Wow - Google Sketchup, this is not!

I believe the screen is a Wacom Cintiq, by the way - they’ve been around for a few years.

Love someone’s sense of humour!

Saw this the other day and just laughed, aloud, alot. Not sure why. Giggling as I type this, actually.

Click to see the humour enlarged.

I have always thought I was pretty good at eyeballing shapes and lines - but I scored quite badly on this. Maybe I rushed?

The Eyeballing Game

Test your Colour IQ

Scored quite badly on the colour one too - will have to sort out a way of cheating..

Saw these on laughingsquid and was amazed! Give them a watch - honestly.

Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Bathtub II from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Windows is pretty awful, and should have been binned about 7 years ago (Vista - don’t get me started). Microsoft keep resurrecting windows XP, and ironically it’s actually become quite a stable, reliable product. As long as you pay to keep it up to date, that is - plus pay for antivirus and antispyware etc. Then it usually shits itself for no apparent reason, requiring you to spend days reconfiguring it and setting up your system how you like it. Without endlessly tweaking it, it’s just plain awful to use.

Did you cotton on yet? I really despise Windows/Microsoft. They do some genuinely nasty stuff to consumers and competitors.

Anyway, you don’t have to use it - it’s not the be-all and end-all of operating systems. There are alternatives out there - Mac OS X is one - and GNU/linux is another.

‘Linux’ is really an umbrella term to describe hundreds of different operating systems, all using the linux core (the kernel). The differences between them are beyond the scope of what I’m talking about, but suffice to say that the huge majority are :

• Free (in every sense of the word)
  
• Super Stable
• Easier to Install that windows
• Come with all the software you’d ever really need (office programs, paint programs etc)
• NOT susceptible to viruses or spyware
• Easy enough to use that you can jump right in.

One of the driving philosophies of GNU/Linux is that it is open source - meaning that the software is completely free to use, modify and distribute. You NEVER have to worry about licenses, Windows Activation, or anything like that. You can just get on with using your computer for actually doing stuff. The whole FOSS (Free, Open Source Software) movement is hugely interesting.

I just installed it on Amanda’s desktop. Here it is (that’s Google Gadgets in the sidebar) - click for full size :

Click the more tag to hear more.
(more…)

Found these just growing out of my lawn one morning..

Ah, SmartRider - my nemesis. I found this one on the ground and in the spirit of scientific enquiry, cracked that sucker open.

Actually, I plan to try and embed this into a nifty resin bangle - or ring? - and I didn’t really ‘crack’ it open, I used acetone to dissolve the plastic card (and most of the chip too - see last photo).

Click the More tag to see some more pics (click to enlarge). (more…)

Apple have always had their computers and peripherals manufactured in China and Taiwan - ASUS (nasty PC manufacturer) and Foxconn actually produce a lot of gear for them, but presumably Apple has a lot of control over the process.

9to5mac released a story on Saturday saying that Apple have now developed their own manufacturing plant/prococesses - “One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade.” The innovation bit you’re wondering about is that they are using lasers to carve macbooks out of solid blocks of Aircraft grade Aluminium. Macbooks are currently made of polycarbonate plastic (and this morning I noticed a crack in mine!) while Macbook Pro’s are currently made of, I think, a magnesium-aluminium(-titanium?) alloy, probably machined and pressed into shape.

This is cool news for apple fans, because aluminium is damn nice. This is cool news for product designers, because they’ve invented a new manufacturing process, which doesn’t happen everyday (it has apparently taken Apple years to develop). I’m now interested in seeing which material - polycarbonate or aluminium - is more sustainable. Aluminium is a bitch to mine but lasts way longer and is recyclable.
9to5mac presents an interesting list of the advantages of this 3D manufacturing :

• - Carving out of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal and create weak spots or microfolds and rifts.
• - There are no seams in the final product, so it is smooth.
• - Screws aren’t needed to tie the products together.
• - The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.
• - You can be a whole lot more creative with the design if you don’t have to machine it.

Again, this puts apple a few years ahead of the competition. Like the Macbook Air, the company is pushing products at consumers that competitors won’t be able to match until sometime around 2010. If this rumour about the Aluminium is true (it probably is) then these macbooks will be available to buy in 8 days. This is why I like Apple.

