swine! before pearls. silk purse.

pairs [img]

2012-01-19T08:28:00.001+11:00

pairs [img]

2011-10-21T07:58:00.002+11:00

review on wmmna

photo's from here

pairs [img]

2011-10-03T00:02:00.000+11:00

pairs [img]

2011-10-02T00:01:00.001+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-10-01T23:59:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-09-30T23:48:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-09-02T18:46:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-08-30T18:44:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-08-28T18:36:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-08-26T18:34:00.001+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-08-24T18:32:00.000+10:00

Raymond Lemstra, illustrator

2011-08-23T19:04:00.000+10:00

Raymond Lemstra is getting a lot of online love right now, with a curious and engaging mix of japanese, anthropological, botanical illustration styles.

His 'tekening' skills lend a degree of weight to his more hip subjects that encourages further viewings. Other images show further thinking beyond just pretty pictures, his bloated and disfigured pop culture heads, like Tintin/'Kuifje' below reduce icons to their minimal identifying features, while disguising their humanity.
His works make me want to get out and draw things.

raymondlemstra.nl

pairs [img]

2011-08-22T18:30:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-08-20T13:10:00.003+10:00

Grand Palais, Paris, 1909 airshow and 2008 richard serra artwork, 99 years apart.

360 degree studio photo

2011-08-20T12:43:00.004+10:00

moved in some better storage shelves to the studio and now have heaps of extra floor space. i pulled out the 360 degree video lens for my little micro video camera, and wanted to see what the photo's look like. pretty cool!

At the moment i should be working on my entry for fringe furniture,due mid septemebre, but it'sa nice day and i'd rather ride into the city and get coffee. maybe tonight i'll go down and crunch out some concrete mould designs

pairs [img]

2011-08-14T23:17:00.000+10:00

best stanced classic car ever?

2011-07-22T01:19:00.004+10:00

As a teenager i worked weekends in a marine chandlery with a middle aged man who had cashed in his life insurance when he turned 18 and used the money to buy a BMW 2002 which he soon rolled into a ditch at speed while hooning with some mates, got out, rocked it back onto its wheels and drove it, dented roof and all for several more years. This is obviously not that car...

Almost at the top of my list of old cars i'd like to own,(just after the volvo p1800) pretty much every single part is still available new, and they have a great reputation as a 'drivers' car.

pairs [img]

2011-07-05T11:15:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-07-04T11:14:00.003+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-06-30T16:36:00.000+10:00

ghetto furniture mods..

2011-06-26T22:02:00.006+10:00

moved a tonne of stuff around in my studio on the weekend and managed to get lots more usable space. Also combined two hard rubbish finds into a cool little drawer set, silverbirch logs and an ikea tallboy with broken handles. will be showing my new furniture range at milan next year oh yeah~

pairs [img]

2011-06-25T16:25:00.003+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-05-30T21:46:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-05-29T21:44:00.002+10:00

dudes with quiffs make things: 2

2011-05-23T10:46:00.002+10:00

Matt from 'Machine' bangs out some impressive classic modded bikes firmly in the hand made hot rod tradition.

Pipeburn has a little interview with him on building bikes, being an architect and living in the country here.

dudes with quiffs make things

2011-05-22T02:21:00.001+10:00

Rancho Deluxe from Daniel De Silva on Vimeo.

pairs [img]

2011-05-06T10:21:00.000+10:00

replacing saddle rails on an OG san marco concor

2011-05-05T10:45:00.005+10:00

After i got back from one of Angry's There Will Be Dirt Rides I was washing my bike when i noticed that i had snapped one of my saddle rails. I was pretty fond of this concor so i decided to try to replace the rails rather then bin the whole lot.

Originally i tried to find a damaged concor to take the rails from, but that proved hard, so i went through my box of bits and found a crappy selle italia saddle that had a similar length rail. Sawn in half through the foam, it proved easy to remove the rails. unfortunately they didn't seem to fit straight into the saddle like i hoped.

Here is most of the things you would need to do this like i did. plus one large bench vice...

The point of the V was wider then the slot in the nose of the saddle, so it was compressed in the vise till it fitted in as far as possible. Then the slot in the nose was further drilled/dremeled deeper and a little wider with a bit the same size as the saddle rail. The aim of drilling it deeper is to enable more fore/aft movement of the rails so they can be slid into the rear locating holes. I am guessing I drilled about 4mm more depth, but it would be dependent on what rails you were using.
It would be helpful at this stage to mark all three ends with graded lines, perhaps 5, one every millimeter. This would assist in making sure that each end is seated deeply and correctly.
The point of the V is inserted into the nose, and pushed in using the seatpost as handle. Then wrap a cloth around the nose of the saddle, remove the seatpost and clamp the saddle in the vice so that you can flex the seat backwards and push the rail tips into the locating holes. this will be quite difficult and the hammer is useful to hit things with, but it won't help you get the rail in so just use it to relieve stress...

Once the rails are all located, put the seatpost back on and use it to slide the rails all the way to the back of the locating holes. This is where having mm markings would be useful.

The next step is to peel back the leather strip at the nose, and mark then drill a hole just past where you think the V of the saddle rail ends. A bolt inserted here will lock the rails in position and hopefully prevent them from popping out.

After drilling a hole slightly smaller then the bolt, it simply screws into the plastic, then the leather is superglued back over the bolt head and into the seat.
at this stage it's pretty much done. If there is some side to side movement in the nose of the saddle due to the slot being a little too wide, then some 5 minute epoxy can be mixed and dribbled in to lock it in place.
All up, probably about 1 1/2 hours of drilling and wiggling and hitting things.

pairs [img]

2011-05-05T10:19:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-05-04T16:15:00.000+10:00

pairs [img]

2011-05-03T10:13:00.002+10:00

bike storage solutions

2011-01-09T16:30:00.003+11:00

ingredients:

- 4 x 2.1 m lengths hardwood

- 1 x 1m hardwood

- some kind of rectangular base, i used a bbq table from the naturestrip

- woodscrews

- varnish or oil

- hanging hooks

- pva glue

- drill, saw, screwdriver

- time

the hooks are spaced 30cms apart, and 15cms from each end, and could possibly go a little closer together, though there may be pedal interference resulting.

pairs [img]

2011-01-09T16:09:00.003+11:00

pairs [img]

2010-12-30T21:04:00.005+11:00

pairs [img]

2010-12-29T20:58:00.001+11:00

pairs [img]

2010-12-28T20:55:00.001+11:00

pairs [img]

2010-12-27T20:52:00.002+11:00

RIH lives

2010-10-10T17:11:00.004+11:00

finally got the RIH bike built up and rode it down over to the Westside to visit the Fringe Furniture exhibition. The exhibition was average, it's great to make furniture from floorboards and cardboard, but they don't all have to look like they're made from floorboards/cardboard.

But the bike was great- smooth, quick and twitchy. It's always funny how easily the front wheel lifts up on acceleration from a standstill.

Four years ago if you had told me i would be riding a brakeless track bike on the street i would have said it would never happen, but I've gradually come around to the idea, this is the first bike I've had that hasn't had brakes, but it's no big deal anymore.

