..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!

dPS has a pretty good lowdown on how to shoot light trails. Light trails shots are those time exposures where points of light make a pretty pattern thus :

Click to see one i tried out of my bedroom window a few weeks ago : (more…)

When I see Rose Skinner’s art, I feel like I’m walking through a toy factory in over drive, bubbling under a soup of neon pigments, and I’m looking for my inner child, who I can hear giggling in the distance, but not above the sound of sherbert popping in my ear and an army of small plastic men running over bubblewrap.

She makes really exciting sculptural installation art that makes me very happy to be in Perth.

I wish I could find more stuff on the net about her art, but ripping off her myspace will do for now.

From her time as artist in residence at the Breadbox Gallery.

An installation in the middle of Forest Chase. It drew small children.. like... well... a giant sculpture made of fluro plastics and candy.

One of her pieces was in Hatched, the national grad show. It was like a dome of candy... a DOME people…

Rose recently did a crazyarsehuge installation using popular foods (cheezels, mee goreng) and a whole lot of coloured sugar at the Breadbox Gallery. It smelt like a lolley store. The clean up was icky, but it means we’ll be seeing a lot more of her stuff, and for that, I am glad to haul bins of dubious gook.

Pajda was kind enough to point this out :

It’s some kind of concept - or probably more like prototype - of a pretty neato ’skin’ that organically follows the shape of the car, and even allows for apertures and stuff to open up. It’s a big deal for me to see, because i’ve always been silently puzzled why cars produced today are 99.9% the same - all made of metal using the same processes, and just generally not seeming to justify the $100,000 difference between a hyundai and a porsche. Not that i’ve driven a porsche..

Oh, I thought this youtube comment was pretty good too :

Perth illustrator Sean Morris has a knack for wielding a fine tip ink pen and appreciating metal heads with no necks. His first solo show is on now at Behind the Monkey, Beaufort St.

I like this guys stuff, I want to be his friend.

See more at his own website and his blog ‘Paper Shields’.

And a small smattering of more brutal pen driven boganic dreamscapes… by the man (more…)

Ok, so steph doesn’t seem to realise the name of this blog is NO robots.. so I don’t know what she is doing posting about robots!! Sheez.
Anyway, the bastards at festo are making more robots for steph to add to her freaky collection. (All I can say is .. Come the revolution..)

“The festo flying stingray glides swiftly through the cool evening air, silently descending onto your head, inserting its probiscus and extracting your brains with the efficiency and effectiveness of a Festo premium product”

“The festo air jelly floats magically through the air, higher than even your screams will reach, as it transports your loved ones to the Festo Processing Facility”

The obsession with ROBOTS continues! The guy in the middle is made by the crafty Perth gal calling herself Stuff a Duck    The other two are some paper-craft creations I allowed myself to be distracted by during exam period. All you need is Officeworks, glue, scissors and someone who reads japanese to decipher the pdf file. Ro-bo-tu!

My robot collection

(Click to enlarge!)

Edit: On a speeding inter-city bus I saw that Stuffaduck is now supplying to the great retail experience that is William Topp. Their page is currently dismal, but their goods are rad-tastic. Gotta go check out the new flavours. Of robot.

I showed these to Mel yesterday and thought I’d share them on here too. These are 3 ‘really useful’ (and quite free) Apple Mail plugins, for Apple Mail obviously. Click for..  (more…)