This morning I got playing with a borrowed 35-105mm lens and my 28-80 sigma lens, and attemped to replicate this trick which I heard about a few weeks ago (The video is embedded after the (more) tag in this post).

My results were pretty sketchy, it seems like there’s some sort of distortion and an amazingly thin depth of field. It also seemed impossible to get everything focussed correctly; I guess it’s going through about 20 lenses!

Click more to see the video how-to and some more photos I ended up with (not edited at all, and sorry about the size). (more…)

This afternoon, I made a USB thumb drive on a whim, while waiting for something to dry in the workshop. It’s a bit rough - I’ll try again soon and make a more refined version :)
Click more to see some other photos and a little bit of words.
(more…)

Just found this article on 10000words.net - 30 Amazing photoblogs (and a few tips for creating one). For those not in the know, photoblogs are like normal blogs but with photos instead of words, OK?

Look at the comments on that article too, because there links to more photoblogs.

Via Digg.com

SmashingMagazine has this list of 60 Concert Posters from 10 Amazing Artists. The spectrum of art featured seems to be pretty narrow; still can’t say I really enjoy 90s graphic design!

For $15 (60 x 25c), you could get these all printed on a 7×4 digital photo processor and make a big canvas of the things (5 high, 6 across?)

Edit : OK, this is a bit sneaky. I’ve been hunting around and found NO easily available high quality images that you could really print. This site sells actual posters (here’s a link to a pink floyd poster for $815) but you cannot save the image that is displayed in the preview box. However, if you ‘view source’ (Command-U on a mac in Safari) and scroll down you’ll see this line :

And, of course, “http://images.wolfgangsvault.com/images/catalog/detail/TSY680816-PO.jpg” is the location of the actual image used for previewing. This one is only 480 pixels high, which means can be printed about 2.5 inches high at reasonable quality (200dpi). 4 inches wouldn’t be much of a stretch.

If you open the JPG above in a new window/tab, you can just replace the ‘TSY680816-PO‘ part with the name of another poster you are looking at (found in the address of the page).

You could also simply do a directory listing of all the images in the detail folder on the webserver, but this crashed firefox for me - maybe there’s too many. There is also a lame watermark in the corner of all the images :(

I don’t have any useful updates about Perth and stuff, so here are two three things I got recently. (more…)

It’s pretty late, but this is so deserving of posting. The old Arcane Bookshop has been taken over by The Intercollective, who aim to reinvigorate empty, unused (wasted) urban spaces throughout the city. Their first project is SITE FICTION in the Old Arcane Bookshop until 3rd Oct (opp Brass Monkey on William St).
There are performances on every other night and changing temporary installations which greet me each time my inner-city bus crawls past there in the morning. How refreshing to get a fresh dose of public art every morn!
Basically their aim is to get passerby’s interested and interacting with these empty spaces. It’s all very topical for this period of land shortage! How cute is the photo of Claire above interacting with a common face in Northbridge! No amount of colour/light correction will do it justice!

The blog is great, and documents how hard it is to get your hand on land in the inner-city, even disused, empty space.
Here is a small smatter of some of the cool stuff they’ve already done. They are a dedicated bunch, a stroll down William St on any given evening might uncover some surprises… head down! Check out the Blog for more updates.

Playing with light and space.

An installation involving cut hands and salvaged bus shelter glass has an ethereal effect.

(more…)

It’s ARTRAGE festival time again and this year ARTRAGE celebrates its 25th birthday!  In celebration, the aptly named and freakin’ HUGE SILVER Festival (link!) will be taking place from the 16th Oct- 9th Nov. Seriously kids, it’s just going to be an awesome few weeks. I love how this festival kicks away arcahic traditions, with not one ounce of ‘Silver’ in its design theme. Instead replaced by the colourful works of Rose Skinner’s (of previous post fame).

Check out the website for the complete programme. Better still, get your hands on the real thing, a beautiful full colour pamphlet to hold in your hands and to cuddle at night. When it’s all over, show the bitterness in your heart by pulling it apart and cutting it up.

Here is a selection of the banners used in the website. Nice… real nice….

