These are images of the Coca-Cola Beatbox Pavilion designed by Pernilla & Asif. From the model, you may guess that the project was inspired by a stack of hot sauce packets, but it’s actually quite different. The project is an interactive musical instrument that you play as you walk through the structure and interact with its large panels. These panels are the ones lit to stunning effect at night with LEDs around the perimeter of each panel. The sounds are sports-centric: things like sneakers squeaking on a court, or “an athlete’s heartbeat” or an arrow hitting a target. Visitors to the pavilion with eventually make their way to the roof, which offers views of the surrounding park.
Olympic Vermin is such a great title for this video, featuring the scruffy creatures of London having their own mini-Olympic torch lighting. I have to say, I’d almost rather watch this then the real Olympics. Those rats are pretty cute (but you know, not in real life). Nice work from Amael Isnard and Leo Bridle.
Sports films generally follow one cardinal rule. This rule has little to do with the technical aspects of film-making, story device, or even high octane performances. The one unforgivable component of a sports film is that it must – without a doubt- be inspiring. When I learned of the theme week topic I was keen to begin researching Olympics or Sports related films, as this is not a genre that I would naturally gravitate towards. As my research progressed, I gradually began to form self-imposed restrictions to uncover what would stand up as a high calibre sports film. I didn’t want it to star Adam Sandler (although admittedly I am a semi-fan), I didn’t want it to be about Football (to easy), and in the spirit of London 2012, I wanted it to focus on summer Olympics (leaving out the common denominator favorite Cool Running’s). My restrictions may be questionable, but in the spirit of going for the gold, I think rules might apply here.
There are hundreds sports films that are watchable, but there are mainly two that are dimensional enough to be accessible to a wider audience of sports fans and non-fans alike. It’s a cliché choice but, Chariots of Fire is the first. Released in 1981, nominated for seven Academy Awards and three prizes at Cannes that year, the film remains a quintessential example of sportsmanship, and the intrinsic drive that leads Olympic athletes to compete in the world’s fiercest competition. Set in 1924, the film follows two Cambridge scholars Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) who are both accepted to compete in the Paris 1924 Olympics, but who are driven by two very different motivations. The film tends to be slow and it deals with heavy religious subject matter (Jewish Abrahams experiences Anti-Semitism at Cambridge and Catholic Liddell is asked to compete on the Sabbath). As our 2012 world grows more and more secular the characters motivations in Chariots of Fire may seem trivial, yet the positive spirit of witnessing someone achieve a goal remains vividly inspirational. Besides, every frame of Chariots of Fire looks like it belongs in the dead center of the epic September issue of Vogue. If you could care less about the religious undertones, watch it solely for the luxury in set design and costuming that it displays on screen of an era that has escaped through time.
Without Limits is an easy second choice. Directed by Robert Towne, the 1998 film is the bio-pic of American record holder and long distance runner Steve Prefontaine (Billy Crudup) or “Pre” as he was colloquially called. Without Limitsand subsequently Prefontaine’s story, is a staunch example of remaining true to the cardinal rule of inspiration as it profiles Pre’s goal to compete at the Munich Olympics. Not only was Pre an outspoken rebel and tour-de-force athlete intent on over throwing athletic establishments, his stoic and wise coach was Bill Bowerman (Donald Sutherland) the founder of Nike. As much as it is all consuming to sit at the edge of your seat and watch Crudup out run a squad of other exceptional athletes, it is equally as entertaining to witness Bowerman’s empire collate from waffle-iron shoe soles to what we now know as his million dollar industry.
Also worth checking out is the basketball tear-jerker documentary Hoop Dreams available on Criterion, and ESPN’s documentary series 30 for 30. All these films are available on Netflix and itunes.
For whatever reason I hadn’t seen the design of the London Olympic medals, so I thought I’d look them. As you can see above they’re a nice blend of both contemporary and classic, featuring the image of Nike flying out of the Parthenon to go to London (their words, not mine). That’s pretty straightforward, and while I like the main side, the reasoning seems a bit… silly.
- The curved background implies a bowl similar to the design of an amphitheatre.
- The core emblem is an architectural expression, a metaphor for the modern city, and is deliberately jewel-like.
- The grid suggests both a pulling together and a sense of outreach – an image of radiating energy that represents the athletes’ efforts.
- The River Thames in the background is a symbol for London and also suggests a fluttering baroque ribbon, adding a sense of celebration.
- The square is the final balancing motif of the design, opposing the overall circularity of the design, emphasising its focus on the centre and reinforcing the sense of ‘place’ as in a map inset.
I really like the 2012 design, but really? It seems like there was a lot of desperate thought put into that description. Nonetheless, I think the design feels extremely contemporary and exciting. You even have to admit that the 2012 logo that everyone loves to hate looks good as extruded metal.
You can read more about the medals by clicking here.
Camille Seaman is a pretty awesome lady. Not content with taking photos of some of the biggest icebergs on earth, she’s moved her lens to storm clouds, but to be specific, supercells, the really big nasty storms. The Atlantic has a really nice feature on 22 of her photos that I thought were extremely beautiful, as you can see from the photos above. THe Wizard of Oz has nothing on these storms.
I’ve learned there are some things that just aren’t worth trying to debate on the internet, especially when it comes to tattoos. Some of these things include:
It seems safe to add people not in Russian prisons getting Russian prison tattoos to that list, too.
But I will say is these reinterpretations, most of which seem to be coming out of Europe, are eye-catching, interesting, and enjoyable to look at–provided you do not mentally associate them with their original meanings.
Tattoo by Miss Arianna at Skinwear Tattoo in Rimini, Italy
После успешного релиза третьей по счету лимитированной серии бутылок Diet Coke Жан-Поль Готье представил первую в истории бренда дизайнерскую линию банок Diet Coke
Matt Richardson created a camera which doesn’t deliver a photo but a description of the photo it made. Eh what? After the shutter button is pressed, the Descriptive Camera sends the photo to Amazons Mechanical Turk for processing. Somewhere someone receives this photo and writes a short description about what’s on the photo, that person receives a small payment for this task. As soon as that text comes back, a thermal printer outputs the result in the style of a polaroid print.
How cool is that!
Louis Vuitton празднует начало продаж совместной с 83-летней японской художницей Яеи Кусамой коллекции новым оформлением не только витрин, но и фасада целого бутика на Пятой авеню в Нью-Йорке
For some reason I’ve been on this crazy, futuristic, black everything kick, and I think these shoes are to blame. They’re made by an Italian company called Casbia who are doing some interesting shoe design. I think there’s a really unique blend of both futuristitic and heritage elements that makes these kind of amazing. Somehting about the use of the mesh that wraps around the body combined with the leather laces and details is really interesting and work together surprisingly well. And that cut in the rubber around the sole of the shoe is a nice touch, not too heavy-handed but gives it a bit of style. Want.
These are images of (POP)culture, a small shade canopy built by students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Architecture. The pavilion was designed as part of PARK(ing) day, which an an”annual open-source global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public places.” (POP)culture is based on a fairly simple idea to transform the trash of a caffeine-fueled architecture studio into a canopy, but it’s surprising to see this would-be trash take on the appearance of a maleable field of colorful flowers.
I’ve seen the work of Christopher Boffoli many times before, but I actually never knew who his name before recently. Christopher is a Seattle based photographer who turns food and miniatures into a series of fantastic photos. He calls the series Big Appetites, and as you can see they’re as beautiful as they are clever. It’s pretty neat that he’ss able to create these tiny vignettes of such staggering variety. A hazmat team cleaning up a berry mystery? Tiny chefs building massive macaroons? All in a days work for Boffoli.
