Video is the defining medium of the 21st century, thanks to the rise of the internet. But its origins go back way further, to the late 1960s, when the first portable video devices emerged. It was a watershed moment in history—and our short documentary explains why.
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Brilliant. Artist Bruce Yan remixes the logos of famous brands by inserting the cartoon characters we grew up with. So the Playboy bunny becomes a profile view of Bugs Bunny, the mermaid in the Starbucks Logo becomes Ariel, Charlie Brown is the BIC guy and so on. The twists are super clever and fun.
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Oh, bus stop ads: so often a target for vandals and bored commuters. But here’s a clever ad that invites you to deface it. Underneath an unassuming black-and-white ad for a museum exhibition is a whole world of hidden art.
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Let us go then, you and I, to meet Skryf, a robot created by Dutch artist Gijs Van Bon. The robot uses a repurposed CNC machine to spray out a thin layer of sand in the shape of letters and Van Bon uses it to print out lines of temporary poetry on sidewalks. As the robot writes, the feet of passersby spread the sand far and wide, destroying the art as it is created.
This video, filmed in July, shows Skryf printing poetry at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. “When you’re writing one [line of] text, another one is going away because people start walking through it,” wrote Van Bon on Dezeen. “Once I’ve finished writing, I walk the same way back but it’s all destroyed. It’s ephemeral, it’s just for this moment and afterwards it’s left to the public and to the wind.”
The robot – basically a standard RC quad-wheel with a fairly impressive sand dispenser on CNC rails – receives its orders and then writes about 130 feet per hour. Van Bon takes cues from the places he’s visiting in order to chose the poets Skryf will write out. For example, at Dutch Design week he chose Merel Morre, the poet of the city of Eindhoven. It’s a beautiful commentary on the value of art versus technology in society and it’s also a pretty nice printing rig that could be repurposed to paint in liquids or even chalk. It’s also a clever way to get people to think about poetry again.
If you missed out on Olly Moss’ limited edition 8-bit willow plates, Don Moyer’s Calamityware might be the next best thing. Don creates humorous dinner plates by using the ancient willow pattern to depict modern subjects. His first plate features the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz. Now he’s raising funds on Kickstarter to make plates with a giant robot on it.
To give you an idea of what the finished product will look like, here’s a sample of the flying monkey plate:
You can pre-order both plates from the Calamityware shop, but you can also pledge just $25 (USD) on Kickstarter to get the giant robot plate as a reward. You can also check out Don’s Flickr page to see more images of Calamityware, including his future designs.
The Statue of Liberty’s arm, building laws that were meant to be broken, and oh hey is there a Super Bowl tie-in in here somewhere? Imagine that. But that’s not all we have to feed your eyeballs this week. Check out the most beautiful items of the week or remain in suspense forever.
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Got boring wall syndrome? Worry not, young design enthusiast. These self-adhesive, fabric pattern wall tiles will solve your woes.
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Gijs van Bon’s Skryf machine is far from the world’s first
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I will admit that it is rather cool to mix two beloved science fiction properties into one. Take this fan made artwork for instance. It has Chewbacca and wicket the Ewok standing on Endor. There is one major thing that’s a little out of place though – they are both wearing Starfleet uniforms.
The artist who made the illustration is Rey Paez and he made it with the Procreate app on the iPad. It’s a fun idea, but one thing that bothers me about the image is that while Wicket is in proper form with the proportions we remember from Return of the Jedi, Chewie looks just plain weird. In this image, he’s tall, thin, and has a rather phallic shape to him. Wookiees have been known to rip arms out of sockets if you call them a dick, so I won’t go that far.
[via Geek Tyrant via Laughing Squid]
Think you like gadgets? You don’t hold a candle to Canadian artist William Fiske who’s spent the last decade painting impossibly realistic portraits of everything from vintage cameras to aging computer consoles.
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