conservatories and Cozy Private Potting Sheds Showcase the Universal Appeal of Glass Greenhouses

Photographer duo India Hobson and Magnus Edmondson (known collectively as Haarkon) celebrate the universal beauty and rich history of glass greenhouses in a new book, Glasshouse Greenhouse. Filled with verdant images of greenhouses from around the world, the book is divided into seven thematic chapters including History, Research, and Pleasure. Haarkon complement the visual storytelling with written reflections that explain each location and their experience in discovering it.

The UK-based pair travels widely for their editorial and commercial work as visual storytellers, and seeking out greenhouses has become a touchpoint in their explorations of new places. In an interview with the Telegraph, Hobson shares, “It’s a fusion of both botanicals and architecture, an odd but extremely satisfying mix of the organic and engineered which I think appeals to a broad range of [people]. To me, they are a universal language in some ways: the fusion of many cultures and countries all under one beautiful glass roof.”

Freshly published by Pavilion Books on October 4th, Glasshouse Greenhouse is Haarkon’s debut book and it is available on Amazon. You can see more from Hobson and Edmondson on their website and Instagram.

Animation Art Design

A Vast Array of Urban Street Art Aerially Photographed and Digitally Cataloged by Oddviz

Istanbul-based collective oddviz uses photogrammetry to documents the world in three dimensions. By merging together aerial and ground-level images, the team is able to form high resolution representations of humans, landscapes, and objects to preserve their position and appearance in a web, video, or virtual reality-based medium. For their latest project, Inventory, the team captured elements from urban infrastructure that are often found covered with tags, graffiti, and stickers.

Oddviz started the project by photographing objects in their own neighborhood of Kadıköy-Istanbul, but have expanded the project internationally to include the ancient wells and fountains of Venice and Berlin, and the fire hydrants, telephone booths, utility poles and statues found during a week-long trip to Manhattan. By capturing the street culture that accumulates in public spaces, the group is protecting ephemeral materials that might never be catalogued in a museum or white-walled gallery. “Using photogrammetry, we are documenting and protecting street culture in 3-dimensions with high-resolution texture,” they explain.

The collective has created several 4k images of their collections, in addition to two videos that guide their audience through their finds in Manhattan and Venice. You can watch the videos here, and view previous works by oddviz on their website, Instagram, and Vimeo.

Art Design

Lust For Light: A New Book of Illuminated Installations, Sculpture, and Images in Contemporary Art

Once only used to illuminate a painting or photograph, light is now commonly used as the medium itself—glowing brightly from neon tubes, programmed as an interactive installation, projected to create an intangible feeling of warmth, or flashing as an LED spectacle. In her book Lust for Light published by Gingko Press, Hannah Stouffer (previously) culls the practices of a variety of artists such as Liz West, Miguel Chevalier, James Clar, Jun Hao Ong, and Yayoi Kusama to present a wide selection of more traditional and daring examples of light-based work.

Stouffer tells Colossal that while working for the last year and a half on the 376-page collection she was overwhelmed and humbled by the impact of light, while also fascinated by what it represents. “All of the artists in this book are working to recreate its likeness, utilize it as a source of their work, and capture the inspiring glow that it produces,” she continues. “There is both a fascination and familiarity with this elemental, undeniably appealing form of energy, which is both tangible and completely uncontainable.”

There will be a release party with art installations and projections at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on October 25th, 2018. You can now find Lust for Life on The Colossal Shop.

 

Design

GridDrones: These Self-Levitating Nanocopters Might Be the Future of Smartphones

Starting tomorrow researchers will gather in Berlin for the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. The symposium features projects on computer-human interaction, web user interfaces, tangible computing, virtual and augmented reality, and more. During the Human-Robot Symbiosis session a matrix of self-levitating nanocopters called “GridDrones” will be introduced by Sean Braley, Calvin Rubens, Timothy Merritt, Roel Vertegaal. The miniature flying machines act like pixels which can be programmed to perform specific animations and manipulated in real time. Instead of dragging and dropping apps on an iPhone, the technology could lead to manipulating flying objects in physical space which would completely alter how we view the landscape of a computer or phone “screen.” (via Fast Company)

Art Design

Eccentric British Houseboats Built from Decommissioned Ambulances, City Buses, and Airplane Parts

Tucked into the estuary of the River Adur in the coastal town of Shoreham-on-Sea in Sussex, England is a row of houseboats in dazzlingly slapdash designs and bustling with the creative energy of its residents. One such person is Hamish McKenzie, an older man with swirls of gray hair shaved into his short beard and a laid-back attitude that comes from spending most of his days living inside of a docked boat. McKenzie owns seven of the uniquely designed vessels that line the riverbank, which include a renovated boat ambulance topped with a black and white checkered public bus and an airplane nose that caps off the bow.

McKenzie explains to Great Big Story that he had been searching for a nose cone for quite some time, and finally ran across one in a farmyard down the way from his houseboats. This ingenuity speaks to the freedom McKenzie and the other owners have while crafting their homes, which include microwaves as mailboxes and giant tractor wheels as windows.  “I can safely say that there is no two identical,” explains McKenzie. “To a large degree, they exhibit the character of the people who live on them.”

You can watch the full story behind McKenzie’s houseboats on Great Big Story, and learn more about the history of the riverside community on Facebook.

 

Design

26 Paper Engineers From Around the World Turned the Alphabet Into a Limited Edition Book

The Movable Books Society, a non-profit organization of pop-up book professionals and enthusiasts, recently released a collection of pop-up cards dedicated to the alphabet. The letter-filled tome, titled A to Z: Marvels in Paper Engineering, features designs from 26 paper engineers and celebrates the Society’s 25-year history. Each card is consistent in size, measuring six by eight inches, but features strikingly different designs from a wide array of paper-focused designers.

Included are the strong graphic sensibility of Kelli Anderson (previously), Hiromi Takeda’s delicate ode to flowers, and a supernova “S” by Isabel Uria, an Ecuadorian artist who also designed the clamshell box. In addition to each letter folio that includes a description of its artist’s inspiration, the compendium comes with a history of The Movable Book Society by Ann Montanaro Staples and an introductory essay by Larry Seidman. A to Z is limited to 2,000 copies and is available for pre-order on the Society’s website.

Art Design

Mechanations: Historical Machines Exploded into Individual Components in Sculptures by John A. Peralta

Artist John Peralta creates sculptural odes to some of our most historic innovations by organizing and suspending components of sewing machines, typewriters, and old film projectors. In his “Mechanations,” Peralta hangs each screw, wheel, and lightbulb side-by-side in specially created lightboxes, creating three-dimensional diagrams which illuminate the inner workings of each machine.

The sculptures break down the mechanics of the 20th-century devices, presenting a unique peek into the simplicity of objects before the Digital Revolution. Peralta dissects iconic machines in areas such as design, communication, and entertainment. This technique, which he has used for over a decade, was inspired by seeing a similar sculptural diagram on the back of a Chinese magazine in 2005.  “I was inspired by its fragile beauty, and imagined a three-dimensional version with a real object,” Peralta outlines on his website. “Using only a ruler and simple tools, which I still use today, I developed techniques for suspension which expose the inner workings of these humble mechanical objects.”

The artist’s work will be included in a presentation by New York and Los Angeles-based gallery George Billis at the upcoming SOFA fair from November 1-4, 2018 at Chicago’s Navy Pier. Peralta also has a solo show at Billis’ New York location, which runs from December 11, 2018 to January 12, 2019.  You can see more of Peralta’s work on his website and Instagram.