27th August 2012
Taking inspiration from the excellent Markus Kayser or just part of the zeitgeist of the future of architecture, new resources and 3d printing The Stone Spray project is a research project using a 3d robotic printer that makes architectural forms from soil.
Exploring the idea of additive manufacturing in architecture - finding ways of new eco friendly and innovative systems to print architecture in 3D - it collects sand and soil on the site that the 3D printer is on.
Binding it with an adhesive that when combined creates sculptural structures it creates shapes from sustainable and architecturally sound materials.
Digitally controlled by a computer, the designer/architect has direct input on the outcome of the shape as the printer is mult directional and therefore can print in any direction to include on vertical surfaces.
26th August 2012
Described as being the first garment to exist 'both digitally and physically', APPAREL by collective Normals is an augmented reality garment that explores the growing playfulness and ability of augmented reality. The garment can be adjusted and re designed through real time remote manipulation and opens up new possibilities for how we may be able to behave in virtual dressing rooms for online shopping in the near future.
25th August 2012
Recently graduated from Chelsea college of art and Design, Lea Balducci is another of the growing number textile designers who are exploring materiality and the process of making things.
Working with unexpected materials such as ferrous liquids and crystals she explores innovative techniques and processes in order to transform materials from one state to another. Recycling and re using materials in new ways she is also growing crystals and exploring the behavior of magnets. The results - showcased in her 'lab' as part of her graduation show offer up sometimes beautiful experiments that sit alongside unusual explorations.
6th August 2012
Usually working with materials found around the house such as foam or cocktail sticks, (maybe with the exception of his slime dress for Lady Gaga!) Bart Hess' films are always beautifully simple yet extraordinarily engaging and at the same time complex.
Hess' latest short film 'a swimmer shaved' for Nowness is a beautiful slow motion foam sculpture that is slowly revealed as being a male swimmer.
Hess has used 28 cans of shaving foam to explore the art of grooming through a hypnotic lens adding a white 'shaving' bar in post production which adds an uncanny feel to the film.
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1st August 2012
Much research is going on looking to the importance of bacteria and algae for alternative resources, power, food and architecture, but asking the question 'what new cultural revolution will replace agriculture?', After Agri is a collaborative investigation between Michiko Nitta and Michael Burton and explores a new symbiotic relationship between humans and algae.
Questioning why we are trying to redesign food for survival when in fact we could be re designing our bodies they propose a future whereby humans will be reliant on algae which will be living inside newly evolved organs.
Drawing inspiration from scientists such as Debora MacKenzie and Michael Le Page who wrote about photosynthetic creatures, or “plantimals” in the New Scientist (2010) they visually explore a alternate future.
This vision of the future suggests a semi photosynthetic human. Absorbing future food via light similar to plants we (humans) will become symbionts - meaning an entity that relies entirely on an other for survival. This mutually beneficial relationship with algae is an entirely new vision of how important algae might become in the future.
Having recently been on show at the Food Forward exhibition in The Hague, their work comes to London during London design festival. As part of the ongoing events at the Victoria and Albert Museum an opera singer will be transformed with biotechnology to grow algae with her breath so the audience can taste her song.