The cinelli jelly bar tape is more grippy then cloth tape, but could do with more padding in the drops, gloves will be a must for long rides. The suede concor saddle is also much more grippy then my other leather concor, which is bad for riding in jeans, which tend to get caught on the seat. Anyway, for long sunday rides and lunches in the sun, this bike is pretty perfect.

Dirty Deeds Cyclocross round 3

2010-09-21T20:17:00.003+10:00

made a skateboard

2010-09-21T19:52:00.005+10:00

made a skateboard over a couple of days, with a large piece of curved vintage ply from the front of a wardrobe. I didn't even realise the veneer was bookmatched until I sanded it down after cutting out the deck. Finished with shellac and a matte black stencil. black egg wheels, bearings and trucks from http://www.solitaryarts.com/

It's hard to take a good picture of it, but it looks like a proper sidewalk surfer.

new bike day

2010-07-07T00:40:00.004+10:00

last Sunday was another new (old) bike day.

I bought a pre-loved RIH track bike, built in Amsterdam many years ago. RIH was one of the top framebuilders in the Netherlands, named after a horse in a novel that was popular in the 1920's. They still exist today and maintain a database of all the bikes they ever built, so i can find out what year and who it was made for and with what materials, via the stamped code on the headtube.

They all have a beautiful brass headtube badge painted in white and blue, all the blue has disappeared off mine, but most of the white (negative of the writing) remains.

The frame was repaired by Paconi, with the downtube replaced due to a melbourne courier named Pip riding it into a car door.

another project

2010-06-25T00:22:00.006+10:00

purchased this 1981 xs250 for a bargain amount of cash off a fellow fixed gear rider who is going overseas and ran out of time to finish it. Not quite sure at the moment which aesthetic direction I will take it in, he was building it as a clip-on equipped cafe racer, but i think a street tracker style bike might be more suited to it's design.

The bike came in a couple of boxes, and I've been gradually piecing it back together over the last month in my studio space. Now that it's partially back together decisions need to be made before i order parts from the USA.

The 'posh sr400' seat that came with it will require an aluminium base to fit to the frame rails. even then, the positioning and angle will not be optimal, and so i am

tending away from using it on this bike. The original seat frame loop gets in the way of most replacement seats, so it may have to be removed and replaced with an angled tail loop, despite the nice new powdercoat it had been painted in.

Despite Wrenchmonkees bikes being perhaps a little too popular at the moment, they have a lot of great ideas of how to create good looking custom bikes without a lot of expensive or complicated modification. Their no.6 seems to be fairly similar to the direction that I want to take, so I will keep referring back to it.

I won't have the giant tyres, spoked wheels and shiny tank. Decisions which have already been made for me by the previous owner due to angle grinder use include the need for rearsets, stock seat not fitting, no battery box or rear fender.

But maybe one day it will look something like this...

fractured

2010-06-22T12:16:00.002+10:00

(16) as per discussion, stockings, heels and compound fractures

follow friday #1

2010-03-19T07:10:00.001+11:00

So, Google Reader tells me I read 4,595 blog posts in the last 30 days, and it is true that I spend a lot of time flicking through them.

I follow 211 blogs, some of them extremely active, and others not. I thought it might be interesting to group some of the better/more esoteric/ ones into themes and share them. Focusing more on ones which produce their own content rather then just reblogging ironic mugs. I make no claim that any of these are definitive sources of all that is good, but that's not why i read blogs anyway, each of them allows a little glimpse into someone else's interesting mind.

Design Blogs:

the design files

Lucy Feagins writes a melbourne/australian-centric blog that remains aware of worldwide trends while supporting local design companies and creatives. More recently biased towards interior decorating in a style probably more appealing to women, but still good reading

fantastic journal

cahrles Holland is an architect who writes about things that he likes. that's it. here he writes about architects designing their own bookshelves.

dinosaurs and robots

is a blog about objects, both priceless and trashy, but all exquisite.

warymeyers

are seasoned garage sale trawlers, with an overdrive of creative thoughts, and a wealth of information about the items they find.

dezeen

is one of those press-release-regurgitation blogs, but with a crisp theme and a critical eye that manages to keep the eye-candy to "quirky concept by student/small studio" on the worthwhile side.

Mona Kuhn

2010-03-19T00:54:00.000+11:00

brighten up your friday with some sleek untethered younglings courtesy of

Mona Kuhn.

Part documentary of human interactions, part glossy euro magazine spread.

wear protection

2009-12-22T02:19:00.007+11:00

pic via Fudj

ideas are gestating guys.

Stackhats are an Australian icon for young adults of my generation.

Developed in 1982 it received an Australian Design Award in 1986 and by the time national compulsory helmet laws were brought in for bicycle riders in 1990, it was the market leader in terms of style and sales.

no doubt the success of the product was due in part to the awesome name, 'Stack' is Australian slang for a (bicycle?) crash.

What i really want to see is the TRON inspired tv advert featuring Molly Meldrum and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but it seems to have been removed from youtube for copyright violations. for shame Rosebank, for shame, be proud of your past.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stackhat

To make pearls, you’ve got to eat dirt.

2009-12-17T17:46:00.006+11:00

To make pearls, you’ve got to eat dirt. - Frank Chimero

Rode out to Yarra Glen and back, in October. finally got the out-of-date disposable camera developed. good times. no way i would do this in summer however, it was an extremely difficult 130kms

photo's documenting: drags

2009-12-14T18:19:00.004+11:00

drag racing in the Flemington drains on sunday afternoon. beers, boys who look like girls, girls who look like boys, Shifter Dan trying to vomit on people, people on the bike path riding past getting confused, high fives from recumbent riders.

Apologies that all the blog posts now seem to be about bike stuff. boring eh?

sometimes i show people the drawings i do

2009-12-01T20:06:00.002+11:00

I still draw a reasonable amount, just sketchy quick messy stuff. sometimes i even let people see some of it.

photo's documenting: bike polo championships

2009-11-30T17:31:00.003+11:00

Bike polo in melbourne is with no disrespect intended, a sport mainly participated in by Critical Mass attendees and folding bike enthusiasts. The rest of Australia seems to have a different (more agressive) take on it however, which made for an interesting weekend down at Flagstaff gardens. There were many many spills, elbows, mallets under wheels and kamikaze t-bone crashes. In between the heavy showers of rain on sunday, there were also a fair few spectators.

LIGHTNING BOLT!!!

2009-11-27T18:10:00.003+11:00

NAH NAH NAH NAH- NAHNAHNAHNAH

lightning bolt WAS awesome, on friday night at least, too much waiting around on thursday, cause they blew up their subwoofers, and the mix never sounded right after that. Loudest accoustic drum kit in the world, no doubt, they need the huge speaker stacks just to get the bass louder then the drums. The venue they played on thursday was a brunswick warehouse called Irenes, they set up in the small straw bale recording area, which is the size of a small living room. It was a very hot day, and it got very hot. I saw a lot of sweat. I saw a drummer wearing an animal mask made from old rags drippig with sweat, i saw a crowd of people who were dead keen on this band, and i got blinded by idiot wannabee faster louder photographers camera flashes for the whole gig.

