obvious

the One Day Poem

2009-11-09T12:27:10Z

Experimental Typography was the name Jiyeon Song gave his work, and it is actually an accurate way to look at it: as a poetic exploration of written messages, that interact with the environment surrounding them. The system developed by Song is a crafty one. The perfurated patterns, while being passed through by solar light, create words on the shadow of the floor. The variations of solar light, through the day and throughout the year, form unexpected poetic combinations. Art brings humans and nature together.

If there is a good thing about this work of art, it is the fact that it makes us aware of the passing of time. And it does so in a poetic way. You can't look at it like a painting in a museum, like a catalogue in your hand. You have to lose time, wait. Then you can see the words appear, going through the floor, gathering and creating phrases that are changed and take on different meanings, as the days go by.

Hidden in the holes through the wood, short sentences of a Sijo poem await for the sunlight to release them. The Sijo is a classic Korean poem about Nature and human life. The one chosen and translated into English was written by Kim Ch'on-taek in the 18th century. It speaks about the finite character of human life: in the summer solstice, a phrase about the new life that is approaching; in the winter, about the time that passes.

The slowness of the messages gives us time to meditate about our busy lives, a moment to meditate about the value of Life.

Oração ao Tempo - Caetano Veloso (excerpt)

Link

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The evolution of the Coca-Cola bottle

2009-11-06T12:22:40Z

It all started with a brown-coloured syrup, which was relatively harmless, sold only at pharmacies. You've guessed it: we are talking about Coca-Cola, the most famous soft drink in the world. The reasons for this success were certainly not the syrup's magical properties (the syrup didn't take long to leave the shelves), but mostly the several, extremely well crafted marketing campaigns, and a few strokes of luck. One of those was its happy association with Santa Claus; the other was the ingenious design of its bottle.

When the syrup business didn't expand, conventional, flat bottles were used, with a cork and a paper label to identify the product. When it was transformed into a gasified drink, it rose the problem of conserving it without losing the gas. The solution found was a rubber-revested metal lid, with an original sealing system, the Hutchinson system. However, this sealing process didn't last for long with the widespread use of the metal cap and the crown-shaped bottle's neck.

The company started using this kind of containers, which was, at the time, innovative, but still produced it in a handcrafted way. Each bottle was made by a glazier worker, so no two bottles were exactly the same. Even so, they already bore the brand's logo engraved on the glass, on the cap or the label. The big leap took place in 1915 with the release of a public contest to design an exclusive bottle. The rest is well-known history, with the introduction of small variations and adjustments to the original concept. The famous bottle travelled across the twentieth century and into the present keeping its original shape, which has promoted its icon status. A good topic to ponder about: what is more important: shape or content?

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Sonic Chair: chair for listening to music

2009-11-03T12:29:26Z

This chair is truly a shell in which we can escape from the world, swayed by music. It was also created so that the sound that escapes from it is minimal, so as to not disturb whoever is around - or so they say... But it better be true, with the price they are trying to sell it for: about 7 000 Euros (over 10 000 USD).

Designers Holger Fritzlar, Frank Hussong, Michael Kientzler and Daniela Reuter were responsible for the global concept and the 1970s lines. From the technological point of view nothing was forgotten and the compatibility, flexibility and sound quality seem to be a given. You can connect it to all sorts of devices: laptops, CD players, Mp3 players, iPods, X-Box, etc., and there are even additional devices, such as docking stations and TFT monitors. The music playing is under the charge of an incorporated four-channel amplifier. The finishings are in synthetic leather and polyester fiber, in a wide range of colours.

If you're passing through Vienna, you can always go test it in the Walking-Chair Gallery.

Link

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Japanese Taxis

2009-10-31T12:27:19Z

In Japan, the most simple and ordinary things are that target of unrivalled attention and refinement, proving that the saying God is in the details might have had an Oriental origin. The perfectionist spirit of the Japanese makes them think of every little detail, improving them and personalizing them creatively, as much as prescribed standards will allow. Taxis, for instance, are all alike: they are painted the same colour, equiped with the same automatic doors and driven by a person in white gloves. However, little details make them, to Japanese acute eyes, easy to tell apart. That's the goal of the small light sign on the car roof of the taxi.

