Putting the MAN back in Craftsman?

Butch Craft? Really? And other deep cutting questions.

I dunno….

Read the NYT Article Ponder Murray Moss’ Curatorial Statement…Die a little bit inside

Good use for old bottles!

Taiwan is a country in which new things are easily accepted and people learn everything at a rapid rate, hence the amount of ‘fusion’ evident within design emerging from the asian country. taiwanese designer tsai yi-cheng has created ‘victoria in supermarket’, a collection of furniture objects which includes a stool and a floor lamp which draws on this notion of fusion. the pieces at first appear like traditional victorian furniture, however, upon closer inspection, one makes out the forms which are made by common bottles that can be bought
in the supermarket.

Craft off the handle

I picked up on the axes of best made company awhile ago and while Im not really sold on them this article does a really good job of framing some of the contradictions on what’s happening with “hipster craft” these days. I can’t really say if all this is looking up or down but it’s good to see that it is going somewhere at least.

Godspeed

For Godspeed faster is better.

Paper + Web design: What?

One Bit Wonder has developed a really interesting website featuring elements made from paper. A really elegant marriage of craft and inter-tech!

Daniela Edburg

I really kind of love these alot.

and since Im here….

I cannot emphasize just how much I LOVE space stuff and in that spirit I simply cannot help but share this series from Photographer Vincent Fournier whom I came across at viacomit. Mr Fournier, I salute you.

Tree of Heaven

Tree of Heaven is a collective, urban forestry, project with a distinct Detroit grittiness. Connoisseurs of the “Ghetto Palm” Tree of Heaven makes furniture and other accouterments from the limb of this under utilized resource (if you want to call it a resource at all) in a community shop envioronment. Very distinct and very proactive in a community that most certainly needs such things.

HOLY GUEST BLOGGER!

 

and HOLY AWESOME STACK LAM. CARVING! Holy annoying euro website!

Shelves: Book

Some interesting shelving designs here via Toxel.

Matthias Pliessnig

Matthias Pliesnig and his body rafts have been smoking hot for a couple of years now and with good reason; they’re really lovely! But Im more enamored with this set of fist size arrangements he did some time back. So many interesting things going on!

Carsten Nicolai

Nicolai has been one of of those pariahs for me personally where I seem to see his work all over the place but when it comes to recalling it…nothing!  I always seem to forget his name or what have you but never again!

I of course have a pronounced artistic interest in the territory between art and science and I have tremendous respect for Nicolai for mining this so well.

Nicolai’s work, according to his statements, is meant to give rise to sensory experiences humans would not normally have by translating, for instance, sound waves into visually discernible information. Nicolai gives onlookers otherwise unknowable sensory experiences but, unlike some who work within a similar genre, by doing so in an extremely understated visual language Nicolai is well accomplished at not turning his works into a circus sideshow or a forgettable curiosity. Get it!

Telling Tales @ the VA

The VA has mounted an exhibition dedicated to European design art; sort of a first (to my knowledge anyway) for a high level institution. The exhibition includes selections from Studio Job, Hella Jongerius, and other usual Euro suspects of this movement. The website is very well put together and allows for a high level of exploration with the included works.

Vincent Dubourg

I sure am liking the stuff coming from Carpenters Workshop! Vincent Dubourg is a french designer whose work is pretty out there, but I dig it..

The Museum of Jurassic technology

I was writing the last post and was reminded of one of my most very favorite places in California and quite possibly the world: The Museum of Jurassic Technology. Within the collections of the MJT are the totally not dubious accounts of the Megloaponera Foetens (the stink ant of Cameroon), the amazing account of attempting to capture the Deprong Mori (the telekinetic bat) and some of the finest examples of  super miniaturist Hagop Sandaldjian you might ever see. Good stuff!