There was a strange mix of metalheads, hipsters, and music nerds on friday night. and they played in this huge gilded plaster theatre in thornbury, which had a weird italian wedding/50's dance hall vibe. No empty bike parking out the front, every pole and post had bikes locked to it for 100 metres up and down the road. I went to the toilet before they played, and when i got back an impenetrable circle had already formed around the setup on the floor. I hung out at the back taking to some people, before heading up to the back balcony where i managed to take this picture with full zoom. the crowd was a teeming mass of people clustered around the band, looking like ants swarming a donut, but the rest of the space was totally empty. the sight of two guys filling this huge space with a wave of sound was pretty special.

At neither of the gigs was my mind really blown, however, listening to the Earthly Delights album now, i get really really excited, which is strange as i never really expected this band to 'grow' on me more, but that seems to have been what happened

Serenissima

2009-11-18T02:02:00.006+11:00

I read about the Miss Rockaway Armada in 2007 on the fecal-face website, a venture run in 2006 and 2007 where a group of people built large unpowered rafts from salvaged materials and floated on them down the Mississippi river in a kind of Huck Finn meets post-Katrina dumpster diving odyssey.
The street artist Swoon further developed the concept on a number of occasions leading to the 'Swimming Cities of Serenissima' project. A handmade fleet of rafts made from reclaimed materials travelled from Slovakia to (gatecrash) the Venice Biennial across the Adriatic sea. The voyage was documented by the photographer Tod Seelie
The aesthetics of the rafts are carefully curated, and while on examination the materials are clearly junk, as a whole entity they seems much more graceful and emotive of childhood dreams and adventure stories. In particular I am reminded of two entirely separate things from my childhood, the book Junk Castle by Robert Klein, telling the story of a group of neighbourhood kids who build a giant fort from rubbish and defend it from an irksome neighbour. And the painting 'the raft of the medusa' by french artist Theodore Gericault detailing a historic shipwreck off the coast of Africa in 1816, where 147 people were set adrift on a small raft, reduced to madness and cannibalism, only 15 survived. The painting was in a flimsy paged encyclopedia which much childhood procrastination resulted in me skim reading cover to cover.
Anyway, when the ships reached Venice, it is interesting to make the comparison between them, and the city, both rickety, dilapidated, battling the sea yet picturesque and soulful.

photo's documenting: pyschocross

2009-11-16T15:08:00.003+11:00

matt in the yellow keiran hat organised one of melbourne's first cyclocross races for several years, albeit unsanctioned, unpermitted and uninsured. just like it should be. there was a mix of mtb trails and tarmac, with liberal dashes of mud, running up hills, beers, blood and cowbell.

old things i like the look of...

2009-11-12T20:30:00.006+11:00

Persol sunnies

Bridgestone 350 GTO
Iain Oughtred's Eun na mara

I guess you can begin to see some trend emerging...

photo's documenting

2009-11-11T16:15:00.006+11:00

Star Wars Uncut scene #421

2009-11-09T10:20:00.001+11:00

Star Wars Uncut - Scene 421 from Liam Prescott on Vimeo.

well, i finished the clip. It's a little lame, not enough movement, but i just wanted to get something in, and couldn't film and shadow puppet at the same time. Plus i had this weird issue exporting from flash into .mov files, where the 15 second clip kept ending up being over a minute in length, bit exported fine as a .swf file. i ended up chopping it down in imovie, hence the jerky x-wing movement. luckily 15 seconds is too short a time to mess it up too severely.

FIXUP LOOKSHARP VIDEO

2009-11-08T19:18:00.001+11:00

Fix Up Look Sharp Alleycat from Liam Prescott on Vimeo.

helmetcam via eleanor @ helmetsarehot.blogspot.com/

music is the best song ever, GOD - My Pal, and something a bit more cruisy and less aggressive, Catcall - Bad move

Shadow-mation.

2009-10-17T00:13:00.006+11:00

Here's two of the parts from the 15 second sequence i'm animating for the Star Wars Uncut fan-sourced video project. It's based around the Vimeo video sharing website. The movie SW: A New Hope has been split into hundreds of 15 second segments, with three people making separate reinterpretations of each of those segments. The best ones will be used into a mashup of the movie.

I've split the scene into five segments which will be animated with simple shadow puppet techniques and filmed in real time. Colour will be added by the use of cellophane panels. Obviously the difficult part is transferring the 3D depth into the 2D shadow format, without losing visual interest.

I've never tried this technique before, but it seems fairly simple. Fingers crossed

I wouldn't say I'm a star wars fan, I slept through some of the movies, but I like the fan-sourced aspect, and I respect the place the movie holds in pop culture so i thought it would be fun to be involved.

Hopefully my segment is better then the other two submitted and is selected for the final cut.

I also assembled a quick and cheerful zine of some sketches I had, and some images run through the Poladroid program. It's kind of a physical Tumblr blog I guess.

Here's some sample pages. I have a properly working colour printer cartridge for the first time in probably a year.

Fix Up-Look Sharp, an alleycat odyssey

2009-10-09T18:19:00.007+11:00

Sunday Oct the 4th went perfectly, here's some kind of inadequate rundown.

Ryan and I had a couple of aims with the Look Sharp event.

I wanted to make the checkpoints feel like an exploration, so some of them were in quite strange places.

We wanted to make the event a friendly one, where anyone could turn up and have fun. We wanted it to be memorable and adventurous and the best we could make it.

On the Saturday we knew the weather was going to be great, and we knew that 90 people had said they would turn up on the facebook page. We did the run through on the day, set up the unmanned checkpoints with stamps tied in visible spots, were running late to get to the start. Got there, and were amazed to find a mass of riders waiting for us. About 100, and even some girls amongst em

The course we'd laid out was 22km via the shortest route, and challenging, (we didn't realise how challenging till we ran out of time to ride it all before the start!) with a great combination of straight streets and city grids, hills and difficult checks.

some of the checkpoints required

-entering a storm water drain on the banks of the yarra,

-climbing 5 storeys of stairs to an abandoned store room in the GPO

-finding a fire hydrant in the middle of the melbourne uni underground car park

-riding to the top of a 7 storey car park and having a team photo taken

-riding down a laneway so narrow people are unable to pass

I could write up who won, and how the race went, but i didn't ride it so it wouldn't be very interesting. I spent the whole time riding round the city checking the checkpoints, gathering prizes, getting beer and generally making sure everything was going ok. for once it all turned out great.

We got much positive feedback, but in particular I liked this one, it seems to indicate we succeeded in just making a fun day.

Laura said:

As this was my first allycat, actually the first time I have done a group sporting activity (if it's ok to call it that) that didn't involve one parent driving me to I'd have to say nothing has made me more happy with myself. I can't believe how much fun it was and the massive disregard to all road rules everyone had.

Thanks for organising it all and the to the guy at knog who actually convinced my housemate and I to do it. We'll be there again and again. I just need to find a friend for the halloween ride now..

Thanks to all the sponsors who supported us:

Bianchi, San Marco, Carhartt, Knog, Shifter Bikes, Brisbane Outdoor Gear, Human Powered Cycles, Genovese Coffee n' Cranky Sundays/hans dc

Also thanks to the checkpoint volunteers, photographers, people who helped out, lent advice, spread the word and most of all, just showed up!

