Up Close and Personal

Beautiful NatGeo quality video work from Austrian multimedia artist Clemento. Be sure to check out his other stuff too.

Speaker lights

There's been a lot of people thinking about this concept for a while but now they're a reality thanks to the fine people at Klipsh. The system seems pretty cool except that it's only 2 speakers, for now, and they're very expensive at $599. Of course it's worth it if they sound as good or better than other home speakers.

A Love Letter For You

I haven't been out to West Philly in a while to see all of these but I got to check a couple over the summer. This is a great project by Steve "ESPO" Powers. It's amazing to see him getting paid to do this since he used to do things like this back in the day anyway...along with bombing the subway tunnels and walls throughout the city. He's a pretty intense and was/is a really cool dude...I met him a couple times and he even drew some things in a sketch book for me and gave me some old rare can of green (that I still have). I doubt he remembers that. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing these in person once the weather gets a little warmer and I can go for a bike ride out there. Some of them are best seen from the "el" though since they're meant to add some color to the dull brown view of the roofs.

If you're not in able to see them, definitely check out the website-> A Love Letter For You

Architecture Graffiti

I love seeing people really elevating the art form of graffiti. This is from Libson, Portugal. I have no idea whose work this is. Please let me know if you do so I can give proper credit.

You can see more images of this wall > HERE <

Story of Cap and Trade

If you haven't already watched it a couple of times, watch The Story Of Stuff before watching this. (or at least after watching this) I'm not taking a side on this issue yet because I don't know enough yet but this is a good introduction. All you designers out there, and just socially responsible citizens, need to get educated on these issues so you really know what 'sustainability' really means and what the issues really are that affect our everyday lives and our futures.

To watch the movie, just click on the image above or click > HERE <

Lightworks

This video is INCREDIBLE!!!! Light art stop motion animation by Dee Pee Studios. Just WOW!!

More flat speakers?!?!

Just a couple of months ago I posted THESE amazing flat speakers coming out of Taiwan. And now I see these that were actually published even earlier. I think the ones from Taiwan will actually sound better though but still these are amazing!

A groundbreaking new loudspeaker, less than 0.25mm thick, has been developed by University of Warwick engineers, it's flat, flexible, could be hung on a wall like a picture, and its particular method of sound generation could make public announcements in places like passenger terminals clearer, crisper, and easier to hear.

Lightweight and inexpensive to manufacture, the speakers are slim and flexible: they could be concealed inside ceiling tiles or car interiors, or printed with a design and hung on the wall like a picture.

Read the full article > HERE <

Sound Sculpture

This is a nice little piece by Daniel Franke called "One Minute Sound Sculpture". The idea of a sculpture made from sound is really intriguing to me and something I hope to explore in the near future. This guy's take on it is pretty cool and he's really good at tracking an animation and placing it in a live environment.

Vincent Ganivet sculptures

French artist Vincent Ganivet makes beautiful and sculptures using mostly common building materials. The appear simple until you actually realize the work involved in making a free standing arcs and circles from cinder blocks. Have you ever thought about making a big trail using cinder blocks instead of dominoes? Yeah, we all have. But he actually does it! His non-building material pieces are also interesting and worth taking a look at.

Watch the video >> HERE <<

Halftones

Nice opArt halftones by Travess Smally. Keep staring!

Snakes

This new Massive Attack video is dope. Black and white graphics NEVER get old when done well. The song's pretty good too.

R.A.D.

Sure, you've heard of CAD but now we have RAD (Robot Aided Drawing). Jen Hui Liao has designed and built the Self Portrait Machine to assist the sitter with drawing themselves. The machine "takes a picture of the sitter and draws it but with the model's help. The wrists of the individual are tied to the machine and it is his or her hands that are guided to draw the lines that will eventually form the portrait." Ok, so you may be asking, "So, what's the point?!" This may help explain:

The project aims to explore the cooperation process of human & machine. The designer explains: I found some the relationship between human and machine are amazing and could be horrible (like this one that shows how we human invent machines then put human inside to it to manufacture goods), The final object - A machine is a miniature of what I understand through the process of research, and the aim of the machine is to let people have a chance to feel the condensed process of how we generate our self identity from external point of view as from the society, which is a big machine we all in.

You can read more about the project >HERE<

I'll Kill Her

Beautifully done video by Joerg Barton as his thesis project!

I´ll kill her from Joerg Barton on Vimeo.

