"Everything that has a beginning has an end."
- The Oracle, Matrix Revolutions
As one chapter ends, another begins. It's time to close this down. I'll be moving to Tumblr.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Life is tough
I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death. What's that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you're too young, you get a gold watch and you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities. You become a little baby, you go back into the womb, spend your last nine months floating... and you finish off as an orgasm.
- George Carlin
- George Carlin
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas eve
Dutch designer Mieke Meijer has created Blend, a fusion of a bed and chair.
Mieke says:
The chair refers to the 17th century, when people slept semi-sitting up because laying down was associated with death. The chairs now function as night tables.
Enproyecto Architects have completed a monument in recognition of Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, located in his hometown of Calzada de Calatrava, in the heart of the community of Castilla, La Mancha, Spain.
The project was the winner of a competition launched by the community government to pay tribute to Almodóvar’s film work and to make references to the culture and landscape of La Mancha. The main idea of the project was to frame the land of La Mancha, as if it were a fragment of one of his films.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Moldavite
Just beautiful and amazing. I'd love to get one myself - the museum grade which is much more expensive than the regular grade. Apparently there are mines for these gems. (Haha.) But it's estimated to run dry in 10 odd years.
Below taken from wiki:
Moldavite (Czech: Vltavín) is an olive-green or dull greenish vitreous substance possibly formed by a meteorite impact. It is one kind of tektite. It was named[citation needed] by A. Dufrnoy as by town of Moldauthein (Czech: Týn nad Vltavou) in Bohemia (the Czech Republic), where it occurs. It is sometimes cut and polished as an ornamental stone under the name of pseudo-chrysolite. Its bottle-green glass color led to its being commonly called Bouteillen-stein, and at one time it was regarded as an artificial product, but this view is opposed to the fact that no remains of glassworks are found in the neighborhood of its occurrence; moreover, pieces of the substance are widely distributed in Tertiary and early Pleistocene deposits in Bohemia and Moravia. For a long time, it was generally believed to be a variety of obsidian, but its difficult fusibility and its chemical composition are rather against its volcanic origin.
LInk to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldavite
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Trichrome Blue
Absolutely beautiful. A graduation animation for the Utrecht School of the Arts by Lois Van Baarle.
Trichrome Blue from Lois van Baarle on Vimeo.
Link to Lois's page on vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/6327556
Link to Trichrome's page: http://trichrome.loish.net/
And yes Fin.. You sent me this link. Thank you! :)
Can't wait for the other two videos!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Agua Table by Domingos Tótora
Brazilian designer Domingos Totora's Agua Table made from cardboard.
Moulding the pieces:
Finishing:
Their awesome studio:
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Weinerchaise by Andy Martin Associates
At this year’s 100% Design show in London, Andy Martin Associates will be exhibiting the ‘Weinerchaise’ as part of the ‘100% Inspiration’ feature. This is Andy Martin’s response to the brick as an inspirational object, “it is such an iconic British building material and I thought it worth pursuing for inspiration. Individually a brick seems characterless but with others has the possibility to be poetic,” says Martin. It is constructed entirely of extruded and wire cut bricks using the thin set joint method and resin bonding. The bricks are stacked and bonded accurately in a mould, and once set, carved by hand to the designed shape. The piece was produced with the help of Weinerbergerbricks, one of Europe’s largest and most innovative brick manufacturers.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Living bridges
I do hope this is not a hoax or anything, because it is lovely.
North-Eastern India is one of the wettest places on earth. There bridges aren't built - they're grown.
The living bridges of Cherrapunji in India are made from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. This tree produces a series of secondary roots from higher up its trunk and can comfortably perch atop huge boulders along the riverbanks, or even in the middle of the rivers themselves.
Go to http://rootbridges.blogspot.com/ to see more pics.
North-Eastern India is one of the wettest places on earth. There bridges aren't built - they're grown.
The living bridges of Cherrapunji in India are made from the roots of the Ficus elastica tree. This tree produces a series of secondary roots from higher up its trunk and can comfortably perch atop huge boulders along the riverbanks, or even in the middle of the rivers themselves.
Go to http://rootbridges.blogspot.com/ to see more pics.
Sliding house
Inspirational.
The Sliding House, by dRMM Architecture, may look like a simple timber barn or shed, and you may not be impressed by it — until you discover that it contains a surprise within it. The design of this home is so unique that, well, there is no real actual architectural term to describe it. In fact, the best way to describe it is to say that the house slides!
