Hasta La Gadget!

This awesome sunscreen looks like it would be at home in deep space, but it’s actually designed for the arts district in Dallas, Texas. The sculpture/sunscreen was commissioned by the police to protect us from brain scans by aliens (NOT!).

Actually, it was designed by REX Architecture as a proposed way to prevent harsh reflected light from bouncing off a highly reflective building into a neighboring sculpture center. The 400-foot-tall installation would generate different designs throughout the year. The shields are designed to open and close like flowers to automatically block sunlight coming in at different angles. Mr. Burns would have been proud.

The sun’s movements were mapped, allowing the team to sculpt SURYA perfectly. Personally, I think they should have included some solar panels in their design so they could harness the Sun’s energy at the same time. That would have been even better.

[via designboom]

If cars were made of metal that looked like lace, the road would be a classier place. Croatian metal shop MG Vrbanus had three artists modify this 1970 Volkswagen Beetle and that is just what they did. This car took 3,500 hours of work, 5,000 Swarovski crystals and hundreds of pounds of wrought iron and gold leaf. The end result? Well, you’ll probably love it or hate it.

They began by sketching a design on the sheet metal body, then they removed it, section by section, and replaced it with designs inspired by metal fencing. The best part is that the see-through body shows the machinery underneath. These guys were so precise that they were able to fit the original windows back into place without any trouble. Now, that is impressive.

I would love to see this thing driving down the street.

You can check out more images of the wrought iron VW bug here.

[via visual news via Neatorama]

UK-based artist Hetain Patel’s first car was a 1988 Ford Fiesta that was handed down from his father. In honor of his first set of wheels, this collaboration with his father and brother turns a similar vehicle into a Transformer-like robot that is far more than meets the eye.

The car is a symbol. As he says, “Manufactured in England, this car stands as a symbol of working class Britain, a native body, albeit here a car body.” And of course, he was inspired by the Transformers, seeing this art piece as a symbol of empowerment:

Another significant influence for me and this work are Transformers, an American film and toy franchise since 1984, and a widely recognisable pop culture reference that reaches far back in Hetain’s memory. In this new sculpture, Transformers have been made manifest, physically, in a literal transformation of a Ford Fiesta car into a large-scale squatting human-like figure. For me, these ‘robots in disguise’ (as per the cartoon’s theme tune) stand as a metaphor for the other, in a fantasy world where they can transform out of a marginal position into one of empowerment.

Forget all the fancy talk of art and empowerment and all the rest. This piece of art is just plain awesome and stands on it’s own. No pun intended. It shows what a father, son, brother trio of geeks can accomplish.

[via Make:]

If you hang around these parts much you know that there are a few topics we are particularly enamored with. We like our LEGOs, cosplay, video game stuff, and Cthulhu. I’d go so far as to say Cthulhu is probably one of the most covered topics here. Typically, the beast is seen in scary form, but on occasion it’s rather cutesy.

In fact, the last time we talked about a cute Cthulhu it was a massive plush toy. We also had our brains melted by a LEGO Cthulhu combining two of our favorite topics into one. Now, artist Cassia Harries has a sculpted what may be the cutest Cthulhu yet.

In this creation, Cthulhu looks like a little potbellied baby. The sculpture was made by hand and was cast from resin and then hand-painted giving it the look of the garden gnome. The sculpture is about three inches-tall and the artist plans to sell these little sculptures soon. I don’t know how much it cost, but I could definitely see this standing guard in my garden. If I had a garden.

[via io9 via Nerd Approved]

This lion sculpture is made entirely out of old shredded tires by artist Yong Ho Ji and was spotted by Redditor m1keyth while at the Beyond Limits sculpture expo in Chatsworth, UK. All I can say is that lions look awesome made from tires. I’d love to see a dragon now too.

Who knew that tire art could look this good? We should be making tire sculptures everywhere just to stop them from going to the landfills. At least we know that if this lion ever comes to life, it is going to be able to get a firm grip on you with its claws, even in the rain.

I would hate to be the guy who has to Armor All this sucker. That would be an all day job.

You can check out numerous other awesome tire sculptures over on Yong Ho Ji’s website.

[via Geekologie]