There is no more… because the websites are so fresh, they speak for themselves. Navigate and fill your diary! Call me if we want to get a crew going.

This’ll be great - FLEXHAUX is doing a Windows on Williams piece, too - so keep your eyes peeled. - Jeremy

This thing sucks.

Amanda turned 21 last Saturday so - completely contrary to her instruction - we threw her a surprise party!

From Amanda’s Surprise Party Album

Click more to see a little slideshow : (more…)

I finally got my camera in the same place and time dimension as this cat-themed art.
This stuff has been popping up all over the place (3 at the back of the Bakery alone!). I have no idea who it is, but it’s super rad. Best paste-ups I’ve seen for a while in Perth. I mean, Cat Copy? KILLS ME!

Anymore sightings, please post away! I want to find them,… and talk to them about cats.

Look on! For close-ups… Yeah you know you like it.
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I just read this article - Color Photos From the World War I Era, written by Alan Bellows From DamnInteresting.com. (The site has been hammered by Digg which is why, I think, the stylesheet doesn’t load - but you can still read the content fine)

Here’s an excerpt :

“Color film was non-existent in 1909 Russia, yet in that year a photographer named Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii embarked on a photographic survey of his homeland and captured hundreds of photos in full, vivid color. His photographic plates were black and white, but he had developed an ingenious photographic technique which allowed him to use them to produce accurate color images.

He accomplished this with a clever camera of his own design, which took three black and white photos of a scene in rapid sequence, each though a differently colored filter. His photographic plates were long and slender, capturing all three images onto the same plate, resulting in three monochrome images which each had certain color information filtered out.

Sergei was then able to use a special image projector to project the three images onto a screen, each directly overlapping the others, and each through the appropriately colored filter.”

Damn those ruskies! How clever of Sergei. There’s a page here (Library of Congress) with a few more images, which I assume have been digitally restored back to perfection. Really amazing - have a look.

A friend pointed this out to me. I’m very into lightbulbs.. (Clicky Enlargey)

They are, apparently, repurposed lightbulbs, salvaged from bins (whatever…) and the set above costs in the order of US$650. I asked how they’re fixed to the base - apparently, using neodymium magnets (’scary’ magnets) which is quite clever. He might try and make one, so we thought about perhaps using a dense liquid (or even pouring in a molten metal like lead) to keep them stable - because you don’t really want them rolling away from you…
While the concept is great (though I’m not sure where I’d put it..) I’m not sure if I like the execution - I know from experience (pulling apart lightbulbs myself, okay?) how fragile and thin the glass is, and how difficult it is to separate from the base. I also can’t see any mechanism to pull the wick through. Should it be classified as art? Do you like it?
By the way, there’s 64 left (out of 70) so get buying.

Edit : Oh look :) (They don’t seem to realise I’m being gently critical)

..there are at least two of them..

The best way to stay updated with the Design Encyclopedia is through their ass? Obviously, I now realise it says ‘RSS’.

Somone called Jay attached a disposable camera to a public bench to just see what the hell happened.

From the site :

“I tied a disposable camera to a bench with a sign that read:

Good afternoon,
I attached this camera to the bench so you could take pictures. Seriously. So have fun. I’ll be back later this evening to pick it up.
Love, Jay / The Plug

When I retrieved the camera that night, I was happy to find that the entire roll of film had been shot. Below are the photos that were taken.”

There’s something beautifully poetic in all of this. I’d like to try it - I wonder what sorts of pictures Australians would take..?

Via Digg

When I bought my LCD monitor, it came with a sticker stuck to the side of the screen advertising it’s specs and features.
I think I have found a better use for it :

(Click to enbiggen)

I’ve never really paid any attention to luggage design until stumbling across these.  how cool do they look?  Said to be styled on the rugged fuel cans locked to the back of old army jeeps.  They somehow also remind me of boxes you’d see lying around the levels of shoot-em-ups like Quake or Doom or something.

