Canadian Design Resource

by Evan Orensten

From bear-shaped license plates the whimsical Ball-B-Q, and even the Newfoundland, examples of innovation, spunk and style abound at the Canadian Design Resource website.

The newly launched site showcases Canadian design past and present, and is intended as a resource for all types of design and designers. Site founders Michael Erdmann and Todd Falkowsky (of the Toronto-based design collective Motherbrand) hope the site will allow Canadians and foreigners alike to "explore and nurture" Canadian design.

The pair asked designers, artists and collectors to contribute noteworthy examples to get the site started. The growing collection includes everything from fashion to ceramics, furniture to graphics and is a collaborative ode to the classic and the mundane. Readers will soon be able to contribute examples to the sites growing collection.

Contributed by Anna Oberthur

Availabot

by Josh Rubin

Created by London based Schulze & Webb, Availabot is a USB device that physically shows the availability of someone on your IM buddy list. When the assigned friend is available for chatting Availabot stands up; when said friend is no longer online Availabot falls down. Each unit is made to order and can be customized to your liking. I'd love to see a daisy chain-able version so that I could connect a bunch of these guys to people on my buddy list.

Ed Note: Yes, we know this went around the web last week but we only just caught it today and it's too good to pass up.

William Christenberry Photographs, 1961-2005

by Ted Cahill

This Thursday, when the smoke from independence day fireworks has cleared across the US, the celebration of America will continue on with the opening of William Christenberry Photographs, 1961-2005 at the Aperture Gallery in New York. As a pioneer in the field of color photography, Christenberry has faithfully articulated the regional identity of the South over the last four decades. The exhibition includes fifty photographs and one sculpture and highlights his passion for capturing "real things in the real world" with breathtaking images of abandoned cars, dilapidated barns, and quiet back roads in Hale county, Alabama where he grew up. Christenberry returned to many of the same locations every year and his work chronicles the powerful physical evolutions imposed by the passage of time. The exhibition at Aperture is also accompanied by the release of a brilliant monograph surveying the progression of his work with many previously unpublished images.

Opening reception with the artist on 6 July 2006 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. The show runs from 7 July - 17 August 2006, and the catalog is available for $35.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10001
+1 212 505 5555
Open from Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Things and Stuff @ KidRobot

by Carol T Chung

Tara McPherson is having a solo exhibit at KidRobot on Thursday 6 July 2006 where she'll be showing some things and stuff. What? "things and stuff" not descriptive enough for you? Well for those of you unfamiliar with her work, I guess not. She'll be showing some new toys, comic cover paintings, drawings, posters, art prints, stationery sets, stickers, buttons, and (you guessed it!) some other stuff for sale. Back in May, I saw her retrospective poster exhibit at L.A.'s BLK/MRKT Gallery. I was in love then, as I'm sure you'll be, come Thursday. If you're already familiar with her work, she'll be armed with a Sharpie so feel free to bring items with you for her to sign.

KidRobot NY
Thursday, 6 July 2006
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.