When they started being used, light signs were used for emergencies. In 1954, due to the large number of muggings of taxi drivers and passengers, a law was passed that allowed lights to be installed on the roof of the car to signal danger situations, when necessary. After being made redundant, the remaining signs, now with no functional purpose, were considered extravagances of vain taxi drivers.

More recently, the light signs have become all the rage again. They are now used to carry the logo for the taxi company, taxi rates, or even publicity. Their shapes and designs vary a great deal and the creativity behind them is astounding...

Sustainable architecture in Malaysia

2009-10-28T12:27:25Z

Since the construction of the Petronas Twin Towers, Malaysia, and its capital Kuala Lumpur in particular, has become a reference in architecture worldwide. Thus, it is not surprising to see it produce other noteworthy buildings. Only this time, the main focus is not height, but, on the contrary, that they are good examples of bioclimatic and sustainable architecture. Eight unusual buildings will lengthen the urban front of Putrajaya, located about 30 km south of the capital and known as Precinct 4.

The project was born from a cooperation between Studio Nicoletti Associati and a local firm, the Hijjas Kasturi Associates, that created the entire urban arrangement of the area, taking into great account the relationship between the city and the surrounding lake. However, these eight buildings are, without a doubt, the most interesting part of the whole set.

Their small height and transparency are their most striking features; and the global image vaguely or purposedly evokes naval motifs, be them pilled up boats, vertically showing their framework or a sailing boat fleet on a boat race. That's why the project is already known as the Putrajaya fleet. Nevertheless, there are also remnants of islamic architecture, suggested by the curvature of the buildings. And in the end it all comes down to residences like any other residence, that also include balconies, shades, natural ventilation, green spaces, etc.

Whether this image was intentional or not, the truth is it results from the introduction, in architectonic design, of new elements and new problems to solve. These outside demands and their specific needs, many of which with a technological side to them, are an important stimulus and a key factor in the renewal of architectonic language. The authors of this project were able to do it masterfully.

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A rotating city in Dubai

2009-10-25T12:23:44Z

The concept of "garden city" is fairly old, although it was never completely materialized. Utopic proposals and sporadic experiments have been made throughout the History of Architecture in an inconsistent way. However, the idea never died: bringing together the best of both worlds, an urban life in a natural environment still fascinates architects and people in general. Dubai isn't exactly within everyone's reach, but it seems pretty close to making this idea a reality.

The Rotating City project was developed by the company High Rise RE. It basically consists of a natural space of good environmental and landscape quality where various types of rotating buildings will be built - houses, apartments, hotels, restaurants, etc. The buildings, not the city, obviously, rotate, searching for the best solar orientation and most interesting landscape. There are also floating and, unbelievably, flying buildings - a science fiction movie come true!

Faisal Ali Moosa, founder of the promoting company, is willing to take the project forward and start work as soon as he purchases the necessary land. The model-buildings have even been built in other sites, so as to atract potential buyers. All that's left to know is how they are going to get them to fly, but if it's a matter of money, in Dubai that is not a problem...

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Time-travel aboard the Hindenburg

2009-10-22T11:26:40Z

In 1931, during the height of airships, the construction of the LZ 129, later named Hindenburg, started. Almost 245m long, 41m of width and a 200 000m3 of volume, it was not only bigger, but also more luxurious than any other Zeppelin built at the time. For five years, nothing was spared to make it the best airship. After it was finished, in March 1936, the Nazi government made it fly through the German skies, from one city to another, so that everyone could see the masterpiece of national technology and be proud of it. Flyers were even handed out and patriotic music blasted through speakers.

However, the main function of the Hindenburg was passenger transportation and its intallations and equipments were ready to transform a mere trip into an unforgetable experience. While the interior of most aircrafts consisted of gas cells, the lower part of the Hindenburg was occupied with a generous two-storey deck. In its exterior, next to the bow, a small ship was located, with a control bridge.

The upper deck had a promenade in each side of the balloon with resting areas and wide windows that allowed passengers to take in the view during the trip. Next to these halls, the common areas and the dining room were located. On its interior, with access through a narrow central hall, were the cabins. At first there were 25 of them with a capacity for 50 people, a number which was then raised to 72. The rooms had, for obvious reasons, a small area, 2m by 1,5m, separated by insulating panels. They each had two bunk-beds, a closet, a sink, a small table and a stool.

