Link About It: This Week’s Picks
Seinfeld emoji, fashion’s World Cup team, an artist’s secret swimming pool and more in our weekly look at the web
1. Redesign: 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium
The team at London-based Zaha Hadid Architects is no stranger to Olympic architecture or earning a few medals of their own. The award-winning firm’s London Aquatics Centre played a central role in the capital’s games. Following a successful bid for Tokyo’s 2020 stadium, the group was forced to rethink their original concept following budget cuts and protests from local leading architects including Toyo Ito and Kengo Kuma. Thought by many to overwhelm the surrounding area, the modified design presents a scaling back with emphasis on longterm usability and adaptability while maintaining an innovative design.
2. Fashion Fantasy Football
A series of illustrations by artist Olivia Domingos have mashed together World Cup fervor and fashion’s finest. The clever imagery places renowned designers in field positions—and descriptions from Another Magazine outline why each is the perfect fit for the field. With Vivienne Westwood as coach, it’s at least a guarantee that all players will be beautifully outfitted.
3. Seinfeld Emoji
The standard set of Emoji have become a second language of sorts and spiraled into a pop culture phenomenon, infiltrating fashion, music and art. If you’ve exhausted your wit with the standard collection, help is *praying hands* on the way, with a new set of Seinfeld-inspired Emoji. Created by the internet-fluent team behind Seinfeld2000, the icons incorporate classics like a marble rye, the Festivus pole, as well as “imagine what Seinfeld would be like in the present” via Jerry with GoogleGlass.
4. The V&A’s Headline-Grabbing Collection
Spanning over 5,000 years of art, design and decor from around the world, London’s V&A Museum boasts one of the largest and most esteemed permanent collections in the world. The latest addition is curated not by type of object or place of origin, but by its ability to create a public dialogue in politics, pop culture and current affairs. The aptly dubbed Rapid Response Collecting gallery places a major emphasis on recency, installing items immediately as their relevance rises. From the controversial 3D-printed handgun to an installation of the inexplicably viral and mysterious app Flappy Bird, the collection illustrates the museum’s commitment to remaining relevant in a 24-hour digital society while emboldening fading headlines with material permanence.
5. Aldo Drudi on MotoGP Designs
Known for designing the bright, boldly colored helmets and leathers of some of MotoGP’s most celebrated riders, Aldo Drudi has reached legend status in the motorsports world. To learn more about his unique approach to design, preference for “exciting color” and just what he would prefer to be called, Cycle World recently caught up with the Italian designer for an insightful interview.
6. Lights Up for the World Cup
The iconic Christ the Redeemer statue—the second largest of its kind—looms over the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a symbol of the region’s religious beliefs, but on the day before the World Cup final, it will be representing which team has more vocal fans on Twitter—Argentina or Germany. By tweeting the hashtag #ArmsWideOpen followed by either #ARG or #GER, users can cast votes to see which team’s colors will illuminate the statue from 7-9PM local time today, Saturday 12 July 2014. Unfortunately for the host country, there won’t be any more yellow and green lights cast on the statue, as it had done every time the Brazilian team played.
7. The World’s Tallest Water Slide
If you’ve ever wanted to know what it would be like to slide off of a 15-story building, a new attraction in Kansas City offers something quite similar. The Verrückt at Schlitterbahn park, dubbed the world’s tallest waterside, stands 168 feet tall and allows people to reach a maximum speed just over 60mph while being strapped onto something closely resembling an air mattress. The opening of the ride has been delayed to the public but when it happens, those 264 steps upward will definitely lead to a memorable experience.
8. The Daily Routines of Famous Creatives
Organization software service Podio has compiled an interesting infographic that compares the daily routines of artists, writers and musicians, ranging from Charles Dickens and Pablo Picasso to more recent figures such as Maya Angelou and Haruki Murakami. View which great minds prefer working until the wee hours of the morning (Kafka, we’re looking at you) and learn what each creative preferred to do during their leisure time.
9. The Swimming Pool Oasis
Situated deep in the Mojave desert, Austrian artist Alfredo Barsuglia has installed a contemporary take on an oasis, a piece titled the “Social Pool.” It’s a swimming pool of crystal clear water, as well as cleaning supplies so that those who manage to find it and use it can leave it pristine. In order to get to the pool, you’ll need map details and coordinates from the sponsoring gallery and the desire to brave a scorching desert. Barsuglia’s work joins the ranks of other great elusive artworks—where the adventure factors into the overall experience.
10. Fab Launches New Furniture Brand
The latest in a seemingly never-ending adjustment in strategy by the online retailer, Fab recently acquired two-year-old Scandinavian design brand One Nordic, and subsequently rolled out Hem, a new furniture venture. This September, Hem will launch in 30 countries with 300 exclusive products to be available online and through three brick-and-mortar showrooms in Germany.
11. Electric Art Objects
Believing one’s art and surroundings should reflect their current state of mind and mood, designer Jake Levine recently launched Electric Objects on Kickstarter. The high-definition screen and integrated computer hangs on your wall, blending in with other framed artwork while bringing real-time art updates from galleries and museums around the world—via the internet—to your environment.
12. The Opera Machine
Westminster, England’s Royal Opera House is hoping to change the societal misconceptions that surround opera with The Opera Machine. Offering a unique behind-the-scenes look at their production of Wagner’s classic “Die Walküre,” the online page shows that opera is much more than a couple of people singing on stage. Hear the deputy stage manager call cues, see a close-up of the horns in the orchestra, watch what happens underneath trapdoors or the technical crew (and two firemen) silently set up the stage to go on fire—or just enjoy the performance from the audience’s perspective. No matter which of the 17 camera angles you select, your appreciation for opera—not to mention any musical or theatrical production in general—is guaranteed to grow.
Link About It is our filtered look at the web, shared daily on Twitter and published weekly every Saturday morning.
