Link About It: This Week’s Picks
NASA’s 3D food printer, Sydney’s Vivid Festival, the Whitney’s new identity and more in our weekly look at the web
1. Todd McLellan’s 50 Disassembled Objects
Skilled lensman Todd McLellan likes to take things apart. What began as a meticulous photo project dubbed “Disassembly Series” has now expanded into a new book for Thames & Hudson, called “Things Come Apart.” McLellan combines his penchant for exploring the myriad components which comprise everyday objects with his flair for photography to create stunning images of 50 disassembled objects, from toasters to chainsaws and more.
2. The Whitney’s New Groove
Recently the Whitney Museum of American Art unleashed a new graphic identity to both retain
the museum’s storied spirit and serve as an icon for its new location
in lower Manhattan. The inventive, and rather risky, graphic “responds”
to art; morphing its wiry frame in a reflection of the way the museum
itself has responded to art since being founded in 1930. For an
intimate look behind the scenes of the dynamic identity’s birth,
Experimental Jetset—the studio behind the design—released an
insightful essay and small selection of preliminary sketches.
3. Lego X-Wing
Star Wars Legos have been a hot commodity since the kits first hit the scene in the late ’90s, but their latest model isn’t your typical store-bought weekend project. The massive Lego X-Wing scale model is composed of over five million pieces and is 43 feet long. While it doesn’t fly, it can accommodate a fully grown human. Ewoks sold separately.
4. NASA’s 3D Food Printer
As expressed on Twitter, Ji Lee is as psyched as we are that NASA is funding a 3D food printer—and that their first mission is to produce pizza. Selfish reasons aside, if mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor’s open-source prototype comes to fruition, it could go well beyond feeding astronauts on long-distance journeys and be the first genuine way to put an end to worldwide hunger.
5. GIFTY
GIFs (however you prefer to pronounce them) are all the internet rage, and student Jiho Jang recently created a clever prototype to take the experience offline. His GIFTY camera automatically records a five-second GIF and can also instantly print the sequence out into a flip-book. With any luck this idea will become a reality soon, because some unnecessary things are also completely essential when you’re having fun.
6. The “Dance of the Planets”
Space is consistently mind-blowing, but now and then something even more majestic happens out there. This week is the “Dance of the Planets”; a spectacular occurrence that happens every few years, during which the planets seem to approach one another. Look up—preferably with binoculars—from 28 May, when Jupiter and Venus will be just one degree apart and on 31 May when Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will create a straight line in the sky.
7. BMW Guggenheim Lab Findings
Launched in late 2011 in NYC, the BMW Guggenheim Lab has since
traveled to Berlin and Mumbai in an effort to get cities talking
about a better future. From the daily events and discussions held in
their portable pavilion, a certain number of trends—or talking
points—have emerged. From container architecture and data
visualization to crowd-souring and bottom-up urban engagement, Wired
takes a look into the global findings in conjunction with the Lab’s newly-released comprehensive report, “100 Urban Trends: A Glossary of Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab.”
8. 2013 Vivid Festival in Sydney
Each year, Sydney’s already impressive Opera House receives the artistic treatment during the city’s annual Vivid Festival. 2013’s magnificent beautification is by The Spinifex Group, a local agency that covered the structure’s “sails” with a neon-colored, animated light display. Also getting a makeover are the facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and, another landmark, the Sydney Harbour Bridge—which boasts an interactive work of art that the public can play with.