On the lower deck, there were toilets, showers and other sanitary accomodations, along with the lodgings for the crew and the kitchen. That's also where a smoking lounge was placed, which, at first glance, seems paradoxal in a balloon that was entirely filled with such a flamable gas as hydrogen! But this was yet another one of the Hindenburg innovations. The smoking lounge was a closed compartment with a pressurized door, so that no hydrogen leaked in it. In order to light up cigerettes, an electric lighter, exclusive of the room, was used.

The entire structure of the Hindenburg was made of aluminium, due to its lightness and rigidity. The German architect and designer Fritz August Breuhaus, with a vast experience in drawing railway carriages and passenger ships, was responsible for the creation of the equipments and the furniture, also in the same material. The elegance and practicality of his designs were as good as what the best modernist designers were doing at the time. The piano on board was a true gem, built entirely out of aluminium and revetted with leather, weighing only 170kg.

The Hindenburg disappeared in flames, when it reached the Lakehurst, on May 1937, after an overseas trip. Many explanations were advanced for the disaster, none of which confirmed. This tragic event marked the end of the aircraft era, replaced by uncomfortable and noisy airplanes. Travelling became a need, not a pleasure.

The pictures above are of replicas of the deck of the famous aircraft, based on pictures of the time for the movie Hindenburg (1975), directed by Robert Wise.

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Bette Davis - Larger Than Life

2009-10-19T12:25:36Z

‘I have been uncompromising, infractable, monomaniacal, tactless, volatile and offtimes disagreeable. I suppose I’m larger than life’ Bette Davis once remarked about her tough-as-nails personality. Today, she continues to personify the independent and strong-willed woman, an image she helped define both on-screen and off, with a career that spanned six decades and an impressive range of memorable roles.

Bette Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis on April 5th, 1908 in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Upon studying drama at John Murray Anderson’s Dramatic School, she made her Broadway debut in the play ‘Broken Dishes’ in 1929. However, her onstage career was short-lived and, in 1930, she moved to Hollywood to pursue a screen career at Universal Pictures.

After six unmemorable films, her contract with Universal was not renewed and she was ready to return to Broadway, when she was offered a seven-year contract at Warner Brothers. Her first movie at Warners, ‘The Man Who Played God’ (1932) put her on the path to stardom, yet it was with RKO’s adaptation of Somerset Maugham’s ‘Of Human Bondage’ (1934) opposite Leslie Howard that she had her first critically acclaimed hit. A year later she won her first Academy Award for her performance in ‘Dangerous’ (1935).

In spite of her success, Bette was so unhappy about the roles Warner Bros. kept offering her, that in 1936 she moved to England and sued the studio in order to break out of her contract. Even though she lost, upon her return, she was given a new-found respect and offered a new contract and better, juicier roles.

During the following years, Bette was nominated for the ‘Best Actress’ Academy Award for five years in a row (a record she shares with actress Greer Garson) – ‘Jezebel’ (1938), which she won, ‘Dark Victory’ (1939), ‘The Letter’ (1940), ‘The Little Foxes’ (1941) and ‘Now, Voyager’ (1942). It was also during this period that Bette contributed to the war effort by helping to organize and run the Hollywood Canteen, a facility that entertained and fed World War II soldiers passing through Los Angeles.

After a string of unsuccessful movies during the second half of the 1940s, Davis made a soaring comeback as aging theater actress Margo Channing in 20th Century Fox’s ‘All About Eve’ in 1950 and, again, in 1962 as demented child star Jane Hudson in Robert Aldrich’s chilling ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’.

Bette continued to work in movies and television throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, earning several awards and nominations, including the ‘Life Achievement Award’ from the American Film Institute in 1978 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1987. ‘I want to die with my heels on, still in action.’ she candidly said before her death on October 6th 1989 in Neuilly, France of metastasized breast cancer.