You see, what appears to be house’s exterior walls and roof are actually a second skin that slides across a longitudinal axis to reveal a second facade. Sliding back and forth, the mobile exterior offers the house’s residents incredible flexibility with the look and behavior of the building. The lighting and mood of the interior spaces can be altered with the simple movement of the exterior. The building’s architectural trick also mean the heating and cooling loads of the house can be manipulated throughout the year.
The house was designed by London-based practice de Rijke Marsh Morgan for a client who desired a retirement home. The house is made up of three buildings arranged along a longitudinal axis, with a garage set perpendicularly, off to the side. A small patio was located in front.
Glass and red rubber work in unison with the timber of the roof/wall enclosure to create a pleasing and unassuming shape that resembles the barns and sheds of the rural countryside. The entire house sits on a concrete bed, which partially hides the surprising mechanism that allows the home to reveal a second facade.
If achieving a flexible outcome within tight planning constraints is truly the hallmark of a great architect, then dRMM architects can clearly take a bow. We absolutely loved this one.
Text from inhabitat: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/20/residence-sliding-house-drmm/
Architect: drmm - http://www.drmm.co.uk/
The Sliding House, by dRMM Architecture, may look like a simple timber barn or shed, and you may not be impressed by it — until you discover that it contains a surprise within it. The design of this home is so unique that, well, there is no real actual architectural term to describe it. In fact, the best way to describe it is to say that the house slides!
You see, what appears to be house’s exterior walls and roof are actually a second skin that slides across a longitudinal axis to reveal a second facade. Sliding back and forth, the mobile exterior offers the house’s residents incredible flexibility with the look and behavior of the building. The lighting and mood of the interior spaces can be altered with the simple movement of the exterior. The building’s architectural trick also mean the heating and cooling loads of the house can be manipulated throughout the year.
The house was designed by London-based practice de Rijke Marsh Morgan for a client who desired a retirement home. The house is made up of three buildings arranged along a longitudinal axis, with a garage set perpendicularly, off to the side. A small patio was located in front.
Glass and red rubber work in unison with the timber of the roof/wall enclosure to create a pleasing and unassuming shape that resembles the barns and sheds of the rural countryside. The entire house sits on a concrete bed, which partially hides the surprising mechanism that allows the home to reveal a second facade.
If achieving a flexible outcome within tight planning constraints is truly the hallmark of a great architect, then dRMM architects can clearly take a bow. We absolutely loved this one.
Text from inhabitat: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/02/20/residence-sliding-house-drmm/
Architect: drmm - http://www.drmm.co.uk/
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Heaven of Delight
Royal Palace in Brussels with Jan Fabre's Heaven of Delight - with the ceiling decorated with jeweled scarabs.
A flame in microgravity
In the year 2000 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States discovered that gravity plays an indirect role in flame formation and composition. The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, as soot tends to rise to the top of a flame (such as in a candle in normal gravity conditions), making it yellow. In microgravity or zero gravity environment, such as on a circular orbit , convection no longer occurs and the flame becomes spherical, with a tendency to become bluer and more efficient. There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely is the hypothesis that the temperature is sufficiently evenly distributed that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. Experiments by NASA reveal that diffusion flames in microgravity allow more soot to be completely oxidized after they are produced than do diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behave differently in microgravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. These discoveries have potential applications in applied science and industry, especially concerning fuel efficiency.
Text from tywkiwdbi, who got it from wiki. Link below.
http://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2009/01/flame-in-microgravity.html
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Archi blink.
Below taken from BldgBlog http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/architecture-of-blink.html
An article posted today on New Scientist suggests that, over the course of a 150-minute film, audience members will miss an incredible fifteen minutes simply through the act of blinking – but also that people watching a film tend to blink at the same time.
It's called "synchronized blinking," and it means that "we subconsciously control the timing of blinks to make sure we don't miss anything important" – with the addendum that, "because we tend to watch films in a similar way, moviegoers often blink in unison." That is, they blink during "non-critical" moments of plot or action, creating a kind of perceptual cutting-room floor.
On the one hand, then, I'm curious if this means that clever editors, like something out of Fight Club, might be able to insert strange things into those predicted moments of cinematic calm – moments deemed safe for blinking – simply to see if anyone notices, but I'm also left wondering if there is an architectural equivalent to this: a spatial moment inside a building in which it seems safest for us to blink.
In other words, do people not blink when they first walk into a space like Rome's Pantheon or into Grand Central Station – or is that exactly when they do blink, as if visually marking for themselves a transition from exterior to interior?
It would seem, then, that if film has moments of synchronized blinking, then so might architecture – but when do we choose to blink when experiencing architectural space, and do those moments tend to occur for all of us at the same time?
