Cool Hunting
| 22 August 2007view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Refinery29 Countdown Videos
by Ami Kealoha
Refinery29, our favorite co-conspirators in fashion, today launched Countdown, their series of online videos visiting top designers in their studios in the days leading up to New York's upcoming fashion week. The inaugural episode takes a look at duo Vena Cava who were recently nominated for the CFDA/Vogue fashion award, sneaking a peak at their upcoming collection and design process. With Alexander Wang, Rag & Bone, Jeremy Laing, Karen Walker and a wrap-up featuring footage from their shows coming up—all set to a swoon-worthy soundtrack—we're excited to tune-in over the next few weeks.
Magnet Tacks
by Tim Yu
Part tack and part magnet, these office essentials designed by Hironao Tsuboi are capable of holding heavy-ish objects two different ways. The small, gold plated head is a double magnet so when objects are attached magnetically they appear to float (see images). When spearing notes into the wall, the thicker head also makes it easier to pry the tack out. Smart, bi-functional and sublimely simple, purchase them at 100% for ¥1,050.
Laurie Anderson x Dan the Automator: From The Air
by Jacob Resneck
Remastered for its 25th anniversary, the enhanced edition of Laurie Anderson's Big Science was released earlier this summer. Her music, aural soundscape testaments to the rising tide of insecurities, make a fitting contemporary soundtrack. While we're fans of the groundbreaking album as is for its soothing sound and clever lyrics, Dan the Automator's version of her sit single is a rare case of a remix adding renewed cultural relevance to the song's near-perfect, eerie hook, "This is the time. And this is the record of the time." You can check out the mp3 here.
The rest of the album is worth checking out as well. From her 1981 hit "O Superman," conceptual artist and musician Laurie Anderson burst out upon an avant-garde music scene as divisive between genres—punk, disco, acid rock and new wave—as it was political cultures as the rise of the New Right presided over the ashes of the cultural revolution of the decade before.
Based in Lower Manhattan and collaborating with the likes of David Byrne and Philip Glass, in 1982, NME encapsulated Laurie Anderson's sound in its review of Big Science, her full-length debut. "There's a dream-like, subconscious quality about her song which helps them work at deeper, secret levels of the psyche," the magazine wrote. The album proved to be seminal in more ways than one with its sample-based rhythms setting the groundwork for the surging electronic dance music revolution that was sprouting up in Detroit and Chicago. You can pick up the album from Amazon or Insound.
Still recording and performing, Anderson's next studio album, Homeland is scheduled for next year along with a tour of North America.
Diesel Wall 2007
by Leonora Oppenheim
Diesel's impressed us once again with their tireless support of young creative talent and the inventive way they do it. The winners of their annual competition for the Diesel Wall have been announced and this year the project has grown from just one wall in Milan to four across the world.
Like previous years, young creatives were asked to propose large-scale urban artworks, but this time around for walls in Milan, Beijing, Copenhagen and Toronto with the theme "I Could Be Yours."
After seeing over 1,000 entries, the high-profile jury (including award-winning Chinese media mogul Hung Huang, Marketta Seppala, director of Finland's Fund for Art Exchange who also coordinated the "Padiglione Nordico: at the Venice Biennale this year and Wilbert Das, Diesel’s Creative Director) chose four winners.
The Milan wall will showcase Massimo Falsaci's "Sunset” (pictured above right) from 19 June-31 August 2007, Beijing hosts Chui Chi Tang's "Better to Keep Silence" (pictured below) from mid-July- September 2007, in Copenhagen Tucker Hughes' "My Mama is So Proud" (pictured left) will be on display 10 August-9 September 2007 and the Toronto wall has Artemis Psathas' "Look Me in the Eye" from mid-August 2007 (also pictured below). They're sure tobrighten up your day if you happen to pass by one of them. You can find out more about the winning art works, the locations of the walls in each city and see some more shortlisted works here.
Hg2 Travel Guides
by Lost At E Minor
We're digging the Hg2 series of travel books which take in Paris, London, Rome, Buenos Aires and Miami. The series comes in a half dust jacket (which apparently is meant to be removed once you've settled in to your vacation city), sitting over a Moleskin-like journal chock-full of insidery travel tips. It's fun and informal. A bit like the cities they cover. Hmmm. Now there's a slogan for the brand. The next book in the series, Hg2 New York, will be out this October.
