Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Jumping robots, floating cinemas, musical jelly molds and more in our look at the web this week
1. Terminal
In his latest throwback music video Com Truise taps into the classic OS we all (well the older ones) know and lovingly remember. Terminal utilizes the environment and imagery from DOS, so anyone who misses blue system settings screens and elegant ASCII art is sure to get a kick out of this video.
2. Sand Flea Jumping Robot
It began with synchronized nano-copters and now it is jumping robots, the human race’s time may be coming to an end at the hand of our mechanized brethren. Funded by the US Army and developed by Boston Dynamics, the Sand Flea is a compact, four-wheeled robot that does more than just cruise the streets. With a thirty foot vertical, this little bot can jump not just through hoops, but on top of buildings, creating enormous potential for exploring urban areas.
3. Wind Map
A hypnotizing new digital project shows a map of
the United States as defined by continental wind patterns.
Impressively detailed, the wind map allows you to see air
speeds in precise areas, the flowing patterns striping in white lines
against a graphite background.
4. Archipelago Cinema
Curated by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton, the new festival, “Film on the Rocks Yao Noi”, was nearly upstaged by its own floating venue, Archipelago Cinema. The awe-inspiring raft was designed by German architect Ole Scheeren, who used recycled materials to build the modular concept, which mimics the floating lobster farms used by Thai fisherman.
5. Drawing Apparatus
Although many find inspiration in music, few harness it’s power like Ohio-based grad student Rober Howsare and his drawing apparatus. By connecting two articulated wooden arms to two record players, Howsare literally makes music make art with dizzying repetition and rhythm.
6. Sleepless
Hamilton College assistant art professor Robert Knight took a series of long exposure photographs of insomniacs tossing and turning throughout the night. The low-lit blurs he captures offer a visual parallel as haunting as the wanderings of a restless mind when it simply can’t sleep. Anyone who’s suffered sleepless nights will likely feel a sense of dread around the eery beauty of the images.
7. Prestwick Travel Slipper
Combining subtle luxury with practical functionality, Want Les Essentials’ Prestwick Travel Slipper handsomely zip into one another after they’re done wrapping your weary wandering feet.
8. The Ambassador
A “tragic comedy about the bizarre world of African diplomacy”, “The Ambassador” sees the well-heeled Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger go undercover in Central Africa Republic as a Liberian diplomat. The Gonzo-style documentary takes an in-depth look at France’s remaining involvement with the post-colonial country and its modern diamond mining practices.
9. Paper App
Sketch with pencils or paint with watercolors using the newly released Paper iPad app. Launched by multiple former Microsoft (Courier) engineers at Fifty Three Inc., the sketching app comes free with a draw feature with four additional modes—sketch, outline, write, color—available for purchase within its own app-store.
10. Eley Kishimoto Fixed Gear
Wether you’re a fan or not of fixed gears you’ll definitely dig this collaboration between Tokyo Fixed and designers Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto. The brightly colored bike and bag sport custom graphics based on the signature Kishimoto leaf pattern.
11. The Fabergé Big Egg Hunt
In an effort to raise £2 for the Action for Children and Elephant
Family organizations, Fabergé is strategically hiding 209 giant eggs throughout central London in what will potentially be the largest egg hunt ever assembled. Sharp-eyed sleuths will find eggs decorated by leading creatives across various fields, including illustrator Gary Card, designer Benjamin Shine, landscape designer Andy Sturgeon, Milan-based collective Carnovsky and more.
12. Musical Jellies
Squishy forms create harmonies on a game
board designed with a capacitative sensor able to read differences in
shape, salt concentration and vibrations in jelly molds. Noisy Jelly presents this
mesmerizing kit for DIY experimenters complete with dies, molds and
agar powder to start making gelatinous instruments.
13. Triple Canopy
The community-led publication Triple Canopy has proved a brilliant
resource for both editorial content and community projects with
artists, writers and designers. We recommend supporting their cause by picking up one of their
publications, such as the “The Binder and the Server”, a treatise on
the ideology of internet culture.
14. The Puzzle
Inspired by the eco-consicous production and terraced landscape of Napa Valley’s Newton Vineyard, Chicago-based studio Materious created “The Puzzle“. The platter’s organic design allows each individual plot to be removed and used as separate serving trays or coasters.
15. Stroopwafels
New York Mouth spreads it’s culinary cheer with the addition of our favorite Dutch treat, Stroopwafels. These delicious little carmel filled waffles are the perfect sweet snack. Dip one in coffee, smother it in ice cream or just eat it as is.
16. Flexible E-Paper
Set to launch next month in Europe, a pliable e-paper device from LG hopes to
bring new competition to the e-book market. The black-and-white screen
is .7mm thick, sports a resolution of 1024×768 pixels and can be
angled up to 40 degrees.
