Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Opens Its Doors

by Karen Day

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center recently opened its new innovative 220,000-square-foot laboratory at its campus in Troy, NY. Designed by British architecture firm, Grimshaw, the building is home to a 1,200-seat concert hall, a 400-seat theater with a full fly tower, an audio and video production suite, artists-in-residence studios and a dance studio. Equally as amazing is the architecture itself, like the hull of curved cedar planks wrapping the concert hall. Posing as an architectural challenge, the incredibly steep hillside location chosen for the hall was instead used to the design team's advantage by placing the entrance at the highest elevated point, allowing for seven discrete levels of the central atrium.

Founded by the nation's oldest technological university, EMPAC's cutting-edge facility will foster creative opportunities and research on the overlapping realms of science, art, and technology on a whole new level.

Camille Hempel Fingerprint Rings

by Ami Kealoha

Adding a one-of-a-kind touch to the traditional wedding band, Brooklyn-based jewelery designer Camille Hempel's Fingerprint Rings are embellished with a cast of an actual fingerprint. The pair pictured were custom-designed as wedding bands but Camille's signature line also includes rings that replicate a finger (below).

Contact Camille's studio for more info.

Napoleon Perdis Cosmetics x Target

by Lost At E Minor

Move over Collette Dinnigan and Stella McCartney. We've all seen Target collaborate with fashion designers, but the recently-launched Napoleon Perdis line, a designer budget cosmetic range, is an Australian first. As a Napoleon enthusiast who swears by his eyeliners, lip gloss and mosaic powder, I'm curious to see how these budget versions will take off.

Jonah Samson: Kissing Pictures

by Doug Black

In his new book, CH contributor Jonah Samson collects selections from "Kissing Pictures," his series of Polaroid photographs. As the name suggests, the images chronicle various couples in the act of kissing. Generally off-center composition and soft focus add a warm, personal feel to already intimate acts. The 19 pictures were collected over the last decade and act as a testament to the sincerity of the couples and the seduction of the nearly extinct medium of Polaroid film.

Distributed through Blurb, "Kissing Pictures" can be purchased for $32 and a 15-page preview is viewable online. A special signed and numbered limited-edition copy of the book—including a tipped-in digital copy of Kissing Picture number 28—is available for $40 from the artist. Visit Jonah's website for more information.

Latest from Sonos: iPhone App, Free Pandora, Better Internet Radio

by Josh Rubin

Sonos, the premium wireless multi-room music solution, has just released some excellent new software features. With today's update (now version 2.7), Sonos owners can enjoy subscription cost-free, computer-free access to Last.fm and Pandora personalized internet radio services. They've also added Sonos Radio which features streams from over 15,000 radio stations around the world.

Also released today is the Sonos iPhone application. Essentially replacing the need to use one of their controllers, the iPhone app includes all the features you need to find and play music in any or all of the rooms where you have Sonos. The app is a free download (iTunes link). Recognizing that it's useless without having the full set-up in your home, they've included a "learn about Sonos" video that can be played if the app is launched and doesn't see a system on the network. This is a clever indirect marketing tool because inevitably people will download the app without fully understanding what it's for.