90 more photo's including individual team shots

Cranky Sundays Fix Up post
Helmets are Hot Fix Up post

Where and Why

Sometime in mid 2006 a bike activism related uni project encouraged me to research urban cycling.

At the time 'fixie' culture hadn't hit its straps anywhere yet, but it was well on the way. The internet was my portal to this underground obsession, in particular fixed.org.au.

I was enchanted and captured by the helmet-cam videos of one NY'er Lucas Brunelle. It opened me up to a world where traffic and city streets became a sports field where incredible feats of skill and athleticism played out.

Alleycat races are traditionally the distillation of the day of a messenger/cycle courier into a fast paced race between many checkpoints simulating the pick ups of deliveries where a manifest is marked instead of a parcel.

The races generally last for 40 minutes for the fastest riders, who tend to be experienced messengers exhibiting disregard for traffic laws, manners and normal rider ethics :).

For most participants the chase is its own reward.
The pure animal thrill of entering an intersection at top speed, against the flow of traffic, and threading through moving cars with 3 other riders on your tail is not something to be lightly enjoyed, yet not easily forgotten.

If you do it right it takes till you reach the other side of the intersection for the drivers to react, an unstartled driver is a predictable one.

Brendan sums it up best with his observations.

At its very best "weaving impossible lines and creating space from nothing" is what it's about, and never has the chestnut "it's about the journey, not the destination" been more accurate, (particularly in my case seeing as I never seem to win anything..)

smith st

2009-09-22T01:00:00.007+10:00

volvo P1800 (i spent about 4 years in love with this car) parked opposite trippy taco's , which seems to be a hub for vintage cars, and the nicest heritage listed warehouse terrace balcony I know.

Spent sunday riding through the outer northern suburbs with the cranky crew, sitting at northcote skate bowl drinking beer and learning what a sprouter was, while avoiding High Vibes street festival. Then sitting on a chilly balcony in jean cutoffs drinking utrecht friend's 25 yr old birthday port. Bring on summer

Shai Agassi notes from Alfred Deakin lectures

2009-08-19T15:00:00.000+10:00

In 2005 Shai Agassi was asked the question 'How are you going to make the world a better place by 2020?'

Agassi describes himself as an 'Imagineer', but his research and planning shows he is firmly routed in the world of practical realities.

In his quest to find how he could change the world he set a baseline, With current technology and consumers, how would a country run without oil?

He explored the then popular and promising technologies of biofuel and hydrogen before discarding them and moving to Electric Vehicles. He based his design process on the basic premise that current battery technology supporting a limited range of 120 miles (190 km), could be made more convenient then an internal combustion car, if equivalent supporting infrastructure was developed. The most inconvenient part of the mostly convenient IC automobile, is the refuelling process, 8 minutes, 50 times a year. Agassi identified this as the key area where improvement would convince people to switch for their own benefit. By developing a business model where homes and workplaces were fitted with recharging points, the only time a user of a Better Place integrated car will need to visit a service station is when making a long trip. Robotic battery switch technology demonstrated in Japan allows a 40 second automated changeover of batteries, without leaving the vehicle. It is assumed the average user would swap the battery 10 to 15 times per year.

The projected price for a Better Place EV is around $20,000 US. Government subsidies to purchasers in many countries would drop this price by up to 25 percent. batteries will be rented as a utility, rather then a product, with the user paying for power used.

Better Place will not build the EV's themselves, instead selling their technology to traditional vehicle manufacturers. Renault has produced their first prototype working with this system, of which 350,000 will be built. The second generation vehicle will build on that with projections of one million sales over 5 years.

The life of a battery pack is expected to be 400,000kms. This will translate to users paying 5 US cents per km initially, offering equivalent value to 60cent per litre fuel. By 2020, the supporting infrastructure will have been offset, and mileage costs will equate to 1.5 cents per km. (as to whether any business would actually choose to reduce their profits in this way, time will tell)

Agassi envisions cars sold like mobile phones on plans, with 6 to 7 year contracts with a set electricity price and little upfront costs. He believes an 8 year changeover time is inevitable, stating that industry will tip based on expectation, not delivery, and that once a trend emerges it will be self fulfilling.

Apparently 66% of petrol usage is by 20% of users- long distance commuters, and power users who would probably be the first to switch to a cheaper alternative.

There is a market for 1 billion batteries and a country like Australia which has the natural resources to produce and manufacture them could become the next Saudi Arabia (enviable, no?)

Using EV's would reduce 10% of our carbon emissions, and a further 10% by hooking into the grid and using the power in the batteries during times of peak demand to reduce the need for old power stations to come online. 50,000 cars plugged into the grid would provide 1 gigawatt of on demand power.

all notes from Shai Agassi lecture at the Alfred Deakin lecture series, data is as i wrote on the day, and not necessarily 100% accurate, allowing for transcribing errors. EV= electric vehicle, IC = internal combustion/petrol engine

finger on the pulse

2009-08-12T15:35:00.005+10:00

I finally got around to using the Poladroid program, it's kind of nice, not so much in the tacky visual appearance of the software, but in the simplicity and lack of options. it's also quicker then opening photoshop to do batch resizing of 3 or 4 photo's.

future Connery aint pretty

2009-07-27T02:17:00.002+10:00

I've been staring at this image for five minutes, trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing - 'Nevolution' reviews the Australian Poster Annual Competition

I had a similar reaction the first time i saw the source image several months ago, never has an image more aptly fit the car crash description, horrible, but hard to look away.

i'm working on writing up my Better Place lecture notes, but it's hard work.

mmm. bikes

2009-07-26T23:51:00.004+10:00

So there's a little debate as to whether pictures of girls draped on bicycles enhance the perception of some kind of 'bicycle blokes club' but they sure are nice to look at. i love bikes. http://www.fyxomatosis.com/

cast-offs and cutaways...

2009-07-23T10:03:00.000+10:00

Cast removal and x-rays etc is what is happening right now... exxcitement.

3 1/2 months is soooo long. i think i've had about 5 new casts in that time, and it only takes a couple of days for them to get dirty. I look forward to scrubbing my arm with a brush. dirty smelly arm

Design of the Times lecture notes

2009-07-21T21:23:00.005+10:00

here's my lecture notes for the talk Liane Rossler gave at ACCA on Monday night. ^^^

Rossler is one of the founding members of the company Dinosaur Designs, one of the best examples of an Australian design or craft business progressing from a small craft hobby, to international fame and fortune, without compromising key principles or product. Initially the business made 'funky' resin jewellery that they sold in markets, their current range incorporates homewares as well as accessories made from a range of materials including ceramics, silver and resin. Their product range is now retailed around the world, with flagship stores in Sydney, Melbourne and New York.

The talk was billed as an opportunity "to learn more about what artists, designers and creative visionaries can do to be art of a design solution to the crisis of climate change" That seemed like a big call, so i was very interested in hearing what I could do.

