Fetish by David Lynch and Christian Louboutin

by Leonora Oppenheim

A perfect example of the strange and creative works that can come out of a collaboration between very different artists is the recent project by the filmmaker David Lynch and the shoe designer Christian Louboutin, both absolute masters of their medium. We discovered "Fetish" at Design Art London where these extraordinary shoes by Louboutin and their erotic photographic counterparts by Lynch were on show at the Pierre Passebon Gallery.

Many believe Louboutin's sexy red soles to be art forms in their own right, but he has taken this fetishistic view of footwear to a new extreme with this series that's more sculptural than wearable. Lynch, in his signature darkly twisted and sensual style, shot images of women bound into these sadomasochistic creations.

Louboutin says of the collaboration, "The models wore these unwearable shoes with natural grace. Their very white skin, very dark eyes and bright mouths melded with Lynch's aesthetics…As is his habit, David Lynch made it into a décor populated with shadows."

The reception of this project during its opening at Paris Fashion Week earlier this month was so rapturous that Lynch and Louboutin agreed to make five sets of shoes and five sets of prints for collectors to buy. The show continues at Galerie du Passage in Paris until 3 November 2007.

Also on Cool Hunting: David Lynch

USB Cassete Archiver

by Tim Yu

Whether it's old mix tapes made by exes or an obscure Kid Dynamo album bought before everything went digital, us nostalgic types all have a shoe box or two full of old analog cassette tapes. Every now and again I get the urge to dig back into them, but I don't even have a deck to play them on anymore.

The USB Cassette Archiver solves this problem by archiving cassettes to MP3 with a simple USB plug in and software for both Macs and Windows. It's available for $169 at FredFlare. Now all you have to do is figure out how to preserve the homemade cover art.

Fabric Podcast

by Phuong-Cac Nguyen

London's always-bumping Fabric club has mightily grown from a sweaty dance music venue featuring the DJ cream of the crop to a record label that continues to release some of the best mixes I've ever heard from Ellen Allien to Grooverider. Tomorrow, 24 October, marks another day in Fabric history and for the fans who love them. They're kicking off the start of a free regular podcast, with Fabric resident DJ Craig Richards inaugurating the first session.

The free podcast will rotate big names as hosts, including those who might not have ever played Fabric but have some connection with the music biz, whether as performers or influencers. The DJs get free reign to play whatever they want, with the only caveat that the songs are personally dear to them.

Techno DJ Andrew Weatherall is next in line to host the podcast, but that's all the guests Fabric will give away for now. You can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes.

Also on Cool Hunting: Fabriclive 27: DJ Format, FabricLive: The Herbaliser, Fabriclive: 24, Diplo

Windmove

by Tim Yu

As wind power gains popularity, the synchronized movements of windmills dotting large expanses are a pretty awe-inspiring sight. Artist Christoph Ernst takes the visual display a step further by installing colored LEDs in the wind turbine blades.

The innovative public art project he calls Windmove began last night, 22 October, and will light up fields outside of Berlin through the end of the year, 31 December 2007.

Spinning at speeds of up to 220 km/h, the lights transform into kinetic strips of color. Ambient, industrial music by Andre Unruh of Einstuerzende Neubauten, an experimental band out of Berlin, accompanies the installation, making it an audio-visual show.

For you cynics, there's no reason to fret about the effects on sustainable energy as extensive studies showed no decrease in efficiency of the wind turbines.

Located outside of Berlin at Windpark Klettwitz (once Europe's largest wind park), the windmills can also be seen driving down highway A13, one of Germany's main thoroughfares. Visit Windmove for more information and maps.

Boundless Gallery

by Jacob Resneck

We're always a fan of a good website stemming from simple ideas that have been competently executed. BoundlessGallery is one such site that connects thousands of artists from all over the world with potential buyers and clients, creating a global art marketplace that excludes the corpulent art dealer in the middle.

After just a cursory look at some of the artists added in the past few days, there seems to be a lot of quality work representing a range of genres. Aside from the October artist of the month, the site gives many other new and otherwise obscure artists the exposure they deserve.

Organized into several different compartments, a search engine allows artists and clients to find each other. Guests of the site can also tour virtual studios using the site's in-built interface to negotiate directly with the artist before deciding whether to purchase a piece.

Of course the internet has its limitations as nothing can replace the ability to see or feel a piece in the physical realm. To help compensate, Boundless will super-impose an artwork to scale in your chosen space so that you can make a better assessment of what that piece would look like in your home or office. Clients with an artistic vision that needs to be actualized can also contact an artist to commission the piece, choosing from one of thousands of artists that have already registered with the Carbondale, Illinois-based virtual art broker.