The music of films

2009-10-16T12:23:56Z

Music and cinema seem to have been made for each other, from the days when we watched black and white pictures to the sound of a pianola. Even then, music accompanied the pictures and set the right mood, be it during suspenseful moments, sad scenes or even during a brawl. The empathy between the two forms of artistic expression is so strong that our memories of a movie are often the memory of its soundtrack or, at least, one of its tunes. The best directors realized early on, the importance of music and hired the best composers for their movies. Some of these actually specialized in music for cinema.

The partnership between director Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone, for instance, was one of the most fruitful. Several actors took part in the movie Once upon a time in America, in which the music, previously composed, based on the script, echoed during the filming, helping the actors a great deal - an extraordinary experience! Furthermore, Morricone was skilled at suggesting atmospheres through musical arrangements and phrasings.

However, Morricone didn't work with just Leone (check out the wonderful soundtrack in Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, by Giuseppe Tornatore) and he wasn't the only one to attain such an empathy. The name John Barry might not be as well known, but is instantly recognizable if you know he was the author of the famous James Bond theme song, as well as many soundtracks for the movies about the suave secret agent. Barry also composed dozens of unforgetable soundtracks for other movies, such as Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, Cotton Club and the beautiful theme for Midnight Cowboy, immortalised be Toots Thielemans harmonica.

Hundreds of compositions for movies, television series and theater plays are part of Michel Legrand's impressive resumé. The French musician's work is very close to Jazz, as a result of his collaborations with Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Phill Woods, Stephane Grappelli, among other famous jazz musicians. Some of his themes have even become standards. Legrand showed a special talent to innovate and pave new ways. He was the creator of a number of themes for movies of directors of the Nouvelle Vague, like Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy. For the latter, he composed Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, which made him famous. Let's recall the crystalline The Summer Knows (from the movie Summer of '42) and You Must Believe in Spring.

Another great name is Nino Rota. His music brought life to the movies of Fellini, Visconti and Francis Coppola, especially the Godfather trilogy. Fellini once said that Rota didn't need images, because, in his mind, the stories appeared directly in the shape of music. Perhaps it's this immaterial and abstract ability that few people have that creates this empathy between music and cinema.

Here are the excerpts from a few theme songs. Can you recognize them?

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The royal stables of Hampi

2009-10-13T12:25:00Z

Hampi is a village in the south of India, located within the ruins of the ancient Vijayanagara, the proud capital of the empire of the same name. From the holy city a remarkable group of buildings managed to survive and are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Among temples, palaces, a baoli and other monuments, there is a unique set of buildings, that, perhaps, best portrays the splendor of Vijayanagara: the royal stables. And what makes them so unique? The fact that they are elephant stables.

The set is a wonderful example of Indo-Islamic architecture, made from brick and mortar. It consists of a building with eleven stables of great height, covered individually by domes of various shapes, and by a lateral building where the workers' lodgings are located. Together they form a 'L', part of a parade for cerimonial parades. During its peak, the Vijayanagara Empire had over 10 000 elephants, however, only 10 of them were chosen for royal service and kept in these stables. They were the best of the best among these fabulous animals.

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Nubrella, a different kind of umbrella

2009-10-10T11:28:19Z

We only appreciate it when it is raining; the rest of the time we find it an annoying and impractical accessory. The old umbrella isn't, in fact, functional and hasn't shown much of an evolution since its creation. Its thin ribs break or bend easily, its use requires wide spaces, the protection it offers is little to none in the presence of wind and you always need a hand to hold it (two if the wind is strong). But it doesn't have to be that way.

The recently launched Nubrella introduces a new concept in rainwear. Basically, it's a foldable hat that is fixed upon the shoulders, leaving your hands free. Obviously, it doesn't replace the use of an overall coat or a waterproof coat, but, on its own, it offers a much more effective protection than the traditional umbrella. It can be closed into the shape of a bow, and can be easily carried around. Furthermore, its makers say that it is very effective in protecting its user against the wind and cold, creating a sort of termic bubble around the user's head.

Windlight

2009-10-07T12:26:48Z

At a time of search for alternative sources of energy and beneficial use of natural resources, the Firewinder is a fantastic idea. Created by Tom Lawton, a young British inventor, this amazing spiral with LEDs around its borders achieves something that looks easy to make, but, actually, took a lot of research and hard work: to generate light using only wind power.