I was surprised to find the talk was essentially one and a half hours of climate change slides with data from 2005, measurements in Fahrenheit, and generally well meaning stories about polar bears and penguins. The information provided about Dinosaur Designs environmental policies was less detailed then that available from their website, and the recommended measures we could take to save the planet included eating less meat, rainwater tanks and buying carbon offsets.

Undeniably true statements, but not ultimately new advice, or specifically relevant to the design profession, and that was the problem with the talk. I was disappointed...

TINADM sunday photo dump

2009-07-20T14:39:00.008+10:00

Collective of Convenience fronted to the inaugural This Is Not A Design Market, nervous, and still setting up half an hour after it opened. Or Caro and B were, i was done on time. Notice the repurposed light as clothes rack, non matching tableclothes, cardboard concertina of ill-gotten materials, and the grandmother shopping trolley B shifted most of the stall in.

Collective of Convenience logo

2009-07-20T14:04:00.004+10:00

Mostly inspired by the work of Alex Gillies , I had a desire to do a woodcut. I had done a lot of linoprints in secondary school, and the process was always enjoyable.

The Collective of Convenience seemed badly in need of some unifying design elements so it seemed a good idea to make a logo.

The theme was to be metal band logo influenced, i felt that would stand out amongst all the handwritten and type based logos of other art and craft related businesses in melbourne. The wood grain in the final print would hopefully help to temper the energy of the graphic. for online use, the print was 'shopped to make it cleaner, and easier to read.

No Word From China (1981)

2009-07-13T13:58:00.001+10:00

Over the last week i have been way to addicted to this song. No idea about the band, or anything, found the link to the video in a M+N forum thread on australian post punk and experimental music

Pel Mel - No Word From China (1981) VIDEO

I though the singer was a boy at first. apparently not. great song though

Car Hacks on Rural Australian Island

2009-07-12T23:04:00.008+10:00

Went on a camping trip to French Island, located about an hours drive from Melbourne, and accessible only by ferry. the island has very little paved road, and not a lot going for it, attraction wise. My guess is all the bonnet locks are to stop thefts of car batteries, it appeared that of the 20 or so cars at the ferry car park, the majority were long term island cars, probably used infrequently, and therefore 'borrowing' of batteries to get your car started seems likely.

some 'scenic' shots.

zus niet zusje

2009-07-12T22:49:00.003+10:00

i gave my little 'fashion camera', a olympus U'miniS to my sister before she moved to Rotterdam, because i had outgrown it. She still manages to take better pictures with it then i ever can, no matter the camera i use. damn.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mfprescott/3705542560/in/set-72157621060117847/

pretty much perfect

2009-07-03T01:30:00.002+10:00

isn't it?

on my walls

2009-06-26T00:09:00.003+10:00

...in my studio

real swine with back pieces

2009-06-23T00:28:00.002+10:00

Wim Delvoye

Sang Bleu Magazine

GG//Global Gutz

2009-06-21T02:16:00.004+10:00

Global Guts is an international urban bicycle race, run simultaneously across the globe. It's a long distance event, required to measure 21km's in length, and with 5 checkpoints. I got a puncture before the start, and was unable to ride, hence the photo's.
The winner in Melbourne was Lane, with a time of around 32 minutes (do the math). That is insanely fast, and the man is a monster rider on a fixed gear. several of the roadie riders were wheel lengths behind him, but they had brakes and gears.
The Brisbane ride was shut down by a concerted police effort. Apparently "17 police, 3 motorbikes, 2 pushbikes, a car-full, an undercover car and a paddy wagon"

Riders were cautioned for not having bicycle bells and then their tyres were let down and they were left to walk home. Sounds like my race then.

schmuck

2009-06-16T02:47:00.004+10:00

I have to admit to never having entered the RMIT gallery before, despite spending 5 years going to the University. Perhaps related to the fact that the entrance is not something you can cautiously wander into and change your mind, but instead requires a focused navigation.

The only reason I finally visited was that an old housemate Marta from my overseas jaunt, had been selected to exhibit as part of the current exhibition, a travelling display from germany.

"SCHMUCK 2009 This annual exhibition, originating in Munich and now its fiftieth year, is widely recognised as the premier exposition of international contemporary jewellery"

contemporary jewellery. what is that. Sometimes it seems a little like a trick, a test to see how far 'wearable' and 'desirable' can be pushed. Not just pushing the envelope, but also pushing the entire postal delivery system.

Suprisingly I found myself fascinated by the different forms and materials. I was expecting to find it interesting but not to this extent. I spent much longer then i would normally spend looking round (I am a person who spends more time reading the label then looking at the piece, generally speaking), and with 60 artisans works displayed there was plenty to look at. I am thinking of popping in again to have another look, as the first time was almost information overload. Even a strait-line industrial designer could find some useful inspiration here. No pictures, because you'll know straight away if this is something you want to visit.

The exhibition runs till the 18th of July.

here's another (better) review on the Melbourne Jeweller blog, with pictures in following posts

Mid-Century Modernist

2009-06-10T02:51:00.003+10:00

Panasonic Radness!, originally uploaded by caco-wixtle.

The mid century modernist blog consistently has the best looking home furnishings ever. they don't update much but when they do, pure gold.
http://www.midcenturymodernist.com/

run by Steven Coles, graphic designer and writer, beaming out of San Fran to the internet, the website features designs created and produced from 1945 to 1970, with a special eye for patina, warmth and quality.
the flickr photopool is also pretty cool

CTCV

2009-06-10T02:18:00.005+10:00

I noticed a couple of months ago that all the 'throwups' (see i know the words)

on my local train station were written over with the tag CTCV, and there are about 30 of these pieces, each 2 to 3 metres in length, so it would take a determined effort to cover every one.

did some googling and discovered that CTCV is believed to stand for

'Cops That Catch Vandals'. Some kind of crack guerilla team of police and transport police working the morally murky depths. end justifying the means and all that. Whether there really is such a taskforce, and i find it hard to believe, the tags spread out all round the city, from moorabin out to footscray and even further.

here's my delicious links for the subject CTCV

shipshape

2009-06-03T14:55:00.007+10:00

I have recently become more and more drawn towards waterborne craft once again. Perhaps logically enough, winter seems to have this effect on me, prompting me to remember summers spent sailing on lakes. or something. I also remember being freezing cold on boats, so maybe it's more to do with that. Cold and happy though.

I have long term boating goals involving 50ft yachts and europe and canals,

An original dutch 'tjalk' or sailing barge would be my preferred ride as in this picture taken by my sister in Rotterdam, but I'd settle for a giant shoal draft sharpie with tabernacle masts for clearing low bridges.

But as i am many tens of thousands of dollars away from that option, I started looking for something a little closer to home, and discovered Skin-on-Frame Kayaks, which are replicas of arctic circle seal hunting kayaks, but covered in modern ballistic nylon or PVC.

Yostwerks provided me with free plans for a multitude of craft, from which the 15ft Sea Tour looks the best suited for cartopping and use on rivers and port phillip bay. Total cost is estimated at $200, but i will try to cut some corners. weight of the finished craft will be 13kg which is very light.

Winter Project yay!

broken wrist - dumbs not dead

2009-05-03T23:45:00.001+10:00

broke my wrist bombing through the drains on the melburn - roobaix, my writing wrist thankyou very much.

