Who says girls can't run?

we just need something decent to run towards!

location AMSTERDAM

heels AT LEAST 9CM

goal STILETTO RUN

first prize 10 000 EUROS

video here from the Virtual Shoe Museum

Simpsons @ Colette

i love the simpsons + i love fashion

= i WANT this copy of Hapers Bazaar "The Simpsons go to Paris with Linda Evangelista” “Models”: The Simpsons, Linda Evangelista, and various designers with Illustrations by Julius Preite. Marge lets down her hair for Versace. Lisa gives up her pearls for Alber Elbaz. Homer dresses as Karl Lagerfeld. Selma & Patty in Viktor & Rolf. Maggie rides around in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Birkin Bag."

sigh, and to be at the Colette exhibition in Paris with all the designers in matching outfits...

here for images of the images and the real outfits.

via NOTCOT

Wind to Light

Recently I was in windy Wellington for a 24hour design competition, where I was memerised by the colour of the water, highly amused by the proliferation (four) of strippers surrounding the School of Architecture and Design and informed that the Mayor had recently committed the city to Carbon Neutrality (more here) . Then I read about the Wind to Light project and thought... just maybe...

Artist Jason Burges Studio in onedotzero words
"this experimental site-specific installation illustrates alternative, sustainable ways of harnessing energy that will explore the power of the wind in the city, visualising it as an ephemeral cloud of light. the installation is custom built, using 500 mini wind turbines to generate power, which illuminates hundreds of mounted leds, creating firefly-like fields of light, with wind visually interpreted as electronic patterns across the installation. wind around the southbank generates the power, creating a unique and thought-provoking light art piece that will delight all ages. commissioned by riba london and onedotzero for architecture week 2007"

onedotzero presents: jason bruges studio wind to light in conjunction with riba london and southbank centre lightlab

Cigarettes, 2007
60x82”
Depicts 65,000 cigarettes, equal to the number of American teenagers under age eighteen who become addicted to cigarettes every month.

"Chris Jordan makes beautiful photographs he hopes will disgust you. His work, on display through July 31st at the Von Lintel Gallery in New York City, takes reports of large-scale waste and consumption out of the realm of statistics and places them squarely in front of our faces.

Chris Jordan is a Seattle-based photographic artist who portrays the detritus of our mass culture—piles of cell phones, aluminum cans, garbage, and the like. His work is exhibited widely in the US and Europe, and has been featured in print media, blogs, documentary films, and radio and television programs worldwide. Chris is also a father, husband, gardener, vegetarian, sometime jazz musician, and has an obsessive fascination with the sound of large Chinese gongs."

COLOUR > Movie Posters

Preface to COLOUR
I have a mild obsession with colour. I have a mild obsession with a lot of things I come in contact with, mostly for a short period of time (3-6months) and then it gets replaced with another mild obsession with something else more amusing.

In other words, I have a devoted and short attention span.

This thing with colour started in 2006 with a project where the idea for paving patterns and colours came from cities all over the world and seems to be ongoing, mainly because it has gone on to manifest itself in my shoe selection e.g. "Ohh~ I dont have green shoes. i MUST have those green shoes."


Dark and Fleshy: The Color of Top Grossing Movies is an interesting analysis of colours used for movie posters and the correlation to its rating.

via boing boing

Quotable Quotes

"It can be asked if the real history of architecture is not that of schemes which were never built;... and if there are not, in fact, two architectures, one of research and projects, the other of completed buildings - the second being but a weak echo of the first."

Michel Ragon Retrospective de la prospective architecturale

word of the day

tru·ism /ˈtruɪzəm/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[troo-iz-uh m]
noun a self-evident, obvious truth.

tau·tol·o·gy /tɔˈtɒlədʒi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[taw-tol-uh-jee]

–noun, plural -gies.

1.	needless repetition of an idea, esp. in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman.”

2.	an instance of such repetition.

3.	Logic. a. a compound propositional form all of whose instances are true, as “A or not A.” b. an instance of such a form, as “This candidate will win or will not win.”

TIME 50 Best Websites 2007

I like lists. Plus this one promises hours of WWILF.

a world of paper

Paper toys. As part of my quarter life crisis I am reliving my childhood by finding all the fun things I used to play with when I was a child, and all these other fun things that I DIDNT play with as a child too. I particularly like the Thanksgiving Turkey in this collection.

Harry Potter in 100 words or less

This was too funny to not post.

NB. I have not read the 7th Harry Potter (nor the 6th) as I felt quite satisfied to just skim the plot summary on wikipedia and avoid the lines full of wizards at the bookstores as well as not be seen with the book in my hands which would totally destroy my reputation as someone with taste.

Before the publication of the seventh and final Harry Potter book, BBC News asked avid Harry Potter fans to tell the entire story of the six books so far in 100 words or fewer. Vote for your favourite here

1) HANNAH, SWINDON

"By the way, Harry," said Professor Dumbledore halfway through book six, "a prophecy says that you alone can defeat evil Lord Voldemort. That's why he keeps trying to kill you. You must destroy all seven pieces of his soul, and you've got one book left to do it in. Don't expect any help from me; I'll be dramatically murdered in two chapters' time. Besides that, there's exams to pass and hormonal stirrings to contend with. Now do you wish you'd gone to that Muggle comprehensive?"