Bree - Fall 2008 Collection -

Apple make this incredible device, called the Airport Express. It’s small, looks cool and costs about AU$130. It acts as a really good wireless router, print server, and - when plugged into an amp and speakers - allows you to play music from any computer on the network. Unfortunately, the one thing they do suck at is staying alive beyond their 12 month warranty. Thus, if you are Apple, you end up with a lot of angry apple fans (the worst kind) on your ass. Apple only employs graduates from the ‘fuck you school of business’ so it’s only appropriate that they refuse to admit to their customers that there is a problem. It doesn’t matter anyway, they’ll still buy apple computers, both they and apple know this ;)

Turns out that the only thing that’s actually died in the airport express is an innocuous chip in the power supply that can’t be identified and so is impossible to replace. Built-in obsolescence is a bitch.

Following the good work done by this guy, here’s my own 802.11g airport express - which I bought dead and then repaired. I think mine is a little bit neater, too :) (or not?)

Click more to see the 6 more photos. (Click to enlarge)
(more…)

Holy crap!

About Shapeways

Curious about 3D printing? This video explains how it works.

Have you ever wanted to turn your 3D designs into reality? Enter Shapeways! Just upload your design, we print it and ship it to you - it’s easy. Within ten working days you’ll hold your own design in your hands.

We’re using a technique called ‘3D Printing’ which has proven itself as a high-quality production technique, but up to now has always been very expensive. By creating a large community we are able to produce much cheaper, meaning better prices for you.

I emailed them, got this back :

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the compliments!

And yes we do ship to Australia. Actually we ship worldwide in 10 days!

Best regards,

Robert

Well. I. Never.

Flickr user Zollo has some really amazing portraits. I’m not usually into portraits so much, but these have a really gritty sort of earthiness to them. He’s got a little story with them (it’s more like a poem) that tells you about the subject, which really sells the photos.They’re all really spontanous and atmospheric. Clicky clicky..

He seems to live in L.A and lots of his photos are of circus people or homeless people..

I can’t get enough of Stuff a Ducks crafty craft goods. Her newest creations on display on her flickr!

Heck yeah, a posse of robots.

For a more comprehensive insight into my appreciation of this lady’s style… click…  (more…)

This is a research project initiated by FORM to find out just how dull Perth really is - and most importantly, how to fix it.

With facts and statistics that are just plain sad (such as “71% of Perth’s young talent relocating to Melbourne and Sydney”) this is a bit of a wake up call to government and policy makers, suggesting that among other things we need some good old branding. An informative read for all non plebs, hope you enjoy!

Click to read the survey (new window).

I’d just like to know what the fuck this is all about?

Quinno’s spotted these skullcandy earphones :

Obviously, I like them (I’m posting ‘em aint I?), but also I’m intrigued by these in a few ways. The first is the $100. That’s the same price I paid for my Etymotic ER6I canalphones, which are pretty good. You can assume you’re paying a premium here for the wood - infact, I think with a product like this, it’s almost assumed. The brand name (Skullcandy) also sort of suggests that form might (!) be taking precedence over function here, but it’ll be interesting to tell. The reason I’m intrigued is because if you realise all this and buy the headphones, and they don’t sound quite that good - yet, as we’ve established, you may not expect them to - they certainly do look good, and so satisfy the purchaser’s main requirement. I do love the look of them though, and - if they were a bit cheaper - would probably buy them just for that reason.

The manufacturing process must be interesting - if we’re to assume it’s made of real wood, not some tricky composite or something. By the way, do you think they deliberately shaped them like nuts or acorns? Personally I might have experimented with a cylindrical or truncated conical shape, to counterpoint the ‘organicness’ of the material with a geometric form.

Actually, I’m thinking of a shape very similar to these, which I bought for Amanda. I didn’t tell her how much they cost (well, would you?) and it was actually very interesting - from a product designer’s point of view, of course - to see her reaction. They look and feel quite expensive (way better in real life, actually) and so she experienced an ‘expensive’ sound from them - although it’s also possible they sound like rubbish and she doesn’t want to hurt my feelings.

I don’t want to crap on about headphones all night but I do want to suggest that anyone looking for canalphones try these - they’re cheaper than the skullcandy or etymotics and by all reports sound fantastic (for the price). And the ears testing these ones actually can tell a difference..

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most concise and succinct.

Via Lewis.

Edit : Would have loved to have used this in that horrible ‘The Medium is the Message’/Marshall McLuhan essay back in uni..

