Would the new advances in custom manufacturing technology lead design and art lead to a more human expression? Designer Scott Klinker asks this question with his conceptual ‘Variant Vessels’ where he uses a 3-D scan of a friend’s body to design a series of vessels that he prints out with a 3-D printer.

related links

Scott Klinker

KleinReid’s StillLife series is a series of porcelain vases and sculptural objects that mix the new and the old to create stunning tableaus. A full set includes pinstriped vases, an electrified oil lamp, and candlestick, as well as porcelain replicas of books, a handkerchief and an apple. They are also available in black bisque and “with flowers”.

related links

Klein Reid

Sternform presents: the toaster you can eat – that is, if the rats in your kitchen don’t get to it first.

related links

Sternform (via Core77)

Zinoo Park’s Coca Cola pjt could either be a statement about the addictive nature of caffeine in drinks or just a cool accessory for coke addicts. Whatever it is, we like it.

related links

Zinoo Park

Artist Inventor, Margaret Orth, has created a line of playful soft light control unit called the POM POM Dimmer. The device uses Orth’s patent pending electronic textile to sense the user’s touch and control the lights. This technology makes the POM POM itself a sensor and given that there are no hidden buttons or switches in the Pom Pom, all the user feels is a soft, fuzzy textile.

related links

If Machines (Retail $129)

Just an FYI - If you’ve been trying to access the site for the last twelve hours and haven’t been able to, it’s because something was wrong with the kernel of our server and we had to upgrade.

Blob is more than just another foam seating. It’s base contains a powerful sub-woofer loudspeaker so you can connect it to a standard hi-fi or a full surround home theater system and listen to music while feelings it vibrations :)

It also can be used as a sculptural object by putting it in the upright position.

related links

Sonic Garden

Named after the Greek legend of Icarus who tried to escape using man made wings only to fall when he flew too close to the sun, the Icarus lamp consists of overlapping feather shapes that resemble a swan’s wings.

related links

Shop – Modern Poverty : Icarus (Price: $72) (via Swiss Miss

Move over Segway. Toyota has created its own one person car concept. Called the “i-Swing”, the vehicle is high customizable with a body made of polyurethane and comes with embedded color LED screens on the front door and rear panel. It also has the ability to communicate between two i-Swings so that you could synchornise their movements. No word of when this will ever see the light of day.

related links

Car Design News (via dezain)

HMC MediaLab has developed a new level of interaction with a new type of large scale touch screen that is made out of an elastic-like fabric. The fabric wraps like rubber and you can sense how hard your press is, where you press it thus making you feel like you are going “through” the screen.

The material was born out of a need to create a “touchable” feel for an art installation called “Hyperfabric”. Visitors can now see sparks fly out of their fingertips or cast magic spells upon touching the screen. Pressing your face releases fairies or even stirs up ghosts.

related links

HMC Media Lab (Hyperfabric)

Sebastian Campion of Guerilla Innovation interviews Dutch Artist, Theo Jansen for Artificial. Theo has been creating wind -powered animals made of plastic tubes for the last 15 years that move with the wind and transform into seemingly organic creatures:

“You have been developing the beach animals for about 15 years. How has the project evolved over the years?

The first beach animal I created didn’t have very strong joints. It couldn’t even walk or stand, but one night I had a vision about the principle of its feet. So, based on the simple PCV tubes that I still use, I built a computer model and tried to calculate the best way to create a walking movement. This process went on for some months, day and night before I found the right proportion between the lengths of the tubes. The philosophical ideas were not really there from the beginning, but they have grown more complete with the years. It’s not important just to make things, but also to reflect about them.

Did real animals or organisms inspire you?
I didn’t try to imitate animals. I just wanted to make something new. Afterwards, it turned out that real animals already used the same principle so when people look at the beach animals they often recognize the movement of an animal. But it wasn’t my intention. “

Read the rest of the interview here.

related links

Artificial : Theo Jansen

Tetris Inspired Shelf

Dear Think Geek:

I know I’m violating my restraining order and that I promised never to email you again but I’ve come across these geek inspired furniture by the guys at Brave Space Design that would be great for your shop. They’ve got a Desk set with a digital display motif called 235 and a modular tetris inspired shelving unit where you could combine different tetris like blocks into a shelf or a home entertainment system or whatever shelfing do-hickey that tickles your fancy.

So What do you say? Aren’t they great for a new furniture section? Hello?

235 Desk

(more…)

Vita

Not a big believer in unnecessary details, Swedish Cupful Design recently launched four new sofa tables which are very similar in nature even though they are based on two different concepts. The first one is VITA (picture above), a stylish table that serves the dual purpose of a magazine rack. The second concept is a series of cheeky minimal sofa slash tables made of aluminium and glass called “A Cupful of Simplicity” that were inspired by the Japanese paper folding art of origami.

A Cupful of Simplicity

(more…)

What more could you ask for in a sofa chair? Batti’s Placentero swing chair lets you throw your weight around without moving a muscle.

related links

PID.se (e-store)