After numerous experiments with specialists, tests and exhaustive frustrated tries, the Firewinder was finally turned into something real. And commercial. Its pre-sale has been launched and it's already proved to be a success, spreading free, 'green' lighting to every part of the planet where the wind blows. Made entirely out of recyclable materials and without demanding any other source of energy, its rotating movement will delight even the most radical of environmentalists.

The Firewinder increases its intensity, according to the strength of the wind (which can blow in any direction) and the visual effects it produces are stunning. Besides perfectly lighting the area, it guarantees a true show at night, as it seems to float. And its helicoid shape, similar to a nautilus, often gets it mistaken for a decorative piece during the day. The Firewinder's versatility makes it possible for this product to be used anywhere from the busiest urban center to the most remote place on Earth.

A curious fact concerning its creation: in 2006, while on a trip through Java, Indonesia, Tom talked to a Buddhist teacher. Quite impressed and excited about the Firewinder's creation, he made only one suggestion - that the Firewinder turn only clockwise to evoke the "good spirits". The good light, that is.

The time machine

2009-10-04T12:24:58Z

What is the origin of matter? What is the universe made of? For many scientists, trying to decipher countless questions like these, can have the unusual answer: "time travel"! But let's explain. Actually, with a project this stratospheric size, worthy of the research involved in it, the CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), has built the LHC (Large Hadron Collider), the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. Or, who knows, a time machine! Of course, not like we would see in science fiction movies. The idea is to try to discover what happened in the universe a fraction of second after the Big Bang. Because of that, this project is called "the most complicated thing ever to be built by human beings". After all, even after something like this was begun in 1993 and a 14km tunnel was built in Texas, Americans gave up facing this task alone.

But what is this time machine, actually? Simply put, it's an impressive structure, below the border between France and Switzerland, near Geneva, which is the biggest, most complex scientific instrument in the world, to date. Twenty-seven kilometers of tunnels where beams of protons will hopefully collide at 99.9% of the speed of light. Scientists, then, hope to re-create situations that haven't taken place since the Big Bang, to better understand the Universe. The force released will be able to not only distort space (just like gravity distorts the space surrounding Earth), but also time! Hence the comparison with a time machine.

As stated by a research published by Irina Arefieva and Igor Volovich: "in general relativity, a time-like curve in space-time will run from past to future. But in some space-times the curves can intersect themselves, giving a closed-like curve, which is interpreted as a time machine - which suggests the possibility of time travel"

Two protons will travel in opposite directions and collide in four points along the way - re-creating the conditions of the Big Bang, "the cosmic plasma", a mysterious, almost liquid state, which occured before the quarks were cool enough to allow the formation of atoms. The particle accelerator will force quarks to seperate themselves and re-create original "cosmic plasma"! Can this be possible?!

In the gigantic tunnel, in different points, there are caverns crammed with 4 detectors the size of buildings. They are: Atlas, CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), LHCb and Alice (A Large Ion Collider Experiment). Just one superconducting solenoid (CMS) contains in it more iron than the Eiffel Tower.

Determination, commitment and dedication is abundant and, also, money. A lot of money. Take a look at some quick facts about the project:

• 20-year work-in-progress;
• A team of 7,000 physicists from more than 80 nations;
• 27 kilometers in circumference, 175 meters underground;
• Each tunnel is big enough to run a train through it;
• temperatures generated: more than 1000,000 times hotter than the sun's core;
• Superconducting magnets are cooled to a temperature colder than in deep space.

The dimension of the LHC is amazing, just like the way of dealing with all the data it will produce. When it begins working, the CERN will register one percent of all the information that is generated in the planet: 15 petabytes or 15 million gigabytes of data a year. How to process all of this?!

Here starts a new stage in Internet: the Grid! HP was the first commercial corporation to take this technology to the LHC Computing Grid (LCG) in CERN - a Grid of epic proportions. The HP Labs and the HP University Relations Programme are collaborating with the CERN Openlab to develop softwares and hardwares for the Grid. It will not only share information, but will also have storage and computing capacity, meaning scientists from anywhere in the world can connect to the Grid on their personal computers and have access to calculations made by machines all over the world. The task, although hard, has the CERN's know-how, which includes the www inventor.

