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Arts / Artists

Marvelous machines

Precision machining at its best, painstaking measurement and shaping, long hours, unique vision – José Manuel Hermo Barreiro, known as Patelo, a retired Spanish navel mechanic creates functioning small motors that are both mechanical marvels and hypnotically beautiful moving sculptures. They are also not for sale, as his Facebook page …

Year of Bauhaus

100 years ago in Weimar, Germany Walter Gropius founded the visionary and highly influential design program known as the Bauhaus. Integrating art and craft – a return to craftsmanship – the curriculum began with a foundation course for all students before they moved on to specialized workshops in cabinetry, pottery, metal working, weaving, and other crafts. Only after those …

John Kormeling’s up and down bridge

            Up and down with John Kormeling – one-page article in Mark #46 (Oct/Nov 2013, page 32) about architect John Kormeling’s bridge in the Dutch city of Tilburg.  It’s designed with a small building that serves as counterweight.  Kormeling designed the building as both bridge master’s house and …

Color-filled hospital based on modular design

      The Colours at Martini Hospital in Groningen –  architect Arnold Burger of SEED architects and interior designer Bart Vos worked with color artist Peter Struycken to develop a palette of 47 colors for this new hospital in the Netherlands.   The organization of the hospital was deliberately …

Libraries and the mystery of Toynbee tiles

Toynbee tiles – If you’re in the mood for a real-life mystery that involves imagination, single-mindedness over spans of time, great ingenuity, a fair amount of what many might describe as wackiness and that remains, despite knowing who the person behind the tiles is, at its heart still an enigma, …

Book-illustration-lovers delight

  BibliOdyssey – one of my favorite places to take a break; here’s the tag line:  Books~~Illustrations~~Science~~History~~Visual Materia Obscura~~Eclectic Bookart.  Each post features images based on a theme, or from a specific book or manuscript.  The images are wonderful and plentiful and unexpected.  Most sources are from early printed books or manuscripts …

Light is the medium – James Turrell

A Year of Light and Space – anyone who’s interested in James Turrell’s work with light, space, and perception will have ample opportunity to see it in person this year. Exhibits of his installations will open in Los Angeles (LACMA), Houston (Museum of Fine Arts), and New York (Guggenheim Museum – …

Lullaby Factory for children’s hospital

  Sculptural pipes play secret lullabies to entertain hospital patients – the kids at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital are in for a treat, an “audio-playground for the young patients.” The Lullaby Project (check out the drawings and the backstory) was developed by architects at Studio Weave and sound artist Jessica Curry.  Sculpture?  Sound …

Buy or borrow via Designers & Books

  This is another shout-out for the website Designers & Books.  Every Tuesday on their blog they post a list from a selected designer of books that have played a significant role in that designer’s thinking (see my previous post about this aspect of the site).  It gets better. Take …

Best of 2012 roundup

    Here’s a start on collections of ‘the best’ of 2012.  Check back for more, suggest your favorites –  this a live list. PSFK’s Top 20 of 2012 – with source of image Best of the best of 2012 science and tech articles – from the BBC; thanks to Oleg Kravtsov …