Art visual np2

POW 08 is a surprising device designed by Bernard Khoury for "the use of returning Prisoners of War to enemy lines". Inspired of furtive aircraft of the US Army, undetectable by the radars, this device allows a virtual invisibility on a war field. Despite the fact that B.Khoury describes his design as an apparatus for the prisoners of war, one can very simply elaborate a broader symbolic use for the ensemble of civilians who have to live with war on a daily basis... Merci Martial

My friend Danielle Pecora just won the Design 21's Game Changers Competition (in partnership with UNESCO) which was proposing to elaborate a game or a toy that questions an issue. Danielle who did her undergrad in Parson school of design and grad school in Pratt Institute 's school of architecture, designed the Braille Education Ball that proposes to blind and sighted kids to learn braille while playing with a beautiful toy. Here is another article about it on FastCompany

It looks like a satire but it is apparently not. Fabian Brunsing, a student participating to an interface/design competition proposed this private bench that needs 0.5 euros (70 cents) in order to have its spikes lifted down and thus to host bodies. This very straight forward design is the logical sequel of what is already being created today, sly designs of non appropriation of the public space (see previous post about Survival Group ). It also makes me think of Philip K. Dick's Ubik that dramatizes an absolute privatized pay-fee environment (house doors, fridges, TV etc.)... Thanks Ethel PAY & SIT: the private bench (HD) from Fabian Brunsing on Vimeo .

Each product around us got its own use and it is destinated to this one purpose, but sometimes the simplest things create the more interesting results being corrupted by a new employment. The exemple of the cellpohane is pretty relevant, I would like to present the work of two talented graffity artist, and one street artist, two very interesting approach of the cellophane misuse : a graphic one and a three-dimensional one, both in an urban context . Astro and Kanos , two members of the graffity crew ODV, are the creators of the Cellograff . This new style of street art/graffity, is a new way to paint in the street, painting with spray and being in an urban area, but getting out of the basic transgression cliché of illegal tagging.The Cellograff is more about to sharing an original piece of art and creating an ephemeral performance in an unexpected location than just writing a name. Following you can see few examples of their performances in the streets of Paris. CELLOGRAFF l'int...

Here is few exemples of the astonishing work of the tokyo based german artist Florian Claar . Between Art, Architecture and Science-Fiction, the art of Florian Claar is noteworthy for the approach of geometrical patterns and continuous surfaces, but moreover for the production's quality of the pieces. We can notice in each of his works the precision and the highly detailed finition that bring those scultpures to reality from the nano scale to the human scale . On his website you can see, for some project, a well documented part on the building process.

Here is an interesting article from Designboom about the interpretation of chair in contemporary art. Marcel Duchamp, Allen Jones, Daniel Spoerri, Tom Friedman, Ivan Navarro among others who question this so much familiar notion of chair. Thanks Francis !

A little post for our talented friends of Ecole who just released their website. Ecole is a Paris based young office founded by Max Turnheim and Nicolas Simon, both architects, in 2008, joined afterward by Gala Collette-Turnheim , photographer and graphic designer (author of the superb Wonderland below, assembling the entire Lewis Caroll's book on twelve panels) and then by Aure Delaroiere and Geraldine Lucas, architects as well. The office shares his time between architecture, industrial design and graphic design...Good luck to them for the future !

Artificial Paradise is a short movie of the belgian born visual artiste Jean-Paul Frenay this movie is a beautifull way to show a possible evolution of technologies, were data is mixed up with mechanic, were liquid is combined to solid... It's situated between matrix, transformers and ghost in the shell ... Enjoy! found on Fubiz

Those works are not so recent but it is a pleasure to rediscover R onan & Erwan Bouroullec 's aesthetic in the way of designing a wall. Starting from standard modules able to connect themselves to each others, their articulation allows to develop superb walls in adaptable different configurations.

Public bench designed for Paris art centre Le 104 by Sebastien Wierinck (who also directly work there). See also this article on Architechnophilia

Public bench designed for Paris art centre Le 104 by Sebastien Wierinck (who also directly work there). See also this article on Architechnophilia

Eduardo McInstosh sent me another very interesting work he did, questionning the contemporary human as an individual and providing him the ideal tool for this purpose: Autonomous Living Units is a somewhat satirical project that stands at the intersection of the current housing crisis, the tendency of people in developed countries to live on their own and the trend of turning architecture into a consumer product. The project poses a scenario in which living units ( homes) have evolved into the most minimal yet visually alluring objects that can still provide for the basic needs of the 21st century human being. Because of the morphing of architecture into furniture, the Living Units could b e inserted in derelict areas and ruined housing projects. This project was exhibited among others at the d3 Gallery in New York for the "Future Cities: Past, Present" exhibition in April 2009

Eduardo McInstosh sent me another very interesting work he did, questionning the contemporary human as an individual and providing him the ideal tool for this purpose: Autonomous Living Units is a somewhat satirical project that stands at the intersection of the current housing crisis, the tendency of people in developed countries to live on their own and the trend of turning architecture into a consumer product. The project poses a scenario in which living units ( homes) have evolved into the most minimal yet visually alluring objects that can still provide for the basic needs of the 21st century human being. Because of the morphing of architecture into furniture, the Living Units could b e inserted in derelict areas and ruined housing projects. This project was exhibited among others at the d3 Gallery in New York for the "Future Cities: Past, Present" exhibition in April 2009

This musical chair has been designed by two students from Waterloo University in Toronto, Shamir Panchal and Ray Wang: The works of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), the Bengali poet, novelist, and composer, have traveled far beyond the boundaries of the subcontinent and have become a spiritual guide to those who have experienced it. Tagore composed numerous poems and songs steeped in a constant personal and national struggle. The Tagore Chair, dedicated to this mystic and visionary man, is a seat of sublime action, a platform of energy and music upon which knowledge and understanding rest, but only momentarily until they are uttered to the world. The chair is a place for Tagore to work both spiritually and physically. A system of pistons, springs, and guitar strings turn a seemingly static piece into a dynamic instrument sensitive to the movement body. Although strange and unbalanced at first, the chair and user achieve a state of equilibrium,...