3 nights in hospital eating toast which came in paper bags.

and a cast up past my elbow., went home and bought an xbox and spent the next two days playing Halo3, seemed to rehabilitate me somewhat.

brrrp brrpp brrm!

2009-05-03T19:30:00.004+10:00

my brother fixing his bike

knucklebuster

http://yimmyayo.tumblr.com/

Rumi sport 125

Russian bikie gangs - leigh ledare

wassup

2009-04-12T01:05:00.001+10:00

I've been pretty lax with this document. not that i think anyone reads it, but it's a good record of what i'm supposed to be doing. I've got some quality posts in the folder, but i'm too lazy to finish them off, so pre-work ramblings will have to do.

Took my beard brooches out into the world for the first time last saturday, for Craft Victoria's craft hatch, I volunteered myself to keep Brittany company, and sidejacked her table. Interesting experience, I didn't sell any, spent much time watching Charlton Heston driving through the streets of NY in a convertible in Omega Man on a laptop (it was in a librar

y with an extensive dvd collection), and probably not enough time starting discussions with casual shoppers. It was interesting to see that when people knew they were made from vinyl

records, they were much more interested. Like always, it's the story that sells these items. spiel to sell.

pics of stall, and products. finally got the rubber stamps cast. looks diy, which was kind of the aim. works pretty well, I draw in plasticine then cast in high temp liquid latex to create a male stamp to print with.

I've started enquiring into possible internships with companies i am interested in. Most haven't said no straight out, but folios are required, and mine needs a few weeks of fine tuning..

I'm thinking of making a stool and light for the launch pad competition.
Entries close first of may, and they accept up to three items from each designer. I will refine some stuff i did for my grad project, I have been thinking of ways to make them better, and now i have a decent camera i can snap some good photo's.
State of Design is coming up soon, they are running a number of things i will try and remember to get involved in, they're looking for various volunteers at the moment. Also, Designboom is running one of their Designmarts. as part of DesignMadeTrade at the old exhibition centre. There was one in Sydney last year which i was planning to try to get into. I will enter my beardbrooches and modified mugs, and see if they want them. DesignMadeTrade is an interesting event, really nicely designed, great logo and bags, the booths were made from cardboard construction, and were recycled after the exhibition, unfortunately, it felt a little empty, there was a huge amount of space available, and a decent amount of local designers i was familiar with, but not a lot of visitors.
from memory i visited on an industry day, and i can only imagine that most local design industry professionals would already have been aware of most of the designers there, and not felt the need to visit. Thus the Designmart will be a very good addition to the mix, with it's range of international designers selling products direct. It may also engender a shift in focus, and perhaps more direct sales by other stallholders as well, in order to compete.
Most stallholders were setup as showcases, rather then shops last year, and this may change, or perhaps we will see showcases during the industry days, that change to shops on the public days.

Lightcycle is also running again this year, I entered it a couple of years ago, with a knitted fluorescent bulb cover, that I though was pretty good, but didn't win anything. Unfortunately the wool i used had a small proportion of synthetic material that wasn't labelled, so it wasn't as heat resistant as it should have been... I'll make something less crafty, and more designery this time. though as one of the main aims was to be environmentally friendly, i'm pretty sure my design was superior to 90% of the other entries, being totally biodegradeable, and not requiring large scale industrial processes, as well as being upscaleable for mass production.

In closing, here's a new Bouroullec Bros. product video for Vitra, showing their visualisation process for their Vegetal chair in an interesting flash progression. I can see similarities with the way i work, sketching and prototyping, and we are interested in the same sorts of ideas. they're using fractals? to create the seat of a chair, and i am planning to use fractal patterns to make the support structure for a stool. At first from the description given on the blog i got the link from, i thought they were actually growing plants into the chair shape, but it is a fair bit more simple then that, just another designer lawn chair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsmwRbC9NEU

and here's the spider i found behind my clock when i changed back from daylight savings last week. i left him there to eat insects.

new camera

2009-03-22T23:32:00.007+11:00

I bought a nice new digital camera last week. it does really decent macro photography, so i can take product photo's, and it is also fairly small, so i can carry it around in a bag. I'd been messing around with film camera's, but the nikon SLR and the Yashica Rangefinder, though they take nice pictures, weigh a ton. I was in a couple of situations where i wished i had a decent camera on me; i was standing on the kerb when a car rolled onto its roof right in front of me. after i'd helped the driver out, i really just wanted to take a picture of the upside down car on the suburban back street, things like that don't happen every day.

I got a Canon G10 compact, which was the sweet spot where price, size and quality met.
It also helps that it has chunky 80's black nugget styling...
here's some images i snapped with it, ones from the trackolympics alleycat on friday night, it ended at Queen Victoria markets, The others are from around the flemington drains, after work i went to my studio, and decided to go out and take some photo's, but forgot that it's not light yet at 6am anymore,

the Oil Spill

2009-02-06T10:48:00.004+11:00

one of my family members found this epic narrative my brother must have written in prep. note the use of apple IIe for the graphics and text, and the grim subject matter.
it reminded me that in grade three i wrote a short story about a dead body found on the side of a cliff.
all of the students stories were put in a the classrooms library, so that everyone could take them home and read them, and mine was very popular, until it 'was removed from circulation.'
i never got it back unfortunately.

hells bells alleycat

2009-02-05T23:14:00.002+11:00

hells bells

on the friday after three days of 43 degrees heat in melbourne, there was an alleycat.
alleycats are urban bike races that are a hybrid of scavenger hunts and inner city orienteering. bicycle couriers tend to have the upper hand, but they're open to all comers. i snapped a brief video of the first 10 minutes or so. soundtrack is poison dart, by the bug.

hells bells youtube

john britten

2009-01-30T01:38:00.002+11:00

I came across this documentary about John Britten, a modern day NZ legend, who had a unnatural talent for design, and management, that any ID student could learn a lot from. (One of his heroes was another NZ'er Burt Monro, who of course had a movie recently made about him, but, it seems like Britten far surpasses him in every way.)
Britten - Backyard Visionary
the doco, made in 1993 features a wealth of patterned woolen jumpers. It opens with details about his past creations, including a barn conversion made from reclaimed and recycled materials, (which only serves to remind both how forward thinking he was, and how self-congradulatory we can be, with architects still acting like material reuse is a radical step forward towards total enironmental sustainability.)
and details the process of building his second bike, from start- a real life wireframe model built by hand in his garage with a hot glue gun,
to finish - with a stressed engine frame-less chassis, and fork wheels and fairing/body laid up from single strands of carbon fibre.
As a primer on hard work and work flow techniques, it's actually quite educational, and the way he manages to involve such a qualified team of volunteers, and keep the project on track, is admirable, and why i think he's a much more inspiring 'backyard inventor' then Burt Munro.

if you don't have time for the 40+ minute documentary, there's a different short 7 minute film on youtube, that covers some of the same area.

Thursday Island photo's from the 1950's on flickr.

