DATE: 05/18/2007 14:40:17

MOOD: Mellow

Check out Bruce handing a whole dojo- teacher included -their bums before youtube takes it down. Full frothy cans of whip a** taken to the head by all involved.

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DATE: 03/29/2007 18:05:51

MOOD: Mellow

 

Via Treehugger and Inhabitat, no empty promises of wall-size plasmas and counter-top fab labs. Bell Travers Willson Architects is building The Digital House using some sophisticated CNC action to nail (sorry) both the 3D and the labor parts.

From Jill:

The Digital House brings high-tech building methods to a broad housing market, providing a high quality, well designed and more sustainable alternative to traditional housing. Just how does it work, you ask? The structure is produced using a detailed 3D computer model that includes specs for every single construction element, from entire walls to tiny screw holes. This information is then transfered to a CNC machine (Computer Numerical Control), which cuts the components from engineered timber. The components are then packed and shipped, ready to be assembled into a house of your very own. For some of the larger components, the pre-cut timber sheets are assembled into lightweight hollow “cassettes” , which can be filled with recycled newspaper for insulation and air tightness.

From Lloyd:

The technology behind the Digital House allows every part cut to be different than the next, so that houses can be customized to each individuals requirements. This moves away from the standardization that has previously been an economic driving force in prefabricated systems that are criticised for being inflexible in their designs and visually repetitive.

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DATE: 02/18/2007 13:01:39

MOOD: other

Niklaus Troxler is a graphic designer. Niklaus Troxler is a jazz fanatic. Nearly forty years ago, Troxler invited a jazz group to play in Willisau, the small Swiss farming town he calls home, and thus it began: Willisau became established as an unlikely destination for jazz musicians and their fans, and Troxler began to acquire a reputation as a designer to watch. Today, his work is exhibited, published, and collected all over the world, and Jazz Festival Willisau — which has hosted Keith Jarrett, Lester Bowie, Dewey Redman, McCoy Tyner, and the Kronos Quartet, among many others — is about to celebrate its 37th year.

The posters that Niklaus Troxler has designed to promote jazz in his home town can be viewed as a single, self-initiated project that has developed over five decades, a body of work that has few, if any, precedents. Spanning an astonishing range of styles, the posters are united by a single thing: the passion of a single man who serves at once as designer and client.

This year, for the first time ever, Willisau comes to New York. On March 10, Jazz at Lincoln Center will host an exhibition and presentation by Troxler himself, followed by a concert featuring pianist Cecil Taylor, saxophonist John Zorn, and trumpeter Dave Douglas. A gala sponsored by AIGANY, the event's proceeds will benefit — appropriately — Common Ground, the organization that is working to restore the vitality of the place where jazz was born, New Orleans.

Many young designers dream of a world where they can set their own agenda and create without boundries. For most of us, this remains a fantasy. Niklaus Troxler proves that it can be done. Come to Lincoln Center on March 10 and see for yourself.

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DATE: 02/18/2007 13:00:24

MOOD: don't know

The current issue of Creative Review is "guest edited" by hip British advertising agency Mother. As is the way with "guest editors," Mother hasn’t actually edited the magazine; instead, they’ve commandeered the cover, 29 pages in the center of the publication and a pile of inserts, to make an idiosyncratic examination of the ethics and morality of advertising. It’s what you might call a sort of editorial intervention.

Mother approaches the subject with a knowing wink. As they note in their introduction: “Does the presence of money diminish our creativity? The Sistine Chapel was a commissioned work. Was Michelangelo less of an artist for taking the Vatican’s money? Some would argue painting the Pope into a fresco is more noble then putting a Ford in your Bond movie. Some wouldn’t. We’re not here to decide. After all, ‘We sold our soul and it feels great.’” Subscribers to Creative Review received advance warning of Mother’s approach; the magazine was mailed in a brown envelope containing the crudely handwritten legend: your mother is a whore.

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