How could we test this?
Further, if there is, in fact, a moment inside a building somewhere where almost literally everyone blinks– say, in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art, or in a bathroom corridor in the history building at your own university – could we say that that space is somehow yet to be fully seen?
It is the spatial equivalent of those fifteen minutes of a film that no one realized they missed.
After all, perhaps there's a detail in your own house that you've never actually seen before – and it's because you tend to blink as you walk past it. Your own body assumes, outside conscious awareness, that this must be a safe space for blinking; it's near a window, or the colors are very dull. Perhaps that's how spiderwebs build up: you literally don't see them.
On a much larger scale, meanwhile, are there stretches of highway somewhere outside town where the scenery gets a bit boring – and so everyone starts to blink, more or less at the same time, thus visually removing from collective cultural awareness that McDonald's, or that abandoned house, tucked away over there beside the trees?
And could you locate that exact moment of blindness – could you find blinkspots throughout the urban fabric – and start to build things there? Architecture becomes a three-dimensional test landscape for the neurology of blinking.
For instance, if people driving 65 mph travel, say, five feet with every blink, then what spatial and architectural possibilities exist within that five feet?
What are the spatial possibilities of the blink?
I'm reminded of certain zoning laws in which you need to consider the exact amount of shadow your building will cast on the neighborhood around it before beginning construction.
But what about zoning for blinks? Can you zone a building for maximum blinks?
Or perhaps the opposite: a new genre of architecture, specially designed for Halloween fun houses, in which it's too stressful to close your eyes even for a micro-second...
An article posted today on New Scientist suggests that, over the course of a 150-minute film, audience members will miss an incredible fifteen minutes simply through the act of blinking – but also that people watching a film tend to blink at the same time.
It's called "synchronized blinking," and it means that "we subconsciously control the timing of blinks to make sure we don't miss anything important" – with the addendum that, "because we tend to watch films in a similar way, moviegoers often blink in unison." That is, they blink during "non-critical" moments of plot or action, creating a kind of perceptual cutting-room floor.
On the one hand, then, I'm curious if this means that clever editors, like something out of Fight Club, might be able to insert strange things into those predicted moments of cinematic calm – moments deemed safe for blinking – simply to see if anyone notices, but I'm also left wondering if there is an architectural equivalent to this: a spatial moment inside a building in which it seems safest for us to blink.
In other words, do people not blink when they first walk into a space like Rome's Pantheon or into Grand Central Station – or is that exactly when they do blink, as if visually marking for themselves a transition from exterior to interior?
It would seem, then, that if film has moments of synchronized blinking, then so might architecture – but when do we choose to blink when experiencing architectural space, and do those moments tend to occur for all of us at the same time?
How could we test this?
Further, if there is, in fact, a moment inside a building somewhere where almost literally everyone blinks– say, in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art, or in a bathroom corridor in the history building at your own university – could we say that that space is somehow yet to be fully seen?
It is the spatial equivalent of those fifteen minutes of a film that no one realized they missed.
After all, perhaps there's a detail in your own house that you've never actually seen before – and it's because you tend to blink as you walk past it. Your own body assumes, outside conscious awareness, that this must be a safe space for blinking; it's near a window, or the colors are very dull. Perhaps that's how spiderwebs build up: you literally don't see them.
On a much larger scale, meanwhile, are there stretches of highway somewhere outside town where the scenery gets a bit boring – and so everyone starts to blink, more or less at the same time, thus visually removing from collective cultural awareness that McDonald's, or that abandoned house, tucked away over there beside the trees?
And could you locate that exact moment of blindness – could you find blinkspots throughout the urban fabric – and start to build things there? Architecture becomes a three-dimensional test landscape for the neurology of blinking.
For instance, if people driving 65 mph travel, say, five feet with every blink, then what spatial and architectural possibilities exist within that five feet?
What are the spatial possibilities of the blink?
I'm reminded of certain zoning laws in which you need to consider the exact amount of shadow your building will cast on the neighborhood around it before beginning construction.
But what about zoning for blinks? Can you zone a building for maximum blinks?
Or perhaps the opposite: a new genre of architecture, specially designed for Halloween fun houses, in which it's too stressful to close your eyes even for a micro-second...
Monday, August 17, 2009
Yahoo Answers.
Below taken from Yahoo! Answers.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070712203757AAmGU16
Question: Why, oh why, didn't I take the blue pill?
Best answer chosen:
Great question!!!
