If it wasn’t for artists who embraced the company’s computers, Apple might not have survived to release the iPod. And were it not for MacPaint, the simple (by today’s standards) bitmap-based painting program included with the original Macintosh, those artists may have never fell in love with Apple in the first place. But if you’re too young to remember what all the fuss was about, now you can relive MacPaint in your browser with CloudPaint.
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A couple of months ago we saw a 3D printer that prints in full color by breaking a 3D model into very thin slices, printing each slice on separate sheets of paper then cutting the slices out of the paper and gluing them together. Haddock Inventions’ Looking Glass prints are made using a similar process, but the company chooses to keep the slices stuck to the surface they were printed on. The resulting product appears frozen in mid-air.
As with many 3D printed objects, a Looking Glass print starts its life as a 3D file, a model. But instead of being printed layer by layer, the model is printed slice per slice on 0.3mm thick lucite sheets using an inkjet printer. But simply stacking those sheets wouldn’t give you a Looking Glass print. Light will refract as it passes through the air between the sheets and as you stack more slices the image only becomes blurred. To counteract this, Haddock Inventions pump silicon oil to the stack of slices to reduce the refraction.
The main advantage of Looking Glass over 3D printing is that it takes less than an hour to make a print, whereas it would take considerably longer with a 3D printer. Another perk of Looking Glass that 3D printed objects don’t have is the one I mentioned earlier: regardless of the size and height of the object you’re printing, it will remain frozen and fixed. In contrast, certain objects – whether because they’re too large or have a high center of mass – need to be 3D printed as separate parts then assembled afterwards.
You can order a Looking Glass print right now for $100 (USD), but why would you want one? Speaking with Fast Co. Design, Shawn Frayne of Haddock Inventions claims that “Purely visually, I think Looking Glass sort of crushes–it will crush–3-D object printing.” That’s debatable, to say the least.
If they can make it so you can remove and replace slices at will, Looking Glass prints may be helpful to people who need its form factor. Perhaps then it can be used to make really useful things like a 3D CT scan, a tangible multilevel architectural blueprint, a 3D exploded diagram of the parts of an object and other things that people would want to zoom in and zoom out of. As it is, Looking Glass is an interesting medium of expression and preservation – a hybrid of a picture and a figurine.
[via Looking Glass Factory via Fast Co. Design]
Last night in Toronto, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei presented a new version of his incredible Forever Bicycles installation. As the centerpiece of this year’s Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the all-night contemporary art event that takes over city streets, 3,144 bicycles, the most Weiwei has used of this work to date, were stacked 100 feet in length and 30 feet in height and depth in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square. This was the first time the installation has been displayed in an open air, public space. Since this was a night-time festival, it was spectacularly lit up with pink and blue lights.
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The world goes by in a blur, but somehow, we keep our composure in the middle of it. This week’s Shooting Challenge participants celebrate that. And race cars. Plenty of race cars.
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Ever scoffed over a piece of modern art, and thought you could make it and make it better? Photographer Sarah Anne Ward took that thought in the most delicious direction, turning eight iconic examples of modern art into desserts.
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When artist Olly Moss first posted images of his video game-themed dinnerware, the Internet exploded with so much want. If you’re one of those people who coveted his geeky take on the Willow pattern, you’re in luck. The plates are on sale, but only for a very short time.
In case this is the first time you’ve heard of these plates, they look like something your grandparents would use from afar. But if you look closer you’ll see that the plates feature scenes from either Pokémon or The Legend of Zelda.
You can order the 8-bit Willow Plates from Olly Moss’ online shop for $60 (USD) each or $200 for four plates. But they’ll only be on sale until tomorrow (10/7/13 at 12pm GMT) so act quickly.
[via it8bit]
Anyone with a ticking heart and an Instagram account takes too many pictures of their newborn. It’s okay to be proud! It’s okay to coo and adore and love and snap photos of your baby! But at a certain point, probably past the 700 mark, those pictures become variations of the same damn thing. Helpless baby lying on bed. Helpless baby lying on bed with mouth open. With arms raised. Crying. You get the point.
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Need some beautiful things to gaze upon at the end of a long week? How about photos of the restoration of an 138-year-old Brooklyn bank? Or a lighting pavilion that looks like it’s alive? Or a massive Lego calendar that syncs with your smartphone? These things and more wonders from the worlds of design, art, and architecture are the most beautiful items of the week.
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I always knew that C-3PO was easily broken. I mean he is all prissy and fidgety and worrying all of the time, but I never figured that R2 would be the more fragile of the pair. This R2-D2 glass sculpture looks like it will break just by you looking at it.
He is awesome, but sooooo delicate. Even the Jawas would stay away from this one. There is very little info about it, but this is an impressive bit of geek art constructed from a very fragile material.
For some reason (maybe because I am missing Breaking Bad already) I want to see Walt and Jesse build a blue meth version.
[via Craziest Gadgets]
Last week a train twinkling with LED lights chugged into Oakland’s 16th Street Station, its final destination on a 3,000 mile, ten-city whistle stop art happening orchestrated by Doug Aitken called Station to Station
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