2009-01-29T20:25:00.004+11:00

photos taken by Harry M Hyndman between 1957 and 1960, while living on Thursday Island, and travelling in the Torres Strait.

i'm feeling a connection, in the solid heat that melbourne is experiencing at the moment, 3 or 4 days over 40 degrees, reaching 45 at one point, lead to beach dreams. island getaway, crayfish hunts and pearling luggers.

illustration

2009-01-09T23:35:00.004+11:00

Antti Valta is one of the awesome creative people i lived with in Utrecht a couple of years ago, He seemed to get a lot more work done then i ever did, very good at knuckling down. i think it might be the glasses...
He's just launched his website http://anttivalta.com/ and i thought i'd show you some of his work.Cover and spreads from a brochure promoting Erasmus exchange program for students.University of Helsinki, International Student Mobility Services 2008

The king of Sweden and the president of Finland having a birthday party. Illustration for an article 'Finland 90 Years'.ARVO-Magazine 9/2007

some plans

2009-01-04T00:27:00.004+11:00

some things i want/should do this year, not so much resolutions as guidelines

move out of home- essential, and in the process of finding a place

get studio space- i need some room to work on ideas i have. i am being considered, for a place in kensington, if i don't get it, i will find another,

build more bikes, ride track- i rode on the track on sunday. it was one of the scariest things i've done on a bike. going round on a 45 degree sloped path is unnatural, but i could see how it would also be fun. it gets easier the faster you go. at one stage i sped up, and i could feel the centrifugal force sticking me to the ground,

make more custom stuff for bikes and motorbikes- i think that this is something i would like to do, design and make small boutique runs of specialty products that are sold through the internet

record more sounds- because it's really cool what happens when you record ambient sounds and then listen back to them

make linocuts and etchings again- i enjoyed doing this years ago, i'd like to give it a shot again

get a good digital camera- i'm jealous of all the crystal clear photo's i keep seeing. digital photo's taken with a good SLR look like magic.

travel, plan to get to europe.- so extermely dependent on my finances, but definitely high on my list of things i'd like to do

enter design competitions in australia- i've got to keep my hand in, so to speak.

get out more. spend less time spectating/internetting, more time creating- i am so guilty of this. i think i spend as much time thinking of doing things, as actually doing them, and it's not very productive.

read books again- I used to be a voracious reader, but when i started uni, that gradually stopped. I think my thought processes have changed since then, and i think i might be advantaged by reading more.

year end list-- it goes like this...

2008-12-28T13:54:00.006+11:00

01 ECSR - Primary Colours.

02 Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

03 Fuck Buttons- Street Horrsing

04 Why? - Alopecia

05 Beach House - Devotion

06 Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom. (also Dawn and Black Wooden Ceiling Opening also released this year)

07 The Drones - Havilah

08 Shearwater - Rook

09 The Dodo's - Visiter

10 Wale - Mixtape About Nothing (pronounced wah lay)

as to , you know, how much of these i actually paid for, i bought Primary Colours at the launch show on vinyl, bought Rook on vinyl from missing link, and saw Beach House play at the mistletones show, and Mount Eerie play a diy styled show at an artists studio in Brunswick. I'll buy Havilah when it's released on vinyl, and the Wale mixtape was a free download i believe. at least, it was free for me...

As to what was new out of these, i had never listened to before this year-
gang gang dance, fuck buttons, beach house, mount eerie, dodo's and wale. over half.

my brothers drawing

2008-12-19T22:23:00.003+11:00

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerjager-hornisse-nashorn-sd-kfz-164.htm

places

2008-12-19T19:16:00.004+11:00

i love websites and blogs that are tied to a specific are or region. if they want to make me move there, well then that's perfect. Fecal Face is a website that makes me want to live in San Francisco, with a focus on artists, designers and musicians from this area, that makes San Fran seem like a big Fort Thunder.
At teh moment there is a review/interview of a new photo book named TAG TOWN by Martha Cooper up there which has some brilliant documentary photo's of Tags and street graffiti from NY from the sixties onwards.
Martha says "When trying to shoot their pieces, I spent countless hours standing alone in vacant lots in the South Bronx waiting for trains with freshly painted pieces to come by. Sometimes writers called to tell me that they had a new piece up and which line it was on. Then I would try to shoot it as quickly as possible before it was buffed by transit or painted over by other writers. "

another blog about a PLACE that's a little closer is FITZROYALTY

Electric Car systems

2008-12-18T23:02:00.001+11:00

so with the australian governments recent commitment to a reduction of carbon emissions by only 5% by 2020, it's good/(better then nothing) to see that there are businesses around who can see the potential money to be made in alternative energy infrastructure, as opposed to the money to be made from tollways.

http://www.psfk.com/2008/11/electric-car-network-down-under.html
The company Better Place focuses on three areas: The introduction of charging zones for short distance drivers in the metro area; battery switching stations for long journeys; and software aids to automate the service. Australia will serve as a proving ground for their systems in a country with a lower population density then Denmark and Israel which are the other countries so far committed. no doubt Better Place will be looking for a slice of the Federal Governments Green Car Innovation Fund, but hopefully some of the money from the fund will go towards enticing electric vehicle production and research in Australia from companies other then Ford and Holden, because frankly, they don't seem interested.
It would be really nice to see some sort of industry standard system developed for battery exchanges, and charging. As soon as possible really, to speed up takeup and encourage other purchasers besides early adopters. undoubtedly the general public will be wary of engaging in any beta/vhs or HDDVD/bluray battles, where the consumer is always the loser. it would be a remarkable thing for the car manufacturers to come to any agreement, so it's really up to the EU to specify standards that the companies will follow. The 'Better Place' business model must depend on some consistent system, theat manufacturers will be able to utulise, maybe with a licensing fee, so more detail will probably become apparent as they start production.
It looks at the moment like the first mass produced plug -in electric vehicles of the 21st century will be available some time between 2010-2012. BMW is talking of reviving their micro car brand Isetta which produced some incredibly creative design solutions following the second world war (which would undoubtedly not pass crash certifications now). This will enable them to produce micro-city-cars in much the same way the Mini sub brand has let them make front wheel drive small cars. Fiat also plans to revive their Topolino model, as a car below the 500 in size and the Isetta will share a platform with this.

add to these options and the many more which are in the planning stages, the Piaggio MP3 plugin Hybrid. With two front wheels, probably greatly reducing the incidence of highside and lowside cornering accidents, it should appeal to buyers who wouldn't normally consider a scooter or motorbike, as a secondary transport option. available next year, the price will be around that of a small car...

Katie Paterson

2008-12-03T02:49:00.002+11:00

Some people just have fascinating minds... Paterson has created lightbulbs that emulate moonlight, and records of frozen ice that play back the sounds of the glaciers they came from, amongst other projects even larger and more complicated. Obviously not someone who builds their entire project the week before a deadline.

"Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art last year, Katie Paterson has had solo shows at the Matthew Bown Gallery, R O O M, and Modern Art Oxford, and spent a month ‘moongazing’ in Japan.

Her recent works include Earth-Moon-Earth, the transmission of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata to the moon and back - resulting in fragmented composition being transmitted on a self-playing grand piano and Vatnajökull (the sound of) - a live phone line to an Icelandic glacier. Both works were first presented at Paterson’s MFA degree show in 2007 and restaged at her acclaimed solo show at Modern Art Oxford this year.

