Cool Hunting
| 21 February 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
The Tale of Peter Rabbit: Hieroglyph Edition
by Tim Yu
If you're an aspiring Egyptologist or just trying to learn Hieroglyphic script, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit Hieroglyph Edition," might be a good place to start. The complete text from the famous story was transcribed word for word to script from Egypt around the time of the Middle Kingdom.
As with any language, some of the words are hard to translate directly, but Richard Parkinson and John Nunn, expert translators from the British Museum, maintain the story line as accurately as possible with the limited vernacular offered through Hieroglyphic script. The text (above right) translates the first page of the story: "Once upon a time, there were four little rabbits and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter..." Peter Rabbit is denoted by a semi-circle, an ellipse and rabbit image.
Purchase a copy from the British Museum for £7.
SpaceStation
by Brian Fichtner
Bluelounge just announced their latest antidote to desktop clutter. Dubbed the SpaceStation, it’s a clever fix for those of use with mobile offices. Essentially, they’ve distilled the best elements of their earlier products into a single system.
An extended USB hub contains internal coils for wire management. This floats slightly above the desk surface, allowing cords to poke out where required. The hub also functions as a prop for your portable computer, providing a more ergonomic angle and better airflow. To top it off, they’ve put a slot in the back of the hub to support any documents you might be working from. Not that anyone uses paper these days.
The SpaceStation is available in black or white directly from Bluelounge for $80.
Also on Cool Hunting: Cableyoyo Pop
Bottoms Up Doorbell
by Josh Rubin
A winner of a Red Dot award last year, Peter van der Jagt's Bottoms Up Doorbell is perhaps one of the best examples of repurposed objects we've come across. It's no surprise that it comes from the fertile Dutch collective that is Droog, circa 1994.
A magnet (which adds bonus points for its exposed wiring) between two different sized crystal wineglasses creates the classic ding-dong sound—but with a crystal ping—when activated. The design allows it to hang from the ceiling or on a wall. You can get it from Charles and Marie for $220 as their current featured "Soup du Jour" for the next several hours or for slightly more (but indefinitely) from Unica Home, which also sells replacement glasses.
Barnaby Barford: Private Lives
by Brian Fichtner
On 11 March 2008, the irreverent ceramic artist Barnaby Barford will be exhibiting a new series of subversive objects at David Gill Galleries in London. The latest collection, "Private Lives," shows Barford treading into uncharted territory, repositioning figures from pop culture and cartoons for his witty mises-en-scènes.
A graduate of the Royal College of Art in 2002, Barford has been working with found ceramics for several years, cutting, splicing, juxtaposing and repainting figures to create ambiguous situations that often rely upon their titles for narrative direction. Updating antiquity is not an entirely novel approach these days; manufacturers such as Nymphenburg Porcelain (through Hella Jongerius) and Lladró (with their Re-Deco project) have been reinvigorating their porcelain catalogs with pieces that border on contemporary kitsch.
What separates Barford's work from other examples is his ability to comment on, and undermine, our sentimental tendencies while simultaneously creating objects of desire. (Click images for detail.)
Private Lives
11-23 March 2008
David Gill Galleries
60 Fulham Road
London SW3 6HH
map
United Kingdom
tel. +44 207 589 5946