Among the countless surprises scientists are expecting to witness with the LHC are a Medium-sized Bang or a bad-mannered black hole. However, these concerns are put to rest by CERN scientists. They assure us that "even if black holes will be produced, they will be too small and too short-lived to generate a strong gravitational force." In other words, Geneva is not going to get sucked into anything cosmologically weird.

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Pizza Palace, Central Park and General Things

2009-10-01T12:23:29Z

"Just so you know, Steven Seagal has had lunch here.". Even though the name Palace makes it seem imponent, the place is an ordinary, corner snack-bar, where pizzas and calzones with substance are served every day. "Oh, yeah? And it seems that Cindy Lauper spent her childhood in this neighbourhood, did you know?", I commented, as I tried to slice my calzone - I wasn't going to be able to eat it all, who knows, with the eyes. "Yes, I knew that. But I heard he was in Astoria to get to know a second Greece". I conjured up some ideas, reviewed a few movies and let go of them with no affection. He then took a bite out his chicken gyro, because he would rather leave the Greek barbecue in pita bread for the more visceral. At the front table, a family with three children was eating Italian-American dishes. The smell of tomato sauce exhaled sauces and methods of cooking different from anything I had ever tried, that seemed kind of nice. And there was no way of staying indifferent; he, only him, looked. "They're meatballs, some pasta and pizza", he said. I remembered the meatballs from Ikea and how I had never gone back there.

This usually happens whenever I can't cook and the weather seems nice, inviting us to take a walk or two, who knows. But also because it had been a while since we passed by those quarters. And they were right in their choice, because the place became sort of a distinct place in the neighbourhood, standing out and gathering everybody. That's to say the pizza and aromas had character. I only had something to point out and it wasn't really even a complaint. It was something of minor importance: the subordinate impatience, small and immature, brought on by the slow service, in the passing of the seconds, minutes, hours... like someone who is trying to fool the pace of time. But our stomachs didn't seem to bother the boys, who worked happily at their craft. What do I know about what is happening behind the counter, about its dynamics? Nothing at all- The smell of cooking flour from the firewood oven and the melting cheeses openned up my apetite. The pleasures. I drank a bit of his coke and noticed.

A child cried disheartenedly at the back. And her little lungs made no cerimonies of any kind, because a child crying doesn't measure impulses or social norms. A pure flower - except for her high-pitched voice. From our table, what I understood was that she wanted to ride the three horses carousel that had magically found its way inside the snack bar; but her mother wouldn't let her. She kept asking the little girl to sit down and finish her pizza. I had a bag full of quarters in my purse that I carried around because of the laundry. I thought about giving her some just to stop this disquiet, however, I decided not to interfere. We were heading out by the time quietness and radio music did the trick and the crying stopped. A gentleman, around eighty, in a beret and suspensories, holding an Italian newspaper from the community, handed a coin to the child, who got clumsily up the horse, smiling and sobbing tears. There wasn't enough time to see her mother's countenance. The wind slammed the door and we were only able to hear the beginning of the carousel song, playing bumpily and with an automatic voice: "Old MacDonald had a farm...".

The train didn't take long and, in Astoria Boulevard we were warned that it would go express until Queensboro Plaza. That doesn't always happen. We sat facing the window, with the lansdcape unravelling, mounted and stained, because for each station there was a piece of the city that was suddenly left behind. At the last station he got in, he was Mr. Smile. I was relieved, because I hadn't seen him in a while, and happy because his appearance was strong and bright, of someone who was really taking care of himself. Safe and sound! We arived at the park in less than 20 minutes and got in through the paiter's hallway. A Korean man called me with his hand and showed me a ten with his fingers. I thanked him and he insisted: "just 10 dollars", easy and smiling. There were various portraits and ephemeral caricatures. Princess Diana was everywhere, next to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Surprisingly a boy bought a Bush caricature, while a couple took the one of Al Pacino.

