Cool Hunting
| 29 October 2007view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Dumbo: Acts of Vandalism and Stories of Love
by Wendy Dembo
Word on the street is that the prolific graffiti artist Dumbo had to leave Milan for Brooklyn at the risk of arrest. The writer's tag dots lower Manhattan, around Canal on West Broadway, but in Milan it seems like he hit every single building.
His recent book documents his life as a vandal, including his tags, art, actions and the like, featuring an intro penned by his fan, Barry McGee.
Why a book? Dumbo says "because I'm completely egocentric. Because there are so many things to learn from the experience of vandalism, so why not do a little propaganda for it? Because, unlike those (usually writers) who tout graffiti as the newest high art form, I want to tell the grimy truth, the most indefensible side, which will undoubtedly get me in the most trouble. But also to widen my public. To show this corrupt society that it will never represent me. To give context to all of the photos I've taken in these past years. But more than anything because I was coming to the end of a period that I wanted to record before officially beginning the next."
Three Photographs from Frieze 2007
by Leonora Oppenheim
Three artists playing with light, form, perception and optical illusion.
Sean Snyder: A broken piece of raw optical glass from the Carl Zeiss Archive, 2007
Snyder picked this photo of raw optical glass, taken between the First and Second World Wars, from the Carl Zeiss Archive (world famous lens manufacturer) and reprinted it using the various standard processes of the printing industry—as a photographic print, a magazine image, a newspaper image and as an internet jpeg. The Lisson Gallery, which represents this American artist, describes his work as dealing with ideas "of accessibility, transparency and the limitation of what is visible." Image courtesy of the artist and The Lisson Gallery.
Kris Martin: Space I and II, 1007
A multimedia artist of the moment, Martin is enthralled with abstract compositions of light, space and form (currently on display at the Marc Foxx Gallery). He was also commissioned by the Frieze Foundation to create a site-specific work for the fair this year. His appeal, asking every visitor and participant to hold a minute of silence to commemorate something personal to them, was, "a moment of reflection, during which time the wheels of commerce may be momentarily stilled."
You can also check out his work currently at P.S.1 in New York through 7 January 2008.
Alex Hartley: Annexe and Portal, both 2007
Integrating architectural form and photography in his work, in these photographs this British artist uses satin etched glass boxes to filter interior spaces. The blurred images confuse the eye, which tries and fails to focus on the partially obscured forms in space. (Annexe is pictured above left and Portal above right.) TheVictoria Miro Gallery describes his work as "An innovative dialogue with iconic modernist architecture." Images courtesy of Victoria Miro Gallery.
Q Celsius Tires
by Tim Yu
For those of us in more extreme climates, Q Celsius is an all season, retractable stud tire, that performs well on wet and dry days. Not only have studies shown that using studded tires in dry conditions negatively affect performance, the loud noise of winter tires on bare pavement is irritating and then there's the added inconvenience of having to change them in and out every year.
Making driving both easier and safer, Q tires mean there's no longer a need to swap tires according to the season. When needed, the Celsius uses existing tire pressure to inflate a secondary chamber, pushing studs through the surface for snow and ice, all at the push of a button. If conditions improve, air from the second chamber can be expelled and the studs will be pulled back inside.
Available this time next year, for more info and to see an informational video visit Q Tires.
NASA Create the Future Design Contest
by Jacob Resneck
Roads that produce electricity from the kinetic energy of cars, DNA-scanning ballot boxes to wipe out voter fraud, superbly energy-efficient houses (pictured right) to stave off the impending energy crisis... these are some of the entries vying for the $20,000 prize offered by NASA in the Create the Future Design Contest
While the entry date has come and gone, there are literally hundreds of concepts to view. Many are blatant pipe dreams, others have some commercial appeal. None of them have been developed or are sold on the commercial market—that's one of the rules of the contest.
Cool Hunting thanks Jake Zien, Carnegie Mellon University student from Milwaukee, who brought NASA's initiative to our attention. We liked his entry, a power strip design that eliminates “power bricks” in which the individual AC adapters crowd each other out making a seven-plug strip only able to handle three or four. (Pictured left.)
NASA has opened the prizes up to designers from around the globe (except for the world's most populous nation—why are they so afraid of China?) and the winners are scheduled to be announced the week of 20 January 20 2008 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine.
Mobile Art Container
by Lost At E Minor
Fashion guru, Chanel's Karl Lagerfield, and star architect, Zaha Hadid, have combined to create this Mobile Art Container, which is to roam the world from 2008 to 2010 bearing installations by 18 international artists. The result of a chance meeting between the two in the lobby at the Mercer Hotel in New York, the "container" is to be manufactured out of super white fiberglass, with an exhibition ring inside.
Taking a similarly unconventional approach to marketing as the brand did with their recent blog initiative, the primary goal is to align Chanel with contemporary art and design in the public eye, and Lagerfield has already decided it's money well spent: "We could have inundated the world with ads," he said. "But this is a more noble project." A win for all, we think.
Also on Cool Hunting: Jacques Polge, Parfumuer
