UGH this is so ugly. I don’t care about the nine cool things about it, it’s freaking UGLY. Ever since listening to this episode of 99% Invisible (my absolute favorite radio show/podcast — if you’re not listening to it right now you’re seriously missing out) the design of U.S. currency has really irked me.
(via npr)
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Paola Antonelli on her new role as MoMA’s first director of R&D. Also see Antonelli on design as the interface between progress and humanity and the communication between people and objects.
(↬ Thought You Should See This)
This is kind of the central thesis of my life right now.
(Source: , via explore-blog)
Audible Color by Hideaki Matsui and Momo Miyazaki
[watch the video]
Audible color is an audio-visual instrument. Sound is generated based on color detected by a web cam connected to a computer. Red, green and blue correspond with certain music notes. When the colors are mixed, the resulting secondary colors produce different notes.
The size of the colors influences the volume and frequency of the notes played. Color detection and sound generation were created and are controlled using Processing code. The system of audible color is based on a marriage between basic color and music theories. The colors of red, blue, and green are the visual foundation for color-mixing and the music notes A, D, and F are the base triad that corresponds to the colors. The secondary colors (colors made when the foundational three are mixed) of purple, teal and brown are tuned to the musical triad C, E and G. The visual of the mixing of red, blue and/or green mirrors the aural output of combined notes.
The ‘painting’ aspect is not restricted to water droplets from a pipette. Numerous experiments were performed using substances such as acrylic paint, food dye in milk with soap, and ordinary household objects. Each investigation created a new type of fun and easy gestural music-making.
[found at Design Boom]
This is one of those wonderful ideas that immediately makes me think, “Damn, I wish I had thought of that!” A beautiful experiment in synesthesia.
The man-made mechanical forest, five years in the making, consists of 18 supertrees that act as vertical gardens, generating solar power, acting as air venting ducts for nearby conservatories, and collecting rainwater. To generate electricity, 11 of the trees are fitted with solar photovoltaic systems that provide lighting and assist with water flow in the conservatories below.
A wonderful marriage of science and art, functionality and beauty. Absolutely gorgeous.
(via npr)
Oh yeah! It’s National Robotics Week! Free hugs and fist pounds for all!
(Source: youtube.com)
Artist Simon Beck must really love the cold weather! Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.
I like the contrast between the simplicity of this idea and the complexity of the finished work. The natural setting and inherently transitory nature of the work remind me of Andrew Goldsworthy. Plus, it’s stunning.
Independent learning suggests ideas such as “self-taught,” or “autodidact.” These imply that independence means working solo. But that’s just not...
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I’m existing in this in-between, balancing on a razor thin wire separating the familiar with a fierce and incomparable uncertainty. It is a place I...
The Cat-Hater’s Handbook – a subversive vintage compendium of playful anti-feline verses by William Faulkner, Mark Twain, Shel Silverstein,...
Jinkx and the Monsoon gang
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-looking good feeling gorgeous
