sundance

Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars

One of the most exciting books on the Gestalten roster for 2010 is Sven Voelker’s “Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars,” which pays homage to how cool race cars look. There are plenty of books about the mechanics of the cars, but hardly any on their graphic design. “This book deals with the simple fact that racing cars only really become racing cars when they are covered with colorful livery and decals. After all, who would put a plain white Ferrari on a real racing circuit?”

Eco-rap emerging as educational, empowerment tool for San Francisco youth

Try explaining climate change to young people in terms of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, or the dangers of toxic wastes by focusing on water sheds… chances are they’ll be checking their phones, if not dozing off, in a matter of minutes. Now imagine these same concepts being addressed by rappers from the neighborhoods these kids come from… you’ll likely see more enthusiasm for the topics.

Sleeve Face – best use of vinyl yet?

I keep going back to the blog Sleeve Face. Over and over. And I cannot stop. It is a giant art piece celebrating celebrity and vinyl. How it works: Readers submit images. The images use the covers of albums and the readers’ bodies. Coupled, they make arresting images, bringing the album sleeves to life. The results are funny, inspired, and always a good time.

Ricky Gervais, 80′s pop star

Ricky Gervais has been popping up more than usual as of late to promote his new and funny HBO animated series. I wish all the talk shows he appears on would also air this certain clip from a music video. It shows Ricky from the 1980′s as a front man doing his best androgynous Bowie impersonation for new wave band Seona Dancing.

Buck Angel’s PSA

Buck Angel is not your typical porn star. And the PSA above is most certainly not your typical PSA. See, Buck is female to male transgendered. Yes, that man, that big, muscular, tattooed man above, has women’s sexual organs. And regardless of what your exterior looks like, you still need to take care of, as [...]

The latest green product: poop in a tea bag

You can call Annie Haven a “tea bagger” if you’d like, but keep in mind the title doesn’t necessarily reflect her politics (or any other preferences); rather, it’s a professional title. Haven is the founder of Authentic Haven Brand soil conditioner tea, which takes manure from her family’s cattle farm, puts it in 3×5 teabags, and sells it to homeowners looking for something akin to an energy drink for their house plants.

Record grooves under an electron microscope

Chris Supranowitz, a researcher at The Insitute of Optics at the University of Rochester took a glance at vinyl records using his lab’s electron microscope. The results: AWESOME. The one above looks like a natural landscape of a canyon on Mars. Man, I want an electron microscope – the possibilities would be endless. [Via]

Who’s going to tell South Dakota it’s 2010?

We were going to write about Robert Pattinson’s joke misfire in which he told Details magazine that he’s “allergic to vagina” (we read his “explanation” and we still don’t get it). But then our friends at Planned Parenthood sent us a link to this awesome Washington Post profile of PP’s Dr. Carol Ball, who travels 200 miles to South Dakota every month to perform abortions (since no South Dakota doctor is willing to do them). And we remembered that there are, actually, more important things going on in the world than RPattz’s alleged vajajay allergy.

For many years Ball worked anonymously, wanting to protect her privacy and also to protect herself and her family from people like Scott Roeder, who murdered abortion provider George Tiller last year by shooting him in the head — in church. But now her children are older and she wants to show them the importance of standing up for what you believe in.

William Kentridge at MoMA

After William Kentridge graduated from art school in South Africa, he decided to study theatre and mime in Paris, but “was fortunate to discover that [he] was a bad actor…and was reduced to an artist.” His hopes of acting may not have panned out, but it’s no wonder that performance is such a big part of his work as the latest exhibition at the MoMA highlights. “Five Themes” surveys the last three decades of Kentridge’s work, which includes print, books, collage, drawing, sculpture, animation and performance art. The themes tend to revolve around political movements like the first South African democratic election in 1994 to projects like “The Nose,” Kentridge’s most recent undertaking.

Hi-res Olympic images

The Olympics came and went before I had time to fully understand the phenomenon of curling. I still have no clue. None at all.

And while we were a bit Johnny Weir-obsessed around these parts, and rightfully so, it would be a shame to not think fondly on the USA’s triumphs. Even with costumes consisting of bird feathers, we can still win the gold.

Andrea Myers sculpture

The Internet all collectively liked this sculpture Andrea Myers. The artist explains: Within my artistic practice, I maintain an interest in exploring the space between the two- dimensional and three- dimensional, hybridizing painting, printmaking and sculpture. I feel my work is dependent upon various processes, such as cutting as drawing, the relationship between deconstruction and [...]

France finally shocked by something: anti-smoking ad

The slogan for the above anti-smoking ad currently running in France reads “Smoking means being a slave to tobacco.” Despite promoting a universally recognized good cause — getting kids to stop smoking — the ad has managed to piss off pretty much everyone. And this is in France, where the words “sex” and “scandal” (or, rather, their French equivalents) rarely appear in newspaper headlines together.

Students compete to design European Earthship

The Earthship, the radical, self-contained housing concept created by architect Michael Reynolds (and documented in the film GARBAGE WARRIOR), has become a worldwide phenomenon: over 1000 of these buildings now exist around the world. Many of them, despite their location, still bear a striking resemblance to the original Earthships first built in the New Mexico desert… just take a look at the photo above of one in Brighton, England. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a group of Northern Irish advocates for sustainable housing would like to see the concept reflect a European aesthetic… and are challenging students at the University of Ulster to come up with designs for a European Earthship.

Altered NYC street signs

A mysterious (well, aren’t they all?) street artist named TrustoCorp recently culture jammed the street signs of Manhattan and Brooklyn with some awesomely hilarious and topical replacement signs. [Via]

R.E.M. Album Giveaway

Still from R.E.M: THIS IS NOT A SHOW

To celebrate the upcoming screenings of R.E.M’s amazing concert film, THIS IS NOT A SHOW on Sundance Channel (airing March 1st at 6 p.m. and March 7th at 6:35 p.m.), Sundance Channel will be giving away copies of R.E.M’s double live album, R.E.M. Live At The Olympia, to 20 lucky viewers. Be one of the first 10 viewers to login and comment on this very blog post on sundancechannel.com, following either the March 1st 6 p.m. EST (eastern standard time) screening or the March 7th PST (pacific standard time) screening on Sundance Channel and you can win this amazing two-CD set, produced by Jacknife Lee.

Los Angeles gets its own Central Park

“There is no design,” says Sarah Lejeune, Santa Monica’s senior planner. No official design, anyway, but photos like this one show that planning is underway. She’s talking about the four freeway cap parks in the works for Hollywood, Santa Monica and downtown LA. A cap park is essentially a raised element built over a freeway that can support, among other things, parks. Hollywood’s cap park, also called Hollywood Central Park or Park 101, is the most developed of the three so far. Spanning 44 acres between Bronson Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, the park cap would link up with downtown LA and join landmarks like Olvera Street, Chinatown and Union Station on one side and Disney Hall, City Hall and the Cathedral on the other, creating a “livable, walkable and unified downtown district.”

Merit badges for nerds and TV watchers

Tech nerds and fashion folks can bridge the rather great divide between the two groups if Nerd Merit Badges have their way. The company makes proper badges (think military, leather men, police, girl scouts) for the geeks obsessed with mobile device app Foursquare. Foursquare allows you to check in via mobile phone anywhere: restaurants, clubs, PATH Train stations. The more you check in, the more badges you earn. You can also become the mayor of any given place. That, too, has a badge.

Classy case

To round out my previous entry on the double-sided toothpaste design, here’s the classiest travel case for a toothbrush that I’ve ever seen. Made from a solid piece of aluminium, this was created by Dominic Wilcox.