We walked a little, in circles. We walked by the carousel, true to the incessant life and stopped for a moment. The horse winked and surrealisticly smiled, as if he was on some sort of unforgetable, excessive journey. There was no sight of rain and the wind was ideal for the manes and the galloping. Suddenly a smell of popcorn rose from the bushes and we started walking again, crossing sidewalks and bicycle trails as green as only this season allows. From afar, the bride and groom posed for photographs, while the boats, one by one displayed their oars in hugs that softened the drift. The mothers, side be side, made sure everything was flawless, whispering tendernesses and laments we could imagine from the shape of their lipstick-coloured lips, delicate cherries. There was no one who wouldn't stop and stare, including pigeons and dogs. And we stayed there - not on the bench or the grass - with no one to say goodbye to, just waiting for the whole sun to overflow back.

Text by Isabella Kantek

Work in China - photographs by Edward Burtynsky

2009-09-22T11:28:03Z

Burtynsky has always been interested in man-made changes in the landscape and territory, especially those to do with the development of industries. There is something philosophical about all this. According to him, the main stages in human evolution are measured by the use and exploration of the Earth's resources by humans: the Stone Age, Metal, Coal, Oil, etc. In his work, he tries to capture, in details and contrasts, the dialectics of a human being, who, in the search of a more comfortable environment, quickly consumes and destroys it. These images of contradiction are understood by the artist as a metaphor for modern times. His recent reportage about manufacturing in China is an example of this point of view.

Perhaps we all knew - or, at least, imagined - that it would be this way. However, the photographer's pictures reveal not only the detail, but also the extent of the reality of industrial and semi-industrial production in China. This production currently occupies an ever-growing part of the world's market: 70% of Christmas decorations, 29% of television sets, 75% of toys and probably almost 100% of t-shirts are produced in China, by millions of Chinese workers.

Each worker is, in a way, a cog in this huge, well-oiled production machine. This human network is spread over a vast territory, like a uniform backdrop. The patterns are repeated to exhaustion, in an orderly, sickly way. There is no exception to this rule in cities, houses, streets, provinces. Even the colours have become a standardised. Burtynsky's photos reveal that, but aren't devoid of beauty. They are reminiscent of some of Pollock's paintings. And here, gesture is everything.

Link

Wave tower - Dubai

2009-09-19T11:24:28Z

Who better than an architect called Joaquín Torres (which in English means towers) to create the project for a sky-scraper? The Spanish architect seems deserving of his name by designing a sky-scraper for Dubai that is stunning for, among other things, the elegance of its lines. Built on the coastal line, with its base located underwater, it is connected to land through a slightly twisted arch, reminiscent of a wave. The Wave Tower is a poetic gesture over the landscape.

The building has a privileged urban location on the waterfront of Madinat Al Arab, the new corporate and financial center of Dubai. However, the building's interest doesn't solely rely on its sculptural shape. Its concept is technologically advanced. Around a central structural nucleus, several V-shaped modules are placed, like the petals of a flower, housing different spaces: offices, apartments and common areas. Spread evenly through the building, there are inside gardens that take advantage of the glass exterior surface to control the air quality and the temperature.

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Child labour: America in black and white

2009-09-16T11:26:05Z

The american dream. It's hard not to think of the Statue of Liberty, in the New York harbour, greeting immigrants that have left their far-away homes, in search of a better life in the New World. They came from every walk of life. Many arrived still children on their parents' lap, looking around them at the strange and amazing environment of the big city. Early on, they started working and searching, deep down, for a chance in the land of opportunities.

More out of need than out of ambition, from a young age, future Americans gave their effort and youth to their nation, at a time when children were seen as small adults and child labour was considered a priviledge, America has grown as much thanks to its immigrants as thanks to its children, who became adults too soon and had no time to play.

I remember the raw images of little boys in Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time In America", the difficulties endured by newly arrived families, portrayed with irony in Charles Chaplin in "The Immigrant", just to name a few movies. But I also recall photographs by Alfred Stieglitz or Dorothea Lange, two well-known names. And the lesser-known Lewis Hine, who dedicated part of his career as a photographer to the documentation of child labour in the United States.

Between 1908 and 1912, Hine photographed what he called the faces of lost youth: children of various ages, some only five years old, performing grown-up jobs. And they were not at all light jobs. We can find little boys and girls working in factories, stores, fishing boats, mines, from dawn to dusk, sometimes for over twelve hours... The photographer got to know each and everyone of them: Michael, Manuel, Camille, Pierce. He got to know everyone's story. They posed for him, sometimes with naive pride, as if they thought themselves grown-up, but with all the sadness in the world mirrored in their eyes. The images are piercing; you can't help feel disturbed looking at them.

