Monday 26 November 2012

99% Invisible

I was recently made aware of the superb '99% Invisible' podcast and blog, which I can't recommend highly enough.



Each episode is only around 12 minutes, and over 60 episodes are now freely available via itunes or their own site.

I listened to the last half dozen yesterday. While the podcast focuses on the design world, the topics covered are astonishingly wire-ranging - from geodesci architectural design of the 1950s; to the 'Advance Teams' who stagemanage political rallies in the US election; to 'dazzle' camoflauge originally used by WWI naval commanders to confuse missile-firers; to the issues of the growing monopoloy of internet cable suppliers.

 
 
 
 
I was partcularly struck by the episode on Kowloon Walled City, which prior to its demolition in the 90s, was the most densely populated place on earth. Apparently, to reach the same population density, every single resident of Texas would have to have moved into Manhattan island to match the levels experienced in Kowloon.
 
 
 
Photographer Greg Girard has a great photoessay on the Daily Mail site (sorry, couldn't find it elsewhere...)
 
 
 
 
 


Friday 23 November 2012

3D Printing: Aston Martin

For the recent Bond 'Skyfall' movie, new technology 3D printing (which I've covered a few times on this blog) was put to amazing use, in creating a series of scale replicas of the famous Aston Martin DB5 by famed prop-makers 'Propshop Modelmakers Ltd'.



Given an original DB5 recently sold for $4.7m, these replicas seem cheap at the price - although one intact model sold recently at auction for $100,000.


Here's a promotional video clip from 3D printer company Voxeljet - hardly thrilling but will give you a few more details if you're really keen:


Cambodian Trees

Another great spot by the Colossal blog... 

Superb images of deities projected onto trees by French photographer Clement Briend:




More here.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

Artist Interviews

A couple of intriguing 'meet the artist' short interviews from the Guardian site, featuring painter Luc Tuymans and Thomas Schutte. Schutte currently has an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, closing this weekend.