Visualizing Music

Really dope motion graphics by Belgian artist Gwen Vanhee exploring new ways to interpret music. Finding new and innovative ways to translate sound to visuals and vice versa always fascinates me. The graphics by themselves are great but the context and execution really brings them to a higher level. I highly recommend checking out some of his other work on Vimeo and Flickr.

RFID Radio

One of the best things I've seen crossing boundaries between music and design is RFID Radio concept by someone by the name of D.A.R.Y.L. His idea is that these paper radios with RFID chips will be programmed only to play a certain station. You would need to subscribe to the station via iTunes and have a special speaker also with an RFID tag. I guess the radio would have a passive tag and the desktop speaker would have an active tag? Honestly, RFID is probably NOT the best technology for this product but it's still a great concept and is along the lines of Yuri Suzuki's Graffiti Radio concept which is also brilliant.

Check out more of D.A.R.Y.L.'s creations at Real Tomato

Here, take my card..

(I usually wouldn't post my own designs like this but...this relates to music and people have really loved this design since May. So, why not.?)

Designed by Matt Braun (aka The Record Player). Laser cut & engraved business cards that work come with a 45 insert. Shown in here is the version on black mat board. They also come in other colors variations. If you're interested in working with him on similar concepts for your record label or for your self, contact him. Check out some of his other work on-

Coroflot
Behance
Etsy

Porcelain Speakers

Just as the title suggests these speakers are made of porcelain ceramic and handmade by the designer, Joey Roth. I like the concept of using ceramics for speaker design but I'm curious about how they sound. Also, the speakers themselves are nice but there's a disconnect in choices of form and material for the other components that make up this system. The boxy brushed aluminum interface and 2 part plywood stands are unresolved and are more of a distraction than a compliment to the speakers. Why can't the speakers be made to stand on their own and why do they need their own interface? Just focus on the speakers Joey!

Solid Melts to Air

All that is solid melts into the air. from Sooz on Vimeo.

Paul Henry Ramirez

The first time I saw a picture of something by Paul Henry Ramirez I really didn't pay attention to it and just glanced over it as if it were just some other contemporary graphic design that I've seen thousands of times before. I think the piece was "Chunk 5". The second time, however, his work immediately caught my eye. Sometimes we just need to be in a certain frame of mind to really appreciate something. When I did a little investigating to see more of his work I was hooked!

The thing is, his work is so simple it could be easily glanced over. When you take more than a second to really see the life in his pieces. The bold colors, simple forms, balance and contrast all work in harmony to create depth and movement. In many of his works, shapes seem to assume the role of machinery and the composition is presented as one frame, frozen in time, of the workings of a larger machine and you wonder, "how this machine is working and why?" In his installations, Paul Henry Ramirez gets to show us how his canvases work with a larger machine and each piece works with the others to create a cohesive stystem that seems to be part of the architectural space.

I highly recommend visiting his website

Yuri Suzuki

I need to apologize to you for not posting any of this guy's work sooner! I swore that I did but when I was looking for the back links I realized I did not :( Yuri Suzuki has done some of my favorite installation works that I've seen maybe ever. He is a very multi-disciplined creator but what I'm most interested in is his "sound art" pieces. He really pushes the limits of new uses for vinyl records and turntables in art and finds new and interesting ways to reinterpret how we interact with sound and the connection between music and the tangible medium. In addition to being a great artist, he's also an electronic music producer and an industrial designer. Go to his website and do some searches for him to learn more.


His most recent exhibit is going on now in Luxembourg and is part of a show titled "Coalition Of Amateurs". For this show, Yuri set up a full music production system which recorded music from 3 bands direct to master disk and then they pressed their own vinyl all in the same day!! I haven't been able to find out details yet on how exactly he did it but it appears that he made is own CNC cutter to make the masters on a standard Technics 1200 turntable.


Of all of Yuri's work I've seen thus far, the pieces created for his well-noted "The Physical Value Of Sound" exhibit last year at Clear Gallery in Tokyo. This show included a turntable with 5 tonearms, jewelry with sound etched onto it to be played on a turntable, a piece called "Sound Chaser" that used pieces of records as train tracks for a miniature train engine with a cartridge and speaker in it and a piece simply called "Digital and Analog" which is just a regular CD on one side and the top has grooves etched in to play sound (I REALLY love that one). Some others I really love are his "Jellyfish Theramin","Finger Player" and his "Graffiti Radio" project.