Currently exhibiting at Albion, London; forthcoming shows include Tsekh Gallery, Kiev, and Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009."

http://www.katiepaterson.org/

Katie Paterson @ Yahoo! Video

Raymond Loewy's bathroom

2008-11-21T19:19:00.001+11:00

http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/loewy_lived_large_11782.asp

circa 1949

Typewriters

2008-11-17T23:31:00.002+11:00

I have to admit i'm fascinated by outmoded technologies. i have a floor scattered with parts of cassette recorders and record players, three non-working desktop apple macs (IIci, 7300/200 and B&W G3) and have paid good money for portable mini/8cm cd players, japanese rangefinder camera's and 80's drum machines.
There's something about both the ease of collecting stuff the majority no longer want and the way these products function as a document of so many things. Production methods, aesthetic choices, technological developments, cultural trends and ergonomic understandings are all contained in their forms.
With the benefit of comparing these items with their successors, so much is revealed.

Reading Daniel Neville's latest post , surely a man who thinks things through more deeply then I, caused me to want to reignite this blog with a random post about all these items.
The difference between the products I've accumulated, and typewriters (i'm never part of the herd. so far beyond that), is that Typewriters have reached a higher level of cult and cool. (i suppose, work with me here) it seems like cliched wayfarer wearing possibly beat poet worshipping teenagers are the ultimate destination for all unloved typewriters. i know i wanted one when i was 15.

for instance this beauty.

I have no idea what it's like to type on a mechanical machine like this, i can only imagine i wouldn't really like it, seeing as i still prefer pen to computer, but writers block would surely be easier to overcome when you get to look at this. I can imagine being a reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Tribune, writing an article on Cigar manufacturing techniques in Cuba, and seeing every thing in black and white. plus there's the added ability to switch between red and black ink, on the fly, which would surely liven up any page, like the fourpen multi-coloured epics of neat handwriting and subheadings and bullet-points of first-week-back-after-holidays school classes.

OKAYstudio

2008-09-03T23:35:00.002+10:00

i keep on running into individual works made by members of the OKAYstudio, and thinking how interesting it is compared to most of the stuff i see at the moment, and then realising it's made by this same creative bunch of people.

They're a diverse group of 7 graduates from the RCA London, one of the institutions i wish i could study at, or at least live near so i could check out their exhibitions every year.
i'm not sure of the way they work, but they seem to have something special going on between them, because they have a consistently high standard of thought. So besides the fact that their name is not so good to google, they're pretty neat. they've got that clever thing going on, without trying too hard in that way which can be offputting

here's the Pivot cabinet for Arco by member Shay Alkalay

Clampology and Jar Tops by member Jorre Van Ast

From Above and Scantling lamp by member Matthias Hahn

splinched from Dezeen ...

London-based designers OKAY Studio will exhibit their work at The Aram Gallery this month, in a show called Under the Same Roof.

OKAY Studio is a collective of individual designers sharing a bit more than a workspace. Each has broken their own ground, with some also working for leading design studios while others work on consultancy projects. As a collective they share a drive to generate self-initiated projects, produce work with their own clients and exhibit in galleries and museums internationally. This will be the first curated exhibition of the group. Coming from different countries, all nine designers at OKAY Studio met while studying on the Royal College of Art’s Design Products course, and have continued working alongside each other, sharing resources and sometimes collaborating on client work and exhibitions.

Under the Same Roof will be a unique insight into the way this group has set up their way of working in London. The exhibition will transform the Aram Gallery into a series of ‘rooms’ that will represent the working spaces of each of the members of the studio, reflecting on how they operate successfully as colleagues rather than as a branded consultancy. Above and below: Elipse table by Peter Marigold.

Collectively, the exhibition will explore how, just as in London, many different approaches to life and a creative existence are possible under the same roof offering insight into the ambient ongoing process of being a designer in London today. The ‘roof’, or ceiling, of the gallery will be a unique installation of drawings, sketch models, workshop jigs, failed projects and other studio ephemera that form each of the members’ daily studio existence. Below: Mr Light series.

Under the Same Roof will exhibit the work of: Shay Alkalay, Tomas Alonso, Jordi Canudas, Mathias Hahn, Peter Marigold, Yael Mer, Oscar Narud, Hiroko Shiratori and Jorre van Ast.

Curator: Daniel Charny
Assistant Curator: Alison Norris
Director: Zeev Aram

Exhibition open 18 September – 8 November 2008
Open Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm (Thurs until 7pm)

The Aram Gallery,
110 Drury Lane,
London, WC2B 5SG

youtube stuff

2008-08-30T21:05:00.004+10:00

EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING - which way to go
i like this video alot, very well put together

NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD
i have to see this doco, this is a side of australian movies i didn't really know existed.

TURKEY SHOOT

back to back

2008-08-20T21:24:00.002+10:00

LINKZ

ikea embraces chintz at the moment blog
trends from milan furniture fair filtering down to the masses, decorative silhouettes etc, hey look, it only took a couple of years
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matthew palladino interview at fecalface
urbanised folk art
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'Made in Queens' urban art bike movie at The Aesthetic Poet

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Eamespunk artificial limbs at Nevolution

wow. just wow

Elke Moltrecht

2008-08-07T23:04:00.001+10:00

On July 6th i went to a workshop as part of the Liquid Architecture festival that was running across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane at the time.
Berlin-based Sound Curator Elke Moltrecht was a guest of RMIT and presented a history of her career as a curator of sound art and experimental music for several cultural institutions in Berlin over the last 15 years.
Initially Elke talked about growing up in East Germany before reunification, and the difficulty of discovering new music that was not government approved. A network of people smuggled reel to reel tapes through the borders, people who worked for embassies and others who were allowed a higher level of freedom. Being a devoted music listener was a serious business, with the possibility of arrest if record collections were discovered. The music which got through was a strange mix of pop and avant garde, the only two names I can remember were Cabaret Voltaire and Pere Ubu. After the fall of the wall the unfettered access to record stores and large amounts of music caused her to pause and reconstruct her relationship with music, it took a full year for her to grow comfortable enough to begin buying records.
After studying classical music she was employed to create a “memory house” for a famous german composer. later in her career she moved into the sound art field, curating displays and events for various contemporary sound movements. She basically said that writing a good grant application was one of the most important skills, and achieving a good balance between artists, so that one guest artist provided funding to afford the next one. finding artists who had a connection with what you were attempting to do was important, money should not be the dominant driving force, and making connections with artists that would draw a large crowd, but were prepared to perform for lower prices because what you were offering them was concurrent with their interests was how to get the best outcome for everyone involved.

it was a decent talk, but with the blinds down in the dark it was pretty hard to stay awake, so i left at the lunch break, and went and bought a record, so anyway here's the synopsis i stole,
Elke Moltrecht has been curating sound events since the early 90s working at institutions including the Podewil Centre for Contemporary Art and the Ballhaus Nauynstrasse. She is now a freelance curator working on a variety of cross cultural projects that promote the diversity of music and sound art occurring in atypical locations including Turkey, Lebanon and Korea.