2) KATE, BERKSHIRE

Psychiatric report:
Harry is a teenage boy who thinks he is a wizard. He explains that when he was a baby he sent the most evil wizard of all into hiding. He believes this wizard murdered his parents. His aunt informs me they died in a car accident.

Harry reports attending a wizard school although he thought he was a muggle (?) before then. His friends at this school who have helped prevent him from being murdered by evil wizard several times.

He believes that both his ex-murder suspect godfather and headmaster have both recently been murdered by evil wizard.

3) EMMA PEARSON, NOTTINGHAM

BOOK ONE:
Harry: :D
BOOK TWO:
Harry: :)
BOOK THREE:
Harry: :|
BOOK FOUR:
Harry: :/
BOOK FIVE:
Harry: :(
BOOK SIX:
Harry: :'

4) GILLIAN IVERSON, HONG KONG

Harry and his posse gots ta eliminate gangsta V-Man and his evil yet sexeh followers lest they destroy the world.

V-Man has already got Harry's posse members shot down (family, godfather, Dumble-D), and it's a-time for revenge!

Harry and crew has got to cruise 'round the hood to find V-Man's treasures to destroy, and only then can they take him on and blast his ass! Pow!

Hermione and Ron want to hook-up, but feel that Harry's hollah is more important at the moment, which is way cool, but Harry ain't bovvered, because he knows that luuurve will get him through.

5) POLINA RASSOLOVA, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

CV

Name: Harry Potter

Education: Six years at Hogwarts

Relationship status: Single, but kissed 2 prettiest girls at Hogwarts

Marks: Got a magical scar

Achievements: Held philosopher's stone in his hands and didn't even wish to be immortal. Found a secret chamber, killed a giant snake and destroyed one of the horcruxes (pieces of Voldemort's nasty soul). Became mates with a werewolf. Won the Triwizard championship. Was the head of a group of teenagers eager to break school rules. Faced Voldemort three times and survived.

Hobby: Excellent Quidditch player (Seeker)

Ambition: Find and destroy Voldemort and all of his horcruxes

6) MARIE, ALYESBURY

Cinderfella discovers he's a wizard and trots off to wizard school where he aces in broomsticks and being Mr popular. The wicked wizard, who tried to kill him as a baby, returns from half dead and tries again only to be defeated by pluck, luck and the togetherness of giants and friendly centaurs.

Repeated attacks by the evil wizard and teenage hormones ensure gripping adventures but the wizard community buries its head in the sand until the battles of good and evil affect the politicians and the nanny state clamps down.

Evil legacies, puzzles and exams, love and angst await.

via BBC News

climate change is the new black

Its refreshing to see a good looking hat with an design rationale and without a feather or fake flower in sight. Perhaps this look can replace the facination with facinators at this years Melbourne Cup. Its from a fashion fair in Dusseldoft, Germany - i suspect its the CPD Dusseldorf but can't seem to find anymore information.

via BBC News : The day in pictures

The Swap Meat

i LOVE this idea... in the words of the Coudal Partners, who are a design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago, that edit the site as an ongoing experiment in web publishing, design and commerce.

The Swap Meat

Periodically, we receive unsolicited stuff in the mail. We love getting it, and most of the time we return the favor by sending back some of the stuff we've made. So we're trying to do the same thing on a slightly larger scale in an attempt to make lots of people as happy as we are when the FedEx guy shows up unannounced. Featured items are listed on these pages. Read the four things that can happen when you send us something for swapping and learn how you can get involved. The Swap Meat has been extended through the summer, so keep 'em coming and help to keep Bryan busy."

via MoCo Loco

Rice Paddy Art

I always considered the japanese as pretty OTT people but even I was surprised at this. Apparently "...every year since 1993, farmers in the town of Inakadate in Aomori prefecture plant purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai and green-leafed tsugaru-roman in just the right arrangement that when they begin to grow, works of art emerge...". If only my contractors in Melbourne were as precise with their setouts on my projects as these Japanese farmers.

via the Underwire
more images here

boys and their wheels

Came across the General Carbuncle (2006) project by UK artist James Ford on designboom and thought... it needs to be parked at Slovenian artist Matej Andraz Vogrincic's Carpark-Members Only (2000) project.

Wallpaper's Who's Who 2007

I went into crisis mode when I couldn't see "Australia" on the page... then my mouse clicking OCD kicked in as is always does when I find a new webpage to play with and discovered that the designers of the page had, in accordance with its antipodean location in the world, put Australia at the bottom left hand corner, assessible via a down pointing blue arrow.

for the sake of reflection

mir·ror (mĭr'ər) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. A surface capable of reflecting sufficient undiffused light to form an image of an object placed in front of it. Also called looking glass.
2. Something that faithfully reflects or gives a true picture of something else.
3. Something worthy of imitation.