The choice between a red/blue pill is the basic dilemma faced by atheist and believer in choosing between reality or fantasy. Should we choose the red pill of wisdom (free thinker / skeptic / atheist), or the blue pill of happiness (believer / religion / faith / not questioning)? In a nutshell, do humans want to be wise or happy? As your question notes, many willingly choose the blue pill or the philosophy of 'ignorance is bliss'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill
“The use of a red pill is an allusion to the use of a similar device in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Matrix movies commonly use references from this other work of fiction. For instance, when Morpheus offers the red pill to Neo, he says that by taking the red pill, he would show Neo "how deep the rabbit hole goes." The red pill also features in the movie Total Recall. In this movie the protagonist Quaid is purported to be having a schizo-paranoia episode, resulting in the situation he finds himself in on Mars. The red pill is, here, the path 'out' of this episode and back to a normal life.”
Cypher: I know what you're thinking, 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. (long pause, sighs) Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
(In his left hand, Morpheus shows a blue pill.)
Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. (a red pill is shown in his other hand) You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill) Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.
(Neo takes the red pill and swallows it with a glass of water)
The Matrix can also be a metaphor for religion. e.g. replace “Matrix” w/ “religion” in the paragraph below.
"Morpheus: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
It is of course, no small coincidence that the occupation of "carpenter" was inserted by the writers.
"Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory."
— Fred Hoyle
"What I conclude is that religion has nothing to do with experience or reason but with deep and irrational needs."
— Richard Taylor
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070712203757AAmGU16
Question: Why, oh why, didn't I take the blue pill?
Best answer chosen:
Great question!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redpill
“The use of a red pill is an allusion to the use of a similar device in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Matrix movies commonly use references from this other work of fiction. For instance, when Morpheus offers the red pill to Neo, he says that by taking the red pill, he would show Neo "how deep the rabbit hole goes." The red pill also features in the movie Total Recall. In this movie the protagonist Quaid is purported to be having a schizo-paranoia episode, resulting in the situation he finds himself in on Mars. The red pill is, here, the path 'out' of this episode and back to a normal life.”
Cypher: I know what you're thinking, 'cause right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere, it is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, or when go to church or when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. (long pause, sighs) Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back.
(In his left hand, Morpheus shows a blue pill.)
Morpheus: You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. (a red pill is shown in his other hand) You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (Long pause; Neo begins to reach for the red pill) Remember -- all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.
(Neo takes the red pill and swallows it with a glass of water)
The Matrix can also be a metaphor for religion. e.g. replace “Matrix” w/ “religion” in the paragraph below.
"Morpheus: The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
It is of course, no small coincidence that the occupation of "carpenter" was inserted by the writers.
"Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory."
— Fred Hoyle
"What I conclude is that religion has nothing to do with experience or reason but with deep and irrational needs."
— Richard Taylor
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Milk crates
Text from http://mathieugallois.com/diy_8.html
Light weight, strong, stackable and easily modified, the iconic milk crate – the starting point of so much DIY stuff! Used universally as a seat in the street, a handy container – and a thousand other users; the milk crate in Australia is the object that comes closest to transcending notions of individual or corporate ownership (in the eyes of most, but perhaps not milk distributors).
The generic milk crate 'belongs' to a fluid zone reminiscent of the White Bicycle Plan started in the 1960s by Luud Schimmelpenninck in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This so-called White Bicycle Plan was possibly the first large-scale community bicycle program. It provided free bicycles that were supposed to be used for one trip and then left for someone else.
Below picture from http://www.freshbump.com/featured/special-features/25-innovative-re-purposed-home-fittings-designs/
Light weight, strong, stackable and easily modified, the iconic milk crate – the starting point of so much DIY stuff! Used universally as a seat in the street, a handy container – and a thousand other users; the milk crate in Australia is the object that comes closest to transcending notions of individual or corporate ownership (in the eyes of most, but perhaps not milk distributors).
The generic milk crate 'belongs' to a fluid zone reminiscent of the White Bicycle Plan started in the 1960s by Luud Schimmelpenninck in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This so-called White Bicycle Plan was possibly the first large-scale community bicycle program. It provided free bicycles that were supposed to be used for one trip and then left for someone else.
Below picture from http://www.freshbump.com/featured/special-features/25-innovative-re-purposed-home-fittings-designs/
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Twisted Princess
Came across this. Amazing. Here are three of my favourite. I guess Snow White could have been darker.
Go to http://jeftoon01.deviantart.com/gallery/#Twisted-Princess to see the whole range.
Go to http://jeftoon01.deviantart.com/gallery/#Twisted-Princess to see the whole range.
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