Sharp Plasmacluster Air Purifier with Humidfier

by Josh Rubin

After using Sharp's combination air purifier/humidifier, the Plasmacluster, for a couple months now, we're fans (no pun intended). While it's a little on the larger side for a tiny Manhattan apartment, with a true HEPA filter, a state-of-the-art ionization system and some choice extra features, we think it's worth it.

Using technology that automatically senses the air quality and adjusts fans, humidification and the degree of cleaning needed, the auto setting works really well and makes it easy to use. Lights indicate the different levels, which are a fun way to visualize the impurities and filtering action (green indicates clean) but can be turned off if you have other sources of entertainment. It also operates almost silently and cleaning it is extremely easy—a must for a daily-use device like this.

Buy it from Sharp starting at $400 for the smaller model.

S/S Friends Summer Collection

by Doug Black

After years spent toiling behind closed doors in their Cobble Hill home, Brooklyn's S/S Friends released their inaugural clothing line this summer. The term "clothing line" itself may be limiting, however. Founded by a designer and musician, S/S Friends makes a point to pair their garments with other media, namely music.

Take their Original Trunks (pictured at right) for example. The classic cotton shorts are pared with S/S Friends' reggae-tinged "Easy Street" seven-inch record.

Or if you're a completist, you can purchase their "Summer Kit" (pictured below) featuring the entire season of items. In addition to the shorts and record, it includes a copy of the S/S Friends 'zine, a clever Volkswagen Bus record player, buttons, sunscreen and other surprise goodies.

To purchase a Summer Kit, or any of the featured items, send them an email to ss [at] friendscanvastrunks [dot] com. or check out a number of New York stores.

Domison Furniture Boutique

by Mike Giles

Domison is a modern furniture boutique that opened just over a month ago in Montreal's Plateau district. The brainchild of brother and sister design team Thien and My Ta Trung, their aim is to offer well-designed aesthetically-pleasing home furnishing to design-savvy consumers. I had a chance to sit down with My recently to ask her a few questions about the store and its concept.

As Designers how did you decide it was time to open a boutique?
The boutique is the flagship store for our new line Domison, a modern and sophisticated furniture collection. We wanted to have one space that would showcase our personalities and diffuse design to everyone. The store is also a parallel platform to showcase the accessories of some of the best local design studios such as Furni, Looolo, Coe & Waito and Loyal Loot.

Tell us more about the Domison line.
The Domison line is about a state of mind, one that is fresh, sophisticated, modern and youthful. We cover all the furniture for the home: living room, dining room, bedroom, etc.

You also design under the name Periphere , what's the difference between the two brands?
The two brands have very distinct personalities. Periphere is about concept and ideas. The furniture designed under Periphere is at the frontier of art/scupture/design/furniture. When we design for Periphere we don't care about such factors as comfort, sizes constraints, or usefulness. But for Domison, we want to bring edgy and modern design that actually will fit in most design-driven homes. The focus is on rigorous lines, thoughtful details, comfort and great execution.

Is now the time for such a store?
We've been working on Perihpere for the last seven years. It's a very exclusive and conceptual brand that caters to a super thin crowd. We wanted to reach more people so we launched this new line that is edgy but yet not overly conceptual. With the store we hope to reach more design and fashion driven people.

How do you choose the other items that you showcase?
As an independent player (in a sea of corporate enterprises such as IKEA, Crate & Barrel, EQ3, etc....) we know how difficult it is to push our design ideas out there, so with the store, we want to be a platform for independent studios to showcase their products. We basically are only interested in carrying the work of smaller studios who produce spectacular and unique products.

What does the future hold?
We want to focus on the store for the moment, make it an inspiring place for anyone who like design. We are working on selling and distributing our Domison line to retailers across Canada/U.S. We're also working on an outdoor furniture collection that should be available in 2009.

Domison
4117 Boulevard St-Laurent
Montréal, QC Canada map
tel. +1 514.733.8588

Duende Collective: La Part des Anges

by Brian Fichtner

Duende Collective, a French design studio based in Paris, was recently commissioned by La Cuisine, an alimentary arts center in Nègrepelisse near the Midi-Pyrénées region, for a forthcoming exhibition examining the early relationship between mother and child. The exhibition, which will open this coming September, will focus on the prenatal role of the placenta and the post-natal role of mother's milk, both as means for establishing the early bond between mother and infant, and as conveyance of nutrition.

Entitled, "La Part des Anges," which translates as "the angel's share," the exhibition will feature a number of objects that investigate the cultural significance of the placenta as sacrificial organ, along with several pieces of jewelry derived from plasticized human and animal milks.

Needless to say, many of the objects, laden as they are with symbolism, veer directly into the realm of sculpture. Gaelle Gabillet's Container for burying placenta (top right), fabricated from 100% biodegradable sunflower plastic, while forming a functional burial casket for the postpartum placenta, could just as easily find itself on a gallery pedestal. A series of "Angel dust memory" urns posits the revival an ancient Egyptian tradition in which the pharaoh's placenta, as guardian angel, was housed in a specially built temple (example above left). The "Perle de lait" range of jewelry, such as Oncle John's milk pendant (above right), imagines an era in which mothers send off feeding bottles of their own breast milk to create personalized mementos of motherhood.

La Part des Anges 13 September-15 November 2008
La Cuisine
3, place du Monument aux Morts
82800 Nègrepelisse
France map