Some of these children didn't make it past childhood. Others managed to survive, grew up and prospered, diving deep inside the drunkenness of the american dream.

Theme song from Once Upon A Time in America - Ennio Morricone (excerpt)

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Hotel with igloos

2009-09-13T12:25:39Z

Among the dozens of entertainment options, the igloos, with their glass ceilings that seem to pop up in the middle of the snow, capture the most attention. And rightly so. Can you imagine sleeping in a warm environment, in a luxurious bed, under the stars, an Aurora Borealis, with snow falling on a transparent ceiling?

There are twenty amazing rooms with a panoramic view of almost 360º to the outside (you can't see anything from the outside in), equiped with a modern warming system, bathrooms and telephone service. Besides, the Kakslauttanen also has an art gallery, a chapel where many weddings are performed, the biggest restaurant submerged in snow (able to hold 150 people), a tent for parties (Kota) that is 8-meters high, among other things.

Aside from the igloos, there are other, equally luxurious, accomodation options. If you like the idea, start practising your Finnish and learn how to say "Hyvää päivää", which can mean "Hello" as well as "Have a nice day!".

More information here.

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James Stewart – a ‘true regular guy’

2009-09-10T11:30:48Z

"I have my own rules and adhere to them. The rule is simple but inflexible. A James Stewart picture must have two vital ingredients: it will be clean and it will involve the triumph of the underdog over the bully." - James Stewart

James Maitland Stewart was born in Indiana on May 20th 1908. Although he first pursued a career as an architect, he was soon to become Jimmy Stewart a lovable, iconic, award-winning actor, starring in nearly a hundred movies from screwball comedies to dramas, from westerns to thrillers and working with such acclaimed directors as Frank Capra, Anthony Mann, Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Ernst Lubitsch.

Although Jimmy had already acted in such successful movies as ‘Wife vs. Secretary’ and After the Thin Man by 1936, his big breakthrough came with Frank Capra’s 1938 hit You Can’t Take It With You, in which he starred alongside Jean Arthur. His collaborations with Capra would make for some of his best movies – Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, a Christmas classic as popular today as in 1946, the year of its release.

In 1941, Jimmy won his first and only Best Leading Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of stuggling reporter Macaulay Connor, in the 1940 comedy The Philadelphia Story, also starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

In 1948, Jimmy began a fruitful collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock in Rope. They went on to make three more movies together – Rear Window, in 1954, The Man Who Knew Too Much, in 1956 and, finally, Vertigo in 1958.

Jimmy kept busy throughout the 1960s, winning the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his performance as a skilful lawyer in Anatomy on a Murder (1959), in 1960 and working with John Ford in the western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and with Robert Aldrich in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).

Over the next two decades Jimmy reprised his 1950 role as Elwood P. Dowd, an alcoholic whose best friend is a six feet three and a half inch rabbit in the adorable comedy Harvey and worked with Bette Davis for the first time in the TV movie Right of Way. Finally, in 1985, Jimmy was awarded an Honorary Academy Award ‘for his fifty years of memorable performances and for his high ideals both on and off the screen.’

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Intimate relationships by Lev Yilmaz

2009-09-07T12:24:57Z

Lev Yilmaz has created a fantastic series of stories about various aspects that are part of a relationship and the intricate web of feelings we go through in our love life. It is generally known that relationships have their ups and downs, marked by love-hate attitudes, but few people have actually tried to systematize and racionalize these very same happenings in a simple, easy to undertand, humorous story.

Lev has done it with every bit of mastery and a stricking simplicity, creating a series of tales called "Tales of Mere Existence", which deal with his own experiences with women. He mentions he doesn't really know what his initial reason was that made him do these stories, but he remembers the parties, the complaints of friends, the depressions in bars and he finally decided to document all of it in these fantastic videos. From the feelings we experience at the beginning of relationships, through the degradation of drifting apart, breaking up and making up all over again.

For those of you comfortable enough with the English language, delight yourselves with these two videos we have selected for you. Enjoy!

How to end a relationship

I won't think of her anymore

Lev Yilmaz