Cool Hunting
| 02 October 2006view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Urwerk 103.05
by Watchismo
The past few years have been an interesting time in watchmaking (granted only on the haute end of the stick), but nevertheless, innovators like Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner of Urwerk are breathing inspired fire with their 103 series and the Opus 5. The platinum 103.05 (pictured), an edition limited to 50, has orbiting satellites that align with the bottom arc of minutes to tell the time. Details like the acid yellow numbers (which glow blue in the dark) and the deco styling of the case are the hallmarks of these younger independent visionaries creating remarkable timepieces that both draw on the past and push forward into the future—a long overdue relief for the aesthetic stagnation witnessed in modern watches since the eighties.
Three Better-than-Wallpaper Wall Coverings
by Ami Kealoha
Wallpaper trends wax and wane, but in the end it's still just eye candy. These three new takes on wall coverings grabbed our attention recently at an exhibit during the London Design Festival called "In Production" for the ways they add new dimensions—both literally and figuratively. Susan Bradley's multi-purpose Outdoor Wallpaper (pictured left) is a laser cut metal pattern designed to function as a trellis, a screen or simply as decoration. Only slightly more traditional, Timorous Beasties are well known for their maximalist decorative prints for textiles and wallpapers, which have been described as “William Morris on acid.” We dig the dramatic monochrome Iguana Wallpaper (pictured center). Nature also runs wild with Wok Media's Lunuganga, an asymmetrical branch that affixes to the wall. Is it a shelf? A hanger? Or is it just decoration? Maybe it’s all three. Wok Media say, “The piece is a response to the flooded, jungly environment we were suddenly thrown into when we went to work in Sri Lanka.” We’re not sure about the flooding but we like the idea of branches growing out of our boringly flat walls.
Also on Cool Hunting: Scratchcard Wallpaper
The Spirit of The Beehive
by Letizia Rossi
A film of near indescribable weight and richness, The Spirit of the Beehive is the latest essential DVD release from The Criterion Collection. The narrative is deceptively simple: in a small provincial Spanish village in the 1940s, a traveling cinema leaves a small child haunted by the memory of Frankenstein’s monster. While engrossing and endearing as an ode to the power of youthful imagination, it’s also a complex political allegory about life under Franco’s regime. The film’s stunning aesthetics are unparalleled and the new hi-def transfer on this set really lets Luis Cuadrado’s cinematography shine. It's worthwhile purchase if only to show off the dynamic colors on your 16:9 set. Pick it up at Amazon.
by Michael Talbott