A quick and interesting read on mirrors from the fabulous people at designboom

An inspiring bit of subdivison

solar powered kettles in tibet

"In Rizhao City, which means City of Sunshine in Chinese, 99 percent of households in the central districts use solar water heaters, and most traffic signals, street and park lights are powered by photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. In the suburbs and villages, more than 30 percent of households use solar water heaters, and over 6,000 households have solar cooking facilities. More than 60,000 greenhouses are heated by solar panels, reducing overhead costs for farmers in nearby areas... The fact that Rizhao is a small, ordinary Chinese city with per capita incomes even lower than in most other cities in the region makes the story even more remarkable. The achievement was the result of an unusual convergence of three key factors: a government policy that encourages solar energy use and financially supports research and development, local solar panel industries that seized the opportunity and improved their products, and the strong political will of the city's leadership to adopt it..." Read more

Meanwhile in Australia...
"There is no technical reason why Australia could not produce a very high proportion of its electricity from renewable sources, backed up by natural gas as a transitional fuel. All that is lacking is political will." Greens energy spokesperson Senator Christine Milne. Read more

via renewable energy access

Prada Prototype Auction

Prada has recently added a feature to their website, an online auction of exclusive collectible pieces by the fashion house, initially created for the catwalk, the pieces have never appeared or been produced with the specific colour or material and some pieces have been made specifically for the auction.

makes me wonder if other design professionals - architects, landscape architects, graphic designers and the like - should or could do the same with their "prototype designs" aka unbuilt or unapproved schemes, many of which are often the designer's best and most inspiring work.

via designboom

Inside out Bears

What can I say, I love ugly soft toys. No hello kitty for this small asian girl. It all started with the one eyed, three legged "teddy bear" in Monsters Inc which was followed by a brief obsession with Uglydolls. These inside out bears are by Kent Rogowski. They also remind of my brother, who has a habit of stuffing the arms, legs and head into the body of all soft toys that cross his path - ye, he's definetly the Bart Simpson variety of older brother.

via Designboom

Choose your own adventure Stencil...

"The mission stencil story is an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure story that takes place on the sidewalks of the Mission district in San Francisco. It is told in a new medium of storytelling that uses spraypainted stencils connected to each other by arrows. The streetscape is used as sort of an illustration to accompany each piece of text.

Its a love story with 2 characters who start in different locations. His story starts at 16th and Valencia, in front of the Crown Hotel / Limon Restaurant with the text "He Leaves his Lonely Apartment." Her story starts at 21st and Guerrero in front of a stunning mansion with the text, "She Leaves her Lonely Apartment." Eventually their paths merge, at the point where they meet, and their paths travel together until drama pulls them apart.

Their are two possible endings, happy and tragic, and two other points where the story can end unexpectedly if the viewer chooses the wrong ending. All in all, there are 4 possible endings."

I can see lots of other applications for this...

via boingboing

A skull a day

It appears death is in fashion this year.
Designer Noah Scalin is creating one skull image per day for a year.

via The Underwire

Type in the Sky

Despite going to a Luthern High School and studying German for two years, I still had to resort to bablefish to understand the bare bones of this - it appears this is part of a school project done by Lisa Rienermann. She photographed buildings from below, using the sky between towers to find letters in the alphabet.

via designbooom

iTunes U

A little while ago i was musing about how good it would be if Melbourne uni architecture podcast its lectures (the law school does this already). Well well, iTunes has now launched iTunes U: the campus that never sleeps with Stanford, UC Berkerly, MIT and other institutions setting up shop.

“iTunes U makes it easy for anyone to access amazing educational material from many of the country’s most respected colleges and universities,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “Education is a lifelong pursuit and we’re pleased to give everyone the ability to download lectures, speeches and other academic content for free.”

No students will ever attend lectures again.

iphone daiquiris

from my other favourite geek in the WWW who is alledgedly "busy" being a full time lecturer and finishing his phd. "Everybody knows that the iPhone can make phone calls, play movies & music, surf the web, and a lot more. But, Will It Blend? That is the question." i want this blender.

'inversion' 'tunnel' 'vortex'

'inversion' by dan havel and dean ruck, 2005
two wooden buildings used for over thirty years to hold exhibitions and art classes years by Art League were converted into a 'vortex' like installation for the last few months before their demolition. read more

i would love to see photos of the construction process of this...

via designboom

Hello, world!

I was doing some research on crop circles and the like for a project out in Berwick where I am proposing rooftop agriculture (can't wait for the community feed back when it goes into town planning) and came across this interesting geeky project...

In the artist's words
"“Hello, world!” is a real installation for the virtual globe of the software Google Earth. A Semacode measuring 160 x 160 meters was mown into a wheat field near the town of Ilmenau in the Land Thuringia. The code consists of 18 x 18 bright and dark squares producing decoded the phrase “Hello, world!”.

More images here