BBC - Asian Network - Frictions Blog

Oooo aaah. I’m looking forward to Nitin Sawhney’s next album. His last one Philtre was so so good. Keep an ear out ppl!

Double - Edit : Well, there was an impressive comment on this post, but it has mysteriously disappeared… click the MORE link to see it! - Jeremy

(more…)

Awhile ago I was at a party where I didnt know anyone, and was chilling out in front of a fire (geddit?) making conversation with another lost soul next to me. I was trying to explain some of my ideas for products in areas I’m interested in but the party was pretty loud, and and after a minute he made some excuse and left.

Don’t tell anyone your ideas.

Edit : Perhaps I should just memorise these and recite them in awkward situations instead.

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? - Douglas Adams

I’ve lusted after this for years, and it fuelled the beginnings of my swatch swiss watch collection.
I was just recently reminded of it, and thought I’d put it up here so, well, you know.

The watchface is modelleled after a 1944 Swiss railway clock design by engineer Hans Hilfiker, which is still in use today (in Switzerland, obviously). Buy it for me here or here for only, like, $150.

A few months ago a hip flask was given to me which I unfortunately and unbelievably lost minutes later. I hit up ebay and in a predictable fashion ended up bidding on about 20 hip flasks, two of which I won. The tallest one I bought today, at the Claremont craft and antiques fair, for $12.
Observe (click to enlarge) :

Aviary - Creation on the fly / blog / How to draw anything in 1 step

Extremely useful. The thing that I can’t - sorry, couldnt - draw, by the way, is noses.

LOVER®

Quin just linked me to this ABC JJJ page…

UK duo Erol Alkan and Richard Norris have put their spin on the Midlake single. Taking it from Fleetwood Mac-ian breeziness to smooth electro warmth and goodness.

It’s an example of how a subtle remix can be just a sweet as an insane one.

Just a damn fine remix, really. And now that it’s pointed out, I can hear the fleetwood mac-esque part, too (the percussion, I think).

Anyway, it’s track 1 - from the Midlake album ‘The Trials of Van Occupanther’.
Edit : I just listened to track 1 from that album that whole album and it’s different; no huge build-up and just generally shorter and more compacted, like a radio edit. Damn.
The rest of the album is generally nice also; it sounds a lot like Kings of Convenience, and sometimes a bit like Muse. Both are great.

Lovely concept cars - and boats!

I found this fantastic list of photoshop tutorials.. some of them are nice, some are pretty natty.
There’s a link on the site for another 40 tutorials, but I think these are the better ones.

Via Digg.

Quin’s been clever and has stuck woodgrain contact paper to his laptop and camera!
“$3.50 roll of woodgrain contact from kmart gives my lomo cam a woody! hehe. considering doing my mac’s lid.”

Click each image to enlarge!
Edit : Here’s a pic of the back of the camera..

So regarding my previous whine about Transperth’s Graffidiot Campaign, I bring you :

It’s transperth’s new bus window.. they have them in the back of the bus. It seems to be stainless steel, with either punched or chemically etched perforations. Anyway, I couldn’t scratch my illegible tag into it, so I pissed into a coke bottle and poured it over the pensioner sitting in front of me.

The arrangement and configuration of this passenger’s dormant head results in emission of a pleasurable release of laughter, initiated by the contextual irony implicit in the juxtaposition of said head and the positioning of the advertising material (see diagram) on which it rests.

Position your cursor and depress the button to enbiggen the image

I bought some of these for a 21st recently (they were a hit). I got them at Test Tube Objects (Mt. Lawley) but you can also get them at Pigeonhole (Perth City).

They’re ceramic; each one personally crushed by the artiste’s own hand. You can see Rob Brandt’s other work here (click ‘5′ for the cups).

Don’t watch this :

Justin just linked me to his friend’s, er, photostream? - on pxcream, a new super-duper photography sharing site for semi-pro and pro photographers (but tough luck for YOU - it’s in beta/invite only stage). Flufftreacle’s been touring South America since April, his photos are really stunning. Amazing colours and subjects - by which i am specifically referring to Monkeyman.

..but I had to watch the whole thing!